Джек Лондон - Английский язык с Джеком Лондоном. В далекой стране (рассказы)

squirrel ['skwIr(q)l], clumsy ['klAmzI], quarrelsome ['kwOr(q)lsqm]

He placed a stick carefully upon the fire and resumed his meditations. It was the same everywhere, with all things. The mosquitoes vanished with the first frost. The little tree-squirrel crawled away to die. When age settled upon the rabbit it became slow and heavy, and could no longer outfoot its enemies. Even the big bald-face grew clumsy and blind and quarrelsome, in the end to be dragged down by a handful of yelping huskies. He remembered how he had abandoned his own father on an upper reach of the Klondike one winter, the winter before the missionary came with his talk-books and his box of medicines. Many a time had Koskoosh smacked his lips over the recollection of that box, though now his mouth refused to moisten. The «painkiller» had been especially good. But the missionary was a bother after all, for he brought no meat into the camp, and he ate heartily, and the hunters grumbled. But he chilled his lungs on the divide by the Mayo, and the dogs afterwards nosed the stones away and fought over his bones.

Koskoosh placed another stick on the fire and harked back deeper into the past (Коскуш положил еще одну палку в огонь и возвратился глубже в прошлое; to hark back — возвращаться /в мыслях/; вспоминать ). There was the time of the Great Famine (было время великого голода), when the old men crouched empty-bellied to the fire (когда старики съеживались/садились на корточки с пустыми животами к огню; belly — живот; empty — пустой ), and let fall from their lips dim traditions of the ancient day (и роняли: «давали упасть» с губ туманные предания прошлых дней) when the Yukon ran wide open for three winters (когда Юкон бежал широко открытый = без льда три зимы), and then lay frozen for three summers (а потом стоял замерзший три лета). He had lost his mother in that famine (он потерял свою мать в тот голод; to lose — терять что-либо, утрачивать, лишаться ). In the summer the salmon run had failed (тем летом косяк лосося не появился; run — косяк рыбы во время миграции; to fail — истощаться, не сделать, не исполнить ), and the tribe looked forward to the winter and the coming of the caribou (и племя с нетерпением ожидало зимы и появления оленей; to look forward — ожидать с нетерпением; caribou — северный канадский олень ). Then the winter came (затем пришла зима), but with it there were no caribou (но с ней не было оленей). Never had the like been known (никогда подобное не было известно), not even in the lives of the old men (даже в жизни стариков = на памяти стариков). But the caribou did not come, and it was the seventh year (но олени не появились, и это был седьмой год), and the rabbits had not replenished (и зайцы не пополнялись = не плодились), and the dogs were naught but bundles of bones (и собаки были всего лишь связками костей; naught — ничто ). And through the long darkness the children wailed and died (и долгой полярной ночью: «темнотой» дети вопили и умирали), and the women, and the old men (и женщины, и старики); and not one in ten of the tribe lived to meet the sun (и даже один из десяти /человек/ племени не дожил до встречи с солнцем) when it came back in the spring (когда оно вернулось весной). That was a famine (вот это был голод)!

ancient ['eInS(q)nt], famine ['fxmIn], naught [nLt], through [TrH]

Koskoosh placed another stick on the fire and harked back deeper into the past. There was the time of the Great Famine, when the old men crouched empty-bellied to the fire, and let fall from their lips dim traditions of the ancient day when the Yukon ran wide open for three winters, and then lay frozen for three summers. He had lost his mother in that famine. In the summer the salmon run had failed, and the tribe looked forward to the winter and the coming of the caribou. Then the winter came, but with it there were no caribou. Never had the like been known, not even in the lives of the old men. But the caribou did not come, and it was the seventh year, and the rabbits had not replenished, and the dogs were naught but bundles of bones. And through the long darkness the children wailed and died, and the women, and the old men; and not one in ten of the tribe lived to meet the sun when it came back in the spring. That was a famine!

But he had seen times of plenty, too (но он видел времена изобилия тоже), when the meat spoiled on their hands (когда мясо портилось в их руках), and the dogs were fat and worthless with overeating (и собаки были жирными и бесполезными от переедания) — times when they let the game go unkilled (времена, когда они позволяли добыче уйти неубитой = живой; game — дичь, зверь, добытый на охоте; игра ), and the women were fertile (и женщины были плодовиты), and the lodges were cluttered with sprawling men-children and women-children (и вигвамы были заполнены ползающими мальчиками и девочками; children — ребенок ). Then it was the men became high-stomached (тогда мужчины становились заносчивыми; stomach — желудок, живот ), and revived ancient quarrels (и возобновляли старые ссоры/склоки), and crossed the divides to the south to kill the Pellys (и пересекали водораздельные хребты на юг /чтобы/ убивать /людей из племени/ пелли), and to the west that they might sit by the dead fires of the Tananas (и на запад, чтобы они могли посидеть у мертвых = потухших костров /племени/ танана). He remembered, when a boy, during a time of plenty (он вспомнил, когда /он был/ мальчиком во время изобилия), when he saw a moose pulled down by the wolves (когда он увидел лося, сбитого волками). Zing-ha lay with him in the snow and watched (Зинг-ха лежал с ним в снегу и наблюдал) — Zing-ha, who later became the craftiest of hunters (Зинг-ха, который позднее стал самым хитрым/ловким из охотников), and who, in the end, fell through an air-hole on the Yukon (и кто, в конечном счете, погиб в полынье на Юконе; to fall — падать, погибать, попадать; air-hole — полынья на реке: «воздушная дыра» ). They found him, a month afterward (они нашли его месяцем позже), just as he had crawled halfway out and frozen stiff to the ice (едва выползшим наполовину и примерзшим крепко ко льду; stiff — тугой, негибкий; окостеневший, одеревенелый ).