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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Chapter I
Siberia. On the banks of a broad solitary1 river stands a town, one of the administrative2 centres of Russia; in the town there is a fortress3, in the fortress there is a prison. In the prison the second-class convict Rodion Raskolnikov has been confined for nine months. Almost a year and a half has passed since his crime.
There had been little difficulty about his trial. The criminal adhered exactly, firmly, and clearly to his statement. He did not confuse nor misrepresent the facts, nor soften4 them in his own interest, nor omit the smallest detail. He explained every incident of the murder, the secret ofthe pledge (the piece of wood with a strip of metal) which was found in the murdered woman’s hand. He described minutely how he had taken her keys, what they were like, as well as the chest and its contents; he explained the mystery of Lizaveta’s murder; described how Koch and, after him, the student knocked, and repeated all they had said to one another; how he afterwards had run downstairs and heard Nikolay and Dmitri shouting; how he had hidden in the empty flat and afterwards gone home. He ended by indicating the stone in the yard off the Voznesensky Prospect6 under which the purse and the trinkets were found. The whole thing, in fact, was perfectly7 clear. The lawyers and the judges were very much struck, among other things, by the fact that he had hidden the trinkets and the purse under a stone, without making use of them, and that, what was more, he did not now remember what the trinkets were like, or even how many there were. The fact that he had never opened the purse and did not even know how much was in it seemed incredible. There turned out to be in the purse three hundred and seventeen roubles and sixty copecks. From being so long under the stone, some of the most valuable notes lying uppermost had suffered from the damp. They were a long while trying to discover why the accused man should tell a lie about this, when about everything else he had made a truthful8 and straightforward9 confession10. Finally some of the lawyers more versed11 in psychology12 admitted that it was possible he had really not looked into the purse, and so didn’t know what was in it when he hid it under the stone. But they immediately drew the deduction13 that the crime could only have been committed through temporary mental derangement14, through homicidal mania15, without object or the pursuit of gain. This fell in with the most recent fashionable theory of temporary insanity16, so often applied17 in our days in criminal cases. Moreover Raskolnikov’s hypochondriacal condition was proved by many witnesses, by Dr. Zossimov, his former fellow students, his landlady18 and her servant. All this pointed19 strongly to the conclusion that Raskolnikov was not quite like an ordinary murderer and robber, but that there was another element in the case.
To the intense annoyance20 of those who maintained this opinion, the criminal scarcely attempted to defend himself. To the decisive question as to what motive21 impelled22 him to the murder and the robbery, he answered very clearly with the coarsest frankness that the cause was his miserable23 position, his poverty and helplessness, and his desire to provide for his first steps in life by the help of the three thousand roubles he had reckoned on finding. He had been led to the murder through his shallow and cowardly nature, exasperated24 moreover by privation and failure. To the question what led him to confess, he answered that it was his heartfelt repentance25. All this was almost coarse . . . .
The sentence however was more merciful than could have been expected, perhaps partly because the criminal had not tried to justify26 himself, but had rather shown a desire to exaggerate his guilt27. All the strange and peculiar28 circumstances of the crime were taken into consideration. There could be no doubt of the abnormal and poverty-stricken condition of the criminal at the time. The fact that he had made no use of what he had stolen was put down partly to the effect of remorse29, partly to his abnormal mental condition at the time of the crime. Incidentally the murder of Lizaveta served indeed to confirm the last hypothesis: a man commits two murders and forgets that the door is open! Finally, the confession, at the very moment when the case was hopelessly muddled30 by the false evidence given by Nikolay through melancholy31 and fanaticism32, and when, moreover, there were no proofs against the real criminal, no suspicions even (Porfiry Petrovitch fully33 kept his word) — all this did much to soften the sentence. Other circumstances, too, in the prisoner’s favour came out quite unexpectedly. Razumihin somehow discovered and proved that while Raskolnikov was at the university he had helped a poor consumptive fellow student and had spent his last penny on supporting him for six months, and when this student died, leaving a decrepit34 old father whom he had maintained almost from his thirteenth year, Raskolnikov had got the old man into a hospital and paid for his funeral when he died. Raskolnikov’s landlady bore witness, too, that when they had lived in another house at Five Corners, Raskolnikov had rescued two little children from a house on fire and was burnt in doing so. This was investigated and fairly well confirmed by many witnesses. These facts made an impression in his favour.
And in the end the criminal was, in consideration of extenuating35 circumstances, condemned36 to penal37 servitude in the second class for a term of eight years only.
At the very beginning of the trial Raskolnikov’s mother fell ill. Dounia and Razumihin found it possible to get her out of Petersburg during the trial. Razumihin chose a town on the railway not far from Petersburg, so as to be able to follow every step of the trial and at the same time to see Avdotya Romanovna as often as possible. Pulcheria Alexandrovna’s illness was a strange nervous one and was accompanied by a partial derangement of her intellect.
When Dounia returned from her last interview with her brother, she had found her mother already ill, in feverish38 delirium39. That evening Razumihin and she agreed what answers they must make to her mother’s questions about Raskolnikov and made up a complete story for her mother’s benefit of his having to go away to a distant part of Russia on a business commission, which would bring him in the end money and reputation.
But they were struck by the fact that Pulcheria Alexandrovna never asked them anything on the subject, neither then nor thereafter. On the contrary, she had her own version of her son’s sudden departure; she told them with tears how he had come to say good-bye to her, hinting that she alone knew many mysterious and important facts, and that Rodya had many very powerful enemies, so that it was necessary for him to be in hiding. As for his future career, she had no doubt that it would be brilliant when certain sinister40 influences could be removed. She assured Razumihin that her son would be one day a great statesman, that his article and brilliant literary talent proved it. This article she was continually reading, she even read it aloud, almost took it to bed with her, but scarcely asked where Rodya was, though the subject was obviously avoided by the others, which might have been enough to awaken41 her suspicions.
They began to be frightened at last at Pulcheria Alexandrovna’s strange silence on certain subjects. She did not, for instance, complain of getting no letters from him, though in previous years she had only lived on the hope of letters from her beloved Rodya. This was the cause of great uneasiness to Dounia; the idea occurred to her that her mother suspected that there was something terrible in her son’s fate and was afraid to ask, for fear of hearing something still more awful. In any case, Dounia saw clearly that her mother was not in full possession of her faculties42.
It happened once or twice, however, that Pulcheria Alexandrovna gave such a turn to the conversation that it was impossible to answer her without mentioning where Rodya was, and on receiving unsatisfactory and suspicious answers she became at once gloomy and silent, and this mood lasted for a long time. Dounia saw at last that it was hard to deceive her and came to the conclusion that it was better to be absolutely silent on certain points; but it became more and more evident that the poor mother suspected something terrible. Dounia remembered her brother’s telling her that her mother had overheard her talking in her sleep on the night after her interview with Svidrigaïlov and before the fatal day of the confession: had not she made out something from that? Sometimes days and even weeks of gloomy silence and tears would be succeeded by a period of hysterical43 animation44, and the invalid45 would begin to talk almost incessantly46 of her son, of her hopes of his future. . . . Her fancies were sometimes very strange. They humoured her, pretended to agree with her (she saw perhaps that they were pretending), but she still went on talking.
Five months after Raskolnikov’s confession, he was sentenced. Razumihin and Sonia saw him in prison as often as it was possible. At last the moment of separation came. Dounia swore to her brother that the separation should not be for ever, Razumihin did the same. Razumihin, in his youthful ardour, had firmly resolved to lay the foundations at least of a secure livelihood47 during the next three or four years, and saving up a certain sum, to emigrate to Siberia, a country rich in every natural resource and in need of workers, active men and capital. There they would settle in the town where Rodya was and all together would begin a new life. They all wept at parting.
Raskolnikov had been very dreamy for a few days before. He asked a great deal about his mother and was constantly anxious about her. He worried so much about her that it alarmed Dounia. When he heard about his mother’s illness he became very gloomy. With Sonia he was particularly reserved all the time. With the help of the money left to her by Svidrigaïlov, Sonia had long ago made her preparations to follow the party of convicts in which he was despatched to Siberia. Not a word passed between Raskolnikov and her on the subject, but both knew it would be so. At the final leave-taking he smiled strangely at his sister’s and Razumihin’s fervent48 anticipations49 of their happy future together when he should come out of prison. He predicted that their mother’s illness would soon have a fatal ending. Sonia and he at last set off.
Two months later Dounia was married to Razumihin. It was a quiet and sorrowful wedding; Porfiry Petrovitch and Zossimov were invited however. During all this period Razumihin wore an air of resolute50 determination. Dounia put implicit51 faith in his carrying out his plans and indeed she could not but believe in him. He displayed a rare strength of will. Among other things he began attending university lectures again in order to take his degree. They were continually making plans for the future; both counted on settling in Siberia within five years at least. Till then they rested their hopes on Sonia.
Pulcheria Alexandrovna was delighted to give her blessing52 to Dounia’s marriage with Razumihin; but after the marriage she became even more melancholy and anxious. To give her pleasure Razumihin told her how Raskolnikov had looked after the poor student and his decrepit father and how a year ago he had been burnt and injured in rescuing two little children from a fire. These two pieces of news excited Pulcheria Alexandrovna’s disordered imagination almost to ecstasy53. She was continually talking about them, even entering into conversation with strangers in the street, though Dounia always accompanied her. In public conveyances54 and shops, wherever she could capture a listener, she would begin the discourse55 about her son, his article, how he had helped the student, how he had been burnt at the fire, and so on! Dounia did not know how to restrain her. Apart from the danger of her morbid56 excitement, there was the risk of someone’s recalling Raskolnikov’s name and speaking of the recent trial. Pulcheria Alexandrovna found out the address of the mother of the two children her son had saved and insisted on going to see her.
At last her restlessness reached an extreme point. She would sometimes begin to cry suddenly and was often ill and feverishly57 delirious58. One morning she declared that by her reckoning Rodya ought soon to be home, that she remembered when he said good-bye to her he said that they must expect him back in nine months. She began to prepare for his coming, began to do up her room for him, to clean the furniture, to wash and put up new hangings and so on. Dounia was anxious, but said nothing and helped her to arrange the room. After a fatiguing59 day spent in continual fancies, in joyful60 day-dreams and tears, Pulcheria Alexandrovna was taken ill in the night and by morning she was feverish and delirious. It was brain fever. She died within a fortnight. In her delirium she dropped words which showed that she knew a great deal more about her son’s terrible fate than they had supposed.
For a long time Raskolnikov did not know of his mother’s death, though a regular correspondence had been maintained from the time he reached Siberia. It was carried on by means of Sonia, who wrote every month to the Razumihins and received an answer with unfailing regularity61. At first they found Sonia’s letters dry and unsatisfactory, but later on they came to the conclusion that the letters could not be better, for from these letters they received a complete picture of their unfortunate brother’s life. Sonia’s letters were full of the most matter-of-fact detail, the simplest and clearest description of all Raskolnikov’s surroundings as a convict. There was no word of her own hopes, no conjecture62 as to the future, no description of her feelings. Instead of any attempt to interpret his state of mind and inner life, she gave the simple facts — that is, his own words, an exact account of his health, what he asked for at their interviews, what commission he gave her and so on. All these facts she gave with extraordinary minuteness. The picture of their unhappy brother stood out at last with great clearness and precision. There could be no mistake, because nothing was given but facts.
But Dounia and her husband could get little comfort out of the news, especially at first. Sonia wrote that he was constantly sullen63 and not ready to talk, that he scarcely seemed interested in the news she gave him from their letters, that he sometimes asked after his mother and that when, seeing that he had guessed the truth, she told him at last of her death, she was surprised to find that he did not seem greatly affected64 by it, not externally at any rate. She told them that, although he seemed so wrapped up in himself and, as it were, shut himself off from everyone — he took a very direct and simple view of his new life; that he understood his position, expected nothing better for the time, had no ill-founded hopes (as is so common in his position) and scarcely seemed surprised at anything in his surroundings, so unlike anything he had known before. She wrote that his health was satisfactory; he did his work without shirking or seeking to do more; he was almost indifferent about food, but except on Sundays and holidays the food was so bad that at last he had been glad to accept some money from her, Sonia, to have his own tea every day. He begged her not to trouble about anything else, declaring that all this fuss about him only annoyed him. Sonia wrote further that in prison he shared the same room with the rest, that she had not seen the inside of their barracks, but concluded that they were crowded, miserable and unhealthy; that he slept on a plank65 bed with a rug under him and was unwilling66 to make any other arrangement. But that he lived so poorly and roughly, not from any plan or design, but simply from inattention and indifference67.
Sonia wrote simply that he had at first shown no interest in her visits, had almost been vexed68 with her indeed for coming, unwilling to talk and rude to her. But that in the end these visits had become a habit and almost a necessity for him, so that he was positively69 distressed70 when she was ill for some days and could not visit him. She used to see him on holidays at the prison gates or in the guard-room, to which he was brought for a few minutes to see her. On working days she would go to see him at work either at the workshops or at the brick kilns71, or at the sheds on the banks of the Irtish.
About herself, Sonia wrote that she had succeeded in making some acquaintances in the town, that she did sewing, and, as there was scarcely a dressmaker in the town, she was looked upon as an indispensable person in many houses. But she did not mention that the authorities were, through her, interested in Raskolnikov; that his task was lightened and so on.
At last the news came (Dounia had indeed noticed signs of alarm and uneasiness in the preceding letters) that he held aloof72 from everyone, that his fellow prisoners did not like him, that he kept silent for days at a time and was becoming very pale. In the last letter Sonia wrote that he had been taken very seriously ill and was in the convict ward5 of the hospital.
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1
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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versed
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| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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derangement
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| n.精神错乱 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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muddled
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| adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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extenuating
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| adj.使减轻的，情有可原的v.（用偏袒的辩解或借口）减轻( extenuate的现在分词 )；低估，藐视 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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41
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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42
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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43
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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45
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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46
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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49
anticipations
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| 预期( anticipation的名词复数 )； 预测； （信托财产收益的）预支； 预期的事物 | |
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50
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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51
implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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52
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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53
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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54
conveyances
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| n.传送( conveyance的名词复数 )；运送；表达；运输工具 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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fatiguing
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| a.使人劳累的 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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69
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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70
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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71
kilns
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| n.窑( kiln的名词复数 )；烧窑工人 | |
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72
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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