The Wood Carving - La talla

 

The Wood Carving

On a trip to learn about life in Tanzania, an aboriginal man approached me suspiciously and showed me a wood carving. His pleading eyes asked me to give him something for that piece of art. A warrior was preparing his spear to hunt a lion. It was a crude wood carving, naïve, but there was something inexplicable about it that made one look at it unhurriedly.

That same night when I went to the tent to sleep, I took the carving with me and placed it next to the pillow. Watching her I fell asleep. I had a horrible nightmare in which a lion was attacking me and luckily, a warrior similar to the one in the wood carving came out of the thicket and faced the lion, saving my life. The next day I was woken up by a sharp pain in my side. He had a deep wound that appeared to have been caused by a lion's claw. I looked at the wood carving and the warrior lay bloodied and badly wounded, while the lion was preparing to end his life.

La talla 

En un viaje para aprender sobre la vida en Tanzania, un aborigen se me acercó con cierto recelo y me mostró una talla. Sus ojos suplicantes me pedían que le diera algo por aquel trozo de arte. Un guerrero preparaba su lanza para cazar a un león. Era una talla tosca, naif, pero tenía algo inexplicable que hacía que uno la contemplara sin prisa.
Aquella misma noche cuando fui a la tienda para dormir, me llevé la talla y la coloqué al lado de la almohada. Contemplándola me dormí. Tuve una horrible pesadilla en la que un león me atacaba y por fortuna, un guerrero parecido al de la talla salió de la espesura y se enfrentó al león, salvándome la vida. Al día siguiente me despertó un fuerte dolor en el costado. Tenía una profunda herida que parecía haber sido causada por el zarpazo de un león. Miré la talla y el guerrero yacía ensangrentado y malherido, mientras que el león se disponía a acabar con su vida.