CHAPTER XXX THE WOMAN WHO SAW GOD

 ONE day, when I was visiting a village on the steppes, I came upon a strange comedy very typical of Russian life. I went in to a bootmaker to get one of my boots sewn up, and I overheard the following conversation.

 

“Marya Petrovna has seen the Anti-Christ,” says the cobbler’s wife.

 

“No,” says Jeremy, her husband, “it is God who has looked on her. God has been very pleased with Masha.”

 

“Yes,” rejoins his wife, “she seems very holy, but I don’t like it. Last Sunday at church she knelt so long that everyone thought she had fallen asleep. When the priest opened the door of the church she went in and knelt down on the stones before the blessed Ikon. All through the service she kneeled, and all through the Communion, and though she had bought her loaf and the priest called her she did not go up to the altar, but simply went on kneeling. Then, when the bells rang and we all went out, she still remained kneeling. And she didn’t cross herself. The priest himself had to come 244and lift her out of the church so that he could lock up. I think she’s under a curse. She has done some dreadful sin—has talked with wood spirits, perhaps.”

 

“The Squire’s son came on the Devil’s hoof¹ marks in the forest last week, and saw a man with eight dead foxes shortly afterwards.”

 

The cobbler’s wife held up her hands with horror.

 

Katusha, a young woman from a neighbouring izba, has come in.

 

“You speak of Marya Petrovna,” says she. “We saw her last night, Tanya, Lida and I and a lot of us looking through the window. She was kneeling on her knees and praying to the samovar and calling it God. The priest went in and tried to talk with her, and he tried to raise her, but it was difficult, so he picked up the samovar instead and hid it away. Then poor Masha stood up, and we saw her look at the big black pot that has the cabbage soup in it, and she crossed herself as if it were an Ikon. Two days, they say, she hasn’t eaten, and Peter, her husband, has had to get his meals himself. She won’t do anything in the house, and directly she sees something new she goes down on her knees to it. The priest has been reasoning with her, and she says she sees God everywhere. God is everywhere, that is true, but Masha says He’s in the pots and pans and in the stove, and she won’t sit on a chair because she says it’s all God. You should have seen 245her last night, she looked a holy saint, and her eyes were full of light.”

 

“Lord save us!” exclaimed the cobbler’s wife.

 

“Permit me to go on. Her eyes were full of light, and she lifted up her hands to the roof, and sang strange music, so that we all felt terrified, and the priest wept. When we saw the priest weeping we didn’t know what to think, and presently he and Peter came and told us to go home, and that Marya Petrovna had had a vision—God had been so good to her.”

 

The cobbler looked very solemnly at her for some minutes, and then turned his gaze upon his wife. “I think,” said he, “that it may be that this is the second coming of Christ.”

 

“Idiot!” exclaimed his wife. “How could Masha be Christ?”

 

“I don’t mean Masha,” he replied, “but perhaps she sees Him coming. He may be getting nearer and nearer every moment, and Masha may see the glory brighter and brighter. Masha always was our most religious.”

 

At this point the grocer’s wife, in a red petticoat and a jacket and a shawl, rushed in, and exclaimed:

 

“Just think, friends, Marya Petrovna is dead! I am absolutely the first person to give the news, I had it from the priest just as he left the house. He watched with her all night—but pardon me, I must be going.”

 

With that she rushed out to be the first to give the news to the rest of the village.

 

246The cobbler and his wife exclaimed together, “Bozhe mo?! Oh, Lord!” And Katusha slipped out after the grocer’s wife, intending evidently to have her share in the glory of gossip. The cobbler threw aside his last, and went out as he was, in his apron² and without his hat, and his wife went with him. They swelled³ the little crowd that was already collected outside Masha’s dwelling⁴.

 

It was indeed as the grocer’s wife had indicated. Marya Petrovna had died. Of what she had died everyone could say something. Some peasants ascribed it to the Devil and some to God. The majority held that God had taken her to heaven. The priest’s explanation was that the woman’s life had been very acceptable to God, and that He had blessed her with a vision of His glory. The vision had been a promise; it had perhaps shown her her glorious place in heaven. The vision of God had entered her eyes, so that she could not put it aside and look at the ordinary things of life. She could not see a samovar—she saw God. She couldn’t make tea with the samovar; that would have been sacrilege. She could not eat soup, she couldn’t sit down, she couldn’t lie down, she couldn’t touch anything. To do these things was sacrilege. So she died. She died from utter exhaustion⁵ and from starvation. No doubt God had taken this means to bring her from the world.

 

Such was the story that the priest communicated to 247his superiors and to St Petersburg, hoping that it might perhaps be thought fit to honour the mortal memory of this new Mary whom the Lord had honoured. No canonisation, however, followed, though to the inhabitants of the village of Celo the woman remains⁶ a saint and a wonder, and the moujiks cross themselves as they pass the cottage where she used to live.

1 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。

2 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

3 swelled   

增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染，他的手肿了起来。
• After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后，河水猛涨。

4 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

5 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。