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CHAPTER II

第二章

The young men went down to the river Moskva and walked along its bank. There was a breath of freshness from the water, and the soft plash of tiny waves caressed the ear.

这两个年轻人来到莫斯科河边,沿河岸走着。河面上吹来一阵新鲜的风,水波轻微的荡漾声缓缓摩挲着他们的耳膜。

'I would have another bathe, ' said Shubin, 'only I' m afraid of being late. Look at the river; it seems to beckon us. The ancient Greeks would have beheld a nymph in it. But we are not Greeks, O nymph! we are thick—skinned Scythians. '

“我又想游泳了,” 舒宾说, “只是我怕会迟到。看那河水,它好像在召唤我们呢。古希腊人相信每条河中都有一个女神。但我们不是希腊人,哦,我的女神!我们是粗鲁的西塞亚人。”

'We have roussalkas, ' observed Bersenyev.

“但我们有美人鱼啊。” 别尔谢涅夫讲道。

'Get along with your roussalkas! What's the use to me—a sculptor—of those children of a cold, terror—stricken fancy, those shapes begotten in the stifling hut, in the dark of winter nights? I want light, space…. Good God, when shall I go to Italy? When—’

“算了吧,还美人鱼呢!那些满脑袋都是冰冷恐怖幻想的孩子,那些在漆黑冬夜中沉闷的小木屋里幻想出来的形象,对于我——一个雕塑家——能有什么用呢?我想要的是光线,空间……博爱的上帝啊,我什么时候才能去意大利啊?什么时候?”

'To Little Russia, I suppose you mean? '

“我想你的意思是说要去小俄罗斯?”

'For shame, Andrei Petrovitch, to reproach me for an act of unpremeditated folly, which I have repented bitterly enough without that. Oh, of course, I behaved like a fool; Anna Vassilyevna most kindly gave me the money for an expedition to Italy, and I went off to the Little Russians to eat dumplings and—’

“安德烈? 彼得罗维奇,你是不好意思当面指责我粗心大意吧,就算你不说,我也已经为自己的愚蠢懊悔不已。哦,是的,我简直就是个傻瓜,以前安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜曾好心资助我去意大利,但我却跑去小俄罗斯吃饺子,然后——”

'Don't let me have the rest, please, ' interposed Bersenyev.

“算了,请你别再接着说了。” 别尔谢涅夫打断了他的话。

'Yet still, I will say, the money was not spent in vain. I saw there such types, especially of women…. Of course, I know; there is no salvation to be found outside of Italy!’

“不过,我还是要说,那些钱并没有被浪费掉。我在那里见到了许多不同的事物,尤其是女人……当然,我知道,如果不去意大利的话,人就永远得不到救赎!”

'You will go to Italy, ' said Bersenyev, without turning towards him, 'and will do nothing. You will always be pluming your wings and never take flight. We know you! '

“就算你去了意大利,” 别尔谢涅夫说着,看都没看他一眼, “你也不会有什么成就。你只会不停地拍打着翅膀,却永远都飞不起来。我们太了解你啦!”

'Stavasser has taken flight…. And he's not the only one. If I don't fly, it will prove that I' m a sea penguin, and have no wings. I am stifled here, I want to be in Italy, 'pursued Shubin, 't here is sunshine, there is beauty. '

“斯塔瓦瑟尔倒是飞起来了,而且他不是唯一能飞起来的那个人。如果我飞不起来,那只能说明我是海里的一只企鹅,没有翅膀而已。呆在这里我简直就要闷死了,我想去意大利,” 舒宾接着说道, “那里有阳光,那里有美女。”

A young girl in a large straw hat, with a pink parasol on her shoulder, came into sight at that instant, in the little path along which the friends were walking.

此时,一个头戴大草帽,肩上抵着粉色太阳伞的少女出现在他们视野里,走在他们所在的小径上。

'But what do I see? Even here, there is beauty—coming to meet us! A humble artist's compliments to the enchanting Zoya!’ Shubin cried at once, with a theatrical flourish of his hat.

