To whom shall I tell my grief?"
THE twilight of evening. Big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, and lying in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses' backs, shoulders, caps. Iona Potapov, the sledge- driver, is all white like a ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as double as the living body can be bent. If a regular snowdrift fell on him it seems as though even then he would not think it necessary to shake it off.... His little mare is white and motionless too. Her stillness, the angularity of her lines, and the stick-like straightness of her legs make her look like a halfpenny gingerbread horse. She is probably lost in thought. Anyone who has been torn away from the plough, from the familiar gray landscapes, and cast into this slough, full of monstrous lights, of unceasing uproar and hurrying people, is bound to think.
It is a long time since Iona and his nag have budged. They came out of the yard before dinnertime and not a single fare yet. But now the shades of evening are falling on the town. The pale light of the street lamps changes to a vivid color, and the bustle of the street grows noisier.
"Sledge to Vyborgskaya!" Iona hears. "Sledge!"
Iona starts, and through his snow-plastered eyelashes sees an officer in a military overcoat with a hood over his head.
"To Vyborgskaya," repeats the officer. "Are you asleep? To Vyborgskaya!"
In token of assent Iona gives a tug at the reins which sends cakes of snow flying from the horse's back and shoulders. The officer gets into the sledge. The sledge-driver clicks to the horse, cranes his neck like a swan, rises in his seat, and more from habit than necessity brandishes his whip. The mare cranes her neck, too, crooks her stick-like legs, and hesitatingly sets of....
"Where are you shoving, you devil?" Iona immediately hears shouts from the dark mass shifting to and fro before him. "Where the devil are you going? Keep to the r-right!"
"You don't know how to drive! Keep to the right," says the officer angrily.
A coachman driving a carriage swears at him; a pedestrian crossing the road and brushing the horse's nose with his shoulder looks at him angrily and shakes the snow off his sleeve. Iona fidgets on the box as though he were sitting on thorns, jerks his elbows, and turns his eyes about like one possessed as though he did not know where he was or why he was there.
"What rascals they all are!" says the officer jocosely. "They are simply doing their best to run up against you or fall under the horse's feet. They must be doing it on purpose."
Iona looks as his fare and moves his lips.... Apparently he means to say something, but nothing comes but a sniff.
"What?" inquires the officer.
Iona gives a wry smile, and straining his throat, brings out huskily: "My son... er... my son died this week, sir."
"H'm! What did he die of?"
Iona turns his whole body round to his fare, and says:
"Who can tell! It must have been from fever.... He lay three days in the hospital and then he died.... God's will."
"Turn round, you devil!" comes out of the darkness. "Have you gone cracked, you old dog? Look where you are going!"
"Drive on! drive on!..." says the officer. "We shan't get there till to-morrow going on like this. Hurry up!"
The sledge-driver cranes his neck again, rises in his seat, and with heavy grace swings his whip. Several times he looks round at the officer, but the latter keeps his eyes shut and is apparently disinclined to listen. Putting his fare down at Vyborgskaya, Iona stops by a restaurant, and again sits huddled up on the box.... Again the wet snow paints him and his horse white. One hour passes, and then another....
Three young men, two tall and thin, one short and hunchbacked, come up, railing at each other and loudly stamping on the pavement with their goloshes.
"Cabby, to the Police Bridge!" the hunchback cries in a cracked voice. "The three of us,... twenty kopecks!"
Iona tugs at the reins and clicks to his horse. Twenty kopecks is not a fair price, but he has no thoughts for that. Whether it is a rouble or whether it is five kopecks does not matter to him now so long as he has a fare.... The three young men, shoving each other and using bad language, go up to the sledge, and all three try to sit down at once. The question remains to be settled: Which are to sit down and which one is to stand? After a long altercation, ill-temper, and abuse, they come to the conclusion that the hunchback must stand because he is the shortest.
"Well, drive on," says the hunchback in his cracked voice, settling himself and breathing down Iona's neck. "Cut along! What a cap you've got, my friend! You wouldn't find a worse one in all Petersburg...."
"He-he!... he-he!..." laughs Iona. "It's nothing to boast of!"
"Well, then, nothing to boast of, drive on! Are you going to drive like this all the way? Eh? Shall I give you one in the neck?"
"My head aches," says one of the tall ones. "At the Dukmasovs' yesterday Vaska and I drank four bottles of brandy between us."
"I can't make out why you talk such stuff," says the other tall one angrily. "You lie like a brute."
"Strike me dead, it's the truth!..."
"It's about as true as that a louse coughs."
"He-he!" grins Iona. "Me-er-ry gentlemen!"
"Tfoo! the devil take you!" cries the hunchback indignantly. "Will you get on, you old plague, or won't you? Is that the way to drive? Give her one with the whip. Hang it all, give it her well."
Iona feels behind his back the jolting person and quivering voice of the hunchback. He hears abuse addressed to him, he sees people, and the feeling of loneliness begins little by little to be less heavy on his heart. The hunchback swears at him, till he chokes over some elaborately whimsical string of epithets and is overpowered by his cough. His tall companions begin talking of a certain Nadyezhda Petrovna. Iona looks round at them. Waiting till there is a brief pause, he looks round once more and says:
"This week... er... my... er... son died!"
"We shall all die,..." says the hunchback with a sigh, wiping his lips after coughing. "Come, drive on! drive on! My friends, I simply cannot stand crawling like this! When will he get us there?"
"Well, you give him a little encouragement... one in the neck!"
"Do you hear, you old plague? I'll make you smart. If one stands on ceremony with fellows like you one may as well walk. Do you hear, you old dragon? Or don't you care a hang what we say?"
And Iona hears rather than feels a slap on the back of his neck.
"He-he!..." he laughs. "Merry gentlemen.... God give you health!"
"Cabman, are you married?" asks one of the tall ones.
"I? He he! Me-er-ry gentlemen. The only wife for me now is the damp earth.... He-ho-ho!.... The grave that is!... Here my son's dead and I am alive.... It's a strange thing, death has come in at the wrong door.... Instead of coming for me it went for my son...."
And Iona turns round to tell them how his son died, but at that point the hunchback gives a faint sigh and announces that, thank God! they have arrived at last. After taking his twenty kopecks, Iona gazes for a long while after the revelers, who disappear into a dark entry. Again he is alone and again there is silence for him.... The misery which has been for a brief space eased comes back again and tears his heart more cruelly than ever. With a look of anxiety and suffering Iona's eyes stray restlessly among the crowds moving to and fro on both sides of the street: can he not find among those thousands someone who will listen to him? But the crowds flit by heedless of him and his misery.... His misery is immense, beyond all bounds. If Iona's heart were to burst and his misery to flow out, it would flood the whole world, it seems, but yet it is not seen. It has found a hiding-place in such an insignificant shell that one would not have found it with a candle by daylight....
Iona sees a house-porter with a parcel and makes up his mind to address him.
"What time will it be, friend?" he asks.
"Going on for ten.... Why have you stopped here? Drive on!"
Iona drives a few paces away, bends himself double, and gives himself up to his misery. He feels it is no good to appeal to people. But before five minutes have passed he draws himself up, shakes his head as though he feels a sharp pain, and tugs at the reins.... He can bear it no longer.
"Back to the yard!" he thinks. "To the yard!"
And his little mare, as though she knew his thoughts, falls to trotting. An hour and a half later Iona is sitting by a big dirty stove. On the stove, on the floor, and on the benches are people snoring. The air is full of smells and stuffiness. Iona looks at the sleeping figures, scratches himself, and regrets that he has come home so early....
"I have not earned enough to pay for the oats, even," he thinks. "That's why I am so miserable. A man who knows how to do his work,... who has had enough to eat, and whose horse has had enough to eat, is always at ease...."
In one of the corners a young cabman gets up, clears his throat sleepily, and makes for the water-bucket.
"Want a drink?" Iona asks him.
"Seems so."
"May it do you good.... But my son is dead, mate.... Do you hear? This week in the hospital.... It's a queer business...."
