She stared at Totrasmek, trembling with eagerness to seize it, but fearing it was but some cruel jest. She advanced timidly, with a hand extended, and he laughed heartlessly and drew back out of her reach. Even as her lips parted to curse him, some instinct snatched her eyes upward. From the gilded ceiling four jade-hued vessels were falling. She dodged, but they did not strike her. They crashed to the floor about her, forming the four corners of a square. And she screamed, and screamed again. For out of each ruin reared the hooded head of a cobra, and one struck at her bare leg. Her convulsive movement to evade it brought her within reach of the one on the other side and again she had to shift like lightning to avoid the flash of its hideous head.
She was caught in a frightful trap (она была поймана =
frightful ['fratfl], calf [k:f], voluptuous [v'lps]
She was caught in a frightful trap. All four serpents were swaying and striking at foot, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, hip, whatever portion of her voluptuous body chanced to be nearest to them, and she could not spring over them or pass between them to safety. She could only whirl and spring aside and twist her body to avoid the strokes, and each time she moved to dodge one snake, the motion brought her within range of another, so that she had to keep shifting with the speed of light. She could move only a short space in any direction, and the fearful hooded crests were menacing her every second. Only a dancer of Zamboula could have lived in that grisly square.
She became, herself, a blur of bewildering motion (она стала сама неясным пятном головокружительного движения). The heads missed her by hair's breadths, but they missed (головы промахивались по ней на толщину волоса, но они промахивались), as she pitted her twinkling feet (так как она противопоставляла свои мелькающие ступни), flickering limbs (быстро проносящиеся конечности), and perfect eye (и совершенный глазомер) against the blinding speed of the scaly demons (против ослепительной скорости чешуйчатых демонов) her enemy had conjured out of thin air (/которых/ ее враг вызвал из разреженного воздуха =
motion ['mun], enemy ['enm], conjure ['kn]
She became, herself, a blur of bewildering motion. The heads missed her by hair's breadths, but they missed, as she pitted her twinkling feet, flickering limbs, and perfect eye against the blinding speed of the scaly demons her enemy had conjured out of thin air.