When Nekhludoff came out of the gate he met the girl with the long earrings on the well-trodden path that lay across the pasture ground, overgrown with dock and plantain leaves. She had a long, brightly-coloured apron on, and was quickly swinging her left arm in front of herself as she stepped briskly with her fat, bare feet. With her right arm she was pressing a fowl to her stomach.
The fowl, with red comb shaking, seemed perfectly calm; he only rolled up his eyes and stretched out and drew in one black leg, clawing the girl’s apron. When the girl came nearer to "the master," she began moving more slowly, and her run changed into a walk.
When she came up to him she stopped, and, after a backward jerk with her head, bowed to him; and only when he had passed did she recommence to run homeward with the cock. As he went down towards the well, he met an old woman, who had a coarse dirty blouse on, carrying two pails full of water, that hung on a yoke across her bent back. The old woman carefully put down the pails and bowed, with the same backward jerk of her head.
After passing the well Nekhludoff entered the village. It was a bright, hot day, and oppressive, though only ten o’clock. At intervals the sun was hidden by the gathering clouds. An unpleasant, sharp smell of manure filled the air in the street. It came from carts going up the hillside, but chiefly from the disturbed manure heaps in the yards of the huts, by the open gates of which Nekhludoff had to pass.
The peasants, barefooted, their shirts and trousers soiled with manure, turned to look at the tall, stout gentleman with the glossy silk ribbon on his grey hat who was walking up the village street, touching the ground every other step with a shiny, bright-knobbed walking-stick.
The peasants returning from the fields at a trot and jotting in their empty carts, took off their hats, and, in their surprise, followed with their eyes the extraordinary man who was walking up their street. The women came out of the gates or stood in the porches of their huts, pointing him out to each other and gazing at him as he passed.
When Nekhludoff was passing the fourth gate, he was stopped by a cart that was coming out, its wheels creaking, loaded high with manure, which was pressed down, and was covered with a mat to sit on. A six-year-old boy, excited by the prospect of a drive, followed the cart. A young peasant, with shoes plaited out of bark on his feet, led the horse out of the yard.
A long-legged colt jumped out of the gate; but, seeing Nekhludoff, pressed close to the cart, and scraping its legs against the wheels, jumped forward, past its excited, gently-neighing mother, as she was dragging the heavy load through the gateway. The next horse was led out by a barefooted old man, with protruding shoulder-blades, in a dirty shirt and striped trousers.
读书笔记
是否公开
9
-
等马匹上了撒满仿佛烧焦的灰黄色粪块的大路,老头又回到大门口,对聂赫留朵夫鞠了个躬。
读书笔记
是否公开
9
-
When the horses got out on to the hard road, strewn over with bits of dry, grey manure, the old man returned to the gate, and bowed to Nekhludoff.
读书笔记
是否公开
10
-
“你是我们那两位小姐的侄儿吧?”
读书笔记
是否公开
10
-
"You are our ladies’ nephew, aren’t you?"
读书笔记
是否公开
11
-
“是的,我是她们的侄儿。”
读书笔记
是否公开
11
-
"Yes, I am their nephew."
读书笔记
是否公开
12
-
“欢迎欢迎。你是不是来看看我们哪?”老头兴致勃勃地说。
读书笔记
是否公开
12
-
"You’ve kindly come to look us up, eh?" said the garrulous old man.
读书笔记
是否公开
13
-
“对了,对了。那么,你们过得怎么样?”聂赫留朵夫回答,不知道该说什么才好。
读书笔记
是否公开
13
-
"Yes, I have. Well, how are you getting on?"
读书笔记
是否公开
14
-
“我们过的是什么日子啊!糟得不能再糟了,”饶舌的老头连忙拖长声音说。
读书笔记
是否公开
14
-
"How do we get on? We get on very badly," the old man drawled, as if it gave him pleasure.
读书笔记
是否公开
15
-
“怎么会这样糟呢?”聂赫留朵夫一面走进大门,一面问。
读书笔记
是否公开
15
-
"Why so badly?" Nekhludoff asked, stepping inside the gate.
"I have got 12 of them there," continued the old man, pointing to two women on the remainder of the manure heap, who stood perspiring with forks in their hands, the kerchiefs tumbling off their heads, with their skirts tucked up, showing the calves of their dirty, bare legs.
