The Mad Toy

Notes

1. Jules Bonnot (1876–1912): French anarchist robber; André Valet (1890–1912): French anarchist robber, founder member of what came to be called the Bonnot Gang (la Bande à Bonnot)

2. Yerba: plant used to make mate tea.

3. Orestes and Pylades: figures from Greek mythology, famous for their strong, possibly homoerotic, friendship.

4. In the original, the phrase is gallegos de mierda (‘Galician bastards’). Because of the extensive emigration to Argentina of Spaniards from the northwestern region of Galicia, gallego became used in Argentina to refer to anyone of Spanish extraction.

5. Cacus: in Graeco-Roman mythology, a cannibalistic fire-breathing giant and thief, killed by Hercules.

6. Cacaseno: a famous simpleton; protagonist of the story Cacaseno (1620) by Adriano Banchieri (1568–1634).

7. Tute: trick-taking card game, originally from Italy.

8. Montparnasse and Thénardier: criminal characters from the novel Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo (1802–85); ranún: slang for ‘a cunning person’, derived from rana, ‘frog’, and the Genoan diminutive — ún, which implies frivolity and mischief.

9. Bondi: tram. The term bondi comes into Argentinian Spanish via Brazilian Portuguese and, ultimately, via the English ‘bond’, referring to the bond issues which funded the public transport system.

10. Lacombe (18??–19??): French anarchist robber, arrested in 1913.

11. Misquotation of lines 1–2 and 7–8 from an untitled poem (poem 22 in the first edition) from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal (1857). The original French runs as follows: ‘Je t’adore à l’égal de la voûte nocturne, / O vase de tristesse, ô grande taciturne […] Je m’avance à l’attaque, et je grimpe aux assauts, / Comme après un cadavre un choeur de vermisseaux’.

12. Voglio dire: more or less, ‘I’m telling you’ (Italian).

13. The word Arlt uses, bulín, is a slang term that implies a room used for sexual activity.

14. Lyda Borelli (1884–1959): Italian film and theatre actress, star of films such as La donna nuda (1914).

15. Trophonius: in Greek mythology, a famous architect, one of the designers, along with his brother Agamedes, of the cavern where King Hyrieus kept his treasure.

16. Dardo Rocha (1838–1921): Argentinian statesman and naval officer, founder of the city of La Plata.

17. Pejerrey: Pacific fish, similar to mackerel.

18. Estate buono: ‘Calm down’ (lit. ‘Be good’, Italian).

19. Ricaldoni: Teobaldo Jorge Ricaldoni (1861–1922), famous inventor, born in Uruguay, he took Argentinian citizenship early in his life. His major invention was a functioning submarine which he offered to the Argentinian navy and which they rejected.

20. Alfajores: sweet consisting of two biscuits joined together with a sweet filling, and coated with chocolate or icing sugar; pan de leche: sweet bread, sometimes with sugar on top.

21. Ferranti and Siemens-Halske: electrical engineering companies.

22. Tesla: Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Serbian-American inventor.

23. Sobieski-era hetman: Jan III Sobieski (1629–96), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1674–96). A hetman is the chief of a group of Cossacks.