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| The best thing you can do is to go and take a bath." | Сходил бы ты хоть в баню". |
| To this Petrushka would make no reply, but, approaching, brush in hand, the spot where his master's coat would be pendent, or starting to arrange one and another article in order, would strive to seem wholly immersed in his work. | На что Петрушка ничего не отвечал и старался тут же заняться каким-нибудь делом: или подходил с щеткой к висевшему барскому фраку, или просто прибирал что-нибудь. |
| Yet of what was he thinking as he remained thus silent? Perhaps he was saying to himself: | Что думал он в то время, когда молчал, -- может быть, он говорил про себя: |
| "My master is a good fellow, but for him to keep on saying the same thing forty times over is a little wearisome." Only God knows and sees all things; wherefore for a mere human being to know what is in the mind of a servant while his master is scolding him is wholly impossible. | "И ты, однако ж, хорош; не надоело тебе сорок раз повторять одно и то же", -- бог ведает, трудно знать, что думает дворовый крепостной человек в то время, когда барин ему дает наставление. |
| However, no more need be said about Petrushka. | Итак, вот что на первый раз можно сказать о Петрушке. |
| On the other hand, Coachman Selifan - | Кучер Селифан был совершенно другой человек... |
| But here let me remark that I do not like engaging the reader's attention in connection with persons of a lower class than himself; for experience has taught me that we do not willingly familiarise ourselves with the lower orders - that it is the custom of the average Russian to yearn exclusively for information concerning persons on the higher rungs of the social ladder. In fact, even a bowing acquaintance with a prince or a lord counts, in his eyes, for more than do the most intimate of relations with ordinary folk. | Но автор весьма совестится занимать так долго читателей людьми низкого класса, зная по опыту, как неохотно они знакомятся с низкими сословиями. Таков уже русский человек: страсть сильная зазнаться с тем, который бы хотя одним чином был его повыше, и шапошное знакомство с грофам или князем для него лучше всяких тесных дружеских отношений. |
| For the same reason the author feels apprehensive on his hero's account, seeing that he has made that hero a mere Collegiate Councillor - a mere person with whom Aulic Councillors might consort, but upon whom persons of the grade of full General would probably bestow one of those glances proper to a man who is cringing at their august feet. Worse still, such persons of the grade of General are likely to treat Chichikov with studied negligence - and to an author studied negligence spells death. |
