Английский с Р. Л. Стивенсоном. Странная история доктора Джекила и мистера Хайда / Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Ah, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace; punishment coming pede claudo, years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault.” And the lawyer, scared by the thought, brooded awhile on his own past, groping in all the corners of memory, lest by chance some Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there.

His past was fairly blameless (его прошлое было довольно безупречным; fairly – красиво, мило; должным образом; довольно; в некоторой степени; blame – порицание; неодобрение, осуждение

); few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension (немногие могли читать свитки своей жизни с меньшими опасениями; apprehension – опасение; мрачное предчувствие); yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done

(и все же он был повергаем в прах многочисленными дурными поступками, им совершенными; to humble – смирять, унижать; dust – пыль; прах), and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude (и снова поднимаем в рассудительную и благоговейную признательность; to raise – поднимать; вызывать, порождать; sober – трезвый; сдержанный, спокойный; fearful – боязливый; полный благоговения, почтения; fear – страх

) by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet avoided (теми многими /дурными поступками/, к совершению которых он был столь близок, но все же избежал /их/). And then by a return on his former subject (затем, вернувшись к прежнему предмету /своих мыслей/; return – возвращение

), he conceived a spark of hope (он узрел искорку надежды; to conceive – испытать, ощутить, почувствовать).

His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into a sober and fearful gratitude by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet avoided. And then by a return on his former subject, he conceived a spark of hope.