Дары волхвов{4} (Перевод Е. Калашниковой). Книги, рассказы и повести известных мировых писателей и классиков мировой литературы
ДАР, а, мн. Шы, ов, м. Толковый словарь Ожегова. С.И. Ожегов, Н.Ю. Шведова. 1949 1992 … Толковый словарь Ожегова
Дары волхвов - Эта статья о рассказе. О рождественских дарах трёх мудрецов см. Поклонение волхвов#Дары. Дары волхвов The Gift of the Magi Жанр: Новелла
дары волхвов - по евангельской притче: дары, принесенные волхвами младенцу Иисусу, – золото как царю, ладан как Богу и благовонные масла как смертному … Справочник по фразеологии
Дары волхвов - ♦ (ENG giffs of the Magi) золото, ладан и смирна, принесенные волхвами в дар младенцу Иисусу (Мф. 2:11) …
Премия имени О. Генри «Дары волхвов» - Сайт премии … Википедия
Поклонение волхвов - Триптих Иеронима Босха «Поклонение волхвов». Центральная часть, фрагмент Поклонение волхвов евангельский сюжет о мудрецах, п … Википедия
Кавалькада царей-волхвов (в Испании) - Кавалькада царей волхвов (исп. Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos; кат. Cavalcada de Reis Mags) яркое костюмированное представление в календаре традиционных рождественско новогодних празднеств Испании, один из наиболее популярных и любимых… … Википедия
ЗВЕЗДА ВОЛХВОВ - Рождество Христово. Мозаика кафоликона мон ря Осиос Лукас. 30 е гг. XI в. Рождество Христово. Мозаика кафоликона мон ря Осиос Лукас. 30 е гг. XI в. [Вифлеемская звезда], чудесное астрономическое явление, сопровождавшее, согласно 2 й гл. Евангелия … Православная энциклопедия
Поклонение волхвов (триптих Босха) - У этого термина существуют и другие значения, см. Поклонение волхвов (картина) … Википедия
giffs of the Magi - Дары волхвов … Вестминстерский словарь теологических терминов
Новое русское слово - Тип еженедельная газета Владелец В.Я. Вайнберг, Novoye Russkoye Slovo Publishing Inc. Издатель В. Вайнберг Главный редактор В. Вайнберг Основана 15 апреля 1910 Прекр … Википедия
Книги
- Дары волхвов , . Вашему вниманию представлена сказка ДАРЫ ВОЛХВОВ. Это сказка о том, как приятно дарить подарки. Для чтения взрослыми детям… Купить за 340 руб
- Дары волхвов , О. Генри. "Один доллар восемьдесят семь центов. И всё, причем шестьдесят из этих восьмидесяти семи - монетками достоинством в один цент. Монетками, сэкономленными по одной и подве в результате долгих…
Когда на небе озарилась звезда, мудрые волхвы поспешили к Деве Марии с поздравлениями. Они первыми одарили Сына Всевышнего дарами. Супруги Джим и Делла живут чрезвычайно скромно. В канун праздника они в тайне отправляются за подарками. Оба и рады бы купить для своей половинки самое лучшее, что может предложить витрина магазина, но скромные доходы не позволяют воплотить в реальность мечту своей пассии. Джим, влюбленный в красоту своей жены, наиболее восхищается ее роскошными локонами. Как чудно на них будут смотреться черепаховые гребни. Джим решает продать свои золотые карманные часы, чтобы порадовать любимую женщину роскошным подарком. Делла, сгорая от чувства стыда, торгуется со всеми продавцами, чтобы выручить лишний цент от покупки продуктов к праздничному столу. С горестью осознавая, что доллара и нескольких центов никак не хватает на цепочку для часов мужа, она решается продать свои чудные волосы. На вырученные 20 долларов Делла покупает подарок. Это будут самые бессмысленные дары от самых мудрых в мире людей.
Hello, everyone!
What is your favourite holiday of the year? Wait! Don’t answer, please. I’ll try to guess. I believe it’s Christmas. It’s magic time full of joy, love and presents, of course.
Do you know who invented the tradition of giving presents? You might have already heard about the Three Wise Men who followed a star to visit Jesus Christ when he was a baby and to give him presents: gold, frankincense, and murrh. This is how the tradition started. Today we are going to read a short story written by O. Henry, an American writer, “The Gift of the Magi”. Hope you will like it.
