| AUTOPUT | The Highway |
| Prohladna popodnevna kiša došla je preko doline dodirnuvši kukuruze na obrađenim njivama u brdu, dobujući po krovu od suve trave. U kišnoj tami žena je metodično i uporno mrvila kukuruz između ploča od lave. Negde, u vlažnoj tmini, zaplaka beba. | THE cooling afternoon rain had come over the valley, touching the corn in the tilled mountain fields, tapping on the dry grass roof of the hut. In the rainy darkness the woman ground corn between cakes of lava rock, working steadily. In the wet lightlessness, somewhere, a baby cried. |
| Hernando je stajao i čekao da stane kiša da bi opet mogao da pođe sa drvenim plugom na njivu. Dole, ispod, reka je klokotala smeđa i zgusnuta u svom koritu. Betonski autoput, jedna druga reka, uopšte nije tekao; ležao je ljeskav, pust. Kola nisu njime prošla već čitav sat. To je, samo po sebi, bilo neobično zanimljivo. Već godinama, nijedan sat ne bi mogao da prođe a da se ne zaustave neka kola, da neko ne poviče: "Ej, možemo li da te slikamo?" Neko sa kutijom koja bi škljocnula, dok bi mu u šaku ćušnuli novčić. Ako bi lagano hodao preko njive bez šešira, ponekad bi zavikali: "Oh, hoćemo te sa šeširom na glavi!" I mahali su rukama, nakićenim zlatnim predmetima koji pokazuju vreme, ili kazuju ko su oni, ili jednostavno svetlucaju kao paukove oči na suncu. On bi se okrenuo i vratio po šešir. | Hernando stood waiting for the rain to cease so he might take the wooden plow into the field again. Below, the river boiled brown and thickened in its course. The concrete highway, another river, did not flow at all; it lay shining, empty. A car had not come along it in an hour. This was, in itself, of unusual interest. Over the years there had not been an hour when a car had not pulled up, someone shouting, “Hey there, can we take your picture?” Someone with a box that clicked, and a coin in his hand. If he walked slowly across the field without his hat, sometimes they called, “Oh, we want you with your hat on!” And they waved their hands, rich with gold things that told time, or identified them, or did nothing at all but winked like spider’s eyes in the sun. So he would turn and go back to get his hat. |
| Njegova žena progovori. "Nešto nije u redu, Hernando?" | His wife spoke. “Something is wrong, Hernando?” |
| "Si. Drum. Nešto krupno se desilo. Nešto veliko, da ovako opusti drum." | “Sí. The road. Something big has happened. Something big to make the road so empty this way.” |
| Udalji se od kolibe polako i lakim hodom, dok mu je kiša kvasila ispletene cipele od trave i debele automobilske gume. Vrlo dobro se sećao slučaja sa tim parom cipela. Guma je jedne noći besno uletela u kolibu, kao eksplozijom rasterujući piliće i razbacujući lonce na sve strane! Došla je sama, brzo se kotrljajući. Kola sa kojih se otkačila jurila su i dalje, sve do krivine, i tamo se zadržala za trenutak, sa upaljenim prednjim svetlima pre nego što su se sunovratila u reku. Kola su još bila tamo. Mogla su se videti pri lepom vremenu, kada bi reka tekla mirno i mulj se staložio. Ležala su duboko dole sa svojim sjajnim metalom, dugačka i niska, i veoma bogata. Ali onda bi se mulj opet uzmutio i više se nije videlo ništa. | He walked from the hut slowly and easily, the rain washing over the twined shoes of grass and thick tire rubber he wore. He remembered very well the incident of this pair of shoes. The tire had come into the hut with violence one night, exploding the chickens and the pots apart! It had come alone, rolling swiftly. The car, off which it had come, had rushed on, as far as the curve, and hung a moment, headlights reflected, before plunging into the river. The car was still there. One might see it on a good day, when the river ran slow and the mud cleared. Deep under, shining its metal, long and low and very rich, lay the car. But then the mud came in again and you saw nothing. |
| Sledećeg dana od automobilske gume izrezao je đonove za cipele. | The following day he had carved the shoe soles from the tire rubber. |
| Sada stiže na autoput, i stade na njega osluškujući mu tihe zvuke na kiši. | He reached the highway now, and stood upon it, listening to the small sounds it made in the rain. |
