石國雄
十九世紀六十年代，處於一個大轉折、大變化的時期。１８６１年實行農奴製改革以後，的社會經濟經歷着一個重要的過程。從上看，貴族統治階級進行了有利於自己的農奴製改革；保住了自己的統治地位，統治阻遏了形勢的發展，而在經濟上，資本主義迅速發展，如列寧指出的，“１８６１年以後，資本主義的發展是這樣的迅速，衹用數十年的工夫就完成了歐洲某些國傢整整幾個世紀才能完成的轉變。”＊國內外企業主追求利潤，表現出瘋狂的積極性。金錢的勢力越來越大，強烈地影響着社會的傳統道德和生活方式。社會矛盾也更加尖銳。這是一個由“資産階級的（資本主義的）生産方式代替農奴制度的（或封建制度的）生産方式的”＊＊過渡時期。究竟應走上什麽樣的發展之路，是當時普遍關心的問題，也是社會思想鬥爭的中心問題。文學界也在尋求社會發展道路的回答，他們通過塑造正面人物來回答這個問題。１８６４年主義者車爾尼雪夫斯基就寫了小說《怎麽辦？》，塑造了拉赫梅托夫等新人的形象。同一時期巴任寫了《斯捷潘·魯列夫》、布拉戈維申斯基寫了《黎明之前》、斯列普佐夫寫了《睏難時刻》等，他們所描寫的主人公，有的走嚮民間，喚起群衆迎接風暴和戰鬥；有的為新思想所鼓舞，與富裕的家庭、與庸俗的環境决裂；有的忠於主義理想，揭露貴族自由主義。他們都與現存社會格格不入，但並不忍耐和寬容，而是積極行動，探求新的道路。
＊《列寧全集》，人民出版社， １９５９年，第１７捲，第１０４頁。
＊＊同上，第９２頁。
陀思妥耶夫斯基（１８２１－１８８１）從彼得堡工學院畢業後就獻身文學事業。他受到別林斯基、涅剋拉索夫的進步影響，繼承了果戈裏派批判現實主義傳統，在《窮人》等早期創作中描繪了城市小人物，表現了他們的內心美，揭露了社會對他們的壓迫和摧殘。四十年代未他參加了空想社會主義性質的彼特拉謝夫斯基派小組，受到沙皇政府的，體驗過面臨死刑的恐懼，後又改判苦役。四年監獄生活使他在精神上、思想上經歷了深重的磨難。接着又是服兵役和充軍。等他再度恢復自由的時候，原先那種通過鬥爭改造社會的追求，已隨着那苦難的歲月一起逝去了，代替青年時代理想的是順從和忍受那似乎不可抗拒的制度的力量。但是，陀思妥耶夫斯基始終關心着社會問題，註視着社會的變化，忠於現實主義的創作原則，仍然深刻地反映了社會現實，塑造了鮮明的人物性格，寫下了《被欺凌的和被侮辱的》、《死屋手記》、《賭徒》、《罪與罰》等，對資本主義世界作了悲憤的揭露，對底層的窮人們傾註了深厚的同情。１８６７年秋，他開始了長篇小說《白癡》的創作，１８６８年完成。
在這部新作中，陀思妥耶夫斯基繼續了自己創作的主題，塑造了被侮辱和被損害的形象，揭發了農奴製改革後貴族資産階級過去是，現在依然是摧殘人間美好事物的罪魁禍首，也暴露了資本主義社會中金錢腐蝕、毒害、毀滅人的罪惡。而作為美的體現，作為這個醜惡社會的犧牲品，作為被毀滅的美的化身，便是女主人公納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜。
納斯塔西婭是美的。小說在她未出場前已經通過羅戈任之口讓讀者知道，這是個令羅戈任神魂顛倒的美人，以致他甘願違抗父命去見她並贈送鑽石耳環。接着又通過梅什金公爵見到的照片，為讀者勾勒出一個美貌出衆的女人肖像，甚至連葉潘欽傢的小姐見了照片也不由得發出“一個人有這樣的美，就可以推翻整個世界”的贊嘆。她的美留給梅什金公爵深刻的印象，乃至在驀地見到她本人時便被她的風姿驚愕得笨手笨腳，不知所措。但是，就是在這種驚人的美貌中，梅什金也發現了其中藴含着悲哀、驕傲、輕衊、甚至仇恨，因而又引起了一種憐憫；讓人受不了這種美，讓人感到這是奇怪的美。作者已經一開始就為我們揭示了納斯塔西婭身上的美的不和諧、不協調。
事實也正是這樣。納斯塔西婭自幼失去雙親，由貴族托茨基收留，寄養在總管傢裏。過了五年，托茨基去領他，無意中發現已是十二歲的小姑娘聰明美麗。猶如鑒別物品優劣的行傢一樣，托茨基看出納斯塔西婭有着可塑的價值，便不惜在她身上花費，為她請家庭教師，使她受到良好的教育。四年以後，又專門給她一幢房子，配備了書、畫、樂器，還讓一位女地主來陪伴和照料，納斯塔西婭儼然成了貴族莊園裏的千金小姐。可是，也就在這時，托茨基占有了她，這裏成了他逍遙作樂的別墅。事情不僅於此，過了四五年，托茨基想跟出身富貴的葉潘欽將軍小姐締結婚姻，便欲盡快將納斯塔西婭甩掉。他甚至願以七萬五千盧布的代價將她嫁給葉潘欽將軍的秘書加尼亞，而葉潘欽將軍也懷着不可告人的陰暗目的，竭力促成這一婚事；納斯塔西婭不過是托茨基、葉潘欽之流的玩物和商品，她的美一開始就伴隨着深深的悲劇。
雖然納斯塔西婭的美遭到了褻讀和玷污，但是她的內心是高傲純潔的。她雖享受着托茨基為她提供的舒適環境，可是她生活得十分儉樸，對金錢毫不動心，在彼得堡度過的五年潔身生活中竟沒有絲毫積蓄；她也沒有被托茨基為她巧妙安排的那些公爵、驃騎兵之流所，保持她那孤傲高潔的品性；她遠離上流社會，並不涉足紙醉金迷的花花世界，而是閉門讀書，愛好音樂，至多也衹是結交一些平常人……更主要的是，在這個溫文嫻靜、知識豐富的柔弱女子身上，有一顆剛強的心，一副錚錚鐵骨。對於托茨基的卑鄙無恥，她懷着深深的蔑視和憎恨，這甚至使托茨基都感到害怕、擔擾，並不得不以另一種眼光來看待受到他侮辱的這個女人。這便是納斯塔西婭的美中含着的悲哀、驕傲、輕衊及仇恨的由來。陀思妥夫斯基一方面把美已受到摧殘、另一分面又竭力要維護自己純潔的美的納斯塔西婭呈現給讀者。如果說在托茨基之前納斯塔西婭不知道捍衛自己的話，那麽在經歷了這一切以後，當她意識到要把握自己命運的時候，她這種捍衛自己美的努力又會是怎樣一種遭遇呢？
納斯塔西婭自然不想依附於托茨基，也不想做公子哥兒的花瓶，她崇尚過一種獨立、清白的生活。她之所以和加尼亞結交，是因為看重他能吃苦耐勞地工作，獨自維持着全家的生計。但是，當她發現加尼亞明知這是托茨基和葉潘欽別有用心的安排，衹是為了金錢纔和她結婚，她的心顫慄了，失望了，並進而迸發出憤怒的火花。她當着大傢的面，把羅戈任用來買她的１０萬盧布付之一炬。連視金錢如命的加尼亞（用羅戈任的話說，衹要掏出３個盧布，他就可以趴在地上，一直爬到瓦西利耶夫斯基島）也不得不在這充滿銅臭的火光面前畏而卻步，更令出大價買她的羅戈任震驚目呆。納斯塔西婭的舉動無疑是對托茨基、葉潘欽之流的抗拒，在她看來，與其是成為背地裏買賣勾當的犧牲品，不如將這種骯髒的拍賣公開化，這是對虛偽的社會的挑戰；這一舉動也是對加尼亞，羅戈任之流的反擊，是對金錢勢力的示威，表面上似乎納斯塔西婭出賣了自己，實際上焚燒１０萬盧布正是她高傲人性的勝利，是她對金錢買賣的勝利，是她對托茨基，葉潘欽，加尼亞、羅戈任的勝利。焚燒１０萬盧布的火光照亮了納斯塔西婭高潔不污的靈魂，也照出了要用金綫買賣她的美的那一夥人污濁醜惡的嘴臉。
納斯塔西誣蔑視金錢、鄙視托茨基，過了五年潔身自好的生活，準備不帶一點東西地離開托茨基，表現出她心高氣傲的品格；另一方面，托茨基對她的玷污又深深地傷害了她，使她十分自卑，擺脫不了自覺低賤的陰影，認為“最好還是到街頭去，那是我應該去的地方”。因此，雖然她遇見梅什金公爵後第一次看到這是真正理解和尊重她的人，但是她不願意因為自已的低賤而毀了公爵，她寧肯犧牲自己，要使公爵獲得幸福。因此她竭力要促成公爵和阿格拉婭的婚姻。然而，納斯塔西婭衹是自認卑賤，衹是自己覺得配不上公爵。她不容許別人對她的人格有絲毫貶低和鄙視，一旦別人侮辱了她的人格，她便奮而抗起，堅决捍衛自己的尊嚴和權利，這也就使她最後在懷有偏見的阿格拉婭面前又要奪回梅什金公爵。她生活的環境造成了她這種又自卑又自尊的矛盾性格，我們看到了她的心地善良和純潔，也看到了她那被扭麯和損害的心靈。最終這又使她在與梅什金公爵舉行婚禮的最後時刻拋下公爵而隨羅戈任而去。
羅戈任是一個富傢子弟，繼承了父親的大筆遺産。他對於納斯塔西但的愛是狂熱的，但這種愛衹是對美色的愛；是一種占有欲的愛，是與其父親對金錢的占有一樣的一種私有的欲望；他粗俗、驕橫、狹隘、嫉妒，雖然買下了納斯塔西婭，納斯塔西婭卻絶不愛他。她幾次隨他而去，可是羅戈任始終未能得到她。他知道她愛梅什金公爵，因而跟蹤公爵，甚至想要謀害這個曾被他稱為兄弟的情敵。最後，終於在可望不可及、我得不到你也別想得到的極端私有心理的支配下，殺害了納斯塔西婭。
納斯塔西婭的悲劇命運、鮮明地揭示了她所生存的世界扼殺了她的美這一罪惡的本質。她的美不僅沒有能推翻世界，相反被它毀滅了。陀思妥耶夫斯基作為偉大的藝術傢正是無情地把這一種美，把這純潔、苦難、高傲、反抗的美毀滅給人們看，他那深刻的筆觸所及的女主人公那時而嫻靜時而悲憤、時而理智時而瘋狂、時而自卑對而傲慢、時而通達時而偏執的種種場景，無不令人震撼、令人嘆惜。作傢塑造的納斯塔西婭的形象成為文學，也是世界文學中最鮮明生動、光彩照人的婦女形象之一。
納斯塔西婭的毀滅是《白癡》所描寫的美的毀滅的一個方面。作為美被毀滅的另一個方面，那就是作者所鐘愛的男主人公梅什金公爵的悲劇。在寫作這部小說的時候，作者曾經這樣說：“長篇小說的主要思想是描繪一個絶對美好的人物。世界上再沒有比這件事更難的了。特別是現在。所有的作傢，不僅是的甚至是歐洲的作傢，如果誰想描繪絶對的美，總是感到無能為力，因為這是一個無比睏難的任務。美是理想，而理想，無論是我們還是文明的歐洲，都還未形成。世界上衹有一個絶對美好的人物——，因此這位無可比擬、無限美好的人物的出現當然也是永恆的奇跡……”
這段話清楚地表明了作者意欲創造一個類似那樣的美好人物，可是社會本身又不可能讓這樣的美好人物存在。作者實際上在塑造其心愛的主人公時就已經給他註定了悲劇的命運。
梅什金公爵雖然是個貴族的後裔，可是實際上池已淪落為一個貧民，靠富商帕夫列謝夫的接濟而在遙遠的端士治療他那可憐的白癡病。當他一開始出現在駛往彼得堡的列車上時，他已是個幾乎治愈了疾病的正常人。如同一般，他自遙遠的異鄉來到祖國，處身於一個他全然生疏，不瞭解的陌生社會之中。他一開始就表現出由於長期遠離塵世而形成的單純和天真，而這正是陀思妥耶夫斯基賦予梅什金公爵的主要性格特徵。在他的筆記裏這樣寫着：“怎樣才能使主人公這個人物獲得讀者的好感？如果堂吉柯德和匹剋威剋作為善良的人物而引起讀者的好感並獲得了成功，那麽這是因為他們可笑。長篇小說的主人公公爵，如果不是可笑，那麽他具有另一個可愛的特徵，他天真！＊＊比如他一下子就對紈絝子弟羅戈任産生好感；他以為能在同族的親戚葉潘欽將軍那裏得到關懷和幫助；他一見到納斯塔西婭的照片，便毫不掩飾地表現出對她的愛戀和同情；……但是，梅什金公爵面臨的社會卻是個充滿銅臭、等級觀念的爾虞我詐的虛偽世界，在這個世界裏卻容不得一點真誠、坦率和單純，因而毫無社交經驗的梅什金公爵在這個世界中因為自己的善良、坦誠、正直、同情而常常被人們看做是不正常，被他們稱為“白癡”。例如，他剛到葉潘欽將軍傢，就順口在將軍夫人面前提到了納斯塔西婭，殊不知納斯塔西婭牽動着這個家庭的諸多神經，以至加尼亞駡他“真是個白癡！”；當他瞭解到納斯塔西婭面臨的抉擇，在競相買賣的托茨基、加尼亞、羅戈任之流面前雖然表明，他把納斯塔西婭看做是純潔的女人，欽佩她從地獄出來還一塵不染，不會因她曾是托茨基的情婦而害鱢，永遠不會責怪她，把娶她看作是一種光榮，一種體面，而且要一輩子尊敬她。可是托茨基卻在心裏駡他是“白癡”。
＊《陀思妥耶夫斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社，１９８８年，第３２６頁。
＊＊《陀思妥那大斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社，１９８８年，第３８０頁。
梅什金公爵的單純天真，也許還不衹是表現在他的純樸率直，沒有低卑自私的動機和打算，他的單純天真更主要的表現是，在這個充滿欺騙、嫉妒、敵意、仇恨的世界裏他寬容忍耐一切，並且企圖以自己的同情和憐憫來維護和解救受到蹂躪的美。他對世界的看法：他寬恕一切，處處看到原因，看不到不可寬怒的罪惡並原諒一切。……如果說在瑞士鄉間他尚能用他的同情憐憫在同樣單純天真的孩子們中間喚起共鳴而使一個受到摧殘的女子得到一絲心靈的慰籍（但終究改變不了她那毀滅的命運）的話，那麽在弱肉強食、光怪陸離的彼得堡，他的同情和憐憫，他的寬容和忍耐卻衹能給人給己帶來痛苦的毀滅。
梅什金公爵總是用他那溫順的忍辱負重的精神來對待他所遇到的一切。加尼亞是個心胸狹隘、精於盤算、富有野心、氣躁性浮的人，他利用梅什金公爵為他傳遞書信給阿格拉婭，卻還日日聲聲責駡公爵是白癡，梅什金明明感到受了侮辱，還是原諒了他，住到了他傢裏，更有甚者，梅什金阻擋了加尼亞欲打因對納斯塔西婭出言不遜的瓦裏婭，卻反而被加尼亞打了耳光，可是他僅僅發出“您將來會對這種舉動感到多麽羞愧嗎”的無力感嘆，而且很快他就原諒了加尼亞，甚至表示從今以後永遠不會把您當做卑鄙的人了”；羅戈任粗魯、野蠻，沒有教養也沒有道德，公爵親眼目睹他如何出錢買下納斯塔西婭，也明明知道他衹能加深納斯塔西婭的痛苦，而且公爵也總能發現他那冷酷陰森的目光，他始終像幽靈似的出現在公爵周圍，甚至企圖舉刀謀害被他視作情敵的公爵。縱然在他們之間有着這一切，梅什金公爵始終把羅戈任看作是朋友甚或是兄弟，仍然對他推心置腹以換取諒解，仍然不念舊惡以重修和好，直至最後當羅戈任殺害了納斯塔西婭，他還能與他情同手足般地一起躺在死者身旁平心靜氣地談論發生的一切。梅什金公爵的精神簡直到了莫名其妙、令人驚訝的地步。然而他這種寬容卻並不能感化加尼亞、羅戈任之流。加尼亞在懺悔一通之後，依舊懷着要得到金錢而娶納斯塔西婭的目的去參加她將作出抉擇的晚會；羅戈任也始終把他看作情敵、始終把納斯塔西婭看作己物而最後殺死她泄憤。梅什金公爵的寬容、忍耐，在生活中的惡面前，在社會中的醜面前顯得何等蒼白無力！
＊陀思妥那夭斯基語，引自留裏科夫《陀思妥那大斯基關於美好人物的小說》，見《白癡》，蘇聯文學出版社，１９６０年，第５頁。
那麽他的同情和憐憫是否又能拯救別人呢？他對納斯塔西婭的愛，是出於同情和憐憫的愛。他贊嘆她的美貌，但是他更為她深深掩藏的悲哀所動心。他固然稱贊她的純潔、欽佩她的出污泥而不染，但他的表示要娶納斯塔西婭是出於不忍心看着她跳出托茨基的虎口又落入羅戈任之狼爪。納斯塔西婭是個心高氣傲的女性，她確實第一次遇見一個純潔和高尚的人，但是她不願意因自已的過去而毀了公爵這樣的“孩子”，她不願接受公爵那種出自同情和憐憫的愛，因此她心裏愛着公爵可又竭力要回避他，她幾次三番或從羅戈任那裏逃走，或離開梅什金公爵，都是這種心理矛盾的表現。及至最後納斯塔西婭要梅什金在阿格拉婭面前表態時，公爵也仍然是帶着哀憐和責備的口吻對阿格拉婭說：“……她是那樣不幸的人嗎！”他在這種心態下迫不得已接受了納斯塔西婭，實際上不過是納斯塔西婭願意這樣，他纔這樣做。他坦白地對人說，當時不過是受不住納斯塔西婭的臉：“在他對她的愛情裏的確包含着一種好像對於一個可憐的、生病的嬰兒的柔情。”而納斯塔西婭也完全明白，她並不能使梅什金公爵得到安慰，而是不安，她覺察到他的憂愁，她知道阿格拉婭對他有什麽意義，乃至結婚前夕她痛哭流涕地嚮公爵表示“我做的是什麽事！我把你弄成這個樣子！”梅什金公爵的同情和憐憫並沒有解救納斯塔西婭，而衹是增加她的痛苦，使她最終絶望，直至舉行婚禮後她終於又一次投嚮羅戈任而落得毀滅的悲慘結局。在納斯塔西婭的悲劇中，梅什金公爵難道沒有過錯？正如小說中葉夫蓋尼·帕夫洛維奇嚮梅什金公爵指出的那樣，他對納斯塔西婭“從一開始的時候起就是虛偽的，既以虛偽開始，也就應該以虛偽告終；這是自然的法則。……所以會發生這一切事情，首先是由於您天生不通世故（……），其次是由於您的過分純樸；再其次，是由於您不知分寸（……），最後，是由於您的頭腦裏有一大堆信念，而您的性格又特別誠實……”
梅什金公爵的軟弱，也毀了阿格拉婭的幸福。阿格拉婭不滿於過平庸的生活，不願受到家庭的庇護，她希望逃出家庭，渴望行動，做點有益於社會的事情，她要變更自己的社會地位，去從事教育工作。她選擇梅什金公爵，企望從他那裏得到幫助。但是梅什金公爵的優柔寡斷，對納斯塔西婭的憐憫的愛同時卻傷害了阿格拉婭的愛，使阿格拉婭絶望，最後皈依天主教，嫁給了一個波蘭者。
梅什金公爵因他那同情和憐憫同時毀了兩個女性，也毀了自己。他既失去了憐憫的愛，也失去了真情的愛，這雙重的打擊終於使他的白癡病再次復發。這次已經是很難治愈了，他又成了真正的白癡。
寬容，忍耐，同情、憐憫這些本來屬於一個美好人物的美好品質，在這個無情，冷酪、爭鬥，殘忍的社會裏卻變成使別人更加痛苦不幸也找害自己的有害的慢性藥物，陀思妥耶夫斯基本意要塑造一個美好的人物，想用美來拯救世養，可是結果恰恰是，非但這個式的美好人物未能拯救世界的苦難，反而連同其美德一起被這可惡的世界毀滅了。梅什金公爵是陀思妥耶夫斯基的理想人物，看起來雖然不切實際，甚至近似荒誕，可是同時他又正如作者自己說的：“白癡是更為現實的人”，“我的理想主義比他們的現實主義更為現實。”＊＊“我對現實（藝術中的）有自己獨特的看法，而且被大多數人稱之為幾乎是荒誕的和特殊的事物，對於我來說，有時構成了現實的本質。事物的平凡性和對它的陳腐看法，依我看來，還不能算現實主義，甚至恰好相反，難道我的荒誕的‘白癡’不是現實，而且是最平凡的現實！正是現在纔必然在我們脫離了根基的社會階層中産生出這樣的人物，這類社會階層纔真正變得荒誕。……”＊＊＊陀思妥耶夫斯基揭示了他那理想人物無法在那個社會裏生存的本質，這也正是其現實主義的力量！
說到作品的藝術成就，筆者不想在這裏多作贅述。讀過小說，誰也忘不了納斯塔西婭怒焚十萬盧布的驚心動魄的場面，也忘不了納斯塔西婭被害後梅什金公爵和羅戈任共同守靈那凄楚可悲的情景……讀過小說，誰不會為美麗的高潔的納斯塔西婭的身世感到悲憤，誰不會為純樸天真的梅什金公爵的被毀感到痛惜……這一切都歸功於陀思妥耶夫斯基的不朽的筆力。盧那察爾斯基對於藝術傢陀思妥耶夫斯基有過非常精闢的分析：“陀思妥耶夫斯是抒情藝術傢，他所有的中篇和長篇小說都是一道傾泄他的親身感受的火熱的河流。這是他的靈魂奧秘的連續的自白，這是披肝瀝膽的熱烈的渴望。這便是他創作的第一個因素，基本因素。第二個因素是當他嚮讀者表白他的信念的時候，總是渴望感染他們，說服和打動他們。……陀思妥耶夫斯基不用直截了當的形式而用虛構敘事的形式表達他的感受、自白。他把他的自白、他的靈魂的熱烈呼籲包括在事件的鋪敘之中。……凌駕於他那直抒情懷、披肝瀝膽的渴望之上，還有第三個基本動機 宏大的，無窮的，強烈的生活的渴望。正是這種熱烈的不可抑製的生的渴望，使陀思妥耶夫斯基首先變成了藝術傢，他創造了偉大的和卑劣的人物，創造了衆神和生靈。……陀思妥耶夫斯基同他所有的主角緊密相聯。他的血在他們的血管中奔流。他的心在他所創造的一切形象裏面跳動，陀思妥耶夫斯基在痛苦中生育他的形象，他的心急劇地跳動着，他吃力地喘息着……他竭力使讀者去接近他的主角的思想感情的激流、思想感情的萬花筒，因此，陀思妥耶夫斯基被稱為心理學作者。”＊這對於《白癡》也是完全適用的。
＊《陀思妥耶夫斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社， １９８８年，第３８０頁。
＊＊同上，第３２７頁。
＊＊＊同上，第３２９頁。
最後，藉此機會嚮灕江出版社表示衷心的感謝，承蒙他們對我的信任，把重譯世界名著《白癡》的任務交付給我。鑒於本人語言文學修養的不足，譯文有不當之處，敬請專傢、讀者指正。
＊盧那察爾斯基《論文學》，人民文學出版社，１９７８年，第２１４－２１５頁。
Some of the passengers by this particular train were returning from abroad; but the third-class carriages were the best filled, chiefly with insignificant persons of various occupations and degrees, picked up at the different stations nearer town. All of them seemed weary, and most of them had sleepy eyes and a shivering expression, while their complexions generally appeared to have taken on the colour of the fog outside.
When day dawned, two passengers in one of the third-class carriages found themselves opposite each other. Both were young fellows, both were rather poorly dressed, both had remarkable faces, and both were evidently anxious to start a conversation. If they had but known why, at this particular moment, they were both remarkable persons, they would undoubtedly have wondered at the strange chance which had set them down opposite to one another in a third-class carriage of the Warsaw Railway Company.
One of them was a young fellow of about twenty-seven, not tall, with black curling hair, and small, grey, fiery eyes. His nose was broad and flat, and he had high cheek bones; his thin lips were constantly compressed into an impudent, ironical--it might almost be called a malicious--smile; but his forehead was high and well formed, and atoned for a good deal of the ugliness of the lower part of his face. A special feature of this physiognomy was its death-like pallor, which gave to the whole man an indescribably emaciated appearance in spite of his hard look, and at the same time a sort of passionate and suffering expression which did not harmonize with his impudent, sarcastic smile and keen, self-satisfied bearing. He wore a large fur--or rather astrachan--overcoat, which had kept him warm all night, while his neighbour had been obliged to bear the full severity of a Russian November night entirely unprepared. His wide sleeveless mantle with a large cape to it--the sort of cloak one sees upon travellers during the winter months in Switzerland or North Italy--was by no means adapted to the long cold journey through Russia, from Eydkuhnen to St. Petersburg.
