chapter one

P. 83 in my edition.

"pelotón de fusilamiento" - firing squad.
barro - clay, mud, wattleanddaub
pulidas - polished smooth
carecer - to lack, to be wanting
desarrapados - wandering
carpa - camp
alboroto - clamor
imán - magnet

p. 84
arrastrando - dragging
Note: It's not like I know what a "caldero" is but I got it from context and because it's a cognate, that it must be like "cauldron" i.e. a kettle or big pot. Maybe this sort of intuition will happen more often as I forge through the book. I fucking hope so because I have to look up a word or two every sentence.
tenazas - tongs
anafes - "furnaces" - braziers or something, it doesn't matter, the point is it's made of iron
tornillos - screws or bolts
desaforada - disorderly, lawless - here i think "wild"
ensanchar - widen, increase

Here is another good example of context. JA Buendia says "Muy pronto ha de sobrarnos oro para empedrar la casa." I don't know what sobrar or empedrar mean, but I got it that he's saying that soon they'll have enough gold to fill up or probably "pave" the house. ("impede"?) Anyway the idea is clear. But when I translate poetry I look up everything like this so I'm 100% sure what's going on and exact shades of meaning. Must get OUT of that habit for long novels, obviously.

palmo a palmo - inch by inch. (another one that was obvious but i couldn't help looking it up)
lograr - to gain (ditto.)
hueca - must be hollow? Yes. yes it is. will I learn not to look these things up and trust myself?

p. 85
rizo - curl, ringlet
catalejo - telescope
lupa - ("loupe"?) yes. magnifying glass. doh! (there is a long footnote about the kabbalah and spinoza. urgh.)

p. 86

the point is to remember

Here goes. I will try writing down the words I have to look up from the first book for this class. Cien Años de Soledad. There's no way I can keep this up for the whole book but I thought I'd give it a try.

Did I mention how much this book annoys me? And I've only read it about 10 times in english as every class seems to do it as if it were the pinnacle of genius. Grrr.