評論
打印
I started, or rather (for like other defaulters, I like to lay half the blame on ill fortune and adverse circumstances)
我開始，或者不如說（因為像其他有過失的人一樣，我總愛把一半的罪責推給厄運和逆境）
was thrust on to a wrong tack at the age of one-and-twenty, and have never recovered the right course since.
在我二十一歲時我被拋入歧途，而且從此之后，再也沒有回到正道上。
But I might have been very different.
要不然我也許會大不相同。
I might have been as good as you — wiser — almost as stainless.
也許會像你一樣好 — 更聰明些 — 幾乎一樣潔白無瑕。
I envy you your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory.
我羨慕你平靜的心境，清白的良心、純潔的記憶。
Little girl, a memory without blot or contamination must be an exquisite treasure
小姑娘，沒有污點未經感染的記憶必定是一大珍寶，
an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment. Is it not?
是身心愉快的永不枯竭的源泉，是不是？
How was your memory when you were eighteen, sir?
你十八歲時的記憶怎么樣，先生？
All right then; limpid, salubrious.
那時很好，無憂無慮，十分健康。
No gush of bilge water had turned it to fetid puddle.
沒有滾滾污水把它變成臭水潭。
I was your equal at eighteen — quite your equal.
十八歲時我同你不相上下 — 完全加此。
Nature meant me to be, on the whole, a good man, Miss Eyre.
總的說來，大自然有意讓我做個好人，愛小姐。
One of the better kind, and you see I am not so.
較好的一類人中的一個，而你看到了，現在我卻變了樣。
You would say you don't see it.
你會說，你并沒有看到。
At least I flatter myself I read as much in your eye
至少我自以為從你的眼睛里看到了這層意思
(beware, by-the-bye, what you express with that organ. I am quick at interpreting its language) .
（順便提一句，你要注意那個器官流露出來的感情，我可是很善于察言觀色的）。
Then take my word for it, — I am not a villain.
那么相信我的話 — 我不是一個惡棍。
You are not to suppose that — not to attribute to me any such bad eminence.
你不要那么猜想——不要把這些惡名加給我。
But, owing, I verily believe, rather to circumstances than to my natural bent,
不過我確實相信，由于環境而不是天性的緣故，
I am a trite commonplace sinner, hackneyed in all the poor petty dissipations with which the rich and worthless try to put on life.
我成了一個普普通通的罪人，表現在種種可憐的小小放蕩上，富裕而無用的人都想以這種放蕩來點綴人生。
Do you wonder that I avow this to you?
我向你坦露自己的心跡，你覺得奇怪嗎？
Know, that in the course of your future life
你要知道，在你未來的人生道路上，
you will often find yourself elected the involuntary confidant of your acquaintances' secrets.
你常常會發現不由自主地被當作知己，去傾聽你熟人的隱秘。
People will instinctively find out, as I have done,
人們像我那樣憑直覺就能感到，
that it is not your forte to tell of yourself, but to listen while others talk of themselves.
你的高明之處不在于談論你自己，而在于傾聽別人談論他們自己。
They will feel, too, that you listen with no malevolent scorn of their indiscretion, but with a kind of innate sympathy.
他們也會感到，你聽的時候，并沒有因為別人行為不端而露出不懷好意的蔑視，而是懷著一種發自內心的同情。
Not the less comforting and encouraging because it is very unobtrusive in its manifestations.
這種同情給人以撫慰和鼓舞、因為它是不動聲色地流露出來的。
How do you know? How can you guess all this, sir?
你怎么知道的？這種種情況，你怎么猜到的呢，先生？
I know it well, therefore I proceed almost as freely as if I were writing my thoughts in a diary.
我知道得清清楚楚，因此我談起來無拘無束，幾乎就像把我的思想寫在日記中一樣。
You would say, I should have been superior to circumstances, so I should — so I should. But you see I was not.
你會說，我本應當戰勝環境，確實應當這樣 — 確實應當這樣。不過你看到了，我沒有戰勝環境。
