I
我

I REMEMBER, when I was a high school boy in the fifth or sixth class, I was driving with my grandfather from the village of Bolshoe Kryepkoe in the Don region to Rostov-on-the-Don. It was a sultry, languidly dreary day of August. —
我记得，当我还是一个高中男生，读五六年级时，我和爷爷从顿河地区的博尔肖凯尔普科村庄驱车前往顿河畔的罗斯托夫。 —

Our eyes were glued together, and our mouths were parched from the heat and the dry burning wind which drove clouds of dust to meet us; —
我们的眼睛紧贴在一起，嘴巴因为炎热和燥热的风让我们口干舌燥； —

one did not want to look or speak or think, and when our drowsy driver, a Little Russian called Karpo, swung his whip at the horses and lashed me on my cap, I did not protest or utter a sound, but only, rousing myself from half-slumber, gazed mildly and dejectedly into the distance to see whether there was a village visible through the dust. —
我们不想看、说话或者思考，当我们昏昏欲睡的司机，一个叫卡尔波的小俄罗斯人，用鞭子抽打马儿并打在了我的帽子上时，我没有抗议或发出声音，只是从半梦半醒中苏醒，萧瑟地凝视远处，看能否透过尘土看见村庄。 —

We stopped to feed the horses in a big Armenian village at a rich Armenian’s whom my grandfather knew. —
我们在一个大亚美尼亚村庄停下来给马儿喂食，那里是我们爷爷认识的一个富有的亚美尼亚人。 —

Never in my life have I seen a greater caricature than that Armenian. —
我一生中从未见过比那个亚美尼亚人更荒谬的人物。 —

Imagine a little shaven head with thick overhanging eyebrows, a beak of a nose, long gray mustaches, and a wide mouth with a long cherry-wood chibouk sticking out of it. —
想象一下一个光溜溜的小脑袋，上面厚重的眉毛、一个鹰嘴般的鼻子、长长的灰色胡子、大嘴巴里长着一根长长的樱桃木烟斗。 —

This little head was clumsily attached to a lean hunch-back carcass attired in a fantastic garb, a short red jacket, and full bright blue trousers. —
这个小脑袋笨拙地连接在一个瘦瘦的驼背身上，身穿着奇异的服装，一件短红夹克和鲜艳的蓝裤子。 —

This figure walked straddling its legs and shuffling with its slippers, spoke without taking the chibouk out of its mouth, and behaved with truly Armenian dignity, not smiling, but staring with wide-open eyes and trying to take as little notice as possible of its guests.
这个形象走路时双腿张开跨步，拖着拖鞋，说话时不停地嘴里叼着烟斗，表现得真正像个亚美尼亚人，不笑，只是睁大眼睛盯着，尽量不理会客人。

There was neither wind nor dust in the Armenian’s rooms, but it was just as unpleasant, stifling, and dreary as in the steppe and on the road. —
在亚美尼亚人的房间里没有风也没有灰尘，但它却像在草原和在路上一样令人不快、闷热和阴郁。 —

I remember, dusty and exhausted by the heat, I sat in the corner on a green box. —
我记得，因为灼热的天气而又灰尘袭来，我疲惫不堪地坐在角落里的一个绿色箱子上。 —

The unpainted wooden walls, the furniture, and the floors colored with yellow ocher smelt of dry wood baked by the sun. —
没有粉刷的木墙、家具和涂满黄土漆的地板，都闻着被太阳晒干的干木头的味道。 —

Wherever I looked there were flies and flies and flies. —
不管我看哪里都是苍蝇，苍蝇和苍蝇。 —

… Grandfather and the Armenian were talking about grazing, about manure, and about oats. —
… 爷爷和亚美尼亚人在谈论放牧、粪肥和燕麦。 —

… I knew that they would be a good hour getting the samovar; —
… 我知道他们会花一个小时去弄热水壶； —

that grandfather would be not less than an hour drinking his tea, and then would lie down to sleep for two or three hours; —
那位祖父喝完茶后至少要睡上两三个小时； —

that I should waste a quarter of the day waiting, after which there would be again the heat, the dust, the jolting cart. —
我得浪费四分之一的日子在等待上，之后还得忍受酷热、尘土和颠簸的马车； —

I heard the muttering of the two voices, and it began to seem to me that I had been seeing the Armenian, the cupboard with the crockery, the flies, the windows with the burning sun beating on them, for ages and ages, and should only cease to see them in the far-off future, and I was seized with hatred for the steppe, the sun, the flies….
我听见两个声音的喃喃自语，开始觉得自己似乎已经看见亚美尼亚人、带器皿的橱柜、苍蝇、炎热阳光透过窗户照射，看了个没完，似乎只有在遥远的未来才会停止看见它们，我开始对大草原、太阳、苍蝇产生了憎恶……

A Little Russian peasant woman in a kerchief brought in a tray of tea- things, then the samovar. —
一个戴着头巾的小俄罗斯农妇端进来一个茶具托盘，接着是煤炉水壶； —

The Armenian went slowly out into the passage and shouted: —
亚美尼亚人缓缓走出厅门，大声叫喊着： —

“Mashya, come and pour out tea! Where are you, Mashya?”
“玛莎，过来给我们倒茶！玛莎，你在哪？”

Hurried footsteps were heard, and there came into the room a girl of sixteen in a simple cotton dress and a white kerchief. —
急匆匆的脚步声响起，一个十六岁、穿着简单棉布裙和白头巾的女孩走进了房间。 —

As she washed the crockery and poured out the tea, she was standing with her back to me, and all I could see was that she was of a slender figure, barefooted, and that her little bare heels were covered by long trousers.
当她洗碗倒茶时，她背对着我，我只能看到她身材修长，赤脚，小小的赤脚后跟被长裤子遮盖着。

The Armenian invited me to have tea. Sitting down to the table, I glanced at the girl, who was handing me a glass of tea, and felt all at once as though a wind were blowing over my soul and blowing away all the impressions of the day with their dust and dreariness. —
亚美尼亚人邀请我喝茶。坐在桌旁，我瞥了一眼那个递给我茶的女孩，突然感到灵魂上仿佛一阵风吹过来，吹走了我一天的所有印象，带着它们的尘土和沉闷。 —

I saw the bewitching features of the most beautiful face I have ever met in real life or in my dreams. —
我看到了我真实生活中或梦中所见过最美丽面容的诱人特征。 —

Before me stood a beauty, and I recognized that at the first glance as I should have recognized lightning.
我面前站着一个美女，我一眼就认出了，就像我认出了闪电一样。

I am ready to swear that Masha—or, as her father called her, Mashya—was a real beauty, but I don’t know how to prove it. —
我愿意发誓Masha，或者她父亲称呼的Mashya，是一位真正的美人，但我不知道如何证明。 —

It sometimes happens that clouds are huddled together in disorder on the horizon, and the sun hiding behind them colors them and the sky with tints of every possible shade—crimson, orange, gold, lilac, muddy pink; —
有时乌云在地平线上混乱地聚集在一起，太阳藏在它们背后，用各种各样的色彩涂染它们和天空——绯红，橙色，金色，丁香色，浑浊粉红； —

one cloud is like a monk, another like a fish, a third like a Turk in a turban. —
一朵云像个和尚，另一朵像鱼，第三朵像头戴头巾的土耳其人。 —

The glow of sunset enveloping a third of the sky gleams on the cross on the church, flashes on the windows of the manor house, is reflected in the river and the puddles, quivers on the trees; —
夕阳的灿烂笼罩了天空的三分之一，在教堂的十字架闪闪发光，在庄园房屋的窗户上闪烁，在河流和水坑中倒映，在树上微微颤动； —

far, far away against the background of the sunset, a flock of wild ducks is flying homewards. —
远远地，背景是夕阳，一群野鸭正飞回家。 —

… And the boy herding the cows, and the surveyor driving in his chaise over the dam, and the gentleman out for a walk, all gaze at the sunset, and every one of them thinks it terribly beautiful, but no one knows or can say in what its beauty lies.
…放牛的男孩，驾车经过堤坝的勘测员，散步的绅士，都凝视着夕阳，每个人都认为它太美了，但没有人知道或能说出它的美在哪里。

