🔊 You can easily imagine what a father such a man could be and how he would bring up his children. His behavior as a father was exactly what might be expected. He completely abandoned the child of his marriage with Adelaïda Ivanovna, not from malice, nor because of his matrimonial grievances, but simply because he forgot him. While he was wearying every one with his tears and complaints, and turning his house into a sink of debauchery, a faithful servant of the family, Grigory, took the three‐year‐old Mitya into his care. If he hadn’t looked after him there would have been no one even to change the baby’s little shirt.

你很容易想象这样一个人作为父亲会是什么样子,以及他会如何抚养孩子。他作为父亲的行为完全在意料之中。他彻底抛弃了与阿黛拉伊达·伊万诺芙娜婚姻所生的孩子,并非出于恶意,也不是因为婚姻上的怨恨,而仅仅是因为他忘了他。当他用眼泪和抱怨折磨着每个人,把家变成淫窟时,一个忠实的家仆,格里戈里,照顾起了三岁的米佳。如果不是他照看,这孩子连换件小衬衫的人都没有。

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debauchery /dɪˈbɔːtʃəri/

n. 放荡,纵情声色；道德败坏➕

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malice /ˈmælɪs/

n. 恶意,怨恨➕

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matrimonial /ˌmætrɪˈməʊniəl/

adj. 婚姻的,夫妻间的➕

🔊 It happened moreover that the child’s relations on his mother’s side forgot him too at first. His grandfather was no longer living, his widow, Mitya’s grandmother, had moved to Moscow, and was seriously ill, while his daughters were married, so that Mitya remained for almost a whole year in old Grigory’s charge and lived with him in the servant’s cottage. But if his father had remembered him (he could not, indeed, have been altogether unaware of his existence) he would have sent him back to the cottage, as the child would only have been in the way of his debaucheries. But a cousin of Mitya’s mother, Pyotr Alexandrovitch Miüsov, happened to return from Paris. He lived for many years afterwards abroad, but was at that time quite a young man, and distinguished among the Miüsovs as a man of enlightened ideas and of European culture, who had been in the capitals and abroad. Towards the end of his life he became a Liberal of the type common in the forties and fifties. In the course of his career he had come into contact with many of the most Liberal men of his epoch, both in Russia and abroad. He had known Proudhon and Bakunin personally, and in his declining years was very fond of describing the three days of the Paris Revolution of February 1848, hinting that he himself had almost taken part in the fighting on the barricades. This was one of the most grateful recollections of his youth. He had an independent property of about a thousand souls, to reckon in the old style. His splendid estate lay on the outskirts of our little town and bordered on the lands of our famous monastery, with which Pyotr Alexandrovitch began an endless lawsuit, almost as soon as he came into the estate, concerning the rights of fishing in the river or wood‐cutting in the forest, I don’t know exactly which. He regarded it as his duty as a citizen and a man of culture to open an attack upon the "clericals." Hearing all about Adelaïda Ivanovna, whom he, of course, remembered, and in whom he had at one time been interested, and learning of the existence of Mitya, he intervened, in spite of all his youthful indignation and contempt for Fyodor Pavlovitch. He made the latter’s acquaintance for the first time, and told him directly that he wished to undertake the child’s education. He used long afterwards to tell as a characteristic touch, that when he began to speak of Mitya, Fyodor Pavlovitch looked for some time as though he did not understand what child he was talking about, and even as though he was surprised to hear that he had a little son in the house. The story may have been exaggerated, yet it must have been something like the truth.

