英语散文:About Love 关于爱情的种种你了解多少？

“四个犹太人被指控为纵火犯，被当作是一伙强盗，而在我看来，毫无根据。吃晚饭时我非常兴奋，又局促不安，都不知道自己说了些什么。而安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜不停地挥动着头问她的丈夫：

“‘迪米特里，这是怎么回事？’

“卢格诺维奇是个温厚的人，是那些心思简单的人之一，一旦一个人在法庭之前被指控有罪他就会坚持这个看法，除非以法定的书面形式，绝不会在晚餐桌上与私人会谈时表示对判决正确性的怀疑。

“‘你和我都没有放火烧那地方，’他温和地说，‘你看我们都没有被判有罪，也没有进监狱。’

“Four Jews were charged with being incendiaries, were regarded as a gang of robbers, and, to my mind, quite groundlessly. At dinner I was very much excited, I was uncomfortable, and I don’t know what I said, but Anna Alexyevna kept shaking her head and saying to her husband:

“ ‘Dmitry, how is this?’

“Luganovitch is a good-natured man, one of those simple-hearted people who firmly maintain the opinion that once a man is charged before a court he is guilty, and to express doubt of the correctness of a sentence cannot be done except in legal form on paper, and not at dinner and in private conversation.

“ ‘You and I did not set fire to the place,’ he said softly, ‘and you see we are not condemned, and not in prison.’

“他们夫妻两人都设法让我尽量多吃些，多喝些。从一些不重要的细节里，例如，从他们一起泡咖啡的样子，从他们从只言片语里就能理解对方的情形，我能推断出他们生活得融洽而舒适，而且他们很高兴有人来访。吃过晚饭后，他们表演了钢琴了二重奏。然后天色很晚了，我就回家了。那是初春时分。

“此后，我不间断地在沙非诺度过了整个夏天，也没有时间去想城里的事。但是那些日子里对那个优雅的金发妇人的记忆仍留存在脑海里。我没有去想她，可是她轻盈的影子仿佛就躺在我心里。

“And both husband and wife tried to make me eat and drink as much as possible. From some trifling details, from the way they made the coffee together, for instance, and from the way they understood each other at half a word, I could gather that they lived in harmony and comfort, and that they were glad of a visitor. After dinner they played a duet on the piano; then it got dark, and I went home. That was at the beginning of spring.

“After that I spent the whole summer at Sofino without a break, and I had no time to think of the town, either, but the memory of the graceful fair-haired woman remained in my mind all those days; I did not think of her, but it was as though her light shadow were lying on my heart.

“深秋，城里举行一场以慈善为目的的戏剧演出。中场休息时我接到邀请去了镇长的包厢，我一看，安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜正坐在镇长夫人的旁边。她的美丽温柔，她那亲切的眼神，再一次令我不可抗拒，令我激动不已，我的心里再次涌起了那种亲近的感觉。我们肩并肩地坐着，然后去了休息室。

“她说：‘你瘦了。生病了吗？’

“‘是的，我的肩膀患了风湿，下雨天就睡不着。’

“‘你看起来有些沮丧。春天里，来吃晚饭时，你更年轻，更自信。那时你充满热情，口若悬河，你非常有趣，我必须承认我的心有几分已被你带走了。不知道为什么夏季时我经常想起你，今晚为看演出而做准备时我想我会看到你。’

“然后她笑了。

“In the late autumn there was a theatrical performance for some charitable object in the town. I went into the governor’s box (I was invited to go there in the interval); I looked, and there was Anna Alexyevna sitting beside the governor’s wife; and again the same irresistible, thrilling impression of beauty and sweet, caressing eyes, and again the same feeling of nearness. We sat side by side, then went to the foyer.

“ ‘You’ve grown thinner,’ she said; ‘have you been ill?’

“ ‘Yes, I’ve had rheumatism in my shoulder, and in rainy weather I can’t sleep.’

“ ‘You look dispirited. In the spring, when you came to dinner, you were younger, more confident. You were full of eagerness, and talked a great deal then; you were very interesting, and I really must confess I was a little carried away by you. For some reason you often came back to my memory during the summer, and when I was getting ready for the theatre today I thought I should see you.’

“And she laughed.

“‘可是今天你看起来很沮丧，’她再三地说：‘这使你看上去像是比春天时老了。’

“第二天我在卢格诺维奇家吃午饭。吃过午饭后他们驾车去他们的夏季别墅，为去那儿过冬做安排，我跟他们一起去了。然后又与他们回到城里，午夜时与他们在安静的家庭环境里一起喝茶。当时炉火融融，年轻的妈妈每隔一会就去看看她的宝贝女儿睡着了没有。从那以后，每次去城里我都会去拜访卢格诺维奇一家。他们慢慢习惯了我的到来，我也慢慢习惯了去看望他们。通常我都说来就来，好像我是那个家的一员。

“ ‘But you look dispirited today,’ she repeated; ‘it makes you seem older.’

“The next day I lunched at the Luganovitchs’. After lunch they drove out to their summer villa, in order to make arrangements there for the winter, and I went with them. I returned with them to the town, and at midnight drank tea with them in quiet domestic surroundings, while the fire glowed, and the young mother kept going to see if her baby girl was asleep. And after that, every time I went to town I never failed to visit the Luganovitchs. They grew used to me, and I grew used to them. As a rule I went in unannounced, as though I were one of the family.

