English Original
But, as the weeks passed, I began to dislike the animal more and more. I do not know why, but I hated the way he loved me. Soon, I began to hate him—but I was never unkind to him. Yes, I was very careful about that. I kept away from him because I remembered what I did to my poor Pluto. I also hated the animal because he only had one eye. I noticed this the morning after he came home with me. Of course, this only made my dear wife love him more!
But the more I hated the cat, the more he seemed to love me. He followed me everywhere, getting under my feet all the time. When I sat down, he always sat under my chair. Often he tried to jump up on my knees. I wanted to murder him when he did this, but I did not. I stopped myself because I remembered Pluto, but also because I was afraid of the animal.
How can I explain this fear? It was not really a fear of something evil . . . but then how else can I possibly describe it? Slowly, this strange fear grew into horror. Yes, horror. If I tell you why, you will not believe me. You will think I am mad.
Several times, my wife took the cat and showed me the white shape on his chest. She said the shape was slowly changing. For a long time I did not believe her, but slowly, after many weeks, I began to see that she was right. The shape was changing. Its sides were becoming straighter and straighter. It was beginning to look more and more like an object . . . After a few more weeks, I saw what the shape was. It was impossible not to see! There, on his front, was the shape of an object I am almost too afraid to name ... It was that terrible machine of pain and death—yes, the GALLOWS! I no longer knew the meaning of happiness, or rest. During the day, the animal never left me. At night he woke me up nearly every hour. I remember waking from terrible dreams and feeling him sitting next to my face, his heavy body pressing down on my heart!
I was now a very different man. There was not the smallest piece of good left in me. I now had only evil thoughts—the darkest and the most evil thoughts. I hated everyone and everything, my dear wife too.
One day she came down into the cellar with me to cut some wood (we were now too poor to have a servant). Of course, the cat followed me down the stairs and nearly made me fall. This made me so angry, that I took the axe and tried to cut the animal in two. But as I brought the axe down, my wife stopped my arm with her hand. This made me even more angry, and I pulled her hand away from my wrist, lifted the tool again, brought it down hard and buried it in the top of her head.
I had to hide the body. I knew I could not take it out of the house. The neighbours noticed everything. I thought of cutting it into pieces and burning it. I thought of burying it in the floor of the cellar. I thought of throwing it into the river at the end of the garden. I thought of putting it into a wooden box and taking it out of the house that way. In the end, I decided to hide the body in one of the walls of the cellar.
It was quite an old building, near the river, so the walls of the cellar were quite wet and the plaster was soft. There was new plaster on one of the walls, and I knew that underneath it the wall was not very strong. I also knew that this wall was very thick. I could hide the body in the middle of it.
It was not difficult. I took off some plaster, took out a few stones and made a hole in the earth that filled the middle of the wall. I put my wife there, put back the stones, made some new plaster and put it on the wall. Then I cleaned the floor, and looked carefully round. Everything looked just as it did before. Nobody would ever know.
Next, I went upstairs to kill the cat. The animal was bringing me bad luck. I had to kill it. I searched everywhere, but I could not find him. I was sure it was because of my wife's murder; he was too clever to come near me now.
I waited all evening, but I did not see the evil animal. He did not come back during the night either. And so, for the first time in a long time, I slept well. When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to see that the cat still was not there. Two, three days passed, and there was still no cat. I cannot tell you how happy I began to feel. I felt so much better without the cat. Yes, it was he who brought me all my unhappiness. And now, without him, I began to feel like a free man again. It was wonderful—no more cat! Never again!
Several people came and asked about my wife, but I answered their questions easily. Then, on the fourth day, the police came. I was not worried when they searched the house. They asked me to come with them as they searched. They looked everywhere, several times. Then they went down into the cellar. I went down with them, of course. I was not a bit afraid. I walked calmly up and down, watching them search.
They found nothing, of course, and soon they were ready to go. I was so happy that I could not stop talking as they went up the stairs. I did not really know what I was saying. 'Good day to you all, dear sirs.' I said. 'Yes, this is a well-built old house, isn't it? Yes, a very well-built old house. These walls—are you going, gentlemen? — these walls are strong, aren't they?' I knocked hard on the part of the wall where my wife was.
A voice came from inside the wall, in answer to my knock. It was a cry, like a child's. Quickly, it grew into a long scream of pain and horror. I saw the policemen standing on the stairs with their mouths open. Suddenly, they all ran down in a great hurry and began breaking down the wall. It fell quickly, and there was my wife, standing inside. There she was, with dried blood all over her head, looking at them. And there was the cat, standing on her head, his red mouth wide open in a scream, and his one gold eye shining like fire. The clever animal! My wife was dead because of him, and now his evil voice was sending me to the gallows.
