‘Oh, there came out the Turkish troops Like unto a black cloud.’
When I reached the narrow footpath5 that led straight to Manuilikha’s hut, I jumped off Taranchik and led him by the rein6. By the edge of the saddle pads, and wherever the girths and bridle7 touched him, stood out white lumps of thick froth. From the violent heat of the day and the speed of my gallop, the blood roared in my head as though forced by some immense, unceasing pump.
I tied my horse to the wattle hedge and entered the hut. At first I thought that Olyessia was not there, and my heart and lips were chilled with fear; but a minute later I saw her lying on the bed with her face to the wall and234 her head hidden in the pillows. She did not even turn at the noise of the opening door.
Manuilikha was squatting8 on the floor by her side. When she saw me she rose with effort to her feet and shook her hand at me.
‘Sh! Don’t make a noise, curse you!’ she said in a menacing whisper, coming close to me. She glanced with her cold, faded eyes straight into mine and hissed9 malignantly10: ‘Yes! You’ve done that beautifully, my darling!’
‘Look here, granny!’ I answered sternly. ‘This isn’t the time to settle our account and abuse each other. What’s the matter with Olyessia?’
‘Sh.... Sh! Olyessia’s lying there unconscious; that’s what’s the matter with Olyessia! If you hadn’t poked11 your nose in where you had no business, and talked a pack of nonsense to the girl, nothing wrong would have happened. And I just looked on and indulged it, blind fool that I am.... But my heart scented12 misfortune.... It scented misfortune from the very first day when you broke into our house, almost by force. Do you mean to say that it wasn’t you who persuaded her to go trailing off to church?’ Suddenly the old woman looked at me with her face distorted with hatred13. ‘Wasn’t it you, you cursed gentleman! Don’t lie—don’t put me off with your cunning tricks, you shameless hound! What did you go enticing14 her to church for?’
‘I didn’t entice15 her, granny.... I give you my word. She wanted to, herself.’
235 ‘Ah, my grief, my misfortune!’ Manuilikha clasped her hands. ‘She came running back from there—with no face left at all, and all her skirt in rags ... without a shawl to her head.... She tells me how it happened ... then she laughs, or cries.... Just possessed16 simply.... She lay on the bed ... weeping all the while, and then I saw that she’d fallen into a sleep, I thought.... And I was happy like an old fool. “She’ll sleep it all away now, for good,” I thought. I saw her hand hanging down, and I thought I’d better put it right, or it would swell17.... I felt for the darling’s hand and it was burning, blazing.... That meant the fever had begun.... For an hour she never stopped speaking, fast, and so pitifully.... She only stopped this very minute, a moment ago.... What have you done? What have you done to her?’
Suddenly her brown face writhed18 into a monstrous19, disgusting grimace20 of weeping. Her lips tightened21 and drooped22 at the corners: all the muscles of her face stiffened23 and trembled, her eyelids24 lifted and wrinkled her forehead into deep folds, and from her eyes came a quick rain of big tears, big as peas. She held her head in her hands, and with her elbows on the table began to rock her whole body to and fro and to whine25 in a low, drawn-out voice.
‘My little daught-er! My darling grand-daught-er! Oh, it is so hard for me, so bit-te-r!’
‘Don’t roar, you old fool!’ I coarsely broke in on Manuilikha. ‘You’ll wake her!’
236 The old woman kept silence, but with the same terrible contortion26 of her face she went on swinging to and fro, while the big tears splashed on to the table.... About ten minutes passed in this way. I sat by Manuilikha’s side and anxiously listened to a fly knocking against the window-pane with a broken yet monotonous27 buzzing....
‘Granny!’ suddenly a faint, barely audible voice came from Olyessia: ‘Granny, who’s here?’
Manuilikha hastily hobbled to the bed, and straightway began to whine once more.
‘Oh, my granddaughter, my own! Oh, it is so hard for me, so bit-t-e-r!’
‘Ah, stop, granny, stop!’ Olyessia said with complaining entreaty28 and suffering in her voice. ‘Who’s sitting here?’
Cautiously, I approached the bed on tip-toe, with the awkward, guilty conscience of my own gross health which one always feels by a sick bed.
‘It’s me, Olyessia,’ I said, lowering my voice. ‘I’ve just come from the village on horseback.... I was in the town all the morning.... You’re ill, Olyessia?’
Without moving her face from the pillow, she stretched out her bare hand, as though she were feeling for something in the air. I understood the movement and took her hot hand into mine. Two huge blue marks, one on the wrist, the other above the elbow, stood out sharp on her tender white skin.
237 ‘My darling,’ Olyessia began to speak slowly, with difficulty separating one word from another. ‘I want ... to look at you ... but I cannot.... They’ve maimed me.... All over, my whole body.... You remember.... You loved my face, so much.... You loved it, darling, didn’t you?... It made me so glad, always.... And now it will disgust you ... even to look at me.... That is why ... I do not want——’
‘Forgive me, Olyessia!’ I whispered, bending down to her ear.
Her burning hand pressed mine hard and held it long.
