‘Upon my word!’ said Bersenyev, ‘you will fare very badly; that old body can’t cook a bit. Why don’t you dine with me, we would go halves over the cost.’
‘My means don’t allow me to dine as you do,’ Insarov replied with a tranquil5 smile.
There was something in that smile which forbade further insistence6; Bersenyev did not add a word. After dinner he proposed to Insarov that he should take him to the Stahovs; but he replied that he had intended to devote the evening to correspondence with his Bulgarians, and so he would ask him to put off the visit to the Stahovs till next day. Bersenyev was already familiar with Insarov’s unbending will; but it was only now when he was under the same roof with him, that he fully7 realised at last that Insarov would never alter any decision, just in the same way as he would never fail to carry out a promise he had given; to Bersenyev — a Russian to his fingertips — this more than German exactitude seemed at first odd, and even rather ludicrous; but he soon got used to it, and ended by finding it — if not deserving of respect — at least very convenient.
The second day after his arrival, Insarov got up at four o’clock in the morning, made a round of almost all Kuntsovo, bathed in the river, drank a glass of cold milk, and then set to work. And he had plenty of work to do; he was studying Russian history and law, and political economy, translating the Bulgarian ballads8 and chronicles, collecting materials on the Eastern Question, and compiling a Russian grammar for the use of Bulgarians, and a Bulgarian grammar for the use of Russians. Bersenyev went up to him and began to discuss Feuerbach. Insarov listened attentively9, made few remarks, but to the point; it was clear from his observations that he was trying to arrive at a conclusion as to whether he need study Feuerbach, or whether he could get on without him. Bersenyev turned the conversation on to his pursuits, and asked him if he could not show him anything. Insarov read him his translation of two or three Bulgarian ballads, and was anxious to hear his opinion of them. Bersenyev thought the translation a faithful one, but not sufficiently10 spirited. Insarov paid close attention to his criticism. From the ballads Bersenyev passed on to the present position of Bulgaria, and then for the first time he noticed what a change came over Insarov at the mere11 mention of his country: not that his face flushed nor his voice grew louder — no! but at once a sense of force and intense onward12 striving was expressed in his whole personality, the lines of his mouth grew harder and less flexible, and a dull persistent13 fire glowed in the depths of his eyes. Insarov did not care to enlarge on his own travels in his country; but of Bulgaria in general he talked readily with any one. He talked at length of the Turks, of their oppression, of the sorrows and disasters of his countrymen, and of their hopes: concentrated meditation14 on a single ruling passion could be heard in every word he uttered.
‘Ah, well, there’s no mistake about it,’ Bersenyev was reflecting meanwhile, ‘that Turkish aga, I venture to think, has been punished for his father’s and mother’s death.’
Insarov had not had time to say all he wanted to say, when the door opened and Shubin made his appearance.
He came into the room with an almost exaggerated air of ease and good-humour; Bersenyev, who knew him well, could see at once that something had been jarring on him.
‘I will introduce myself without ceremony,’ he began with a bright and open expression on his face. ‘My name is Shubin; I’m a friend of this young man here’ (he indicated Bersenyev). ‘You are Mr. Insarov, of course, aren’t you?’
‘I am Insarov.’
‘Then give me your hand and let us be friends. I don’t know if Bersenyev has talked to you about me, but he has told me a great deal about you. You are staying here? Capital! Don’t be offended at my staring at you so. I’m a sculptor15 by trade, and I foresee I shall in a little time be begging your permission to model your head.’
‘My head’s at your service,’ said Insarov.
‘What shall we do to-day, eh?’ began Shubin, sitting down suddenly on a low chair, with his knees apart and his elbows propped16 on them. ‘Andrei Petrovitch, has your honour any kind of plan for to-day? It’s glorious weather; there’s a scent17 of hay and dried strawberries as if one were drinking strawberry-tea for a cold. We ought to get up some kind of a spree. Let us show the new inhabitant of Kuntsov all its numerous beauties.’ (Something has certainly upset him, Bersenyev kept thinking to himself.) ‘Well, why art thou silent, friend Horatio? Open your prophetic lips. Shall we go off on a spree, or not?’
‘I don’t know how Insarov feels,’ observed Bersenyev. ‘He is just getting to work, I fancy.’
Shubin turned round on his chair.
‘You want to work?’ he inquired, in a somewhat condescending18 voice.
‘No,’ answered Insarov; ‘to-day I could give up to walking.’
‘Ah!’ commented Shubin. ‘Well, that’s delightful19. Run along, my friend, Andrei Petrovitch, put a hat on your learned head, and let us go where our eyes lead us. Our eyes are young — they may lead us far. I know a very repulsive20 little restaurant, where they will give us a very beastly little dinner; but we shall be very jolly. Come along.’
Half an hour later they were all three walking along the bank of the Moskva. Insarov had a rather queer cap with flaps, over which Shubin fell into not very spontaneous raptures21. Insarov walked without haste, and looked about, breathing, talking, and smiling with the same tranquillity22; he was giving this day up to pleasure, and enjoying it to the utmost. ‘Just as well-behaved boys walk out on Sundays,’ Shubin whispered in Bersenyev’s ear. Shubin himself played the fool a great deal, ran in front, threw himself into the attitudes of famous statues, and turned somersaults on the grass; Insarov’s tranquillity did not exactly irritate him, but it spurred him on to playing antics. ‘What a fidget you are, Frenchman!’ Bersenyev said twice to him. ‘Yes, I am French, half French,’ Shubin answered, ‘and you hold the happy medium between jest and earnest, as a waiter once said to me.’ The young men turned away from the river and went along a deep and narrow ravine between two walls of tall golden rye; a bluish shadow was cast on them from the rye on one side; the flashing sunlight seemed to glide23 over the tops of the ears; the larks24 were singing, the quails25 were calling: on all sides was the brilliant green of the grass; a warm breeze stirred and lifted the leaves and shook the heads of the flowers. After prolonged wanderings, with rest and chat between (Shubin had even tried to play leap-frog with a toothless peasant they met, who did nothing but laugh, whatever the gentlemen might do to him), the young men reached the ‘repulsive little’ restaurant: the waiter almost knocked each of them over, and did really provide them with a very bad dinner with a sort of Balkan wine, which did not, however, prevent them from being very jolly, as Shubin had foretold26; he himself was the loudest and the least jolly. He drank to the health of the incomprehensible but great Venelin, the health of the Bulgarian king Kuma, Huma, or Hroma, who lived somewhere about the time of Adam.
‘In the ninth century,’ Insarov corrected him.
‘In the ninth century?’ cried Shubin. ‘Oh, how delightful!’
Bersenyev noticed that among all his pranks27, and jests and gaiety, Shubin was constantly, as it were, examining Insarov; he was sounding him and was in inward excitement, but Insarov remained as before, calm and straightforward28.
At last they returned home, changed their dress, and resolved to finish the day as they had begun it, by going that evening to the Stahovs. Shubin ran on before them to announce their arrival.
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1
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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2
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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4
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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5
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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6
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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7
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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8
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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9
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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10
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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11
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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12
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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13
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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15
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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16
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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18
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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19
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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20
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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21
raptures
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| 极度欢喜( rapture的名词复数 ) | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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23
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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25
quails
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| 鹌鹑( quail的名词复数 )； 鹌鹑肉 | |
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26
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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28
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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