Киплинг Джозеф Редьярд
Stories from The Jungle Book / Книга джунглей
Джозеф Редьярд Киплинг родился в Мумбаи (Индия) в 1865 году. Наибольшую известность ему принесли его рассказы и стихи об Индии.
Особенно полюбились читателям произведения Киплинга для детей: «Книга джунглей», «Вторая книга джунглей» и «Сказки просто так».
«Книга джунглей» содержит несколько поучительных историй, главными действующими лицами которых являются животные.
В рассказе «Маугли – человеческий детеныш» повествуется о приключениях индийского ребенка, который, заблудившись в лесу, находит приют у семьи волков. В джунглях он заводит дружбу с медведем Балу и пантерой Багирой, а также вступает в противостояние с коварным тигром Шерханом.
«Рикки-тикки-тави» – история отважного мангуста, ставшего настоящим другом и защитником для семьи англичан.
Mowgli the man-cub
It was late afternoon. Father Wolf awoke from his sleep, yawned and stretched his legs. He pushed out his claws and looked at them. They were sharp and clean. It was time to go hunting for food. Mother Wolf sat watching her four cubs playing and rumbling around her.
Suddenly, her ears stood up and she stretched her neck. She could hear the leaves of a bush rustling.
She asked Father Wolf, “What is there?”
Father Wolf went to the mouth of the cave and looked out. From between the leaves, he could see a naked baby boy crawling towards the cave, laughing and shaking his curly head.
“Why, it’s a man-cub!” he exclaimed.
“A man-cub? Bring him here. I have never seen a man-cub before,” said Mother Wolf.
Father Wolf gently picked up the child by the neck with his teeth. This was the way he carried his own cubs. He put the child in front of her. There were no teeth marks on the child’s neck. The child did not struggle. He allowed Father Wolf to carry him. He was not afraid.
“He has no hair! He is naked!” exclaimed Mother Wolf. “Look at him. He is not afraid! He is pushing my cubs away to get my milk!”
Suddenly they heard Shere Khan’s growl outside the cave.
“What do you want?” asked Father Wolf.
“The man-cub,” Shere Khan answered. “I saw him crawl this way.”
“Go away. He is ours.”
“He is mine. Give him to me.”
Mother Wolf sprang up.
“The man-cub is mine. He will live with us,” she said. “He shall not be killed. One day he will hunt and kill you.”
Shere Khan knew she would not give him the man-cub, and the cave was too small for him to get into and take the cub away.
He turned to go, but growled before he went saying, “He will be mine one day.”
Mother Wolf looked at the child fondly.
“I’ll name him Mowgli. He is such a happy man-cub. Look at him playing with our cubs!”
Mowgli crawled up to her and lay down at her side. Mother Wolf smiled and put her paw over him.
It was the night of the full moon, when the wolf pack met at the Council Rock. Akela, the leader of the pack, sat on the Rock and watched the wolves bring their young cubs for inspection. This was the Law. The older wolves were required to see each new cub, before it became a member of the pack.
Mother Wolf also brought her four cubs and Mowgli for inspection. She was filled with anxiety. What would the pack say when they saw the man-cub? Would they allow him into the pack?
Akela said, “Look at the cubs carefully, O wolves.”
The cubs were brought to the centre. One by one the older wolves came, sniffed each one, looked carefully and then returned to their places.
“Look well, O wolves,” repeated Akela.
Father Wolf pushed Mowgli into the centre. Mother Wolf was very worried as she looked on. Mowgli was laughing and rolling the stones he had found. He was too busy playing to be afraid.
A growl came from behind a rock. It was Shere Khan.
“The cub is mine,” he growled. “You are wolves. What will you do with a man-cub?”
A young wolf asked, “Why do we have a man-cub here? He is not one of us.”
“I know,” said Akela, “but if two of the pack speak for him, he may stay.”
Father and Mother Wolf looked around and waited. They were not allowed to speak for him. No one spoke.
Suddenly they heard a grunt. It was Baloo, the brown bear. He was the teacher of the wolf cubs. He taught them the Laws of the Jungle.
He said, “I speak for the man-cub. Let him be one of the pack. I shall teach him.”
“But we need one more,” said Akela.
A soft voice purred. “I come as a friend, Akela.” It was Bagheera, the black panther. “I speak for the man-cub. Let him stay, and I will give you a fat bull that I have just killed.”
“A fat bull, did you say?” asked the pack. They were always hungry. “Of course the man-cub can stay!”
Shere Khan was very angry. He gave a loud roar and returned to his lair.
Mowgli spent a wonderful time among the wolves for ten whole summers. He loved Father and Mother Wolf. They in turn loved him as one of their cubs. Mother Wolf was very kind to him. She would often say, “I love him more than any son of mine.”
Their cubs were his brothers and they all played together. Mowgli was really very happy.
Father Wolf taught him many things about the jungle, its sounds and dangers.
Mowgli roamed the jungle. He ate when he was hungry, slept when sleepy, and swam in the jungle pool when he felt hot, or when he wanted to wash himself.
