章节正文
that has constrained me to print fragments of
this diary which fell into my hands by chance.
Although I have altered all the proper names,
those who are mentioned in it will probably recog-
nise themselves, and, it may be, will find some
justification for actions for which they have
hitherto blamed a man who has ceased henceforth
to have anything in common with this world.
We almost always excuse that which we under-
stand.
I have inserted in this book only those portions
of the diary which refer to Pechorin's sojourn in
the Caucasus. There still remains in my hands
a thick writing-book in which he tells the story
of his whole life. Some time or other that, too,
will present itself before the tribunal of the
world, but, for many and weighty reasons, I do
not venture to take such a responsibility upon
myself now.
Possibly some readers would like to know my
own opinion of Pechorin's character. My answer
is: the title of this book. "But that is malicious
irony!" they will say. . . I know not.
BOOK III THE FIRST EXTRACT FROM PECHORIN'S DIARY
TAMAN
TAMAN is the nastiest little hole of all the
seaports of Russia. I was all but starved
there, to say nothing of having a narrow escape
of being drowned.
I arrived late at night by the post-car. The
driver stopped the tired troika[1] at the gate of the
only stone-built house that stood at the entrance
to the town. The sentry, a Cossack from the
Black Sea, hearing the jingle of the bell, cried out,
sleepily, in his barbarous voice, "Who goes there?"
An under-officer of Cossacks and a headborough[2]
came out. I explained that I was an officer
bound for the active-service detachment on
Government business, and I proceeded to demand
official quarters. The headborough conducted us
round the town. Whatever hut we drove up to
we found to be occupied. The weather was cold;
I had not slept for three nights; I was tired
out, and I began to lose my temper.
[1] Team of three horses abreast.
[2] Desyatnik, a superintendent of ten (men or
huts), i.e. an officer like the old English tithing-man or
headborough.
"Take me somewhere or other, you
scoundrel!" I cried; "to the devil himself, so
long as there's a place to put up at!"
"There is one other lodging," answered the
headborough, scratching his head. "Only you
won't like it, sir. It is uncanny!"
Failing to grasp the exact signification of the
last phrase, I ordered him to go on, and, after a
lengthy peregrination through muddy byways,
at the sides of which I could see nothing but old
fences, we drove up to a small cabin, right on the
shore of the sea.
The full moon was shining on the little reed-
thatched roof and the white walls of my new
dwelling. In the courtyard, which was sur-
rounded by a wall of rubble-stone, there stood
another miserable hovel, smaller and older than
the first and all askew. The shore descended
precipitously to the sea, almost from its very
walls, and down below, with incessant murmur,
plashed the dark-blue waves. The moon gazed
softly upon the watery element, restless but
obedient to it, and I was able by its light to
distinguish two ships lying at some distance
from the shore, their black rigging motionless
and standing out, like cobwebs, against the pale
line of the horizon.
"There are vessels in the harbour," I said to
myself. "To-morrow I will set out for Gelen-
jik."
I had with me, in the capacity of soldier-
servant, a Cossack of the frontier army. Order-
ing him to take down the portmanteau and dis-
miss the driver, I began to call the master of the
house. No answer! I knocked -- all was silent
within! . . . What could it mean? At length
a boy of about fourteen crept out from the hall.
"Where is the master?"
"There isn't one."
"What! No master?"
"None!"
"And the mistress?"
"She has gone off to the village."
"Who will open the door for me, then?" I
said, giving it a kick.
The door opened of its own accord, and a
breath of moisture-laden air was wafted from
the hut. I struck a lucifer match and held it
to the boy's face. It lit up two white eyes.
He was totally blind, obviously so from birth.
He stood stock-still before me, and I began to
examine his features.
I confess that I have a violentprejudice against
all blind, one-eyed, deaf, dumb, legless, armless,
hunchbacked, and such-like people. I have
observed that there is always a certain strange
connection between a man's exterior and his
soul; as, if when the body loses a limb, the soul
also loses some power of feeling.
And so I began to examine the blind boy's
face. But what could be read upon a face
from which the eyes are missing?. . . For a
long time I gazed at him with involuntary
compassion, when suddenly a scarcely perceptible
smile flitted over his thin lips, producing, I
know not why, a most unpleasant impression
upon me. I began to feel a suspicion that the
blind boy was not so blind as he appeared to be.
In vain I endeavoured to convince myself that
it was impossible to counterfeit cataracts; and
besides, what reason could there be for doing
such a thing? But I could not help my sus-
picions. I am easily swayed by prejudice. . .
"You are the master's son?" I asked at
length.
"No."
"Who are you, then?"
