| "How can I?" he grumbled. "When there are two people in a boat, one always rows while the other steers. | - Как же можно? - ворчит он.- Если в лодке двое, то всегда - один гребет, другой правит. |
| There - look! There's the Chinese block." | Вот - смотри: Китайские ряды... |
| I knew the market through and through; I knew that comical-looking block of buildings with the ridiculous roofs on which sat, with crossed legs, figures of Chinamen in plaster of Paris. There had been a time when I and my playfellow had thrown stones at them, and some of the Chinamen had had their heads and hands broken off by me. | Я давно знаю Ярмарку насквозь; знаю и эти смешные ряды с нелепыми крышами; по углам крыш сидят, скрестив ноги, гипсовые фигуры китайцев; когда-то я со своими товарищами швырял в них камнями, и у некоторых китайцев именно мною отбиты головы, руки. |
| But I no longer took any pride in that sort of thing. | Но я уже не горжусь этим... |
| "Rubbish!" said my master, pointing to the block. "If I had been allowed to build it - " | - Ерунда,- говорит хозяин, указывая на ряды.-Кабы мне дали строить это... |
| He whistled and pushed his cap to the back of his head. | Он свистит, сдвигая фуражку на затылок. |
| But somehow I thought that he would have built that town of stone just as dingily, on that low-lying ground which was flooded by the waters of two rivers every year. | А мне почему-то думается, что он построил бы этот каменный город так же скучно, на этом же низком месте, которое ежегодно заливают воды двух рек. |
| And he would even have invented the Chinese block. | И Китайские ряды выдумал бы... |
| Throwing his cigar over the side of the boat, he spat after it in disgust, saying: | Утопив сигару за бортом, он сопроводил ее плевком отвращения и говорит: |
| "Life is very dull, Pyeshkov, very dull. | - Скушно, Пешков! Скушно. |
| There are no educated people - no one to talk to. | Образованных людей - нет, поговорить - не с кем. |
| If one wants to show off one's gifts, who is there to be impressed? | Захочется похвастать - а перед кем? |
| Not a soul! | Нет людей. |
| All the people here are carpenters, stone-masons, peasants - " | Всё плотники, каменщики, мужики, жулье... |
| He looked straight ahead at the white mosque which rose picturesquely out of the water on a small hill, and continued as. if he were recollecting something he had forgotten: | Он смотрит вправо, на белую мечеть, красиво поднявшуюся из воды, на холме, и продолжает, словно вспоминая забытое: |
| "I began to drink beer and smoke cigars when I was working under a German. | - Начал я пиво пить, сигары курю, живу под немца. |
| The Germans, my brother, are a business-like race -such wild fowl! | Немцы, брат, народ деловой, т-такие звери-курицы! |
| Drinking beer is a pleasant occupation, but I have never got used to smoking cigars. | Пиво - приятное занятие, а к сигарам - не привык еще! |
| And when you 've been smoking, your wife grumbles: | Накуришься, жена ворчит: |
| 'What is it that you smell of? It is like the smell at the harness-makers.' | "Чем это от тебя пахнет, как от шорника?" |
