章节正文
barking of dogs or the howling of wolves, but the sounds were
so faint and indistinct that he did not know whether he heard
them or merely imagined them, and he stopped and began to
listen intently.
Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears,
and everything shivered and shook under him. He seized
Mukhorty's neck, but that too was shaking all over and the
terrible cry grew still more frightful. For some seconds
Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself or understand what
was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether to encourage
himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and
resonantly. 'Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn
you!' thought Vasili Andreevich. But even when he understood
the cause of his terror he could not shake it off.
'I must calm myself and think things over,' he said to himself,
but yet he could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on,
without noticing that he was now going with the wind instead of
against it. His body, especially between his legs where it
touched the pad of the harness and was not covered by his
overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially when the
horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his
breathing came fast. He saw himself perishing amid this
dreadful snowy waste, and could see no means of escape.
Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and,
sinking into a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his
side. Vasili Andreevich jumped off, and in so doing dragged to
one side the breechband on which his foot was resting, and
twisted round the pad to which he held as he dismounted. As
soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his feet,
plunged forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and
dragging the drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared,
leaving Vasili Andreevich alone on the snow-drift.
The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep
and his coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at
each step, he stopped breathless" target="_blank" title="a.屏息的">breathless after taking not more than
twenty steps. 'The copse, the oxen, the lease-hold, the shop,
the tavern, the house with the iron-roofed barn, and my heir,'
thought he. 'How can I leave all that? What does this mean?
It cannot be!' These thoughts flashed through his mind. Then
he thought of the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had
twice ridden past, and he was seized with such terror that he
did not believe in the reality of what was happening to him.
'Can this be a dream?' he thought, and tried to wake up but
could not. It was real snow that lashed his face and covered
him and chilled his right hand from which he had lost the
glove, and this was a real desert in which he was now left
alone like that wormwood, awaiting an inevitable, speedy, and
meaningless death.
'Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of
temperance!' he thought, recalling the service of the day
before and the holy icon with its black face and gilt frame,
and the tapers which he sold to be set before that icon and
which were almost immediately brought back to him scarcely
burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He
began to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save
him, promising him a thanksgiving service and some candles.
But he clearly and indubitably realized that the icon, its
frame, the candles, the priest, and the thanksgiving service,
though very important and necessary in church, could do nothing
for him here, and that there was and could be no connexion
between those candles and services and his present disastrous
plight. 'I must not despair,' he thought. 'I must follow the
horse's track before it is snowed under. He will lead me out,
or I may even catch him. Only I must not hurry, or I shall
stick fast and be more lost than ever.'
But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward
and even ran, continually falling, getting up and falling
again. The horse's track was already hardly visible in places
where the snow did not lie deep. 'I am lost!' thought Vasili
Andreevich. 'I shall lose the track and not catch the horse.'
But at that moment he saw something black. It was Mukhorty,
and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts and the
kerchief. Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband
twisted round to one side, was standing not in his former place
but nearer to the shafts, shaking his head which the reins he
was stepping on drew downwards. It turned out that Vasili
Andreevich had sunk in the same ravine Nikita had previously
fallen into, and that Mukhorty had been bringing him back to
the sledge and he had got off his back no more than fifty paces
from where the sledge was.
IX
Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught
hold of it and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm
himself and recover his breath. Nikita was not in his former
place, but something, already covered with snow, was lying in
the sledge and Vasili Andreevich concluded that this was
Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and if he felt any
fear it was lest the dreadfulterror should return that he had
experienced when on the horse and especially when he was left
alone in the snow-drift. At any cost he had to avoid that
terror, and to keep it away he must do something--occupy
himself with something. And the first thing he did was to turn
his back to the wind and open his fur coat. Then, as soon as
he recovered his breath a little, he shook the snow out of his
boots and out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand glove was
hopelessly lost and by this time probably lying somewhere under
a dozen inches of snow); then as was his custom when going out
of his shop to buy grain from the peasants, he pulled his
girdle low down and tightened it and prepared for action. The
first thing that occurred to him was to free Mukhorty's leg
from the rein. Having done that, and tethered him to the iron
cramp at the front of the sledge where he had been before, he
was going round the horse's quarters to put the breechband and
pad straight and cover him with the cloth, but at that moment
he noticed that something was moving in the sledge and Nikita's
head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, who was
half freeze 的过去分词">frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his
hand before his nose in a strange manner just as if he were
driving away flies. He waved his hand and said something, and
seemed to Vasili Andreevich to be calling him. Vasili
Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted and went up to the sledge.
'What is it?' he asked. 'What are you saying?'
