評論
打印
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Barrett III request the pleasure of your company at a dinner in celebration of Mr. Barrett's sixtieth birthday Saturday, the sixth of March at seven o'clock
茲訂于三月六日星期六下午七時在馬薩諸塞州伊普斯威奇鎮多佛宅邸設宴慶賀巴雷特先生六十壽辰，恭請屆時撥冗光臨。
Dover House, Ipswich,Massachusetts
奧利佛·巴雷特第三夫婦鞠躬
R. S. V. P.
請賜回復
"Well?" asked Jennifer.
“怎么樣?”詹妮弗問。
"Do you even have to ask?" I replied. I was in the midst of abstracting The State v. Percival, a very important precedent in criminal law. Jenny was sort of waving the invitation to bug me.
“這你還用問嗎?”我反問了一句。我正忙于摘錄刑法上一起非常重要的判例——“珀西瓦爾公訴案”的要點。詹尼微微擺動著請柬，不讓我安寧。
"I think it's about time, Oliver, she said.
“我想是時候了，奧利佛，”她說。
"For what?"
“是什么的時候了?”
"For you know very well what, she answered. "Does he have to crawl here on his hands and knees?"
“你明明知道我說的是什么，”她回答說，“難道你非要他跪著爬到這兒來?”
I kept working as she worked me over.
我繼續干我的事，任她肆意攻擊我。
"Ollie — he's reaching out to you!"
“奧利——他在主動向你伸手呢!”
"Bullshit, Jenny. My mother addressed the envelope."
“胡扯，詹妮，信封是我母親開的。”
"I thought you said you didn't look at it!" she sort of yelled.
“我想你說過你連看都沒看一眼呢!”她有點兒扯開嗓子嚷嚷了。
Okay, so I did glance at it earlier. Maybe it had slipped my mind. I was, after all, in the midst of abstracting The State v. Percival, and in the virtual shadow of exams. The point was she should have stopped haranguing me.
好吧，就算我剛才瞅過一眼吧。也許我已經忘了。不管怎么說，我正在專心做“珀西瓦爾公訴案”的摘要，忙著對付迫在眉睫的考試。問題在于她不該跟我嘮叨個沒完。
"Ollie, think, she said, her tone kind of pleading now. " Sixty goddamn years old. Nothing says he'll still be around when you're finally ready for the reconciliation."
“奧利，好好想想，”她說，她現在的口吻近乎懇求了。“已經是六十歲的人了。等你最終回心轉意想要和解的時候，誰能擔保他還活在世上呢?”
I informed Jenny in the simplest possible terms that there would never be a reconciliation and would she please let me continue my studying. She sat down quietly, squeezing herself onto a comer of the sofa where I had my feet. Although she didn't make a sound, I quickly became aware that she was looking at me very hard. I glanced up.
我用最簡單明了的話告訴詹妮，決不會有和解的一天，能不能請她讓我繼續學習下去。她一聲不響地坐了下來，收緊身子，縮在我擱腳的那張沙發的一角。雖然她沒吱聲，但我很快便意識到她正緊緊地盯著我。我抬起頭來。
