A Clockwork Orange / Заводной апельсин. Энтони Бёрджесс

[120], thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil[121]? Come and get one in the yarbles[122], if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou.” And then we started.

      There were four of us to six of them, like I have already indicated, but poor old Dim, for all his dimness[123], was worth three of the others in sheer madness and dirty fighting. Dim had a real horrorshow length of oozy or chain round his waist, twice wound round, and he unwound this and began to swing it beautiful in the eyes or glazzies. Pete and Georgie had good sharp nozhes, but I for my own part had a fine starry horrorshow cutthroat britva which, at that time, I could flash artistic. So there we were dratsing[124] away in the dark, the old Luna just coming up. With my britva I managed to slit right down the front of one of Billyboy's droog's platties, very very neat and not even touching the plott[125] under the cloth. Then in the dratsing this droog of Billyboy's suddenly found himself all opened up like a peapod, with his belly bare and his poor old yarbles showing, and then he got very razdraz[126], waving and screaming and losing his control, so that old Dim chained him right in the glazzies, and this droog of Billyboy's went tottering off and howling his heart out. We were doing very horrorshow, and soon we had Billyboy's number-one down underfoot, blinded with old Dim's chain and crawling and howling about like an animal, but with one fair boot on the gulliver he was out.

      Of the four of us Dim, as usual, got the worst, that is to say his litso was all bloodied and his platties a dirty mess, but the others of us were still cool and whole. It was stinking fatty Billyboy I wanted now, and there I was dancing about with my britva like I might be a barber on board a ship on a very rough sea, trying to get in at him with a few fair slashes on his unclean oily litso. Billyboy had a long nozh but he was a malenky bit too slow and heavy in his movements to vred[127] anyone really bad. And, my brothers, it was real satisfaction to me to waltz – left two three, right two three – and carve left cheeky and right cheeky, so that like twocurtains of blood seemed to pour out at the same time, one on either side of his fat filthy oily snout in the winter starlight. Down this blood poured in like red curtains, but you could viddy Billyboy felt not a thing, and he went on like a filthy fatty bear, poking at me with his nozh.

      Then we slooshied the sirens and knew the millicents were coming with their pooshkas. That weepy little devotchka had told them, no doubt, there being a box for calling the rozzes not too far behind the Muni Power Plant. “Get you soon, fear not,” I called, “stinking billygoat[128]. I'll have your yarbles off lovely.” Then off they ran, except for Number One Leo on the ground, away north towards the river, and we went the other way. Just round the next turning was an alley, dark and empty and open at both ends, and we rested there, panting fast then slower, then breathing like normal. It was like resting between the feet of two terrific and very enormous mountains, these being the flatblocks[129], and in the windows of all the flats you could viddy like blue dancing light. This would be the telly. Tonight was what they called a worldcast, meaning that the same programme was being viddied by everybody in the world that wanted to, that being mostly the middle-aged middle-class lewdies. We waited panting, and we could slooshy the sirening millicents going east, so we knew we were all right now. But poor old Dim kept looking up at the stars and planets and the Luna with his rot wide open like a kid who'd never viddied any such things before, and he said:

      “What's on them, I wonder. What would be up there on things like that?”

      I nudged him hard, saying: “Come, gloopy[130] bastard as thou art. Think thou not on them. There'll be life like down here most likely, with some getting knifed and others doing the knifing. And now, with the nochy still molodoy, let us be on our way, O my brothers.” The others smecked[131] at this, but poor old Dim looked at me serious, then up again at the stars and the Luna. So we went on our way down the alley, with the worldcast blueing on[132] on either side. What we needed now was an auto, so we turned left coming out of the alley, knowing right away we were in Priestly[133] Place as soon as we viddied the big bronze statue of some starry poet with a pipe stuck in a droopy old rot. Going north we came to the filthy old Filmdrome, visited mostly by malchicks like me and my droogs. The autos parked by the sinny[134] weren't all that horrorshow, crappy starry veshches most of them, but there was a newish Durango 95 that I thought might do[135]. Georgie had one of these polyclefs[136], as they called them, on his keyring, so we were soon aboard – Dim and Pete at the back, puffing away at their cancers – and I turned on the ignition and started her up real horrorshow.

      Then we backed out lovely, and nobody viddied us take off. We went round what was called the backtown for a bit, scaring old vecks and cheenas that were crossing the roads. Then we took the road west. There wasn't much traffic about, so I kept pushing the old noga[137] through the floorboards, and the Durango 95 ate up the road like spaghetti. Soon it was winter trees and dark, my brothers, with a country dark, and at one place I ran over something big with a toothy rot in the headlamps, then it screamed under and old Dim at the back near laughed his gulliver off – “Ho ho ho” – at that. Then we saw one young malchick with his sharp, lubbilubbing[138] under a tree, so we stopped and cheered at them, then we bashed into them both with a couple of tolchocks, making them cry, and on we went. What we were after now was the old surprise visit. That was a real kick[139] and good for smecks of the ultra-violent. We came at last to a sort of village, and just outside this village was a small sort of a cottage on its own with a bit of garden. The Luna was well up now, and we could viddy this cottage fine and clear as I put the brake on, the other three giggling like bezoomny, and we could viddy the name on the gate of this cottage veshch was HOME, a funny sort of a name. I got out of the auto, ordering my droogs to stop their giggles and act like serious, and I opened this malenky gate and walked up to the front door. I knocked nice and gentle and nobody came, so I knocked a bit more and this time I could slooshy somebody coming, then a bolt drawn, then the door inched open an inch or so, then I could viddy this one glazz looking out at me and the door was on a chain. “Yes? Who is it?” It was a sharp's goloss, a youngish devotchka by her sound, so I said in a very refined manner of speech, a real gentleman's goloss:

      “Pardon, madam, most sorry to disturb you, but my friend and me were out for a walk, and my friend has taken bad all of a sudden with a very troublesome turn, and he is out there on the road dead out and groaning. Would you have the goodness to let me use your telephone to telephone for an ambulance?”

      “We haven't a telephone,” said this devotchka. “I'm sorry, but we haven't. You'll have to go somewhere else.” From inside this malenky cottage I could slooshy the clack-clackity-clackclack of some veck typing away, and then the typing stopped and there was this chelloveck's goloss calling: “What is it, dear?”

      “Well,” I said, “could you of your goodness please let him have a cup of water? It's like a faint, you see. It seems as though he's passed out in a sort of a fainting fit.” The devotchka sort of hesitated and then said: “Wait.” Then she went off, and my three droogs had got out of the auto quiet, putting their maskies on now, then I put mine on, then it was only a matter of me putting in the old rooker and undoing the chain, me having softened up this devotchka with my gent's goloss, so that she hadn't shut the door like she should have done, us being strangers of the night. The four of us then went roaring in, old Dim playing the shoot[140] as usual with his jumping up and down and singing out dirty slovos, and it was a nice malenky

121

масло для жарки картофеля

122

получи по яйцам

123

при всей своей тупости

124

дрались

125

плоть, тело

126

обозлённый, раздражённый

127

навредить

128

Не бойся, скоро доберусь до тебя, козёл вонючий

129

жилые дома

130

глупый, дурной

131

смеялись

132

на голубом экране

133

Джон Бойтон Пристли (1894–1984), английский романист.

134

кинотеатр/кино

135

мог сгодиться/подойти

136

отмычки

137

нога

138

трахающихся

139

Это был настоящий прикол

140

шут, клоун