A SALE of flowers was taking place in Count N.‘s greenhouses. —
在N伯爵的温室里举行了一次花卉的拍卖会。 —

The purchasers were few in number—a landowner who was a neighbor of mine, a young timber-merchant, and myself. —
购买者不多——有一个与我是邻居的地主、一个年轻的木材商和我。 —

While the workmen were carrying out our magnificent purchases and packing them into the carts, we sat at the entry of the greenhouse and chatted about one thing and another. —
当工人们把我们的豪华购买品搬出并打包装入马车时，我们坐在温室入口处闲聊着一些事情。 —

It is extremely pleasant to sit in a garden on a still April morning, listening to the birds, and watching the flowers brought out into the open air and basking in the sunshine.
在四月静谧的早晨坐在花园里，聆听着鸟鸣，看着花朵被带到户外晒着阳光，是非常愉快的。

The head-gardener, Mihail Karlovitch, a venerable old man with a full shaven face, wearing a fur waistcoat and no coat, superintended the packing of the plants himself, but at the same time he listened to our conversation in the hope of hearing something new. —
负责打包工作的首席园艺师米哈伊尔·卡洛维奇是一位年迈、脸上有胡须、穿着毛皮背心而不穿外套的令人尊敬的老人。 —

He was an intelligent, very good-hearted man, respected by everyone. —
他是一位聪明、善良的人，受到每个人的尊敬。 —

He was for some reason looked upon by everyone as a German, though he was in reality on his father’s side Swedish, on his mother’s side Russian, and attended the Orthodox church. —
大家却有一个误解，认为他是德国人，但事实上他父亲是瑞典人，母亲是俄罗斯人，还信奉东正教。 —

He knew Russian, Swedish, and German. He had read a good deal in those languages, and nothing one could do gave him greater pleasure than lending him some new book or talking to him, for instance, about Ibsen.
他懂俄语、瑞典语和德语。他在这些语言中读了不少书，借给他一本新书或跟他谈一谈，比如讨论易卜生，会给他带来极大的快乐。

He had his weaknesses, but they were innocent ones: —
他也有缺点，但都是无害的： —

he called himself the head gardener, though there were no under-gardeners; —
就算没有下属园丁，他自称为首席园艺师； —

the expression of his face was unusually dignified and haughty; —
他的面容异常庄严高傲； —

he could not endure to be contradicted, and liked to be listened to with respect and attention.
他无法容忍他人的反驳，喜欢受到尊敬和细心听取。

“That young fellow there I can recommend to you as an awful rascal,” said my neighbor, pointing to a laborer with a swarthy, gipsy face, who drove by with the water-barrel. —
“那边的那个年轻家伙，我可以告诉你，他简直是个可恶的流氓，”我的邻居指着一个褐色皮肤、驾着水桶经过的劳工说道。 —

“Last week he was tried in the town for burglary and was acquitted; —
“上周他在城里因入室行窃受审，被判无罪； —

they pronounced him mentally deranged, and yet look at him, he is the picture of health. —
他们宣判他精神失常，可你看看他，他却健康得一幅好模样。” —

Scoundrels are very often acquitted nowadays in Russia on grounds of abnormality and aberration, yet these acquittals, these unmistakable proofs of an indulgent attitude to crime, lead to no good. —
如今在俄罗斯，骗子们往往因异常和偏差而被宣判无罪，然而这些无罪裁决，这些明显表现出对犯罪的姑息态度的证明，却带来了不良后果。 —

They demoralize the masses, the sense of justice is blunted in all as they become accustomed to seeing vice unpunished, and you know in our age one may boldly say in the words of Shakespeare that in our evil and corrupt age virtue must ask forgiveness of vice.”
它们使群众失去道德准则，所有人变得习惯于看到邪恶不受惩罚，你知道在我们这个邪恶腐败的时代，正如莎士比亚所说的，美德必须请求邪恶的宽恕。

“That’s very true,” the merchant assented. —
“这一点说得很对，”商人表示同意。 —

“Owing to these frequent acquittals, murder and arson have become much more common. —
“由于这些频繁的无罪裁决，谋杀和纵火变得更加常见。 —

Ask the peasants.”
问问农民们吧。”

Mihail Karlovitch turned towards us and said:
米哈伊尔·卡尔洛维奇转身向我们说道：

“As far as I am concerned, gentlemen, I am always delighted to meet with these verdicts of not guilty. —
“就我而言，先生们，我总是很高兴看到这些无罪裁决。 —

I am not afraid for morality and justice when they say ‘Not guilty,’ but on the contrary I feel pleased. —
当他们说‘无罪’时，我不会为道德和正义感到害怕，相反，我会感到高兴。 —

