REFLECTIONS OF A LANDLORD.
一个房东的思考。

Again striking his head against both doors, Nekhludoff went out into the street, where the pink and the white boys were waiting for him. —
尼哈列杜夫再次撞在两扇门上，走出街道，粉红色和白色的男孩正在等着他。 —

A few newcomers were standing with them. —
几个新来的人站在他们身边。 —

Among the women, of whom several had babies in their arms, was the thin woman with the baby who had the patchwork cap on its head. —
在女人们中间，有几个抱着小孩的，其中有一个瘦女人抱着一个戴着拼接帽子的婴儿。 —

She held lightly in her arms the bloodless infant, who kept strangely smiling all over its wizened little face, and continually moving its crooked thumbs.
她轻轻抱着那个没血色的婴儿，婴儿一直在怪笑，满脸皱巴巴地笑，不停地动着弯曲的拇指。

Nekhludoff knew the smile to be one of suffering. He asked who the woman was.
尼哈列杜夫知道这种微笑是痛苦的表现。他问这个女人是谁。

“It is that very Anisia I told you about,” said the elder boy.
“就是我告诉你的那个安尼西娅,” 大男孩说。

Nekhludoff turned to Anisia.
涅赫卢多夫转向阿妮西亚。

“How do you live?” he asked. “By what means do you gain your livelihood?”
“你是怎么生活的？”他问道。”你是靠什么谋生？”

“How do I live? I go begging,” said Anisia, and began to cry.
“我是怎么生活的？我去讨饭，”阿妮西亚说着开始哭了。

Nekhludoff took out his pocket-book, and gave the woman a 10-rouble note. —
涅赫卢多夫掏出钱包，给了这名妇女一张10卢布的钞票。 —

He had not had time to take two steps before another woman with a baby caught him up, then an old woman, then another young one. —
他还没走几步，就被另一名带着婴儿的妇女拦住了，然后是一位老妇人，接着又是另一位年轻女子。 —

All of them spoke of their poverty, and asked for help. —
她们都谈到了自己的贫困，请求帮助。 —

Nekhludoff gave them the 60 roubles–all in small notes–which he had with him, and, terribly sad at heart, turned home, i. —
涅赫卢多夫把身上带的60卢布都交给了她们，全是零钱，然后伤心欲绝地直接去了家，也就是工头的房子。 —

e., to the foreman’s house.
工头面带微笑地迎接涅赫卢多夫，告诉他晚上农民们会参加会议。

The foreman met Nekhludoff with a smile, and informed him that the peasants would come to the meeting in the evening. —
涅赫卢多夫感谢他，径直走进花园，沿着铺满苹果花瓣、长满杂草的小径散步，回想起自己所见到的一切。 —

Nekhludoff thanked him, and went straight into the garden to stroll along the paths strewn over with the petals of apple-blossom and overgrown with weeds, and to think over all he had seen.
开始时一切都很安静，但很快涅赫卢多夫听到工头房子后面传来两个愤怒的女声，互相打断又夹杂着总是微笑的工头的声音。

At first all was quiet, but soon Nekhludoff heard from behind the foreman’s house two angry women’s voices interrupting each other, and now and then the voice of the ever-smiling foreman. —
涅赫卢多夫听着。 —

Nekhludoff listened.
“我快支持不住了。你到底想干嘛，把我脖子上的十字架[俄罗斯希腊教徒通常在脖子上佩戴十字架]都拉走了，”一个生气的女声说道。

“My strength’s at an end. What are you about, dragging the very cross [those baptized in the Russo-Greek Church always wear a cross round their necks] off my neck,” said an angry woman’s voice.
“可她只是随便进来一下而已，”另一名声音说道。”把它还给她，我告诉你。

“But she only got in for a moment,” said another voice. “Give it her back, I tell you. —
你为什么要折磨这只牲畜，以及还想要它们的奶的孩子们？” —

Why do you torment the beast, and the children, too, who want their milk?”
涅赫卢多夫听着。

