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| PART THREE: | TREĆI DIO |
| BURNING BRIGHT | JARKO GORENJE |
| Lights flicked on and house-doors opened all down the street, to watch the carnival set up. Montag and Beatty stared, one with dry satisfaction, the other with disbelief, at the house before them, this main ring in which torches would be juggled and fire eaten. | Upalila su se svjetla i čitava je ulica pootvarala vrata kako bi promatrala karneval. Montag i Beatty - jedan s oporim zadovoljstvom, drugi s nevjericom - zurili su u kuću ispred sebe, u ovu glavnu arenu u kojoj će se žonglirati zubljama, gutati vatra. |
| "Well," said Beatty, "now you did it. Old Montag wanted to fly near the sun and now that he's burnt his damn wings, he wonders why. Didn't I hint enough when I sent the Hound around your place?" | - I eto - rekao je Beatty - uspjelo ti je. Stari je Montag poželio letjeti blizu sunca i sad, kad si je spalio prokleta krila, pita se zašto. Nisam li te dovoljno upozorio poslavši ti Psa oko kuće? |
| Montag's face was entirely numb and featureless; he felt his head turn like a stone carving to the dark place next door, set in its bright borders of flowers. | Montagovo je lice bilo potpuno obamrlo i bezizražajno; osjetio je kako mu se glava okreće prema mračnom prostoru u susjedstvu, prostoru obrubljenom šarenim gredicama cvijeća. |
| Beatty snorted. "Oh, no! You weren't fooled by that little idiot's routine, now, were you? Flowers, butterflies, leaves, sunsets, oh, hell! It's all in her file. I'll be damned. I've hit the bullseye. Look at the sick look on your face. A few grass-blades and the quarters of the moon. What trash. What good did she ever do with all that?" | Beatty je prezirno puhnuo. - Oh, ne! Pa nije te valjda smutila ona mala glupača? Cvijeće, leptiri, lišće, zalazi sunca, uh, do vraga! Sve je to u njezinu dosjeu. Prokletstvo! Pun pogodak. Pogledaj samo taj svoj blesavi izraz lica! Nekoliko vlati trave i mjesečevih mijena. Kojih li budalaština! Što li je dobro time ikad postigla? |
| Montag sat on the cold fender of the Dragon, moving his head half an inch to the left, half an inch to the right, left, right, left right, left... | Montag je sjeo na hladni odbojnik Zmaja te pomicao glavu centimetar ulijevo, centimetar udesno, ulijevo, udesno, ulijevo, udesno, ulijevo... |
| "She saw everything. She didn't do anything to anyone. She just let them alone." | - Sve je samo gledala. Nikom nije ništa učinila. Jednostavno je sve puštala na miru. |
| "Alone, hell! She chewed around you, didn't she? One of those damn do-gooders with their shocked, holier-than-thou silences, their one talent making others feel guilty. God damn, they rise like the midnight sun to sweat you in your bed!" | - Na miru, je li? Tupila te, zar ne? Bila je jedna od onih prokletih dobročinitelja što zaprepašteno, svetački šute i čiji je jedini talent da kod drugih ljudi razvijaju osjećaj krivnje. Prokletnici, dižu se kao ponoćno sunce i sile te da se znojiš u postelji! |
| The front door opened; Mildred came down the steps, running, one suitcase held with a dream-like clenching rigidity in her fist, as a beetle-taxi hissed to the curb. | Otvorila su se ulazna vrata. Mildred se štrcala niza stube, nekako nestvarno kruto stežući u ruci kovčeg; u tom se trenutku kukac-taksi bučno zaustavio uz rubni kamen. |
| "Mildred!" | - Mildred! |
| She ran past with her body stiff, her face floured with powder, her mouth gone, without lipstick. | Potrčala je mimo njega sva nekako kruta, napudrana lica, usta nenarumenjenih, beznadnih. |
| "Mildred, you didn't put in the alarm!" | - Mildred, nisi valjda ti podigla uzbunu! |
| She shoved the valise in the waiting beetle, climbed in, and sat mumbling, "Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now..." Beatty grabbed Montag's shoulder as the beetle blasted away and hit seventy miles an hour, far down the street, gone. | Gurnula je putnu torbu u taksi koji ju je čekao, ušla i sjela mumljajući: - Jadne li obitelji, jadne li obitelji, sve, sve je sada propalo... Beatty je zgrabio Montagovo rame, a taksi je zatutnjao i, jurnuvši sto kilometara na sat, odmaglio niz ulicu, nestao. |
| There was a crash like the falling parts of a dream fashioned out of warped glass, mirrors, and crystal prisms. Montag drifted about as if still another incomprehensible storm had turned him, to see Stoneman and Black wielding axes, shattering window-panes to provide cross-ventilation. | Čuo se prasak kao da padaju dijelovi sna sazdani od iskrivljena stakla, zrcala i kristalnih prizmi. Montag je besciljno lunjao, kao da ga je zahvatila još jedna oluja, te spazio Stonemana i Blacka kako mlateći sjekirama razbijaju prozorska stakla da omoguće što bolji propuh. |
| The brush of a death's-head moth against a cold black screen. "Montag, this is Faber. Do you hear me? What is happening?" "This is happening to me," said Montag. | Dodir noćnog leptira po hladnom crnom zaslonu. -Montag, ovdje Faber. Čujete li me? Što se događa? - Događa se meni - rekao je Montag. |
| "What a dreadful surprise," said Beatty. "For everyone nowadays knows, absolutely is certain, that nothing will ever happen to me. Others die, I go on. There are no consequences and no responsibilities. Except that there are. But let's not talk about them, eh? By the time the consequences catch up with you, it's too late, isn't it, Montag?" | - Kakva li užasna iznenađenja - rekao je Beatty. - Jer svatko danas zna, potpuno je siguran, da se nikad ništa neće dogoditi meni. Drugi umiru, ja idem dalje. Ne postoje nikakve posljedice, nikakve odgovornosti. Ali postoje. No nemojmo razgovarati o njima, ha? Kad te posljedice zgode, prekasno je, zar ne, Montag? |
| "Montag, can you get away, run?" asked Faber. Montag walked but did not feel his feet touch the cement and then the night grasses. Beatty flicked his igniter nearby and the small orange flame drew his fascinated gaze. | - Montag, možete li umaći, pobjeći? - upitao je Faber. Montag je hodao, no nije osjećao da mu noge dodiruju cement te kasnije noćnu travu. Beatty je kresnuo upaljačem; narančasti je plamičak privukao njegov opčinjeni pogled. |
| "What is there about fire that's so lovely? No matter what age we are, what draws us to it?" Beatty blew out the flame and lit it again. "It's perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did. Or almost perpetual motion. If you let it go on, it'd burn our lifetimes out. What is fire? It's a mystery. Scientists give us gobbledegook about friction and molecules. But they don't really know. Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it. Now, Montag, you're a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical." | - Čega ima u vatri da je tako divna? Bez obzira na to koliko smo stari, što nas to k njoj privlači? - Beatty je pohnuvši ugasio plamen, pa ga ponovno zapalio. - To je neprekidno gibanje; ono što je čovjek želio izumiti, no nikad u tome nije uspio. Ili, gotovo neprekinuto gibanje. Da ga pustiš, gorio bi čitava našeg vijeka. To je zagonetka. Znanstvenici nam lupetaju o trenju i molekulama. No zapravo ne znaju. Njezina se prava ljepota sastoji u tome da uništava odgovornost i posljedice. Kad neki problem postane pretežak, u peć s njime. E sad, Montag, ti si problem. A vatra će mi te skinuti s pleća čisto, brzo, pouzdano; ništa neće ostati gnjiti. Antibiotički, estetski, praktično. |
| Montag stood looking in now at this queer house, made strange by the hour of the night, by murmuring neighbour voices, by littered glass, and there on the floor, their covers torn off and spilled out like swan-feathers, the incredible books that looked so silly and really not worth bothering with, for these were nothing but black type and yellowed paper, and ravelled binding. | Montag je stajao i gledao u ovu sada čudnovatu kuću, koju je stranom učinio i ovaj noćni sat, žamor susjeda, razbijeno staklo. A, eno, na podu, razderanih korica, razbacane poput labuđeg perja nevjerojatne knjige koje izgledaju tako glupo i zaista nevrijedne ikakve pažnje, jer i nisu drugo doli crna slova, požutjeli papir i rasparan uvez. |
| Mildred, of course. She must have watched him hide the books in the garden and brought them back in. Mildred. Mildred. | Mildred, naravno. Mora da ga je gledala kako skriva knjige u vrtu pa ih je zatim unijela. Mildred. Mildred. |
| "I want you to do this job all by your lonesome, Montag. Not with kerosene and a match, but piecework, with a flamethrower. Your house, your clean-up." | - Želim da ovaj posao obaviš samo ti, sam, Montag. Ne petrolejem i šibicom, nego komad po komad, bacačem plamena. Tvoja kuća, tvoje i čišćenje. |
| "Montag, can't you run, get away!" | - Montag, zar ne možete umaći, pobjeći? |
| "No!" cried Montag helplessly. "The Hound! Because of the Hound!" Faber heard, and Beatty, thinking it was meant for him, heard. "Yes, the Hound's somewhere about the neighbourhood, so don't try anything. Ready?" | - Ne! - kriknuo je Montag bespomoćno. - Pas! Zbog Psa! Faber je čuo, i Beatty, misleći da to ide njega. - Da, Pas je negdje u susjedstvu; zato ne pokušavaj ništa. Spreman? |
| "Ready." Montag snapped the safety-catch on the flamethrower. | - Spreman. - Montag je škljocnuo sigurnosnim zatvaračem bacača plamena. |
| "Fire!" | - Pali! |
| A great nuzzling gout of flame leapt out to lap at the books and knock them against the wall. He stepped into the bedroom and fired twice and the twin beds went up in a great simmering whisper, with more heat and passion and light than he would have supposed them to contain. He burnt the bedroom walls and the cosmetics chest because he wanted to change everything, the chairs, the tables, and in the dining-room the silverware and plastic dishes, everything that showed that he had lived here in this empty house with a strange woman who would forget him tomorrow, who had gone and quite forgotten him already, listening to her Seashell radio pour in on her and in on her as she rode across town, alone. And as before, it was good to burn, he felt himself gush out in the fire, snatch, rend, rip in half with flame, and put away the senseless problem. If there was no solution, well then now there was no problem, either. Fire was best for everything! | Snažan mlaz ognja šiknuo je da oba vije knjige i hitne ih prema zidu. Montag je stupio u spavaću sobu te ispalio dva mlaza, a bračni je krevet planuo snažno proključavši, s više žara, strasti i svjetla no što bi se za nj moglo pretpostaviti. Spalio je zidove spavaonice i toaletni stolić, jer je želio sve promijeniti. Zatim su slijedili stolci, stolovi, blagovaonica s posuđem i plastičnim tanjurima, sve što je pokazivalo da je on nekoć živio u ovoj pustoj kući sa strankinjom koja će ga već sutra zaboraviti, koja je već otišla i gotovo ga već zaboravila, slušajući svoju radioškoljku koja je zalijeva i zalijeva dok se odvozi na drugu stranu grada, sama. A kao i prije, lijepo je bilo paliti. Osjetio je kako previre s vatrom, kako grabi, dere, kako se para napola s ognjem i odbacuje besmislene probleme. Pa, ako nema nikakva rješenja, onda nema ni problema. Vatra je najbolja za sve! |
| "The books, Montag!" | - Knjige, Montag! |
| The books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers. | Knjige su poskočile i zaplesale poput prženih ptica, krila blistavih od crvena i žuta perja. |
| And then he came to the parlour where the great idiot monsters lay asleep with their white thoughts and their snowy dreams. And he shot a bolt at each of the three blank walls and the vacuum hissed out at him. The emptiness made an even emptier whistle, a senseless scream. He tried to think about the vacuum upon which the nothingness had performed, but he could not. He held his breath so the vacuum could not get into his lungs. He cut off its terrible emptiness, drew back, and gave the entire room a gift of one huge bright yellow flower of burning. The fire-proof plastic sheath on everything was cut wide and the house began to shudder with flame. | A onda je ušao u salon, u kojem su velika idiotska čudovišta ležala spavajući u svojim bijelim mislima i snježnim snovima. Ispalio je hitac u svaki od tri prazna zida, koji su mu odgovorili psikanjem vakuuma. U praznini zvižduk, bezumni krik, bio je još prazniji. Pokušao je razmišljati o vakuumu na kojem se izvodilo ništavilo, no to mu nije uspjelo. Suspregnuo je dah da mu vakuum ne bi prodro u pluća. Odbio je njegovu užasnu prazninu, povukao se i čitavu sobu obdario još jednim velikim svijetložutim plamenim cvijetom. Vatrostalni plastični omotač, koji je sve obavijao, bio je naširoko razderan, pa se kuća počela tresti od ognja. |
| "When you're quite finished," said Beatty behind him. "You're under arrest." The house fell in red coals and black ash. It bedded itself down in sleepy pink-grey cinders and a smoke plume blew over it, rising and waving slowly back and forth in the sky. It was three-thirty in the morning. The crowd drew back into the houses; the great tents of the circus had slumped into charcoal and rubble and the show was well over. | - Kad sa svime završiš - rekao je Beatty iza njega - uhićen si. Kuća se rasula na crveno ugljevlje i crn pepeo. Raspala se na pospane ružičastosive žeravice i dimne perjanice koje se viju nad njima, dižu i polako lelujaju amo-tamo u nebo. Bilo je tri i trideset ujutro. Svjetina se povukla u kuće; veliki cirkuski šator stropoštao se u ugljen i krhotine i predstava je završila. |
| Montag stood with the flame-thrower in his limp hands, great islands of perspiration drenching his armpits, his face smeared with soot. The other firemen waited behind him, in the darkness, their faces illuminated faintly by the smouldering foundation. | Montag je stajao s bacačem plamena u mlitavim rukama. Veliki otoci znoja natapali su mu pazuha. Lice mu je bilo umrljano garom. Ostali vatrogasci čekali su iza njega, u tami, lica blago osvijetljenih zgarištem. |
| Montag started to speak twice and then finally managed to put his thought together. | Montag je dva puta pokušao progovoriti, kako bi napokon uspio pribrati misli. |
| "Was it my wife turned in the alarm?" | - Je li moja žena signalizirala uzbunu? |
| Beatty nodded. "But her friends turned in an alarm earlier, that I let ride. One way or the other, you'd have got it. It was pretty silly, quoting poetry around free and easy like that. It was the act of a silly damn snob. Give a man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation. You think you can walk on water with your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them. Look where they got you, in slime up to your lip. If I stir the slime with my little finger, you'll drown!" | Beatty je kimnuo. - No njezine su prijateljice zvale još prije, ali sam to zanemario. Ovako ili onako, nadrapao bi. Ono tvoje olako slobodno citiranje poezije bilo je vrlo glupo. To je bio potez blesava snoba. Daj čovjeku nekoliko redaka stihova, i on već pomišlja da je Bog otac. Misliš da svojim knjigama možeš hodati po vodi. No, eto, svijet može sasvim lijepo i bez njih. Pogledaj samo kamo su tebe dovele - u glib do grla. Uzbibam li taj glib malim prstom, utopit ćeš se. |
| Montag could not move. A great earthquake had come with fire and levelled the house and Mildred was under there somewhere and his entire life under there and he could not move. The earthquake was still shaking and falling and shivering inside him and he stood there, his knees half-bent under the great load of tiredness and bewilderment and outrage, letting Beatty hit him without raising a hand. | Montag se nije mogao pokrenuti. Veliki je potres naišao s ognjem i sravnio kuću, a Mildred je negdje ondje ispod, i čitav je njegov život negdje ondje ispod, a on se ne može pokrenuti. Potres je još drmao i rušio i podrhtavao u njemu, a on je samo stajao, koljena napola savijenih pod silnim bremenom umora, zbunjenosti i povrijeđenosti, dopuštajući da ga Beatty udara ne dižući ruku. |
| "Montag, you idiot, Montag, you damn fool; why did you really do it?" | - Montag, idiote, Montag, prokleta budalo, zašto si to zapravo učinio? |
| Montag did not hear, he was far away, he was running with his mind, he was gone, leaving this dead soot-covered body to sway in front of another raving fool. | Montag ga nije čuo, bio je daleko, trčao je za svojim mozgom, nestao, ostavljajući ono mrtvo čađavo tijelo da se klati pred jednom razbješnjelom ludom. |
| "Montag, get out of there!" said Faber. Montag listened. | - Montag, izlazi odanle! Montag je osluhnuo. |
| Beatty struck him a blow on the head that sent him reeling back. The green bullet in which Faber's voice whispered and cried, fell to the sidewalk. Beatty snatched it up, grinning. He held it half in, half out of his ear. | Beatty ga je tako odalamio po glavi da je zateturao. Zeleno tane, u kojem je Faberov glas šaputao i pucketao, ispalo je na pločnik. Beatty ga je cereći se zgrabio. Gurnuo ga je napola u uho. |
| Montag heard the distant voice calling, "Montag, you all right?" | Montag je čuo kako ga daleki glas poziva:- Montag, jeste li dobro? |
| Beatty switched the green bullet off and thrust it in his pocket. "Well--so there's more here than I thought. I saw you tilt your head, listening. First I thought you had a Seashell. But when you turned clever later, I wondered. We'll trace this and drop it on your friend." | Beatty je isključio zeleno tane i tutnuo ga u džep. - Dakle, ovdje ima i više toga nego što sam mislio. Vidio sam kako naginješ glavu i osluškuješ. Isprva sam pomislio da imaš radioškoljku. No kad si kasnije postao pametan, počeo sam se čuditi. Istražit ćemo ovo i uhvatiti tvoga prijatelja. |
| "No!" said Montag. | - Nećete! - rekao je Montag. |
| He twitched the safety catch on the flame-thrower. Beatty glanced instantly at Montag's fingers and his eyes widened the faintest bit. Montag saw the surprise there and himself glanced to his hands to see what new thing they had done. Thinking back later he could never decide whether the hands or Beatty's reaction to the hands gave him the final push toward murder. The last rolling thunder of the avalanche stoned down about his ears, not touching him. | Trgnuo je kočnicu bacača plamena. Beatty je smjesta pogledao Montagove prste i zjenice su mu se neznatno proširile. Montag je u njima opazio iznenađenje, pa je i sam pogledao svoje ruke da vidi što su sada opet učinile. Razmišljajući kasnije, nije mogao nikako dokučiti jesu li ga ruke ili Beattyjeva reakcija na ruke potaknule na ovaj zadnji korak prema umorstvu. Posljednja grmljavina lavine tutnjala mu je u uhu, ne dirajući ga. |
| Beatty grinned his most charming grin. "Well, that's one way to get an audience. Hold a gun on a man and force him to listen to your speech. Speech away. What'll it be this time? Why don't you belch Shakespeare at me, you fumbling snob? 'There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm'd so strong in honesty that they pass by me as an idle wind, which I respect not!' How's that? Go ahead now, you second-hand litterateur, pull the trigger." He took one step toward Montag. | Beatty se osmjehnuo svojim najšarmantnijim osmijehom. -No, dobro, i ovako se može zadržati publika. Uperiš pušku u čovjeka i prisiliš ga da posluša tvoj govor. Pa, govori! Što ćeš sada reći? Hoćeš li me zasuti Shakespeareom, ti šeprtljavi snobe? "Nema straha, Kasije, u tvojim prijetnjama, jer sam toliko naoružan čestitošću da strahovi pokraj mene prolaze poput lahora, na koji se niti ne osvrćem!" Što veliš na ovo? A sad, hajde, ti, drugorazredno piskaralo, povuci okidač! - Koraknuo je prema Montagu. |
| Montag only said, "We never burned right ..." | Montag je samo rekao: - Nikad nismo palili prave... |
| "Hand it over, Guy," said Beatty with a fixed smile. | - Daj mi ga, Guy - kazao je Beatty, ukočeno se smiješeći. |
| And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling, gibbering mannikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him. There was a hiss like a great mouthful of spittle banging a redhot stove, a bubbling and frothing as if salt had been poured over a monstrous black snail to cause a terrible liquefaction and a boiling over of yellow foam. Montag shut his eyes, shouted, shouted, and fought to get his hands at his ears to clamp and to cut away the sound. Beatty flopped over and over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent. | A onda je postao vrišteći plamen, ne više čovjek ni netko poznat, nego maneken koji skače, proteže se, blebeće, sam trzav oganj na tratini, jer je Montag na njega ispalio jedan neprekidan mlaz tekuće vatre. Začuo se šum kao kad bi obilnom pljuvačkom pogodio užarenu peć, vrenje i pjenušanje kao kad bi nekog čudovišnog puža posuo solju da ga lakše skuhaš povrh žute pjene. Montag je zažmirio te vikao, vikao i vikao, naprežući se da rukama začepi uši i zatomi zvukove. Beatty se koprcao, a na kraju se iskrivio poput spržene voštane lutke i smirio. |
| The other two firemen did not move. | Preostala dva vatrogasca nisu se pomakla. |
