> Also who describes "A Clockwork Orange" as old english?

Presumably the confused student who sought out a translation.

Could the student really not infer the meanings of those words from context? I don't think Burgess expected his readers to have a working knowledge of Russian.

The whole point of the line is to show that it was not in fact old english. That's why they wrote the line that way.

You were supposed to read that final disclosure part as a punchline which puts the students complaint into it's proper context of being ridiculous.

Instead you took it at face value and agree with the flummoxed student that it is totally unreasonable to be expected to deduce what droog meant from context.

No one ever needed those words to be translated. I promise I am no genius. I am here wasting time with comments like this on HN instead of literally anything better.