); now he was a monstrous kind of a creature (то он был чудовищным видом существа) who had never had but the one leg (которое никогда не имело /ничего/, кроме одной ноги), and that in the middle of his body (/да/ и ту в середине тела). To see him leap and run and pursue me (видеть его = как он прыгал и бежал, и преследовал меня) over hedge and ditch (не разбирая дороги: «через изгородь и канаву») was the worst of nightmares (было худшим из ночных кошмаров). And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece (в общем, я платил довольно дорого за месячную четырехпенсовую монету), in the shape of these abominable fancies (в виде этих отвратительных фантазий).
personage [`pq: sqnIG] haunted [`hLntId] knee [nJ] hedge [heG] nightmares [`naItmeq]
1. How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
1. But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg (хотя я был так напуган мыслью о моряке с одной ногой), I was far less afraid of the captain himself (я гораздо меньше боялся самого капитана) than anybody else who knew him (чем кто-либо другой, кто знал его). There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water (были ночи, когда он выпивал больше рому с водой; to take — взять, употребить; deal — некоторое количество) than his head would carry (чем его голова могла вынести); and then he would sometimes sit and sing (и затем иногда сидел и пел) his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody (свои нечестивые, старые, дикие морские песни, не обращая ни на кого внимания; wicked — злой); but sometimes he would call for glasses round (но иногда требовал стаканов /рому/ для всех; round — порция), and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories (и заставлял всю дрожавшую компанию слушать его истории) or bear a chorus to his singing (или поддерживать припев, подпевать его пению: «нести хор к его пению»). Often I have heard the house shaking with (часто я слышал, как дом трясся от /песни/) 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum; all the neighbours joining in for dear life (все соседи подхватывали /пение/ изо всех сил: «ради дорогой жизни»;