Английский с Эдгаром По. Падение дома Ашеров

Berenice and I were cousins, and we grew up together in my paternal halls. Yet differently we grew – I, ill of health, and buried in gloom – she, agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy; hers, the ramble on the hill-side – mine the studies of the cloister; I, living within my own heart, and addicted, body and soul, to the most intense and painful meditation – she, roaming carelessly through life, with no thought of the shadows in her path, or the silent flight of the raven-winged hours.

Berenice! – I call upon her name – Berenice! (Береника! – я выкликаю ее имя – Береника!) – and from the gray ruins of memory (и с серых руин памяти) a thousand tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound (тысяча шумных воспоминаний вспугнуты этим звуком)! Ah, vividly is her image before me now (ах, живо является ее образ предо мной сейчас)

, as in the early days of her light-heartedness and joy (как в ранние дни ее беспечности и радости)! Oh, gorgeous yet fantastic beauty (о, великолепная, пусть необычная красавица)! Oh, sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim (о, сильфида среди кустов Арнгейма![4])! Oh, Naiad among its fountains (о, наяда среди его фонтанов!)!

Berenice! – I call upon her name – Berenice! – and from the gray ruins of memory a thousand tumultuous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah, vividly is her image before me now, as in the early days of her light-heartedness and joy! Oh, gorgeous yet fantastic beauty! Oh, sylph amid the shrubberies of Arnheim! Oh, Naiad among its fountains!

And then – then all is mystery and terror (а потом, потом все – тайна и ужас), and a tale which should not be told (и история, которой не следовало бы быть рассказанной). Disease – a fatal disease, fell like the simoom upon her frame (болезнь – роковая = неизлечимая болезнь упала =

напала на ее тело, словно самум; frame – рама; каркас; скелет; строение); and, even while I gazed upon her (и, прямо когда я смотрел на нее = у меня на глазах; to gaze – вглядываться), the spirit of change swept over her, pervading her mind, her habits, and her character (дух перемены пронесся по ней, охватывая ее ум, ее привычки и ее характер; to sweep – мести; проноситься

), and, in a manner the most subtle and terrible, disturbing even the identity of her person (и самым тонким и ужасным образом повредил саму индивидуальность ее личности)! Alas! the destroyer came and went (увы! разрушительница пришла и ушла)! – and the victim – where is she (а жертва – где она)? I knew her not – or knew her no longer as Berenice (я не узнавал ее – или не узнавал ее больше как Беренику).