Джон Голсуорси - Лучшее из «Саги о Форсайтах» / The Best of The Forsyte Saga

He sat there a long time dreaming his career, faithful to the scut of his possessive instinct, warming himself even with its failures.

“To Let” – the Forsyte age and way of life, when a man owned his soul, his investments, and his woman, without check or question. And now the State had, or would have, his investments, his woman had herself, and God knew who had his soul. “To Let” – that sane and simple creed!

The waters of change were foaming in, carrying the promise of new forms only when their destructive flood should have passed its full. He sat there, subconscious of them, but with his thoughts resolutely set on the past – as a man might ride into a wild night with his face to the tail of his galloping horse. Athwart the Victorian dykes the waters were rolling on property, manners, and morals, on melody and the old forms of art – waters bringing to his mouth a salt taste as of blood, lapping to the foot of this Highgate Hill where Victorianism lay buried. And sitting there, high up on its most individual spot, Soames – like a figure of Investment – refused their restless sounds. Instinctively he would not fight them – there was in him too much primeval wisdom, of Man the possessive animal. They would quiet down when they had fulfilled their tidal fever of dispossessing and destroying; when the creations and the properties of others were sufficiently broken and defected – they would lapse and ebb, and fresh forms would rise based on an instinct older than the fever of change – the instinct of Home.

“Je m’en fiche,” said Prosper Profond. Soames did not say “Je m’en fiche” – it was French, and the fellow was a thorn in his side – but deep down he knew that change was only the interval of death between two forms of life, destruction necessary to make room for fresher property. What though the board was up, and cosiness to let? – some one would come along and take it again some day.

And only one thing really troubled him, sitting there – the melancholy craving in his heart – because the sun was like enchantment on his face and on the clouds and on the golden birch leaves, and the wind’s rustle was so gentle, and the yewtree green so dark, and the sickle of a moon pale in the sky.

He might wish and wish and never get it – the beauty and the loving in the world!

Dundreary whiskers – long and bushy (muttonchop) sideburns, called after whiskers worn by actor Edward A. Sothern as Lord Dundreary, a character in the play “Our American Cousin” (1858) by Tom Taylor.

Quilpish– an allusion to Dickens, whose Mr Daniel Quilp from “Old Curiosity Shop” is a cold-hearted, cruel monster.

mot –a word ( French ).

French grey – warm, rich shade of colour.

consols. – consolidated annuities, loan securities.

very small beer – ale, beer with very little alcohol; metaphorically, a thing of little importance.

rumty-too – ordinary, common.

Married Women’s Property Act – from 1882 it granted married women the right to control their own property.

to have gone to the dogs – to go to the dogs = to be broke, to go to hell.

underwriter – a member of insurance union.

bombazine – fabric made of silk and wool.

vieux jeu– out of date ( French ).

cut-away coat – a coat whith its skirts cut off in the front.

William Morris(1834–1896) – a textile designer, artist and socialist, representative of the so-called Pre-Raphaelite group.

Marlborough days – the annual street festival held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

put her oar in – an idiom, meaning “giving one’s opinion, even unasked for”.

be behind-hand –in debt.

daverdy –dialectal for “dowdy”: unkept, faded.

‘La Donna mobile’ – from Guiseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto”.

the Indian Civil –Indian Civil Service, administrative elite, composed of officers recruited by competitive examination (Government of India Act of 1858).

swing a cat – an idiom “no room to swing a cat” means an awkwardly small space. They assume that “a cat” here is a whip used to punish sailors.

‘R.S.V.P.’ —Répondez s’il vous plaît. – Answer please (if you would come). ( French ).

opoponax – sweet myrrh.

welshed –to welsh = to cheat, not to pay the debt.

Taglioni – Marie Taglioni (1804–1884) was a prominent Italian ballet dancer.

pooty – pretty.

long-headed – shrewd, wise.

‘Down-by-the-starn’ – undertaker’s, funeral office.

to buttonhole – to detain in conversation.

in toto –completely, entirely ( Latin ).

sociable– an open four-wheeled carriagewith two double seats facing each other.

Victoria – an elegant French carriage(a phaeton) that had one forward-facing seat for two passengers.

brougham– a carriage, had an enclosed body with two doors and it sat two.

dawgs –slang, meaning “men,” “buddies,” “dudes” etc.

knicknack– a dainty little trinket or ornament.

Bart. –a traditional abbreviation from baronet , the holder of hereditary title.

infra dig –from infra dignitatem ( Latin ) – humiliating.

wallflowers –girls without partners to a dance.

when the shoe pinched – from the proverb “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches,” meaning “it’s hard to know how much someone else is suffering”.

Baedeker– German publishing house, pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides.

Irish bull – (logically) absurd statement.

pick-me-up –tonic, energizer.