I was not the only one to think the Armenian girl beautiful. —
我不是唯一一个认为亚美尼亚女孩美丽的人。 —

My grandfather, an old man of seventy, gruff and indifferent to women and the beauties of nature, looked caressingly at Masha for a full minute, and asked:
我七旬年迈、粗鲁冷漠对女人和自然美没什么兴趣的爷爷，温柔地看着Masha整整一分钟，问道：

“Is that your daughter, Avert Nazaritch?”
“那是你的女儿，阿维尔特·纳扎里奇？”

“Yes, she is my daughter,” answered the Armenian.
“是的，她是我的女儿，”亚美尼亚人回答道。

“A fine young lady,” said my grandfather approvingly.
“一个漂亮的姑娘，”我爷爷赞许地说道。

An artist would have called the Armenian girl’s beauty classical and severe, it was just that beauty, the contemplation of which—God knows why! —
一个艺术家会称亚美尼亚女孩的美丽为古典而严峻，就是那种美丽，让人神秘地沉思，谁也说不清为什么！ —

—inspires in one the conviction that one is seeing correct features; —
——让人确信自己看到的是正确的特征； —

that hair, eyes, nose, mouth, neck, bosom, and every movement of the young body all go together in one complete harmonious accord in which nature has not blundered over the smallest line. —
那头发、眼睛、鼻子、嘴巴、脖子、胸部，以及年轻身体的每一个动作都完美地协调在一起，自然没有在任何一条线上犯错。 —

You fancy for some reason that the ideally beautiful woman must have such a nose as Masha’s, straight and slightly aquiline, just such great dark eyes, such long lashes, such a languid glance; —
你会因某种原因想象理想美女必须有像玛莎那样的鼻子，笔直而微翘，乌黑的大眼睛，长长的睫毛，慵懒的眼神； —

you fancy that her black curly hair and eyebrows go with the soft white tint of her brow and cheeks as the green reeds go with the quiet stream. —
你会想象她黑色卷曲的头发和眉毛与她额头和脸颊柔软的白色调调和谐无间，如同绿色的芦苇与平静的小溪相衬。 —

Masha’s white neck and her youthful bosom were not fully developed, but you fancy the sculptor would need a great creative genius to mold them. —
玛莎的白皙脖颈和青春胸膛尚未完全发育，但你会想象雕塑家需要一个极为有创造天赋的天才来捏造它们。 —

You gaze, and little by little the desire comes over you to say to Masha something extraordinarily pleasant, sincere, beautiful, as beautiful as she herself was.
你凝视着，渐渐地你会产生一种欲望，想对玛莎说一些异常美好、真挚、美丽的话，就像她本人一样美丽。

At first I felt hurt and abashed that Masha took no notice of me, but was all the time looking down; —
一开始，我感到受伤和窘迫，因为玛莎毫不理睬我，一直低头； —

it seemed to me as though a peculiar atmosphere, proud and happy, separated her from me and jealously screened her from my eyes.
我觉得，仿佛一种傲娇而幸福的氛围将她与我分隔开来，并嫉妒地将她屏蔽在我的眼前。

“That’s because I am covered with dust,” I thought, “am sunburnt, and am still a boy.”
“那是因为我浑身是灰尘，晒得又黑，而且还是个男孩”，我想。

But little by little I forgot myself, and gave myself up entirely to the consciousness of beauty. —
但渐渐地，我忘记了自己，完全沉浸在美的意识中。 —

I thought no more now of the dreary steppe, of the dust, no longer heard the buzzing of the flies, no longer tasted the tea, and felt nothing except that a beautiful girl was standing only the other side of the table.
现在我再也不想着荒凉的草原、灰尘，不再听到苍蝇的嗡嗡声，不再品味茶，只感觉到一位美丽的女孩站在桌子的另一边。