“瞧,我看到什么了?即便在这里,也有美女——她朝我们这边走过来了!美丽的卓娅小姐,一个谦卑的艺术家向你致敬!” 舒宾立刻叫了起来,滑稽地挥了挥他的帽子。

The young girl to whom this exclamation referred, stopped, threatening him with her finger, and, waiting for the two friends to come up to her, she said in a ringing voice:

那个女孩停了下来,用手指指着大喊的舒宾,等到他俩走近时,她用银铃般的声音说道:

'Why is it, gentlemen, you don't come in to dinner? It is on the table. '

“怎么回事,先生们,你们怎么不去吃饭?饭都已经准备好了。”

'What do I hear? ' said Shubin, throwing his arms up. 'Can it be that you, bewitching Zoya, faced such heat to come and look for us? Dare I think that is the meaning of your words? Tell me, can it be so? Or no, do not utter that word; I shall die of regret on the spot. '

“我听到了什么?” 舒宾举起了他的胳膊,说, “难道你,迷人的卓娅,顶着大太阳出门就是来找我们吗?我可以这样理解你的意思吗?告诉我,可以吗?或者,等一下,请你不要告诉我真是这样的,不然我就要后悔死了。”

'Oh, do leave off, Pavel Yakovlitch, ' replied the young girl with some annoyance. 'Why will you never talk to me seriously? I shall be angry, ' she added with a little coquettish grimace, and she pouted.

“哦,不要这样,帕维尔? 雅克夫利奇,” 那个少女有些懊恼地说, “你为什么就不能正经些和我说话呢?我可要生气啦。” 她有点儿轻佻地做着鬼脸,还撅着嘴巴。

'You will not be angry with me, ideal Zoya Nikitishna; you would not drive me to the dark depths of hopeless despair. And I can't talk to you seriously, because I' m not a serious person. '

“你可别生我气呀,完美的卓娅? 尼基季什娜,你千万别让我陷入到绝望的深渊里。我本来就是个放荡不羁的人,所以才常与你开玩笑。”

The young girl shrugged her shoulders, and turned to Bersenyev.

少女耸了耸肩,转向别尔谢涅夫。

'There, he's always like that; he treats me like a child; and I am eighteen. I am grown—up now. '

“你看,他一直都是那样,他总是把我当成小孩子,可我都十八岁了。现在我已经是大人了。”

'O Lord! ' groaned Shubin, rolling his eyes upwards; and Bersenyev smiled quietly.

“哦,上帝!” 舒宾叹了口气,翻了个白眼,而别尔谢涅夫则轻轻地笑了。

The girl stamped with her little foot.

少女使劲地跺了跺她的小脚。

'Pavel Yakovlitch, I shall be angry! Helene was coming with me, ' she went on, 'but she stopped in the garden. The heat frightened her, but I am not afraid of the heat. Come along. '

“帕维尔? 雅克夫利奇,我可真要生气啦!埃琳娜本来要和我一起的,” 她说, “但后来她却去花园了。她很怕热,但我却不怕。走吧。”

She moved forward along the path, slightly swaying her slender figure at each step, and with a pretty black—mittened little hand pushing her long soft curls back from her face.

她沿着小径向前走去,每挪一步,那纤细的身体都会轻轻地摇摆一下,还不时用戴着黑色手套的小手把挡在脸上、柔顺卷曲的长发拨到后面去。

The friends walked after her (Shubin first pressed his hands, without speaking, to his heart, and then flung them higher than his head), and in a few instants they came out in front of one of the numerous country villas with which Kuntsovo is surrounded. A small wooden house with a gable, painted a pink colour, stood in the middle of the garden, and seemed to be peeping out innocently from behind the green trees. Zoya was the first to open the gate; she ran into the garden, crying: 'I have brought the wanderers! ' A young girl, with a pale and expressive face, rose from a garden bench near the little path, and in the doorway of the house appeared a lady in a lilac silk dress, holding an embroidered cambric handkerchief over her head to screen it from the sun, and smiling with a weary and listless air.

两个年轻人跟在她的后面(舒宾先是一言不发地把双手用力地按在胸前,接着又把它们举过头顶),没过多久他们就来到了一幢别墅前,这座房子位于孔佐沃周边的别墅区里。在花园中间,坐落着一幢带有顶楼的木制小房子,墙被刷成了粉色,看上去它就像躲在绿树林后面无辜地窥探着外面的世界。卓娅第一个打开了大门,她跑到花园里,大声叫道: “我把那两个出去闲逛的人带回来了!” 一个面色苍白却表情丰富的少女从小路旁边的一个长椅上站了起来,在房门口,一个身穿紫色丝绸连衣裙的夫人站在那里,用一条麻布绣花手绢放在额头上挡太阳,面色疲倦地笑着。 QaY7bzPJLqCD0gixgS40ofrcgjQ1lMn39g0eOcxaQZcv6NzO9JGPoDJa0CSfiiV0



