The Lottery Ticket 彩票（有删节）
对契诃夫的了解是从中学课本里的《变色龙》、《套中人》、《牡蛎》开始的，觉得他的作品言简意赅，于幽默讽刺中截取平凡的日常生活片段，不动声色地展示人生百态。这篇《彩票》算不上他的名作，却向我们展示了生活的一个侧面，一种心理。不想再陈词滥调，说什么“知足常乐”。只是突然感慨起一句话：不要整天抱怨生活欠了你什么，生活根本不知道你是谁！幸福很简单，一种感觉，一种心态。
——Tracy
Ivan Dmitritch, a middle-class man who lived with his family on an income of 1,200 a year and was very well satisfied with his 1)lot, sat down on the sofa after supper and began reading the newspaper.
“I forgot to look at the newspaper today,”his wife said to him as she cleared the table. “Look and see whether the list of 2)drawings is there.”
“Yes, it is. What is the number?”said Ivan Dmitritch.
“3)Series 9499, number 26.”
“All right. We will look...”
Ivan Dmitritch had no faith in lottery luck, and would not, as a rule, have 4)consented to look at the lists of winning numbers, but now, as he had nothing else to do and as the newspaper was before his eyes, he passed his finger downwards along the 5)column of numbers. And immediately, as though in 6)mockery of his 7)scepticism, no further than the second line from the top, his eye was caught by the figure 9499! Unable to believe his eyes, he hurriedly dropped the paper on his knees without looking to see the number of the ticket, and, just as though some one had given him a 8)douche of cold water, he felt an agreeable chill in the pit of the stomach; 9)tingling and terrible and sweet!
“Masha, 9499 is there!”he said in a 10)hollow voice.
His wife looked at his astonished and 11)panic-stricken face, and realized that he was not joking.
“9499? And the number of the ticket?”she asked, turning pale and dropping the folded tablecloth on the table.
“Oh yes! There’s the number of the ticket too. But stay... wait! No, I say! Anyway, the number of our series is there! Anyway, you understand...”
Looking at his wife, Ivan Dmitritch gave a broad, 12)senseless smile, like a baby when a bright object is shown it.
“It is our series,”said Ivan Dmitritch, after a long silence. “So there is a probability that we have won. It’s only a probability, but there it is!”
“Well, now look!”
“Wait a little. It’s on the second line from the top, so the prize is 75,000.”
The husband and wife began laughing and staring at one another in silence. The possibility of winning 13)bewildered them; they could not have said, could not have dreamed, what they both needed that 75,000 for, what they would buy, where they would go. They thought only of the figures 9499 and 75,000 and pictured them in their imagination.
Ivan Dmitritch, holding the paper in his hand, walked several times from corner to corner, and only when he had recovered from the first impression began dreaming a little.
“And if we have won,”he said, “It will be a new life, it will be a transformation! The ticket is yours, but if it were mine I should, first of all, of course, spend 25,000 on real property in the shape of an 14)estate; 10,000 on immediate expenses, new furnishing, traveling, paying debts, and so on. The other 40,000 I would put in the bank and get interest on it.”
“Yes, an estate, that would be nice,”said his wife, sitting down and dropping her hands in her lap.
And pictures came crowding on his imagination, each more gracious and poetical than the last. And in all these pictures he saw himself well-fed, 15)serene, healthy! Here, after eating a soup, cold as ice, he lay on his back on the burning sand close to a stream... His little boy and girl are crawling about near him, digging in the sand or catching ladybirds in the grass. He 16)dozes sweetly, thinking of nothing, and feeling all over that he need not go to the office today, tomorrow, or the day after. Or, tired of lying still, he goes to the hayfield, or to the forest for mushrooms, to take longer walks beside the river.
Ivan Dmitritch pictured to himself autumn with its rains. It rains day and night, the bare trees weep, the wind is 17)damp and cold. There is nowhere to walk; one can’t go out for days together; one has to pace up and down the room, looking 18)despondently at the grey window. It is 19)dreary!
Ivan Dmitritch stopped and looked at his wife.
“I should go abroad, you know, Masha.”he said.
And he began thinking how nice it would be in late autumn to go abroad somewhere to the South of France... to Italy... to India!
“I should certainly go abroad too,”his wife said. “But look at the number of the ticket!”
“Wait, wait!”
He walked about the room and went on thinking. It occurred to him: what if his wife really did go abroad? It is pleasant to travel alone, or in the society of light, careless women who live in the present, and not such as think and talk all the journey about nothing but their children, sigh, and 20)tremble with 21)dismay over every 22)farthing.
