Stanley Kubrick's A clockwork orange: based on the novel by Anthony Burgess (29 page)

‘Give me that,’ I snarled and grabbed it skorry.  I couldn’t explain how it had got there, brothers, but it was a photograph I had scissored out of the old gazetta and it was of a baby.  It was of a baby gurgling goo goo goo with all like moloko dribbling from its rot and looking up and like smecking at everybody, and its was all nagoy and its flesh was like in all folds with being a very fat baby.  There was then like a bit of haw haw haw struggling to get hold of this bit of paper from me, so I had to snarl again at them and I grabbed the photo and tore it up into tiny teeny pieces and let it fall like a bit of snow on to the floor.  The whisky came in then and the starry baboochkas said: ‘Good health, lads, God bless you, boys, the best lads living, that’s what you are,’ and all that cal.  And one of them who was all lines and wrinkles and no zoobies in her shrunken old rot said: ‘Don’t tear up money, son.  If you don’t need it give it them as does,’ which was very bold and forward of her.  But Rick said:

‘Money that was not, O baboochka.  It was a picture of a dear little itsy witsy bitsy bit of a baby.’ I said:

‘I’m getting just that bit tired, that I am.  It’s you who’s the babies, you lot.  Scoffing and grinning and all you can do is smeck and give people bolshy cowardly tolchocks when they can’t give them back.’ Bully said:

‘Well now, we always thought it was you who was the king of that and also the teacher.  Not well, that’s the trouble with thou, old droogie.’

I viddied this sloppy glass of beer I had on the table in front of me and felt like all vomity within, so I went ‘Aaaaah’ and poured all the frothy vonny cal all over the floor.  One of the starry ptitsas said:

‘Waste not want not.’ I said:

‘Look, droogies.  Listen.  Tonight I am somehow just not in the mood.  I know not why or how it is, but there it is.  You three go your own ways this nightwise, leaving me out.  Tomorrow we shall meet same place same time, me hoping to be like a lot better.’

‘Oh,’ said Bully, ‘right sorry I am.’ But you could viddy a like gleam in his glazzies, because now he would be taking over for this nochy.  Power power, everybody like wants power.  ‘We can postpone till tomorrow,’ said Bully. ‘what we in mind had.  Namely, that bit of shopcrasting in Gagarin Street.  Flip horrorshow takings there, droog, for the having.’

‘No,’ I said.  ‘You postpone nothing.  You just carry on in your own like style.  Now,’ I said, ‘I itty off.’  And I got up from my chair.

‘Where to, then?’ asked Rick.

‘That know I not,’ I said.  ‘Just to be on like my own and sort things out.’  You could viddy the old baboochkas were real puzzled at me going out like that and like all morose and not the bright and smecking malchickiwick you will remember.  But I said: ‘Ah, to hell, to hell,’ and scatted out all on my oddy knocky into the street.

It was dark and there was a wind sharp as a nozh getting up, and there were very very few lewdies about.  There were these patrol cars with brutal rozzes inside them like cruising about, and now and then on the corner you would viddy a couple of very young millicents stamping against the bitchy cold and letting out steam breath on the winter air, O my brothers.  I suppose really a lot of the old ultra-violence and crasting was dying out now, the rozzes being so brutal with who they caught, though it had become like a fight between naughty nadsats and the rozzes who could be more skorry with the nozh and the britva and the stick and even the gun.  But what was the matter with me these days was that I didn’t like care much.  It was like something soft getting into me and I could not pony why.  What I wanted these days I did not know.  Even the music I liked to slooshy in my own malenky den what what I would have smecked at before, brothers.  I was slooshying more like malenky romantic songs, what they call
Lieder
, just a goloss and a piano, very quiet and like yearny, different from when it had been all bolshy orchestras and me lying on the bed between the violins and the trombones and kettledrums.  There was something happening inside me, and I wondered if it was like some disease or if it was what they had done to me that time upsetting my gulliver and perhaps going to make me real bezoomny.

So thinking like this with my gulliver bent and my rookers stuck in my trouser carmans I walked the town, brothers, and at last I began to feel very tired and also in great need of a nice bolshy chasha of milky chai.  Thinking about this chai, I got a sudden like picture of me sitting before a bolshy fire in an armchair peeting away at this chai, and what was funny and very very strange was that I seemed to have turned into a very starry chelloveck, about seventy years old, because I could viddy my own voloss, which was very grey, and I also had whiskers, and these were very grey too.  I could viddy myself as an old man, sitting by a fire, and then the like picture vanished.  But it was very like strange.