"An orphan -- a poor boy."
"Has the mistress any children?"
"No, her daughter ran away and crossed the
sea with a Tartar."
"What sort of a Tartar?"
"The devil only knows! A Crimean Tartar, a
boatman from Kerch."
I entered the hut. Its whole furniture con-
sisted of two benches and a table, together with
an enormous chest beside the stove. There was
not a single ikon to be seen on the wall -- a bad
sign! The sea-wind burst in through the broken
window-pane. I drew a wax candle-end from my
portmanteau, lit it, and began to put my things
out. My sabre and gun I placed in a corner, my
pistols I laid on the table. I spread my felt cloak
out on one bench, and the Cossack his on the
other. In ten minutes the latter was snoring,
but I could not go to sleep -- the image of the
boy with the white eyes kept hovering before me
in the dark.
About an hour passed thus. The moon shone
in at the window and its rays played along the
earthen floor of the hut. Suddenly a shadow
flitted across the bright strip of moonshine which
intersected the floor. I raised myself up a little
and glanced out of the window. Again somebody
ran by it and disappeared -- goodness knows
where! It seemed impossible for anyone to
descend the steep cliff overhanging the shore,
but that was the only thing that could have
happened. I rose, threw on my tunic, girded on a
dagger, and with the utmost quietness went out
of the hut. The blind boy was coming towards
me. I hid by the fence, and he passed by me
with a sure but cautious step. He was carrying a
parcel under his arm. He turned towards the
harbour and began to descend a steep and narrow
path.
"On that day the dumb will cry out and the
blind will see," I said to myself, following him
just close enough to keep him in sight.
Meanwhile the moon was becoming overcast
by clouds and a mist had risen upon the sea. The
lantern alight in the stern of a ship close at hand
was scarcely visible through the mist, and by
the shore there glimmered the foam of the waves,
which every moment threatened to submerge it.
Descending with difficulty, I stole along the
steep declivity, and all at once I saw the blind
boy come to a standstill and then turn down to
the right. He walked so close to the water's
edge that it seemed as if the waves would straight-
way seize him and carry him off. But, judging
by the confidence with which he stepped from
rock to rock and avoided the water-channels,
this was evidently not the first time that he had
made that journey. Finally he stopped, as
though listening for something, squatted down
upon the ground, and laid the parcel beside him.
Concealing myself behind a projecting rock on
the shore, I kept watch on his movements.
After a few minutes a white figure made its
appearance from the opposite direction. It came
up to the blind boy and sat down beside him.
At times the wind wafted their conversation to me.
"Well?" said a woman's voice. "The storm
is violent; Yanko will not be here."
"Yanko is not afraid of the storm!" the other
replied.
"The mist is thickening," rejoined the woman's
voice, sadness in its tone.
"In the mist it is all the easier to slip past the
guardships," was the answer.
"And if he is drowned?"
"Well, what then? On Sunday you won't
this diary which fell into my hands by chance.
Although I have altered all the proper names,
those who are mentioned in it will probably recog-
nise themselves, and, it may be, will find some
justification for actions for which they have
hitherto blamed a man who has ceased henceforth
to have anything in common with this world.
We almost always excuse that which we under-
stand.
I have inserted in this book only those portions
of the diary which refer to Pechorin's sojourn in
the Caucasus. There still remains in my hands
a thick writing-book in which he tells the story
of his whole life. Some time or other that, too,
will present itself before the tribunal of the
world, but, for many and weighty reasons, I do
not venture to take such a responsibility upon
myself now.
Possibly some readers would like to know my
own opinion of Pechorin's character. My answer
is: the title of this book. "But that is malicious
irony!" they will say. . . I know not.
BOOK III THE FIRST EXTRACT FROM PECHORIN'S DIARY
TAMAN
TAMAN is the nastiest little hole of all the
seaports of Russia. I was all but starved
there, to say nothing of having a narrow escape
of being drowned.
I arrived late at night by the post-car. The
driver stopped the tired troika[1] at the gate of the
only stone-built house that stood at the entrance
to the town. The sentry, a Cossack from the
Black Sea, hearing the jingle of the bell, cried out,
sleepily, in his barbarous voice, "Who goes there?"
An under-officer of Cossacks and a headborough[2]
came out. I explained that I was an officer
bound for the active-service detachment on
Government business, and I proceeded to demand
official quarters. The headborough conducted us
round the town. Whatever hut we drove up to
we found to be occupied. The weather was cold;
I had not slept for three nights; I was tired
out, and I began to lose my temper.
[1] Team of three horses abreast.
