the barrels of those enormous pieces had no rifling, he said, so bullets coming from them would have very little penetration: technical comments thought up on the spur of the moment, understood by few and convincing none but consoling all, including Concetta, as they managed to transform war into a neat little diagram of fire-trajectories from the very squalid and very positive chaos that it really was.
arraiarik ez zutela eskupetatzar haietako kainoiek, oso penetrazio-indar gutxi zeukatela haietatik irteten ziren jaurtigaiek; azalpen teknikoak ziren, gezurrezkoak gainera, eta gutxik ulertu eta inork ere ez zituen sinestu; halere, denak lasaitu zituzten, ezen lortu baitzuten gerla indardiagrama garbi bat izatea, eta ez egiaz dena, hots, anabasa zeharo jakin eta zikina.