Gorky, 1906, Mother 1/2

르이빈이 파벨에게 다가오며 말했다.  "파업을 하기는 힘들걸세!  돈 몇푼에 눈이 뻘게지긴해도 겁은 많거든. 삼백명이나 따라오려나? 그 이상은 어려워. 쇠스랑 하나로 퍼 올리기에는 퇴비의 양이 너무 많아. 말은 잘했는데, 마음을 못움직였어. 심장깊숙이에 불을 댕겨야 해"...

시조프 영감이 어머니에게 말했다.  "우리같은 늙은이들은 이제 무덤이나 가야해요. 우리가 어떻게 살아왔소? 무릎꿇고 벌벌기면서 머리가 땅에 닿도록 굽실거리며 살지 않았소?  하지만 요즘 사람들은 우리와 달라요. 젊은이들을 보구려. 사장하고 대등하게 말하잖아요. 전혀 거리낌이 없어요.....

르이빈이 중얼 거렸다.  "자넨 이제 틈새를 메우는 시멘트와 같네! 파벨, 자넬 대표로 뽑자고 소리치던 사람들을 보았지? 사회주의자니 선동가니 하면ㅅ허 수군대던 사람들 역시 그들이었어! 당장 해고당하기는 싫고, 자네가 길을 열어주면 따라가겠다는 거지".  (고리키, 1906/2006, 어머니, 푸른 숲: 82-83 => 원문을 축약한 것).

"You cannot get them to strike!" said Rybin, coming[Pg 90] up to Pavel. "Greedy as these people are for a penny, they are too cowardly. You may, perhaps, induce about three hundred of them to follow you, no more. It's a heap of dung you won't lift with one toss of the pitchfork, I tell you!"

Pavel was silent. In front of him the huge black face of the crowd was rocking wildly, and fixed on him an importunate stare. His heart beat in alarm. It seemed to him as if all the words he had spoken vanished in the crowd without leaving any trace, like scattered drops of rain falling on parched soil. One after the other, workmen approached him praising his speech, but doubting the success of a strike, and complaining how little the people understood their own interests and realized their own strength.

Pavel had a sense of injury and disappointment as to his own power. His head ached; he felt desolate. Hitherto, whenever he pictured the triumph of his truth, he wanted to cry with the delight that seized his heart. But here he had spoken his truth to the people, and behold! when clothed in words it appeared so pale, so powerless, so incapable of affecting anyone. He blamed himself; it seemed to him that he had concealed his dream in a poor, disfiguring garment and no one could, therefore, detect its beauty.

He went home, tired and moody. He was followed by his mother and Sizov, while Rybin walked alongside, buzzing into his ear:

"You speak well, but you don't speak to the heart! That's the trouble! The spark must be thrown into the heart, into its very depths!"

"It's time we lived and were guided by reason," Pavel said in a low voice.

"The boot does not fit the foot; it's too thin and[Pg 91] narrow! The foot won't get in! And if it does, it will wear the boot out mighty quick. That is the trouble."

Sizov, meanwhile, talked to the mother.

"It's time for us old folks to get into our graves. Nilovna! A new people is coming. What sort of a life have we lived? We crawled on our knees, and always crouched on the ground! But here are the new people. They have either come to their senses, or else are blundering worse than we; but they are not like us, anyway. Just look at those youngsters talking to the manager as to their equal! Yes, ma'am! Oh, if only my son Matvey were alive! Good-by, Pavel Vlasov! You stand up for the people all right, brother. God grant you his favor! Perhaps you'll find a way out. God grant it!" And he walked away.

"Yes, you may as well die straight off!" murmured Rybin. "You are no men, now. You are only putty—good to fill cracks with, that's all! Did you see, Pavel, who it was that shouted to make you a delegate? It was those who call you socialist—agitator—yes!—thinking you'd be discharged, and it would serve you right!"

(Gutenberg 프로젝트에서 인용한 영어번역문에서 인용).