The balcony door stood open, and the curtain stirred in the wind, filling out, rising reluctantly, and shrinking like a dipped sail. —
阳台门敞开着，帘子在风中摇曳，充盈、迟疑地上升，像被浸泡的帆一样缩小。 —

A crumpled towel left by someone on the radio made a white blur in the dusk. —
收音机上一个未捋平的毛巾在黄昏中产生了一片白色模糊。 —

It looked like a white rabbit who had laid down its long ears preparing to jump. —
它看起来像一只白兔放下了长长的耳朵，准备着跳跃。 —

I remembered that bright September morning in Sochi two years ago, the small house in Orekhovaya Street, the ripe, orange persimmons in the sunlit garden, the pleasant whitewashed room, and the dear face on the piled-up pillows. —
我记得两年前在索契那个明亮的九月早晨，奥雷霍瓦亚大街上的小房子，阳光照耀下成熟的橘子，那个愉快的白粉刷的房间，还有垒放着枕头的亲切脸庞。 —

The white rabbit nestled happily in the folds of the blanket as Nikolai’s nervous fingers caressed its long, silky ears. —
当尼古莱紧张的手指抚摸着它那长长柔软的耳朵时，白兔高兴地舒适地躺在毯子的褶皱中。 —

Nikolai was laughing softly, and his gleaming teeth were as white as sugar. —
尼古莱轻声笑着，他闪亮的牙齿如糖一样洁白。 —

On the bedside table lay several big red apples, and their lovely smell filled the whole house. —
床头柜上摆放着几个大红苹果，它们的芳香充满了整个房子。 —

The white rabbit, comically twitching its soft ears, licked the gentle human hand with its small pink tongue. —
白兔滑稽地扭动着柔软的耳朵，用小小的粉红舌头舔着柔和的人类手。 —

I wanted to shut my eyes tight and see that hot September morning again, and the house filled with sunlight and apple fragrance. —
我想紧闭双眼，再次看到那个炎热的九月早晨，阳光照满整个房子，果香弥漫。 —

My thoughts refused to take a elancholy course, and my mind was still unable to grasp what had happened and tell itself that this was the irrevocable. —
我的思绪拒绝了沉沦，我的心灵仍无法理解发生的事情，并告诉自己这是无法挽回的。 —

… But reality asserted itself, and my eyes saw with ruthless clarity the face that had forever grown still. —
但现实却昭然若揭，我的眼睛以无情的明晰看着永远停止的脸庞。 —

The last struggle for survival had sapped all his life juices, and dried him as a leaf is dried in a hot wind. —
最后一次求生的挣扎耗尽了他所有的生命精华，像一片叶子在炎热的风中被晒干。 —

It only spared his tall, handsome forehead, and his soft dark chestnut hair. —
只有他高大英俊的额头和柔软深栗色的头发幸存。 —

This clear, dome-like brow rose above a small, wizened face. —
这个清晰的圆顶额头高于一个小而枯瘦的面孔。 —

And one fancied that his creative imagination, infused with revolutionary ardour and an irrepressible interest in and love of life, was still working busily. —
人们想象他那富有革命热情、对生活充满不可抑制的兴趣和热爱的创造性想象仍在忙碌地工作。 —

… I placed my hand on his forehead. It was still warm and even moist, as though Nikolai was simply resting after his exciting exertion. —
我把手放在他的额头上。它还是温暖的，甚至有些湿润，就好像尼古拉只是在他激动的劳累后休息一样。 —

The Order of Lenin twinkled uncannily on his sunken chest as if life were stirring in it, and one would see it rise in a soft sigh. —
列宁勋章在他凹陷的胸膛上闪烁着，仿佛生命在其中涌动，人们会看到它在一个轻轻的叹息中升起。 —

For three days, from morning till night, an endless stream of people of all ages filed past the bier which was literally submerged in flowers and wreaths. —
三天来，从早到晚，各个年龄段的人们络绎不绝地经过灵柩，它几乎被淹没在鲜花和花环中。 —

Nikolai Ostrovsky continues to live not only in his books: —
尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基不仅在他的作品中继续生存： —

he himself is a heroic image, and one of the strongest and most striking personalities of his epoch. Fate treated him cruelly, depriving him of the power of sight and the use of his legs and arms. —
他本人就是一个英雄形象，是他那个时代最坚强、最引人注目的人物之一。命运对待他残酷，剥夺了他的视力和双腿双臂的运动能力。 —

But he overpowered his physical infirmities, his incurable disease, weakness, grief and torpor, and victoriously asserted life, creative endeavour, and struggle. —
但他战胜了自己身体的残疾、无法治愈的疾病、虚弱、悲伤和麻木，胜利地肯定了生命、创造努力和斗争。 —

As an ardent singer of the Bolshevik youth, he sang his militant, joyous song of struggle and victory of socialism, and his voice, ringing with a beautiful, lyrical strength, resounded throughout the Soviet land and the whole world. —
作为一个热诚歌颂布尔什维克青年的人，他唱响了关于社会主义斗争与胜利的激昂欢快之歌，他的声音，充满着美丽而抒情的力量，响彻整个苏联和整个世界。 —

Away with melancholy recollections! Let us part with them, for death is the tax we must pay for the frailty of our physical being, and let us turn to the inexhaustible, powerful fount of life. —
忘却那些忧郁的回忆吧！让我们和它们告别吧，因为死亡是我们必须为我们脆弱的身体付出的代价，让我们转向生命那不竭而强大的泉源。 —

… I went to see him on a cold, windy day in 1932, a typical day for early Moscow spring. —
我在1932年的一个寒冷、多风的日子去看他，这是一个典型的早春莫斯科的日子。 —

He lived in Mertvy Pereulok (since renamed Nikolai Ostrovsky Pereulok— Ed.). The large flat was packed with tenants. —
他住在死巷（后来更名为尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基巷——编者注）。这套大房间里住满了房客。 —

It was noisy and crowded. People jostled you in the corridor, babies were howling, and someone was typing inexpertly in a far room, pecking at the keys with a woodpecker’s persistence. —
吵闹而拥挤。人们在走廊上挤来挤去，婴儿们大声哭泣，远处有人在不熟练地打字，用啄木鸟般的执着敲击着键盘。 —

What a setup for a writer! Imagine working in that din! —
这对一个作家来说是什么情景啊！想象一下在这种嘈杂中工作！ —

I knocked, and opened the door into Nikolai Ostrovsky’s room. —
我敲了敲门，打开了尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基的房门。 —

A man, muffled up to his chin in blankets and shawls, was lying on the bed. —
一个裹得严严实实的男人躺在床上。 —

The pillows were piled high, and I saw a mop of dark chestnut hair, a large, prominent forehead, and a thin, wan face that did not have a drop of colour in it. —
枕头堆得很高，我看到一头深栗色的头发，一个宽大的突出的额头，还有一张苍白的脸，上面没有一丝色彩。 —

The thin eyelids trembled slightly. The thick eyelashes cast bluish shadows on the hollow cheeks. —
薄薄的眼皮微微颤动。浓密的睫毛在凹陷的脸颊上投下蓝色的阴影。 —

Hands of a waxen transparency lay on top of the blankets. —
一双苍白透明的手放在被子上。 —

I knew that Nikolai Ostrovsky was an invalid, but still I did not picture him quite like this. —
我知道尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基是个病人，但我还是没有想象他会像这样。 —

He looked so terribly weak and helpless that I decided not to bother him and come back another time. Just then a slight old lady walked briskly into the room. —
他看起来如此虚弱无助，我决定不打扰他，另找时间再来。就在那时，一个身材矮小的老太太快步走进了房间。 —

She had lively dark brown eyes, and her face was wreathed in smiles. “Mother, who’s there?” —
她有着活泼的深褐色眼睛，脸上洋溢着微笑。“妈妈，是谁呀？” —

Nikolai suddenly asked in a voice that was somewhat hollow, but very young and not weak at all. —
尼古拉突然用一种有些中空但非常年轻而不弱的声音问道。 —

His mother told him my name. “Oh! How nice,” he said. “Come nearer, come here.” —
他的母亲告诉他我的名字。“哦！太好了，”他说，“过来，过来这里。” —

A beautiful white-toothed smile lighted up his face. —
一个美丽的露齿笑容点亮了他的脸。 —

Its every line seemed to glow with youthful eagerness and the joy of living. —
它的每一条线看起来都充满了年轻的热情和生活的欢乐。 —

At first I fancied that his big, brown eyes also sparkled with animation. —
起初，我以为他深棕色的大眼睛也闪烁着活力。 —