Baloo taught him the Laws of the Jungle and the Hunting Verse: “Feet that make no noise, eyes that can see in the dark, ears that can hear the winds, and sharp white teeth, all these are the marks of our brothers.”
Baloo also taught him the Wood and Water Laws: how to tell when a branch was rotten or strong before climbing it, how to speak politely to bees if he came upon a hive, and how to warn the water snakes before he dived into pools and rivers.
Mowgli was also taught the calls of all the creatures living in the jungle. These would be of use to him when he was in danger and had to seek their help.
Mowgli often felt tired of learning so many things. Baloo made him repeat everything. Sometimes, Mowgli would not listen to him. Then Baloo would cuff him.
Bagheera frequently sat on the branch of a tree and watched Baloo and Mowgli. He loved the man-cub and called him Little Brother. So did Baloo.
One day, when Baloo had cuffed him, Mowgli ran off and hid behind a tree. He was very angry. Bagheera said to Baloo, “Why do you cuff him so much? He is very young.”
“Not too young to get killed,” replied Baloo. “A cuff from me is better than that, is it not?”
“A soft cuff, yes, but just now you cuffed him straight over that rock! You will kill him some day.”
“It was a hard cuff, was it?” asked Baloo. He loved Mowgli. Had he really hurt him?
“Mowgli,” he called gently, “come and show Bagheera all the wonderful things you have learnt.”
Mowgli was never angry for long, and he loved to show off. He came out from behind the tree and asked, “What do you want to hear?”
“Say the word for the Hunting People, the Bears.”
“We be of one blood, you and I,” said Mowgli in the correct bear talk.
“And for the Birds?”
Mowgli let out a kite’s whistle.
“And now for the Snake People.”
The answer was a perfect hiss. Mowgli clapped his hands happily and jumped on Bagheera’s back.
“See how well Mowgli has learnt everything,” Baloo said to Bagheera. “Without my cuffs, he would not have learnt. Now he does not have to fear anybody.”
“Of course, he has to,” replied Bagheera. “He must fear man, his own tribe.”
Mowgli was jumping on Bagheera’s back, pulling and pushing him.
“What is the matter, Little Brother?” Bagheera asked.
“One day I will have a tribe of my own,” Mowgli replied proudly. “I shall be its leader. We will go from branch to branch and have a wonderful time.”
Baloo and Bagheera were shocked.
“What are you talking about?” asked Baloo, very angry.
Mowgli was surprised. He looked at Bagheera and saw that he was angry too.
“Have you been with the Bandar-log, the Monkey People?”
“The Bandar-log are the grey apes, who have no law and eat everything,” added Bagheera.
Mowgli nodded his head.
He said, “One day, when Baloo had cuffed me, I went into the jungle and met the Bandar-log. They were very good to me and gave me nuts and many other things to eat. They carried me from tree to tree. It was wonderful. They said that I was their brother without a tail. They even said that they would make me their leader one day.”
Baloo was furious.
“They are liars,” he said. “They have never had a leader and never will. You are not to meet them again.”
“But why not?” Mowgli wanted to know. “They were kind and good to me, and have invited me to go with them again. They are like me – they stand on their feet and use their hands to pluck nuts and fruit. They really are very kind. I liked playing with them.”
“Listen to me, man-cub,” said Baloo sternly. “I have taught you the laws of the jungle and the calls of all the creatures that live here. The only thing I have not taught you is about the Bandar-log. Why? It is because they have no law and no call. They have no speech. They chatter all the time, living on the branches. We, of the jungle, do not go where they go, or drink water from the same waterhole. You, too, will do the same.”
Mowgli had never seen Baloo so angry. He was always kind. Mowgli knew that he had not done the right thing, so he nodded. Suddenly nuts and sticks hit them on their heads. Mowgli looked up and saw many chattering monkeys swinging from branch to branch.
The Bandar-log were exactly as Baloo had said. They had no leader and no speech. They lived on trees. The animals of the jungle lived on the ground and they did not look up at them. They never met them and kept away from them.
But the Bandar-log had watched Mowgli. They had seen him weaving mats with straw and sticks. They found that wonderful. They thought that they could learn many things from him, and this would make them wise. Then all the creatures of the jungle would take note of them and envy them. They decided to carry him away and make him their leader.
So one day, when Mowgli was sleeping, the Bandar-log swooped down from the trees and carried him off. Mowgli opened his eyes and found that he was being carried away through the trees.
He cried out aloud. Baloo and Bagheera woke up, and were horrified to see the Bandar-log carry their Little Brother away.
Mowgli was very angry with himself. He should have listened to Baloo and kept away from these silly chattering monkeys. He felt dizzy as he was swung from branch to branch and from tree to tree.
Mowgli looked up and saw Chil, the kite, flying over him. He gave the kite a call for help. Chil was surprised to hear the call and looked down. He was even more surprised to hear a man-cub say the Master Word.
