Eyes of a Blue Dog by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: English A… — Transcript

Eyes of a Blue Dog by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Then she looked at me. I thought that she was looking at me for the first time. But then, when she turned around behind the lamp, and I kept feeling her slippery and oily look behind me over my shoulder, I understood that it was I who was looking at her for the first time. I lit a cigarette. I took a drag on the harsh, strong smoke before spinning in the chair, balancing on one of the rear legs. After that, I saw her there as if she'd been standing beside the lamp, looking at me every night.

For a few brief minutes, that's all we did. Look at each other. I looked from the chair, bouncing on one of the rear legs. She stood with a long and quiet hand on the lamp, looking at me. I saw her eyelids light up as on every night. It was then that I remembered the usual thing when I said to her, "Eyes of a blue dog." Without taking her hand off the lamp, she said to me, "That we'll never forget that." She left the orbit sign, "Eyes of the blue dog. I've written it everywhere." I saw her walk over to the dressing table. I watched her appear in the circular glass of the mirror, looking at me now at the end of the back and forth of a mathematical light. I watched her keep on looking at me with her great hot coal eyes, looking at me while she opened the little box covered with pink mother of pearl. I saw her powder her nose.

When she finished, she closed the box, stood up again, and walked over to the lamp once more, saying, "I'm afraid that someone is dreaming about this room and revealing my secrets." And over the flame, she held the same long and tremulous hand that she had been warming before sitting down at the mirror. And she said, "You don't feel the cold." And I said to her, "Sometimes." And she said to me, "You must feel it now."

And then I understood why I couldn't have been alone in the seat. It was the cold that had been giving me the certainty of my solitude.

"Well, now I feel it," I said. "And it's strange because the night is quiet. Maybe the sheet fell off."

She didn't answer again. She began to move toward the mirror and I turned again in the chair, keeping my back to her without seeing her. I knew what she was doing. I knew that she was sitting in front of the mirror again, seeing my back, which had had time to reach the depths of the mirror and be caught by her look, which had also just enough time to reach the depths and return before the hand had time to start the second turn, until her lips were anointed now as crimson from the first turn of her hand in front of the mirror.

I saw opposite me the smooth wall, which was like another blind mirror in which I couldn't see her, sitting behind me, but could imagine her where she probably was, as if a mirror had been hung in place of the wall. "I see you," I told her.

And on the wall, I saw what was as if she had raised her eyes and had seen me with my back turned toward her from the chair in the depths of the mirror. My face turned toward the wall.

Then I saw her lower her eyes again and remain with her eyes always on her brazier, not talking.

And I said to her again, "I see you." And she raised her eyes from her brazier again. "Well, that's impossible," she said. I asked her why, and she, with her eyes quiet on her brazier again, said, "Because your face is turned toward the wall."

Then I spun the chair around. I had the cigarette clenched in my mouth. When I stayed facing the mirror, she was back by the lamp. Now she had her hands open over the flame like two wings of a hen, toasting herself and with her face shaded by her own fingers. I think I'm going to catch cold, she said. This must be a city of ice.

She turned to face her profile and her skin from copper to red and suddenly became sad.

Do something about it, she said. And she began to get undressed item by item, starting at the top with the brazier. I told her, "I'm going to turn back to the wall." She said, "No, in any case, you'll see me the way you did when your back was turned." And no sooner had she said it, then she was almost completely undressed with the flame licking her long copper skin.

I've always wanted to see you like that, with the skin of your belly full of deep pits, as if you'd been beaten.

And before I realized that my words became clumsy at the sight of her nakedness, she became motionless, warming herself on the globe of the lamp, and she said, "Well, sometimes I think I'm made of metal." She was silent for an instant. The position of her hands over the flame varied slightly. I said, "Sometimes in other dreams, I thought you were only a little bronze statue in the corner of some museum. Maybe that's why you're cold."

And she said, "Sometimes when I sleep on my heart, I can feel my body growing hollow and my skin is like plate. Then when the blood beats inside me, it's as if someone were calling by knocking on my stomach. And I can feel my own copper sound in the bed. It's like, what do you call it? Laminated metal." She drew closer to the lamp.

I would have liked to hear you, I said. And she said, "If we find each other sometime, put your ear to my ribs when I sleep on the left side, and you'll hear me echoing. I've always wanted you to do it sometime." I heard her breathe heavily as she talked. And she said that for years she'd done nothing different. Her life had been dedicated to finding me in reality through that identifying phrase, "Eyes of a blue dog." And she went along the street saying it aloud as a way of telling the only person who could have understood her. I'm the one who comes into your dreams every night and tells you, "Eyes of a blue dog." And she said that she went into restaurants and before ordering said to the waiters, "Eyes of a blue dog." But the waiters bowed reverently without remembering ever having said that in their dreams.

Then she would write on the napkins and scratch on the varnish of the tables with a knife. Eyes of a blue dog.

