1. How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On
stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the
surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand
forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut
off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature
who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see
him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of
nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny
piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
1. But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg (хотя
я был так напуган мыслью о моряке с одной ногой), I was far less afraid of the
captain himself (я гораздо меньше боялся самого капитана) than anybody else
who knew him (чем кто-либо другой, кто знал его). There were nights when he
took a deal more rum and water (были ночи, когда он выпивал больше рому с
водой;
head would carry (чем его голова могла вынести); and then he would sometimes
sit and sing (и затем иногда сидел и пел) his wicked, old, wild sea-songs,
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minding nobody (свои нечестивые, старые, дикие морские песни, не обращая
ни на кого внимания;
round (но иногда требовал стаканов /рому/ для всех;
force all the trembling company to listen to his stories (и заставлял всю
дрожавшую компанию слушать его истории) or bear a chorus to his singing
(или поддерживать припев, подпевать его пению: «нести хор к его пению»).
Often I have heard the house shaking with (часто я слышал, как дом трясся от
/песни/) 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum;' all the neighbours joining in for dear life
(все соседи подхватывали /пение/ изо всех сил: «ради дорогой жизни»;
боязнью смерти «на них»), and each singing louder than the other, to avoid
remark (и каждый пел громче, чем другой, чтобы избежать замечания). For in
these fits (так как в этих припадках) he was the most overriding companion ever
known (он был наиболее важным = грозным собеседником, чем когда-либо
/известный/;
on the table for silence all round (ударял рукой по столу для тишины вокруг);
he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question (приходил в ярость при
вопросе = когда его спрашивали;
sometimes because none was put (или иногда потому, что никакой /вопрос/ не
был задан), and so he judged the company was not following his story (поэтому
он решал, /что/ компания не следовала его истории = невнимательно
слушала). Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn (также не позволял он
кому-либо уйти из трактира;
drunk himself sleepy and reeled off to bed (пока не напивался до дремотного
состояния и ковылял к кровати;
terrified [`terIfaId] wicked [`wIkId] bear [beq] neighbour [`neIbq] overriding
[quvq`raIdIN]
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1. But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg,
I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him.
There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head
would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild