Редьярд Киплинг: Just So Stories for Little Children / Просто сказки. Книга для чтения на английском языке

But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whale’s warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes [12] to stump – тяжело ступать, ковылять; to jump – прыгать; to thump – наносить тяжелый удар, стучать; to bump – толкать, пихать (очень сильно); to prance – прыгать, скакать, резвиться; to dance – танцевать; to bang – грохотать, колотить, стучать; to clang – брен-чать, звенеть; to hit – ударять(ся); to bite – кусать(ся); to leap – прыгать, вскакивать; to creep – ползать; to prowl – бродить, идти крадучись; to howl – выть, реветь; to hop – прыгать, скакать на одной ноге; to drop – зд. падать, валиться; to cry – кричать; to sigh – вздыхать; to crawl – ползать; to bawl – орать во всю глотку; to step – шагать; делать па (в танце); to lep – проказничать; to dance hornpipe – танцевать хорнпайп (английский матросский танец, обычно сольный) where he shouldn’t, and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed. (Have you forgotten the suspenders?)

So he said to the ’Stute Fish, ‘This man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccough [13] he is making me hiccough [́ – из-за него я икаю ( букв : он заставляет меня икать) . What shall I do?’

‘Tell him to come out,’ said the ’Stute Fish.

So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner, ‘Come out and behave yourself. I’ve got the hiccoughs.’

‘Nay, nay!’ said the Mariner. ‘Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I’ll think about it.’ And he began to dance more than ever.

‘You had better take him home,’ said the ’Stute Fish to the Whale. ‘I ought to have warned you [14] I ought to have warned you – Я должен был тебя предупредить. that he is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.’

So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the Mariner’s natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and he rushed half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said, ‘Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and stations on the Fitchburg Road’; and just as he said ‘Fitch’ the Mariner walked out of his mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, who was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife [15] But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner … had taken his jack-knife – Но пока Кит плыл, моряк взял свой большой складной нож and cut up the raft into a little square grating [16] grating – решетка, сетка all running criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (now you know why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating good and tight into the Whale’s throat, and there it stuck! Then he recited the following Sloka [17] Sloka – шлока (слока) – жанр поэзии, двусти-шие или трехстишие , which, as you have not heard it, I will now proceed to relate [18] to proceed to do smth – зд. приступать, перехо-дить к чему-либо, приняться за что-либо :

For the Mariner he has also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the shingle, and went home to his Mother, who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily ever afterward. So did the Whale. But from that day on, the grating in his throat, which he could neither cough up nor swallow down [19] he could neither cough up nor swallow down – он не мог ни выплюнуть, ни проглотить. , prevented him eating anything except very, very small fish; and that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls.

The small ’Stute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the Door-sills of the Equator. He was afraid that the Whale might be angry with him.

The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He was wearing the blue canvas breeches when he walked out on the shingle. The suspenders were left behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and that is the end of that tale.

1. How did the story begin? Why did the Whale want to find the Mariner?

2. Describe the Mariner.

3. What did the Mariner do after the Whale had swallowed him?

4. Why did the Whale have to take the Mariner home?

5. According to the story why were you not to forget the suspenders?

6. Retell the story.

Now this is the next tale, and it tells how the Camel got his big hump.

In the beginning of years, when the world was so new-and-all, and the Animals were just beginning to work for Man, there was a Camel, and he lived in the middle of a Howling Desert because he did not want to work; and besides, he was a Howler himself. So he ate sticks and thorns and tamarisks and milkweed and prickles, most ’scruciating idler [23] scruciating = excruciating – мучи-тельный, ужасный; idler – лентяй, лежебока ; and when anybody spoke to him he said ‘Humph! [24] Humph! – Гм! ’ Just ‘Humph!’ and no more.

Presently the horse came to him on Monday morning, with a saddle on his back and a bit [25] bit – зд. удила in his mouth, and said, ‘Camel, O Camel, come out and trot [27] to trot – cпешить, торопиться; …trot like the rest of us – …поспеши, как остальные (как мы) like the rest of us.’

This is the picture of the Djinn making the beginnings of the Magic that brought the Humph to the Camel. First he drew a line in the air with his finger, and it became solid; and then he made a cloud, and then he made an egg – you can see them at the bottom of the picture – and then there was a magic pumpkin that turned into a big white flame. Then the Djinn took his magic fan and fanned that flame till that flame turned into a Magic by itself. It was a good Magic and a very kind Magic really, though it had to give the Camel a Humph because the Camel was lazy. The Djinn in charge of[26] in charge of – ответственный заall Deserts was one of the nicest of the Djinns, so he would never do anything really unkind.