Stuffy Pete sat in the park looking straight before him for ten minutes. Then he felt a desire to look in another direction. With a very great effort, he moved his head slowly to the left.
Then his eyes grew wider and his breath stopped. His feet in their torn shoes at the ends of his short legs moved about |болтались| on the ground.
For the Old Gentleman was coming across Fourth Avenue toward Stuffy’s seat.
Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years the Old Gentleman had come there to find Stuffy Pete on his seat. That was a thing that the Old Gentleman was trying to make into a tradition |превратить в традицию|. Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years he had found Stuffy there. Then he had led Stuffy to a restaurant and watched him eat a big dinner.
They do these things more easily in old countries like England |часто в английском слово “they” – “они” не означает никого конкретного, это просто “люди”. Перевод этого предложения – в старых странах подобные вещи делаются чаще. Кем делаются? Людьми|. They do them without thinking about them.
But in this young country, we must think about them. In order to build |to build – это строить, но это еще и создать| a tradition, we must do the same thing again and again for a long time. The Old Gentleman loved his country. He believed he was helping to build a great American tradition. And he had been doing very well. Nine years is a long time here.
The Old Gentleman moved, straight and proud, toward the tradition that he was building. Truly feeding Stuffy Pete |от всего сердца кормя Стаффи Пита… Слово stuffy имеет много значений – душный, скучный, занудный, забитый, чопорный. Стаффи Пит – это явно кличка, но какое именно значение слова stuffy имел ввиду О. Генри понять сложно, поэтому в русском переводе слово не было переведено. Стаффи Пит так и остался Стаффи Питом| once a year was not a very important tradition. There are greater and more important traditions in England. But it was a beginning. It proved that a tradition was at least possible in America.
The Old Gentleman was thin and tall and sixty. He was dressed all in black. He wore eye-glasses. His hair was whiter |не белее. Стало больше седины в волосах| and thinner than it had been last year |чем было в прошлом году. Опять had и третья форма глагола – на этот момент седины больше чем на момент в прошлом году|. His legs did not seem as strong as they had seemed the year before.
As this kind Old Gentleman came toward him, Stuffy began to shake and his breath was shorter. He wished he could fly away. But he could not move from his seat.
“Good morning,” said the Old Gentleman. “I am glad to see that the troubles of another year have not hurt you. You continue to move in health about the beautiful world |поэтичное предложение, которое не перевести буквально. Это что-то вроде «мир прекрасен, и я рад, что ваше здоровье тоже хорошее| . For that blessing you and I can give thanks on this day of thanksgiving. If you will come with me, my man, I will give you a dinner that will surely make your body feel as thankful as your mind.”
That is what the Old Gentleman said every time. Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years. The words themselves were almost a tradition. Always before, they had been |и все же почему у О.Генри везде had и третья форма глагола, они же прошедший Perfect? Вся история ведется о прошлом событии – Пит пошел, Пит увидел.., и все события предшествующие текущим действиям Пита должны стоять в прошедшем Perfect – had и третья форма глагола. Тем самым автор показывает, что они именно были раньше похождений Пита| music in Stuffy’s ear. But now he looked up at the Old Gentleman’s face with tears of suffering in his eyes. The snow turned quickly to water when it fell upon his hot face. But the Old Gentleman was shaking with the cold. He turned away, with his back to the wind, and he did not see Stuffy’s eyes.
Stuffy had always wondered |всегда думал. I wonder – это чаще “я думаю”, а не “я удивляюсь”| why the Old Gentleman seemed sad as he spoke. He did not know that it was because the Old Gentleman was wishing that he had a son. A son would come there after he himself was gone |сын бы приходил бы туда, после того как Старый Джентльмен бы умер|. A son would stand proud and strong before Stuffy, and say: “In remembrance of my father.” Then it would really be a tradition.
But the Old Gentleman had no family. He lived in a room in one of the old houses near the park. In the winter he grew a few flowers there. In the spring he walked on Fifth Avenue. In the summer he lived in a farmhouse in the hills outside New York, and he talked of a strange bug |все говорил о каком-то странном насекомом| he hoped some day to find. In the fall season he gave Stuffy a dinner. These were the things that filled the Old Gentleman’s life.
Stuffy Pete looked up at him for a half minute, helpless and very sorry for himself. The Old Gentleman’s eyes were bright with the giving-pleasure. His face was getting older every year, but his clothes were very clean and fresh.
And then Stuffy made a strange noise. He was trying to speak. As the Old Gentleman had heard the noise nine times before, he understood it. He knew that Stuffy was accepting.
“Thank you. I’m very hungry.”
Stuffy was very full, but he understood that he was part of a tradition. His desire for food on Thanksgiving Day was not his own |его желание…ему не принадлежало|. It belonged to this kind Old Gentleman. True, America is free. But there are