The wearer of this cloak was a young fellow, also of about twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, slightly above the middle height, very fair, with a thin, pointed and very light coloured beard; his eyes were large and blue, and had an intent look about them, yet that heavy expression which some people affirm to be a peculiarity. as well as evidence, of an epileptic subject. His face was decidedly a pleasant one for all that; refined, but quite colourless, except for the circumstance that at this moment it was blue with cold. He held a bundle made up of an old faded silk handkerchief that apparently contained all his travelling wardrobe, and wore thick shoes and gaiters, his whole appearance being very un-Russian.
His black-haired neighbour inspected these peculiarities, having nothing better to do, and at length remarked, with that rude enjoyment of the discomforts of others which the common classes so often show:
"Cold?"
"Very," said his neighbour, readily. "and this is a thaw, too. Fancy if it had been a hard frost! I never thought it would be so cold in the old country. I've grown quite out of the way of it."
"What, been abroad, I suppose?"
"Yes, straight from Switzerland."
"Wheugh! my goodness!" The black-haired young fellow whistled, and then laughed.
The conversation proceeded. The readiness of the fair-haired young man in the cloak to answer all his opposite neighbour's questions was surprising. He seemed to have no suspicion of any impertinence or inappropriateness in the fact of such questions being put to him. Replying to them, he made known to the inquirer that he certainly had been long absent from Russia, more than four years; that he had been sent abroad for his health; that he had suffered from some strange nervous malady--a kind of epilepsy, with convulsive spasms. His interlocutor burst out laughing several times at his answers; and more than ever, when to the question, " whether he had been cured?" the patient replied:
"No, they did not cure me."
"Hey! that's it! You stumped up your money for nothing, and we believe in those fellows, here!" remarked the black-haired individual, sarcastically.
"Gospel truth, sir, Gospel truth!" exclaimed another passenger, a shabbily dressed man of about forty, who looked like a clerk, and possessed a red nose and a very blotchy face. "Gospel truth! All they do is to get hold of our good Russian money free, gratis, and for nothing. "
"Oh, but you're quite wrong in my particular instance," said the Swiss patient, quietly. "Of course I can't argue the matter, because I know only my own case; but my doctor gave me money--and he had very little--to pay my journey back, besides having kept me at his own expense, while there, for nearly two years."
"Why? Was there no one else to pay for you?" asked the black- haired one.
"No--Mr. Pavlicheff, who had been supporting me there, died a couple of years ago. I wrote to Mrs. General Epanchin at the time (she is a distant relative of mine), but she did not answer my letter. And so eventually I came back."
"And where have you come to?"
"That is--where am I going to stay? I--I really don't quite know yet, I--"
Both the listeners laughed again.
"I suppose your whole set-up is in that bundle, then?" asked the first.
"I bet anything it is!" exclaimed the red-nosed passenger, with extreme satisfaction, "and that he has precious little in the luggage van!--though of course poverty is no crime--we must remember that!"
It appeared that it was indeed as they had surmised. The young fellow hastened to admit the fact with wonderful readiness.
"Your bundle has some importance, however," continued the clerk, when they had laughed their fill (it was observable that the subject of their mirth joined in the laughter when he saw them laughing); "for though I dare say it is not stuffed full of friedrichs d'or and louis d'or--judge from your costume and gaiters--still--if you can add to your possessions such a valuable property as a relation like Mrs. General Epanchin, then your bundle becomes a significant object at once. That is, of course, if you really are a relative of Mrs. Epanchin's, and have not made a little error through--well, absence of mind, which is very common to human beings; or, say--through a too luxuriant fancy?"
"Oh, you are right again," said the fair-haired traveller, "for I really am ALMOST wrong when I say she and I are related. She is hardly a relation at all; so little, in fact, that I was not in the least surprised to have no answer to my letter. I expected as much."
"H'm! you spent your postage for nothing, then. H'm! you are candid, however--and that is commendable. H'm! Mrs. Epanchin--oh yes! a most eminent person. I know her. As for Mr. Pavlicheff, who supported you in Switzerland, I know him too--at least, if it was Nicolai Andreevitch of that name? A fine fellow he was--and had a property of four thousand souls in his day."
"Yes, Nicolai Andreevitch--that was his name," and the young fellow looked earnestly and with curiosity at the all-knowing gentleman with the red nose.
This sort of character is met with pretty frequently in a certain class. They are people who know everyone--that is, they know where a man is employed, what his salary is, whom he knows, whom he married, what money his wife had, who are his cousins, and second cousins, etc., etc. These men generally have about a hundred pounds a year to live on, and they spend their whole time and talents in the amassing of this style of knowledge, which they reduce--or raise--to the standard of a science.
During the latter part of the conversation the black-haired young man had become very impatient. He stared out of the window, and fidgeted, and evidently longed for the end of the journey. He was very absent; he would appear to listen-and heard nothing; and he would laugh of a sudden, evidently with no idea of what he was laughing about.
"Excuse me," said the red-nosed man to the young fellow with the bundle, rather suddenly; "whom have I the honour to be talking to?"
"Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin," replied the latter, with perfect readiness.
"Prince Muishkin? Lef Nicolaievitch? H'm! I don't know, I'm sure! I may say I have never heard of such a person," said the clerk, thoughtfully. "At least, the name, I admit, is historical. Karamsin must mention the family name, of course, in his history- -but as an individual--one never hears of any Prince Muishkin nowadays."
"Of course not," replied the prince; "there are none, except myself. I believe I am the last and only one. As to my forefathers, they have always been a poor lot; my own father was a sublieutenant in the army. I don't know how Mrs. Epanchin comes into the Muishkin family, but she is descended from the Princess Muishkin, and she, too, is the last of her line."
"And did you learn science and all that, with your professor over there?" asked the black-haired passenger.
"Oh yes--I did learn a little, but--"
"I've never learned anything whatever," said the other.
"Oh, but I learned very little, you know!" added the prince, as though excusing himself. "They could not teach me very much on account of my illness. "
"Do you know the Rogojins?" asked his questioner, abruptly.
"No, I don't--not at all! I hardly know anyone in Russia. Why, is that your name?"
"Yes, I am Rogojin, Parfen Rogojin."
"Parfen Rogojin? dear me--then don't you belong to those very Rogojins, perhaps--" began the clerk, with a very perceptible increase of civility in his tone.
"Yes--those very ones," interrupted Rogojin, impatiently, and with scant courtesy. I may remark that he had not once taken any notice of the blotchy-faced passenger, and had hitherto addressed all his remarks direct to the prince.
"Dear me--is it possible?" observed the clerk, while his face assumed an expression of great deference and servility--if not of absolute alarm: "what, a son of that very Semen Rogojin-- hereditary honourable citizen--who died a month or so ago and left two million and a half of roubles?"
"And how do YOU know that he left two million and a half of roubles?" asked Rogojin, disdainfully, and no deigning so much as to look at the other. "However, it's true enough that my father died a month ago, and that here am I returning from Pskoff, a month after, with hardly a boot to my foot. They've treated me like a dog! I've been ill of fever at Pskoff the whole time, and not a line, nor farthing of money, have I received from my mother or my confounded brother!"
"And now you'll have a million roubles, at least--goodness gracious me!" exclaimed the clerk, rubbing his hands.
"Five weeks since, I was just like yourself," continued Rogojin, addressing the prince, "with nothing but a bundle and the clothes I wore. I ran away from my father and came to Pskoff to my aunt's house, where I caved in at once with fever, and he went and died while I was away. All honour to my respected father's memory--but he uncommonly nearly killed me, all the same. Give you my word, prince, if I hadn't cut and run then, when I did, he'd have murdered me like a dog."
"I suppose you angered him somehow?" asked the prince, looking at the millionaire with considerable curiosity But though there may have been something remarkable in the fact that this man was heir to millions of roubles there was something about him which surprised and interested the prince more than that. Rogojin, too, seemed to have taken up the conversation with unusual alacrity it appeared that he was still in a considerable state of excitement, if not absolutely feverish, and was in real need of someone to talk to for the mere sake of talking, as safety-valve to his agitation.
As for his red-nosed neighbour, the latter--since the information as to the identity of Rogojin--hung over him, seemed to be living on the honey of his words and in the breath of his nostrils, catching at every syllable as though it were a pearl of great price.
"Oh, yes; I angered him--I certainly did anger him," replied Rogojin. "But what puts me out so is my brother. Of course my mother couldn't do anything--she's too old--and whatever brother Senka says is law for her! But why couldn't he let me know? He sent a telegram, they say. What's the good of a telegram? It frightened my aunt so that she sent it back to the office unopened, and there it's been ever since! It's only thanks to Konief that I heard at all; he wrote me all about it. He says my brother cut off the gold tassels from my father's coffin, at night because they're worth a lot of money!' says he. Why, I can get him sent off to Siberia for that alone, if I like; it's sacrilege. Here, you--scarecrow!" he added, addressing the clerk at his side, "is it sacrilege or not, by law?'
