自译 契诃夫短篇小说 老虎发威（上）
FROM THE DIARY OF A VIOLENT-TEMPERED MAN 老虎发威
原作契诃夫 Translated by Constance Garnett 1887
I AM a serious person and my mind is of a philosophic bent. My vocation is the study of finance. I am a student of financial law and I have chosen as the subject of my dissertation — the Past and Future of the Dog Licence. I need hardly point out that young ladies, songs, moonlight, and all that sort of silliness are entirely out of my line.
我是个严肃的人，爱好是做学问。研究经济乃我的使命。我是学经济法的，毕业论文我已经选好了题目——论养犬证之沿革。我没工夫也没心思琢磨那些搞对象、唱情歌、花前月下之类的傻事。
Morning. Ten o’clock. My maman pours me out a cup of coffee. I drink it and go out on the little balcony to set to work on my dissertation. I take a clean sheet of paper, dip the pen into the ink, and write out the title: “The Past and Future of the Dog Licence.”
早上十点钟，我妈给我倒了杯咖啡。我喝完来到小阳台上准备写论文。我铺上一页新纸，蘸了蘸墨，写下了题目：论养犬证之沿革。
After thinking a little I write: “Historical Survey. We may deduce from some allusions in Herodotus and Xenophon that the origin of the tax on dogs goes back to . . . .”
思考片刻，我提笔道：“一，历史演变。翻阅古学者申屠氏和赫连氏的论著，不难在其中发现养犬税的起源可追溯至……”
But at that point I hear footsteps that strike me as highly suspicious. I look down from the balcony and see below a young lady with a long face and a long waist. Her name, I believe, is Nadenka or Varenka, it really does not matter which. She is looking for something, pretends not to have noticed me, and is humming to herself:
就在这工夫，我听见一阵可疑的脚步声。往下一望，我瞅见一个长脸低腰的姑娘。她叫什么我记不住了，反正不是雅宁就是娅宁。她一边找东西，一边装作没看见我的样子，嘴里还哼着小曲：
“Dost thou remember that song full of tenderness?”
“郎可把那恩爱忘哟？”
I read through what I have written and want to continue, but the young lady pretends to have just caught sight of me, and says in a mournful voice:
我把写的东西重读了一遍，正想动笔，就看那女的装出才看见我的样子，伤心地说道：
“Good morning, Nikolay Andreitch. Only fancy what a misfortune I have had! I went for a walk yesterday and lost the little ball off my bracelet!”
“早啊，阿肃。你知道我为什么这么难过吗？一提起来我就难受！我手镯上有个小球找不着了！”
I read through once more the opening of my dissertation, I trim up the tail of the letter “g” and mean to go on, but the young lady persists.
我又把开头读了一遍，修了修“追”字的走之旁，刚要往下写，那女的又嚷嚷上了。
“Nikolay Andreitch,” she says, “won’t you see me home? The Karelins have such a huge dog that I simply daren’t pass it alone.”
“阿肃，”她继续道，“你能送我回家吗？唐家养了条大狗，我自己从那儿走我害怕。”
There is no getting out of it. I lay down my pen and go down to her. Nadenka (or Varenka) takes my arm and we set off in the direction of her villa.
今儿算是遇见她了。我放下笔下了楼。雅宁（或者娅宁）牵着我胳膊一块往她家走。
When the duty of walking arm-in-arm with a lady falls to my lot, for some reason or other I always feel like a peg with a heavy cloak hanging on it. Nadenka (or Varenka), between ourselves, of an ardent temperament (her grandfather was an Armenian), has a peculiar art of throwing her whole weight on one’s arm and clinging to one’s side like a leech. And so we walk along.
被她挽着，我感觉自己胳膊就好像晾衣绳上挂了床大棉被似的。雅宁（或者娅宁）有种特别的习惯（估计是祖传的毛病），喜欢把整个身子全压在别人的胳膊上，像条大水蛭似的拽都拽不动。我也只能这么将就着。
As we pass the Karelins’, I see a huge dog, who reminds me of the dog licence. I think with despair of the work I have begun and sigh.