The Gift of the Magi
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. It is true that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 to buy Jim a present. Her Jim. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Her husband Mr. James Dillingham Young or Jim, as Della called him at home, was paid only $20 per week. Twenty dollars a week doesn"t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Many happy hours she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare – something worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Down fell the brown cascade
Now, there were two treasures in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim"s gold watch that had been his father"s and his grandfather"s. The other was Della"s hair.
So now Della"s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.
She put on her old brown jacket and old brown hat. With the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she ran out of the door and down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." The old woman bought hair.
«Will you buy my hair?» asked Della, panting.
«I buy hair,» said Madame. «Take your hat off and let"s have a look at it.»
Down fell the brown cascade.
«Twenty dollars,» said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand.
«Give it to me quickly,» said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours Della was flying on rosy wings. She was ransacking the stores for Jim"s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple in design as all good things should be. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim"s. It was like him. Quietness and value — the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 78 cents.
At home Della got out her curling irons, lighted the gas and went to work. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
«If Jim doesn"t kill me,» she said to herself, «before he takes a second look at me, he"ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do — oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?»
At 7 o"clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his steps on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: «Please, God, make him think I am still pretty.»
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two — and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stepped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Della jumped off the table and went to him.
«Jim, darling,» she cried, «don"t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn"t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It"ll grow out again. I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say "Merry Christmas!" Jim, and let"s be happy. You don"t know what a nice-what a beautiful, nice gift I"ve got for you.»
«You"ve cut off your hair?» asked Jim as if he had not arrived at that fact yet.
«Cut it off and sold it,» said Della. «Don"t you like me just as well, anyhow? I"m me without my hair, ain"t I?»
Jim looked about the room curiously. «You say your hair is gone?» he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
«You needn"t look for it,» said Della. «It"s sold, I tell you — sold and gone, too. It"s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,» she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, «but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?»
Jim seemed to wake out of his trance quickly. He enfolded his Della. Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
«Don"t make any mistake, Dell,» he said, «about me. I don"t think there"s anything in the way of a haircut that could make me like my girl any less. But if you unwrap that package you may see why I was so shocked when I saw you at first.»
White fingers tore the string and paper. And then a scream of joy came out which quickly changed to hysterical tears and wails. For there lay The Combs – the set of combs that Della had worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise-shell, with jewelled rims – just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the hair was gone.
She hugged them to her bosom, and with tears in her eyes and a smile, was able to say: «My hair grows so fast, Jim!» And then Della leaped up like a little cat and cried, «Oh, oh!» Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm.
«Isn"t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You"ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.»
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
«Dell,» said he, «let"s put our Christmas presents away and keep them for a while. They"re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.»
The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones. And here I have told you the story of two foolish children who unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
Helpful Words and Notes
gift – дар, подарок
magi /ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/ – the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men – маги, волхвы. (Словом «волхвы» в Евангелии обозначали магов, пришедших к младенцу Иисусу с дарами, — золотом, ладаном и миррой.)
manger /ˈmeɪndʒə/ – ясли
shabby – потертый, потрепанный
couch – подушечка диванная
sob – рыдание
to sniffle – говорить в нос, сопеть
to howl – стонать, завывать
worthy – достойный, стоящий
rare – редкий
to own – владеть; an owner – владелец
powder rag – пуховка
treasure /ˈtreʒə/ – сокровище
to whirl /wɜːl/ – кружиться (зд. метнуться)
to falter /ˈfɔːltə/ – ослабеть, пошатнуться
sparkle /ˈspɑːkl/ – блеск
to pant – тяжело дышать, задыхаться
to ransack = to look for – искать
fob – кармашек для часов
chain – цепочка
quietness and value – скромность и достоинство
curling irons – щипцы для завивки
truant schoolboy – школьник, прогуливающий уроки
a Coney Island chorus girl – a woman who dances in a chorus line as a part of a stage production or play. Della knows that her hair now looks un natural and artificially primped. She looks cheap.
prayer /preə/ – молитва
to whisper – шептать
burden – обуза
to be burdened with smth – быть обремененным чем-либо
im movable – неподвижный
quail /kweɪl/ – перепелка
to terrify – ужасать, пугать
dis approval – неодобрение
idiocy /ˈɪdiəsi/ – идиотизм
chop – котлета (отбивная)
to enfold = to hug – окутывать, обнимать
rim – край
to vanish – исчезать
to crave – страстно желать
to yearn /jɜːn/ – тосковать по чему-либо
to draw (drew, drawn) – рисовать; тянуть
to wrap / un wrap – заворачивать в бумагу / разворачивать
wails – вопли, завывания
comb /kəʊm/ – гребень, расческа
tortoise – черепаха (сухопутная)
bosom – грудь
palm /pɑːm/ – ладонь
to obey /əʊˈbeɪ/– слушаться, повиноваться
to tumble – свалиться, скатиться, резко падать
to sacrifice /ˈsækrɪfaɪs/ – жертвовать
wise – wisely – un wisely – неразумно
Exercises
1. Say whether these sentences are true or false. Correct them if they are false.
- Della wanted to buy Jim a present for his birthday.
