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Neil Gaiman "American Gods", Chapter 4 (p.7)

Chapter 4 (p.7)

Several years passed, and Essie was no longer a thin little thing: now she curved and billowed like the swell of the green sea, and her brown eyes laughed, and her chestnut hair tossed and curled. Essie's eyes lighted on Bartholomew, the squire's eighteen-year-old son, home from Rugby, and she went at night to the standing stone on the edge of the woodland, and she put some bread that Bartholomew had been eating but had left unfinished on the stone, wrapped in a cut strand of her own hair. And on the very next day Bartholomew came and talked to her, and looked on her approvingly with his own eyes, the dangerous blue of a sky when a storm is coming, while she was cleaning out the grate in his bedroom.

He had such dangerous eyes, said Essie Tregowan.

Soon enough Bartholomew went up to Oxford, and, when Essie's condition became apparent, she was dismissed. But the babe was stillborn, and, as a favor to Essie's mother, who was a very fine cook, the squire's wife prevailed upon her husband to return the former maiden to her former position in the scullery.

Even so, Essie's love for Bartholomew had turned to hatred for his family, and within the year she took for her new beau a man from a neighboring village, with a bad reputation, who went by the name of Josiah Horner. And one night, when the family slept, Essie arose in the night and unbolted the side door, to let her lover in. He rifled the house while the family slept on.

Suspicion immediately fell upon someone in the house, for it was apparent that someone must have opened the door (which the squire's wife distinctly remembered having bolted herself) and someone must have known where the squire kept his silver plate, and the drawer in which he kept his coins and his promissory notes. Still, Essie, by resolutely denying everything, was convicted of nothing until Master Josiah Horner was caught, in a chandler's in Exeter, passing one of the squire's notes. The squire identified it as his, and Horner and Essie went to trial.

Horner was convicted at the local assizes, and was, as the slang of the time so cruelly and so casually had it, turned off, but the judge took pity on Essie, because of her age or her chestnut hair, and he sentenced her to seven years' transportation. She was to be transported on a ship called the Neptune, under the command of one Captain Clarke. So Essie went to the Carolinas; and on the way she conceived an alliance with the selfsame captain, and prevailed upon him to return her to England with him, as his wife, and to take her to his mother's house in London, where no man knew her. The journey back, when the human cargo had been exchanged for cotton and tobacco, was a peaceful time, and a happy one, for the captain and his new bride, who were as two lovebirds or courting butterflies, unable to cease from touching each other or giving each other little gifts and endearments.

When they reached London, Captain Clarke lodged Essie with his mother, who treated her in all ways as her son's new wife. Eight weeks later, the Neptune set sail again, and the pretty young bride with the chestnut hair waved her husband goodbye from dockside. Then she returned to her mother-in-law's house, where, the old woman being absent, Essie helped herself to a length of silk, several gold coins, and a silver pot in which the old woman kept her buttons, and pocketing these things Essie vanished into the stews of London.

Over the following two years Essie became an accomplished shop-lifter, her wide skirts capable of concealing a multitude of sins, consisting chiefly of stolen bolts of silk and lace, and she lived life to the full. Essie gave thanks for her escapes from her vicissitudes to all the creatures that she had been told of as a child, to the piskies (whose influence, she was certain, extended as far as London), and she would put a wooden bowl of milk on a window-ledge each night, although her friends laughed at her; but she had the last laugh, as her friends got the pox or the clap and Essie remained in the peak of health.

She was a year shy of her twentieth birthday when fate dealt her an ill-blow: she sat in the Crossed Forks Inn off Fleet Street, in Bell Yard, when she saw a young man enter and seat himself near the fireplace, fresh down from the University. “Oho! A pigeon ripe for the plucking,” thinks Essie to herself, and she sits next to him, and tells him what a fine young man he is, and with one hand she begins to stroke his knee, while her other hand, more carefully, goes in search of his pocket-watch. And then he looked her full in the face, and her heart leapt and sank as eyes the dangerous blue of the summer sky before a storm gazed back into hers, and Master Bartholomew said her name.

