IN the year in which my story begins I had a job at a little station on one of our southwestern railways. —
在故事开始的那年，我在我们西南铁路的一个小车站上班。 —

Whether I had a gay or a dull life at the station you can judge from the fact that for fifteen miles round there was not one human habitation, not one woman, not one decent tavern; —
你可以从这样一个事实来判断我在车站的生活是愉快还是沉闷，15英里范围内没有一个人居住，没有一个女人，没有一家体面的客栈； —

and in those days I was young, strong, hot-headed, giddy, and foolish. —
那时候，我年轻、强壮、性急、轻率和愚蠢。 —

The only distraction I could possibly find was in the windows of the passenger trains, and in the vile vodka which the Jews drugged with thorn-apple. —
我唯一能找到的消遣是看旅客列车的窗户，还有犹太人用曼陀罗药草调制的恶心伏特加。 —

Sometimes there would be a glimpse of a woman’s head at a carriage window, and one would stand like a statue without breathing and stare at it until the train turned into an almost invisible speck; —
有时会看到有女人在车窗里探出头，我会像一尊雕像一样站着不呼吸，盯着它看，直到列车变成一个几乎看不见的小点； —

or one would drink all one could of the loathsome vodka till one was stupefied and did not feel the passing of the long hours and days. —
或者我会喝尽所有的可怕伏特加，直到麻木，也不知道漫长的时光流逝。 —

Upon me, a native of the north, the steppe produced the effect of a deserted Tatar cemetery. —
对我这个北方人来说，草原就像一座被抛弃的鞑靼人墓地。 —

In the summer the steppe with its solemn calm, the monotonous chur of the grasshoppers, the transparent moonlight from which one could not hide, reduced me to listless melancholy; —
在夏天，草原的庄严宁静、蝈蝈的单调鸣叫、透明的月光让我感到无精打采； —

and in the winter the irreproachable whiteness of the steppe, its cold distance, long nights, and howling wolves oppressed me like a heavy nightmare. —
冬天，草原洁白无瑕、寒冷的遥远、漫长的黑夜和嚎叫的狼压得我喘不过气来。 —

There were several people living at the station: —
车站上住着几个人： —

my wife and I, a deaf and scrofulous telegraph clerk, and three watchmen. —
我和我的妻子、一个聋哑的患有恶性淋巴瘤的电报员，还有三个护卫。 —

My assistant, a young man who was in consumption, used to go for treatment to the town, where he stayed for months at a time, leaving his duties to me together with the right of pocketing his salary. —
我的助手，一个患结核病的年轻人经常去镇上治疗，一个月也会在那里呆上好几个月，把他的职责留给我，还有把他的工资揣进自己口袋的权利。 —

I had no children, no cake would have tempted visitors to come and see me, and I could only visit other officials on the line, and that no oftener than once a month.
我没有孩子，没有什么能诱使人来看我，我只能去看其他线路上的官员，也不会频繁，最多一个月一次。

I remember my wife and I saw the New Year in. —
我记得我和我的妻子一起度过了新年。 —

We sat at table, chewed lazily, and heard the deaf telegraph clerk monotonously tapping on his apparatus in the next room. —
我们坐在桌前，懒散地嚼着食物，听着邻居的聋哑电报员在隔壁房间里单调地敲击报警器。 —

I had already drunk five glasses of drugged vodka, and, propping my heavy head on my fist, thought of my overpowering boredom from which there was no escape, while my wife sat beside me and did not take her eyes off me. —
我已经喝了五杯加了药的伏特加，用手支撑着沉重的头，想着那无法摆脱的无聊，而我身边的妻子一直盯着我。 —

She looked at me as no one can look but a woman who has nothing in this world but a handsome husband. —
她看着我，就像只有一个漂亮丈夫的女人才能看着的那样。 —

She loved me madly, slavishly, and not merely my good looks, or my soul, but my sins, my ill-humor and boredom, and even my cruelty when, in drunken fury, not knowing how to vent my ill-humor, I tormented her with reproaches.
她疯狂地爱着我，奴性地爱着我，不仅仅是因为我的俊俏外表，或者我的灵魂，还有我的罪恶，我的坏脾气和无聊，甚至是我在酒后愤怒时变得残忍，不知如何发泄坏脾气时，我用责备折磨她。

