Following upon wet snow (the kind of stuff which Karl Ivanitch used to describe as “a child following, its father”), the weather had for three days been bright and mild and still. Not a clot3 of snow was now to be seen in the streets, and the dirty slush had given place to wet, shining pavements and coursing rivulets4. The last icicles on the roofs were fast melting in the sunshine, buds were swelling5 on the trees in the little garden, the path leading across the courtyard to the stables was soft instead of being a frozen ridge6 of mud, and mossy grass was showing green between the stones around the entrance-steps. It was just that particular time in spring when the season exercises the strongest influence upon the human soul — when clear sunlight illuminates7 everything, yet sheds no warmth, when rivulets run trickling8 under one’s feet, when the air is charged with an odorous freshness, and when the bright blue sky is streaked9 with long, transparent10 clouds.
For some reason or another the influence of this early stage in the birth of spring always seems to me more perceptible and more impressive in a great town than in the country. One sees less, but one feels more. I was standing11 near the window — through the double frames of which the morning sun was throwing its mote- flecked beams upon the floor of what seemed to me my intolerably wearisome schoolroom — and working out a long algebraical equation on the blackboard. In one hand I was holding a ragged13, long- suffering “Algebra12” and in the other a small piece of chalk which had already besmeared my hands, my face, and the elbows of my jacket. Nicola, clad in an apron14, and with his sleeves rolled up, was picking out the putty from the window-frames with a pair of nippers, and unfastening the screws. The window looked out upon the little garden. At length his occupation and the noise which he was making over it arrested my attention. At the moment I was in a very cross, dissatisfied frame of mind, for nothing seemed to be going right with me. I had made a mistake at the very beginning of my algebra, and so should have to work it out again; twice I had let the chalk drop. I was conscious that my hands and face were whitened all over; the sponge had rolled away into a corner; and the noise of Nicola’s operations was fast getting on my nerves. I had a feeling as though I wanted to fly into a temper and grumble15 at some one, so I threw down chalk and “Algebra” alike, and began to pace the room. Then suddenly I remembered that to-day we were to go to confession16, and that therefore I must refrain from doing anything wrong. Next, with equal suddenness I relapsed into an extraordinarily17 goodhumoured frame of mind, and walked across to Nicola.
“Let me help you, Nicola,” I said, trying to speak as pleasantly as I possibly could. The idea that I was performing a meritorious18 action in thus suppressing my ill-temper and offering to help him increased my good-humour all the more.
By this time the putty had been chipped out, and the screws removed, yet, though Nicola pulled with might and main at the cross-piece, the window-frame refused to budge19.
“If it comes out as soon as he and I begin to pull at it together,” I thought, “it will be rather a shame, as then I shall have nothing more of the kind to do to-day.”
Suddenly the frame yielded a little at one side, and came out.
“Where shall I put it?” I said.
“Let ME see to it, if you please,” replied Nicola, evidently surprised as well as, seemingly, not over-pleased at my zeal20. “We must not leave it here, but carry it away to the lumber-room, where I keep all the frames stored and numbered.”
“Oh, but I can manage it,” I said as I lifted it up. I verily believe that if the lumber-room had been a couple of versts away, and the frame twice as heavy as it was, I should have been the more pleased. I felt as though I wanted to tire myself out in performing this service for Nicola. When I returned to the room the bricks and screws had been replaced on the windowsill, and Nicola was sweeping21 the debris22, as well as a few torpid23 flies, out of the open window. The fresh, fragrant24 air was rushing into and filling all the room, while with it came also the dull murmur25 of the city and the twittering of sparrows in the garden. Everything was in brilliant light, the room looked cheerful, and a gentle spring breeze was stirring Nicola’s hair and the leaves of my “Algebra.” Approaching the window, I sat down upon the sill, turned my eyes downwards26 towards the garden, and fell into a brown study.
Something new to me, something extraordinarily potent27 and unfamiliar28, had suddenly invaded my soul. The wet ground on which, here and there, a few yellowish stalks and blades of bright-green grass were to be seen; the little rivulets glittering in the sunshine, and sweeping clods of earth and tiny chips of wood along with them; the reddish twigs29 of the lilac, with their swelling buds, which nodded just beneath the window; the fussy30 twitterings of birds as they fluttered in the bush below; the blackened fence shining wet from the snow which had lately melted off it; and, most of all, the raw, odorous air and radiant sunlight — all spoke31 to me, clearly and unmistakably, of something new and beautiful, of something which, though I cannot repeat it here as it was then expressed to me, I will try to reproduce so far as I understood it. Everything spoke to me of beauty, happiness, and virtue32 — as three things which were both easy and possible for me — and said that no one of them could exist without the other two, since beauty, happiness, and virtue were one. “How did I never come to understand that before?” I cried to myself. “How did I ever manage to be so wicked? Oh, but how good, how happy, I could be — nay33, I WILL be — in the future! At once, at once — yes, this very minute — I will become another being, and begin to live differently!” For all that, I continued sitting on the window-sill, continued merely dreaming, and doing nothing. Have you ever, on a summer’s day, gone to bed in dull, rainy weather, and, waking just at sunset, opened your eyes and seen through the square space of the window — the space where the linen34 blind is blowing up and down, and beating its rod upon the window-sill — the rain-soaked, shadowy, purple vista35 of an avenue of lime-trees, with a damp garden path lit up by the clear, slanting36 beams of the sun, and then suddenly heard the joyous37 sounds of bird life in the garden, and seen insects flying to and fro at the open window, and glittering in the sunlight, and smelt38 the fragrance39 of the rain-washed air, and thought to yourself, “Am I not ashamed to be lying in bed on such an evening as this?” and, leaping joyously40 to your feet, gone out into the garden and revelled41 in all that welter of life? If you have, then you can imagine for yourself the overpowering sensation which was then possessing me.
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1
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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2
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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3
clot
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| n.凝块；v.使凝成块 | |
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4
rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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7
illuminates
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| v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明 | |
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8
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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9
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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10
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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11
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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12
algebra
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| n.代数学 | |
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13
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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14
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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15
grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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16
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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17
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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18
meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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19
budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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20
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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21
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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22
debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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23
torpid
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| adj.麻痹的，麻木的，迟钝的 | |
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24
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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25
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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26
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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27
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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28
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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29
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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30
fussy
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| adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的 | |
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31
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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32
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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33
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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34
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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35
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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36
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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37
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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38
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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39
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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40
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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41
revelled
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| v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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