But in the next moment I realised that the sparkle came from the deep and rich colouring of the irises. —
但下一刻我意识到，眼睛里的闪光来自深沉丰富的虹膜颜色。 —

Still, during our conversation I kept forgetting that he was blind, for there was so much concentration, attention and joviality in his radiant face. —
但在我们的对话中，我总是忘记他是盲人，因为他那张灿烂的脸上充满了专注、关注和乐观。 —

We were talking about the first part of his novel How the Steel Was Tempered which had just been signed for publication in the magazine Molodaya Gvardia where I worked as editor at the time. —
我们在谈论他的小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》的第一部分，这部小说刚刚被签约发表在我当时担任编辑的《青年卫士》杂志上。 —

Nikolai was curious to hear how his characters had impressed us.
尼古拉很好奇听到他的角色给我们留下了什么印象。

“Pavel, I think, is not a bad kid at all,” he said with sly humour, and flashed me a smile. —
“保罗，我觉得，其实一点都不坏，”他带着诡谲的幽默说道，并向我闪了个微笑。 —

“I’m not making a secret of it, of course, that Nikolai Ostrovsky and Pavel Korchagin are the closest of friends. —
“当然，我并没有秘密地隐藏，尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基和帕维尔·科尔恰金是最亲密的朋友。 —

He’s made from my brain and my blood too, this Pavel person… . What I want to know is this: —
“这个帕维尔，也是我的脑海和血液造就的。我想知道的是： —

does my novel read simply as an autobiography, the story of just one life?” —
“我的小说看起来只是一部自传吗？一个人生故事而已？ —

His smile suddenly waned, and with his lips compressed, his face looked cold and stern. —
“他的微笑突然褪去，嘴唇紧抿，脸色显得冷酷严峻。 —

“I’ve purposely put the question so bluntly because I want to know whether the thing I’m doing is good, right, and useful for people or not? —
“我故意直言不讳地提出这个问题，因为我想知道我所做的事情是否是好的、正确的，对人们是否有用？ —

There are lots of single cases that are interesting in themselves, but a reader will pause before one for a moment, as before a shopwindow, even in admiration perhaps, and then walk on his way, never again remembering what he had seen there. —
“有很多单一的案例都很有趣，但读者可能会在其中停顿片刻，就像在商店橱窗前一样，甚至可能心生敬佩，然后走上自己的路，再也不记得曾在这里看到过什么。 —

That is what every writer should fear most, and myself, a beginner, the more so.” —
“这是每个作家最应该最害怕的事情，特别是像我这样的初学者。” —

I told him that he had nothing to fear on this score. He interrupted me gently and said: —
我告诉他在这方面他无需害怕。他轻轻打断了我，说： —

“Only please, let’s agree on one thing: don’t comfort me from the kindness of your heart. —
“但请，让我们就一件事达成一致：不要出于一片好心安慰我。 —

You don’t have to sugar the pill for me. —
你不必为我掺糖。 —

I’m a soldier, after all, I could sit a horse when I was a mere kid, and I won’t be thrown off now.” —
我毕竟是个士兵，小时候就能骑马，现在也不会摔下来。” —

Although his lips twitched and his smile was shy and gentle, the strength of his unbreakable will was suddenly revealed to me with the utmost clarity. —
尽管他的嘴角抽搐，微笑腼腆，他那坚不可摧的意志力之强大却突然清晰地展现在我眼前。 —

At the same time I felt terribly happy that what I had to say to him would, in fact, comfort him. —
与此同时，我为要对他说的话实际上会给他带来安慰而感到无比欣慰。 —

I told him that as I read his book I involuntarily recalled the heroes from the Russian and western classics. —
我告诉他，当我阅读他的书时，不由自主地想起俄罗斯和西方经典文学中的英雄人物。 —

Many of these heroes, created by writers of genius, shaped the will and the mentality of whole generations. —
许多这样的英雄，由天才作家创作而成，塑造了整整一代人的意志和心态。 —

For background they had the history of social relations, social and personal tragedies, and the glory of the peaks attained by human culture. —
他们的背景有社会关系的历史、个人和社会悲剧，以及人类文化所达到的辉煌巅峰。 —

Pavel Korchagin could take a proud and confident stand among the great and the gloried. —
保尔·科尔恰金在这些伟大和荣耀的人物中能够自豪而自信地站立。 —

This young newcomer, emerging from the fires of the Civil War, should not feel self-conscious finding himself in such illustrious company. —
这位从内战的烈火中崭露头角的年轻新人，不应该感到自惭形秽，发现自己身处如此名家丛林。 —

Nor did he have to go cap in hand begging for a place, even if only the smallest, in the literati gardens. —
他不必卑躬屈膝，恳求在文人园地中找个位置，即便是最不起眼的一角。 —

He had something which the others had not: —
他拥有其他人所没有的东西： —

his young heart was possessed of an inexhaustible strength and throbbed with an unquenchable passion of struggle, and his mind was fired by the most progressive and noble thoughts of people’s freedom and happiness. —
他年轻的心灵充满无尽的力量，激荡着无法抑制的斗争激情，他的思想被最进步、最崇高的人民自由和幸福的思想所点燃。 —

Needless to say, Pavel Korchagin was irreconcilably hostile to someone like Balzac’s Rastignac, but all the freedom-loving characters in literature, whether in the works of Pushkin, Byron or Stendhal, were close to him in spirit. —
不用说，保尔·科尔恰金与像巴尔扎克的拉斯坦亚克这样的人格是对立的，但文学中所有热爱自由的角色，无论是普希金、拜伦还是仲家尔的作品中的，都与他精神相近。 —

But, of course, he would find the greatest number of kindred souls among Gorky’s heroes. —
当然，他会在高尔基小说的英雄中找到最多志同道合的灵魂。 —

We were already talking like old friends, we touched upon different themes but invariably came back to the novel. —
我们已经像老朋友一样交谈，涉及了不同的主题，但总是回到了小说上。 —

Nikolai wanted to hear how the editing went and what changes were made by Mark Kolosov, the assistant editor of Molodaya Gvardia, and myself. —
尼古拉想听听编辑的进展，马尔科洛索夫，即《年轻卫士》的助理编辑，以及我都做了哪些修改。 —

When I told him how we threw out all sorts of ornamental clichés, he gave a roar of laughter and then chuckled with good humour as I cited his unfortunate turns of speech and some words he had used. —
当我告诉他我们如何扔掉各种华丽的陈词滥调时，他哄堂大笑，然后因我引用他不太恰当的措辞和一些词语而发出好心的笑声。 —

“D’you know the reason for all these slips?” —
“你知道所有这些失误的原因吗？” —

he asked, abruptly changing to a serious, thoughtful tone. —
他突然换了一种严肃、思考的口吻。 —

“I suppose you’ll say it’s my lack of culture? —
“我想你会说这是因为我的文化水平低吧？” —

That too, but there’s another thing you must take into account—my creative isolation, if you know what I mean. —
是这样，但还有另一件事你必须考虑 — 我的创作孤立，如果你懂我的意思的话。 —

I began writing as a lone beginner, on my own responsibility. —
我开始写作时是一个独自的初学者，全凭自己的责任。 —

It’s wonderful that I’ll have literary friends now!” —
能和文学上的朋友们一起写作太美妙了！ —

He asked me what I thought of the composition of the novel as a whole, his handling of separate scenes, dialogues, descriptions of scenery, how well he had succeeded in bringing out the typical traits of his characters, and where he had made blunders in language, comparisons, metaphors, descriptive names, and so on. —
他问我对整部小说的构思以及他对单独场景、对话、风景描写中的处理以及他在展现人物典型特征方面取得了多少成功，他在语言、比喻、描述性的称呼等方面犯了哪些错误。 —

Each one of his questions showed that he had done a lot of reading and thinking on the subject, and his approach to many of the problems involved in literary work testified to his maturity. —
他每一个问题都表明他在这个领域有很多阅读和思考，他对文学工作中许多问题的处理方式表现出他的成熟。 —

Time simply flew. I was afraid I was tiring Nikolai, but every time I rose to leave a word or a remark would start us off again, and I’d stay “for another minute”. —
时间飞逝。我担心我让尼古拉累了，但每次我起身要离开时，一句话或一条评论就会让我们重新开始，我就会“再呆一分钟”。 —

Our conversation skipped from one topic to another, the way it does with two people who have only just met and want to know each other better. —
我们的谈话时而跳跃到另一个话题，就像两个刚认识想要更好地了解彼此的人那样。 —

