Ulysses by James Joyce

Дата публикации: Aug 09, 2020 11:41:4 AM

В переводе Сергея Хоружего в главе "Эол" читаем:

УЛИЧНОЕ ШЕСТВИЕ

Оба посмеялись, глядя поверх занавески на мальчишек, которые выплясывали гуськом за мистером Блумом, а у последнего белыми зигзагами мотался под ветром шутовской змей с белыми бантиками по хвосту.

Cкладывается впечатление, что у Блума реальный воздушный змей был в руках, или привязан к одежде.

В оригинале:

A STREET CORTÈGE

Both smiled over the crossblind at the file of capering newsboys in Mr Bloom's wake, the last zigzagging white on the breeze a mocking kite, a tail of white bowknots.

Я так понимаю, что эти мальчишки, следуя за Блумом как бы образовывали хвост воздушного змея, это сравнение - переносный, а не прямой смысл.

Вот здесь целая статья о походке Блума: Bloom's gait

... In the Aeolus episode, Bloom’s gait is parodied twice in quick succession, but each imitation conjures a separate and contradictory image. When Bloom exits the pressroom to meet Alexander Keyes at Dillon’s Auctionrooms, Lenehan and J. J. O’Molloy watch from the window as the newsies follow him:

Both smiled over the crossblind at the file of capering newsboys in Mr Bloom’s wake, the last zigzagging white on the breeze a mocking kite, a tail of white bowknots.

— Look at the young guttersnipe behind him hue and cry, Lenehan said, and you’ll kick. O, my rib risible! Taking off his flat spaugs and the walk. Small nines. Steal upon larks.

He began to mazurka in swift caricature across the floor on sliding feet past the fireplace to J. J. O’Molloy who placed the tissues in his receiving hands. (U 7.444-52)

The simple fact that both the newsboys and Lenehan imitate Bloom’s gait implies a distinguishable style of movement; however, their interpretations of his walk significantly contradict themselves and each other. In the newsboys’ mockery, they “caper” in a “zigzagging” motion, implying that Bloom’s movement is haphazard. Joyce compares Bloom to a kite and the boys to the “white bow knots” of the tail, metaphorically elevating Bloom above those in his “wake” despite their “mocking” of him. The image of the mocked soaring beyond his mockers has shades of irony while illuminating Bloom’s strength of purpose and identity. These sorts of conflicted portrayals of Bloom’s walk continue as Lenehan interprets the boys’ imitation of Bloom. He comments that they are “taking off his flat spaugs and the walk,” using the Anglicized Gaelic word “spaugs,” which means “paw” or “long flat foot” (Johnson 812). Gifford glosses this phrase to mean “big clumsy feet,” supplying an adjective that contradicts Lenehan’s subsequent “caricature” of Bloom’s gait in the form of a “mazurka,” a graceful, light-footed, and sweeping style of Polish dance. This passage seems contradictory as Bloom floats like a dancing kite and zigzags with clumsy feet. Nevertheless, one characteristic appears which will remain consistent: Bloom’s gait is “swift.”