［俄］安东·契诃夫

About Love
Anton Chekhov


　　第二天的午饭是非常美味的馅饼，小龙虾和羊肉片。我们正吃饭时，厨子尼卡诺来问客人们晚上想吃些什么。他是一个中等身材，胖脸，小眼睛的人，齐胡子根刮了脸，这使得看起来他的胡子仿佛不是刮掉的，而是被连根拔掉的。阿列恒告诉我们美丽的帕拉吉爱上了这个厨子，因为他喝酒且性格粗暴，帕拉吉不想嫁给她，但是愿意与他婚外同居。厨子是个很虔诚的人，他的宗教信仰不允许他"过着有罪的生活"。他坚持帕拉吉嫁给他，此外其它的事都答应她，可是他喝醉时经常大骂帕拉吉，甚至打她。无论何时厨子喝醉了酒，帕拉吉就习惯于躲到楼上哭泣，每当这个时候阿列恒和仆人们就待在屋里准备万一需要保护帕拉吉。
At lunch next day there were very nice pies, crayfish, and mutton cutlets; and while we were eating, Nikanor, the cook, came up to ask what the visitors would like for dinner. He was a man of medium height, with a puffy face and little eyes; he was close-shaven, and it looked as though his moustaches had not been shaved, but had been pulled out by the roots. Alehin told us that the beautiful Pelagea was in love with this cook. As he drank and was of a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but was willing to live with him without. He was very devout, and his religious convictions would not allow him to "live in sin"; he insisted on her marrying him, and would consent to nothing else, and when he was drunk he used to abuse her and even beat her. Whenever he got drunk she used to hide upstairs and sob, and on such occasions Alehin and the servants stayed in the house to be ready to defend her in case of necessity.

我们开始谈论爱情。

　"爱情是如何产生的呢？"阿列恒说，"为什么帕拉吉在身心上不像爱自己一样地爱别人，她为什么会爱上尼卡诺，那个丑陋的猪嘴--我们所有人都叫尼卡诺'猪嘴'--个人的幸福跟爱情的结果有多大关系--所有这些问题我们都不明所以；个人能获得的见解只是他从中希望获得的罢了。迄今为止，说到爱唯一无可置疑的事实就是：'爱是一个大大的谜。'关于爱所说和所写下的一切都不是结论，而只是这个仍然没有答案的问题的陈述罢了。这个解释似乎只适合一份份单独的爱情，而不适用于其它众多的例子。在我看来，最好的做法就是单独解说每一份爱情，而不要企图归纳爱情。就像医生们说的，我们应该个别对待每一个例子。"

　　"完全正确。"伯京同意。
We began talking about love.

"How love is born," said Alehin, "why Pelagea does not love somebody more like herself in her spiritual and external qualities, and why she fell in love with Nikanor, that ugly snout-we all call him 'The Snout'-how far questions of personal happiness are of consequence in love-all that is unknown; one can take what view ones likes of it. So far only one incontestable truth has been uttered about love: 'This is a great mystery.' Everything else that has been written or said about love is not a conclusion, but only a statement of questions which have remained unanswered. The explanation which would seem to fit one case does not apply in a dozen others, and the very best thing, to my mind, would be to explain every case individually without attempting to generalize. We ought, as the doctors say, to individualize each case."

"Perfectly true," Burkin assented.

"我们这些受过教育的俄国阶层都偏爱那些还没有答案的问题。爱情通常都被诗意化，用玫瑰、夜莺来装饰。我们俄国人却用些重大的问题来装饰爱情，且选择了其中最无趣的部分。在莫斯科读书时，我有一位与我一起生活的朋友，一位迷人的女士，每次我把她抱在怀里，她就在想我这是允许她帮我料理一个月的家务以及 一磅牛肉多少钱。同样地，坠入爱河时我们总不厌其烦地问自己：这是合乎名誉的还是违背名誉的，明智的还是愚蠢的，这份爱在通往何处，等等。想这些问题是好事还是坏事我不知道，但是这些问题困扰着你，找不到答案且令人气恼，我就十分清楚了。"
"We Russians of the educated class have a partiality for these questions that remain unanswered. Love is usually poeticized, decorated with roses, nightingales; we Russians decorate our loves with these momentous questions, and select the most uninteresting of them, too. In Moscow, when I was a student, I had a friend who shared my life, a charming lady, and every time I took her in my arms she was thinking what I would allow her a month for housekeeping and what was the price of beef a pound. In the same way, when we are in love we are never tired of asking ourselves questions: whether it is honourable or dishonourable, sensible or stupid, what this love is leading up to, and so on. Whether it is a good thing or not I don't know, but that it is in the way, unsatisfactory, and irritating, I do know."