She was taken to Newgate and charged with returning from transportation. Found guilty, Essie shocked no one by pleading her belly, although the town matrons, who assessed such claims (which were usually spurious), were surprised when they were forced to agree that Essie was indeed with child; although who the father was, Essie declined to say.

Her sentence of death was once more commuted to transportation, this time for life.

She rode out this time on the Sea-Maiden. There were two hundred transportees on that ship, packed into the hold like so many fat hogs on their way to market. Fluxes and fevers ran rampant; there was scarcely room to sit, let alone to lie down; a woman died in childbirth in the back of the hold, and, the people being pushed in too tightly to pass her body forward, she and the infant were forced out of a small porthole in the back, directly into the choppy gray sea. Essie was eight months gone, and it was a wonder she kept the baby, but keep it she did.

In her life ever after she would have nightmares of her time in that hold, and she would wake up screaming with the taste and stench of the place in her throat.

The Sea-Maiden landed at Norfolk in Virginia, and Essie's indenture was bought by a “small planter,” a tobacco farmer named John Richardson, for his wife had died of the childbirth fever a week after giving birth to his daughter, and he had need of a wet-nurse and a maid of all work upon his smallholding.

So Essie's baby boy, whom she called Anthony, after, she said, her late husband his father (knowing there was none there to contradict her, and perhaps she had known an Anthony once), sucked at Essie's breast alongside of Phyllida Richardson, and her employer's child always got first suck, so she grew into a healthy child, tall and strong, while Essie's son grew weak and rickety on what was left.

And along with the milk, the children as they grew drank Essie's tales: of the knockers and the blue-caps who live down the mines; of the Bucca, the tricksiest spirit of the land, much more dangerous than the red-headed, snub-nosed piskies, for whom the first fish of the catch was always left upon the shingle, and for whom a fresh-baked loaf of bread was left in the field, at reaping time, to ensure a fine harvest; she told them of the apple-tree men—old apple trees who talked when they had a mind, and who needed to be placated with the first cider of the crop, which was poured onto their roots as the year turned, if they were to give you a fine crop for the next year. She told them, in her mellifluous Cornish drawl, which trees they should be wary of, in the old rhyme:

Elm, he do brood

And Oak, he do hate,

But the willow-man goes walking,

If you stays out late.

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Chapter 4 (p.7) Κεφάλαιο 4 (σελ.7) Capítulo 4 (p.7) Capítulo 4 (p.7) Глава 4 (стр. 7) Bölüm 4 (s.7)

Several years passed, and Essie was no longer a thin little thing: now she curved and billowed like the swell of the green sea, and her brown eyes laughed, and her chestnut hair tossed and curled. ||||||||||||||изгибалась||развевалась|||волнение моря|||||||||||||||| Essie’s eyes lighted on Bartholomew, the squire’s eighteen-year-old son, home from Rugby, and she went at night to the standing stone on the edge of the woodland, and she put some bread that Bartholomew had been eating but had left unfinished on the stone, wrapped in a cut strand of her own hair. ||||Варфоломей||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||упакованного|||||||| And on the very next day Bartholomew came and talked to her, and looked on her approvingly with his own eyes, the dangerous blue of a sky when a storm is coming, while she was cleaning out the grate in his bedroom. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||решетка||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Kamin|||

He had such dangerous eyes, said Essie Tregowan.

Soon enough Bartholomew went up to Oxford, and, when Essie’s condition became apparent, she was dismissed. ||||||||||состояние||очевидной|||уволена But the babe was stillborn, and, as a favor to Essie’s mother, who was a very fine cook, the squire’s wife prevailed upon her husband to return the former maiden to her former position in the scullery. ||||Мертворожденный младенец|||||||||||||||||уговорила|||||||||||||||посудная комната ||||tot geboren||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Even so, Essie’s love for Bartholomew had turned to hatred for his family, and within the year she took for her new beau a man from a neighboring village, with a bad reputation, who went by the name of Josiah Horner. |||||||||ненависть к семье|||||||||||||новый ухажёр|||||соседней||||||||||||Иосия|Хорнер ||||||||||||||||||||||boyfriend|||||||||||||||||| And one night, when the family slept, Essie arose in the night and unbolted the side door, to let her lover in. ||||||||встала|||||открыла засов|||||||| He rifled the house while the family slept on. |Обшарил||||||| |searched thoroughly|||||||