I came to one of these tea-and-coffee mestos, brothers, and I could viddy through the long long window that it was full of very dull lewdies, like ordinary, who had these very patient and expressionless litsos and would do no harm to no one, all sitting there and govoreeting like quietly and peeting away at their nice harmless chai and coffee.  I ittied inside and went up to the counter and bought me a nice hot chai with plenty of moloko, then I ittied to one of these tables and sat down to peet it.  There was a like young couple at this table, peeting and smoking filter-tip cancers, and govoreeting and smecking very quietly between themselves, but I took no notice of them and just went on peeting away and like dreaming and wondering what it was in me that was like changing and what was going to happen to me.  But I viddied that the devotchka at this table who was with this chelloveck was real horrorshow, not the sort you would want to like throw down and give the old in-out in-out to, but with a horrorshow plott and litso and a smiling rot and very very fair voloss and all that cal.  And then the veck with her, who had a hat on his gulliver and had his litso like turned away from me, swivelled round to viddy the bolshy big clock they had on the wall in this mesto, and then I viddied who he was and then he viddied who I was.  It was Pete, one of my three droogs from those days when it was Georgie and Dim and him and me.  It was Pete like looking a lot older though he could not now be more than nineteen and a bit, and he had a bit of a moustache and an ordinary day-suit and this hat on.  I said:

‘Well well well, droogie, what gives?  Very very long time no viddy.’ He said:

‘It’s little Alex, isn’t it?’

‘None other,’ I said.  ‘A long long long time since those dead and gone good days.  And now poor Georgie, they told me, is underground and old Dim is a brutal millicent, and here is thou and here is I, and what news hast thou, old droogie?’

‘He talks funny, doesn’t he?’ said this devotchka, like giggling.

‘This, said Pete to the devotchka, ‘is an old friend.  His name is Alex.  May I,’ he said to me, ‘introduce my wife?’

My rot fell wide open then.  ‘Wife?’ I like gaped. ‘Wife wife wife? Ah no, that cannot be.  Too young art thou to be married, old droog.  Impossible impossible.’

This devotchka who was like Pete’s wife (impossible impossible) giggled again and said to Pete: ‘Did you used to talk like that too?’

‘Well,’ said Pete, and he like smiled.  ‘I’m nearly twenty.  Old enough to be hitched, and it’s been two months already.  You were very young and very forward, remember.’

‘Well,’ I liked gaped still. ‘Over this get can I not, old droogie.  Pete married.  Well well well.’

‘We have a small flat,’ said Pete.  ‘I am earning very small money at State Marine Insurance, but things will get better, that I know.  And Georgina here-‘

‘What again is that name?’ I said, rot still open like bezoomny.  Pete’s wife.  (wife, brothers) like giggled again.

‘Georgina,’ said Pete.  ‘Georgina works too.  Typing, you know.  We manage, we manage.’ I could not, brothers, take my glazzies off him, really.  He was like grown up now, with a grown-up goloss and all.  ‘You must,’ said Pete, ‘come and see us sometime.  You still,’ he said, ‘look very young, despite all your terrible experiences.  Yes, yes, yes, we’ve read all about them.  But, of course, you
are
very young still.’

‘Eighteen,’ I said, ‘Just gone.’

‘Eighteen, eh?’ said Pete.  ‘As old as that.  Well well well. Now,’ he said, ‘we have to be going.’ And he like gave this Georgina of his a like loving look and pressed one of her rookers between his and she gave him one of these looks back, O my brothers.  ‘Yes,’ said Pete, turning back to me, ‘we’re off to a little party at Greg’s.’

‘Greg?’ I said.

‘Oh, of course,’ said Pete, ‘you wouldn’t know Greg, would you?  Greg is after your time.  While you were away Greg came into the picture.  He runs little parties, you know.  Mostly wine-cup and word-games.  But very nice, very pleasant, you know.  Harmless, if you see what I mean.’

‘Yes,’ I said.  ‘Harmless.  Yes, yes, I viddy that real horrorshow.’  And this Georgina devotchka giggled again at my slovos.  And then these two ittied off to their vonny word-games at this Greg’s, whoever he was.  I was left all on my oddy knocky with my milky chai, which was getting cold now, like thinking and wondering.

Perhaps that was it, I kept thinking.  Perhaps I was getting too old for the sort of jeezny I had been leading, brothers.  I was eighteen now, just gone.  Eighteen was not a young age.  At eighteen old Wolfgang Amadeus had written concertos and symphonies and operas and oratorios and all that cal, no, not cal, heavenly music.  And then there was old Felix M. with his
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Overture.  And there were others.  And there was this like French poet set by old Benjy Britt, who had done all his best poetry by the age of fifteen, O my brothers.  Arthur, his first name.  Eighteen was not all that young an age, then.  But what was I going to do?

