Чехов Антон Павлович. Поцелуй
| Anton Chekhov. | А.П.Чехов. |
| The Kiss. | Поцелуй. |
| AT eight o'clock on the evening of the twentieth of May all the six batteries of the N— Reserve Artillery Brigade halted for the night in the village of Myestetchki on their way to camp. | Двадцатого мая, в восемь часов вечера, все шесть батарей N-й резервной артиллерийской бригады, направлявшейся в лагерь, остановились на ночевку в селе Местечках. |
| When the general commotion was at its height, while some officers were busily occupied around the guns, while others, gathered together in the square near the church enclosure, were listening to the quartermasters, a man in civilian dress, riding a strange horse, came into sight round the church. | В самый разгар суматохи, когда одни офицеры хлопотали около пушек, а другие, съехавшись на площади около церковной ограды, выслушивали квартирьеров, из-за церкви показался верховой в штатском платье и на странной лошади. |
| The little dun-coloured horse with a good neck and a short tail came, moving not straight forward, but as it were sideways, with a sort of dance step, as though it were being lashed about the legs. | Лошадь буланая и маленькая, с красивой шеей и с коротким хвостом, шла не прямо, а как-то боком и выделывала ногами маленькие плясовые движения, как будто ее били хлыстом по ногам. |
| When he reached the officers the man on the horse took off his hat and said: | Подъехав к офицерам, верховой приподнял шляпу и сказал: |
| "His Excellency Lieutenant-General von Rabbek invites the gentlemen to drink tea with him this minute. . . ." | -- Его превосходительство генерал-лейтенант фон Раббек, здешний помещик, приглашает господ офицеров пожаловать к нему сию минуту на чай... |
| The horse turned, danced, and retired sideways; the messenger raised his hat once more, and in an instant disappeared with his strange horse behind the church. | Лошадь поклонилась, затанцевала и попятилась боком назад; верховой еще раз приподнял шляпу и через мгновение вместе со своею странною лошадью исчез за церковью. |
| "What the devil does it mean?" grumbled some of the officers, dispersing to their quarters. "One is sleepy, and here this Von Rabbek with his tea! | -- Черт знает что такое! -- ворчали некоторые офицеры, расходясь по квартирам. -- Спать хочется, а тут этот фон Раббек со своим чаем! |
| We know what tea means." | Знаем, какой тут чай! |
| The officers of all the six batteries remembered vividly an incident of the previous year, when during manoeuvres they, together with the officers of a Cossack regiment, were in the same way invited to tea by a count who had an estate in the neighbourhood and was a retired army officer: the hospitable and genial count made much of them, fed them, and gave them drink, refused to let them go to their quarters in the village and made them stay the night. |
