| "No," said the old woman; "unless a man should love you so much that you were more to him than his father or his mother, and if all his thoughts and all his love were fixed upon you, and the priest placed his right hand in yours, and he promised to be true to you here and hereafter-then his soul would glide into your body, and you would obtain a share in the future happiness of mankind. | - Можешь, - сказала бабушка, - пусть только кто-нибудь из людей полюбит тебя так, что ты станешь ему дороже отца и матери, пусть отдастся он тебе всем своим сердцем и всеми помыслами и велит священнику соединить ваши руки в знак вечной верности друг другу; тогда частица его души сообщится тебе и когда-нибудь ты вкусишь вечного блаженства. |
| He would give to you a soul and retain his own as well; but this can never happen. | Он даст тебе душу и сохранит при себе свою. Но этому не бывать никогда! |
| Your fish's tail, which among us is considered so beautiful, on earth is thought to be quite ugly. They do not know any better, and they think it necessary, in order to be handsome, to have two stout props, which they call legs." | Ведь то, что у нас считается красивым, твой рыбий хвост, люди находят безобразным; они ничего не смыслят в красоте; по их мнению, чтобы быть красивым, надо непременно иметь две неуклюжих подпорки - ноги, как они их называют. |
| Then the little mermaid sighed and looked sorrowfully at her fish's tail. | Русалочка глубоко вздохнула и печально посмотрела на свой рыбий хвост. |
| "Let us be happy," said the old lady, "and dart and spring about during the three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough. After that we can rest ourselves all the better. | - Будем жить - не тужить! - сказала старуха. -Повеселимся вволю свои триста лет - срок немалый, тем слаще будет отдых после смерти! |
| This evening we are going to have a court ball." | Сегодня вечером у нас во дворце бал! |
| It was one of those splendid sights which we can never see on earth. | Вот было великолепие, какого не увидишь на земле! |
| The walls and the ceiling of the large ballroom were of thick but transparent crystal. Many hundreds of colossal shells,-some of a deep red, others of a grass green,-with blue fire in them, stood in rows on each side. These lighted up the whole salon, and shone through the walls so that the sea was also illuminated. |