Iona looks to see the effect produced by his words, but he sees nothing. The young man has covered his head over and is already asleep. The old man sighs and scratches himself.... Just as the young man had been thirsty for water, he thirsts for speech. His son will soon have been dead a week, and he has not really talked to anybody yet.... He wants to talk of it properly, with deliberation.... He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died.... He wants to describe the funeral, and how he went to the hospital to get his son's clothes. He still has his daughter Anisya in the country.... And he wants to talk about
ที่จะบอกอย่างไรความเศร้าโศกของฉัน"ทไวไลท์ของเย็น Flakes ใหญ่ของหิมะเปียก whirling มูมเกี่ยวกับโคมถนน ซึ่งมีเพียงการไฟส่องสว่าง และอยู่ในชั้นอ่อนบางบนหลังคา ม้าหลัง ไหล่ หมวก Potapov Iona สเลดจ์ควบคุม มีสีขาวทั้งหมดเช่นผี เขาอยู่บนกล่องโดยไม่กวน เงี้ยวเป็นคู่ที่สามารถงอตัวอยู่ ถ้า snowdrift ปกติตกบนเขา ท่าทางแล้วแม้ เขาจะไม่คิดว่า มันจำเป็นต้องเขย่าปิด... แมร์เขาเล็กน้อยเป็นสีขาว และนิ่งเกินไป ความนิ่งของเธอ angularity บรรทัดของเธอ และ straightness ไม้เหมือนของขาของเธอทำให้เธอเหมือนม้า halfpenny ขนมปังขิง เธอคงจะหายไปในความคิด คนที่เสียหายจากไถ ภูมิประเทศสีเทาที่คุ้นเคย และโยนลงในนี้คราบ เต็มไปด้วยไฟไบค์ ความโกลาหล unceasing และ hurrying คน ถูกผูกไว้กับคิดมันเป็นเวลานานตั้งแต่ Iona และ nag เขามี budged พวกเขามาจากลานก่อนที่นี่และค่าโดยสารเดียวไม่ยัง แต่ตอนนี้ การตกสีของเย็นในเมือง แสงของโคมไฟถนนซีดเปลี่ยนสีสดใส และความพลุกพล่านของถนนขยาย noisier"สเลดจ์ไป Vyborgskaya" Iona ได้ยิน "สเลดจ์"Iona เริ่มต้น และผ่านขนตาของเขาหิมะปูนเห็นเจ้าหน้าที่ในชุดเสื้อกันทหารกับฮูดเป็นเหนือหัว"การ Vyborgskaya ซ้ำเจ้าหน้าที่ที่ "คุณใจหลับ การ Vyborgskaya "In token of assent Iona gives a tug at the reins which sends cakes of snow flying from the horse's back and shoulders. The officer gets into the sledge. The sledge-driver clicks to the horse, cranes his neck like a swan, rises in his seat, and more from habit than necessity brandishes his whip. The mare cranes her neck, too, crooks her stick-like legs, and hesitatingly sets of...."Where are you shoving, you devil?" Iona immediately hears shouts from the dark mass shifting to and fro before him. "Where the devil are you going? Keep to the r-right!""You don't know how to drive! Keep to the right," says the officer angrily.A coachman driving a carriage swears at him; a pedestrian crossing the road and brushing the horse's nose with his shoulder looks at him angrily and shakes the snow off his sleeve. Iona fidgets on the box as though he were sitting on thorns, jerks his elbows, and turns his eyes about like one possessed as though he did not know where he was or why he was there."What rascals they all are!" says the officer jocosely. "They are simply doing their best to run up against you or fall under the horse's feet. They must be doing it on purpose."Iona looks as his fare and moves his lips.... Apparently he means to say something, but nothing comes but a sniff."What?" inquires the officer.Iona gives a wry smile, and straining his throat, brings out huskily: "My son... er... my son died