Mowgli called out to him, saying, “We are of one blood, you and I. Mark my trail. Tell Baloo and Bagheera. Go quickly.”
“Who are you, brother?” Chil asked.
“I am Mowgli, the man-cub. Mark my trail,” he repeated, “and hurry to Baloo and Bagheera.”
The monkeys carried him to the place the jungle creatures called the Cold Lairs. It was an old, ruined city, with its walls crumbling down. The monkeys lived here because there was a large water tank. No jungle creature ever came here, so they had the water to themselves.
Baloo and Bagheera were filled with grief. They had woken in time to see Mowgli being carried away.
“You should have warned him,” said Bagheera to Baloo. “You have taught him many things, but not all. You did not tell him about the silly, chattering Bandar-log. They could drop him while carrying him over the trees. He will surely die from such a fall.”
Baloo was too full of grief to reply. Chil spotted them as he flew over. He gave them Mowgli’s message.
“He knew the Master Word!” Chil exclaimed.
“What is the use?” wailed Baloo. “He may be dead by now.”
“Do not be so full of grief, Baloo,” comforted Bagheera. “The monkeys will be careful because they want him. Also, the man-cub is wise and well-taught. But as long as he is with them, he is not safe.”
“Oh, I am such a fat, stupid fool,” wailed Baloo again. “But, Bagheera, the Bandar-log fear Kaa, the snake, because he can climb trees, and he steals young monkeys in the night.”
“What can he do? He cannot move fast, as he has no feet.”
“He is a cunning old creature. Better still, he is always hungry,” said Baloo. “Come, we’ll go and seek his help. If he helps, we will promise him many goats.”
Both of them set off to look for Kaa. They found him sunning himself. His new coat was shining in the sun. (A snake sheds its skin when a new skin has formed inside.)
Kaa was a very big snake. Every creature in the jungle was afraid of his strength. Once he caught an animal and got it in his coils, he crushed it to death and then swallowed it.
Kaa was hungry. He said, “Hello, Baloo and Bagheera. What are you doing here? Have you any news of food for me? I am so hungry.”
“We are hunting,” answered Baloo. He did not want Kaa to know that they had come to seek his help. Kaa would never let them forget that.
“I’ll come with you,” Kaa said eagerly. “The last time I climbed a tree, it was dry and rotten and I nearly fell to my death. The Bandar-log were there and they called me such bad names.”
“Oh, the Bandar-log are shameless,” said Bagheera. “I once heard them say that you were old and had lost all your teeth.”
He could see that Kaa was very angry. His long body wriggled in anger.
Baloo decided to speak out. “Actually, it’s the Bandar-log we are following.”
“They have taken away our man-cub.”
“Man-cub? I have heard of him.”
“Yes, Kaa, the man-cub. He is the wisest, the best and the boldest of my pupils,” Baloo boasted. “And we love him very much. We call him our Little Brother.”
“The Bandar-log fear me,” said Kaa. “They are such chattering creatures. I may be of help. Indeed, I am sure I can be of help. Where did you say they had taken the man-cub?”
“To the Cold Lairs. That is the message Chil gave us. I am going as fast as I can,” said Bagheera, and then asked, “Kaa, will you come with us?”
“Of course, I will,” said Kaa, ready to set off. “And though I have no feet, I can go as fast as you can.”
“Baloo, you follow us,” said Bagheera.
Baloo was big and heavy and could not move fast.
They knew the place. It was an old city, lost and buried in the jungle. The roofless palace was on top of a hill. Broken walls of temples and houses were scattered around.
The monkeys liked this place because no jungle creature ever came here, and there was a water tank. This was their drinking hole and their bathing place, too. Hundreds of them lived here in the Cold Lairs.
The Bandar-log brought Mowgli to this place. There was great rejoicing when the other monkeys saw him. Now they could learn many things from him and become wise.
Mowgli was terrified to see so many monkeys, chattering around him. Some of them were trying to snatch him, others were feeling his hairless body.
Mowgli was tired and hungry and wanted to get away from this horrible place. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Bagheera climbing up the broken walls. The monkeys saw him, too. Chattering loudly, hundreds of them jumped on him. Bagheera tried to beat them back. They were trying to tear him to pieces.
Конец бесплатного ознакомительного фрагмента.
КИПЛИНГ, РЕДЬЯРД (Kipling, Rudyard) (1865-1936), английский писатель. Лауреат Нобелевской премии по литературе 1907. Родился 30 декабря 1865 в Бомбее (Индия).
Отец, крупный специалист по истории индийского искусства, был директором музея; мать происходила из известной лондонской семьи; оба деда были методистскими священниками. В шесть лет мальчика отослали в Англию на попечение кальвинистской семьи. В 1882 шестнадцатилетний Редьярд вернулся в Индию и устроился помощником редактора в лахорской газете.
