評論
打印
"Jane is not such a weakling as you would make her," he would say:
“簡可不是那種你們要把她說成的弱者，”他會說，
"she can bear a mountain blast, or a shower, or a few flakes of snow, as well as any of us.
“她會頂著山風，暴雨，或是幾片飛雪，比我們準都不差。
Her constitution is both sound and elastic: -- better calculated to endure variations of climate than many more robust."
她體格健康富有適應性——比很多身強力壯的人更能忍受天氣的變化。”
And when I returned, sometimes a good deal tired, and not a little weather-beaten,
我回到家里，雖然有時風吹雨淋，疲憊不堪，
I never dared complain, because I saw that to murmur would be to vex him:
但從不敢抱怨，因為我明白一嘀咕就會惹他生氣。
on all occasions fortitude pleased him; the reverse was a special annoyance.
無論何時，你堅忍不拔，他會為之高興，反之，則特別惱火。
One afternoon, however, I got leave to stay at home, because I really had a cold.
一天下午，我卻告假呆在家里，因為我確實感冒了。
His sisters were gone to Morton in my stead: I sat reading Schiller; he, deciphering his crabbed Oriental scrolls.
他妹妹們代我去了莫爾頓，我坐著讀起席勒的作品來。他在破譯雞爪一樣的東方渦卷形字體。
As I exchanged a translation for an exercise, I happened to look his way: there I found myself under the influence of the ever-watchful blue eye.
我換成練習翻譯時，碰巧朝他的方向看了下下，發覺自己正處于那雙藍眼睛的監視之下。
How long it had been searching me through and through, and over and over,
徹徹底底，一遍遍地掃視了多久，
I cannot tell: so keen was it, and yet so cold, I felt for the moment superstitious -- as if I were sitting in the room with something uncanny.
我無從知道。它他的目光銳利而冷漠，剎那之間我有些迷信了——仿佛同某種不可思議的東西坐在一個屋子里。
"Jane, what are you doing?"
“簡，你在干嘛？”
"Learning German."
“學習德語。”
"I want you to give up German and learn Hindostanee."
“我要你放棄德語，改學印度斯坦語。”
"You are not in earnest?"
“你不是當真的吧？”
"In such earnest that I must have it so: and I will tell you why."
“完全當真，我會告訴你為什么。”
He then went on to explain that Hindostanee was the language he was himself at present studying;
隨后他繼續解釋說，印度斯坦語是他眼下正在學習的語言，
that, as he advanced, he was apt to forget the commencement;
學了后面容易忘記前面。
that it would assist him greatly to have a pupil with whom he might again and again go over the elements, and so fix them thoroughly in his mind;
要是有個學生，對他會有很大幫助，他可以向他一遍遍重復那些基本知識，以便牢記在自己的腦子里。
that his choice had hovered for some time between me and his sisters;
究竟選我還是他的妹妹們，他猶豫了好久。
but that he had fixed on me because he saw I could sit at a task the longest of the three.
但選中了我，因為他看到我比任何一位都能坐得住
Would I do him this favour?
我愿意幫他忙嗎？
I should not, perhaps, have to make the sacrifice long, as it wanted now barely three months to his departure.
也許我不必作太久的犧牲，因為離他遠行的日子只有三個月了。