中文翻译
然而，随着时间一周周过去，我开始越来越讨厌这只动物。我不知道为什么，但我憎恨它爱我的方式。很快，我开始憎恨它——但我从未虐待过它。是的，对此我非常小心。我避开它，因为我记得我对可怜的普鲁托做过什么。我也讨厌这只动物，因为它只有一只眼睛。这是它跟我回家的第二天早上我注意到的。当然，这只会让我亲爱的妻子更爱它！
但我越是憎恨这只猫，它似乎就越爱我。它到处跟着我，总是碍手碍脚。当我坐下时，它总是坐在我的椅子下面。它常常试图跳到我的膝盖上。它这样做时，我想杀了它，但我没有。我克制住了自己，因为我记得普鲁托，但也因为我害怕这只动物。
我该如何解释这种恐惧？这并非真正对某种邪恶事物的恐惧……但我还能怎么描述它呢？慢慢地，这种奇怪的恐惧变成了恐怖。是的，恐怖。如果我告诉你原因，你不会相信我。你会认为我疯了。
好几次，我妻子抱起猫，给我看它胸口上的白色斑纹。她说那斑纹在慢慢变化。很长一段时间我都不相信她，但慢慢地，过了许多周，我开始发现她是对的。斑纹在变化。它的边缘变得越来越直。它开始越来越像一个物体……又过了几周，我看出了那斑纹是什么。不可能看不出来！就在它的胸前，是一个我几乎不敢说出名字的物体的形状……那就是那台痛苦与死亡的可怕机器——是的，绞刑架！我不再知道幸福或安宁的含义。白天，这动物从不离开我。夜里，它几乎每小时都把我吵醒。我记得从可怕的梦中醒来，感觉到它坐在我的脸旁，它沉重的身体压在我的心上！
我现在成了一个完全不同的人。我身上没有留下一丝一毫的善念。我现在只有邪恶的念头——最黑暗、最邪恶的念头。我憎恨一切人和事，包括我亲爱的妻子。
一天，她和我一起下到地窖去劈些柴（我们现在太穷了，雇不起仆人）。当然，那只猫跟着我下了楼梯，差点让我摔倒。这让我非常愤怒，于是我拿起斧头，试图把这只动物劈成两半。但当我挥下斧头时，我妻子用手拦住了我的胳膊。这让我更加愤怒，我把她的手从我的手腕上拉开，再次举起工具，狠狠地劈了下去，将它嵌入了她的头顶。
我必须把尸体藏起来。我知道我不能把它弄出房子。邻居们什么都注意得到。我想过把它切成碎片烧掉。我想过把它埋在地窖的地板下。我想过把它扔到花园尽头的河里。我想过把它放进一个木箱，然后那样运出房子。最后，我决定把尸体藏在酒窖的一面墙里。
这是一栋相当古老的建筑，靠近河边，所以地窖的墙壁相当潮湿，灰泥很软。其中一面墙上抹了新灰泥，我知道下面的墙并不很结实。我也知道这面墙很厚。我可以把尸体藏在墙的中间。
这并不难。我弄掉一些灰泥，取出几块石头，在填满墙中间的泥土里挖了一个洞。我把妻子放了进去，放回石头，和了些新灰泥抹在墙上。然后我清理了地板，仔细环顾四周。一切看起来都和以前一模一样。永远不会有人知道。
接着，我上楼去杀那只猫。这动物给我带来了厄运。我必须杀了它。我到处找，但找不到它。我确信这是因为我杀了妻子；它太聪明了，现在不敢靠近我。
我等了整个晚上，但没有看到那只邪恶的动物。夜里它也没有回来。于是，很长一段时间以来，我第一次睡了个好觉。第二天早上醒来，我惊讶地发现那只猫仍然不在那里。两天，三天过去了，仍然没有猫的踪影。我无法告诉你我开始感到多么快乐。没有那只猫，我感觉好多了。是的，是它给我带来了所有的不幸。而现在，没有它，我又开始感觉自己像个自由人了。太棒了——再也没有猫了！再也不会有了！
有几个人来询问我妻子的情况，但我轻松地回答了他们的问题。然后，第四天，警察来了。他们搜查房子时我并不担心。他们搜查时要求我跟着他们。他们到处查看，查了好几遍。然后他们下到地窖。我当然也跟着下去了。我一点也不害怕。我平静地走来走去，看着他们搜查。
当然，他们什么也没找到，很快他们就准备离开了。我太高兴了，以至于他们上楼梯时我忍不住说个不停。我并不知道自己在说什么。“祝各位日安，亲爱的先生们。”我说。“是的，这是一栋建造精良的老房子，不是吗？是的，一栋非常坚固的老房子。这些墙——你们要走了吗，先生们？——这些墙很坚固，不是吗？”我用力敲了敲藏着妻子的那部分墙壁。
墙内传来一个声音，回应了我的敲击。那是一声哭喊，像孩子的哭声。很快，它变成了一声长长的痛苦与恐怖的尖叫。我看到警察们站在楼梯上，张大了嘴巴。突然，他们全都急匆匆地跑下来，开始拆墙。墙很快倒了，我的妻子就站在里面。她就在那里，头上满是干涸的血迹，看着他们。那只猫也在那里，站在她的头上，它红色的嘴巴在尖叫中张得大大的，它那只金色的眼睛像火一样闪耀。这聪明的畜生！我的妻子因它而死，而现在它邪恶的声音正把我送上绞刑架。