Even when my conscience tells me the jury have made a mistake in acquitting the criminal, even then I am triumphant. —
即使我的良心告诉我陪审团在宣判罪犯无罪时犯了错误，即使在那种情况下我也会感到得意。 —

Judge for yourselves, gentlemen; if the judges and the jury have more faith in man than in evidence, material proofs, and speeches for the prosecution, is not that faith in man in itself higher than any ordinary considerations? —
请各位自行判断，先生们；如果法官和陪审团对人比对证据、物质证据和控方辩词更有信心，这种对人的信任本身难道不比任何普通的考量更高吗？ —

Such faith is only attainable by those few who understand and feel Christ.”
这种信仰只有那些了解并感受基督的少数人才能达到。”

“A fine thought,” I said.
“很好的想法，”我说道。

“But it’s not a new one. I remember a very long time ago I heard a legend on that subject. —
“但这并不是什么新鲜事。我记得很久以前我听说过一个关于这个主题的传说。 —

A very charming legend,” said the gardener, and he smiled. —
一个非常迷人的传说，”园丁说着，微笑着。 —

“I was told it by my grandmother, my father’s mother, an excellent old lady. —
“我是我祖母告诉我的，我父亲的母亲，一个优秀的老太太。” —

She told me it in Swedish, and it does not sound so fine, so classical, in Russian.”
她用瑞典语告诉了我这件事，但在俄语中并不那么好听，不那么经典。

But we begged him to tell it and not to be put off by the coarseness of the Russian language. —
但我们恳求他继续讲下去，不要因俄语的粗糙而打退堂鼓。 —

Much gratified, he deliberately lighted his pipe, looked angrily at the laborers, and began:
他感到很满意，有意地点燃了烟斗，愤怒地瞪着劳工们，然后开始说：

“There settled in a certain little town a solitary, plain, elderly gentleman called Thomson or Wilson—but that does not matter; —
“在某个小镇上，住着一个孤独、普通、年长的绅士，他的名字叫汤姆森或威尔逊，但这不重要； —

the surname is not the point. He followed an honorable profession: he was a doctor. —
姓氏并不重要。他从事荣誉的职业：他是一名医生。 —

He was always morose and unsociable, and only spoke when required by his profession. —
他总是阴郁而不合群，只有在工作需要时才会开口。 —

He never visited anyone, never extended his acquaintance beyond a silent bow, and lived as humbly as a hermit. —
他从不拜访任何人，也从不超越相互寒暄的沉默问候，过着像隐士一样谦逊的生活。 —

The fact was, he was a learned man, and in those days learned men were not like other people. —
事实上，他是一个学者，而在那个时代，学者不像其他人那样。 —

They spent their days and nights in contemplation, in reading and in healing disease, looked upon everything else as trivial, and had no time to waste a word. —
他们日夜在沉思、阅读和医疗疾病中度过，视其他一切为琐屑，没有时间浪费一言一语。 —

The inhabitants of the town understood this, and tried not to worry him with their visits and empty chatter. —
镇上的居民了解这一点，并且努力不去打扰他们的拜访和空洞的闲聊。 —

They were very glad that God had sent them at last a man who could heal diseases, and were proud that such a remarkable man was living in their town. —
他们非常高兴上帝终于送来了一个能治病的人，为此而自豪，因为这样一个杰出的人居住在他们的城镇。 —

‘He knows everything,’ they said about him.
“他什么都懂，”他们对他说。

“But that was not enough. They ought to have also said, ‘He loves everyone. —
—

’ In the breast of that learned man there beat a wonderful angelic heart. —
“但这还不够。他们也应该说，“他爱每一个人。” —

Though the people of that town were strangers and not his own people, yet he loved them like children, and did not spare himself for them. —
在那位学识渊博的男子的胸中，有一颗奇妙天使般的心脏在跳动。 —

He was himself ill with consumption, he had a cough, but when he was summoned to the sick he forgot his own illness he did not spare himself and, gasping for breath, climbed up the hills however high they might be. —
他本人患有消耗病，咳嗽不止，但当有人召唤他去看病时，他就忘记了自己的病情，不顾一切，喘着气，急忙爬上无论多高的山丘。 —

He disregarded the sultry heat and the cold, despised thirst and hunger. —
他无视酷热和严寒，蔑视口渴和饥饿。 —

He would accept no money and strange to say, when one of his patients died, he would follow the coffin with the relations, weeping.
他从不收取任何费用，更奇怪的是，当他的一个病人去世时，他会跟随亲人去送葬，泪流满面。

