En aktiemäklares minnen

Vaig començar a treballar tot just acabada l’escola primària.

I went to work when I was just out of grammar school.

Vaig trobar feina de noi de la pissarra de cotitzacions en una agència de borsa.

I got a job as quotation-board boy in a stock-brokerage office.

Era ràpid amb les xifres.

I was quick at figures.

A l’escola vaig fer tres anys d’aritmètica en un.

At school I did three years of arithmetic in one.

Se’m donava especialment bé el càlcul mental.

I was particularly good at mental arithmetic.

Com a noi de la pissarra, anotava per a la clientela les xifres al gran tauler de la

As quotation-board boy I posted the numbers on the big board in the customers’

sala.

room.

Un dels clients solia seure al costat del teletip i cantava els preus.

One of the customers usually sat by the ticker and called out the prices.

Per ràpid que arribessin, mai no ho eren massa per a mi.

They couldn’t come too fast for me.

Sempre he recordat les xifres.

I have always remembered figures.

Sense cap esforç.

No trouble at all.

En aquella oficina hi havia molts altres empleats.

There were plenty of other employes in that office.

Naturalment, vaig fer amistat amb els altres companys,

Of course I made friends with the other fellows,

però la feina que feia,

but the work I did,

si el mercat estava animat,

if the market was active,

em tenia massa ocupat de les deu del matí

kept me too busy from ten A.M.

a les tres de la tarda

to three P.M.

per deixar-me xerrar gaire.

to let me do much talking.

No m’agrada xerrar,

I don’t care for it,

de tota manera,

anyhow,

en hores de feina.

during business hours.

Però un mercat agitat no m’impedia de pensar en la feina.

But a busy market did not keep me from thinking about the work.

Aquelles cotitzacions no representaven per a mi preus d’accions,

Those quotations did not represent prices of stocks to me,

tants dòlars per acció.

so many dollars per share.

Eren números.

They were numbers.

És clar,

Of course,

volien dir alguna cosa.

they meant something.

Canviaven sense parar.

They were always changing.

Era tot el que m’havia d’interessar:

It was all I had to be interested in —

els canvis.

the changes.

Per què canviaven?

Why did they change?

No ho sabia.

I didn’t know.

No m’importava.

I didn’t care.

No hi pensava.

I didn’t think about that.

Simplement veia que canviaven.

I simply saw that they changed.

Era tot el que havia de pensar cinc hores cada dia i dues els dissabtes:

That was all I had to think about five hours every day and two on Saturdays:

que canviaven sense parar.

that they were always changing.