The Legend of Sleepy Hollow / Легенда о Сонной Лощине. Новеллы. Книга для чтения на английском языке

He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the village, he was surrounded by a troop of them, hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood.

The great error in Rip’s composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar’s lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone-fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.

In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; every thing about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray, or get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some outdoor work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood.

His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own likeness[34], promised to inherit the habits with the old clothes of his father. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his mother’s heels, equipped in a pair of his father’s cast-off galligaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine lady does her train in bad weather.

Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house – the only side which, in truth, belongs to a hen-pecked husband.

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Примечания

1

Castle of Indolence – «Замок лени», поэма английского поэта Д. Томсона (1700–1748)

2

the Tappan Zee – (голл.) «Затычка моря», голландское название устья р. Гудзон

3

shortened sail – убавляли паруса или убирали паруса; замедляли ход

4

Tarry Town – (букв.) «задержись-город», от to tarry – медлить, мешкать

5

and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold – слова из песни Глостера, персонажа трагедии Шекспира «Король Лир» (акт III, сцена 4): “he met the nightmare, and her whole ninefold

6

Hessian trooper – гессенский наемник; в составе армии Великобритании во время Войны за независимость в Америке (1775–1783) сражались солдаты, нанятые английским правительством у герцога Гессен-Дармштадтского

7

ever and anon – (книжн.) время от времени, то и дело

8

Ichabod Crane – говорящее имя: Ichabod – редкое библейское имя (букв. бесславный), Crane – журавль

9

the longest day he had to live – до конца своих дней

10

like the lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold – обыгрывается двустишие из букваря New England Primer (конец XVII в.), помещенное под иллюстрацией к букве L: The lion bold/The lamb doth hold

11

where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson – он был уверен, что в этом пальма первенства принадлежит ему, а не священнику

12

by hook and by crook – всеми правдами и неправдами, так или иначе; «не мытьем, так катаньем

13

man of letters – литератор, ученый муж

14

was a perfect master of Cotton Mather’s “History of New England Witchcraft" – досконально изучил «Историю колдовства в Новой Англии» Коттона Мезера; Коттон Мезер (1663–1728) – американский пуританский проповедник и общественный деятель

15

Katrina Van Tassel – говорящее имя: tassel – кисточка (украшение)

16

Indian corn – кукуруза, маис

17

of yore – давным-давно

18

Brom Van Brunt – говорящее имя: brunt – атака, главный удар

19

Don Cossacks – донские казаки

20

“quilting frolic” – посиделки, во время которых женщины занимаются рукоделием (в данном случае простегивают одеяла)

21

Hans Van Ripper – говорящее имя: to rip – мчаться, нестись

22

But it is meet – Здесь, в этом месте

23

the unfortunate Major Andre – Дж. Андре (1750–1780), майор британской армии, во время Войны за независимость вел переговоры с американским генералом Б. Арнольдом о сдаче форта Вест-Пойнт англичанам; был захвачен американцами и казнен как шпион

24

This story was immediately matched by a thrice marvellous adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the Galloping Hessian as an arrant jockey. – За этим рассказом последовала еще более удивительная история, рассказанная Бромом Бонсом, который поведал, что Скачущий гессенец, оказывается, – плохой наездник.

25

in kind – таким же образом

26

in kind – таким же образом

27

a book of psalm tunes full of dog’s-ears – книга псалмов, причем от долгого употребления уголки страниц совсем истрепались

28

were forthwith consigned to the flames – были немедленно преданы огню

29

Rip Van Winkle – имя стало нарицательным в значении «человек, оторвавшийся от действитель- ности, утративший связь со своим временем»

30

Diedrich Knickerbocker – псевдоним Ирвинга, под которым он издал «Историю Нью-Йорка», Knickerbocker – говорящая фамилия, прозвище уроженцев или жителей города и штата Нью- Йорка, поскольку бриджи (knickerbockers) были типичным элементом одежды первых голландских поселенцев этого штата

31

Peter Stuyvesant – Питер Стёйвесант (15921672), последний голландский губернатор штата Новые Нидерланды (1647–1664)

32

Fort Christina – шведское укрепленное поселение на р. Делавер, захваченное и разрушенное голландцами в 1655 г.

33

hen-pecked husband – муж-подкаблучник

34

begotten in his own likeness – во всем походящий на него