International Women's Day

1?????On International Women's Day, I bumped into Yakov with his new

girlfriend, inspecting the roses for sale in glass cases outside the station. She was called Katya, a dewy-eyed, sweet girl from Voronezh, who accepted Yakov on his own reckoning. The flower sellers were doing a busy trade; clusters of men stood waiting, counting out roubles in their hands. It was important to buy flowers for the woman in your life on 8 March. You'd never hear the end of it otherwise.

2?????The girls in Room 99 had

explained it all to me. On International Women's Day, Soviet women bask in their menfolk's love and gratitude. In the morning, as it is a holiday, they lounge in bed instead of going out to work. Their husbands, with much cursing and

clattering of pans, cook breakfast for the family; by ten o'clock they proudly serve their wives a charred and shrivelled egg. Beside the woman's plate will be a bunch of flowers and a little gift, a bottle of scent perhaps, or a pair of tights, which she will exclaim over until the children, scarlet with fury, insist that their mother makes them their proper breakfast.

3?????Later the real celebrations begin. A Soviet woman's days are usually taken up with dressing the children and taking them to school, arriving at the office on time, nipping out of work at lunchtime to buy something for dinner, and again in the afternoon—if they can sneak away without being reprimanded—to try and find cough medicine for the little one. They'll leave work on the dot of six so that they can pop into several more

shops to check if there is anything good on offer, and into the market where they see some cheap eggs. They'll pay the electricity bill at the post office and

国际妇女节

???????国际妇女节那天，我在车站外面碰见了雅科夫和他的新女朋友，他们正在挑选放在玻璃箱里待售的玫瑰花。 他的女朋友叫卡佳，沃罗涅什人，是个天真可爱的姑娘，她接受雅科夫是听了他的一面之词。 花贩们的生意非常红火；一群男士站在那儿等着买花，点出手里的卢布。 三月八号这一天，你一定要给你生命中的那个女人买束花。 不然的话她就会抱怨个不停。

???????这些都是99号房的那几个姑娘告诉我的。 在国际妇女节那一天, 苏联的妇女们沐浴在男性所给予的爱意和感激之中。 因为这一天是假日，早上她们不用去上班，可以懒洋洋地躺在床上。 而她们的丈夫们则要为全家人做早饭，虽然嘴里骂骂咧咧的，还弄得锅碗瓢盆叮当乱响；到了十点，丈夫颇为自豪地把煎得焦糊糊、皱巴巴的鸡蛋端到妻子跟前。 盘子边上还放着一束鲜花，一份小礼物，可能是一瓶香水或者一双裤袜，妻子会高兴得大叫起来，激动好一会儿，直到孩子们怒气冲冲地跑过来，小脸涨得通红，闹着要妈妈给他们做一顿像样的早餐。

???????然后，真正的庆祝开始了。 苏联妇女的一天通常是这么度过的：帮孩子们穿衣起床，送他们上学，准时到办公室上班，午餐时间偷偷溜出去买晚餐要吃的东西，下午的时候再溜出去——如果能偷偷地，不会受到上司责骂的话——设法给最小的那个孩子买一些咳嗽药。 她们会在六点整准时下班，这样她们就可以再去逛几家商店，看看有什么打折的东西，然后去市场，在那儿买到一些便宜的鸡蛋。 她们还会顺便去邮局交电费，然后正好路过干洗店，取回洗好的衣服，回到家里她们就把买回来的东西随处一放，拿个篮子把从市场上买来的便宜鸡蛋装起来。 等她们的丈夫回来的时候，她们已经用吸尘器把家里吸了

collect the laundry, since they're passing; then they'll dump their shopping at

home and pick up a bucket to fill up with those cheap eggs from the market. By the time their husbands have arrived home, they will have given the flat a

vacuum, dusted, and put two lots of dirty clothes on to soak (always advisable if you're washing everything by hand). On International Women's Day, therefore, they go back to bed after breakfast and sleep like squirrels.

