Chapter Ⅰ
贫穷不是罪恶,这是真理。我知道,酗酒不是美德,这更是真理。可是赤贫,先生,赤贫却是罪恶。贫穷的时候,您还能保持自己天生感情的高尚气度,在赤贫的情况下,却无论什么时候,无论什么人都做不到。为了赤贫,甚至不是把人用棍子赶走,而是拿扫帚把他从人类社会里清扫出去,让他受更大的凌辱;而且这是公正的,因为在赤贫的情况下,我自己首先就准备凌辱自己。
And then I saw how Sonechka, around six o’clock, got up, put on a kerchief, her hooded cloak, and left the apartment; she came back at nine. She walked in and went straight up to Katerina Ivanovna and silently put thirty silver rubles down on the table in front of her. She didn’t utter one word as she did, didn’t even look at her, but merely picked up our large green shawl (we have one that we use), covered her head and face completely, and lay down on the bed, facing the wall, but her whole body and her little shoulders were trembling. . . . Meanwhile, sir, I lay there, in the same condition as before. . . . And then I saw, young man, I saw how Katerina Ivanovna, also without saying a word, went up to Sonechka’s bed and knelt there all evening, kissing her feet; she“was unable to stand, and then, embracing, they both fell asleep together . . . both of them . . . both of them . . . yes, sir . . . while I . . . I lay there drunk, sir.