Редьярд Киплинг: Английский с Редьярдом Киплингом. Рикки-Тикки-Тави / Rudyard Kipling. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

There were white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of their ears; fat, slow-footed she-elephants, with restless, little pinky black calves only three or four feet high running under their stomachs; young elephants with their tusks just beginning to show, and very proud of them; lanky, scraggy old-maid elephants, with their hollow anxious faces, and trunks like rough bark; savage old bull elephants, scarred from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of bygone fights, and the caked dirt of their solitary mud baths dropping from their shoulders; and there was one with a broken tusk and the marks of the full-stroke, the terrible drawing scrape, of a tiger’s claws on his side.

They were standing head to head(они стояли голова к голове) , or walking to and fro across the ground in couples(или расхаживали взад и вперед по площадке парами; to walk – ходить; гулять, прогуливаться ) , or rocking and swaying all by themselves(или же /ходили,/ спотыкаясь и покачиваясь, сами по себе = поодиночке; to rock – качаться, колебаться; трястись; to sway – качать / ся / , колебать / ся /) – scores and scores of elephants(десятки и десятки слонов; score – два десятка, десяток-другой ).

Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag’s neck nothing would happen to him(Тумаи знал, что пока он неподвижно лежит на спине Кала Нага, с ним ничего не случится) , for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah drive a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the neck of a tame elephant(потому что, даже в толкотне и свалке кеддаха, дикий слон не вытягивает хобот и не стаскивает человека с шеи ручного слона; to reach – протягивать, вытягивать; to drag – тянуть, тащить, волочить ) . And these elephants were not thinking of men that night(а эти слоны /вообще/ не думали о людях в ту ночь).

They were standing head to head, or walking to and fro across the ground in couples, or rocking and swaying all by themselves – scores and scores of elephants.

Toomai knew that so long as he lay still on Kala Nag’s neck nothing would happen to him, for even in the rush and scramble of a Keddah drive a wild elephant does not reach up with his trunk and drag a man off the neck of a tame elephant. And these elephants were not thinking of men that night.

Once they started and put their ears forward when they heard the chinking of a leg iron in the forest(один раз все они вздрогнули и подняли уши, услышав в лесу звяканье = лязг ножных цепей; to start – начинать; вздрагивать; to put forward – выдвигать вперед; to chink – звенеть; звякать; iron – железо; кандалы, цепи ) , but it was Pudmini, Petersen Sahib’s pet elephant(но это была Падмини, любимая слониха Петерсена Сахиба) , her chain snapped short off, grunting, snuffling up the hillside(ее непрочная цепь порвалась, /и она/, ворча и сопя, /поднималась/ на гору; to snap – щелкать, лязгать; to snap off – отломить / ся / / с треском / ; short – короткий; хрупкий, ломкий / о металле / ; to snuffle – вдыхать; сопеть ) . She must have broken her pickets and come straight from Petersen Sahib’s camp(она, должно быть, сломала свою изгородь: «свои колья» и пришла прямо из лагеря Петерсена Сахиба; to break ) ; and Little Toomai saw another elephant(а Маленький Тумаи увидел /еще и/ другого слона) , one that he did not know(незнакомого ему: «того, которого он не знал») , with deep rope galls on his back and breast(с глубокими ссадинами от веревок на спине и груди; gall – ссадина, натертое место ) . He, too, must have run away from some camp in the hills about(он тоже, вероятно, убежал из какого-нибудь лагеря в окрестных горах).

At last there was no sound of any more elephants moving in the forest(наконец, больше /не/ было ни звука слонов, передвигающихся по лесу) , and Kala Nag rolled out from his station between the trees and went into the middle of the crowd(и Кала Наг выкатился = качаясь, сошел со своего места между деревьями и направился в середину толпы; to roll – катить / ся / ; station – место, местоположение ) , clucking and gurgling(с клокочущим и журчащим /звуком/; to cluck – клохтать; to gurgle – булькать; журчать ) , and all the elephants began to talk in their own tongue(и все слоны начали разговаривать на своем собственном языке; tongue – / анат. / язык; язык / на котором говорят /) , and to move about(и переходить с места на место; to move – двигаться; to move about – переходить, переезжать, переносить / с места на место /).

Once they started and put their ears forward when they heard the chinking of a leg iron in the forest, but it was Pudmini, Petersen Sahib’s pet elephant, her chain snapped short off, grunting, snuffling up the hillside. She must have broken her pickets and come straight from Petersen Sahib’s camp; and Little Toomai saw another elephant, one that he did not know, with deep rope galls on his back and breast. He, too, must have run away from some camp in the hills about.

At last there was no sound of any more elephants moving in the forest, and Kala Nag rolled out from his station between the trees and went into the middle of the crowd, clucking and gurgling, and all the elephants began to talk in their own tongue, and to move about.