| Montag kept his sickness down long enough to aim the flame-thrower. "Turn around!" | Montag je pravodobno svladao mučninu te uperio bacač plamena u njih. - Okrenite se! |
| They turned, their faces like blanched meat, streaming sweat; he beat their heads, knocking off their helmets and bringing them down on themselves. They fell and lay without moving. | Okrenuli su se. Lica su im problijedjela, a znoj ćurkom curio; zveknuo ih je po glavi, oborivši im šljemove i srušivši ih na tlo. Pali su i ostali nepomični. |
| The blowing of a single autumn leaf. | Treperenje jednog jedinog jesenskog lista. |
| He turned and the Mechanical Hound was there. | Montag se okrenuo; pojavio se mehanički Pas. |
| It was half across the lawn, coming from the shadows, moving with such drifting ease that it was like a single solid cloud of black-grey smoke blown at him in silence. | Bio je na pola travnjaka, pomaljao se iz sjene; kretao se takvom lakoćom da se činilo kao da to u tišini jedan silni oblak cmosivog dima nalijeće na njega. |
| It made a single last leap into the air, coming down at Montag from a good three feet over his head, its spidered legs reaching, the procaine needle snapping out its single angry tooth. Montag caught it with a bloom of fire, a single wondrous blossom that curled in petals of yellow and blue and orange about the metal dog, clad it in a new covering as it slammed into Montag and threw him ten feet back against the bole of a tree, taking the flame-gun with him. He felt it scrabble and seize his leg and stab the needle in for a moment before the fire snapped the Hound up in the air, burst its metal bones at the joints, and blew out its interior in the single flushing of red colour like a skyrocket fastened to the street. Montag lay watching the dead-alive thing fiddle the air and die. | Pas se jednim jedinim skokom uvis obrušio na Montaga dobar metar povrh Montagove glave; paučje su se noge pružale, a igla s prokainom sunula iz onog jedinog ljutitog zuba. Montag ga je dohvatio vatrenim cvatom, jednim jedinim čudesnim cvijetom koji se svojim žutim, plavičastim i narančastim laticama obavio oko metalnog psa, ogrnuo ga novom odjećom u trenutku kad je ovaj udario u Montaga i odbacio ga skupa s oružjem tri metra dalje na deblo nekog drveta. Osjetio je kako se Pas napregnuo i domogao njegove noge te mu zabio iglu trenutak prije no što je plamen vinuo Psa u zrak, rasuo mu metalne kosti iz zglobova i raznio mu utrobu u jedan jedini jarki plamsaj crvenila. Montag je ležao i gledao kako živo-neživo biće leti zrakom i ugiba. |
| Even now it seemed to want to get back at him and finish the injection which was now working through the flesh of his leg. He felt all of the mingled relief and horror at having pulled back only in time to have just his knee slammed by the fender of a car hurtling by at ninety miles an hour. He was afraid to get up, afraid he might not be able to gain his feet at all, with an anaesthetized leg. A numbness in a numbness hollowed into a numbness... And now ...? | Čak i sad, kao da se željelo vratiti i dokrajčiti ga injekcijom, čije je djelovanje sada počeo osjećati u nozi. Montag se prepustio pomiješanim osjećajima olakšanja i užasa što se izmaknuo u zadnji čas, maznuvši samo koljenom o odbojnik. Bojao se da ga, s ovako anesteziranom nogom, stopala više uopće neće služiti. Obamrlost od obamrlosti u novu obamrlost... A sada...? |
| The street empty, the house burnt like an ancient bit of stage-scenery, the other homes dark, the Hound here, Beatty there, the three other firemen another place, and the Salamander ...? He gazed at the immense engine. That would have to go, too. | Ulica je bila prazna, kuća spaljena kao dio neke stare kulise, ostale su kuće bile u mraku, Pas ovdje, Beatty ondje, ostala dva vatrogasca negdje drugdje, a daždevnjak...? Zurio je u golemo vozilo. I ono će morati otići. |
| Well, he thought, let's see how badly off you are. On your feet now. Easy, easy ... there. | Dobro, pomislio je, hajde da vidimo koliko si gadno ozlijeđen. Na noge, sada. Polako, polako... eto ga. |
| He stood and he had only one leg. The other was like a chunk of burnt pine-log he was carrying along as a penance for some obscure sin. When he put his weight on it, a shower of silver needles gushed up the length of the calf and went off in the knee. He wept. Come on! Come on, you, you can't stay here! | Ustao je; imao je samo jednu nogu. Druga je bila poput komadine spaljene borove cjepanice koju nosi kao pokoru za neki mračni grijeh. Kad je prebacio težište na tu nogu, roj srebrnih iglica pozabadao mu se čitavom dužinom lista sve do koljena. Jauknuo je. Hajde! Hajde, ne možeš ostati ovdje! |
| A few house-lights were going on again down the street, whether from the incidents just passed, or because of the abnormal silence following the fight, Montag did not know. He hobbled around the ruins, seizing at his bad leg when it lagged, talking and whimpering and shouting directions at it and cursing it and pleading with it to work for him now when it was vital. He heard a number of people crying out in the darkness and shouting. He reached the back yard and the alley. Beatty, he thought, you're not a problem now. You always said, don't face a problem, burn it. Well, now I've done both. Good-bye, Captain. | U nekoliko se kuća niz ulicu upalilo svjetlo; da li zbog toga što je gungula upravo završila ili zbog neprirodne tišine koja je nastala nakon borbe, to Montag nije znao. Hramao je zgarištem, hvatajući bolesnu nogu kad bi zaostala, govoreći, cvileći i naređujući joj kamo će, proklinjući je i preklinjući da ga ne izda sada kad je to od životne važnosti. Čuo je brojne ljude kako viču i galame u tami. Dokopao se stražnjeg dvorišta i uličice. Beatty, pomislio je, ti više nisi problem. Uvijek si govorio: ne sučeljavaj se s problemom; spali ga. E pa, sada sam učinio i jedno i drugo. Zbogom, kapetane! |
| And he stumbled along the alley in the dark. | Odteturao je uličicom u mrak. |
| A shotgun blast went off in his leg every time he put it down and he thought, you're a fool, a damn fool, an awful fool, an idiot, an awful idiot, a damn idiot, and a fool, a damn fool; look at the mess and where's the mop, look at the mess, and what do you do? Pride, damn it, and temper, and you've junked it all, at the very start you vomit on everyone and on yourself. But everything at once, but everything one on top of another; Beatty, the women, Mildred, Clarisse, everything. No excuse, though, no excuse. A fool, a damn fool, go give yourself up! | Sačmarica mu je prasnula u nogu svaki put kad bi se oslonio na nju, pa je mislio: ti si budala, prokleta budala, užasna budala, idiot, užasni idiot, prokleti idiot i budala, prokleta budala; pogledaj kakvu si svinjariju napravio, a gdje ti je krpa da očistiš? Pogledaj svinjariju, a što uopće radiš? Prokleti ponos i razdražljivost! Sve si upropastio, na samom si se početku izbljuvao na sve, pa i na samog sebe. No sve odjednom, no sve jedno povrh drugoga, Beatty, žene, Mildred, Clarisse, sve. Ipak, nema isprike, nikakve isprike. Budala, prokleta budala, hajde, sam se predaj vlastima! |
| No, we'll save what we can, we'll do what there is left to do. If we have to burn, let's take a few more with us. Here! | Ne, spasit ćemo što se može, učinit ćemo što nam još preostaje. Ako moramo gorjeti, neka izgori još nekolicina s nama. Ovdje! |
| He remembered the books and turned back. Just on the off chance. | Sjetio se knjiga pa se vratio. Onako, za svaki slučaj... |
| He found a few books where he had left them, near the garden fence. Mildred, God bless her, had missed a few. Four books still lay hidden where he had put them. Voices were wailing in the night and flashbeams swirled about. Other Salamanders were roaring their engines far away, and police sirens were cutting their way across town with their sirens. | Našao je nekoliko knjiga ondje gdje ih je ostavio, uz vrtnu ogradu. Mildred, Bog je blagoslovio, propustila ih je nekoliko. Četiri su knjige bile još sakrivene ondje kamo ih je tutnuo. Čulo se jadikovanje, tamom su šarale reflektorice. Iz daljine čula se grmljavina drugih daždevnjaka, a policijski su se automobili zavijajući sirenama probijali kroz grad. |
| Montag took the four remaining books and hopped, jolted, hopped his way down the alley and suddenly fell as if his head had been cut off and only his body lay there. Something inside had jerked him to a halt and flopped him down. He lay where he had fallen and sobbed, his legs folded, his face pressed blindly to the gravel. | Montag je uzeo četiri preostale knjige te odskakutao, odšepesao svojim putem niz uličicu, a onda je odjednom pao kao da su mu odrubili glavu pa sad ondje leži samo njegovo truplo. Nešto ga je iznutra potegnulo da stane i srozalo ga. Ležao je ondje gdje je pao i jecao; noge je podvio, lice zario u šljunak. |
| Beatty wanted to die. | Beatty je želio umrijeti. |
| In the middle of the crying Montag knew it for the truth. Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling, thought Montag, and the thought was enough to stifle his sobbing and let him pause for air. How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad, and then... | Usred plača Montagu je sinula ova istina. Beatty je želio umrijeti. Jednostavno je tamo stajao, ne pokušavajući zapravo da se spasi, jednostavno je tako stajao, šaleći se, podbadajući, pomislio je Montag; ta je misao dostajala da obuzda jecaje i zastane da dođe do daha. Kako je to čudnovato, baš čudnovato! Da toliko želiš umrijeti da dopustiš naoružanu čovjeku da ti pride, pa se onda, umjesto da umakneš i ostaneš živ, nastaviš derati i ismijavati ga sve dok ne izludiš, a onda... |
| At a distance, running feet. | U daljini nečiji trk. |
| Montag sat up. Let's get out of here. Come on, get up, get up, you just can't sit! But he was still crying and that had to be finished. It was going away now. He hadn't wanted to kill anyone, not even Beatty. His flesh gripped him and shrank as if it had been plunged in acid. He gagged. He saw Beatty, a torch, not moving, fluttering out on the grass. He bit at his knuckles. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh God, sorry... | Montag je sjeo. Hajdemo odavde! Hajde, diži se, diži se, ne možeš samo sjediti! No i dalje je plakao, a s tim je trebalo završiti. Sada se trebalo udaljiti. Nikoga nije želio ubiti, pa ni Beattyja. Rana ga je pekla i stezala kao da je uronjena u kiselinu. Začepio je usta. Vidio je Beattyja, baklju, nepokretna, buktinju na travi. Ugrizao se za zglobove prstiju. Oprosti, oprosti, oh, Bože, oprosti... |
| He tried to piece it all together, to go back to the normal pattern of life a few short days ago before the sieve and the sand, Denham's Dentifrice, moth-voices, fireflies, the alarms and excursions, too much for a few short days, too much, indeed, for a lifetime. Feet ran in the far end of the alley. | Pokušao je sve skupa ponovno sastaviti, vratiti se normalnom životu unatrag nekoliko kratkih dana, prije pijeska i sita, Denhamove paste za zube, glasova noćnih leptira, krijesnica, uzbuna i izleta; oh, previše je toga za tih nekoliko kratkih dana, previše, zapravo, i za čitav život. Trk na drugom kraju uličice. |
| "Get up!" he told himself. "Damn it, get up!" he said to the leg, and stood. The pains were spikes driven in the kneecap and then only darning needles and then only common, ordinary safety pins, and after he had dragged along fifty more hops and jumps, filling his hand with slivers from the board fence, the prickling was like someone blowing a spray of scalding water on that leg. And the leg was at last his own leg again. He had been afraid that running might break the loose ankle. Now, sucking all the night into his open mouth, and blowing it out pale, with all the blackness left heavily inside himself, he set out in a steady jogging pace. He carried the books in his hands. | - Digni se - rekao je samom sebi. - Prokletstvo, diži se! -rekao je svojoj nozi i ustao. Bolovi su bili kao od čavala zabijenih u iver koljena, a zatim samo poput igala za pletenje, potom pak poput običnih ziherica, a nakon pedesetak daljnjih koračaja i skokova, kad mu je ruka bila sva izgrebena od zida ograde, bockanje je osjećao kao da ga netko po toj nozi prska vrelom vodom. I noga je konačno opet postala njegovom. Bojao se da bi trčanjem mogao slomiti istegnuti gležanj. Sada, dok je noć usisavao otvorenim ustima te je ispuhivao blijedu, sada, dakle, kad je sva njezina mrklina ostajala u njemu, grabio je čvrstim trkačkim korakom. U rukama je nosio knjige. |
| He thought of Faber. | Razmišljao je o Faberu. |
| Faber was back there in the steaming lump of tar that had no name or identity now. He had burnt Faber, too. He felt so suddenly shocked by this that he felt Faber was really dead, baked like a roach in that small green capsule shoved and lost in the pocket of a man who was now nothing but a frame skeleton strung with asphalt tendons. | Faber je bio ondje otraga u katranskoj gromadi što se puši, a koja sada nema ni imena ni identiteta. Fabera je također spalio. Ova ga je spoznaja toliko zatekla da je osjećao kao da je Faber zaista mrtav, ispečen poput žohara u onoj maloj zelenoj kapsuli strpanoj i izgubljenoj u džepu čovjeka koji sada više nije ništa doli goli kostur povezan asfaltnim tetivama. |
| You must remember, burn them or they'll burn you, he thought. Right now it's as simple as that. | Moraš upamtiti, spali ih ili će oni spaliti tebe, pomislio je. Ovoga trenutka to je zaista tako. |
| He searched his pockets, the money was there, and in his other pocket he found the usual Seashell upon which the city was talking to itself in the cold black morning. | Prekopao je džepove: novac je bio tu. U drugom je džepu našao uobičajenu radio-školjku preko koje je grad razgovarao sam sa sobom u hladno crno jutro. |
| "Police Alert. Wanted: Fugitive in city. Has committed murder and crimes against the State. Name: Guy Montag. Occupation: Fireman. Last seen ..." | - Policijska uzbuna. Potraga. Bjegunac u gradu. Počinio umorstvo i zločine protiv države. Ime: Guy Montag. Zanimanje: vatrogasac. Zadnji put viđen... |
| He ran steadily for six blocks, in the alley, and then the alley opened out on to a wide empty thoroughfare ten lanes wide. It seemed like a boatless river frozen there in the raw light of the high white arc-lamps; you could drown trying to cross it, he felt; it was too wide, it was too open. It was a vast stage without scenery, inviting him to run across, easily seen in the blazing illumination, easily caught, easily shot down. | Jednolično je odtrčao uličicom šest blokova, a onda je uličica izbila na široku, praznu glavnu cestu s deset kolnika. Pod oštrim svjetlom visokih, bijelih lučnih svjetiljaka, izgledala je poput zamrznute rijeke na kojoj nema plovila, a u kojoj bi se, osjećao je, mogao utopiti kad bi je pokušao prijeći; bila je preširoka, preotvorena. No tu pod blještavom rasvjetom, lako ga je bilo vidjeti, lako uhvatiti, lako ustrijeliti. |
| The Seashell hummed in his ear. | Radioškoljka mu je brujala u uhu. |
| "... watch for a man running ... watch for the running man ... watch for a man alone, on foot ... watch ..." | ...pripazite na muškarca koji bježi...pripazite na muškarca u bijegu...pripazite na osamljenog muškarca, pješaka...pripazite... |
| Montag pulled back into the shadows. Directly ahead lay a gas station, a great chunk of porcelain snow shining there, and two silver beetles pulling in to fill up. Now he must be clean and presentable if he wished, to walk, not run, stroll calmly across that wide boulevard. It would give him an extra margin of safety if he washed up and combed his hair before he went on his way to get where ...? | Montag se povukao u sjenu. Ravno ispred njega nalazila se benzinska stanica, velika gromada porculanskog snijega što bliješti, i dva srebrna kukca koja upravo ulaze po gorivo. Sada, dakle, mora biti čist i uredan ako želi hodati. Ne smije trčati. Mirno i spokojno mora se odšetati preko širokog bulevara. Stekao bi dodatnu dozu sigurnosti kad bi se oprao i počešljao prije no što krene svojim putem prema...kamo? |
| Yes, he thought, where am I running? | Da, pomislio je, kamo ja to trčim? |
| Nowhere. There was nowhere to go, no friend to turn to, really. Except Faber. And then he realized that he was indeed, running toward Faber's house, instinctively. But Faber couldn't hide him; it would be suicide even to try. But he knew that he would go to see Faber anyway, for a few short minutes. Faber's would be the place where he might refuel his fast draining belief in his own ability to survive. He just wanted to know that there was a man like Faber in the world. He wanted to see the man alive and not burned back there like a body shelled in another body. And some of the money must be left with Faber, of course, to be spent after Montag ran on his way. Perhaps he could make the open country and live on or near the rivers and near the highways, in the fields and hills. | Nikamo. Nije imao kamo otići, nije zapravo imao nikakva prijatelja kojem bi se mogao uputiti. Osim Faberu. A onda je spoznao da doista trči prema Faberovoj kući, posve nagonski. Ali Faber ga nije mogao sakriti; samoubojstvo bi bilo i pokušati. No Montag je znao da će svejedno poći k Faberu, pa makar i na nekoliko kratkih minuta. Faberov će dom biti ono mjesto na kojem bi mogao popuniti svoju uvelike potrošenu vjeru u vlastitu sposobnost preživljavanja. Želio je jednostavno znati da na svijetu postoji čovjek kao što je Faber. Želio je vidjeti čovjeka živa, a ne spaljena ondje poput tijela učahurena u nekom drugom tijelu. A valja, naravno, kod Fabera ostaviti i nešto novca koji će se utrošiti nakon što Montag pobjegne svojim putem. Možda bi se mogao izvući izvan grada te živjeti na rijekama ili blizu njih ili uz autoceste, po poljima i brdima. |
| A great whirling whisper made him look to the sky. | Snažan vrtložni zuj natjerao ga je da pogleda uvis. |
| The police helicopters were rising so far away that it seemed someone had blown the grey head off a dry dandelion flower. Two dozen of them flurried, wavering, indecisive, three miles off, like butterflies puzzled by autumn, and then they were plummeting down to land, one by one, here, there, softly kneading the streets where, turned back to beetles, they shrieked along the boulevards or, as suddenly, leapt back into the sir, continuing their search. | Policijski su se helikopteri dizali tako daleko da je izgledalo kao da je netko otpuhnuo sive glavice suhih cvjetova maslačka. Njih dvadesetak uznemirilo se, lepršajući neodlučno kojih pet kilometara, poput leptira koje je zbunila jesen. A zatim su se naglo spuštali na zemlju, jedan po jedan, ovdje-ondje, polako gnječeći ulice, gdje su, preobrazivši se ponovno u kukce, vrištali bulevarima ili, isto tako nenadano, poskakivali natrag u zrak, nastavljajući potragu. |
| And here was the gas station, its attendants busy now with customers. Approaching from the rear, Montag entered the men's washroom. Through the aluminium wall he heard a radio voice saying, "War has been declared." The gas was being pumped outside. The men in the beetles were talking and the attendants were talking about the engines, the gas, the money owed. Montag stood trying to make himself feel the shock of the quiet statement from the radio, but nothing would happen. The war would have to wait for him to come to it in his personal file, an hour, two hours from now. | A ovdje je bila benzinska stanica; njezino je osoblje sada bilo zaokupljeno mušterijama. Prilazeći sa stražnje strane, Montag je ušao u muški zahod. Kroz aluminijski zid čuo je glas s radija: -Objavljen je rat. - Vani su pumpali benzin. Ljudi u kukcima su razgovarali, a i službenici su pričali o motorima, gorivu, novcu što im duguju. Montag je stajao nastojeći da sam proživi udar mirne izjave s radija, no ništa se nije zbilo. Rat će morati pričekati da Montag sam naiđe na njega za kojih sat-dva. |
| He washed his hands and face and towelled himself dry, making little sound. He came out of the washroom and shut the door carefully and walked into the darkness and at last stood again on the edge of the empty boulevard. | Oprao je ruke i lice i dobro se obrisao bez mnogo buke. Izišao je iz zahoda, pažljivo zatvorio vrata pa otišao u mrak, a onda se na kraju ponovno našao na rubu praznog bulevara. |
| There it lay, a game for him to win, a vast bowling alley in the cool morning. The boulevard was as clean as the surface of an arena two minutes before the appearance of certain unnamed victims and certain unknown killers. The air over and above the vast concrete river trembled with the warmth of Montag's body alone; it was incredible how he felt his temperature could cause the whole immediate world to vibrate. He was a phosphorescent target; he knew it, he felt it. And now he must begin his little walk. | Pružao se pred njim poput igre u kojoj mu valja pobijediti, poput goleme kuglačke staze u hladno jutro. Bulevar je bio čist poput površine poprišta prije pojave stanovitih neimenovanih žrtava i stanovitih nepoznatih ubojica. Zrak iznad široke betonske rijeke treperio je od topline samog Montagovog tijela; nevjerojatno, no osjećao je da njegova temperatura može izazvati podrhtavanje svekolikog okolnog svijeta. Bio je fosforescentna meta; znao je, osjećao je to. A sada mora poći na svoju malu šetnju. |
