IN THE AUTUMN of 1813, Nikolay married Princess Marya, and with his wife, and mother, and Sonya, took up his abode at Bleak Hills.
1813年秋天，尼古拉与玛丽亚公主结婚，他们与他的母亲和索尼娅一起定居在布里克山。

Within four years he had paid off the remainder of his debts without selling his wife’s estates, and coming into a small legacy on the death of a cousin, he repaid the loan he had borrowed from Pierre also.
四年内，他还清了剩余的债务，没有出售妻子的庄园，并在一个表亲去世后得到一笔小额遗产，他还清了他向皮埃尔借的贷款。

In another three years, by 1820, Nikolay had so well managed his pecuniary affairs that he was able to buy a small estate adjoining Bleak Hills, and was opening negotiations for the repurchase of his ancestral estate of Otradnoe, which was his cherished dream.
三年后的1820年，尼古拉管理财务得当，能够购买与布里克山相邻的一小块土地，并开始谈判回购他心爱的祖传庄园奥特拉德诺耶。

Though he took up the management of the land at first from necessity, he soon acquired such a passion for agriculture, that it became his favourite and almost his exclusive interest. —
尽管一开始他管理土地是出于需要，但他很快对农业产生了强烈的热情，它成为了他最喜欢的事情，几乎成为他唯一的兴趣。 —

Nikolay was a plain farmer, who did not like innovations, especially English ones, just then coming into vogue, laughed at all theoretical treatises on agriculture, did not care for factories, for raising expensive produce, or for expensive imported seed. —
尼古拉是一个普通的农民，不喜欢创新，尤其是流行起来的英国创新，他嘲笑所有关于农业的理论著作，不关心工厂、生产昂贵的农产品，也不关心昂贵的进口种子。 —

He did not, in fact, make a hobby of any one part of the work, but kept the welfare of the estate as a whole always before his eyes. —
事实上，他并没有把工作的某一部分作为爱好，而是始终将庄园的福祉作为整体放在眼前。 —

The object most prominent to his mind in the estate was not the azote nor the oxygen in the soil or the atmosphere, not a particular plough nor manure, but the principal agent by means of which the azote and the oxygen and the plough and the manure were all made effectual—that is, the labourer, the peasant. —
在庄园中，他最关注的对象不是土壤或大气中的氮氧化物，也不是特定的犁或肥料，而是这些氮氧化物、犁和肥料得以有效的主要方式—工人，农民。 —

When Nikolay took up the management of the land, and began to go into its different branches, the peasant attracted his chief attention. —
当尼古拉接手管理土地并开始研究其不同的领域时，农民吸引了他最大的关注。 —

He looked on the peasant, not merely as a tool, but also as an end in himself, and as his critic. —
他将农民视为一种工具，也是一种目标，并将其作为他的批评者。 —

At first he studied the peasant attentively, trying to understand what he wanted, what he thought good and bad; —
起初，他认真研究农民，试图了解他们想要什么，认为什么好和不好。 —

and he only made a pretence of making arrangements and giving orders, while he was in reality learning from the peasants their methods and their language and their views of what was good and bad. —
他只是假装安排和下达命令，而实际上是在向农民学习他们的方法、语言以及他们对好坏的看法。 —

And it was only when he understood the tastes and impulses of the peasant, when he had learned to speak his speech and to grasp the hidden meaning behind his words, when he felt himself in alliance with him, that he began boldly to direct him—to perform, that is, towards him the office expected of him. —
只有当他了解了农民的口味和冲动，学会了说他们的话，并理解他们言语背后的隐藏含义，感受到了与他们的联盟，他才大胆地引导他们，即向他们履行所期望的职责。 —

And Nikolay’s management produced the most brilliant results.
尼古拉的管理取得了最辉煌的结果。

On taking over the control of the property, Nikolay had at once by some unerring gift of insight appointed as bailiff, as village elder, and as delegate the very men whom the peasants would have elected themselves had the choice been in their hands, and the authority once given them was never withdrawn. —
接管财产后，尼古拉立即凭借某种不可思议的洞察力，任命了农民本人若有选择权，他们会选举出来的保管人、村长和代表，并且一旦授予权力，就不会再收回。 —

