Thinking about the immortality of the crab

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thinking about the immortality of the crab (Spanish: Pensar en la inmortalidad del cangrejo) is a Spanish idiom about daydreaming. The term is usually a humorous reference that one was not sitting idly, but was engaged constructively in contemplation or letting their mind wander.^[1]

The phrase is usually used to express that an individual was daydreaming, "When I have nothing to do I think about the immortality of the crab" (Cuando no tengo nada que hacer pienso en la inmortalidad del cangrejo). It is also used to wake someone from a reverie,"Are you thinking about the immortality of the crab?" (¿Estás pensando en la inmortalidad del cangrejo?)

1 In literature
2 In film
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] In literature

Anonymous, Mexican Self-portraits (1855)
"What are you thinking about?" "Nothing. On the immortality of the crab."	--¿En qué piensas? --Nada, en la inmortalidad del cangrejo.
The immortality of the crab Of all the immortalities I believe in only yours, friend crab. People break into your body, plop you into boiling water, flush you out of house and home. But torture and affliction Make no apparent end of you. No... Not you, poor despicable crab - brief tenant in this mortal carapace of your individuality; fleeting creature of flesh that quails between our teeth, not you - but others of your vast species; infinite crab takes over the strand.	Inmortalidad del cangrejo Y de inmortalidades sólo creo en la tuya, cangrejo amigo. Te aplastan, te echan en agua hirviendo, inundan tu casa. Pero la represión y la tortura de nada sirven, de nada. No tú, cangrejo ínfimo, caparazón mortal de tu individuo, ser transitorio, carne fugaz que en nuestros dientes se quiebra; no tú sino tu especie eterna: los otros: el cangrejo inmortal toma la playa.
José Emilio Pacheco^[2]
The immortality of the crab The deepest problem: of the immortality of the crab, is that a soul it has, a little soul in fact ... That if the crab dies entirely in its totality with it we all die for all of eternity	Inmortalidad del cangrejo El más profundo problema: el de la inmortalidad del cangrejo, que tiene alma, Una almita de verdad ... Que si el cangrejo se muere todo en su totalidad con él nos morimos todos por toda la eternidad
Miguel de Unamuno^[3]