看来阿列恒想吐透一些心事。过着孤独生活的人们心底总会有些渴望倾诉的事。在城里，单身汉们去澡堂和饭馆的目的就是为了跟人说说话，澡堂和饭馆的服务员们不时能从他们那里听到最有趣的事。而通常，在乡下，单身汉们向客人敞开心扉。此时窗外的天空灰蒙蒙的，所有的树木在雨中都湿透了，这样的天气我们哪儿都不能去，除了说故事或者聆听之外无事可做。
It looked as though he wanted to tell some story. People who lead a solitary existence always have something in their hearts which they are eager to talk about. In town bachelors visit the baths and the restaurants on purpose to talk, and sometimes tell the most interesting things to bath attendants and waiters; in the country, as a rule, they unbosom themselves to their guests. Now from the window we could see a grey sky, trees drenched in the rain; in such weather we could go nowhere, and there was nothing for us to do but to tell stories and to listen.

"离开大学后，我在沙非诺生活和务农了很长一段时间。"阿列恒开始了他的故事，"我是一个受过教育的懒散的绅士，一个随性热心的人。可是当我来到这儿时庄园欠下了一大笔债，而我父亲之所以负债部分原因是我花费不小的学费。我决定不走了，而是开始工作直到还清这笔债。我下定决心这么做并开始工作，坦白说，不是一点不动摇的。这里的土地收益并不大，一个人经营农场如果想不赔本必须使用农奴或雇用劳工，这几乎是一码子事；或者把自己等同于农民，就是说，亲自带着一家人下地干活。此外，没有折中的路子。不过那时我还没有探究到这些微妙关系。我不漏过一块未翻耕的土地，把附近村子里所有的农民，无论男人女人都聚到了一起，工作以极大的速度进展着。我亲自耕地，播种，收割，可是烦透了做这一切，就像村子里的猫饿得去吃菜园里的黄瓜一样厌恶得焦眉烂额。我全身疼痛，走路都打瞌睡。起先似乎我能轻易调和这种辛苦的生活与我有教养的习惯，我认为要做到这一点在生活中有必要维持一种固定的表面形式。我把自己安置到楼上这儿最好的房间里，我指示仆人们午饭和晚饭后给我把咖啡和酒端到楼上，每晚上床睡觉时我都要看Vyestnik Evropi。可是一天，我们的牧师伊凡神父来了，一口气喝完了我所有的酒，Vyestnik Evropi也到牧师的女儿们手里去了。夏季，特别是割晒牧草的时候，我根本连床都挨不到，有时睡在谷仓的雪撬上，有时睡在某个森林人的小屋里，哪还有看书的机会？慢慢地我搬到楼下来了，开始在仆人的厨房里吃饭，除了我服侍父亲的仆人，解雇他们会令他们痛苦万分，我之前的奢侈荡然无存。

"I have lived at Sofino and been farming for a long time," Alehin began, "ever since I left the University. I am an idle gentleman by education, a studious person by disposition; but there was a big debt owing on the estate when I came here, and as my father was in debt partly because he had spent so much on my education, I resolved not to go away, but to work till I paid off the debt. I made up my mind to this and set to work, not, I must confess, without some repugnance. The land here does not yield much, and if one is not to farm at a loss one must employ serf labour or hired labourers, which is almost the same thing, or put it on a peasant footing-that is, work the fields oneself and with one's family. There is no middle path. But in those days I did not go into such subtleties. I did not leave a clod of earth unturned; I gathered together all the peasants, men and women, from the neighbouring villages; the work went on at a tremendous pace. I myself ploughed and sowed and reaped, and was bored doing it, and frowned with disgust, like a village cat driven by hunger to eat cucumbers in the kitchen-garden. My body ached, and I slept as I walked. At first it seemed to me that I could easily reconcile this life of toil with my cultured habits; to do so, I thought, all that is necessary is to maintain a certain external order in life. I established myself upstairs here in the best rooms, and ordered them to bring me there coffee and liquor after lunch and dinner, and when I went to bed I read every night the Vyestnik Evropi. But one day our priest, Father Ivan, came and drank up all my liquor at one sitting; and the Vyestnik Evropi went to the priest's daughters; as in the summer, especially at the haymaking, I did not succeed in getting to my bed at all, and slept in the sledge in the barn, or somewhere in the forester's lodge, what chance was there of reading? Little by little I moved downstairs, began dining in the servants' kitchen, and of my former luxury nothing is left but the servants who were in my father's service, and whom it would be painful to turn away.

