The Uncertain Land and Other Poems. Patrick O’Brian

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СКАЧАТЬ werde haben ein grosse Trink.

      Und so in kleiner

      Moment werdet in meiner

      Turn, zwei-drei steiner

      Sein, oder bier als wein.

      Gut. Geh’ich nach Klub.

      Nein; erst hab ich lust für ein Pub.

      She went quite straight to the Lion called Black^fn2

      Tossed down a quick pint, and never looked back

      For a wicked old Owl, who took his dram raw

      Determined to try the truth of the saw …

      mark the Saw.

      In wommin vinident [‘full of wine’] is no defence,

      ðus knoweth lechours by experience.

      Dan C[haucer].

      So he plied her with whiskey, with gin and with rum

      And said that he wished she would instantly come

      To a very fine party to be held at a club

      So complaisant and willing she then left the pub.

      At the club she encountered a motley crew

      Hard-drinking and raffish and lecherous too

      They drank bottles of whiskey and magnums of gin

      Till Patz felt uncertain what state she was in.

      The Owl broke off in the midst of a tale

      (It was singularly dirty – exclusively male)

      And said ‘Liebe Fraülein, what makes you so pale?

      Come, drink up a glass of red pepper and ale.’

      She said ‘it’s my head, the air, heat and the smoke,’

      And giggled like one who has just made a joke.

      The Owl thought, ‘Aha, now may I eat grass,

      But this is the time when I make the first pass.’

      And through his foul mind there passed devious shapes

      Of libidinous bitches and lecherous apes.

      [Jetzt kommt er bei Patz,^fn3

      Und flüßtert ganz leise

      ‘Heraus liegt ein Auto,

      Kommst Du für ein Reise?’

      ‘Ach nein! Du alt Teufel!

      Wie kannst du mir’s fragen?

      Ich weiß schon gehörts

      L.C.C. dieser Wagon!’

      Alors les autres

      Se mettaient à rire

      En se moquant de l’hibou

      Qui ne savait quoi dire.

      Il saisit d’un coup

      Une bouteille de vin,

      La vidait toute suite

      Et la jettait du main.

      ‘Je paris’, dit-il,

      ‘Je ne quitterai pas

      Avant que la chienne

      Se sert dans mes bras’.]

       ‘The sea and the sky are silent’

      The sea and the sky are silent:

      they wait.

      The sea and the sky are silent:

      the girl is late.

      The sea and the sky are silent:

      the girl is late.

      The sea and the sky are waiting:

      let her come to her fate.

       Mrs Koren

      Couplets in favour of Mrs W. Koren, who sent (per JBC)^fn1 jam to the O’Brians [at Collioure] in time of dearth

      All Attic virtues, beauty, wisdom, wit,

      Take which you will, she doth excel in it

      All these and yet one more th’Atlantic dame

      Hath to illumine her noble spouse’s name,

      Mark there the Greek with Chian wine and oil

      Comes bearing gifts, and see how vain his toil.

      Yet here Transpontine Ceres freely sends

      Imprison’d comfits, Polemarchus’ blends, …

      And dreams not fear nor anger (see above)

      But grateful intercessions and our love

      The pallid bread glows purple, and the dew

      Of anxious gleed bespreads each wizen’d brow

      Encrimson’d mouths gape sated at the last

      Such admirable tins of jam as these

      Are apt to promote international pese

      May Heaven reward Mrs Koren

      Who is undoubtedly a pearl among women.

      The recipient of jam were [sic] undoubtedly a moron

       ‘The harsh dry polished rattle’

      The harsh dry polished rattle of the palm fronds

      stirring in the breeze. I had supposed

      But not our London sparrow, magpie, crow

      Still less the stars by night, our Plough, old Bear

      the СКАЧАТЬ