Клайв Льюис - Племянник чародея with W_cat

This woman, as I said, was the last: but there were plenty of empty chairs beyond her, as if the room had been intended for a much larger collection of images.

“I do wish we knew the story that’s behind all this,” said Digory. “Let’s go back and look at that table sort of thing in the middle of the room.”

The thing in the middle of the room was not exactly a table. It was a square pillar about four feet high and on it there rose a little golden arch from which there hung a little golden bell; and beside this there lay a little golden hammer to hit the bell with.

[ 259 259 – Что бы это все значило? – сказал Дигори. – Ты посмотри, тут стул посередине, и на нем лежит что-то. Собственно, Дигори увидел не стол, а широкую низкую колонну. На ней лежал золотой молоток, а рядом на золотой дужке висел колокол, тоже золотой. ] “I wonder… I wonder… I wonder…” said Digory.

[ 260 260 – Тут написано что-то, – сказала Полли. ] “There seems to be something written here,” said Polly, stooping down and looking at the side of the pillar.

[ 261 261 – Правда. Только мы все равно не поймем. ] “By gum, so there is,” said Digory. “But of course we shan’t be able to read it.”

[ 262 262 – Почему же? Давай попробуем. ] “Shan’t we? I’m not so sure,” said Polly.

[ 263 263 Конечно, письмена были странные. И однако, к немалому удивлению Дигори, они становились все понятней, пока он к ним присматривался. Если бы мальчик вспомнил свои собственные слова, он бы понял, что и тут действует колдовство. Но его так мучило любопытство, что он ничего не вспомнил. Скоро он разобрал надпись. На каменной колонне были высечены примерно такие слова: ] They both looked at it hard and, as you might have expected, the letters cut in the stone were strange. But now a great wonder happened: for, as they looked, though the shape of the strange letters never altered, they found that they could understand them. If only Digory had remembered what he himself had said a few minutes ago, that this was an enchanted room, he might have guessed that the enchantment was beginning to work. But he was too wild with curiosity to think about that. He was longing more and more to know what was written on the pillar. And very soon they both knew. What it said was something like this—at least this is the sense of it though the poetry, when you read it there, was better:

[ 264 264 «Выбирай, чужеземец! Если ты позвонишь в колокол – пеняй на себя. Если не позвонишь – терзайся всю жизнь». ] Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;

Strike the bell and bide the danger,

Or wonder, till it drives you mad,

What would have followed if you had.

[ 265 265 – Не буду я звонить, – сказала Полли. ] “No fear!” said Polly. “We don’t want any danger.”

[ 266 266 – Здорово! – воскликнул Дигори. – Что ж, так и прикажешь всю жизнь мучиться? ] “Oh but don’t you see it’s no good!” said Digory. “We can’t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that. No fear!”

[ 267 267 – Глупый ты. Кто же тебе приказывает мучиться? ] “Don’t be so silly,” said Polly. “As if anyone would! What does it matter what would have happened?”

[ 268 268 – А колдовство? Заколдуют, и буду мучиться. Я вот, например, уже сейчас мучаюсь. Колдовство действует. ] “I expect anyone who’s come as far as this is bound to go on wondering till it sends him dotty. That’s the Magic of it, you see. I can feel it beginning to work on me already.”

[ 269 269 –А я нет, – отрубила Полли. – И тебе я не верю. Ты притворяешься. ] “Well I don’t,” said Polly crossly. “And I don’t believe you do either. You’re just putting it on.”

[ 270 270 – Разумеется, ты же девчонка, – сказал Дигори. – Вашему брату на все наплевать, кроме сплетен, да всякой чепухи насчет того, кто в кого влюблен. ] “That’s all you know,” said Digory. “It’s because you’re a girl. Girls never want to know anything but gossip and rot about people getting engaged.”

[ 271 271 – Ты сейчас вылитый дядюшка Эндрью, – сказала Полли. ] “You looked exactly like your Uncle when you said that,” said Polly.

