Английский язык с Грэмом Грином. Третий человек

He had had time to think: he was calm now, Martins not Rollo was in the ascendant. When a light went out in one of the windows and an actress descended into the passage where he walked, he didn't even turn to take a look. He was done with all that. He thought: Kurtz is right. They are all right. I'm behaving like a romantic fool: I'll just have a word with Anna Schmidt, a word of commiseration, and then I'll pack and go. He had quite forgotten, he told me, the complication of Mr. Crabbin.

A voice over his head called "Mr. Martins," and he looked up at the face that watched him from between the curtains a few feet above his head. It wasn't beautiful, he firmly explained to me, when I accused him of once again mixing his drinks. Just an honest face with dark hair and eyes which in that light looked brown: a wide forehead, a large mouth which didn't try to charm. No danger anywhere, it seemed to Rollo Martins, of that sudden reckless moment when the scent of hair or a hand against the side alters life. She said, "Will you come up, please? The second door on the right."

There are some people, he explained to me carefully, whom one recognises instantaneously as friends. You can be at ease with them because you know that never, never will you be in danger. "That was Anna," he said, and I wasn't sure whether the past tense was deliberate or not.

Unlike most actress's rooms this one was almost bare; no wardrobe packed with clothes, no clutter of cosmetics and grease paints: a dressing gown on the door, one sweater he recognised from Act II on the only easy chair, a tin of half used paints and grease. A kettle hummed softly on a gas ring. She said, "Would you like a cup of tea? Someone sent me a packet last week—sometimes the Americans do, instead of flowers, you know, on the first night."

"I'd like a cup (я бы хотел одну чашку)," he said, but if there was one thing he hated it was tea (но если была одна вещь, которую он ненавидел, то это был чай). He watched her while she made it (он смотрел на нее, пока она делала его), made it, of course, all wrong (делала его, конечно, совершенно неправильно): the water not on the boil (вода не кипящая: «не на кипении»), the teapot unheated (заварочный чайник не согретый), too few leaves (слишком мало листьев). She said, "I never quite understand why English people like tea so (я никогда вполне не понимаю = не могу понять до конца, почему англичане так /сильно/ любят чай)."

He drank his cupful quickly like a medicine (он выпил свою чашку быстро, как лекарство; cupful — полная чашка чего-л.) and watched her gingerly and delicately sip at hers (и смотрел, как она осторожно и деликатно прихлебывает из своей; gingerly — осторожный, осмотрительный, предусмотрительный; робкий; delicate — изысканный, тонкий, утонченный; вежливый, деликатный, учтивый). He said, "I wanted very much to see you (я очень хотел повидать вас). About Harry (насчет/по поводу Гарри)."

It was the dreadful moment (это был ужасный момент): he would see her mouth stiffen to meet it (он видел, как ее рот напрягся, чтобы выдержать: «встретить» это; stiff — тугой, негибкий, неэластичный, жесткий; to stiffen — застывать; затвердевать).

"Yes?"

"I had known him twenty years (я знал его двадцать лет). I was his friend (я был его другом). We were at school together (мы были вместе в школе), you know (знаете ли), and after that (а после этого)—there weren't many months running when we didn't meet (не много было /таких/ месяцев, когда мы не встречались) ..."

She said, "When I got your card (когда я получила вашу карточку), I couldn't say no (я не могла отказать: «не могла сказать нет»). But there's nothing really for us to talk about (но, на самом деле, нам не о чем говорить: there’s = there is — там есть), is there (не так ли)?—nothing."

"I wanted to hear (я хотел услышать)..."

"He's dead (он мертв). That's the end (это конец). Everything's over (все кончено; over — через; to be over — заканчиваться), finished (закончено). What's the good of talking (какой смысл говорить об этом)?"

"We both loved him (мы оба любили его)."

"I don't know (я не знаю). You can't know a thing like that (не можешь = невозможно знать /такую/ вещь, как эта)—afterwards (потом). I don't know anything any more except (я больше не знаю чего-либо, кроме)—"

"Except (кроме)?"

"That I want to be dead too (что я тоже хочу быть мертвой = хочу умереть)."