I felt this beauty rather strangely. It was not desire, nor ecstacy, nor enjoyment that Masha excited in me, but a painful though pleasant sadness. —
我感受到这种美感有些奇怪。玛莎引起的并不是欲望、狂喜或享受，而是一种痛苦却愉悦的忧伤。 —

It was a sadness vague and undefined as a dream. —
这是一种梦幻般模糊而不可描述的悲伤。 —

For some reason I felt sorry for myself, for my grandfather and for the Armenian, even for the girl herself, and I had a feeling as though we all four had lost something important and essential to life which we should never find again. —
出于某种原因，我为自己感到难过，为我的祖父和亚美尼亚人，甚至为这个女孩感到难过，有一种感觉，好像我们四个人都失去了一些对生活至关重要而本质的东西，而这些东西我们将永远无法再找到了。 —

My grandfather, too, grew melancholy; he talked no more about manure or about oats, but sat silent, looking pensively at Masha.
我的祖父也变得忧郁起来；他不再谈论粪肥或燕麦，而是静静地坐着，忧郁地看着玛莎。

After tea my grandfather lay down for a nap while I went out of the house into the porch. —
茶后，我祖父躺下小睡，我走出房子，来到门廊外。 —

The house, like all the houses in the Armenian village stood in the full sun; —
像亚美尼亚村庄里的所有房子一样，那座房子矗立在烈日当空之下； —

there was not a tree, not an awning, no shade. —
没有树木，没有遮阳棚，没有阴凉可寻。 —

The Armenian’s great courtyard, overgrown with goosefoot and wild mallows, was lively and full of gaiety in spite of the great heat. —
亚美尼亚人宽大的院子里长满了莧菜和野麻，尽管烈日高悬，但依然热闹而充满欢乐。 —

Threshing was going on behind one of the low hurdles which intersected the big yard here and there. —
在大院里的一个低障碍物后面正在打谷。 —

Round a post stuck into the middle of the threshing-floor ran a dozen horses harnessed side by side, so that they formed one long radius. —
在打谷场的中央插着一个柱子，绕着这根柱子围着一打马，马拉着耕作，形成一根长长的半径。 —

A Little Russian in a long waistcoat and full trousers was walking beside them, cracking a whip and shouting in a tone that sounded as though he were jeering at the horses and showing off his power over them.
一个穿着长背心和宽裤子的俄罗斯小伙子，走在马旁边，挥鞭子，用一种听起来像是嘲弄马匹并炫耀自己控制力的口吻吆喝着。

“A—a—a, you damned brutes!… A—a—a, plague take you! Are you frightened?”
“啊——啊——啊，你们这些该死的畜生！……啊——啊——啊，让你们疯狂！害怕了吗？”

The horses, sorrel, white, and piebald, not understanding why they were made to run round in one place and to crush the wheat straw, ran unwillingly as though with effort, swinging their tails with an offended air. —
马匹，栗色、白色和斑马，不明白为什么要在一个地方绕着跑，踩碎麦秸，不情愿地奔跑，仿佛在费力，摇摆着尾巴，带着不悦充满委屈的神情。 —

The wind raised up perfect clouds of golden chaff from under their hoofs and carried it away far beyond the hurdle. —
风从马蹄下掀起金色的麦秸云，远远地吹扬到隔着障碍物之外。 —

Near the tall fresh stacks peasant women were swarming with rakes, and carts were moving, and beyond the stacks in another yard another dozen similar horses were running round a post, and a similar Little Russian was cracking his whip and jeering at the horses.
在高高的新鲜的干草垛旁围绕着用耙的农妇，还有运货车，干草堆之外在另一个院里，又有一打类似的马围着一个柱子奔跑，还有一个类似的俄罗斯小伙子挥鞭子，嘲笑马匹。

The steps on which I was sitting were hot; —
我坐的那级台阶是热的； —

on the thin rails and here and there on the window-frames sap was oozing out of the wood from the heat; —
薄薄的栏杆上，以及窗框上，炎热让树木渗出树胶； —

red ladybirds were huddling together in the streaks of shadow under the steps and under the shutters. —
红 Ladybugs 聚集在台阶下和百叶窗下的阴影中。 —

