He did not know whether it was late or early. The candles had all burned out. Dolly had just been in the study and had suggested to the doctor that he should lie down. Levin sat listening to the doctor's stories of a quack1 mesmerizer2 and looking at the ashes of his cigarette. There had been a period of repose3, and he had sunk into oblivion. He had completely forgotten what was going on now. He heard the doctor's chat and understood it. Suddenly there came an unearthly shriek4. The shriek was so awful that Levin did not even jump up, but holding his breath, gazed in terrified inquiry5 at the doctor. The doctor put his head on one side, listened, and smiled approvingly. Everything was so extraordinary that nothing could strike Levin as strange. "I suppose it must be so," he thought, and still sat where he was. Whose scream was this? He jumped up, ran on tiptoe to the bedroom, edged round Lizaveta Petrovna and the princess, and took up his position at Kitty's pillow. The scream had subsided6, but there was some change now. What it was he did not see and did not comprehend, and he had no wish to see or comprehend. But he saw it by the face of Lizaveta Petrovna. Lizaveta Petrovna's face was stern and pale, and still as resolute7, though her jaws8 were twitching9, and her eyes were fixed10 intently on Kitty. Kitty's swollen11 and agonized12 face, a tress of hair clinging to her moist brow, was turned to him and sought his eyes. Her lifted hands asked for his hands. Clutching his chill hands in her moist ones, she began squeezing them to her face.
"Don't go, don't go! I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid!" she said rapidly. "Mamma, take my earrings13. They bother me. You're not afraid? Quick, quick, Lizaveta Petrovna..."
She spoke14 quickly, very quickly, and tried to smile. But suddenly her face was drawn15, she pushed him away.
"Oh, this is awful! I'm dying, I'm dying! Go away!" she shrieked16, and again he heard that unearthly scream.
Levin clutched at his head and ran out of the room.
"It's nothing, it's nothing, it's all right," Dolly called after him.
But they might say what they liked, he knew now that all was over. He stood in the next room, his head leaning against the door post, and heard shrieks17, howls such as he had never heard before, and he knew that what had been Kitty was uttering these shrieks. He had long ago ceased to wish for the child. By now he loathed18 this child. He did not even wish for her life now, all he longed for was the end of this awful anguish19.
"Doctor! what is it? What is it? By God!" he said, snatching at the doctor's hand as he came up.
"It's the end," said the doctor. And the doctor's face was so grave as he said it that Levin took THE END as meaning her death.
Beside himself, he ran into the bedroom. The first thing he saw was the face of Lizaveta Petrovna. It was even more frowning and stern. Kitty's face he did not know. In the place where it had been was something that was fearful in its strained distortion and in the sounds that came from it. He fell down with his head on the wooden framework of the bed, feeling that his heart was bursting. The awful scream never paused, it became still more awful, and as though it had reached the utmost limit of terror, suddenly it ceased. Levin could not believe his ears, but there could be no doubt; the scream had ceased and he heard a subdued20 stir and bustle21, and hurried breathing, and her voice, gasping22, alive, tender, and blissful, uttered softly, "It's over!"
He lifted his head. With her hands hanging exhausted23 on the quilt, looking extraordinarily24 lovely and serene25, she looked at him in silence and tried to smile, and could not.
And suddenly, from the mysterious and awful far-away world in which he had been living for the last twenty-two hours, Levin felt himself all in an instant borne back to the old every-day world, glorified26 though now, by such a radiance of happiness that he could not bear it. The strained chords snapped, sobs27 and tears of joy which he had never foreseen rose up with such violence that his whole body shook, that for long they prevented him from speaking.
Falling on his knees before the bed, he held his wife's hand before his lips and kissed it, and the hand, with a weak movement of the fingers, responded to his kiss. And meanwhile, there at the foot of the bed, in the deft28 hands of Lizaveta Petrovna, like a flickering29 light in a lamp, lay the life of a human creature, which had never existed before, and which would now with the same right, with the same importance to itself, live and create in its own image.
"Alive! alive! And a boy too! Set your mind at rest!" Levin heard Lizaveta Petrovna saying, as she slapped the baby's back with a shaking hand.
"Mamma, is it true?" said Kitty's voice.
The princess's sobs were all the answers she could make. And in the midst of the silence there came in unmistakable reply to the mother's question, a voice quite unlike the subdued voices speaking in the room. It was the bold, clamorous30, self-assertive squall of the new human being, who had so incomprehensibly appeared.
If Levin had been told before that Kitty was dead, and that he had died with her, and that their children were angels, and that God was standing31 before him, he would have been surprised at nothing. But now, coming back to the world of reality, he had to make great mental efforts to take in that she was alive and well, and that the creature squalling so desperately32 was his son. Kitty was alive, her agony was over. And he was unutterably happy. That he understood; he was completely happy in it. But the baby? Whence, why, who was he?... He could not get used to the idea. It seemed to him something extraneous33, superfluous34, to which he could not accustom35 himself.
收听单词发音 |
1
quack
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| n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子 | |
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mesmerizer
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| 催眠者 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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earrings
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| n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子 | |
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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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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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clamorous
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| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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extraneous
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| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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accustom
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| vt.使适应，使习惯 | |
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