Dom Casmurro 3.15 · 3.15

My mother wanted to know

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Minha mãe quiz saber o que era.

My mother wanted to know what it was.

Word by word

MinhaMEE-nyaMymãemãinmotherquizkeeswantedsabersa-BEHRto knowouwhatquekiwho / that / whicheraE-rait was.

The setting

Narration resumes: Dona Glória presses for the news.

A note on this passage

The narration steps back in for a beat, and the mother does exactly what the manipulator intended: she 'quiz saber', wanted to know. José Dias has manufactured her curiosity and now she owns it. Bento the narrator reports this flatly, but the flatness is loaded — he is describing the moment his mother was handed the suspicion that would send him away, and he tells it with the composure of a man who has had a lifetime to reread the scene.

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