Английский с Эдгаром По. Падение дома Ашеров / Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher

“You must not – you shall not behold this!” said I, shudderingly, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat. “These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena not uncommon – or it may be that they have their ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement; – the air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite romances. I will read, and you shall listen; – and so we will pass away this terrible night together.”

The antique volume which I had taken up was the “Mad Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning (древний том, который я подобрал, был «Mad Trist» сэра Ланселота Кэннинга; mad – безумный, сумасшедший; trist – место встречи; свидание); but I had called it a favourite of Usher’s more in sad jest than in earnest (но я назвал его любимой /книгой/ Ашера больше в /качестве/ грустной шутки, чем всерьез); for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity (ибо, по правде /говоря/, мало есть в его неуклюжем и незамысловатом многословии) which could have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my friend (того, что могло бы иметь = представлять интерес для возвышенной и духовной идеальности = идеалистической натуры моего друга).

The antique volume which I had taken up was the “Mad Trist” of Sir Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite of Usher’s more in sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my friend.

It was, however, the only book immediately at hand (он был, однако, единственной книгой непосредственно под рукой); and I indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (и я поддался туманной надежде, что возбуждение, которое теперь волновало ипохондрика, могло бы найти облегчение) (for the history of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies) (ибо история умственного нездоровья полна подобных аномалий) even in the extremeness of the folly which I should read (даже в крайности той ерунды, которую бы я читал). Could I have judged, indeed, by the wild over-strained air of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale (если бы я мог судить, действительно, по буйному, перенапряженному виду оживленности, с которым он слушал, или по-видимому, слушал, слова истории), I might well have congratulated myself upon the success of my design (я мог бы поздравить себя с успехом моего замысла).