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| Why were they waiting, afraid for one small boy? | Zašto su svi oni čekali, i strepili zbog jednoga dječaka. Zato što... |
| Because… Joe Pipkin was the greatest boy who ever lived. The grandest boy who ever fell out of a tree and laughed at the joke. The finest boy who ever raced around the track, winning, and then, seeing his friends a mile back somewhere, stumbled and fell, waited for them to catch up, and joined, breast and breast, breaking the winner’s tape. The jolliest boy who ever hunted out all the haunted houses in town, which are hard to find, and came back to report on them and take all the kids to ramble through the basements and scramble up the ivy outside-bricks and shout down the chimneys and make water off the roofs, hooting and chimpanzee-dancing and ape-bellowing. The day Joe Pipkin was born all the Orange Crush and Nehi soda bottles in the world fizzed over; and joyful bees swarmed countrysides to sting maiden ladies. On his birthdays, the lake pulled out from the shore in midsummer and ran back with a tidal wave of boys, a big leap of bodies and a downcrash of laughs. | Zato što je Joe Pipkin bio najsilniji momak što je ikada hodao svijetom. Najveličanstveniji klinac što je ikad ispao iz krošnje i nasmijao se nekom vicu. Najsjajniji dečko koji je ikad optrčao stazu, pobijedio, i tada, opazivši da su mu prijatelji zaostali čitavu milju, spotaknuo se i pao, pričekao da ga sustignu, i tad im se pridružio da bi, prsa uz prsa, prekinuo pobjedničku vrpcu. Najluđi momak koji je ikad opsjedao sve opsjednute kuće u gradu, koje baš i nije bilo lako naći, da bi se potom vratio, i pričao o njima, i potom poveo sve klince da prekapaju po podrumu i trgaju bršljan s opeka vanjskoga zida, i dovikuju se kroz dimnjake, i puštaju vodu po krovovima, hučući i plešući poput čimpanzi i urlajući poput gorila. U dan kad se rodio Joe Pipkin, provrele su i prelile se sve boce svijeta s Orange Crushom i Nehisodom; a razdragane pčele preplavile su ladanje ubadajući neudane dame. Na njegov rođendan, jezero bi se usred ljeta povlačio od obala i poteklo natrag u plimnom valu dječaka, u golemom skoku tijela i sunovratnom tresku smijeha. |
| Dawns, lying in bed, you heard a birdpeck at the window. Pipkin. | U zoru, dok bi ležao u postelji, dječak bi začuo ptičje kljucanje o prozorsko staklo. Pipkin. |
| You stuck your head out into the snow-water-clear-summer-morning air. | Ispružio bi glavu u zrak ljetnoga jutra, bistrog kao snježnica. |
| There in the dew on the lawn rabbit prints showed where, just a moment ago, not a dozen rabbits but one rabbit had circled and crisscrossed in a glory of life and exultation, bounding hedges, clipping ferns, tromping clover. It resembled the switchyards down at the rail depot. A million tracks in the grass but no … | U vlazi tratine pokazale bi se zečje stope, na mjestu na kojem je, pred samo jedan trenutak, kružio i križao vlastite tragove ne tucet zečeva, već samo jedan dječak u slavi života i ushita, preskačući živice, sjeckajući paprat, utabavajući djetelinu. Sličilo je ranžirnom kolodvoru dolje kod depoa. Milijuni tragova u travi, ali nigdje... |
| Pipkin. | Pipkina. |
| And here he rose up like a wild sunflower in the garden. His great round face burned with fresh sun. His eyes flashed Morse code signals: | A onda bi iznikao poput divljeg suncokreta u vrtu. Njegovo bi silno okruglo lice gorjelo od svježega sunca. A oči bi mu bljeskale Morseovu abecedu: |
| “Hurry up! It’s almost over!” “What?” | "Požuri! Još malo pa gotovo!" "Što?" |