Still, we went back to the novel all the time, and spoke of the second part on which Nikolai was working. —
但我们一直回到小说上，并谈论尼古拉正在写作的第二部分。 —

I had completely forgotten that I was in a sickroom, visiting a hopelessly handicapped person. —
我完全忘记了我正在一个病房里，探望一个希望渺茫的残疾人。 —

He told me about his writing plans and worries, set himself the deadline for the coming chapters, and his words were charged with such truly exuberant energy that it never occurred to me to offer any uncalled-for sympathy or encouragement. —
他告诉我他的写作计划和担忧，为未来的章节设定了截止日期，他的话语充满了真正的活力，我从未想过要提供不必要的同情或鼓励。 —

I was terribly glad that Molodaya Gvardia had acquired this new author—a fresh and powerful talent, a Bolshevik, veteran of the Civil War, a man with such remarkably clear-cut ideological and moral values. —
我非常高兴《年轻的卫士》得到了这位新作者——一位新鲜而强大的才华，一位布尔什维克，一位内战老战士，一位具有非常清晰的意识形态和道德价值观的人。 —

This was a strong character, tempered in battle, and so, rather than restrain him, I wanted to help him to develop his plans. —
这是一个坚强的个性，在战斗中得以锻炼，因此，我不想制约他，我想帮助他实现他的计划。 —

I can still hear his deep voice, mellow with happiness and pride, as he said: —
我仍然可以听到他那深沉的声音，充满了幸福和自豪，他说道： —

“And so I’m back in the ranks. That’s the main thing, you know. I’m back in the ranks! —
“所以我重新回到队伍中。这才是最重要的，你知道。我重新回到队伍中了！ —

Isn’t life wonderful! What a life is starting for me!” All the way home I kept hearing these words: —
生活多么美好！对我来说开启了怎样美好的生活啊！” 我一路回家都在听到这些话语： —

“What a life is starting for me!” and they sounded like a song. —
“对我来说开启了怎样美好的生活啊！” 它们听起来像一首歌。 —

I visited him a few more times before he was taken to Sochi, and gained a still deeper insight into the mentality and character of this amazingly courageous man. —
在他被送往索契之前我还去看过他几次，并对这个令人惊叹的勇敢人士的心态和性格有了更深入的了解。 —

Living in that overcrowded Moscow flat was a trial. —
生活在那个拥挤的莫斯科公寓里很是痛苦。 —

Apart from the suffering which he did not immediately learn to hide so skilfully, there were troubles and cares which he was not spared. —
除了他还没有学会如此巧妙地隐藏的痛苦外，还有他不能幸免的麻烦和牵挂。 —

The family budget was more than modest. Olga Osipovna pinched and scraped as best she could, trying hard to hide their constant want from her son, always keeping her chin up and fussing round him with a smile and a ready joke on her lips, but still Nikolai with his sharpened sensitivity guessed the truth. —
家庭预算更是不够用。奥尔加·奥西波夫娜竭尽全力节俭，努力掩盖他们的经常贫困，总是挺起胸膛绕着他忙前忙后，嘴上总是挤着微笑和准备好的笑话，但尼古拉以敏锐的敏感度猜到了真相。 —

“You can’t fool me, Mother darling: the wolf is at the door again,” he would say to her, and his mother would reply: —
“母亲亲爱的，你瞒不过我：麻烦又来了，” 他对她说，他的母亲回答说： —

“Mind your own business and leave the wolf to me.” —
“管好你自己的事，把烦恼交给我吧。” —

She always tried to turn their cares into a joke and Nikolai readily played the game, but there were some things that simply could not be laughed off. —
她总是试图用笑话化解他们的忧虑，尼古拉很乐意配合这个游戏，但有些事情是无法开玩笑的。 —

Their room in that communal flat was cold and damp, and it was impossible for a bedridden person to remain there any longer. —
在那个集体公寓里的他们的房间又冷又潮湿，一个卧床不起的人根本无法再呆下去了。 —

The editors of Molodaya Gvardia approached the Central Committee of the YCL with a request to send Nikolai Ostrovsky to Sochi, and in the summer of 1932 his mother took him south. —
《年轻卫士》的编辑们向团中央提出请求，希望能派尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基去索契，1932年夏天，他的母亲带他去南方。 —

The day before they left, he sent me the following note:
他们离开的前一天，他给我写了以下的纸条:

“Dear Comrade Anna, We’re starting south at 10 a.m. tomorrow. —
“亲爱的安娜同志，明天早上10点我们要动身去南方了。” —

Everything has been done to let me build up a bit of strength to develop my offensive further. —
为了让我积累一点体力继续发展我的攻势，一切都已经准备好了。 —

I want-to stay in Sochi till late autumn. I’ll hang on as long as I can take it.” —
我想呆在索契直到晚秋，只要我能坚持的住。” —

By “my offensive” he meant his work on the second part of the novel How the Steel Was Tempered. —
当尼古拉提到“我的攻势”时，他指的是对小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》第二部分的创作。 —

The difficult and at moments agonising process which Nikolai called “my work” was in truth an offensive. —
尼古拉称之为“我的工作”的这个困难而在某些时刻令人痛苦的过程，实际上就是一场攻势。 —

.. . I often remember his thin, yellowish hands which always lay on top of the blanket. —
我经常想起他那双黄色瘦削的手，它们总是放在被子外面。 —

They were the nervous, acutely sensitive hands of a blind man. —
那是一个失明人的神经质、极其敏感的手。 —

He had the power of movement left only in his hands, as arthritis, that dread disease of the joints which was to be one of the causes of his death, had already seized the whole of his poor body. —
由于关节炎早已侵蚀了他整个无助的身体，他只剩下双手还能动弹。 —

Once, shortly before he left for Sochi, Nikolai said to me in the mocking tone he usually adopted when speaking of his condition: —
就在他动身去索契之前不久，尼古拉以他常用的嘲讽口吻对我说: —

“My shoulders and elbows don’t feel as if they belonged to me at all. It’s the craziest feeling! —
“我的肩膀和肘部感觉好像根本不属于我。这感觉太疯狂了! —

This is all I have left to me, all I possess!” —
这是我所有剩下的，我所拥有的一切!” —

Smiling with puckish sadness, he raised his hands a little and moved his fingers. —
他带着一丝淘气的忧伤微笑着，把双手稍微抬高，动了一下手指。 —

“Try and manage with these!” Although he disliked discussing his illness, he told me on one of my earlier visits that for a time he had been able to write with the help of a cardboard stencil. —
“试着用这些来应付吧!”尽管他不喜欢谈论自己的疾病，但他在我早前的一次访问中告诉我，曾经用硬纸板模板的帮助写字。 —

“It wasn’t too convenient, but still it had its uses,” he said. —
“虽然不太方便，但仍然有其用处。”他说。 —

At the beginning of August 1932 I received a letter from him from Sochi. He had written it in pencil with the help of his stencil. —
1932年8月初，我收到他从索契寄来的一封信。他在信中用铅笔借助他的模板写的。 —

The too-straight lines and the unnaturally curved letters compelled the imagination to picture the physical strain and the effort of will that went into the writing of that short letter.
单调的直线和不自然的弯曲字母使人想象出写下那封简短信件所需的身体应力和意志努力。

18 Primorskaya, Sochi, August 5 “Dear Comrade Anna, “I am living with my mother very close to the seashore. —
索契普里莫尔斯卡娅大街18号，1932年8月5日，“亲爱的安娜同志，我和母亲住在离海岸很近的地方。 —

I spend the whole day out in the garden, lying under an oak-tree and writing, making the best of the lovely weather (the next words were undecipherable) . —
整天我都待在花园里，在橡树下躺着写作，好好利用着美好的天气（后面的话无法辨认）。 —

. . my head is clear. I am in a hurry to live, Comrade Anna, I do not want to be sorry afterwards that I wasted these days. —
. . 我头脑清醒。我急着活着，安娜同志，我不想以后后悔浪费了这些日子。 —

The offensive, brought to a deadlock by my stupid illness, is developing again, and so wish me victory.” —
由于我愚蠢的疾病，进攻再次陷入僵局，所以请祝我取得胜利。” —

The force and tension of this “offensive” could be felt just from the words “I am in a hurry to live”. —
这个“进攻”的力量和紧张气氛可以从“我急着活着”这句话中感受到。 —

He had a relapse soon after his arrival in Sochi, and this illness was to him a “stupid” waste of time and a really intolerable hindrance. —
他刚到索契很快又复发了，这个疾病对他来说是一种“愚蠢”的时间浪费和真正令人无法忍受的阻碍。 —

