Analytical reading-Part 22

From Intruder In the Dust

William Faulkner

L

ucas looked back to his uncle; he watched them staring at one another. Then once more Lucas blinked twice. “All right,” he said. “I’ll pay the expenses then. Name your expenses at anything within reason and let’s get this thing settled.”

                “Expenses?” his uncle said. “Yes, I had an expense sitting here last Tuesday trying to write down all the different things you finally told me in such a way that Mr. Hampton could get enough sense out of it to discharge you from jail and so the more I tried it the worse it got and the worse it got the worse I got until when I came to again my fountain pen was sticking up on its point in the floor down here like an arrow. Of course the paper belongs to the country but the fountain pen was mine and it cost me two dollars to have a new pen put to it. You owe me two dollars.”

                “Two dollars?” Lucas said. He blinked twice again. Then he blinked twice again. “Just two dollars?” Now he just blinked once, then he did something with his breath: not a sigh, simply a discharge of it, putting his first two fingers into his purse: “That don’t sound like much to me but then I’m a farming man and you are a lawing man and whether you know your business or not it is none of my red wagon as the music box says to try to learn you different”, and drew from the purse a worn bill crumpled into a ball not much larger than a shrivelled olive and opened it enough to read it and then opened it out and laid it on the desk and from the purse took a half dollar and laid it on the desk then counted onto the desk from the purse one by one four dimes and two nickels and then counted them again with his forefinger, moving them one by one about half an inch, his lips moving under the moustache, the purse still open in the other hand, then he picked up two of the dimes and a nickel and put them into the hand holding the open purse and took from the purse a quarter and put it on the desk and looked down at the coins for a rapid second then put the two dimes and the nickel back on the desk took up the half dollar and put it back in the purse.

Notes and comments:

to wince-мигвам, трепвам (от болка) (syn. to flinch, to shrink, to recoil, to draw back, to cringe)

to wink-смигвам, намигвам (syn. to blink, to flutter)

to blink-мигам “на парцали”

to twinkle-примигвам весело (syn. to sparkle, to shine, to glisten, to glitter, to glint, to gleam, to scintillate, to flicker)

to name wages/to put prices/to fix expenses at anything within reason = определям възнаграждение/разходи в границите на приемливото

to be unreasonable about the cost-”искам майка си и баща си”

a reasonable price-разумна/”човешка” цена (an exorbitant price-безбожна цена)

to have/get something settled once and for all-оправям се с нещо веднъж завинаги

to discharge from hospital-изписвам от болница

to discharge from prison-освобождавам от затвор

to discharge from responsibility-снемам от отговорност

the discharge of a gun-изгърмяване на пушка

the discharge of an exhaust pipe-пукането на ауспуха

prison-house-approved home, reformatory, penitentiary, dungeon, jail = затвор

jail-bird-затворник, “прангаджия”

напускане:

to resign

to send in one’s papers

to demit

to hand over

to vacate office

to sign off

to quit

to leave job

to stand aside

to give one’s notice

to declare one’s innings closed

уволнение:

be discharged from work

to be dismissed from duty

to be given the notice

to be exorcised

to be fired from one’s job

to be sacked without compensation

to be kicked out by the boss

to be ordered off the office

to lose one’s situation

to be given the axe

to be shoed off

He was taken off the payroll for failing to report to work. =Той бе отчислен от ведомостта за неявяване на служба.

crumpled paper-смачкана хартия

creased clothes-омачкани дрехи

ruffled appearance-смачкана външност

a shrivelled fruit-сбръчкан плод

a withered face-съсухрено лице

a sear/sere leaf-изсъхнал лист

а crushed obstinacy-прекършен инат

a crashed car-разбита кола

a smashed tomato-размазан домат

mashed potatoes-картофено пюре

scrambled eggs-бъркани яйца

squashed oranges-портокалов пулп

the crease of one’s trousers-ръба на панталоните

crease-resistant cloth-немачкаем плат

Use the following phrases in sentences of your own bearing in mind that the nouns denoting measure, quantity, etc. have zero-plural:

a ten-pound note, a five-dollar bill, a twelve-inch ruler, a four-foot ladder, a six-mile walk, a six-lane highway, a five-second pause, a ten-minute conversation, a two-hour exam, a sixty-acre farm, a five-yard space, a six-cylinder car