走到唐家门口我还真看见条大狗，触景生情，不由得想起了我的论文。我暗叹道，快放我回去，我想写东西啊。
“What are you sighing for?” asks Nadenka (or Varenka), and heaves a sigh herself.
“叹气干什么？”雅宁（还是娅宁来着）问道，也跟着叹了声气。
Here I must digress for a moment to explain that Nadenka or Varenka (now I come to think of it, I believe I have heard her called Mashenka) imagines, I can’t guess why, that I am in love with her, and therefore thinks it her duty as a humane person always to look at me with compassion and to soothe my wound with words.
在这儿必须多一句嘴，也不知道我怎么得罪她的，这位什么宁（不对，好像是什么婷）竟然以为我看上她了，一下子把照顾我的感受当成了她自己的本分。
“Listen,” said she, stopping. “I know why you are sighing. You are in love, yes; but I beg you for the sake of our friendship to believe that the girl you love has the deepest respect for you. She cannot return your love; but is it her fault that her heart has long been another’s?”
“你来。”她不走了，说道，“我知道你为什么叹气。阿肃，我知道，你对我有意思，你是个好人，但是…但是我心里已经有人了，你还想要我怎么样啊？”
Mashenka’s nose begins to swell and turn red, her eyes fill with tears: she evidently expects some answer from me, but, fortunately, at this moment we arrive. Mashenka’s mamma, a good-natured woman but full of conventional ideas, is sitting on the terrace: glancing at her daughter’s agitated face, she looks intently at me and sighs, as though saying to herself: “Ah, these young people! they don’t even know how to keep their secrets to themselves!”
雅婷开始抽搭起来，鼻子红了，眼里也噙满了泪。看她那样应该是在等我的答复，所幸这时候到家了。雅婷她妈坐在门口，这老太太心肠不错，就是太封建。她看了看雅婷的哭脸，又细细瞧了瞧我，然后叹了口气，好像在感慨：“年轻人哪！什么事都往外说！”
On the terrace with her are several young ladies of various colours and a retired officer who is staying in the villa next to ours. He was wounded during the last war in the left temple and the right hip. This unfortunate man is, like myself, proposing to devote the summer to literary work. He is writing the “Memoirs of a Military Man.” Like me, he begins his honourable labours every morning, but before he has written more than “I was born in . . .” some Varenka or Mashenka is sure to appear under his balcony, and the wounded hero is borne off under guard.
门口坐着一大群姑娘，还有我们家隔壁一个退休的大爷。大爷打仗的时候把大胯伤着了，左太阳穴也留了印。跟我一样，大爷也打算趁夏天写点什么。他计划写一部《老兵回忆录》。我俩的遭遇差不多，他每天起早动笔，可还没来得及写下“我出生在…”，某位什么宁或者什么婷就会出现在阳台底下，招呼这位老英雄给她保镖。
All the party sitting on the terrace are engaged in preparing some miserable fruit for jam. I make my bows and am about to beat a retreat, but the young ladies of various colours seize my hat with a squeal and insist on my staying. I sit down. They give me a plate of fruit and a hairpin. I begin taking the seeds out.
门口摆着一大堆烂果子，原来这是要做果酱。我鞠了几躬，转身要走，结果几个姑娘不让了，连喊带叫带抓帽子硬要把我留下。我心想认了吧，也跟着坐下了。他们分给我一盘水果外加一根针，叫我把籽挑出去。
The young ladies of various colours talk about men: they say that So-and-So is nice-looking, that So-and-So is handsome but not nice, that somebody else is nice but ugly, and that a fourth would not have been bad-looking if his nose were not like a thimble, and so on.