The sun was baking me on my head, on my chest, and on my back, but I did not notice it, and was conscious only of the thud of bare feet on the uneven floor in the passage and in the rooms behind me. —
太阳灼热着我的头、胸膛和背部，但我没有注意到，只感觉到通道和我身后房间里赤脚踩在不平整地面上的重音声。 —

After clearing away the tea-things, Masha ran down the steps, fluttering the air as she passed, and like a bird flew into a little grimy outhouse—I suppose the kitchen—from which came the smell of roast mutton and the sound of angry talk in Armenian. —
整理完茶具后，玛莎跑下台阶，路过时拂动空气，像只鸟儿飞进了一个小而肮脏的外屋——我想是厨房——传来烤羊肉的味道和亚美尼亚人愤怒的谈话声。 —

She vanished into the dark doorway, and in her place there appeared on the threshold an old bent, red-faced Armenian woman wearing green trousers. —
她消失在黑暗的门口，门槛上出现了一位老弯腰、红脸的穿着绿色裤子的亚美尼亚老妇人。 —

The old woman was angry and was scolding someone. —
老妇人生气着在责骂某人。 —

Soon afterwards Masha appeared in the doorway, flushed with the heat of the kitchen and carrying a big black loaf on her shoulder; —
不久之后，玛莎出现在门口，脸因厨房的热气而发红，肩上扛着一个大黑面包； —

swaying gracefully under the weight of the bread, she ran across the yard to the threshing-floor, darted over the hurdle, and, wrapt in a cloud of golden chaff, vanished behind the carts. —
她优雅地承受着面包的重量，穿过庭院跑向打谷场，越过栅栏，被金色秕糠之云所包围，消失在车边。 —

The Little Russian who was driving the horses lowered his whip, sank into silence, and gazed for a minute in the direction of the carts. —
驾驶马的小俄在放下鞭子后，陷入沉默，并盯着车的方向看了一会儿。 —

Then when the Armenian girl darted again by the horses and leaped over the hurdle, he followed her with his eyes, and shouted to the horses in a tone as though he were greatly disappointed:
当亚美尼亚女孩再次从马旁掠过，跃过栅栏时，他用一种失望的口吻对马们喊道：

“Plague take you, unclean devils!”
“该死的，你们这些不洁净的家伙！”

And all the while I was unceasingly hearing her bare feet, and seeing how she walked across the yard with a grave, preoccupied face. —
我不断听到她的光脚踩击声，看着她如何面带严肃，穿过庭院。 —

She ran now down the steps, swishing the air about me, now into the kitchen, now to the threshing-floor, now through the gate, and I could hardly turn my head quickly enough to watch her.
她此刻跑下台阶，将空气扫过我，又进入厨房，又走向打谷场，如此往复，我几乎无法快速转头看她。

And the oftener she fluttered by me with her beauty, the more acute became my sadness. —
随着她用美丽飞扬而过的次数增多，我的忧伤也变得更加深刻。 —

I felt sorry both for her and for myself and for the Little Russian, who mournfully watched her every time she ran through the cloud of chaff to the carts. —
我为她、为自己、为那位小俄感到遗憾，后者每次看她跑过金秕糠云走向车边时都闷闷不乐。 —

Whether it was envy of her beauty, or that I was regretting that the girl was not mine, and never would be, or that I was a stranger to her; —
无论是对她美貌的嫉妒，还是我为这个女孩不属于我，也永远不会属于我的遗憾； —

or whether I vaguely felt that her rare beauty was accidental, unnecessary, and, like everything on earth, of short duration; —
还是隐约感觉到她的美貌是偶然的、无关紧要的，就像地球上的一切一样，短暂存在。 —

or whether, perhaps, my sadness was that peculiar feeling which is excited in man by the contemplation of real beauty, God only knows.
或许，我的悲伤是由于当人类沉默地凝视真正美丽之物时而产生的那种奇特感觉，只有上帝知道。