And though his general health was so badly undermined, it was mainly with his unquailing willpower that he was able to overcome his new illness. —
尽管他的身体健康状况恶劣，但他主要靠着不屈不挠的意志力战胜了新的疾病。 —

As soon as he was a little better he wrote me that letter “in his own hand” to test his endurance. —
他稍微好转后写信给我，用“自己的手”测试自己的忍耐力。 —

I could picture him lying there, in the shade of the oak-tree, dictating to his volunteer secretaries for hours at a stretch, refusing to take a rest. —
我可以想象他躺在那里，在橡树的阴凉下，连续几小时为秘书口述，拒绝休息。 —

… His forehead is studded with drops of sweat, his thick eyebrows twitch up and down nervously, his eyelids tremble, and his thin fingers pluck at the edge of the blanket. —
. . 他的额头上满是汗珠，浓密的眉毛紧张地上下抽动，眼皮颤动，纤细的手指拨动着毯子的边缘。 —

He often clears his throat, dictating has already tired him, but his imagination has been starved in those “wasted days of illness”, and he wants to make up for lost time. —
他经常清清嗓子，口述已经让他疲倦，但他的想象在那些“浪费的病日”里被饥饿，他想弥补失去的时间。 —

His forehead is hot and his heart literally misses a beat: —
他的额头发热，他的心跳不由自主地停了一拍： —

he pictures the field of battle, he feels the earth quaking under the wrathful thudding of the cavalry, he sees the fearless horsemen coming on at a breakneck pace and cutting down the enemies of the working people. —
他想象着战场，感受着大地在骑兵的愤怒冲击下颤抖，他看见无畏的骑兵飞驰而来，砍倒着工人阶级的敌人。 —

And now he pictures Moscow in those first years of peacetime construction, he recalls the YCL congress in the Bolshoi Theatre, and meeting his comrades-in-arms. —
现在，他想象着和平建设初期的莫斯科，他回忆起在大剧院参加列宁共青团代表大会，见到了战友。 —

“Hurry . .. hurry… I must hurryto live …” —
“快点… 快点… 我必须加快速度生存… ” —

Molodaya Gvardia began publication of the second part of Nikolai Ostrovsky’s novel How the Steel Was Tempered in its January 1933 issue. —
Molodaya Gvardia在1933年1月号上开始刊载尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基的小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》的第二部分。 —

The letters I received from Nikolai in that period told me how great a price he was paying in lifeblood and nerves for his “offensive”. —
那段时间我收到尼古拉的信，告诉我他为他的“进攻”付出了多大的生命和神经的代价。 —

Running ahead of my story I want to say that he stayed in Sochi for three and a half years, and not the few months as originally planned. —
事先透露一下，他在索契待了三年半，而不像最初计划的几个月那样短。 —

In one of his letters he said: “I have started studying in earnest. —
在其中一封信中他说：“我开始认真学习。 —

It’s pretty hard when you’re on your own. —
单枪匹马的学习相当困难。 —

I’ve no literature, and no qualified teachers, but all the same I can feel the narrow horizons of my tiny personal experience widening, and my cultural baggage growing heavier. —
我没有文学作品，也没有合格的老师，但即便如此我能感觉到我狭隘的个人经验正在扩大，我的文化负担也在变得更加沉重。 —

… You asked me what I’d been doing these last three months. —
你问我这三个月都在干什么。 —

I devoted a lot of the time intended for my literary studies to the local young people. —
我把原本用来学文学的时间大部分花在了当地的青年身上。 —

From a lone wolf I’ve turned into a ‘cheer leader’. —
我已经从孤狼变成了‘啦啦队长’。 —

The committee bureau now holds its meetings in my house. —
党委员会现在在我家开会。 —

I’m in charge of the Party activist circle, and chairman of the district culture-promoting council. —
我负责党员活动家园，也是区文化促进委员会主席。 —

In short, I’ve shifted closer to the Party’s practical activity, and have become quite a useful fellow. —
总的来说，我越来越接近党的实际活动，变得非常有用。 —

True, I use up a lot of strength, but then living’s become more fun. I’m in the Komsomol midst. —
没错，我耗费了很多力气，但生活变得更有乐趣。我在共青团中间。 —

“I’ve set up a literary circle, and I run it as best I can. —
“我成立了一个文学圈子，尽我所能地运行它。 —

The Party and Komsomol committees take a lively interest in my work. —
党和共青团委员会对我的工作非常感兴趣。 —

The Party activists often meet in my house. I can feel the pulse of life. —
党的积极分子经常在我家聚会。我能感受到生活的脉搏。 —

I wanted this local practice, consciously sacrificing three whole months, so as to get the feel of what is most vital and topical today.” —
我想通过这种地方实践，有意识地牺牲了整整三个月，以便感受当今最重要和最前沿的事情。” —

And then he wrote: “Still, I do a lot of reading. —
然后他写道: “当然，我阅读了很多。 —

I’ve read Balzac’s La peau de chagrin, Figner’s Recollections, The Last of the Udeghei, Anna Karenina, Literary Heritage, all the back numbers of Literaturnaya Kritika, Turgenev’s A Nest of the Gentry and many more books.” —
我读过巴尔扎克的《辛受之皮》，芬格的《回忆录》，乌德盖的最后一位，安娜·卡列尼娜，文学遗产，所有过去的《文学评论》的旧刊，屠格涅夫的《贵族的巢穴》等许多书。” —

I gave this letter to one of my office friends to read, and he was quite shaken. —
我把这封信给我的一个办公室朋友读，他被深深震撼了。 —

“I say, what a heroic character!” he exclaimed. —
“我说，多么英雄的性格！”他惊叹道。 —

“If I didn’t know who had written this letter I’d picture the writer as a big, strong chap in the pink of health reporting on his activities.” —
“如果我不知道是谁写的这封信，我会把作者想象成一个身体强壮，精力充沛的人，报告他的活动。” —

We did not learn till after the danger had blown over how terribly ill Nikolai had been. —
后来才知道尼古拉有多么危重的病。 —

He wrote me in the beginning of 1934: “I nearly died. —
他在1934年初写给我: “我差点丧命。 —

The desperate struggle went on for a whole month. —
绝望的斗争持续了整整一个月。 —

The worst is over, and I feel stronger with every day… .” —
最糟糕的已经过去了，我每天感觉越来越强壮……” —

The popularity of his novel was growing rapidly, and Ostrovsky was receiving more and 0iore letters from people complaining that the book was unobtainable in their local libraries or bookstores. —
他的小说越来越受欢迎，奥斯特罗夫斯基收到越来越多的来信，投诉说他们当地的图书馆或书店买不到这本书。 —

He told me about a great variety of people and their work—miners, metalworkers, steel smelters, electricians, locomotive drivers, stokers, accountants, teachers, actors, artists. —
他告诉我关于各种各样的人和他们的工作 — 矿工、金属工人、钢铁冶炼工、电工、机车司机、烧瓦工、会计、教师、演员、艺术家。 —

He had met some remarkable collective farm chairmen and team leaders. “What characters!” —
他遇到了一些杰出的集体农场主和队长。“多么有个性啊！” 他兴高采烈地说。“他们的经验和人生阅历真是令人叹为观止！” —

he exclaimed enthusiastically. “Their experience and knowledge of life are truly wonderful!” —
他兴高采烈地说。“他们的经验和人生阅历真是令人叹为观止！” —

Ostrovsky prided and delighted in his countrymen’s integrity, noting each excellent trait, while shabbiness, stupidity and smugness outraged him so painfully as though he himself had been personally insulted. —
奥斯特罗夫斯基引以为豪，对祖国人民的正直感到欣慰，注意到每一个优秀的品质，而苟廉、愚蠢和自满则让他痛苦得仿佛自己被亲自侮辱了。 —

In this respect his vision was keener than that of many whose eyesight was unimpaired. —
在这方面，他的视野比许多视力正常的人更为敏锐。 —

In 1934 he wrote to me: “To tell you the truth, even now I live a far happier life than do many of my callers, most of them calling from plain curiosity. —
1934年，他写信给我说：“实话告诉你，即使现在我过得比很多前来拜访我的人要开心得多，他们大多数只是出于好奇。” —

I wouldn’t wonder. They have healthy bodies, but they lead a dull, colourless existence. —
我不奇怪。他们身体健康，但他们过着乏味、无趣的生活。 —

They can see with both eyes, but I imagine that they have a bored, indifferent look. —
他们可以用双眼看到，但我想他们那种无动于衷、漠不关心的表情。 —

