| Его зеленые глаза ярко разгорелись, и, весело ощетинившись золотым волосом, сгустив высокий свой голос, он трубил в лицо мне: |
| "You traveled here by steamboat . . . steam will take you anywhere now; but when I was young I had to tow a barge up the Volga all by myself. | - Ты вот пароходом прибыл, пар тебя вез, а я в молодости сам своей силой супротив Волги баржи тянул. |
| The barge was in the water and I ran barefoot on the bank, which was strewn with sharp stones . . . . | Баржа - по воде, я по бережку, бос, по острому камню, по осыпям, да так от восхода солнца до ночи! |
| Thus I went from early in the morning to sunset, with the sun beating fiercely on the back of my neck, and my head throbbing as if it were full of molten iron. And sometimes I was overcome by three kinds of ill-luck . . . my poor little bones ached, but I had to keep on, and I could not see the way; and then my eyes brimmed over, and I sobbed my heart out as the tears rolled down. Ah! Oleysha! it won't bear talking about. | Накалит солнышко затылок-то, голова, как чугун, кипит, а ты, согнувшись в три погибели, -косточки скрипят, - идешь да идешь, и пути не видать, глаза потом залило, а душа-то плачется, а слеза-то катится, - эх-ма, Олеша, помалкивай! |
| "I went on and on till the towing-rope slipped from me and I fell down on my face, and I was not sorry for it either! I rose up all the stronger. If I had not rested a minute I should have died. | Идешь, идешь, да из лямки-то и вывалишься, мордой в землю - и тому рад; стало быть, вся сила чисто вышла, хоть отдыхай, хоть издыхай! |
| "That is the way we used to live then in the sight of God and of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. | Вот как жили у бога на глазах, у милостивого господа Исуса Христа!.. |
| This is the way I took the measure of Mother Volga three times, from Simbirsk to Ribinsk, from there to Saratov, as far as Astrakhan and Markarev, to the Fair more than three thousand versts. | Да так-то я трижды Волгу-мать вымерял: от Симбирского до Рыбинска, от Саратова досюдова да от Астрахани до Макарьева, до ярмарки, - в это многие тысячи верст! |
| And by the fourth year I had become a free waterman. I had shown my master what I was made of." | А на четвертый год уж и водоливом пошел, -показал хозяину разум свой!.. |
| As he spoke he seemed to increase in size like a cloud before my very eyes, being transformed from a small, wizened old man to an individual of fabulous strength. Had he not pulled a great gray barge up the river all by himself? |