- Della saved the money for a month.
- Jim was paid $20 per week.
- Della’s hair was blond.
- Della agreed to sell her hair for $20.
- Della found a present for her husband very quickly.
- Jim did not notice that Della had cut her hair off.
- The combs were made of tortoise shell.
- Della threw the combs away.
- Della’s hair grows very fast.
2. Match the words on the left with their equivalents on the right.
1) shabby a) сокровище
2) to vanish b) обнимать, прижимать
3) to obey c) редкий
4) to own d) достойный
5) a gift e) потертый
6) a treasure f) владеть
7) to hug g) исчезать
8) worthy h) ужасать
9) to terrify i) повиноваться
10) rare j) дар, подарок
3. Form words with the negative prefixes and translate them into Russian. Use them in your own sentences.
dis- : like, agree, obey, appear, prove
mis- : understand, lead, translate, take, pronounce
un- : fortunate, worthy, wrap, button, tidy
il- : legal, logical, literate, legible
im- : possible, moral, literate, mature, patient
in- : human, visible, official, frequent, sincere
ir- : regular, responsible, rational, resistible, replaceable
Della felt so bad she sat down on their shabby little couch and cried, but that didn’t help either. Drying her eyes, she walked to the window of the small apartment. The furnished flat at eight dollars per week was all that she and her husband Jim could afford on his weekly salary of twenty dollars.
But tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for her Jim. She had spent many a happy hour planning to buy something nice for him. If she had only been able to save more money, she could have bought something line and rare, something that deserved the honor of being owned by Jim.
Whirling from the window, she stood before the mirror. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took great pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair.
Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown water. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. Then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she stopped for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.
She quickly put on her old brown jacket and her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she ran out the door and down the stairs to the street.
She walked down the street until she saw a sign which read: “Madam Sofronie. Hair. Goods of All Kinds. Second Floor.» Della ran up the stairs, arriving at the top panting.
Entering the small shop on the second floor, she was greeted by a large, pale lady.
«Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“I buy hair.» said Madame. “Take your hat off and let’s have a look at it.»
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars.» said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand.
“Give it to me quick,» said Della.
She passed the next two hours ecstatically, searching the stores for Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum watch chain, simple and clean in design, but of obvious quality. As soon as she saw it, she knew that it must be Jim’s. She had often seen Jim look at his watch secretly because he didn’t want anyone to see the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain. If Jim had had that chain on his watch, he would have been proud to check the time in any company. They took twenty-one dollars from her for the chain, and she hurried home with the 87 cents change.
Reaching home, Della got out her curling irons and went to work fixing her short hair. Soon her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a young schoolgirl.
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she said to herself: “If Jim doesn’t kill me before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do — oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents? I had to cut my hair. If I hadn’t cut it I wouldn’t have been able to buy Jim a present.’’
At seven o’clock the coffee was made and the frying pan was on the back of the stove, hot and ready to cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Clutching the watch chain in her hand Della sat on the corner of the table near the door. Hearing his step on the stair, she turned white for just a moment. Remembering her short hair, she whispered: “Please, God, make him think I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two — and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat, and he was without gloves.
Stopping inside the door, he fixed his eyes on Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror. He simply stared at her with a peculiar expression on his face.
Running up to him Della cried, “Jim, darling, don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas if I hadn’t given you a present. I just had to do it. It’ll grow out again — you won’t mind, will you? My hair grows awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice — what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.»
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim.
“Cut it off and sold it.” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, amn’t I?”
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you — sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, darling. Be good to me. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”
Jim seemed to wake out of his trance, quickly hugging his Della. He drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me love you any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package, you may see why I was so startled.”
Ripping open the package Della screamed with joy when she saw the present it contained. But then her cry of joy quickly changed to hysterical sobs as she held her husband’s gift.
There lay the set of combs that Della had worshipped for so long in a Broadway window. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now they were hers, but the long tresses that they were meant for were gone now.
