A Clockwork Orange / Заводной апельсин. Энтони Бёрджесс

knowing the joy I had in my night music, they had already taken them. As I slooshied, my glazzies tight shut to shut in the bliss that was better than any synthemesc Bog or God, I knew such lovely pictures. There were vecks and ptitsas, both young and starry, lying on the ground screaming for mercy, and I was smecking all over my rot and grinding my boot in their litsos. And there were devotchkas ripped and creeching against walls and I plunging like a shlaga[188] into them, and indeed when the music rose to the top of its big highest tower, then, lying there on my bed with glazzies tight shut and rookers behind my gulliver, I broke and spattered and cried aaaaaaah with the bliss of it. And so the lovely music came to its glowing close. After that I had lovely Mozart, the Jupiter, and there were new pictures of different litsos to be ground and splashed, and it was after this that I thought I would have just one last disc, and I wanted something starry and strong and very firm, so it was J. S. Bach I had, the Brandenburg Concerto[189] just for strings. And, slooshying with different bliss than before, I viddied again this name on the paper I'd razrezzed that night, a long time ago it seemed, in that cottage called HOME. The name was about a clockwork orange. Listening to the J. S. Bach, I began to pony[190] better what that meant now, and I thought, slooshying away to the gorgeousness of the starry German master, that I would like to have tolchocked them both harder and ripped them to ribbons[191] on their own floor.

      4

      The next morning I woke up at eight hours, my brothers, and as I still felt shagged and fagged and my glazzies were stuck together real horrorshow with sleepglue, I thought I would not go to school. I thought how I would have a malenky bit longer in the bed, an hour or two say, and then get dressed nice and easy, perhaps even having a splosh[192] about in the bath, make toast for myself and slooshy the radio or read the gazetta, all on my oddyknocky.[193] And then in the afterlunch I might perhaps, if I still felt like it, itty[194] off to the old skolliwoll[195] and see what was vareeting[196] in the gloopy useless learning, O my brothers. I heard my papapa grumbling and trampling and then ittying off to the dyeworks where he rabbited[197], and then my mum called in in a very respectful goloss as she did now I was growing up big and strong:

      “It's gone eight, son. You don't want to be late again.” So I called back: “A bit of pain in my gulliver. Leave us be and I'll try to sleep it off and then I'll be right for this after.” I slooshied her give a sort of a sigh and she said: “I'll put your breakfast in the oven then, son. I've got to be off myself now.” Which was true, there being this law for everybody not a child nor with child[198] nor ill to go out rabbiting. My mum worked at one of the Statemarts, as they called them, filling up the shelves with tinned soup and beans and all that cal. So I slooshied her clank a plate in the gas-oven like and then she was putting her shoes on and then getting her coat from behind the door and then sighing again, then she said: “I'm off now, son.” But I was back in sleepland and then I did doze off real horrorshow, and I had a queer and very real like sneety[199], dreaming for some reason of my droog Georgie. In this sneety he'd got like very much older and was govoreeting about discipline and obedience and how all the malchicks under his control had to jump hard at it and throw up the old salute[200] like being in the army, and there was me in line like the rest saying yes sir and no sir, and the I viddied clear that Georgie had these stars on his pletchoes and he was like a general. And then he brought in old Dim with a whip, and Dim was a lot more starry and grey and had a few zoobies missing as you could see when he let out a smeck, viddying me, and then my droog Georgie said, pointing like at me: “That man has filth and cal all over his platties,” and it was true. Then I creeched: “Don't hit, please don't, brothers,” and started to run. And I was running in like circles and Dim was after me, smecking his gulliver off, cracking with the old whip, and each time I got a real horrorshow tolchock with this whip there was like a very loud electric bell ringringring, and this bell was like a sort of a pain too.

      Then I woke up real skorry, my heart going bap bap bap, and of course there was really a bell going brrrrr, and it was our front-door bell. I let on that nobody was at home, but this brrrrr still ittied on[201], and then I heard a goloss shouting through the door: “Come on then, get out of it, I know you're in bed.” I recognized the goloss right away. It was the goloss of P. R. Deltoid, what they called my Post-Corrective Adviser. I shouted right right right, in a goloss of like pain, and I got out of bed and dressed myself. When I opened up he came shambling in looking shagged, a battered old shlapa[202] on his gulliver, his raincoat filthy. “Ah, Alex boy,” he said to me. “I met your mother, yes. She said something about a pain somewhere. Hence not at school, yes.”

      “A rather intolerable pain in the head, sir,” I said in my gentleman's goloss. “I think it should clear by this afternoon.”

      “Or certainly by this evening, yes,” said P. R. Deltoid. “The evening is the great time, isn't it, Alex boy? Sit,” he said, “sit, sit,” as though this was his domy[203] and me his guest. And he sat in this starry rocking-chair of my dad's and began rocking, as if that was all he had come for. I said: “A cup of the old chai[204], sir? Tea, I mean.”

      “No time,” he said, gloopy. So I put the kettle on. Then I said: “To what do I owe the extreme pleasure?[205] Is anything wrong, sir?”

      “Wrong?” he said, very skorry and sly, but still rocking away. Then he caught sight of an advert in the gazetta, which was on the table – a lovely smecking young ptitsa with her groodies hanging out to advertise.

      Then he said: “Why should you think in terms of there being anything wrong?[206] Have you been doing something you shouldn't, yes?”

      “Just a manner of speech[207],” I said, “sir.”

      “Well,” said P. R. Deltoid, “it'sjust a manner of speech from me to you that you watch out, little Alex, because next time, as you very well know, it's not going to be the corrective school any more. Next time it's going to be the barry place[208] and all my work ruined.”

      “I've been doing nothing I shouldn't, sir,” I said. “ The millicents have nothing on me, brother, sir I mean.”

      “Cut out this clever talk about millicents,” said P. R. Deltoid very weary, but still rocking. “Just because the police have not picked you up lately doesn't, as you very well know, mean you've not been up to some nastiness. There was a bit of a fight last night, wasn't there? There was a bit of shuffling with nozhes and bike-chains and the like. One of a certain fat boy's friends was ambulanced off late from near the Power Plant and hospitalized, cut about very unpleasantly, yes. Your name was mentioned. The word has got through to me by the usual channels. Certain friends of yours were named also. There seems to have been a fair amount of other nastiness last night. Oh, nobody can prove anything about anybody, as usual. But I'm warning you, little Alex, being a good friend to you as always, the one man who wants to save you from yourself.”

      “I appreciate all that, sir,” I said, “very sincerely.”

      “Yes, you do, don't you?” he sort of sneered. “Just watch it, that's all, yes. We know more than you think, little Alex.” Then he said, still rocking away: “What gets into you all? We study the problem and we've been studying it for damn well near a century, yes, but we get no further with our studies. You've

188

дубинка

189

Бранденбургский концерт И. С. Баха

190

понимать, понять

191

разорвать на куски/части

192

всплеск

193

одинокий, сам по себе

194

идти, пойти

195

школа

196

варится, делается

197

работал

198

в положении, беременная

199

сниться; сон

200

отдавать честь

201

идти, продолжаться

202

шляпа

203

дом

204

чай

205

Чем я обязан такой честью?

206

Почему для этого должно было что-то случиться?

207

Просто оборот речи

208

тюрьма, место за решёткой