Лошадиная фамилия
A Horsey Name
A retired general has toothache, and his steward remembers a healer whose surname had something to do with horses. The whole household guesses horse names until the doctor asks to buy some oats.
The opening
Он полоскал рот водкой, коньяком, прикладывал к больному зубу табачную копоть, опий, скипидар, керосин, мазал щёку йодом, в ушах у него была вата, смоченная в спирту, но всё это или не помогало, или вызывало тошноту.
He had rinsed his mouth with vodka and cognac; applied tobacco ashes, opium, turpentine, and kerosene to the aching tooth; rubbed his cheek with iodine, and put cotton wool soaked with alcohol into his ears, but all these remedies had either failed to relieve him or else had made him sick.
Все домашние — жена, дети, прислуга, даже поварёнок Петька предлагали каждый своё средство.
Every one in the house, his wife, his children, the servants, even Petka, the scullery boy, suggested some remedy.
Translation
- Marian Fell, Russian Silhouettes: More Stories of Russian Life, London, 1915DuckworthFell renders the horse-name puns with English ones, so the list of guesses reads freely.Public Domain
1004 words, about 8 minutes of reading.
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