Curtis LeMay의 유년 시절

Who was this suddenly famous but still perplexing and unexplained war hero whose fierce, unsmiling, cigar-speared face had begun appearing in all the newspapers and on the covers of magazines?

- cigar-speared face에서 ‘speared’는 말 그대로 ‘창으로 꿰뚫린, 찔린’이라는 의미. 시가가 얼굴에 늘 붙어 있었음을 비유적으로 표현한 것.

 

Platoon of men: platoon은 군대 조직 중 보통 2개 정도의 squad, section으로 구성된 수준을 말함.

 

He had never been in any way a part of the air establishment. Few of the upper-level officers knew him before the war.

- the air establishment: 공군의 엘리트 집단, 기득권을 의미.

 

Curtis LeMay’s prospects for success and fame could only considered slightly better than dismal. (185)

*비교급 표현 예문

 

As his surname indicates, Erving LeMay’s progenitors were French.

가난한 집의 장남으로 태어남. 아버지 일자리 따라 Ohio에 자리잡게 되었음.

 

“You have a good name. Keep it that way.” (LeMay’s mother’s repeating sayings)

 

During the hard years that followed the turn of the century, Erving couldn’t always find jobs to take on but when he managed to earn money, he didn’t dole out to his wife just what he thought she would need for the household. He turned over this whole paycheck.

- dole out: 쥐꼬리만큼 나누어주다, 배급하다

- 아내에게 필요하다고 생각하는 만큼만 나누어주는게 아니라 전체 봉급을 가져다 주었음.

 

Shortly after their first child was born, and christened Curtis Emerson (because Arizona liked the sound of the name), the railroad job came to an end and so, for the next two or three years, did their residence in Columbus. They picked up all their belongings and the infant Curtis and moved about twenty miles south to a village called Lithopolis where Erving, continually scrounging for work, was able to fine intermittent jobs as a carpenter, a house painter, or a general handyman.

*first son: LeMay

 

He[boy Curt] took vigorous exception to some idea the teacher was trying to propagate and headed for the door. Finding it locked, he then tried to get out the open window, but unfortunately, the teacher, being bigger and faster afoot, caught up to him in time to bring the lower window sash down firmly on his back when he was only halfway out.

- took vigorous exception: 강하게 이의제기했다

- 선생님께 반발, 교실 문으로 달려감, 문 잠겨 있음, 창문으로 나가려고 함, 선생님은 키도 더 크고 발도 빠름, 몸을 반쯤 내밀었을 때 창문 내림, 등을 눌러서 탈출을 막음.

 

Since the boy’s bottom was still inside, and thus inescapably vulnerable, he was in for a whaling he would never forget.

- 엉덩이는 아래쪽에 깔려 있었고, 그가 다시는 잊지 못할 매질을 당함.

- whaling: 매질, 혼쭐

 

His father had been offered a job managing a fish hatchery there for a hunting and fishing club.

- fish hatchery: 양식장

 

*Nez Perce에서 지내며 아버지가 양식장에서 일할 때, Curt는 아버지와 시간을 함께 보낼 수 있게 되었다. 함께 낚시를 하고, 사냥을 하는. 그런 부자간의 일들. 이때 아버지로부터 사격하는 법, 총 다루는 방법 등을 배웠다. 그리고 이때 beebee gun으로 새를 맞춰서 돈을 벌기 시작했다. 이렇게 Montana에서 지낸 시간은 일년이 되지 않는다.

 

The blood spurted with such force from his wrist that he was in obvious danger of death if the flow could not be stanched. Curt grabbed the wrist and clamped his own boyish fingers down on the artery as tightly as possible. Then with the help of the other children, he pulled, pushed, and cajoled his howling brother to the home of a doctor who lived across the street from the local fire station. She sewed the wound but couldn’t prevent Lloyd from developing tetanus, and he came close to death before recovering.

