Мертвые души | страница 16



For comeliness of exterior they care not a rap, and therefore a dress coat sits less easily on their figures than is the case with figures of leaner individuals. Yet invariably fat men amass the greater wealth.Наружного блеска они не любят; на них фрак не так ловко скроен, как у тоненьких, зато в шкатулках благодать божия.
In three years' time a thin man will not have a single serf whom he has left unpledged; whereas - well, pray look at a fat man's fortunes, and what will you see? First of all a suburban villa, and then a larger suburban villa, and then a villa close to a town, and lastly a country estate which comprises every amenity!У тоненького в три года не остается ни одной души, не заложенной в ломбард; у толстого спокойно, глядь, и явился где-нибудь в конце города дом, купленный на имя жены, потом в другом конце другой дом, потом близ города деревенька, потом и село со всеми угодьями.
That is to say, having served both God and the State, the stout individual has won universal respect, and will end by retiring from business, reordering his mode of life, and becoming a Russian landowner - in other words, a fine gentleman who dispenses hospitality, lives in comfort and luxury, and is destined to leave his property to heirs who are purposing to squander the same on foreign travel.Наконец толстый, послуживши богу и государю, заслуживши всеобщее уважение, оставляет службу, перебирается и делается помещиком, славным русским барином, хлебосолом, и живет, и хорошо живет. А после него опять тоненькие наследники спускают, по русскому обычаю, на курьерских всё отцовское добро.
That the foregoing represents pretty much the gist of Chichikov's reflections as he stood watching the company I will not attempt to deny. And of those reflections the upshot was that he decided to join himself to the stouter section of the guests, among whom he had already recognised several familiar faces - namely, those of the Public Prosecutor (a man with beetling brows over eyes which seemed to be saying with a wink, "Come into the next room, my friend, for I have something to say to you"- though, in the main, their owner was a man of grave and taciturn habit), of the Postmaster (an insignificant-looking individual, yet a would-be wit and a philosopher), and of the President of the Local Council (a man of much amiability and good sense). These three personages greeted Chichikov as an old acquaintance, and to their salutations he responded with a sidelong, yet a sufficiently civil, bow.