Не по летам развитый юноша удивлял местное общество
проницательными суждениями о тайных пружинах колониального правления и знанием Индии, почерпнутым в основном в разговорах с энциклопедически образованным отцом. Ежегодные отпуска в гималайском городе Симле стали источником многих работ писателя. В 1886 он выпустил книгу стихов Департаментские песни (Departmental Ditties). За ней последовали Простые рассказы с гор (Plain Tales from the Hills, 1888) – лаконичные, зачастую грубоватые рассказы о жизни британской Индии. В 1887 Киплинг перешел в газету “Пайонир” в Аллахабаде.
Лучшие его рассказы вышли в Индии, в дешевых изданиях, и позже были собраны в книгах Три солдата (Soldiers Three) и Ви-Вилли-Винки (Wee Willie Winkie), содержащих картины жизни британской армии в Индии.
В 1889 Киплинг путешествовал по всему миру, писал дорожные заметки. В октябре он приехал в Лондон и почти сразу сделался знаменитостью. Следующий год стал годом славы Киплинга.
Начав с Баллады о Востоке и Западе (The Ballad of East and West), он шел к новой манере английского стихосложения, создав Песни казармы (Barrack-Room Ballads).
С выходом первого романа Киплинга Свет погас (The Light That Failed) (1890) связаны некоторые библиографические трудности, поскольку он появился в двух вариантах – один со счастливым концом, другой с трагическим. Из-за переутомления здоровье писателя пошатнулось, и большую часть 1891 он провел в путешествиях по Америке и британским доминионам. Вернувшись в январе 1892, женился на сестре американского издателя У. Балестьера, в соавторстве с которым написал не имевший успеха роман Науланка (Naulanka, 1892).
Во время медового месяца, который чета Киплингов проводила в Японии, банковский крах оставил их без гроша, и они обосновались в доме Балестьеров в Братлборо (шт. Вермонт). За четыре года, прожитых в Америке, Киплинг написал лучшие свои произведения. Это рассказы, вошедшие в сборники Масса выдумок (Many Inventions, 1893) и Труды дня (The Day’s Work, 1898), стихи о кораблях, о море и моряках-первопроходцах, собранные в книге Семь морей (Seven Seas, 1896), и две Книги джунглей (Jungle Books, 1894-1895). В 1896 он написал книгу Отважные мореплаватели (Captains Courageous).
Жизнь Киплингов в Новой Англии закончилась нелепой ссорой с шурином, и в 1896 они вернулись в Англию. По совету врачей писатель проводил зимы в Южной Африке, где сблизился с идеологами колониализма А. Милнером, Л. С. Джеймсоном и С. Родсом. Был военным корреспондентом во время англо-бурской войны 1899-1902.
На вершине славы и богатства Киплинг избегал публичности, игнорировал враждебную критику, отказался от звания поэта-лауреата и многих почестей. В 1902 он поселился в глухой деревне в графстве Суссекс. В 1901 Киплинг выпустил роман Ким (Kim), свое прощальное слово к Индии, в 1902 – восхитительную детскую книгу Сказки просто так (Just So Stories).
К середине жизни писателя его литературная манера изменилась, теперь он писал неторопливо, осмотрительно, тщательно выверяя написанное. Для двух книг исторических рассказов Пак с холма Пука (Puck of Pook’s Hill, 1906) и Награды и Феи (Rewards and Fairies, 1910) характерен более высокий строй чувств, некоторые из стихов достигают уровня чистой поэзии. Киплинг продолжал писать рассказы, собранные в книгах Пути и открытия (Traffics and Discoveries, 1904), Действие и противодействие (Actions and Reactions, 1909), Самые разные существа (A Diversity of Creatures, 1917), Дебет и кредит (Debits and Credits, 1926), Ограничение и обновление (Limits and Renewals, 1932).
В 1920-е годы популярность Киплинга уменьшилась. Гибель сына в Первую мировую войну и неотвязные болезни писатель перенес стоически. Умер Киплинг в Лондоне 18 января 1936.
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Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night
That Mang, the Bat, sets free -
The herds are shut in byre and hut,
For loosed till dawn are we.
This is the hour of pride and power,
Talon and tush and claw.
Oh, hear the call! – Good hunting all
That keep the Jungle Law!
Night-Song in the Jungle.
MOWGLI"S BROTHERS
IT was seven o"clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day"s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf, "it is time to hunt again"; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go with the noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in this world."
It was the jackal – Tabaqui, the Dish-licker – and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than any one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee – the madness – and run.
"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf, stiffly; "but there is no food here."
"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui; "but for so mean a person as myself a dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log , to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he found the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end merrily.
"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips. "How beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning."
Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.
Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then he said spitefully:
"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me."
Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty miles away.
"He has no right!" Father Wolf began angrily. "By the Law of the Jungle he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He will frighten every head of game within ten miles; and I – I have to kill for two, these days."
"His mother did not call him Lungri for nothing," said Mother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, and he has come here to make our villagers angry. They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Khan!"
"Shall I tell him of your gratitude?" said Tabaqui.
"Out!" snapped Father Wolf. "Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hast done harm enough for one night."