They probably pity me and think: ‘Heaven preserve me from ever finding myself in his shoes!’ —
他们可能会可怜我，想着：“愿天佑我永远不要陷入他那种境地！” —

To me they seem such sorry creatures, that I swear I’d never agree to change places with them.” —
对我来说，他们看起来是如此可悲，我发誓我绝对不会同意和他们互换位置。” —

Can anything more be added to these lines which speak for themselves so clearly? —
这些自证清楚的话还能再加什么？ —

Ostrovsky was always full of plans, irrepressible energy and good cheer, and this was the frame of mind in which he began each new day, his only complaint being that the day was over too soon. —
奥斯特罗夫斯基总是充满计划，奋发有为和快乐的精神，他每天都以这种心态开始新的一天，唯一的抱怨就是一天结束得太快。 —

Nothing could weaken, let alone shatter, the strength of his spirit. —
没有什么能削弱，更不用说摧毁他的精神力量。 —

If he had troubles his friends would only hear about them in passing, and then always in the past tense. —
如果他有困扰，他的朋友也只会大致听到一些，而且总是以过去时态说。 —

No matter how his friends remonstrated with him, Nikolai refused to listen to reason and worked for fifteen hours a day, he received multitudes of callers, slept little, and squandered the little physical strength he had. —
无论朋友们怎么规劝，尼古拉都拒绝听取理性，每天工作十五个小时，接待众多拜访者，几乎不睡觉，耗费了他所剩无几的体力。 —

The last time I came to see him in Sochi, I scolded him for this. —
上次我去索契看他时，我因此责备了他。 —

He listened with a comically meek and contrite expression on his face, then he began to sigh and mumble some extraordinary excuses. —
他带着一副滑稽的顺从和忏悔的表情听着，然后开始叹气，嘟囔着一些离奇的借口。 —

I kept a straight face as long as I could, and then I burst out laughing. —
我尽力保持着严肃的表情，但最终还是笑了出来。 —

My lecture had been a complete waste of breath! “I’m a hopeless case, can’t you see?” —
我的训话完全是在浪费口舌！”我是个没有希望的病例，难道你没看出来吗？” —

Nikolai said, laughing with me. What we all feared did happen. —
尼古拉和我一起笑了。我们所担心的事情终究发生了。 —

In August 1935, his condition took a sudden and sharp turn for the worse. —
1935年8月，他的情况突然急转直下。 —

“For my stubbornness life restored to me this boundless, wonderful, beautiful happiness, and I forgot the warnings and threats of my doctors. —
“为了我顽固的性格，生命给了我这种无限、美好、美丽的幸福，我忘记了医生们的警告和威胁。 —

I forgot that I had so little physical strength. —
我忘记了我的体力是如此之小。 —

The fast-moving stream of people —Komsomol youth, esteemed factory workers and miners, all those heroic builders of our happiness—attracted to me by my novel fanned in me what seemed to be a dying fire. —
快速涌动的人群——共青团员、受人尊敬的工厂工人和矿工，所有这些为我们幸福奋斗的英雄建设者，他们被我的小说所吸引，在我身上激发了似乎渐渐消失的火焰。 —

I was once again a passionate agitator and propagandist. —
我再次成为了一名热情的宣传者和传道者。 —

I often forgot my place in the ranks where my orders were to use my pen rather and not my tongue. —
我经常忘了我的位置，我的命令是要用笔而不是嘴。 —

“This traitorous health of mine played me false once again. —
“我的这副背信弃义的健康再次出卖了我。 —

All at once I rolled down to the dread boundary line. —
忽然间，我滑落到了可怕的边界线。 —

“But, for all the danger there is, I won’t die this time either, of course. —
“但是，尽管危险重重，这一次我也不会死，当然。 —

I simply must write my Born of the Storm. What is more, I must infuse it with all the ardour of my heart. —
我必须写出我内心热情的《风暴之子》。更重要的是，我必须让它充满我心中的激情。 —

I’ve got to make a screenplay of How the Steel Was Tempered. —
我必须把《钢铁是怎样炼成的》改编成剧本。 —

I’ve got to write a book for children about Pavel Korchagin’s childhood, and—this is a must— a book about Pavel’s happiness. —
我必须为儿童写一本关于保罗·科尔恰金童年的书，而且——这是必须的——写一本关于保罗幸福的书。 —

This will take me five years of strenuous work. Five years of life is the minimum I must figure on. —
这需要我五年的艰苦工作。生命中的五年是我必须考虑的最低限度。 —

Are you smiling? But it can’t be different. My doctors also smile in embarrassment and dismay. —
你在笑吗？但情况也不会有所不同。我的医生们也为之尴尬和沮丧而笑。 —

Duty comes first with me, and so I take this five-year plan as a minimum. —
责任对我来说是最重要的，因此我将这个五年计划当作最低标准。 —

Tell me, Anna, is there a madman who’d depart this life at a time as wonderful as ours?” —
安娜，告诉我，有谁能在如此美好的时光中离开这个世界？ —

It never occurred to me to “smile”. His vitality and resistance were so fantastic, and his optimism was always so infectious, that I instantly believed in his “minimum” without a shadow of doubt. —
決没有想过“微笑”。他的活力和抗争力是如此惊人，他的乐观总是如此具有感染力，我立即信服他的“最低”无法置疑。 —

He should have his minimum. It could not be otherwise. —
他应该得到他的最低要求。这是肯定的。 —

He was anxious to return to Moscow so as to be closer to his writer friends, and to avail himself of the material and counsel he needed for getting down to work on his new novel Born of the Storm. Towards the end of the year, 1935, we succeeded in getting a flat for Ostrovsky in 40, Gorky Street. —
他急于回莫斯科，以便更靠近作家朋友们，并且利用他们提供的素材和建议，为新小说《风暴之子》着手工作。到了1935年年底，我们终于在格尔吉街40号为奥斯特洛夫斯基找到了一套公寓。 —

In November I received a letter from him in which he said: —
我在11月收到他的一封信，信中写道： —

“A member of the Government is coming here in a day or two to present me with a decoration. —
“政府官员将在一两天后来此为我颁奖。 —

I can’t leave until then. I must also get my doctor’s permission for the journey, as I am unwell again. —
我不能在那之前离开。我还必须得到医生准许才能出行，因为我又感到不舒服了。 —

When all these things have been cleared up, I’ll write and tell you the day of departure.” —
当这一切都搞定后，我会写信告诉你出发的日期。” —

We were busy fixing up the flat in 40, Gorky Street, anxious to have everything just the way he’d like it. —
我们忙着布置格尔吉街40号的公寓，迫切希望让一切按他的喜好来安排。 —

… I was called to the phone in the middle of the haste and bustle of our editorial day. —
… 我正处于编辑工作的忙乱之中，电话铃响了。 —

It was a long-distance call from Sochi. There was a snowstorm outside. —
来自索契的长途电话，外面正在下着暴风雪。 —

I picked up the phone and heard the blizzardly howling of the wind, snatches of music, whistling, crackling—a cacophony of indistinct sounds and voices. —
我接起电话，听到风声咆哮，音乐、哨声、爆裂声混杂在一起，一片杂音和模糊的声音。 —

And suddenly, Nikolai’s deep, hollowish voice rang in my ear as clearly as if he were speaking from Arbat Street and not all the way from Sochi. “I’ll be in Moscow on the eleventh! —
然后，尼古拉的低沉、空洞的声音清晰地在我的耳边响起，就好像他是从阿尔巴特街上说话，而不是从索契远方:“我会在11号到达莫斯科！ —

We’ll hold a meeting of the ‘general staff’ in my train compartment, the minute we steam in! —
我们在我的火车车厢里召开‘总参谋部’会议，一到站我就通知你！ —

You’ll tell me all your news, and I’ll tell you mine. I work like mad!” —
你告诉我你的近况，我也会告诉你我的。我忙得不可开交！ —

On December llth, a cold wintry day, a small group of us went to Serpukhov to meet Nikolai Ostrovsky. —
在12月11日，一个寒冷的冬天，我们几个人去谢尔普霍夫迎接尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基。 —

There was a heavy snowfall. The tall, loud-mouthed locomotive tore into the haze of fluffy snow with startling suddenness. —
大雪纷飞，高大喧闹的机车突然冲入柔软雪雾中。 —

When the train came to a stop, we ran to the green service car. —
火车停下时，我们跑向绿色的务车。 —

A young, round-faced woman emerged from the door. “Is Nikolai Ostrovsky in this car?” we asked her. —
一个年轻的、圆脸的女人从门里走出来。“尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基在这节车厢吗？”我们问她。 —