读书笔记
是否公开
19
-
“月月都得买进六普特粮食,可是哪来的钱哪?”
读书笔记
是否公开
19
-
"Not a month passes but I have to buy six poods [a pood is 36 English pounds] of corn, and where’s the money to come from?"
读书笔记
是否公开
20
-
“难道自己打的还不够吃吗?”
读书笔记
是否公开
20
-
"Have you not got enough corn of your own?"
读书笔记
是否公开
21
-
“自己打的?!”老头冷笑一声说。“我的地只能养活三口人,还吃不到圣诞节。”
读书笔记
是否公开
21
-
"My own?" repeated the old man, with a smile of contempt; "why I have only got land for three, and last year we had not enough to last till Christmas."
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
“那你们怎么办呢?”
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
"What do you do then?"
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
“我们就这么办:一个孩子送出去做长工,又向府上借了点钱。不到大斋节就用光了,可是税还没有缴呢!”
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
"What do we do? Why, I hire out as a labourer; and then I borrowed some money from your honour. We spent it all before Lent, and the tax is not paid yet."
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
“税要缴多少?”
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
"And how much is the tax?"
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
“我们一户每四个月得缴十七卢布。唉,老天爷,这年头,自己都不知道该怎么对付!”
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
"Why, it’s 17 roubles for my household. Oh, Lord, such a life! One hardly knows one’s self how one manages to live it."
"May I go into your hut?" asked Nekhludoff, stepping across the yard over the yellow-brown layers of manure that had been raked up by the forks, and were giving off a strong smell.
"Why not? Come in," said the old man, and stepping quickly with his bare feet over the manure, the liquid oozing between his toes, he passed Nekhludoff and opened the door of the hut.
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
那两个农妇理好头巾,放下裙摆,露出好奇而恐惧的神情,瞧着袖口钉着金钮子的整洁的老爷走进来。
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
The women arranged the kerchiefs on their heads and let down their skirts, and stood looking with surprise at the clean gentleman with gold studs to his sleeves who was entering their house.
Two little girls, with nothing on but coarse chemises, rushed out of the hut. Nekhludoff took off his hat, and, stooping to get through the low door, entered, through a passage into the dirty, narrow hut, that smelt of sour food, and where much space was taken up by two weaving looms. In the but an old woman was standing by the stove, with the sleeves rolled up over her thin, sinewy brown arms.
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
“瞧,东家少爷看我们来了,”老头说。
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
"Here is our master come to see us," said the old man.
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
“哦,那太高兴了,”老太婆放下卷起的袖子,亲切地说。
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
"I’m sure he’s very welcome," said the old woman, kindly.
"Well, you see how we live. The hut is coming down, and might kill one any day; but my old man he says it’s good enough, and so we live like kings," said the brisk old woman, nervously jerking her head. "I’m getting the dinner; going to feed the workers."
"Our food is very good. First course, bread and kvas; [kvas is a kind of sour, non-intoxicant beer made of rye] second course, kvas and bread," said the old woman, showing her teeth, which were half worn away.
读书笔记
是否公开
36
-
“不,您别开玩笑,让我看看你们今天吃些什么。”
读书笔记
是否公开
36
-
"No," seriously; "let me see what you are going to eat."
读书笔记
是否公开
37
-
“吃什么?”老头儿笑着说。“我们的伙食并不讲究。你给他看看,老婆子。”
读书笔记
是否公开
37
-
"To eat?" said the old man, laughing. "Ours is not a very cunning meal. You just show him, wife."
"Want to see our peasant food? Well, you are an inquisitive gentleman, now I come to look at you. He wants to know everything. Did I not tell you bread and kvas and then we’ll have soup. A woman brought us some fish, and that’s what the soup is made of, and after that, potatoes."
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
“没有别的了?”
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
"Nothing more?"
读书笔记
是否公开
40
-
“还能有什么呢,最多在汤里加一点牛奶,”老太婆笑着说,然后抬起眼睛望着门口。
读书笔记
是否公开
40
-
"What more do you want? We’ll also have a little milk," said the old woman, looking towards the door.