| Three blocks away a few headlights glared. Montag drew a deep breath. His lungs were like burning brooms in his chest. His mouth was sucked dry from running. His throat tasted of bloody iron and there was rusted steel in his feet. What about those lights there? Once you started walking you'd have to gauge how fast those beetles could make it down here. Well, how far was it to the other curb? It seemed like a hundred yards. Probably not a hundred, but figure for that anyway, figure that with him going very slowly, at a nice stroll, it might take as much as thirty seconds, forty seconds to walk all the way. The beetles? Once started, they could leave three blocks behind them in about fifteen seconds. So, even if halfway across he started to run ...? | Tri bloka dalje sijevnulo je nekoliko automobilskih reflektora. Montag je duboko udahnuo. U prsima kao da su mu gorjele metle. Usta su mu se sasušila od trčanja. U grlu je osjećao okus krvava željeza, a hrdava je čelika bilo i u stopalima. Što je s onim svjetlima ondje? Kad jednom počneš hodati, morat ćeš procijeniti koliko onim kukcima treba da stignu ovamo. Pa, koliko je daleko onaj drugi pločnik? Čini se, stotinjak metara. Vjerojatno ne baš stotinu, ali svejedno računajmo tako, računajmo tako, jer bi mu zbog njegova vrlo polagana hoda, vrlo pristojna hoda, moglo trebati i trideset, četrdeset sekundi da prijeđe taj put. Kukci? Kad jurnu, mogu za sobom ostaviti tri bloka za petnaestak sekundi. Ipak, ako i na pola puta počne trčati...? |
| He put his right foot out and then his left foot and then his right. He walked on the empty avenue. | Ispružio je desnu, pa lijevu nogu, pa onda opet desnu. Hodao je pustom avenijom. |
| Even if the street were entirely empty, of course, you couldn't be sure of a safe crossing, for a car could appear suddenly over the rise four blocks further on and be on and past you before you had taken a dozen breaths. | Čak i da je ulica posve prazna, ne možeš se, naravno, pouzdati da ćeš je sigurno prijeći, jer se automobil mogao iznenada pojaviti na uzvisini, koja četiri bloka dalje, pa te stići i prestići prije nego što deset puta udahneš. |
| He decided not to count his steps. He looked neither to left nor right. The light from the overhead lamps seemed as bright and revealing as the midday sun and just as hot. | Neće brojiti korake, odlučio je. Nije se osvrtao ni lijevo, ni desno. Svjetlo svjetiljaka što su sjale iznad glave činilo se jednako jasnim i raskrinkavajućim kao i podnevno sunce, a i jednako vrućim. |
| He listened to the sound of the car picking up speed two blocks away on his right. Its movable headlights jerked back and forth suddenly, and caught at Montag. | Osluhnuo je zvuk automobila koji je dva bloka dalje zdesna povećavao brzinu. Njegovi pokretni reflektori odjednom su zaigrali otraga i sprijeda te ulovili Montaga. |
| Keep going. | Hodaj dalje. |
| Montag faltered, got a grip on the books, and forced himself not to freeze. Instinctively he took a few quick, running steps then talked out loud to himself and pulled up to stroll again. He was now half across the street, but the roar from the beetle's engines whined higher as it put on speed. | Montag je zateturao, stegnuo knjige i prisilio sama sebe da se ukoči. Nagonski je napravio nekoliko brzih koraka, potrčao zapravo, a onda glasno sam na se podviknuo, pa ponovno pošao polako. Sada je bio nasred ulice. Međutim, grmljavina automobilskog motora prešla je s povećanjem brzine u više tonove. |
| The police, of course. They see me. But slow now; slow, quiet, don't turn, don't look, don't seem concerned. Walk, that's it, walk, walk. | Policija, naravno. Vide me. A sad uspori, uspori, mirno, ne okreći se, ne obaziri se, ne odaj da se uzrujavaš. Šeći, tako, šeći, šeći. |
| The beetle was rushing. The beetle was roaring. The beetle raised its speed. The beetle was whining. The beetle was in high thunder. The beetle came skimming. The beetle came in a single whistling trajectory, fired from an invisible rifle. It was up to 120 mph. It was up to 130 at least. Montag clamped his jaws. The heat of the racing headlights burnt his cheeks, it seemed, and jittered his eye-lids and flushed the sour sweat out all over his body. | Kukac je jurio. Kukac je grmio. Kukac je povećao brzinu. Kukac je urlao. Kukac je silno tutnjao. Kukac je brzo doletio. Kukac je stigao u jedinstvenoj zviždećoj putanji, odapet iz nevidljive puške. Vozio je 200. Vozio je najmanje 220 na sat. Montag je stisnuo vilice. Vrelina trkaćih reflektora palila mu je obraze, činilo mu se, sapunala vjede i iz svega tijela žmikala kiselkast znoj. |
| He began to shuffle idiotically and talk to himself and then he broke and just ran. He put out his legs as far as they would go and down and then far out again and down and back and out and down and back. God! God! He dropped a book, broke pace, almost turned, changed his mind, plunged on, yelling in concrete emptiness, the beetle scuttling after its running food, two hundred, one hundred feet away, ninety, eighty, seventy, Montag gasping, flailing his hands, legs up down out, up down out, closer, closer, hooting, calling, his eyes burnt white now as his head jerked about to confront the flashing glare, now the beetle was swallowed in its own light, now it was nothing but a torch hurtling upon him; all sound, all blare. Now―almost on top of him! | Počeo se idiotski gegati i razgovarati sam sa sobom, a onda se slomio i dao u bijeg. Pružao je i spuštao noge što je mogao dalje, pa opet što dalje, dalje i dalje. Bože! Bože! Ispustio je knjigu, izgubio korak, zamalo se okrenuo, pa predomislio, pa se bacio kričeći u betonskoj praznini. Kukac je jurio za svojom hranom, koja je bježala na udaljenosti od pedeset, trideset, dvadeset metara! Montag je dahtao, mlatarao rukama, grabeći nogama gore pa dolje, gore-dolje, bliže i bliže, tuleći, zavijajući, očiju sada izbijeljenih, jer se glava trznula da se sučeli sa zasljepljujućim svjetlom. Sada je kukca progutalo njegovo vlastito svjetlo, sada on više nije bio ništa drugo doli zublja koja pada na njega; sve sam zvuk, samo treštanje. Sada - gotovo povrh njega! |
| He stumbled and fell. I'm done! It's over! | Spotaknuo se i pao! Gotov sam! Svršeno je! |
| But the falling made a difference. An instant before reaching him the wild beetle cut and swerved out. It was gone. Montag lay flat, his head down. Wisps of laughter trailed back to him with the blue exhaust from the beetle. | No s padom se situacija promijenila. Trenutak prije no što će ga zahvatiti, divlji je kukac prikočio i skrenuo u stranu. Nestao je. Montag se opružio spuštene glave. Hihot smijeha dopro je do njega zajedno s plavim ispušnim plinovima. |
| His right hand was extended above him, flat. Across the extreme tip of his middle finger, he saw now as he lifted that hand, a faint sixteenth of an inch of black tread where the tyre had touched in passing. He looked at that black line with disbelief, getting to his feet. | Desnu je ruku bio ispružio. Sada, kad je tu ruku podigao, na samom vršku srednjeg prsta vidio je poput vlasi tanak crn trag što ga je guma pri prolasku dodirnula. S nevjericom je gledao tu crnu crticu podižući se na noge. |
| That wasn't the police, he thought. | Ono nije bila policija, pomislio je. |
| He looked down the boulevard. It was clear now. A carful of children, all ages, God knew, from twelve to sixteen, out whistling, yelling, hurrahing, had seen a man, a very extraordinary sight, a man strolling, a rarity, and simply said, "Let's get him," not knowing he was the fugitive Mr. Montag. Simply a number of children out for a long night of roaring five or six hundred miles in a few moonlit hours, their faces icy with wind, and coming home or not coming at dawn, alive or not alive, that made the adventure. | Pogledao je niz bulevar. Sad je bilo jasno. Auto pun djece svih uzrasta, sam će ih Bog znati, od dvanaest do šesnaest godina. Fućkaju, urlaju, deru se. Odjednom su ugledali čovjeka - vrlo neobičan prizor - čovjeka koji šeće - prava rijetkost - pa su jednostavno rekli "Spljeskajmo ga", ne znajući da je to bjegunac, gospodin Montag. Jednostavno, dječurlija koja je izašla da dugu noć provede turn jeci petstotinjak, šestotinjak kilometara za nekoliko mjesečinom obasjanih sati. Lica su im bila ledena od vjetra, a hoće li ili neće živi ili mrtvi u zoru doći kući, u tome i jest draž pustolovine. |
| They would have killed me, thought Montag, swaying, the air still torn and stirring about him in dust, touching his bruised cheek. For no reason at all in the world they would have killed me. | Bili bi me ubili, pomislio je Montag ljuljajući se, dok je zrak bio uskomešan i pun prašine koja mu je dodirivala natečene obraze. Bez ikakva, baš bez ikakva razloga bili bi me ubili. |
| He walked toward the far kerb telling each foot to go and keep going. Somehow he had picked up the spilled books; he didn't remember bending or touching them. He kept moving them from hand to hand as if they were a poker hand he could not figure. | Otišao je prema dalekom rubnom kamenu, govoreći svakom stopalu da hoda i da tako nastavi. Nekako je uspio pokupiti razbacane knjige; nije se sjećao da se saginjao niti da ih je doticao. Stalno ih je premještao iz ruke u ruku, kao da karta poker i nikako se ne može odlučiti što će dalje. |
| I wonder if they were the ones who killed Clarisse? | Pitam se, jesu li to oni koji su ubili Clarisse? |
| He stopped and his mind said it again, very loud. | Zastao je, a njegov je um to ponovio, i to vrlo glasno. |
| I wonder if they were the ones who killed Clarisse! | Pitam se jesu li to oni koji su ubili Clarisse. |
| He wanted to run after them yelling. | Bilo mu je da urlajući potrči za njima. |
| His eyes watered. | Oči su mu se ovlažile. |
| The thing that had saved him was falling flat. The driver of that car, seeing Montag down, instinctively considered the probability that running over a body at that speed might turn the car upside down and spill them out. If Montag had remained an upright target ...? Montag gasped. | Spasilo ga je to što je pao koliko je dug i širok. Vidjevši ga na tlu, vozaču automobila nagonski se nametnula pomisao da bi gaženje tijela, pri takvoj brzini, moglo završiti prevrtanjem i ispadanjem iz vozila. A da je Montag ostao uspravna meta...? Montag je teško disao. |
| Far down the boulevard, four blocks away, the beetle had slowed, spun about on two wheels, and was now racing back, slanting over on the wrong side of the street, picking up speed. | Daleko dolje na bulevaru, četiri bloka zgrada odavle, kukac je usporio, okrenuo se na dva kotača, pa se sada zajurio natrag po krivoj strani ulice, naginjući se i ubrzavajući sve više i više. |
| But Montag was gone, hidden in the safety of the dark alley for which he had set out on a long journey, an hour or was it a minute, ago? He stood shivering in the night, looking back out as the beetle ran by and skidded back to the centre of the avenue, whirling laughter in the air all about it, gone. | No Montag je nestao; sakrio se u sigurnost mračne uličice u koju se bio davno zaputio, bit će tome sat, ili ipak samo minutu ranije? Stajao je drhtureći u noći, gledajući otraga kako kukac prolazi i proklizavajući se vraća na sredinu avenije. Za njim se orio smijeh, a onda ga je nestalo. |
| Further on, as Montag moved in darkness, he could see the helicopters falling, falling, like the first flakes of snow in the long winter. to come... | Nešto dalje, dok se probijao kroz mrak, Montag je gledao kako helikopteri padaju, padaju i padaju, poput prvih snježnih pahuljica duge zime koja će nastupiti... |
| The house was silent. | Kuća je bila tiha. |
| Montag approached from the rear, creeping through a thick night-moistened scent of daffodils and roses and wet grass. He touched the screen door in back, found it open, slipped in, moved across the porch, listening. | Montag joj je prišao straga, šuljajući se kroz jak vlažni noćni miris sunovrata, ruža i mokre trave. Dodirnuo je stražnja zaštitna vrata, ustanovio da su otvorena, kliznuo kroz njih, pa osluškujući prešao verandu. |
| Mrs. Black, are you asleep in there? he thought. This isn't good, but your husband did it to others and never asked and never wondered and never worried. And now since you're a fireman's wife, it's your house and your turn, for all the houses your husband burned and the people he hurt without thinking.. | Gospodo Black, spavate li tamo unutra, pomislio je. Ovo nije dobro, ali vaš je muž ovo isto radio drugima, nikad se ništa ne pitajući niti se na išta obazirući.A sad, budući da ste vatrogaščeva žena, ovo je vaš dom i vaš red, zbog svih onih kuća koje je vaš muž spalio i ljudi koje je bez razmišljanja povrijedio. |
| The house did not reply. | Kuća nije odgovorila. |
| He hid the books in the kitchen and moved from the house again to the alley and looked back and the house was still dark and quiet, sleeping. | Sakrio je knjige u kuhinju, pa se iz kuće ponovno iskrao u uličicu. Osvrnuo se prema kući, i dalje mračnoj i tihoj, usnuloj. |
| On his way across town, with the helicopters fluttering like torn bits of paper in the sky, he phoned the alarm at a lonely phone booth outside a store that was closed for the night. Then he stood in the cold night air, waiting and at a distance he heard the fire sirens start up and run, and the Salamanders coming, coming to burn Mr. Black's house while he was away at work, to make his wife stand shivering in the morning air while the roof let go and dropped in upon the fire. But now, she was still asleep. Good night, Mrs. Black, he thought. | Putem kroz grad, dok su helikopteri lepršali nebom poput razderanih papirića, iz samotne je govornice ispred zatvorenog dućana nazvao službu uzbunjivanja. Zatim je stajao na hladnom noćnom zraku, čekajući sve dok u daljini nije začuo zavijanje vatrogasnih sirena. Daždevnjaci su stizali, stizali da spale kuću gospodina Blacka, dok je on još na poslu, da njegovu ženu natjeraju da drhturi na jutarnjem zraku dok joj vatra ždere i ruši krov.No ovoga časa ona još spava. Laku noć, gospodo Black, pomislio je. |
| "Faber!" | - Faber! |
| Another rap, a whisper, and a long waiting. Then, after a minute, a small light flickered inside Faber's small house. After another pause, the back door opened. | Još jedno kucanje, šapat i dugo čekanje. A onda, minutu kasnije, sićušno je svjetlo za treperilo u Faberovoj kućici. Još malo čekanja, a onda su se otvorila stražnja vrata. |
| They stood looking at each other in the half-light, Faber and Montag, as if each did not believe in the other's existence. Then Faber moved and put out his hand and grabbed Montag and moved him in and sat him down and went back and stood in the door, listening. The sirens were wailing off in the morning distance. He came in and shut the door. | Stajali su i u polusvjetlu gledali jedan drugoga. Faber i Montag - kao da ni jedan nije vjerovao u postojanje onoga drugoga. Zatim se Faber pomaknuo, ispružio ruku, ščepao Montaga, uveo ga u kuću, posjeo, pa se vratio na vrata te stao i osluhnuo. U daljini su jutro parale sirene. Ušao je i zatvorio vrata. |
| Montag said, "I've been a fool all down the line. I can't stay long. I'm on my way God knows where." | Montag je rekao: - Cijelo vrijeme ponašao sam se kao luđak. Ne mogu dugo ostati. Odlazim, a sam će Bog znati kamo. |
| "At least you were a fool about the right things," said Faber. "I thought you were dead. The audio-capsule I gave you―" | - Barem ste bili luđak zbog pravih stvari - kazao je Faber. - Mislio sam da ste mrtvi. Zvučna kapsula koju sam vam dao - |
| "Burnt." | - Spaljena. |
| "I heard the captain talking to you and suddenly there was nothing. I almost came out looking for you." | - Čuo sam kapetana kako vam govori, a potom odjednom više ništa. Malo je falilo da vas pođem tražiti. |
| "The captain's dead. He found the audio-capsule, he heard your voice, he was going to trace it. I killed him with the flame-thrower." | - Kapetan je mrtav. Pronašao je zvučnu kapsulu, čuo vaš glas, nakanio je u potragu za vama. Ubio sam ga bacačem plamena. |
| Faber sat down and did not speak for a time. | Faber je sjeo. Neko vrijeme nije govorio. |
| "My God, how did this happen?" said Montag. "It was only the other night everything was fine and the next thing I know I'm drowning. How many times can a man go down and still be alive? I can't breathe. There's Beatty dead, and he was my friend once, and there's Millie gone, I thought she was my wife, but now I don't know. And the house all burnt. And my job gone and myself on the run, and I planted a book in a fireman's house on the way. Good Christ, the things I've done in a single week!" | - Bože moj, kako li se ovo dogodilo? - rekao je Montag. -Još neku noć sve je bilo fino, a odmah zatim, eto...znam da se gušim. Koliko puta može čovjek pasti a da ipak preživi? Ne mogu disati. Eno, Beatty je mrtav, a nekoć mi je bio prijatelj; Millie je nestala, a mislio sam da mi je žena, no sad ni to ne znam. Kuća je pak potpuno spaljena. Ostao sam bez posla, bjegunac sam, a putem sam u kuću jednoga vatrogasca podmetnuo knjigu! Isuse Kriste, što li sam sve učinio samo u jednom tjednu! |
| "You did what you had to do. It was coming on for a long time." | - Učinili ste ono što ste morali učiniti. Odavno se to spremalo. |
| "Yes, I believe that, if there's nothing else I believe. It saved itself up to happen. I could feel it for a long time, I was saving something up, I went around doing one thing and feeling another. God, it was all there. It's a wonder it didn't show on me, like fat. And now here I am, messing up your life. They might follow me here." | - Da, vjerujem. Ako ništa drugo, to vjerujem. To se gomilalo. Odavno sam to osjećao, nešto se u meni spremalo, radio sam jedno, a osjećao drugo. Bože, sve je to bilo ovdje. Čudno je što se na meni nije primjećivalo, kao, na primjer, salo. I evo me sada ovdje da upropastim i vaš život. Mogli su me slijediti dovde. |
| "I feel alive for the first time in years," said Faber. "I feel I'm doing what I should have done a lifetime ago. For a little while I'm not afraid. Maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last. Maybe it's because I've done a rash thing and don't want to look the coward to you. I suppose I'll have to do even more violent things, exposing myself so I won't fall down on the job and turn scared again. What are your plans?" | - Prvi put u više godina osjećam se živim - rekao je Faber. -Osjećam da radim ono što sam trebao raditi čitav život. Bar nakratko, ne bojim se. Možda zato što napokon činim ono što je pravo. Možda zato što sam se prenaglio, a ne želim pred vama ispasti kukavica. Držim da ću morati postupati puno žešće, izlažući se osobno, tako da ne odustanem i da se ponovno ne prestrašim. Što planirate? |
| "To keep running." | - Bježati dalje. |
| "You know the war's on?" | - Znate li da je izbio rat? |
| "I heard." | - Čuo sam. |
| "God, isn't it funny?" said the old man. "It seems so remote because we have our own troubles." | - Bože, nije li to smiješno? - rekao je starac. - Rat nam se čini toliko dalekim zato što imamo vlastitih briga. |
| "I haven't had time to think." Montag drew out a hundred dollars. "I want this to stay with you, use it any way that'll help when I'm gone." | - Nisam imao vremena razmišljati. - Montag je izvukao sto dolara. - Želim da ovo ostane kod vas, da vam se nade pri ruci kad odem. |
| "But―" | - Ali- |
| "I might be dead by noon; use this." | - Mogao bih do podneva biti mrtav. Uzmite. |
| Faber nodded. "You'd better head for the river if you can, follow along it, and if you can hit the old railroad lines going out into the country, follow them. Even though practically everything's airborne these days and most of the tracks are abandoned, the rails are still there, rusting. I've heard there are still hobo camps all across the country, here and there; walking camps they call them, and if you keep walking far enough and keep an eye peeled, they say there's lots of old Harvard degrees on the tracks between here and Los Angeles. Most of them are wanted and hunted in the cities. They survive, I guess. | Faber je kimnuo. - Bit će najbolje da, ako možete, krenete prema rijeci, da je slijedite, pa, ako je moguće, da se dokopate starih željezničkih tračnica koje vode u pokrajinu i uputite se po njima. Iako se danas praktički sav promet odvija zrakom i većina pruga je zapuštena, tračnice nisu izvadili; hrdaju. Čuo sam da još diljem zemlje tu i tamo ima skitničkih logora; nazivaju ih hodačkim logorima. I zato, budete li otišli dovoljno daleko i budete li držali oči otvorene, kažu da na pruzi odavde pa do Los Angelesa ima mnogo starih harvardskih diplomaca. Većinu njih progone i love po gradovima. Preživljavaju, držim. |
