A Escrava Isaura 9.53 · 9.53

'Eu não posso, eu não devo abandonar-te ao mundo' — I cannot, I must not abandon you to the world. The verb is the tell. To 'abandon' is what one does to a possession one has a duty to keep, not to a free woman who might simply leave. Leôncio dresses captivity as protection: the world outside is the danger, and his grip the shelter. It is the oldest justification of the jailer, and Guimarães lets it stand naked here so the reader can hear how tenderness and ownership have fused into a single sentence.

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