The three hours of waiting passed unnoticed. —
三个小时的等待毫无察觉地过去了。 —

It seemed to me that I had not had time to look properly at Masha when Karpo drove up to the river, bathed the horse, and began to put it in the shafts. —
在卡尔波带着马娃开到河边，给马洗澡并开始安放到辕中之时，我觉得我没有足够的时间好好看马娃。 —

The wet horse snorted with pleasure and kicked his hoofs against the shafts. Karpo shouted to it: —
湿漉漉的马高兴地喷着气，在辕中用蹄子狠狠地踢了几下。卡尔波对它喊道： —

“Ba—ack!” My grandfather woke up. Masha opened the creaking gates for us, we got into the chaise and drove out of the yard. —
“走吧！” 我的祖父醒来了。马娃打开吱吱作响的大门，我们上了花轿，驶出了院子。 —

We drove in silence as though we were angry with one another.
我们默不作声地驶行，仿佛在生气似的。

When, two or three hours later, Rostov and Nahitchevan appeared in the distance, Karpo, who had been silent the whole time, looked round quickly, and said:
当两三个小时后，罗斯托夫和纳希切万从远处出现在视野中时，一直沉默的卡尔波迅速地环顾四周，说道：

“A fine wench, that at the Armenian’s.”
“亚美尼亚人那里有位漂亮姑娘。”

And he lashed his horses.
他鞭策着马匹。

II
II

Another time, after I had become a student, I was traveling by rail to the south. —
又一次，我成为一名学生后，我乘火车南行。 —

It was May. At one of the stations, I believe it was between Byelgorod and Harkov, I got out of the tram to walk about the platform.
那是五月。 在一处车站，我记得是在别尔哥罗德和哈尔科夫之间，我下了有轨电车站踱步。

The shades of evening were already lying on the station garden, on the platform, and on the fields; —
黄昏的阴影已经洒在了车站花园、站台和田野上； —

the station screened off the sunset, but on the topmost clouds of smoke from the engine, which were tinged with rosy light, one could see the sun had not yet quite vanished.
车站挡住了夕阳，但在云霞最上面，那被映染成粉红色的炽白烟云上，人们还可以看见太阳还没有完全落下。

As I walked up and down the platform I noticed that the greater number of the passengers were standing or walking near a second-class compartment, and that they looked as though some celebrated person were in that compartment. —
当我在站台上来回走动时，我注意到许多乘客都站在或在一个二等车厢附近行走，他们看上去仿佛有名人在那辆车厢里。 —

Among the curious whom I met near this compartment I saw, however, an artillery officer who had been my fellow-traveler, an intelligent, cordial, and sympathetic fellow—as people mostly are whom we meet on our travels by chance and with whom we are not long acquainted.
我遇到的那些观察到这节车厢附近的人中，有一个炮兵军官，他是我的同行旅客，一个聪明、和蔼、富有同情心的家伙——和我们在旅途中偶然相遇、并且并不长时间相识的人通常是这样的。

“What are you looking at there?” I asked.
“你在看什么？”我问。

He made no answer, but only indicated with his eyes a feminine figure. —
他没有回答，只是用眼睛指了指一个女性的身影。 —

It was a young girl of seventeen or eighteen, wearing a Russian dress, with her head bare and a little shawl flung carelessly on one shoulder; —
那是一个十七八岁的年轻女孩，穿着俄罗斯服装，头发散乱，披着一条小披肩从一侧随意搭在肩上； —

not a passenger, but I suppose a sister or daughter of the station- master. —
不是乘客，我想应该是站长的姐妹或女儿。 —

She was standing near the carriage window, talking to an elderly woman who was in the train. —
她站在车窗旁，与一个坐在火车里的老女人交谈。 —

Before I had time to realize what I was seeing, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling I had once experienced in the Armenian village.
我还没来得及意识到我看到了什么，突然被一种我曾在亚美尼亚村庄经历过的感觉淹没了。

The girl was remarkably beautiful, and that was unmistakable to me and to those who were looking at her as I was.
这个女孩异常美丽，这一点对我和那些像我一样看着她的人来说是显而易见的。