Before investigating the chemical constituents of manure, or going into “debit and credit” (as he liked sarcastically to call book-keeping), he found out the number of cattle the peasants possessed, and did his utmost to increase the number. —
在调查肥料化学成分或进行“借方与贷方”（他喜欢讽刺地称之为簿记）之前，他先了解了农民拥有的牲畜数量，并尽力增加这个数量。 —

He kept the peasants’ families together on a large scale, and would not allow them to split up into separate households. —
他大规模地保持农民家庭的团聚，不允许他们分开成独立的家庭。 —

The indolent, the dissolute, and the feeble he was equally hard upon and tried to expel them from the community. —
对于懒惰、放荡和脆弱的人，他同样严厉对待，并试图将他们驱逐出社区。 —

At the sowing and the carrying of the hay and corn, he watched over his own and the peasants’ fields with absolutely equal care. —
在播种和收割的过程中，他同样细心照料自己和农民的田地。 —

And few landowners had fields so early and so well sown and cut, and few had such crops as Nikolay.
几乎没有哪个地主的田地能够像尼古拉的一样早期和整齐地播种和收割，也没有几个地主的庄稼像他的一样好。

He did not like to have anything to do with the house-serfs, he called them parasites, and everybody said that he demoralised and spoiled them. —
他不喜欢与附庸的佣人打交道，他称他们为寄生虫，所有人都说他有败坏和糟蹋他们的倾向。 —

When any order had to be given in regard to a house-serf, especially when one had to be punished, he was always in a state of indecision and asked advice of every one in the house. —
当涉及对附庸佣人下达命令，特别是当需要惩罚时，他总是犹豫不决，向屋内的每个人请教。 —

But whenever it was possible to send a house-serf for a soldier in place of a peasant, he did so without the smallest compunction. —
但是只要可以派遣一个家仆代替农民当兵，他就毫不犹豫地这么做了。 —

In all his dealings with the peasants, he never experienced the slightest hesitation. —
在与农民打交道时，他从未犹豫过一丝一毫。 —

Every order he gave would, he knew, be approved by the greater majority of them.
他知道自己下达的每一个命令，都会得到绝大多数人的认可。

He never allowed himself either to punish a man by adding to his burdens, or to reward him by lightening his tasks simply at the prompting of his own wishes. —
他从不随意加重一个人的负担来惩罚他，也不随意减轻一个人的任务来奖励他。 —

He could not have said what his standard was of what he ought and ought not to do; —
他无法说出自己对该做和不该做的事情有什么标准； —

but there was a standard firm and rigid in his soul.
但是，在他的内心深处，有一个坚定而严格的标准。

Often talking of some failure or irregularity, he would complain of “our Russian peasantry,” and he imagined that he could not bear the peasants.
经常谈论一些失败或不正常的事情时，他会抱怨“我们的俄罗斯农民”，而他自己却觉得无法忍受农民们。

But with his whole soul he did really love “our Russian peasantry,” and their ways; —
但是他真心地热爱“我们的俄罗斯农民”和他们的方式； —

and it was through that he had perceived and adopted the only method of managing the land which could be productive of good results.
正是通过这一点，他发现并采取了管理土地的唯一可能产生好结果的方法。

Countess Marya was jealous of this passion of her husband’s for agriculture, and regretted she could not share it. —
玛丽亚伯爵对丈夫对农业的热情感到嫉妒，并为自己无法分享这种热情而感到遗憾。 —

But she was unable to comprehend the joys and disappointments he met with in that world apart that was so alien to her. —
但是她无法理解他在那个与她如此陌生的世界里所遇到的喜悦与失望。 —

She could not understand why he used to be so particularly eager and happy when after getting up at dawn and spending the whole morning in the fields or the threshing-floor he came back to tea with her from the sowing, the mowing, or the harvest. —
她无法理解为什么他会在从早上起床到上午整个时间在田地或打谷场里，然后从播种、收割或收获中回到她身边喝茶时，会如此急切和开心。 —

