La Memoria del Agua
(The Memory of Water)
La doctora Jimena Salcedo habia dedicado los ultimos doce años de su vida a un proyecto que la mayoría de sus colegas consideraba absurdo: demostrar que el agua conservaba impresiones de las emociones humanas.
Doctor Jimena Salcedo had dedicated the last twelve years of her life to a project that most of her colleagues considered absurd: proving that water retained impressions of human emotions.
Su laboratorio, ubicado en el sotano de la Universidad de Salamanca, estaba lleno de tanques sellados, sensores de frecuencia y pantallas que mostraban patrones cristalinos en tiempo real.
Her laboratory, located in the basement of the University of Salamanca, was full of sealed tanks, frequency sensors, and screens that displayed crystalline patterns in real time.
Nadie la visitaba.
Nobody visited her.
Sus solicitudes de financiacion eran rechazadas una y otra vez.
Her funding applications were rejected time and again.
Pero Jimena estaba convencida de que el agua recordaba.
But Jimena was convinced that water remembered.
Una noche de febrero, mientras analizaba una muestra extraida del rio Tormes, los sensores registraron algo sin precedentes.
One February night, while she was analysing a sample extracted from the River Tormes, the sensors recorded something unprecedented.
Los cristales del agua se reorganizaron en estructuras que ninguna molecula deberia haber sido capaz de formar.
The water crystals reorganised themselves into structures that no molecule should have been capable of forming.
Jimena verifico los instrumentos tres veces.
Jimena checked the instruments three times.
No habia error.
There was no error.
Las formas que aparecian en la pantalla se parecian a letras.
The shapes appearing on the screen resembled letters.
No eran caracteres de ningun alfabeto conocido, pero poseian una regularidad que sugeria un lenguaje.
They were not characters from any known alphabet, but they possessed a regularity that suggested a language.
<<Esto es imposible>>, murmuro Jimena, aunque sabia que no lo era.
<<This is impossible,>> Jimena murmured, although she knew it was not.
Llamo a su antiguo profesor, el doctor Esteban Iriarte, el único científico que jamás se habia burlado de su trabajo.
She called her former professor, Doctor Esteban Iriarte, the only scientist who had never mocked her work.
Cuando le describio los resultados, hubo un largo silencio al otro lado de la linea. <<Jimena>>, dijo finalmente, <<si el agua retiene información, entonces cada rio, cada oceano, cada gota de lluvia contiene un archivo de todo lo que ha presenciado.
When she described the results to him, there was a long silence on the other end of the line. <<Jimena,>> he said finally, <<if water retains information, then every river, every ocean, every drop of rain contains an archive of everything it has witnessed.
Seriamos incapaces de calcular la cantidad de memoria almacenada en los mares.>>
We would be incapable of calculating the amount of memory stored in the seas.>>
Durante las semanas siguientes, Jimena intento descifrar los patrones.
During the following weeks, Jimena tried to decipher the patterns.
Trabajo sin dormir, alimentandose de café y de una obstinacion que habria preocupado a cualquiera que la hubiera conocido.
She worked without sleeping, sustained by coffee and by a stubbornness that would have worried anyone who had known her.
Descubrio que las estructuras cristalinas variaban segun la procedencia del agua.
She discovered that the crystalline structures varied according to the origin of the water.
El agua del Tormes mostraba secuencias repetitivas, como si intentara transmitir algo sencillo.
The water from the Tormes showed repetitive sequences, as if it were trying to transmit something simple.
En cambio, una muestra del Mediterraneo, que su colega Raquel Montero le habia enviado desde Valencia, desplegaba configuraciones de una complejidad abrumadora.
By contrast, a sample from the Mediterranean, which her colleague Raquel Montero had sent her from Valencia, displayed configurations of an overwhelming complexity.
Fue entonces cuando ocurrio lo inesperado.
It was then that the unexpected happened.
Jimena acerco la mano al tanque que contenia la muestra del Mediterraneo y los cristales se alteraron al instante.
Jimena brought her hand close to the tank containing the Mediterranean sample and the crystals altered instantly.
Formaron una imagen que ella reconocio con un escalofrio: era el rostro de una mujer.
They formed an image she recognised with a shiver: it was the face of a woman.
No cualquier mujer.
Not just any woman.
Era su madre, fallecida cuando Jimena tenia seis años.
It was her mother, who had died when Jimena was six years old.
Recordo que su madre solia llevarla a la playa de la Malvarrosa y que juntas se adentraban en el mar hasta que el agua les llegaba al pecho.
She remembered that her mother used to take her to the Malvarrosa beach and that together they would wade into the sea until the water reached their chests.
Jimena se desplomo en la silla, incapaz de apartar la mirada.
Jimena collapsed into the chair, unable to look away.
Si aquello era cierto, significaba que el mar habia conservado la huella de aquel momento: dos cuerpos entrando en el agua, una niña riendo, una madre sujetandola de la mano.
If that was true, it meant that the sea had preserved the imprint of that moment: two bodies entering the water, a girl laughing, a mother holding her by the hand.
El agua lo habia guardado todo.
The water had kept everything.
Y ahora, treinta años después, se lo estaba devolviendo.
And now, thirty years later, it was giving it back to her.
Lloro en silencio, con la mano apoyada en el cristal frio del tanque, mientras la imagen se disolvio lentamente, como si el agua, al fin comprendida, pudiera descansar.
She cried in silence, with her hand resting on the cold glass of the tank, while the image slowly dissolved, as if the water, finally understood, could rest.
Key Vocabulary
la muestra sample, specimen
descifrar to decipher, to decode
el escalofrio shiver, chill
la huella imprint, trace, footprint
almacenar to store, to warehouse
desplomarse to collapse, to slump
la procedencia origin, provenance
abrumador overwhelming
burlarse de to mock, to make fun of
adentrarse to go deep into, to venture into