CHAPTER III

第三章

Anna Vassilyevna Stahov—her maiden name was Shubin—had been left, at seven years old, an orphan and heiress of a pretty considerable property. She had very rich and also very poor relations; the poor relations were on her father's, the rich on her mother's side; the latter including the senator Volgin and the Princes Tchikurasov. Prince Ardalion Tchikurasov, who had been appointed her guardian, placed her in the best Moscow boarding—school, and when she left school, took her into his own home. He kept open house, and gave balls in the winter. Anna Vassilyevna's future husband, Nikolai Artemyevitch Stahov, captured her heart at one of these balls when she was arrayed in a charming rose—coloured gown, with a wreath of tiny roses. She had treasured that wreath all her life. Nikolai Artemyevitch Stahov was the son of a retired captain, who had been wounded in 1812, and had received a lucrative post in Petersburg. Nikolai Artemyevitch entered the School of Cadets at sixteen, and left to go into the Guards. He was a handsome, well—made fellow, and reckoned almost the most dashing beau at evening parties of the middling sort, which were those he frequented for the most part; he had not gained a footing in the best society. From his youth he had been absorbed by two ideals: to get into the Imperial adjutants, and to make a good marriage; the first ideal he soon discarded, but he clung all the more closely to the second, and it was with that object that he went every winter to Moscow. Nikolai Artemyevitch spoke French fairly, and passed for being a philosopher, because he was not a rake. Even while he was no more than an ensign, he was given to discussing, persistently, such questions as whether it is possible for a man to visit the whole of the globe in the course of his whole lifetime, whether it is possible for a man to know what is happening at the bottom of the sea; and he always maintained the view that these things were impossible.

安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜? 斯塔霍夫——没出嫁前姓舒宾——七岁时就成了一个孤儿,继承了一笔相当丰厚的遗产。她既有些富亲戚,也有些穷亲戚。父亲那边的亲戚都很穷,母亲那边的则很富有——包括参议员沃尔金和齐库拉索夫公爵一家。阿尔达里翁? 齐库拉索夫公爵被指定为她的法定监护人,他把她送到了莫斯科最好的寄宿学校,在她毕业后,带她回自己家生活。他经常在冬天里广邀宾客,频繁地举办各种舞会。尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇? 斯塔霍夫,也就是安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜后来的丈夫,就是在一次这样的舞会上获得了她的芳心。那次她穿了件迷人的玫瑰色长礼服,头上还带着由小玫瑰花编成的花环。她一生都十分喜欢那种花环。尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇? 斯塔霍夫的父亲是一个已经退役的上校,他在1812年的卫国战争中受了伤,然后被安排在彼得堡一个待遇很好的职位工作。尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇在十六岁的时候进入军校,毕业后加入了禁卫军。他英俊潇洒,体格健壮,在他经常出现的中产阶级的舞会上,几乎被公认为最耀眼的美男子。当时,他还没能进入上流社会。从小他就有两个愿望:成为一名皇家警卫员,娶一个富有的老婆,前一个愿望他很快就放弃了;但对后一个愿望,他倒是越来越努力,正因为如此,他每年冬天都要来莫斯科。尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇法语说得很流利,还获得了哲学家的头衔,因为他不放纵自己。当他还是个少尉时,他就很喜欢固执地和别人讨论一些问题,比如说一个人在一生中有没有可能环游世界,或是人们有没有可能知道海底世界到底是什么样子。他总认为这些事情都是不可能做到的。

