評論
打印
You don't mind my talking to you frankly?
“我說話不同你轉彎抹角，你不介意吧？”
He shook his head, smiling.
他笑著搖了搖頭。
Has she deserved that you should treat her like this?
“你這樣對待她說得過去嗎？”
No.
“說不過去。”
Have you any complaint to make against her?
“你有什么不滿意她的地方嗎？”
None.
“沒有。”
Then, isn't it monstrous to leave her in this fashion, after seventeen years of married life, without a fault to find with her?
“那么，你們結婚十七年，你又挑不出她任何毛病，你這樣離開了她不是太豈有此理了嗎？”
Monstrous.
“是太豈有此理了。”
I glanced at him with surprise. His cordial agreement with all I said cut the ground from under my feet. It made my position complicated, not to say ludicrous. I was prepared to be persuasive, touching, and hortatory, admonitory and expostulating, if need be vituperative even, indignant and sarcastic; but what the devil does a mentor do when the sinner makes no bones about confessing his sin? I had no experience, since my own practice has always been to deny everything.
我感到非常驚奇，看了他一眼。不管我說什么，他都從心眼里贊同，這就把我的口預先箝住了。他使我的處境變得非常復雜，且不說滑稽可笑了。本來我預備說服他、打動他、規勸他、訓誡他、同他講道理，如果需要的話還要斥責他，要發一通脾氣，要把他冷嘲熱諷個夠；但是如果罪人對自己犯的罪直認不諱，規勸的人還有什么事情好做呢？我對他這種人一點也沒有經驗，因為我自己如果做錯了事總是矢口否認。
What, then? asked Strickland.
“你還要說什么？”思特里克蘭德說。
I tried to curl my lip.
我對他撇了撇嘴。
Well, if you acknowledge that, there doesn't seem much more to be said.
“沒什么了，如果你都承認了，好象也沒有什么要多說的了。”
I don't think there is.
“我想也是。”
I felt that I was not carrying out my embassy with any great skill. I was distinctly nettled.
我覺得我這次執行任務手腕太不高明。我顯然有些冒火了。
Hang it all, one can't leave a woman without a bob.
“別的都不要說了，你總不能一個銅板也不留就把你女人甩了啊！”
Why not?
“為什么不能？”
How is she going to live?
“她怎么活下去呢？”
I've supported her for seventeen years. Why shouldn't she support herself for a change?
“我已經養活她十七年了。為什么她不能換換樣，自己養活自己呢？”
She can't.
“她養活不了。”
Let her try.
“她不妨試一試。”
Of course there were many things I might have answered to this. I might have spoken of the economic position of woman, of the contract, tacit and overt, which a man accepts by his marriage, and of much else; but I felt that there was only one point which really signified.
我當然有許多話可以答辯。我可以談婦女的經濟地位，談男人結婚以后公開或默認地承擔的義務，還有許許多多別的道理，但是我認為真正重要的只有一點。
Don't you care for her any more?
“你還愛她不愛她了？”
Not a bit, he replied.
“一點兒也不愛了，”他回答。
The matter was immensely serious for all the parties concerned, but there was in the manner of his answer such a cheerful effrontery that I had to bite my lips in order not to laugh. I reminded myself that his behaviour was abominable. I worked myself up into a state of moral indignation.
不論對哪方面講，這都是一件極端嚴肅的事，可是他的答話卻帶著那么一種幸災樂禍、厚顏無恥的勁兒；為了不笑出聲來，我拼命咬住嘴唇。我一再提醒自己他的行為是可惡的。我終于激動起自己的義憤來。