“And soon he became so necessary to the town that the inhabitants wondered how they could have got on before without the man. —
“很快，他成为镇上不可或缺的存在，居民们都惊讶地想不起过去没有这个人他们是怎么过的。 —

Their gratitude knew no bounds. Grown-up people and children, good and bad alike, honest men and cheats—all in fact, respected him and knew his value. —
他们的感激之情不断。无论老人还是孩子，善良者或恶棍，诚实人或骗子——实际上，所有人都尊重他，懂得他的价值。 —

In the little town and all the surrounding neighborhood there was no man who would allow himself to do anything disagreeable to him; —
在小镇和周围地区，没有一个人敢对他做出不愉快的事情； —

indeed, they would never have dreamed of it. —
事实上，他们根本就没想过这么做。 —

When he came out of his lodging, he never fastened the doors or windows, in complete confidence that there was no thief who could bring himself to do him wrong. —
当他离开住处时，从不锁门窗，完全相信没有贼会做对他不利的事。 —

He often had in the course of his medical duties to walk along the highroads, through the forests and mountains haunted by numbers of hungry vagrants; —
他在医务工作中常常要沿着公路、穿过森林和山脉，这些地方遍布着饥饿的流浪汉； —

but he felt that he was in perfect security.
但他感到自己完全安全。

“One night he was returning from a patient when robbers fell upon him in the forest, but when they recognized him, they took off their hats respectfully and offered him something to eat. —
“有一天晚上，他从一个病人那里回来，遭到了森林中的强盗袭击，但当他们认出他后，就毕恭毕敬地脱帽，并给他一些食物。 —

When he answered that he was not hungry, they gave him a warm wrap and accompanied him as far as the town, happy that fate had given them the chance in some small way to show their gratitude to the benevolent man. —
当他回答说他不饿时，他们送给他一件保暖的外套，并一直陪伴他直到镇上，为有机会以某种方式向这位仁慈的人表达感激而感到幸福。 —

Well, to be sure, my grandmother told me that even the horses and the cows and the dogs knew him and expressed their joy when they met him.
嗯，确实，我的祖母告诉过我，甚至马、牛和狗都认识他，当它们遇到他时会表达喜悦之情。

“And this man who seemed by his sanctity to have guarded himself from every evil, to whom even brigands and frenzied men wished nothing but good, was one fine morning found murdered. —
“而这位看似因其圣洁而使自己避免了一切邪恶的人，连土匪和疯狂的人也只希望他一切安好，可在一个清晨，他却被发现被谋杀。 —

Covered with blood, with his skull broken, he was lying in a ravine, and his pale face wore an expression of amazement. —
身上浴血，头骨破裂，躺在一个峡谷里，他苍白的脸上带着惊讶的表情。 —

Yes, not horror but amazement was the emotion that had been fixed upon his face when he saw the murderer before him. —
是的，当他看到凶手站在他面前时，不是恐惧，而是惊奇定格在了他的脸上。 —

You can imagine the grief that overwhelmed the inhabitants of the town and the surrounding districts. —
你可以想象这座小镇和周边地区的居民被压倒的悲痛之情。 —

All were in despair, unable to believe their eyes, wondering who could have killed the man. —
所有人都感到绝望，无法相信自己的眼睛，想知道谁会杀死这个人。 —

The judges who conducted the inquiry and examined the doctor’s body said: —
进行调查并检验医生尸体的法官们说： —

‘Here we have all the signs of a murder, but as there is not a man in the world capable of murdering our doctor, obviously it was not a case of murder, and the combination of evidence is due to simple chance. —
‘这里有一切谋杀的迹象，但世上没有一个人能够杀害我们的医生，显然这不是一桩谋杀案，证据的组合只是简单的巧合。 —

We must suppose that in the darkness he fell into the ravine of himself and was mortally injured.’
我们必须假设在黑暗中他自己跌入了峡谷并受到了致命的伤害。’

“The whole town agreed with this opinion. —
“整个镇上都同意这个观点。 —

The doctor was buried, and nothing more was said about a violent death. —
医生被埋葬了，关于暴力死亡再也没有人提起。 —

The existence of a man who could have the baseness and wickedness to kill the doctor seemed incredible. —
有人竟然会有卑劣和邪恶的行径杀死医生的存在似乎令人难以置信。 —

There is a limit even to wickedness, isn’t there?
邪恶也是有限度的，不是吗？

“All at once, would you believe it, chance led them to discovering the murderer. —
“突然，你能相信吗，巧合导致他们发现了凶手。 —