[2] Desyatnik, a superintendent of ten (men or
huts), i.e. an officer like the old English tithing-man or
headborough.
"Take me somewhere or other, you
scoundrel!" I cried; "to the devil himself, so
long as there's a place to put up at!"
"There is one other lodging," answered the
headborough, scratching his head. "Only you
won't like it, sir. It is uncanny!"
Failing to grasp the exact signification of the
last phrase, I ordered him to go on, and, after a
lengthy peregrination through muddy byways,
at the sides of which I could see nothing but old
fences, we drove up to a small cabin, right on the
shore of the sea.
The full moon was shining on the little reed-
thatched roof and the white walls of my new
dwelling. In the courtyard, which was sur-
rounded by a wall of rubble-stone, there stood
another miserable hovel, smaller and older than
the first and all askew. The shore descended
precipitously to the sea, almost from its very
walls, and down below, with incessant murmur,
plashed the dark-blue waves. The moon gazed
softly upon the watery element, restless but
obedient to it, and I was able by its light to
distinguish two ships lying at some distance
from the shore, their black rigging motionless
and standing out, like cobwebs, against the pale
line of the horizon.
"There are vessels in the harbour," I said to
myself. "To-morrow I will set out for Gelen-
jik."
I had with me, in the capacity of soldier-
servant, a Cossack of the frontier army. Order-
ing him to take down the portmanteau and dis-
miss the driver, I began to call the master of the
house. No answer! I knocked -- all was silent
within! . . . What could it mean? At length
a boy of about fourteen crept out from the hall.
"Where is the master?"
"There isn't one."
"What! No master?"
"None!"
"And the mistress?"
"She has gone off to the village."
"Who will open the door for me, then?" I
said, giving it a kick.
The door opened of its own accord, and a
breath of moisture-laden air was wafted from
the hut. I struck a lucifer match and held it
to the boy's face. It lit up two white eyes.
He was totally blind, obviously so from birth.
He stood stock-still before me, and I began to
examine his features.
I confess that I have a violentprejudice against
all blind, one-eyed, deaf, dumb, legless, armless,
hunchbacked, and such-like people. I have
observed that there is always a certain strange
connection between a man's exterior and his
soul; as, if when the body loses a limb, the soul
also loses some power of feeling.
And so I began to examine the blind boy's
face. But what could be read upon a face
from which the eyes are missing?. . . For a
long time I gazed at him with involuntary
compassion, when suddenly a scarcely perceptible
smile flitted over his thin lips, producing, I
know not why, a most unpleasant impression
upon me. I began to feel a suspicion that the
blind boy was not so blind as he appeared to be.
In vain I endeavoured to convince myself that
it was impossible to counterfeit cataracts; and
besides, what reason could there be for doing
such a thing? But I could not help my sus-
picions. I am easily swayed by prejudice. . .
"You are the master's son?" I asked at
length.
"No."
"Who are you, then?"
"An orphan -- a poor boy."
"Has the mistress any children?"
"No, her daughter ran away and crossed the
sea with a Tartar."
"What sort of a Tartar?"
"The devil only knows! A Crimean Tartar, a
boatman from Kerch."
I entered the hut. Its whole furniture con-
sisted of two benches and a table, together with
an enormous chest beside the stove. There was
not a single ikon to be seen on the wall -- a bad
sign! The sea-wind burst in through the broken
window-pane. I drew a wax candle-end from my
portmanteau, lit it, and began to put my things
out. My sabre and gun I placed in a corner, my
pistols I laid on the table. I spread my felt cloak
out on one bench, and the Cossack his on the
other. In ten minutes the latter was snoring,
but I could not go to sleep -- the image of the
boy with the white eyes kept hovering before me
in the dark.
About an hour passed thus. The moon shone
in at the window and its rays played along the
earthen floor of the hut. Suddenly a shadow
flitted across the bright strip of moonshine which
intersected the floor. I raised myself up a little
and glanced out of the window. Again somebody
ran by it and disappeared -- goodness knows
where! It seemed impossible for anyone to
descend the steep cliff overhanging the shore,
but that was the only thing that could have
happened. I rose, threw on my tunic, girded on a
dagger, and with the utmost quietness went out
of the hut. The blind boy was coming towards
me. I hid by the fence, and he passed by me
with a sure but cautious step. He was carrying a
parcel under his arm. He turned towards the
harbour and began to descend a steep and narrow
path.
"On that day the dumb will cry out and the
blind will see," I said to myself, following him
just close enough to keep him in sight.
Meanwhile the moon was becoming overcast
by clouds and a mist had risen upon the sea. The
lantern alight in the stern of a ship close at hand
was scarcely visible through the mist, and by
the shore there glimmered the foam of the waves,
which every moment threatened to submerge it.
