Oblomov / Обломов. Книга для чтения на английском языке

I know», Oblomov went on with growing conviction, «what moving furniture means! It means breakages, noise, everything will be piled together on the floor: trunks, the back of the sofa, pictures, books, pipes, all sorts of bottles one never sees at any other time which suddenly turn up goodness knows from where! And you have to look after it all so that nothing gets broken or lost – one half here, another on the cart, or in the new flat! You want to smoke, you pick up your pipe, but the tobacco’s already gone – you want to sit down, but there’s nothing to sit on, you can’t touch anything without getting dirty and covered with dust – nothing to wash with and you have to go about with hands as filthy as yours…»

В«My hands are cleanВ», Zakhar remarked, showing what looked more like two soles than a pair of hands.

«Oh, you’d better not show them to me», said Oblomov, turning away. «And should you want to have a drink, the decanter’s there, but there’s no glass».

В«You can drink from the decanter just as wellВ», Zakhar observed good-naturedly.

«That’s just like you: one can just as well not sweep the floor, not dust, and not beat the carpets. And at the new flat», Oblomov went on, carried away by the vivid picture of the moving he had conjured up, «things won’t be put straight for at least three days – everything is sure to be in the wrong place: the pictures on the floor by the walls, the goloshes on the bed, the boots in the same bundle as the tea and the pomatum.

There’s a chair with a broken leg, a picture with a smashed glass, a sofa covered in stains. Whatever you ask for is not to be found, no one knows where it is – been lost or left at the old flat – go and run back for it».

В«AyeВ», Zakhar interrupted, В«sometimes one has to run there and back a dozen timesВ».

«There you are», Oblomov went on. «And getting up in the morning in a new flat – what a bore! No water, no charcoal for the samovar, and in the winter you’re sure to freeze to death, the rooms are cold and there’s no firewood; you have to run and borrow some».

«That depends on the kind of neighbours you get», Zakhar observed again. «Some wouldn’t lend you a jug of water, let alone a bundle of firewood».

«Yes, indeed!» said Oblomov. «You move and you’d suppose that by the evening everything would be over, but not at all, you won’t be settled for another fortnight at least.