The hopeless learner English speaker
I have been studying English for about fifteen years. I am still afraid of being unnatural and sounding weird. Please, help me to accurate my style.
Saturday, 20 July 2019
Why I don´t want José to be my husband.
Why I don´t want José to be my husband.
First of all he drinks a lot. Although when I knew him he already drank.
I think he´s been an alcoholic since he was a teenager. Admittedly, he drank but I liked him. That´s true. I saw a tall and quite man, strong and calm. He looked like a giant, to me, who reminded me The Selfish Gigant, that character who was created by Oscar Wilde in a beautiful moving short story that I read when I was a child. And José also lived in a cottage surrounded by a mysterious garden where from the lawn to every plant there, every living being was over-grown, some leaned trees included. Maybe, Oscar Wilde forgot to mencion that his gigant was also an alcohol- abuser.
Mind you, José isn´t so big as a gigant, only in comparison when he´s by my side, because I´m a bit short. I don´t like to recognize that I like him.
When he was young he was blonde. He had straight long hair as soft as baby hair and got a big green pair of eyes pretty bulge though. But his shight was pure and clear. And although his nose was croked and his mouth too big and in general, he had no a goodlooking complexion, the whole set could result attractive.
I remember my friends saying to me :
_ Do you know that boy? I´m afraid of him. Every body is afraid of him. He isn´t a bad man. Isn´t it?
_ Imagine that you turn a corner and you bump into a bloque like him. Do you picture it?_ someone said.
_ Frighten the life out of you. Won´t you?_ another one said.
However, José was ugly but he wasn´t dangerous.
I don´t know why I´m writing those things in past tense. Jose is still alive. He still has a large broken nose (no a surgery one) bulky lips and a sweet smile on his rude rough face. He´s fascinatig to me. Sometimes is stubbly in the morning, a moment later, almost as soon as he see me, is clean shaven. He´s so shy, so respecful. I often say to him that a stubble beard style make him toughter but handsome. Hark back two years I left him and he let his beard grow and he was horrible. A blond man with a scruffy black bandholdz beard is sort of contrary to known laws. He seemed a kind of impostor, not a genuine blond guy. I know that it´s no the case. But, by making conspicous his neglect I couldn´t trust him. In fact, I saw his wrong side. Why did not give up drinking instead?
Well, eventually he did it. But I don´t love him any more. It is too late. Although he doesn´t drink any longer is still an alcoholic and he will be forever. Although he tells me he loves me I´m sorry.
His voice is very low, often inaudible. I usually have to ask him to repeat what he´s saying. He looks always so tired, so worn-out, as he didn´t want to live.
Yesterday I was sunk into contemplacion of the flowering climbers on the wall of his garden, climbers as the scented jasmine when he muttered to me something. _ Why do you come around?_ That´s what I understood when I asked him by ramblying myself to repeat what he was mumbling.
_ I´d like to die?_ he said.
_ Why?_ I groaned myself and I added in pain because of his interruption._ Look around. Look at this garden of yours gleaming in the sunshine!_ But talking contemplation was useless.
Then I became gibbering wreck._ Don´t even pause a breath?! Do I? Do you know what? You´re really selfish! Aren´t you? You´re so high-maintenance! Do you want to die! So what? Die! Die! Die! You are demanding all the attention just to make me take notice of you. Do you? And not only do you want to draw all the attention that you spoilt my resting moment!
_ I just wanted to ask you a favour._ Answered he.
I look at him in amazament.
_ What?
_ Could you do me a favour?
_ I guess. Do you want me to get out?
_ No. It´s no that. You can stay here despite not paying any attention to me. I´m a coward. You know.
_ Yes I do.
_ I want to die. But...
_ You told me that before. But I´m afraid that you´ll be never ready to die. A person who has been coward to live is always coward. Do you understand? I mean, coward to die.
_ I have got my late father´s pistol.
_ What?!
_ A handgun.
Then I go shocked again._ I start stuttering._ What? What do, do, you mean?
_ Would you shoot that gun for me?
_ Nooo. But!....You have got a real gun? Have you? I´m not dreaming? Am I?
_ Yes. Look.
In that moment I see him opening a little box. Well, in fact, I see two little heavy box, one on each hand of him; a flat one and a taller one in the shape of a cube.
Then he put the boxes on the garden table, open the flat box and show me the pistol, an antique one from the civil war period, or maybe older.
_ During the Asturias revolution my father was a doctor there, and he was adviced to carry one of this.
Then I burst into laughters hysterically_ Noooo. I´m not going to shoot that. Believe me I´d kill you just now....But.
_That´s what I want._ Interrupt he.
