Читать книгу Just So Stories for Little Children / Просто сказки. Книга для чтения на английском языке - Редьярд Киплинг - Страница 5

Once upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour[43]. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick[44]. It was indeed a Superior Comestible (that’s Magic), and he put it on the stove because he was allowed to cook on that stove, and he baked it and he baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental[45]. But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners[46]. In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight[47]. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like[48] a Hoah’s Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners. He said, ‘How!’ and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of palm-tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and the Promontories of the Larger Equinox[51]. Then the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate: —

This is the picture of the Parsee beginning to eat his cake on the Uninhabited Island in the Red Sea on a very hot day; and of the Rhinoceros coming down from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior, which, as you can truthfully see, is all rocky. The Rhinoceros’s skin is quite smooth and the three buttons that button it up[49] are underneath, so you can’t see them. The squiggly things on the Parsee’s hat are the rays of the sun reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, because if I had drawn real rays they would have filled up all the picture. The cake has currants[50] in it; and the wheel-thing lying on the sand in front belonged to one of Pharaoh’s chariots when he tried to cross the Red Sea. The Parsee found it, and kept it to play with. The Parsee’s name was Pestonjee Bomonjee, and the Rhinoceros was called Strorks, because he breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. I wouldn’t ask anything about the cooking-stove if I were you.

And there was a great deal more in that than you would think[52].

Because, five weeks later, there was a heatwave[53] in the Red Sea, and everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his hat; but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake, because he had eaten it all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward[54]. He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.

Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all around his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands[55]. Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on[57].

This is the Parsee Pestonjee Bomonjee sitting in his palm-tree and watching the Rhinoceros Strorks bathing near the beach of the Altogether Uninhabited Island after Strorks had taken off his skin. The Parsee has rubbed the cake-crumbs into the skin, and he is smiling to think how they will tickle Strorks when Srorks puts it on again. The skin is just under the rocks below the palm-tree in a cool place; that is why you can’t see it. The Parsee is wearing a new more-than-oriental-splendour hat of the sort that Parsees wear; and he has a knife in his hand to cut his name on palm-tree. The black things on the islands out at sea are bits of ships that got wrecked going down the Red Sea; but all the passengers were saved and went home. The black thing in the water close to the shore is not a wreck at all. It is Strorks the Rhinoceros bathing without his skin. He was just as black underneath[56] his skin as he was outside. I wouldn’t ask anything about the cooking-stove if I were you.

And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake-crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake-crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against it[58]. He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be[59] (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his temper[60], but it didn’t make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside.

But the Parsee came down from his palm-tree, wearing his hat, from which the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, packed up his cooking-stove, and went away in the direction of Orotavo, Amygdala, the Upland Meadows of Antananarivo, and the Marshes of Sonaput.

Questions and tasks

1. Describe how Rhinoceros looked like formerly? How did he manage to do this? 2. What did the Parsee do when he found the Rhinoceros’ skin?

3. Describe a ‘modern’ Rhinoceros.

4. How did the Rhinoceros get his skin?

5. Retell the story.

43

splendour – блеск, великолепие, роскошь. По-добные слова, оканчивающиеся на -our в британском варианте английского языка, в американской орфо-графии пишутся без буквы u и оканчиваются на -or: splendour (GB) – splendor (US), labour (GB) – labor (US), armour (GB) – armor (US), colour (GB) – color (US) и др.

44

two feet across and three feet thick – два фута в ширину (от края до края) и три фута в толщину

45

smelt most sentimental – очень сильно (ощути-мо) пах

46

and few manners – и с плохими манерами (плохо воспитанный); manner – мн. ч. хорошие манеры, уме-ние себя вести

47

In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight. – В те дни шкура на Носороге сидела очень плотно. to fit – букв. быть в пору, хорошо сидеть; tight – букв. плотно прилегающий, тесный

48

He looked exactly like… – Он был очень похож на… (Он выглядел в точности, как…)

51

he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and the Promontories of Larger Equinox – крутя хвостом, он ушел в глубь заброшенного и совершенно необита-емого острова, который примыкает к островам Ма-задеран, Сокотра и мысам Великого Равноденствия; interior – букв. внутренний, расположенный в глуби-не (страны, острова)

49

to button up – закрыть(ся), застегнуть на все пу-говицы

50

currant – зд. коринка, сабза (сорта бессемянного изюма)

52

…than you would think – …чем ты мог себе пред-ставить (… чем ты думал)

53

heat-wave – период сильной жары

54

then, since, or henceforward – тогда, с тех пор или впредь

55

to rub one’s hands – потирать руки (в знак одо-брения, удовлетворения и т. д.)

57

…waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on – … ждал, когда Носорог выйдет из воды и наденет ее.

56

underneath – зд. под

58

to rub against smth – тереться обо что-либо

59

where the buttons used to be – где раньше были пуговицы

60

it spoiled his temper – это испортило его харак-тер

61

cape – мыс