She could not understand why he was so delighted when he told her with enthusiasm of the well-to-do, thrifty peasant Matvey Ermishin, who had been up all night with his family, carting his sheaves, and had all harvested when no one else had begun carrying. —
她无法理解为什么他在兴奋地告诉她一个富裕、节俭的农民马特维·耶尔米辛的时候，他感到如此高兴，这个农民在整个晚上和家人一起忙碌，运送庄稼，而其他人都还没有开始赶收。 —

She could not understand why, stepping out of the window on to the balcony, he smiled under his moustaches and winked so gleefully when a warm, fine rain began to fall on his young oats that were suffering from the drought, or why, when a menacing cloud blew over in mowing or harvest time, he would come in from the barn red, sunburnt, and perspiring, with the smell of wormwood in his hair, and rubbing his hands joyfully would say: —
当他踏出窗户走到阳台时，她不理解他为什么那么愉悦地笑着，眉毛下挑着，当温暖细雨洒在他的幼苗上时，它们正遭受干旱的折磨。 —

“Come, another day of this and my lot, and the peasants’ too, will all be in the barn.”
或者为什么，当一朵威胁性的乌云在收割或丰收季节吹来时，他会红扑扑的、晒黑的汗流浃背，头发上弥漫着苦艾的气味，满怀喜悦地揉着手，说道：“来吧，再有一天这样的天气，我和农民们都将寄宿在谷仓里。”

Still less could she understand how it was that with his good heart and everlasting readiness to anticipate her wishes, he would be thrown almost into despair when she brought him petitions from peasants or their wives who had appealed to her to be let off tasks, why it was that he, her good-natured Nikolay, obstinately refused her, angrily begging her not to meddle in his business. —
更不理解的是，他心地善良，总是乐于满足她的愿望，却会倍感沮丧，当她给他带来农民或他们妻子的请愿时，请求放他们免去一些任务，他为什么她的好心脾气反而固执地拒绝，愤怒地要求她不要插手他的事务。 —

She felt that he had a world apart, that was intensely dear to him, governed by laws of its own which she did not understand.
她感觉到他有一个完全独立的世界，对他来说无比珍贵，有着她无法理解的自己的规则。

Sometimes trying to understand him she would talk to him of the good work he was doing in striving for the good of his serfs; —
有时她试图理解他，会对他说他为了农奴们的利益而努力，为了他们的善行。 —

but at this he was angry and answered: “Not in the least; it never even entered my head; —
但是他会生气地回答：“一点都不是，我甚至没有想过； —

and for their good I would not lift my little finger. —
为了他们的利益，我也不会动一根手指。” —

That’s all romantic nonsense and old wives’ cackle—all that doing good to one’s neighbour. —
这都是浪漫的胡说八道和老婆婆们的闲言碎语，都是为了邻居做好事所说的。 —

I don’t want our children to be beggars; I want to build up our fortunes in my lifetime; —
我不想让我们的孩子成为乞丐；我想在我的一生中积累财富； —

that is all. And to do that one must have discipline, one must have strictness … So there! —
就是这样。而要做到这一点，就必须要有纪律，要有严格的要求……就是这样！ —

” he would declare, clenching his sanguine fist. —
他会咬牙切齿地宣称。 —

“And justice too—of course,” he would add, “because if the peasant is naked and hungry, and has but one poor horse, he can do no good for himself or me.”
“还有正义——当然”，他会补充说，“因为如果农民赤裸和饥饿，只有一匹瘦弱的马，他无法为自己或我做任何好事。”

And doubtless because Nikolay did not allow himself to entertain the idea that he was doing anything for the sake of others, or for the sake of virtue, everything he did was fruitful. —
无疑是因为尼古拉没有让自己沉浸在为别人，或为了美德而做任何事情的想法中，他所做的一切都是富有成果的。 —

His fortune rapidly increased; the neighbouring serfs came to beg him to purchase them, and long after his death the peasantry preserved a reverent memory of his rule. —
他的财富迅速增加；邻近的农奴们纷纷求他购买他们，即使在他去世后，农民仍然对他的统治保持着崇敬的记忆。 —

“He was a master … The peasants’ welfare first and then his own. —
“他是一个主人……农民的福祉首先，然后才是他自己。 —

And to be sure he would make no abatements. —
而且他绝不会让步。 —

A real good master—that’s what he was!”
一个真正的好主人——他就是那样！”