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On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.
70年代初一個一月的晚上，克里斯廷·尼爾森在紐約音樂院演唱歌劇《浮士德》。
Though there was already talk of the erection, in remote metropolitan distances "above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy. Conservatives cherished it for being small and inconvenient, and thus keeping out the "new people" whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to; and the sentimental clung to it for its historic associations, and the musical for its excellent acoustics, always so problematic a quality in halls built for the hearing of music.
雖然人們早就議論要在第40街以北的遠郊興建一座新的歌劇院，其造價與壯觀將和歐洲那些著名首都的歌劇院媲美，然而上流社會卻依然滿足于每年冬天在這座歷史悠久的音樂院紅黃兩色的舊包廂里進行社交聚會。保守派的人們欣賞它的窄小不便，這樣可以把紐約社會開始懼怕但又為之吸引的“新人”拒之門外；多愁善感的人們因為它引起許多歷史的聯想而對它戀戀不舍；而音樂愛好者則留戀它精美的音響效果。在專為欣賞音樂而修建的廳堂中，音響效果向來都是個棘手的質量問題。
It was Madame Nilsson's first appearance that winter, and what the daily press had already learned to describe as "an exceptionally brilliant audience" had gathered to hear her, transported through the slippery, snowy streets in private broughams, in the spacious family landau, or in the humbler but more convenient "Brown coupe" To come to the Opera in a Brown coupe was almost as honourable a way of arriving as in one's own carriage; and departure by the same means had the immense advantage of enabling one (with a playful allusion to democratic principles) to scramble into the first Brown conveyance in the line, instead of waiting till the cold-and-gin congested nose of one's own coachman gleamed under the portico of the Academy. It was one of the great livery-stableman's most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.
這是尼爾森夫人當年冬天的首場演出。那些被日報稱為“超凡脫俗的聽眾”已經云集來聽她的演唱。他們或乘私人馬車、或乘寬敞的家庭雙篷馬車、或者乘檔次較低卻更為便利的“布朗四輪馬車”，經過溜滑多雪的街道來到了這里。乘坐布朗馬車來聽歌劇，幾乎跟坐自己的馬車一樣體面；而且，離開劇場時還有極大的優越性（對民主原則開一句玩笑）：你可以搶先登上線路上第一輛布朗馬車，而不用等待自己的那因寒冷和烈酒而充血的紅鼻子車夫在音樂院門廊下面顯現。美國人想離開娛樂場所比想去的時候更加迫切，這可是那位了不起的馬車行店主憑絕妙的直覺獲得的偉大發現。
When Newland Archer opened the door at the back of the club box the curtain had just gone up on the garden scene. There was no reason why the young man should not have come earlier, for he had dined at seven, alone with his mother and sister, and had lingered afterward over a cigar in the Gothic library with glazed black-walnut bookcases and finial-topped chairs which was the only room in the house where Mrs. Archer allowed smoking. But, in the first place, New York was a metropolis, and perfectly aware that in metropolises it was "not the thing" to arrive early at the opera; and what was or was not "the thing" played a part as important in Newland Archer's New York as the inscrutable totem terrors that had ruled the destinies of his forefathers thousands of years ago.
當紐蘭·阿切爾打開包廂后面的門時，花園一場的帷幕剛剛升起。這位年輕人本可以早一點來到。他7點鐘和母親與妹妹一起用了餐，其后又在哥特式圖書室里慢慢吞吞地吸了一支雪茄。那間放了光亮的黑色胡桃木書櫥和尖頂椅子的房間，是這所房子里阿切爾太太惟一允許吸煙的地方。然而，首先，紐約是個大都市，而他又十分清楚，在大都市里聽歌劇早到是“不合宜”的。而是否“合宜”，在紐蘭·阿切爾時代的紐約，其意義就像幾千年前支配了他祖先命運的不可思議的圖騰恐懼一樣重要。
