"Hemingway, Ernest - Green Hills of Africa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hemingway Ernest)

and looting at the thick bush we passed in the dark, feeling the cool wind
of the night and smelling the good smell of Africa, I was altogether happy.
Then ahead we saw a big fire and as we came up and passed, I made out a
lorry beside the road. I told Kamau to stop and go back and as we backed
into the firelight there was a short, bandy-legged man with a Tyrolese hat,
leather shorts, and an open shirt standing before an unhooded engine in a
crowd of natives.
'Can we help?' I asked him.
Wo,' he said. 'Unless you are a mechanic. It has taken a dislike to me.
All engines dislike me.'
'Do you think it could be the timer? It sounded as though it might be a
timing knock when you went past us.'
'I think it is much worse than that. It sounds to be something very
bad.'
'If you can get to our camp we have a mechanic.'
'How far is it?'
'About twenty miles.'
'In the morning I will try it. Now I am afraid to make it go farther
with that noise of death inside. It is trying to die because it dislikes me.
Well, I dislike it too. But if I die it would not annoy it.'
'Will you have a drink?' I held out the flask. 'Hemingway is my name.'
'Kandisky,' he said and bowed. 'Hemingway is a name I have heard.
Where? Where have I heard it? Oh, yes. The {dichter}. You know Hemingway the
poet?'
'Where did you read him?'
'In the {Querschnitt.'}
'That is me,' I said, very pleased. The {Querschnitt} was a German
magazine I had written some rather obscene poems for, and published a long
story in, years before I could sell anything in America.
'This is very strange,' the man in the Tyrolese hat said. 'Tell me,
what do you think of Ringelnatz?'
'He is splendid.'
'So. You like Ringelnatz. Good. What do you think of Heinrich Mann?'
'He is no good.'
'You believe it?'
'All I know is that I cannot read him.'
'He is no good at all. I see we have things in common. What are you
doing here?'
'Shooting.'
{'Not} ivory, I hope.'
'No. For kudu.'
'Why should any man shoot a kudu? You, an intelligent man, a poet, to
shoot kudu.'
'I haven't shot any yet,' I said. 'But we've been hunting them hard now
for ten days. We would have got one to-night if it hadn't been for your
lorry.'
'That poor lorry. But you should hunt for a year. At the end of that
time you have shot everything and you are sorry for it. To hunt for one
special animal is nonsense. Why do you do it?'
'I like to do it.'