Walking the dark chill bastards of winter streets after ittying off from this chai-and-coffee mesto, I kept viddying like visions, like these cartoons in the gazettas.  There was Your Humble Narrator Alex coming home from work to a good hot plate of dinner, and there was this ptitsa all welcoming and greeting like loving.  But I could not viddy her all that horrorshow, brothers, I could not think who it might be.  But I had this sudden very strong idea that if I walked into the room next to this room where the fire was burning away and my hot dinner laid on the table, there I should find what I really wanted, and now it all tied up, that picture scissored out of the gazetta and meeting old Pete like that.  For in that other room in a cot was laying gurgling goo goo goo my son.  Yes yes yes, brothers, my son.  And now I felt this bolshy big hollow inside my plott, feeling very surprised too at myself.  I knew what was happening, O my brothers.  I was like growing up.

Yes yes yes, there it was.  Youth must go, ah yes.  But youth is only being in a way like it might be an animal.  No, it is not just like being an animal so much as being one of these malenky toys you viddy being sold in the streets, like little chellovecks made out of tin and with a spring inside and then a winding handle on the outside and you wind it up grrr grrr grrr and off it itties, like walking, O my brothers.  But it itties in a straight line and bangs straight into things bang bang and it cannot help what it is doing.  Being young is like being like one of these malenky machines.

My son, my son.  When I had my son I would explain all that to him when he was starry enough to like understand.  But then I knew he would not understand or would not want to understand at all and would do all the veshches I had done, yes perhaps even killing some poor starry forella surrounded with mewing kots and koshkas, and I would not be able to really stop him.  And nor would he be able to stop his own son, brothers.  And so it would itty on until like the end of the world, round and round and round, like some bolshy gigantic like chelloveck, like old Bog Himself (by courtesy of Korova Milkbar) turning and turning and turning a vonny grahzny orange in his gigantic rookers.

But first of all, brothers, there was this veshch of finding some devotchka or other who would be a mother to this son.  I would have to start on that tomorrow, I kept thinking.  That was something like new to do.  That was something I would have to get started on, a new like chapter beginning.

That’s what it’s going to be then, brothers, as I come to the like end of this tale.  You have been everywhere with your little droog Alex, suffering with him, and you have viddied some of the most grahzny bratchnies old Bog ever made, all on to your old droog Alex.  And all it was was that I was young.  But now as I end this story, brothers, I am not young, not no longer, oh no.  Alex like groweth up, oh yes.

But where I itty now, O my brothers, is all on my oddy knocky, where you cannot go.  Tomorrow is all like sweet flowers and the turning vonny earth and the stars and the old Luna up there and your old droog Alex all on his oddy knocky seeking like a mate.  And all that cal.  A terrible grahzny vonny world, really, O my brothers.  And so farewell from your little droog.  And to all others in this story profound shooms of lipmusic brrrrrr.  And they can kiss my sharries.  But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was.  Amen.  And all that cal.

Glossary of Nadsat Language

Words that do not appear to be of Russian origin are distinguished

by asterisks.  (For help with the Russian, I am indebted to the kind-

ness of my colleague Nora Montesinos and a number of correspon-

dents.)

*appy polly loggy - apology             choodesny - wonderful

 baboochka - old woman                 *chumble - to mumble

*baddiwad - bad                         clop - to knock

 banda - band                           cluve - beak

 bezoomny - mad                         collocoll - bell

 biblio - library                      *crack - to break up or 'bust'

 bitva - battle                        *crark - to yowl?

 Bog - God                              crast - to steal or rob;

