|
| 'Well, what's the problem?' | - Ну, так в чём дело? |
| 'Dyoma... ninety-eight point four. The office is locked. Nizamutdin Bahramovich doesn't like...' | -Дёма... Тридцать шесть и восемь... А кабинет заперт, Низамутдин Бахрамович не любит... |
| And she walked out of the room. | И ушла. |
| It was logical. | В этом была логика. |
| Of course, it's not very nice to have people going into your office when you're not there. | Конечно, неприятно, чтобы без тебя ходили в твой кабинет. |
| All the same, in a hospital proper arrangements should be made. | Но в больнице как-то же надо придумать... |
| For an instant a tiny wire linking him with the outside world had dangled before him - and it had snapped. | На мгновение болтнулся проводок к миру внешнему - и оборвался. |
| Once again the tumour under his jaw, the size of a fist, had shut off the entire world. | И опять весь мир закрыла опухоль величиной с кулак, подставленный под челюсть. |
| Pavel Nikolayevich reached out for his little mirror and looked at himself. | Павел Николаевич достал зеркальце и посмотрел. |
| How the tumour was spreading! | Ух, как же её разносило! |
| Seen through the eyes of a complete stranger it would be frightening enough, but seen through his own...! | Посторонними глазами и то страшно на неё взглянуть - а своими?! |
| No, this thing could not be real. | Ведь такого не бывает! |
| No one else around him had anything like it. | Вот кругом ни у кого же нет! |
| In all his forty-five years Pavel Nikolayevich had never seen such a deformity... | Да за сорок пять лет жизни Павел Николаевич ни у кого не видел такого уродства!.. |
| He did not try to work out whether it had grown any more or not. He just put the mirror away, took some food from his bedside table and started chewing. | Не стал уж он определять - ещё выросла или нет, спрятал зеркало да из тумбочки немного достал-пожевал. |
| The two roughest types, Yefrem and 'Bone-chewer', were not in the ward. They had gone out. | Двух самых грубых - Ефрема и Оглоеда, в палате не было, ушли. |
| By the window Azovkin had twisted himself into a new position, but he was not groaning. | Азовкин у окна ещё по-новому извернулся, но не стонал. |
| The rest were quiet. He could hear the sound of pages being turned. | Остальные вели себя тихо, слышалось перелистывание страниц, некоторые легли спать. |
| And some of them had gone off to sleep. | Оставалось и Русанову заснуть. |
| All Rusanov, too, had to do was get to sleep, while away the night, think of nothing, and then tomorrow give the doctors a dressing-down. | Скоротать ночь, не думать - а уж утром дать взбучку врачам. |
| So he took off his pyjamas, lay down under the blankets in his underclothes, covered his head with the towel he had brought from home and tried to sleep. | И он разделся, лёг под одеяло, накрыл голову полотенцем и попробовал заснуть. |
| But through the silence there came a particularly audible and irritating sound of somebody whispering somewhere. It seemed to be going straight into Pavel Nikolayevich's ear. | Но в тишине особенно стало слышно и раздражало, как где-то шепчут и шепчут - и даже прямо в ухо Павлу Николаевичу. |
| He could not bear it, tore the towel away from his face, raised himself slightly, trying to avoid hurting his neck, and discovered it was his neighbour, the Uzbek. He was all shrivelled up and thin, an old man, almost brown-skinned, with a little black pointed beard, and wearing a shabby skull-cap as brown as himself. | Он не выдержал, сорвал полотенце с лица, приподнялся, стараясь не сделать больно шее, и обнаружил, что это шепчет его сосед узбек -высохший, худенький, почти коричневый старик с клинышком маленькой чёрной бородки и в коричневой же потёртой тюбетейке. |
| He lay on his back with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling and whispering - prayers or something, probably, the old fool. | Он лежал на спине, заложив руки за голову, смотрел в потолок и шептал - молитвы, что ли, старый дурак? |
| 'Hey you! Aksakal!' [Footnote: Aksakal in Uzbek means 'village elder', here used mockingly. (Translators' note)]. Rusanov wagged his finger at him. | - Э! аксакал! - погрозил ему пальцем Русанов. |
| 'Stop it. |