Nikolai Artemyevitch was twenty—five years old when he 'hooked' Anna Vassilyevna; he retired from the service and went into the country to manage the property. He was soon tired of country life, and as the peasants' labour was all commuted for rent he could easily leave the estate; he settled in Moscow in his wife's house. In his youth he had played no games of any kind, but now he developed a passion for loto, and, when loto was prohibited, for whist. At home he was bored; he formed a connection with a widow of German extraction, and spent almost all his time with her. In the year 1853he had not moved to Kuntsovo; he stopped at Moscow, ostensibly to take advantage of the mineral waters; in reality, he did not want to part from his widow. He did not, however, have much conversation with her, but argued more than ever as to whether one can foretell the weather and such questions. Some one had once called him a frondeur; he was greatly delighted with that name. 'Yes, ' he thought, letting the corners of his mouth drop complacently and shaking his head, 'I am not easily satisfied; you won't take me in. ' Nikolai Artemyevitch's frondeurism consisted in saying, for instance, when he heard the word nerves: 'And what do you mean by nerves? ' or if some one alluded in his presence to the discoveries of astronomy, asking: 'And do you believe in astronomy? ' When he wanted to overwhelm his opponent completely, he said: 'All that is nothing but words. ' It must be admitted that to many persons remarks of that kind seemed (and still seem) irrefutable arguments. But Nikolai Artemyevitch never suspected that Augustina Christianovna, in letters to her cousin, Theodolina Peterzelius, called him Mein Pinselchen.

尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇 “钓” 上安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜的时候二十五岁,之后他就退役,到乡下来打理产业。他很快就厌倦了乡村生活,由于当时乡下已改为只收农民的代役租了,所以他很轻松地离开了庄园,住在了他妻子莫斯科的房子里。年轻时他从不打牌,但现在却迷上了罗托,当不能玩罗托的时候,他又迷上了惠斯特。他在家里觉得很无聊,所以就勾搭上了一个带有德国血统的寡妇,而且几乎所有时间都和她在一起。1853年他没有和其他人一起搬去孔佐沃,他留在了莫斯科,表面上说是想利用这里的矿泉水,事实上,他是不想离开他的那个寡妇。然而,他却跟她没多少话说,谈论的也多是像 “人能否预知天气” 这样的问题。有次有人说他是个反对党,他还很喜欢那个称呼。 “是的,” 他琢磨着,得意地翘了翘嘴巴,并晃了晃脑袋, “我可不好惹,你别想骗我。” 不过,尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇的这种反叛也只是在嘴上说说而已,比如,当他听到神经这个词语的时候,他会问: “你说的这个词是什么意思?” 或者是当有人跟他提及天文学发现时,他就会问: “你相信天文学吗?” 当他想要完全压倒对方观点时,他就会说: “其实那只不过是些毫无意义的话而已。” 确实,对不少人来说,这些话语是很难被反驳的(似乎到现在还是这样)。但是,尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇怎么也不会想到,奥古斯丁娜? 克里斯蒂安诺夫娜会在写给堂妹西奥多琳娜? 彼得济柳斯的信中竟然称他为 “我的小傻瓜” 。

Nikolai Artemyevitch's wife, Anna Vassilyevna, was a thin, little woman with delicate features, and a tendency to be emotional and melancholy. At school, she had devoted herself to music and reading novels; afterwards she abandoned all that. She began to be absorbed in dress, and that, too, she gave up. She did, for a time, undertake her daughter's education, but she got tired of that too, and handed her over to a governess. She ended by spending her whole time in sentimental brooding and tender melancholy. The birth of Elena Nikolaevna had ruined her health, and she could never have another child. Nikolai Artemyevitch used to hint at this fact in justification of his intimacy with Augustina Christianovna. Her husband's infidelity wounded Anna Vassilyevna deeply; she had been specially hurt by his once giving his German woman, on the sly, a pair of grey horses out of her (Anna Vassilyevna's) own stable. She had never reproached him to his face, but she complained of him secretly to every one in the house in turn, even to her daughter. Anna Vassilyevna did not care for going out, she liked visitors to come and sit with her and talk to her; she collapsed at once when she was left alone. She had a very tender and loving heart; life had soon crushed her.

安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜,尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇的妻子,是一个身型瘦小,五官精致,有点儿情绪化,又有点儿忧郁的女人。在上学的时候,她很喜欢听音乐和看小说,毕业后就把这些爱好全部抛弃了。接着她又喜欢上了漂亮的衣服,不过后来也放弃了这个爱好。曾经有段时间她自己负责女儿的教育,不过后来她又厌倦了,之后请来一个女家庭教师接替这一工作。此后,她整天伤春悲秋,敏感忧郁。生完埃琳娜? 尼古拉耶夫娜以后,她的身体就越来越差,以至于以后都不可能再有孩子了。尼古拉? 阿尔捷米耶维奇也总是不断地向别人暗示这件事情,以便为他和奥古斯丁娜? 克里斯蒂安诺夫娜的亲密交往找一个正当的理由。丈夫的不忠让安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜心里很受伤,而更让她难过的是有一次他竟偷偷摸摸地把她(安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜)马场里的两匹灰马送给了他的那个德国女人。她并没有当面指责他,但私底下却不断地给家里的人甚至她的女儿抱怨这件事情。安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜不喜欢到外面去,她只喜欢客人们到家里来坐着陪她聊天,当她一个人的时候,她的情绪就会立刻崩溃。她非常温柔而且善良,生活很快耗尽了她的精力。