'I'm dy . . . ing, that's what,' said Nikita brokenly and with
difficulty. 'Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my
wife, no matter.'
'Why, are you really freeze 的过去分词">frozen?' asked Vasili Andreevich.
'I feel it's my death. Forgive me for Christ's sake . . .'
said Nikita in a tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand
before his face as if driving away flies.
Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a
minute. Then suddenly, with the same resolution with which he
used to strike hands when making a good purchase, he took a
step back and turning up his sleeves began raking the snow off
Nikita and out of the sledge. Having done this he hurriedly
undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and having pushed
Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not only with
his fur coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed with
warmth. After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita
and the sides of the sledge, and holding down its hem with his
knees, Vasili Andreevich lay like that face down, with his head
pressed against the front of the sledge. Here he no longer
heard the horse's movements or the whistling of the wind, but
only Nikita's breathing. At first and for a long time Nikita
lay motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved.
'There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm,
that's our way . . .' began Vasili Andreevich.
But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came
to his eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He
stopped speaking and only gulped down the risings in his
throat. 'Seems I was badly frightened and have gone quite
weak,' he thought. But this weakness was not only unpleasant,
but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before.
'That's our way!' he said to himself, experiencing a strange
and solemntenderness. He lay like that for a long time,
wiping his eyes on the fur of his coat and tucking under his
knee the right skirt, which the wind kept turning up.
But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful
condition that he said: 'Nikita!'
'It's comfortable, warm!' came a voice from beneath.
'There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would
have been freeze 的过去分词">frozen, and I should have . . .'
But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with
tears, and he could say no more.
'Well, never mind,' he thought. 'I know about myself what I
know.'
He remained silent and lay like that for a long time.
Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above.
Only his hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round
Nikita's sides, and his legs which the wind kept uncovering,
began to freeze, especially his right hand which had no glove.
But he did not think of his legs or of his hands but only of
how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. He looked out
several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was
uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and
that he ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring
himself to leave Nikita and disturb even for a moment the
joyous condition he was in. He no longer felt any kind of
terror.
'No fear, we shan't lose him this time!' he said to himself,
referring to his getting the peasant warm with the same
boastfulness with which he spoke of his buying and selling.
Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a
third, but he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first
impressions of the snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse
with the shaft-bow shaking before his eyes, kept passing
through his mind, then he remembered Nikita lying under him,
then recollections of the festival, his wife, the
police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle with
these; then again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then
the peasants, customers and traders, and the white walls of his
house with its iron roof with Nikita lying underneath,
presented themselves to his imagination. Afterwards all these
impressions blended into one nothingness. As the colours of
the rainbow unite into one white light, so all these different
impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep.
For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn
the visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing
by the box of tapers and that Tikhon's wife was asking for a
five kopek taper for the Church fete. He wished to take one out
and give it to her, but his hands would not life, being held
tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round the box but his
feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown to the
stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet
out of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box
but a bed, and suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in
his bed at home. He was lying in his bed and could not get up.
Yet it was necessary for him to get up because Ivan Matveich,
the police-officer, would soon call for him and he had to go
with him--either to bargain for the forest or to put
Mukhorty's breeching straight.
He asked his wife: 'Nikolaevna, hasn't he come yet?' 'No, he
so faint and indistinct that he did not know whether he heard
them or merely imagined them, and he stopped and began to
listen intently.
Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears,
and everything shivered and shook under him. He seized
Mukhorty's neck, but that too was shaking all over and the
terrible cry grew still more frightful. For some seconds
Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself or understand what
was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether to encourage
himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and
resonantly. 'Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn
you!' thought Vasili Andreevich. But even when he understood
the cause of his terror he could not shake it off.
'I must calm myself and think things over,' he said to himself,
but yet he could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on,
without noticing that he was now going with the wind instead of
against it. His body, especially between his legs where it
touched the pad of the harness and was not covered by his
overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially when the
horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his
breathing came fast. He saw himself perishing amid this
dreadful snowy waste, and could see no means of escape.
Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and,
sinking into a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his
side. Vasili Andreevich jumped off, and in so doing dragged to
one side the breechband on which his foot was resting, and
twisted round the pad to which he held as he dismounted. As
soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his feet,
plunged forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and
dragging the drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared,
leaving Vasili Andreevich alone on the snow-drift.
The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep
and his coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at
each step, he stopped breathless" target="_blank" title="a.屏息的">breathless after taking not more than
twenty steps. 'The copse, the oxen, the lease-hold, the shop,
the tavern, the house with the iron-roofed barn, and my heir,'
thought he. 'How can I leave all that? What does this mean?