Suspicion immediately fell upon someone in the house, for it was apparent that someone must have opened the door (which the squire’s wife distinctly remembered having bolted herself) and someone must have known where the squire kept his silver plate, and the drawer in which he kept his coins and his promissory notes. подозрение|||||||||||очевидно|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||дверь|||||||||обещательной| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Schuldscheine| Still, Essie, by resolutely denying everything, was convicted of nothing until Master Josiah Horner was caught, in a chandler’s in Exeter, passing one of the squire’s notes. |||решительно||||||||||||поймали|||лавке свечей|||||||| The squire identified it as his, and Horner and Essie went to trial. ||||||||||||суд

Horner was convicted at the local assizes, and was, as the slang of the time so cruelly and so casually had it, turned off, but the judge took pity on Essie, because of her age or her chestnut hair, and he sentenced her to seven years' transportation. Хорнер был осужден||осужден||||судебные заседания||||||||||жестоко|||||||||||||||||||||каштановые||||приговорён||||| ||||||Gerichtshof|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||court sessions|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| She was to be transported on a ship called the Neptune, under the command of one Captain Clarke. ||||||||||Нептун|||||||Кларк ||||||||||ship name||||||| So Essie went to the Carolinas; and on the way she conceived an alliance with the selfsame captain, and prevailed upon him to return her to England with him, as his wife, and to take her to his mother’s house in London, where no man knew her. |||||Каролины||||||задумала||союз|||том самом|||уговорила||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The journey back, when the human cargo had been exchanged for cotton and tobacco, was a peaceful time, and a happy one, for the captain and his new bride, who were as two lovebirds or courting butterflies, unable to cease from touching each other or giving each other little gifts and endearments. ||||||груз людей|||||||||||||||||||||||||||птицы любви||||||||||||||||||ласкивания |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||affectionate gestures

When they reached London, Captain Clarke lodged Essie with his mother, who treated her in all ways as her son’s new wife. ||достигли||||||||||||||||||| Eight weeks later, the Neptune set sail again, and the pretty young bride with the chestnut hair waved her husband goodbye from dockside. ||||||||||||||||||||||пристани Восьми недель спустя Нептун снова отплыл, а симпатичная молодая невеста с каштановыми волосами помахала своему мужу на прощание с причала. Then she returned to her mother-in-law’s house, where, the old woman being absent, Essie helped herself to a length of silk, several gold coins, and a silver pot in which the old woman kept her buttons, and pocketing these things Essie vanished into the stews of London. |||||||тёщи|||||||отсутствовала|||||||||||||||||||||||||положив||||пропала|||трущобы Лондона|| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Eintöpfe|| Затем она вернулась в дом к свекрови, где, поскольку старицы не было, Эсси помогла себе отрезом шелка, несколькими золотыми монетами и серебряной чашкой, в которой старая женщина хранила свои пуговицы, и, положив эти вещи в карман, Эсси исчезла в трущобах Лондона.

Over the following two years Essie became an accomplished shop-lifter, her wide skirts capable of concealing a multitude of sins, consisting chiefly of stolen bolts of silk and lace, and she lived life to the full. ||||||||опытной|магазин|воровка||широких|юбки|||скрывать||множество||грехов|состоящих главным образом|главным образом||украденных|болтов||||кружева||||||| В течение следующих двух лет Эсси стала опытной воровкой в магазинах, ее широкие юбки могли скрывать множество грехов, состоящих в основном из украденных отрезов шелка и кружева, и она жила полной жизнью. Essie gave thanks for her escapes from her vicissitudes to all the creatures that she had been told of as a child, to the piskies (whose influence, she was certain, extended as far as London), and she would put a wooden bowl of milk on a window-ledge each night, although her friends laughed at her; but she had the last laugh, as her friends got the pox or the clap and Essie remained in the peak of health. ||||||||перипетии||||||||||||||||пискси|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||пискли||||||осталась|||пикси|| ||||||||Wechselhaftigkeiten|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Эсси благодарила за свои спасения от невзгод всех существ, о которых ей говорили в детстве, пискей (чье влияние, она была уверена, простиралось до самого Лондона), и каждую ночь ставила деревянную чашу с молоком на подоконник, хотя её друзья смеялись над ней; но она смеялась последней, так как её друзья подхватили оспу или гонорею, а Эсси оставалась в отличном здравии.

