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Chapter 49
第四十九章
I lived at the Hotel de la Fleur, and Mrs. Johnson, the proprietress, had a sad story to tell of lost opportunity. After Strickland's death certain of his effects were sold by auction in the market-place at Papeete, and she went to it herself because there was among the truck an American stove she wanted. She paid twenty-seven francs for it.
我住在鮮花旅館，旅館的女主人，約翰生太太給我講了一個悲慘的故事——她如何把大好良機白白錯過去了。思特里克蘭德死了以后，他的一些遺物在帕皮提市場上拍賣。她親自跑了一趟，因為在拍賣的物品中有一個她需要的美國式煤油爐子。她花了二十七法郎把爐子買了下來。
"There were a dozen pictures," she told me, "but they were unframed, and nobody wanted them. Some of them sold for as much as ten francs, but mostly they went for five or six. Just think, if I had bought them I should be a rich woman now."
“有十來張畫，”她對我說，“但是都沒有鑲框，誰也不要。有幾張要賣十法郎，但是大部分只賣五、六法郎一張。想想吧，如果我把它們買下來，現在可是大富翁了?！?/div>
But Tiare Johnson would never under any circumstances have been rich. She could not keep money. The daughter of a native and an English sea-captain settled in Tahiti, when I knew her she was a woman of fifty, who looked older, and of enormous proportions. Tall and extremely stout, she would have been of imposing presence if the great good-nature of her face had not made it impossible for her to express anything but kindliness. Her arms were like legs of mutton, her breasts like giant cabbages; her face, broad and fleshy, gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness, and vast chin succeeded to vast chin. I do not know how many of them there were. They fell away voluminously into the capaciousness of her bosom. She was dressed usually in a pink Mother Hubbard, and she wore all day long a large straw hat. But when she let down her hair, which she did now and then, for she was vain of it, you saw that it was long and dark and curly; and her eyes had remained young and vivacious. Her laughter was the most catching I ever heard; it would begin, a low peal in her throat, and would grow louder and louder till her whole vast body shook. She loved three things—a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man. To have known her is a privilege.
但是蒂阿瑞·約翰生無論在什么情況下也絕對發不了財；她手頭根本存不下錢。她是一個在塔希提落戶的白人船長同一個土著女人結婚生的女兒。我認識她的時候，她已經五十歲了，但是樣子比年紀顯得還要老。她的身軀又大又壯，一身肥肉；如果不是一張只能呈現出仁慈和藹表情來的一團和氣的面孔，她的儀表會是非常威嚴的。她的胳臂象兩條粗羊腿，乳房象兩顆大圓白菜，一張胖臉滿是肥肉，給人以渾身赤裸、很不雅觀的感覺。臉蛋下面是一重又一重的肉下巴（我說不上她有幾重下巴），嘟嘟嚕嚕地一直垂到她那肥胖的胸脯上。平常她總穿著一件粉紅色的寬大的薄衫，戴著一頂大草帽，但是當她把頭發松垂下來的時候（她常常這樣做，因為她對自己的頭發感到很驕傲），你會看到她生著一頭又黑又長、打著小卷的秀發；此外，她的眼睛也非常年輕，炯炯有神。她的笑聲是我聽到過的最富有感染性的笑聲；開始的時候只是在喉嚨里一陣低聲咯咯，接著聲音越來越大，直到她那肥胖的身軀整個都哆哆嗦嗦地震顫起來。她最喜歡的是三件東西——笑話、酒同漂亮的男人。有緣同她結識真是一件榮幸的事。
