This week's 20-minute reading challenge comes from Dom Casmurro (1899) by Machado de Assis, Brazil's most celebrated novelist and one of the most-downloaded Portuguese-language authors on Project Gutenberg. No public-domain English translation of this novel exists on Project Gutenberg, so the English version below is translated for this challenge rather than quoted from a published edition -- read the real Portuguese using this site's gender colours and double-click vocabulary saving, then check your understanding here.

One of those nights, coming from the city to Engenho Novo, I met a young man from this neighbourhood on the Central train, someone I know by sight and by his hat. He greeted me, sat down beside me, talked about the moon and the government ministers, and ended up reciting verses to me. The trip was short, and the verses might not have been entirely bad. It happened, though, that since I was tired, I closed my eyes three or four times; that alone was enough for him to stop reading and put the verses back in his pocket.

“Go on,” I said, waking up.
“I already finished,” he murmured.
“They're very nice.”

I saw him make a gesture to take them out of his pocket again, but it didn't go past the gesture; he was sulking. The next day he started saying ugly things about me around town, and ended up nicknaming me Dom Casmurro. The neighbours, who don't care for my withdrawn, quiet habits, took up the nickname, and it finally stuck. I didn't even get angry about it. I told the story to my friends in the city, and they, as a joke, call me that too, some of them in notes: “Dom Casmurro, I'm coming to dine with you on Sunday.” — “I'm going to Petrópolis, Dom Casmurro; the house is the same one as the Rhenania's; see if you can leave that cave of yours in Engenho Novo, and come spend a couple of weeks with me there.” — “My dear Dom Casmurro, don't think I'll let you skip the theatre tomorrow; come and you'll sleep here in town; I'll give you a box seat, I'll give you tea, I'll give you a bed; the only thing I won't give you is a young lady.”

Source: Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro (1899), Portuguese text via Project Gutenberg; English rendering above translated for this challenge.

Esta parte vem do romance de Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro (1899). Lê o texto real, sem simplificar -- a leitura dura uns 20 minutos.

Uma noite destas, vindo da cidade para o Engenho Novo, encontrei no trem da Central um rapaz aqui do bairro, que eu conheço de vista e de chapéo. Comprimentou-me, sentou-se ao pé de mim, falou da lua e dos ministros, e acabou recitando-me versos. A viagem era curta, e os versos póde ser que não fossem inteiramente maus. Succedeu, porém, que como eu estava cançado, fechei os olhos tres ou quatro vezes; tanto bastou para que elle interrompesse a leitura e mettesse os versos no bolso.

--Continue, disse eu accordando.

--Já acabei, murmurou elle.

--São muito bonitos.

Vi-lhe fazer um gesto para tiral-os outra vez do bolso, mas não passou do gesto; estava amuado. No dia seguinte entrou a dizer de mim nomes feios, e acabou alcunhando-me Dom Casmurro. Os visinhos, que não gostam dos meus habitos reclusos e calados, deram curso á alcunha, que afinal pegou. Nem por isso me zanguei. Contei a anecdota aos amigos da cidade, e elles, por graça, chamam-me assim, alguns em bilhetes: «Dom Casmurro, domingo vou jantar com você.»--«Vou para Petropolis, Dom Casmurro; a casa é a mesma da Rhenania; vê se deixas essa caverna do Engenho Novo, e vae lá passar uns quinze dias commigo.»--«Meu caro Dom Casmurro, não cuide que o dispenso do theatro amanhã; venha e dormirá aqui na cidade; dou-lhe camarote, dou-lhe chá, dou-lhe cama; só não lhe dou moça.»