'You do not understand?' Nam-Bok asked despairingly.
'Nay, we do not understand (нет, мы не понимаем),' the men and women wailed back (снова запричитали мужчины и женщины). 'We cannot understand (мы не можем понять).'
Nam-Bok thought of a combined harvester (Нам-Бок вспомнил о комбайне/жатке;
'Dare I say I rode this iron monster through the land (смею ли я сказать, что я ездил на этом железном чудище по стране;
Opee-Kwan threw up his hands (Опи-Кван вскинул руки), palms outward (ладонями наружу), in open incredulity (в откровенном недоверии). 'Say on (говори дальше = продолжай); say anything (говори что угодно). We listen (мы слушаем).'
'Then did I ride the iron monster (потом я поехал на железном чудовище), for which I gave money (за что я дал деньги) — '
'Thou saidst it was fed with stone (ты говорил, что его кормят камнями).'
'Nay, we do not understand,' the men and women wailed back. 'We cannot understand.'
Nam-Bok thought of a combined harvester, and of the machines wherein visions of living men were to be seen, and of the machines from which came the voices of men, and he knew his people could never understand.
'Dare I say I rode this iron monster through the land?' he asked bitterly.
Opee-Kwan threw up his hands, palms outward, in open incredulity. 'Say on; say anything. We listen.'
'Then did I ride the iron monster, for which I gave money — '
'Thou saidst it was fed with stone.'
'And likewise, thou fool (а кроме того, /ты/ глупец), I said money was a thing of which you know nothing (я говорил, что деньги — это вещь, о которой вы ничего не знаете). As I say, I rode the monster through the land (как я говорил, я поехал на чудище через страну), and through many villages (и через много поселков), until I came to a big village on a salt arm of the sea (пока не приехал в большое селение на соленом узком морском заливе). And the houses shoved their roofs among the stars in the sky (и дома взметнули свои крыши среди звезд в небе;
'And likewise, thou fool, I said money was a thing of which you know nothing. As I say, I rode the monster through the land, and through many villages, until I came to a big village on a salt arm of the sea. And the houses shoved their roofs among the stars in the sky, and the clouds drifted by them, and everywhere was much smoke. And the roar of that village was like the roar of the sea in storm, and the people were so many that I flung away my stick and no longer remembered the I notches upon it.'
'Hadst thou made small notches (если бы ты делал маленькие зарубки),' Koogah reproved (упрекнул Куга), 'thou mightst have brought report (ты мог бы привести /точный/ отчет).'
Nam-Bok whirled upon him in anger (Нам-Бок взвился на него в гневе;
'Hadst thou made small notches,' Koogah reproved, 'thou mightst have brought report.'
Nam-Bok whirled upon him in anger. 'Had I made small notches! Listen, Koogah, thou scratcher of bone! If I had made small notches, neither the stick, nor twenty sticks, could have borne them — nay, not all the driftwood of all the beaches between this village and the next. And if all of you, the women and children as well, were twenty times as many, and if you had twenty hands each, and in each hand a stick and a knife, still the notches could not be cut for the people I saw, so many were they and so fast did they come and go.'
'There cannot be so many people in the world (не может быть столько людей в мире),' Opee- Kwan objected (возразил Опи-Кван), for he was stunned (ибо он был ошеломлен) and his mind could not grasp such magnitude of numbers (и его разум не мог постичь числа такой величины;
'What cost thou know of all the world and how large it is (чего стоят твои знания о мире и о том, насколько он велик)?' Nam-Bok demanded (задал вопрос Нам-Бок).
'But there cannot be so many people in one place (но не может быть так много людей в одном месте).'
'Who art thou to say what can be and what cannot be (кто ты такой, чтобы говорить, что может быть, а чего не может быть)?'
'It stands to reason (совершенно очевидно;
'There cannot be so many people in the world,' Opee-Kwan objected, for he was stunned and his mind could not grasp such magnitude of numbers.
'What cost thou know of all the world and how large it is?' Nam-Bok demanded.
'But there cannot be so many people in one place.'
'Who art thou to say what can be and what cannot be?'
'It stands to reason there cannot be so many people in one place. Their canoes would clutter the
