| На вопрос, далеко ли деревня Заманиловка, мужики сняли шляпы, и один из них, бывший поумнее и носивший бороду клином, отвечал: |
| "Perhaps you mean Manilovka - not ZAmanilovka?" | "Маниловка, может быть, а не Заманиловка?" |
| "Yes, yes - Manilovka." | "Ну да, Маниловка". |
| "Manilovka, eh? Well, you must continue for another verst, and then you will see it straight before you, on the right." | "Маниловка! а как проедешь еще одну версту, так вот тебе, то-есть, так прямо направо". |
| "On the right?" re-echoed the coachman. | "Направо?" отозвался кучер. |
| "Yes, on the right," affirmed the peasant. "You are on the proper road for Manilovka, but ZAmanilovka -well, there is no such place. | "Направо", сказал мужик. |
| The house you mean is called Manilovka because Manilovka is its name; but no house at all is called ZAmanilovka. | "Это будет тебе дорога в Маниловку; а Заманиловки никакой нет. |
| The house you mean stands there, on that hill, and is a stone house in which a gentleman lives, and its name is Manilovka; but ZAmanilovka does not stand hereabouts, nor ever has stood." | Она зовется так, то-есть ее прозвание Маниловка, а Заманиловки тут вовсе нет. |
| So the travellers proceeded in search of Manilovka, and, after driving an additional two versts, arrived at a spot whence there branched off a by-road. Yet two, three, or four versts of the by-road had been covered before they saw the least sign of a two-storied stone mansion. | Там прямо на горе увидишь дом, каменный, в два этажа, господский дом, в котором, то-есть, живет сам господин. Вот это тебе и есть Маниловка, а Заманиловки совсем нет никакой здесь, и не было". |
| Then it was that Chichikov suddenly recollected that, when a friend has invited one to visit his country house, and has said that the distance thereto is fifteen versts, the distance is sure to turn out to be at least thirty. | Поехали отыскивать Маниловку. Проехавши две версты, встретили поворот на проселочную дорогу, но уже и две, и три, и четыре версты, кажется, сделали, а каменного дома в два этажа всё еще не было видно. |
| Not many people would have admired the situation of Manilov's abode, for it stood on an isolated rise and was open to every wind that blew. On the slope of the rise lay closely-mown turf, while, disposed here and there, after the English fashion, were flower-beds containing clumps of lilac and yellow acacia. Also, there were a few insignificant groups of slender-leaved, pointed-tipped birch trees, with, under two of the latter, an arbour having a shabby green cupola, some blue-painted wooden supports, and the inscription "This is the Temple of Solitary Thought." Lower down the slope lay a green-coated pond -green-coated ponds constitute a frequent spectacle in the gardens of Russian landowners; and, lastly, from the foot of the declivity there stretched a line of mouldy, log-built huts which, for some obscure reason or another, our hero set himself to count. Up to two hundred or more did he count, but nowhere could he perceive a single leaf of vegetation or a single stick of timber. The only thing to greet the eye was the logs of which the huts were constructed. Nevertheless the scene was to a certain extent enlivened by the spectacle of two peasant women who, with clothes picturesquely tucked up, were wading knee-deep in the pond and dragging behind them, with wooden handles, a ragged fishing-net, in the meshes of which two crawfish and a roach with glistening scales were entangled. The women appeared to have cause of dispute between themselves - to be rating one another about something. |