“That’s right, that’s right,” she replied with a nice smile. —
“没错，没错”，她友善地回答道。 —

Nikolai’s compartment was dark and hot. The faint light from the passage cast bluish shadows on his face. —
尼古拉的车厢黑暗而炎热。走廊微弱的光线在他的脸上投下蓝色的阴影。 —

He had lost weight, but his laugh was as infectious as ever, his white-toothed smile was so radiant and his thin face so animated that, as usual, I forgot how ill he was. —
他瘦了，但他的笑声依旧如此具有感染力，他洁白的牙齿展现出灿烂的笑容，他瘦脸上充满了生机，就像以往一样，我忘记了他有多么患病。 —

“The old warrior’s back in the ranks,” he said jocularly, but his voice rang with pride and jubilance. —
“老勇士又回到了队伍中，”他说着玩笑话，但他的声音充满了自豪和喜悦。 —

He told us about the meetings which his young readers had arranged for him at the stops. —
他告诉我们，在车站的停留点，他的年轻读者们为他安排的会议。 —

And when we were left alone in the compartment for a minute, he said to me: “You know … —
当我们独处在车厢里的时候，他对我说：“你知道… —

how I wanted … how terribly I wanted to see their faces. —
我是多么想… 多么渴望看到他们的脸。 —

I felt all those wonderful boys and girls so strongly, they were so dear to me that at moments I fancied I was really seeing them. —
我那些美好的男孩和女孩们给我带来了如此强烈的感觉，他们对我是如此亲爱，以至于我有时会幻想我真的在看到他们。 —

… Of course, I was the happiest person in the world just then, but if I could see them, I would be able to tell my dear YCL’ers how much I love them more eloquently still.” —
当然，那时我是世界上最幸福的人，但如果我能看到他们，我会能更雄辩地告诉我心爱的团员们我有多么爱他们。” —

I tried to change the topic, but Nikolai’s eyebrows twitched stubbornly, and he continued with a shadow of a patiently ironic smile on his lips: —
我试图改变话题，但尼古拉的眉毛顽固地动了动，他带着一丝耐心的讽刺微笑说道： —

“There’s no understanding the mentality of doctors at times. —
“有时候医生的心态是无法理解的。 —

Apparently, surgery can restore a person’s eyesight for five or six days, and then he’ll go blind again. —
显然，手术可以使一个人的视力恢复五六天，然后他会再次失明。 —

I believe this operation is called resection of the pupil. However, that’s not the point. —
我相信这个手术被称为瞳孔切除术。不过，那不是重点。 —

Naturally, I refused to have such kindness done to me. —
当然，我拒绝让这种善意发生在我身上。 —

People don’t seem to understand that by giving me sight for five days they’d be thrusting me backward and not helping me forward. —
人们似乎不明白，通过给我五天的视力，他们会把我推向过去而非帮助我前进。 —

I have succeeded in mastering all my desperate emotions connected with my blindness, and now from sheer humaneness the doctors are prepared to grant me even worse torments! —
我已经成功掌控了和我的失明有关的所有绝望情感，而现在出于纯粹的人道主义，医生们准备给我带来更糟糕的折磨！ —

All right, I’ll see you all, my dear friends, and then what? —
好吧，我会见到你们所有人，我亲爱的朋友们，之后呢？ —

No, I have conquered darkness, I have trained myself to live in spite of this physical handicap, despising it, and I don’t want to have a new burden placed upon my soul.” —
不，我已经征服了黑暗，我已经训练自己不顾这种生理残障而生活，唾弃它，我不想在我的灵魂上再添新负担。” —

In order not to tire him, we often left him alone in his compartment, during the journey. —
为了不使他感到疲倦，我们经常在旅途中让他独自一个人呆在自己的车厢里。 —

As we talked quietly in the passage, however, he’d hear what we were saying with his acute hearing, and call out something gay, witty and very much to the point. —
然而，当我们在过道里安静地交谈时，他会用他敏锐的听力听到我们说的话，并会用一些欢快、机智且直击要害的话回应。 —

…I called on Nikolai at his flat a few days later. —
…几天后，我去了尼古拉的公寓。 —

It was very warm in his large, high-ceilinged room. —
他宽敞、高挑的房间里非常温暖。 —

Two impressive electric heaters maintained the temperature at 25 or 26 degrees Centigrade. —
两个令人印象深刻的电暖器保持着25或26摄氏度的温度。 —

Nikolai was wearing an embroidered Ukrainian shirt, which was very becoming. —
尼古拉穿着一件刺绣的乌克兰衬衣，看起来非常漂亮。 —

I had never seen him look so well before. —
我从未见过他看起来这么好。 —

There was a bit of colour in his hollow cheeks, and he had a new, earnestly-happy smile. —
他苍白的脸颊泛着一丝红晕，带着一个新的、真诚而快乐的微笑。 —

He was lying back on his piled-up pillows, and his dark hair made a soft frame round his tall, white forehead. —
他靠在堆积起来的枕头上，黑色的头发在他高高的白色额头周围形成了柔和的框架。 —

All of us who loved this man dearly exchanged happy glances, delighting in the wonderful, inexhaustible vitality with which his face vibrated. —
我们这些深爱这个人的人互相投以幸福的目光，欣赏着他脸上无穷无尽的活力。 —

The talk was gay and noisy. It suddenly occurred to one of the guests that we were tiring our host, and he asked anxiously: —
对话很欢快而嘈杂。突然间，一位客人担心地问道： —

“Aren’t we making too much of a noise?” “Heavens no,” Nikolai replied with a happy laugh. —
“我们是不是太吵了？”“哦，天啊，”尼古拉开心地笑道。 —

“Let’s have a real housewarming!” I once dropped in on him in the evening when his working day was over. —
“让我们来一个真正的乔迁庆典！”我曾在晚上去过拜访他，当时他的工作日已经结束。 —

Nikolai was in his everyday tunic made from army cloth. He looked tired. —
尼古拉穿着他日常穿的由军布制成的外套。他看起来很累。 —

I asked him how many hours of dictation he’d had that day. —
“你今天听了多少小时的口授？”我问。 —

“Oh, not many, not many at all,” he began, and suddenly admitted the truth: “About ten. —
“噢，不多，不多，”他开始说，突然承认实情：“大约十个小时。 —

I see you don’t approve. But I was so starved, so hungry for work! —
我看得出你不赞同。但我是如此饥渴，如此渴望工作！” —

Honestly, even lovers don’t long for each other as passionately as I longed for work. —
老实说，甚至是恋人们也没有像我对工作那样热切地渴望过。 —

And you know the mood that comes upon you after work. —
你知道下班后那种心情。 —

When my secretary left, I began thinking over the next scene, and I pictured it so vividly that I could have dictated it right there and then. —
当我的秘书离开后，我开始思考接下来的场景，我如此生动地想象着，简直可以当场口述出来。 —

In such moments “there’s no happier person than me in the whole world. —
在这样的时刻，”在整个世界里没有比我更幸福的人了。 —

I am a lucky fellow anyway, aren’t I? Lucky, and how!” —
不管怎样，我无论如何都是一个幸运的家伙，对吧？幸运，简直太幸运了！” —

He recalled the interview he once gave in Sochi to an American lady journalist. —
他回忆起曾在索契接受美国女记者采访的事情。 —

“I was virtually in her clutches: she wanted to know this, and she wanted to know that—a terribly noisy lady she was. —
“我几乎被她控制住了：她想知道这个，她想知道那个——她是一个可怕喧闹的女士。 —

And then she had to be told how my heart was working, how I felt in general, and so on and so forth. I listened and listened, and finally I asked her what she wanted all that information for about poor me. —
然后她还想知道我的心脏是如何运作的，我总体感觉如何，等等等等。我听着听着，最后问她，她究竟想要关于可怜我这些信息干什么。 —

She began to hem and haw, saying something about compassion, humaneness, pity, and other such considerations. —
她开始支支吾吾，说些关于同情、人道主义、怜悯之类的话。 —

It dawned on me then that she was trying to make a martyr of me, a stoic, and a saint… . —
那时我意识到她试图把我塑造成一个殉道者、一个坚忍者和一个圣人……。 —

My, how I wanted to tell her where to get off! —
天哪，我多想告诉她该滚蛋了！ —

Instead, I simply pointed out to her the correct approach to my life story, and explained why I considered myself a useful member of society.” —
不过，我只是简单地指出了我的生活故事的正确方式，解释了为什么我认为自己是社会的有用成员。 —

Nikolai could not stand pity, or condescending, gushy kindness. —
尼古拉无法忍受怜悯或咄咄逼人的善意。 —

