Перевод рассказа "Мой отец - юрист"
- Mine is one, too, - dropped I reacting to the newspaper article and tore out the page.
Now moving to, now moving from, I was looking all over an abstract daubed on a huge canvas hardly lit up with a small table lamp. I glued the paper piece into my painting and concluded:
- Trash…
And the light turned off. The boiler noise - expressed from behind the tilted shelves overwhelmed with paint and varnish bottles, - stopped and the only thing was breaking silence was the tap of wet snow drops.
Trying to avoid collision with heavy and/or oily things, anyhow I creeped out of the basement and kept on lying on the floor. There were dark falling snowflakes contrasting with a distant light mist on the background outside the kitchen window. I was still on the floor, lying and being deeply in thought.
The strange world… I would like to live fallowing my wishes but anytime I take a brush in my hand, somehow it becomes undesired. And I drop it down…
But when it falls I want it back into my hand again.
4:12 am
I stood up, pulled a jacket on and fell into the snow. Outside, the silence was even deeper then in my basement studio. Like I was at the ocean floor. "Swam" towards the nearest street lamp I lifted my head and stared at grayish sky. Like little stones, snowflakes were falling on my face, somewhere from the up above.
Unexpected, the light turned on. I closed my face but when I opened it again there was nothing seen except the light gray haze around me, the snow under my boots and the street lamp on above. Where's my home? Trying to decide the way to go to, I noticed the human silhouette moving unhurriedly towards the place I was at. Slowly, someone was walking through the mist shoveling the snow aside, grinding with a shovel against the asphalt.
- What are you doing here? - asked a man in a dusty robe when his shovel reached the part I stand on.
- Am… I don't know, - I answered automatically, examining the strange dressed Asian, surprised.
- Then follow me, you won't find the way back home anyway, - he said and turned the way he came from, holding the shovel under his armpit.
The street light lamp turned off. Puzzled, I looked around and realized that he was right and I ran towards the monk.
The stranger took me to a squat building and vanished without a trace. I was standing for a while, then opened a door and stepped into the building.
The wide hall was lightened up with thousand candles. There weren't any statues, paintings, furniture, whatever. Just candles and columns along the walls. Any movement done by me was twirling air making the lights blink disturbingly. I froze waiting spooky shadows stop dancing all around and then very slowly, holding my breath I hobbled through the hall towards another door in front of me.
I went into the patio and saw the monk standing there, under the snow that was still falling. The guy was swinging furiously sometimes his hands, sometimes his legs squatting over the yard falling down at one moment and jumping up at another. He was warmed up so much that steamed on the cold!
- You have to work, too, - he noticed.
- But I'm a botcher, - I reacted with affected naivete (I disliked any hard work).
- You don't have to be a master, - monk answered back and foist a handmade broom off on me, - just work.
- Okay, - I muttered and started besoming, and the Asian got back at guard.
Shuffling the broom, I was goggling at the exercises doing by the monk, and finally realized that there was no point to keep on tiding up while it's pouring penguins! I dropped the broom and looked at Master desperately.
- Why don't you keep on working? - he asked surprised.
- There is no sense! - I howled, - it's impossible to clean this yard while the snow keeps on falling!
His eyes rounded and bulged, and the monk just burst with laughter:
- I didn't ask you to clean it! I said - just work with this broom!
He picked up one and gave it back to me. Then, hardly recovered from confusion, he was back to the battle - unconceivable for mere mortals.
I was brooming over trying to understand what is the point of that? I couldn't explore even a part of mosaic the patio was inlayed with under the continuously increasing snow.
- What are you doing? - I heard the monk’s voice above my ear.
Startled, I got lost searching for a word and the man pulled off the broom and stroke me with it so hard that I set on the ground and stared at him, shocked.
- You are the worst worker, go out of here, - he said.
- No way, man, it's just that snow… - I started to justify myself.
- It can't prevent you from working with the broom! Go off.
I got angry, stood up and moved towards the gates. But on the half of the way I burned with curiosity and turned back to the monk saying:
- Give me that broom!
- No, - he answered and stood at guard.
- Give it back! You're wrong, I can do that!
In surprise he gave me the broom:
- Oh, well, but work please, - he asked me.
I took the tool and started brooming with force, while the monk was sitting on the steps watching my rampage. I didn't know how long it had lasted, but soon I chilled out and lapse into depress anew, understanding the pointlessness of this business.
- Why do I have to broom? - I asked him.
- I don't know, the idea was yours, - he answered, - don't you enjoy it?
- Well… - I thought for a while, - perhaps I like doing this but I can't dedicate my whole life to such work, can I?
- Why not? - he asked surprised and looked at me taken aback.
- Er… - his misunderstanding of such simple things confused me.
- It is enough to accept brooming to make one a part of your Path, - Master remarked, giving me the broom.
- But this is pointless! - I exploded.
- I KNOW! - he shouted back happily and that made me fall down on the ground.
12:53 pm
I opened my eyes and saw little sunbeams jumping over the glanced parquet. I set on the floor and looked over the hallway. The tomtit's cheeps were heard from the outside and suddenly I realized:
- I have to keep working…
© Written by Liuba in 24th and translated to english in 26th of January 2011
PS: this piece was written for the "Headlines" contest the main challenge of which was to write a story inspired by the newspaper or magazine article, so, that's why the whole story do not really match the topic :) Yeah, this is why I will loose this contest, I'm sure… >_>
