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MAGAZINE - APRIL 2012
hen Calderón de la
Barca’s most famous
book first came into
Walter’s hands, he
was fascinated by the
story.
As a well-worn phrase applicable
to any circumstance, he used to re-
peat: “Life is a dream, and dreams
are nothing but dreams”. He would
use it when there were problems
at work with some co-worker or
with his boss. He used it if fair
weather had been forecast and
he found himself in the middle of
a storm and without any umbrella;
when he did not hit the jackpot;
when he spoke about his failed
love relationship, and generally for
anything, good or bad, that could
happen to him.
Nobody quite understood the
meaning of this sentence in some
specific cases because it seemed
that it had nothing to do with what
was happening. Indeed, nobody
was able to assert that Walter
knew how to use the sentence in
those cases, but he said it anyway,
with the exact expression of some-
body saying a universal philosoph-
ical truth.
Many people called him “Calde-
rón” or “Mister de la Barca” in a
mocking tone and sarcastically
asked him if he had read some
other book in his life.
Walter worked in an advertising
agency as head of the Creative
Department. It was obvious that he
was there not only because of his
good taste in the design of the ad-
vertising he produced but also due
to his vivid and amusing imagina-
tion. It was not uncommon to hear
him telling the most trivial stories
as if they were great modern ep-
ics; he was able to embellish the
narration with his own invention’s
picturesque anecdotes and com-
ments that nobody expected and
that everybody celebrated for their
originality.
Definitely, the only field where
Walter’s originality foundered
without hope was that of finding a
saying different from Calderón de
la Barca’s famous sentence.
He was thirty two, fairly hand-
some, unmarried for now – though
until six months ago he had been
living with a woman in a love
relationship that did not prosper
– and now he lived alone in an
apartment in Lower Manhattan that
he bought thanks to an excellent
advertising campaign that left him
much more money than what he
had expected.
He was happy to have rediscov-
ered the pleasure of living alone,
leaving things anywhere and,
when coming back, finding them
in the same place he had left
them.
The offices of the company where
he worked were located not very
far from his apartment, which
allowed him, in mild weather,
to walk blithely at the end of the
working day and some thirty min-
utes later be able to slump into the
couch of his living room.
D
reams
are
nothing
but
dreams
An original short story by
Daniel Walter Lencinas
Translated from the original
texts by Marcela Gamallo
W