In spite of the boredom which was consuming me, we were preparing to see the New Year in with exceptional festiveness, and were awaiting midnight with some impatience. —
尽管无聊折磨着我，我们正准备以异常的节日气氛迎接新年，渴望着午夜的到来。 —

The fact is, we had in reserve two bottles of champagne, the real thing, with the label of Veuve Clicquot; —
事实是，我们预备了两瓶香槟，真正的Veuve Clicquot标签; —

this treasure I had won the previous autumn in a bet with the station-master of D. when I was drinking with him at a christening. —
去年秋天，我在D地方与站长一起喝酒时赢得了这笔宝贵的赌注。 —

It sometimes happens during a lesson in mathematics, when the very air is still with boredom, a butterfly flutters into the class-room; —
有时在数学课上，当教室里空气凝固在无聊中时，一只蝴蝶飞进了教室; —

the boys toss their heads and begin watching its flight with interest, as though they saw before them not a butterfly but something new and strange; —
男孩们摇摇头，开始感兴趣地注视它的飞行，好像他们眼前不是一只蝴蝶，而是什么新奇的东西; —

in the same way ordinary champagne, chancing to come into our dreary station, roused us. —
同样，普通的香槟来到我们单调的车站里，激起了我们的兴奋。 —

We sat in silence looking alternately at the clock and at the bottles.
我们沉默地坐着，轮流看钟和酒瓶。

When the hands pointed to five minutes to twelve I slowly began uncorking a bottle. —
当指针指向午夜前五分钟时，我慢慢开始拔掉一个瓶塞。 —

I don’t know whether I was affected by the vodka, or whether the bottle was wet, but all I remember is that when the cork flew up to the ceiling with a bang, my bottle slipped out of my hands and fell on the floor. —
我不知道是伏特加起作用了，还是瓶子太潮湿，但我唯一记得的是，当软木塞带着一声巨响飞向天花板时，我的酒瓶从手中滑落在地。 —

Not more than a glass of the wine was spilt, as I managed to catch the bottle and put my thumb over the foaming neck.
酒溅出的不多，因为我设法抓住瓶子，用大拇指堵住了冒泡的瓶口。

“Well, may the New Year bring you happiness!” I said, filling two glasses. “Drink!”
“新年快乐！”我说着，倒满两杯。 “干杯！”

My wife took her glass and fixed her frightened eyes on me. —
我的妻子拿起她的杯子，并将她惊恐的眼睛盯着我。 —

Her face was pale and wore a look of horror.
她的脸色苍白，带着恐惧的表情。

“Did you drop the bottle?” she asked.
“你把瓶子掉了吗？”她问道。

“Yes. But what of that?”
“是的。但那又怎样？”

“It’s unlucky,” she said, putting down her glass and turning paler still. —
“这是不吉利的。”她放下玻璃杯，脸色变得更苍白。 —

“It’s a bad omen. It means that some misfortune will happen to us this year.”
“这是个不祥之兆。意味着今年会有不幸降临到我们身上。”

“What a silly thing you are,” I sighed. —
“你真是傻瓜，”我叹息道。 —

“You are a clever woman, and yet you talk as much nonsense as an old nurse. Drink.”
“你是一个聪明的女人，却说出和老保姆一样的胡话。喝吧。”

“God grant it is nonsense, but… something is sure to happen! You’ll see.”
“愿这只是胡言乱语，但是…一定会发生什么事的！你等着瞧。”

She did not even sip her glass, she moved away and sank into thought. —
她甚至都没有喝一口，走开后陷入了沉思。 —

I uttered a few stale commonplaces about superstition, drank half a bottle, paced up and down, and then went out of the room.
我说了几句陈词滥调关于迷信的话，喝了半瓶酒，来回踱步，然后走出了房间。

Outside there was the still frosty night in all its cold, inhospitable beauty. —
外面是那寒冷的冻夜，展现着它冷漠而美丽的一面。 —

The moon and two white fluffy clouds beside it hung just over the station, motionless as though glued to the spot, and looked as though waiting for something. —
月亮和两朵白色的蓬松云朵就悬挂在站台上方，静止不动，仿佛在等待着什么。 —

A faint transparent light came from them and touched the white earth softly, as though afraid of wounding her modesty, and lighted up everything—the snowdrifts, the embankment…. It was still.
一缕微弱的透明光芒从云朵中散发出来，轻轻触碰着洁白的大地，像是怕伤害她的羞涩，照亮了一切——雪堆，路堤…一切都宁静无声。

