|
EPILOG | Epilogue |
Bila je skoro ponoć. Mesec se sada uzdizao visoko na nebu. Tetovirani čovek je nepokretno ležao. Video sam šta je bilo da se vidi. Priče su bile ispričane; sa njima je bilo svršeno. | IT WAS almost midnight. The moon was high in the sky now. The Illustrated Man lay motionless. I had seen what there was to see. The stories were told; they were over and done. |
Ostalo je još samo ono prazno mesto na leđima Tetoviranog čoveka, onaj prostor sa zbrkanim bojama i oblicima. Sada, dok sam gledao, nejasna mrlja poče da se pribira, lagano se pretapajući iz jednog oblika u drugi. Najzad se tu uobliči jedno lice, lice koje se zagleda u mene sa obojenog mesa, lice sa poznatim nosem i ustima, sa poznatim očima. | There remained only that empty space upon the Illustrated Man’s back, that area of jumbled colors and shapes. Now, as I watched, the vague patch began to assemble itself, in slow dissolvings from one shape to another and still another. And at last a face formed itself there, a face that gazed out at me from the colored flesh, a face with a familiar nose and mouth, familiar eyes. |
Bilo je vaoma nejasno. Ono što sam ja video od Prikaza bilo je dovoljno da poskočim. Stajao sam na mesečini, bojeći se da se vetar ili zvezde ne pokrenu i ne probude čudovišnu galeriju kod mojih nogu. Ali on je i dalje mirno spavao. | It was very hazy. I saw only enough of the Illustration to make me leap up. I stood therein the moonlight, afraid that the wind or the stars might move and wake the monstrous gallery at my feet. But he slept on, quietly. |
Slika na njegovim leđima pokazivala je Tetoviranog čoveka lično sa prstima oko mog vrata, kako me davi. Nisam čekao da se slika izoštri, da postane jasna i određena. | The picture on his back showed the Illustrated Man himself, with his fingers about my neck, choking me to death. I didn’t wait for it to become clear and sharp and a definite picture. |
Potrčah ulicom na mesečini. Nisam se osvrtao. Ispred mene je ležao gradić, u mraku i usnuo. Znao sam da ću, mnogo pre jutra, stići do grada... | I ran down the road in the moonlight. I didn’t look back. A small town lay ahead, dark and asleep. I knew that, long before morning, I would reach the town. . . . |