A vagrant who had been many times convicted, notorious for his vicious life, was seen selling for drink a snuff-box and watch that had belonged to the doctor. —
一个多次被定罪的流浪汉，以其卑劣的生活而臭名昭著，被看到出售医生曾经拥有的鼻烟盒和手表换取酒。 —

When he was questioned he was confused, and answered with an obvious lie. —
在被询问时，他显得困惑，并明显撒了谎。 —

A search was made, and in his bed was found a shirt with stains of blood on the sleeves, and a doctor’s lancet set in gold. —
进行了搜查，在他的床上发现了一件袖口有血迹的衬衫，以及一只镶金的医生柳叶刀。 —

What more evidence was wanted? They put the criminal in prison. —
还需要什么更多的证据？他们把罪犯关进了监狱。 —

The inhabitants were indignant, and at the same time said:
村民们愤怒了，同时说道：

“‘It’s incredible! It can’t be so! Take care that a mistake is not made; —
“‘太不可思议了！肯定没有这样的事情！小心出现错误； —

it does happen, you know, that evidence tells a false tale.’
你知道，证据有时会撒谎。

“At his trial the murderer obstinately denied his guilt. —
“在审判中，凶手顽固地否认了他的罪行。 —

Everything was against him, and to be convinced of his guilt was as easy as to believe that this earth is black; —
一切都指向他，相信他的罪行就像相信地球是黑色的那样容易； —

but the judges seem to have gone mad: they weighed every proof ten times, looked distrustfully at the witnesses, flushed crimson and sipped water. —
但是法官们似乎疯了：他们反复权衡每一个证据，不信任证人，脸红了起来，喝了口水。 —

… The trial began early in the morning and was only finished in the evening.
… 审判从早晨开始，直到傍晚才结束。

“‘Accused!’ the chief judge said, addressing the murderer, ‘the court has found you guilty of murdering Dr. So-and-so, and has sentenced you to….’
“‘被告！’首席法官对凶手说道，‘法庭已经认定你谋杀了某某博士，并判决你……’

“The chief judge meant to say ‘to the death penalty,’ but he dropped from his hands the paper on which the sentence was written, wiped the cold sweat from his face, and cried out:
“首席法官原本想说‘死刑’，但他手中的文件掉了，擦掉脸上的冷汗，喊道：

“‘No! May God punish me if I judge wrongly, but I swear he is not guilty. —
“‘不！愿上帝惩罚我如果我误判，但我发誓他不是凶手。 —

I cannot admit the thought that there exists a man who would dare to murder our friend the doctor! —
我无法接受这样的想法，认为存在一个敢谋杀我们的朋友博士的人！ —

A man could not sink so low!’
一个人不可能沦落至此！”

“‘There cannot be such a man!’ the other judges assented.
“‘不可能有这样的人！’其他法官附和道。

“‘No,’ the crowd cried. ‘Let him go!’
“‘不可能，’人群喊道。‘让他走吧！’

“The murderer was set free to go where he chose, and not one soul blamed the court for an unjust verdict. —
凶手被释放，随心所欲地离开，没有一个人责怪法庭下了一个不公正的判决。 —

And my grandmother used to say that for such faith in humanity God forgave the sins of all the inhabitants of that town. —
我的奶奶曾经说，对于那个镇上所有居民对人性的信仰，上帝都会宽恕他们一切的罪过。 —

He rejoices when people believe that man is His image and semblance, and grieves if, forgetful of human dignity, they judge worse of men than of dogs. —
当人们相信人是祂的形象和肖像时，祂感到欣慰，但如果他们忘记了人的尊严，对人的评价低于对狗的评价，祂会感到悲伤。 —

The sentence of acquittal may bring harm to the inhabitants of the town, but on the other hand, think of the beneficial influence upon them of that faith in man—a faith which does not remain dead, you know; —
宣判无罪可能会给镇上的居民带来伤害，但另一方面，想想那种对人的信仰对他们的积极影响吧——你知道，这种信仰不会停滞不前； —

it raises up generous feelings in us, and always impels us to love and respect every man. —
它会在我们心中激起慷慨的感情，总是驱使我们去爱和尊重每一个人。 —

Every man! And that is important.”
每一个人！ 这很重要。

Mihail Karlovitch had finished. My neighbor would have urged some objection, but the head-gardener made a gesture that signified that he did not like objections; —
米哈伊洛维奇说完了。我的邻居可能想反驳一些观点，但园艺主管的一个手势表明他不喜欢反驳； —

then he walked away to the carts, and, with an expression of dignity, went on looking after the packing.
然后他走向车辆，带着一种庄严的表情，继续检查包装情况。