[ 272 272 – При чем тут дядюшка? Мы говорим, что… ] “Why can’t you keep to the point?” said Digory. “What we’re talking about is—”

[ 273 273 – Типичный мужчина! – сказала Полли взрослым голосом, и тут же прибавила: – Только не вздумай отвечать, что я типичная женщина. Не дразнись. ] “How exactly like a man!” said Polly in a very grownup voice; but she added hastily, in her real voice, “And don’t say I’m just like a woman, or you’ll be a beastly copy-cat.”

[ 274 274 – Стану я называть женщиной такую козявку! ] “I should never dream of calling a kid like you a woman,” said Digory loftily.

[ 275 275 – Это я-то козявка.? – Полли рассердилась по-настоящему. – Ладно, не стану мешать. С меня хватит. Совершенно мерзкое место. А ты – воображала и поросенок! ] “Oh, I’m a kid, am I?” said Polly who was now in a real rage. “Well you needn’t be bothered by having a kid with you any longer then. I’m off. I’ve had enough of this place. And I’ve had enough of you too—you beastly, stuck-up, obstinate pig!”

[ 276 276 – Стой! – закричал Дигори куда противнее, чем хотел. Он увидел, что Полли вот-вот сунет руку в карман с желтым колечком. Мне его трудно оправдать. Могу только сказать, что он – и не только он один – потом очень и очень жалел о том, что сделал. Он схватил Полли за руку, а сам левой рукой дотянулся до молота и ударил по колоколу. Потом отпустил девочку, и они молча уставились друг на друга. Полли собралась было зареветь, причем не от страха, а от злости, но не успела. ] “None of that!” said Digory in a voice even nastier than he meant it to be; for he saw Polly’s hand moving to her pocket to get hold of her yellow ring. I can’t excuse what he did next except by saying that he was very sorry for it afterwards (and so were a good many other people). Before Polly’s hand reached her pocket, he grabbed her wrist, leaning across with his back against her chest. Then, keeping her other arm out of the way with his other elbow, he leaned forward, picked up the hammer, and struck the golden bell a light, smart tap. Then he let her go and they fell apart staring at each other and breathing hard. Polly was just beginning to cry, not with fear, and not even because he had hurt her wrist quite badly, but with furious anger. Within two seconds, however, they had something to think about that drove their own quarrels quite out of their minds.

[ 277 277 Звон был мелодичный, не слишком оглушительный, зато непрерывный и нарастающий, так что минуты через две дети уже не могли говорить, потому что не услыхали бы друг друга. А когда он стал таким сильным, что перекрыл бы даже их крик, то и сама мелодичность его стала казаться жуткой. Под конец и воздух в зале, и пол под ногами задрожали крупной дрожью, а часть стены и кусок потолка с грохотом рухнули – не то из-за колдовства, не то поддавшись какой-то особенной ноте. И тут все затихло. ] As soon as the bell was struck it gave out a note, a sweet note such as you might have expected, and not very loud. But instead of dying away again, it went on; and as it went on it grew louder. Before a minute had passed it was twice as loud as it had been to begin with. It was soon so loud that if the children had tried to speak (but they weren’t thinking of speaking now—they were just standing with their mouths open) they would not have heard one another. Very soon it was so loud that they could not have heard one another even by shouting. And still it grew: all on one note, a continuous sweet sound, though the sweetness had something horrible about it, till all the air in that great room was throbbing with it and they could feel the stone floor trembling under their feet. Then at last it began to be mixed with another sound, a vague, disastrous noise which sounded first like the roar of a distant train, and then like the crash of a falling tree. They heard something like great weights falling. Finally, with a sudden, rush and thunder, and a shake that nearly flung them off their feet, about a quarter of the roof at one end of the room fell in, great blocks of masonry fell all round them, and the walls rocked. The noise of the bell stopped. The clouds of dust cleared away. Everything became quiet again.

It was never found out whether the fall of the roof was due to Magic or whether that unbearably loud sound from the bell just happened to strike the note which was more than those crumbling walls could stand.

[ 278 278 – Ну что, доволен? – съязвила Полли. ] “There! I hope you’re satisfied now,” panted Polly.

[ 279 279 – Ладно, все уже кончилось, – отозвался Дигори. ] “Well, it’s all over, anyway,” said Digory.

[ 280 280 Оба они думали, что все и впрямь кончилось. И оба страшно ошибались. ] And both thought it was; but they had never been more mistaken in their lives.