“‘是谁啊？’我会听到安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜在远远的房间里问道，在我听来那慵懒的声音多么可爱啊！

“‘是帕韦尔·康斯坦蒂诺维奇，’女仆或者保姆回答道。

“安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜会一脸焦急地向我走来，每次她都会问：

“‘为什么这么久才来？出了什么事吗？’

“她的眼神，她伸给我的美丽优雅的手，她的日常家居衣服，她梳的头发的式样，她的声音，她的脚步，总给我同样的印象，这是我的生活里刚刚获得的非凡的东西，非常重要的东西。我们一聊几个小时，然后静静地想各自的心事，或者她给我弹上几小时的钢琴。如果他们不在家我就留下来等，跟保姆聊聊，和小孩子们玩，或者到书房的沙发上躺着看书。安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜回来时我会迎到大厅里，接下她手里的所有包裹，为了某种原因每次我都会像一个孩子一样满怀爱意，一样一本正经地拿过那些包裹。

‘Who is there?’ I would hear from a faraway room, in the drawling voice that seemed to me so lovely.

“ ‘It is Pavel Konstantinovitch,’ answered the maid or the nurse.

“Anna Alexyevna would come out to me with an anxious face, and would ask every time:

“ ‘Why is it so long since you have been? Has anything happened?’

“Her eyes, the elegant refined hand she gave me, her indoor dress, the way she did her hair, her voice, her step, always produced the same impression on me something new and extraordinary in my life, and very important. We talked together for hours, were silent, thinking each our own thoughts, or she played for hours to me on the piano. If there were no one at home I stayed and waited, talked to the nurse, played with the child, or lay on the sofa in the study and read; and when Anna Alexyevna came back I met her in the hall, took all her parcels from her, and for some reason I carried those parcels every time with as much love, with as much solemnity, as a boy.

“有这么一个谚语：如果一个农妇没有任何烦恼会买一头小猪。卢格诺维奇夫妇生活顺心，因此他们跟我交朋友。如果我不进城肯定是病了或者发生了什么事，他们夫妇俩就非常担心。他们闷闷不乐于我这个受过语言文学教育的人应该做学问或从事文学工作，却生活在农村，像一只愤怒的松鼠转着圈子狂奔一样辛苦劳作却看不到收获。他们认为我不快乐，我只是说着笑着或用吃东西来掩饰我的痛苦，甚至在我觉得快乐时的高兴时刻我也感觉得到他们直盯盯的搜索的眼神。我真的心情沮丧时他们非常令人感动。当我为一些债主焦虑或没有足够的钱准时偿还利息时，他们俩，丈夫和妻子就会走到窗子旁耳语，然后卢格诺维奇走向我一脸严肃地跟我说：‘帕韦尔·康斯坦蒂诺维奇，如果你目前真的需要钱，我妻子和我请求你别不好意思跟我们借。’

“There is a proverb that if a peasant woman has no troubles she will buy a pig. The Luganovitchs had no troubles, so they made friends with me. If I did not come to the town I must be ill or something must have happened to me, and both of them were extremely anxious. They were worried that I, an educated man with a knowledge of languages, should, instead of devoting myself to science or literary work, live in the country, rush round like a squirrel in a rage, work hard with never a penny to show for it. They fancied that I was unhappy, and that I only talked, laughed, and ate to conceal my sufferings, and even at cheerful moments when I felt happy I was aware of their searching eyes fixed upon me. They were particularly touching when I really was depressed, when I was being worried by some creditor or had not money enough to pay interest on the proper day. The two of them, husband and wife, would whisper together at the window; then he would come to me and say with a grave face:“ ‘If you really are in need of money at the moment, Pavel Konstantinovitch, my wife and I beg you not to hesitate to borrow from us.’

“他会激动得连耳根子都红了。也还会发生这样的情形，同样地经过在窗子边的低声耳语后，卢格诺维奇满脸通红地走向我对我说：

“‘我妻子和我诚恳地请你收下这份礼物。’

“他会送给我几颗钮饰，一个雪茄盒或是一盏灯，而我将回送他们从乡下带来的野味，黄油和鲜花。顺便提一下，他们夫妻相当富有。早期我经常借钱，跟任何缺钱的人一样——从任何我借得到钱的地方借——可是无论如何都不能促使我向卢格诺维奇借钱。唉，为什么说这些呢？

“And he would blush to his ears with emotion. And it would happen that, after whispering in the same way at the window, he would come up to me, with red ears, and say:

“ ‘My wife and I earnestly I beg you to accept this present.’

“And he would give me studs, a cigar-case, or a lamp, and I would send them game, butter, and flowers from the country. They both, by the way, had considerable means of their own. In early days I often borrowed money, and was not very particular about it—borrowed wherever I could—but nothing in the world have induced me to borrow from the Luganovitchs. But why talk of it?

“我闷闷不乐。在家里，在地里，在牲畜棚里，我都在想她。我苦苦思索一个美丽、聪明的年轻女人为什么要嫁给一个无趣、几乎可以做她父亲的人（她丈夫已四十出头），还跟他生孩子；想弄懂这个无趣、善良、心思简单的男人，在舞会和晚会上一直待在更刻板的人身边，用令人厌烦的机智争论着，看上去倦怠而多余，脸上的表情顺从而无动于衷，就像他被带到那儿出售一样，为什么还认为他有权利快乐，有权利有她的孩子。且我一直想弄清楚为什么她先遇到的是他而不是我，为什么在我们的生活里要发生这么一个可怕的错误。