Hugging them to her bosom, at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim! I’m sorry I cut it. I would never have done it if I had known you were giving me the combs, but I had to because… Oh. Oh!”
Remembering her present Della jumped up and held it out to him eagerly in her open hand.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at your watch a hundred times a day now. Give it to me. I want to see how it looks with the chain on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands behind his head and smiled.
“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep them a while. They’re too nice to use just now. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.»
Дары волхвов (О. Генри)
Один доллар и восемьдесят семь центов. Это все. И шестьдесят центов из этого было в пенни. Делла пересчитала три раза. Один доллар и восемьдесят семь центов. А на следующий день Рождество.
Делла почувствовала себя так плохо, что она села на старенькую кушетку и заплакала, но это не помогло. Вытерев глаза, она подошла к окну маленькой квартиры. Меблированная квартира за восемь долларов в неделю было все, что она и ее муж Джим могли позволить себе на свою еженедельную зарплату в двадцать долларов.
Но завтра будет Рождество, а у нее только один доллар и восемьдесят семь центов, чтобы купить Джиму подарок. Она экономила каждый пенни, который только могла, в течение нескольких месяцев, и вот результат. На двадцать долларов в неделю далеко не уедешь. Расходы были больше, чем она считала. Так всегда. Только один доллар и восемьдесят семь центов, чтобы купить ее Джиму подарок. Она провела много счастливых часов, планируя купить что-нибудь приятное для него. Если бы только она только смогла сэкономить больше денег, она могла бы купить что-нибудь редкое, то, что имело честь принадлежать Джиму.
Отвернувшись от окна, она встала перед зеркалом. Ее глаза ярко сияли, но ее лицо потеряло свой цвет. Поспешно она распустила волосы, позволив им ниспадать по ее спине.
У четы Джеймса Диллинэма Младших было два сокровища, которыми они оба гордились. Одним из них были золотые часы Джима, которые принадлежали его отцу и деду. А другое — волосы Деллы.
Красивые волосы Деллы окутали ее, волнистые и сияющие, как каскад коричневых вод. Они были до колена и практически могли служить ей одеждой. Затем она снова заколола их нервно и быстро. Лишь на миг она остановилась, и слезинка или две упали на изношенную красную ковровую дорожку.
Она быстро надела старый коричневый жакет и свою старую коричневую шляпу. В вихре юбок и с бриллиантовым блеском в глазах, она побежала к двери и выскочила на улицу.
Она шла по улице, пока она не увидела вывеску, на которой было написано: «Мадам Софрони. Волосы. Товары всех видов. Второй этаж». Делла побежала вверх по лестнице, и, задыхаясь, достигла нужной двери.
Входя в небольшой магазин на втором этаже, она была встречена большой, бледной леди.
«Вы купите мои волосы?», спросила Делла.
«Я покупаю волосы», сказала мадам. «Снимите свою шляпу и позвольте взглянуть на них».
Коричневый каскад хлынул вниз.
«Двадцать долларов», сказала мадам, поднимая волосы опытной рукой.
«Давайте мне их быстро», сказала Делла.
Следующие два часа она провела, восторженно гуляя по магазинам в поисках подарка для Джима.
Наконец она нашла его. Он, безусловно, был сделан для Джима и ни для кого другого. Не было ничего подобного ни в одном из магазинов, а она буквально вывернула их наизнанку. Это была платиновая цепочка для часов, простого дизайна, но отличного качества. Как только она увидела ее, она знала, что она должна принадлежать Джиму. Она часто видела, как Джим украдкой смотрел на часы, потому что он не хотел, чтобы кто-либо увидел старый кожаный ремешок, используемый вместо цепочки. Если бы у Джима была эта цепочка на часах, то он был бы горд, посмотреть время в любой компании. Продавец взял двадцать один доллар за цепочку, и она спешила домой со сдачей в восемьдесят семь центов.
Придя домой, Делла достала щипцы для завивки и приступила к укладке своих коротких волос. Вскоре ее голова была покрыта крошечными, близко расположенными завитками, которые делали ее похожей на молодую школьницу.
Глядя на свое отражение в зеркале, она сказала себе: «Если Джим не убьет меня, прежде чем он второй раз взглянет на меня, он скажет, что я похожа на девушку из хора Кони-Айленд. Но что я могла сделать, о, что я могла сделать, имея в наличии один доллар и восемьдесят центов? Мне пришлось отрезать мои волосы. Если бы я их не обстригла, я бы не смогла купить Джиму подарок».
