Canutito ‘es un’ Albert Einstein ‘regular’
E lsummer had come y toda la fruta on the trees was ripening más nice que qué. Grama Cuca had begun to can some of the fruit now that it was toda madura. When Canutito walked into the kitchen esa mañana, he found her empacando the fruit jars and singing: “La fruta madura comienza a caer, comienza a caer, comienza a caer. La fruta madura comienza a caer, ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!”
Canutito no estaba muy sure por qué Grama Cuca was singing about why the ripe fruit was falling while she packed los frascos de manera que he stopped to listen. He repeated la canción en inglés :“The sun-ripened fruit has now started to fall, started to fall, started to fall. The sun-ripened fruit has now started to fall, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!”
At length Canutito remarked, “Grama, ¿por qué Usted siempre está contenta?”
“Ay, m’hijo,” she replied, “El trabajo es una bendición, and since work is a blessing, it always makes me happy. When I was a little girl, me gustaba cantar y declamar. I used to recite muchos nursery rhymes while my mom preserved fruit.”
“I know que ‘cantar’ means to sing, pero what does ‘declamar’ mean, grama?”
“Declamar means to recite, m’hijo,” grama replied.
“What if you recite algunos de esos nursery rhymes and I will tell you lo que son en inglés?” Canutito proposed.
“You are on, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said. “Tell me what you think que estoy diciendo: ‘Bopip, ¿qué te quejas? -Perdí mis ovejas y no puedo hallar ni sus huellas. -Así como van, solitas vendrán meneando sus colas ‘detrás de ellas’.”
“Piece of cake!” Canutito respondió todo excitão. (He had learned ese nursery rhyme en la escuela) “You said: ‘Little Bopeep has lost her sheep and can’t tell where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home wagging their tails behind them.’ ”
“Muy bien, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said mientras que she packed more fruit en el frasco. “Ahora tell me, what do you suppose que esta nana infantil means: ‘Toca tu corneta, muchacho muy feliz. La oveja está en el prado, la vaca en el maíz. ¿Dónde está el muchacho, quien cuida oveja allá? -Debajo de la pila, muy dormidito está.’ ”
Canutito pensó por un momento and then he blurted out: “I know esa nana infantil also. I think que es ‘Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn. The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn. Where is Boy Blue who looks after the sheep? He’s under the haystack, fast sleep.’ ”
“Oye, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca beamed ahora as she heated las tapaderitas on top of the stove. Ella siempre calentaba the jar lids arriba de la estufa in order to seal out all air de los jars. “Tú eres un regular Albert Einstein!
“¿Quién es el Albert Einstein, grama?” Canutito asked her. “Él es un hombre smartotote,” she replied. No matter qué le preguntaban, he always knew the answer para todo. I think que tú puedes aprender de corazón everything that I tell you.” That means to learn by heart or to memorize,” she said.
Here is another: ‘Alarrú niño, en el laurel. Si sopla el viento, vas a mecer. Cuando se quebre, sin menester, caerá el niño y cuna también’.”
“Too easy,” Canutito said: “‘Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop, when the wind blows the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all.’ Deme una otra nana infantil,” he pleaded.
“Ya no puedo, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said. “I’m afraid que algún día tu cabeza va a hacer explode con toda la información that you put into it.”
Canutito smiled porque he knew that his head no iba a explotar pero it was still algo interesante to think about …