A ESCRAVA ISAURA

A Escrava Isaura 7.15 · 7.15

You'd take her for a boy

Read the full text in our reader

e os túrgidos e offegantes seios que como dois trêfegos cabritinhos lhe pulavão por baixo de transparente camisa, tomal-a-hieis por um rapazete maroto e petulante.

Word by word

eeandosushthetúrgidosTOOR-zhee-dushfulleeandoffeganteso-fe-GAN-teshheavingseiosSAY-ushbreastsquekethatcomoKO-mulikedoisdoyshtwotrêfegosTRE-fe-gushfriskycabritinhoska-bri-TEE-nyushlittle kidslhelyefor herpulavãopoo-LA-vowngleaptporpurbeneathbaixoBAI-shuunderdedeoftransparentetransh-pa-REN-tethincamisaka-MEE-zashift,tomal-a-hieistu-MA-la-YEYSHyou would take herporpurforumoongarapazeteha-pa-ZE-teladmarotoma-RO-turoguisheeandpetulantepe-too-LAN-techeeky.

The setting

and her full, heaving breasts that leapt like two frisky kids beneath her thin shift, you would take her for a roguish, cheeky lad.

A note on this passage

The simile — breasts leaping 'like two frisky kid-goats' — is pure 1875 pastoral eroticism, playful and unabashed. It closes the physical portrait on a joke about gender: strip the earrings and the bosom and Rosa is a saucy street-boy. The lightness here throws the coming malice into relief.

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

Open A Escrava Isaura 7.15 in the full reader

Always open passages in the reader

From the Great Library

You are reading a page of the A Escrava Isaura — 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:

A Escrava Isaura 7.15 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/7.15/