此外,孩子的母系亲属起初也忘了他。他的外祖父已不在世,外祖母,即米佳的祖母,搬到了莫斯科,病重,而他的女儿们都已出嫁,所以米佳几乎一整年都由老格里戈里照管,住在仆人的小屋里。但如果他父亲记得他（他确实不可能完全不知道他的存在）,他也会把他送回小屋,因为孩子只会妨碍他的放荡生活。但米佳母亲的一个表兄,彼得·亚历山德罗维奇·米乌索夫,碰巧从巴黎回来。他后来在国外住了许多年,但那时还是个年轻人,在米乌索夫家族中以思想开明、有欧洲文化修养而著称,曾游历首都和国外。晚年他成了四五十年代常见的那种自由主义者。在他的生涯中,他接触过当时许多最自由的人士,无论在俄国还是国外。他亲自认识蒲鲁东和巴枯宁,在晚年时非常喜欢描述1848年二月革命的三天,暗示自己几乎参加了街垒战。这是他青年时代最珍贵的回忆之一。他拥有一份独立财产,按旧式算法约有一千个农奴。他那华丽的庄园坐落在我们小镇的郊外,与著名的修道院的土地接壤,彼得·亚历山德罗维奇几乎一继承庄园就开始了一场没完没了的官司,关于河中捕鱼或林中伐木的权利,我记不清具体是哪一项。他认为作为公民和文化人,有责任向“教士阶层”开战。听说了阿黛拉伊达·伊万诺芙娜的一切--他当然记得她,并曾对她感兴趣--并得知米佳的存在后,尽管对费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇怀着年轻人的义愤和蔑视,他还是介入了。他第一次结识了后者,直接表示希望承担孩子的教育。后来他常说起一个典型细节:当他开始谈论米佳时,费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇看起来好像不明白他在说哪个孩子,甚至似乎惊讶地听到家里有个小儿子。这故事可能有些夸张,但一定大致属实。

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distinguished /dɪˈstɪŋɡwɪʃt/

adj. 卓越的,杰出的；高贵的➕

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enlightened /ɪnˈlaɪtnd/

adj. 开明的,有见识的；摆脱偏见的➕

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recollections /ˌrekəˈlekʃnz/

n. 回忆,记忆（通常用复数）➕

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estate /ɪˈsteɪt/

n. 地产,庄园；遗产➕

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lawsuit /ˈlɔːsuːt/

n. 诉讼,官司➕

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clericals /ˈklerɪklz/

n. 神职人员,教士（复数）➕

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contempt /kənˈtempt/

n. 蔑视,轻视➕

🔊 Fyodor Pavlovitch was all his life fond of acting, of suddenly playing an unexpected part, sometimes without any motive for doing so, and even to his own direct disadvantage, as, for instance, in the present case. This habit, however, is characteristic of a very great number of people, some of them very clever ones, not like Fyodor Pavlovitch. Pyotr Alexandrovitch carried the business through vigorously, and was appointed, with Fyodor Pavlovitch, joint guardian of the child, who had a small property, a house and land, left him by his mother. Mitya did, in fact, pass into this cousin’s keeping, but as the latter had no family of his own, and after securing the revenues of his estates was in haste to return at once to Paris, he left the boy in charge of one of his cousins, a lady living in Moscow. It came to pass that, settling permanently in Paris he, too, forgot the child, especially when the Revolution of February broke out, making an impression on his mind that he remembered all the rest of his life. The Moscow lady died, and Mitya passed into the care of one of her married daughters. I believe he changed his home a fourth time later on. I won’t enlarge upon that now, as I shall have much to tell later of Fyodor Pavlovitch’s firstborn, and must confine myself now to the most essential facts about him, without which I could not begin my story.

费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇一生都喜欢演戏,突然扮演一个出乎意料的角色,有时毫无动机,甚至对自己直接不利,就像眼前这个例子。然而,这种习惯是许多人的特征,其中一些非常聪明,不像费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇。彼得·亚历山德罗维奇有力地推进了这件事,被任命为孩子的联合监护人,与费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇一起,孩子有一小笔财产,一幢房子和土地,是他母亲留下的。米佳确实转由这位表兄照管,但由于后者没有自己的家庭,在确保了庄园收入后,急于立即返回巴黎,他把男孩托付给一位住在莫斯科的表亲,一位女士。结果,他永久定居巴黎后,也忘了孩子,尤其是当二月革命爆发时,这给他留下了终生难忘的印象。那位莫斯科女士去世了,米佳转由她一个已婚女儿照顾。我相信他后来还换了第四次家。我现在不详细展开,因为我以后会多讲费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇的长子,现在必须只限于关于他的最基本事实,没有这些我就无法开始我的故事。