this week, sir.""H'm อะไรไม่ได้เขาตาย"Iona เปลี่ยนร่างกายของเขาทั้งหมดรอบการโดยสารของเขา และกล่าวว่า:"ใครจะบอก ก็ต้องได้รับจากไข้... เขาวาง 3 วันในโรงพยาบาลแล้ว เขาตาย... พระเจ้า""เปิดรอบ คุณปีศาจ" ออกจากความมืด "มีไปรอยร้าว คุณสุนัขเก่า สิ่งที่คุณจะไป""ไดรฟ์บน ไดรฟ์บน!... "กล่าวว่า เจ้าหน้าที่คนนั้น "เรา shan't เดินจนถึงเกิดขึ้นเช่นนี้เพื่อเหล่านั้น เร็วๆ"สเลดจ์ควบคุมเครนคอเขาอีก ขึ้นในพระที่นั่ง และ มีพระคุณหนักชิงช้าแส้ของเขา หลายครั้งเขาดูรอบที่การเจ้าหน้าที่ รักษาหลังเขาดวงตาปิด และถูก disinclined เห็นได้ชัดว่าฟัง ใส่อาหารของเขาลงใน Vyborgskaya, Iona หยุดตามร้านอาหาร และอีก ต้องอยู่ขึ้นบนกล่อง... อีก หิมะเปียกวาดเขาและม้าขาวของเขา หนึ่งชั่วโมงผ่านไป และอีก...สามหนุ่ม สองสูง และ บาง หนึ่งสั้น และ hunchbacked มา คับแค้นใจที่แต่ละอื่น ๆ และประทับบนผิวด้วย goloshes ของพวกเขาดังนั้น"Cabby บริดจ์ตำรวจ" hunchback ทุกคนได้ยินในเสียงที่รอยร้าว "สามเรา,...ยี่สิบ kopecks ! "Iona tugs at the reins and clicks to his horse. Twenty kopecks is not a fair price, but he has no thoughts for that. Whether it is a rouble or whether it is five kopecks does not matter to him now so long as he has a fare.... The three young men, shoving each other and using bad language, go up to the sledge, and all three try to sit down at once. The question remains to be settled: Which are to sit down and which one is to stand? After a long altercation, ill-temper, and abuse, they come to the conclusion that the hunchback must stand because he is the shortest."Well, drive on," says the hunchback in his cracked voice, settling himself and breathing down Iona's neck. "Cut along! What a cap you've got, my friend! You wouldn't find a worse one in all Petersburg....""He-he!... he-he!..." laughs Iona. "It's nothing to boast of!""Well, then, nothing to boast of, drive on! Are you going to drive like this all the way? Eh? Shall I give you one in the neck?""My head aches," says one of the tall ones. "At the Dukmasovs' yesterday Vaska and I drank four bottles of brandy between us.""I can't make out why you talk such stuff," says the other tall one angrily. "You lie like a brute.""Strike me dead, it's the truth!...""It's about as true as that a louse coughs.""He-he!" grins Iona. "Me-er-ry gentlemen!""Tfoo! the devil take you!" cries the hunchback indignantly. "Will you get on, you old plague, or won't you? Is that the way to drive? Give her one with the whip. Hang it all, give it her well."รู้สึก Iona หลังเขา jolting บุคคลและสั่นเครือเสียงของ hunchback เขาได้ยินผิดที่อยู่กับเขา เขาเห็นคน และความรู้สึกของความเหงาน้อยเริ่มจะหนักน้อยในหัวใจของเขา Hunchback การสาบานต่อสมัยที่ เขาจนเขา chokes กว่าบางสายใช้จินตนาการมุ้ง epithets และกำ โดยไอของเขา สหายของเขาสูงเริ่มพูดถึง Nadyezhda Petrovna บาง Iona ลักษณะกลมที่พวกเขา เขารอจนมีการหยุดชั่วคราวสั้น ๆ ดูรอบหนึ่งขึ้น และกล่าวว่า:"สัปดาห์นี้...เอ้อ...ของฉัน...เอ้อ...ลูกชายตาย! ""เราจะทั้งหมดตาย,..." กล่าวว่า hunchback กับการแยกกัน เช็ดริมฝีปากของเขาหลังจากไอ" มา ไดรฟ์ ไดรฟ์บน เพื่อนของฉัน เพียงแค่ไม่สามารถยืนคลานเช่นนี้ เมื่อจะเขาเดินเรา""ดี คุณให้เขาเล็กน้อยกำลัง...