这帮姑娘聊起了男人：有的说谁谁谁长得好看，有的说谁谁谁长得好看但脾气不好，有的说谁谁谁人好但是长得太丑，有的说谁谁谁模样挺好，就是长了个猪鼻子，总之是七嘴八舌各种八卦。
“And you, Monsieur Nicolas,” says Varenka’s mamma, turning to me, “are not handsome, but you are attractive. . . . There is something about your face. . . . In men, though, it’s not beauty but intelligence that matters,” she adds, sighing.
“小肃啊，”娅宁妈说道，“你虽然谈不上好看，但是你长得好…你看你面相就不错……不过看男人不能看长相，关键还得看脑子。”她感叹道。
The young ladies sigh, too, and drop their eyes . . . they agree that the great thing in men is not beauty but intelligence. I steal a glance sideways at a looking-glass to ascertain whether I really am attractive. I see a shaggy head, a bushy beard, moustaches, eyebrows, hair on my cheeks, hair up to my eyes, a perfect thicket with a solid nose sticking up out of it like a watch-tower. Attractive! h’m!
一帮姑娘也跟着叹气，还纷纷掉了几滴泪……几位一致同意男人重要的不是长相而是头脑。我偷偷瞥了眼镜子，倒想看看我长得有多好。谁成想没看出别的，光看见一嘴毛、一脸毛、一脑袋毛，除了毛还是毛，光剩个四方鼻子和灯塔似的杵在脸上。这还叫长得好！这叫寒碜哪！
“But it’s by the qualities of your soul, after all, that you will make your way, Nicolas,” sighs Nadenka’s mamma, as though affirming some secret and original idea of her own.
“其实到最后还得看人的心眼怎么样啊，小肃。”雅宁妈感慨道，仿佛全天下就她知道一样。
And Nadenka is sympathetically distressed on my account, but the conviction that a man passionately in love with her is sitting opposite is obviously a source of the greatest enjoyment to her.
雅宁心疼我心疼得了不得了，不过一想到对面的我被她迷得七荤八素，她倒也挺高兴的。
When they have done with men, the young ladies begin talking about love. After a long conversation about love, one of the young ladies gets up and goes away. Those that remain begin to pick her to pieces. Everyone agrees that she is stupid, unbearable, ugly, and that one of her shoulder-blades sticks out in a shocking way.
聊够了男人，她们又扯起了恋爱。叨叨了好一会儿，有个姑娘站起来走了。剩下的人说起了她的闲话。几位的口风又达成了一致，异口同声说她脑子笨，脾气坏，长得丑，有块肩胛骨往外突突得都快掉出来了。
But at last, thank goodness! I see our maid. My maman has sent her to call me in to dinner. Now I can make my escape from this uncongenial company and go back to my work. I get up and make my bows.
好在天无绝人之路，我们家的用人来了！我妈叫她喊我回家吃饭。我总算能躲开这帮家伙，回去写我的论文去了。我站起身，鞠了几躬。
Varenka’s maman, Varenka herself, and the variegated young ladies surround me, and declare that I cannot possibly go, because I promised yesterday to dine with them and go to the woods to look for mushrooms. I bow and sit down again. My soul is boiling with rage, and I feel that in another moment I may not be able to answer for myself, that there may be an explosion, but gentlemanly feeling and the fear of committing a breach of good manners compels me to obey the ladies. And I obey them.
谁知道娅宁她妈，娅宁自己，外加其他几个姑娘团团把我围住，硬是不让我走，说我昨天答应好在这儿吃饭，还得去树林子里采蘑菇。我行了个礼又坐下了。我感觉全身上下、连天灵盖都在冒火，再这样下去我可要翻脸了，老虎不发威真当我好欺负是不是？但是在女流之辈面前毕竟不好发作，于是碍着面子我又忍了下去，任凭她们胡来。
We sit down to dinner. The wounded officer, whose wound in the temple has affected the muscles of the left cheek, eats as though he had a bit in his mouth. I roll up little balls of bread, think about the dog licence, and, knowing the ungovernable violence of my temper, try to avoid speaking. Nadenka looks at me sympathetically.