If one is to describe her appearance feature by feature, as the practice is, the only really lovely thing was her thick wavy fair hair, which hung loose with a black ribbon tied round her head; —
如果要逐个描述她的容貌特征，就像习惯的做法那样，唯一的真正可爱之处就是她厚密的金发，它披散着一条黑色丝带在她的头上； —

all the other features were either irregular or very ordinary. —
所有其他特征都要么是不规则的，要么非常普通。 —

Either from a peculiar form of coquettishness, or from short-sightedness, her eyes were screwed up, her nose had an undecided tilt, her mouth was small, her profile was feebly and insipidly drawn, her shoulders were narrow and undeveloped for her age—and yet the girl made the impression of being really beautiful, and looking at her, I was able to feel convinced that the Russian face does not need strict regularity in order to be lovely; —
她可能因为一种特殊的虚荣心，或者视力不佳，眯起眼睛，鼻子稍稍翘起，嘴巴小，侧面轮廓淡淡而乏味，肩膀狭窄并且未发育完全，与她的年龄明显不符——但是女孩确实给人带来了真实的美感，看着她，我可以确信俄罗斯面孔并不需要严格规则才能被称为美丽； —

what is more, that if instead of her turn-up nose the girl had been given a different one, correct and plastically irreproachable like the Armenian girl’s, I fancy her face would have lost all its charm from the change.
更重要的是，如果这个女孩的翘鼻子被换成了不同的一个，正而具有塑性完美的，就像那个亚美尼亚女孩一样，我想她的脸会因为这个改变而失去所有的魅力。

Standing at the window talking, the girl, shrugging at the evening damp, continually looking round at us, at one moment put her arms akimbo, at the next raised her hands to her head to straighten her hair, talked, laughed, while her face at one moment wore an expression of wonder, the next of horror, and I don’t remember a moment when her face and body were at rest. —
站在窗前交谈的女孩，不停地扭动着身体适应傍晚的湿气，不停地环顾我们，一会儿叉着腰，下一秒又举起手来整理头发，说着笑着，而她的脸一会儿流露出惊奇的表情，下一刻又是恐惧的表情，我记不得她的脸和身体曾经有过一个静止的瞬间。 —

The whole secret and magic of her beauty lay just in these tiny, infinitely elegant movements, in her smile, in the play of her face, in her rapid glances at us, in the combination of the subtle grace of her movements with her youth, her freshness, the purity of her soul that sounded in her laugh and voice, and with the weakness we love so much in children, in birds, in fawns, and in young trees.
她的整个美的秘密和魔力就在这些微小、无限优雅的动作中，在她的微笑中，在她脸上的表演，在她迅速的目光中，在她优雅的动作与青春、新鲜和她笑声和声音中所传达的灵魂的纯净，以及我们在孩子、鸟、小鹿和年轻树木身上如此喜爱的脆弱之处。

It was that butterfly’s beauty so in keeping with waltzing, darting about the garden, laughter and gaiety, and incongruous with serious thought, grief, and repose; —
那是与华尔兹、在花园里飞舞、笑声和愉快一致的蝴蝶般的美好，与严肃的思考、悲伤和静谧不协调； —

and it seemed as though a gust of wind blowing over the platform, or a fall of rain, would be enough to wither the fragile body and scatter the capricious beauty like the pollen of a flower.
显得就好像平台上吹过的一阵风，或是一场雨的降临，足以使脆弱的身体枯萎，使变幻莫测的美丽如同一朵花的花粉飘散。

“So—o!…” the officer muttered with a sigh when, after the second bell, we went back to our compartment.
“那个……”军官在第二声铃响后，我们回到了车厢。

And what that “So—o” meant I will not undertake to decide.
那个“那个”到底有什么含义，我不打算下结论。

Perhaps he was sad, and did not want to go away from the beauty and the spring evening into the stuffy train; —
也许他感到悲伤，不愿意离开美丽和春日的傍晚，进入拥挤的火车里； —

or perhaps he, like me, was unaccountably sorry for the beauty, for himself, and for me, and for all the passengers, who were listlessly and reluctantly sauntering back to their compartments. —
也许他跟我一样，莫名地为美丽、为自己、为我，为所有那些懒散、不情愿地向他们的车厢走去的乘客感到悲伤。 —

