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| "No, alas! A sheep, or a calf; I can say I could cleave to the neck by a single stroke, but to cut a full-grown man down to the waist is beyond my power. | -Нет, не могу... Барашка молодого пополам пересеку... пробовал даже телячью тушу... а человека, пожалуй, нет... не разрублю. Голову снесу к черту, это я знаю, а так, чтобы наискось... нет. |
| To my father it would be a trifle." | Мой отец это делал легко. |
| "Come, gentlemen, and let us try our strength and sabres on that scarecrow," said Lbov, in a determined tone and with flashing eyes. | - А ну-ка, господа, пойдемте попробуем, - сказал Лбов молящим тоном, с загоревшимися глазами. |
| "Biek, my dear boy, come with us." | - Бек, милочка, пожалуйста, пойдем... |
| The officers went up to the clay figure that had been erected a little way off. | Офицеры подошли к глиняному чучелу. |
| Vi?tkin was the first to attack it. | Первым рубил Веткин. |
| After endeavouring to impart to his innocent, prosaic face an expression of wild-beast ferocity, he struck the clay man with all his might and with an unnecessarily big flourish of his sabre. | Придав озверелое выражение своему доброму, простоватому лицу, он изо всей силы, с большим, неловким размахом, ударил по глине. |
| At the same time he uttered the characteristic sound "Khryass!" which a butcher makes when he is cutting up beef. | В то же время он невольно издал горлом тот характерный звук - хрясь! - который делают мясники, когда рубят говядину. |
| The weapon entered about a quarter of an inch into the clay, and Vi?tkin had some trouble to extricate his brave sabre. | Лезвие вошло в глину на четверть аршина, и Веткин с трудом вывязил его оттуда! |
| "Wretchedly done," exclaimed Agamalov, shaking his head. | - Плохо! - заметил, покачав головой, Бек-Агамалов. |
| "Now, Romashov, it's your turn." | - Вы, Ромашов... |
| Romashov drew his sabre from its sheath, and adjusted his eyeglass with a hesitating movement. | Ромашов вытащил шашку из ножен и сконфуженно поправил рукой очки. |
| He was of medium height, lean, and fairly strong in proportion to his build, but through constitutional timidity and lack of interest not much accustomed to handling the weapon. | Он был среднего роста, худощав, и хотя довольно силен для своего сложения, но от большой застенчивости неловок. |
| Even as a pupil at the Military Academy he was a bad swordsman, and after a year and a half's service in the regiment he had almost completely forgotten the art. | Фехтовать на эспадронах он не умел даже в училище, а за полтора года службы и совсем забыл это искусство. |
| He raised his sabre high above his head, but stretched out, simultaneously and instinctively, his left arm and hand. | Занеся высоко над головой оружие, он в то же время инстинктивно выставил вперед левую руку. |
| "Mind your hand!" shouted Agamalov. | - Руку! - крикнул Бек-Агамалов. |
| But it was too late then. | Но было уже поздно. |
| The point of the sabre only made a slight scratch on the clay, and Romashov, to his astonishment, who had mis-reckoned on a strong resistance to the steel entering the clay, lost his balance and stumbled forward, whereupon the blade of the sabre caught his outstretched hand and tore off a portion of skin at the lower part of his little finger, so that the blood oozed. |