Английский с Г. К. Честертоном. Рассказы об отце Брауне

 The pantomime was utterly chaotic, yet not contemptible; there ran through it a rage of improvisation which came chiefly from Crook the clown. Commonly he was a clever man, and he was inspired tonight with a wild omniscience, a folly wiser than the world, that which comes to a young man who has seen for an instant a particular expression on a particular face. He was supposed to be the clown, but he was really almost everything else, the author (so far as there was an author), the prompter, the scene-painter, the scene-shifter, and, above all, the orchestra. At abrupt intervals in the outrageous performance he would hurl himself in full costume at the piano and bang out some popular music equally absurd and appropriate.

The climax of this, as of all else (кульминационным пунктом этого /спектакля/, а также всего остального; climax – наивысшая точка; кульминация), was the moment when the two front doors at the back of the scene flew open (было мгновение, когда две двери на заднем плане сцены вдруг распахнулись; to fly – лететь; to fly open – распахиваться), showing the lovely moonlit garden (и зрители увидели: «показав» прекрасный сад, залитый лунным светом), but showing more prominently the famous professional guest (на фоне которого отчетливо вырисовывалась фигура знаменитого гостя профессионала: «показав более отчетливо знаменитое профессиональное приглашенное лицо»; guest – гость; приглашенное лицо); the great Florian, dressed up as a policeman (великого Флориана, одетого как полицейский). The clown at the piano played the constabulary chorus in the “Pirates of Penzance” (клоун за пианино заиграл хор полицейских из /комической оперы/ «Пираты из Пензанса»), but it was drowned in the deafening applause (но он потонул в оглушительных аплодисментах; to drown – тонуть; to deafen – оглушать), for every gesture of the great comic actor was an admirable though restrained version of the carriage and manner of the police (каждый жест великого актера-комика был замечательной, хотя и сдержанной, интерпретацией осанки и манеры /держаться/ полицейских; to restrain – сдерживать; version – версия; интерпретация; carriage – коляска; карета; осанка; manner – способ; метод; манера; поведение; police – полиция; the police – полицейские).

 The climax of this, as of all else, was the moment when the two front doors at the back of the scene flew open, showing the lovely moonlit garden, but showing more prominently the famous professional guest; the great Florian, dressed up as a policeman. The clown at the piano played the constabulary chorus in the “Pirates of Penzance,” but it was drowned in the deafening applause, for every gesture of the great comic actor was an admirable though restrained version of the carriage and manner of the police.