The Gilded Six-Bits (4)

The Gilded Six-Bits (4)

66) It was Saturday night once more before Joe could parade his wife in Slemmons's ice cream parlor again. He worked the night shift and Saturday was his only night off.

* 자기 아내를 데리고 아이스크림 가게로 퍼레이드를 하는 남편.

67) Every other evening around six o'clock he left home, and dying dawn saw him hustling home around the lake, where the challenging sun flung a flaming sword from east to west across the trembling water.

여느 때라면 저녁 여섯시면 집을 나선다. 의기양양한 태양이 불꽃 검을 동에서 서로 물결치듯 호수를 가르며 여명의 종식을 고하는 시각이다.

(저녁 해지는 모습을 참 오색찬란하게도 표현해 놓았다.)

68) That was the best part of life--going home to Missie May. Their whitewashed house, the mock battle on Saturday, the dinner and ice cream parlor afterwards, church on Sunday nights when Missie outdressed any woman in town--all, everything, was right.

미시메이가 기다리는 집으로 가는 길은 인생에서 가장 즐거운 (순간)이다. 그집은, 하얗게 칠한 그집은, 토요일마다 격렬한 사랑의 유희가 벌어지는(the mock battle) 곳, 일요일 저녁 교회에 갈때나 차려입는 마을에서 가장 예쁘게 입고 아이스크림 가게에 가는, 모든 것이 만족스런 그런 곳.

(앞으로 벌어질 일을 감히 예상도 못할 만큼 고양된 분위기를 늘어놓았다.)
---
69) One night around eleven the acid ran out at the G. and G. The foreman knocked off the crew and let the steam die down.

(두둥! 공장에 재료가 떨어졌다! 일찍 퇴근이라니!)

70) As Joe rounded the lake on his way home, a lean moon rode the lake in a silver boat. If anybody had asked Joe about the moon on the lake, he would have said he hadn't paid it any attention.

한밤에 집으로 달려간다. 호숫가에 비친 은빛 가르마 같은 달 따위야 알바 아님.

71) But he saw it with his feelings. It made him yearn painfully for Missie. Creation obsessed him. He thought about children. They had been married more than a year now. They had money put away. They ought to be making little feet for shoes. A little boy child would be about right.

벌써 결혼한지 일년도 넘었다. 그간 저축도 좀 해뒀다. 얼른 집에가서 아이를 만들자(feet for shoes;(속어)임신시키다). 작은 사내아이면 좋겠다.

---
72) He saw a dim light in the bedroom and decided to come in through the kitchen door. He could wash the fertilizer dust off himself before presenting himself to Missie May. It would be nice for her not to know that he was there until he slipped into his place in bed and hugged her back. She always liked that.

침실에 희미한 불빛이 새어 나온다. 침대로 들어가기 전에 비료공장 먼지는 털고 들어가야지. 뒤에서 안아주면 그녀는 좋아했지.
---
73) He eased the kitchen door open slowly and silently, but when he went to set his dinner bucket on the table he bumped it into a pile of dishes, and something crashed to the floor. He heard his wife gasp in fright and hurried to reassure her.

부억을 지나다 도시락 통(dinner bucket)에 부디쳐 소리가 났다. 그녀가 놀랐는지 침실에서 소스라치게 놀라는 소리.

"Iss me, honey. Don't git skeered."

74) There was a quick, large movement in the bedroom. A rustle, a thud, and a stealthy silence. The light went out.

침실에서 뭔가 커다란 것이 움직이더니 불이 확 꺼졌다(went out).

75) What? Robbers? Murderers? Some varmint attacking his helpless wife, perhaps. He struck a match, threw himself on guard and stepped over the doorsill into the bedroom.

뭐야. 도둑이라도 든걸까? 가녀린 아내를 구해야지! 침실 문지방(doorsill)을 넘자 성냥불을 켰다.

76) The great belt on the wheel of Time slipped and eternity stood still.

시간의 수레바퀴에서 피대(줄)이 벗어난 듯이 세상 모든 것이 멈춘듯하다.

77) By the match light he could see the man's legs fighting with his breeches in his frantic desire to get them on. He had both chance and time to kill the intruder in his helpless condition--half in and half out of his pants--but he was too weak to take action.

