"The next day I lunched at the Luganovitchs'. After lunch they drove out to their summer villa, in order to make arrangements there for the winter, and I went with them. I returned with them to the town, and at midnight drank tea with them in quiet domestic surroundings, while the fire glowed, and the young mother kept going to see if her baby girl was asleep. And after that, every time I went to town I never failed to visit the Luganovitchs. They grew used to me, and I grew used to them. As a rule I went in unannounced, as though I were one of the family.

"'是谁啊？'我会听到安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜在远远的房间里问道，在我听来那慵懒的声音多么可爱啊！


　　"'是帕韦尔·康斯坦蒂诺维奇，'女仆或者保姆回答道。


　　"安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜会一脸焦急地向我走来，每次她都会问：


　　"'为什么这么久才来？出了什么事吗？'


　　"她的眼神，她伸给我的美丽优雅的手，她的日常家居衣服，她梳的头发的式样，她的声音，她的脚步，总给我同样的印象，这是我的生活里刚刚获得的非凡的东西，非常重要的东西。我们一聊几个小时，然后静静地想各自的心事，或者她给我弹上几小时的钢琴。如果他们不在家我就留下来等，跟保姆聊聊，和小孩子们玩，或者到书房的沙发上躺着看书。安娜·阿列克丝耶夫娜回来时我会迎到大厅里，接下她手里的所有包裹，为了某种原因每次我都会像一个孩子一样满怀爱意，一样一本正经地拿过那些包裹。
'Who is there?' I would hear from a faraway room, in the drawling voice that seemed to me so lovely.

" 'It is Pavel Konstantinovitch,' answered the maid or the nurse.

"Anna Alexyevna would come out to me with an anxious face, and would ask every time:

" 'Why is it so long since you have been? Has anything happened?'

"Her eyes, the elegantrefined hand she gave me, her indoor dress, the way she did her hair, her voice, her step, always produced the same impression on me something new and extraordinary in my life, and very important. We talked together for hours, were silent, thinking each our own thoughts, or she played for hours to me on the piano. If there were no one at home I stayed and waited, talked to the nurse, played with the child, or lay on the sofa in the study and read; and when Anna Alexyevna came back I met her in the hall, took all her parcels from her, and for some reason I carried those parcels every time with as much love, with as much solemnity, as a boy.

"有这么一个谚语：如果一个农妇没有任何烦恼会买一头小猪。卢格诺维奇夫妇生活顺心，因此他们跟我交朋友。如果我不进城肯定是病了或者发生了什么事，他们夫妇俩就非常担心。他们闷闷不乐于我这个受过语言文学教育的人应该做学问或从事文学工作，却生活在农村，像一只愤怒的松鼠转着圈子狂奔一样辛苦劳作却看不到收获。他们认为我不快乐，我只是说着笑着或用吃东西来掩饰我的痛苦，甚至在我觉得快乐时的高兴时刻我也感觉得到他们直盯盯的搜索的眼神。我真的心情沮丧时他们非常令人感动。当我为一些债主焦虑或没有足够的钱准时偿还利息时，他们俩，丈夫和妻子就会走到窗子旁耳语，然后卢格诺维奇走向我一脸严肃地跟我说：'帕韦尔·康斯坦蒂诺维奇，如果你目前真的需要钱，我妻子和我请求你别不好意思跟我们借。'
"There is a proverb that if a peasant woman has no troubles she will buy a pig. The Luganovitchs had no troubles, so they made friends with me. If I did not come to the town I must be ill or something must have happened to me, and both of them were extremely anxious. They were worried that I, an educated man with a knowledge of languages, should, instead of devoting myself to science or literary work, live in the country, rush round like a squirrel in a rage, work hard with never a penny to show for it. They fancied that I was unhappy, and that I only talked, laughed, and ate to conceal my sufferings, and even at cheerful moments when I felt happy I was aware of their searching eyes fixed upon me. They were particularly touching when I really was depressed, when I was being worried by some creditor or had not money enough to pay interest on the proper day. The two of them, husband and wife, would whisper together at the window; then he would come to me and say with a grave face:" 'If you really are in need of money at the moment, Pavel Konstantinovitch, my wife and I beg you not to hesitate to borrow from us.'

