). They were the descendants of the Communards (они были потомками коммунаров) and it was no struggle for them to know their politics (и для них не составляло труда выработать свои политические убеждения; struggle — борьба; напряжение, усилие; politics — политика; политические убеждения). They knew who had shot their fathers (они знали, кто расстрелял их отцов), their relatives, their brothers, and their friends (их родственников, их братьев и их друзей) when the Versailles troops came in and took the town after the Commune (когда версальские войска вошли и заняли город после Коммуны) and executed any one they could catch with calloused hands (и казнили любого, кого /только/ могли поймать, если у него были мозолистые руки; calloused — загрубелый, затвердевший; мозолистый), or who wore a cap (или кепка на голове: «кто носил кепку»), or carried any other sign he was a working man (или какой-то другой признак того, что он рабочий человек: «носил какой-нибудь другой знак…»). And in that poverty, and in that quarter across the street from a Boucherie Chevaline[21] and a wine co-operative (и среди этой нищеты и в этом квартале, на другой стороне улицы от "Boucherie Chevaline" и винного кооператива) he had written the start of all he was to do (он написал начало = то, что стало началом всего, что ему предстояло сделать).
drunkard ['drANkqd], descendant [dI'sendqnt], Communard ['kOmjVnRd], relative ['relqtIv], calloused ['kxlqst]
Around that Place there were two kinds; the drunkards and the sportifs The drunkards killed their poverty that way; the sportifs took it out in exercise. They were the descendants of the Communards and it was no struggle for them to know their politics. They knew who had shot their fathers, their relatives, their brothers, and their friends when the Versailles troops came in and took the town after the Commune and executed any one they could catch with calloused hands, or who wore a cap, or carried any other sign he was a working man. And in that poverty, and in that quarter across the street from a Boucherie Chevaline and a wine co-operative he had written the start of all he was to do.
There never was another part of Paris that he loved like that (никогда не было другой части Парижа, какую бы он любил так же), the sprawling trees (развесистые деревья; to sprawl — расползаться во все стороны, простираться, раскидываться), the old white plastered houses painted brown below (старые белые оштукатуренные дома, покрашенные внизу коричневой краской)