| There aren't many of them, and I guess the Government's never considered them a great enough danger to go in and track them down. You might hole up with them for a time and get in touch with me in St. Louis, I'm leaving on the five A.M. bus this morning, to see a retired printer there, I'm getting out into the open myself, at last. The money will be put to good use. Thanks and God bless you. Do you want to sleep a few minutes?" | Nema ih previše, pa cijenim da ih vlada nikad nije smatrala dovoljno velikom opasnošću da se dade u potjeru za njima. Mogli biste se kod njih skloniti neko vrijeme, a onda se sa mnom povezati u St. Louisu. Ja odlazim onamo autobusom u pet ujutro da se nađem s onim umirovljenim tiskarom. I sam, konačno, izlazim iz sjene. Novac će biti korisno upotrijebljen. Hvala vam i Bog vas blagoslovio. Želite li nekoliko minuta odspavati? |
| "I'd better run." | - Bit će bolje da bježim. |
| "Let's check." | - Da vidimo. |
| He took Montag quickly into the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside, revealing a television screen the size of a postal card. "I always wanted something very small, something I could talk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, nothing that could shout me down, nothing monstrous big. So, you see." He snapped it on. "Montag," the TV set said, and lit up. "M-O-N-T-A-G." The name was spelled out by the voice. "Guy Montag. Still running. Police helicopters are up. A new Mechanical Hound has been brought from another district ..." | Žurno je Montaga povukao u spavaću sobu te ondje smaknuo jednu sliku, otkrivši televizijski ekran veličine dopisnice. - Oduvijek sam želio nešto vrlo maleno, nešto s čime bih mogao razgovarati, nešto što bih, zatreba li, mogao sakriti dlanom, nešto što bi me ušutkalo, ništa čudesno veliko. I, eto, vidite. - Uključio je uređaj. - Montag - rekao je televizor i zasvijetlio. - M-O-N-T-A-G. - Glas je sricao slovo po slovo. - Guy Montag. I dalje u bijegu. Policijski su helikopteri u zraku. Iz drugog okruga dopremljen je novi mehanički Pas... |
| Montag and Faber looked at each other. | Montag i Faber su se zgledali. |
| "... Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake. Tonight, this network is proud to have the opportunity to follow the Hound by camera helicopter as it starts on its way to the target ..." | - ...mehanički Pas nikada ne iznevjeri. Od svoje prve primjene u traganju za plijenom nije ovo nevjerojatno iznašašće počinilo nikakvu pogrešku. Ova televizijska mreža večeras ima čast i priliku da helikopterskom kamerom slijedi Psa od početka njegova puta do cilja... |
| Faber poured two glasses of whisky. "We'll need these." They drank. | Faber je natočio dvije čaše viskija. - Trebat će vam. Ispili su. |
| "... nose so sensitive the Mechanical Hound can remember and identify ten thousand odour-indexes on ten thousand men without re-setting!" | - ...nos toliko osjetljiv da mehanički Pas može upamtiti i prepoznati deset tisuća indeksa mirisa deset tisuća ljudi, i to bez ikakvog ponovnog ugađanja! |
| Faber trembled the least bit and looked about at his house, at the walls, the door, the doorknob, and the chair where Montag now sat. Montag saw the look. They both looked quickly about the house and Montag felt his nostrils dilate and he knew that he was trying to track himself and his nose was suddenly good enough to sense the path he had made in the air of the room and the sweat of his hand hung from the doorknob, invisible, but as numerous as the jewels of a small chandelier, he was everywhere, in and on and about everything, he was a luminous cloud, a ghost that made breathing once more impossible. He saw Faber stop up his own breath for fear of drawing that ghost into his own body, perhaps, being contaminated with the phantom exhalations and odours of a running man. | Faber je malko zadrhtao te pogledao svoju kuću, zidove, vrata, kvaku i stolac na kojem sada sjedi Montag. Montag je primijetio taj pogled. Obojica su se hitro ogledala po kući, i Montag je osjetio da mu se nosnice šire. Znao je da on to nastoji otkriti svoj vlastiti trag. Nos mu je odjednom postao dovoljno dobar da nanjuši stazu koju je utro u zraku sobe i znoj svojih ruku što se primio kvake, nevidljiv, ali brojan poput dragulja malog svijećnjaka. Bilo ga je posvuda, u svemu, na svemu i oko svega. Bio je svijetleći oblak, duh koji je još jednom učinio disanje nemogućim. Vidio je kako je Faber prestao disati iz straha da toga duha ne uvuče u vlastito tijelo, da se možda ne onečisti fantomskim dahom i mirisima čovjeka koji bježi. |
| "The Mechanical Hound is now landing by helicopter at the site of the Burning!" | - Mehaničkog Psa helikopter sada spušta na zgarište! |
| And there on the small screen was the burnt house, and the crowd, and something with a sheet over it and out of the sky, fluttering, came the helicopter like a grotesque flower. | I doista, na malom je ekranu bila spaljena kuća i svjetina i nešto pokriveno plahtom. S neba se, poput nekog grotesknog cvijeta, lepećući spustio helikopter. |
| So they must have their game out, thought Montag. The circus must go on, even with war beginning within the hour... | Mora im se dati njihova igra, pomislio je Montag. Cirkus se mora nastaviti, čak i kad rat započinje u roku od jednog sata... |
| He watched the scene, fascinated, not wanting to move. It seemed so remote and no part of him; it was a play apart and separate, wondrous to watch, not without its strange pleasure. That's all for me, you thought, that's all taking place just for me, by God. | Promatrao je prizor, opčinjen, ne želeći se pomaknuti. Činio mu se silno dalek i bez ikakve veze s njim; bila je to drama za sebe, divna za gledanje, ne bez nekog neobičnog užitka. I sve ovo radi mene, pomisliš, sve se ovo zbiva samo radi mene, zaboga. |
| If he wished, he could linger here, in comfort, and follow the entire hunt on through its swift phases, down alleys across streets, over empty running avenues, crossing lots and playgrounds, with pauses here or there for the necessary commercials, up other alleys to the burning house of Mr. and Mrs. Black, and so on finally to this house with Faber and himself seated, drinking, while the Electric Hound snuffed down the last trail, silent as a drift of death itself, skidded to a halt outside that window there. Then, if he wished, Montag might rise, walk to the window, keep one eye on the TV screen, open the window, lean out, look back, and see himself dramatized, described, made over, standing there, limned in the bright small television screen from outside, a drama to be watched objectively, knowing that in other parlours he was large as life, in full colour, dimensionally perfect! | Da poželi, mogao bi ostati ovdje te udobno pratiti čitavu hajku u svim njezinim žustrim fazama, niz uličice, pa preko pustih avenija, gradilišta i igrališta, povremeno isprekidanu neizbježnim reklamama, pa onda opet drugim uličicama do zapaljene kuće gospodina i gospode Black i dalje, te konačno do ove kuće u kojoj Faber i on sjede i piju, dok električni Pas, tih kao nagovještaj same smrti, onjuškava zadnji trag i zaustavlja se tamo vani ispred prozora. Zatim bi se, da poželi, Montag mogao dići te, i dalje jednim okom promatrajući TV ekran, poći do prozora, otvoriti ga, nagnuti se kroza nj, pa osvrnuti i pogledati sebe dramatizirana, opisana, prenesena, kako stoji ondje, osvijetljen na sjajnom malom televizijskom ekranu, drama koju valja promatrati objektivno, znajući da je u drugim salonima njegov lik u naravnoj veličini, u prirodnim bojama i, što se dimenzija tiče, savršen! |
| And if he kept his eye peeled quickly he would see himself, an instant before oblivion, being punctured for the benefit of how many civilian parlour-sitters who had been wakened from sleep a few minutes ago by the frantic sirening of their living-room walls to come watch the big game, the hunt, the one-man carnival. | A da pozorno i hitro gleda, vidio bi sebe, časak prije uminuća, u trenutku ubadanja injekcije za dobrobit nebrojenih građana što sjede po TV salonima, a koje je prije samo nekoliko minuta probudilo mahnito tuljenje u zidovima njihovih dnevnih soba koje ih je pozivalo da promatraju sjajnu igru, lov, karneval za jednu osobu. |
| Would he have time for a speech? As the Hound seized him, in view of ten or twenty or thirty million people, mightn't he sum up his entire life in the last week in one single phrase or a word that would stay with them long after the Hound had turned, clenching him in its metal-plier jaws, and trotted off in darkness, while the camera remained stationary, watching the creature dwindle in the distance--a splendid fade-out! What could he say in a single word, a few words, that would sear all their faces and wake them up? | Bi li imao vremena da održi govor? Kad bi ga pred očima dvadesetak, tridesetak milijuna gledatelja zgrabio Pas, zar ne bi smio čitav svoj život u posljednjih tjedan dana sažeti u jednu jedinu rečenicu ili riječ koja bi im ostala u pameti dugo nakon što se Pas okrenuo, držeći ga u svojim metalnim kliještima-čeljustima, te se povukao u mrak, dok kamera, ostajući nepomična, prati stvorenje koje iščezava u daljini - savršeno izbljeđivanje! Što bi mogao izreći tom jedinom riječju, u tih nekoliko riječi, a što bi ih oprljilo i razbudilo? |
| "There," whispered Faber. | - Eno! - šapnuo je Faber. |
| Out of a helicopter glided something that was not machine, not animal, not dead, not alive, glowing with a pale green luminosity. It stood near the smoking ruins of Montag's house and the men brought his discarded flame-thrower to it and put it down under the muzzle of the Hound. There was a whirring, clicking, humming. Montag shook his head and got up and drank the rest of his drink. "It's time. I'm sorry about this." | Iz helikoptera je kliznulo nešto što nije ni stroj, ni životinja, ni mrtvo, ni živo, nešto što je sjajilo zelenkastom svjetlošću. To nešto stalo je na zgarište Montagove kuće; ljudi su prinijeli Montagov odbačeni bacač plamena te ga stavili Psu pred gubicu. Čulo se zujanje, škljocanje, brujanje. Montag je odmahnuo glavom, ustao i ispio ostatak pića. - Vrijeme je. Oprostite mi zbog ovoga. - |
| "About what? Me? My house? I deserve everything. Run, for God's sake. Perhaps I can delay them here―" | - Zbog čega? Zbog mene? Moje kuće? Sve ja to zaslužujem. Bježite, zaboga. Možda ću ih moći ovdje zadržati. |
| "Wait. There's no use your being discovered. When I leave, burn the spread of this bed, that I touched. Burn the chair in the living room, in your wall incinerator. Wipe down the furniture with alcohol, wipe the door-knobs. Burn the throwrug in the parlour. Turn the air-conditioning on full in all the rooms and spray with moth-spray if you have it. Then, turn on your lawn sprinklers as high as they'll go and hose off the sidewalks. With any luck at all, we can kill the trail in here, anyway..' | - Čekajte. Nema nikakve svrhe da vas razotkriju. Kad odem, spalite pokrivač s ovog kreveta što sam ga dodirnuo. U zidnoj spalionici spalite stolac iz dnevne sobe. Alkoholom prebrišite namještaj, kvake. Spalite sag iz salona. U svim prostorijama uključite klimatizaciju na najjači stupanj i sve poštrcajte sprejem protiv moljaca, ako ga imate. Zatim uključite vrtne prskalice da rade punom parom te šmrkom isperite pločnike. Uz nešto sreće, moći ćemo bar ovdje uništiti tragove. |
| Faber shook his hand. "I'll tend to it. Good luck. If we're both in good health, next week, the week after, get in touch. General Delivery, St. Louis. I'm sorry there's no way I can go with you this time, by ear-phone. That was good for both of us. But my equipment was limited. You see, I never thought I would use it. What a silly old man. No thought there. Stupid, stupid. So I haven't another green bullet, the right kind, to put in your head. Go now!" | Faber se porukovao s njim. - Potrudit ću se. Puno sreće. Budemo li obojica u dobru zdravlju, sljedećeg tjedna, ili tjedan kasnije, stupit ćemo u vezu. Poste restante St. Louis. Žao mi je što ovaj pu t ni na koji način ne mogu biti s vama posredstvom slušalica. To je bilo dobro za nas obojicu. No moja je oprema ograničena. Znate, nikad nisam mislio da ću je upotrijebiti. Budalasti starac. Ništa nisam mislio. Gluposti li, gluposti. Zato i nemam drugo zeleno tane, ono pravo, da ga stavite u glavu. Pođite sada! |
| "One last thing. Quick. A suitcase, get it, fill it with your dirtiest clothes, an old suit, the dirtier the better, a shirt, some old sneakers and socks..." | - Još samo jedno. Hitro. Uzmite neki kovčeg, napunite ga svojom najprljavijom odjećom; neko staro odijelo, što prljavije to bolje, košulju, neke stare tenisice, sokne... |
| Faber was gone and back in a minute. They sealed the cardboard valise with clear tape. "To keep the ancient odour of Mr. Faber in, of course," said Faber sweating at the job. | Faber je nestao i vratio se za minutu. Oblijepili su kartonski kovčeg ljepljivom trakom. - Naravno, da se unutra sačuva stari smrad gospodina Fabera - rekao je Faber sav znojan od rada. |
| Montag doused the exterior of the valise with whisky. "I don't want that Hound picking up two odours at once. May I take this whisky. I'll need it later. Christ I hope this works!" | Montag je kovčeg poškropio izvana viskijem. - Ne želim da Pas istodobno uhvati dva mirisa. Smijem li uzeti ovaj viski? Trebat će mi kasnije. Isuse, nadam se da će ovo uspjeti! |
| They shook hands again and, going out of the door, they glanced at the TV. The Hound was on its way, followed by hovering helicopter cameras, silently, silently, sniffing the great night wind. It was running down the first alley. | Ponovno su se rukovali te, izlazeći na vrata, bacili pogled na televizor. Praćen kamerama iz helikoptera, Pas je krenuo, tiho, tiho njušeći jak noćni vjetar. Jurio je niz prvu uličicu. |
| "Good-bye!" | - Zbogom! |
| And Montag was out the back door lightly, running with the half-empty valise. Behind him he heard the lawn-sprinkling system jump up, filling the dark air with rain that fell gently and then with a steady pour all about, washing on the sidewalks, and draining into the alley. He carried a few drops of this rain with him on his face. He thought he heard the old man call good-bye, but he wasn't certain. | I Montag je hitro kliznuo kroz stražnja vrata, bježeći s polupraznim kovčegom. Čuo je kako je iza njega proradio uređaj za prskanje trave, ispunjavajući noćni zrak kišicom koja je blago sipila i svojim postojanim padanjem ispirala pločnike, slijevajući se u uličicu. Nekoliko kapljica ove kiše ponio je sa sobom na svom obrazu. Učinilo mu se da čuje kako mu starac dovikuje pozdrav, no nije u to bio baš posve siguran. |
| He ran very fast away from the house, down toward the river. | Vrlo je brzo otrčao od kuće prema rijeci. |
| Montag ran. | Trčao je. |
| He could feel the Hound, like autumn, come cold and dry and swift, like a wind that didn't stir grass, that didn't jar windows or disturb leaf-shadows on the white sidewalks as it passed. The Hound did not touch the world. It carried its silence with it, so you could feel the silence building up a pressure behind you all across town. Montag felt the pressure rising, and ran. | Mogao je osjetiti Psa koji, kao jesen, dolazi hladan, suh i brz, poput vjetra koji ne biba travu, koji ne trese prozore, ne diže lišće - sjena na bijelim pločnicima pri prolasku. Pas nije doticao svijet. Svoju je tišinu nosio sa sobom, pa si mogao osjetiti kako tišina iza tebe po svem gradu razvija pritisak. Montag je osjetio narastanje pritiska i potrčao. |
| He stopped for breath, on his way to the river, to peer through dimly lit windows of wakened houses, and saw the silhouettes of people inside watching their parlour walls and there on the walls the Mechanical Hound, a breath of neon vapour, spidered along, here and gone, here and gone! Now at Elm Terrace, Lincoln, Oak, Park, and up the alley toward Faber's house. | Putem prema rijeci zastao je da dode do daha, virnuo kroz oskudno osvijetljene prozore razbuđenih kuća te spazio siluete ljudi koji su unutra, na zidovima salona, gledali mehaničkog Psa, dašak neonske pare, kako klizi poput pauka, pojavi se i već ga nema, tu je i već je iščezao! Elm Terrace, Lincoln, Oak, Park, pa uličicom prema Faberovoj kući. |
| Go past, thought Montag, don't stop, go on, don't turn in! | Prođi je, pomislio je Montag, ne zaustavljaj se, idi dalje, ne zakreći u nju! |
| On the parlour wall, Faber's house, with its sprinkler system pulsing in the night air. | Na salonskom je zidu bila Faberova kuća s vrtnom prskalicom koja štrca vodu u noćni zrak. |
| The Hound paused, quivering. | Pas je zastao dršćući. |
| No! Montag held to the window sill. This way! Here! | Ne! Montag se pripio uz prozorski okvir. Ovuda! Ovamo! |
| The procaine needle flicked out and in, out and in. A single clear drop of the stuff of dreams fell from the needle as it vanished in the Hound's muzzle. | Prokainska se igla izvlačila pa uvlačila, izvlačila pa opet uvlačila. Samo je jedna jedina bistra kap snovite tvari kapnula kad je igla iščezla u gubici Psa. |
| Montag held his breath, like a doubled fist, in his chest. | Montag je suspregnuo dah, koji ga je poput dviju šaka tukao u prsima. |
| The Mechanical Hound turned and plunged away from Faber's house down the alley again. | Mehanički se Pas okrenuo i odjurio od Faberove kuće dalje niz uličicu. |
| Montag snapped his gaze to the sky. The helicopters were closer, a great blowing of insects to a single light source. | Montag je naglo pogledao prema nebu. Helikopteri su bili bliže, veliko jato kukaca što leti prema jednom jedinom izvoru svjetla. |
| With an effort, Montag reminded himself again that this was no fictional episode to be watched on his run to the river; it was in actuality his own chess-game he was witnessing, move by move. | Montag je s naporom opet podsjetio sama sebe da ovo nije nikakva izmišljena epizoda o njegovu bijegu prema rijeci koju valja pogledati; u zbilji ovo je bila njegova partija šaha koju je gledao potez po potez. |
| He shouted to give himself the necessary push away from this last house window, and the fascinating seance going on in there! Hell! and he was away and gone! The alley, a street, the alley, a street, and the smell of the river. Leg out, leg down, leg out and down. Twenty million Montags running, soon, if the cameras caught him. Twenty million Montags running, running like an ancient flickery Keystone Comedy, cops, robbers, chasers and the chased, hunters and hunted, he had seen it a thousand times. Behind him now twenty million silently baying Hounds ricocheted across parlours, three-cushion shooting from right wall to centre wall to left wall, gone, right wall, centre wall, left wall, gone! | Viknuo je da sam sebi dade potreban poticaj ako se odlijepi od prozora ove zadnje kuće i fascinirajuće seanse koja se u njoj odvijala! Do vraga! Odmaknuo se i nestao! Uličica, pa ulica, uličica, ulica i miris rijeke. Noga naprijed, noga dolje, pa naprijed, pa dolje. Dvadeset milijuna Montaga što bježe, uskoro, ukoliko ga kamere uhvate. Dvadeset milijuna Montaga što bježe, bježe kao u drevnoj lepršavoj komediji o Keystoneu, pajkani, lupeži, progonitelji i progonjeni, lovci i lovina, vidio je to već tisuću puta. Iza njega je sada dvadeset milijuna pasa koji tiho laju i odskakuju po salonima, snimke koje teku od desnog zida na središnji pa na lijevi, nestaju, a onda opet s desnog na središnji, pa na lijevi, da i opet iščeznu! |
| Montag jammed his Seashell to his ear. | Montag je u uho utisnuo radioškoljku. |
| "Police suggest entire population in the Elm Terrace area do as follows: Everyone in every house in every street open a front or rear door or look from the windows. The fugitive cannot escape if everyone in the next minute looks from his house. Ready!" | - Policija savjetuje svekolikom pučanstvu s područja Elm Terracea da postupi na sljedeći način: neka svi u svakoj kući svih ulica otvore prednja i stražnja vrata ili pak gledaju kroz prozore. Bjegunac ne može izmaknuti budu li svi naredne minute motrili iz svojih kuća. Budite spremni! |
| Of course! Why hadn't they done it before! Why, in all the years, hadn't this game been tried! Everyone up, everyone out! He couldn't be missed! The only man running alone in the night city, the only man proving his legs! | Pa naravno! Zašto to već nisu učinili? Pa zašto se tolike godine nisu laćali ove igre! Svi na noge, svi van! Nisu ga mogli promašiti. Jedini čovjek koji sam samcat trči noćnim gradom, jedini čovjek koji trenira svoje noge! |
| "At the count of ten now! One! Two!" He felt the city rise. Three. | - Kad odbrojim do deset. Jedan! Dva! Osjetio je da se grad diže. - Tri! |
| He felt the city turn to its thousands of doors. Faster! Leg up, leg down! | Osjetio je da se grad okreće prema svojim tisućama vrata. Brže! Noga gore, noga dolje! |