Descending with difficulty, I stole along the
steep declivity, and all at once I saw the blind
boy come to a standstill and then turn down to
the right. He walked so close to the water's
edge that it seemed as if the waves would straight-
way seize him and carry him off. But, judging
by the confidence with which he stepped from
rock to rock and avoided the water-channels,
this was evidently not the first time that he had
made that journey. Finally he stopped, as
though listening for something, squatted down
upon the ground, and laid the parcel beside him.
Concealing myself behind a projecting rock on
the shore, I kept watch on his movements.
After a few minutes a white figure made its
appearance from the opposite direction. It came
up to the blind boy and sat down beside him.
At times the wind wafted their conversation to me.
"Well?" said a woman's voice. "The storm
is violent; Yanko will not be here."
"Yanko is not afraid of the storm!" the other
replied.
"The mist is thickening," rejoined the woman's
voice, sadness in its tone.
"In the mist it is all the easier to slip past the
guardships," was the answer.
"And if he is drowned?"
"Well, what then? On Sunday you won't
- venture [´ventʃə]
n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词) - responsibility [ri,spɔnsə´biliti] n.责任(心)；职责；任务 (初中英语单词)
- character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- phrase [freiz] n.短语；词组；措词 (初中英语单词)
- miserable [´mizərəbəl] a.悲惨的；可怜的 (初中英语单词)
- restless [´restləs] a.没有休息的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- capacity [kə´pæsiti] n.容量；智能；能力 (初中英语单词)
- frontier [´frʌntiə] n.国境；边疆；边界 (初中英语单词)
- accord [ə´kɔ:d] n.&vi.符合 vt.给与 (初中英语单词)
- obviously [´ɔbviəsli] ad.明显地；显而易见地 (初中英语单词)
- confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)
- violent [´vaiələnt] a.强暴的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
- missing [´misiŋ] a.缺掉的；失踪的 (初中英语单词)
- suspicion [sə´spiʃən] n.怀(猜)疑；嫌疑 (初中英语单词)
- convince [kən´vins] vt.使确信；使认识错误 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
- goodness [´gudnis] n.优良；美德；精华 (初中英语单词)
- utmost [´ʌtməust] a.最大的 n.极端 (初中英语单词)
- descend [di´send] v.下来，下降 (初中英语单词)
- alight [ə´lait] a.燃着的 vi.下；降落 (初中英语单词)
- visible [´vizəbəl] a.可见的；明显的 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- parcel [´pɑ:sl] n.包裹；一批 vt.区分 (初中英语单词)
- extract [ik´strækt, ´ekstrækt] vt.取出；摘录 n.精华 (高中英语单词)
- hearing [´hiəriŋ] n.听力；听证会；审讯 (高中英语单词)
- superintendent [,su:pərin´tendənt, ,sju:-] n.管理人，负责人 (高中英语单词)
- courtyard [´kɔ:tjɑ:d] n.院子，庭院 (高中英语单词)
- prejudice [´predʒədis] n.偏见；不利 vt.损害 (高中英语单词)
- unpleasant [ʌn´plezənt] a.不愉快的；不合意的 (高中英语单词)
- orphan [´ɔ:fən] n.&a.孤儿 vt.使成孤儿 (高中英语单词)
- submerge [səb´mə:dʒ] vt.浸在水中 vi.潜水 (高中英语单词)
- sadness [´sædnis] n.悲哀；悲痛；凄惨 (高中英语单词)
- sojourn [´sɔdʒə:n] vi.&n.旅居；逗留 (英语四级单词)
- tribunal [trai´bju:nəl] n.(特种)法庭，审判员 (英语四级单词)
- jingle [´dʒiŋgəl] v.(使)叮当响 (英语四级单词)
- barbarous [´bɑ:bərəs] a.野蛮的；不规范的 (英语四级单词)
- detachment [di´tætʃmənt] n.分开(离)；分遣队 (英语四级单词)
- totally [´təutəli] ad.统统，完全 (英语四级单词)
- exterior [ik´stiəriə] n.&a.外表(的) (英语四级单词)
- counterfeit [´kauntəfit] a.伪造的 v.&n.伪造 (英语四级单词)
- cautious [´kɔ:ʃəs] a.小心的；谨慎的 (英语四级单词)
- sentry [´sentri] n.哨兵 v.站岗，放哨 (英语六级单词)
- incessant [in´sesənt] a.不断的，不停的 (英语六级单词)
- watery [´wɔ:təri] a.水的；像水的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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