I walked along the railway embankment.
我沿着铁路堤岸走着。

“Silly woman,” I thought, looking at the sky spangled with brilliant stars. —
“愚蠢的女人，”我想着，看着满布明亮星星的天空。 —

“Even if one admits that omens sometimes tell the truth, what evil can happen to us? —
“即使承认征兆有时确实会说真话，我们会遭受什么不幸呢？ —

The misfortunes we have endured already, and which are facing us now, are so great that it is difficult to imagine anything worse. —
我们已经忍受了如此巨大的不幸，正面临着更难以想象的事情。 —

What further harm can you do a fish which has been caught and fried and served up with sauce?”
“对于已经被捕捉、炸熟并配有酱汁的鱼，你还能做些什么坏事呢？”

A poplar covered with hoar frost looked in the bluish darkness like a giant wrapt in a shroud. —
一棵挂满霜的白杨在苍蓝的黑暗中看起来像是被裹着寿衣的巨人。 —

It looked at me sullenly and dejectedly, as though like me it realized its loneliness. —
它阴郁而沮丧地看着我，似乎像我一样意识到了它的孤独。 —

I stood a long while looking at it.
我站了很久看着它。

“My youth is thrown away for nothing, like a useless cigarette end,” I went on musing. —
“我的青春像一支无用的烟蒂被白白浪费了，”我继续沉思道。 —

“My parents died when I was a little child; —
“我的父母在我还是个小孩的时候就去世了； —

I was expelled from the high school, I was born of a noble family, but I have received neither education nor breeding, and I have no more knowledge than the humblest mechanic. —
我被高中开除了，我生来显赫，但我既没有受过教育，也没有接受过培养，和最普通的技工一样也没有什么学问。 —

I have no refuge, no relations, no friends, no work I like. —
我没有避风港，没有亲人，没有朋友，没有喜欢的工作。 —

I am not fitted for anything, and in the prime of my powers I am good for nothing but to be stuffed into this little station; —
我适合任何事情，而在我壮年时期我除了被塞进这小小的车站外什么也做不了； —

I have known nothing but trouble and failure all my life. —
我整个生活只知道麻烦和失败。 —

What can happen worse?”
还有什么更糟的事情可以发生？”

Red lights came into sight in the distance. A train was moving towards me. —
远处出现了红灯。一辆火车向我驶来。 —

The slumbering steppe listened to the sound of it. —
沉睡的大草原聆听着这声音。 —

My thoughts were so bitter that it seemed to me that I was thinking aloud and that the moan of the telegraph wire and the rumble of the train were expressing my thoughts.
我的想法如此苦涩，以至于我觉得自己在大声思考，电报线的哀鸣和火车的隆隆声仿佛在表达我的想法。

“What can happen worse? The loss of my wife?” I wondered. “Even that is not terrible. —
“还能有什么更糟糕的事情发生？失去我的妻子？”我想到。“即便那也不算可怕。” —

It’s no good hiding it from my conscience: I don’t love my wife. —
我不能瞒着良心: 我不爱我的妻子。 —

I married her when I was only a wretched boy; —
我只不过是一个可怜的孩子时就和她结了婚; —

now I am young and vigorous, and she has gone off and grown older and sillier, stuffed from her head to her heels with conventional ideas. —
现在我年轻有活力，而她却变老变傻，头脑到脚跟都塞满了常规的观念。 —

What charm is there in her maudlin love, in her hollow chest, in her lusterless eyes? —
她的爱意情深有何吸引力呢，她的空洞胸膛，她无光的眼睛呢？ —

I put up with her, but I don’t love her. What can happen? —
我容忍着她，但我不爱她。会有什么事情发生呢？ —

My youth is being wasted, as the saying is, for a pinch of snuff. —
如俗话所说，我年轻的时光正在被浪费了，就像一点儿鼻烟。 —

Women flit before my eyes only in the carriage windows, like falling stars. —
女人们只在我的视线里飘过，如同马车窗户里的流星。 —

Love I never had and have not. My manhood, my courage, my power of feeling are going to ruin. —
爱我从未拥有过，也不存在。我的男子气概，我的勇气，我的感受力都在毁灭。 —

