instant ['Instqnt], bump [bAmp], mirth [mWT]

So he stamped once more, and that instant the Djinns let down the Palace and the gardens, without even a bump. The sun shone on the dark-green orange leaves; the fountains played among the pink Egyptian lilies; the birds went on singing, and the Butterfly’s Wife lay on her side under the camphor-tree waggling her wings and panting, ‘Oh, I’ll be good! I’ll be good!’

Suleiman-bin-Daoud could hardly speak for laughing. He leaned back all weak and hiccoughy, and shook his finger at the Butterfly and said, ‘O great wizard, what is the sense of returning to me my Palace if at the same time you slay me with mirth!’

Then came a terrible noise (затем раздался страшный шум), for all the nine hundred and ninety-nine Queens ran out of the Palace shrieking and shouting and calling for their babies (ибо все 999 Цариц выбежали из Дворца с воплями и криками и созывая своих детей). They hurried down the great marble steps below the fountain, one hundred abreast (они поспешили вниз по огромным мраморным ступеням ниже фонтана по сотне в ряд), and the Most Wise Balkis went statelily[157] forward to meet them and said (и Мудрейшая Балкис величаво выступила вперед навстречу им и сказала; stately — величавый), ‘What is your trouble, O Queens (в чем дело, О Царицы[158])?’

shriek [SrJk], marble [mRbl], abreast [q'brest]

Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine hundred and ninety-nine Queens ran out of the Palace shrieking and shouting and calling for their babies. They hurried down the great marble steps below the fountain, one hundred abreast, and the Most Wise Balkis went statelily forward to meet them and said, ‘What is your trouble, O Queens?’

They stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted (они стояли на мраморных ступенях по сотне в ряд и кричали), ‘What is our trouble (в чем дело[159])? We were living peacefully in our golden palace, as is our custom (мы жили мирно в нашем золотом дворец, как /велит/ наш обычай), when upon a sudden the Palace disappeared (как вдруг Дворец исчез), and we were left sitting in a thick and noisome darkness (и мы остались сидеть в густой и мерзкой тьме); and it thundered, and Djinns and Afrits moved about in the darkness (и загремел гром, и во тьме носились Джинны и Африты)! That is our trouble (вот в чем дело[160]), O Head Queen (О Старшая Царица), and we are most extremely troubled on account of that trouble (и мы чрезвычайнейше обеспокоены по причине этого беспокойства), for it was a troublesome trouble (ибо это было беспокойное беспокойство), unlike any trouble we have known (непохожее на любое беспокойство, которое мы знавали = которое с нами случалось).’

trouble [trAbl], noisome ['nOIsqm], account [q'kaunt]

They stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted, ‘What is our trouble? We were living peacefully in our golden palace, as is our custom, when upon a sudden the Palace disappeared, and we were left sitting in a thick and noisome darkness; and it thundered, and Djinns and Afrits moved about in the darkness!