The Yellow Wallpaper (1899)

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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

 

Chapter 9

Original Text

I really have discovered something at last.
Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out.
The front pattern does move–and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!
Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.
Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.
And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern–it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.
They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!
If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad.

Re translated text

I really discovered something important at last.

Observing the changes every night, I finally noticed, that the outside pattern is moving! What will you say about that? And the woman behind it is trembling impatiently!

Sometimes it looks as if there are many women behind the pattern, but sometimes there’s only one of them, and she crawls fast around me. Her movements make the furniture shake. On the bright stripes she keeps calms, but in the shady parts she grabs the bars and shakes them hard.

She always wants to come out. But no one can come out of the pattern, it’s oppressing every one.  This is why there are so many heads. If it was possible to paint over them or take them out, it would look absolutely normal.