He would ridicule anyone who so much as attempted to moan or lament over him. —
他会嘲笑任何试图为他哀叹的人。 —

His sensibilities were extremely acute, and he could instantly discern the slightest change of mood in the people about him. —
他的感受力极其敏锐，他可以立刻察觉到周围人情绪的细微变化。 —

He himself was very good at cheering up others. —
他本人非常擅长鼓舞他人的情绪。 —

The words he said were of the simplest, but they had a more powerful effect than many a passionate eruption of sympathy. —
他说的话虽然简单，但比许多充满同情的爆发更有力量。 —

He tried to get at the root of the trouble, and then offered his advice in a businesslike manner, very gently and tactfully showing which of the aspects involved were, in his opinion, not worth a tear. —
他试图找到问题的根源，然后以一种务实的方式提出建议，非常温和和机智地表明其中在他看来不值得流泪的方面。 —

This ability to get to the bottom of everything, doing it with objective and passionate earnestness, was one of his strongest points. —
这种能力去探究事物本质的能力，以客观和充满热诚的认真态度进行，是他最强的优点之一。 —

Everyone who was acquainted with Nikolai Ostrovsky knows how hard he worked. —
熟悉尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基的每个人都知道他是如何辛勤工作的。 —

To my great sorrow I was not in Moscow during the last week of his life. —
令我伤心的是，在他生命的最后一周，我不在莫斯科。 —

His secretaries told me how strenuously he worked in those last days. —
他的秘书告诉我，在那最后的日子里他是多么辛苦地工作。 —

The secretaries took turns, working in two or three shifts, while he dictated without a break, pushing on with the doggedness of a real fighter to finish the first part of his novel Born of the Storm. He had promised the Central Committee of the YCL to have the book finished by mid-December, and he held his word. —
秘书们轮流工作，分成两三班。他不停地口述，如同一个真正的战士一样固执地坚持，努力完成自己小说《暴风雨中诞生》的第一部。他向共青团中央委员会承诺，要于十二月中旬完成这本书，他遵守了诺言。 —

His day was strictly scheduled: in the morning, he dictated to his secretary and then had it all read back to him two or three times. —
他的日程安排非常严格：早上口述给秘书，然后让他们两三遍读回来。 —

After a short break for lunch, he went back to work again. —
午饭后短暂休息，他又回到工作中。 —

Then came the reading hour—newspapers, new books or the classics. —
然后是阅读的时间——报纸、新书或经典著作。 —

He liked expressive reading, and listened with rapt, childlike attention. —
他喜欢生动的阅读，专心地聆听，宛若儿童注意力集中的样子。 —

The evening ended with music on the radio and the news. —
晚上以收听广播里的音乐和新闻结束。 —

Once, we gathered in his room to hear a programme composed of his favourite songs and music; —
有一次，我们聚集在他的房间里听一档由他喜欢的歌曲和音乐组成的节目； —

broadcast was a tribute to Nikolai Ostrovsky from the Radio Committee. —
广播是电台委员会送给尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基的一份致敬。 —

When the concert was over, Nikolai said in a low, reflective tone: “Happiness … this is it. —
当音乐会结束时，尼古拉以低沉而反思的语气说道：“幸福……就是这个样子。 —

Could I have ever thought that one day I’d be listening to a concert dedicated to me?” —
我曾经想过，有一天我会听着一场专门为我举办的音乐会吗？” —

We talked about music. He recalled that as a boy he would often stop under people’s windows if he heard someone playing the piano. —
我们谈论了音乐。他回忆说，小时候他经常会在听到有人弹钢琴时停下来。 —

“The piano always attracted me, and amazed me extremely. —
“钢琴总是吸引着我，让我感到非常惊奇。 —

Of course, I could not even dream of ever owning an instrument as expensive as a piano… . —
当然，我从来没有想过有一天会拥有一台像钢琴这么昂贵的乐器…… —

Later, I learnt to play the accordion, and I felt so proud that my fingers could produce music. —
后来，我学会了拉手风琴，我为自己的手指可以演奏音乐而感到自豪。 —

I loved my accordion. We had an accordion at the front too … —
我爱我的手风琴。我们前面也有一个手风琴…… —

it’s wonderful going into battle singing a song!” —
在唱着歌进入战斗时，那真是太美妙了！” —

He then recalled those wretched years when he worked as a kitchen boy at the railway station. —
然后，他回忆起那些在火车站当厨房男孩的悲惨岁月。 —

“It was a hard job, to put it mildly—fetch this and carry that, get a move on, look sharp, boy. —
“说它是一份艰难的工作简直是轻描淡写——找这个、搬那个、别磨蹭、小心点，快点。 —

I saw too much of the bottom of life, if you know what I mean, it was as though I were constantly watching the dirty feet of passersby from a basement window. —
我看到了生活的底层太多，如果你知道我的意思，就好像我在地窖窗户里不断地看着行人的脏脚。 —

I witnessed so much degradation, so many people go to pot through drink. —
我目睹了太多堕落，太多人酗酒而垮掉。 —

But I was sorriest for the women, I feared most for those very young girls who were led astray right before my eyes.” —
但我最为难过的是那些女性，我最担心那些在我眼前误入歧途的非常年轻的女孩。” —

The conversation turned to the female characters in Born of the Storm and, speaking with even greater heat, Nikolai said that what he wanted to show was true love and friendship, a truly moral and human attitude to a woman friend. —
谈话转向《风暴之子》中的女性角色，尼古拉更加激动地说，他想要展现的是真正的爱和友谊，对女性朋友的真正道德和人性态度。 —

“There can be friendship without love, but it’s a shallow love if it has no friendship in it, no comradeship, no common interests. —
“可以有没有爱的友谊，但如果其中没有友谊、同志精神、共同兴趣，那只是一种肤浅的爱。” —

It’s not real love, it’s just a selfish pleasure, a pretty bauble. —
这不是真爱，只是一种自私的快乐，一种漂亮的玩物。 —

I’m not bragging and it’s all past anyway, but in the old days the girls used to give me the glad eye, and I was ridiculously shy and awkward. —
我并不是在吹嘘，这都是过去的事了，但在过去，女孩们常常向我送上媚眼，而我却非常害羞，笨拙。 —

… A Marusya or an Olessya would glance at me with her blue or brown eyes … —
一个玛鲁西娅或者奥莉萨可能会用她们的蓝眼睛或棕眼睛向我扫视一下…… —

it was a wonderful feeling, there’s no gainsaying it.” He laughed softly in reminiscence. —
那种感觉太美好了，毋庸置疑。” 他幽幽地笑着回忆说。 —

“Do you know,” he said, “I got a letter the other day from Tonya Tumanova, not Tonya really but the girl who was the prototype of Tonya. Can you imagine it, she hasn’t forgotten me.” —
“你知道吗，”他说，”前几天我收到了一封来自托尼娅图曼诺娃的信，其实不是真正的托尼娅，但是她是托尼娅的原型。难以置信，她没忘记我。 —

Nikolai fell abruptly silent, and for several minutes he lay still with a concentrated frown on his face. —
尼古拉突然沉默了下来，整整几分钟都一动不动，脸上写满了沉思。 —

Not a muscle stirred, and only his thick black eyelashes trembled slightly. —
每一根肌肉都没有动弹，只有他浓密的黑睫毛微微颤动。 —

Then, he sort of gave himself a shake, and started telling me about Tonya Tumanova. —
然后，他如释重负似的摇了摇头，开始跟我讲述托尼娅图曼诺娃的故事。 —

The man she fell in love with and married, an engineer he was, turned out to be a weak, bad character. —
她爱上并嫁给的那个男人，一个工程师，却原来是一个软弱、品行恶劣的人。 —

Tonya divorced him, and now lived apart with her two children, teaching for a living. —
托尼娅与他离婚了，现在独自抚养着两个孩子，以教书为生。 —

“She was a good, kind girl, but she was not made for struggle. —
“她是一个善良的好姑娘，但她并不适合奋斗。 —

It was often the case—people who could not fight for the common cause, could not put up a fight for their personal happiness either.” —
这种情况经常发生——那些无法为共同事业而战的人，也无法为自己的幸福而奋斗。 —

On one of my visits, I was shocked by Nikolai’s pallor and his strangely haggard look. —
在我一次访问中，尼古拉的面色苍白，看上去奇怪地憔悴不堪，让我感到震惊。 —

He refused to tell me what was wrong at first, but finally he yielded to my insistence and said: —
一开始他拒绝告诉我出了什么问题，但最终在我的坚持下，他说： —

