Английский язык с Грэмом Грином. Третий человек
Шрифт:
Английский язык с Грэмом Грином
Graham Greene (Грэм Грин)
The Third Man (Третий человек)
Адаптировал Андрей Бессонов
Метод чтения Ильи Франка
ONE NEVER knows (никогда не знаешь) when the blow may fall (когда удар может упасть = настигнуть /тебя/). When I saw Rollo Martins first (когда я увидел Ролло Мартинса впервые; to see — видеть) I made this note on him (я сделал эту заметку о нем; to make — делать) for my security police files (для моих секретных полицейских папок): "In normal circumstances (в нормальных обстоятельствах) a cheerful fool (жизнерадостный дурак). Drinks too much (пьет слишком много) and may cause a little trouble (и может причинить немного беспокойства). Whenever (каждый раз когда) a woman passes (женщина проходит /мимо/) raises his eyes and makes some comment (поднимает свои глаза и делает какой-нибудь комментарий), but I get the impression (но я получаю впечатление = но у меня создается впечатление) that really (что на самом деле) he'd rather not be bothered (он предпочел бы не беспокоиться: «он бы скорее не быть побеспокоенным»; ‘d = would). Has never really grown up (так и не повзрослел: «никогда действительно = по-настоящему не вырос; to grow — расти) and perhaps that accounts for the way (и возможно это объясняет способ: «путь») he worshipped Lime (/каким/ он боготворил Лайма)." I wrote there that phrase (я написал там эту фразу; to write — писать) "in normal circumstances (в
security [sI'kjuqrqtI], police [pq'li:s], circumstance ['sq:kqmstxns], trouble [trAbl], bother ['bODq], ['fju:n(q)rql], Vienna [vI'enq], central ['sentr(q)l], cemetery ['semqtrI], nature ['neItSq], vault [vO:lt], illusion [I'lu:Z(q)n], rational ['rxSnql], explanation ["eksplq'neIS(q)n]
ONE NEVER knows when the blow may fall. When I saw Rollo Martins first I made this note on him for my security police files: "In normal circumstances a cheerful fool. Drinks too much and may cause a little trouble. Whenever a woman passes raises his eyes and makes some comment, but I get the impression that really he'd rather not be bothered. Has never really grown up and perhaps that accounts for the way he worshipped Lime." I wrote there that phrase "in normal circumstances" because I met him first at Harry Lime's funeral. It was February, and the grave-diggers had been forced to use electric drills to open the frozen ground in Vienna's central cemetery. It was as if even nature were doing its best to reject Lime, but we got him in at last and laid the earth back on him like bricks. He was vaulted in, and Rollo Martins walked quickly away as though his long gangly legs wanted to break into a run, and the tears of a boy ran down his thirty-five-year-old cheeks. Rollo Martins believed in friendship, and that was why what happened later was a worse shock to him than it would have been to you or me (you because you would have put it down to an illusion and me because at once a rational explanation—however wrongly—would have come to my mind). If only he had come to tell me then, what a lot of trouble would have been saved.
If you are to understand this strange rather sad story (чтобы вам понять эту странную весьма грустную историю) you must have an impression at least of the background (вы должны иметь = получить впечатление по крайней мере от фона)—the smashed dreary city of Vienna (разрушенный мрачный город Вена) divided up in zones among the four powers (поделенный на зоны между четырьмя властями); the Russian, the British, the American, the French zones (русская, британская, американская, французская зоны), regions marked only by a notice board (районы, отмеченные только табличкой; notice — заметка; уведомление; board —доска), and in the centre of the city (а в центре города), surrounded by the Ring (окруженный Кольцом) with its heavy public buildings (со своими тяжелыми общественными зданиями) and its prancing statuary (и своими величавыми скульптурами), the Inner Stadt (Внутренний Город = центр города /нем./) under the control of all four powers (под контролем всех четырех властей). In this once fashionable Inner Stadt (в этом когда-то фешенебельном Внутреннем Городе) each power in turn (каждая власть по очереди), for a month at a time (на месяц за один раз), takes (берет), as we call it (как мы называем это), "the chair (престол: «стул» = становится председателем)," and becomes responsible for security (и становится ответственной за безопасность); at night (ночью), if you were fool enough (если вы были достаточно глупец) to waste your Austrian schillings on a night club (чтобы потратить ваши австрийские шиллинги на ночной клуб), you would be fairly certain to see the International Patrol at work (вы бы совершенно точно увидели Интернациональный Патруль за работой)—four military police (четыре военных наряда), one from each power (один от каждой власти), communicating with each other (общавшиеся друг с другом: «с каждым другим») if they communicated at all (если они общались вообще) in the common language of their enemy (на общем языке их врага). I never knew Vienna between the wars (я никогда не знал Вену между войнами), and I am too young to remember the old Vienna (и я слишком молод, чтобы помнить ту старую Вену) with its Strauss music (с ее музыкой Штрауса) and its bogus easy charm (и ее притворно непринужденным очарованием); to me it is simply a city (для меня это просто город) of undignified ruins (лишенных благородства руин; to dignify — облагораживать; придавать лоск, достоинство) which turned that February into great glaciers of snow and ice (которые превратились в тот февраль в огромные ледники из снега и льда).
