白痴 英文版 The Idiot
陀思妥耶夫斯基 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot IX. Page 1
A FORTNIGHT had passed since the events recorded in the lastchapter, and the position of the actors in our story had becomeso changed that it is almost impossible for us to continue thetale without some few explanations. Yet we feel that we ought tolimit ourselves to the simple record of facts, without muchattempt at explanation, for a very patent reason: because weourselves have the greatest possible difficulty in accounting forthe facts to be recorded. Such a statement on our part may appearstrange to the reader. How is anyone to tell a story which hecannot understand himself? In order to keep clear of a falseposition, we had perhaps better give an example of what we mean;and probably the intelligent reader will soon understand thedifficulty. More especially are we inclined to take this coursesince the example will constitute a distinct march forward of ourstory, and will not hinder the progress of the events remainingto be recorded.
During the next fortnight--that is, through the early part ofJuly--the history of our hero was circulated in the form ofstrange, diverting, most unlikely-sounding stories, which passedfrom mouth to mouth, through the streets and villas adjoiningthose inhabited by Lebedeff, Ptitsin, Nastasia Philipovna and theEpanchins; in fact, pretty well through the whole town and itsenvirons. All society--both the inhabitants of the place andthose who came down of an evening for the music--had got hold ofone and the same story, in a thousand varieties of detail--as tohow a certain young prince had raised a terrible scandal in amost respectable household, had thrown over a daughter of thefamily, to whom he was engaged, and had been captured by a womanof shady reputation whom he was determined to marry at once--breaking off all old ties for the satisfaction of his insaneidea; and, in spite of the public indignation roused by hisaction, the marriage was to take place in Pavlofsk openly andpublicly, and the prince had announced his intention of goingthrough with it with head erect and looking the whole world inthe face. The story was so artfully adorned with scandalousdetails, and persons of so great eminence and importance wereapparently mixed up in it, while, at the same time, the evidencewas so circumstantial, that it was no wonder the matter gave foodfor plenty of curiosity and gossip.
According to the reports of the most talented gossip-mongers--those who, in every class of society, are always in haste toexplain every event to their neighbours--the young gentlemanconcerned was of good family--a prince--fairly rich--weak ofintellect, but a democrat and a dabbler in the Nihilism of theperiod, as exposed by Mr. Turgenieff. He could hardly talkRussian, but had fallen in love with one of the Miss Epanchins,and his suit met with so much encouragement that he had beenreceived in the house as the recognized bridegroom-to-be of theyoung lady. But like the Frenchman of whom the story is told thathe studied for holy orders, took all the oaths, was ordainedpriest, and next morning wrote to his bishop informing him that,as he did not believe in God and considered it wrong to deceivethe people and live upon their pockets, he begged to surrenderthe orders conferred upon him the day before, and to inform hislordship that he was sending this letter to the public press,--like this Frenchman, the prince played a false game. It wasrumoured that he had purposely waited for the solemn occasion ofa large evening party at the house of his future bride, at whichhe was introduced to several eminent persons, in order publiclyto make known his ideas and opinions, and thereby insult the"big-wigs," and to throw over his bride as offensively aspossible; and that, resisting the servants who were told off toturn him out of the house, he had seized and thrown down amagnificent china vase. As a characteristic addition to theabove, it was currently reported that the young prince reallyloved the lady to whom he was engaged, and had thrown her overout of purely Nihilistic motives, with the intention of givinghimself the satisfaction of marrying a fallen woman in the faceof all the world, thereby publishing his opinion that there is nodistinction between virtuous and disreputable women, but that allwomen are alike, free; and a "fallen" woman, indeed, somewhatsuperior to a virtuous one.
It was declared that he believed in no classes or anything else,excepting "the woman question."
All this looked likely enough, and was accepted as fact by mostof the inhabitants of the place, especially as it was borne out,more or less, by daily occurrences.
Of course much was said that could not be determined absolutely.For instance, it was reported that the poor girl had so loved herfuture husband that she had followed him to the house of theother woman, the day after she had been thrown over; others saidthat he had insisted on her coming, himself, in order to shameand insult her by his taunts and Nihilistic confessions when shereached the house. However all these things might be, the publicinterest in the matter grew daily, especially as it became clearthat the scandalous wedding was undoubtedly to take place.