在最初的几年里我当选为这里的荣誉治安法官。我得经常去城里参加治安协会和巡回法院的会议，这对我来说是一个令人愉快的变化。当连续在这儿住了两三个月后，特别是冬天，终于开始渴望接触有知识有教养的人，哪怕是穿黑外套的牧师。而在巡回法庭里穿各种衣服的人--有穿双排扣常礼服的，有穿制服的，还有穿燕尾服的--所有的律师，男人们都接受过普通教育。我终于有了一些可以进行思想交流的人。经过在雪撬上睡觉和在厨房吃饭后，穿着干净的亚麻布衣服，细薄的靴子坐在靠背椅里，某人的马甲上还挂着表链，这一切是多么的奢侈了啊！

"In the first years I was elected here an honourary justice of the peace. I used to have to go to the town and take part in the sessions of the congress and of the circuit court, and this was a pleasant change for me. When you live here for two or three months without a break, especially in the winter, you begin at last to pine for a black coat. And in the circuit court there were frock-coats, and uniforms, and dress- coats, too, all lawyers, men who have received a general education; I had some one to talk to. After sleeping in the sledge and dining in the kitchen, to sit in an arm-chair in clean linen, in thin boots, with a chain on one's waistcoat, is such luxury!

"在城里我受到热烈欢迎，我热切地结交各种朋友。说实话，在我所结识的人中最亲密，最合我意的是跟巡回法庭的副庭长卢格诺维奇的相识。你们俩都认识他，一个很有魅力的人。这一切就发生在那个著名的纵火案之后，初步调查持续了两天，我们都筋疲力尽了。卢格诺维奇看着我说：

　"'哎，我说，来跟我一起共进晚餐吧。'
"I received a warm welcome in the town. I made friends eagerly. And of all my acquaintanceships the most intimate and, to tell the truth, the most agreeable to me was my acquaintance with Luganovitch, the vice-president of the circuit court. You both know him: a most charming personality. It all happened just after a celebrated case of incendiarism; the preliminary investigation lasted two days; we were exhausted. Luganovitch looked at me and said:

" 'Look here, come round to dinner with me.'

"这有点出乎意料，因为我和卢格诺维奇并不熟，跟他只是职务上的交往，从未去过他家里。我刚刚回旅馆房间换好衣服要出去吃晚饭。这是我命中注定要与卢格诺维奇的妻子，安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜相遇。那时她还很年轻，至多二十二岁，她的第一个孩子刚刚半岁。这都是过去的事了，而现在我发现很难说得清她到底有何例外，以及她那么吸引我的原因。当时，在那次晚宴上，这一切对我非常清晰，我看到了一个年轻可爱，善良聪明而迷人的女人，仿佛之前我从未遇到过一个这样的人。我立刻觉得她是某个我已经很熟悉很亲密了的人，好像那张脸，那诚恳聪慧的眼神，我小时候已在某处--搁在我母亲衣柜里的相册里--见到过了。
"This was unexpected, as I knew Luganovitch very little, only officially, and I had never been to his house. I only just went to my hotel room to change and went off to dinner. And here it was my lot to meet Anna Alexyevna, Luganovitch's wife. At that time she was still very young, not more than twenty-two, and her first baby had been born just six months before. It is all a thing of the past; and now I should find it difficult to define what there was so exceptional in her, what it was in her attracted me so much; at the time, at dinner, it was all perfectly clear to me. I saw a lovely young, good, intelligent, fascinating woman, such as I had never met before; and I felt her at once some one close and already familiar, as though that face, those cordial, intelligent eyes, I had seen somewhere in my childhood, in the album which lay on my mother's chest of drawers.