Pavel Yakovlitch Shubin happened to be a distant cousin of hers. His father had been a government official in Moscow. His brothers had entered cadets' corps; he was the youngest, his mother's darling, and of delicate constitution; he stopped at home. They intended him for the university, and strained every effort to keep him at the gymnasium. From his early years he began to show an inclination for sculpture. The ponderous senator, Volgin, saw a statuette of his one day at his aunt 's—he was then sixteen—and declared that he intended to protect this youthful genius. The sudden death of Shubin's father very nearly effected a complete transformation in the young man's future. The senator, the patron of genius, made him a present of a bust of Homer in plaster, and did nothing more. But Anna Vassilyevna helped him with money, and at nineteen he scraped through into the university in the faculty of medicine. Pavel felt no inclination for medical science, but, as the university was then constituted, it was impossible for him to enter in any other faculty. Besides, he looked forward to studying anatomy. But he did not complete his anatomical studies; at the end of the first year, and before the examination, he left the university to devote himself exclusively to his vocation. He worked zealously, but by fits and starts; he used to stroll about the country round Moscow sketching and modelling portraits of peasant girls, and striking up acquaintance with all sorts of people, young and old, of high and low degree, Italian models and Russian artists. He would not hear of the Academy, and recognised no one as a teacher. He was possessed of unmistakeable talent; it began to be talked about in Moscow. His mother, who came of a good Parisian family, a kind—hearted and clever woman, had taught him French thoroughly and had toiled and thought for him day and night. She was proud of him, and when, while still young in years, she died of consumption, she entreated Anna Vassilyevna to take him under her care. He was at that time twenty—one. Anna Vassilyevna carried out her last wish; a small room in the lodge of the country villa was given up to him.

帕维尔? 雅克夫利奇? 舒宾恰巧是她的一个远房亲戚。他的父亲曾在莫斯科的一个政府机构上班。他的哥哥们都进了军校,他年龄最小,母亲又十分疼爱他,再加上他身体虚弱,所以就一直呆在家里。家里人打算供他读完大学,千方百计地让他锻炼身体。从小他就显示出对雕塑的喜爱。有一天,那个肥胖的沃尔金参议员在他姑姑的房间里发现了他做的一个小雕像——他那时才十六岁——然后他就宣布他打算担保这个年轻的天才以后的发展。但是舒宾的父亲去世了,这几乎完全改变了这个年轻人的未来。那个参议员,天才的担保人,只给了舒宾一尊荷马的半身塑像做礼物,之后就再无消息。但安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜却资助了他,十九岁那年,他的分数擦边进了大学的医学院。帕维尔不是很喜欢学医,但碍于学校制定的名额限制,他不可能再转到其他的院系。此外,他也很想学习解剖学。但是,他却没有学完解剖学的课程,第一学年期末,他没参加考试就离开了学校,投入到他喜欢的塑造雕塑的工作中了。他工作努力,但却三天打渔,两天晒网。他经常到莫斯科郊外闲逛,为一些乡下姑娘画些素描,并认识了各种各样的人,有年纪轻轻的,也有白发苍苍的,有上流社会的,也有下层阶级的,有意大利模特,也有俄国艺术家。他不愿去学院里学习,也没有拜谁为师。他拥有无与伦比的才华,他的名声开始在莫斯科传播开来。他的母亲来自于巴黎的一个富有家庭,是位善良聪明的女人,她认真地教他法语,日日夜夜为他着想,为他操劳。她为他感到骄傲,但在她还很年轻的时候,她就患肺病去世了,死前她恳求安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜照料帮她照顾舒宾。那时他已经二十一岁了。安娜? 瓦西里耶夫娜兑现了她之前的承诺,把乡间别墅门房的一个小房间给他住。 OM55opXnjwY/uZql9VBGKjzOI9EZw9FMg0AHtMNZz+tj6Cxo/SSQnl6ko6j+y4WF

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