She teases you, caresses you. A solitary walk through the plaza by the cinema. In the middle an allegory in bronze: «The Battle Against the French». The private soldier with his pistol raised, as if on the verge of firing blind, is young; his face is twisted to express exhaustion, his hair wild, and she caresses you saying nothing, even though the word kaleidoscope drips like saliva from her lips and then the scenes go transparent again in something you might call the gasp of the pale protagonist or the geometry around your naked eye.
Roberto Bolaño
Translation from Laura Healy