| Las cortinas de la cama fueron descorridas —lo aseguro— por una mano. No las cortinas de la cabecera ni de los pies, sino las del lado hacia el que miraba. Las cortinas de la cama fueron descorridas; Scrooge se incorporó precipitadamente y, en postura semirrecostada, se encontró cara a cara con el visitante ultraterrenal que las había descorrido. Estaba tan cerca de él como yo lo estoy de ti, lector, y en espíritu estoy a tu lado. Era un extraño personaje, como un niño, y sin embargo parecía un anciano visto a través de cierta áurea sobrenatural que le daba el aspecto de haber ido retrocediendo del campo visual hasta quedar reducido a las proporciones de un niño. El cabello le caía hasta los hombros y era blanco; como el de un anciano, sin embargo, no había arrugas en su rostro sino la más aterciopelada lozania. Tenía unos brazos muy largos y musculosos, igual que las manos, dando una impresión de fuerza excepcional. Sus piernas y pies, al igual que los miembros superiores, estaban desnudos y maravillosamente conformados. Vestía una túnica inmaculadamente blanca y ceñía su cintura un lustroso cinturón con hermoso brillo. En la mano llevaba una rama verde de acebo y, en extraña contradicción con tal invernal emblema, su ropaje estaba salpicado de flores estivales. Pero lo más sorprendente era el chorro de luz fulgente que le brotaba de la coronilla y hacía visibles todas estas cosas. También tenía un gorro con forma de gran matacandelas, que ahora llevaba bajo el brazo. |
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. |
