Читать книгу The Uncertain Land and Other Poems - Patrick O’Brian - Страница 7

Lines of unpredictable merit written on the back of Miss Patz, a rough-haired Dachshundin in the year of Grace a thousand nine hundred and forty-one, on Wednesday, the eighth day of January, at about half after one in the afternoon, it being a cold day, dismal with half molten snow.

The people of this [Chelsea ambulance] station are disconsolate and rude,

All English to the tonsils, and filled with British phlegm.

They blow their noses horribly, and between the blast is spewed

A flux of ghastly small-talk. Why, O God, did you make them?

¿Was other clay not handy?

Was there nothing else to please?

O Lord that gave us brandy

And lamb and fresh green peas

¿Why did You turn your hand to these?

The last line is (I think) an Alexandrine,

which is very clever indeed, probably.

That is affected, I must admit. ¿But am

I inferior to a Spaniard? ¡No!

In dispraise of the Personnel of 22 St[ation].

L.A.A.S.^fn1

The people of this station are disconsolate and rude

they are English to the tonsils, and with British phlegm embued

In proof of this opinion to their handkerchiefs I point

And not only to their kerchiefs, but oyster eyes and rheumy joint.

But also to their tempers, habitually vile

The fruit of grave distempers and coagulated bile.

All wart-hogs in comparison are quite high-souled and mild

Which leads to the conclusion that the better beasts are wild.

This may be sung (though the notion is grim)

To the tune of a well-known American hymn.

viz., or vide licet, if you should prefer the word

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord …

[Miss Patz]

Patz went out in the dead of the night,

in the dead of the night went she.

But first she carefully put out the light,

And closed the door with a key.

[Miss Patz’s invitation to the pub]

Sie sagte sich «Im ein Augenblick»

Ich 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’.]