Dom Casmurro 12.22 · 12.22

The voices clash again

Read the full text in our reader

E as vozes repeliam-se confusas:

And the voices repelled each other, confused:

Word by word

EiAndasasthevozesVO-zisvoicesrepeliam-sehe-pe-LEE-ow-sirepelled each otherconfusaskon-FU-zasconfused:

The setting

The refrain returns, now colliding among themselves.

A note on this passage

The refrain returns: and the voices repelled each other, confused. Now they clash among themselves, the fragments colliding rather than being pushed away from outside.

The reflexive 'repeliam-se' marks a shift from the earlier line, where the voices repelled José Dias's speech; here they turn on one another, an inner babble with no single target. The obsessive phrases are about to cycle a second time, reshuffled — the sure mark of a mind circling the same three words, unable either to accept them or to be rid of them. The colon opens, once more, onto the loop.

Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.

Open Dom Casmurro 12.22 in the full reader

Always open passages in the reader

From the Great Library

You are reading a page of the Dom Casmurro — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.

The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.

Also on our shelves:

Dom Casmurro 12.22 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/domcasmurro/12.22/