Английский язык с Р.Л.Стивенсоном. Остров сокровищ
Шрифт:
silent [`saɪlənt] parlour [`pɑ:lə] fierce [fɪəs] people [pi:pl] desirous [dɪ`zaɪərəs]
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the “Admiral Benbow” (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present.
For me, at least (для
alarms [ə`lɑ:mz] seafaring [`si:feərɪŋ] enough [ɪ`nʌf] wage [weɪʤ] stare [steə]
For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my “weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,” and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough, when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for “the seafaring man with one leg.”
How that personage haunted my dreams (как эта персона преследовала мои сны = часто снилась мне; to haunt — часто заезжать проведать, навещать; неотступно преследовать; мучить; не давать покоя /о мыслях и т. п./), I need scarcely tell you (мне нужно едва ли рассказывать вам). On stormy nights (бурными ночами), when the wind shook the four corners of the house (когда ветер сотрясал четыре угла дома = весь дом), and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs (и прибой ревел в бухте и в утесах: «вдоль бухты и вверх по утесам»), I would see him in a thousand forms (я видел его /во сне/ в тысяче образов), and with a thousand diabolical expressions (с тысячью дьявольских выражений = обликов). Now the leg would be cut off at the knee (то нога была отрезана по колено), now at the hip (то по бедро; now… now… — то… то…); now he was a monstrous kind of a creature (то он был чудовищным видом существа) who had never had but the one leg (которое никогда не имело /ничего/, кроме одной ноги), and that in the middle of his body (/да/ и ту в середине тела). To see him leap and run and pursue me (видеть его = как он прыгал и бежал, и преследовал меня) over hedge and ditch (не разбирая дороги: «через изгородь и канаву») was the worst of nightmares (было худшим из ночных кошмаров). And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece (в общем, я платил довольно дорого за месячную четырехпенсовую монету), in the shape of these abominable fancies (в виде этих отвратительных фантазий).
personage [`pə:sənɪʤ] haunted [`hɔ:ntɪd] knee [ni:] hedge [heʤ] nightmares [`naɪtmeə]
How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg (хотя я был так напуган мыслью о моряке с одной ногой), I was far less afraid of the captain himself (я гораздо меньше боялся самого капитана) than anybody else who knew him (чем
terrified [`terɪfaɪd] wicked [`wɪkɪd] bear [beə] neighbour [`neɪbə] overriding [əuvə`raɪdɪŋ]
But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with “Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum;” all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other, to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
His stories were what frightened people worst of all (его истории были /тем/, что пугало людей больше всего). Dreadful stories they were (ужасными историями они были); about hanging (о повешении), and walking the plank (и хождении по доске /в открытое море/ — вид казни: пираты часто заставляли несчастных людей на захваченном корабле идти с завязанными глазами по доске в море), and storms at sea (/о/ штормах на море), and the Dry Tortugas (об /островах/ Драй Тортугас /группа мелких коралловых островов в Мексиканском заливе, на юго-западе Флориды/), and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main (диких деяниях и местах у испанского материка /в районе Карибского моря/).
By his own account (по его собственному рассказу) he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men (он, должно быть, прожил жизнь среди /неких/ самых отъявленных людей = злодеев) that God ever allowed upon the sea (которым Господь когда-либо позволял /плавать/ по морю); and the language in which he told these stories (язык, которым он рассказывал эти истории) shocked our plain country people (шокировал наших простых деревенских людей) almost as much as the crimes that he described (почти так же, как и преступления, которые он описывал).
frightened [`fraɪtnd] dreadful [dredful] hanging [`hæŋɪŋ] language [`læŋgwɪʤ]
His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.
By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes that he described.