4?????Their husbands, meanwhile, meet up with friends and express their feelings for their wives in the simplest and most sincere way they know: by drinking

themselves into a stupor with toasts \our beloved ladies—where would we be without them?\home and tell their wives they love them. All in all, it's not a bad day for the women of the former Soviet Union.

5?????Yakov had spotted the flowers he wanted. \carnations, please.\

6?????\thrilled. \more?\given only at funerals in Russia.

7?????\Room 99,\dividing up the bunch and handing her five flowers with his warmest, sweetest smile. \S prazdnikom, darling.\

8?????Katya's face fell and she was quiet as we walked to the hostel. In Room 99 we found the girls painting their nails dark orange and gossiping.

9?????\S prazdnikom,\other. Yakov passed out the carnations, three for each of the girls. \blini,\Tanya, taking the flowers for both of them and putting them on the table without much evidence of

gratitude. \一遍，擦了一遍灰尘，把两堆脏衣服用洗衣粉泡了起来（如果都是手洗的话，最好能先泡一下）。 而在国际妇女节这一天，她们吃完早饭后会回去接着睡，睡得像松鼠那么沉。 ???????在她们酣睡的同时，她们的丈夫们遇上了几个朋友，大家用最简单而又最诚挚的方式来表达对自己妻子的情感：在“为我们亲爱的女士们干杯，没有她们我们的日子就一团糟”的敬酒声中喝得酩酊大醉。深夜他们回到家里，对自己的妻子说爱她。 总之，对前苏联的广大妇女们来说，这一天过得不错。

???????雅科夫挑到了他要的花，“我要14枝红色康乃馨。”

???????“14枝！”卡佳叫了起来，“可难道不应该13枝或者15枝吗？”因为在俄罗斯，只有葬礼上才送偶数数量的花。

???????“我得给99号房的姑娘们几枝，”他解释说。 “给，”他一边说着，一边把花束分开，递给卡佳五枝，脸上挂着最热情、最甜蜜的笑容。 “节日快乐，亲爱的！”

???????卡佳的脸沉了下来，在我们去青年旅社的路上，她一声都没吭。 到了99号房，我们看到那几个姑娘们正一边涂着指甲，涂成了深黄色，一边天南海北地闲聊着。 ???????“节日快乐！”我们互相问候。 雅科夫把康乃馨递给她们，每人三枝。 “尼娜在做薄煎饼”，坦尼娅说，她把给她俩的花都拿了过去，放在桌上，脸上没有露出多少感激之情。 “马上就做好了，你们再多待会儿吧。” ???????“那是肯定的啦”，雅科夫说，他挤到丽莎???米内利和卡佳中间，把手臂分别搭在她们俩的肩上。 他显得兴致很高。

???????这时，尼娜一脚踢开了门，手里端着一只装满煎饼的煎锅走了进来，回过头来对我们说：“拿着！尝尝这些薄煎饼，庆祝一下我们女人的节日。”

around.\

10????\squeezing in between Liza Minelli and Katya and draping an arm around each of them. He was in fine spirits.

11????Nina opened the door with one foot, talking over her shoulder,

advancing with a full frying pan. \eat these blinis, in celebration of being a woman.\

12????\giving him a look from under her

eyelashes that could have fried pancakes. Katya giggled nervously.

13????Yuri and Emily arrived and we covered blinis with thick sour cream and red caviar and drank champagne, as families did all over Voronezh.

???????“你也来吃，雅科夫，”丽莎加了一句，透过长长的睫毛看了他一眼，那眼神火热得都可以煎薄饼了。 卡佳听了，很不自然地咯咯笑起来。 ???????尤里和埃米莉到了，于是就像所有沃罗涅什的家庭那样，我们给薄煎饼抹上厚厚的酸奶油和红色的鱼子酱，就着香槟大快朵颐。