"Sacrilege, certainly--certainly sacrilege," said the latter.
"And it's Siberia for sacrilege, isn't it?"
"Undoubtedly so; Siberia, of course!"
"They will think that I'm still ill," continued Rogojin to the prince, "but I sloped off quietly, seedy as I was, took the train and came away. Aha, brother Senka, you'll have to open your gates and let me in, my boy! I know he told tales about me to my father--I know that well enough but I certainly did rile my father about Nastasia Philipovna that's very sure, and that was my own doing."
"Nastasia Philipovna?" said the clerk, as though trying to think out something.
"Come, you know nothing about HER," said Rogojin, impatiently.
"And supposing I do know something?" observed the other, triumphantly.
"Bosh! there are plenty of Nastasia Philipovnas. And what an impertinent beast you are!" he added angrily. "I thought some creature like you would hang on to me as soon as I got hold of my money. "
"Oh, but I do know, as it happens," said the clerk in an aggravating manner. "Lebedeff knows all about her. You are pleased to reproach me, your excellency, but what if I prove that I am right after all? Nastasia Phillpovna's family name is Barashkoff--I know, you see-and she is a very well known lady, indeed, and comes of a good family, too. She is connected with one Totski, Afanasy Ivanovitch, a man of considerable property, a director of companies, and so on, and a great friend of General Epanchin, who is interested in the same matters as he is."
"My eyes!" said Rogojin, really surprised at last. "The devil take the fellow, how does he know that?"
"Why, he knows everything--Lebedeff knows everything! I was a month or two with Lihachof after his father died, your excellency, and while he was knocking about--he's in the debtor's prison now--I was with him, and he couldn't do a thing without Lebedeff; and I got to know Nastasia Philipovna and several people at that time."
"Nastasia Philipovna? Why, you don't mean to say that she and Lihachof--" cried Rogojin, turning quite pale.
"No, no, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort, I assure you!" said Lebedeff, hastily. "Oh dear no, not for the world! Totski's the only man with any chance there. Oh, no! He takes her to his box at the opera at the French theatre of an evening, and the officers and people all look at her and say, 'By Jove, there's the famous Nastasia Philipovna!' but no one ever gets any further than that, for there is nothing more to say."
"Yes, it's quite true," said Rogojin, frowning gloomily; "so Zaleshoff told me. I was walking about the Nefsky one fine day, prince, in my father's old coat, when she suddenly came out of a shop and stepped into her carriage. I swear I was all of a blaze at once. Then I met Zaleshoff--looking like a hair-dresser's assistant, got up as fine as I don't know who, while I looked like a tinker. 'Don't flatter yourself, my boy,' said he; 'she's not for such as you; she's a princess, she is, and her name is Nastasia Philipovna Barashkoff, and she lives with Totski, who wishes to get rid of her because he's growing rather old--fifty- five or so--and wants to marry a certain beauty, the loveliest woman in all Petersburg.' And then he told me that I could see Nastasia Philipovna at the opera-house that evening, if I liked, and described which was her box. Well, I'd like to see my father allowing any of us to go to the theatre; he'd sooner have killed us, any day. However, I went for an hour or so and saw Nastasia Philipovna, and I never slept a wink all night after. Next morning my father happened to give me two government loan bonds to sell, worth nearly five thousand roubles each. 'Sell them,' said he, 'and then take seven thousand five hundred roubles to the office, give them to the cashier, and bring me back the rest of the ten thousand, without looking in anywhere on the way; look sharp, I shall be waiting for you.' Well, I sold the bonds, but I didn't take the seven thousand roubles to the office; I went straight to the English shop and chose a pair of earrings, with a diamond the size of a nut in each. They cost four hundred roubles more than I had, so I gave my name, and they trusted me. With the earrings I went at once to Zaleshoff's. 'Come on!' I said, 'come on to Nastasia Philipovna's,' and off we went without more ado. I tell you I hadn't a notion of what was about me or before me or below my feet all the way; I saw nothing whatever. We went straight into her drawing-room, and then she came out to us.
"I didn't say right out who I was, but Zaleshoff said: 'From Parfen Rogojin, in memory of his first meeting with you yesterday; be so kind as to accept these!'
"She opened the parcel, looked at the earrings, and laughed.
"'Thank your friend Mr. Rogojin for his kind attention,' says she, and bowed and went off. Why didn't I die there on the spot? The worst of it all was, though, that the beast Zaleshoff got all the credit of it! I was short and abominably dressed, and stood and stared in her face and never said a word, because I was shy, like an ass! And there was he all in the fashion, pomaded and dressed out, with a smart tie on, bowing and scraping; and I bet anything she took him for me all the while!
"'Look here now,' I said, when we came out, 'none of your interference here after this-do you understand?' He laughed: 'And how are you going to settle up with your father?' says he. I thought I might as well jump into the Neva at once without going home first; but it struck me that I wouldn't, after all, and I went home feeling like one of the damned."
"My goodness!" shivered the clerk. "And his father," he added, for the prince's instruction, "and his father would have given a man a ticket to the other world for ten roubles any day--not to speak of ten thousand!"
The prince observed Rogojin with great curiosity; he seemed paler than ever at this moment.
"What do you know about it?" cried the latter. "Well, my father learned the whole story at once, and Zaleshoff blabbed it all over the town besides. So he took me upstairs and locked me up, and swore at me for an hour. 'This is only a foretaste,' says he; 'wait a bit till night comes, and I'll come back and talk to you again.'
"Well, what do you think? The old fellow went straight off to Nastasia Philipovna, touched the floor with his forehead, and began blubbering and beseeching her on his knees to give him back the diamonds. So after awhile she brought the box and flew out at him. 'There,' she says, 'take your earrings, you wretched old miser; although they are ten times dearer than their value to me now that I know what it must have cost Parfen to get them! Give Parfen my compliments,' she says, 'and thank him very much!' Well, I meanwhile had borrowed twenty-five roubles from a friend, and off I went to Pskoff to my aunt's. The old woman there lectured me so that I left the house and went on a drinking tour round the public-houses of the place. I was in a high fever when I got to Pskoff, and by nightfall I was lying delirious in the streets somewhere or other!"
"Oho! we'll make Nastasia Philipovna sing another song now!" giggled Lebedeff, rubbing his hands with glee. "Hey, my boy, we'll get her some proper earrings now! We'll get her such earrings that--"
"Look here," cried Rogojin, seizing him fiercely by the arm, "look here, if you so much as name Nastasia Philipovna again, I'll tan your hide as sure as you sit there!"
"Aha! do--by all means! if you tan my hide you won't turn me away from your society. You'll bind me to you, with your lash, for ever. Ha, ha! here we are at the station, though."
Sure enough, the train was just steaming in as he spoke.
Though Rogojin had declared that he left Pskoff secretly, a large collection of friends had assembled to greet him, and did so with profuse waving of hats and shouting.
"Why, there's Zaleshoff here, too!" he muttered, gazing at the scene with a sort of triumphant but unpleasant smile. Then he suddenly turned to the prince: "Prince, I don't know why I have taken a fancy to you; perhaps because I met you just when I did. But no, it can't be that, for I met this fellow " (nodding at Lebedeff) "too, and I have not taken a fancy to him by any means. Come to see me, prince; we'll take off those gaiters of yours and dress you up in a smart fur coat, the best we can buy. You shall have a dress coat, best quality, white waistcoat, anything you like, and your pocket shall be full of money. Come, and you shall go with me to Nastasia Philipovna's. Now then will you come or no?"
"Accept, accept, Prince Lef Nicolaievitch" said Lebedef solemnly; "don't let it slip! Accept, quick!"
Prince Muishkin rose and stretched out his hand courteously, while he replied with some cordiality:
"I will come with the greatest pleasure, and thank you very much for taking a fancy to me. I dare say I may even come today if I have time, for I tell you frankly that I like you very much too. I liked you especially when you told us about the diamond earrings; but I liked you before that as well, though you have such a dark-clouded sort of face. Thanks very much for the offer of clothes and a fur coat; I certainly shall require both clothes and coat very soon. As for money, I have hardly a copeck about me at this moment."
"You shall have lots of money; by the evening I shall have plenty; so come along!"
"That's true enough, he'll have lots before evening!" put in Lebedeff.
"But, look here, are you a great hand with the ladies? Let's know that first?" asked Rogojin.
"Oh no, oh no! said the prince; "I couldn't, you know--my illness--I hardly ever saw a soul."
"H'm! well--here, you fellow-you can come along with me now if you like!" cried Rogojin to Lebedeff, and so they all left the carriage.
Lebedeff had his desire. He went off with the noisy group of Rogojin's friends towards the Voznesensky, while the prince's route lay towards the Litaynaya. It was damp and wet. The prince asked his way of passers-by, and finding that he was a couple of miles or so from his destination, he determined to take a droshky.