So that if our readers were to ask an explanation, not of thewild reports about the prince's Nihilistic opinions, but simplyas to how such a marriage could possibly satisfy his realaspirations, or as to the spiritual condition of our hero at thistime, we confess that we should have great difficulty in givingthe required information.
All we know is, that the marriage really was arranged, and thatthe prince had commissioned Lebedeff and Keller to look after allthe necessary business connected with it; that he had requestedthem to spare no expense; that Nastasia herself was hurrying onthe wedding; that Keller was to be the prince's best man, at hisown earnest request; and that Burdovsky was to give Nastasiaaway, to his great delight. The wedding was to take place beforethe middle of July.
But, besides the above, we are cognizant of certain otherundoubted facts, which puzzle us a good deal because they seemflatly to contradict the foregoing.
We suspect, for instance, that having commissioned Lebedeff andthe others, as above, the prince immediately forgot all aboutmasters of ceremonies and even the ceremony itself; and we feelquite certain that in making these arrangements he did so inorder that he might absolutely escape all thought of the wedding,and even forget its approach if he could, by detailing allbusiness concerning it to others.
What did he think of all this time, then? What did he wish for?There is no doubt that he was a perfectly free agent all through,and that as far as Nastasia was concerned, there was no force ofany kind brought to bear on him. Nastasia wished for a speedymarriage, true!--but the prince agreed at once to her proposals;he agreed, in fact, so casually that anyone might suppose he wasbut acceding to the most simple and ordinary suggestion.
enough, and was accepted as fact by mostof the inhabitants of the place.
There are many strange circumstances such as this before us; butin our opinion they do but deepen the mystery, and do not in thesmallest degree help us to understand the case.
However, let us take one more example. Thus, we know for a factthat during the whole of this fortnight the prince spent all hisdays and evenings with Nastasia; he walked with her, drove withher; he began to be restless whenever he passed an hour withoutseeing her--in fact, to all appearances, he sincerely loved her.He would listen to her for hours at a time with a quiet smile onhis face, scarcely saying a word himself. And yet we know,equally certainly, that during this period he several times setoff, suddenly, to the Epanchins', not concealing the fact fromNastasia Philipovna, and driving the latter to absolute despair.We know also that he was not received at the Epanchins' so longas they remained at Pavlofsk, and that he was not allowed aninterview with Aglaya;--but next day he would set off once moreon the same errand, apparently quite oblivious of the fact ofyesterday's visit having been a failure,--and, of course, meetingwith another refusal. We know, too, that exactly an hour afterAglaya had fled from Nastasia Philipovna's house on that fatefulevening, the prince was at the Epanchins',--and that hisappearance there had been the cause of the greatest consternationand dismay; for Aglaya had not been home, and the family onlydiscovered then, for the first time, that the two of them hadbeen to Nastasia's house together.
It was said that Elizabetha Prokofievna and her daughters hadthere and then denounced the prince in the strongest terms, andhad refused any further acquaintance and friendship with him;their rage and denunciations being redoubled when VariaArdalionovna suddenly arrived and stated that Aglaya had been ather house in a terrible state of mind for the last hour, and thatshe refused to come home.
the prince, once more, nodding his head,and blushing slightly. "Yes, it was so, or nearly so--I know .
This last item of news, which disturbed Lizabetha Prokofievnamore than anything else, was perfectly true. On leavingNastasia's, Aglaya had felt that she would rather die than faceher people, and had therefore gone straight to NinaAlexandrovna's. On receiving the news, Lizabetha and herdaughters and the general all rushed off to Aglaya, followed byPrince Lef Nicolaievitch--undeterred by his recent dismissal; butthrough Varia he was refused a sight of Aglaya here also. The endof the episode was that when Aglaya saw her mother and sisterscrying over her and not uttering a word of reproach, she hadflung herself into their arms and gone straight home with them.
It was said that Gania managed to make a fool of himself even onthis occasion; for, finding himself alone with Aglaya for aminute or two when Varia had gone to the Epanchins', he hadthought it a fitting opportunity to make a declaration of hislove, and on hearing this Aglaya, in spite of her state of mindat the time, had suddenly burst out laughing, and had put astrange question to him. She asked him whether he would consentto hold his finger to a lighted candle in proof of his devotion!Gania--it was said--looked so comically bewildered that Aglayahad almost laughed herself into hysterics, and had rushed out ofthe room and upstairs,--where her parents had found her.
