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打印14 "Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"
“葉子。常青藤上的葉子。等最后一片葉子掉了，我也就得走了。三天前我就知道會這樣。大夫沒跟你說嗎？”
15 "Oh, I never heard of such nonsense. What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well? Don't be so silly. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were ten to one! Try to take some soup now, and let Sudie go and buy port wine for her sick child."
“噢，我從沒聽說過這種胡說八道。常青藤葉子跟你病好不好有什么關系？別這么傻。對了，大夫上午跟我說，你的病十有八九就快好了。快喝些湯，讓蘇迪給她生病的孩子去買些波爾圖葡萄酒來。”
16 "You needn't get any more wine," said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window. "There goes another. No, I don't want any soup. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go, too. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."
“你不用再去買酒了，”約翰西說道，兩眼一直盯著窗外。“又掉了一片。不，我不想喝湯。這一下只剩下4片了。我要在天黑前看到最后一片葉子掉落。那時我也就跟著走了。我都等膩了。也想膩了。我只想撇開一切, 飄然而去，就像那邊一片可憐的疲倦的葉子。”
17 "Try to sleep," said Sue. "I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old miner. I'll not be gone a minute."
“快睡吧，”蘇說。“我得叫貝爾曼上樓來給我當老礦工模特兒。我去去就來。”
18 Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and had a long white beard curling down over his chest. Despite looking the part, Behrman was a failure in art. For forty years he had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who mocked terribly at softness in any one, and who regarded himself as guard dog to the two young artists in the studio above.
老貝爾曼是住在兩人樓下底層的一個畫家。他已年過六旬，銀白色蜷曲的長髯披掛胸前。貝爾曼看上去挺像藝術家，但在藝術上卻沒有什么成就。40年來他一直想創作一幅傳世之作，卻始終沒能動手。他給那些請不起職業模特的青年畫家當模特掙點小錢。他沒節制地喝酒，談論著他那即將問世的不朽之作。要說其他方面，他是個好斗的小老頭，要是誰表現出一點軟弱，他便大肆嘲笑，并把自己看成是樓上畫室里兩位年輕藝術家的看護人。
19 Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of gin in his dimly lighted studio below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away, when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker. Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt for such foolish imaginings.
蘇在樓下光線暗淡的畫室里找到了貝爾曼，他滿身酒味刺鼻。屋子一角的畫架上支著一張從未落過筆的畫布，在那兒擱了25年，等著一幅杰作的起筆。蘇把約翰西的怪念頭跟他說了，并說約翰西本身就像一片葉子又瘦又弱，她害怕要是她那本已脆弱的生存意志再軟下去的話，真的會凋零飄落。老貝爾曼雙眼通紅，顯然是淚漣漣的，他大聲叫嚷著說他蔑視這種傻念頭。
20 "What!" he cried. "Are there people in the world foolish enough to die because leafs drop off from a vine? I have never heard of such a thing. Why do you allow such silly ideas to come into that head of hers? God! This is not a place in which one so good as Miss Johnsy should lie sick. Some day I will paint a masterpiece, and we shall all go away. Yes."
“什么！”他嚷道。“世界上竟然有這么愚蠢的人，因為樹葉從藤上掉落就要去死？我聽都沒聽說過這等事。你怎么讓這種傻念頭鉆到她那個怪腦袋里？天哪！這不是一個像約翰西小姐這樣的好姑娘躺倒生病的地方。有朝一日我要畫一幅巨作，那時候我們就離開這里。真的。”
21 Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down, and motioned Behrman into the other room. In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine. Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the miner on an upturned kettle for a rock.
兩人上了樓，約翰西已經睡著了。蘇放下窗簾，示意貝爾曼去另一個房間。在那兒兩人惶惶不安地凝視著窗外的常青藤。接著兩人面面相覷，啞然無語。外面冷雨夾雪，淅淅瀝瀝。貝爾曼穿著破舊的藍色襯衣, 坐在充當礦石的倒置的水壺上，擺出礦工的架勢。
22 When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade.
第二天早上，只睡了一個小時的蘇醒來看到約翰西睜大著無神的雙眼，凝望著拉下的綠色窗簾。
23 "Pull it up; I want to see," she ordered, in a whisper.
“把窗簾拉起來；我要看，”她低聲命令道。
24 Wearily Sue obeyed.
蘇帶著疲倦，遵命拉起窗簾。
25 But, Lo! after the beating rain and fierce wind that had endured through the night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last on the vine. Still dark green near its stem, but with its edges colored yellow, it hung bravely from a branch some twenty feet above the ground.
可是，瞧！經過一整夜的急風驟雨，竟然還存留一片常青藤葉，背靠磚墻，格外顯目。這是常青藤上的最后一片葉子。近梗部位仍呈暗綠色，但邊緣已經泛黃了，它無所畏懼地掛在離地20多英尺高的枝干上。
26 "It is the last one," said Johnsy. "I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time."
“這是最后一片葉子，”約翰西說。“我以為夜里它肯定會掉落的。我晚上聽到大風呼嘯。今天它會掉落的，葉子掉的時候，也是我死的時候。”