"I go," said Tabaqui, quietly. "Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the thickets. I might have saved myself the message."
Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a little river, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.
"The fool!" said Father Wolf. "To begin a night"s work with that noise! Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?"
"H"sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night," said Mother Wolf; "it is Man." The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was the noise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger.
"Man!" said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. "Faugh! Are there not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man – and on our ground too!"
The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too – and it is true – that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.
The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated "Aaarh!" of the tiger"s charge.
Then there was a howl – an untigerish howl – from Shere Khan. "He has missed," said Mother Wolf. "What is it?"
Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and mumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub.
"The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters" camp-fire, so he has burned his feet," said Father Wolf, with a grunt. "Tabaqui is with him."
"Something is coming uphill," said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. "Get ready."
The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world – the wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing almost where he left ground.
"Man!" he snapped. "A man"s cub. Look!"
Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk – as soft and as dimpled a little thing as ever came to a wolf"s cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf"s face and laughed.
"Is that a man"s cub?" said Mother Wolf. "I have never seen one. Bring it here."
A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf"s jaws closed right on the child"s back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it down among the cubs.
"How little! How naked, and – how bold!" said Mother Wolf, softly. The baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. "Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man"s cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man"s cub among her children?"
"I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or in my time," said Father Wolf. "He is altogether without hair, and I could kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not afraid."
The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan"s great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui, behind him, was squeaking: "My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!"
"Shere Khan does us great honor," said Father Wolf, but his eyes were very angry. "What does Shere Khan need?"
"My quarry. A man"s cub went this way," said Shere Khan. "Its parents have run off. Give it to me."
Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter"s camp-fire, as Father Wolf had said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by. Even where he was, Shere Khan"s shoulders and fore paws were cramped for want of room, as a man"s would be if he tried to fight in a barrel.
"The Wolves are a free people," said Father Wolf. "They take orders from the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man"s cub is ours – to kill if we choose."
"Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the Bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog"s den for my fair dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!"
The tiger"s roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.
"And it is I, Raksha , who answer. The man"s cub is mine, Lungri – mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs – frog-eater – fish-killer, he shall hunt thee ! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world! Go!"
Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in the Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment"s sake. Shere Khan might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouth growling, and when he was clear he shouted:
"Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!"
Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf said to her gravely:
"Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack. Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?"
"Keep him!" she gasped. "He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side already. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. O thou Mowgli, – for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee, – the time will come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!"
"But what will our Pack say?" said Father Wolf.
The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if you think for a minute you will see that this must be so.
Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock – a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men.
There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over one another in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that he had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know the Law – ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious mothers would take up the call: "Look – look well, O Wolves!"
At last – and Mother Wolf"s neck-bristles lifted as the time came – Father Wolf pushed "Mowgli, the Frog," as they called him, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.
Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the monotonous cry, "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the rocks – the voice of Shere Khan crying, "The cub is mine; give him to me. What have the Free People to do with a man"s cub?"
Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, "Look well, O Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Look well!"
There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere Khan"s question to Akela: "What have the Free People to do with a man"s cub?"
Now the Law of the Jungle lays down that if there is any dispute as to the right of a cub to be accepted by the Pack, he must be spoken for by at least two members of the Pack who are not his father and mother.
"Who speaks for this cub?" said Akela. "Among the Free People, who speaks?" There was no answer, and Mother Wolf got ready for what she knew would be her last fight, if things came to fighting.
Then the only other creature who is allowed at the Pack Council – Baloo, the sleepy brown bear who teaches the wolf cubs the Law of the Jungle; old Baloo, who can come and go where he pleases because he eats only nuts and roots and honey – rose up on his hind quarters and grunted.
"The man"s cub – the man"s cub?" he said. "I speak for the man"s cub. There is no harm in a man"s cub. I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I myself will teach him."
"We need yet another," said Akela. "Baloo has spoken, and he is our teacher for the young cubs. Who speaks besides Baloo?"
A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera, the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path; for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.
"O Akela, and ye, the Free People," he purred, "I have no right in your assembly; but the Law of the Jungle says that if there is a doubt which is not a killing matter in regard to a new cub, the life of that cub may be bought at a price. And the Law does not say who may or may not pay that price. Am I right?"
"Good! good!" said the young wolves, who are always hungry. "Listen to Bagheera. The cub can be bought for a price. It is the Law."
"Knowing that I have no right to speak here, I ask your leave."
"Speak then," cried twenty voices.
"To kill a naked cub is shame. Besides, he may make better sport for you when he is grown. Baloo has spoken in his behalf. Now to Baloo"s word I will add one bull, and a fat one, newly killed, not half a mile from here, if ye will accept the man"s cub according to the Law. Is it difficult?"
There was a clamor of scores of voices, saying: "What matter? He will die in the winter rains. He will scorch in the sun. What harm can a naked frog do us? Let him run with the Pack. Where is the bull, Bagheera? Let him be accepted." And then came Akela"s deep bay, crying: "Look well – look well, O Wolves!"
