Оптимистическое

Эдуард Хвиловский

Я не Гомер и не Радищев, Я не Чайковский, не Эйнштейн,

Не Юм, не Беркли, не Зенон, Не Лао-Цзы, не Рафаэль,

Не Окуджава, не Татищев, Не Кафка и не Эйзенштейн,

Не Демокрит и не Платон. Не Киссинджер, не Бунюэль.

4*** 20***

Не Бергсон я, не Достоевский, Я не Толстой и не Хазанов,

Не Антокольский и не Локк, Не Ильф, не Ницше, не Берггольц,

Не Фейербах, не Дунаевский, Не Доницетти, не Рязанов,

Не Григ, не Данте и не Блок. Не Лермонтов и не Гельмгольц.

8*** 24***

Не Сунь Ятсен, не Паганини, Я не Тургенев, не Белинский,

Не Рейган, не Аристофан, Не Чехов и не Лановой,

Не Зощенко и не Феллини, Не Луначарский, не Менжинский.

Не Фолкнер и не Ксенофан. И ничего - пока живой!

12*** 28***

Не Парменид, не Эмпедокл,

Не Блюхер и не Пифагор,

Не Паустовский, не Софокл,

Не Карамзин, не Протагор.

16***

EXERCISE 6. Translate these sentences into English paying special attention to the translation of Russian idionyms and supplying explanation wherever necessary.

1. Деревенский староста был важной фигурой в дореволюционной деревне.

2. В степи они встретили великое множество сусликов.

3. В меню включили рыбные блюда из осетрины и омуля.

4. Вам предстоит опробовать ваши палатки сначала в условиях тундры, а затем в условиях тайги.

5. Газеты в то время клеймили зиновьевцев, бухаринцев и троцкистов.

6. Чудодейственная способность Распутина исцелять больного цесаревича привязывала к нему Александру Фёдоровну.

7. Она жила на даче купца, расположенной в двухстах вёрстах от ближайшего уездного города.

8. Земский собор избрал Михаила Романова новым царём России.

LESSON 6

TOWN

EXERCISE 1. Read the text, translate it into Russian, com­paring the way of naming French cultural terminology in English and Russian. Be pre­pared to discuss the text.

PARIS

To many, Paris is France, and France is Paris. Paris is universally beloved as the City of Light, possibly the world's most beautiful city. All roads and railroads lead to Paris, and anywhere else is regarded as provincial. When Louis XIV made the mistake of building his palace at Versailles, only 9 km outside Paris, he began to lose control over the entire country. Like a magnet, Paris has always attracted visitors and exiles from all corners of the earth. When you speak of the ultimate European city, it must be Paris, if only for the view from the Place de la Concorde or the Tuileries toward the Arc de Triomphe, or similarly striking sights beside the Seine.

Paris is slightly elliptical in shape. At its western edge is the vast Bois de Boulogne and to the east the Bois de Vincennes two enormous parks. The Seine divides the city into its northern Right Bank (Rive Droite) and southern Left Bank (Rive Gauche).

The Right Bank extends to the Tuileries Gardens and the fabulous Louvre. North of the Louvre is the area of the Grands Boulevards, centers of business and fashion; farther north is the district of Monmartre, built on a hill and crowned by the domed Eglis du Sacre-Coeur, an area that has attracted great artists since the days of Monet and Renoir.

The Left Bank sweeps from the Eiffel Tower on the west through the Latin Quarter, with its university and bohemian and intellectual community. South of the Latin Quarter is Montparnasse, once inhabited jointly by artists and intellectuals.

In the middle of the Seine are two islands, the Ile de la Cite and the Ile St.-Louis, the oldest parts of Paris.

Some of the most notable Parisian landmarks were engineered by Louis XIV, including Les Invalides, the Pantheon, Champ-de-Mars parade ground, and Ecole Militaire. Later in the 19th century, Paris was reorganized by a great urban planner, Baron Haussman. He instituted the brilliant system of squares as focal points for marvelous, wide boulevards and roads; he planned the Place de l’Opera, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, and the system of 20 arrondissements (districts) that make up Paris today.

During the peaceful lull between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, the city of Paris thrived as never before. These were the days of the can-can, whose spirit is captured so well in Offenbach’s heady music for Gaute Parlsienne. Monmartre, immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec, was so uninhibited that the foreign press dubbed Paris the “City of Sin”.

However avant-garde in dress, Parisians are a conservative lot when it comes to any changes in the appearance of their belov­ed city. When the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, Guy de Maupassant commented, “I spend all my afternoons on the Eiffel Tower; it’s we only place in Paris from which you can’t see it.” Today’s Parisians grumble about the ultramodern Centre Georges Pompidou, a focus for every type of modern art. They also don’t seem especially thrilled by I. M. Pei’s glass pyramids that form the new entraсе to the Louvre.

(After Birnbaum's Europe'90)

EXERCISE 2. Translate into English paying particular attention to the urban xenonyms.