Reto Hispaliterario| El Secreto de la Felicidad [Esp./ Eng.]

^Fuente

… Para el manicomio fue difícil no entrar en pánico, pues las autoridades temían que el par de locos fueran peligrosos para la sociedad; primero porque estaban enfermos, y segundo porque se habían enamorado, lo que los convertía en doblemente chiflados y, pues, nadie podía dar fe de que los arrebatos amorosos de un par de locos fueran racionales.

De modo que salieron a buscarlos, pero era complicado hallar a un mono en medio de la urbe, con tantos humanos imitando, magistralmente, al emborracharse, a los simios o al guindarse indiscriminadamente de las ramas de la ignorancia. Tampoco era sencillo hallar a una cabra en medio de una multitud de muchachas brinconas, que cargaban más lana en sus cabezas que ideas en sus pensamientos.

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… It was difficult for the asylum not to panic, because the authorities feared that the pair of madmen were dangerous to society; first because they were sick, and second because they had fallen in love, which made them doubly crazy and, therefore, no one could attest that the amorous outbursts of a pair of madmen were rational.

So they went out to look for them, but it was hard to find a monkey in the middle of the city, with so many humans masterfully imitating apes getting drunk or hanging indiscriminately from the branches of ignorance. Nor was it easy to find a goat in the midst of a crowd of capering girls, who had more wool in their heads than ideas in their minds.

—Wait, grandfather, there's something I don't understand —said Carlitos, interrupting Martín's strange story.

—Let's see, Carlitos, —said the old man, after a long sigh, —tell me what is it that you don't understand?

—How is it that Nietz can be a philosopher, if monkeys cannot talk?

—Oh Carlitos, you are really stupid — interjected his little sister Clara —don't you realize that Nietz is not a monkey, he thinks he is a monkey and he acts like that because he is sick.

—Oh, I get it — replied Carlitos quickly —so Frida is just like you, you live jumping around like a crazy goat.

Clara raised her fist threatening to hit her brother, but Carlitos ran to take refuge in his grandfather's lap.

—And why did Frida and Nietz get sick? —he continued asking, while playing with Martin's white beard.

Martín continued with his story —One day Mr. Morgan, the director of the asylum, gathered all the staff of the asylum - and after asking us to be very patient in the care of Nietz and Frida, he told us their story.

Frida was a talented sculptor, Nietz was a philosopher with a fondness for cognac and her most fervent admirer. He felt very identified with her, just like Frida, he also liked to be the object of others' admiration.

Nietz and Frida's problems began when the mayor organized a sculpture contest for the inauguration of the city park.

From the moment Frida received the invitation, she locked herself in her workshop, spent several weeks working every day from early in the morning until late at night, making and unmaking several sculptures until she finally achieved what she considered her most beautiful creation.

The day of the presentation arrived, the municipal theater was packed with people. Nietz arrived a little late, he had been entertained in a philosophical dissertation and enjoying a few shots of cognac, he had to be content with standing in one of the aisles of the theater.

While Frida waited her turn to go on stage, she listened attentively to the intensity of the applause from the audience every time a participant showed his or her creation.

When it was her turn, Frida pulled the fabric revealing her work, pointed to it with her left hand and prepared to receive the applause, but a sepulchral silence took over the theater until it was broken by a confused murmur.

—My God, what is that? —someone shouted.

—It's madness, she's crazy, as mad as a goat! — cried another.

—Crazy goat, crazy goat, crazy goat, crazy goat — chorused the audience.

Frida could not understand what was going on and out of desperation she started jumping around on the stage. Nietz made his way through the crowd and came to her aid, stood in the center of the stage and began to make gestures asking the audience to calm down, but his gestures were erratic due to the effect of the cognac.

—Look at a monkey, it's a monkey — he heard someone exclaim.

The voice was followed by cruel laughter and again the chorus.

—A monkey, the monkey and the goat, the monkey and the goat.

Nietz and Frida's mistake was to base their happiness on the approval of others, so they could not overcome that rejection, since then they wandered the streets acting like animals until the mayor ordered their confinement in the asylum.

It had been two weeks since they escaped, I remember that I felt a deep sorrow when we found them.

It was in a forest on the other side of town, Nietz was eating a banana sitting on the lowest branch of a tree, while a little further on, Frida was eating wild berries. We all watched as she stretched her neck to take the fruits directly with her mouth, while keeping her hands and knees flat on the ground.

—And what happened to them, Grandpa? —asked Clara.

The Mayor sent for a very famous psychiatrist who offered to cure Nietz and Frida. When we returned them to the asylum she was already waiting for them. The treatment was long, but shortly before my retirement they were both discharged.

I later learned that they lived very happily in a small town far from the city. Frida continues to create her sculptures, but now she does them for her own satisfaction without expecting to be judged by others. Nietz takes advantage of the tranquility of nature for his philosophical reflections that enrich his spirit without the need for long debates or a sip of cognac.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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