"他会激动得连耳根子都红了。也还会发生这样的情形，同样地经过在窗子边的低声耳语后，卢格诺维奇满脸通红地走向我对我说：


　　"'我妻子和我诚恳地请你收下这份礼物。'


　　"他会送给我几颗钮饰，一个雪茄盒或是一盏灯，而我将回送他们从乡下带来的野味，黄油和鲜花。顺便提一下，他们夫妻相当富有。早期我经常借钱，跟任何缺钱的人一样--从任何我借得到钱的地方借--可是无论如何都不能促使我向卢格诺维奇借钱。唉，为什么说这些呢？
"And he would blush to his ears with emotion. And it would happen that, after whispering in the same way at the window, he would come up to me, with red ears, and say:

" 'My wife and I earnestly I beg you to accept this present.'

"And he would give me studs, a cigar-case, or a lamp, and I would send them game, butter, and flowers from the country. They both, by the way, had considerable means of their own. In early days I often borrowed money, and was not very particular about it-borrowed wherever I could-but nothing in the world have induced me to borrow from the Luganovitchs. But why talk of it?

"我闷闷不乐。在家里，在地里，在牲畜棚里，我都在想她。我苦苦思索一个美丽、聪明的年轻女人为什么要嫁给一个无趣、几乎可以做她父亲的人（她丈夫已四十出头），还跟他生孩子；想弄懂这个无趣、善良、心思简单的男人，在舞会和晚会上一直待在更刻板的人身边，用令人厌烦的机智争论着，看上去倦怠而多余，脸上的表情顺从而无动于衷，就像他被带到那儿出售一样，为什么还认为他有权利快乐，有权利有她的孩子。且我一直想弄清楚为什么她先遇到的是他而不是我，为什么在我们的生活里要发生这么一个可怕的错误。

"I was unhappy. At home, in the fields, in the barn, I thought of her; I tried to understand the mystery of a beautiful, intelligent young woman's marrying some one so uninteresting, almost an old man (her husband was over forty), and having children by him; to understand the mystery of this uninteresting, good, simple-hearted man, who argued with such wearisome good sense, at balls and evening parties kept near the more solid people, looking listless and superfluous, with a submissive, uninterested expression, as though he had been brought there for sale, who yet believed in his right to be happy, to have children by her; and I kept trying to understand why she had met him first and not me, and why such a terrible mistake in our lives need have happened.

"我去城里时每次都从她的目光里看到她在期待着我，并且她会亲自对我承认在所有的那些天里她有一种特殊的感觉猜想我应该来了。我们长时间地交谈，沉默，但是都不承认爱着对方，而是胆怯猜疑地隐藏起对对方的爱。我们害怕可能向我们自己暴露出我们秘密的任何事情。我温柔地深深地爱着她，但是我一直在细想这份爱，一直在问自己如果我们没有力量抗拒这份爱，这份爱能通往何方。似乎难以置信我温柔、悲伤的爱可能突然粗暴地打破她的丈夫，她的孩子，以及我如此热爱和信赖的这个家庭的平静的生活进程。这是合乎名誉的吗？如果她愿意跟我走，可是能走到哪儿去呢？我能带她去哪里呢？如果我有一份美好、有趣的生活就是另一回事了--例如，要是我一直在努力摆脱农村，或者要是我是一个著名的学问家，或者艺术家或者画家就好了。可是那样就将意味着把她从每天的单调生活里带到另一种单调甚至可能更加单调的生活里。而我们的幸福会持续多久呢？万一我病了，万一我死了，或者如果我们只是对彼此变得冷漠了，她将会怎么样呢？
"And when I went to the town I saw every time from her eyes that she was expecting me, and she would confess to me herself that she had had a peculiar feeling all that day guessed that I should come. We talked a long time, and were silent, yet we did not confess our love to each other, but timidly and jealously concealed it. We were afraid of everything that might reveal our secret to ourselves. I loved her tenderly, deeply, but I reflected and kept asking myself what our love could lead to if we had not the strength to fight against it. It seemed to be incredible that my gentle, sad love could all at once coarsely break up the even tenor of the life of her husband, her children, and all the household in which I was so loved and trusted. Would it be honourable? She would go away with me, but where? Where could I take her? It would have been a different matter if I had had a beautiful, interesting life-if, for instance, I had been struggling for the emancipation of my country, or had been a celebrated man of science, an artist or a painter; but as it was it would mean taking her from one everyday humdrum life to another as humdrum or perhaps more so. And how long would our happiness last? What would happen to her in case I was ill, in case I died, or if we simply grew cold to one another?

"同样地，显然她也有充分的理由。她要考虑她的丈夫，孩子，还有她的母亲，她母亲爱她父亲就像爱孩子一样。如果她放纵自己到感情里

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