‘But what are you saying? Why should I forgive you, my darling? Aren’t you ashamed to think of it even? How could it be your fault? It’s all my own—stupid me.... Why did I go?... No, my precious, don’t blame yourself....’
‘Olyessia, will you let me.... Promise me first, that you will——’
‘I’ll promise, darling ... anything you want——’
‘Let me send for a doctor.... I implore29 you.... Well, you needn’t do anything he tells you, if you like.... But say “yes”—only for my sake, Olyessia.’
‘Oh ... you’ve caught me in a terrible trap! No, you’d better let me free of my promise. Even if I were really ill, dying—I wouldn’t let the doctor come near me. And am I ill now? It’s only fright that brought it on;238 it will go off when the evening comes. If it doesn’t, granny will give an infusion30 of lilies or make some raspberry-tea. What’s the good of the doctor? You—you’re my best doctor. You’ve only just come—and I feel better already.... Ah, there’s only one thing wrong, I want to look at you, even if it were only with one eye, but I’m afraid....’
With a gentle effort I lifted Olyessia’s head from the pillow. Her face blazed with feverish redness; her dark eyes shone unnaturally31 bright; her dry lips trembled nervously32. Long, red scratches ploughed her forehead, cheeks, and neck. There were dark bruises33 on her forehead and under her eyes.
‘Don’t look at me.... I implore you.... I’m ugly now,’ Olyessia besought34 me in a whisper, trying to cover my eyes with her hand.
My heart overflowed35 with pity. I nestled my lips on Olyessia’s hand, which lay motionless on the blanket, and began to cover it with long, quiet kisses. In the time before I used to kiss her hands too, but she always would draw them away from me in hasty, bashful fright. But now she made no resistance to my caress36 and with her other hand she gently smoothed my hair.
‘You know it all?’ she asked in a whisper.
I bent37 my head in silence. It is true I had not understood everything from Nikita Nazarich’s story. Only I did not want Olyessia to be agitated38 by having to recall the events of the morning. Suddenly a wave of irrepressible239 fury overwhelmed me at the idea of the outrage39 to which she had been subjected.
‘Oh, why wasn’t I there!’ I cried, holding myself straight and clenching40 my fists. ‘I would ... I would have——’
‘Well, don’t worry ... don’t worry.... Don’t be angry, darling....’ Olyessia interrupted me meekly41.
I could not keep back the tears any more which had been choking my throat and burning my eyes. I pressed my face close to Olyessia’s shoulder, and I began to cry bitterly, silently, trembling all over my body.
‘You are crying? You are crying?’ There was surprise, tenderness, and compassion42 in her voice. ‘My darling ... don’t ... please don’t.... Don’t torment43 yourself, my darling.... I feel so happy near you.... Don’t let us cry while we are together. Let us be happy for the last days, then it won’t be so hard for us to part.’
I raised my head in amazement44. A vague presentiment45 began slowly to press upon my heart.
‘The last days, Olyessia? What do you mean—the last? Why should we part?’
Olyessia shut her eyes and kept silence for some seconds. ‘We must part, Vanichka,’ she said resolutely46. ‘When I’m a little bit better, we’ll go away from here, granny and I. We must not stay here any longer.’
‘Are you afraid of anything?’
‘No, my darling, I’m not afraid of anything,240 if it comes to that. But why should I tempt47 people into mischief48? Perhaps you don’t know.... Over there—in Perebrod.... I was so angry and ashamed that I threatened them.... And now if anything happens, they will inform on us. If the cattle begin to die or a hut is set on fire—we shall be the guilty ones. Granny’—she turned to Manuilikha, raising her voice—‘isn’t it true what I say?’
‘What did you say, little granddaughter? I confess I didn’t hear,’ the old woman mumbled49, coming closer and putting her hand to her ear.
‘I said that whatever misfortune happens in Perebrod now they’ll put all the blame on us.’
‘That’s true, that’s true, Olyessia—they’ll throw everything on us, the miserable50 wretches51.... We are no dwellers52 in this world. They will destroy us both, destroy us utterly, the cursed.... Besides, how did they drive me out of the village?... Why?... Wasn’t it just the same? I threatened them ... just out of vexation, too.... One stupid fool of a woman—and lo and behold53 her child died. It was no fault of mine at all—not a dream of my dreaming or a spirit of my calling; but they nearly killed me all the same, the devils.... They began to stone me.... I ran away and only just managed to protect you—you were a little tiny child then.... Well, I thought, it doesn’t matter if they give it to me, but why should an innocent child be injured.... No, it all comes to the same thing—they’re savages54, a dirty lot of gallows’-birds.’
241 ‘But where will you go? You haven’t any relations or friends anywhere.... Finally, you’ll have to have money to settle in a new place.’
‘We’ll make shift somehow,’ Olyessia said negligently55. ‘There’ll be money as well. Granny has saved something.’
‘Money as well!’ the old woman echoed angrily, going away from the bed. ‘Widows’ mites56, washed in tears——’
‘Olyessia.... What’s to become of me? You don’t want even to think of me!’ I exclaimed, feeling a bitter, sick, ugly reproach against Olyessia rising within me.
