The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Chapter 13 in Spanish
By Mark Twain
La decisión de Tom estaba tomada. OM'S mind was made up now. Estaba sombrío y desesperado. He was gloomy and desperate. Era un chico, se decía, abandonado de todos y a quien nadie quería: cuando supieran al extremo a que le habían llevado, tal vez lo deplorarían. He was a forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them blame him for the consequences—why shouldn't they? ¿Qué derecho tenían los abandonados para quejarse? What right had the friendless to complain? Sí, le habían forzado al fin: llevaría una vida de crímenes. Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he would lead a life of crime. No le quedaba otro camino. There was no choice.
Para entonces ya se había alejado del pueblo, y el tañido de la campana de la escuela, que llamaba a la clase de la tarde, sonó débilmente en su oído. By this time he was far down Meadow Lane, and the bell for school to "take up" tinkled faintly upon his ear. Sollozó pensando que ya no volvería a oír aquel toque familiar nunca jamás. No tenía él la culpa; pero puesto que se le lanzaba a la fuerza en el ancho mundo, tenía que someterse...; aunque los perdonaba. He sobbed, now, to think he should never, never hear that old familiar sound any more—it was very hard, but it was forced on him; since he was driven out into the cold world, he must submit—but he forgave them. Entonces los sollozos se hicieron más acongojados y frecuentes. Then the sobs came thick and fast.
Precisamente en aquel instante se encontró a su amigo del alma Joe Harper, torva la mirada y, sin duda alguna, alimentando en su pecho alguna grande y tenebrosa resolución. Just at this point he met his soul's sworn comrade, Joe Harper—hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart. Era evidente que se juntaban allí «dos almas, pero un solo pensamiento». Plainly here were "two souls with but a single thought." Tom, limpiándose las lágrimas con la manga, empezó a balbucear algo acerca de una resolución de escapar a los malos tratos y falta de cariño en su casa, lanzándose a errar por el mundo, para nunca volver, y acabó expresando la esperanza de que Joe no le olvidaría. Tom, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, began to blubber out something about a resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by roaming abroad into the great world never to return; and ended by hoping that Joe would not forget him.
Pero pronto se traslució que ésta era la misma súplica que Joe iba a hacer en aquel momento a Tom. But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been going to make of Tom, and had come to hunt him up for that purpose. Le había azotado su madre por haber goloseado una cierta crema que jamás había entrado en su boca y cuya existencia ignoraba. Claramente se veía que su madre estaba cansada de él, y que quería que se fuera; y si ella lo quería así, no le quedaba otro remedio que sucumbir. His mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never tasted and knew nothing about; it was plain that she was tired of him and wished him to go; if she felt that way, there was nothing for him to do but succumb; he hoped she would be happy, and never regret having driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die.