_ I´m not a fool. Do you want that junky scrap to blow my face?
Then he open the bigger bos and tell me_ Here are the bullets.
_ Keep those things away! Please._ I went nervously gabby again_ Are you going to kill me? Are you mad?_ I was out of my wits, awfully scared. I´d have killed him!
_ No_ He said._ I wouldn´t kill a fly._ It´s you. You must kill me.
_ You´re nuts._ Then I started to talk to him as he was a child. Do you want me to go sent to prision?
_ Nobody could blame you. I know it.
_ You´re talking rubbish. Besides, I can´t kill you,because I love you.
_ Do you?
_ Yes. I do.
He smiled.
_ I thought you don´t.
_ That´s not true José. You Know it. You know I love you. And you love me too. And now, you´re keeping all that stuff in a secret, safe drawer locked away, under lock and key so that any child have an accident. Am I clear?
_ Yes. Your commands are my wishes._ Smiling sinfully as he was I realized that he was waiting a kind of reward for his obedience. I´d have killed him. Did I say that before? Yes I did. That way he made me despite him even more.
Next morning, I got up quietly. I called his mother.
I made the end of my own struggle. Maybe, you need to get rid of someone. But if that person has a mother you don´t need to kill him.
I know it was cruel. She didn´t know that his beloved baby son had got a gum hidden somewhere. He was thirty-seven and had those funny ideas about commiting suicide....
_ Don´t worry. People who talks that rubbish never do it._ She told me.
It was so embarrasing_ The gum is now...
_ In the best hands. I gave it to the police.
_ And José?
_ You know him. I´d kill him._ She smiled_ Don´t worry. He´s fine.
Of course he is. I don´t know what his mother did. Since then we have quit each other.
I
Saturday, 23 March 2019
Strawberris by Edwing Morgan.
Una humilde traducción de un famoso poema irlandés
Nunca hubo fresas
Como las que tomamos nosotros
Aquella tarde…
Cuando nos sentábamos en
el escalón
Del antepecho abierto
Mirándonos las caras
Tus rodillas recogidas
entre las mías
Los platos azules en
nuestros regazos
Las fresas relumbrando
al calor de la luz del sol.
Las untábamos en azúcar
Mirándonos el uno al otro
Sin darnos prisa en dar
cuenta del festín
que llegaba para uno
Los platos vacíos quedaron
juntos
En la piedra posados
Los dos tenedores en cruz
Y yo me volví hacia ti
Dulce en aquel aire
En mis brazos
Abandonado como un
chiquillo.
De tu boca deseosa
El sabor de las fresas
En mi memoria
Otra vez vuelve
Déjame amarte
Deja que el sol restalle
Sobre nuestro olvido
Una hora entre todas
El calor intenso
Y el verano iluminando
Las colinas de Kilpatrick:
Deja que la tormenta
lave los platos.
Thursday, 20 April 2017
My contribution on some sportive events.
When the New Laredo Marina was being constructed it was because of an overextended plan, a more complicated general one with many other cities involved and amounted debts to overkill.
Then, we saw that all stood together by Madrid that, after failing its candidature to host the Olympic Games that year, was still bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
So, as a kind of consolation prize , some pertinacious politicians, mainly made by bigwigs and bank managers´ friends, claimed at least to host a minor event. That purpose meant rafts of money. And as a result, half a Spain went on squandering much and much money, money that we never had.
Therefore, I see these events as the ultimate purpose to make a nation to go in a persistent debt, gobbling down more and more cities and communities, as long as they are run by the same party , of course.
Anyway, all bank loans will be repaid by a entire nation.
Generally speaking, most of these magnificient events obeis a strategic perversion. If not, how is it possible that under the pressure of an oncoming election, the ruling party usual policy is going in debt, even deeper ? I have the answer:
On one hand, they create a last period of their government as the illusion that country is quite well-off so that voters support them blithely. And on the other hand, not only can they win the elections, they prevent their opponents ruling the nation (just in case of a change of government) strongly and efficiently, knowing that under such circumstances all their opponents´ measures will result in necessarily unpopular policies in the reason of a huge intricate caustic debt. A prime target like dealing with cuts and interests payments makes always imposible other well-received policies like a health plan, for example. Very often, week governments stem from an unaffordable public debt.
Clever. Isn´t it?
To finish; admittedly, many improvements such as accessibility-based integrated measures of special equity were carried out around the town that time. Mind you, it was a challenge thoughtlessly taken, on the paradox that the more in debt the country, the wealthier.
Thursday, 13 April 2017
My unforgetable José
Why I don´t want José to be my husband.
Firstly, he drinks
a lot. Even though, when I knew him, he already would.
