Английские волшебные сказки / English Fairy Tales

Well, there was once a very rich gentleman, and he had three daughters, and he thought he’d see how fond they were of him. So he says to the first, ‘How much do you love me, my dear?’

‘Why,’ says she, ‘as I love my life.’

‘That’s good,’ says he.

So he says to the second, ‘How much do you love me, my dear?’

‘Why,’ says she, ‘better nor all the world.’

‘That’s good,’ says he.

So he says to the third, ‘How much do you love me, my dear?’

‘Why, I love you as fresh meat loves salt,’ says she.

Well, but he was angry. ‘You don’t love me at all,’ says he, ‘and in my house you stay no more.’ So he drove her out there and then, and shut the door in her face.

Well, she went away on and on (она пошла прочь дальше и дальше) till she came to a fen (пока она не пришла к болоту), and there she gathered a lot of rushes (и там она собрала много: «кучу» камышей) and made them into a kind of a sort of a cloak with a hood (и сделала из них что-то вроде плаща с капюшоном), to cover her from head to foot (чтобы покрыть ее с головы до ног: «до ступни»), and to hide her fine clothes (и чтобы спрятать хорошую одежду). And then she went on and on (и тогда она пошла дальше и дальше) till she came to a great house (пока не пришла к большому дому).

‘Do you want a maid (вам нужна служанка)?’ says she.

‘No, we don’t (нет, не нужна),’ said they.

‘I haven’t nowhere to go (мне некуда пойти),’ says she; ‘and I ask no wages (и я не прошу никакой платы), and do any sort of work (и делаю любую разновидность работы = любую работу),’ says she.

‘Well (ну),’ said they, ‘if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans (если ты хочешь мыть горшки и скрести кастрюли) you may stay (ты можешь остаться),’ said they.

So she stayed there and washed the pots and scraped the saucepans (так что она осталась там и мыла горшки и скребла кастрюли) and did all the dirty work (и делала всю грязную работу). And because she gave no name (и потому что она не сказала: «дала» никакого имени) they called her ‘Cap o’ Rushes’ (они звали ее Чепец из камышей; o’ = of, разг.).

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[‘kv], saucepan [‘s:spn]

Well, she went away on and on till she came to a fen, and there she gathered a lot of rushes and made them into a kind of a sort of a cloak with a hood, to cover her from head to foot, and to hide her fine clothes. And then she went on and on till she came to a great house.

‘Do you want a maid?’ says she.

‘No, we don’t,’ said they.

‘I haven’t nowhere to go,’ says she; ‘and I ask no wages, and do any sort of work,’ says she.

‘Well,’ said they, ‘if you like to wash the pots and scrape the saucepans you may stay,’ said they.

So she stayed there and washed the pots and scraped the saucepans and did all the dirty work. And because she gave no name they called her ‘Cap o’ Rushes’.