В семь часов кофе был приготовлен, и сковорода стояла на краю плиты, горячая и готовая, чтобы готовить отбивные.
Джим никогда не опаздывал. Сжимая цепочку для часов в своей руке Делла села на угол стола рядом с дверью. Услышав его шаги на лестнице, она побелела на мгновение. Вспоминая свои короткие волосы, она прошептала: «Пожалуйста, Боже, заставь его думать, что я все еще симпатичная».
Дверь открылась, и Джим зашел. Он выглядел худым и очень серьезным. Бедняга, ему было всего двадцать два — и быть обременены семьей! Ему нужен новый плащ, и он был без перчаток.
Остановившись в дверях, он посмотрел на Деллу, в его глазах было такое выражение, которое она не могла прочитать и которое пугало ее. Это ни гнев, ни удивление, ни неодобрение, ни ужас. Он просто смотрел на нее со странным выражением на лице.
Подбежав к нему Делла заплакала: «Джим, милый, не смотри на меня так. Я обрезала и продала свои волосы, потому что я не могла не сделать тебе подарок на Рождество. И просто обязана была это сделать. Они отрастут снова, ты же не будешь возражать? Мои волосы растут ужасно быстро. Джим, скажи «С Рождеством» и давай будем счастливы. Ты же не знаешь какой приятный, какой красивый подарок я тебе приготовила».
«Ты отрезала волосы?», спросил Джим.
«Отрезала и продала», сказала Делла. «Я тебе теперь не нравлюсь как раньше? Я осталась собой без моих волос, не так ли?»
Джим оглядел комнату с любопытством.
«Ты говоришь, твоих волос нет», сказал он, и это казалось почти идиотизмом.
«Тебе не стоит искать их», сказала Делла. «Они проданы. Я же говорю, они проданы и их нет. Это Рождество, дорогой. Будь добр ко мне. Может быть, волосы на моей голове можно посчитать», продолжала она с внезапной серьезной сладостью, «но никто не может сосчитать мою любовь к тебе. Я положу отбивные, Джим?»
Джим, казалось, вышел из транса, быстро обнимая свою Деллу. Он достал пакет из кармана пальто и бросил его на стол.
«Не ошибайся на мой счет, Дел», сказал он. «Я не думаю, что любая стрижка или бритье или шампунь, заставят меня любить тебя меньше. Но если ты развернешь этот пакет, ты поймешь, почему я был так поражен».
Открывая пакет, Делла вскрикнула от радости, когда увидела, какой там был подарок. Но затем ее крик радости быстро сменился истерическими рыданиями, когда она держала подарок мужа.
Там лежал набор расчесок, которым Делла так долго восхищалась, рассматривая его в витрине на Бродвее. Это были дорогие расчески, она знала, и ее сердце просто сжималось от того, что она никогда не сможет иметь такие. И теперь они принадлежали ей, но длинных локонов, для которых они предназначены, теперь нет.
Прижимая их к груди, она посмотрела мутными глазами и с улыбкой сказала: «Мои волосы растут так быстро, Джим! Я сожалею, что остригла их. Я бы никогда этого не сделала, если бы знала, что ты подаришь мне расчески, но мне пришлось, потому что … ох. Ой!».
Вспомнив о своем подарке, Делла вскочила и протянула к нему свою раскрытую ладонь.
«Разве это не стильно, Джим? Я ее искала по всему городу. Теперь ты будешь смотреть на свои часы сто раз в день. Дай мне их. Я хочу посмотреть, как они будут выглядеть с цепочкой».
Вместо того чтобы подчиняться, Джим повалился на диван, положил руки за голову и улыбнулся.
«Делл», сказал он, «давай отложим наши рождественские подарки. Они слишком хороши, чтобы использовать их сейчас. Я продал часы, чтобы выручить деньги и купить тебе расчески. А сейчас, я полагаю, пора подавать отбивные».
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES.
We present a special Christmas story called "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. Here is Shep O"Neal with the story.
SHEP O"NEAL: One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it in the smallest pieces of money - pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by negotiating with the men at the market who sold vegetables and meat. Negotiating until one"s face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but sit down and cry. So Della cried. Which led to the thought that life is made up of little cries and smiles, with more little cries than smiles.
Della finished her crying and dried her face. She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.
