О`Генри – 10 shorts stories by O. Henry. Книга для чтения на английском языке (страница 2)

Up to the second floor Della ran, and stopped to get her breath |…взбежала…перевести дух|.

Mrs. Sofronie, large, too white, cold-eyed, looked at her.

“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.

“I buy hair,” said Mrs. Sofronie. “Take your hat off and let me look at it.”

Down fell the brown waterfall |О. Генри часто пользуется приемом инверсии – переставляет слова в предложении, так что оно получается не вполне стандартным для английского языка. Down fell the brown waterfall – это инверсия. Обычное предложение выглядело бы “the brown waterfall fell down”|.

“Twenty dollars,” said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours seemed to fly. She was going from one shop to another, to find a gift for Jim.

She found it at last |наконец-то|. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else |было сделано для Джима. И прошедший Perfect и пассив слились воедино|. There was no other like it in any of the shops, and she had looked in every shop in the city |конструкция had и третья форма глагола. Смысл этого в том, что Делла что-то делала до какого-то момента или на какой-то момент: она посмотрела во всех магазинах на тот момент|.

It was a gold watch chain, very simply made. Its value was in its rich and pure material. Because it was so plain and simple, you knew that it was very valuable. All good things are like this.

It was good enough for The Watch.

As soon as she saw it, she knew that Jim must have it. It was like him |это ему подходило. Буквально – это было его|. Quietness and value—Jim and the chain both had quietness and value. She paid twenty-one dollars for it. And she hurried home with the chain and eighty-seven cents.

With that chain on his watch, Jim could look at his watch and learn the time anywhere he might be. Though the watch was so fine, it had never had a fine chain |ранее никогда не было|. He sometimes took it out and looked at it only when no one could see him do it.

When Della arrived home, her mind quieted a little |она успокоилась|. She began to think more reasonably. She started to try to cover |скрыть| the sad marks of what she had done |что она делала до того момента – плакала|. Love and large-hearted giving |”большесердечное давание”, если буквально, но лучше просто “доброта”|, when added together, can leave deep marks. It is never easy to cover these marks, dear friends—never easy.

Within forty minutes her head looked a little better |“within” – в пределах, внутри, через какое-то время|. With her short hair, she looked wonderfully like a schoolboy. She stood at the looking-glass for a long time.

“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he looks at me a second time, he’ll say I look like a girl who sings and dances for money. But what could I do—oh! What could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”

At seven, Jim’s dinner was ready for him.

Jim was never late. Della held the watch chain in her hand and sat near the door where he always entered. Then she heard his step in the hall and her face lost color for a moment. She often said little prayers quietly, about simple everyday things. And now she said: “Please God, make him think I’m still pretty.” |…убеди его, что я все еще красива|

The door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked very thin and he was not smiling. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two—and with a family to take care of! |и правда, бедняга – такой молодой, а уже семья, о которой надо заботиться. Of в конце – это частое дело в английском для подобных предложений, правда, обычно такая конструкция появляется в вопросах: who do you think of – о ком ты думаешь? Where are you from – откуда ты?| He needed a new coat and he had nothing to cover his cold hands.

Jim stopped inside the door. He was as quiet as a hunting dog when it is near a bird. His eyes looked strangely at Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not understand. It filled her with fear. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor anything she had been ready for |ни удивление, ни что-то такое, к чему она была готова|. He simply looked at her with that strange expression on his face.

Della went to him.

“Jim, dear,” she cried, “don’t look at me like that. I had my hair cut off |to cut off – отрезать что-то напрочь| and sold it. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow again. You won’t care, will you |ты же не будешь переживать из-за этого|? My hair grows very fast. It’s Christmas, Jim. Let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful nice gift I got for you.”

“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim slowly. He seemed to labor to understand what had happened |казалось, он с трудом переваривал, что случалось|. He seemed not to feel sure he knew.

“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me now? I’m me, Jim. I’m the same without my hair.”

Jim looked around the room.

“You say your hair is gone?” he said. |волос больше нет?|

“You don’t have to look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you – sold and gone, too. It’s the night before Christmas, boy. Be good to me, because I sold it for you. Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted,” she said, “but no one could ever count my love for you. Shall we eat dinner, Jim?”

Jim put his arms around his Della. For ten seconds let us look in another direction. Eight dollars a week or a million dollars a year— how different are they? Someone may give you an answer, but it will be wrong. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them |magi – волхвы. О.Генри обыгрывает библейский сюжет приношения даров новорожденному Иисусу|. My meaning will be explained soon.

From inside the coat, Jim took something tied in paper. He threw it upon the table.

“I want you to understand me, Dell,” he said. “Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less |конечно же, я не буду тебя любить меньше из-за твоей стрижки|. But if you’ll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in.”

White fingers pulled off the paper. And then a cry of joy; and then a change to tears.

For there lay The Combs |Там были гребни для волос| – the combs that Della had seen in a shop window and loved for a long time. Beautiful combs, with jewels, perfect for her beautiful hair. She had known they cost too much for her to buy them. She had looked at them without the least hope of owning them. And now they were hers, but her hair was gone.

But she held them to her heart, and at last was able to look up and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”

And then she jumped up and cried, “Oh, oh!”

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful gift |еще пока не видел. На тот момент|. She held it out to him in her open hand. The gold seemed to shine softly as if with her own warm and loving spirit.

“Isn’t it perfect, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at your watch a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how they look together.”

Jim sat down and smiled.

“Della,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They’re too nice to use now. I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner.”

The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the newborn Christ-child. They were the first to give Christmas gifts. Being wise |будучи мудрыми|, their gifts were doubtless wise ones. And here I have told you the story of two children who were not wise. Each sold the most valuable thing he owned in order to |для того, чтобы| buy a gift for the other. But let me speak a last word to the wise of these days: Of all |из всех тех| who give gifts, these two were the most wise. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are the most wise. Everywhere they are the wise ones. They are the magi.

There is only one day that is ours. There is one day when all Americans go back to the old home and eat a big dinner. Bless the day. The President gives it to us every year.

Sometimes he talks about the people who had the first Thanksgiving. They were the Puritans. They were some people who landed on our Atlantic shore. We don’t really remember much about them.

But those people ate a large bird called turkey on the first Thanksgiving Day. So we have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, if we have enough money to buy turkey. That is a tradition.

Yes. Thanksgiving Day is the one day of the year that is purely |исключительно| American. And now here is the story to prove to you that we have old traditions in this new country. They are growing older more quickly than traditions in old countries. That is because we are so young and full of life. We do everything quickly.

Stuffy Pete sat down on a seat in the New York City park named Union Square. It was the third seat to the right as you enter Union Square from the east.

Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years he had sat down there |он сидел там вплоть до этого момента в рассказе| at one in the afternoon. Every time, things had happened to him. They were wonderful things. They made his heart feel full of joy—and they filled another part of him, too. They filled the part below his heart.