I think he´s been an
alcoholic since he was a teenager. Therefore, I shouldn´t have taken to him.
Admittedly, I liked him. That´s true.
I remember I saw a tall
and quiet man, strong and calm. He looked like a giant, to me, who reminded me of The Selfish Giant, that character created by
Oscar Wilde in a beautiful moving short story that I had read when I was a child. José also lived in a cottage surrounded by a mysterious garden where even its lawn, every plant there, and every living being around was overgrown, some leaned
trees included. I think that I even saw a huge weasel running across the grass once.
Maybe, Oscar Wilde forgot to mention that his giant was also a dipsomaniac.
Although he didn´t work- he doesn´t need it- not only never he mowed that he was always tired and worn out. On Easter, it was his mother who used to mow as soon as she arrived
in town. She lived in Madrid.
Mind you, José
isn´t so big as a giant, only in comparison to himself being by my side, because I´m a
bit short. I don´t like recognizing that I like him.
When he was young he was
blond. He had straight long hair as soft as baby hair and had a big green pair
of eyes pretty bulge though. But his sight was pure and clear. And although his
nose was crooked and his mouth too big, and in general, he had a coarse no good-looking
complexion, the whole set could result attractive.
I remember my
friends saying to me:
_ Do you know that boy? I´m
afraid of him. Everybody is afraid of him. But he doesn´t look like a bad guy. Does he?
Now I realize that all the remarks about him were a kind of warning.
_ Is he normal? There´s something funny in that guy…Or is he
abnormal? Sorry.
_ Imagine that you turn a corner
and you bump into a bloke like him. Do you picture it? - Said someone and
another one answered- Frightens the life out of you. Won´t you?
However, José was
ugly but he wasn´t dangerous.
I don´t know why
I´m writing those things in the past tense. Jose is still alive. He still has a
large broken nose (not a job surgery one) bulky lips and a sweet smile on his rude
rough face. And he keeps fascinating me. I wonder whether this is love. Sometimes is stubbly in the morning and a
moment later, almost as soon as he sees me turning the corner runs to the toilet and out of the blue, is clean-shaven when opening the front door for me.
He´s so shy, so respectful. He doesn´t even ask me why I pop in... Anyway, I often say to him that a stubble beard style makes him tougher but handsome.
Harking back two years, I left him and he let his beard grow and he was horrible. A blond man with a scruffy over-grown and the blackest beard I had ever seen darkened now his usually clear, wide face, something sort of contrary to known laws. He seemed a kind of impostor, not a genuine blond guy. I know that it´s not the case. But, by making conspicuous his negligence, he was going to get nothing but a threatening aspect. As soon as I saw him I got upset. In fact, I saw his wrong side. Why did not give up drinking at once?
He´s so shy, so respectful. He doesn´t even ask me why I pop in... Anyway, I often say to him that a stubble beard style makes him tougher but handsome.
Harking back two years, I left him and he let his beard grow and he was horrible. A blond man with a scruffy over-grown and the blackest beard I had ever seen darkened now his usually clear, wide face, something sort of contrary to known laws. He seemed a kind of impostor, not a genuine blond guy. I know that it´s not the case. But, by making conspicuous his negligence, he was going to get nothing but a threatening aspect. As soon as I saw him I got upset. In fact, I saw his wrong side. Why did not give up drinking at once?
Well, eventually
he did it. But I don´t love him anymore. It was too late.
It is too late! Although he doesn´t drink any longer, he´s still an alcoholic and he will be forever. Although he tells me he loves me, I´m sorry.
It is too late! Although he doesn´t drink any longer, he´s still an alcoholic and he will be forever. Although he tells me he loves me, I´m sorry.
Besides, he is
humdrum and cheesy. And his voice is very low, often inaudible. I usually ask him to repeat what he´s saying. So tired, so worn-out always he looks, as if he doesn´t want to live, that he brings me down all the time.
Yesterday, I was
sunk into contemplation of the flowering climbers on a wall in the garden,
climbers as the scented jasmine that had been planted by his mother the spring
that we met, it was so rambling, when he muttered to me something. _ Why do you
come around? _ That´s what I understood when I had to ask him more than twice,
by rambling myself close to him, to repeat what he was mumbling. I felt obliged to do it, ramble myself, for I cannot hear a single word of him what, by the way, was giving away -I suppose- that he did it on purpose, speaking in so low voice just to close distance like a maniac.
_ I´d like to die? _ Said he.
_ Why? _ I groaned myself and I
added, in pain because of his interruption: __ Look around! Look at this garden
of yours gleaming in the sunshine.
But talking contemplation
was useless.