我留下来吃了饭。那位负伤的大爷左脸受了影响，吃起饭来嘴里的东西总咽不干净。我撕着馒头皮，想着养犬证，自知道性中烈火容易伤人，只好管住嘴一句话不说。雅宁同情地看着我。
Soup, tongue and peas, roast fowl, and compôte. I have no appetite, but eat from politeness.
喝汤吃肉，果酱豌豆。我一点胃口没有，不过应付着吃点。
After dinner, while I am standing alone on the terrace, smoking, Nadenka’s mamma comes up to me, presses my hand, and says breathlessly:
吃完饭我走到门口抽烟，雅宁妈走到我身边，捏了我一把，和蚊子似的说道：
“Don’t despair, Nicolas! She has such a heart, . . . such a heart! . . .”
“小肃，别灰心！她是个好孩子…打着灯笼都难找哪!”
We go towards the wood to gather mushrooms. Varenka hangs on my arm and clings to my side. My sufferings are indescribable, but I bear them in patience.
我们去到林子里采蘑菇。娅宁又捆在我胳膊上。我难受得没处诉苦，只能往肚子里咽。
We enter the wood.
我们进了林子。
“Listen, Monsieur Nicolas,” says Nadenka, sighing. “Why are you so melancholy? And why are you so silent?”
“阿肃，阿肃，”雅宁哀叹道，“你为什么不高兴？你怎么连句话也不说？”
Extraordinary girl she is, really! What can I talk to her about? What have we in common?
绝了，像她这样的还真不好找！我跟她有什么好聊的？我们是一路人吗？
“Oh, do say something!” she begs me.
“你说句话呀！”她乞求道。
I begin trying to think of something popular, something within the range of her understanding. After a moment’s thought I say:
我绞尽脑汁，想找出一句她听得懂的话。不一会儿我说道：
“The cutting down of forests has been greatly detrimental to the prosperity of Russia. . . .”
“森林的砍伐对我国的富强来说是极大的损害……”
“Nicolas,” sighs Nadenka, and her nose begins to turn red, “Nicolas, I see you are trying to avoid being open with me. . . . You seem to wish to punish me by your silence. Your feeling is not returned, and you wish to suffer in silence, in solitude . . . it is too awful, Nicolas!” she cries impulsively seizing my hand, and I see her nose beginning to swell. “What would you say if the girl you love were to offer you her eternal friendship?”
“阿肃。”雅宁的鼻子又红了，“阿肃，你就是成心不想好好说话……你就是想让我难受。就因为我没有接受你，所以你才不说话，把什么都憋在心里……别这样，阿肃！”她攥住我的手高喊道，鼻孔清晰可见又开始放大了，“我们做一辈子朋友不好吗？”
I mutter something incoherent, for I really can’t think what to say to her.
我随便应了句什么，我对她实在没话说了。
In the first place, I’m not in love with any girl at all; in the second, what could I possibly want her eternal friendship for? and, thirdly, I have a violent temper.
第一，我没有恋爱。第二，我跟她交哪门子朋友？第三，我是个暴脾气。
Mashenka (or Varenka) hides her face in her hands and murmurs, as though to herself:
雅婷（要么是娅宁）拿手捂住脸，小声咕哝道：
“He will not speak; . . . it is clear that he will have me make the sacrifice! I cannot love him, if my heart is still another’s . . . but . . . I will think of it. . . . Very good, I will think of it . . . I will prove the strength of my soul, and perhaps, at the cost of my own happiness, I will save this man from suffering!” . . .
“还是不说话…他这是要让我做个了断啊！我已经有喜欢的人了，怎么能再喜欢他…可是…好吧，好吧，我得坚强，哪怕搭上我自己的幸福，我也要帮他从痛苦中解脱！”
I can make nothing out of all this. It seems some special sort of puzzle.
我一句都没听懂。她的话我听着像天书。
We go farther into the wood and begin picking mushrooms. We are perfectly silent the whole time. Nadenka’s face shows signs of inward struggle. I hear the bark of dogs; it reminds me of my dissertation, and I sigh heavily. Between the trees I catch sight of the wounded officer limping painfully along. The poor fellow’s right leg is lame from his wound, and on his left arm he has one of the variegated young ladies. His face expresses resignation to destiny.