十九世紀六十年代，處於一個大轉折、大變化的時期。１８６１年實行農奴製改革以後，的社會經濟經歷着一個重要的過程。從上看，貴族統治階級進行了有利於自己的農奴製改革；保住了自己的統治地位，統治阻遏了形勢的發展，而在經濟上，資本主義迅速發展，如列寧指出的，“１８６１年以後，資本主義的發展是這樣的迅速，衹用數十年的工夫就完成了歐洲某些國傢整整幾個世紀才能完成的轉變。”＊國內外企業主追求利潤，表現出瘋狂的積極性。金錢的勢力越來越大，強烈地影響着社會的傳統道德和生活方式。社會矛盾也更加尖銳。這是一個由“資産階級的（資本主義的）生産方式代替農奴制度的（或封建制度的）生産方式的”＊＊過渡時期。究竟應走上什麽樣的發展之路，是當時普遍關心的問題，也是社會思想鬥爭的中心問題。文學界也在尋求社會發展道路的回答，他們通過塑造正面人物來回答這個問題。１８６４年主義者車爾尼雪夫斯基就寫了小說《怎麽辦？》，塑造了拉赫梅托夫等新人的形象。同一時期巴任寫了《斯捷潘·魯列夫》、布拉戈維申斯基寫了《黎明之前》、斯列普佐夫寫了《睏難時刻》等，他們所描寫的主人公，有的走嚮民間，喚起群衆迎接風暴和戰鬥；有的為新思想所鼓舞，與富裕的家庭、與庸俗的環境决裂；有的忠於主義理想，揭露貴族自由主義。他們都與現存社會格格不入，但並不忍耐和寬容，而是積極行動，探求新的道路。
＊《列寧全集》，人民出版社， １９５９年，第１７捲，第１０４頁。
＊＊同上，第９２頁。
陀思妥耶夫斯基（１８２１－１８８１）從彼得堡工學院畢業後就獻身文學事業。他受到別林斯基、涅剋拉索夫的進步影響，繼承了果戈裏派批判現實主義傳統，在《窮人》等早期創作中描繪了城市小人物，表現了他們的內心美，揭露了社會對他們的壓迫和摧殘。四十年代未他參加了空想社會主義性質的彼特拉謝夫斯基派小組，受到沙皇政府的，體驗過面臨死刑的恐懼，後又改判苦役。四年監獄生活使他在精神上、思想上經歷了深重的磨難。接着又是服兵役和充軍。等他再度恢復自由的時候，原先那種通過鬥爭改造社會的追求，已隨着那苦難的歲月一起逝去了，代替青年時代理想的是順從和忍受那似乎不可抗拒的制度的力量。但是，陀思妥耶夫斯基始終關心着社會問題，註視着社會的變化，忠於現實主義的創作原則，仍然深刻地反映了社會現實，塑造了鮮明的人物性格，寫下了《被欺凌的和被侮辱的》、《死屋手記》、《賭徒》、《罪與罰》等，對資本主義世界作了悲憤的揭露，對底層的窮人們傾註了深厚的同情。１８６７年秋，他開始了長篇小說《白癡》的創作，１８６８年完成。
在這部新作中，陀思妥耶夫斯基繼續了自己創作的主題，塑造了被侮辱和被損害的形象，揭發了農奴製改革後貴族資産階級過去是，現在依然是摧殘人間美好事物的罪魁禍首，也暴露了資本主義社會中金錢腐蝕、毒害、毀滅人的罪惡。而作為美的體現，作為這個醜惡社會的犧牲品，作為被毀滅的美的化身，便是女主人公納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜。
納斯塔西婭是美的。小說在她未出場前已經通過羅戈任之口讓讀者知道，這是個令羅戈任神魂顛倒的美人，以致他甘願違抗父命去見她並贈送鑽石耳環。接着又通過梅什金公爵見到的照片，為讀者勾勒出一個美貌出衆的女人肖像，甚至連葉潘欽傢的小姐見了照片也不由得發出“一個人有這樣的美，就可以推翻整個世界”的贊嘆。她的美留給梅什金公爵深刻的印象，乃至在驀地見到她本人時便被她的風姿驚愕得笨手笨腳，不知所措。但是，就是在這種驚人的美貌中，梅什金也發現了其中藴含着悲哀、驕傲、輕衊、甚至仇恨，因而又引起了一種憐憫；讓人受不了這種美，讓人感到這是奇怪的美。作者已經一開始就為我們揭示了納斯塔西婭身上的美的不和諧、不協調。
事實也正是這樣。納斯塔西婭自幼失去雙親，由貴族托茨基收留，寄養在總管傢裏。過了五年，托茨基去領他，無意中發現已是十二歲的小姑娘聰明美麗。猶如鑒別物品優劣的行傢一樣，托茨基看出納斯塔西婭有着可塑的價值，便不惜在她身上花費，為她請家庭教師，使她受到良好的教育。四年以後，又專門給她一幢房子，配備了書、畫、樂器，還讓一位女地主來陪伴和照料，納斯塔西婭儼然成了貴族莊園裏的千金小姐。可是，也就在這時，托茨基占有了她，這裏成了他逍遙作樂的別墅。事情不僅於此，過了四五年，托茨基想跟出身富貴的葉潘欽將軍小姐締結婚姻，便欲盡快將納斯塔西婭甩掉。他甚至願以七萬五千盧布的代價將她嫁給葉潘欽將軍的秘書加尼亞，而葉潘欽將軍也懷着不可告人的陰暗目的，竭力促成這一婚事；納斯塔西婭不過是托茨基、葉潘欽之流的玩物和商品，她的美一開始就伴隨着深深的悲劇。
雖然納斯塔西婭的美遭到了褻讀和玷污，但是她的內心是高傲純潔的。她雖享受着托茨基為她提供的舒適環境，可是她生活得十分儉樸，對金錢毫不動心，在彼得堡度過的五年潔身生活中竟沒有絲毫積蓄；她也沒有被托茨基為她巧妙安排的那些公爵、驃騎兵之流所，保持她那孤傲高潔的品性；她遠離上流社會，並不涉足紙醉金迷的花花世界，而是閉門讀書，愛好音樂，至多也衹是結交一些平常人……更主要的是，在這個溫文嫻靜、知識豐富的柔弱女子身上，有一顆剛強的心，一副錚錚鐵骨。對於托茨基的卑鄙無恥，她懷着深深的蔑視和憎恨，這甚至使托茨基都感到害怕、擔擾，並不得不以另一種眼光來看待受到他侮辱的這個女人。這便是納斯塔西婭的美中含着的悲哀、驕傲、輕衊及仇恨的由來。陀思妥夫斯基一方面把美已受到摧殘、另一分面又竭力要維護自己純潔的美的納斯塔西婭呈現給讀者。如果說在托茨基之前納斯塔西婭不知道捍衛自己的話，那麽在經歷了這一切以後，當她意識到要把握自己命運的時候，她這種捍衛自己美的努力又會是怎樣一種遭遇呢？
納斯塔西婭自然不想依附於托茨基，也不想做公子哥兒的花瓶，她崇尚過一種獨立、清白的生活。她之所以和加尼亞結交，是因為看重他能吃苦耐勞地工作，獨自維持着全家的生計。但是，當她發現加尼亞明知這是托茨基和葉潘欽別有用心的安排，衹是為了金錢纔和她結婚，她的心顫慄了，失望了，並進而迸發出憤怒的火花。她當着大傢的面，把羅戈任用來買她的１０萬盧布付之一炬。連視金錢如命的加尼亞（用羅戈任的話說，衹要掏出３個盧布，他就可以趴在地上，一直爬到瓦西利耶夫斯基島）也不得不在這充滿銅臭的火光面前畏而卻步，更令出大價買她的羅戈任震驚目呆。納斯塔西婭的舉動無疑是對托茨基、葉潘欽之流的抗拒，在她看來，與其是成為背地裏買賣勾當的犧牲品，不如將這種骯髒的拍賣公開化，這是對虛偽的社會的挑戰；這一舉動也是對加尼亞，羅戈任之流的反擊，是對金錢勢力的示威，表面上似乎納斯塔西婭出賣了自己，實際上焚燒１０萬盧布正是她高傲人性的勝利，是她對金錢買賣的勝利，是她對托茨基，葉潘欽，加尼亞、羅戈任的勝利。焚燒１０萬盧布的火光照亮了納斯塔西婭高潔不污的靈魂，也照出了要用金綫買賣她的美的那一夥人污濁醜惡的嘴臉。
納斯塔西誣蔑視金錢、鄙視托茨基，過了五年潔身自好的生活，準備不帶一點東西地離開托茨基，表現出她心高氣傲的品格；另一方面，托茨基對她的玷污又深深地傷害了她，使她十分自卑，擺脫不了自覺低賤的陰影，認為“最好還是到街頭去，那是我應該去的地方”。因此，雖然她遇見梅什金公爵後第一次看到這是真正理解和尊重她的人，但是她不願意因為自已的低賤而毀了公爵，她寧肯犧牲自己，要使公爵獲得幸福。因此她竭力要促成公爵和阿格拉婭的婚姻。然而，納斯塔西婭衹是自認卑賤，衹是自己覺得配不上公爵。她不容許別人對她的人格有絲毫貶低和鄙視，一旦別人侮辱了她的人格，她便奮而抗起，堅决捍衛自己的尊嚴和權利，這也就使她最後在懷有偏見的阿格拉婭面前又要奪回梅什金公爵。她生活的環境造成了她這種又自卑又自尊的矛盾性格，我們看到了她的心地善良和純潔，也看到了她那被扭麯和損害的心靈。最終這又使她在與梅什金公爵舉行婚禮的最後時刻拋下公爵而隨羅戈任而去。
羅戈任是一個富傢子弟，繼承了父親的大筆遺産。他對於納斯塔西但的愛是狂熱的，但這種愛衹是對美色的愛；是一種占有欲的愛，是與其父親對金錢的占有一樣的一種私有的欲望；他粗俗、驕橫、狹隘、嫉妒，雖然買下了納斯塔西婭，納斯塔西婭卻絶不愛他。她幾次隨他而去，可是羅戈任始終未能得到她。他知道她愛梅什金公爵，因而跟蹤公爵，甚至想要謀害這個曾被他稱為兄弟的情敵。最後，終於在可望不可及、我得不到你也別想得到的極端私有心理的支配下，殺害了納斯塔西婭。
納斯塔西婭的悲劇命運、鮮明地揭示了她所生存的世界扼殺了她的美這一罪惡的本質。她的美不僅沒有能推翻世界，相反被它毀滅了。陀思妥耶夫斯基作為偉大的藝術傢正是無情地把這一種美，把這純潔、苦難、高傲、反抗的美毀滅給人們看，他那深刻的筆觸所及的女主人公那時而嫻靜時而悲憤、時而理智時而瘋狂、時而自卑對而傲慢、時而通達時而偏執的種種場景，無不令人震撼、令人嘆惜。作傢塑造的納斯塔西婭的形象成為文學，也是世界文學中最鮮明生動、光彩照人的婦女形象之一。
納斯塔西婭的毀滅是《白癡》所描寫的美的毀滅的一個方面。作為美被毀滅的另一個方面，那就是作者所鐘愛的男主人公梅什金公爵的悲劇。在寫作這部小說的時候，作者曾經這樣說：“長篇小說的主要思想是描繪一個絶對美好的人物。世界上再沒有比這件事更難的了。特別是現在。所有的作傢，不僅是的甚至是歐洲的作傢，如果誰想描繪絶對的美，總是感到無能為力，因為這是一個無比睏難的任務。美是理想，而理想，無論是我們還是文明的歐洲，都還未形成。世界上衹有一個絶對美好的人物——，因此這位無可比擬、無限美好的人物的出現當然也是永恆的奇跡……”
這段話清楚地表明了作者意欲創造一個類似那樣的美好人物，可是社會本身又不可能讓這樣的美好人物存在。作者實際上在塑造其心愛的主人公時就已經給他註定了悲劇的命運。
梅什金公爵雖然是個貴族的後裔，可是實際上池已淪落為一個貧民，靠富商帕夫列謝夫的接濟而在遙遠的端士治療他那可憐的白癡病。當他一開始出現在駛往彼得堡的列車上時，他已是個幾乎治愈了疾病的正常人。如同一般，他自遙遠的異鄉來到祖國，處身於一個他全然生疏，不瞭解的陌生社會之中。他一開始就表現出由於長期遠離塵世而形成的單純和天真，而這正是陀思妥耶夫斯基賦予梅什金公爵的主要性格特徵。在他的筆記裏這樣寫着：“怎樣才能使主人公這個人物獲得讀者的好感？如果堂吉柯德和匹剋威剋作為善良的人物而引起讀者的好感並獲得了成功，那麽這是因為他們可笑。長篇小說的主人公公爵，如果不是可笑，那麽他具有另一個可愛的特徵，他天真！＊＊比如他一下子就對紈絝子弟羅戈任産生好感；他以為能在同族的親戚葉潘欽將軍那裏得到關懷和幫助；他一見到納斯塔西婭的照片，便毫不掩飾地表現出對她的愛戀和同情；……但是，梅什金公爵面臨的社會卻是個充滿銅臭、等級觀念的爾虞我詐的虛偽世界，在這個世界裏卻容不得一點真誠、坦率和單純，因而毫無社交經驗的梅什金公爵在這個世界中因為自己的善良、坦誠、正直、同情而常常被人們看做是不正常，被他們稱為“白癡”。例如，他剛到葉潘欽將軍傢，就順口在將軍夫人面前提到了納斯塔西婭，殊不知納斯塔西婭牽動着這個家庭的諸多神經，以至加尼亞駡他“真是個白癡！”；當他瞭解到納斯塔西婭面臨的抉擇，在競相買賣的托茨基、加尼亞、羅戈任之流面前雖然表明，他把納斯塔西婭看做是純潔的女人，欽佩她從地獄出來還一塵不染，不會因她曾是托茨基的情婦而害鱢，永遠不會責怪她，把娶她看作是一種光榮，一種體面，而且要一輩子尊敬她。可是托茨基卻在心裏駡他是“白癡”。
＊《陀思妥耶夫斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社，１９８８年，第３２６頁。
＊＊《陀思妥那大斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社，１９８８年，第３８０頁。
梅什金公爵的單純天真，也許還不衹是表現在他的純樸率直，沒有低卑自私的動機和打算，他的單純天真更主要的表現是，在這個充滿欺騙、嫉妒、敵意、仇恨的世界裏他寬容忍耐一切，並且企圖以自己的同情和憐憫來維護和解救受到蹂躪的美。他對世界的看法：他寬恕一切，處處看到原因，看不到不可寬怒的罪惡並原諒一切。……如果說在瑞士鄉間他尚能用他的同情憐憫在同樣單純天真的孩子們中間喚起共鳴而使一個受到摧殘的女子得到一絲心靈的慰籍（但終究改變不了她那毀滅的命運）的話，那麽在弱肉強食、光怪陸離的彼得堡，他的同情和憐憫，他的寬容和忍耐卻衹能給人給己帶來痛苦的毀滅。
梅什金公爵總是用他那溫順的忍辱負重的精神來對待他所遇到的一切。加尼亞是個心胸狹隘、精於盤算、富有野心、氣躁性浮的人，他利用梅什金公爵為他傳遞書信給阿格拉婭，卻還日日聲聲責駡公爵是白癡，梅什金明明感到受了侮辱，還是原諒了他，住到了他傢裏，更有甚者，梅什金阻擋了加尼亞欲打因對納斯塔西婭出言不遜的瓦裏婭，卻反而被加尼亞打了耳光，可是他僅僅發出“您將來會對這種舉動感到多麽羞愧嗎”的無力感嘆，而且很快他就原諒了加尼亞，甚至表示從今以後永遠不會把您當做卑鄙的人了”；羅戈任粗魯、野蠻，沒有教養也沒有道德，公爵親眼目睹他如何出錢買下納斯塔西婭，也明明知道他衹能加深納斯塔西婭的痛苦，而且公爵也總能發現他那冷酷陰森的目光，他始終像幽靈似的出現在公爵周圍，甚至企圖舉刀謀害被他視作情敵的公爵。縱然在他們之間有着這一切，梅什金公爵始終把羅戈任看作是朋友甚或是兄弟，仍然對他推心置腹以換取諒解，仍然不念舊惡以重修和好，直至最後當羅戈任殺害了納斯塔西婭，他還能與他情同手足般地一起躺在死者身旁平心靜氣地談論發生的一切。梅什金公爵的精神簡直到了莫名其妙、令人驚訝的地步。然而他這種寬容卻並不能感化加尼亞、羅戈任之流。加尼亞在懺悔一通之後，依舊懷着要得到金錢而娶納斯塔西婭的目的去參加她將作出抉擇的晚會；羅戈任也始終把他看作情敵、始終把納斯塔西婭看作己物而最後殺死她泄憤。梅什金公爵的寬容、忍耐，在生活中的惡面前，在社會中的醜面前顯得何等蒼白無力！
＊陀思妥那夭斯基語，引自留裏科夫《陀思妥那大斯基關於美好人物的小說》，見《白癡》，蘇聯文學出版社，１９６０年，第５頁。
那麽他的同情和憐憫是否又能拯救別人呢？他對納斯塔西婭的愛，是出於同情和憐憫的愛。他贊嘆她的美貌，但是他更為她深深掩藏的悲哀所動心。他固然稱贊她的純潔、欽佩她的出污泥而不染，但他的表示要娶納斯塔西婭是出於不忍心看着她跳出托茨基的虎口又落入羅戈任之狼爪。納斯塔西婭是個心高氣傲的女性，她確實第一次遇見一個純潔和高尚的人，但是她不願意因自已的過去而毀了公爵這樣的“孩子”，她不願接受公爵那種出自同情和憐憫的愛，因此她心裏愛着公爵可又竭力要回避他，她幾次三番或從羅戈任那裏逃走，或離開梅什金公爵，都是這種心理矛盾的表現。及至最後納斯塔西婭要梅什金在阿格拉婭面前表態時，公爵也仍然是帶着哀憐和責備的口吻對阿格拉婭說：“……她是那樣不幸的人嗎！”他在這種心態下迫不得已接受了納斯塔西婭，實際上不過是納斯塔西婭願意這樣，他纔這樣做。他坦白地對人說，當時不過是受不住納斯塔西婭的臉：“在他對她的愛情裏的確包含着一種好像對於一個可憐的、生病的嬰兒的柔情。”而納斯塔西婭也完全明白，她並不能使梅什金公爵得到安慰，而是不安，她覺察到他的憂愁，她知道阿格拉婭對他有什麽意義，乃至結婚前夕她痛哭流涕地嚮公爵表示“我做的是什麽事！我把你弄成這個樣子！”梅什金公爵的同情和憐憫並沒有解救納斯塔西婭，而衹是增加她的痛苦，使她最終絶望，直至舉行婚禮後她終於又一次投嚮羅戈任而落得毀滅的悲慘結局。在納斯塔西婭的悲劇中，梅什金公爵難道沒有過錯？正如小說中葉夫蓋尼·帕夫洛維奇嚮梅什金公爵指出的那樣，他對納斯塔西婭“從一開始的時候起就是虛偽的，既以虛偽開始，也就應該以虛偽告終；這是自然的法則。……所以會發生這一切事情，首先是由於您天生不通世故（……），其次是由於您的過分純樸；再其次，是由於您不知分寸（……），最後，是由於您的頭腦裏有一大堆信念，而您的性格又特別誠實……”
梅什金公爵的軟弱，也毀了阿格拉婭的幸福。阿格拉婭不滿於過平庸的生活，不願受到家庭的庇護，她希望逃出家庭，渴望行動，做點有益於社會的事情，她要變更自己的社會地位，去從事教育工作。她選擇梅什金公爵，企望從他那裏得到幫助。但是梅什金公爵的優柔寡斷，對納斯塔西婭的憐憫的愛同時卻傷害了阿格拉婭的愛，使阿格拉婭絶望，最後皈依天主教，嫁給了一個波蘭者。
梅什金公爵因他那同情和憐憫同時毀了兩個女性，也毀了自己。他既失去了憐憫的愛，也失去了真情的愛，這雙重的打擊終於使他的白癡病再次復發。這次已經是很難治愈了，他又成了真正的白癡。
寬容，忍耐，同情、憐憫這些本來屬於一個美好人物的美好品質，在這個無情，冷酪、爭鬥，殘忍的社會裏卻變成使別人更加痛苦不幸也找害自己的有害的慢性藥物，陀思妥耶夫斯基本意要塑造一個美好的人物，想用美來拯救世養，可是結果恰恰是，非但這個式的美好人物未能拯救世界的苦難，反而連同其美德一起被這可惡的世界毀滅了。梅什金公爵是陀思妥耶夫斯基的理想人物，看起來雖然不切實際，甚至近似荒誕，可是同時他又正如作者自己說的：“白癡是更為現實的人”，“我的理想主義比他們的現實主義更為現實。”＊＊“我對現實（藝術中的）有自己獨特的看法，而且被大多數人稱之為幾乎是荒誕的和特殊的事物，對於我來說，有時構成了現實的本質。事物的平凡性和對它的陳腐看法，依我看來，還不能算現實主義，甚至恰好相反，難道我的荒誕的‘白癡’不是現實，而且是最平凡的現實！正是現在纔必然在我們脫離了根基的社會階層中産生出這樣的人物，這類社會階層纔真正變得荒誕。……”＊＊＊陀思妥耶夫斯基揭示了他那理想人物無法在那個社會裏生存的本質，這也正是其現實主義的力量！
說到作品的藝術成就，筆者不想在這裏多作贅述。讀過小說，誰也忘不了納斯塔西婭怒焚十萬盧布的驚心動魄的場面，也忘不了納斯塔西婭被害後梅什金公爵和羅戈任共同守靈那凄楚可悲的情景……讀過小說，誰不會為美麗的高潔的納斯塔西婭的身世感到悲憤，誰不會為純樸天真的梅什金公爵的被毀感到痛惜……這一切都歸功於陀思妥耶夫斯基的不朽的筆力。盧那察爾斯基對於藝術傢陀思妥耶夫斯基有過非常精闢的分析：“陀思妥耶夫斯是抒情藝術傢，他所有的中篇和長篇小說都是一道傾泄他的親身感受的火熱的河流。這是他的靈魂奧秘的連續的自白，這是披肝瀝膽的熱烈的渴望。這便是他創作的第一個因素，基本因素。第二個因素是當他嚮讀者表白他的信念的時候，總是渴望感染他們，說服和打動他們。……陀思妥耶夫斯基不用直截了當的形式而用虛構敘事的形式表達他的感受、自白。他把他的自白、他的靈魂的熱烈呼籲包括在事件的鋪敘之中。……凌駕於他那直抒情懷、披肝瀝膽的渴望之上，還有第三個基本動機 宏大的，無窮的，強烈的生活的渴望。正是這種熱烈的不可抑製的生的渴望，使陀思妥耶夫斯基首先變成了藝術傢，他創造了偉大的和卑劣的人物，創造了衆神和生靈。……陀思妥耶夫斯基同他所有的主角緊密相聯。他的血在他們的血管中奔流。他的心在他所創造的一切形象裏面跳動，陀思妥耶夫斯基在痛苦中生育他的形象，他的心急劇地跳動着，他吃力地喘息着……他竭力使讀者去接近他的主角的思想感情的激流、思想感情的萬花筒，因此，陀思妥耶夫斯基被稱為心理學作者。”＊這對於《白癡》也是完全適用的。
＊《陀思妥耶夫斯基論藝術》，灕江出版社， １９８８年，第３８０頁。
＊＊同上，第３２７頁。
＊＊＊同上，第３２９頁。
最後，藉此機會嚮灕江出版社表示衷心的感謝，承蒙他們對我的信任，把重譯世界名著《白癡》的任務交付給我。鑒於本人語言文學修養的不足，譯文有不當之處，敬請專傢、讀者指正。
＊盧那察爾斯基《論文學》，人民文學出版社，１９７８年，第２１４－２１５頁。
Some of the passengers by this particular train were returning from abroad; but the third-class carriages were the best filled, chiefly with insignificant persons of various occupations and degrees, picked up at the different stations nearer town. All of them seemed weary, and most of them had sleepy eyes and a shivering expression, while their complexions generally appeared to have taken on the colour of the fog outside.
When day dawned, two passengers in one of the third-class carriages found themselves opposite each other. Both were young fellows, both were rather poorly dressed, both had remarkable faces, and both were evidently anxious to start a conversation. If they had but known why, at this particular moment, they were both remarkable persons, they would undoubtedly have wondered at the strange chance which had set them down opposite to one another in a third-class carriage of the Warsaw Railway Company.
One of them was a young fellow of about twenty-seven, not tall, with black curling hair, and small, grey, fiery eyes. His nose was broad and flat, and he had high cheek bones; his thin lips were constantly compressed into an impudent, ironical--it might almost be called a malicious--smile; but his forehead was high and well formed, and atoned for a good deal of the ugliness of the lower part of his face. A special feature of this physiognomy was its death-like pallor, which gave to the whole man an indescribably emaciated appearance in spite of his hard look, and at the same time a sort of passionate and suffering expression which did not harmonize with his impudent, sarcastic smile and keen, self-satisfied bearing. He wore a large fur--or rather astrachan--overcoat, which had kept him warm all night, while his neighbour had been obliged to bear the full severity of a Russian November night entirely unprepared. His wide sleeveless mantle with a large cape to it--the sort of cloak one sees upon travellers during the winter months in Switzerland or North Italy--was by no means adapted to the long cold journey through Russia, from Eydkuhnen to St. Petersburg.