- clamp: 죔쇠로 고정시키다, 꽉 물다/잡다

- tetanus: 파상풍

 

 

He does not remember what kind of work his father did in New Brighton but he himself very quickly managed to establish a paper route there. It was a job that took two hours each afternoon and he sold eight different newspapers, including those from nearby Pittsburgh, so he needed a wheelbarrow to carry all of them. As a profit of half a cent a copy he was in no danger of becoming wealthy but he was making enough to begin saving money for a bicycle. When his father learned this, he generously promised to match every dollar the boy saved. “But this turned out to be one of the disappointments of my life,” LeMay recalled many years later. “I was working like hell for this bicycle and before we got enough money for it, before I got my half, my dad said to himself, ‘Well, he’s worked hard enough,’ so he went down and got the bicycle and rode it home one night. This was the wrong thing for him to do. I wanted to go down and buy the bicycle, and pick out the one I wanted.” (191)

- establish a paper route: 신문 배달을 맡아서 시작하다

- paper route: 특정한 경로를 맡아 신문을 배달하는 일

- establish는 ‘설립하다, 세우다’의 의미에서 시작해 확립하다는 뜻이 있으므로, 신문 배달 구역을 맡아서 정식으로 일을 시작했다는 말이 된다.

- 매일 오후 2시간 써서 8개의 신문을 배달했다.

- wheelbarrow: 일종의 수레, 시골에서 보이는 수레

- 1부를 팔면 0.5센트를 벌었음.

- he promised to match every dollar the boy saved. 아버지는 르메이가 1달러 벌 때, 거기에 1달러 보태주겠다고 했음.

- 르메이는 자전거를 사려고 정말 열심히 일했는데, 자전거 사기에 충분한 돈이 모이기 전에, 그러니까 그가 자전거 값의 절반을 모으기 전에, 아버지는 ‘이만하면 열심히 일했지’ 하고 자전거 사서 몰고 온 것. 르메이는 자신이 직접 자전거를 사러 가서 원하는 것을 고르고 싶었는데, 그러지 못했음.

 

Though poverty and serious deprivation were seldom more than a day or two away, they never actually knew hunger, and so much self-respect was instilled in them that none of them recalls ever feeling poor. (192)

- be … away: 멀리 떨어져 있다

- seldom: 거의 -이 아닌

- 거의 하루, 이틀 떨어져 있지 않았다. = 가난은 늘 가까이에 있었다.

- 그래도 그들은 배고픔을 몰랐고, 많은 자아 존중감이 그들에게 주입되었고, 그래서 그들 중 누구도, 그들이 가난하다고 회상하지 않았다.

 

 

In Columbus, were a building boom was now beginning, his father began establishing himself as a structural ironworker—what might today be called a “hard hat”—and he developed such skills that he was later said to have worked “on major projects in nearly every state of the Union.” (193)

- 1차 대전이 끝나고 미국에서 building boom이 일었는지? 1차 대전 직후 미국 중서부 도시에서 실제로 진행 중이던 건축 호황 시기를 반영한 표현

- structural ironworker: 건물의 골격(frame)을 이루는 철강 구조물을 설치·조립하는 노동자. 오늘날에는 “steel erector” 혹은 “structural steelworker”

- hard hat: 원래는 안전모를 뜻함. 건설 노동자(특히 육체노동을 하는 현장 인부)를 속칭적으로 지칭. 즉 건설 현장 노동자.

 

Because money was so scare, the purchase of a car was nothing more than a consummation devoutly to be wished until he was a senior at South High School in Columbus. (194)

- consummation: 완성, 성취, 실현

- consummation 이외의 아무것도 아니었다 = 단지 consummation 이었다, 단지 실현되기를 바라는 꿈에 불과했다. 그저 꿈에 불과했다.

- devoutly to be wished: 셰익스피어의 Hamlet에서 온 표현으로 “간절히 바라 마지않는, 열렬히 소망하는” 이라는 의미의 고전적 표현. ‘간절히 이루어지길 바랐지만, 현실적으로는 불가능했던 일’ → “자동차 구입은 그저 간절히 바랄 뿐인 꿈이었다.”

