The Yellow Wallpaper (1899)

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Translated back to English from Russian translation (translated to Russian by Sergei Trofimov)

From Chapter 2

Original text

I wish I could get well faster.
But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!
There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.
I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere There is one place where two breaths didn’t match, and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other.
I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have!

Re translated text

I want to get better. But I must not think of that. Must not! The wallpaper looks at me, as if it knows about its bad influence! It has one repetitive detail, where the pattern is bulging out as a bent neck with two bulbous eyes. They are sort of looking at you upside down. I am, of course, irritated by their effrontery and importunity. From above and bellow, from everywhere they are crawling on me- those absurd, unblinking and frightening eyes.

And also there is place, where two pieces do not match and the eyes move up and down the line – one higher than the other. I never saw such expression in inanimate objects, even though we all know how alive they can be!