Part three, Chapter 5

At each stage of his imprisonment he had known, or seemed to know, whereabouts he was in the windowless building. На кожному етапі свого ув’язнення він знав або, здавалося, знав, де він знаходиться в будівлі без вікон. Possibly there were slight differences in the air pressure.

The cells where the guards had beaten him were below ground level. Las celdas donde lo habían golpeado los guardias estaban por debajo del nivel del suelo. The room where he had been interrogated by O'Brien was high up near the roof. La habitación donde había sido interrogado por O'Brien estaba en lo alto, cerca del techo. This place was many metres underground, as deep down as it was possible to go. Este lugar estaba a muchos metros bajo tierra, lo más profundo posible.

It was bigger than most of the cells he had been in. But he hardly noticed his surroundings. Pero apenas notó su entorno. All he noticed was that there were two small tables straight in front of him, each covered with green baize. Todo lo que notó fue que había dos pequeñas mesas directamente frente a él, cada una cubierta con tapete verde. One was only a metre or two from him, the other was further away, near the door. He was strapped upright in a chair, so tightly that he could move nothing, not even his head. Estaba atado en posición vertical en una silla, con tanta fuerza que no podía mover nada, ni siquiera la cabeza. A sort of pad gripped his head from behind, forcing him to look straight in front of him.

For a moment he was alone, then the door opened and O'Brien came in.

‘You asked me once,' said O'Brien, ‘what was in Room 1o1. I told you that you knew the answer already. Te dije que ya sabías la respuesta. Everyone knows it. Todos lo saben. The thing that is in Room 1o1 is the worst thing in the world.'

The door opened again. A guard came in, carrying something made of wire, a box or basket of some kind. He set it down on the further table. Lo dejó en la mesa de al lado. Because of the position in which O'Brien was standing. Через позицію, в якій стояв О'Браєн. Winston could not see what the thing was.

‘The worst thing in the world,' said O'Brien, ‘varies from   individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.' Hay casos en los que es algo bastante trivial, ni siquiera fatal.

He had moved a little to one side, so that Winston had a better view of the thing on the table. It was an oblong wire cage with a handle on top for carrying it by. Era una jaula de alambre alargada con un asa en la parte superior para transportarla. Fixed to the front of it was something that looked like a fencing mask, with the concave side outwards. Although it was three or four metres away from him, he could see that the cage was divided lengthways into two compartments, and that there was some kind of creature in each. They were rats.

‘In your case,' said O'Brien, ‘the worst thing in the world happens to be rats.' —En tu caso —dijo O'Brien—, lo peor del mundo son las ratas.

A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage. But at this moment the meaning of the mask- like attachment in front of it suddenly sank into him. Pero en este momento, el significado del apego parecido a una máscara que tenía enfrente de repente se hundió en él. His bowels seemed to turn to water. Sus entrañas parecieron convertirse en agua.

‘You can't do that!' he cried out in a high cracked voice. ‘You couldn't, you couldn't! It's impossible.'

‘Do you remember,' said O'Brien, ‘the moment of panic that used to occur in your dreams? '¿Recuerdas', dijo O'Brien, 'el momento de pánico que solía ocurrir en tus sueños? «Ти пам’ятаєш, — сказав О’Браєн, — момент паніки, який траплявся у твоїх снах? There was a wall of blackness in front of you, and a roaring sound in your ears. There was something terrible on the other side of the wall. You knew that you knew what it was, but you dared not drag it into the open. Sabías que sabías lo que era, pero no te atreviste a sacarlo a la luz. It was the rats that were on the other side of the wall.'

‘O'Brien!' said Winston, making an effort to control his voice. ‘You know this is not necessary. What is it that you want me to do?'

O'Brien made no direct answer. When he spoke it was in the schoolmasterish manner that he sometimes affected. Cuando hablaba era en la forma de maestro de escuela que a veces se veía afectado. He looked thoughtfully into the distance, as though he were addressing an audience somewhere behind Winston's back.

‘By itself,' he said, ‘pain is not always enough. 'Por sí solo', dijo, 'el dolor no siempre es suficiente. There are occasions when a human being will stand out against pain, even to the point of death. Hay ocasiones en las que un ser humano se destaca frente al dolor, incluso hasta la muerte. But for everyone there is something unendurable — something that cannot be contemplated. Pero para todos hay algo insoportable, algo que no se puede contemplar. Courage and cowardice are not involved. El valor y la cobardía no están involucrados. Про мужність і боягузтво не йдеться. If you are falling from a height it is not cowardly to clutch at a rope. Si se cae desde una altura, no es cobarde agarrarse a una cuerda. If you have come up from deep water it is not cowardly to fill your lungs with air. It is merely an instinct which cannot be destroyed. It is the same with the rats. For you, they are unendurable. They are a form of pressure that you cannot withstand, even if you wished to. You will do what is required of you.' Harás lo que se te pida.

‘But what is it, what is it? How can I do it if I don't know what it is?'