| "Four!" | - Četiri! |
| The people sleepwalking in their hallways. | Bunovni ljudi tapkaju po vežama. |
| "Five!" | - Pet! |
| He felt their hands on the doorknobs! | Osjetio je njihove ruke na kvakama. |
| The smell of the river was cool and like a solid rain. His throat was burnt rust and his eyes were wept dry with running. He yelled as if this yell would jet him on, fling him the last hundred yards. | Miris rijeke bio je svjež, poput jednolične kiše. U grlu ga je žegla hrda, a oči su mu se osušile od silna trčanja. Kriknuo je, kao da će ga ovaj krik sunuti dalje, hitnuti tih posljednjih stotinjak metara. |
| "Six, seven, eight!" | - Šest, sedam, osam! |
| The doorknobs turned on five thousand doors. "Nine!" | Na pet tisuća vrata pokrenule su se kvake. - Devet! |
| He ran out away from the last row of houses, on a slope leading down to a solid moving blackness. "Ten!" | Potrčao je kroz zadnji niz kuća na obronak koji se spuštao prema masivnoj, pokretnoj crnini. - Deset! |
| The doors opened. | Vrata su se otvorila. |
| He imagined thousands on thousands of faces peering into yards, into alleys, and into the sky, faces hid by curtains, pale, night-frightened faces, like grey animals peering from electric caves, faces with grey colourless eyes, grey tongues and grey thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face. | Zamislio je tisuće i tisuće lica što se naviruju u dvorišta, u uličice, u nebo, lica sakrivena zastorima, blijeda, prestrašena lica koja poput nekih sivih životinja zure iz električnih krletki, lica sivih, bezbojnih očiju, sivih jezika i sivih misli što pilje iz obamrla mesa tih istih lica. |
| But he was at the river. | No on je bio na rijeci. |
| He touched it, just to be sure it was real. He waded in and stripped in darkness to the skin, splashed his body, arms, legs, and head with raw liquor; drank it and snuffed some up his nose. Then he dressed in Faber's old clothes and shoes. He tossed his own clothing into the river and watched it swept away. Then, holding the suitcase, he walked out in the river until there was no bottom and he was swept away in the dark. | Dodirnuo ju je, tek toliko da se uvjeri da je stvarna. Ušao je u vodu i do gola se svukao u tami, poprskao tijelo, ruke, noge i glavu oštrom žesticom; otpio je malo, a nešto je pića ulio i u nos. Zatim je odjenuo staru Faberovu odjeću i obuo njegove cipele. Svoju je odjeću bacio u rijeku te promatrao kako je voda otplavljuje. A onda je, držeći kovčeg, zagazio u rijeku te hodao sve dok nije izgubio tlo pod nogama i dok ga ona nije odnijela u mrak. |
| He was three hundred yards downstream when the Hound reached the river. Overhead the great racketing fans of the helicopters hovered. A storm of light fell upon the river and Montag dived under the great illumination as if the sun had broken the clouds. He felt the river pull him further on its way, into darkness. Then the lights switched back to the land, the helicopters swerved over the city again, as if they had picked up another trail. They were gone. The Hound was gone. Now there was only the cold river and Montag floating in a sudden peacefulness, away from the city and the lights and the chase, away from everything. | Bio je tristo metara nizvodno kad je Pas izbio na obalu. Iznad glave hučale su velike elise lebdećih helikoptera. Rijeku je obasjalo silno svjetlo, pa je Montag pred tolikom iluminacijom zaronio. Kao da se sunce probilo kroz oblake. Osjetio je da ga rijeka nosi dalje svojim tokom u mrak. Zatim su se svjetla ponovno usmjerila prema obali. Helikopteri su se okrenuli ponovno prema gradu, kao da su otkrili neki drugi trag. Nestali su. Pas je nestao. Preostali su samo hladna rijeka i Montag koji pluta tim iznenadnim mirom, sve dalje od grada, svjetala i hajke, sve dalje od svega. |
| He felt as if he had left a stage behind and many actors. He felt as if he had left the great seance and all the murmuring ghosts. He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new. | Osjećao se kao da je iza sebe ostavio pozornicu i brojne glumce. Kao da je ostavio neku ogromnu spiritističku seansu i sve mrmoreće duhove. Iz zastrašujuće je stvarnosti kretao u stvarnost koja je, zato što je bila nova, bila nestvarna. |
| The black land slid by and he was going into the country among the hills: For the first time in a dozen years the stars were coming out above him, in great processions of wheeling fire. He saw a great juggernaut of stars form in the sky and threaten to roll over and crush him. | Crno je zemljište promicalo i Montag je sve dublje zalazio u predjel medu brdima. Prvi put u desetak godina iznad njega su se pomaljale zvijezde u velikim procesijama kovitlava ognja. Na nebu je vidio divovska zviježđa koja se skupljaju i prijete da će se su rva ti i zgnječiti ga. |
| He floated on his back when the valise filled and sank; the river was mild and leisurely, going away from the people who ate shadows for breakfast and steam for lunch and vapours for supper. The river was very real; it held him comfortably and gave him the time at last, the leisure, to consider this month, this year, and a lifetime of years. He listened to his heart slow. His thoughts stopped rushing with his blood. | Plutao je poleđuške kad se kovčeg ispunio vodom i potonuo; rijeka ga je polagano odnosila od ljudi što doručkuju sjene, ručaju paru, a večeraju isparine. Rijeka je bila vrlo stvarna; udobno ga je držala dajući mu vremena, dokolice, da napokon promisli o ovom mjesecu, ovoj godini, o tolikim godinama. Slušao je kako mu srce počinje kucati polakše. Misli su mu prestale navirati s krvlju. |
| He saw the moon low in the sky now. The moon there, and the light of the moon caused by what? By the sun, of course. And what lights the sun? Its own fire. And the sun goes on, day after day, burning and burning. The sun and time. The sun and time and burning. Burning. The river bobbled him along gently. Burning. The sun and every clock on the earth. It all came together and became a single thing in his mind. After a long time of floating on the land and a short time of floating in the river he knew why he must never burn again in his life. | Vidio je kako se sada na nebu mjesec spustio. Eno, kad smo već kod Mjeseca, otkud njemu svjetlo? Od Sunca, naravno. A što osvjetljuje Sunce? Njegova vlastita vatra. A sunce se giba, iz dana u dan, goreći, goreći. Sunce i vrijeme. Sunce, vrijeme i gorenje. Gorenje. Zibajući ga blago, rijeka ga je nosila sve dalje. Gorenje. Sunce i svaki sat na Zemlji. Sve se to skupilo i u njegovu mozgu postalo jedinstveno. Nakon duga plutanja kopnom i kratkotrajna rijekom, znao je zašto više nikad u životu ne smije paliti. |
| The sun burned every day. It burned Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen, and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burned! | Sunce pali svakoga dana. Ono pali Vrijeme. Svijet juri u krugu i kreće se oko svoje osi, a vrijeme ionako stalno sažiže godine i ljude, bez ikakve njegove pomoći. Stoga, ako on pali stvari s vatrogascima, a Sunce pak pali Vrijeme, to znači da sve gori! |
| One of them had to stop burning. The sun wouldn't, certainly. So it looked as if it had to be Montag and the people he had worked with until a few short hours ago. Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads, any way at all so long as it was safe, free from moths, silver-fish, rust and dry-rot, and men with matches. The world was full of burning of all types and sizes. Now the guild of the asbestos-weaver must open shop very soon. | Jedno od njih moralo je obustaviti paljenje. Sunce jamačno neće. Sva je prilika, dakle, da to mora biti Montag i ljudi s kojima je sve do prije nekoliko sati radio. Odnekud opet mora započeti spašavanje i sklanjanje i netko mora obaviti to spašavanje i sklanjanje, ovako ili onako, u knjigama, u pločama, u ljudskim glavama, bilo kako, samo da to bude sigurno, zaštićeno od moljaca, knjiških crva, hrđe, truleži i ljudi sa šibicama. Svijet je prepun paljenja svih vrsta i razmjera. Uskoro će se morati otvoriti radionice za izradbu odjeće od azbesta. |
| He felt his heel bump land, touch pebbles and rocks, scrape sand. The river had moved him toward shore. | Osjetio je da je potom udario o kopno, dodirnuo šljunak i kamenje, ostrugao se o pijesak. Rijeka ga je donijela do obale. |
| He looked in at the great black creature without eyes or light, without shape, with only a size that went a thousand miles without wanting to stop, with its grass hills and forests that were waiting for him. | Pogledao je veliko crno stvorenje bez očiju i svjetla, bez oblika, samo sa duljinom koja se proteže tisućama kilometara a bez želje da se zaustavi, sa svojim travnatim bregovima i šumama koje ga čekaju. |
| He hesitated to leave the comforting flow of the water. He expected the Hound there. Suddenly the trees might blow under a great wind of helicopters. | Nećkao se da li da napusti udoban tok vode. Vani je očekivao Psa. Odjednom bi se krošnje mogle uskomešati pod silinom helikopterskog vjetra. |
| But there was only the normal autumn wind high up, going by like another river. Why wasn't the Hound running? Why had the search veered inland? Montag listened. Nothing. Nothing. | No samo je uobičajeni jesenski vjetar strujio gore visoko, poput još jedne rijeke. Zašto Pas nije trčao? Zašto se potraga odmaknula od rijeke? Montag je osluhnuo. Ništa. Ništa. |
| Millie, he thought. All this country here. Listen to it! Nothing and nothing. So much silence, Millie, I wonder how you'd take it? Would you shout Shut up, shut up! Millie, Millie. And he was sad. | Millie, pomislio je. Sva ova zemlja ovdje. Poslušaj je! Ništa i ništa. Tolika tišina, Millie. Pitam se kako bi je ti podnijela. Bi li povikala: Umukni, umukni?! Millie, Millie. Rastužio se. |
| Millie was not here and the Hound was not here, but the dry smell of hay blowing from some distant field put Montag on the land. He remembered a farm he had visited when he was very young, one of the rare times he had discovered that somewhere behind the seven veils of unreality, beyond the walls of parlours and beyond the tin moat of the city, cows chewed grass and pigs sat in warm ponds at noon and dogs barked after white sheep on a hill. | Nije ovdje bilo Millie, ni Psa nije bilo, no bilo je mirisa suha sijena, mirisa koji je, dopirući s nekog udaljenog polja, izveo Montaga na kopno. Sjetio se farme koju je kao dječak posjetio, jedne od rijetkih zgoda kad je otkrio da negdje iza sedam vela nestvarnosti, onkraj zidova salona i onkraj limena opkopa grada, krave pasu travu, svinje se o podne valjaju u toplim kaljužama, a psi laju za bijelim ovcama na brežuljku. |
| Now, the dry smell of hay, the motion of the waters, made him think of sleeping in fresh hay in a lonely barn away from the loud highways, behind a quiet farmhouse, and under an ancient windmill that whirred like the sound of the passing years overhead. He lay in the high barn loft all night, listening to distant animals and insects and trees, the little motions and stirrings. | Sad su mu miris suha sijena i gibanje vode prizvah u pamet spavanje u svježem sijenu na nekom osamljenom štaglju, daleko iza bučnih autocesta, za nekakvom mirnom seljačkom kućom i pod vjetrenjačom koja prede zvukom pomicanja godina. Leži on tako čitavu noć na visoku sjeniku, osluškujući daleke životinje, kukce i stabla, jedva čujne pokrete i gibanja. |
| During the night, he thought, below the loft, he would hear a sound like feet moving, perhaps. He would tense and sit up. The sound would move away, He would lie back and look out of the loft window, very late in the night, and see the lights go out in the farmhouse itself, until a very young and beautiful woman would sit in an unlit window, braiding her hair. | Tijekom noći, ispod sjenika, razmišljao je, čut će možda zvuk sličan struganju nogu. Usplahirit će se i sjesti. Zvuk će se odmaknuti. Ponovno će leći i gledati kroz okno sjenika. Kasna je noć i vidjet će da se i u samoj kući gase svjetla. A onda će vrlo mlada i lijepa žena sjesti uz neosvijetljen prozor i raščešljavati kosu. |
| It would be hard to see her, but her face would be like the face of the girl so long ago in his past now, so very long ago, the girl who had known the weather and never been burned by the fire-flies, the girl who had known what dandelions meant rubbed off on your chin. Then, she would be gone from the warm window and appear again upstairs in her moon-whitened room. And then, to the sound of death, the sound of the jets cutting the sky into two black pieces beyond the horizon, he would lie in the loft, hidden and safe, watching those strange new stars over the rim of the earth, fleeing from the soft colour of dawn. | Bit će je teško vidjeti, no njezino će lice biti poput lica djevojke iz njegovih davnih dana, sada već jako davnih, djevojke koja se razumjela u vrijeme, djevojke koju nikad nisu opekle krijesnice, djevojke koja je znala što to znači kad se maslačci slome pod tvojom bradom. Zatim će se ona odmaknuti od vrućeg prozora, da bi se ponovno pokazala na katu, u svojoj mjesečinom obasjanoj sobi. A onda će, uz zvuke smrti, zvuk mlažnjaka na dva crna dijela rasporiti nebo onkraj obzora, a on će ležati na sjeniku, skriven i siguran, te promatrati one čudne nove zvijezde iznad ruba zemlje koje izlijeću iz blagih boja praskozorja. |
| In the morning he would not have needed sleep, for all the warm odours and sights of a complete country night would have rested and slept him while his eyes were wide and his mouth, when he thought to test it, was half a smile. | Ujutro mu neće nedostajati sna, jer su ga svi topli mirisi i prizori čitave seoske noći odmorili, dok su mu oči bile širom otvorene, a usta, kad ih se sjetio, razvučena u nekakav poluosmijeh. |
| And there at the bottom of the hayloft stair, waiting for him, would be the incredible thing. He would step carefully down, in the pink light of early morning, so fully aware of the world that he would be afraid, and stand over the small miracle and at last bend to touch it. | A dolje, u dnu štagaljskih ljestava, čekat će ga nešto nevjerojatno. Pažljivo će se spustiti u ružičasto svjetlo ranog jutra, potpuno svjestan svijeta kojeg bi se trebao bojati, te stati nad malo čudo, da bi se na kraju sagnuo i dotaknuo ga. |
| A cool glass of fresh milk, and a few apples and pears laid at the foot of the steps. | Čaša hladnog, svježeg mlijeka te nekoliko jabuka i krušaka ležali su na podnožju ljestava. |
| This was all he wanted now. Some sign that the immense world would accept him and give him the long time needed to think all the things that must be thought. | Bilo je ovo sve što je sada želio. Nekakav znak da će ga beskrajni svijet prihvatiti i dati mu dovoljno potrebna vremena da promisli o svim onim stvarima o kojima se mora promisliti. |
| A glass of milk, an apple, a pear. | Čaša mlijeka, jabuka, kruška. |
| He stepped from the river. | Izišao je iz rijeke. |
| The land rushed at him, a tidal wave. He was crushed by darkness and the look of the country and the million odours on a wind that iced his body. He fell back under the breaking curve of darkness and sound and smell, his ears roaring. He whirled. The stars poured over his sight like flaming meteors. He wanted to plunge in the river again and let it idle him safely on down somewhere. This dark land rising was like that day in his childhood, swimming, when from nowhere the largest wave in the history of remembering slammed him down in salt mud and green darkness, water burning mouth and nose, retching his stomach, screaming! Too much water! | Kopno je nahrupilo na nj poput plimnog vala. Bio je satrven tamom, pogledom na polja i milijunom mirisa u vjetru koji mu je ledio tijelo. Pao je nauznak pod silnim zamahom mraka, zvuka i mirisa, od tutnja u ušima. Zavrtjelo mu se. Zvijezde su se slijevale poput usplamtjelih repatica. Poželio se ponovno baciti u rijeku i pustiti da ga ona nježno i sigurno nekamo splavi. Ovu mračnu uzvisinu doživio je kao onaj dan u djetinjstvu kad ga je za plivanja najveći val kojeg se uopće sjeća, pojavivši se niotkuda, oborio u sol, blato i zelenu tmušu. Voda mu je palila usta i nos, podraživala želudac, a on je vrištao:Previše vode! Previše kopna! |
| Too much land! Out of the black wall before him, a whisper. A shape. In the shape, two eyes. The night looking at him. The forest, seeing him. | Iz crna zida ispred njega šapat. Lik. U liku dva oka. To ga noć gleda. To ga šuma vidi. |
| The Hound! | Pas! |
| After all the running and rushing and sweating it out and half-drowning, to come this far, work this hard, and think yourself safe and sigh with relief and come out on the land at last only to find... | Nakon tolika trčanja, žurbe, znojenja i umalo utapljanja da dopre ovako daleko, uz toliki trud, s mišlju da si na sigurnom, uz uzdah olakšanja te da, konačno, izađe na kopno samo da otkrije... |
| The Hound! | Psa! |
| Montag gave one last agonized shout as if this were too much for any man. | Montag je ispustio zadnji bolni krik, kao da je sve ovo ipak previše da bi se moglo podnijeti. |
| The shape exploded away. The eyes vanished. The leafpiles flew up in a dry shower. | Lik se rasuo. Oči su nestale. Hrpa lišća poletjela je poput nekakvog suhog pljuska. |
| Montag was alone in the wilderness. | Montag je u divljini bio sam. |
| A deer. He smelled the heavy musk-like perfume mingled with blood and the gummed exhalation of the animal's breath, all cardamon and moss and ragweed odour in this huge night where the trees ran at him, pulled away, ran, pulled away, to the pulse of the heart behind his eyes. | Jelen. Osjetio je teški mošusni miris pomiješan s krvlju i smolastom isparinom životinjskog daha, sve sam miris kardamona, mahovine i limundžika u ovoj velikoj noći, u kojoj stabla nalijeću na njega, odvlače ga, trče, odvlače uz silno udaranje srca onkraj njegovih očiju. |
| There must have been a billion leaves on the land; he waded in them, a dry river smelling of hot cloves and warm dust. And the other smells! There was a smell like a cut potato from all the land, raw and cold and white from having the moon on it most of the night. There was a smell like pickles from a bottle and a smell like parsley on the table at home. There was a faint yellow odour like mustard from a jar. There was a smell like carnations from the yard next door. He put down his hand and felt a weed rise up like a child brushing him. His fingers smelled of liquorice. | Mora da je na zemlji bilo milijardu listova. Gacao je kroz njih, kroz suhu rijeku što vonja po vrućem češnjaku i toploj prašini! A oni drugi mirisi! Miris rasječena krumpira širio se iz cijele zemlje, grube, hladne i bijele od mjesečine koja ju je obasjavala pretežni dio noći. Ćutio je miris ukiseljena povrća iz staklenke te vonj peršina s domaćega stola. Osjetio se i slabašan, žućkast miris gorčice iz tegle. I miris sličan klinčićima iz susjednog dvorišta.Spustio je ruku i osjetio travurinu koja raste poput djeteta, dodirujući ga. Prstima je nanjušio gospino bilje. |
| He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than enough. | Stao je i udisao, a što je više udisao zemlju, to se više punio svim njezinim podrobnostima. Nije bio prazan. Svega je ovdje bilo i više nego dovoljno da ga ispuni. Uvijek će svega biti i više nego dovoljno. |
| He walked in the shallow tide of leaves, stumbling. | Hodao je pličinom lišća spotičući se. |
| And in the middle of the strangeness, a familiarity. | I usred svih neobičnosti, nešto poznato. |
| His foot hit something that rang dully. | Nogom je udario o nešto što je muklo zveknulo. |
| He moved his hand on the ground, a yard this way, a yard that. | Prošao je rukom po tlu, metar amo, metar tamo. |
| The railroad track. | Željeznička tračnica. |
| The track that came out of the city and rusted across the land, through forests and woods, deserted now, by the river. | Tračnica koja je vodila iz grada i hrđala preko zemlje, kroz šume i šumarke, sada napuštena, uz rijeku. |
| Here was the path to wherever he was going. Here was the single familiar thing, the magic charm he might need a little while, to touch, to feel beneath his feet, as he moved on into the bramble bushes and the lakes of smelling and feeling and touching, among the whispers and the blowing down of leaves. | Evo puteljka u smjeru kojim će poći. Evo jedine poznate stvari, čudesne amajlije koja bi mu mogla neko vrijeme trebati da je dodirne, osjeti pod nogama, dok se bude probijao kroz kupinjake i jezera mirisanja, pipanja i dodirivanja, kroz šapat i šuštanje lišća. |
| He walked on the track. | Hodao je tračnicama. |
| And he was surprised to learn how certain he suddenly was of a single fact he could not prove. | I iznenadio se spoznavši koliko mu je pouzdanja ulila jedna jedina činjenica koju nije mogao dokazati. |
| Once, long ago, Clarisse had walked here, where he was walking now. | Jednom, davno, Clarisse je hodala ovuda gdje on sada hodi. |