She raised herself a little, and, careless of her grandmother’s presence, took my head into her hands, and kissed me on the cheeks and forehead several times in succession.
‘I think of you most of all, my own! Only ... you see ... it’s not our fate to be together ... that is it.... You remember, I spread out the cards for you? Everything happened as they foretold57. It means that Fate does not will our happiness.... If it were not for this, do you think I would be frightened of anything?’
‘Olyessia, you’re talking of fate again!’ I cried impatiently. ‘I don’t want to believe in it ... and I never will believe.’
‘Oh no, no, no!... Don’t say that.’ Olyessia began in a frightened whisper. ‘It’s not for me I’m afraid, but you. No you’d better not start us talking about it.’
In vain I tried to dissuade58 Olyessia; in vain242 I painted glowing pictures of unbroken happiness for her, which neither curious fate nor ugly, wicked people could disturb. Olyessia only kissed my hands and shook her head.
‘No ... no ... no.... I know. I see,’ she repeated persistently59. ‘There’s nothing but sorrow awaits us ... nothing ... nothing.’
Disconcerted and baffled by this superstitious60 obstinacy61, I asked at length, ‘At least you will let me know the day you are going away?’
Olyessia pondered. Suddenly the shadow of a smile flickered62 over her lips. ‘I’ll tell you a little story for that. Once upon a time a wolf was running through the forest when he saw a little hare and said to him: “Hi, you hare! I’ll eat you!” The hare began to implore him: “Have mercy on me. I want to live. I have little children at home.” The wolf did not agree, so the hare said: “Well, let me live another three days in the world; then you can eat me, but still I shall feel it easier to die.” The wolf gave him his three days. He didn’t eat him, but only kept a watch on him. One day passed, then the second, and at last the third was coming to an end. “Well, get ready now,” said the wolf, “I’m going to eat you at once.” Then my hare began to weep with bitter tears. “Oh, why did you give me those three days, wolf? It would have been far better if you had eaten the first moment that you saw me. The whole of these three days it hasn’t been life for me, but torment.”
243 ‘Darling, that little hare spoke63 the truth. Don’t you think so?’
I was silent, distraught by an anxious foreboding of the loneliness that threatened me. Olyessia suddenly raised herself and sat up in bed. Her face grew serious at once. ‘Listen, Vanya....’ she said slowly. ‘Tell me, were you happy while you were with me? Did you feel that it was good?’
‘Olyessia! Can you still ask?’
‘Wait.... Did you regret having met me? Were you thinking of another woman while you were with me?’
‘Never for one single second! Not only when I was with you, but when I was alone, I never had a thought for any one but you.’
‘Were you jealous of me? Were you ever angry with me? Were you ever wretched when you were with me?’
‘Never, Olyessia, never!’
She put both her hands upon my shoulders, and looked into my eyes with love indescribable.
‘Then I tell you, my darling, that you will never think evilly or sadly of me when you remember me,’ she said with conviction, as though she were reading the future in my eyes. ‘When we part you will be miserable, terribly miserable.... You will cry, you will not find a place to rest anywhere. And then everything will pass and fade away, and you will think of me without sorrow, easily and happily.’
She let her head fall back on the pillows again and whispered in a feeble voice:
244 ‘Now go, my darling.... Go home, my precious.... I am a little bit tired. No, wait ... kiss me.... Don’t be frightened of granny ... she won’t mind. You don’t mind, do you, granny?’
‘Say good-bye. Part, as you should,’ the old woman muttered in discontent.... ‘Why should you want to hide from me? I’ve known it a long while.’
‘Kiss me here and here ... and here,’ Olyessia said, touching64 her eyes, cheeks and mouth with her fingers.
‘Olyessia, you’re saying good-bye to me as though we shall never see each other again!’ I cried in terror.
‘I don’t know, I don’t know, my darling. I don’t know anything. Now, go and God be with you. No, wait ... just one little moment more.... Bend down to me.... You know what I regret?’ she began to whisper, touching my cheeks with her lips. ‘That you haven’t given me a child.... Oh, how happy I should be!’
I went out into the passage, escorted by Manuilikha. Half the heaven was covered by a black cloud with sharp, curly edges, but the sun was still shining, bending to the east. There was something ominous65 in this mixing of light and oncoming darkness. The old woman looked up, shading her eyes with her hand as it were an umbrella, and shook her head meaningly.
‘There’ll be a thunderstorm over Perebrod, to-day,’ she said with conviction. ‘And hail as well, most likely.’
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收听单词发音
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1
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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footpath
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| n.小路，人行道 | |
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6
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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8
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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9
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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malignantly
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| 怀恶意地； 恶毒地； 有害地； 恶性地 | |
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11
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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12
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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13
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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18
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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21
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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22
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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25
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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contortion
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| n.扭弯，扭歪，曲解 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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implore
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| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
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30
infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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31
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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32
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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33
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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34
besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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39
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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40
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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41
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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42
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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43
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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44
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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45
presentiment
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| n.预感，预觉 | |
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46
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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47
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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48
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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49
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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51
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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52
dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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53
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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54
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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55
negligently
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56
mites
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| n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨 | |
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57
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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59
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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60
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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61
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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62
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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