My daughter, Edith Kelly, did a quick translation of the _La Prensa_ article
on Twain mentioned in the Forum. I hope it won't become another case of the
French translation of _The Celebrated Jumping Frog_.

Dennis Kelly
---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj:    Mark Twain translation
Date:    97-04-27 22:29:33 EDT
From:    EDIJKELLY
To:      DenseKelly

The famous North American (american) writer of last century, Mark Twain (his
real name was Samuel Clemens) passed through Nicaragua at the end of
December
of 1866 en route to NY and his work as a correspondent was to write weekly
letters relating his personal adventures in his travels around the world.
 MT, with his novel (as in new) literary style and formidable descriptive
capacity, took the place of video cameras at the end of the last century,
carrying to the American reader with his fluid narrative the images of
distant lands.  According to an investigative work in this section of
"Revista" (that tends to mean magazine), MT was in Nicaragua and made the
journey between the two oceans through the famous "Ruta del Transito"
(transit route) which consisted of disembarking in San Juan del Sur, from
there going on a road to the port "La Virgen" on Lake Nicaragua where he
boarded a "vapor" (steamer, I suppose) to San Carlos.  From San Carlos he
traveled in "lanchas planas" (flat launches?) to travel to San Juan del
Norte, the port where he boarded another ship to New York.  During this long
trip through Nicaragua, MT was overly impressed  by two beauties: that of la
Isla de Ometepe and that of the beauty of the Nicaraguan woman.  During the
trip from "La Virgen" to San Carlos, MT had the oportunity to see Ometepe
Island up close and, fascinated by its beauty, described it as follows:
 "From the cener of beautiful Lake Nicaragua grow (?) two magnificent
pyramids, dressed in the most smooth ("suave") and concentrated green, all
dusted ("espolvoreado") with shadow and sunlight, whose peaks penetrate the
spongy clouds.  They look so isolated from the world and its noise, so calm,
so dreamy, so "empapadas" in sleep and eternal repose.  Whata beautiful
house
you could build in its shadowy forests, in its sun-drenched coasts, in its
clearings where the breeze runs, after completely ridding yourself of work,
anxiety, and the "desasosiego" of this frenetic and aggressive world."
On this trip, the famous American writer, tru precursor of world tourism,
described two girls he found selling "mani" on the road from San Juan de Sur
to Cocibolca before embarking at the port of "La Virgen" as  follows:  "Two
of these picturesque local ("lugarenas") girls were extremely beautiful.
 What liquid and sorrowful eyes!  What "empurraditos" lips!  What shiny and
abundant hair!  And these expressions - so "arrebatadoras" and incendiary!
 What a pleasure. Such voluptuous figures with such little clothing covering
them.
It is interesting to note that, already in this time, for MT the world was a
"frenetic and aggressive" plase...what if MT had been able to use a time
machine to journey to the 20th century, on the verge of the 21st?  But even
though the world has changed, the two beauties MT described in 1866, that of
the Nicaraguan woman and Ometepe Island, stay true (?incolumes).

Taken from the book "Mark Twain's Travels with Mr. Brown"
New York, 1940
Published in "La Prensa"  Managua, January 2, 1997