Английский язык с Мюриэль Спарк (рассказы)

They went to her one day towards the end of their holiday. Henry sat at the back of the car beside a large suit-case stuffed with old clothes for Elizabeth. Raymond at the wheel kept saying, "Poor Elizabeth-eight kids," which irritated Lou, though she kept her peace.

Outside the Underground station at Victoria Park, where they stopped to ask the way, Lou felt a strange sense of panic. Elizabeth lived in a very downward quarter of Bethnal Green, and in the past nine years since she had seen her Lou's memory of the shabby ground-floor rooms with their peeling walls and bare boards, had made a kinder nest for itself.

Sending off the postal order (отправляя почтовый перевод; to send — посылать, передавать) to her sister each week (своей сестре каждую неделю) she had gradually come to picture the habitation at Bethnal Green (она постепенно пришла /к тому, что стала/ изображать проживание в Бетнал Грин; to picture — рисовать, представлятьсебе) in an almost monastic light (в почти что монашеском свете); it would be bare but well-scrubbed (там будет голо, но хорошо вычищено), spotless (чистенько: «без пятен»), and shining with Brasso and holy poverty (и блестящая эмалировка Брассо и святая нищета; holy — святой, священный). The floorboards gleamed (половые доски сверкали). Elizabeth was grey-haired (и Элизабет — седая), lined (морщинистая), but neat (но аккуратная). The children were well behaved (дети вели себя хорошо; to behave — вестисебя, поступать), sitting down betimes to their broth (собирающиеся вовремя за своим мясным бульоном) in two rows along (в два ряда вокруг: «вдоль») an almost refectory table (почти что монастырского стола; refectory — трапезнаявмонастыре). It was not till they had reached Victoria Park (только когда: «не до тех пор» они добрались до Виктория Парк) that Lou felt the full force of the fact (Лу почувствовала со всей силой: «всю силу», тот факт) that everything would be different (что все будет отличаться) from what she had imagined (от того, что она себе напредставляла). "It may have gone down (все могло прийти в упадок) since I was last there (с тех пор, когда я была там в последний раз)," she said to Raymond (сказала она Раймонду) who had never visited Elizabeth before (который никогда не посещал Элизабет раньше).

"What's gone down (что пришло в упадок)?"

"Poor Elizabeth's place (дом бедняжки Элизабет)."

habitation ["hxbI'teIS(q)n] monastic [mq'nxstIk] poverty ['pOvqtI]

Sending off the postal order to her sister each week she had gradually come to picture the habitation at Bethnal Green in an almost monastic light; it would be bare but well-scrubbed, spotless, and shining with Brasso and holy poverty. The floor boards gleamed. Elizabeth was grey-haired, lined, but neat. The children were well behaved, sitting down betimes to their broth in two rows along an almost refectory table. It was not till they had reached Victoria Park that Lou felt the full force of the fact that everything would be different from what she had imagined. "It may have gone down since I was last there," she said to Raymond who had never visited Elizabeth before.

"What's gone down?"

"Poor Elizabeth 's place."