Canutito ‘aprende de los’ palindromes
At long last había llegado el verano! Por mucho tiempo it hadn’t rained y ahora había una cobija verde of grass por todo el valle. En los primeros días, Canutito had been todo contento. He could just see himself jugando por todo el rancho. Pero después de gozar un día entero playing como los cowboys, he kind of got bored. He sat en la cocina todo aburrido. In fact, estaba tan bored que he even missed going pa’la escuela.
Grama Cuca was busy pelando una cabeza de marrano. She meant to take the pig’s head once it was clean y hacer queso de marrano. Head cheese was very traditional en esta parte del mundo. She glanced over y miró al muchito sitting at the table y mirando pa’allá afuera. She decided to give the little boy algo en que pensar. Perhaps if he had something to think about he wouldn’t be tan aburrido.
“M’hijo,” she began, “Can you think de una palabra that is spelled the same from the beginning as from the end?”
“What do you mean by that, grama?” Canutito asked her, looking away de la ventana. “¿Cómo puede ser una word spelled the same forwards and backwards?”
“I am thinking de palabras como ‘mom’ y ‘dad’ y ‘bob’ y ‘tot,’ ” grama said.
“Oh, I get it!” Canutito said, perking up de repente .“Eso hace sound like something fun!” He thought por un momento y luego he said: “Racecar! La palabra is spelled the same way coming and going por adelante y por detrás.”
“Muy bien, m’hijo,” grama smiled, still pelando la cabeza del marrano. Think of another palindrome.”
¿Qué es un palindrome, grama?” Canutito asked her.
“Es un fancy name for a word que se deletrea lo mismo coming and going,” she said. Can you think de un otro palíndromo?” “How about la palabra ‘kayak’?” Canutito asked her.
“¡Sí, señor!” grama praised him. “Está bien. Now, can you think about any sentences en español that are spelled como los palíndromos?” she added.
Canutito thought por dos minutos y luego he said: “How about the expression ‘Échele leche’? — ‘Put milk on it’ in Spanish es un palindrome también.
“¡Muy bien, m’hijo!” Grama Cuca said. “Now, ¿cómo se dice ‘love the lady’ en español?”
“Amad a la dama” Canutito said quickly. Toda la sentence is spelled the same forwards and backwards. He was on fire, so he added: “Y en inglés what Adam said to Eve la primera vez that he met her was: ‘Madam, I’m Adam’ — ése es un otro palindrome.
“Now you’re cooking, m’hijo!” grama remarked. “Now, try to hacer figure out cómo se dice ‘Anita washes the tin tub’ in Spanish.”
“That’s going to be a tough one, grama,” Canutito said pero de una vez he started working en este rompe-cabezas. He spent the whole afternoon pensando about cómo traducir este puzzle into Spanish. Finally, después de la cena he came up to grama and he said: ‘Anita lava la tina’!” El día that had begun aburrido had gone by fast …