George Orwell

Orwell's Preface to the Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm (1947)

George Orwell
Prlogo de George Orwell para la traduccin ucraniana de Rebelin en la granja (1947)

I have been asked to write a preface to the Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm. I am aware
that I write for readers about whom I know nothing, but also that they too have probably never
had the slightest opportunity to know anything about me.
Me han pedido que escriba un prlogo para la traduccin en ucraniano de Rebelin en la
granja. Soy consciente de que escribo para lectores de los que no conozco absolutamente nada
y que ellos, probablemente, no han tenido la minima oportunidad de saber algo de mi.
In this preface they will most likely expect me to say something of how Animal
Farm originated but first I would like to say something about myself and the experiences by
which I arrived at my political position.
En este prlogo se espera que diga algo sobre cmo se origin Rebelin en la granja
pero primero, me gustara contar sobre mi y mis experiencias gracias a las cuales he llegado a
esta posicin poltica.

I was born in India in 1903. My father was an official in the English administration
there, and my family was one of those ordinary middle-class families of soldiers, clergymen,
government officials, teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc. I was educated at Eton, the most costly and
snobbish of the English Public Schools.1 But I had only got in there by means of a scholarship;
otherwise my father could not have afforded to send me to a school of this type.
Nac en la India en 1903. Mi padre era funcionario de la administracin inglesa y mi familia era
una de esas tpicas familias de clase media compuesta de soldados profesionales, pastores,
1

These are not public national schools, but something quite the opposite: exclusive and expensive

residential secondary schools, scattered far apart. Until recently they admitted almost no one but the sons of rich
aristocratic families. It was the dream of nouveau riche bankers of the nineteenth century to push their sons into a
Public School. At such schools the greatest stress is laid on sport, which forms, so to speak, a lordly, tough and
gentlemanly outlook. Among these schools, Eton is particularly famous. Wellington is reported to have said that the
victory of Waterloo was decided on the playing fields of Eton. It is not so very long ago that an overwhelming
majority of the people who in one way or another ruled England came from the Public Schools. [Orwell's Note]
Estas no son escuelas nacionales pblicas sino algo opuesto; escuelas residenciales secundarias que son exclusivas y
caras, distribuidas lejos, a mucha distancia. Hasta hace poco slo admitan a hijos de familias ricas de la aristocracia.
Fue el sueo de los banqueros nouveau riche del siglo XIX de llevar a sus hijos a un colegio pblico. En estas
escuelas el mayor estrs se basa en el deporte que forma, por as decirlo, noble, fuerte y caballerosa visin. Entre
estas escuelas Eton es particularmente famosa/conocida.

funcionarios, profesores, abogados , mdicos, etc. Me eduqu en Eton, el Colegio Pblico

ingls ms caro y elitista, aunque slo pude entrar ah gracias a una beca; de lo contrario, mi
padre no se hubiera podido permitir llevarme a un colegio de este tipo.

Shortly after I left school (I wasn't quite twenty years old then) I went to Burma and
joined the Indian Imperial Police. This was an armed police, a sort of gendarmerie very similar
to the Spanish Guardia Civil or the Garde Mobile in France. I stayed five years in the service. It
did not suit me and made me hate imperialism, although at that time nationalist feelings in
Burma were not very marked, and relations between the English and the Burmese were not
particularly unfriendly. When on leave in England in 1927, I resigned from the service and
decided to become a writer: at first without any especial success. In 1928-9 I lived in Paris and
wrote short stories and novels that nobody would print (I have since destroyed them all).
Cuando acab el colegio (entonces no tena ni slo veinte aos) fui a Birmania y me enrol en la
Polica Imperialista de la India. Era un cuerpo de polica armado, una especie de gendermera
muy similar a la Guardia Civil espaola o la Guarde Mobile francesa. Estuve cinco aos de
servicio. No me termin de convencer y me hiz aborrecer el imperialismo, aunque entonces los
sentimientos nacionalistas no eran muy marcados. Bueno y que las relaciones entre los ingleses
y birmanos no eran especialmente hostiles. En 1927, estando de permiso en Inglaterra, dej el
servicio militar y decidi ser escritor, al principio sin ningn xito especial. En 1928-1929 viv en
Pars y escrib relatos y novelas que nadie quiso publicar (y que ms tarde acab destruyendo).