 

Though one could buy a fairly good secondhand car for as little as seventy-five dollars in those days, one could not so easily come upon a sum that large. (194)

- as little as 겨우 = only(숫자나 금액 앞에서 ‘의외로 적은 금액’임을 강조)

- 당시에는 꽤 괜찮은 중고차를 불과 75달러에 살 수도 있었지만, 그렇게 큰돈을 쉽게 마련할 수는 없었다.

 

The parents of Curt’s friend had acquired the car, and after driving it four or five years, had bought a new one. Curt, with another friend, bought the Model T for twenty-five dollars, and shortly thereafter Curt got hold of twelve fifty with which to buy out his partner. (195)

- Curt 친구의 부모님이 그 차를 샀고, 4-5년 몰고 새로운 것을 샀다. Curt는 친구와 함께 Model T를 25달러에 샀고, 그 이후 곧 Curt는 12달러를 얻었다 (그의 친구가 샀던 몫) = 그래서 그 차는 오로지 Curt의 것이 됨.

 

We toed the mark when he was the boss.

- toe the mark = adhere to the rules

 

Lloyd may have been at a disadvantage in age and size, but he knew how to get under his big brother’s skin in a way that few people could do during Curtis LeMay’s military career.

- get under one’s skin: -를 짜증나게 하다

 

It[his tendency to look stern and remain silent] may have put off some coeds who might otherwise have become interested in him and encouraged his attentions.

- coed: (구식 미어) 여학생

 

He did, after all, own a car, that beat-up Model T that he had painted scarlet and gray, the Ohio State colors. In the 1920s, many a coed lapper would find this, by itself, almost irresistible.

- beat-up: 낡아빠진

- coed lapper: 여대생

 

He even became a frat man, joining Theta Tau, an engineering fraternity, but this coveted badge of social acceptability didn’t seem to draw any flocks of sorority women.

- frat man: 동아리, 사교 클럽에 가입된 남자. “남학생 사교클럽 멤버” 또는 “형제회 회원”

- covet: 탐내다, 갈망하다, 부러워하다

- coveted badge: “많은 이들이 부러워할 만한 상징,” “탐내는 사회적 인정의 표시”

- sorority: 여학생 사교 클럽

 

On this occasion he moved into the fraternity house and, to the extent that it was possible for a student of Curt LeMay’s serious disposition, began living the life of Joe College.

- Joe College: 전형적인 미국 남자 대학생상

- Cf. Joe Six-Pack → 평범한 노동자 남자 / G.I. Joe → 전형적인 미군 병사/ Joe College → 전형적인 대학생

 

Next morning, LeMay and his friend Kalb dropped around to survey the remains and found, in an extension off the main building, a Model T Ford touring car, perhaps three years old, which would make it about six years newer than the decrepit Model T LeMay had been driving and repairing and patching and repatching since his senior year in high school.

- in an extension off the main building: 본관에서 떨어져 나온 별채(extension)에서

- decrepit: 낡은, 못쓰게 된

 

But the dashboard and foot pedals remained, and it had one of those marvels of the age—a self-starter. The self-starter was still the talk of every town.

- self-starter: 시동을 걸 때 자동으로 걸리는 장비, 오늘날의 자동시동장치

 

LeMay, out of curiosity, stepped on it, and behold, the engine turned over.

The two young men looked knowingly at each other. They both realized what this meant. The wheels and body might be gone, but the fire hadn’t damaged the steel chassis or the drive shaft, and apparently it hadn’t damaged the engine, the battery, or anything under the hood.

- 자동차에서 under the hood: hood는 ‘보닛’으로 자동차 엔진룸의 아래 부분.

- the steel chassis: chassis는 자동차의 기본 뼈대를 의미한다. 차체 프레임이다. 차체, 엔진과 바퀴등을 얹는 금속 구조물을 말한다.

- drive shaft: 엔진에서 발생한 동력을 바퀴로 전달하는 축(shaft)