Day: November 3, 2014

43

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(7)

I després va veure que tots dos eren ajaçats a terra, garratibats i amb les faccions contretes, com colpits per un atac d’apoplexia que els hagués deixats amb la cara groc-rosada. El cistellet s’havia capgirat i totes les figues eren excampades a llur entorn, però no n’havien menjat, car tenien els llavis nets. En Dídac, que es redreçava, preguntà

– Què fan, Alba?
– No ho sé… Anem, que no et volen.
– Vols dir que no són morts?

(8)

I llavors, l’Alba, que es girava en adonar-se que tenia un gran esquinç a la brusa, va alçar la vista cap al poble i obrí la boca sense que li’n sortís cap so. Al seu davant, a tres-cents metres, Benaura semblava un altre, més pla; sota la pols que hi penjava com una boira llorda i persistent, les cases s’amuntegaven les unes damunt les altres, com esclafades per una gran mà barroera. Tornà a tancar els llavis, va obrir-los de nou i exclamà:

– Oh!

I tot seguit, sense recordar-se que la brusa ja no li amagava les sines, va arrencar a córrer camí avall.

(9)

I a la vila no quedava res dempeus. Els edificis s’havien aclofat sobre ells mateixos, talment com si de cop i volta els haguessin flaquejat les parets, sobre les runes de les quals havien caigut les teulades. Tot de pedres i de teules partides eren escampades pels carrers i cobrien, sobretot, les voreres, però l’esfondrament era massa aplomat per haver deixat intransitables les vies més amples, per on ja corria l’aigua de les canonades esbotzades que, en alguns llocs, alçaven guèisers impetuosos entre la polsegura.
En molts indrets, els murs baixos continuaven drets, com per contenir a l’interior el vessament dels pisos alts amuntegats, en alguns casos, entre parets que, esquerdades i tot, havien resistit l’impuls ferotge d’un atac anihilador. Perquè tot alloò ho havien fet aquells aparells misteriosos, l’Alba n’estava segura.

43

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(7)

And then she saw that they were lying down on the ground, flabbergasted and with their features contorted, as stunned as if they had had a stroke that had left their faces the colour of jaundice. The basket was upside down and all the figs were scattered around, although they hadn’t eaten them, because she saw their lips were clean. Dídac, who was recovering, asked:
– What are they doing, Alba?
– I don’t know… C’mon, they don’t want you.
– You mean they aren’t dead?

(8)

And then Alba, who turned in realization that she had a large tear on her blouse, lifted her head to the village and opened her mouth without making a sound. In front of her, about 300 meters away, Benaura seemed to be something else, flatter; below the dust that hung like a distinguished and persistent fog, the houses crowded on top of each other as though they had been crushed by a crude hand. She closed her lips again, re-opened them, and exclaimed:
“Oh!”
And then, without remembering that the blouse no longer covered her breasts, she ran off down the road.

(9)

And there was nothing left standing in the town. The buildings had been crushed, as if suddenly the walls had wavered above the debris which had fallen through the roof. All the stones and the roof were scattered on the streets and they covered, completely, the sidewalks, but the collapse was so severe that it had left the wider roads impassable, where the water ran though the broken pipes, in some places, spouting raging geysers between the dust.
In many places, the low walls continued right, as if the inside contained runoff from the piled high flats, in some cases, between walls that, completely cracked, had resisted the fierce impulse of an annihilating attack. Why those mysterious devices had done all of that, Alba was unsure.