The wearer of this cloak was a young fellow, also of about twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, slightly above the middle height, very fair, with a thin, pointed and very light coloured beard; his eyes were large and blue, and had an intent look about them, yet that heavy expression which some people affirm to be a peculiarity. as well as evidence, of an epileptic subject. His face was decidedly a pleasant one for all that; refined, but quite colourless, except for the circumstance that at this moment it was blue with cold. He held a bundle made up of an old faded silk handkerchief that apparently contained all his travelling wardrobe, and wore thick shoes and gaiters, his whole appearance being very un-Russian.
His black-haired neighbour inspected these peculiarities, having nothing better to do, and at length remarked, with that rude enjoyment of the discomforts of others which the common classes so often show:
"Cold?"
"Very," said his neighbour, readily. "and this is a thaw, too. Fancy if it had been a hard frost! I never thought it would be so cold in the old country. I've grown quite out of the way of it."
"What, been abroad, I suppose?"
"Yes, straight from Switzerland."
"Wheugh! my goodness!" The black-haired young fellow whistled, and then laughed.
The conversation proceeded. The readiness of the fair-haired young man in the cloak to answer all his opposite neighbour's questions was surprising. He seemed to have no suspicion of any impertinence or inappropriateness in the fact of such questions being put to him. Replying to them, he made known to the inquirer that he certainly had been long absent from Russia, more than four years; that he had been sent abroad for his health; that he had suffered from some strange nervous malady--a kind of epilepsy, with convulsive spasms. His interlocutor burst out laughing several times at his answers; and more than ever, when to the question, " whether he had been cured?" the patient replied:
"No, they did not cure me."
"Hey! that's it! You stumped up your money for nothing, and we believe in those fellows, here!" remarked the black-haired individual, sarcastically.
"Gospel truth, sir, Gospel truth!" exclaimed another passenger, a shabbily dressed man of about forty, who looked like a clerk, and possessed a red nose and a very blotchy face. "Gospel truth! All they do is to get hold of our good Russian money free, gratis, and for nothing. "
"Oh, but you're quite wrong in my particular instance," said the Swiss patient, quietly. "Of course I can't argue the matter, because I know only my own case; but my doctor gave me money--and he had very little--to pay my journey back, besides having kept me at his own expense, while there, for nearly two years."
"Why? Was there no one else to pay for you?" asked the black- haired one.
"No--Mr. Pavlicheff, who had been supporting me there, died a couple of years ago. I wrote to Mrs. General Epanchin at the time (she is a distant relative of mine), but she did not answer my letter. And so eventually I came back."
"And where have you come to?"
"That is--where am I going to stay? I--I really don't quite know yet, I--"
Both the listeners laughed again.
"I suppose your whole set-up is in that bundle, then?" asked the first.
"I bet anything it is!" exclaimed the red-nosed passenger, with extreme satisfaction, "and that he has precious little in the luggage van!--though of course poverty is no crime--we must remember that!"
It appeared that it was indeed as they had surmised. The young fellow hastened to admit the fact with wonderful readiness.
"Your bundle has some importance, however," continued the clerk, when they had laughed their fill (it was observable that the subject of their mirth joined in the laughter when he saw them laughing); "for though I dare say it is not stuffed full of friedrichs d'or and louis d'or--judge from your costume and gaiters--still--if you can add to your possessions such a valuable property as a relation like Mrs. General Epanchin, then your bundle becomes a significant object at once. That is, of course, if you really are a relative of Mrs. Epanchin's, and have not made a little error through--well, absence of mind, which is very common to human beings; or, say--through a too luxuriant fancy?"
"Oh, you are right again," said the fair-haired traveller, "for I really am ALMOST wrong when I say she and I are related. She is hardly a relation at all; so little, in fact, that I was not in the least surprised to have no answer to my letter. I expected as much."
"H'm! you spent your postage for nothing, then. H'm! you are candid, however--and that is commendable. H'm! Mrs. Epanchin--oh yes! a most eminent person. I know her. As for Mr. Pavlicheff, who supported you in Switzerland, I know him too--at least, if it was Nicolai Andreevitch of that name? A fine fellow he was--and had a property of four thousand souls in his day."
"Yes, Nicolai Andreevitch--that was his name," and the young fellow looked earnestly and with curiosity at the all-knowing gentleman with the red nose.
This sort of character is met with pretty frequently in a certain class. They are people who know everyone--that is, they know where a man is employed, what his salary is, whom he knows, whom he married, what money his wife had, who are his cousins, and second cousins, etc., etc. These men generally have about a hundred pounds a year to live on, and they spend their whole time and talents in the amassing of this style of knowledge, which they reduce--or raise--to the standard of a science.
During the latter part of the conversation the black-haired young man had become very impatient. He stared out of the window, and fidgeted, and evidently longed for the end of the journey. He was very absent; he would appear to listen-and heard nothing; and he would laugh of a sudden, evidently with no idea of what he was laughing about.
"Excuse me," said the red-nosed man to the young fellow with the bundle, rather suddenly; "whom have I the honour to be talking to?"
"Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin," replied the latter, with perfect readiness.
"Prince Muishkin? Lef Nicolaievitch? H'm! I don't know, I'm sure! I may say I have never heard of such a person," said the clerk, thoughtfully. "At least, the name, I admit, is historical. Karamsin must mention the family name, of course, in his history- -but as an individual--one never hears of any Prince Muishkin nowadays."
"Of course not," replied the prince; "there are none, except myself. I believe I am the last and only one. As to my forefathers, they have always been a poor lot; my own father was a sublieutenant in the army. I don't know how Mrs. Epanchin comes into the Muishkin family, but she is descended from the Princess Muishkin, and she, too, is the last of her line."
"And did you learn science and all that, with your professor over there?" asked the black-haired passenger.
"Oh yes--I did learn a little, but--"
"I've never learned anything whatever," said the other.
"Oh, but I learned very little, you know!" added the prince, as though excusing himself. "They could not teach me very much on account of my illness. "
"Do you know the Rogojins?" asked his questioner, abruptly.
"No, I don't--not at all! I hardly know anyone in Russia. Why, is that your name?"
"Yes, I am Rogojin, Parfen Rogojin."
"Parfen Rogojin? dear me--then don't you belong to those very Rogojins, perhaps--" began the clerk, with a very perceptible increase of civility in his tone.
"Yes--those very ones," interrupted Rogojin, impatiently, and with scant courtesy. I may remark that he had not once taken any notice of the blotchy-faced passenger, and had hitherto addressed all his remarks direct to the prince.
"Dear me--is it possible?" observed the clerk, while his face assumed an expression of great deference and servility--if not of absolute alarm: "what, a son of that very Semen Rogojin-- hereditary honourable citizen--who died a month or so ago and left two million and a half of roubles?"
"And how do YOU know that he left two million and a half of roubles?" asked Rogojin, disdainfully, and no deigning so much as to look at the other. "However, it's true enough that my father died a month ago, and that here am I returning from Pskoff, a month after, with hardly a boot to my foot. They've treated me like a dog! I've been ill of fever at Pskoff the whole time, and not a line, nor farthing of money, have I received from my mother or my confounded brother!"
"And now you'll have a million roubles, at least--goodness gracious me!" exclaimed the clerk, rubbing his hands.
"Five weeks since, I was just like yourself," continued Rogojin, addressing the prince, "with nothing but a bundle and the clothes I wore. I ran away from my father and came to Pskoff to my aunt's house, where I caved in at once with fever, and he went and died while I was away. All honour to my respected father's memory--but he uncommonly nearly killed me, all the same. Give you my word, prince, if I hadn't cut and run then, when I did, he'd have murdered me like a dog."
"I suppose you angered him somehow?" asked the prince, looking at the millionaire with considerable curiosity But though there may have been something remarkable in the fact that this man was heir to millions of roubles there was something about him which surprised and interested the prince more than that. Rogojin, too, seemed to have taken up the conversation with unusual alacrity it appeared that he was still in a considerable state of excitement, if not absolutely feverish, and was in real need of someone to talk to for the mere sake of talking, as safety-valve to his agitation.
As for his red-nosed neighbour, the latter--since the information as to the identity of Rogojin--hung over him, seemed to be living on the honey of his words and in the breath of his nostrils, catching at every syllable as though it were a pearl of great price.
"Oh, yes; I angered him--I certainly did anger him," replied Rogojin. "But what puts me out so is my brother. Of course my mother couldn't do anything--she's too old--and whatever brother Senka says is law for her! But why couldn't he let me know? He sent a telegram, they say. What's the good of a telegram? It frightened my aunt so that she sent it back to the office unopened, and there it's been ever since! It's only thanks to Konief that I heard at all; he wrote me all about it. He says my brother cut off the gold tassels from my father's coffin, at night because they're worth a lot of money!' says he. Why, I can get him sent off to Siberia for that alone, if I like; it's sacrilege. Here, you--scarecrow!" he added, addressing the clerk at his side, "is it sacrilege or not, by law?'
"Sacrilege, certainly--certainly sacrilege," said the latter.
"And it's Siberia for sacrilege, isn't it?"
"Undoubtedly so; Siberia, of course!"
"They will think that I'm still ill," continued Rogojin to the prince, "but I sloped off quietly, seedy as I was, took the train and came away. Aha, brother Senka, you'll have to open your gates and let me in, my boy! I know he told tales about me to my father--I know that well enough but I certainly did rile my father about Nastasia Philipovna that's very sure, and that was my own doing."
"Nastasia Philipovna?" said the clerk, as though trying to think out something.
"Come, you know nothing about HER," said Rogojin, impatiently.
"And supposing I do know something?" observed the other, triumphantly.
"Bosh! there are plenty of Nastasia Philipovnas. And what an impertinent beast you are!" he added angrily. "I thought some creature like you would hang on to me as soon as I got hold of my money. "
"Oh, but I do know, as it happens," said the clerk in an aggravating manner. "Lebedeff knows all about her. You are pleased to reproach me, your excellency, but what if I prove that I am right after all? Nastasia Phillpovna's family name is Barashkoff--I know, you see-and she is a very well known lady, indeed, and comes of a good family, too. She is connected with one Totski, Afanasy Ivanovitch, a man of considerable property, a director of companies, and so on, and a great friend of General Epanchin, who is interested in the same matters as he is."
"My eyes!" said Rogojin, really surprised at last. "The devil take the fellow, how does he know that?"
"Why, he knows everything--Lebedeff knows everything! I was a month or two with Lihachof after his father died, your excellency, and while he was knocking about--he's in the debtor's prison now--I was with him, and he couldn't do a thing without Lebedeff; and I got to know Nastasia Philipovna and several people at that time."
"Nastasia Philipovna? Why, you don't mean to say that she and Lihachof--" cried Rogojin, turning quite pale.
"No, no, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort, I assure you!" said Lebedeff, hastily. "Oh dear no, not for the world! Totski's the only man with any chance there. Oh, no! He takes her to his box at the opera at the French theatre of an evening, and the officers and people all look at her and say, 'By Jove, there's the famous Nastasia Philipovna!' but no one ever gets any further than that, for there is nothing more to say."
"Yes, it's quite true," said Rogojin, frowning gloomily; "so Zaleshoff told me. I was walking about the Nefsky one fine day, prince, in my father's old coat, when she suddenly came out of a shop and stepped into her carriage. I swear I was all of a blaze at once. Then I met Zaleshoff--looking like a hair-dresser's assistant, got up as fine as I don't know who, while I looked like a tinker. 'Don't flatter yourself, my boy,' said he; 'she's not for such as you; she's a princess, she is, and her name is Nastasia Philipovna Barashkoff, and she lives with Totski, who wishes to get rid of her because he's growing rather old--fifty- five or so--and wants to marry a certain beauty, the loveliest woman in all Petersburg.' And then he told me that I could see Nastasia Philipovna at the opera-house that evening, if I liked, and described which was her box. Well, I'd like to see my father allowing any of us to go to the theatre; he'd sooner have killed us, any day. However, I went for an hour or so and saw Nastasia Philipovna, and I never slept a wink all night after. Next morning my father happened to give me two government loan bonds to sell, worth nearly five thousand roubles each. 'Sell them,' said he, 'and then take seven thousand five hundred roubles to the office, give them to the cashier, and bring me back the rest of the ten thousand, without looking in anywhere on the way; look sharp, I shall be waiting for you.' Well, I sold the bonds, but I didn't take the seven thousand roubles to the office; I went straight to the English shop and chose a pair of earrings, with a diamond the size of a nut in each. They cost four hundred roubles more than I had, so I gave my name, and they trusted me. With the earrings I went at once to Zaleshoff's. 'Come on!' I said, 'come on to Nastasia Philipovna's,' and off we went without more ado. I tell you I hadn't a notion of what was about me or before me or below my feet all the way; I saw nothing whatever. We went straight into her drawing-room, and then she came out to us.
"I didn't say right out who I was, but Zaleshoff said: 'From Parfen Rogojin, in memory of his first meeting with you yesterday; be so kind as to accept these!'
"She opened the parcel, looked at the earrings, and laughed.
"'Thank your friend Mr. Rogojin for his kind attention,' says she, and bowed and went off. Why didn't I die there on the spot? The worst of it all was, though, that the beast Zaleshoff got all the credit of it! I was short and abominably dressed, and stood and stared in her face and never said a word, because I was shy, like an ass! And there was he all in the fashion, pomaded and dressed out, with a smart tie on, bowing and scraping; and I bet anything she took him for me all the while!
"'Look here now,' I said, when we came out, 'none of your interference here after this-do you understand?' He laughed: 'And how are you going to settle up with your father?' says he. I thought I might as well jump into the Neva at once without going home first; but it struck me that I wouldn't, after all, and I went home feeling like one of the damned."
"My goodness!" shivered the clerk. "And his father," he added, for the prince's instruction, "and his father would have given a man a ticket to the other world for ten roubles any day--not to speak of ten thousand!"
The prince observed Rogojin with great curiosity; he seemed paler than ever at this moment.
"What do you know about it?" cried the latter. "Well, my father learned the whole story at once, and Zaleshoff blabbed it all over the town besides. So he took me upstairs and locked me up, and swore at me for an hour. 'This is only a foretaste,' says he; 'wait a bit till night comes, and I'll come back and talk to you again.'
"Well, what do you think? The old fellow went straight off to Nastasia Philipovna, touched the floor with his forehead, and began blubbering and beseeching her on his knees to give him back the diamonds. So after awhile she brought the box and flew out at him. 'There,' she says, 'take your earrings, you wretched old miser; although they are ten times dearer than their value to me now that I know what it must have cost Parfen to get them! Give Parfen my compliments,' she says, 'and thank him very much!' Well, I meanwhile had borrowed twenty-five roubles from a friend, and off I went to Pskoff to my aunt's. The old woman there lectured me so that I left the house and went on a drinking tour round the public-houses of the place. I was in a high fever when I got to Pskoff, and by nightfall I was lying delirious in the streets somewhere or other!"
"Oho! we'll make Nastasia Philipovna sing another song now!" giggled Lebedeff, rubbing his hands with glee. "Hey, my boy, we'll get her some proper earrings now! We'll get her such earrings that--"
"Look here," cried Rogojin, seizing him fiercely by the arm, "look here, if you so much as name Nastasia Philipovna again, I'll tan your hide as sure as you sit there!"
"Aha! do--by all means! if you tan my hide you won't turn me away from your society. You'll bind me to you, with your lash, for ever. Ha, ha! here we are at the station, though."
Sure enough, the train was just steaming in as he spoke.
Though Rogojin had declared that he left Pskoff secretly, a large collection of friends had assembled to greet him, and did so with profuse waving of hats and shouting.
"Why, there's Zaleshoff here, too!" he muttered, gazing at the scene with a sort of triumphant but unpleasant smile. Then he suddenly turned to the prince: "Prince, I don't know why I have taken a fancy to you; perhaps because I met you just when I did. But no, it can't be that, for I met this fellow " (nodding at Lebedeff) "too, and I have not taken a fancy to him by any means. Come to see me, prince; we'll take off those gaiters of yours and dress you up in a smart fur coat, the best we can buy. You shall have a dress coat, best quality, white waistcoat, anything you like, and your pocket shall be full of money. Come, and you shall go with me to Nastasia Philipovna's. Now then will you come or no?"
"Accept, accept, Prince Lef Nicolaievitch" said Lebedef solemnly; "don't let it slip! Accept, quick!"
Prince Muishkin rose and stretched out his hand courteously, while he replied with some cordiality:
"I will come with the greatest pleasure, and thank you very much for taking a fancy to me. I dare say I may even come today if I have time, for I tell you frankly that I like you very much too. I liked you especially when you told us about the diamond earrings; but I liked you before that as well, though you have such a dark-clouded sort of face. Thanks very much for the offer of clothes and a fur coat; I certainly shall require both clothes and coat very soon. As for money, I have hardly a copeck about me at this moment."
"You shall have lots of money; by the evening I shall have plenty; so come along!"
"That's true enough, he'll have lots before evening!" put in Lebedeff.
"But, look here, are you a great hand with the ladies? Let's know that first?" asked Rogojin.
"Oh no, oh no! said the prince; "I couldn't, you know--my illness--I hardly ever saw a soul."
