cuentos de barro - DSpace Universidad Don Bosco

aparatito del telégrafo, picando letras,
como paloma mensajera de ávido
buche.
Había detrás una hortaliza que el viejo
Jefe de Estación, lampiño y célibe,
regaba balanceando la regadera con
la unción de quien fumiga un altar.
Un mozo dormía despernancado en
la banca de la plataforma; y allá, junto
al cerco del potrero, que se perdía en
lejanas hondonadas, un caballo blanco
dormitaba de pie, esperando la caricia
cuotidiana del viejo, quien al pasar con
la regadera vacía, le palmeaba la tabla
reluciente del cuello.
Había para el Jefe de Estación largas
horas de recreo, como para los niños
de escuela. Él jugaba entonces a regar;
a sembrar nuevas eras; a llenar el filtro;
a poner fruta en la jaula de las chiltotas;
a coger la toalla, el guacal de lata y el
jabón diolor y meterse en la caseta
de lámina sin techo, donde había un
barril de hierro rebalsando de frescura;
a sentarse en la perezosa de lona
mugrienta, para leer con sus anteojos
rajados el diario tardío; a contemplar,
puesto en jarras153 y la cabeza echada a
la espalda, cómo pasaban las manchas
de pericos bulliciosos, o a dormir en
la hamaquita, con sueño alígero de
cumplidor de deberes. Era un buen
hombre y un hombre feliz.
79
little house made of wood planks and
tin sheets the telegraph was heard
chopping letters like a carrier pigeon
with an eager crop.
The Chief of the Station, hairless and
celibate, tended his vegetable garden
behind the station. He watered his
garden balancing a watering can with
the unction of one who fumigates an
altar. A bow-legged porter slept on the
bench of the plattform. There, near the
pasture fence that was lost in its distant
hollows, a white horse was sleeping
standing up, waiting for the usual caress
of the old man who, when passing by
with his empty watering can, patted his
shiny neck.
Like school children the Chief of Station
had long hours for recess. He played by
watering the garden, preparing planting
mounds, filling up the filter, feeding
fruit to his streak-backed orioles jailed
in a cage, picking up the towels, the tin
guacal 154 and the shower soap. He then
went to the roofless tin booth that had
a metal water cistern overflowing with
freshness. He grabbed his eye-glasses
so he could read the newspaper while
he sat in his old rocking chair with a
grimy coarse-cotton seat. His arms
akimbo and his head tilted back, he
contemplated the passing noisy flocks
of parrots. After that he would take a
rest in the little hammock like someone
who had plowed in the fields. He was a
good man and a happy man.
153. RAE: jarra. 1. locs. advs. Dicho de disponer el cuerpo: Poniendo las manos en la cintura.
154. A dipper used to scoop water from a barrel to bathe.