divide [dI'vaId], notice ['nqutIs], building ['bIldIN], statuary ['stxtjuqrI], ['fxS(q)nqbl], Austrian ['OstrIqn], communicate [kq'mju:nIkeIt], enemy ['enImI], bogus ['bqugqs], undignified [An'dIgnIfaId], glacier ['glxsIq]
If you are to understand this strange rather sad story you must have an impression at least of the background—the smashed dreary city of Vienna divided up in zones among the four powers; the Russian, the British, the American, the French zones, regions marked only by a notice board, and in the centre of the city, surrounded by the Ring with its heavy public buildings and its prancing statuary, the Inner Stadt under the control of all four powers. In this once fashionable Inner Stadt each power in turn, for a month at a time, takes, as we call it, "the chair," and becomes responsible for security; at night, if you were fool enough to waste your Austrian schillings on a night club, you would be fairly certain to see the International Patrol at work—four military police, one from each power, communicating with each other if they communicated at all in the common language of their enemy. I never knew Vienna between the wars, and I am too young to remember the old Vienna with its Strauss music and its bogus easy charm; to me it is simply a city of undignified ruins which turned that February into great glaciers of snow and ice.
The Danube was a grey flat muddy river (Дунай был серой мелкой мутной рекой) a long way off across the second bezirk (далеко: «долгий путь прочь» через второй округ /нем./), the Russian zone (русская зона) where the Prater lay smashed and desolate and full of weeds (где располагался: «лежал» Пратер, разрушенный, запущенный и полный сорняков; to lie — лежать; to smash — разбивать/ся/ вдребезги; разбить, сокрушить, уничтожить /противника и т. п./Prater — парк развлечений в Вене), only the Great Wheel revolving slowly (только чертово колесо: «великое/огромное колесо» вращающееся медленно) over the foundations of merry-go-rounds like abandoned millstones (над основаниями каруселей, как заброшенные мельничные жернова), the rusting iron of smashed tanks (ржавеющее железо разбитых танков) which nobody had cleared away (которые никто не убрал: «не вычистил прочь»), the frost-nipped weeds (побитые морозом сорняки; frost — мороз; to nip — ущипнуть, щипать, кусать; побить,
Danube [`dxnju:b], desolate ['des(q)lqt], foundation [faun'deIS(q)n], imagination ["Imx'dZIneIS(q)n], instead [In'sted], rifle ['raIfl], shoulder ['Squldq], roughly ['rAflI], invent [In'vent], unrelieved ['AnrI'li:vd], cultural ['kAltS(q)r(q)l], society [sq'saIqtI]
The Danube was a grey flat muddy river a long way off across the second bezirk, the Russian zone where the Prater lay smashed and desolate and full of weeds, only the Great Wheel revolving slowly over the foundations of merry-go-rounds like abandoned millstones, the rusting iron of smashed tanks which nobody had cleared away, the frost-nipped weeds where the snow was thin. I haven't enough imagination to picture it as it had once been, any more than I can picture Sacher's Hotel as other than a transit hotel for English officers or see the Kartnerstrasse as a fashionable shopping street instead of a street which only exists, most of it, at eye level, repaired up to the first storey. A Russian soldier in a fur cap goes by with a rifle over his shoulder, and men in overcoats sip ersatz coffee in the windows of Old Vienna. This was roughly the Vienna to which Rollo Martins came on February 7 last year. I have reconstructed the affair as best I can from my own files and from what Martins told me. It is as accurate as I can make it—I haven't invented a line of dialogue though I can't vouch for Martins' memory; an ugly story if you leave out the girl: grim and sad and unrelieved if it were not for that absurd episode of the British Cultural Relations Society lecturer.