 bolnoy - sick                                  robbery

 bolshy - big, great                    creech - to shout or scream

 brat, bratty - brother                *cutter - money

 bratchny - bastard                     dama - lady

 britva - razor                         ded - old man

 brooko - belly                         deng - money

 brosay - to throw                      devotchka - girl

 bugatty - rich                         dobby - good

 cal - feces                           *dook - trace, ghost

*cancer - cigarette                     domy - house

 cantora - office                       dorogoy - dear, valuable

 carman - pocket                        dratsing - fighting

 chai - tea                            *drencrom - drug

*charles, charlie - chaplain            droog - friend

 chasha - cup                          *dung - to defecate

 chasso - guard                         dva - two

 cheena - woman                         eegra - game

 cheest - to wash                       eemya - name

 chelloveck - person, man,             *eggiweg - egg

              fellow                   *filly - to play or fool with

 chepooka - nonsense                   *firegold - drink

*fist - to punch                        loveted - caught

*flip - wild?                           lubbilubbing - making love

 forella - 'trout'                     *luscious glory - hair

 gazetta - newspaper                    malchick - boy

 glazz - eye                            malenky - little, tiny

 gloopy - stupid                        maslo - butter

*golly - unit of money                  merzky - filthy

 goloss - voice                         messel - thought, fancy

 goober - lip                           mesto - place

 gooly - to walk                        millicent - policeman

 gorlo - throat                         minoota - minute

 govoreet - to speak or talk            molodoy - young

 grahzny - dirty                        moloko - milk

 grazzy - soiled                        moodge - man

 gromky - loud                          morder - snout

 groody - breast                       *mounch - snack

 gruppa - group                         mozg - brain

*guff - guffaw                          nachinat - to begin

 gulliver - head                        nadmenny - arrogant

*guttiwuts - guts                       nadsat - teenage

*hen-korm - chickenfeed                 nagoy - naked

*horn - to cry out                     *nazz - fool

 horrorshow - good, well                neezhnies - underpants

*in-out in-out - copulation             nochy - night

 interessovat - to interest             hoga - foot, leg

 itty - to go                           nozh - knife

*jammiwam - jam                         nuking - smelling

 jeezny - life                          oddy knocky - lonesome

 kartoffel - potato                     odin - one

 keeshkas - guts                        okno - window

 kleb - bread                           oobivat - to kill

 klootch - key                          ookadeet - to leave

 knopka - button                        ooko - ear

 kopat - to 'dig'                       oomny - brainy

 koshka - cat                           oozhassny - terrible

 kot - tomcat                           oozy - chain

 krovvy - blood                         osoosh - to wipe

 kupet - to buy                         otchkies - eyeglasses

 lapa - paw                            *pan-handle - erection

 lewdies - people                      *pee and em - parents

*lighter - crone?                       peet - to drink

 litso - face                           pishcha - food

 lomtick, piece, bit                    platch - to cry

 platties - clothes                    *shlaga - club

 pletcho - shoulder                     shlapa - hat

 plenny - prisoner                      shoom - noise

 plesk - splash                         shoot - fool

*plosh - to splash                     *sinny - cinema

 plott - body                           skazat - to say

 podooshka - pillow                    *skolliwoll - school

 pol - sex                              skorry - quick, quickly

 polezny - useful                      *skriking - scratching

*polyclef - skeleton key                skvat - to grab

 pony - to understand                   sladky - sweet

 poogly - frightened                    sloochat - to happen

 pooshka - 'cannon'                     sloosh, slooshy - to hear, to

 prestoopnick - criminal                                  listen

 privodeet - to lead                    slovo - word

             somewhere                  smeck - laugh

*pretty polly - money                   smot - to look

 prod - to produce                      sneety - dream

 ptitsa - 'chick'                      *snoutie - tobacco?

 pyahnitsa - drunk                     *snuff it - to die

 rabbit - work, job                     sobirat - to pick up

 radosty - joy                         *sod - to fornicate, fornicator

 raskazz - story                        soomka - 'bag'

 rassoodock - mind                      soviet - advice, order

 raz - time                             spat - to sleep

 razdraz - upset                       *splodge, splosh - splash

 razrez - to rip, ripping              *spoogy - terrified

 rook, rooker - hand, arm              *Staja - State Jail

 rot - mouth                            starry - ancient

 rozz - policeman                       strack - horror

 sabog - shoe                          *synthemesc - drug

 sakar - sugar                          tally - waist

 sammy - generous                      *tashtook - handkerchief

*sarky - sarcastic                     *tass - cup

 scoteena - 'cow'                       tolchock - to hit or push; blow,

 shaika - gang                                     beating

*sharp - female                         toofles - slippers

 sharries - buttocks                    tree - three

 shest - barrier                        vareet - to 'cook up'

*shilarny - concern                    *vaysay - washroom

*shive - slice                          veck - (see chelloveck)

 shiyah - neck                         *vellocet - drug

 shlem - helmet                         veshch - thing

 viddy - to see or look                 yeckate - to drive

 voloss - hair                         *warble - song

 von - smell                            zammechat - remarkable

 vred - to harm or damage               zasnoot - sleep

 yahma - hole                           zheena - wife

*yahoodies - Jews                       zoobies - teeth

 yahzick - tongue                       zvonock - bellpull

*yarbles - testicles                    zvook - sound