… Everything is being thrown away like dirt, and all my wealth here in the steppe is not worth a farthing.”
…所有的东西像垃圾一样被丢失，而在草原这里我所有的财富一文不值。

The train rushed past me with a roar and indifferently cast the glow of its red lights upon me. —
火车呼啸而过，漠不关心地投下红灯的光芒在我身上。 —

I saw it stop by the green lights of the station, stop for a minute and rumble off again. —
我看到它在绿灯的车站停下，停留了一分钟又轰鸣着离开了。 —

After walking a mile and a half I went back. Melancholy thoughts haunted me still. —
走了一英里半后，我回头。忧郁的思绪仍然萦绕在我心头。 —

Painful as it was to me, yet I remember I tried as it were to make my thoughts still gloomier and more melancholy. —
虽然对我来说很痛苦，但我记得我试图使我的思绪更加阴郁和忧郁。 —

You know people who are vain and not very clever have moments when the consciousness that they are miserable affords them positive satisfaction, and they even coquet with their misery for their own entertainment. —
你知道那些虚荣而不太聪明的人有时会意识到自己很悲惨时感到一种积极的满足，甚至为了自己的娱乐而和他们的悲惨玩弄。 —

There was a great deal of truth in what I thought, but there was also a great deal that was absurd and conceited, and there was something boyishly defiant in my question: —
在我的想法中有很多真理，但也有很多荒谬和自以为是的东西，而我的问题中还带着一种少年般的挑衅： —

“What could happen worse?”
“还有什么更糟的事情能发生吗？”

“And what is there to happen?” I asked myself. “I think I have endured everything. —
“还能发生什么？” 我自问。 “我想我已经忍受了一切。 —

I’ve been ill, I’ve lost money, I get reprimanded by my superiors every day, and I go hungry, and a mad wolf has run into the station yard. —
我生病过，丢过钱，每天被上司训斥，饥肠辘辘，还有一只疯狂的狼跑进了车站院子。 —

What more is there? I have been insulted, humiliated,… and I have insulted others in my time. —
还有什么？我被侮辱，被羞辱过，……而我也曾经羞辱过别人。 —

I have not been a criminal, it is true, but I don’t think I am capable of crime—I am not afraid of being hauled up for it.”
我虽然没有犯罪，但我觉得自己不是犯罪的材料——我不怕因犯罪而被捕。”

The two little clouds had moved away from the moon and stood at a little distance, looking as though they were whispering about something which the moon must not know. —
两朵小云移开了月亮，站在一段距离的地方，看起来好像在低声交谈着，月亮不能知道的事情。 —

A light breeze was racing across the steppe, bringing the faint rumble of the retreating train.
一阵微风飞过草原，带来远处列车的微弱隆隆声。

My wife met me at the doorway. Her eyes were laughing gaily and her whole face was beaming with good-humor.
妻子在门口迎接我。她的眼睛笑得开心，整张脸都充满了善意的光芒。

“There is news for you!” she whispered. —
“有消息要告诉你！”她低声说道。 —

“Make haste, go to your room and put on your new coat; —
“赶快，去你的房间，穿上新外套； —

we have a visitor.”
我们有客人。”

“What visitor?”
“什么客人？”

“Aunt Natalya Petrovna has just come by the train.”
“娜塔莉亚·彼得罗夫娜刚刚乘火车到了。”

“What Natalya Petrovna?”
“那个娜塔莉娅·彼得罗芙娜是谁？”

“The wife of my uncle Semyon Fyodoritch. You don’t know her. She is a very nice, good woman.”
“是我叔叔谢缅瓦·费奥多里奇的妻子。你不认识她。她是一个非常好的、善良的女人。”

Probably I frowned, for my wife looked grave and whispered rapidly:
可能我皱了皱眉头，因为我的妻子脸上显得严肃，迅速地低声说道：

“Of course it is queer her having come, but don’t be cross, Nikolay, and don’t be hard on her. —
“虽然她来得有些奇怪，但别生气，尼古拉，也不要对她态度强硬。 —

She is unhappy, you know; Uncle Semyon Fyodoritch really is ill-natured and tyrannical, it is difficult to live with him. —
她很不幸，你知道；谢缅瓦·费奥多里奇真的很刻薄和专制，和他在一起生活很困难。 —

She says she will only stay three days with us, only till she gets a letter from her brother.”
她说她只会和我们呆三天，只待收到她弟弟的来信。”