"H'm! well--here, you fellow-you can come along with me now if you like!" cried Rogojin to Lebedeff, and so they all left the carriage.
Lebedeff had his desire. He went off with the noisy group of Rogojin's friends towards the Voznesensky, while the prince's route lay towards the Litaynaya. It was damp and wet. The prince asked his way of passers-by, and finding that he was a couple of miles or so from his destination, he determined to take a droshky.
１１月底，一個解凍的日子，雖晨９點鐘左右，彼得堡。華沙鐵路綫上一列火車開足馬力駛近了彼得堡。天氣是那樣潮濕和多霧，好不容易纔天亮。從車廂窗口望去，鐵路左右１０步路遠的地方就很難看清什麽東西。旅客中有兒國外回來的人，但三等車廂裏人比較滿，全是些從不遠的地方來的下等人和生意人。所有的人不無例外地都疲倦了，一夜下來大傢的眼皮都變沉了，人人都凍僵了，臉也變得蒼白萎黃，就像霧色一般。
在一節三等車廂裏，有兩個旅客從天亮起就面對面坐在窗口，兩人都年輕，兩人幾乎都不帶什麽行李，兩人穿得也講究，兩人都有相當引人註目的長相，再有，兩人又都願意互相攀談。如果他們倆一個知道另一個此刻特別出衆在什麽地方，那麽無疑會對機遇這麽奇妙地使他們面對面坐在彼得堡－華沙鐵路綫的三等車廂裏感到不勝驚訝了。他們中一個個子不高、２７歲左右，有着幾乎是黑色的捲麯的頭髮，一雙灰色的但是炯炯有神的小眼睛，寬而扁的鼻子，顴骨大大的臉龐。他那薄薄的嘴唇時而露出一種厚顔無恥的、嘲諷的、甚至刻毒的微笑，但是他有一個高高的額頭，樣子很好看，這就掩飾了長得醜陋的臉的下部。在這張臉上死一般蒼白的臉色特別顯眼，雖然年輕人體格相當強壯，但是這種蒼白卻使他的整個臉呈現出疲憊不堪的樣子。與此同時，他的臉上還有某種，令人不安，這和他那無恥、粗野的微笑以及犀利、自我滿足的目光很不相稱。他穿得很暖和，身上是一件寬大的黑色面子的羔羊皮襖，所以夜間沒有挨凍，而他的鄰座顯然對１１月俄羅斯潮濕的寒夜缺少準備，因而渾身打顫，不得不飽受寒冷的滋味。他身穿一件帶有一頂大風帽的相當肥大的無袖鬥蓬，與遙遠的國外如瑞士或意大利北部鼕天旅客們常穿的鬥蓬完全一樣，而他們當然沒有考慮從艾德庫年到彼得堡這樣的路程。但是在意大利適用而且完全可以滿足需要的東西，在俄羅斯卻顯得全然不合適了。穿着帶風帽鬥蓬的人是個年輕人，也是２６或２７歲左右，中等偏高的個子，有一頭稠密的顔色非常淺的頭髮，凹陷的雙頰稀疏地長着幾乎是全白的楔形鬍須。他那碧藍的大眼睛專註凝神，但目光中有某種平靜而沉鬱的神態，充滿了奇怪的表情，有些人根據這種表情一眼就能猜測到這個人患有癲癇病。不過，年輕人的臉是討人喜歡的，清瘦而秀氣，但是沒有血色，現在甚至凍得發青。他的手中晃動着一個用褪色舊花布裹起來的小包袱，大概，其中便是他的全部行裝了。他的腳上是一雙帶鞋罩的厚底鞋。這一切都不是俄羅斯的裝束。穿皮襖的黑發鄰座看出了這一切，浮現。出一絲粗魯的嘲笑，有時候人們在旁人失敗時就是這樣無禮地、漫不經心地表達他們的幸災樂禍的。部分地是因為無事可做，終於他問道：
“冷嗎？”
他說着，聳了聳肩。
“很冷，”鄰座非常樂意回答說，“而且，您瞧，還是解凍的日子，如果到了嚴寒，會是怎樣呢：我甚至沒有想到，我們這兒竟這麽冷，已經不習慣了。”
“從國外來，是嗎？”
“是的，從瑞士來。”
“嗬，瞧您！……”
黑頭髮的年輕人吹了一聲口哨，便哈哈大笑起來。
話就這樣攀談開了，穿着瑞士鬥蓬的淺色捲發的年輕人準備回答皮膚黝黑的鄰座提出的所有問題。他的這種態度是令人驚訝的，而且他絲毫沒有計較有些問題提得十分隨便，不得體和無聊。他一邊回答，一邊順便表明，他確實有很長時間不在俄羅斯了，有四年多了，他是因病去國外的，那是一種奇怪的神經毛病，類似癲癇或舞蹈病，不知怎麽的要打顫和痙攣。黑皮膚那個人聽着他說，好幾次都暗自竊笑。當他問到：“結果治好了嗎？”而淺色捲發者回答說“沒有，沒治好”時，他更是笑了起來。
“嘿，錢呢，一定白白花了許多，而我們這裏的人就是相信他們，”黑皮膚那一個譏諷說。
“千真萬確，”坐在旁邊的一個插進來說。這位先生窮得很蹩腳，大概是十多年未升遷的小公務員，４０歲左右，體格強壯，紅鼻子，臉上長滿粉刺。“幹真萬確，衹不過俄羅斯的財力全都被他們白白弄去了。”
“哦，我這件事上您可就錯了，”從瑞士回來的病人平靜和忍讓地說，“當然，我不會爭論，因為我不瞭解整個情況，但是我的醫生卻傾其所有給我到這裏的路費，而且在那裏供養了我幾乎有兩年。”
“怎麽，沒有人給您錢嗎？”黑皮膚的問。
“是的，在那裏供養我的帕夫利謝夫先生兩年前去世了，後來我寫信給這裏的葉潘欽將軍夫人，她是我的遠房親戚，但我沒有收到口信、這樣我就回來了。”
“您去哪裏呢？”
“也就是我住在哪裏嗎？……我還不知道，真的……是這樣……”
“還沒有决定嗎？”
兩位聽者重又哈哈大笑起來。
“您的全部財産不會都在這個包裹裏吧？”黑皮膚的人問。
“我準備打賭，就是這樣，”紅鼻子公務員異常得意地附和着，“行李車廂裏沒有別的行李，雖然貧窮不是罪，這點還是不能不指出的。”
原來正是這樣。淺色捲發的年輕人立即異常急促地承認了這一點。
“您的包裹總是有點用處的，”當大傢暢笑一通後（值得註意的是包裹，所有者本人一邊望着他們，一邊終於也笑了起來，這更使他們快活），小公務員繼續說，“雖然前以打賭；這個包裹裏沒有包着拿破侖金幣和用；特烈金幣、甚至荷蘭市的一包包外國的金幣，衹要根據蒙在您那外國鞋上的攀罩也可以斷定這一點，但是……假如您的包裹之外再添上像葉潘欽將軍夫人這麽一位所謂的女親戚，那麽這個包裹也就會有另一種意義了，當然，衹有在葉潘欽將軍夫人真南是您親戚的情況下纔是這樣。您不會因為漫不經心而搞錯吧……這是人非常容易犯的毛病，哪怕是……由於過分豐富的想象。”
“嘿，您又猜對了，”淺色頭髮的年輕人應着說，“我真的幾乎弄錯了，也就是說，她幾乎不是我的親戚，我們的關係太遠，以致於他們沒給我回信，我絲毫也不感到驚訝，真的，我早就料到是這樣。”
“白白花費了郵資，嗯……至少您是忠厚老實的，這是值得稱贊的！嗯……葉潘欽將軍我們是知道的，其實是因為他是社會名流；還有在瑞士供養您的已故的帕夫利謝夫先生，我也知道，如果這是指尼古拉·安德列耶維奇·帕夫利謝夫，因為他們是兩位堂兄弟，另一位至今還在剋裏米亞，而尼古拉·安德列耶維奇這位故人就是在廣泛的社交界也是位令人敬重的人，那時擁有四千農奴……”
“確實，他叫尼古拉·安德列耶維奇·帕夫利謝夫，”回答完了，年輕人專註而文好奇地打量了一番這位無所不知的先生。
在一定的社會階層，有時候，甚至相當經常地可以遇見這種無所不知的先生，他們什麽都知道。他們的智慧和能力，他們那時刻涌動的好奇心都不。可遏製地傾註到一個方面，現代的思想傢會說，當然這是因為缺少比較重要的生活情趣和觀點的緣故。不過，“什麽都知道”這句話所指的範圍是有限的。某個人在某處供職，他跟誰認識，他有多少財産，在什麽地方當過省長，跟誰結的婚，得到多少陪嫁，誰是他的堂兄弟，誰是表兄弟，等等等等，諸如此類。這些無所不知的先生大部分都穿着肘部磨破的衣服，每個月衹拿１７盧布的薪俸。被他們瞭解全部內情的人們，當然怎麽也想象不到；是什麽興趣驅使着他們，與此同時，他們中又有許多人又因為這種幾乎無異於整門科學的知識而感到欣慰，因為他們得到了自尊，甚至是高度的精神滿足。再說，這門科學也挺誘人的，我看到過不少學者、文學家、詩人和活動傢在這門科學裏尋求和尋得了自己高度的安寧和目的，甚至就憑這一點得到了功名，在整個這場談話中，黑皮膚的年輕人打着呵欠，漫無目的地望着窗外，急不可耐地等待着旅程結束，他似乎有點心不在焉，甚至非常心不在焉，幾乎是焦躁不安，以致變得有點令人奇怪：有時似聽非聽，似看非看，有時他笑，又不知道和不明白在笑什麽。
“請問，您尊姓？……”突然，臉上長粉刺的先生問拿着小包的淺色頭髮的青年。
“列夫·尼古拉耶維奇·梅什金公爵，”後者完全不加思索地馬上回答說。
“梅什金公爵？列夫·尼古拉耶維奇？我不知道，甚至還沒有聽說過，”小公務員沉思着說，“就是說，我不是指姓名，這個姓名歷史上就有、在卡拉姆辛寫的歷史書裏可以也應該能找得到，我是說人，再說，不知怎麽的無論在哪兒都遇不到梅什金公爵傢族的人，甚至沓無音訊。”
“噢，那還用說！”公爵立即回答說，“除我之外，現在根本就沒有梅什金公爵傢族的人了。我好像是我們傢族的最後一個人了。至於說到父輩、祖輩，他們都是獨院小地主＊，不過，我的父親是陸軍少尉，他是士官生土身。連我也不知道，葉潘欽將軍夫人怎麽從梅什金公爵女兒們中間冒出來的。她也是自己那一族的最後一人了……”
“嘻－嘻－嘻！自己族的最後一個！嘻－嘻！您怎麽倒過來這麽說，”小公務員嘻嘻笑着說。
＊擁有農奴的小地主，通常一院一戶。
黑皮膚的年輕人也冷笑了一下。淺色頭髮的青年則有點驚訝，他竟會說出相當不好的雙關語。＊
“您要知道，我完全不加思索就說了，”驚訝之餘，他終於解釋道。
“可以理解，可以理解，”小公務員快活地連聲說。
“公爵，在國外您在教授那裏學過什麽科學吧？”突然黑皮膚的年輕人問。
“是的……學過……”
“可我從來也沒有學過什麽。”
“但我也衹是隨便學了點，”公爵補充說，差不多是表示道歉，“因為有病，認為我不可能進行係統學習。”
“您知道羅戈任傢嗎？”黑皮膚的很快問着。
“不知道，完全不知道。我在俄羅斯認識的人很少。您就是羅戈任？”
“是的，我姓羅戈任，叫帕爾芬。”
“帕爾芬？這不就是那一傢羅戈任……”小公務員特別傲慢地說。
“是的，是那傢，就是那傢，”黑皮膚的年輕，人很快地、不講禮貌地、急迫地打斷了他。其實，他根本一次也沒有對長粉刺的小公務員說話，從一開始他就衹對公爵一個人說話。
“是嗎……這是怎麽回事？”小公務員驚呆了，幾乎瞪出了眼珠。他的整張臉馬上就現出一種虔敬和餡媚的，甚至是惶恐的神情。“您就是那位世襲榮譽公民謝苗·帕爾芬諾維奇·羅戈任的公子嗎？他不是一個月前故世，留下了兩百五十萬財産嗎？”
“您打哪兒知道他留下了兩百五十萬財産。”黑皮膚的打斷他問，就連這次他也沒有賞給小公務員上一瞥。“您瞧，”他朝公爵霎了霎眼，意指說的是小公務員，“他們知道這些會得到什麽好處，於嗎他們馬上就像走狗似的一個勁地粘上來？我父親去世了，這是真的，已經過了一個月，現在我差點連靴子也沒有從普斯科夫趕回傢，無論是混賬哥哥，還是母親，都不給我寄錢，也不寄消息……什麽都不寄，猶如對待一條狗！我在普斯科夫患熱病，躺了整整一個月！……”
“可現在一下子就必能得到一百多萬，這是起碼的，天哪！”小公務員雙手一拍說。
＊俄語Ｂ cboem pone還有一種含義：“就某一點來說”。
“您倒說說，這管他什麽事！”羅戈任惱怒和憤感地又朝他點了一下頭，“此刻你即使在我面前做倒立，我也不會給你一戈比。”
“我還是願意做，願意做。”
“瞧你！可是要知道，你哪怕跳一個星期舞，我也不會給，不會給的！”
“也不用給！我就該這樣，不用給！我要跳舞，我就是拋下妻子、小孩，還是要在你面前跳舞，讓你滿意，讓你快活！”
“去你的！”黑皮膚的啐了一口；“五個星期前我就像您這樣，”他對公爵說，“帶着一個小包裹逃離父親去普斯科夫的姑媽傢，在那裏得了熱病，躺倒了，而父親卻在我不在的情況下去世了，是中風而死的。死者千古，而那時他差點沒把我打死。您相信嗎，公爵，”這是真的！那時我要是不跑，馬上就會把我打死的。”
“您做了什麽事讓他發脾氣了？”公爵接過話茬說。他懷着一種特別的好奇心打量着穿皮襖的百萬富翁，雖然百萬富翁身上和得到遺産這件事確有某種值得註意的東西，但是使公爵驚奇和産生興趣的還有別的因素，再說，羅戈任本人不知為什麽特別願意把公爵看作交談的對象，儘管他需要交談，似乎是無意識多於精神的需求，似乎是漫不經心多於心地忠厚，是出於忐忑不安，憂心焦慮，交談衹是為了望着對方，隨便鬍扯些什麽。好像他到現在仍患着熱病，至少也是瘧疾。至於說那小公務員，他硬是纏住羅戈任，氣也不敢喘一口，留神和琢磨着每一句話，就像尋找鑽石一般。
“脾氣是發了，也許，也是該發的，”羅戈任回答說，“但是我那哥哥害得我最苦，至於老母親是沒什麽可說的，她年紀大了，衹是看看日課月書，與老太太們坐着聊聊天，謝恩卡哥哥决定什麽就是什麽，而他當時為什麽不讓我知道呢？我可是明白的！我那時神志昏迷，這是真的，據說，也發來過電報、但是給姑媽的，她在那裏寡居３０年了，從早到晚總跟一些裝瘋賣傻的修士在一起，她修女不是修女，卻比修女更有過之無不及，電報把她嚇壞了，她拆也不拆，就把它送到局去了，至今它還留在那兒。衹有科涅夫·瓦西利·瓦西利耶維奇幫了大忙，把一切都告訴了我；夜裏哥哥從蓋在靈樞上的綿緞上剪下了流蘇，那是鑄金的，說什麽‘據說，它們很值錢！’可是就憑這一點，衹要我想幹的話，他就可能去西伯利亞，因為這是褻讀神聖的。喂，你這個傢夥！”他朝小公務員說，“照法律講，是褻讀神聖嗎？”
“是褻讀神聖！褻讀神聖！”小公務員立即附和說。
“為此要流放去西伯利亞嗎。”
“要去西伯利亞，西伯利亞！立即去西伯利亞！”
“他們一直以為我還病着，”羅戈任對公爵說，“而我一句話也不說，抱着病體，悄悄地上了火車，就這麽走了。謝苗·謝苗內奇哥哥，請開門吧！他對故世的父親說了我許多壞話，我知道。我確實因為納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜當時惹惱了父親，這是真的，這是我一個人做的事，我是有過失。”
“因為納斯塔西婭，費利帕夫娜。”小公務員餡媚地說，他似乎在揣度着什麽。
“你可是不會知道的！”羅戈任不耐煩地朝他喊了一聲。
“我就知道！”小公務員以勝利的口吻回答說。
“瞧你！叫納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜的人還少嗎？我說你呀，是個多麽厚顔無恥的傢夥！嘿，我就知道，就有這樣的傢夥馬上來纏住你！”他繼續對公爵說。
“可是，也許，我是知道的呢。”小公務員連忙接着說，“列別傑夫是知道的！您，閣下，可以責備我，但是，要是我能證明，又怎麽樣呢，是有納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜此人的，為了她，您父親要用英蓮木拐杖來教訓您。而納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜是姓巴拉什科娃，說起來還是個名門閨秀；也是公爵小姐之類的，她跟一個姓托茨基，叫阿法納西·伊萬諾維奇的來往，就衹跟他一個人交往，那人是個地主兼資本傢，許多公司和社團的股東和要員，因此與葉潘欽將軍有很深的交誼……”
