The next group of pedestrians to gather at the crossing see the driver of the stationary car wave his arms behind the windshield, while the cars behind him frantically sound their horns. The car at the head of the middle lane has stopped, there must be some mechanical fault, a loose accelerator pedal, a gear lever that has stuck, problem with the suspension, jammed brakes, breakdown in the electric circuit, unless he has simply run out of gas, it would not be the first time such a thing has happened. The green light came on at last, the cars moved off briskly, but then it became clear that not all of them were equally quick off the mark. The pedestrians have just finished crossing but the sign allowing the cars to go will be delayed for some seconds, some people maintain that this delay, while apparently so insignificant, has only to be multiplied by the thousands of traffic lights that exist in the city and by the successive changes of their three colours to produce one of the most serious causes of traffic jams or bottlenecks, to use the more current term.

The motorists kept an impatient foot on the clutch, leaving their cars at the ready, advancing, retreating like nervous horses that can sense the whiplash about to be inflicted. The people who were waiting began to cross the road, stepping on the white stripes painted on the black surface of the asphalt, there is nothing less like a zebra, however, that is what it is called. At the pedestrian crossing the sign of a green man lit up. Two of the cars ahead accelerated before the red light appeared. Originally published in English in Great Britain Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dataīlindness: a novel/José Saramago translated from the The financial assistance of the Instituto Português do Livro e dasīibliotecas, Lisbon, which is gratefully acknowledged. This is a translation of Ensaio sobre a Cegueira and is published with Harcourt Brace & Company, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive,įirst published in English in Great Britain in 1997 by The Harvill Press. Should be mailed to: Permissions Department, Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work

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Blindness josé saramago