Hippolyte told the prince this last story, sending for him onpurpose. When Muishkin heard about the candle and Gania's fingerhe had laughed so that he had quite astonished Hippolyte,--andthen shuddered and burst into tears. The prince's conditionduring those days was strange and perturbed. Hippolyte plainlydeclared that he thought he was out of his mind;--this, however,was hardly to be relied upon.
Offering all these facts to our readers and refusing to explainthem, we do not for a moment desire to justify our hero'sconduct. On the contrary, we are quite prepared to feel our shareof the indignation which his behaviour aroused in the hearts ofhis friends. Even Vera Lebedeff was angry with him for a while;so was Colia; so was Keller, until he was selected for best man;so was Lebedeff himself,--who began to intrigue against him outof pure irritation;--but of this anon. In fact we are in fullaccord with certain forcible words spoken to the prince byEvgenie Pavlovitch, quite unceremoniously, during the course of afriendly conversation, six or seven days after the events atNastasia Philipovna's house.
We may remark here that not only the Epanchins themselves, butall who had anything to do with them, thought it right to breakwith the prince in consequence of his conduct. Prince S. evenwent so far as to turn away and cut him dead in the street. ButEvgenie Pavlovitch was not afraid to compromise himself by payingthe prince a visit, and did so, in spite of the fact that he hadrecommenced to visit at the Epanchins', where he was receivedwith redoubled hospitality and kindness after the temporaryestrangement.
Evgenie called upon the prince the day after that on which theEpanchins left Pavlofsk. He knew of all the current rumours,--infact, he had probably contributed to them himself. The prince wasdelighted to see him, and immediately began to speak of theEpanchins;--which simple and straightforward opening quite tookEvgenie's fancy, so that he melted at once, and plunged in mediasres without ceremony.
The prince did not know, up to this, that the Epanchins had leftthe place. He grew very pale on hearing the news; but a momentlater he nodded his head, and said thoughtfully:
"I knew it was bound to be so." Then he added quickly:
"Where have they gone to?"
Evgenie meanwhile observed him attentively, and the rapidity ofthe questions, their, simplicity, the prince's candour, and atthe same time, his evident perplexity and mental agitation,surprised him considerably. However, he told Muishkin all hecould, kindly and in detail. The prince hardly knew anything, forthis was the first informant from the household whom he had metsince the estrangement.
Evgenie reported that Aglaya had been really ill, and that fortwo nights she had not slept at all, owing to high fever; thatnow she was better and out of serious danger, but still in anervous, hysterical state.
"It's a good thing that there is peace in the house, at allevents," he continued. "They never utter a hint about the past,not only in Aglaya's presence, but even among themselves. The oldpeople are talking of a trip abroad in the autumn, immediatelyafter Adelaida's wedding; Aglaya received the news in silence."
Evgenie himself was very likely going abroad also; so were PrinceS. and his wife, if affairs allowed of it; the general was tostay at home. They were all at their estate of Colmina now, abouttwenty miles or so from St. Petersburg. Princess Bielokonski hadnot returned to Moscow yet, and was apparently staying on forreasons of her own. Lizabetha Prokofievna had insisted that itwas quite impossible to remain in Pavlofsk after what hadhappened. Evgenie had told her of all the rumours current in townabout the affair; so that there could be no talk of their goingto their house on the Yelagin as yet.
"And in point of fact, prince," added Evgenie Pavlovitch, "youmust allow that they could hardly have stayed here, consideringthat they knew of all that went on at your place, and in the faceof your daily visits to their house, visits which you insistedupon making in spite of their refusal to see you."
"Yes--yes, quite so; you are quite right. I wished to see AglayaIvanovna, you know!" said the prince, nodding his head.
"Oh, my dear fellow," cried Evgenie, warmly, with real sorrow inhis voice, "how could you permit all that to come about as ithas? Of course, of course, I know it was all so unexpected. Iadmit that you, only naturally, lost your head, and--and couldnot stop the foolish girl; that was not in your power. I quitesee so much; but you really should have understood how seriouslyshe cared for you. She could not bear to share you with another;and you could bring yourself to throw away and shatter such atreasure! Oh, prince, prince!"
