Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/43

Rh Russian, with a large face and a short, thick brown beard, rather round-shouldered, burst into a flood of loud talking and gesticulating. In order to let him know that they could not understand Russian the sailors waved their hands in front of their faces. Then the Russian said a single sentence and the Chinese, who was watching his lips, started to speak in Japanese. It was strange Japanese, with the order of the words all mixed up, more likely to confuse the listeners than do anything else. Word after word came reeling out drunkenly.

“You, for sure, have no money?”

“Too true, we haven’t.”

“You are poor men.”

“Too true, we are.”

“So you’re proletarians. Understand?”

“Yes.”

The Russian, smiling, started to walk around. Sometimes he would stop and look over at them.

“Rich man, he do this to you” (gripping his throat). “Rich man become fatter and fatter” (swelling out his stomach). “You no good at all, you become poor. Understand? Japan no good. Workers like this” (pulling a long face and making himself look like a sick man). “Men that don’t work like this” (walking about haughtily).

The young fishermen were very amused at him. “That’s it, that’s it,” they said and laughed.

“Workers like this. Men that don’t work like this” (repeating the same gestures). “Like that no good. Workers like this!” (this time just the opposite, swelling out his chest and walking haughtily). “Men that don’t work like this!”