Английский язык с Дж. Лондоном. Любовь к жизни (рассказы)

Though the hunger pangs were no longer so exquisite, he realized that he was weak. He was compelled to pause for frequent rests, when he attacked the muskeg berries and rush-grass patches. His tongue felt dry and large, as though covered with a fine hairy growth, and it tasted bitter in his mouth. His heart gave him a great deal of trouble. When he had travelled a few minutes it would begin a remorseless thump, thump, thump, and then leap up and away in a painful flutter of beats that choked him and made him go faint and dizzy.

In the middle of the day he found two minnows in a large pool (в середине дня он нашел двух гольянов в большой заводи). It was impossible to bale it (ее невозможно было вычерпать), but he was calmer now and managed to catch them in his tin bucket (но он был спокойнее теперь, и ему удалось поймать их в оловянное ведро). They were no longer than his little finger (они были не длиннее его мизинца), but he was not particularly hungry (но он был не особенно голоден). The dull ache in his stomach had been growing duller and fainter (тупая боль в желудке становилась тупее и слабее). It seemed almost that his stomach was dozing (почти казалось, что его желудок дремлет; to doze — дремать

). He ate the fish raw (он съел рыбу сырой), masticating with painstaking care (жуя с усердной тщательностью; painstaking — кропотливый, скрупулезный, тщательный; to take pains — прилагать усилия: «брать боли»; pain — боль; pains — боли; старания, труды; усилия), for the eating was an act of pure reason (ибо еда была действием чисто здравого смысла;

reason — благоразумие, здравомыслие; здравый смысл). While he had no desire to eat (несмотря на то, что у него не было желания есть), he knew that he must eat to live (он понимал, что должен есть, чтобы выжить).

In the middle of the day he found two minnows in a large pool. It was impossible to bale it, but he was calmer now and managed to catch them in his tin bucket. They were no longer than his little finger, but he was not particularly hungry. The dull ache in his stomach had been growing duller and fainter. It seemed almost that his stomach was dozing. He ate the fish raw, masticating with painstaking care, for the eating was an act of pure reason. While he had no desire to eat, he knew that he must eat to live.