Then, I became a gibbering
wreck. _ Don´t even pause a breath?! Do I deserve this? Do you know what?
You´re selfish really! Aren´t you? You´re so high-maintenance! Do you want to
die! So, what? Die! Die! Die! You are demanding all the attention just to make
me take notice of you. Do you? And not only do you want to draw all the
attention that you spoilt my resting moment!
_ I just wanted to ask you a favour. _ He said.
I looked at him
in amazement. _ What?
_ Could you do me a favour?
_I guess. Do you want me to get
out?
_ No. It´s not that. You can
stay here despite not paying any attention to me. I´m a coward. You know.
_ Yes, you are.
_ I want to die. But...
_ You told me that before! But
I´m afraid that you´ll be never ready to die. A person who has been a coward to
live is always a coward. Do you understand? I mean, a coward to die too.
_ I´ve come across my late father´s pistol.
_ What?!
_A handgun.
Then I was shocked
again. I start stuttering something like: What? What do, do, you mean?
_ Would you shoot that gun for
me to help to take my life out?
_ No! But! You have found a
real gun? Have you? You have
a weapon in your power. Tell me this is not a nightmare! I´m not dreaming? Am
I?
_ Yes. Look.
At that moment, I see
him opening a little box. Well, in fact, I see two little heavy boxes, one on
each hand of him; a flat one and a taller one in the shape of a cube. Maybe you won´t believe me, but this happened for real.
Then he puts the boxes
on the garden table, opens the flat box, and shows me the pistol, an antique one
from the Civil War period, or maybe older.
_ During the Revolution of
Asturias my father was a doctor there, and he was recommended to carry one of
these.
Then I burst into
laughter hysterically_ No! I´m not going to shoot that. Believe me, I´d kill you
just now.... But.
_That´s what I want. _
Interrupt he.
_ I´m not a fool. _ Say I_ Do you want that junky scrap to blow up my
face?
Then he opens the
bigger box and tells me that there are plenty of bullets in it.
_ Keep those things away!
Please. _ I went nervously gabby again_ Are you going to kill me? Are you mad?
I was out of my wits, absolutely scared at
what might have happened. I´d have killed him!
_ No_ He said. _ I wouldn´t kill a fly. It´s you. You must kill me.
_You´re out of your mind. _
Said I whispering.
Then I started to talk to
him as if he were a child. _ Do you want me to be sent to prison?
_ Nobody could blame you. I
know it.
_ You´re talking rubbish.
Besides, I can´t kill you because I love you.
_Do you?
_ Yes. I do.
He smiled.
_ I thought you didn´t.
_ That´s not true José. You
Know it. You know I love you. And you love me too. And now, you´re keeping all
that stuff in a secret, safe drawer locked away, under lock and key, so that
any child has an accident. Will you? Am
I clear?
_ Yes. Your commands are my
wishes. _ Smiling sinfully as he was, I realized that he was waiting for a kind of
reward for his obedience. I´d have killed him umpteen times. Did I say that before? Yes, I did. That way he
made me despise him even more.
The next morning, I
got up quietly. I called his mother.
I made the end of
my own struggle. Maybe, you need to get rid of someone. But if that person has
a mother you don´t need to kill him.
I know it was
cruel. She didn´t know that his beloved baby son had a gum hidden somewhere.
Despite he was thirty-seven he had those funny ideas, (no brainchild among
them I´m afraid) about committing suicide...
_ Don´t worry. People who talk rubbish never do it. -She told me.
I was so embarrassed
_ The gum is now...
_ In the best hands. _ She
declared. _ I gave it to the police.
_ And José?
_ You know him. I´d kill him. _ She smiled. _ Don´t worry. He´s fine.
I hope he´s fine. He
was absolutely furious with me that
afternoon, I should tell you that like he never was before. I don´t know what his mother did. Since then we
have quit each other permanently; A real weight loss out off my shoulders.
Maybe he doesn´t rest
already in peace. But I do. I just think of contemplation.
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Flower and Runner
Then, at night, she whispered to Runner._ I´m serious. What were you doing with
those fellows?
_ Chatting up them.
That´s what I did. But none of
them can still catch up me when we run. They´re still
knee-high to a grasshopper tall.
_ And the day they
catch up you what will you do?
_ That day, when one of them catch up me I´ll kick him, the same as you do when
boys want to come up you.
Flower got quiet
for a moment as she was thinking. And then she put another question to Runner.
_ Don´t you
want to marry any of them?
_ Not yet. We are having fun at the moment. But maybe in a
season. I might find someone special, handsome and tall. But he must run faster
than me and be stronger too, you Know, He must be like that above everything
else.
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