“Pay, then, or work it off,” said the foreman’s voice.
“那就先付钱，或是用工偿还吧，”工头的声音说道。

Nekhludoff left the garden and entered the porch, near which stood two dishevelled women–one of them pregnant and evidently near her time. —
涅赫鲁多夫走出花园，走进门廊，门廊旁站着两个凌乱的妇女，其中一个怀孕，显然已经接近分娩的时候。 —

On one of the steps of the porch, with his hands in the pockets of his holland coat, stood the foreman. —
门廊的一级台阶上，一个戴着荷兰风格外套的工头把手插进口袋里站着。 —

When they saw the master, the women were silent, and began arranging the kerchiefs on their heads, and the foreman took his hands out of his pockets and began to smile.
她们看到主人之后，妇女们静了下来，开始整理头巾，而工头则把手从口袋里拿出来，开始微笑。

This is what had happened. From the foreman’s words, it seemed that the peasants were in the habit of letting their calves and even their cows into the meadow belonging to the estate. —
事情是这样的。从工头的话中看来，农民们往往会把小牛甚至母牛放到庄园的草地上去。 —

Two cows belonging to the families of these two women were found in the meadow, and driven into the yard. —
两头属于这两个妇女家的母牛被发现在草地上，然后赶到了院子里。 —

The foreman demanded from the women 30 copecks for each cow or two days’ work. —
工头要求妇女们每头母牛付30戈比克，或做两天的工。 —

The women, however, maintained that the cows had got into the meadow of their own accord; —
然而妇女们坚持说母牛是自己跑进草地的； —

that they had no money, and asked that the cows, which had stood in the blazing sun since morning without food, piteously lowing, should he returned to them, even if it had to be on the understanding that the price should be worked off later on.
她们没有钱，请求让母牛回到她们那里，即使是后来用做工来抵偿。

“How often have I not begged of you,” said the smiling foreman, looking back at Nekhludoff as if calling upon him to be a witness, “if you drive your cattle home at noon, that you should have an eye on them?”
“你们叫我多次不要让你们的牲口在中午时离家，你们应该盯紧它们的不是吗？”笑着的工头说着，回头看了涅赫鲁多夫，仿佛在向他证明。

“I only ran to my little one for a bit, and they got away.”
“只是我跑到小孩那边一下，它们就跑了。”

“Don’t run away when you have undertaken to watch the cows.”
“承担看护牲口的责任时别跑开。”

“And who’s to feed the little one? You’d not give him the breast, I suppose?” said the other woman. —
“难道不给小孩喂奶吗？”另一个妇女说。 —

“Now, if they had really damaged the meadow, one would not take it so much to heart; —
“如果它们真的破坏了草地，我们就不会太在意； —

but they only strayed in a moment.”
但它们只是一下子走失而已。”

“All the meadows are damaged,” the foreman said, turning to Nekhludoff. “If I exact no penalty there will be no hay.”
“’所有的草地都受损了，’工头转向涅赫卢多夫说。’如果不惩罚的话，就没有干草了。’”

“There, now, don’t go sinning like that; my cows have never been caught there before,” shouted the pregnant woman.
“’好了，别再犯罪了；我的奶牛从来没有被抓住过那里，’孕妇大声喊道。”

“Now that one has been caught, pay up or work it off.”
“’既然有一只被抓到了，要么赔钱，要么去赎罪。’”

“All right, I’ll work it off; only let me have the cow now, don’t torture her with hunger,” she cried, angrily. —
“’好吧，我去赎罪；只是现在让我把奶牛领走，别让她挨饿，别折磨她，’她生气地喊道。” —

“As it is, I have no rest day or night. Mother-in-law is ill, husband taken to drink; —
“’我夜以继日都没有休息。婆婆生病，丈夫沉湎酒色； —

I’m all alone to do all the work, and my strength’s at an end. —
我一个人做所有的工作，我的力气到极限了。 —

I wish you’d choke, you and your working it off.”
‘我真希望你们都窒息，还有你和你的赎罪。”

