CHRISTIE, Agatha - "Misteriozna afera u Stylesu" ("The Mysterious Affair at Styles")

The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided.

intense = (adj.) silan; intenzivan; jak
public = (n.) publika; javnost; (adj.) javni
aroused = pobuđen; pasivan način se u našem jeziku ne upotrebljava tako često kao u engleskom i često se prevodi aktivom
somewhat = ponešto; malko; donekle
subside = opasti; splasnuti

Veliko zanimanje, koje je u javnosti pobudilo ono što je u to vrijeme bilo poznato kao "Slučaj Stiles", sad je donekle splasnulo.

Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story.

in view of = obzirom na
notoriety = ozloglašenost; pozornost (n.)

Ipak, obzirom na pozornost koju je privukao širom svijeta, zamolili su me, kako moj prijatelj Poirot, tako i sama obitelj, da napišem izvještaj o cijeloj priči.

This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.

To će, nadamo se, djelotvorno ušutkati senzacionalističke glasine koje još uvijek kolaju.

I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair.

Stoga ću ukratko navesti okolnosti koje su dovele do moje povezanosti s aferom.

I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month's sick leave.


S fronta sam se vratio kući kao invalid i, nakon što sam proveo nekoliko mjeseci u poprilično depresivnom domu za oporavak, dobio sam mjesec dana bolovanja. 

Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. 


Kako nisam imao bliže rodbine ni prijatelja, pokušavao sam se odlučiti što da radim, kad sam naletio na Johna Cavendisha.

I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well.


Rijetko sam ga viđao zadnjih nekoliko godina. Štoviše, nikad ga nisam ni poznavao naročito dobro.

He was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother's place in Essex.


Bio je, naime, dobrih petnaest godina stariji od mene, mada mu se njegovih četrdeset pet godina nije moglo vidjeti. Kao dječak sam, međutim, često boravio u Stylesu, mjestu u Essexu iz koga potiče njegova majka.

We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down to Styles to spend my leave there.

 

Lijepo smo raspredali o starim vremenima, a razgovor je završio njegovim pozivom da svoje odsustvo provedem u Stylesu. 

"The mater will be delighted to see you again--after all those years," he added.
"Your mother keeps well?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?"

"Majci će biti drago da te ponovno vidi, nakon svih ovih godina", dodao je.

"Tvoja majka je dobro?" pitao sam.

"Oh, da. Pretpostavljam da znaš da se je ponovno udala?"

I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly. Mrs. Cavendish, who had married John's father when he was a widower with two sons, had been a handsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her.  

Bojim se da sam svoje iznenađenje pokazao isuviše očito. Gđa. Cavendish, koja se je udala za Johnovog oca kad je ovaj ostao udovac s dva sina, bila je, koliko sam je imao u sjećanju, zgodna žena srednjih godina.

She certainly could not be a day less than seventy now. I recalled her as an energetic, autocratic personality, somewhat inclined to charitable and social notoriety, with a fondness for opening bazaars and playing the Lady Bountiful.

Sad joj nikako nije moglo biti manje od sedamdeset godina. Sjećam je se kao energične i autokratne osobe, s izvjesnom slabošću prema karitativnim i društvenim aktivitetima i sklonošću za otvaranje bazara i igranje uloge Darežljive Gospe.

She was a most generous woman, and possessed a considerable fortune of her own.

Bila je izuzetno velikodušna žena, a posjedovala je i svoj poveći vlastiti imetak.

Their country-place, Styles Court, had been purchased by Mr. Cavendish early in their married life. He had been completely under his wife's ascendancy, so much so that, on dying, he left the place to her for her lifetime, as well as the larger part of his income; an arrangement that was distinctly unfair to his two sons. Their step-mother, however, had always been most generous to them; indeed, they were so young at the time of their father's remarriage that they always thought of her as their own mother.