Mowgli was still playing with the pebbles, and he did not notice when the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli"s own wolves were left. Shere Khan roared still in the night, for he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him.
"Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers; "for the time comes when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of Man."
"It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. He may be a help in time."
"Truly, a help in time of need; for none can hope to lead the Pack forever," said Bagheera.
Akela said nothing. He was thinking of the time that comes to every leader of every pack when his strength goes from him and he gets feebler and feebler, till at last he is killed by the wolves and a new leader comes up – to be killed in his turn.
"Take him away," he said to Father Wolf, "and train him as befits one of the Free People."
And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeonee wolf-pack for the price of a bull and on Baloo"s good word.
Now you must be content to skip ten or eleven whole years, and only guess at all the wonderful life that Mowgli led among the wolves, because if it were written out it would fill ever so many books. He grew up with the cubs, though they of course were grown wolves almost before he was a child, and Father Wolf taught him his business, and the meaning of things in the jungle, till every rustle in the grass, every breath of the warm night air, every note of the owls above his head, every scratch of a bat"s claws as it roosted for a while in a tree, and every splash of every little fish jumping in a pool, meant just as much to him as the work of his office means to a business man. When he was not learning he sat out in the sun and slept, and ate, and went to sleep again; when he felt dirty or hot he swam in the forest pools; and when he wanted honey (Baloo told him that honey and nuts were just as pleasant to eat as raw meat) he climbed up for it, and that Bagheera showed him how to do.
Bagheera would lie out on a branch and call, "Come along, Little Brother," and at first Mowgli would cling like the sloth, but afterward he would fling himself through the branches almost as boldly as the gray ape. He took his place at the Council Rock, too, when the Pack met, and there he discovered that if he stared hard at any wolf, the wolf would be forced to drop his eyes, and so he used to stare for fun.
At other times he would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burs in their coats. He would go down the hillside into the cultivated lands by night, and look very curiously at the villagers in their huts, but he had a mistrust of men because Bagheera showed him a square box with a drop-gate so cunningly hidden in the jungle that he nearly walked into it, and told him it was a trap.
He loved better than anything else to go with Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, to sleep all through the drowsy day, and at night see how Bagheera did his killing. Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so did Mowgli – with one exception. As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull"s life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any cattle young or old. That is the Law of the Jungle." Mowgli obeyed faithfully.
And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat.
Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere Khan; but though a young wolf would have remembered that advice every hour, Mowgli forgot it because he was only a boy – though he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able to speak in any human tongue.
Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man"s cub. "They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare not look him between the eyes"; and the young wolves would growl and bristle.
Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something of this, and once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that Shere Khan would kill him some day; and Mowgli would laugh and answer: "I have the Pack and I have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for my sake. Why should I be afraid?"
It was one very warm day that a new notion came to Bagheera – born of something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki, the Porcupine, had told him; but he said to Mowgli when they were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay with his head on Bagheera"s beautiful black skin: "Little Brother, how often have I told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?"
"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli, who, naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy, Bagheera, and Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk, like Mao, the Peacock."
"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it, I know it, the Pack know it, and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui has told thee too."
"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with some rude talk that I was a naked man"s cub, and not fit to dig pig-nuts; but I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice against a palm-tree to teach him better manners."
"That was foolishness; for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker, he would have told thee of something that concerned thee closely. Open those eyes, Little Brother! Shere Khan dares not kill thee in the jungle for fear of those that love thee; but remember, Akela is very old, and soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when thou wast brought to the Council first are old too, and the young wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, that a man-cub has no place with the Pack. In a little time thou wilt be a man."
"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?" said Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle; I have obeyed the Law of the Jungle; and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!"
Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his eyes. "Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw."
Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under Bagheera"s silky chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all hid by the glossy hair, he came upon a little bald spot.
"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry that mark – the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was born among men, and it was among men that my mother died – in the cages of the King"s Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that I paid the price for thee at the Council when thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera, the Panther, and no man"s plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw, and came away; and because I had learned the ways of men, I became more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?"
"Yes," said Mowgli; "all the jungle fear Bagheera – all except Mowgli."
"Oh, thou art a man"s cub," said the Black Panther, very tenderly; "and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back to men at last, – to the men who are thy brothers, – if thou art not killed in the Council."
"But why – but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli.
"Look at me," said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute.
"That is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not even I can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feet – because thou art a man."
"I did not know these things," said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows.
"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill, – and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck, – the Pack will turn against him and against thee. They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then – and then … I have it!" said Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly to the men"s huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they grow there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love thee. Get the Red Flower."
By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, and invents a hundred ways of describing it.
"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts in the twilight. I will get some."
"There speaks the man"s cub," said Bagheera, proudly. "Remember that it grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by thee for time of need."
"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my Bagheera" – he slipped his arm round the splendid neck, and looked deep into the big eyes – "art thou sure that all this is Shere Khan"s doing?"
"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother."
"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full tale for this, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli; and he bounded away.
"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself, lying down again. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than that frog-hunt of thine ten years ago!"
Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was troubling her frog.
"What is it, Son?" she said.
"Some bat"s chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt among the plowed fields to-night"; and he plunged downward through the bushes, to the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked, for he heard the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter howls from the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his strength. Room for the leader of our Pack! Spring, Akela!"
The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgli heard the snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked him over with his fore foot.
He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yells grew fainter behind him as he ran into the crop-lands where the villagers lived.
"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in some cattle-fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day for Akela and for me."
Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fire on the hearth. He saw the husbandman"s wife get up and feed it in the night with black lumps; and when the morning came and the mists were all white and cold, he saw the man"s child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his blanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre.
"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing to fear"; so he strode around the corner and met the boy, took the pot from his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear.
"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it things to eat"; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on his coat.
"Akela has missed," said the panther. "They would have killed him last night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill."
"I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. Look!" Mowgli held up the fire-pot.
"Good! Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not afraid?"
"No. Why should I fear? I remember now – if it is not a dream – how, before I was a wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and pleasant."
All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping dry branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told him, rudely enough, that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughed till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing.
Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly, being flattered. Bagheera lay close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli"s knees. When they were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak – a thing he would never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime.
"He has no right," whispered Bagheera. "Say so. He is a dog"s son. He will be frightened."
Mowgli sprang to his feet. "Free People," he cried, "does Shere Khan lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?"
ВЫДАЮЩИЕСЯ ЛЮДИ
РЕДЬЯРДА КИПЛИНГА KIPLING
Joseph редьярда киплинга Kipling was born in Bombay, India in 1865. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, had come to Bombay after being appointed to a teaching post at a Bombay school of art. Indian servants took care of редьярда киплинга and taught him the Hindi language of India.
When Kipling was 5 years old, his parents brought him to Southsea, England, near Portsmouth. It was the custom of English parents living in India to remove their children from the heat and deadly diseases of the colony by sending them to school in England.
At the age of 12, Kipling was enrolled at the United Services College, a school established to educate inexpensively the sons of Army officers.
Limited family finances prevented Kipling from going to a university. In 1882, he returned to India instead and joined the staff of the «Civil and Military Gazette», a newspaper in the northwestern city of Lahore. By 1886, his feature articles and stories had attracted a wide readership.
In 1887, Kipling joined the staff of the «Pioneer», a newspaper in Аллахабад. He wrote articles based on his travels in northern India. Many were later collected in the book «From Sea to Sea» (1899).
Kipling returned to England in 1889. Kipling"s first novel «The Light That Failed» was published in 1890. The novel about an artist going blind received mixed reviews, but Kipling by this time was the most talked about writer in both England and the United States.
In 1892 Kipling married Carrie, a sister of his American literary agent Wolcott Balestier.
In 1894 Kipling wrote «The Jungle Book», and later «The Second Jungle Book», children"s stories that gained a wide audience international. «The Jungle Book» describes the adventures of Mowgli, an Indian child who gets lost in the jungle and is brought up by a family of wolves.
Kipling returned to the subject of India in his finest novel, «Kim» (1900). The story tells of an Irish orphan who adopts early and completely to Indian ways. The novel became a classic because of its rich rendering of the multiple cultures of India. It offers portraits of unforgettable characters - especially native Indians.
Another book of children"s stories, the «Just So Stories», appeared in 1902. It gives humorous explanations of such questions as how the leopard got its sports and how the elephant got its trunk.
Kipling"s later works reveal a darkened view of the world. His daughter, Josephine, died of pneumonia in 1899, and his son, John, died in 1915 in the Battle of Loos during World War I. His concerns about his own health coloured the fiction of his later years. He suffered from a ulcer bleeding for years before it was finally diagnosed in 1933. An unfinished autobiography «Something of Myself», was published in 1937, after his death.
Редьярда киплинга Kipling was a leading English short story writer, poet and novelist. He was best known for his stories about India. Kipling wrote more than 300 short stories, which illustrate a wide variety of narrative techniques. His children"s stories became popular worldwide. In 1907, Kipling was the first English writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.
QUESTIONS
1. When and where was Kipling born?
2. Where did he go when he was 5?
3. Did he go to the University after school?
4. What of .his books are about India?
5. Was Kipling a popular writer during his lifetime?
6. Which of his books are for children?
VOCABULARY
to appoint - назначать
deadly disease - смертельная болезнь
to поступить - зачислять
inexpensively - недорого
to gain - завоевывать
ulcer - язва
РЕДЬЯРД КИПЛИНГ
Джозеф Редьярд Кішіінг родился в Бомбее, Индия, в 1865 г. Его отец, Джон Локвуд Киплинг, приехал в Бомбей, когда был назначен учителем рисования в школе. Индийские слуги заботились о Редьярда и учили индийского языка хинди.
Когда Киплингу было 5 лет, родители отправили его в Саузсі, Англия, около Портсмута. Традиции английских родителей, которые жили в Индии, было отправлять своих детей подальше от жары и смертельных болезней колонии в школу в Англии.
В возрасте 12 лет Киплинг был зачислен в колледж Объединенных Служб, где недорого могли получить образование дети военных офицеров.
Ограниченные финансы семьи не позволили Киплингу поступить в университет. В 1882 г. он вернулся в Индию и попал в состав «Гражданской и военной газеты» северо-западного города Лахор. В 1886 г. его художественные статьи и рассказы привлекли внимание широкого круга читателей.
В 1887 г. Киплинг присоединился к редакции газеты «Пионер» в Аллахабаде. Он писал статьи, основанные на путешествиях по Северной Индии. Многие из них позже были собраны в книгу «От моря до моря» (1899 p.).
В 1889 г. Киплинг вернулся в Англию. Первый роман Киплинга «Огни погасли» был опубликован в 1890 г. Роман о художнике, который ослеп, получил разные отзывы, но на то время Киплинг был хорошо известен в Англии и Америке.
В 1892 г. Киплинг женился на Керри, сестрой своего американского литературного агента Уолкотта Бейлстера.
В 1894 г. Киплинг написал «Книгу джунглей» и позже «Вторую книгу джунглей», рассказы для детей, которые нашли широкую международную аудиторию. «Книга джунглей» описывает приключения Маугли, индийского мальчика, который потерялся в джунглях и воспитывался семьей волков.
В своем замечательном романе «Ким» (1900 г.) Киплинг вернулся к теме Индии. В этой книге рассказывается об ирландском сироту, который вполне приспособился к индийскому образу жизни. Роман стал классическим-за его богатое отражение многочисленных культур Индии. В книге есть незабываемые персонажи, особенно коренные индейцы.
Другая книга детских рассказов «Просто рассказы» вышла в 1902 г. В ней даются юмористические ответы на вопросы о том, откуда у леопарда появились пятна и как у слона появился хобот.
Поздние работы Киплинга передают пессимистическое восприятие мира. Его дочь Жозефина умерла от воспаления легких в 1899 г., а его сын Джон погиб в 1915 г. в битве под Лузом во время Первой мировой войны. Его переживания о своем здоровье повлияли на художественные произведения последних лет. Он страдал от кровоточащей язвы, много лет, перед тем как ему поставили диагноз в 1933 г. Его неоконченная автобиография «Немного о себе» была опубликована в 1937 p., после его смерти.
Редьярд Киплинг был ведущим английским писателем коротких рассказов, поэтом и романистом. Его хорошо знали из рассказов об Индии. Киплинг написал более 300 коротких рассказов, которые иллюстрируют широкое разнообразие повествовательных приемов. Детские рассказы Киплинга стали известны во всем мире. В 1907 г. Киплинг стал первым английским писателем, получившим Нобелевскую премию в области литературы.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, but educated in England.
In 1882, he returned to India, where he worked for Anglo-Indian newspapers.
His literary career began in 1886.
A prolific writer, he achieved fame quickly. Kipling was the poet of the British Empire.
His "Barrack Room Ballads" (1892) were written for, as much as about, the common soldier.
In 1894, appeared his "Jungle Book" which became a children"s classic all over the world. "Kim" (1901), the story of Kim-ball O"Hara and his adventures in the Himalayas, is perhaps his most felicitous work.
Other works include "The Second Jungle Book" (1895), "The Seven Seas" (1896), "The Day"s Work" (1898), "Just So Stories" (1902), "Actions and Reactions" (1909), and "Limits and Renewals" (1932).
During the First World War Kipling wrote some propaganda books. His collected poems appeared in 1933.
Kipling was the recipient of many honorary degrees and other awards.
In 1926 he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, which only Scott, Meredith, and Hardy had been awarded before him.
Редьярд Киплинг
Редьярд Киплинг (1865-1936) родился в Бомбее, но образование получил в Англии.
В 1882 году он вернулся в Индию* где работал в англо-индийских газетах.
Его литературная карьера началась в 1886 г.
Будучи плодотворным писателем, он быстро стал известным. Киплинг был поэтом Британской Империи.
Его «Казарменные баллады» (1892) были написаны для простых солдат и о них.
В 1894 г. появилась «Книга джунглей», которая стала детской классикой во всем мире. «Ким» (1901), история Кимболла О"Хари и его приключений в Гималаях, - самая удачная его работа.
Среди его произведений - «Вторая книга джунглей» (1895), «Семь морей» (1896), «Работа за день» (1898), «Сказки просто так» (1902), «Поступки и реакции» (1909) и «Лимиты и обновления» (1932).
Во время Первой мировой войны Киплинг написал несколько пропагандистских книг. Сборник его стихотворений увидел мир в 1933 г.
Киплингу было присвоено множество почетных званий и наград.
В 1926 году он получил Золотую Медаль Королевского литературного общества, которую до него получили только Скотт, Мередит и Гарди.