but almost as icons, or as figures of the imagination, for him.

更像是偶像或是想象中的形象
The real people he was, sort of, with--certainly his brother,Sergey,

他相处的真实人物当然是他的哥哥瑟葛
who he was educated with

他俩一起接受教育
(his sisters were educated in a different way and were somewhat younger than him)--

(他的妹妹们接受的是另一种教育而且比他小)
even Sergey is sort of invisible to him.

即使是瑟葛也对他来说像透明的
He wrote literature in Russian, novels in Russian, when he was in europe.

他在欧洲时用俄文创作写小说
And then, when he moved to the United States,

然后当他到了美国
he began to write in English, and took America as his adopted land

他就用英语写作并视美国为养育他的地方
and English as his adopted language.

视英语为他使用的语言
English was a native language, in a certain way, because English

英语可算是他的母语某种意义上来说
was spoken in his household all the time,

因为英语就是他们家的日常用语
and he was trained by an English governess as a young child.

而且他小时候曾受教于一位英语女家庭教师