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| At this moment, however, even the monologue had dried up. | И вот даже этот монолог иссяк. |
| Moreover his varicose ulcer had begun itching unbearably. | А язва над щиколоткой зудела невыносимо. |
| He dared not scratch it, because if he did so it always became inflamed. | Он боялся почесать ногу -- от этого всегда начиналось воспаление. |
| The seconds were ticking by. | Секунды капали. |
| He was conscious of nothing except the blankness of the page in front of him, the itching of the skin above his ankle, the blaring of the music, and a slight booziness caused by the gin. | Только белизна бумаги, да зуд над щиколоткой, да гремучая музыка, да легкий хмель в голове -вот и все, что воспринимали сейчас его чувства. |
| Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down. | И вдруг он начал писать -- просто от паники, очень смутно сознавая, что идет из-под пера. |
| His small but childish handwriting straggled up and down the page, shedding first its capital letters and finally even its full stops: | Бисерные, но по-детски корявые строки ползли то вверх, то вниз по листу, теряя сперва заглавные буквы, а потом и точки. |
| April 4th, 1984. | 4 апреля 1984 года. |
| Last night to the flicks. | Вчера в кино. |
| All war films. | Сплошь военные фильмы. |
| One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. | Один очень хороший где-то и Средиземном море бомбят судно с беженцами. |
| Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him, first you saw him wallowing along in the water like a porpoise, then you saw him through the helicopters gunsights, then he was full of holes and the sea round him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as though the holes had let in the water, audience shouting with laughter when he sank. then you saw a lifeboat full of children with a helicopter hovering over it. there was a middle-aged woman might have been a jewess sitting up in the bow with a little boy about three years old in her arms. little boy screaming with fright and hiding his head between her breasts as if he was trying to burrow right into her and the woman putting her arms round him and comforting him although she was blue with fright herself, all the time covering him up as much as possible as if she thought her arms could keep the bullets off him. then the helicopter planted a 20 kilo bomb in among them terrific flash and the boat went all to matchwood. then there was a wonderful shot of a child's arm going up up up right up into the air a helicopter with a camera in its nose must have followed it up and there was a lot of applause from the party seats but a woman down in the prole part of the house suddenly started kicking up a fuss and shouting they didnt oughter of showed it not in front of kids they didnt it aint right not in front of kids it aint until the police turned her turned her out i dont suppose anything happened to her nobody cares what the proles say typical prole reaction they never— |