She would 23)begrudge me every farthing, he thought, with a glance at his wife. The lottery ticket is hers, not mine! Besides, what is the use of her going abroad? What does she want there?
And for the first time in his life his mind 24)dwelt on the fact that his wife had grown elderly and plain, and that she was 25)saturated through and through with the smell of cooking, while he was still young and healthy, and might well have got married again.
Ivan Dmitritch thought of her relations. All those 26)wretched brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles would come crawling about as soon as they heard of the winning ticket, would begin 27)whining like beggars, and 28)fawning upon them with oily, 29)hypocritical smiles. Wretched, 30)detestable people! If they were given anything, they would ask for more; while if they were refused, they would swear at them, 31)slander them, and wish them every kind of misfortune.
Ivan Dmitritch remembered his own relations, and their faces, at which he had looked 32)impartially in the past, struck him now as 33)repulsive and hateful.
They are such 34)reptiles! He thought.
And his wife’s face, too, struck him as repulsive and hateful. Anger 35)surged up in his heart against her, and he thought 36)m alignantly:
She knows nothing about money, and so she is 37)stingy. If she won it she would give me 100 38)roubles, and put the rest away under lock and key.
And he looked at his wife, not with a smile now, but with hatred. She glanced at him too, and also with hatred and anger. She had her own daydreams, her own plans, her own reflections; she understood perfectly well what her husband’s dreams were. She knew who would be the first to try to grab her winnings.
It’s very nice making daydreams at other people’s expense is what her eyes expressed. No, don’t you dare!
Her husband understood her look; hatred began stirring again in his breast, and in order to annoy his wife he glanced quickly, to spite her at the fourth page on the newspaper and read out 39)triumphantly:
“Series 9499, number 46! Not 26!”
Hatred and hope both disappeared at once, and it began immediately to seem to Ivan Dmitritch and his wife that their rooms were dark and small and low-pitched, that the supper they had been eating was not doing them good, but lying heavily on their stomachs, that the evenings were long and wearisome...
