The next day Lavretsky got up rather early, had a talk with the village bailiff, visited the threshing-floor, ordered the chain to be taken off the yard dog, who only barked a little but did not even come out of his kennel1, and returning home, sank into a kind of peaceful torpor2, which he did not shake off the whole day.
“Here I am at the very bottom of the river,” he said to himself more than once. He sat at the window without stirring, and, as it were, listened to the current of the quiet life surrounding him, to the few sounds of the country solitude3. Something from behind the nettles4 chirps5 with a shrill6, shrill little note; a gnat7 seems to answer it. Now it has ceased, but still the gnat keeps up its sharp whirr; across the pleasant, persistent8, fretful buzz of the flies sounds the hum of a big bee, constantly knocking its head against the ceiling; a cock crows in the street, hoarsely9 prolonging the last note; there is the rattle10 of a cart; in the village a gate is creaking. Then the jarring voice of a peasant woman, “What?” “Hey, you are my little sweetheart,” cries Anton to the little two-year-old girl he is dandling in his arms. “Fetch the kvas,” repeats the same woman’s voice, and all at once there follows a deathly silence; nothing rattles11, nothing is moving; the wind is not stirring a leaf; without a sound the swallows fly one after another over the earth, and sadness weights on the heart from their noiseless flight. “Here I am at the very bottom of the river,” thought Lavretsky again. “And always, at all times life here is quiet, unhasting,” he thought; “whoever comes within its circle must submit; here there is nothing to agitate12, nothing to harass13; one can only get on here by making one’s way slowly, as the ploughman cuts the furrow14 with his plough. And what vigour15, what health abound16 in this inactive place! Here under the window the sturdy burdock creeps out of the thick grass; above it the lovage trails its juicy stalks and the Virgin’s tears fling still higher their pink tendrils; and yonder further in the fields is the silky rye, and the oats are already in ear, and every leaf on every tree, every grass on its stalk is spread to its fullest width. In the love of a woman my best years have gone by,” Lavretsky went on thinking, “let me be sobered by the sameness of life here, let me be soothed17 and made ready, so that I may learn to do my duty without haste.” And again he fell to listening to the silence, expecting nothing — and at the same time constantly expecting something; the silence enfolded him on all sides, the sun moved calmly in the peaceful blue sky, and the clouds sailed calmly across it; they seemed to know why and whither they were sailing. At this same time in other places on the earth there is the seething18, the bustle19, the clash of life; life here slipped by noiseless, as water over marshy20 grass; and even till evening Lavretsky could not tear himself from the contemplation of this life as it passed and glided21 by; sorrow for the past was melting in his soul like snow in spring, and strange to say, never had the feeling of home been so deep and strong within him.
1 kennel | |
n.狗舍,狗窝 | |
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2 torpor | |
n.迟钝;麻木;(动物的)冬眠 | |
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3 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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4 nettles | |
n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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5 chirps | |
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的第三人称单数 ); 啾; 啾啾 | |
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6 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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7 gnat | |
v.对小事斤斤计较,琐事 | |
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8 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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9 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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10 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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11 rattles | |
(使)发出格格的响声, (使)作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 ); 喋喋不休地说话; 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动,堕下或走动; 使紧张,使恐惧 | |
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12 agitate | |
vi.(for,against)煽动,鼓动;vt.搅动 | |
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13 harass | |
vt.使烦恼,折磨,骚扰 | |
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14 furrow | |
n.沟;垄沟;轨迹;车辙;皱纹 | |
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15 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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16 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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17 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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18 seething | |
沸腾的,火热的 | |
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19 bustle | |
v.喧扰地忙乱,匆忙,奔忙;n.忙碌;喧闹 | |
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20 marshy | |
adj.沼泽的 | |
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21 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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