It cannot be!' These thoughts flashed through his mind. Then
he thought of the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had
twice ridden past, and he was seized with such terror that he
did not believe in the reality of what was happening to him.
'Can this be a dream?' he thought, and tried to wake up but
could not. It was real snow that lashed his face and covered
him and chilled his right hand from which he had lost the
glove, and this was a real desert in which he was now left
alone like that wormwood, awaiting an inevitable, speedy, and
meaningless death.
'Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of
temperance!' he thought, recalling the service of the day
before and the holy icon with its black face and gilt frame,
and the tapers which he sold to be set before that icon and
which were almost immediately brought back to him scarcely
burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He
began to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save
him, promising him a thanksgiving service and some candles.
But he clearly and indubitably realized that the icon, its
frame, the candles, the priest, and the thanksgiving service,
though very important and necessary in church, could do nothing
for him here, and that there was and could be no connexion
between those candles and services and his present disastrous
plight. 'I must not despair,' he thought. 'I must follow the
horse's track before it is snowed under. He will lead me out,
or I may even catch him. Only I must not hurry, or I shall
stick fast and be more lost than ever.'
But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward
and even ran, continually falling, getting up and falling
again. The horse's track was already hardly visible in places
where the snow did not lie deep. 'I am lost!' thought Vasili
Andreevich. 'I shall lose the track and not catch the horse.'
But at that moment he saw something black. It was Mukhorty,
and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts and the
kerchief. Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband
twisted round to one side, was standing not in his former place
but nearer to the shafts, shaking his head which the reins he
was stepping on drew downwards. It turned out that Vasili
Andreevich had sunk in the same ravine Nikita had previously
fallen into, and that Mukhorty had been bringing him back to
the sledge and he had got off his back no more than fifty paces
from where the sledge was.
IX
Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught
hold of it and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm
himself and recover his breath. Nikita was not in his former
place, but something, already covered with snow, was lying in
the sledge and Vasili Andreevich concluded that this was
Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and if he felt any
fear it was lest the dreadfulterror should return that he had
experienced when on the horse and especially when he was left
alone in the snow-drift. At any cost he had to avoid that
terror, and to keep it away he must do something--occupy
himself with something. And the first thing he did was to turn
his back to the wind and open his fur coat. Then, as soon as
he recovered his breath a little, he shook the snow out of his
boots and out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand glove was
hopelessly lost and by this time probably lying somewhere under
a dozen inches of snow); then as was his custom when going out
of his shop to buy grain from the peasants, he pulled his
girdle low down and tightened it and prepared for action. The
first thing that occurred to him was to free Mukhorty's leg
from the rein. Having done that, and tethered him to the iron
cramp at the front of the sledge where he had been before, he
was going round the horse's quarters to put the breechband and
pad straight and cover him with the cloth, but at that moment
he noticed that something was moving in the sledge and Nikita's
head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, who was
half freeze 的过去分词">frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his
hand before his nose in a strange manner just as if he were
driving away flies. He waved his hand and said something, and
seemed to Vasili Andreevich to be calling him. Vasili
Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted and went up to the sledge.
'What is it?' he asked. 'What are you saying?'
'I'm dy . . . ing, that's what,' said Nikita brokenly and with
difficulty. 'Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my
wife, no matter.'
'Why, are you really freeze 的过去分词">frozen?' asked Vasili Andreevich.
'I feel it's my death. Forgive me for Christ's sake . . .'
said Nikita in a tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand
before his face as if driving away flies.
Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a
minute. Then suddenly, with the same resolution with which he
used to strike hands when making a good purchase, he took a
step back and turning up his sleeves began raking the snow off
Nikita and out of the sledge. Having done this he hurriedly
undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and having pushed
Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not only with
his fur coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed with
warmth. After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita
and the sides of the sledge, and holding down its hem with his
knees, Vasili Andreevich lay like that face down, with his head
pressed against the front of the sledge. Here he no longer
heard the horse's movements or the whistling of the wind, but
only Nikita's breathing. At first and for a long time Nikita
lay motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved.
'There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm,
that's our way . . .' began Vasili Andreevich.
But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came
to his eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He
stopped speaking and only gulped down the risings in his
throat. 'Seems I was badly frightened and have gone quite
weak,' he thought. But this weakness was not only unpleasant,
but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before.
'That's our way!' he said to himself, experiencing a strange
and solemntenderness. He lay like that for a long time,
wiping his eyes on the fur of his coat and tucking under his
knee the right skirt, which the wind kept turning up.
But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful
condition that he said: 'Nikita!'
'It's comfortable, warm!' came a voice from beneath.
'There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would
have been freeze 的过去分词">frozen, and I should have . . .'
