Александр Солженицын - Раковый корпус - русский и английский параллельные тексты

'Where does he get it all from?' wondered Sibgatov, both hands as usual propping the small of his back.

'Some of it's war booty, some of it he bought in secondhand shops. He met a girl who worked in one of them; originally he came in to ask her to value some of his furniture, but he ended up marrying her. After that they joined forces, and everything valuable that came along they reserved for themselves.'

'But where does he work himself?' Ahmadjan insisted. 'Nowhere. He got his pension when

he was forty-two, but he's still a great ox of a man, he'd be a good fellow for cutting down trees. He has his step-daughter and grand-daughter living with him, and you should see the way he talks to them. "I order you!" he says. "I'm in charge here! This is my house, I built it!" He sticks his hands under the lapels of his overcoat and walks about the house like a field-marshal. His name's Yemelyan according to his passport, but for some reason he makes everyone at home call him Sashik. But can one say he's happy with his lot? No, he's not. What gets him on the raw is that the general commanding the army he was in has a house in Kislovodsk, [Footnote: A fashionable resort in the northern Caucasus. (Translators' note) with ten rooms, two cars and his own man to stoke the boiler. Sashik hasn't got as far as that!'

They laughed. Pavel Nikolayevich found the

story out of place and thoroughly unamusing. Shulubin didn't laugh either. He looked at the others as if he wished they'd let him get some sleep.

'All right, maybe it's funny,' said Kostoglotov from his prostrate position. 'But how is it that...'

'There was a feature in the local paper. When was it? A few days ago,' someone in the ward remembered. 'It was about a man who built himself a villa with government funds. Then it all came out. And you know what happened? He confessed he'd made a

И сказать, что доволен жизнью? Нет, не доволен: грызёт его, что в Кисловодске у его бывшего командующего армией дом - из десяти комнат, истопник свой и две автомашины. Павел Николаевич нашёл этот рассказ не смешным и неуместным. И Шулубин не смеялся. Он так на всех смотрел, будто ему спать не давали. - Смешно-то смешно, - отозвался Костоглотов из своего нижнего положения, - а как... - А вот

когда? на днях фельетон был в областной газете, -вспомнили в палате, - построил особняк на казённые средства и разоблачён. Так что? Признал свою ошибку, сдал детскому учреждению - и ему поставили на вид, не судили.