Английский язык с Э. Р. Берроузом. Принцесса Марса

On such a little thing my life hung that I often marvel that I escaped so easily. Had not the rifle of the leader of the party swung from its fastenings beside his saddle in such a way as to strike against the butt of his great metal-shod spear I should have snuffed out without ever knowing that death was near me. But the little sound caused me to turn, and there upon me, not ten feet from my breast, was the point of that huge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleaming metal, and held low at the side of a mounted replica of the little devils I had been watching.

But how puny and harmless they now looked (но какими крошечными и безобидными они теперь выглядели; puny — маленький, тщедушный) beside this huge and terrific incarnation of hate (рядом с этим огромным и ужасающим воплощением ненависти;incarnation — воплощение, олицетворение), of vengeance and of death (мести и смерти). The man himself, for such I may call him (сам мужчина, ибо так мне стоит называть его), was fully fifteen feet in height (был ростом целых пятнадцать футов) and, on Earth, would have weighed some four hundred pounds (и на Земле /он/ весил бы около четырехсот фунтов). He sat his mount as we sit a horse (он сидел на своем верховом животном так, как мы сидим на лошади), grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs (обхватив корпус животного нижними конечностями; barrel — бочка; зд. — корпус), while the hands of his two right arms (в то время как кисти его двух правых рук) held his immense spear low at the side of his mount (держали его огромное копье на небольшой высоте у бока животного); his two left arms were outstretched laterally (его две левые руки были вытянуты в стороны;laterally — в стороны, вбок) to help preserve his balance (чтобы помочь сохранять равновесие), the thing he rode having neither bridle or reins of any description for guidance (так как существо, на котором он ездил, не имело ни узды, ни поводьев какого-либо вида для управления; bridle — узда; description — описание; вид; to ride — ехать верхом).

vengeance ['venG(q)ns], outstretch ['aut'stretS], guidance ['gaId(q)ns], description [dIs'krIpS(q)n]

But how puny and harmless they now looked beside this huge and terrific incarnation of hate, of vengeance and of death. The man himself, for such I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on Earth, would have weighed some four hundred pounds. He sat his mount as we sit a horse, grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs, while the hands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at the side of his mount; his two left arms were outstretched laterally to help preserve his balance, the thing he rode having neither bridle or reins of any description for guidance.