"Yes, yes, you are quite right again," said the poor prince, inanguish of mind. "I was wrong, I know. But it was only Aglaya wholooked on Nastasia Philipovna so; no one else did, you know."
"But that's just the worst of it all, don't you see, that therewas absolutely nothing serious about the matter in reality!"cried Evgenie, beside himself: "Excuse me, prince, but I havethought over all this; I have thought a great deal over it; Iknow all that had happened before; I know all that took place sixmonths since; and I know there was NOTHING serious about thematter, it was but fancy, smoke, fantasy, distorted by agitation,and only the alarmed jealousy of an absolutely inexperienced girlcould possibly have mistaken it for serious reality."
Here Evgenie Pavlovitch quite let himself go, and gave the reinsto his indignation.
Clearly and reasonably, and with great psychological insight, hedrew a picture of the prince's past relations with NastasiaPhilipovna. Evgenie Pavlovitch always had a ready tongue, but onthis occasion his eloquence, surprised himself. "From the verybeginning," he said, "you began with a lie; what began with a liewas bound to end with a lie; such is the law of nature. I do notagree, in fact I am angry, when I hear you called an idiot; youare far too intelligent to deserve such an epithet; but you areso far STRANGE as to be unlike others; that you must allow,yourself. Now, I have come to the conclusion that the basis ofall that has happened, has been first of all your innateinexperience (remark the expression 'innate,' prince). Thenfollows your unheard-of simplicity of heart; then comes yourabsolute want of sense of proportion (to this want you haveseveral times confessed); and lastly, a mass, an accumulation, ofintellectual convictions which you, in your unexampled honesty ofsoul, accept unquestionably as also innate and natural and true.Admit, prince, that in your relations with Nastasia Philipovnathere has existed, from the very first, something democratic, andthe fascination, so to speak, of the 'woman question'? I know allabout that scandalous scene at Nastasia Philipovna's house whenRogojin brought the money, six months ago. I'll show you yourselfas in a looking-glass, if you like. I know exactly all that wenton, in every detail, and why things have turned out as they have.You thirsted, while in Switzerland, for your home-country, forRussia; you read, doubtless, many books about Russia, excellentbooks, I dare say, but hurtful to YOU; and you arrived here; asit were, on fire with the longing to be of service. Then, on thevery day of your arrival, they tell you a sad story of an ill-used woman; they tell YOU, a knight, pure and without reproach,this tale of a poor woman! The same day you actually SEE her; youare attracted by her beauty, her fantastic, almost demoniacal,beauty--(I admit her beauty, of course).
"Add to all this your nervous nature, your epilepsy, and yoursudden arrival in a strange town--the day of meetings and ofexciting scenes, the day of unexpected acquaintanceships, the dayof sudden actions, the day of meeting with the three lovelyEpanchin girls, and among them Aglaya--add your fatigue, yourexcitement; add Nastasia' s evening party, and the tone of thatparty, and--what were you to expect of yourself at such a momentas that?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" said the prince, once more, nodding his head,and blushing slightly. "Yes, it was so, or nearly so--I know it.And besides, you see, I had not slept the night before, in thetrain, or the night before that, either, and I was very tired."
"Of course, of course, quite so; that's what I am driving at!"continued Evgenie, excitedly. "It is as clear as possible, andmost comprehensible, that you, in your enthusiasm, should plungeheadlong into the first chance that came of publicly airing yourgreat idea that you, a prince, and a pure-living man, did notconsider a woman disgraced if the sin were not her own, but thatof a disgusting social libertine! Oh, heavens! it'scomprehensible enough, my dear prince, but that is not thequestion, unfortunately! The question is, was there any realityand truth in your feelings? Was it nature, or nothing butintellectual enthusiasm? What do you think yourself? We are told,of course, that a far worse woman was FORGIVEN, but we don't findthat she was told that she had done well, or that she was worthyof honour and respect! Did not your common-sense show you whatwas the real state of the case, a few months later? The questionis now, not whether she is an innocent woman (I do not insist oneway or the other--I do not wish to); but can her whole careerjustify such intolerable pride, such insolent, rapacious egotismas she has shown? Forgive me, I am too violent, perhaps, but--"