Terjemahan Cerita Pendek (Part 1)
The Original Version (English)
THE SWIMMER
By John Cheever
It
was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, “I drank
too much last night.” You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners
leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with
his cassock in the vestiarium, heard it from the golf links and the tennis
courts, heard it from the wild-life preserve where the leader of the Audubon
group was suffering from a terrible hangover. “I drank too much,” said Donald
Westerhazy. “We all drank too much, “ said Lucinda Merill. “It must have been
the wine,” said Helen Westerhazy. “I drank too much of that claret.”
That was the edge of the Westerhazy’s pool. The
pool, fed by an artesian well with a high iron content, was a pale shade green.
It was a fine day. In the west there was a massive stand of cumulus cloud so
like a city seen from a distance – from the bow of an approaching ship – that
it might have had a name. Lisbon. Hackensack. The sun was hot. Neddy Merill sat
by the green water, one hand in it, one around a glass of gin. He was a slender
man – he seemed to have the special slenderness of youth – and while he was far
from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze
backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell
of coffee in his dining room. He might have been compared to a summer’s day,
particularly the last hours of one, and while he lacked a tennis racket or a
sail bag the impression was definitely one of youth, sport, and clement
weather. He had been swimming and now he was breathing deeply, stertorously as
if he could gulp into his lungs the components of that moment, the heat of the
sun, the intenseness of his pleasure. It all seemed to flow into his chest. His
own house stood in Bullet Park, eight miles to the south, where his four
beautiful daughters would have had their lunch and might be playing tennis.
Then it occurred to him that by taking a dogleg to the southwest he could reach
his home by water.
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The translated version (Bahasa Indonesia)
Si Perenang
Kala
itu seperti hari Minggu yang biasanya di pertengahan musim panas ketika kebanyakan orang
bersantai dan bergumam, “Aku terlalu banyak minum semalam.” Gumaman seperti ini
mungkin pernah terdengar dari bisikan para jemaat gereja, terdengar langsung
dari bibir sang Pendeta sendiri, dari pekerja di lapangan golf dan tenis,
bahkan dari penjaga hutan yang mana pemimpinnya pernah mengalami mabuk berat.
“Aku minum terlalu banyak,” kata Donald Westerhazy. “Kita semua kebanyakan
minum,” sebut Lucinda Merill. “Pasti ini karena anggurnya,” menurut Helen
Westerhazy. “Aku terlalu banyak meminum anggur merah Prancis.”
Mereka semua berkumpul di pinggir kolam renang
milik keluarga Westerhazy. Kolam renang tersebut terletak di dekat sumur
artesis dengan pembatas baja yang tinggi. Kolam renang milik keluarga
Westerhazy terlihat hijau muda anggun. Hari itu cuaca cukup bersahabat. Tetapi
di sebelah barat terlihat gumpalan awan kumulus yang cukup besar bahkan
terlihat seperti kota Lisbon atau Hackensack dari kejauhan. Mentari bersinar
cerah. Neddy Merrill duduk di pinggiran kolam. Satu tangannya dicelupkan ke
dalam kolam sementara satu tangannya lagi memegang segelas gin. Neddy adalah
seorang lelaki yang santai – bahkan dia selalu terlihat santai semenjak masih
muda – dan ketika dia beranjak menua pun dia masih meluncur ke bawah dari
sandaran tangga di rumahnya pagi itu dan mendarat di dekat patung Aphrodite di
ruang tengah ketika dia berusaha untuk mengambil secangkir kopi di ruang makan.
Neddy mungkin bisa dibandingkan dengan suatu hari di musim panas, terutama hari
terakhir di musim panas, dan dia selalu terlihat berjiwa muda, sporty, dan
ceria. Neddy telah berenang cukup lama dan sekarang dia terlihat terengah-engah
seolah-olah dia menelan segala keindahan hari itu, panas terik mentari dan
keceriaan hari itu. Semuanya seperti mengalir dalam dadanya. Rumahnya sendiri
terletak di Bullet Park, 8 mil ke arah selatan, dimana keempat anak
perempuannya mungkin sedang makan siang atau sedang bermain tenis. Dan kemudian
terlintas dalam pikirannya kalau dia berpetualang ke arah barat daya dia bisa
menjangkau rumahnya dengan berenang.
.....
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