| Onda, odjednom, kao na neki znak, stadoše da dolaze kola. Stotine kola, milje i milje kola proletala su kraj njega. Velika dugačka crna kola jurila su na sever ka Sjedinjenim Državama, urlajući, ulazeći u krivine suviše velikom brzinom. Uz neprekidno trubljenje pritisnutim sirenama. A na licima ljudi naguranih u kola bilo je nešto, nešto što ga natera u dubok muk. Ustuknu od automobila koji su urlajući promicali. Brojao ih je dok se ne umori. Prošlo je pet stotina, hiljadu automobila, i nešto je bilo na svim njihovim licima. Ali kretali su se i suviše brzo da bi mogao da vidi šta je to. | Then, suddenly, as if at a signal, the cars came. Hundreds of them, miles of them, rushing and rushing as he stood, by and by him. The big long black cars heading north toward the United States, roaring, taking the curves at too great a speed. With a ceaseless blowing and honking. And there was something about the faces of the people packed into the cars, something which dropped him into a deep silence. He stood back to let the cars roar on. He counted them until he tired. Five hundred, a thousand cars passed, and there was something in the faces of all of them. But they moved too swiftly for him to tell what this thing was. |
| Konačno se povratiše tišina i praznina. Nestadoše brza, dugačka i niska kola sa krovovima na sklapanje. Čuo je kako zamire i poslednja sirena. | Finally the silence and emptiness returned. The swift long low convertible cars were gone. He heard the last horn fade. |
| Drum je opet bio prazan. | The road was empty again. |
| Bilo je to kao pogrebna povorka. Ali besna povorka, u trku, raščupane kose, uzvrištala, ustremljena na sever na nekakvu ceremoniju. Zašto? Samo je vrteo glavom i prstima prevlačio po bokovima. | It had been like a funeral cortege. But a wild one, racing, hair out, screaming to some ceremony ever northward. Why? He could only shake his head and rub his fingers softly, at his sides. |
| Sada, potpuno sama, naiđoše poslednja kola. Planinskim drumom kroz retku prohladnu kišu, izbacujući uvis velike kolutove pare, naiđe jedan stari Ford. Išao je što brže može. Kao da će se raspasti svakog trenutka. Kada vide Fernanda, taj prastari Ford zakoči, sav od stvrdnutog blata i zarđao, dok mu je hladnjak razljućeno klokotao. | Now, all alone, a final car. There was something very, very final about it. Down the mountain road in the thin cool rain, fuming up great clouds of steam, came an old Ford. It was traveling as swiftly as it might. He expected it to break apart any instant. When this ancient Ford saw Hernando it pulled up, caked with mud and rusted, the radiator bubbling angrily. |
| "Možemo li dobiti malo vode, molim vas, senjor!" | “May we have some water, please, señor!” |
| Vozio je mladić, od oko dvadesetak godina. Nosio je žut džemper, belu košulju sa otvorenim okovratnikom i sive pantalone. U automobilu bez krova kiša je padala na njega i pet mladih žena koje su bile tako stisnute da se nisu mogle pomeriti u kolima. Sve su bile veoma ljupke i štitile su sebe i vozača od kiše starim novinama. Ipak, kiša je probila do njih, promočila im svetle haljine, iskvasila mladića. Kosa mu je bila ulepljena od kiše. Ali izgleda da nisu marili. Niko se nije žalio, i to je bilo neobično. Ranije su se uvek žalili; na kišu, na vrućinu, na vreme koje prolazi, na hladnoću, na udaljenost. | A young man, perhaps twenty-one, was driving. He wore a yellow sweater, an open-collared white shirt and gray pants. In the topless car the rain fell upon him and five young women packed so they could not move in the interior. They were all very pretty and they were keeping the rain from themselves and the driver with old newspapers. But the rain got through to them, soaking their bright dresses, soaking the young man. His hair was plastered with rain. But they did not seem to care. None complained, and this was unusual. Always before they complained; of rain, of heat, of time, of cold, of distance. |
| Hernando klimnu glavom. "Doneću vam vode." | Hernando nodded. “I’ll bring you water.” |