My wife whispered a great deal more nonsense to me about her despotic uncle; —
我的妻子对我说了更多关于她专横叔叔的废话； —

about the weakness of mankind in general and of young wives in particular; —
关于人类一般和年轻妻子们特别的软弱； —

about its being our duty to give shelter to all, even great sinners, and so on. —
关于我们有义务给所有人提供庇护，甚至是众多大罪犯等等。 —

Unable to make head or tail of it, I put on my new coat and went to make acquaintance with my “aunt.”
要不了多久，我穿上我的新外套，去和我的“阿姨”认识一下。

A little woman with large black eyes was sitting at the table. —
一位黑眼睛的小女人正坐在桌子旁。 —

My table, the gray walls, my roughly-made sofa, everything to the tiniest grain of dust seemed to have grown younger and more cheerful in the presence of this new, young, beautiful, and dissolute creature, who had a most subtle perfume about her. —
我的桌子，灰色的墙壁，我粗制的沙发，所有的一切，甚至每一粒灰尘，在这位新来的、年轻的、美丽而放荡的人的存在下似乎都变得更年轻和更快乐了，她身上有一股极为微妙的香气。 —

And that our visitor was a lady of easy virtue I could see from her smile, from her scent, from the peculiar way in which she glanced and made play with her eyelashes, from the tone in which she talked with my wife—a respectable woman. —
我看她的微笑，她的香气，她怪异的眨眼和用眼睫毛勾引的方式，从她和我的妻子——一个尊敬的女人——交谈的语气，就可以看出我们的访客是个轻浮的女人。 —

There was no need to tell me she had run away from her husband, that her husband was old and despotic, that she was good-natured and lively; —
毫无疑问，她是从丈夫那里逃走的，她的丈夫又老又专制，她本人又善良又活泼； —

I took it all in at the first glance. Indeed, it is doubtful whether there is a man in all Europe who cannot spot at the first glance a woman of a certain temperament.
在第一眼就了解了一切。实际上，欧洲恐怕没有一个人在第一眼就辨认不出某种气质的女人。

“I did not know I had such a big nephew!” said my aunt, holding out her hand to me and smiling.
“我不知道我有这么一个大侄子！”我的阿姨说着伸出手来，微笑着。

“And I did not know I had such a pretty aunt,” I answered.
“而我也不知道我有这么漂亮的阿姨，”我回答道。

Supper began over again. The cork flew with a bang out of the second bottle, and my aunt swallowed half a glassful at a gulp, and when my wife went out of the room for a moment my aunt did not scruple to drain a full glass. —
晚餐重新开始了。第二瓶的瓶塞猛然弹出，我的阿姨一口气喝了半杯，当我的妻子出去一会儿的时候，我的阿姨毫不犹豫地喝下了整整一杯。 —

I was drunk both with the wine and with the presence of a woman. —
我既醉于酒，也醉于一个女人的存在。 —

Do you remember the song?
你还记得那首歌吗？

“Eyes black as pitch, eyes full of passion, Eyes burning bright and beautiful, How I love you, How I fear you!”
“黑眼睛，满是激情， 眼睛燃烧明亮而美丽， 我多么爱你， 我多么害怕你！”

I don’t remember what happened next. Anyone who wants to know how love begins may read novels and long stories; —
我不记得接下来发生了什么。任何想知道爱情如何开始的人可以阅读小说和长篇故事； —

I will put it shortly and in the words of the same silly song:
我将简短地用同样愚蠢的歌词表达：

“It was an evil hour When first I met you.”
“那是一个邪恶的时刻 当我第一次遇见你。”

Everything went head over heels to the devil. —
一切都乱了套。 —

I remember a fearful, frantic whirlwind which sent me flying round like a feather. —
我记得一阵可怕的、疯狂的旋风把我像羽毛一样地拂过。 —

It lasted a long while, and swept from the face of the earth my wife and my aunt herself and my strength. —
这持续了很长时间，把我的妻子和我的阿姨本人以及我的力量一起扫荡干净。 —

From the little station in the steppe it has flung me, as you see, into this dark street.
从草原上的小车站，它把我抛到了这条黑暗的街道上。

Now tell me what further evil can happen to me?
现在告诉我，还有什么更进一步的邪恶会降临在我身上？