“晦，原來你還真有兩下子。”羅戈任終於真正感到驚訝了，“呸，真見鬼，他倒真的什麽都知道！”
“全都知道！列別傑夫無所不知！閣下，我還和利哈喬夫·阿列剋薩什卡一起周遊了兩個月，也是在他父親去世以後。我知道所有的角落和小巷，沒有我列別傑夫，他甚至寸步難行。他現在身陷債務監獄，而就在那個時候我有機會認識阿爾曼斯和科拉利婭，帕茨卡婭公爵夫人和納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜，也就有機會知道許多事。”
“你認識納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜？難道她跟利哈喬夫……”羅戈任惡狠狠地瞥了他一眼，連嘴唇也變白了，哆嗦起來。
“沒什麽！沒——什麽的！的確沒什麽！”小公務員有所領悟，便急忙說，“也就是說，利哈喬夫無論用多少錢也未能把她弄到手！不，這可不是那個阿爾曼斯，她衹有一一個托茨基，晚。上在大劇院或者法蘭西劇院她也衹坐在自己的包廂裏，那裏軍官們相互間閑話還少嗎，可他們對她卻說不出什麽名堂來，‘瞧，據說，這就是那個納斯塔西婭·贊利帕夫娜。’僅此而已，再要說什麽就沒什麽可說了！因此，是沒有什麽的。”
“這事確實這樣，”羅戈任皺起眉目，陰鬱地肯定說，“紮廖熱夫那時也對我這麽說過。公爵，我那時穿着父親那件衹穿了三天的腰部打招的大衣過涅瓦大街，而她正從商店出來，坐上馬車。當時我一下子猶如渾身着了似的。我常見到紮廖熱夫，他跟我可不一樣，打扮得像個理發店的夥計。衹眼睛上架着眼鏡，可我在父親傢裏穿的是抹了油的皮靴，喝的是素湯，說這個跟你不相配，還說，這是位公爵小姐，名叫納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜，姓巴拉什科娃，她跟托茨基同居，而托茨基現在都不知道怎麽擺脫她，因為他，這麽說吧，完全到了真正的年齡，５５歲，想要跟全彼得堡頭號美女結婚。紮廖熱夫當下就慫恿我說，今天你可以在大劇院見到納斯塔西婭·費裏帕夫娜，她將坐在第一層廂座自己的包廂裏看芭蕾，可在我們傢裏你倒試試去看芭蕾——準會受到懲罰，父親會把我們打死！但是，我還是偷偷地去了一小時，又一次看見了納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜。那天一整夜我都沒有睡着。第二天早晨父親給了我兩張百分之五利率的證券，每張五千盧布。他說，去賣掉它們，七千五百盧布拿到安德列耶夫事務所，付清了，哪兒也別去，把一萬剩下的數拿來交給我，我等你。我賣了證券，拿了錢，但是沒有去安德列耶夫事務所，而是哪兒也不張望，徑自去了一傢英國商店，用全部錢挑了一副耳墜，每個耳墜上都有一顆鑽石，幾乎就像核桃那麽大，還欠了四百盧布，我講出了姓名，他們相信了。我帶了耳墜去找紮廖熱夫，如此這般說了一番，‘兄弟，我們去找納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜’，我們就去了。當時我腳下是什麽，前面是什麽，旁邊是什麽——概都不知道，也不記得，我們徑直走進她的客廳。她親自出來見我們。我當時沒有說出自己來，而由紮廖熱夫說‘帕爾芬·羅戈任送給您的，以作昨天邂逅相遇的紀念，請俯允受納。’她打開盒子，瞥了一眼，冷笑一聲說：‘請感謝您的朋友羅戈任先生，感謝他的感情厚意。’她轉身便走開了。唉，我於嗎當時不馬上死掉！如果真的想去死，是因為我想，‘反正回去也活不！’最使我委屈的是，我覺得紮廖熱夫這騙子占盡了風流。我個子也小，穿得像個僕人，因為自慚形穢，便一聲不吭地站在那裏。衹是瞪着眼睛看她。可紮廖熱夫卻非常時髦，頭髮抹手油亮；還燙成捲發，臉色紅潤，結着方格領帶，一味的奉承，滿嘴的恭維，另時她大概把他當作是我了。我們出來後，我就說：‘喂，現在再不許你想我的人，明白嗎？”他笑着說，“現在你怎麽嚮謝苗·帕爾芬內奇交帳。”我當時真的想傢也不回就去投河，可是又想，‘反正都一樣’，於是猶如十惡不赦的罪人似的回傢去了。”
“哎喲！喔嗬！”小公務員做了個鬼臉，甚至打起顫來，“要知道，已故先人不要說為一萬盧布，就是為十個盧布也會把人打發到陰間去。”他朝公點了下頭，公爵好奇地端詳着羅戈任，好像此刻他的臉更加蒼白了。
“打發到陰間！”羅戈任重複說了一遍，“你知道什麽？”他對公爵說，“父親馬上全都知道了，再說，紮廖熱夫也逢人便吹。父親把我抓起來，關在樓上，教訓我足足一小時，他說，‘我這衹是先讓你有個準備，到夜裏我再跟你告別。’你想怎麽着？老頭到納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜那兒去了，連連嚮她叩頭，央求着，哭着，她終於拿出了盒子，扔了給她，說，‘喏，給你，鬍子，你的耳環，現在它們對我來說價值珍貴十倍，因為它是帕爾芬冒着麽大的風險弄來的，嚮帕爾芬·謝苗諾維奇致意，嚮他表示感謝！’而我在這個時候得到母親的贊同，在謝廖什卡·普羅圖京那兒弄了２０盧布，就乘車到普斯科夫去了，到那幾時我正害着瘧疾，在那裏一些老婦人沒完沒了令人心煩地對我念教堂日曆，而我坐在那裏喝得醉熏熏的，後來我去了好幾傢酒館，花光了最後一點錢，一整夜躺在街上不省人事，到了早晨發起了熱病，而夜裏的時候狗還咬了我，好不容易纔醒過來。”
“好了，好了，現在納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜會改度了！”小公務一邊搓着手，一邊嘻嘻笑着，“現在，老爺，耳墜算得了什麽！現在我們可補償給她同樣的耳墜……”
“要是你再說一次有關納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜的一個字，你就給我滾蛋，我就揍死你，儘管你跟隨過利哈喬夫！”羅戈任緊緊抓住他的手，嚷道。
“既然你要揍死我，就是說你不會放開我！揍吧！揍了，也就銘記住了……瞧，我們到站了！”
確實，火車駛進了站臺，雖然羅戈任說過，他是偷偷地來的，但是已有好幾個人在等候他。他們呼喊着，嚮他揮舞着帽子。
“瞧，紮廖熱夫也在！”羅戈任嘟噥着說，一邊得意地甚至獰笑着望着他們，突然，他轉嚮公爵說，“公爵，我也不知道，我喜歡上你什麽，也許是為這種時刻遇見了你，不過也還遇上了他（他指了指列別傑夫），可我沒有喜歡上他、到我傢來吧，公爵，我們要脫下你腳上的這副鞋罩，我要給你穿最好的貂皮大衣，給你縫製上等的燕尾服，白色的或者隨便什麽顔色的背，口袋裏錢塞得滿滿的……再一起到納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜那裏去！你來不來呀？”
“聽從吧，列夫·尼古拉耶維奇公爵！”列別傑夫頗能感化人地鄭重其事地附和說，“嗨，可別錯過機會！嗨，可別錯過機會！”
梅什金公爵站起來，彬彬有禮地嚮羅戈任遞過手去，客氣地說：
“我將十分樂意去府上拜訪，蒙您喜歡我，不勝感激，甚至，如果來得及的話，也許今天我就會來的，因為，我坦率地對您說，我也非常喜歡您本人，特別是您講到鑽石耳墜的時候，甚至在講耳墜之前就喜歡了，儘管您臉上一副愁眉不展的樣手。我也感謝您允諾為我添置衣物和皮大衣，因為我確實很快就需要衣服和皮大衣了，眼前我幾乎身無分文。”
“錢會有的，到傍晚就有，來吧。”
“會有的，會有的，”小公務員應聲說，“不到晚霞時分就會有了！”
“您，公爵，對女人興趣大嗎？早點告訴我。”
“我，不——不！我可是……您大概不知道，我因為先天的毛病，甚至根本不懂女人的事。”
“噢，既然這樣。”羅戈任大聲嚷着，“公爵，你真是一位苦行僧了，像你這樣的人，上帝都會喜歡的！”
“這樣的人上帝會喜歡的！”小公務員應聲說。
“那你就跟我走吧，應聲蟲，”羅戈任對列別傑夫說。他們走出了車廂。
列別傑夫終於達到了自己的目的。熙熙攘攘的人群沿着去沃茲涅先斯基大街的方向遠去。公爵本應該拐嚮利捷伊納亞街。天氣很潮濕，公爵嚮行人問了路，到他所要去的地方有三俄裏左右，他决定雇一輛馬車。
在一節三等車廂裏，有兩個旅客從天亮起就面對面坐在窗口，兩人都年輕，兩人幾乎都不帶什麽行李，兩人穿得也講究，兩人都有相當引人註目的長相，再有，兩人又都願意互相攀談。如果他們倆一個知道另一個此刻特別出衆在什麽地方，那麽無疑會對機遇這麽奇妙地使他們面對面坐在彼得堡－華沙鐵路綫的三等車廂裏感到不勝驚訝了。他們中一個個子不高、２７歲左右，有着幾乎是黑色的捲麯的頭髮，一雙灰色的但是炯炯有神的小眼睛，寬而扁的鼻子，顴骨大大的臉龐。他那薄薄的嘴唇時而露出一種厚顔無恥的、嘲諷的、甚至刻毒的微笑，但是他有一個高高的額頭，樣子很好看，這就掩飾了長得醜陋的臉的下部。在這張臉上死一般蒼白的臉色特別顯眼，雖然年輕人體格相當強壯，但是這種蒼白卻使他的整個臉呈現出疲憊不堪的樣子。與此同時，他的臉上還有某種，令人不安，這和他那無恥、粗野的微笑以及犀利、自我滿足的目光很不相稱。他穿得很暖和，身上是一件寬大的黑色面子的羔羊皮襖，所以夜間沒有挨凍，而他的鄰座顯然對１１月俄羅斯潮濕的寒夜缺少準備，因而渾身打顫，不得不飽受寒冷的滋味。他身穿一件帶有一頂大風帽的相當肥大的無袖鬥蓬，與遙遠的國外如瑞士或意大利北部鼕天旅客們常穿的鬥蓬完全一樣，而他們當然沒有考慮從艾德庫年到彼得堡這樣的路程。但是在意大利適用而且完全可以滿足需要的東西，在俄羅斯卻顯得全然不合適了。穿着帶風帽鬥蓬的人是個年輕人，也是２６或２７歲左右，中等偏高的個子，有一頭稠密的顔色非常淺的頭髮，凹陷的雙頰稀疏地長着幾乎是全白的楔形鬍須。他那碧藍的大眼睛專註凝神，但目光中有某種平靜而沉鬱的神態，充滿了奇怪的表情，有些人根據這種表情一眼就能猜測到這個人患有癲癇病。不過，年輕人的臉是討人喜歡的，清瘦而秀氣，但是沒有血色，現在甚至凍得發青。他的手中晃動着一個用褪色舊花布裹起來的小包袱，大概，其中便是他的全部行裝了。他的腳上是一雙帶鞋罩的厚底鞋。這一切都不是俄羅斯的裝束。穿皮襖的黑發鄰座看出了這一切，浮現。出一絲粗魯的嘲笑，有時候人們在旁人失敗時就是這樣無禮地、漫不經心地表達他們的幸災樂禍的。部分地是因為無事可做，終於他問道：
“冷嗎？”
他說着，聳了聳肩。
“很冷，”鄰座非常樂意回答說，“而且，您瞧，還是解凍的日子，如果到了嚴寒，會是怎樣呢：我甚至沒有想到，我們這兒竟這麽冷，已經不習慣了。”
“從國外來，是嗎？”
“是的，從瑞士來。”
“嗬，瞧您！……”
黑頭髮的年輕人吹了一聲口哨，便哈哈大笑起來。
話就這樣攀談開了，穿着瑞士鬥蓬的淺色捲發的年輕人準備回答皮膚黝黑的鄰座提出的所有問題。他的這種態度是令人驚訝的，而且他絲毫沒有計較有些問題提得十分隨便，不得體和無聊。他一邊回答，一邊順便表明，他確實有很長時間不在俄羅斯了，有四年多了，他是因病去國外的，那是一種奇怪的神經毛病，類似癲癇或舞蹈病，不知怎麽的要打顫和痙攣。黑皮膚那個人聽着他說，好幾次都暗自竊笑。當他問到：“結果治好了嗎？”而淺色捲發者回答說“沒有，沒治好”時，他更是笑了起來。
“嘿，錢呢，一定白白花了許多，而我們這裏的人就是相信他們，”黑皮膚那一個譏諷說。
“千真萬確，”坐在旁邊的一個插進來說。這位先生窮得很蹩腳，大概是十多年未升遷的小公務員，４０歲左右，體格強壯，紅鼻子，臉上長滿粉刺。“幹真萬確，衹不過俄羅斯的財力全都被他們白白弄去了。”
“哦，我這件事上您可就錯了，”從瑞士回來的病人平靜和忍讓地說，“當然，我不會爭論，因為我不瞭解整個情況，但是我的醫生卻傾其所有給我到這裏的路費，而且在那裏供養了我幾乎有兩年。”
“怎麽，沒有人給您錢嗎？”黑皮膚的問。
“是的，在那裏供養我的帕夫利謝夫先生兩年前去世了，後來我寫信給這裏的葉潘欽將軍夫人，她是我的遠房親戚，但我沒有收到口信、這樣我就回來了。”
“您去哪裏呢？”
“也就是我住在哪裏嗎？……我還不知道，真的……是這樣……”
“還沒有决定嗎？”
兩位聽者重又哈哈大笑起來。
“您的全部財産不會都在這個包裹裏吧？”黑皮膚的人問。
“我準備打賭，就是這樣，”紅鼻子公務員異常得意地附和着，“行李車廂裏沒有別的行李，雖然貧窮不是罪，這點還是不能不指出的。”
原來正是這樣。淺色捲發的年輕人立即異常急促地承認了這一點。
“您的包裹總是有點用處的，”當大傢暢笑一通後（值得註意的是包裹，所有者本人一邊望着他們，一邊終於也笑了起來，這更使他們快活），小公務員繼續說，“雖然前以打賭；這個包裹裏沒有包着拿破侖金幣和用；特烈金幣、甚至荷蘭市的一包包外國的金幣，衹要根據蒙在您那外國鞋上的攀罩也可以斷定這一點，但是……假如您的包裹之外再添上像葉潘欽將軍夫人這麽一位所謂的女親戚，那麽這個包裹也就會有另一種意義了，當然，衹有在葉潘欽將軍夫人真南是您親戚的情況下纔是這樣。您不會因為漫不經心而搞錯吧……這是人非常容易犯的毛病，哪怕是……由於過分豐富的想象。”
“嘿，您又猜對了，”淺色頭髮的年輕人應着說，“我真的幾乎弄錯了，也就是說，她幾乎不是我的親戚，我們的關係太遠，以致於他們沒給我回信，我絲毫也不感到驚訝，真的，我早就料到是這樣。”
“白白花費了郵資，嗯……至少您是忠厚老實的，這是值得稱贊的！嗯……葉潘欽將軍我們是知道的，其實是因為他是社會名流；還有在瑞士供養您的已故的帕夫利謝夫先生，我也知道，如果這是指尼古拉·安德列耶維奇·帕夫利謝夫，因為他們是兩位堂兄弟，另一位至今還在剋裏米亞，而尼古拉·安德列耶維奇這位故人就是在廣泛的社交界也是位令人敬重的人，那時擁有四千農奴……”
“確實，他叫尼古拉·安德列耶維奇·帕夫利謝夫，”回答完了，年輕人專註而文好奇地打量了一番這位無所不知的先生。
在一定的社會階層，有時候，甚至相當經常地可以遇見這種無所不知的先生，他們什麽都知道。他們的智慧和能力，他們那時刻涌動的好奇心都不。可遏製地傾註到一個方面，現代的思想傢會說，當然這是因為缺少比較重要的生活情趣和觀點的緣故。不過，“什麽都知道”這句話所指的範圍是有限的。某個人在某處供職，他跟誰認識，他有多少財産，在什麽地方當過省長，跟誰結的婚，得到多少陪嫁，誰是他的堂兄弟，誰是表兄弟，等等等等，諸如此類。這些無所不知的先生大部分都穿着肘部磨破的衣服，每個月衹拿１７盧布的薪俸。被他們瞭解全部內情的人們，當然怎麽也想象不到；是什麽興趣驅使着他們，與此同時，他們中又有許多人又因為這種幾乎無異於整門科學的知識而感到欣慰，因為他們得到了自尊，甚至是高度的精神滿足。再說，這門科學也挺誘人的，我看到過不少學者、文學家、詩人和活動傢在這門科學裏尋求和尋得了自己高度的安寧和目的，甚至就憑這一點得到了功名，在整個這場談話中，黑皮膚的年輕人打着呵欠，漫無目的地望着窗外，急不可耐地等待着旅程結束，他似乎有點心不在焉，甚至非常心不在焉，幾乎是焦躁不安，以致變得有點令人奇怪：有時似聽非聽，似看非看，有時他笑，又不知道和不明白在笑什麽。