Nekhludoff asked the foreman to let the women take the cows, and went back into the garden to go on thinking out his problem, but there was nothing more to think about.
涅赫卢多夫请求工头让妇女们牵走奶牛，然后回到花园里继续思考他的问题，但再也没有什么可思考的了。

Everything seemed so clear to him now that he could not stop wondering how it was that everybody did not see it, and that he himself had for such a long while not seen what was so clearly evident. —
“现在一切对他来说似乎如此清晰，以至于他不禁惊讶为什么每个人都没有看到，他自己也曾很长一段时间没有看到那么显而易见的事实。” —

The people were dying out, and had got used to the dying-out process, and had formed habits of life adapted to this process: —
“人们正在消亡，并已习惯了这一消亡过程，并形成了适应这一过程的生活习惯： —

there was the great mortality among the children, the over-working of the women, the under-feeding, especially of the aged. —
小孩的大量死亡，妇女的过劳，特别是老年人的营养不良。 —

And so gradually had the people come to this condition that they did not realise the full horrors of it, and did not complain. —
人们如此渐渐地达到了这种状态，以至于他们没有意识到这种状态的全部恐怖，也没有抱怨。 —

Therefore, we consider their condition natural and as it should be. —
因此，我们认为他们的状况是自然而且应该是的。” —

Now it seemed as clear as daylight that the chief cause of the people’s great want was one that they themselves knew and always pointed out, i. —
“现在似乎如白昼一般清晰的是，人们极度贫困的主要原因是他们自己所知道并总是指出的，即，唯一能够养活他们的土地被地主们夺走了。” —

e., that the land which alone could feed them had been taken from them by the landlords.
“’Everything seemed so clear to him now that he could not stop wondering how it was that everybody did not see it, and that he himself had for such a long while not seen what was so clearly evident.‘”

And how evident it was that the children and the aged died because they had no milk, and they had no milk because there was no pasture land, and no land to grow corn or make hay on. —
很明显，儿童和老年人死亡是因为他们没有牛奶，没有牛奶是因为没有牧场，没有土地种植玉米或制作干草。 —

It was quite evident that all the misery of the people or, at least by far the greater part of it, was caused by the fact that the land which should feed them was not in their hands, but in the hands of those who, profiting by their rights to the land, live by the work of these people. —
很明显，人民的所有苦难，或者至少绝大部分，都是因为应该供养他们的土地不在他们手中，而在那些凭借土地所有权从这些人民的劳动中获取利益的人手中。 —

The land so much needed by men was tilled by these people, who were on the verge of starvation, so that the corn might be sold abroad and the owners of the land might buy themselves hats and canes, and carriages and bronzes, etc. —
人们急需的土地是由这些濒临饥饿的人们耕种的，以便将谷物出售到国外，土地所有者可以用这笔钱购买帽子、手杖、马车和青铜器等物品。 —

He understood this as clearly as he understood that horses when they have eaten all the grass in the inclosure where they are kept will have to grow thin and starve unless they are put where they can get food off other land.
他明白得很清楚，就像他明白马在它们所在的围栏里吃光所有的草之后，除非在可以从其他土地取得食物的地方，否则它们将变瘦并挨饿一样。

This was terrible, and must not go on. Means must be found to alter it, or at least not to take part in it. —
这是可怕的，不能再继续下去。必须找到方法来改变它，或者至少不参与其中。 —

“And I will find them,” he thought, as he walked up and down the path under the birch trees.
“我会找到他们的，”他在桦树下的小路上走来走去时想道。

In scientific circles, Government institutions, and in the papers we talk about the causes of the poverty among the people and the means of ameliorating their condition; —
在科学界、政府机构和报纸中，我们谈论人民贫困的原因和改善其条件的方法； —

but we do not talk of the only sure means which would certainly lighten their condition, i. —
但我们不谈论唯一肯定会减轻他们处境的方法，即将他们急需的土地归还给他们。 —

e., giving back to them the land they need so much.
亨利·乔治的基本立场清晰地再次浮现在他的脑海中，他曾经被它吸引过，他惊讶自己竟然会忘记这一点。