我们走入深林，采起了蘑菇，一句话都没说。雅宁满脸的思想斗争。我听见几声狗叫，又想起我那篇论文，伤感地叹了声气。我瞅见那位大爷也在林子里一瘸一拐地走着，他打仗把右腿打瘸了，这会儿左胳膊上还搭着刚才的一个姑娘。大爷脸上写着四个字，“听天由命”。
We go back to the house to drink tea, after which we play croquet and listen to one of the variegated young ladies singing a song: “No, no, thou lovest not, no, no.” At the word “no” she twists her mouth till it almost touches one ear.
我们回屋喝茶，喝完茶打门球，打完球听一个姑娘吊嗓子：“亲爱的人儿，你，不，要，走。”唱“走”的时候她上嘴唇都快贴到鼻子眼了。
“Charmant!” wail the other young ladies, “Charmant!”
“好！”别的姑娘叫好道，“好！”
The evening comes on. A detestable moon creeps up behind the bushes. There is perfect stillness in the air, and an unpleasant smell of freshly cut hay. I take up my hat and try to get away.
说话就晚上了。草丛上升起一轮烦人的月亮。外面一点风都没有，四处弥漫着浓烈的干草味。我拿起帽子，准备开溜。
“I have something I must say to you!” Mashenka whispers to me significantly, “don’t go away!”
“别走！我有话和你说！”雅婷和我说了句悄悄话，聋子都听得见，“别走！”
I have a foreboding of evil, but politeness obliges me to remain. Mashenka takes my arm and leads me away to a garden walk. By this time her whole figure expresses conflict. She is pale and gasping for breath, and she seems absolutely set on pulling my right arm out of the socket. What can be the matter with her?
我感觉事情不妙，但出于礼貌还是乖乖等着。雅婷搂住我的胳膊，领我到花园转了一圈。很显然她思想斗争得更焦灼了。她脸都白了，气也喘不匀了，还跟我右胳膊较上了劲，仿佛不把它拽断就不算完似的。这都哪儿来的毛病？
“Listen!” she mutters. “No, I cannot! No! . . .” She tries to say something, but hesitates. Now I see from her face that she has come to some decision. With gleaming eyes and swollen nose she snatches my hand, and says hurriedly, “Nicolas, I am yours! Love you I cannot, but I promise to be true to you!”
“阿肃！”她悄声道，“我！我……”她欲言又止。能看出来她真的做了什么决定。只见她眼里发光，鼻子发胀，一把拉住我的手，匆匆说道：“阿肃，我是你的人了！虽然咱们走不到一起，但我发誓等你一辈子！”
Then she squeezes herself to my breast, and at once springs away.
说罢她往我胸口一撞，立马又蹦到三尺开外。
“Someone is coming,” she whispers. “Farewell! . . . To-morrow at eleven o’clock I will be in the arbour. . . . Farewell!”
“有人来了。”她低语道，“我走了！明天十一点亭子里见…我走了！”
And she vanishes. Completely at a loss for an explanation of her conduct and suffering from a painful palpitation of the heart, I make my way home. There the “Past and Future of the Dog Licence” is awaiting me, but I am quite unable to work. I am furious. . . . I may say, my anger is terrible. Damn it all! I allow no one to treat me like a boy, I am a man of violent temper, and it is not safe to trifle with me!
她就这么没影了。我揉着胸口一头雾水地回了家。那篇“论养犬证之沿革”还在等我，但我真没心思接着写了。我气坏了…不，我都快气死了。我咽不下这口气！拿我当小孩子耍有意思吗？老虎不发威真当我病猫啊！
When the maid comes in to call me to supper, I shout to her: “Go out of the room!” Such hastiness augurs nothing good.
用人来我屋喊我吃饭，我冲她大吼道：“滚！”生这么大的气准没好事。
