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ORDINACIJA dr Oriona Huda,

THE consulting-rooms of Dr Orion Hood,

uglednog kriminologa i stručnjaka za izvesne moralne poremećaje,

the eminent criminologist and specialist in certain moral disorders,

pružala se duž morske obale u Skarborou,

lay along the sea-front at Scarborough,

nizom veoma velikih i svetlih francuskih prozora,

in a series of very large and well-lighted french windows,

kroz koje se Severno more videlo kao jedan beskrajan spoljni zid od modrozelenog mermera.

which showed the North Sea like one endless outer wall of blue-green marble.

Na takvom mestu more je imalo nešto od jednoličnosti modrozelene zidne obloge:

In such a place the sea had something of the monotony of a blue-green dado:

jer je u samim odajama svuda vladala strašna urednost, nimalo različita od strašne urednosti mora.

for the chambers themselves were ruled throughout by a terrible tidiness not unlike the terrible tidiness of the sea.

Ne treba misliti da su odaje dr Huda isključivale raskoš

It must not be supposed that Dr Hood’s apartments excluded luxury,

ili čak poeziju.

or even poetry.

Te stvari bile su tu,

These things were there,

na svom mestu;

in their place;

ali čovek je osećao da im nikada nije dopušteno da napuste svoje mesto.

but one felt that they were never allowed out of their place.

Raskoš je bila tu:

Luxury was there:

na posebnom stolu stajalo je osam ili deset kutija najboljih cigara;

there stood upon a special table eight or ten boxes of the best cigars;

ali bile su složene po planu, tako da su najjače uvek bile najbliže zidu, a najblaže najbliže prozoru.

but they were built upon a plan so that the strongest were always nearest the wall and the mildest nearest the window.

Zaključani stalak sa tri vrste žestokog pića,

A tantalus containing three kinds of spirit,

sva tri vrhunskog kvaliteta,

all of a liqueur excellence,

uvek je stajao na tom stolu raskoši;

stood always on this table of luxury;

ali maštoviti ljudi tvrdili su da viski,

but the fanciful have asserted that the whisky,

brendi

brandy,

i rum kao da uvek stoje na istom nivou.

and rum seemed always to stand at the same level.

Poezija je bila tu:

Poetry was there:

levi ugao sobe bio je obložen zbirkom engleskih klasika podjednako potpunom kao što je bila zbirka engleskih i stranih fiziologa kojom se mogao podičiti desni ugao.

the left-hand corner of the room was lined with as complete a set of English classics as the right hand could show of English and foreign physiologists.

Ali ako bi neko iz tog reda uzeo knjigu Čosera ili Šelija,

But if one took a volume of Chaucer or Shelley from that rank,

njeno odsustvo smetalo je umu kao rupa među čovekovim prednjim zubima.

its absence irritated the mind like a gap in a man’s front teeth.

Nije se moglo reći da se knjige nikada ne čitaju;

One could not say the books were never read;

verovatno su se čitale,

probably they were,

ali imalo se osećanje da su lancima prikovane za svoja mesta,

but there was a sense of their being chained to their places,

poput Biblija u starim crkvama.

like the Bibles in the old churches.

Dr Hud je sa svojom privatnom policom za knjige postupao kao da je javna biblioteka.

Dr Hood treated his private book-shelf as if it were a public library.

I ako je ta stroga naučna nedodirljivost prožimala čak i police krcate lirskim pesmama i baladama i stolove krcate pićem i duvanom,

And if this strict scientific intangibility steeped even the shelves laden with lyrics and ballads and the tables laden with drink and tobacco,

podrazumeva se da je još više takve paganske svetosti štitilo ostale police, na kojima je stajala specijalistova stručna biblioteka,

it goes without saying that yet more of such heathen holiness protected the other shelves that held the specialist’s library,

i ostale stolove, na kojima su stajali krhki, čak vilinski nežni hemijski ili mehanički instrumenti.

and the other tables that sustained the frail and even fairylike instruments of chemistry or mechanics.