O'Brien picked up the cage and brought it across to the nearer table. He set it down carefully on the baize cloth. Lo dejó con cuidado sobre el tapete. Winston could hear the blood singing in his ears. Winston podía oír el canto de la sangre en sus oídos. He had the feeling of sitting in utter loneliness. Tenía la sensación de estar sentado en total soledad. У нього було відчуття, що він сидів у цілковитій самотності. He was in the middle of a great empty plain, a flat desert drenched with sunlight, across which all sounds came to him out of immense distances. Estaba en medio de una gran llanura vacía, un desierto llano bañado por la luz del sol, a través del cual le llegaban todos los sonidos de inmensas distancias. Yet the cage with the rats was not two metres away from him. Sin embargo, la jaula con las ratas no estaba a dos metros de él. They were enormous rats. They were at the age when a rat's muzzle grows blunt and fierce and his fur brown instead of grey. Estaban en la edad en que el hocico de una rata se vuelve desafilado y feroz y su pelaje marrón en lugar de gris. Вони були в тому віці, коли щуряча морда стає тупою та лютою, а його хутро коричневим замість сірого.

‘The rat,' said O'Brien, still addressing his invisible audience, ‘although a rodent, is carnivorous. —La rata —dijo O'Brien, todavía dirigiéndose a su audiencia invisible—, aunque es un roedor, es carnívora. You are aware of that. Eres consciente de eso. You will have heard of the things that happen in the poor quarters of this town. Habrá oído hablar de las cosas que suceden en los barrios pobres de este pueblo. In some streets a woman dare not leave her baby alone in the house, even for five minutes. The rats are certain to attack it. Las ratas seguramente lo atacarán.

Within quite a small time they will strip it to the bones. En un tiempo bastante corto lo pelarán hasta los huesos. They also attack sick or dying people. They show astonishing intelligence in knowing when a human being is helpless.'

There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. It seemed to reach Winston from far away. The rats were fighting; they were trying to get at each other through the partition. Las ratas estaban peleando; estaban tratando de llegar el uno al otro a través de la partición. He heard also a deep groan of despair. Він також почув глибокий стогін відчаю. That, too, seemed to come from outside himself.

O'Brien picked up the cage, and, as he did so, pressed something in it. O'Brien tomó la jaula y, mientras lo hacía, presionó algo en ella. There was a sharp click. Winston made a frantic effort to tear himself loose from the chair. Winston hizo un esfuerzo desesperado por soltarse de la silla. It was hopeless; every part of him, even his head, was held immovably. O'Brien moved the cage nearer. It was less than a metre from Winston's face.

‘I have pressed the first lever,' said O'Brien. ‘You understand the construction of this cage. Entiendes la construcción de esta jaula. The mask will fit over your head, leaving no exit. La máscara se colocará sobre su cabeza, sin dejar salida. When I press this other lever, the door of the cage will slide up. These starving brutes will shoot out of it like bullets. Have you ever seen a rat leap through the air? They will leap on to your face and bore straight into it. Saltarán sobre tu cara y la perforarán directamente. Sometimes they attack the eyes first. Sometimes they burrow through the cheeks and devour the tongue.' A veces surcan las mejillas y devoran la lengua.

The cage was nearer; it was closing in. La jaula estaba más cerca; se estaba acercando. Winston heard a succession of shrill cries which appeared to be occurring in the air above his head. But he fought furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with a split second left — to think was the only hope. Suddenly the foul musty odour of the brutes struck his nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside him, and he almost lost consciousness. Sintió una violenta convulsión de náuseas en su interior y estuvo a punto de perder el conocimiento. Everything had gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an idea. Sin embargo, salió de la oscuridad con una idea. There was one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the BODY of another human being, between himself and the rats.

The circle of the mask was large enough now to shut out the vision of anything else. El círculo de la máscara era lo suficientemente grande ahora para bloquear la visión de cualquier otra cosa. The wire door was a couple of hand-spans from his face. La puerta de alambre estaba a un par de palmos de su cara. Дротяні двері були за кілька п’ядей рук від його обличчя. The rats knew what was coming now. One of them was leaping up and down, the other, an old scaly grandfather of the sewers, stood up, with his pink hands against the bars, and fiercely sniffed the air. Winston could see the whiskers and the yellow teeth. Again the black panic took hold of him. He was blind, helpless, mindless. Estaba ciego, indefenso, sin sentido. Він був сліпий, безпорадний, без розуму.

‘It was a common punishment in Imperial China,' said O'Brien as didactically as ever. "Era un castigo común en la China imperial", dijo O'Brien tan didácticamente como siempre.

The mask was closing on his face. La máscara se cerraba sobre su rostro. The wire brushed his cheek. El alambre le rozó la mejilla. And then — no, it was not relief, only hope, a tiny fragment of hope. Too late, perhaps too late. But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just ONE person to whom he could transfer his punishment — ONE body that he could thrust between himself and the rats. And he was shouting frantically, over and over.

‘Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. No me importa lo que le hagas. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Arrancarle la cara, desnudarla hasta los huesos. Not me! Julia! Not me!'

He was falling backwards, into enormous depths, away from the rats. Caía de espaldas, en enormes profundidades, lejos de las ratas. He was still strapped in the chair, but he had fallen  through the floor, through the walls of the building, through the earth, through the oceans, through the atmosphere, into outer space, into the gulfs between the stars — always away, away, away from the rats. Todavía estaba atado a la silla, pero había caído por el suelo, a través de las paredes del edificio, a través de la tierra, a través de los océanos, a través de la atmósfera, al espacio exterior, a los abismos entre las estrellas, siempre lejos, lejos. , lejos de las ratas. He was light years distant, but O'Brien was still standing at his side. There was still the cold touch of wire against his cheek. But through the darkness that enveloped him he heard another metallic click, and knew that the cage door had clicked shut and not open. Pero a través de la oscuridad que lo envolvía escuchó otro clic metálico y supo que la puerta de la jaula se había cerrado y no se había abierto.