성냥불 아래에 비친 겁에질린 어떤 남자를 발견했다. 한발은 아직 채 바짓가랭이에 끼우지 못한채 버둥거리는(in helpless condition) 사내를 해치울 수도 있었다.

78) The shapeless enemies of humanity that live in the hours of Time had waylaid Joe. He was assaulted in his weakness. Like Samson awakening after his haircut. So he just opened his mouth and laughed.

79) The match went out and he struck another and lit the lamp. A howling wind raced across his heart, but underneath its fury he heard his wife sobbing and Slemmons pleading for his life.

80) Offering to buy it with all that he had.

"Please, suh, don't kill me. Sixty-two dollars at de sto'. Gold money."

---

81) Joe just stood. Slemmons looked at the window, but it was screened. Joe stood out like a rough-backed mountain between him and the door. Barring him from escape, from sunrise, from life.

---

82) He considered a surprise attack upon the big clown that stood there laughing like a chessy cat.

83) But before his fist could travel an inch, Joe's own rushed out to crush him like a battering ram. Then Joe stood over him.

"Git into yo' damn rags, Slemmons, and dat quick."

"슬레먼, 빌어먹을 넝마들 들고 당장 꺼져"

83) Slemmons scrambled to his feet and into his vest and coat. As he grabbed his hat, Joe's fury overrode his intentions and he grabbed at Slemmons with his left hand and struck at him with his right. The right landed. The left grazed the front of his vest.

84) Slemmons was knocked a somersault into the kitchen and fled through the open door.

85) Joe found himself alone with Missie May, with the golden watch charm clutched in his left fist. A short bit of broken chain dangled between his fingers.

마침내 조와 울고있는 그의 아내만 남았다. 그(조)의 왼손에 출이 금장 시계가 줄이 끈어진 채 메달려 있었다.

---

86) Missie May was sobbing. Wails of weeping without words. Joe stood, and after a while he found out that he had something in his hand. And then he stood and felt without thinking and without seeing with his natural eyes.

87) Missie May kept on crying and Joe kept on feeling so much, and not knowing what to do with all his feelings, he put Slemmons's watch charm in his pants pocket and took a good laugh and went to bed.

미시메이는 계속 흐느꼈고 조는 교차하는 만감을 어찌해야할지 몰랐다. 슬래머의 시계를 주머니에 찔러 넣고는 헛웃음을 지으며 침대로 갔다.

"Missie May, whut you cryin' for?"

"Cause Ah love you so hard and Ah know you don't love me no mo'."

88) Joe sank his face into the pillow for a spell, then he said huskily,

"You don't know de feelings of dat yet, Missie May."

"Oh Joe, honey, he said he wuz gointer give me dat gold money and he jes' kept on after me--"

"그놈이 금화를 주겠다며 쫒아 다녔어요."

89) Joe was very still and silent for a long time. Then he said,

"Well, don't cry no mo', Missie May. Ah got yo' gold piece for you."

"더이상 울지말아요, 미시메이. 내가 당신 금쪼가리를 가지고 있으니까"

90) The hours went past on their rusty ankles. Joe still and quiet on one bed rail and Missie May wrung dry of sobs on the other. Finally the sun's tide crept upon the shore of night and drowned all its hours. Missie May with her face stiff and streaked towards the window saw the dawn come into her yard. It was day. Nothing more.

91) Joe wouldn't be coming home as usual. No need to fling open the front door and sweep off the porch, making it nice for Joe. Never no more breakfast to cook; no more washing and starching of Joe's jumper-jackets and pants. No more nothing. So why get up?

---

92) With this strange man in her bed, she felt embarrassed to get up and dress. She decided to wait till he had dressed and gone. Then she would get up, dress quickly and be gone forever beyond reach of Joe's looks and laughs. But he never moved. Red light turned to yellow, then white.

그녀는 침대에 누워있는 남편이 낮설게 느껴졌고 그가 옷을 입고 떠날때 까지 기다리기로 했다. 그리고 서둘러 조의 모습과 웃음이 닫지 않는 곳으로 멀리 떠나리라 마음먹었다. 하지만 그는 떠나지 않았다. 빨간 빛이 노랗게 변하더니 이윽고 하얗게 되었다. (악몽에서 일말의 희망으로)

-----------
다음: 5

[감상] 'The Gilded Six-bits' 'fix', 단편소설에서 한 단어의 위력