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| He had a page's dress made for her, that she might accompany him on horseback. | Он велел сшить ей мужской костюм, чтобы она могла сопровождать его на прогулках верхом. |
| They rode together through the sweet-scented woods, where the green boughs touched their shoulders, and the little birds sang among the fresh leaves. She climbed with him to the tops of high mountains, and although her tender feet bled so that even her steps were marked, she only smiled, and followed him till they could see the clouds beneath them like a flock of birds flying to distant lands. | Они ездили по благоухающим лесам, где в свежей листве пели птички, а зеленые ветви касались ее плеч; они взбирались на высокие горы, и хотя из ее ног сочилась кровь и все видели это, она смеялась и продолжала следовать за принцем на самые вершины; там они любовались на облака, плывшие у их ног, точно стаи птиц, улетавших в чужие страны. |
| While at the prince's palace, and when all the household were asleep, she would go and sit on the broad marble steps, for it eased her burning feet to bathe them in the cold sea water. It was then that she thought of all those below in the deep. | Когда же они оставались дома, русалочка ходила по ночам на берег моря, спускалась по мраморной лестнице, ставила свои пылавшие, как в огне, ноги в холодную воду и думала о родном доме и о дне морском. |
| Once during the night her sisters came up arm in arm, singing sorrowfully as they floated on the water. She beckoned to them, and they recognized her and told her how she had grieved them; after that, they came to the same place every night. Once she saw in the distance her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of the sea for many years, and the old Sea King, her father, with his crown on his head. They stretched out their hands towards her, but did not venture so near the land as her sisters had. | Раз ночью всплыли из воды рука об руку ее сестры и запели печальную песню; она кивнула им, они узнали ее и рассказали ей, как огорчила она их всех. С тех пор они навещали ее каждую ночь, а один раз она увидала в отдалении даже свою старую бабушку, которая уже много-много лет не подымалась из воды, и самого морского царя с короной на голове; они простирали к ней руки, но не смели подплывать к земле так близко, как сестры. |
| As the days passed she loved the prince more dearly, and he loved her as one would love a little child. The thought never came to him to make her his wife. Yet unless he married her, she could not receive an immortal soul, and on the morning after his marriage with another, she would dissolve into the foam of the sea. |