ในคอ! ""ทำคุณได้ยิน คุณกาฬโรคเก่า ฉันจะทำให้คุณสมาร์ท ถ้ายืนหนึ่งในพิธีกับเฟลโล่ส์คุณ อาจรวมทั้งทางเดิน ทำคุณได้ยิน คุณมังกรเก่า หรือไม่คุณสนใจวิธีการสิ่งที่เราพูด"และ Iona ได้ยิน แทนที่รู้สึกเปอร์สที่ด้านหลังของคอของเขา"เขา-เขา!..." เขาหัวเราะที " สุภาพร่าเริง... พระเจ้าให้คุณสุขภาพ""Cabman คุณแต่งงาน" ถามหนึ่งในคนที่สูง"ฉัน ฮิฮิ! สุภาพบุรุษของฉันเอ้อ แห้ง ภรรยาเท่านั้นสำหรับฉันตอนนี้คือ ดินชื้น... เขาโฮ โฮ... บทที่... นี่ลูกของตาย และฉันมีชีวิตอยู่... เป็นสิ่งที่แปลก ตายได้เข้ามาที่ประตูผิด... แทนที่จะมาฉัน จะไปสำหรับลูก..."และเปิด Iona ที่รอบจะบอกว่า บุตรชายเสียชีวิต แต่ที่จุด hunchback ให้แยกกันจาง ๆ และประกาศที่ ขอบคุณ พระเจ้า พวกเขามาถึงที่สุด หลังจากเขา kopecks 20, Iona gazes นานหลังที่อโก ที่หายไปลงในรายการมืด เขาเป็นคนเดียวอีกครั้ง และอีกครั้ง มีเงียบเขา... ความทุกข์ยากที่ได้รับในช่องว่างสั้น ๆ บรรเทากลับมาอีกครั้ง และ tears หัวใจ cruelly กว่าที่เคย มีลักษณะของความวิตกกังวลและทุกข์ทรมานของ Iona ตาหลง restlessly ท่ามกลางฝูงชนที่ย้ายไปเทียวมาทั้งสองด้านของถนน: เขาไม่พบระหว่างนั้นพันคนที่จะฟังของเขา แต่ฝูงชน flit โดย heedless ของเขาและความทุกข์ยากของเขา... ความทุกข์ยากของเขาเป็นใหญ่ เกินขอบเขตทั้งหมด หากหัวใจของ Iona ระเบิดและความทุกข์ยากของเขาไหลออก มันจะน้ำท่วมโลกทั้งโลก เหมือน แต่ยัง ไม่เห็น พบซ่อนในเชลล์เช่นสำคัญผิดว่า หนึ่งจะไม่ได้พบมันพร้อมเทียน โดยตามฤดูกาล...Iona เห็นกระเป๋าบ้านกับพัสดุ และทำให้จิตใจของเขาเพื่อเขา"เวลาจะ เพื่อน" เขาถามขึ้น"ไปในสิบ... ทำไมคุณหยุดที่นี่ ไดรฟ์บน"Iona ขับไปไม่กี่ก้าว ฟันตัวเองดับเบิล และให้ตัวเองได้พ้นทุกข์ รู้สึกจะไม่ดีดึงดูดคน แต่ก่อน 5 นาทีแล้ว เขาวาดเองค่า ปั่นหัวของเขาว่าเขารู้สึกปวดคม และ tugs ที่ไต... เขาสามารถทนได้อีกต่อไป"Back to the yard!" he thinks. "To the yard!"And his little mare, as though she knew his thoughts, falls to trotting. An hour and a half later Iona is sitting by a big dirty stove. On the stove, on the floor, and on the benches are people snoring. The air is full of smells and stuffiness. Iona looks at the sleeping figures, scratches himself, and regrets that he has come home so early...."I have not earned enough to pay for the oats, even," he thinks. "That's why I am so miserable. A man who knows how to do his work,... who has had enough to eat, and whose horse has had enough to eat, is always at ease...."In one of the corners a young cabman gets up, clears his throat sleepily, and makes for the water-bucket."Want a drink?" Iona asks him."Seems so.""May it do you good.... But my son is dead, mate.... Do you hear? This week in the hospital.... It's a queer business...."Iona looks to see the effect produced by his words, but he sees nothing. The young man has covered his head over and is already asleep. The old man sighs and scratches himself.... Just as the young man had been thirsty for water, he thirsts for speech. His son will soon have been dead a week, and he has not really talked to anybody yet.... He wants to talk of it properly, with deliberation.... He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died.... He wants to describe the funeral, and how he went to the hospital to get his son's clothes. He still has his daughter Anisya in the country.... And he wants to talk about
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