As we passed the station window, at which a pale, red-haired telegraphist with upstanding curls and a faded, broad-cheeked face was sitting beside his apparatus, the officer heaved a sigh and said:
当我们经过车站窗户时，一个深红头发、卷卷的发辫，憔悴而宽脸的青菜色头发站在旁边的电报员坐在设备旁，军官叹了口气，说：

“I bet that telegraphist is in love with that pretty girl. —
“我敢打赌那个电报员爱上了那个漂亮姑娘。 —

To live out in the wilds under one roof with that ethereal creature and not fall in love is beyond the power of man. —
与那充满灵性的生灵同在一屋檐下，却不会爱上，那是超乎人力的事。 —

And what a calamity, my friend! what an ironical fate, to be stooping, unkempt, gray, a decent fellow and not a fool, and to be in love with that pretty, stupid little girl who would never take a scrap of notice of you! —
这可真是一场灾难，我的朋友！多么讽刺的命运，弯身、头发脏乱、灰头土脸的正派人，一个不是傻瓜，而是爱上了那个漂亮、愚蠢的小姑娘，她永远不会对你有一丝注意！ —

Or worse still: imagine that telegraphist is in love, and at the same time married, and that his wife is as stooping, as unkempt, and as decent a person as himself.”
更糟糕的是：想象一下，电报员爱上了，同时还结婚了，而他的妻子与他一样，弯身、头发脏乱、和他一样正派。”

On the platform between our carriage and the next the guard was standing with his elbows on the railing, looking in the direction of the beautiful girl, and his battered, wrinkled, unpleasantly beefy face, exhausted by sleepless nights and the jolting of the train, wore a look of tenderness and of the deepest sadness, as though in that girl he saw happiness, his own youth, soberness, purity, wife, children; —
在我们车厢和下一节车厢之间的台阶上，站着一个卫兵，肘靠在栏杆上，看着那个美丽的姑娘的方向，他那张破旧、布满皱纹、令人不快的肥腯脸庞，被失眠的夜晚和颠簸的火车折磨得疲惫，却带着一种温柔和最深切的悲伤，仿佛在那个姑娘身上看到了幸福，看到了他自己的青春、清醒、纯洁、妻子、孩子； —

as though he were repenting and feeling in his whole being that that girl was not his, and that for him, with his premature old age, his uncouthness, and his beefy face, the ordinary happiness of a man and a passenger was as far away as heaven….
好像他在忏悔，内心深处感受到那个姑娘不属于他，而对于他这个提早老去、粗俗、肥腯脸的人来说，一个普通男人和乘客的幸福就像天堂一样遥不可及……。

The third bell rang, the whistles sounded, and the train slowly moved off. —
第三声铃响起，汽笛响起，火车缓缓启动。 —

First the guard, the station-master, then the garden, the beautiful girl with her exquisitely sly smile, passed before our windows….
先是卫兵，站长，然后是花园，美丽的姑娘带着她那娇媚的微笑，从我们车窗前走过……

Putting my head out and looking back, I saw how, looking after the train, she walked along the platform by the window where the telegraph clerk was sitting, smoothed her hair, and ran into the garden. —
我伸出头往后看的时候，看到那个姑娘在火车离开后，顺着站台沿着电报员坐的窗户走去，整理了一下头发，然后跑进了花园。 —

The station no longer screened off the sunset, the plain lay open before us, but the sun had already set and the smoke lay in black clouds over the green, velvety young corn. —
车站不再挡住了日落，一望无际的平原展现在我们面前，但太阳已经落山，烟雾在嫩绿的庄稼上方形成浓密的黑云。 —

It was melancholy in the spring air, and in the darkening sky, and in the railway carriage.
春天的空气，黄昏的天空，铁路车厢里都充满了忧郁的氛围。

The familiar figure of the guard came into the carriage, and he began lighting the candles.
熟悉的列车员走进车厢，开始点燃蜡烛。