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    I've never quite read a book like this. It was a slow burn but now I'm really enjoying it. There is a kind of lyrical quality to the dialogue that I've never heard before and I'm wondering if it's related to the characters being depicted as Spanish "peasants".

    So my question is mostly for native Spanish speakers. Is this how Spanish actually "sounds" when spoken in dialogue or in Spanish literature? Or did Hemmingway sort of contrive the whole thing from scratch? Here is an example but really the whole book is chalk full of this kind of text:

    Augustin: "You have my confidence. Since this of the cavalry and the sending away of the horse."

    Roberto: "That was nothing. You see that we are working for one thing. To win the war. Unless we win, all other things are futile. Tomorrow we have a thing of great importance. Of true importance. Also we will have combat. In combat there must be discipline. For many things are not as they appear. Discipline must come from trust and confidence."

    Augustin: "The Maria and all such things are apart. That you and the Maria should make use of what time there is as two human beings. If I can aid thee I am at thy orders. But for the thing of tomorrow I will obey thee blindly. If it is necessary that one should die for the thing of tomorrow one goes gladly and with the heart light."

    Roberto: "Thus do I feel. But to hear it from thee brings pleasure."

    by divemastermatt

    1 Comment

    1. I’m not native speaker but fluent in Spanish and one of my favorite parts of the book was how the lines sounded syntactically the way Spanish would be literally translated.

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