Caracas Notebook (2)

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Because of all the current moves to Florida from this house, I’m now sleeping on the library floor, surrounded by medical books. But there are clusters in the library that interest me. One is a collection of paperbacks from the Biblioteca Básica Salvat (Madrid), which includes Goethe's Los sufrimientos del joven Werther and Uslar Pietri’s Las lanzas coloradas. The editions are in heavy paper and designed with elegant blocks of color. Werther is introduced by Carmen Bravo-Villasante, though I'm not sure if the translation is hers. In these editions, the translator is meant to be invisible.


Guillermo, muchas veces no se si estoy en el mundo.
—Werther, 80.

Sí; yo no soy otra cosa que un viajero, un peregrino en el mundo. ¿Y tú? ¿eres algo más?
—Werther, 108.