Henry George’s fundamental position recurred vividly to his mind and how he had once been carried away by it, and he was surprised that he could have forgotten it. —
地球不可能归属于任何人；它不能被买卖，就像水、空气或阳光一样。 —

The earth cannot be any one’s property; it cannot be bought or sold any more than water, air, or sunshine. —
所有人都有权利平等地享受它给予人类的好处。 —

All have an equal right to the advantages it gives to men. —
现在他明白为什么他在想起库兹明斯基的交易时感到羞愧。 —

And now he knew why he had felt ashamed to remember the transaction at Kousminski. —
他一直在欺骗自己。他知道没有人有权拥有土地，但他却接受了这项权利，并给了农民一些东西，而在内心深处，他知道他没有权利。 —

He had been deceiving himself. He knew that no man could have a right to own land, yet he had accepted this right as his, and had given the peasants something which, in the depth of his heart, he knew he had no right to. —
现在他不会再这样行事，并且也会改变库兹明斯基的安排。 —

Now he would not act in this way, and would alter the arrangement in Kousminski also. —
现在，他将不会像之前那样行事，而且也会改变库兹明斯基的安排。 —

And he formed a project in his mind to let the land to the peasants, and to acknowledge the rent they paid for it to be their property, to be kept to pay the taxes and for communal uses. —
他心中产生了一个计划，让土地出租给农民，承认他们支付的租金为他们的财产，用于支付税款和公共用途。 —

This was, of course, not the single-tax system, still it was as near an approach to it as could be had under existing circumstances. —
当然，这并不是单一税制，但在目前的情况下，已经尽可能接近了。 —

His chief consideration, however, was that in this way he would no longer profit by the possession of landed property.
然而，他最主要的考虑是，通过这种方式，他将不再从拥有土地中获利。

When he returned to the house the foreman, with a specially pleasant smile, asked him if he would not have his dinner now, expressing the fear that the feast his wife was preparing, with the help of the girl with the earrings, might be overdone.
当他回到房子里时，工头带着一种特别愉快的微笑问他是否要现在吃晚饭，担心他妻子正在准备的盛宴，加上那个戴着耳环的女孩的帮助，可能过熟了。

The table was covered with a coarse, unbleached cloth and an embroidered towel was laid on it in lieu of a napkin. —
餐桌上盖着一块粗糙的未漂白布，上面放着一块绣花毛巾，代替餐巾。 —

A vieux-saxe soup tureen with a broken handle stood on the table, full of potato soup, the stock made of the fowl that had put out and drawn in his black leg, and was now cut, or rather chopped, in pieces, which were here and there covered with hairs. —
一只断手柄的老撒克逊汤盆放在桌子上，里面装满了土豆汤，其原料是那只折断一只黑腿的家禽菜，现在被切碎成片，那里和那里盖满了毛发。 —

After the soup more of the same fowl with the hairs was served roasted, and then curd pasties, very greasy, and with a great deal of sugar. —
汤后接着上了同样的那只有毛发的烤家禽，然后是很油腻的乳酪馅饼，上面撒了很多糖。 —

Little appetising as all this was, Nekhludoff hardly noticed what he was eating; —
尽管这一切很不开胃，涅赫留多夫几乎没有注意自己在吃什么； —

he was occupied with the thought which had in a moment dispersed the sadness with which he had returned from the village.
他被一种想法所占据，这一想法瞬间驱散了他从村子里回来时的悲伤。

The foreman’s wife kept looking in at the door, whilst the frightened maid with the earrings brought in the dishes; —
工头的妻子一直在门口张望，而带着耳环的害怕的女仆端进菜肴； —

and the foreman smiled more and more joyfully, priding himself on his wife’s culinary skill. —
工头笑得越来越愉快，以他妻子的烹饪技巧为荣。 —

After dinner, Nekhludoff succeeded, with some trouble, in making the foreman sit down. —
晚饭后，涅赫留多夫费了一些力气让工头坐下。 —