“請問，您尊姓？……”突然，臉上長粉刺的先生問拿着小包的淺色頭髮的青年。
“列夫·尼古拉耶維奇·梅什金公爵，”後者完全不加思索地馬上回答說。
“梅什金公爵？列夫·尼古拉耶維奇？我不知道，甚至還沒有聽說過，”小公務員沉思着說，“就是說，我不是指姓名，這個姓名歷史上就有、在卡拉姆辛寫的歷史書裏可以也應該能找得到，我是說人，再說，不知怎麽的無論在哪兒都遇不到梅什金公爵傢族的人，甚至沓無音訊。”
“噢，那還用說！”公爵立即回答說，“除我之外，現在根本就沒有梅什金公爵傢族的人了。我好像是我們傢族的最後一個人了。至於說到父輩、祖輩，他們都是獨院小地主＊，不過，我的父親是陸軍少尉，他是士官生土身。連我也不知道，葉潘欽將軍夫人怎麽從梅什金公爵女兒們中間冒出來的。她也是自己那一族的最後一人了……”
“嘻－嘻－嘻！自己族的最後一個！嘻－嘻！您怎麽倒過來這麽說，”小公務員嘻嘻笑着說。
＊擁有農奴的小地主，通常一院一戶。
黑皮膚的年輕人也冷笑了一下。淺色頭髮的青年則有點驚訝，他竟會說出相當不好的雙關語。＊
“您要知道，我完全不加思索就說了，”驚訝之餘，他終於解釋道。
“可以理解，可以理解，”小公務員快活地連聲說。
“公爵，在國外您在教授那裏學過什麽科學吧？”突然黑皮膚的年輕人問。
“是的……學過……”
“可我從來也沒有學過什麽。”
“但我也衹是隨便學了點，”公爵補充說，差不多是表示道歉，“因為有病，認為我不可能進行係統學習。”
“您知道羅戈任傢嗎？”黑皮膚的很快問着。
“不知道，完全不知道。我在俄羅斯認識的人很少。您就是羅戈任？”
“是的，我姓羅戈任，叫帕爾芬。”
“帕爾芬？這不就是那一傢羅戈任……”小公務員特別傲慢地說。
“是的，是那傢，就是那傢，”黑皮膚的年輕，人很快地、不講禮貌地、急迫地打斷了他。其實，他根本一次也沒有對長粉刺的小公務員說話，從一開始他就衹對公爵一個人說話。
“是嗎……這是怎麽回事？”小公務員驚呆了，幾乎瞪出了眼珠。他的整張臉馬上就現出一種虔敬和餡媚的，甚至是惶恐的神情。“您就是那位世襲榮譽公民謝苗·帕爾芬諾維奇·羅戈任的公子嗎？他不是一個月前故世，留下了兩百五十萬財産嗎？”
“您打哪兒知道他留下了兩百五十萬財産。”黑皮膚的打斷他問，就連這次他也沒有賞給小公務員上一瞥。“您瞧，”他朝公爵霎了霎眼，意指說的是小公務員，“他們知道這些會得到什麽好處，於嗎他們馬上就像走狗似的一個勁地粘上來？我父親去世了，這是真的，已經過了一個月，現在我差點連靴子也沒有從普斯科夫趕回傢，無論是混賬哥哥，還是母親，都不給我寄錢，也不寄消息……什麽都不寄，猶如對待一條狗！我在普斯科夫患熱病，躺了整整一個月！……”
“可現在一下子就必能得到一百多萬，這是起碼的，天哪！”小公務員雙手一拍說。
＊俄語Ｂ cboem pone還有一種含義：“就某一點來說”。
“您倒說說，這管他什麽事！”羅戈任惱怒和憤感地又朝他點了一下頭，“此刻你即使在我面前做倒立，我也不會給你一戈比。”
“我還是願意做，願意做。”
“瞧你！可是要知道，你哪怕跳一個星期舞，我也不會給，不會給的！”
“也不用給！我就該這樣，不用給！我要跳舞，我就是拋下妻子、小孩，還是要在你面前跳舞，讓你滿意，讓你快活！”
“去你的！”黑皮膚的啐了一口；“五個星期前我就像您這樣，”他對公爵說，“帶着一個小包裹逃離父親去普斯科夫的姑媽傢，在那裏得了熱病，躺倒了，而父親卻在我不在的情況下去世了，是中風而死的。死者千古，而那時他差點沒把我打死。您相信嗎，公爵，”這是真的！那時我要是不跑，馬上就會把我打死的。”
“您做了什麽事讓他發脾氣了？”公爵接過話茬說。他懷着一種特別的好奇心打量着穿皮襖的百萬富翁，雖然百萬富翁身上和得到遺産這件事確有某種值得註意的東西，但是使公爵驚奇和産生興趣的還有別的因素，再說，羅戈任本人不知為什麽特別願意把公爵看作交談的對象，儘管他需要交談，似乎是無意識多於精神的需求，似乎是漫不經心多於心地忠厚，是出於忐忑不安，憂心焦慮，交談衹是為了望着對方，隨便鬍扯些什麽。好像他到現在仍患着熱病，至少也是瘧疾。至於說那小公務員，他硬是纏住羅戈任，氣也不敢喘一口，留神和琢磨着每一句話，就像尋找鑽石一般。
“脾氣是發了，也許，也是該發的，”羅戈任回答說，“但是我那哥哥害得我最苦，至於老母親是沒什麽可說的，她年紀大了，衹是看看日課月書，與老太太們坐着聊聊天，謝恩卡哥哥决定什麽就是什麽，而他當時為什麽不讓我知道呢？我可是明白的！我那時神志昏迷，這是真的，據說，也發來過電報、但是給姑媽的，她在那裏寡居３０年了，從早到晚總跟一些裝瘋賣傻的修士在一起，她修女不是修女，卻比修女更有過之無不及，電報把她嚇壞了，她拆也不拆，就把它送到局去了，至今它還留在那兒。衹有科涅夫·瓦西利·瓦西利耶維奇幫了大忙，把一切都告訴了我；夜裏哥哥從蓋在靈樞上的綿緞上剪下了流蘇，那是鑄金的，說什麽‘據說，它們很值錢！’可是就憑這一點，衹要我想幹的話，他就可能去西伯利亞，因為這是褻讀神聖的。喂，你這個傢夥！”他朝小公務員說，“照法律講，是褻讀神聖嗎？”
“是褻讀神聖！褻讀神聖！”小公務員立即附和說。
“為此要流放去西伯利亞嗎。”
“要去西伯利亞，西伯利亞！立即去西伯利亞！”
“他們一直以為我還病着，”羅戈任對公爵說，“而我一句話也不說，抱着病體，悄悄地上了火車，就這麽走了。謝苗·謝苗內奇哥哥，請開門吧！他對故世的父親說了我許多壞話，我知道。我確實因為納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜當時惹惱了父親，這是真的，這是我一個人做的事，我是有過失。”
“因為納斯塔西婭，費利帕夫娜。”小公務員餡媚地說，他似乎在揣度着什麽。
“你可是不會知道的！”羅戈任不耐煩地朝他喊了一聲。
“我就知道！”小公務員以勝利的口吻回答說。
“瞧你！叫納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜的人還少嗎？我說你呀，是個多麽厚顔無恥的傢夥！嘿，我就知道，就有這樣的傢夥馬上來纏住你！”他繼續對公爵說。
“可是，也許，我是知道的呢。”小公務員連忙接着說，“列別傑夫是知道的！您，閣下，可以責備我，但是，要是我能證明，又怎麽樣呢，是有納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜此人的，為了她，您父親要用英蓮木拐杖來教訓您。而納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜是姓巴拉什科娃，說起來還是個名門閨秀；也是公爵小姐之類的，她跟一個姓托茨基，叫阿法納西·伊萬諾維奇的來往，就衹跟他一個人交往，那人是個地主兼資本傢，許多公司和社團的股東和要員，因此與葉潘欽將軍有很深的交誼……”
“晦，原來你還真有兩下子。”羅戈任終於真正感到驚訝了，“呸，真見鬼，他倒真的什麽都知道！”
“全都知道！列別傑夫無所不知！閣下，我還和利哈喬夫·阿列剋薩什卡一起周遊了兩個月，也是在他父親去世以後。我知道所有的角落和小巷，沒有我列別傑夫，他甚至寸步難行。他現在身陷債務監獄，而就在那個時候我有機會認識阿爾曼斯和科拉利婭，帕茨卡婭公爵夫人和納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜，也就有機會知道許多事。”
“你認識納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜？難道她跟利哈喬夫……”羅戈任惡狠狠地瞥了他一眼，連嘴唇也變白了，哆嗦起來。
“沒什麽！沒——什麽的！的確沒什麽！”小公務員有所領悟，便急忙說，“也就是說，利哈喬夫無論用多少錢也未能把她弄到手！不，這可不是那個阿爾曼斯，她衹有一一個托茨基，晚。上在大劇院或者法蘭西劇院她也衹坐在自己的包廂裏，那裏軍官們相互間閑話還少嗎，可他們對她卻說不出什麽名堂來，‘瞧，據說，這就是那個納斯塔西婭·贊利帕夫娜。’僅此而已，再要說什麽就沒什麽可說了！因此，是沒有什麽的。”
“這事確實這樣，”羅戈任皺起眉目，陰鬱地肯定說，“紮廖熱夫那時也對我這麽說過。公爵，我那時穿着父親那件衹穿了三天的腰部打招的大衣過涅瓦大街，而她正從商店出來，坐上馬車。當時我一下子猶如渾身着了似的。我常見到紮廖熱夫，他跟我可不一樣，打扮得像個理發店的夥計。衹眼睛上架着眼鏡，可我在父親傢裏穿的是抹了油的皮靴，喝的是素湯，說這個跟你不相配，還說，這是位公爵小姐，名叫納斯塔拉婭·費利帕夫娜，姓巴拉什科娃，她跟托茨基同居，而托茨基現在都不知道怎麽擺脫她，因為他，這麽說吧，完全到了真正的年齡，５５歲，想要跟全彼得堡頭號美女結婚。紮廖熱夫當下就慫恿我說，今天你可以在大劇院見到納斯塔西婭·費裏帕夫娜，她將坐在第一層廂座自己的包廂裏看芭蕾，可在我們傢裏你倒試試去看芭蕾——準會受到懲罰，父親會把我們打死！但是，我還是偷偷地去了一小時，又一次看見了納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜。那天一整夜我都沒有睡着。第二天早晨父親給了我兩張百分之五利率的證券，每張五千盧布。他說，去賣掉它們，七千五百盧布拿到安德列耶夫事務所，付清了，哪兒也別去，把一萬剩下的數拿來交給我，我等你。我賣了證券，拿了錢，但是沒有去安德列耶夫事務所，而是哪兒也不張望，徑自去了一傢英國商店，用全部錢挑了一副耳墜，每個耳墜上都有一顆鑽石，幾乎就像核桃那麽大，還欠了四百盧布，我講出了姓名，他們相信了。我帶了耳墜去找紮廖熱夫，如此這般說了一番，‘兄弟，我們去找納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜’，我們就去了。當時我腳下是什麽，前面是什麽，旁邊是什麽——概都不知道，也不記得，我們徑直走進她的客廳。她親自出來見我們。我當時沒有說出自己來，而由紮廖熱夫說‘帕爾芬·羅戈任送給您的，以作昨天邂逅相遇的紀念，請俯允受納。’她打開盒子，瞥了一眼，冷笑一聲說：‘請感謝您的朋友羅戈任先生，感謝他的感情厚意。’她轉身便走開了。唉，我於嗎當時不馬上死掉！如果真的想去死，是因為我想，‘反正回去也活不！’最使我委屈的是，我覺得紮廖熱夫這騙子占盡了風流。我個子也小，穿得像個僕人，因為自慚形穢，便一聲不吭地站在那裏。衹是瞪着眼睛看她。可紮廖熱夫卻非常時髦，頭髮抹手油亮；還燙成捲發，臉色紅潤，結着方格領帶，一味的奉承，滿嘴的恭維，另時她大概把他當作是我了。我們出來後，我就說：‘喂，現在再不許你想我的人，明白嗎？”他笑着說，“現在你怎麽嚮謝苗·帕爾芬內奇交帳。”我當時真的想傢也不回就去投河，可是又想，‘反正都一樣’，於是猶如十惡不赦的罪人似的回傢去了。”
“哎喲！喔嗬！”小公務員做了個鬼臉，甚至打起顫來，“要知道，已故先人不要說為一萬盧布，就是為十個盧布也會把人打發到陰間去。”他朝公點了下頭，公爵好奇地端詳着羅戈任，好像此刻他的臉更加蒼白了。
“打發到陰間！”羅戈任重複說了一遍，“你知道什麽？”他對公爵說，“父親馬上全都知道了，再說，紮廖熱夫也逢人便吹。父親把我抓起來，關在樓上，教訓我足足一小時，他說，‘我這衹是先讓你有個準備，到夜裏我再跟你告別。’你想怎麽着？老頭到納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜那兒去了，連連嚮她叩頭，央求着，哭着，她終於拿出了盒子，扔了給她，說，‘喏，給你，鬍子，你的耳環，現在它們對我來說價值珍貴十倍，因為它是帕爾芬冒着麽大的風險弄來的，嚮帕爾芬·謝苗諾維奇致意，嚮他表示感謝！’而我在這個時候得到母親的贊同，在謝廖什卡·普羅圖京那兒弄了２０盧布，就乘車到普斯科夫去了，到那幾時我正害着瘧疾，在那裏一些老婦人沒完沒了令人心煩地對我念教堂日曆，而我坐在那裏喝得醉熏熏的，後來我去了好幾傢酒館，花光了最後一點錢，一整夜躺在街上不省人事，到了早晨發起了熱病，而夜裏的時候狗還咬了我，好不容易纔醒過來。”
“好了，好了，現在納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜會改度了！”小公務一邊搓着手，一邊嘻嘻笑着，“現在，老爺，耳墜算得了什麽！現在我們可補償給她同樣的耳墜……”
“要是你再說一次有關納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜的一個字，你就給我滾蛋，我就揍死你，儘管你跟隨過利哈喬夫！”羅戈任緊緊抓住他的手，嚷道。
“既然你要揍死我，就是說你不會放開我！揍吧！揍了，也就銘記住了……瞧，我們到站了！”
確實，火車駛進了站臺，雖然羅戈任說過，他是偷偷地來的，但是已有好幾個人在等候他。他們呼喊着，嚮他揮舞着帽子。
“瞧，紮廖熱夫也在！”羅戈任嘟噥着說，一邊得意地甚至獰笑着望着他們，突然，他轉嚮公爵說，“公爵，我也不知道，我喜歡上你什麽，也許是為這種時刻遇見了你，不過也還遇上了他（他指了指列別傑夫），可我沒有喜歡上他、到我傢來吧，公爵，我們要脫下你腳上的這副鞋罩，我要給你穿最好的貂皮大衣，給你縫製上等的燕尾服，白色的或者隨便什麽顔色的背，口袋裏錢塞得滿滿的……再一起到納斯塔西婭·費利帕夫娜那裏去！你來不來呀？”
“聽從吧，列夫·尼古拉耶維奇公爵！”列別傑夫頗能感化人地鄭重其事地附和說，“嗨，可別錯過機會！嗨，可別錯過機會！”
梅什金公爵站起來，彬彬有禮地嚮羅戈任遞過手去，客氣地說：
“我將十分樂意去府上拜訪，蒙您喜歡我，不勝感激，甚至，如果來得及的話，也許今天我就會來的，因為，我坦率地對您說，我也非常喜歡您本人，特別是您講到鑽石耳墜的時候，甚至在講耳墜之前就喜歡了，儘管您臉上一副愁眉不展的樣手。我也感謝您允諾為我添置衣物和皮大衣，因為我確實很快就需要衣服和皮大衣了，眼前我幾乎身無分文。”
“錢會有的，到傍晚就有，來吧。”
“會有的，會有的，”小公務員應聲說，“不到晚霞時分就會有了！”
“您，公爵，對女人興趣大嗎？早點告訴我。”
“我，不——不！我可是……您大概不知道，我因為先天的毛病，甚至根本不懂女人的事。”
“噢，既然這樣。”羅戈任大聲嚷着，“公爵，你真是一位苦行僧了，像你這樣的人，上帝都會喜歡的！”
“這樣的人上帝會喜歡的！”小公務員應聲說。
“那你就跟我走吧，應聲蟲，”羅戈任對列別傑夫說。他們走出了車廂。
列別傑夫終於達到了自己的目的。熙熙攘攘的人群沿着去沃茲涅先斯基大街的方向遠去。公爵本應該拐嚮利捷伊納亞街。天氣很潮濕，公爵嚮行人問了路，到他所要去的地方有三俄裏左右，他决定雇一輛馬車。