2
A BRITISH subject can still travel (британский подданный может все еще путешествовать) if he is content to take with him (если он есть доволен взять с собой = если он готов удовлетвориться тем, что может взять с собой) only five English pounds (только пять английских фунтов) which he is forbidden to spend abroad (которые ему запрещено тратить за границей; to forbid — запрещать; не позволять), but if Rollo Martins had not received an invitation from Lime (но если бы Ролло Мартинс не получил приглашение от Лайма) he would not have been allowed to enter Austria (он бы не был допущен въехать в Австрию) which counts still as occupied territory (которая считается все еще оккупированной территорией). Lime had suggested that Martins might "write up" (Лайм предложил, что Мартинс мог бы притворно указать в качестве цели приезда) the business of looking after the international refugees (дело присматривания за международными беженцами), and although it wasn't Martins' usual line (и хотя это не было обычное поведение: «обычная линия» Мартинса), he had consented (он согласился). It would give him a holiday (это дало бы ему отдых: «отпуск») and he badly needed a holiday (а он ужасно нуждался в отдыхе) after the incident in Dublin and the other incident in Amsterdam (после происшествия в Дублине и другого происшествия в Амстердаме); he always tried to dismiss women as "incidents," (он всегда отделываться от женщин как от «происшествий» = относиться к женщинам как к случайным происшествиям) things that simply happened to him (как к вещам, которые просто случались с ним) without any will of his own (без какой-либо его собственной воли), acts of God in the eyes of insurance agents (/подобно/ действиям Бога в глазах страховых агентов). He had a haggard look (он имел изможденный вид) when he arrived in Vienna (когда прибыл в Вену) and a habit of looking over his shoulder (и привычку смотреть: «смотрения» через его плечо) that for a time made me suspicious of him (которая на время сделала меня подозрительным к нему = показалась мне в нем подозрительной) until I realised (пока я не сообразил) that he went in fear (что он жил в страхе: «шел в страхе») that one of say six people (что один из, скажем, шести людей) might turn up unexpectedly (мог бы объявиться неожиданно). He told me vaguely (он сказал мне туманно; to tell — рассказать) that he had been mixing his drinks (что он /раньше/ смешивал свои напитки)—that was another way of putting it (это был ещё один способ выразить это).
Rollo Martins' usual line (Ролло Мартинса обычное занятие: «линия») was the writing of cheap, paper covered Westerns (было написание дешевых, /продающихся/ в /мягкой/ обложке вестернов; paper — бумага; to cover — покрывать) under the name of Buck Dexter (под именем Бака Декстера). His public was large but unremunerative (его аудитория была большая, но неденежная; unremunerative — неприбыльный; remunerative — вознаграждающий; выгодный, прибыльный; to remunerate — вознаграждать, компенсировать, оплачивать). He couldn't have afforded Vienna (он не cмог бы позволить себе Вену) if Lime had not offered to pay his expenses (если Лайм не предложил бы оплатить его расходы) when he got there (когда он попадет туда; to get — получать; попадать, добираться) out of some vaguely described propaganda fund (из какого-то туманно описанного пропагандистского фонда). He could also (он мог также), he said (как он сказал), keep him supplied with paper Bafs (постоянно снабжать его бумажными Бафами: «держать его снабженным с бумажными Бафами»)—the only currency in use from a penny upwards (единственной валютой в употреблении от пенни и выше) in British hotels and clubs (в британских отелях и клубах). So it was with exactly five unusable pound notes that Martins arrived in Vienna (так что Мартинс прибыл в Вену как раз: «точно» с пятью неупотребимыми фунтовыми банкнотами = которые невозможно было потратить).
subject ['sAbGIkt], content /прилаг./ [kqn'tent], receive [rI'si:v], invitation ["InvI'teIS(q)n], occupied ['OkjupaId], territory ['terIt(q)rI], refugee ["refju'Gi:], incident ['InsId(q)nt], dismiss [dIs'mIs], insurance [In'Suqr(q)ns], haggard ['hxgqd], suspicious [sqs'pISqs], vaguely ['veIglI], usual ['ju:Zuql], cover ['kAvq], remunerative [rI'mju:n(q)rqtIv], afford [q'fO:d], currency ['kAr(q)nsI]
A BRITISH subject can still travel if he is content to take with him only five English pounds which he is forbidden to spend abroad, but if Rollo Martins had not received an invitation from Lime he would not have been allowed to enter Austria which counts still as occupied territory. Lime had suggested that Martins might "write up" the business of looking after the international refugees, and although it wasn't Martins' usual line, he had consented. It would give him a holiday and he badly needed a holiday after the incident in Dublin and the other incident in Amsterdam; he always tried to dismiss women as "incidents," things that simply happened to him without any will of his own, acts of God in the eyes of insurance agents. He had a haggard look when he arrived in Vienna and a habit of looking over his shoulder that for a time made me suspicious of him until I realised that he went in fear that one of say six people might turn up unexpectedly. He told me vaguely that he had been mixing his drinks—that was another way of putting it.
Rollo Martins' usual line was the writing of cheap, paper covered Westerns under the name of Buck Dexter. His public was large but unremunerative. He couldn't have afforded Vienna if Lime had not offered to pay his expenses when he got there out of some vaguely described propaganda fund. He could also, he said, keep him supplied with paper Bafs—the only currency in use from a penny upwards in British hotels and clubs. So it was with exactly five unusable pound notes that Martins arrived in Vienna.