Подкаст на английском №15: Эдгар Аллан По — «Красная маска смерти» (Часть 1, B2)

Podcast №15  Edgar Allan Poe. ‘Red mask of death.’ Part 1. 

The story is adapted for the PTAFL program by Georgy Panov.

00. ‘Red Death’ has long devastated the country.

01. No disease before it was so deadly and so terrible. Blood was its mark. A person had severe pain, sudden dizziness, and then they had heavy bleeding from the nose, mouth, and ears. Red spots on the body, especially on the victim’s face, signaled others to avoid contact with them. The sick person was deprived of any help and sympathy from healthy people.

02. The sickness began suddenly and lasted only half an hour. But Prince Prospero was happy, fearless, and wise. When half the population of his kingdom died, he called a thousand healthy and carefree friends from among the knights and ladies of his kingdom and locked himself in one of his castles together with them. It was a large and beautiful castle built according to the desires of the prince himself. A strong and high wall surrounded it.

03. There were iron gates. The servants closed the gate so that no one could enter or leave the castle. The castle was well supplied with water and food. Therefore, people who took refuge in the castle could stay there for a long time without communication with the outside world. Let the outside world take care of itself!

04. Prince Prospero was not going to be discouraged. The prince thought carefully about entertainment in the castle. He invited many artists and musicians and brought a lot of wine to the castle. The prince also thought about security inside the castle. So, life was fun and carefree inside the castle while the terrible disease continued to kill people everywhere.

05. One day, about the fifth or sixth month of living in the castle, the prince again arranged a luxurious masquerade ball. Here, I must tell you about the halls where these masquerades were held. There were seven halls. Usually, such halls were built in a long and straight line. And their doors were made to slide apart on both sides of the wall.

06. So you could see all the halls. But the prince did it his own way. His halls were arranged so that you could see only one hall. There was a sharp turn every fifteen to twenty-five meters, and you met with some architectural surprise at every turn. To the right and the left, in the middle of each wall, a high and narrow Gothic window looked out into a closed corridor that continued the curves of the line of halls.

07. These windows were made of stained glass. The color of the glass matched the prevailing shade of the hall. For example, the hall on the eastern edge had a blue window because it was decorated in blue. The second hall was decorated with magenta ornaments and pictures. Therefore, the windows were magenta as well.

08. The third hall was green, as were its windows. The fourth was decorated and lit in orange. The fifth hall was white. The sixth was purple. The seventh hall was tightly wrapped in black velvet tapestries that hung from the ceiling along the walls and fell in heavy folds onto the carpet.

09. The carpet was also black. But only in this hall the color of the windows did not match the general appearance of this hall. The glass here was scarlet, a bloody dark color. None of the seven rooms had a lamp or a candle holder among the many gold ornaments scattered around or hanging from the roof. There were no lights in the halls.

10. But in the corridors following each hall, opposite each window, there was a heavy tripod with fire, which pierced its rays through the tinted glass and perfectly illuminated the hall. But since the glass of the windows was colored, the fire of the tripods created a fantastic play of light in the hall. But in the western, or black hall, the light of the fire falling on the dark decorations through the blood-stained glass was terrible. Few people dared to enter there. A giant ebony clock was in that hall, at the western wall.

11. Its pendulum swung from side to side with a heavy, mysterious knocking. But when it was time to mark the hour, a clear and very musical sound escaped from this clock. The musicians of the orchestra stopped playing, thereby interrupting the fun and causing short confusion in the cheerful company. While the clock was ringing, you could notice that the most desperate people turned pale. And the older ones were passing their hands over their eyebrows as if they were deeply thinking about something.

12. But light laughter immediately filled the hall again, when the clock stopped ringing. The musicians looked at each other and smiled, embarrassed by their fear and stupidity. They also swore in whispers to each other that the next strike of the clock would not cause them such excitement. But when the next sixty minutes, containing three thousand six hundred seconds of flying Time, passed, and the clock chimed again, everything was repeated. But despite everything, the fun continued.

13. The prince’s tastes were amazing. He was well-versed in the play of light, color, and shadows. He did not like simple fashion. His plans were always bold and unusual. Some thought he was crazy.