Story of an hour
By kate chopin
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with
a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the
news of her husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that owuld belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they ahve a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that owuld belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they ahve a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills
حكاية ساعة
بقلم: كايت شوبن
ترجمة د. فراس عالم
شبكة القصص المترجمة
بقلم: كايت شوبن
ترجمة د. فراس عالم
شبكة القصص المترجمة
لأن السيدة (ميلارد) كانت تعاني من مشكلات صحية في القلب، كان لابد من اتباع أكثر الطرق لطفاً وحكمة لإبلاغها نبأ وفاة زوجها.
تولت شقيقتها (جوزفين) إبلاغها بالنبأ، أخذت تستخدم عبارات مبطنة وإشارات متكتمة حتى أبلغتها الخبر، كان (ريتشارد) صديق زوجها حاضراً، في الحقيقة كان هو أول من عرف بالخبر حيث كان جالساً في مكتب الجريدة عندما وصلهم خبر كارثة الطريق السريع واسم (برنتلي ميلارد) يتصدر قائمة القتلى، انتظر حتى وصلت البرقية التالية لتؤكد النبأ، عندها خرج مسرعاً إلى منزل صديقه ليستبق أي محاولة طائشة وغير مكترثة من الآخرين لإبلاغ الزوجة الخبر الحزين.
لم تكن ردة فعلها تشبه ردة فعل الزوجات الاخريات، فبعد أن سمعت الخبر بقيت فاقدة للإرادة غير مستوعبة لخطورة الخبر، ثم انفجرت فجأة بالبكاء على كتف شقيقتها، وعندما هدأت عاصفة أحزانها قامت مسرعة إلى حجرتها وطلبت ألا يرافقها أحد. غاصت في كرسيها المريح المواجه للنافذة المفتوحة في غرفتها منهكة من الإجهاد الذي يجثم على جسدها وروحها. وقع بصرها - من خلال المساحة الممتدة أمام نافذتها- على قمم الأشجار المتراصة وهي تستقبل الربيع، ورائحة المطر تعبق في الجو. كان بائع متجول ينادي على بضاعته في الشارع المقابل ورغم صوته الجهور استطاعت سماع صدى خافت لأغنية جميلة يغنيها شخص ما من بعيد وعدد لا محدود من العصافير يغرد على إفريز الشرفة.
كانت السماء تظهر كقطع زرقاء متناثرة هنا وهناك بين طبقات السحاب الكثيفة المتراكمة فوق بعضها البعض. كانت قد ألقت رأسها إلى الخلف ليغوص في حشية مسند الرأس الطرية وظلت ساكنة من دون أي حركة باستثناء الشهقة الخافتة التي انطلقت من حلقها وانتزعتها كطفل صغير من حلم جميل.
تعد السيدة ميلارد إذا نظرت إلى وجهها شابة ذات ملامح مقبولة وهادئة، وخطوط وجهها تدل على القوة والتحكم، لكنها الآن لا تظهر سوى الحملقة الناعسة في عينيها والتي تسمرت على إحدى تلك البقع الزرقاء في السماء، لم تكن تحديقة عفوية بل علامة واعية على تفكير عميق.
هناك شيء ما مقبل نحوها، شيء كانت تنتظره لكنها لا تعرف طبيعته! شيء ماكر ومراوغ لا يقبل التسمية، لكنها تشعر به يتسرب عبر زرقة السماء، يقترب عبر الأصوات والروائح والألوان التي تملأ المكان. أخذ صدرها يعلو ويهبط في اضطراب، لقد بدأت تدرك ذلك الشيء الذي يقترب ليمتلكها، أخذت تكافح لتقاوم سيطرته، لكنها كانت خائرة القوى، تماماً كيديها البيضاوين الفاقدتين لأي عزم. وعندما شعرت بالإنهاك, تسربت همهمة صغيرة من بين شفتيها المنفرجتين قليلاً، ثم عادت لتكررها مرة وأخرى مع أنفاسها المتقطعة
- (حرة، حرة، حرة)!!
