| 'Nobody knows. He seems to have disappeared.' 'You see? Imagine a man his age risking what little life he has left for something so absurd as a country.' Nately was instantly up in arms again. 'There is nothing so absurd about risking your life for your country!' he declared. 'Isn't there?' asked the old man. 'What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can't all be worth dying for.' 'Anything worth living for,' said Nately, 'is worth dying for.' 'And anything worth dying for,' answered the sacrilegious old man, 'is certainly worth living for. You know, you're such a pure and naive young man that I almost feel sorry for you. How old are you? Twenty-five? Twenty-six?' 'Nineteen,' said Nately. 'I'll be twenty in January.' 'If you live.' The old man shook his head, wearing, for a moment, the same touchy, meditating frown of the fretful and disapproving old woman. 'They are going to kill you if you don't watch out, and I can see now that you are not going to watch out. Why don't you use some sense and try to be more like me? You might live to be a hundred and seven, too.' 'Because it's better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees,' Nately retorted with triumphant and lofty conviction. 'I guess you've heard that saying before.' 'Yes, I certainly have,' mused the treacherous old man, smiling again. 'But I'm afraid you have it backward. It is better to live on one's feet than die on one's knees. That is the way the saying goes.' 'Are you sure?' Nately asked with sober confusion. 'It seems to make more sense my way.' 'No, it makes more sense my way. Ask your friends.' | - Никто не знает... Он исчез... |
| Nately turned to ask his friends and discovered they had gone. Yossarian and Dunbar had both disappeared. | Нейтли обернулся на своих приятелей и обнаружил, что Йоссариан и Данбэр, как и Заморыш Джо, исчезли. |
| The old man roared with contemptuous merriment at Nately's look of embarrassed surprise. | При виде озадаченного лица Нейтли старикашка разразился оскорбительным смехом. |
| Nately's face darkened with shame. | Нейтли вспыхнул, щеки его заалели. |
| He vacillated helplessly for a few seconds and then spun himself around and fled inside the nearest of the hallways in search of Yossarian and Dunbar, hoping to catch them in time and bring them back to the rescue with news of the remarkable clash between the old man and Major-de Coverley. All the doors in the hallways were shut. | Несколько мгновений он беспомощно озирался, а затем ринулся в ближайший коридор на поиски Йоссариана и Данбэра, намереваясь рассказать им об удивительном случае - о том, что произошло между старикашкой и майором де Каверли, но в коридоре все двери были заперты. |
| There was light under none. | Ни под одной дверью не пробивался свет. |
| It was already very late. | Было уже слишком поздно. |
