Практический курс английского языка - Камянова Т.
ISBN 5-85550-177-9
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... On November thirteenth, 1895,1 was brought down here from London. From two o'clock till half past two on that day I had to stand on the centre platform of Clapham Junction in convict dress, and handcuffed, for the world to look at. I had been taken out of the hospital ward without a moment's notice being given to me. Of all possible objects I was the most grotesque. When people saw me they laughed. Each train as it came up swelled the audience. Nothing could exceed their amusement. That was, of course, before they knew who I was. As soon as they had been informed they laughed still more. For half an hour I stood there in the grey November rain surrounded by a jeering mob.
For a year after that was done to me I wept every day at the same hour and for the same space of time. That is not such a tragic thing as possibly it sounds to you. To those who are in prison tears are a part of every day's experience. A day in prison on which one doesn't weep is a day on which one's heart is hard, not a day on which one's heard is happy.
Well, now I am really beginning to feel more regret for the people who laughed than for myself. Of course when they saw me I was not on my pedestal, I was in the pillory. But it is a very unimaginative nature that only cares for people on their pedestals. A pedestal may be a very unreal thing. A pillory is'a terrific reality. They should have known also how to interpret Sorrow better. I have said that behind Sorrow there is always Sorrow. It were wiser still to say that behind Sorrow there is always a soul.
... A great friend of mine - a friend of ten years' standing - came to see me some time ago, and told me that he didn't believe a single word of what was said against me, and wished me to know that he considered me quite innocent, and the victim of a hideous plot. I burst into tears at what he said, and told him that while there was much amongst the definite charges that was quite untrue and transferred to me by revolting malice, still that my life had been full of perverse pleasures, and that unless he accepted that as a fact about me and realized it to the full I could not possibly be friends with him any more, or ever be in his company. It was a terrible shock to him, but we are friends, and I have not got his friendship on false pretences.
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TEXT
... All trials are trials for one's life, just as all sentences are sentences of death; and three times have I been tried. The first time I left the box to be arrested, the second time to be led back to the house of detention, the third time to pass into a prison for two years. Society, as we have constituted it, will have no place for me, has none to offer, but Nature, whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undisturbed. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.
Notes
1. de profundis - из бездны (лат.), начальные строки католической молитвы
2. to savour (of smth) - иметь привкус (чего-л.)
3. to be maimed - (зд.) быть запятнанным
4. to be haunted (by smb I smth) - быть преследуемым
5. a sense of disgrace I shame I duty I responsibility I humour I proportion
чувство (ощущение) позора I стыда I долга I ответственности I юмора I меры
6. to be tainted - быть загрязненным
7. to be ashamed (of smth) - стыдиться (чего-л.)
8. to be conceited (about smth) - кичиться (чём-л.)
9. to make demands (on smth) - предъявлять требования (к чему-л.)
10. to be concerned (about smth) - быть озабоченным, обеспокоенным (чем-л.)
11. to attain (to) - достигать (чего-л.)
12. modes of imperfection - проявления несовершенства
13. a noble Queen of Prussia - Королева Пруссии Луиза (1776-1810)
14. Clapham Junction - Клапамская пересадочная станция (в южной части Лондона)
15. to be in the pillory - находиться у позорного столба, быть посмешищем
16. a convict dress, a hospital ward - одежда каторжника, тюремная больница
17. to be innocent (of smth) I to be guilty (of smth) - быть невиновным/ быть виновным (в чем-л.)
18. a hideous plot - чудовищный заговор
19. on false pretence(s) - обманным путем
20. to be tried (for smth) - быть под судом (за что-л.)
21. a house of detention - камера предварительного заключения
22. just and unjust - (зд.) праведные и неправедные
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EXERCISES
24.1 Образуцте, используя модальный глагол may (might), сочетания с инфинитивом Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous от данных глаголов:
e.g. to visit - may (might) visit may have visited
may be visiting may have been visiting
to argue, to support, to fight, to defend, to announce, to prove, to persuade, to fulfil, to ruin, to interfere, to achieve, to predict, to lead, to save, to compare, to share, to arrange, to inform.
24. 2 Образуйте из данных предложений предложения с модальным глаголом may (might), выражающие слабую степень уверенности в значении настоящего и будущего времени. Переведите предложения на русский язык:
