Аглая Минаева

Страна: Россия

Живу в Санкт-Петербурге. Мне 16 лет, и я учусь в 10-м классе. Увлекаюсь английским языком, читаю, слушаю музыку, смотрю кино и сериалы на английском. В прошлом году сдала Кэмбриджский экзамен на уровень Proficiency. Решила попробовать перевести на английский сказку моей мамы “Фокус и другие обитатели Свалки”, которая участвует в конкурсе в номинации Малая проза.


Country: Russia

I live in Saint-Petersburg. I am 16 years old, and I am in 10th grade. I love English language and prefer to read, watch movies and TV shows, and listen to music in English. Last year I passed the Cambridge Proficiency exam. I’ve decided to try to translate my mum’s fairytale “Hocus and Other Residents of the Garbage Dump”.


Перевод произведения Наталии Куртовой “Фокус и другие обитатели Свалки”

On the side of a big city, there lived the Garbage Dump.

The people of the big city spend all their time eating, drinking, and buying many various things. The things leave behind big boxes and smaller boxes, big paper bags and smaller paper bags, little cartons, lids, and bottles. The things themselves expire, break, and become useless with time. That’s why people really need a place where everything useless can live. That place is called a garbage dump.

Hocus had always thought of himself as the owner of the Garbage Dump. Its residents were such a diverse crowd! However, everyone respected the big black dog who went by the name of Hocus.

Why did he go by that name? Once upon a time, the driver of the garbage truck brought garbage to the Dump. He had been doing so every day at six in the evening. After finishing his work, he gathered his stuff to leave. But then he heard strange noises. He came closer and saw a big box with a beautiful picture on it. It said “Hocus-Pocus: A Set for Magic Tricks”. The box started moving, and suddenly a small black puppy with blue eyes crawled out of it.

“Well, ain’t that a Hocus-Pocus!” laughed the garbage truck driver. The puppy quickly understood that Hocus Pocus must be his name.

Humans have names for everyone and everything.

If you didn’t have a name, what would they call you?

Hocus felt excited when he realized that now someone will surely call him somewhere.

A stray dog named Silva became a mom to him. It was at that time that she had little puppies of her own. But humans took them away from Silva. All except for one – the smallest and weakest of them. And that’s how Hocus got a milk sister, Button. Don’t think that she was made of milk! That just means that their mom, Silva, fed them with the same milk.

Hocus grew up to be a huge dog. Strangers feared him. But those who knew him loved him. How could they not? He was always the first one to help out when someone needed it, and he never hesitated to stand up for those weaker than him. He always judged fairly.

For example, one time paper bags decided to declare that they were the most important part of the Garbage Dump. Because there were just so many of them. A whole army of paper bags! They wished to take over the Dump and make all its residents bend to their will. The paper bags threw themselves all over the Garbage Dump, so that everyone else found it hard to breathe under them! And along with that they all stirred, sighed and soughed, rustled, whispered and whirred, swished, shifted and shook. No one could sleep because of their whooshing!

Then Hocus talked to the Wind and asked him to blow the entire paper bag army into one pile. Now the paper bags had their own neighborhood, where they made all the rules! And they didn’t bother anyone else.

Every day, at six in the evening, residents of the Dump gathered around the yellow garbage truck that brought their newbies.

Old teapots and pans cleaned and polished themselves. Stuffed toys brushed and fluffed up their scattered fur. Squashed boxes and hole-ridden boots shook dust off of their backs, and dolls sprayed each other with what was left in their colorful perfume bottles. All this to say, everyone was getting ready to meet the guests. A few secretly hoped to find a friend or just some pleasant company.

That day Hocus was late for the arrival of the garbage truck. His help was urgently needed elsewhere. Here, to understand him, we need to start from the beginning.

One worker of one toy factory one time got so lost in her thoughts that she put a plastic crocodile in the paint meant for plastic elephants.

That toy factory made big green crocodiles and small pink elephants. As you can understand, the crocodile turned pink. No one at the factory noticed the change in color. The crocodile was put in a box and sent away to a toy shop.

And so, a lady bought the crocodile online as a gift to her nephew. When she opened the box at home and saw the pink crocodile, she gasped and rang the shop.

“Well, we’ve got nothing to say to you!” was the response she got, “The box says the crocodile is green, right? That means the crocodile is green!”

The lady even sent them a photo of the pink crocodile, to which she got an indignant “Why did you paint it pink?”

The lady got angry and threw the newly bought pink crocodile into the trash.

When the Pink Crocodile woke up at the Garbage Dump, everyone made fun of him and laughed in his face. He wanted to prove to everybody how evil and scary he was.

He always walked around opening his jaws and snapping them menacingly, trying to grab someone.

One time, he opened his jaws wide…

And the kids, who were playing football near the Garbage Dump, threw their ball straight into the crocodile’s mouth. The kids looked for the ball, but couldn’t find it, so they left.

The Ball was left stuck in the Pink Crocodile’s jaws. No one could get him out! For that to work, either the jaws needed to be wider, or the Ball needed to be smaller.

So that’s how they started living together – they got used to it and became friends. Although, the only thing the Pink Crocodile could say was “Uh-uh”.

What else can you say when your mouth is always open?

But the Ball understood the Crocodile without words.

On that day the Pink Crocodile and the Ball got into an argument and decided to split up for good. That’s the reason why Hocus was urgently called to help them.

“I’m so tired of this stupid pink sausage! This stubborn pink pelican!”

“Uh-uh? Uhuh, uhuh!” snapped back the offended Pink Crocodile.

“I can try to split you up. But don’t you think you two would miss each other?” said Hocus.

“Not a chance!” persisted the Ball.

“Uh-uh!” confidently barked the Crocodile.

“Okay, then I will bite the Ball – he will deflate and become small. And then I will tear the Crocodile’s jaws apart, so they will open wider. Who wants to go first?” Hocus asked, squinting slyly.

The Crocodile and the Ball went quiet in fear and took a few steps back to discuss everything.

“The Crocodile asked me to tell you that it’s better for us to make up!” announced the Ball.

“Is that what he said?” asked Hocus, smirking.

“Uh-uh!” confirmed the Pink Crocodile.

And everyone who was watching the scene unfold started laughing and clapping they hands, paws, wings, lids, and doors.

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