In order to revise his own thoughts, and to express them to some one, he explained his project of letting the land to the peasants, and asked the foreman for his opinion. —
为了梳理自己的思路并向人表达，他解释了自己关于让土地出租给农民的计划，并询问工头的意见。 —

The foreman, smiling as if he had thought all this himself long ago, and was very pleased to hear it, did not really understand it at all. —
工头微笑着仿佛早就自己考虑过所有这些，非常高兴听到，实际上根本没理解这一切。 —

This was not because Nekhludoff did not express himself clearly, but because according to this project it turned out that Nekhludoff was giving up his own profit for the profit of others, and the thought that every one is only concerned about his own profit, to the harm of others, was so deeply rooted in the foreman’s conceptions that he imagined he did not understand something when Nekhludoff said that all the income from the land must be placed to form the communal capital of the peasants.
这不是因为涅赫留多夫没有表达清楚，而是因为根据这个计划，结果是涅赫留多夫为他人的利润放弃了自己的利润，而工头深深根植于他思维的那种每个人只关心自己的利润，对他人造成伤害的想法，让他觉得当涅赫留多夫说所有的土地收入必须被用来构建农民的公共资本时，他自己似乎没有理解清楚。

“Oh, I see; then you, of course, will receive the percentages from that capital,” said the foreman, brightening up.
“哦，我明白了；那么您当然会从那资本中获得比例的收益，”监工说道，神情一亮。

“Dear me! no. Don’t you see, I am giving up the land altogether.”
“哎呀！不是的。你难道不明白，我要完全放弃这块土地。”

“But then you will not get any income,” said the foreman, smiling no longer.
“但是那样你将得不到任何收入，”监工不再微笑地说道。

“Yes, I am going to give it up.”
“是的，我打算放弃它。”

The foreman sighed heavily, and then began smiling again. Now he understood. —
监工沉重地叹了口气，然后又开始微笑起来。他现在明白了。 —

He understood that Nekhludoff was not quite normal, and at once began to consider how he himself could profit by Nekhludoff’s project of giving up the land, and tried to see this project in such a way that he might reap some advantage from it. —
他明白涅克卢多夫并不太正常，立即开始考虑他自己如何可以从涅克卢多夫放弃土地的计划中获益，试图以一种自己可以从中获利的方式看待这个计划。 —

But when he saw that this was impossible he grew sorrowful, and the project ceased to interest him, and he continued to smile only in order to please the master.
但是当他发现这是不可能的时候，他变得悲伤起来，这个计划不再引起他的兴趣，他继续微笑只是为了讨好主人。

Seeing that the foreman did not understand him, Nekhludoff let him go and sat down by the window-sill, that was all cut about and inked over, and began to put his project down on paper.
涅克卢多夫看到监工不理解他，就放他走开，坐在被切削并涂了墨水的窗台旁，开始把他的计划写在纸上。

The sun went down behind the limes, that were covered with fresh green, and the mosquitoes swarmed in, stinging Nekhludoff. —
太阳落在那些长满嫩绿色植物的椴树背后，蚊子蜂拥而至，叮咬着涅克卢多夫。 —

Just as he finished his notes, he heard the lowing of cattle and the creaking of opening gates from the village, and the voices of the peasants gathering together for the meeting. —
就在他完成笔记的时候，他听到了村庄里传来的牛群的低鸣声和开门的尖锐声，以及农民聚集在一起要开会的声音。 —

He told the foreman not to call the peasants up to the office, as he meant to go into the village himself and meet the men where they would assemble. —
他告诉监工不要把农民召到办公室，因为他打算亲自走进村庄，在他们集会的地方与他们见面。 —

Having hurriedly drank a cup of tea offered him by the foreman, Nekhludoff went to the village.
匆匆喝了监工奉上的一杯茶后，涅克卢多夫去了村庄。

——–

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①亨利•乔治（1839—1897）——美国资产阶级经济学家。
①亨利•乔治（1839—1897）——美国资产阶级经济学家。