Баллада 42-й улицы

Довольно вольный, но почти эквиритмический перевод песни Джима Кроче «You don't mess around with Jim»:

 

Uptown got it's hustlers

The bowery got it's bums

42nd street got big Jim walker

He's a pool shootin' son of a gun

Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come

But he stronger than a country hoss

And when the bad folks all get together at night

You know they all call big Jim boss, just because

 

And they say

 

You don't tug on superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don't mess around with Jim

 

Well outta south Alabama came a country boy

He say I'm lookin' for a man named Jim

I am a pool shootin' boy

My name Willie McCoy

But down home they call me slim

Yeah I'm lookin' for the king of 42nd street

He drivin' a drop top cadillac

Last week he took all my money

And it may sound funny

But I come to get my money back

 

And everybody say Jack don't you know

 

And you don't tug on superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don't mess around with Jim

 

Well a hush fell over the pool room

Jimmy come boppin' in off the street

And when the cuttin' were done

The only part that wasn't bloody

Was the soles of the big man's feet

Yeah he were cut in in bout a hundred places

And he were shot in a couple more

And you better believe

They sung a different kind of story

When big Jim hit the floor now they say

 

You don't tug on superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don't mess around with slim

 

Yeah, big Jim got his hat

Find out where it's at

And it's not hustlin' people strange to you

Even if you do got a two piece custom made pool cue

 

Yeah you don't tug on superman's cape

You don't spit into the wind

You don't pull the mask off the old lone ranger

And you don't mess around with slim