Los sentimientos a flor de piel, el traje de combate colgado de la pared, la bata puesta, el cigarro encendido y una taza de café humeante sobre un libro, un buen libro... Las lágrimas no paran de borbollar de mi ojo bueno, es lo que tiene leer estas cosas.

Frank L. Baum escribe como los ángeles para niños de 6 años, eso no importa, porque hay mensajes que son atemporales. Supongo que todos sabréis quién es el Hombre de Hojalata, pero también supongo que no todos sabéis por qué es de hojalata.

Yo al principio pensaba que conocía al personaje, pero no, me engañaba, no lo hacía, tuve que leer esto para saber de verdad quién es Hombre de Hojalata realmente...

So while they were walking through the forest, the Tin Woodman told the following story:

I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living. When i grew up i too became a woodchopper, and after my father died i took care of my old mother as long as she lived. Then i made up my mind that instead of living alone i would marry, so that i might not become lonely.

There was one of the munchkin girls who was so beautiful that i soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as i could earn enough money to build a better house for her. But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage.

Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my axe, and when i was chopping away at my best one day, for i was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.

This at first seemed a great misfortune, for i knew a one-legged man could not do very well as a woodchopper. So i went to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. The leg worked very well, once i was used to it; But my action angered the Wicked Witch of the East, for she had promised the old woman i should not marry the pretty Munchkin Girl. When i began chopping again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg. Again i went to the tinner, and again he made me a leg out of tin.

After this the enchanted axe cut off my arms, one after the other; but, nothing daunted, i had them replaced with tin ones. The Wicked Witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head, and at first i thought that was the end of me. But the tinsmith happened to come along, and he made me a new head of tin.

I thought i had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and i work harder than ever, but i little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She tought a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinsmith came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my tin arms and legs and head to it, by means of joints, so that i could move around as well as ever. But, Alas! i had now no heart, so that i lost all my love for the Munchkin Girl, and did not care wether i married her or not. I suppose she is still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come after her.

My body shone so brightly in the sun that i felt very proud of it and it did not matter now if my axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There was only one danger - that my joints would rust; but i kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever i needed it. However, there came a day when i forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before i thought in danger my joints had rusted, and i was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me. It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year i stood there i had time to think that the greatest loss i had known was the loss of my heart. While i was in love i was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has no heart, and so i am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If he does, i will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her.

Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the Tin Woodman, and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart.

All the same, said the Scarecrow, i shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.

I shall take the heart, returned the Tin Woodman, for brains do not make one happy, and happines is the best thing in the world.

Sí, ya sé lo que estáis pensando, "NO TENGO NI PUTA IDEA DE INGLÉS", pues mal, a ver si os vais haciendo un cursillo o algo, so cabrones... No obstante, éste es mi regalo de navidad, una traducción libre que podéis leer aquí.

Y así es como os deseo Feliz Navidad, con un sentimiento que parece perdido últimamente, al menos en mi mundo.

Da igual lo que os digan los médicos, nunca tomáis suficiente azúcar, y nunca amáis lo suficiente...

Feliz navidad, soldaditos.