تلاشت النظرة الخاوية من عينيها، وحلت محلها نظرة قوية ومشرقة، شعرت بنبضها المتتابع يضخ دماءً دافئة في أطرافها، ويمنح الاسترخاء لكل سنتيمتر من جسدها. لم تتوقف لتتساءل ما إذا كان الشيء الذي امتلكها إرادة وحشية أم شيء آخر، كان شعور داخلي يسيطر عليها لتتجاهل التفكير في شيء كهذا.
كانت تعرف أنها ستبكي مجدداً عندما ترى يدي زوجها الكريمتين المرهفتين ملفوفتين برداء الموت، والوجه الذي لم يدخر عنها نظرات الحب وقد كسته الصفرة والجمود. لكنها كانت ترى أبعد من ذلك المشهد، كانت تستشرف موكباً طويلاً من السنوات القادمة لا يشاركها فيها أحد، وهي تفتح ذراعيها واسعاً لتستقبلها. لن تهب حياتها لأحد تعيش لأجله، ستحيا لنفسها ولنفسها فقط. لن يجرؤ أحد على فرض إرادته عليها أو التطفل على خصوصياتها ورغباتها (سواء كان ذلك التطفل بنية حسنة أو سيئة فإنها تراه الآن في لحظة إشراقها هذه جريمة لا تغتفر).
لقد أحبت زوجها بعض الوقت، لكنها في أغلب الوقت لم تكن تفعل. ما الفارق؟ ما الذي يعنيه الحب - ذلك اللغز المستعصي على الحل- حين يمتلك الرجل المرأة امتلاكاً تاماً وقهرياً إلى الأبد؟ كأنها كانت بحاجة لهذه الصدمة كي تستوعب وضعها الذي كان.
- (حرة، حرة الجسد والروح) أخذت تتمتم
كانت أختها (جوزفين) تركع عند باب حجرتها المغلق وشفتاها على ثقب المفتاح تتوسل الدخول
- ((لويس) أرجوكِ افتحي الباب، لا تؤذي نفسكِ، أتوسل إليكِ افتحي الباب)
- (اذهبي أنا لن أؤذي نفسي) ردت عليها.
في الواقع كانت تشعر أنها تشرب إكسير الحياة من خلال النافذة المفتوحة.
انطلقت خيالاتها بشغب
تمرح في الأيام التي تنتظرها، أيام الربيع، أيام الصيف، كل أنواع الأيام التي
ستصبح ملكها. ارتجلت دعاءً قصيراً بأن تكون حياتها أطول وهي التي كانت بالأمس فقط
ترتعد من فكرة الحياة الطويلة.
نهضت أخيراً وفتحت الباب لشقيقتها الملحاحة، كانت هناك نظرة انتصار محمومة في عينيها، وفي خطوتها تبختر كأنها آلة النصر ذاتها، احتضنت أختها من وسطها وأخذا ينزلان السلالم حيث ينتظرهما (ريتشارد) في الأسفل.
قام شخص ما بفتح الباب الخارجي مستخدماً المفتاح، كان المقبل هو (ميلارد) زوجها وعليه القليل من وعثاء السفر، حاملاً حقيبته ومظلته في هدوء، لا يظهر عليه أي أثر لحادث سير ولا يبدو حتى أنه سمع بحدوثه. وقف مذهولاً من صراخ
نهضت أخيراً وفتحت الباب لشقيقتها الملحاحة، كانت هناك نظرة انتصار محمومة في عينيها، وفي خطوتها تبختر كأنها آلة النصر ذاتها، احتضنت أختها من وسطها وأخذا ينزلان السلالم حيث ينتظرهما (ريتشارد) في الأسفل.
قام شخص ما بفتح الباب الخارجي مستخدماً المفتاح، كان المقبل هو (ميلارد) زوجها وعليه القليل من وعثاء السفر، حاملاً حقيبته ومظلته في هدوء، لا يظهر عليه أي أثر لحادث سير ولا يبدو حتى أنه سمع بحدوثه. وقف مذهولاً من صراخ
جوزفين
الحاد، ومن مسارعة
صديقه (ريتشارد) نحوه ليحجبه عن نظر زوجته لكن يبدو أن ريتشارد تأخر كثيراًعندما
جاء الأطباء لفحصها قالوا إنها ماتت بنوبة قلبية سببها انفعالات الفرح الشديد!!
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