“What the devil’s the meaning of it?”said Ivan Dmitritch, beginning to be ill-humored. “Wherever one steps there are bits of paper under one’s feet, 40)crumbs, 41)husks. The rooms are never swept! One is simply forced to go out. 42)Damnation take my soul entirely! I shall go and hang myself on the first 43)aspen tree!”
伊凡·德米特里奇，一位中产阶级，全家每年收入1200卢布（1000卢布约等于300元人民币），他向来觉得自己的运气不错。一天晚饭后，他往沙发上一坐，开始读起报来。
“今天我忘了看报，”他的妻子一边收拾饭桌一边对他说，“你看看，那上面有没有开彩的号码？”
“有，多少号？” 伊凡·德米特里奇说。
“9499组，26号。”
“好的，让我来查一查……”
伊凡·德米特里奇向来不相信彩票能带来好运，换了别的时间说什么也不会去查看开彩的单子，但此刻他闲来无事，再说报纸就在眼前，于是他伸出手指，从上而下逐一查对彩票的组号。然而他简直不敢相信自己的眼睛，就在上面数起的第二行，9499号赫然跳入眼帘！他没有把彩票号再核对一遍，就立即把报纸往膝盖上一放，而且，像有人向他泼了一瓢冷水，他感到胃里涌上一股令人愉悦的凉意：痒酥酥，颤悠悠，甜滋滋！
“玛莎，有9499组！”他闷声闷气地说。
妻子瞧着他那张惊愕的脸，明白他不是在开玩笑。
“有9499组吗？那么票号呢？”她脸色发白，连忙问道，把叠好的桌布又放到了桌上。
“啊，对了！还有票号。不过，先别忙……等一等。我说了先别忙！反正我们的组号对上了！反正，你明白……”
伊凡·德米特里奇望着妻子，咧开嘴傻笑着，像一个小孩子在看一样闪光的东西。
“有我们的组号，” 伊凡·德米特里奇沉默很久后说道，“这么看来，我们有可能中奖。尽管只是可能，但毕竟大有希望！”
“行了，你快看看票号吧！”
“急什么，这号在从上而下的第二行，这么说彩金有75000卢布呢。”
夫妇二人开始笑逐颜开，默默地对视着。可能中奖的想法弄得他们晕忽忽的，他们甚至不能说出也不能想象，他们二人要这75000卢布有什么用，他们要买什么东西，上哪儿去旅游。他们一心只想着两个数字：9499和75000，并在各自的想象中描画它们。
伊凡·德米特里奇手里拿着那份报纸，在两个屋角之间来回走了几趟，直到从最初的感受中平静下来，才开始有点想入非非。
“要是我们真的中了奖，”他说，“我们将会过上崭新的生活，这可是时来运转！彩票是你的，如果是我的，那么我首先，当然了，花上25000卢布买下一份类似庄园的不动产；花10000卢布用于即时地开销：添置新家具、外出旅游、还债等等。余下的40000卢布全存进银行等着拿利息……”
“对，买座庄园，这是个好主意。”妻子说，索性坐下来，把双手放在膝上。
于是他开始浮想联翩，那画面一幅比一幅更诱人，更富有诗意。在所有这些画面中，他发现自己大腹便便、心平气和，身强力壮。瞧他，刚喝完一盘冰冷的浓汤，便挺着肚子躺在小溪旁热乎乎的沙地上……一对小儿女在他身旁爬来爬去，挖着沙坑，或者在草地里捉小甲虫。他舒舒服服地打着盹，万事不想，整个身心都感觉到，不管今天、明天、还是后天，他都不必去上班。等躺得厌烦了，他就去割割草，或者去林子里采蘑菇，去河岸边散散步。
伊凡·德米特里奇又暗自描画出多雨的秋天。白天夜里都下着雨，光秃秃的树木在哭泣，秋风潮湿而寒冷。没地方可以散步了，这种天气人出不了门，只得成天在房间里踱来踱去，愁苦地瞧瞧阴暗的窗子。好烦闷呀！
伊凡·德米特里奇收住脚，望着妻子。
“我想出国旅行去。你知道的，玛莎。”他说。
于是他开始构想在深秋出国，到法国南部，去意大利，或者印度，是何等惬意的事情！
“那我也得出国，”妻子说，“行了，你快看看票号吧！”
“别忙！再等一等……”
他又在房间里踱来踱去，继续暗自思量着，要是他妻子也跟着出国，那可怎么办？一个人出国旅游那才惬意；或者跟一伙容易相处、无忧无虑、及时行乐的女人结伴同行也还愉快；就是不能跟那种一路上只惦记儿女、三句话不离孩子、成天唉声叹气、花一个小钱也要心惊肉跳的女人一道出门。
“瞧着吧，我花一分钱她都要管！”想到这里他看一眼妻子，“因为彩票是她的，不是我的！再说她何必出国？她出国想干什么？”
于是他平生第一次注意到，他的妻子老了，丑了，浑身上下透着一股油烟味。而他却还年轻、健康，哪怕再结一次婚也不成问题。
伊凡·德米特里奇立即想起妻子的那些亲戚们。那些令人讨厌的兄弟姐妹和叔伯姨婶们，一听说她中了彩票，准会上门，像叫花子那样死皮赖脸地缠着要钱，一脸媚笑，虚情假意地讨好他们。可憎又可怜的人们！给他们钱吧，他们要了还想要；不给吧，他们就会咒骂，无事生非，盼着你倒霉。
伊凡·德米特里奇又想起自己的亲戚。以前他见到他们也还心平气和，此刻却觉得他们面目可憎，令人讨厌。
“都是些小人！”他想道。
此刻他连妻子也感到面目可憎，令人讨厌。他对她窝了一肚子火，于是他幸灾乐祸地想：
“钱的事她一窍不通，所以才那么吝啬。她要是真中了奖，顶多给我100卢布，其余的全都锁起来。”
这时他已经不再笑容满面地看着妻子了，取而代之的是满脸的仇恨。妻子同样满怀仇恨和愤怒地注视着他。她也有自己的七彩梦，自己的计划和自己的主意；她十分清楚，她的丈夫梦想着什么。她知道，谁会第一个伸出爪子来夺她的彩金。
“拿人家的钱做什么好梦！”她的眼神分明这样说，“不，你休想！”
丈夫明白她的眼神，憎恨在他胸中翻滚。他要气一气他的妻子，故意跟她作对，他飞快地瞧一瞧第四版报纸，得意洋洋地大声宣告：
“9499组，46号！不是26号！”
希望与憎恨都顿时消失，伊凡·德米特里奇和他的妻子立刻感到：他们的住房那么阴暗、窄小、低矮，他们刚吃过的晚饭那么粗粝，梗在腹部很不舒服；而秋夜漫长，令人烦闷……
“鬼知道怎么回事，” 伊凡·德米特里奇说，开始耍起性子，“不管你踩到哪儿，脚底下都是纸片、面包渣、瓜果壳。从来不打扫屋子！弄得人只想离家逃走，真见鬼！我这就走，碰到第一棵白杨树就上吊！”