Английский язык с Стивеном Кингом "Кошка из ада"
Шрифт:
Drogan said, “The funeral was on the first day of July (похороны были первого июля), I had Carolyn buried in our cemetery plot next to my sister (я велел похоронить Кэролайн на нашем кладбищенском участке = семейном кладбище рядом с моей сестрой). The way she would have wanted it (так, как = там, где она бы хотела). On July third I called Gage to this room and handed him a wicker basket…, a picnic hamper sort of thing (третьего июля я позвал Гейджа в эту комнату и вручил ему плетеную корзину, вроде тех, что берут с собой на пикник; wicker — /собир./ прутья для плетения, ивняк; hamper — корзина с крышкой; sort of — что-то вроде). Do you know what I mean (вы понимаете, что я имею в виду)?”
Halston nodded (кивнул).
damage ['dxmIG], special ['speS(q)l], queer [kwIq], wrinkle ['rINkl], breathing ['brJDIN], smother ['smADq], beneath [bI'nJT], funeral ['fjHn(q)r(q)l], cemetery ['semItrI]
Drogan trailed off, and Halston thought about it. Carolyn Broadmoor asleep in her bedroom, the breath rasping in and out of her damaged lungs, the sound nearly lost in the whisper of special humidifiers and air conditioners. The cat with the queer black-and-white markings leaps silently onto her spinster's bed and stares at her old and wrinkle-grooved face with those lambent, black-and-green eyes. It creeps onto her thin chest and settles its weight there, purring.., and the breathing slows... slows... and the cat purrs as the old woman slowly smothers beneath its weight on her chest.
He was not an imaginative man, but Halston shivered a little.
“Drogan,” he said, continuing to stroke the purring cat. “Why don't you just have it put away? A vet would give it the gas for twenty dollars.”
Drogan said, “The funeral was on the first day of July, I had Carolyn buried in our cemetery plot next to my sister. The way she would have wanted it. On July third I called Gage to this room and handed him a wicker basket…, a picnic hamper sort of thing. Do you know what I mean?”
Halston nodded.
“I told him to put the cat in it and take it to a vet in Milford and have it put to sleep (я
Halston was silent as the picture of how it might have been formed in his brain again (Хэлстон молчал, пока в его мозгу = воображенииснова формировалась картина того, как это могло произойти). No sound in the room but the peaceful crackle of the fire and the peaceful purr of the cat in his lap (ни звука в комнате, кроме мирного/тихого потрескивания огня и мирного урчания кота на его коленях). He and the cat together before the fire would make a good illustration for that Edgar Guest poem, the one that goes (он и кот вместе = онскотом перед огнем/камином могли бы стать хорошей иллюстрацией к тому стихотворению Эдгара Гэста, в котором говориться; to go — идти; гласить, говорить /о тексте/): “The cat on my lap, the hearth's good fire (кошка на моих коленях, хороший огонь в камине)/... A happy man, should you enquire (вам придется еще поискать более счастливого человека: «/вот/ счастливый человек, если вы /меня/ спросите»; to enquire — спрашивать, узнавать).”
accident ['xksId(q)nt], picture ['pIkCq], together [tq'geDq]
“I told him to put the cat in it and take it to a vet in Milford and have it put to sleep. He said, 'Yes, sir,' took the basket, and went out. Very like him. I never saw him alive again. There was an accident on the turnpike. The Lincoln was driven into a bridge abutment at better than sixty miles an hour. Dick Gage was killed instantly. When they found him there were scratches on his face.”
Halston was silent as the picture of how it might have been formed in his brain again. No sound in the room but the peaceful crackle of the fire and the peaceful purr of the cat in his lap. He and the cat together before the fire would make a good illustration for that Edgar Guest poem, the one that goes: “The cat on my lap, the hearth's good fire/...A happy man, should you enquire.”
Dick Gage moving the Lincoln down the turnpike toward Milford (Дик Гейдж едет на “линкольне” по шоссе в Милфорд; to move — двигать/ся/), beating the speed limit by maybe five miles an hour (превышая ограничение скорости, может быть, на пять миль в час; to beat — бить; превосходить). The wicker basket beside him — a picnic hamper sort of thing (рядом плетеная корзина — вроде тех, что берут с собой на пикник). The chauffeur is watching traffic, maybe he's passing a big cab-over Jimmy (водитель следит за движением, может быть, он обгоняет большой грузовик; to pass — проходить, проезжать; обгонять; cab-over — грузовойавтомобильскабинойнаддвигателем; Jimmy — автомобиль производства компании "Дженерал моторс") and he doesn't notice the peculiar black-on-one-side, white-on-the-other face (и
chauffeur ['SqVfq], puncture ['pANkCq], exquisite ['ekskwIzIt], yowl [jaVl], jitter ['GItq], torpedo [tL'pJdqV], cement [sI'ment], bomb [bOm]
Dick Gage moving the Lincoln down the turnpike toward Milford, beating the speed limit by maybe five miles an hour. The wicker basket beside him — a picnic hamper sort of thing. The chauffeur is watching traffic, maybe he's passing a big cab-over Jimmy and he doesn't notice the peculiar black-on-one-side, white-on-the-other face that pokes out of one side of the basket. Out of the driver's side. He doesn't notice because he's passing the big trailer truck and that's when the cat jumps onto his face, spitting and clawing, its talons raking into one eye, puncturing it, deflating it, blinding it. Sixty and the hum of the Lincoln's big motor and the other paw is hooked over the bridge of the nose, digging in with exquisite, damning pain — maybe the Lincoln starts to veer right, into the path of the Jimmy, and its airhorn blares ear-shatteringly, but Gage can't hear it because the cat is yowling, the cat is spread-eagled over his face like some huge furry black spider, ears laid back, green eyes glaring like spotlights from hell, back legs jittering and digging into the soft flesh of the old man's neck. The car veers wildly back the other way. The bridge abutment looms. The cat jumps down and the Lincoln, a shiny black torpedo, hits the cement and goes up like a bomb.
Halston swallowed hard and heard a dry click in his throat (Хэлстон с трудом сглотнул и услышал сухой щелчок в горле; hard — жесткий; трудный; тяжело, с трудом). “And the cat came back (и кот вернулся)?”
Drogan nodded (кивнул). “A week later (неделю спустя). On the day Dick Gage was buried, as a matter of fact (собственно говоря, в тот день, /когда/ Дика Гейджа похоронили). Just like the old song says (точно/прямо, как поется в старой песне). The cat came back (кот вернулся).”
“It survived a car crash at sixty (он выжил при ударе на скорости шестьдесят /миль в час/; crash — грохот, треск; сильный удар при падении, столкновении; крушение, авария)? Hard to believe (/в это/ трудно поверить).”
“They say each one has nine lives (говорят, у каждой из них = кошки девять жизней). When it comes back... that's when I started to wonder if it might not be a... a (тогда-то я и начал задаваться вопросом, не может ли он быть; to wonder — удивляться; интересоваться)...”