ALENCAR

O Guarani 5.16 · 5.16

The slave's mute eyes

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Mas o escravo suplicante erguia os olhos tão magoados, tão cheios de preces mudas e de resignação, que ela sentia um quer que seja de inexprimível, e ficava triste, triste, até que fugia e ia chorar.

But the pleading slave raised his eyes so full of hurt, so full of mute entreaties and resignation, that she felt a certain something inexpressible, and grew sad, sad, until she fled and went to weep.

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The setting

Chapter V. Cecília is named, and the narrator follows her half-waking daydream in the hammock.

A note on this passage

Even in scorn the dream betrays her: the slave's silent grief reaches something she cannot name and cannot refuse. The doubled 'sad, sad' is Alencar letting the sentence itself sink — the first crack in Cecília's disdain, felt before she will ever admit it awake.

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