and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to
his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle
of rum;' all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon
them, and each singing louder than the other, to avoid remark. For in these
fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his
hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger
at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the
company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the
inn till he had drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed.
1. His stories were what frightened people worst of all (его истории были /тем/,
что пугало людей больше всего). Dreadful stories they were (ужасными
историями они были); about hanging (о повешении), and walking the plank (и
хождении по доске /в открытое море/ — видказни:пиратычасто
заставляли несчастных людей на захваченном корабле идти с завязанными
глазами по доске в море), and storms at sea (/о/ штормах на море), and the Dry
Tortugas (об /островах/ Драй Тортугас /группа мелких коралловых островов в
Мексиканском заливе, на юго-западе Флориды/), and wild deeds and places on
the Spanish Main (диких деяниях и местах у испанского материка /в районе
Карибского моря/).
2. By his own account (по его собственному рассказу) he must have lived his life
among some of the wickedest men (он, должно быть, прожил жизнь среди
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франкаwww.franklang.ru
15
/неких/ самых отъявленных людей = злодеев) that God ever allowed upon the
sea (которым Господь когда-либо позволял /плавать/ по морю); and the
language in which he told these stories (язык, которым он рассказывал эти
истории) shocked our plain country people (шокировал наших простых
деревенских людей) almost as much as the crimes that he described (почти так
же, как и преступления, которые он описывал).
frightened [`fraItnd] dreadful [dredful] hanging [`hxNIN] language
[`lxNgwIG]
1. His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they
were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry
Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.
2. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of the wickedest
men that God ever allowed upon the sea; and the language in which he told
these stories shocked our plain country people almost as much as the crimes
