Updates, Live: Julio Cortázar, La Noche Boca Arriba (1956)

Julio Cortázar, La Noche Boca Arriba, 1956
(source: camikaze.deviantart.com)
no copyright infringement intended

Y salían en ciertas épocas a cazar enemigos; le llamaban la Guerra Florida
(and in certain epochs they would go to hunt enemies;
they called this the War of Flowers)

(click here for the Romanian version)

A man is riding his motorcycle along a quiet avenue bordered by huge trees hiding large gardens behind. A woman appears suddenly across the street, the man tries to avoid her and looses control. It was as if he had suddenly fallen asleep. He wakes soon after, to see four or five young men, cuatro o cinco hombres jóvenes lo estaban, sentía gusto a sal y sangre ..., no, it was a nightmarish dream, very short, he is in an ambulance toward the hospital. He is fainting again, estaba estaqueado en el piso, en un suelo de lajas helado y húmedo. Again awake, in the hospital bed, a voice beside, it's fever, es la fiebre -dijo el de la cama al de lado. A nightmare unfolding centuries ago, in the times of Aztecs, during a Guerra Florida, when people are hunted to be sacrificed on the altar on top of the Sacred Mountain, offerings for the god of the dead. He would like to stay awake, the dream is too nightmarish to endure, it is however impossible to keep his eyes open. Again and again he is falling asleep, entering the violent dream, to get back to reality after a few minutes... two parallel worlds, and they start to borrow their traits to each other, the world of the hospital gets more and more confused, the other world gets more and more obvious... till he realizes that this is the reality, this nightmare, and the other state has been just a pleasant dream, absurd like all dreams, un sueño en el que había andado por extrañas avenidas de una ciudad asombrosa, con un enorme insecto de metal que zumbaba bajo sus piernas.

(video by zarandeando)

I looked for the text on the Internet, and found it in Ciudad Seva (la casa digital del escritor Luis López Nieves):

La Noche Boca Arriba

I found then also an English translation in a blog dedicated to Spanish literature (un blog para comprender las obras del examen AP Spanish Literature):

The Night Face-Up