But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with
tears, and he could say no more.
'Well, never mind,' he thought. 'I know about myself what I
know.'
He remained silent and lay like that for a long time.
Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above.
Only his hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round
Nikita's sides, and his legs which the wind kept uncovering,
began to freeze, especially his right hand which had no glove.
But he did not think of his legs or of his hands but only of
how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. He looked out
several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was
uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and
that he ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring
himself to leave Nikita and disturb even for a moment the
joyous condition he was in. He no longer felt any kind of
terror.
'No fear, we shan't lose him this time!' he said to himself,
referring to his getting the peasant warm with the same
boastfulness with which he spoke of his buying and selling.
Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a
third, but he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first
impressions of the snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse
with the shaft-bow shaking before his eyes, kept passing
through his mind, then he remembered Nikita lying under him,
then recollections of the festival, his wife, the
police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle with
these; then again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then
the peasants, customers and traders, and the white walls of his
house with its iron roof with Nikita lying underneath,
presented themselves to his imagination. Afterwards all these
impressions blended into one nothingness. As the colours of
the rainbow unite into one white light, so all these different
impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep.
For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn
the visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing
by the box of tapers and that Tikhon's wife was asking for a
five kopek taper for the Church fete. He wished to take one out
and give it to her, but his hands would not life, being held
tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round the box but his
feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown to the
stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet
out of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box
but a bed, and suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in
his bed at home. He was lying in his bed and could not get up.
Yet it was necessary for him to get up because Ivan Matveich,
the police-officer, would soon call for him and he had to go
with him--either to bargain for the forest or to put
Mukhorty's breeching straight.
He asked his wife: 'Nikolaevna, hasn't he come yet?' 'No, he
- terror [´terə]
n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词) - harness [´hɑ:nis] vt.上马具 n.马具 (初中英语单词)
- plunge [plʌndʒ] v.插进 n.投入；冲击 (初中英语单词)
- reality [ri´æliti] n.现实(性)；真实；逼真 (初中英语单词)
- promising [´prɔmisiŋ] a.有希望的；有为的 (初中英语单词)
- priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
- resolution [,rezə´lu:ʃən] n.决心；坚决；果断 (初中英语单词)
- visible [´vizəbəl] a.可见的；明显的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- forgive [fə´giv] vt.原谅，谅解，宽恕 (初中英语单词)
- quiver [´kwivə] v.抖动 n.颤动(声) (初中英语单词)
- weakness [´wi:knis] n.虚弱；弱点，缺点 (初中英语单词)
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə] a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
- perish [´periʃ] v.灭亡；消灭；(使)死去 (初中英语单词)
- freeze [fri:z] v.结冰；凝固；冷淡 (初中英语单词)
- peasant [´pezənt] n.农民；庄稼人 (初中英语单词)
- disturb [di´stə:b] vt.扰乱；使不安；打乱 (初中英语单词)
- mingle [´miŋgəl] v.(使)混合；交往 (初中英语单词)
- imagination [i,mædʒi´neiʃən] n.想象(力) (初中英语单词)
- bargain [´bɑ:gin] n.买卖合同 v.议(价) (初中英语单词)
- frightful [´fraitfəl] a.可怕的；不愉快的 (高中英语单词)
- breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
- tavern [´tævən] n.小酒馆；客栈 (高中英语单词)
- inevitable [i´nevitəbəl] a.不可避免的 (高中英语单词)
- thanksgiving [´θæŋks,giviŋ] 感恩节 (高中英语单词)
- continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
- sledge [sledʒ] n.雪橇；大锤 (高中英语单词)
- motionless [´məuʃənləs] a.静止的；固定的 (高中英语单词)
- girdle [´gə:dl] n.腰带 vt.用带束(缠) (高中英语单词)
- tenderness [´tendənis] n.娇嫩；柔软；温柔 (高中英语单词)
- unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
- festival [´festivəl] n.节日；庆祝；欢庆 (高中英语单词)
- rainbow [´reinbəu] n.彩虹 (高中英语单词)
- happening [´hæpəniŋ] n.事件，偶然发生的事 (英语四级单词)
- painfully [´peinfuli] ad.痛苦地；费力地 (英语四级单词)
- ridden [´ridn] ride 的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- speedy [´spi:di] a.快的，迅速的 (英语四级单词)
- downwards [´daunwədz] ad.向下，以下 (英语四级单词)
- ravine [rə´vi:n] n.沟壑；深谷 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- right-hand [´rait´hænd] a.右手的，右边的 (英语四级单词)
- passionately [´pæʃənitli] ad.多情地；热烈地 (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
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