Английский язык с Конаном-варваром

Behind him lay the dense jungles of the black lands beyond Kush, where fantastic orchids blazed amid foliage of somber dark green, where fierce black tribes hacked a precarious living out of the smothering bush, and where the silence of the dank, shadowed jungle pathways was broken only by the coughing snarl of the hunting leopard, the grunt of the wild pig, the brassy trumpeting of the elephant, or the sudden scream of an angered ape. For over a year, Conan had dwelt there as the war chief of the powerful Bamula tribe. At length the crafty black priests, jealous of his rise to power and resentful of his undisguised contempt for their bloodthirsty gods and their cruel, sanguinary rites, had poisoned the minds of the Bamula warriors against their white-skinned leader.

It had come about in this wise (это произошло таким образом; to come about — происходить, случаться). A time of long, unbroken drought had come upon the tribes of the jungle (время долгой непрерывной засухи навалилось на племена джунглей; to come upon — напасть на, навалиться на). With the shrinking of the rivers and the drying up of the water holes had come red, roaring war (с пересыханием рек и высыханием водяных скважин пришла кровавая, яростная война), as the ebon tribes locked in desperate battle to secure the few remaining sources of the precious fluid (когда черные: «эбеновые» племена сцепились в отчаянной битве, чтобы защитить немногие оставшиеся запасы драгоценной жидкости). Villages went up in flame; whole clans had been slaughtered and left to rot (поселки сгорали в пламени, целые кланы были убиты и оставлены на вымирание; to rot — гнить, разлагаться; деградировать). Then, in the wake of drought, famine, and war, had come plague to sweep the land (затем после засухи, голода и войны пришла чума, чтобы вымести землю = пронестись / пройтись метлой по земле; to sweep — сметать, смывать, «смахивать», сбрасывать интенсивным движением, нестись, мчаться, проноситься; in the wake of — на поводу у, в кильватере, впоследствии).

drought [draut], war [wɔ: ], famine [ˈfæmɪn]

It had come about in this wise. A time of long, unbroken drought had come upon the tribes of the jungle. With the shrinking of the rivers and the drying up of the water holes had come red, roaring war, as the ebon tribes locked in desperate battle to secure the few remaining sources of the precious fluid. Villages went up in flame; whole clans had been slaughtered and left to rot. Then, in the wake of drought, famine, and war, had come plague to sweep the land.

The malicious tongues of the cunning priests laid these terrors to Conan (злые языки хитроумных жрецов свалили эти ужасы на Конана / приписали эти ужасы Конану). It was he, they swore, who had brought these disasters upon Bamula (это был он = именно он, клялись они, /кто/ принес эти бедствия /на/ Бамуле;[13] to swear). The gods were angry that a pale-skinned outlander had usurped the ornate stool of a long line of Bamula chieftains (боги были сердиты, что бледнолицый[14] иноземец узурпировал богато украшенное кресло длинной череды бамульских вождей). Conan, they persisted, must be flayed and slain with a thousand ingenious torments upon the black altars of the devil-gods of the jungle (с Конана, настаивали они, нужно содрать кожу и убить тысячей изобретательных пыток на черных алтарях дьявольских божков джунглей; to flay — свежевать, сдирать кожу), or all the people would perish (или все люди погибнут).

malicious [məˈɪʃəls], stool [stu: l], disaster [dɪˈzɑ: stə]

The malicious tongues of the cunning priests laid these terrors to Conan. It was he, they swore, who had brought these disasters upon Bamula. The gods were angry that a pale-skinned outlander had usurped the ornate stool of a long line of Bamula chieftains. Conan, they persisted, must be flayed and slain with a thousand ingenious torments upon the black altars of the devil-gods of the jungle, or all the people would perish.