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appointed /əˈpɔɪntɪd/

adj. 被任命的,被指定的➕

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joint guardian /ˌdʒɔɪnt ˈɡɑːdiən/

n. 共同监护人➕

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securing /sɪˈkjʊərɪŋ/

v. (gerund). 确保,获得；使安全➕

🔊 In the first place, this Mitya, or rather Dmitri Fyodorovitch, was the only one of Fyodor Pavlovitch’s three sons who grew up in the belief that he had property, and that he would be independent on coming of age. He spent an irregular boyhood and youth. He did not finish his studies at the gymnasium, he got into a military school, then went to the Caucasus, was promoted, fought a duel, and was degraded to the ranks, earned promotion again, led a wild life, and spent a good deal of money. He did not begin to receive any income from Fyodor Pavlovitch until he came of age, and until then got into debt. He saw and knew his father, Fyodor Pavlovitch, for the first time on coming of age, when he visited our neighborhood on purpose to settle with him about his property. He seems not to have liked his father. He did not stay long with him, and made haste to get away, having only succeeded in obtaining a sum of money, and entering into an agreement for future payments from the estate, of the revenues and value of which he was unable (a fact worthy of note), upon this occasion, to get a statement from his father. Fyodor Pavlovitch remarked for the first time then (this, too, should be noted) that Mitya had a vague and exaggerated idea of his property. Fyodor Pavlovitch was very well satisfied with this, as it fell in with his own designs. He gathered only that the young man was frivolous, unruly, of violent passions, impatient, and dissipated, and that if he could only obtain ready money he would be satisfied, although only, of course, for a short time. So Fyodor Pavlovitch began to take advantage of this fact, sending him from time to time small doles, installments. In the end, when four years later, Mitya, losing patience, came a second time to our little town to settle up once for all with his father, it turned out to his amazement that he had nothing, that it was difficult to get an account even, that he had received the whole value of his property in sums of money from Fyodor Pavlovitch, and was perhaps even in debt to him, that by various agreements into which he had, of his own desire, entered at various previous dates, he had no right to expect anything more, and so on, and so on. The young man was overwhelmed, suspected deceit and cheating, and was almost beside himself. And, indeed, this circumstance led to the catastrophe, the account of which forms the subject of my first introductory story, or rather the external side of it. But before I pass to that story I must say a little of Fyodor Pavlovitch’s other two sons, and of their origin.

首先,这个米佳,或者说德米特里·费奥多罗维奇,是费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇三个儿子中唯一一个在成长中相信自己有财产、成年后会独立的人。他度过了不规律的童年和青年时代。他没有在中学完成学业,进了军事学校,然后去了高加索,晋升了军衔,决斗了一场,被降为列兵,再次晋升,过着放荡的生活,花了很多钱。直到成年,他才开始从费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇那里收到任何收入,此前一直负债。他第一次见到并认识父亲费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇是在成年时,当时他特地来到我们地区与他结算财产。他似乎不喜欢父亲。他没有和父亲待多久,就匆忙离开了,只成功拿到一笔钱,并就未来从庄园的付款达成了协议,关于庄园的收入和价值,他（值得注意的是）在这次场合无法从父亲那里得到一份账目。费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇当时首次指出（这也应注意）,米佳对自己的财产有模糊而夸张的想法。费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇对此非常满意,因为这符合他自己的计划。他只看出这个年轻人轻浮、不羁、激情暴力、不耐烦、挥霍,只要拿到现钱就会满足,尽管当然只是短时间。于是费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇开始利用这一点,不时给他小额款项、分期付款。最后,四年后,米佳失去耐心,第二次来到我们小镇与父亲彻底结算时,令他震惊的是,他一无所有,连账目都难拿到,他已经从费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇那里以现金形式收到了他财产的全部价值,甚至可能还欠他债,而且根据他以前自愿签订的各种协议,他无权再期待任何东西,等等。这个年轻人被压垮了,怀疑欺骗和欺诈,几乎要疯了。确实,这个情况导致了灾难,其描述构成了我第一个引子故事的主题,或者更准确地说,是它的外部层面。但在我转向那个故事之前,我必须简要说说费奥多尔·帕夫洛维奇的另外两个儿子,以及他们的出身。

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irregular /ɪˈreɡjələ(r)/

adj. 不规则的,无规律的；不正常的➕

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gymnasium /dʒɪmˈneɪziəm/

n. （尤指欧洲的）中学,文理中学；体育馆➕

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degraded /dɪˈɡreɪdɪd/

adj. (past participle). 被降级的,被贬低的➕

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installments /ɪnˈstɔːlmənts/

n. 分期付款；分期交付➕

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catastrophe /kəˈtæstrəfi/

n. 大灾难,灾祸➕

Chapter two: He Gets Rid Of His Eldest Son (第二章:他摆脱长子)

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