| “Today! Now! Six A.M.! Dive down! Wade in it!” Or: “This summer! Before you know, bang!—it’s gone! Quick!” | "Danas! Odmah! Šest ujutro! Uskači! Valjaj se u tome!" Ili: "To ljeto! Prije nego što i shvatiš, pras! - već ga nema! Brže!" |
| And he sank away in sunflowers to come up all onions. | I onda bi potonuo u suncokrete, pa izronio u samom luku. |
| Pipkin, oh, dear Pipkin, finest and loveliest of boys. How he ran so fast no one knew. His tennis shoes were ancient. They were colored green of forests jogged through, brown from old harvest trudges through September a year back, tar-stained from sprints along the docks and beaches where the coal barges came in, yellow from careless dogs, splinter-filled from climbing wood fences. His clothes were scarecrow clothes, worn by Pipkin’s dogs all night, loaned to them for strolls through town, with chew marks along the cuffs and fall marks on the seat. | Pipkin, o, mili Pipkin, najljepši i najdraži od svih dječaka. Kako je brzo trčao, to nitko nije znao. Tenisice su mu bile prastare. Bile su zelene od šuma kroz koje je trčao, smeđe od žetvenoga kulučenja lanjskoga rujna, pune katranskih mrlja od brzog sijevanja preko dokova i plaža gdje su dolazile ugljenarske teglenice, žute od bezobzirnih pasa, pune špranja od penjanja preko drvenih ograda. Odjeća mu je bila kao u strašila, noću bi je nosili njegovi psi, posuđivao bi im je za šetnje kroz grad, i na manžetama je imala tragove ugriza i na sjedalici tragove padova. |
| His hair? His hair was a great hedgehog bristle of bright brown-blond daggers sticking in all directions. His ears, pure peachfuzz. His hands, mittened with dust and the good smell of airedales and peppermint and stolen peaches from the far country orchards. | A kosa? Kosa mu je bila od silnih dikobrazovih čekinja, s jarkim riđe-plavim bodežima što su štrčali na sve strane. Uši pak, paperjaste kao breskvina kožica, dok su ruke bile u rukavicama sazdanim od praha i dobrog starog mirisa terijera i metvice i ukradenih bresaka iz dalekih ladanjskih voćnjaka. |
| Pipkin. An assemblage of speeds, smells, textures; a cross section of all the boys who ever ran, fell, got up, and ran again. | Pipkin. Mozaik brzina, mirisa, tkanja; nekakav prosječni presjek svih dječaka što su ikad trčali, padali, ponovno ustajali, ponovno trčali. |
| No one, in all the years, had ever seen him sitting still. He was hard to remember in school, in one seat, for one hour. He was the last into the schoolhouse and the first exploded out when the bell ended the day. | Nitko ga, za sve te godine, nije vidio kako sjedi na miru. Bilo ga je teško zamisliti u školi, u jednoj stolici, čitav sat. Posljednji bi stizao u školu i prvi, kao iz topa, izlijetao iz nje, čim bi zvono završilo dan. |
| Pipkin, sweet Pipkin. | Pipkin, premili Pipkin. |
| Who yodeled and played the kazoo and hated girls more than all the other boys in the gang combined. | Pipkin koji je jodlao i svirao kazoo i mrzio cure više nego svi ostali dečki u klapi uzeti zajedno. |
| Pipkin, whose arm around your shoulder, and secret whisper of great doings this day, protected you from the world. | Pipkin, koji bi ti stavio ruku na rame, i tajnovitim ti šaptom odavao velike dnevne planove, i štitio te od svijeta. |
| Pipkin. | Pipkin. |
| They stood in front of his house. Any moment now that door would open wide. Pipkin would jump out in a blast of fire and smoke. And Halloween would REALLY begin! Come on, Joe, oh, Pipkin, they whispered, come on! | Stajali su pred njegovom kućom. Sad bi se svakoga časa ta vrata mogla otvoriti širom. I Pipkin će iskočiti u oblacima dima i vatre. I tad će ZAISTA početi Noć vještica! No daj, Joe, o, Pipkin, zašaptali su, no daj! |