Expectantness из “Chicken Soup for the Soul”

Трогательный рассказ из серии бестселлеров “Chicken Soup for the Soul” (Куриный бульон для души / Лекарство для души).

У параллельных текстов есть несколько недостатков: мозг не напрягается, постоянно приходится переключаться, нет эффекта погружения в среду. Так что в этот раз я решил статью, ссылку на которую прислала мне Юлия (большое ей спасибо), не переводить, а снабдить словарем и комментариями. Кроме того, перевод часто не может передать весь смысл, а у этого рассказа смысл достаточно глубокий.
Пожалуйста, примите участие в голосовании внизу страницы.

Expectantness

What I remember most about the months before my daughter’s arrival was the “expectant-ness” with which I lived my life. There was the good expectant-ness, associated with the knowledge that we were about to adopt a beautiful baby girl who would forever alter the lives of my husband, my two sons and myself.

Слова “expectantness” в английском языке нет. А есть прилагательное (adjective) “expectant”.
expectant – 1 hopeful that something good or exciting will happen, or showing this
2 expectant mother/father – a mother or father whose baby will be born soon
Суффикс -ness используется для создания существительного (noun) из прилагательного (adjective), хотя не любое прилагательное можно так изменять. Вот несколько прилагательных, существительное из которых образуется путем добавления -ness: happy, sad, weak, good, ready, tidy, forgetful.
be about to do something – if someone is about to do something, or if something is about to happen, they will do it or it will happen very soon:
We were just about to leave when Jerry arrived. (Мы уже были готовы уехать, когда приехал Джерри)
adopt – to take someone else’s child into your home and legally become its parent (усыновлять, удочерять)
alter – to change, or to make someone or something change (изменять)

This was the one I cherished.

cherish – лелеять надежду

Then, there was the not-so-good expectant-ness, associated with the knowledge that my mother, diagnosed with terminal cancer and clinging to her final few months on this earth, would probably not live to meet her new granddaughter—a granddaughter for whom she had hoped and dreamed years before.

terminal cancer – последняя стадия рака; неизлечимый рак
cling – to hold someone or something tightly, especially because you do not feel safe (цепляться)

This was the one I dreaded.

dread – to feel anxious or worried about something that is going to happen or may happen (страшиться)

Unbelievably, it was the mingling of these two kinds of expectant-ness which helped me understand the true meaning of “expecting.”

I had received the call from my oldest sister, Linda, earlier that week, telling me that our mother was in the hospital again. It didn’t look good, she whispered. Maybe I should come now, over the Thanksgiving holiday, to see her. I was torn. I had already flown home, to Indiana, from Texas several times that year to see her, and my sons, ages five and seven, were looking forward to a chance to stay home this holiday. My husband, Brian, was also weary of traveling, but he understood the predicament in which I found myself.

mingle – if two feelings, sounds, smells etc mingle, they mix together with each other (смешиваться)
whisper – шептать
Thanksgiving – День благодарения – a public holiday in the US and in Canada when families have a large meal together to celebrate and be thankful for food, health, families etc
be torn – if you are torn, you are unable to decide what to do because you have different feelings or different things that you want (разрываться) (tear-tore-torn – рвать)
fly-flew-flown – летать
look forward to something – [phrasal verb] to be excited and pleased about something that is going to happen (ожидать с нетерпением)
weary – very tired or bored, especially because you have been doing something for a long time (утомленный)
predicament – a difficult or unpleasant situation in which you do not know what to do, or in which you have to make a difficult choice (затруднительное положение)
В этом абзаце встречается past perfect, т.к. рассказ идет в прошедшем времени и надо показать события, произошедшие до основного повествования.

“Go home,” he said that night. “The boys and I will be just fine here. You need to be with your mom.”

When I arrived at the hospital the next day, I could see that my sisters had not exaggerated. Mom smiled at me weakly from her bed.

exaggerate – преувеличивать
weakly – слабо

“It must be bad if you returned from the sunny South,” she murmured. I shrugged and joked about avoiding cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. We both settled into a comfortable silence, interrupted periodically by beeping and clicking of the I.V. machine in the corner. Finally, Mom spoke.

murmur – to say something in a soft quiet voice that is difficult to hear clearly (шептать, бормотать)
shrug – пожать плечами
avoid – избегать
turkey – индейка
beep – пищать
I.V. – intravenous (капельница)

“Tell me all about the little girl.” Her eyes, overcast and dull, brightened momentarily. So did mine, I know, as I filled her in on the four-month-old baby who, sight unseen, had seized our hearts. We talked for what seemed like hours, Mom sharing her memories of the four little girls she had brought into the world. She talked about how fun it was to dress all of us and brush our hair, to share feminine wisdom and secrets. And then we were quiet again, the room swollen with the expectant-ness of a new mother and an old one, about to retire her position forever.

overcast – печальный
dull – унылый
fill in – [phrasal verb] to tell someone about recent events, especially because they have been away from a place (рассказывать новости)
sight unseen – if you buy or choose something sight unseen, you do it without looking at the thing first (купить или выбрать что-то за глаза)
seize – захватывать, завладевать
share – делиться
brush/comb your hair – причесывать
feminine – женский
wisdom – мудрость
swell-swelled-swollen – набухать. swell with pride/anger etc – to feel very proud, angry etc
retire – to stop working, usually because you have reached a certain age (оставить работу)

The doctor released her to my sister’s home the next day, knowing there was little more he could do for her there. She had been patched up with another blood transfusion, enough to get her through the turkey and cranberry sauce, and maybe a few days besides, before her blood would again begin to fail her. We all made it through the holiday with false cheeriness, and then returned to the business of sitting around and waiting—the business of expectant-ness.

release – отпустить
patch something/somebody up – [phrasal verb] to give quick and basic medical treatment to someone who is hurt:
We patched up the wounded as best we could. (подлечить, оказать первую мед. помощь)
blood transfusion – переливание крови
cranberry – клюква
make it through – to manage to deal with a difficult experience
I couldn’t have made it through those times without the support of my boyfriend. (справиться с трудностями)
cheeriness – опять, же существительное образовано от прилагательного cheery – веселый, радостный

A day or two later, my mother interrupted the terrible silences of the house.