| "Požurite, molim vas!" povika jedna od devojaka. Izgledala je vrlo uzrujana i uplašena. Nije uopšte bila nestrpljiva; već je samo molila, u strahu. Po prvi put Hernando potrča kada ga turista nešto zamoli; uvek pre toga na takve molbe hodao bi sporije. | “Oh, please hurry!” one of the girls cried. She sounded very high and afraid. There was no impatience in her, only an asking out of fear. For the first time Hernando ran when a tourist asked; always before he had walked slower at such requests. |
| Vrati se sa poklopcem za točak punim vode. I to je bio dar sa autoputa. Jednog popodneva dojedrio mu je u njivu kao hitnut novčić, okrugao i sjajan. Automobil kome je pripadao otklizio je dalje, nesvestan činjenice da je izgubio jedno srebrno oko. Do sada su ga on i njegova žena koristili za pranje i kuvanje; napravili su od njega lepu zdelu. | He returned with a hub lid full of water. This, too, had been a gift from the highway. One afternoon it had sailed like a flung coin into his field, round and glittering. The car to which it belonged had slid on, oblivious to the fact that it had lost a silver eye. Until now, he and his wife had used it for washing and cooking; it made a fine bowl. |
| Dok je sipao vodu u uzavreli hladnjak, Hernando diže pogled na njihova prestrašena lica. "Oh, hvala vam, hvala", reče jedna od devojaka. "Ne znate šta to znači." | As he poured the water into the boiling radiator, Hernando looked up at their stricken faces. “Oh, thank you, thank you,” said one of the girls. “You don’t know what this means.” |
| Hernando se osmehnu. "Toliko saobraćaja za ovaj sat. I sve ide u jednom smeru. Na sever." | Hernando smiled. “So much traffic in this hour. It all goes one way. North.” |
| Nije mislio ničim da ih uvredi. Ali kada opet diže pogled, oni su svi sedeli, na kiši, i svi su plakali. Jako su plakali. Mladić je nastojao da ih smiri tako što im je stavljao ruke na ramena i blago ih protresao, jednu po jednu, ali one su držale novine preko glava dok su im se usta micala a oči bile zatvorene, u licu su menjale boju i plakale, neke glasno, neke tiho. | He did not mean to say anything to hurt them. But when he looked up again there all of them sat, in the rain, and they were crying. They were crying very hard. And the young man was trying to stop them by laying his hands on their shoulders and shaking them gently, one at a time, but they held their papers over their heads and their mouths moved and their eyes were shut and their faces changed color and they cried, some loud, some soft. |
| Hernando je stajao sa poluispražnjenim kapkom u ruci. "Nisam ništa mislio da kažem, senjor", izvinjavao se. | Hernando stood with the half-empty lid in his fingers. “I did got mean to say anything, señor,” he apologized. |
| "Nema veze", reče vozač. | “That’s all right,” said the driver. |
| "Kakva nesreća se dogodila, senjor?" | “What is wrong, señor?” |
| "Zar niste čuli?" odgovori mladić, okrećući se, jednom rukom čvrsto stiskajući upravljač, naginjući se napred. "Dogodilo se." | “Haven’t you heard?” replied the young man, turning, holding tightly to the wheel with one hand, leaning forward. “It’s happened.” |
| Ovo nije valjalo. Na to devojke još jače zaplakaše, pribiše se jedna uz drugu, zaboraviše novine puštajući da im se kiša meša sa suzama. | This was bad. The others, at this, cried still harder, holding onto each other, forgetting the newspapers, letting the rain fall and mingle with their tears. |
| Hernando se ukoči. Sasu ostatak vode u hladnjak. Pogleda u nebo koje se crnelo od oluje. Pogleda u brzu reku. Oseti asfalt pod cipelama. | Hernando stiffened. He put the rest of the water into the radiator. He looked at the sky, which was black with storm. He looked at the river rushing. He felt the asphalt under his shoes. |
| Priđe kolima sa strane. Mladić ga uze za ruku i dade mu pezos. "Ne." Hernando vrati pezos. "Drago mi je što mogu da vam učinim." | He came to the side of the car. The young man took his hand and gave him a peso. “No.” Hernando gave it back. “It is my pleasure.” |
| "Hvala vam, tako ste ljubazni", reče jedna od devojaka, još jecajući. "Joj, Mama, Tata. Joj, hoću da budem kod kuće, hoću kući. Oh, Mama, Tata." Ostali su je pridržavali. | “Thank you, you’re so kind,” said one of the girls, still sobbing. “Oh, Mama, Papa. Oh, I want to be home, I want to be home. Oh, Mama, Dad.” And others held her. |