“My eyeballs are sore. I suppose there’s an inflammation. —
“我的眼球很疼。我想可能是有炎症。 —

The right eye especially, it’s simply killing me. Did you ever get coal dust in your eyes? —
特别是右眼，简直让我难受死了。你曾经有过眼睛进了煤灰的经历吗？ —

Well, I sometimes have the feeling that my right eye is stuffed full with this blasted coal dust, and it twists and turns inside like mad, ripping the eyeball apart. —
嗯，有时候我感觉右眼里塞满了这该死的煤灰，它像疯了一样在里面扭动，撕裂着眼球。 —

I had the specialist in the other day… .” —
我找了专家来看了一下… . —

He was silent for a minute, then he cleared his throat, and said in a somewhat constrained voice: —
他沉默了一分钟，然后清了清嗓子，用有些克制的声音说： —

“He suggests removing the eyeballs, to spar*e me further suffering. —
“他建议把眼球取出来，以免让我继续受苦。 —

I asked him whether he proposed sewing up my eyelids or sticking in a pair of artificial, glass eyes? —
我问他是不是建议缝上眼皮或者安装一副人工玻璃眼？ —

Disgusting!” A painful grimace contorted his face. —
令人恶心!” 他脸上扭曲着痛苦的表情。 —

He bit his lip hard, closed his eyes tight, and tensed himself, stubbornly determined to endure and master the pain. —
他使劲咬着嘴唇，紧闭双眼，下定决心要忍受并克服疼痛。 —

“I said to him that it was not only myself I had to consider but also the people who associated with me,” he spoke at last, breaking the distressing silence. —
“我告诉他，我考虑的不仅是自己，还有和我来往的人，” 他最终开口说话，打破了尴尬的沉默。 —

” ‘Think how pleasant it will be for my friends/ I said to him, ‘to look at this effigy with glass eyes. —
“ ‘想想对我的朋友来说会是多么愉快，’ 我对他说，’看着这尊戴着玻璃眼睛的雕像。 —

I can’t do it to them.’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘No matter how bad it is at times, I’ll keep my own eyes, they may be blind but at least they’re brown.’ —
我不能这么做给他们看。’ ‘不，’ 我对他说。’不管有时候有多糟，我会保留我的眼睛，它们可能是盲的，但至少是棕色的。’ —

Don’t you agree?” He gripped my hand with his thin, nervous fingers that seemed to speak a language all their own. —
你不同意吗？” 他用那些看起来似乎有着自己语言的纤细、紧张的手指紧紧握住了我的手。 —

What I feared most in such minutes was “going all maudlin” which he hated. —
在这种时刻，我最害怕的是”变得感情用事”，而他却讨厌这种情绪。 —

I cradled his cool, frozen-feeling fingers in my hands and, speaking in an affectionately humorous tone, assured him that even if he had carroty hair or a hooked nose, like the boy in Perrault’s fairy tale, we’d love him just as tenderly. —
我把他冰凉、冻僵的手指搂在手里，用一种深情而幽默的口吻向他保证，就算他有胡萝卜色的头发或者像佩罗尔童话中的那个男孩一样有个鹰钩鼻，我们也会同样温柔地爱他。 —

He smiled, and then said in a matter-of-fact voice: —
他微笑了，然后用一副事实陈述的语气说： —

“I need another five years because the second and third parts of the book will mean a terrific amount of work, you know.” —
“我需要再五年因为这本书的第二部和第三部将需要大量的工作，你知道的。” —

Sighing softly, he said dreamily: “Yes, another five years would be nice. And then, oh well … —
他轻轻叹了口气，梦幻般地说：“是的，再五年会很好。然后，哦，好吧．．．” —

if I did fall out of the ranks, at least I’d know that the offensive had been won.” —
“如果我从队伍中掉队了，至少我会知道进攻已经取得胜利。” —

He loved such words as “ranks”, “offensive”, “victory”, “battle”, and pronounced them with a special sort of elation. —
他喜欢“队伍”、“进攻”、“胜利”、“战斗”这样的词，以特别的兴奋态度发音。 —

I mentioned it to him once. He smiled, and slowly drew his long eyebrows together to the bridge of his nose —a thing he was wont to do in moments of profound and pleasant reflection. —
我曾经提到过这些词给他听。他微笑着，缓慢地把长长的眉毛扯到鼻梁上——在深思熟虑的时刻，这是他惯常的动作。 —

“How could I help loving these words when for me they contain the main expression of life?” —
“当这些词对我来说包含着生命的主要表达时，我怎么能不喜欢它们呢？” —

I remember how happy he looked when he received his service card from the People’s Commissariat for Defence. —
我记得他从国防人民委员部获得兵役证时显得多么开心。 —

“You see, I’m still in the rank of fighters!” he exclaimed. —
“你看，我还在战斗者的行列中！”他兴奋地说。 —

One day we were talking about friendship, and suddenly Nikolai asked why Mark Kolosov and I did not come to see him more often. —
有一天我们在谈论友谊，突然尼古拉问为什么马克·科洛索夫和我不经常去看他。 —

Other friends visited him practically every day. I replied that I saw no need in daily calls. —
其他朋友几乎每天都去看他。我回答说我觉得没有必要每天来访。 —

In the first place, we did not want to tire him, knowing what a strain visitors were on him both physically and spiritually. —
首先，我们不想累着他，因为我们知道对他来说，无论是在生理上还是精神上，访客都是一种负担。 —

In the second, we did not want to take up his time which might otherwise be given to our young people, for whom it was very good to associate with a person like Nikolai Ostrovsky. —
其次，我们不想占用他本来可以花在我们的年轻人身上的时间，让他们与尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基这样的人交往对他们非常有好处。 —

And is it the number of visits that actually counts? —
毕竟，真正重要的是来访的数量吗？ —

After all, a writer needed privacy, he had to be left alone to think in peace, to talk tete-a-tete with his heroes. —
毕竟，一个作家需要隐私，他需要独自静下心来思考，与他的英雄们私下交谈。 —

In Ostrovsky’s case, these hours of solitude were particularly important, seeing that his secretaries were necessarily present at the creative process itself. —
在奥斯特罗夫斯基的情况下，这些独处的时间尤为重要，因为他的秘书们必然在创作过程中出席。 —

All things considered, we were not going to make a nuisance of ourselves, and would continue visiting him as before. —
总的来说，我们不打算让自己成为一个麻烦，会像以前一样继续拜访他。 —

As for any outward manifestations of affection, surely, he had sufficient proof that we loved him and were his truest friends. —
至于任何外在的表达，毫无疑问，他有足够的证据证明我们爱他，是他最真诚的朋友。 —

“Oh, yes, yes, I do,” he said, deeply moved. —
“哦，是的，是的，我明白了。”他说，深受感动。 —

Our conversation drifted to other topics, and apropos of something or other I mentioned his copious correspondence. —
我们的谈话漂移到了其他话题上，顺便提到了他丰富的通信。 —

Nikolai responded eagerly, recalling many extremely interesting letters which “made his heart sing”, and suddenly changing to a sombre key said:” —
尼古拉急切地回答，回忆起许多非常有趣的信件，这些信件“让他的心欢悦”，突然换了个沉重的语调说： —

I want you to know, in case you ever have to sort out my papers, that you’ll find everything quite easily—every scrap of paper is in its right place. —
以防有一天你需要整理我的文件，我想让你知道，你会很容易找到一切——每一片纸都放在了正确的地方。 —

I’m a soldier, I like order… .“Everyone who knew him well will, at the memory of him, always feel the bitterness of irreparable loss, the wrench of parting with a bit of his heart. —
我是一名士兵，我喜欢秩序……每个深知他的人，在想起他时，都会感受到无法弥补的损失的苦涩，与心灵的一部分分离的痛楚。 —

Time will blunt the pain, of course, but the grief will remain as profound. —
时间会淡化痛苦，当然，但悲痛仍然会依然深刻。 —

Nikolai Ostrovsky is impossible to forget. He will never be forgotten by his friends or his readers. —
尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基是不可忘记的。他的朋友和读者永远不会忘记他。 —

His image, personifying fortitude and dedication to the cause of socialism, will never be erasedfrom our memories. —
他的形象，代表着坚韧和对社会主义事业的奉献，将永远留存于我们的记忆中。 —

He was a singularly charming, touchingly clean and nice person.
他是一个极具魅力，一尘不染，善良的人。

ANNA KARAVAYEVA(From Recollections about Nikolai Ostrovsky)
安娜·卡拉瓦耶娃（摘自对尼古拉·奥斯特罗夫斯基的回忆）