on, "is something quite special. After a day or two you cannot realize that you have ever known another. And it is not necessary to know the language–the life of the boat creates a bond between you and the people that's more than sufficient. You eat with them, pass the day with them, and in the evening there is that endless singing."

She shivered, hearing the boatman's song break out again loud and tragic, and seeing the boat floating on the darkening river with melancholy trees on either side. . . . "Yes, I should like that," said she, stroking her muff. [Page 234]

"You'd like almost everything about Russian life," he said warmly. "It's so informal, so impulsive, so free without question. And then the peasants are so splendid. They are such human beings–yes, that is it. Even the man who drives your carriage has–has some real part in what is happening. I remember the evening a party of us, two friends of mine and the wife of one of them, went for a picnic by the Black Sea. We took supper and champagne and ate and drank on the grass. And while we were eating the coachman came up. 'Have a dill pickle,' he said. He wanted to share with us. That seemed to me so right, so–you know what I mean?"

And she seemed at that moment to be sitting on the grass beside the mysteriously Black Sea, black as velvet, and rippling against the banks in silent, velvet waves. She saw the carriage drawn up to one side of the road, and the little group on the grass, their faces and hands white in the moonlight. She saw the pale dress of the woman outspread and her folded parasol, lying on the grass like a huge pearl crochet hook. Apart from them, with his supper in a cloth on his knees, sat the coachman. "Have a dill pickle," said he, and although she was not certain what a dill pickle was, she saw the greenish glass jar with a red chili like a parrot's beak glimmering through. She sucked

5

识不到你还知道有另一种生活。根本没有必要去懂他们的语言-船上的生活使你和人们之间达成一种默契，充满了丰富的内涵。你和他们吃在一起，一起消磨时间，到了晚上，便是无尽无休的歌声。”

她震颤着，仿佛听到了船夫们的歌曲迸发出来，强烈而又悲怆，仿佛看到船只在漆黑的河面上漂泊着，两岸排列着令人忧郁的树木

“你一定会喜欢俄罗斯生活的方方面面，”他热情地说，“那是如此地与众不同，如此地令人振奋，如此地自由自在。农民们也是如此地出色。记得一个晚上，我和几个朋友在黑海边野餐。我们带了晚餐和香槟酒坐在草地上边吃边喝。我们正在吃着时，一个马车夫向我们走来。“来点莳萝泡菜。”他说道。他是想和我们一起分享。这对我来说是非常合适的——你知道他是什么意思吧。”

对我来说是非常合适的——你知道他是什么意思吧。”

此时此刻，她仿佛正坐在神秘的黑海边的草地上，海水黑如天鹅绒一般，静静地拍打着岸边，泛起涟漪，激起天鹅绒般的波浪。她仿佛看到草地上坐着一群人，月光映衬着他们的脸和手，现出了白色。离他们不远处还坐着马车夫，他膝上放着拿布包着的晚餐。“来点莳萝泡菜。”他说道。虽然她并不清楚什么是莳萝泡菜，但她看到了一个略带绿色的玻璃瓶子，点缀着红色的辣椒，像鹦鹉的嘴。