Английский язык с У. С. Моэмом. На окраине империи. Рассказы / W. S. Maugham: Stories

"You know how one sometimes has the feeling that a place one has never been to before is strangely familiar. That’s how I seem to see you." He gave a whimsical smile. "Perhaps I knew you in some past existence. Perhaps, perhaps you were the master of a galley in ancient Rome and I was a slave at the oar. Thirty years have you been here?"

"Every bit of thirty years."

"I wonder if you knew a man called Red?"

"Red?"

"That is the only name I’ve ever known him by. I never knew him personally. I never even set eyes on him. And yet I seem to see him more clearly than many men, my brothers, for instance, with whom I passed my daily life for many years. He lives in my imagination with the distinctness of a Paolo Malatesta or a Romeo. But I daresay you have never read Dante or Shakespeare?"

"I can’t say as I have," said the captain.

Neilson, smoking a cigar, leaned back in his chair (Нилсон, куря сигару, откинулся на спинку кресла; to lean — наклоняться; back — назад) and looked vacantly at the ring of smoke (и смотрел безучастно на колечко из дыма) which floated in the still air (которое плыло в неподвижном воздухе). A smile played on his lips (на его губах играла улыбка), but his eyes were grave (но глаза были серьезны). Then he looked at the captain (потом он посмотрел на капитана). There was in his gross obesity something extraordinarily repellent (было в его чрезмерной тучности что-то чрезвычайно отталкивающее; gross — большой; толстый;грубый). He had the plethoric self-satisfaction of the very fat (он обладал тем безмерным самодовольством, /присущим/ очень толстым /людям/). It was an outrage (это было возмутительно; outrage — оскорбление; грубое нарушение; возмутительный случай, поступок). It set Neilson’s nerves on edge (это раздражало Нилсона: «ставило нервы на грань»). But the contrast between the man before him and the man he had in mind was pleasant (но контраст между человеком, /сидящим/ перед ним, и тем, кого он вспоминал, был приятным).