| Half an hour later, cold, and moving carefully on the tracks, fully aware of his entire body, his face, his mouth, his eyes stuffed with blackness, his ears stuffed with sound, his legs prickled with burrs and nettles, he saw the fire ahead. | Pola sata kasnije, promrzao, krećući se oprezno prugom, napeta tijela, lica, ustiju, očiju ispunjenih tamom, ušiju zvukom, nogu izgrebenih i opečenih koprivama, pred sobom je spazio vatru. |
| The fire was gone, then back again, like a winking eye. He stopped, afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath. But the fire was there and he approached warily, from a long way off. It took the better part of fifteen minutes before he drew very close indeed to it, and then he stood looking at it from cover. That small motion, the white and red colour, a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. | Vatra je nestala, pa se vratila, poput oka koje namiguje. Zaustavio se, bojeći se da bi mogao ugasiti vatru jednim svojim dahom. No vatra je bila ondje i on joj se oprezno izdaleka približio.Trebalo mu je gotovo petnaest minuta da joj se zaista prikuči. Tada se zaustavio da je iz zaklona promotri. Ono slabašno gibanje, bijela i crvena boja, neobična vatra, jer njemu je ona značila nešto posve drugo. |
| It was not burning; it was warming. | Ova nije palila; ova je grijala! |
| He saw many hands held to its warmth, hands without arms, hidden in darkness. Above the hands, motionless faces that were only moved and tossed and flickered with firelight. He hadn't known fire could look this way. He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take. Even its smell was different. | Vidio je mnogo dlanova kako se pružaju prema njezinoj toplini, dlanova bez ruku, koje su bile skrivene u tami. Iznad dlanova nepokretna lica koja su se gibala, micala, titrala jedino sa svjetlom ognja. Nije znao da vatra može izgledati i ovako. Nikada u životu nije bio pomislio da ona može davati baš kao i uzimati. Čak je i njezin miris bio drukčiji. |
| How long he stood he did not know, but there was a foolish and yet delicious sense of knowing himself as an animal come from the forest, drawn by the fire. He was a thing of brush and liquid eye, of fur and muzzle and hoof, he was a thing of horn and blood that would smell like autumn if you bled it out on the ground. He stood a long long time, listening to the warm crackle of the flames. | Koliko je tako stajao, nije znao. Imao je onaj lud, a opet divan osjećaj doživljavanja sebe sama kao životinje koja izlazi iz šume privučena vatrom. Bio je biće divljeg i bistrog oka, biće s krznom, njuškom i kopitom, biće s rogom i krvlju koja bi, da je proliješ po tlu, mirisala na jesen. Dugo je, dugo, stajao, osluškujući toplo pucketanje plamena. |
| There was a silence gathered all about that fire and the silence was in the men's faces, and time was there, time enough to sit by this rusting track under the trees, and look at the world and turn it over with the eyes, as if it were held to the centre of the bonfire, a piece of steel these men were all shaping. It was not only the fire that was different. It was the silence. Montag moved toward this special silence that was concerned with all of the world. | Posvuda oko te vatre nakupila se tišina; tišina je bila na ljudskim licima; i vrijeme je bilo ondje, vrijeme dostatno da se sjedne uz ove zahrđale tračnice pod stabla te da se gleda svijet i da ga se prevrne očima, kao da je pričvršćen o središte lomače, kao neki komad željeza što ga ovi ljudi oblikuju. Nije samo vatra bila neobična. Bila je to i tišina. Montag se pokrenuo prema ovoj naročitoj tišini koja se bavila čitavim svijetom. |
| And then the voices began and they were talking, and he could hear nothing of what the voices said, but the sound rose and fell quietly and the voices were turning the world over and looking at it; the voices knew the land and the trees and the city which lay down the track by the river. The voices talked of everything, there was nothing they could not talk about, he knew from the very cadence and motion and continual stir of curiosity and wonder in them. | A onda su se javili glasovi, vodio se razgovor, a on nije mogao čuti o čemu se to priča, ali zvuk se blago dizao i spuštao, a glasovi su prevraćali svijet i promatrali ga; glasovi su poznavali zemlju i drveće, kao i grad koji je ležao dolje niz prugu, uz rijeku. Glasovi su razgovarali o svemu, nije bilo ničega o čemu se nije moglo pričati, znao je to po samoj modulaciji, gibanju i neprekidnoj živahnoj znatiželji i čuđenju. |
| And then one of the men looked up and saw him, for the first or perhaps the seventh time, and a voice called to Montag: "All right, you can come out now!" Montag stepped back into the shadows. | Tada je jedan među njima podigao pogled i spazio ga, prvi ili možda sedmi put, a neki je glas doviknuo Montagu: |
| "It's all right," the voice said. "You're welcome here." | - U redu je, možete sada prići. Montag je koraknuo natrag u sjenu. |
| Montag walked slowly toward the fire and the five old men sitting there dressed in dark blue denim pants and jackets and dark blue suits. He did not know what to say to them. | - Sve je u redu - javio se opet isti glas. - Dobro ste nam došli. Montag je polako prilazio vatri, uz koju je sjedilo pet staraca odjevenih u hlače i jakne od tamnoplava džinsa i tamnoplava odijela. Nije znao što da im rekne. |
| "Sit down," said the man who seemed to be the leader of the small group. "Have some coffee?" | - Sjednite - rekao je čovjek koji je, čini se, bio voda grupice. - Hoćete li malo kave? |
| He watched the dark steaming mixture pour into a collapsible tin cup, which was handed him straight off. He sipped it gingerly and felt them looking at him with curiosity. His lips were scalded, but that was good. The faces around him were bearded, but the beards were clean, neat, and their hands were clean. They had stood up as if to welcome a guest, and now they sat down again. Montag sipped. "Thanks," he said. "Thanks very much." | Gledao je kako se tamna kipuća tekućina slijeva u sklopivu limenu šalicu, koju su mu smjesta dali. Polako je otpio. Osjetio je da ga radoznalo promatraju. Ofurio je usnice, no bilo je dobro. Lica što su ga okruživala bila su bradata, no te su brade bile čiste, uredne, a i ruke su im bile čiste. Bili su poustajali u znak dobrodošlice, a sada su ponovno sjeli. Montag je gucnuo još jednom. - Hvala - rekao je - puno vam hvala. |
| "You're welcome, Montag. My name's Granger." He held out a small bottle of colourless fluid. "Drink this, too. It'll change the chemical index of your perspiration. Half an hour from now you'll smell like two other people. With the Hound after you, the best thing is Bottoms up." | - Dobro došli, Montag. Ja se zovem Granger. - Izvukao je bočicu nekakve bezbojne tekućine. - Popijte i ovo. Time ćete promijeniti kemijski indeks svoga znoja. Za pola sata vonjat ćete kao još dva čovjeka. Kad vam je Pas za petama, najbolja je stvar "Do dna". |
| Montag drank the bitter fluid. | Montag je popio gorku tekućinu. |
| "You'll stink like a bobcat, but that's all right," said Granger. | - Smrdjet ćete kao stari mačak, no to ništa ne smeta -rekao je Granger. |
| "You know my name," said Montag. | - Znate kako se zovem - rekao je Montag. |
| Granger nodded to a portable battery TV set by the fire. "We've watched the chase. Figured you'd wind up south along the river. When we heard you plunging around out in the forest like a drunken elk, we didn't hide as we usually do. We figured you were in the river, when the helicopter cameras swung back in over the city. Something funny there. The chase is still running. The other way, though." | Granger je mahnuo glavom prema prijenosnom televizoru pokraj vatre. - Gledali smo hajku. Pretpostavili smo da ćete okrenuti na jug niz rijeku. Kad smo vas čuli kako bazate kroz šumu poput pijana losa, nismo se sakrili kao što inače činimo. Kad su se helikopterske kamere vratile nad grad, procijenili smo da ste u rijeci. Ondje se zbivaju smiješne stvari. Potraga još traje. Premda drugim putem. |
| "The other way?" | - Drugim putem? |
| "Let's have a look." | - Pogledajmo. |
| Granger snapped the portable viewer on. The picture was a nightmare, condensed, easily passed from hand to hand, in the forest, all whirring colour and flight. A voice cried: "The chase continues north in the city! Police helicopters are converging on Avenue 87 and Elm Grove Park!" | Granger je uključio prijenosni uređaj. Slika je bila užasna: skraćena, drhtava, nejasna, sve samo kovitlanje boja i proklizavanje. Neki je glas kričao: - Potraga se nastavlja sjeverno od grada! Policijski se helikopteri ustremljuju na 87. aveniju i Elm Grove Park. |
| Granger nodded. "They're faking. You threw them off at the river. They can't admit it. They know they can hold their audience only so long. The show's got to have a snap ending, quick! If they started searching the whole damn river it might take all night. So they're sniffing for a scape-goat to end things with a bang. Watch. They'll catch Montag in the next five minutes!" | Granger je kimnuo. - Lažu. Otresli ste ih se na rijeci.To ne mogu priznati. Znaju da samo ovako mogu zadržati publiku. Predstava mora dobiti brz završetak, i to hitno! Da su počeli pretraživati čitavu rijeku, zavuklo bi se to čitavu noć. Stoga sada njuškaju za nekim žrtvenim jarcem kako bi stvar okončali uspješno. Pazite! Uhvatit će Montaga u sljedećih pet minuta. |
| "But how―" | - Ali kako - |
| "Watch." | - Gledajte. |
| The camera, hovering in the belly of a helicopter, now swung down at an empty street. | Kamera koja je lebdjela ispod trbuha helikoptera sada je šarala jednom praznom ulicom. |
| "See that?" whispered Granger. "It'll be you; right up at the end of that street is our victim. See how our camera is coming in? Building the scene. Suspense. Long shot. Right now, some poor fellow is out for a walk. A rarity. An odd one. Don't think the police don't know the habits of queer ducks like that, men who walk mornings for the hell of it, or for reasons of insomnia. Anyway, the police have had him charted for months, years. Never know when that sort of information might be handy. And today, it turns out, it's very usable indeed. It saves face. Oh, God, look there!" | - Vidite li to? - prošaptao je Granger. - To ćete biti vi. Ravno gore na kraju te ulice nalazi se naša žrtva. Vidite li kako naša kamera zumira? Priprema se pozornica. Napetost. Dug kadar. Evo ga sad, neki jadnik vani šeće. Rijetkost. Čudak. Nemojte misliti da policija ne zna običaje osobenjaka kao što je ovaj, ljudi koji jutrom šeću bez ikakva razloga ili pak zbog nesanice.Bilo kako bilo, policija ga je zapisala prije više mjeseci, godina. Nikad ne znaš kad će ti tako nešto zatrebati. A danas, vidi se, baš će dobro doći. Spašava obraz. Oh, Bože, pogledajte tamo! |
| The men at the fire bent forward. | Ljudi koji su sjedili oko vatre nagnuli su se. |
| On the screen, a man turned a corner. The Mechanical Hound rushed forward into the viewer, suddenly. The helicopter light shot down a dozen brilliant pillars that built a cage all about the man. | Na zaslonu je neki čovjek zaokrenuo za ugao. Odjednom je u kadar uletio mehanički Pas. Helikopterski je reflektor ispalio desetak sjajnih stupova koji su oko čovjeka napravili pravi kavez. |
| A voice cried, "There's Montag! The search is done!" | Glas je kriknuo: - Eno Montaga! Potraga je završena! |
| The innocent man stood bewildered, a cigarette burning in his hand. He stared at the Hound, not knowing what it was. He probably never knew. He glanced up at the sky and the wailing sirens. The cameras rushed down. The Hound leapt up into the air with a rhythm and a sense of timing that was incredibly beautiful. Its needle shot out. It was suspended for a moment in their gaze, as if to give the vast audience time to appreciate everything, the raw look of the victim's face, the empty street, the steel animal a bullet nosing the target. | Nevini je čovjek zbunjeno stao; cigareta mu je gorjela u ruci. Zurio je u Psa, ne znajući što je to. Vjerojatno nikad nije niti čuo za njega. Pogledao je uvis te prema sirenama što su zavijale. Kamere su sunule prema dolje. Pas je skočio u zrak ritmički i skladno, što je bilo nevjerojatno lijepo. Njegova je igla iskočila. Zadržala se na trenutak u kadru, kao da se širokoj publici želi dati vremena da zamijeti sve: bolan izraz žrtvina lica, praznu ulicu, čeličnu životinju koja poput taneta leti u metu. |
| "Montag, don't move!" said a voice from the sky. | - Montag, ne mičite se! - rekao je glas s neba. Kamera se obrušila na žrtvu, gotovo istodobno sa Psom. |
| The camera fell upon the victim, even as did the Hound. Both reached him simultaneously. The victim was seized by Hound and camera in a great spidering, clenching grip. He screamed. He screamed. He screamed! | Oboje su ga zahvatili istodobno. Žrtvu su Pas i kamera obuhvatili jakim, paučjim stiskom. Čovjek je vrisnuo. Vrisnuo je. Vrisnuo! |
| Blackout. | Zatamnjenje. |
| Silence. | Tišina. |
| Darkness. | Mrak. |
| Montag cried out in the silence and turned away. Silence. | Montag je u tišini kriknuo i otkrenuo se. Tišina. |
| And then, after a time of the men sitting around the fire, their faces expressionless, an announcer on the dark screen said, "The search is over, Montag is dead; a crime against society has been avenged." | I onda, nakon što su ljudi oko vatre neko vrijeme proveli bezizražajnih lica, spiker s mračnog ekrana reče: - Potraga je završena. Montag je mrtav. Zločin protiv društva je osvećen. |
| Darkness. | Mrak. |
| "We now take you to the Sky Room of the Hotel Lux for a half-hour of Just-Before-Dawn, a programme of―" | - Sada vas vodimo u Nebesku odaju hotela Lux na polusatno Praskozorje, program u kojem - |
| Granger turned it off. | Granger je isključio televizor. |
| "They didn't show the man's face in focus. Did you notice? "Even your best friends couldn't tell if it was you. They scrambled it just enough to let the imagination take over. Hell," he whispered. "Hell." | - Jeste li primijetili, nisu fokusirali čovjekovo lice? Ni naši najbolji prijatelji ne bi mogli reći jeste li to bili vi. Zamutili su taman toliko da vaša mašta preuzme svoje. Do vraga - šapnuo je - do vraga. |
| Montag said nothing but now, looking back, sat with his eyes fixed to the blank screen, trembling. | Montag nije rekao ništa. Sada je netremice zurio u prazan ekran i drhtao. |
| Granger touched Montag's arm. "Welcome back from the dead." Montag nodded. Granger went on. "You might as well know all of us, now. This is Fred Clement, former occupant of the Thomas Hardy chair at Cambridge in the years before it became an Atomic Engineering School. | Granger je dodirnuo Montagovo rame. - E pa, sretan povratak iz mrtvih. - Montag je kimnuo. Granger je produžio -Mogli biste upoznati i ostale. Ovo je Fred Clement, bivši šef katedre Thomasa Hardyja u Cambridgeu, u doba dok još nije postala Škola za atomsko strojarstvo. |
| This other is Dr. Simmons from U.C.L.A., a specialist in Ortega y Gasset; Professor West here did quite a bit for ethics, an ancient study now, for Columbia University quite some years ago. Reverend Padover here gave a few lectures thirty years ago and lost his flock between one Sunday and the next for his views. He's been bumming with us some time now. Myself: I wrote a book called The Fingers in the Glove; the Proper Relationship between the Individual and Society, and here I am! Welcome, Montag!" | Ovo je dr. Simmons s UCLA-e, stručnjak za Ortega y Gasseta; profesor West vrlo je zaslužan za etiku, danas pradavni predmet, na sveučilištu Columbia prije mnogo godina. Velečasni gospodin Padover održao je prije tridesetak godina nekoliko propovijedi i zbog svojih stavova od jedne do druge nedjelje ostao bez svoga stada. Već se neko vrijeme skice s nama. Što se mene tiče, napisao sam knjigu pod naslovom Prsti u rukavicama; pravi odnos između pojedinca i društva, i evo me ovdje! Dobro došli, Montag! |
| "I don't belong with you," said Montag, at last, slowly. "I've been an idiot all the way." | - Ja ne spadam k vama - rekao je napokon Montag polako. - Ja sam sve vrijeme bio idiot. |
| "We're used to that. We all made the right kind of mistakes, or we wouldn't be here. When we were separate individuals, all we had was rage. I struck a fireman when he came to burn my library years ago. I've been running ever since. You want to join us, Montag?" | - Navikli smo na to. Svi smo počinili pravu vrstu pogrešaka, inače ne bismo bili ovdje. Kad smo bili razdvojeni pojedinci, jedino što nam je preostalo bila je srdžba. Udario sam vatrogasca kad je prije mnogo godina došao paliti moju knjižnicu. Otada sam stalno u bijegu. Želite li nam se pridružiti, Montag? |
| "Yes." | - Da. |
| "What have you to offer?" | - Što nam imate ponuditi? |
| "Nothing. I thought I had part of the Book of Ecclesiastes and maybe a little of Revelation, but I haven't even that now." | - Ništa. Pomislio sam da imam dio Propovjednika i možda djelić Otkrivenja, no sad nemam ni to. |
| "The Book of Ecclesiastes would be fine. Where was it?" | - Knjiga Propovjednika dobro bi došla. Gdje je bila? |
| "Here," Montag touched his head. | - Ovdje - Montag je dotaknuo svoju glavu. |
| "Ah," Granger smiled and nodded. | - - Ah - Granger se nasmiješio i kimnuo. |
| "What's wrong? Isn't that all right?" said Montag. | - Što ne valja? Zar to nije u redu? - upitao je Montag. |
| "Better than all right; perfect!" Granger turned to the Reverend. "Do we have a Book of Ecclesiastes?" | - I više nego u redu. Savršeno! - Granger se okrenuo velečasnom. - Imamo li Knjigu Propovjednika? |
| "One. A man named Harris in Youngstown." | - Jednu. Čovjeka po imenu Harris u Youngstownu. |
| "Montag." Granger took Montag's shoulder firmly. "Walk carefully. Guard your health. If anything should happen to Harris, you are the Book of Ecclesiastes. See how important you've become in the last minute!" | - Montag. - Granger ga je čvrsto primio za rame. - Hodajte pažljivo. Čuvajte zdravlje. Ako bi se štogod desilo Harrisu, vi ste Knjiga Propovjednika. Vidite li koliko ste postali važni u zadnji čas! |
| "But I've forgotten!" | - Ali ja sam zaboravio. |
| "No, nothing's ever lost. We have ways to shake down your clinkers for you." | - Ne, ništa nije izgubljeno. Imamo načina da vam stresemo mozak. |
| "But I've tried to remember!" | - Ali trudio sam se da se sjetim. |
| "Don't try. It'll come when we need it. All of us have photographic memories, but spend a lifetime learning how to block off the things that are really in there. Simmons here has worked on it for twenty years and now we've got the method down to where we can recall anything that's been read once. Would you like, some day, Montag, to read Plato's Republic?" | - Ne trudite se. Nadoći će kad nam ustreba. Svi mi imamo fotografsko pamćenje, ali cijeli život nastojimo naučiti blokirati ono što je doista u njemu. Simmons na tome radi dvadeset godina, pa smo tako sada dobili metodu kojom možemo u pamet prizvati bilo što što nam je jednom pročitano. Biste li, Montag, jednoga dana htjeli pročitati Platonovu Republiku? |
| "Of course!" | - Naravno. |
| "I am Plato's Republic. Like to read Marcus Aurelius? Mr. Simmons is Marcus." | - Ja sam Platonova Republika. Želite li čitati Marka Aurelija? Gospodin Simmons je Marko. |
| "How do you do?" said Mr. Simmons. | - Kako ste? - rekao je gospodin Simmons. |
| "Hello," said Montag. | - Dobar dan - odgovorio je Montag. |
| "I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver's Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John." | - Želim vas upoznati s Jonathanom Swiftom, autorom zločeste političke knjige Gulliverova putovanja! A onaj drugi momak, to je Charles Darwin, ovaj pak Schopenhauer, onaj je Einstein, a ovaj pokraj mene je gospodin Albert Schweitzer, jedan zaista fin filozof. Ovdje smo svi, Montag. Aristofan i Mahatma Gandhi, Gautama Buddha i Konfucije, Thomas Love Peacock, Thomas Jefferson i gospodin Lincoln, molim lijepo! Mi smo i Matej, Marko, Luka i Ivan. |
| Everyone laughed quietly. | Svi su se spokojno nasmijali. |
| "It can't be," said Montag. | - Nemoguće - rekao je Montag. |
| "It is," replied Granger, smiling. "We're book-burners, too. We read the books and burnt them, afraid they'd be found. Micro-filming didn't pay off; we were always travelling, we didn't want to bury the film and come back later. Always the chance of discovery. Better to keep it in the old heads, where no one can see it or suspect it. We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law, Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli, or Christ, it's here. And the hour is late. And the war's begun. And we are out here, and the city is there, all wrapped up in its own coat of a thousand colours. What do you think, Montag?" | - Moguće je - odgovorio je Granger smijući se. -I mi smo sažigači knjiga. Čitali smo knjige i palili ih u strahu da ne budu pronađene. Da ih snimimo na mikrofilmove, nije se isplatilo; stalno smo putovali, a nije nam se sviđalo zakapati filmove i kasnije se po njih vraćati. Uvijek postoji mogućnost da ih pronađu. Bolje ih je pohraniti u ove stare glave, gdje ih nitko ne može vidjeti niti naslutiti. Svi smo mi djelići povijesti, književnosti i međunarodnog prava. Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli ili Krist, sve je to ovdje! A kasno je. Rat je već tu. Mi smo ovdje vani, a grad je ogrnut vlastitim kaputom od tisuću boja. Što mislite, Montag? |