“Have you bought much for the baby yet?”

I shook my head. I was an adoptive mother, having been through the state system with our sons. Our daughter would also be coming through the foster care system, and even though our experience before had been very positive, we knew better than to count on adoption paperwork always going according to plan. The less I purchased for the baby, the more secure I felt in her arrival. Call it one of those protective quirks that adoptive parents learn early on.

interrupt – прерывать
Have you bought much for the baby yet? – обратите внимание на present perfect и “yet”. Present perfect связывает прошедшие действия с настоящим и обычно используется с наречиями (adverb) ‘ever’, ‘never’, ‘already’, ‘just’, ”still’, ‘yet’.
shake – shook – shaken – качать
adoptive – приемный
having been through the state system with our sons – усыновив через государственную систему
foster care – проживание без юридического усыновления или удочерения у приёмных родителей (в отличие от adoption)
paperwork – документальное оформление
purchase – покупать
quirk – бзик, причуда
early on – at an early stage in a relationship, process etc:
I realized early on I’d never pass the exam.

Mom smiled weakly, and Linda sat up straighter in her chair. “Hey! There’s a baby-clothing outlet that just opened nearby! Let’s go shopping!”

straighter – прямее
outlet – a shop that sells things for less than the usual price, especially things from a particular company or things of a particular type
nearby – поблизости

I hesitated. Should I explain my superstitions about shopping too early for the baby? Did I need to tell them how I was trying to protect myself, not wanting to have to bundle little pink dresses and blankets into boxes, bound for the attic, never to be used?

hesitate – колебаться
superstition – суеверие
to bundle – связывать в узел (bundle – пачка, связка)
blanket – одеяло, receiving blanket – детская купальная простынка; хлопчатобумажное одеяльце
bind – bound – bound – связывать
attic – чердак

“That sounds like fun,” Mom said quietly. I watched her eyes brighten. “Little pink dresses and booties and receiving blankets . . .”

It didn’t take us long to load up her wheelchair and hit the road. We laughed and talked all the way there, remembering all the shopping trips we had taken before, the bargains we had found, the lunches over which we had lingered, the chocolate sodas with which we’d end our days. This was to be our final shopping trip, a mother and her daughters, filled with expectant-ness, for the day, and the promise of a new shopping companion, not yet arrived.

load up – грузить
hit the road/trail – [informal] to begin a journey (отправиться в путь)
bargain – распродажа
linger (over) – засиживаться, задерживаться
They lingered over coffee and missed the last bus.

Mom swung into action immediately, her hands, bruised from the myriad of I.V. needles, reaching for pastel dresses with satin ribbons and flowers at the hem. She “oohed” and “aahed” over fluffy, pink blankets and hooded bath towels and caressed the brims of frilly hats, imagining, I suppose, the soft smell of the baby’s head that would soon fill them. She directed my sister and me all over the store from her wheelchair perch, pointing to tiny washcloths and patterned sleepers. The life in her eyes buoyed me and carried me from my feeling of despair. I was an expectant mother, she bragged to every salesclerk in the store. We were going to have a baby girl in the family, and she would need to be dressed to the nines.

swing/swung/swung – качаться; swing into action – to suddenly begin work that needs doing, using a lot of energy and effort
bruise – синяк
myriad – несметное число, мириады
satin ribbon – атласная лента/тесьма
fluffy – пушистый
hood – капюшон
towel – полотенце
caress – to touch someone gently in a way that shows you love them [= stroke]:
His hands gently caressed her body. (ласкать, гладить)
brim – поле шляпы
frilly – отделанный оборками, рюшем
perch – [informal] a high place or position, especially one where you can sit and watch something:
She watched the parade from her perch on her father’s shoulders. (высокое положение)
washcloth – мочалка из махровой ткани
patterned – украшенный узором
sleeper – детская пижама (не путайте с тапочками – slipper)
buoy [boi] – to make someone feel happier or more confident (поддерживать, а также – буй)
despair – отчаяние, безысходность
brag – to talk too proudly about what you have done, what you own etc – used to show disapproval [= boast]:
‘I came out top in the test,’ he bragged. (хвастаться)
dressed (up) to the nines – [informal] wearing your best or most formal clothes

We went home that night and pulled our soft, pink treasures from a sea of bags that covered the living room floor. I watched my mother’s watery eyes travel over each tiny outfit, and then light on me with a smile. The torch had been passed.

treasure – сокровище
outfit – одежда, наряд
torch – факел

My daughter, Ellie, arrived two months later, three weeks after my mother finally lost her fight with cancer. I wrapped my baby lovingly in each of those beautiful dresses, and remembered that last shopping trip with my mother that showed me the real meaning of expectant-ness. On that day, I learned that expecting is more than waiting for something to happen. On that day, it was about living in the moments between.

wrap – закутать

Источник: http://www.beliefnet.com/