A SMILE TO REMEMBER, BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI

we had goldfish(=peces de colores) and they circled around and around
in the bowl (=pecera)on the table near the heavy drapes (=cortinas)
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, "be happy Henry!"
and she was right: it's better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat (=pegar)her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame(=se enfurecía dentro de su cuerpo de dos metros) because he couldn't
understand what was attacking him from within(=desde dentro).

My mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile!
why don't you ever smile?"

and then she would smile(=sonreía),
to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw (=la sonrisa más triste que nunca vi)

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated(=flotaban) on the water, on their
sides, their eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled .