Russian · Intermediate
Adapted from The Red Shoes
A girl’s beautiful red shoes lead her into a troubling chain of events.
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Scene 1 · Intermediate
Жила-была маленькая девочка, красивая и изящная. Она была так бедна, что летом ходила босиком, а зимой носила большие деревянные башмаки. От этих башмаков кожа на верхней части её маленьких ступней совсем покраснела.
Once upon a time there was a little girl, beautiful and graceful. She was so poor that she went barefoot in summer and wore big wooden shoes in winter. The skin on the tops of her little feet had become quite red from the shoes.
В центре деревни жила пожилая жена башмачника. Из старых лоскутков красной ткани она сшила для девочки маленькие башмачки. Получились они не очень аккуратными, но женщина старалась сделать доброе дело. Девочку звали Карен.
In the center of the village lived an elderly shoemaker's wife. She sewed the girl a little pair of shoes from old scraps of red cloth. They were not very neatly made, but the woman was trying to do a good deed. The girl's name was Karen.
Впервые Карен надела эти башмачки в день похорон матери. Красный цвет, конечно, не подходил для траура, но другой обуви у неё не было. Она сунула босые ноги в новые башмачки и пошла за скромным гробом.
Karen first wore the shoes on the day of her mother's funeral. Red was hardly a suitable color for mourning, of course, but she had no other shoes. She slipped her bare feet into the new shoes and followed the modest coffin.
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