| "I think I was blind trying to do things my way, planting books in firemen's houses and sending in alarms." | - Mislim da sam bio slijep kad sam pokušavao provesti stvari na svoj način, podmetanjem knjiga u stanove vatrogasaca i podizanjem uzbuna. |
| "You did what you had to do. Carried out on a national scale, it might have worked beautifully. But our way is simpler and, we think, better. All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need, intact and safe. We're not out to incite or anger anyone yet. For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for good. We are model citizens, in our own special way; we walk the old tracks, we lie in the hills at night, and the city people let us be. We're stopped and searched occasionally, but there's nothing on our persons to incriminate us. The organization is flexible, very loose, and fragmentary. Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end. It's not pleasant, but then we're not in control, we're the odd minority crying in the wilderness. When the war's over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world." | - Učinili ste ono što ste morali učiniti. Provedeno na nacionalnoj razini, moglo se pokazati izvrsnim. No naš je način jednostavniji i, mislim, bolji. Želimo jedino nedirnutim sačuvati znanje koje će nam, nadam se, trebati. Nismo išli na to da ikoga razjarimo i rasrdimo. Jer, ako nas unište, znanje će biti mrtvo, možda i zauvijek. Uzorni smo građani, naravno na svoj način; hodamo po starim tračnicama, noću spavamo po brdima, a gradski nas ljudi ostavljaju na miru. Povremeno nas zaustavljaju i pretresaju, no uza se nemamo ništa što bi nas teretilo. Organizacija je elastična, vrlo slobodna i fragmentarna. Neki od nas kirurškim su zahvatima promijenili lica i otiske prstiju. U ovom nas trenutku čeka užasan posao: čekamo da rat počne pa da što brže i završi. To nije ugodno, no tada više nismo pod nadzorom. Mi smo tek čudačka manjina koja vapi u divljini. Kad rat završi, možda ćemo na neki način koristiti svijetu. |
| "Do you really think they'll listen then?" | - Zaista mislite da će vas tada poslušati? |
| "If not, we'll just have to wait. We'll pass the books on to our children by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people. A lot will be lost that way, of course. But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them. It can’t last." | - Ne budu li htjeli, morat ćemo se jednostavno strpjeti. Predat ćemo knjige svojoj djeci, i to usmeno, te pustiti da naša djeca čekaju opet druge ljude. Naravno, na taj će se način mnogo toga izgubiti. Ali, ne možete natjerati ljude da slušaju. Moraju sami u svoje vrijeme nadoći na to da se upitaju što se to zbilo i zašto im je svijet izmaknuo ispod nogu. Ne može ovo potrajati. |
| "How many of you are there?" | - Koliko vas je? |
| "Thousands on the roads, the abandoned railtracks, tonight, bums on the outside, libraries inside. It wasn't planned, at first. Each man had a book he wanted to remember, and did. Then, over a period of twenty years or so, we met each other, travelling, and got the loose network together and set out a plan. The most important single thing we had to pound into ourselves was that we were not important, we mustn't be pedants; we were not to feel superior to anyone else in the world. We're nothing more than dust-jackets for books, of no significance otherwise. | - Noćas tisuće na cestama, na napuštenim prugama. Protuhe izvana, knjižnice iznutra. Prvotno nismo ovako planirali. Svaki je čovjek želio zapamtiti neku knjigu, pa je to i učinio. A onda, u razdoblju od dvadesetak godina, susretali smo se putujući te zajednički stvorili vrlo slobodnu mrežu i razradili plan. Najvažnija stvar koju smo si morali utuviti u glavu bila je da mi nismo važni, da ne smijemo biti cjepidlake, da se ne smijemo osjetiti nadmoćnijim od ikoga na svijetu. Nismo ništa drugo doli zaštitni ovoj knjiga, bez ikakve druge važnosti. |
| Some of us live in small towns. Chapter One of Thoreau's Walden in Green River, Chapter Two in Willow Farm, Maine. Why, there's one town in Maryland, only twenty-seven people, no bomb'll ever touch that town, is the complete essays of a man named Bertrand Russell. Pick up that town, almost, and flip the pages, so many pages to a person. And when the war's over, some day, some year, the books can be written again, the people will be called in, one by one, to recite what they know and we'll set it up in type until another Dark Age, when we might have to do the whole damn thing over again. But that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing." | Neki od nas žive u malim gradovima. Poglavlje Prvo Thoreauova Waldena je u Green Riveru, Poglavlje Drugo u Willow Farmu, u državi Maine. Eno, tamo u Marylandu ima jedno mjestašce sa samo dvadeset sedam stanovnika. Nikakva bomba nikad neće pasti na taj gradić, a u njemu su sabrani eseji čovjeka po imenu Bertrand Russell. Gotovo da pokupiš sve mještane i prolistaš stranice, toliko i toliko stranica po osobi. A kad jednom rat završi, jednoga dana, jedne godine, knjige će se moći ponovno napisati: ljude će pozivati, jednog po jednog, da recitiraju ono što znaju, pa ćemo sve lijepo zabilježiti do nekog novog srednjovjekovlja, kad ćemo možda opet morati ponoviti čitav vraški postupak. Ali u tome i jest ono što kod čovjeka zadivljuje: nikad se toliko ne obeshrabri i ne zgadi da bi odustao od ponavljanja, jer vrlo dobro zna da je to i važno i vrijedno truda. |
| "What do we do tonight?" asked Montag. | - Što nam je noćas činiti? - upitao je Montag. |
| "Wait," said Granger. "And move downstream a little way, just in case." | - Čekati - rekao je Granger. - I pomaknuti se malo niz rijeku, tek tako, za svaki slučaj. |
| He began throwing dust and dirt on the fire. | Oganj je počeo zasipa vati prašinom i smećem. |
| The other men helped, and Montag helped, and there, in the wilderness, the men all moved their hands, putting out the fire together. | Ostali su pripomogli, Montag također, pa su tako ondje, u divljini, ljudi okupili svoje snage, gaseći vatru zajedno. |
| They stood by the river in the starlight. | Stajali su uz rijeku pod svjetlošću zvijezda. |
| Montag saw the luminous dial of his waterproof. Five. Five o'clock in the morning. Another year ticked by in a single hour, and dawn waiting beyond the far bank of the river. | Montag je ugledao svjetlucavi brojčanik svoga vodootpornog sata. Pet. Pet izjutra. Još je jedna godina othujala u jednom jedinom satu, a s onu stranu rijeke slutila se zora. |
| "Why do you trust me?" said Montag. A man moved in the darkness. | - Zašto mi vjerujete? - upitao je Montag. Netko se pomaknuo u travi. |
| "The look of you's enough. You haven't seen yourself in a mirror lately. Beyond that, the city has never cared so much about us to bother with an elaborate chase like this to find us. A few crackpots with verses in their heads can't touch them, and they know it and we know it; everyone knows it. So long as the vast population doesn't wander about quoting the Magna Carta and the Constitution, it's all right. The firemen were enough to check that, now and then. No, the cities don't bother us. And you look like hell." | - Dovoljno vas je pogledati. Niste se odavno pogledali u zrcalo. Osim toga, grad nikad nije toliko mario za nas da bi se upustio u ovako opsežnu hajku za nama. Nekoliko smušenjaka sa stihovima u glavi ne može im nauditi. Znaju oni to, znamo i mi, svi znaju. Sve dotle dok široko pučanstvo ne bude tumaralo citirajući Povelju o pravima čovjeka i Ustav, sve je u redu. Vatrogasci su bili dovoljni da s vremena na vrijeme pokažu da drže kontrolu. Ne, gradovi nas ne uznemiruju. A vi izgledate strašno. |
| They moved along the bank of the river, going south. Montag tried to see the men's faces, the old faces he remembered from the firelight, lined and tired. He was looking for a brightness, a resolve, a triumph over tomorrow that hardly seemed to be there. | Kretali su se riječnom obalom prema jugu. Montag je pokušao pogledati lica ljudi, stara lica koja je upamtio u svjetlosti vatre, lica izborana i umorna. Tragao je za vedrinom, odlučnošću, trijumfom nad sutrašnjicom, no toga kao da uopće nije bilo. |
| Perhaps he had expected their faces to burn and glitter with the knowledge they carried, to glow as lanterns glow, with the light in them. But all the light had come from the camp fire, and these men had seemed no different from any others who had run a long race, searched a long search, seen good things destroyed, and now, very late, were gathering to wait for the end of the party and the blowing out of the lamps. They weren't at all certain that the things they carried in their heads might make every future dawn glow with a purer light, they were sure of nothing save that the books were on file behind their quiet eyes, the books were waiting, with their pages uncut, for the customers who might come by in later years, some with clean and some with dirty fingers. | Možda je očekivao lica koja će plamtjeti i iskriti znanjem koje nose, sjati kao što sjaje svjetiljke, svjetlom koje je u njima. No sve je svjetlo dolazilo iz logorske vatre, a ovi se ljudi nisu činili nimalo drukčijima od ostalih koji su pretrčali dug put, bili na dugotrajnom istraživanju, vidjeli kako dobre stvari propadaju, pa se sada, vrlo kasno, okupljaju da pričekaju svršetak zabave i utrnuće svjetiljki. Uopće nisu bili sigurni u to da bi od onoga što nose u glavama svaka buduća zora mogla sjati čistijim svjetlom; ni u što nisu bili sigurni, osim u to da su iza njihovih spokojnih očiju nanizane knjige, da te knjige nerazrezanih korica čekaju korisnike, koji bi za koju godinu mogli naići, neki čistih, a neki prljavih prstiju. |
| Montag squinted from one face to another as they walked. | Dok su hodali, Montag je kradomice zagledao od jednoga lica do drugoga. |
| "Don't judge a book by its cover," someone said. And they all laughed quietly, moving downstream. | - Ne sudite o knjizi prema koricama - rekao je netko. Svi su se tiho nasmijali krećući se nizvodno. |
| There was a shriek and the jets from the city were gone overhead long before the men looked up. Montag stared back at the city, far down the river, only a faint glow now. | Čuo se zvižduk. Mlažnjaci iz grada nadletjeti su ih, i prije nego što su ljudi stigli pogledati uvis, Montag se okrenuo i zagledao prema gradu, daleko uz rijeku, odakle se vidio još slabašan odsjaj. |
| "My wife's back there." | - Žena mi je tamo otraga. |
| "I'm sorry to hear that. The cities won't do well in the next few days," said Granger. | - Žao mi je što to čujem. Idućih nekoliko dana neće biti lijepo u gradovima - rekao je Granger. |
| "It's strange, I don't miss her, it's strange I don't feel much of anything," said Montag. "Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don't think I'll feel sad. It isn't right. Something must be wrong with me." | - Čudno, ali ne nedostaje mi. Čudno, ne osjećam gotovo ništa - rekao je Montag. - Čak i da umre, spoznao sam to prije nekoliko trenutaka, ne vjerujem da bih se rastužio. To nije u redu. Mora da sa mnom nešto nije u redu. |
| "Listen," said Granger, taking his arm, and walking with him, holding aside the bushes to let him pass. "When I was a boy my grandfather died, and he was a sculptor. He was also a very kind man who had a lot of love to give the world, and he helped clean up the slum in our town; and he made toys for us and he did a million things in his lifetime; he was always busy with his hands. And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves and pigeons in the back yard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. | - Slušajte - rekao je Granger hvatajući ga za ruku i hodajući s njim, uklanjajući grane kako bi mogli proći. - Kad sam bio dječak, umro mi je djed, koji je bio kipar. Bio je ujedno i vrlo blag čovjek koji se s puno ljubavi davao svijetu; pripomagao je u uklanjanju sirotinjske četvrti u našem gradu. Izrađivao nam je igračke. Za života je napravio milijun stvari. Ruke su mu uvijek bile u poslu. A kad je umro, odjednom sam spoznao da uopće ne plačem za njim nego za stvarima koje je radio. Plakao sam zato što ih više nikad neće napraviti. Nikad više neće izrezbariti komad drveta, niti nam u stražnjem dvorištu pomagati uzgajati grlice i golubove, niti će nam svirati violinu na onaj svoj posebni način, niti će nam pričati šale onako kako on to zna. Bio je dio nas, pa kad je umro, sve su se aktivnosti zaustavile i nije više bilo nikoga tko bi ih izveo baš onako kao on. Bio je individuum. |
| He was an important man. I've never gotten over his death. Often I think, what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands. He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on." | Bio je značajan čovjek. Njegovu smrt nikad nisam prebolio. Često mislim kolike se divne rezbarije nikad nisu ostvarile zbog toga što je umro. Za koliko je šala prikraćen svijet, koliko golubova listonoša nije dodirnula njegova ruka. On je oblikovao svijet. On jest pridonio svijetu. One noći kad je izdahnuo, svijet je bio prikraćen za deset milijuna divnih djela. |
| Montag walked in silence. "Millie, Millie," he whispered. "Millie." | Montag je šutke hodao. - Millie, Millie - prošaptao je. - Millie. |
| "What?" | -Što? |
| "My wife, my wife. Poor Millie, poor Millie. I can't remember anything. I think of her hands but I don't see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lie there on her lap or there's a cigarette in them, but that's all." | - Moja žena, moja žena. Jadna Millie, jadna Millie, Ničega se ne mogu sjetiti. Razmišljam o njezinim rukama, ali se ne mogu prisjetiti da su ikad išta radile. Samo su joj visjele niz bokove, počivale u krilu ili pak držale cigaretu, no to je bilo sve. |
| Montag turned and glanced back. | Montag se okrenuo i pogledao unatrag. |
| What did you give to the city, Montag? | - Što si ti dao gradu, Montag? |
| Ashes. | - Pepeo. |
| What did the others give to each other? Nothingness. | - Što su ostali dali jedan drugomu? Ništavnost. |
| Granger stood looking back with Montag. "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." | Granger je stao te skupa s Montagom gledao natrag. -Svatko mora ostaviti nešto iza sebe kada umre, rekao je moj djed. Dijete, knjigu, sliku, kuću, podignuti zid ili par napravljenih cipela. Ili zasađen vrt. Nešto što je tvoja ruka dodirnula na neki način tako da ti duša ima kamo otići kad umreš. Pa kad ljudi pogledaju to stablo, ili taj cvijet koji si posadio, ti si u njemu. Nije važno što radiš, rekao je, bitno je da si nešto što si dodirnuo promijenio iz onog stanja u kojem je bilo prije no što si ga dotaknuo u nešto što nakon što odmakneš ruke nalikuje tebi. Razlika između čovjeka koji samo šiša tratinu i pravoga vrtlara jest u dodirivanju, kazao je. Onog šišača travnjaka gotovo da i nije bilo; vrtlar će pak ondje biti čitava života. |
| Granger moved his hand. "My grandfather showed me some V-2 rocket films once, fifty years ago. Have you ever seen the atom-bomb mushroom from two hundred miles up? It's a pinprick, it's nothing. With the wilderness all around it. | Granger je pomaknuo ruku. - Djed mi je prije pedesetak godina pokazao neke filmove o raketama V-2. Jeste li ikad vidjeli gljivu koju stvara atomska bomba s visine od 400 kilometara? To je sitnica, ništa. U usporedbi s divljinom oko nje. |
| "My grandfather ran off the V-2 rocket film a dozen times and then hoped that some day our cities would open up and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to remind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, some day it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be. You see?" Granger turned to Montag. "Grandfather's been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me. | - Moj je djed taj film o V-2 odvrtio desetak puta, a zatim se ponadao da će se naši gradovi jednoga dana otvoriti i u većoj mjeri u se pripustiti zelenilo, zemlju i divljinu. Želio je podsjetiti ljude da nam je na zemlji dodijeljen samo malen prostor te da preživljavamo u divljini koja sve što nam je dala može i oduzeti s tolikom lakoćom da samo dahne u nas ili pak da nam pošalje more koje će nam pokazati da mi i nismo tako silno veliki. Kad zaboravimo koliko nam je noću divljina blizu, rekao je moj djed, ona će jednoga dana ući i dohvatiti nas, jer ćemo posve zaboraviti koliko ona može biti užasna i stvarna. Shvaćate li? - Granger se okrenuo Montagu. - Djed je odavno mrtav, ali ako mi otvorite lubanju, u vijugama moga mozga pronaći ćete, bogme, otiske njegovih palčeva. On me dotaknuo. |
| As I said earlier, he was a sculptor. 'I hate a Roman named Status Quo!' he said to me. 'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,' he said, 'shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'" | Kao što sam već rekao, bio je kipar."Mrzim Rimljanina koji se zove Status Quo", kazao mi je. "Ispuni oči čuđenjem", rekao je. "Živi kao da ćeš se za deset sekundi srušiti mrtav. Pogledaj svijet. Fantastičniji je od bilo kojeg sna stvorenog i plaćenog u tvornicama. Ne traži jamstvo, sigurnost, takva životinja nikad nije postojala. A da je i postojala, bila bi u srodstvu s velikim ljenivcem koji danomice naglavačke visi s drveta, provodeći tako čitav svoj život. K vragu i to", rekao je, "protresi stablo i sruši velikog ljenivca da padne na guzicu!" |
| "Look!" cried Montag. | - Pogledajte! - kriknuo je Montag. |
| And the war began and ended in that instant. | I rat je počeo i završio u tom trenutku. |
| Later, the men around Montag could not say if they had really seen anything. Perhaps the merest flourish of light and motion in the sky. Perhaps the bombs were there, and the jets, ten miles, five miles, one mile up, for the merest instant, like grain thrown over the heavens by a great sowing hand, and the bombs drifting with dreadful swiftness, yet sudden slowness, down upon the morning city they had left behind. The bombardment was to all intents and purposes finished, once the jets had sighted their target, alerted their bombardiers at five thousand miles an hour; as quick as the whisper of a scythe the war was finished. | Ljudi oko Montaga nisu mogli kasnije reći jesu li zapravo išta vidjeli. Možda tek puko bujanje svjetla i gibanje na nebu. Možda je ondje bilo bombi i mlažnjaka na visini od deset, pet, jedan kilometar, i to u najkraćem časku, a onda su, kao zrnje koje je iz neba bacila ruka nekog silnog sijača, bombe poletjele užasnom brzinom, a opet tako nenadano sporo, na još nerazbuden grad što su ga ostavili. Bombardiranje je praktički završilo onog trena kad su mlažnjaci pri brzini od 10.000 kilometara na sat ugledali mete te uzbunili ljudstvo koje oslobađa projektile. Hitro, kao zamahom kose, rat je bio okončan. |
| Once the bomb-release was yanked it was over. Now, a full three seconds, all of the time in history, before the bombs struck, the enemy ships themselves were gone half around the visible world, like bullets in which a savage islander might not believe because they were invisible; yet the heart is suddenly shattered, the body falls in separate motions and the blood is astonished to be freed on the air; the brain squanders its few precious memories and, puzzled, dies. | Kad su povučene poluge za oslobađanje bombi, sve je bilo gotovo. Zatim su se u tri sekunde - sve vrijeme povijesti - prije nego što su bombe pale, neprijateljski zrakoplovi udaljili preko pola vidljiva svijeta, poput metaka u koje urođenik-otočanin ne bi mogao vjerovati samo zato što je tanad nevidljiva; pa ipak, srce je iznenada smrskano, tijelo pada u grču, a krv se čudi oslobađanju i zraku; mozak rasipa nekoliko svojih dragocjenih uspomena te, zbunjen, umire. |
| This was not to be believed. It was merely a gesture. Montag saw the flirt of a great metal fist over the far city and he knew the scream of the jets that would follow, would say, after the deed, disintegrate, leave no stone on another, perish. Die. | Upravo da ne povjeruješ. Bila je to puka kretnja. Montag je vidio brz udarac velike metalne šibe po udaljenu gradu i znao da će fijuk mlažnjaka što će uslijediti nakon ovog čina poručiti razoriti, ne ostaviti kamen na kamenu, nestati. Umrijeti. |
| Montag held the bombs in the sky for a single moment, with his mind and his hands reaching helplessly up at them. "Run!" he cried to Faber. To Clarisse, "Run!" To Mildred, "Get out, get out of there!" But Clarisse, he remembered, was dead. And Faber was out; there in the deep valleys of the country somewhere the five A.M. bus was on its way from one desolation to another. Though the desolation had not yet arrived, was still in the air, it was certain as man could make it. Before the bus had run another fifty yards on the highway, its destination would be meaningless, and its point of departure changed from metropolis to junkyard. | Montag je mislima i rukama koje su se bespomoćno digle uvis na jedan jedini časak zadržao bombe na nebu. - Bježite! -viknuo je Faberu, Clarissi. - Bježite! - Mildred - Bježi odatle, bježi van odatle! - Ali Clarisse je, sjetio se, bila mrtva. A Faber jest izašao; tamo negdje u dubokim dolinama onaj autobus koji je krenuo u 5 ujutro bio je na putu iz jedne pustoši u drugu. Premda pustoš još nije stigla - bila je još u zraku - bila je sigurna, koliko je čovjek uopće u nešto mogao biti siguran. Prije nego što se autobus proveze daljnjih pedeset metara po autocesti, njegovo će odredište biti besmisleno, a njegovo će se polazište iz metropole preobraziti u stovarište otpada. |
| And Mildred ... | A Mildred... |
| Get out, run! | Izlazi odatle, bježi! |
| He saw her in her hotel room somewhere now in the half second remaining with the bombs a yard, a foot, an inch from her building. He saw her leaning toward the great shimmering walls of colour and motion where the family talked and talked and talked to her, where the family prattled and chatted and said her name and smiled at her and said nothing of the bomb that was an inch, now a half-inch, now a quarter-inch from the top of the hotel. Leaning into the wall as if all of the hunger of looking would find the secret of her sleepless unease there. Mildred, leaning anxiously, nervously, as if to plunge, drop, fall into that swarming immensity of colour to drown in its bright happiness. | Vidio ju je sada u nekoj hotelskoj sobi u toj preostaloj polovici sekunde dok je bomba bila na metar, decimetar, centimetar od njezine zgrade. Vidio ju je kako se naginje prema blještavim zidovima punim boje i pokreta, na kojima joj "obitelj" blebeće, blebeće i blebeće, na kojima "obitelj" brblja i ćaska, izgovara njezino ime i smiješi joj se, ne spominjući bombu koja je tek centimetar, sada već pola centimetra, četvrt centimetra udaljena od krova hotela. Naginje se tako na zidove kao da će svom tom glađu za gledanjem proniknuti tajnu svoje besane nelagode. Naginjući se zabrinuto, nervozno, kao da će skočiti, Mildred se srušila, pala u ono živo bezmjerje boje da potone u njegovoj svijetloj sreći. |
| The first bomb struck. | Prva je bomba tresnula. |
| "Mildred!" | - Mildred! |
| Perhaps, who would ever know? Perhaps the great broadcasting stations with their beams of colour and light and talk and chatter went first into oblivion. | Možda, a tko li će to ikad doznati, možda su velike emisione postaje sa svojim zrakama boje, svjetla, razgovora i ćeretanja prve potonule u zaborav. |
| Montag, falling flat, going down, saw or felt, or imagined he saw or felt the walls go dark in Millie's face, heard her screaming, because in the millionth part of time left, she saw her own face reflected there, in a mirror instead of a crystal ball, and it was such a wildly empty face, all by itself in the room, touching nothing, starved and eating of itself, that at last she recognized it as her own and looked quickly up at the ceiling as it and the entire structure of the hotel blasted down upon her, carrying her with a million pounds of brick, metal, plaster, and wood, to meet other people in the hives below, all on their quick way down to the cellar where the explosion rid itself of them in its own unreasonable way. | Padajući nauznak, rušeći se, Montag je vidio ili osjetio, ili zamislio da vidi ili osjeća, da se zidovi zatamnjuju pred Millienim licem, čuo njezino vrištanje, jer je u milijuntom djeliću preostala vremena ugledala ondje odraz vlastita lica u ogledalu, umjesto u kristalnoj kugli, a to je lice bilo toliko bezumno prazno, onako posve samo u onoj sobi, ne dotičući se bilo čega, iznureno samim sobom, da ga je na kraju jedva prepoznala kao svoje, pa je hitro pogledala uvis, u strop, baš u trenutku kad se strop i čitava konstrukcija hotela srušila na nju, odnoseći je zajedno s milijunima kila opeke, metala, žbuke i drveta, da se susretne s drugim ljudima u njihovim košnicama dolje, a sve skupa za brzog putovanja sasvim dolje u podrum, gdje se svih eksplozija otarasila na svoj vlastiti nerazumni način. |
| I remember. Montag clung to the earth. I remember. Chicago. Chicago, a long time ago. Millie and I. That's where we met! I remember now. Chicago. A long time ago. | Sjećam se. Montag se priljubio uz zemlju. Sjećam se. Chicago. Chicago, davno. Millie i ja. Tamo sam je upoznao. Sjećam se sada. Chicago. Davno, davno. |
| The concussion knocked the air across and down the river, turned the men over like dominoes in a line, blew the water in lifting sprays, and blew the dust and made the trees above them mourn with a great wind passing away south. Montag crushed himself down, squeezing himself small, eyes tight. He blinked once. And in that instant saw the city, instead of the bombs, in the air. They had displaced each other. For another of those impossible instants the city stood, rebuilt and unrecognizable, taller than it had ever hoped or strived to be, taller than man had built it, erected at last in gouts of shattered concrete and sparkles of torn metal into a mural hung like a reversed avalanche, a million colours, a million oddities, a door where a window should be, a top for a bottom, a side for a back, and then the city rolled over and fell down dead. | Zračni je udar uzdrmao zrak iznad i preko rijeke, porušio ljude kao domine u nizu, uzvitlao vodu vrtnih prskalica, podigao prašinu, a drveće prisilio da se povija pod vihorom koji je zapuhao prema jugu. Montag se spljeskao uz tlo, stisnuo da bude što manji, zažmirio. Trepnuo je jednom. U tom je časku u zraku, umjesto bombi, ugledao grad. Bombe i grad zamijenili su mjesta. U jednom od ovih nemogućih trenutaka grad je ustao, iznova podignut i neprepoznatljiv, viši no što se ikad tome nadao i stremio, viši no što ga je čovjek sazdao, uspravljen konačno u svojoj kostobolji smrskana betona i razderana metala, s milijun boja, milijun neobičnosti, s vratima na mjestu na kojem su bili prozori, s gornjim dijelom na mjestu donjega, potpuno ispremiješan, da bi se potom taj grad prevrnuo i stropoštao mrtav. |
| The sound of its death came after. | Zvuk njegove smrti stigao je naknadno. |
| Montag, lying there, eyes gritted shut with dust, a fine wet cement of dust in his now shut mouth, gasping and crying, now thought again, I remember, I remember, I remember something else. What is it? Yes, yes, part of the Ecclesiastes and Revelation. Part of that book, part of it, quick now, quick, before it gets away, before the shock wears off, before the wind dies. Book of Ecclesiastes. Here. He said it over to himself silently, lying flat to the trembling earth, he said the words of it many times and they were perfect without trying and there was no Denham's Dentifrice anywhere, it was just the Preacher by himself, standing there in his mind, looking at him... | Ležeći na tlu, očiju zatvorenih i punih pijeska, usta punih vlažnog cementnog praha, Montag je sopćući i plačući sada ponovno pomislio: sjećam se, sjećam se, sjećam se još nečega. Čega to? Da, da, dijela Propovjednika i Otkrivenja. Dijela tih knjiga, samo dijelka, zato sada hitro, hitro, prije no što mi utekne, prije no što šok prestane, prije no što se vjetar smiri. Knjiga Propovjednikova. Evo.Tiho je govorio ležeći opružen na uzdrhtaloj zemlji; riječi je izgovarao mnogo puta i bez naprezanja, savršeno. Nigdje nije bilo nikakve Denhamove paste za zube, bio je tu sam Propovjednik; stajao je u njegovim mislima, gledao ga... |
| "There," said a voice. | - Eno - začuo je nečiji glas. |
| The men lay gasping like fish laid out on the grass. They held to the earth as children hold to familiar things, no matter how cold or dead, no matter what has happened or will happen, their fingers were clawed into the dirt, and they were all shouting to keep their eardrums from bursting, to keep their sanity from bursting, mouths open, Montag shouting with them, a protest against the wind that ripped their faces and tore at their lips, making their noses bleed. | Ljudi su ležali zijevajući poput riba izvučenih na travu. Držali su se zemlje kao što se djeca drže poznatih stvari, bez obzira na to koliko one bile hladne ili mrtve, bez obzira na to što se desilo ili što će se desiti. Prstima su se ukopali u prašinu. Svi su vikali da im bubnjići ne popucaju, da ne prolupaju. Montag je vikao zajedno s njima. Bio je to prosvjed protiv vjetra koji im je parao obraze, drapao usnice, raskrvario nosove. |
| Montag watched the great dust settle and the great silence move down upon their world. And lying there it seemed that he saw every single grain of dust and every blade of grass and that he heard every cry and shout and whisper going up in the world now. Silence fell down in the sifting dust, and all the leisure they might need to look around, to gather the reality of this day into their senses. | Montag je promatrao kako se velika prašina sliježe i velik muk spušta na njihov svijet. Ležeći tako, činilo mu se da vidi svako pojedino zrnce prašine i svaku vlat te kao da čuje svaki jecaj, krik i šapat koji se sada podižu iz svijeta. Na prosijanu prašinu spustila se tišina i silna dokolica koja bi im mogla zatrebati da se osvrnu, da svojim osjetilima obuhvate stvarnost ovoga dana. |
| Montag looked at the river. We'll go on the river. He looked at the old railroad tracks. Or we'll go that way. Or we'll walk on the highways now, and we'll have time to put things into ourselves. And some day, after it sets in us a long time, it'll come out of our hands and our mouths. And a lot of it will be wrong, but just enough of it will be right. | Montag je pogledao prema rijeci. Poći ćemo na rijeku. Pogledao je staru željezničku prugu. Ili ćemo poći njome. Ili ćemo sada poći autocestom. Imat ćemo vremena da sve ovo upijemo. I jednoga dana, kad se sve staloži u nama, sve će to izaći iz nas uz pomoć naših ruku ili usta. I mnogo toga što će biti pogrešno, ali će i dobroga biti posve dovoljno. |
| We'll just start walking today and see the world and the way the world walks around and talks, the way it really looks. I want to see everything now. And while none of it will be me when it goes in, after a while it'll all gather together inside and it'll be me. Look at the world out there, my God, my God, look at it out there, outside me, out there beyond my face and the only way to really touch it is to put it where it's finally me, where it's in the blood, where it pumps around a thousand times ten thousand a day. I get hold of it so it'll never run off. I'll hold on to the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning. | Dat ćemo se na put danas i gledat ćemo svijet, i to kako svijed hodi i priča, kako on stvarno izgleda. Sada želim vidjeti sve. I premda ništa od toga što bude ulazilo u mene neće biti dio mene, nakon stanovita vremena sve će se u meni zgrušati i postati ja. Pogledaj taj svijet tamo vani, Bože, moj Bože, pogledaj ga tamo vani, izvan mene, vani onkraj moga lica! Jedini način da ga stvarno dodirneš jest da ga staviš ondje gdje će on konačno postati ja, ondje u moj krvotok, odakle će kolati tisuću, deset tisuća puta dnevno. Čvrsto ću ga ščepati da mi nikada ne utekne. Čvrsto ću ščepati svijet jednoga dana. Već mi je jedan prst na njemu; to je početak. |
| The wind died. | Vjetar je prestao. |
| The other men lay a while, on the dawn edge of sleep, not yet ready to rise up and begin the day's obligations, its fires and foods, its thousand details of putting foot after foot and hand after hand. They lay blinking their dusty eyelids. You could hear them breathing fast, then slower, then slow... | Ostali su ljudi još malo leškarili, onako u polusnu praskozorja. Nije im se još ustajalo i otpočinjalo s dnevnim obvezama, vatrom i hranom, s tisućama pojedinosti oko stavljanja noge za nogom, ruke za rukom. Ležali su trepćući zaprašenim vjedama. Moglo se čuti kako dišu brzo, pa sporije i onda sporo... |
| Montag sat up. | Montag je sjeo. |
| He did not move any further, however. The other men did likewise. The sun was touching the black horizon with a faint red tip. The air was cold and smelled of a coming rain. | Nije se, međutim, više pomicao. I ostali su se ponijeli jednako. Sunce je slabašnim crvenim krajičkom dodirivalo crn obzor. Zrak je bio hladan; mirisalo je na skoru kišu. |
| Silently, Granger arose, felt his arms, and legs, swearing, swearing incessantly under his breath, tears dripping from his face. He shuffled down to the river to look upstream. | Granger se digao, opipao ruke i noge. Kleo je i kleo neprekidno ispod glasa, a suze su mu tekle. Otklipsao je do rijeke da pogleda uzvodno. |
| "It's flat," he said, a long time later. "City looks like a heap of baking-powder. It's gone." And a long time after that. "I wonder how many knew it was coming? I wonder how many were surprised?" | - Poravnat - rekao je nakon duga vremena. - Grad izgleda poput hrpe praška za pecivo. Nema ga. - I dugo zatim: - Pitam se koliko ih je znalo što se sprema. Koliko ih je iznenađenih? |
| And across the world, thought Montag, how many other cities dead? And here in our country, how many? A hundred, a thousand? | A na drugoj strani svijeta, pomislio je Montag, koliko je još mrtvih gradova? Pa u ovoj našoj zemlji, koliko ih je? Stotinu? Tisuću? |
| Someone struck a match and touched it to a piece of dry paper taken from their pocket, and shoved this under a bit of grass and leaves, and after a while added tiny twigs which were wet and sputtered but finally caught, and the fire grew larger in the early morning as the sun came up and the men slowly turned from looking up river and were drawn to the fire, awkwardly, with nothing to say, and the sun coloured the backs of their necks as they bent down. | Netko je strugnuo šibicu i prinio je komadiću papira što ga je izvadio iz džepa, da bi zatim papirić gurnuo pod malo trave i lišća. Nedugo zatim dodao je sitnih grančica, koje su bile vlažne pa su cvrčale, ali su na kraju planule. Vatra je postajala sve jača u rano jutro dok je sunce izlazilo. Ljudi su polako prestali gledati u rijeku. Privukla ih je vatra. Bili su bespomoćni, ništa nisu imali reći. Sunce im je obojilo leda i vratove kad su se sagnuli. |
| Granger unfolded an oilskin with some bacon in it. "We'll have a bite. Then we'll turn around and walk upstream. They'll be needing us up that way." | Granger je razmotao voštano platno u kojem je bilo nešto slanine. - Založit ćemo malo. Zatim ćemo se okrenuti te poći uzvodno. Trebat će nas tamo gore. |
| Someone produced a small frying-pan and the bacon went into it and the frying-pan was set on the fire. After a moment the bacon began to flutter and dance in the pan and the sputter of it filled the morning air with its aroma. The men watched this ritual silently. | Netko je izvadio tavicu. Slanina na tavu, tava na vatru. Trenutak kasnije slanina je za treperila i zaplesala u tavi, a njezino je cvrčanje zamirisalo jutarnjim zrakom. Ljudi su šutke promatrali ovaj obred. |
| Granger looked into the fire. "Phoenix." | Granger je gledao u vatru. - Feniks. |
| "What?" | - Što? |
| "There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation." | - Davno prije Krista postojala je neka glupa ptica zvana Feniks; svakih nekoliko stotina godina složila je lomaču i spalila samu sebe. Mora da je bila najbliži čovjekov rod. No svaki put kad bi se spalila, ponovno bi iskočila iz pepela, ponovno bi se rodila. Čini se, eto, da i mi stalno radimo to isto, no s jednom razlikom. Mi znamo koju smo silnu glupost upravo počinili. Znamo sve one silne gluposti što smo ih počinili u tisuću godina te, budući da znamo i da su nam stalno pred očima, jednog ćemo dana prestati slagati te proklete pogrebne lomače i skakati na njih. U svakom naraštaju imat ćemo uvijek više ljudi koji pamte. |
| He took the pan off the fire and let the bacon cool and they ate it, slowly, thoughtfully. | Odmaknuo je tavu s vatre i pustio da se slanina ohladi. Jeli su je polako, zamišljeno. |
| "Now, let's get on upstream," said Granger. "And hold on to one thought: You're not important. You're not anything. Some day the load we're carrying with us may help someone. But even when we had the books on hand, a long time ago, we didn't use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead. | - A sad krenimo uzvodno - rekao je Granger. -I držite se jedne misli: vi niste važni. Vi niste ništa. Jednoga će dana breme koje prtimo možda nekome pomoći. No i tada kad su nam knjige bile pri ruci, u davna vremena, nismo iskoristili ono što su nam pružale. Izravno smo vrijeđali mrtve. |
| We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us. We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And some day we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddam steam-shovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we're going to go build a mirror-factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them." | Izravno smo pljuvali po grobovima jadnika koji su pomrli prije nas. Srest ćemo mnogo osamljenih ljudi sljedećeg tjedna, sljedećeg mjeseca, sljedeće godine. Kad nas pak upitaju što radimo, možete im reći: "Pamtimo." To će nam na duge staze donijeti pobjedu. A jednoga ćemo dana zapamtiti toliko toga da ćemo sagraditi najveći rovokopač u povijesti te iskopati najveći grob svih vremena, pa u nj strpati rat i zakopati ga. Hajdimo sada. Prvo ćemo podići tvornicu zrcala te iduće godine proizvoditi isključivo zrcala i dugo se u njima ogledati. |
| They finished eating and put out the fire. The day was brightening all about them as if a pink lamp had been given more wick. In the trees, the birds that had flown away now came back and settled down. | Završili su s jelom i zatrli vatru. Svuda oko njih sve se više danilo, kao da je rumenoj svjetiljci podignut stijenj. U krošnje, iz kojih su se bile razletjele, ptice su se sada vratile i smirile se. |
| Montag began walking and after a moment found that the others had fallen in behind him, going north. He was surprised, and moved aside to let Granger pass, but Granger looked at him and nodded him on. | Montag je pošao, a trenutak kasnije ustanovio je da ga ostali prate na putu prema sjeveru. Iznenađen, stao je u stranu da propusti Grangera, no ovaj ga je samo pogledao i kimnuo da produži. |
| Montag went ahead. He looked at the river and the sky and the rusting track going back down to where the farms lay, where the barns stood full of hay, where a lot of people had walked by in the night on their way from the city. Later, in a month or six months, and certainly not more than a year, he would walk along here again, alone, and keep right on going until he caught up with the people. | Montag je hodao na čelu. Pogledao je rijeku, nebo i hrdave tračnice što vode dolje prema seoskim imanjima, prema štagljevima punim sijena, mimo kojih je mnogo ljudi noću kretalo prema gradu. Kasnije, za mjesec dana ili šest mjeseci, a svakako za manje od godinu dana, hodat će ovuda opet, sam, i neće prestajati dok ne sustigne ljude. |
| But now there was a long morning's walk until noon, and if the men were silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember. Perhaps later in the morning, when the sun was up and had warmed them, they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure they were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them. Montag felt the slow stir of words, the slow simmer. And when it came to his turn, what could he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier? To everything there is a season. Yes. | No sada ih je čekalo dugo jutarnje hodanje do podneva, a ako su ljudi bili mučaljivi, bilo je to stoga što se imalo o čemu razmišljati i što pamtiti. Možda će kasnije tijekom jutra, kad se sunce digne i kad ih ugrije, početi razgovarati ili pak samo izgovarati ono što pamte, kako bi bili sigurni sami u se, kako bi bili posve sigurni da je u njima sve na svome mjestu. Montag je osjetio polagano komešanje riječi, lagano vrenje. A kad dođe red na njega, što će moći reći, što će moći ponuditi na ovakav dan kako bi put bio malko lakši? Sve ima svoje vrijeme. Da. |
| A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else. What else? Something, something ... | Vrijeme rušenja i vrijeme izgradnje. Da. Vrijeme za šutnju i vrijeme za govor. Da, sve to. Ali što još. Što još? Nešto, nešto... |
| And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. | ... s obiju strana rijeke, stablo života što rodi dvanaest puta, svakog mjeseca svoj rod. A lišće stabla za zdravlje je narodima. |
| Yes, thought Montag, that's the one I'll save for noon. For noon ... | Da, pomislio je Montag, to je ono što ću sačuvati za podne. Za podne... |
| When we reach the city. | Kad dospijemo do grada. |
| THE END |