And on the steamed-up windows of the hotels and stations, all the public buildings, she would write with her forefinger, "Eyes of a blue dog." She said that once she went into a drugstore and noticed the same smell that she had smelled in her room one night after having dreamed about me. "He must be near," she thought, seeing the clean new tiles of the drugstore. Then she went over to the clerk and said to him, "I always dream about a man who says to me, eyes of a blue dog." And she said the clerk had looked at her eyes and told her, "Well, as a matter of fact, miss, you do have eyes like that." And she said to him, "I have to find the man who told me those very words in my dreams." And the clerk started to laugh and moved to the other end of the counter.

She kept on seeing the clean tile and smelling the odor. And she opened her purse and on the tiles with her crimson lipstick she wrote in red letters, "Eyes of a blue dog." The clerk came back from where he had been and he told her, "Madam, you have dirtied the tiles." He gave her a damp cloth, saying, "Clean it up." And she said, still by the lamp, that she'd spent the whole afternoon on all fours washing the tiles and saying, "Eyes of a blue dog." Until people gathered at the door and said she was crazy. Now when she finished speaking I remained in the corner sitting and rocking in the chair.

Every day I try to remember the phrase with which I am to find you. I said, now I don't think I'll forget it tomorrow.

Still, I've always said the same thing and when I wake up I've always forgotten what the words are that I can find you with. And she said you invented them yourself on the first day. And I said to her, "I invented them because I saw your eyes of ash, but I never remember the next morning." And she, with clenched fists beside the lamp, breathed deeply. "If you could at least remember now what city I've been writing it in."

Her tightened teeth gleamed over the flame. "I'd like to touch you now," I said.

She raised the face that had been looking at the light. She

I've always wanted to see you like that, with the skin of your belly full of deep pits, as if you'd been beaten.

And before I realized that my words become clumsy at the sight of her nakedness, she became motionless, warming herself on the globe of the lamp, and she said, "Well, sometimes I think I'm made of metal." She was silent for an instant. The

position of her hands over the flame varied slightly. I said, "Sometimes in other dreams, I thought you were only a little bronze statue in the corner of some museum. Maybe that's why you're cold.

And she said, "Sometimes when I sleep on my heart, I can feel my body growing hollow and my skin is like plate. Then when the blood beats inside me, it's as if someone were calling by knocking on my stomach. And I can feel my own copper

sound in the bed. It's like, what do you call it? Laminated metal." She drew closer to the lamp.

I would have liked to hear you, I said. And she said, "If we find each other sometime, put your ear to my ribs when I sleep on the left side, and you'll hear me echoing. I've always wanted you to do

it sometime." I heard her breathe heavily as she talked. And she said that for years she'd done nothing different. Her life had been dedicated to finding me in reality through that identifying phrase, "Eyes of a blue dog." and she went along the street saying it

aloud as a way of telling the only person who could have understood her. I'm the one who comes into your dreams every night and tells you, "Eyes of a blue dog." And she said that she went into restaurants and before ordering said to

the waiters, "Eyes of a blue dog." But the waiters bowed reverently without remembering ever having said that in their dreams.

Then she would write on the napkins and scratch on the varnish of the tables with a knife. Eyes of a blue dog.

And on the st steamed up windows of the hotels and stations, all the public buildings, she would write with her forefinger, "Eyes of a blue dog." She said that once she went into a drugstore and noticed the same smell

that she had smelled in her room one night after having dreamed about me. "He must be near," she thought, seeing the clean new tiles of the drugstore. Then she went over to the clerk and said to him, "I always dream about a man who

says to me, eyes of a blue dog." And she said, the clerk had looked at her eyes and told her, "Well, as a matter of fact, miss, you do have eyes like that." And she said to him, "I have to find the

man who told me those very words in my dreams." And the clerk started to laugh and moved to the other end of the counter.

She kept on seeing the clean tile and smelling the odor. and she opened her purse and on the tiles with her crimson lipstick she wrote in red letters, "Eyes of a blue dog." The clerk came back from where he had

been and he told her, "Madam, you have dirtied the tiles." He gave her a damp cloth, saying, "Clean it up." And she said, still by the lamp that she'd spent the whole afternoon on all fours washing the tiles and saying, "Eyes of a blue

dog." Until people gathered at the door and said she was crazy. Now when she finished speaking I remained in the corner sitting and rocking in the chair.

Every day I try to remember the phrase which with which I am to find you. I said now I don't think I'll forget it tomorrow.

Still I've always said the same thing and when I wake up I've always forgotten what the words are that I can find you with. And she said you invented them yourself on the first day. And I said to

her, "I invented them because I saw your eyes of ash, but I never remember the next morning." And she with clenched fists beside the lamp breathed deeply. "If you could at least remember now what city I've been writing it in."

Her tightened teeth gleamed over the flame. "I'd like to touch you now," I said.

She raised the face that had been looking at the light. She raised her look, burning, roasting too, just like her, like her hands. And I felt that she saw me in the corner where I was sitting, rocking in the chair.

