評論
打印
Beth had her troubles as well as the others, and not being an angel but a very human little girl, she often 'wept a little weep' as Jo said, because she couldn't take music lessons and have a fine piano. She loved music so dearly, tried so hard to learn, and practiced away so patiently at the jingling old instrument, that it did seem as if someone (not to hint Aunt March) ought to help her. Nobody did, however, and nobody saw Beth wipe the tears off the yellow keys, that wouldn't keep in tune, when she was all alone. She sang like a little lark about her work, never was too tired for Marmee and the girls, and day after day said hopefully to herself, "I know I'll get my music some time, if I'm good."
貝思像她的姐妹一樣也有自己的煩惱，她并非什么天使，也是個食人間煙火的小姑娘。用喬的話來說，她常常"哭鼻子"，因為不能去上音樂課，因為家里沒有一架好鋼琴。她酷愛音樂，學得異常用功，并極有耐心地用那架丁當作響的鋼琴練習彈奏，似乎真該有人（并非暗指馬奇嬸嬸）來幫她一把。然而沒有人幫她，也沒有人看到她悄悄把落在五音不全的黃色琴鍵上的眼淚抹掉。她像只小云雀般為自己的工作歌唱，為媽咪和姐妹們伴奏，永不言累，每天都滿懷希望地對自己說：“我知道有一天我一定會學好音樂，只要我乖。”
There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.
世界上有許許多多個貝思，靦腆平靜，默默居于一角，需要時才挺身而出，樂于為別人而犧牲自己。人們只看到她們臉上的笑容，卻沒有意識到她們所作出的犧牲，直到爐邊的小蟋蟀停止了吟唱，和美的陽光消逝而去，空剩下一片寂靜和黑暗。
If anybody had asked Amy what the greatest trial of her life was, she would have answered at once, "My nose." When she was a baby, Jo had accidently dropped her into the coal hod, and Amy insisted that the fall had ruined her nose forever. It was not big nor red, like poor 'Petrea's', it was only rather flat, and all the pinching in the world could not give it an aristocratic point. No one minded it but herself, and it was doing its best to grow, but Amy felt deeply the want of a Grecian nose, and drew whole sheets of handsome ones to console herself.
如果有人問艾美生活中最大的痛苦是什么，她會立即回答：“我的鼻子。”當她還是嬰孩時，喬一次不小心把她摔落在煤斗里頭。艾美認定那次意外永遠毀掉了她的鼻子。她的鼻子既不大也不紅，只是有點扁。無論怎樣捏怎樣夾也弄不出個貴族式的鼻尖兒，除了她自己外，并沒有人在意，而且鼻子的長勢也極好，但艾美總認為自己的鼻梁不夠直，便畫了一大堆美鼻畫兒聊以自慰。
"Little Raphael," as her sisters called her, had a decided talent for drawing, and was never so happy as when copying flowers, designing fairies, or illustrating stories with queer specimens of art. Her teachers complained that instead of doing her sums she covered her slate with animals, the blank pages of her atlas were used to copy maps on, and caricatures of the most ludicrous description came fluttering out of all her books at unlucky moments.
“小拉斐爾"正如她的姐姐們所稱，無疑極有繪畫天分。她最大的幸福莫過于摹繪鮮花、設計小仙女，或用古怪的藝術形象說明故事。她的老師抱怨說她的寫字板不是用來做算術，而是畫滿了動物，地圖冊上的空白版面被她摹滿了地圖，她的書本一不小心便會弄出許多荒唐滑稽的漫畫。
She got through her lessons as well as she could, and managed to escape reprimands by being a model of deportment. She was a great favorite with her mates, being good-tempered and possessing the happy art of pleasing without effort. Her little airs and graces were much admired, so were her accomplishments, for besides her drawing, she could play twelve tunes, crochet, and read French without mispronouncing more than two-thirds of the words. She had a plaintive way of saying, "When Papa was rich we did so-and-so," which was very touching, and her long words were considered 'perfectly elegant' by the girls.
她的學習成績就個人能力而言已屬不俗，其行為舉止也被大家視為楷模，并因此而逃過數次懲戒。她脾性隨和，深諳取悅別人之道，因此在學校深得人心。她姿態略有點做作，但多才多藝，除繪畫外，還會彈十二首曲子，善鉤織，讀法文時讀錯的字不超過三分之二，令人十分羨慕。她說"爸爸有錢的那個時候我們如何如何"這句話時，悲哀婉轉，令人感動，她拖長了的發音也被姑娘們視為"絕頂優雅"。