Jim earned twenty dollars a week, which does not go far. Expenses had been greater than she had expected. They always are. Many a happy hour she had spent planning to buy something nice for him. Something fine and rare -- something close to being worthy of the honor of belonging to Jim.
There was a tall glass mirror between the windows of the room. Suddenly Della turned from the window and stood before the glass mirror and looked at herself. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Quickly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, Mister and Missus James Dillingham Young had two possessions which they valued. One was Jim"s gold time piece, the watch that had been his father"s and his grandfather"s. The other was Della"s hair.
Had the Queen of Sheba lived in their building, Della would have let her hair hang out the window to dry just to reduce the value of the queen"s jewels.
So now Della"s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a brown waterfall. It reached below her knees and made itself almost like a covering for her. And then quickly she put it up again. She stood still while a few tears fell on the floor.
She put on her coat and her old brown hat. With a quick motion and brightness still in her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: "Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath.
"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.
"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take your hat off and let us have a look at it."
Down came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair.
"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the hair with an experienced hand.
"Give it to me quick," said Della.
The next two hours went by as if they had wings. Della looked in all the stores to choose a gift for Jim.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. It was a chain -- simple round rings of silver. It was perfect for Jim"s gold watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be for him. It was like him. Quiet and with great value. She gave the shopkeeper twenty-one dollars and she hurried home with the eighty-seven cents that was left.
When Della arrived home she began to repair what was left of her hair. The hair had been ruined by her love and her desire to give a special gift. Repairing the damage was a very big job.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny round curls of hair that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy. She looked at herself in the glass mirror long and carefully.
"If Jim does not kill me before he takes a second look at me," she said to herself, "he"ll say I look like a song girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?"
At seven o"clock that night the coffee was made and the pan on the back of the stove was hot and ready to cook the meat.
Jim was never late coming home from work. Della held the silver chain in her hand and sat near the door. Then she heard his step and she turned white for just a minute. She had a way of saying a little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."
The door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked thin and very serious. Poor man, he was only twenty-two and he had to care for a wife. He needed a new coat and gloves to keep his hands warm.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a dog smelling a bird. His eyes were fixed upon Della. There was an expression in them that she could not read, and it frightened her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor fear, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for. He simply looked at her with a strange expression on his face. Della went to him.
"Jim, my love," she cried, "do not look at me that way. I had my hair cut and sold because I could not have lived through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow out again. I just had to do it. My hair grows very fast. Say "Merry Christmas!" Jim, and let us be happy. You do not know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I have for you."
"You have cut off your hair?" asked Jim, slowly, as if he had not accepted the information even after his mind worked very hard.
"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Do you not like me just as well? I am the same person without my hair, right?
Jim looked about the room as if he were looking for something.
"You say your hair is gone?" he asked.
"You need not look for it," said Della. "It is sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It is Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it was cut for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the meat on, Jim?"
Jim seemed to awaken quickly and put his arms around Della. Then he took a package from his coat and threw it on the table.
"Do not make any mistake about me, Dell," he said. "I do not think there is any haircut that could make me like my girl any less. But if you will open that package you may see why you had me frightened at first."
White fingers quickly tore at the string and paper. There was a scream of joy; and then, alas! a change to tears and cries, requiring the man of the house to use all his skill to calm his wife.
For there were the combs -- the special set of objects to hold her hair that Della had wanted ever since she saw them in a shop window. Beautiful combs, made of shells, with jewels at the edge --just the color to wear in the beautiful hair that was no longer hers. They cost a lot of money, she knew, and her heart had wanted them without ever hoping to have them. And now, the beautiful combs were hers, but the hair that should have touched them was gone.
But she held the combs to herself, and soon she was able to look up with a smile and say, "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"
Then Della jumped up like a little burned cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful gift. She happily held it out to him in her open hands. The silver chain seemed so bright.
"Isn"t it wonderful, Jim? I looked all over town to find it. You will have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."
Instead of obeying, Jim fell on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
"Dell," said he, "let us put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They are too nice to use just right now. I sold my gold watch to get the money to buy the set of combs for your hair. And now, why not put the meat on."
The magi were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Baby Jesus. They invented the art of giving Christmas gifts. Being wise, their gifts were wise ones. And here I have told you the story of two young people who most unwisely gave for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two were the wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: You have heard the American story "The Gift of the Magi." This story was written by O. Henry and adapted into Special English by Karen Leggett. Your storyteller was Shep O"Neal. The producer was Lawan Davis. I"m Shirley Griffith.