You never told me that, she said. I tell you now, and it's the truth, I said.

From the other side of the lamp, she asked for a cigarette. The butt had disappeared between my fingers. I'd forgotten I was smoking.

She said, "I don't know why I can't remember where I wrote it. And I said to her, for the same reason that tomorrow I won't be able to remember the words. And she said sadly, "No, it's just that sometimes I think that

I've dreamed that, too." I stood up and walked toward the lamp. She was a little beyond, and I kept on walking with the cigarettes and matches in my hand, which would not go beyond the lamp. I held the cigarette out to

her. She squeezed it between her lips and leaned over to reach the flame before it had time to light the match.

In some city in the world, on all those walls, those words have to appear in writing. Eyes of a blue dog, I said. If I remembered them tomorrow, I could find you.

She raised her head again, and now the lighted coal was between her lips. Eyes of a blue dog, she sighed, remembered with a cigarette drooping over her chin and one eye half closed.

Then she sucked in the smoke with the cigarette between her fingers and exclaimed, "Well, this is something else now. I'm warming up." And she said it with her voice a little lukewarm and fleeting, as if she hadn't really said

it, but as if she had written it on a piece of paper and had brought the paper close to the flame while I read, "I'm warming." And she had continued with the paper between her thumb and forefinger, turning it around as it was being

consumed. and I had just read up before the paper was completely consumed and dropped all wrinkled to the floor, diminished, converted into light ash dust.

That's better, I said. Sometimes it frightens me to see you that way, trembling beside a lamp.

We had been seeing each other for several years. Sometimes, when we were already together, somebody would drop a spoon outside and we would wake up.

Little by little, we'd been coming to understand that our friendship was subordinated to things, to the simplest of happenings. Our meetings always ended that way with the fall of a spoon early in the morning.

Now, next to the lamp, she was looking at me. I remembered that she'd also looked at me in that way in the past, from that remote dream where I made the chair spin on its back legs and remained

facing a strange woman with ashen eyes. It was in that dream that I asked her for the first time, "Who are you?" And she said to me, "I don't remember." But I said to her, "But I think we've

seen each other before." And she said indifferently. I think I dreamed about you once about the same room. And I told her, "That's it. I'm beginning to remember now." And she said, "How strange. It's certain that we've met in other dreams.

She took two drags on the cigarette. I was still standing and facing the lamp, but suddenly I kept looking at her. I looked her up and down, and she was still copper, no longer hard and cold metal, but yellow, soft, malleable

copper. I'd like to touch you, I said again. And she said, you'll ruin everything.

I said, "It doesn't matter now. All we have to do is turn the pillow in in order to meet again." And I held my hand out over the lamp. She didn't move.

"You'll ruin everything," she said again before I could touch her. "Maybe if you come around behind the lamp, we'd wake up frightened in who knows what part of the world." "But I insisted, "No, it doesn't matter." And she said, "If we turned over the

pillow, we'd meet again. But when you wake up, you'll have forgotten. I began to move toward the corner. She stayed behind, warming her hands over the flame, and I still wasn't beside the chair when I heard her say behind me.

When I wake up at midnight, I keep turning in bed with the fringe of the pillow burning my knee and repeating until dawn, "Eyes of a blue dog." Then I remained with my face toward the wall. It's already dawning, I said

without looking at her. When it struck two, I was awake and that was a long time back.

I went to the door. When I had the knob in my hand, I heard her voice again. The same invariable.

"Well, don't open that door," she said. "The hallway is full of difficult dreams." And I asked her, "Well, how do you know?" and she told me because I was there a moment ago and I had to come back when I discovered I was sleeping on

my heart. I had the door half opened. I moved it a little and a cold thin breeze brought me the fresh smell of vegetable earth and damp fields. She spoke again.

I gave the turn, still moving the door mounted on silent hinges, and I told her, "I don't think there's any hallway outside here. I'm getting the smell of country.

And she, a little distant, told me, "I know that better than you. What's happening is that there's a woman outside dreaming about the country." And she, a little distant, told me. She crossed her arms over the flame. She

continued speaking. It's that woman who always wanted to have a house in the country and was never able to leave the city.

I remembered having seen the woman in some previous dream, but I knew at the door a jar now and within a half an hour I would have to go down for breakfast.

And I said, "In any case, I have to leave here in order to wake up." Outside the wind fluttered for an instant and then remained quiet, and the breathing of someone sleeping who had just turned over in bed could be heard.

The wind from the fields had ceased. There were no more smells. Tomorrow I'll recognize you from that, I said. I'll recognize you when on the street I see a woman writing eyes of a blue dog on the walls. And she, with a

sad smile, which was already a smile of surrender to the impossible, the unreachable, said, "Yet you won't remember anything during the day." And she put her hands back over the lamp, her features darkened by a bitter cloud.

You're the only man who doesn't remember anything of what he's dreamed after he wakes up.