"四个犹太人被指控为纵火犯，被当作是一伙强盗，而在我看来，毫无根据。吃晚饭时我非常兴奋，又局促不安，都不知道自己说了些什么。而安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜不停地挥动着头问她的丈夫：

　"'迪米特里，这是怎么回事？'

　"卢格诺维奇是个温厚的人，是那些心思简单的人之一，一旦一个人在法庭之前被指控有罪他就会坚持这个看法，除非以法定的书面形式，绝不会在晚餐桌上与私人会谈时表示对判决正确性的怀疑。

　"'你和我都没有放火烧那地方，'他温和地说，'你看我们都没有被判有罪，也没有进监狱。'
"Four Jews were charged with being incendiaries, were regarded as a gang of robbers, and, to my mind, quite groundlessly. At dinner I was very much excited, I was uncomfortable, and I don't know what I said, but Anna Alexyevna kept shaking her head and saying to her husband:

" 'Dmitry, how is this?'

"Luganovitch is a good-natured man, one of those simple-hearted people who firmly maintain the opinion that once a man is charged before a court he is guilty, and to express doubt of the correctness of a sentence cannot be done except in legal form on paper, and not at dinner and in private conversation.

" 'You and I did not set fire to the place,' he said softly, 'and you see we are not condemned, and not in prison.'

"他们夫妻两人都设法让我尽量多吃些，多喝些。从一些不重要的细节里，例如，从他们一起泡咖啡的样子，从他们从只言片语里就能理解对方的情形，我能推断出他们生活得融洽而舒适，而且他们很高兴有人来访。吃过晚饭后，他们表演了钢琴了二重奏。然后天色很晚了，我就回家了。那是初春时分。

　"此后，我不间断地在沙非诺度过了整个夏天，也没有时间去想城里的事。但是那些日子里对那个优雅的金发妇人的记忆仍留存在脑海里。我没有去想她，可是她轻盈的影子仿佛就躺在我心里。
"And both husband and wife tried to make me eat and drink as much as possible. From some trifling details, from the way they made the coffee together, for instance, and from the way they understood each other at half a word, I could gather that they lived in harmony and comfort, and that they were glad of a visitor. After dinner they played a duet on the piano; then it got dark, and I went home. That was at the beginning of spring.

"After that I spent the whole summer at Sofino without a break, and I had no time to think of the town, either, but the memory of the graceful fair-haired woman remained in my mind all those days; I did not think of her, but it was as though her light shadow were lying on my heart.

"深秋，城里举行一场以慈善为目的的戏剧演出。中场休息时我接到邀请去了镇长的包厢，我一看，安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜正坐在镇长夫人的旁边。她的美丽温柔，她那亲切的眼神，再一次令我不可抗拒，令我激动不已，我的心里再次涌起了那种亲近的感觉。我们肩并肩地坐着，然后去了休息室。

　　"她说：'你瘦了。生病了吗？'

　　"'是的，我的肩膀患了风湿，下雨天就睡不着。'

　　"'你看起来有些沮丧。春天里，来吃晚饭时，你更年轻，更自信。那时你充满热情，口若悬河，你非常有趣，我必须承认我的心有几分已被你带走了。不知道为什么夏季时我经常想起你，今晚为看演出而做准备时我想我会看到你。'

　　"然后她笑了。
"In the late autumn there was a theatrical performance for some charitable object in the town. I went into the governor's box (I was invited to go there in the interval); I looked, and there was Anna Alexyevna sitting beside the governor's wife; and again the same irresistible, thrilling impression of beauty and sweet, caressing eyes, and again the same feeling of nearness. We sat side by side, then went to the foyer.

" 'You've grown thinner,' she said; 'have you been ill?'

" 'Yes, I've had rheumatism in my shoulder, and in rainy weather I can't sleep.'

" 'You look dispirited. In the spring, when you came to dinner, you were younger, more confident. You were full of eagerness, and talked a great deal then; you were very interesting, and I really must confess I was a little carried away by you. For some reason you often came back to my memory during the summer, and when I was getting ready for the theatre today I thought I should see you.'

"And she laughed.

"'可是今天你看起来很沮丧，'她再三地说：'这使你看上去像是比春天时老了。'

　　"第二天我在卢格诺维奇家吃午饭。吃过午饭后他们驾车去他们的夏季别墅，为去那儿过冬做安排，我跟他们一起去了。然后又与他们回到城里，午夜时与他们在安静的家庭环境里一起喝茶。当时炉火融融，年轻的妈妈每隔一会就去看看她的宝贝女儿睡着了没有。从那以后，每次去城里我都会去拜访卢格诺维奇一家。他们慢慢习惯了我的到来，我也慢慢习惯了去看望他们。通常我都说来就来，好像我是那个家的一员。
" 'But you look dispirited today,' she repeated; 'it makes you seem older.'