She was a year shy of her twentieth birthday when fate dealt her an ill-blow: she sat in the Crossed Forks Inn off Fleet Street, in Bell Yard, when she saw a young man enter and seat himself near the fireplace, fresh down from the University. ||||не дожив до|||двадцатого||||||||||||||||||||Белл Ярд||||||||||||||||||| Она была на год моложе своего двадцатилетия, когда судьба нанесла ей неприятный удар: она сидела в трактире 'Перекрещенные Вилки' на Флит-стрит, в Белл-Ярде, когда увидела, как молодой человек вошел и сел рядом с камином, только что вернувшись из университета. “Oho! Ого «Ого!» A pigeon ripe for the plucking,” thinks Essie to herself, and she sits next to him, and tells him what a fine young man he is, and with one hand she begins to stroke his knee, while her other hand, more carefully, goes in search of his pocket-watch. ||зрелый для обмана|||обирания||||||||||||||||||||||||||||гладить||||||||||||||| «Голубь, готовый к ловле», - подумала Эсси про себя, и она села рядом с ним, и сказала ему, какой он замечательный молодой человек, и одной рукой начала гладить его колено, в то время как другая рука, более осторожно, принялась искать его карманные часы. And then he looked her full in the face, and her heart leapt and sank as eyes the dangerous blue of the summer sky before a storm gazed back into hers, and Master Bartholomew said her name. ||||||||||||вскочило|||||||||||||||||||||||| А затем он посмотрел ей прямо в лицо, и ее сердце подскочило и упало, когда глаза опасного синего цвета летнего неба перед бурей посмотрели ей в глаза, и мастер Бартоломью произнес ее имя.

She was taken to Newgate and charged with returning from transportation. ||||Ньюгейт|||||| Ее увезли в Ньюгейт и обвинили в возвращении из ссылки. Found guilty, Essie shocked no one by pleading her belly, although the town matrons, who assessed such claims (which were usually spurious), were surprised when they were forced to agree that Essie was indeed with child; although who the father was, Essie declined to say. |||||||прошением||беременность||||матроны||оценивали||претензии||||ложные||||||||||||действительно|||||||||отказалась|| |||||||||||||Damen||||||||falsche||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||female officials||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Признанная виновной, Эсси никого не удивила, признавшись в беременности, хотя городские дамы, которые оценивали такие заявления (которые обычно были ложными), были удивлены, когда им пришлось согласиться с тем, что Эсси действительно была беременна; хотя кто был отцом, Эсси отказалась сказать.

Her sentence of death was once more commuted to transportation, this time for life. |||||||снижена|||||| Её смертный приговор снова был заменён на ссылку, на этот раз пожизненно.

She rode out this time on the Sea-Maiden. |поехала||||||| На этот раз она уехала на «Морской Деве». There were two hundred transportees on that ship, packed into the hold like so many fat hogs on their way to market. ||||грузовиков||||||||||||свиноводы||||| ||||Transportierte||||||||||||||||| ||||people being transported||||||||||||||||| На этом корабле было двести ссыльных, набитых в трюме, как жирные свиньи по дороге на рынок. Fluxes and fevers ran rampant; there was scarcely room to sit, let alone to lie down; a woman died in childbirth in the back of the hold, and, the people being pushed in too tightly to pass her body forward, she and the infant were forced out of a small porthole in the back, directly into the choppy gray sea. потоки|и|лихорадки||разгулявшиеся|||едва|||||||||||||родах||||||||||||||слишком тесно|||||||||младенец|||||||иллюминатор||||||||| Fieber||Fieber||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| waves||||widespread||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Эпидемии и лихорадки бушевали; едва ли хватало места, чтобы сесть, не говоря уже о том, чтобы лечь; женщина умерла при родах в задней части трюма, и поскольку людей было слишком много, чтобы передать её тело вперед, её и младенца вытолкнули через небольшое иллюминатор в задней части, прямо в бурное серое море. Essie was eight months gone, and it was a wonder she kept the baby, but keep it she did. |||||||||чудо||держала||||||| Эсси было восемь месяцев беременности, и было чудом, что она удержала ребенка, но удержала.

In her life ever after she would have nightmares of her time in that hold, and she would wake up screaming with the taste and stench of the place in her throat. ||||||||кошмары|||||||||||||||||запахе||||||горле На протяжении всей своей жизни она будет видеть ночные кошмары о времени в этом трюме, и она будет просыпаться, кричащей с вкусом и запахом этого места в горле.

The Sea-Maiden landed at Norfolk in Virginia, and Essie’s indenture was bought by a “small planter,” a tobacco farmer named John Richardson, for his wife had died of the childbirth fever a week after giving birth to his daughter, and he had need of a wet-nurse and a maid of all work upon his smallholding. ||||||||||договор о найме||||||землевладелец||||||Ричардсон||||||||родов||||||||||||||||||||||||||небольшом хозяйстве ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Kleinbetrieb ||||||||||contract of servitude||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

So Essie’s baby boy, whom she called Anthony, after, she said, her late husband his father (knowing there was none there to contradict her, and perhaps she had known an Anthony once), sucked at Essie’s breast alongside of Phyllida Richardson, and her employer’s child always got first suck, so she grew into a healthy child, tall and strong, while Essie’s son grew weak and rickety on what was left. ||||которого||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Эсси||||Филлида||||||||||||||||||||||||||шаткий|||| Так что мальчик Эсси, которого она назвала Антонием, в честь её покойного мужа и его отца (зная, что некому было её опровергнуть, и, возможно, она когда-то знала Антония), сосал у Эсси грудь рядом с Филидой Ричардсон, и ребёнок её работодателя всегда первым сосал, поэтому она выросла здоровым ребёнком, высокой и крепкой, в то время как сын Эсси слабел и стал костлявым на том, что осталось.

And along with the milk, the children as they grew drank Essie’s tales: of the knockers and the blue-caps who live down the mines; of the Bucca, the tricksiest spirit of the land, much more dangerous than the red-headed, snub-nosed piskies, for whom the first fish of the catch was always left upon the shingle, and for whom a fresh-baked loaf of bread was left in the field, at reaping time, to ensure a fine harvest; she told them of the apple-tree men—old apple trees who talked when they had a mind, and who needed to be placated with the first cider of the crop, which was poured onto their roots as the year turned, if they were to give you a fine crop for the next year. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||Бука||самый хитрый|||||||||||||пили|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||умиротворены||||сидр|||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||trickreichsten|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||most cunning|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| И вместе с молоком, дети, по мере роста, пили сказки Эсси: о стучалах и синих шапочках, которые живут в шахтах; о Буке, самом хитром духе земли, намного более опасном, чем писки с красными волосами и курносым носом, для которых всегда оставляли первую рыбу на берегу, и для которых свежевыпеченный хлеб оставляли в поле в время жатвы, чтобы обеспечить хороший урожай; она рассказывала им о людях яблонь — старых яблонях, которые говорили, когда им было угодно, и которых нужно было умаслить первым сидром с урожая, который выливали на их корни, когда год менялся, если они собирались дать хороший урожай на следующий год. She told them, in her mellifluous Cornish drawl, which trees they should be wary of, in the old rhyme: |||||мелодичный|корнском|дразнении|||||||||||рифма |||||wohlklingend||||||||||||| |||||sweet-sounding||||||||||||| Она говорила им, своим мелодичным корнуольским акцентом, каких деревьев им следует остерегаться, в старой рифме:

Elm, he do brood |||медлить

And Oak, he do hate,

But the willow-man goes walking,

If you stays out late.