評論
打印
The second reason for his delay was a personal one. He had dawdled over his cigar because he was at heart a dilettante, and thinking over a pleasure to come often gave him a subtler satisfaction than its realisation. This was especially the case when the pleasure was a delicate one, as his pleasures mostly were; and on this occasion the moment he looked forward to was so rare and exquisite in quality that--well, if he had timed his arrival in accord with the prima donna's stage-manager he could not have entered the Academy at a more significant moment than just as she was singing: "He loves me--he loves me not--HE LOVES ME!--" and sprinkling the falling daisy petals with notes as clear as dew.
他晚到的第二個原因是個人方面的。他吸煙慢慢吞吞，是因為他在內心深處是個藝術的愛好者，玩味行將來到的快樂，常常會使他比快樂真的來到時感到更深切的滿足。當這種快樂十分微妙時尤其如此，而他的樂趣多半屬于這種類型。這一次他期盼的時機非常珍貴，其性質異常微妙——呃，假若他把時間掌握得恰到好處，能與那位首席女演員的舞臺監督合上拍，到場時正趕上她一邊唱著“他愛我——他不愛我——他愛我！”一邊拋灑著雛菊花瓣，其暗示像露水般清澈——果真如此，他進音樂院的時機就再美妙不過了。
She sang, of course, "M'ama!" and not "he loves me," since an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English- speaking audiences. This seemed as natural to Newland Archer as all the other conventions on which his life was moulded: such as the duty of using two silver- backed brushes with his monogram in blue enamel to part his hair, and of never appearing in society without a flower (preferably a gardenia) in his buttonhole.
當然，她唱的是“呣啊嘛”，而不是“他愛我”，因為音樂界那不容改變、不容懷疑的法則要求，由瑞典藝術家演唱的法國歌劇的德語文本，必須翻譯成意大利語，以便講英語的聽眾更清楚地理解。這一點紐蘭·阿切爾覺得和他生活中遵循的所有其他慣例一樣理所當然：比如，用兩把帶有藍瓷漆涂著他姓名縮寫的銀背刷子分開他的頭發，紐扣洞里插一朵花（最好是桅子花）才在社交界露面。
"M'ama . . . non m'ama . . . " the prima donna sang, and "M'ama!", with a final burst of love triumphant, as she pressed the dishevelled daisy to her lips and lifted her large eyes to the sophisticated countenance of the little brown Faust-Capoul, who was vainly trying, in a tight purple velvet doublet and plumed cap, to look as pure and true as his artless victim.
“呣啊嘛……農呣啊嘛……”首席女演員唱道，她以贏得愛情后的最后爆發力唱出“呣啊嘛！”一面把那束亂蓬蓬的雛菊壓在唇上，抬起一雙大眼睛，朝那位陰郁的小浮士德——卡布爾做作的臉上望去。他穿一件紫色的絲絨緊身上衣，戴一頂鼓囊囊的便帽，正徒勞地裝出與那位天真的受害者一樣純潔真誠的表情。
Newland Archer, leaning against the wall at the back of the club box, turned his eyes from the stage and scanned the opposite side of the house. Directly facing him was the box of old Mrs. Manson Mingott, whose monstrous obesity had long since made it impossible for her to attend the Opera, but who was always represented on fashionable nights by some of the younger members of the family. On this occasion, the front of the box was filled by her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lovell Mingott, and her daughter, Mrs. Welland; and slightly withdrawn behind these brocaded matrons sat a young girl in white with eyes ecstatically fixed on the stagelovers. As Madame Nilsson's "M'ama!" thrilled out above the silent house (the boxes always stopped talking during the Daisy Song) a warm pink mounted to the girl's cheek, mantled her brow to the roots of her fair braids, and suffused the young slope of her breast to the line where it met a modest tulle tucker fastened with a single gardenia. She dropped her eyes to the immense bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley on her knee, and Newland Archer saw her white-gloved finger-tips touch the flowers softly. He drew a breath of satisfied vanity and his eyes returned to the stage.
紐蘭·阿切爾倚在俱樂部包廂后面的墻上，目光從舞臺上移開，掃視著劇場對面。正對著他的是老曼森·明戈特太太的包廂。可怕的肥胖病早已使她無法來聽歌劇，不過在有社交活動的晚上，她總是由家庭的某些年輕成員代表出席。這一次，占據包廂前排座位的是她的兒媳洛弗爾·明戈特太太和她的女兒韋蘭太太。坐在這兩位身著錦緞的婦人身后的是一位穿白衣的年輕姑娘，正目不轉睛地注視著那對舞臺戀人。當尼爾森夫人“呣啊嘛”的顫音劃破音樂院靜寂的上空時（演唱雛菊歌期間，各包廂總是停止交談），一片潮紅泛起在姑娘的面頰，從額頭涌向她美麗發辮的根際，漫過她那青春的胸部斜面，直至系著一朵桅子花的薄紗領的領線。她垂下眼睛望著膝上那一大束鈴蘭。紐蘭·阿切爾看見她戴白手套的指尖輕撫著花朵。他滿足地深深吸了一口氣。他的目光又回到舞臺上。
No expense had been spared on the setting, which was acknowledged to be very beautiful even by people who shared his acquaintance with the Opera houses of Paris and Vienna. The foreground, to the footlights, was covered with emerald green cloth. In the middle distance symmetrical mounds of woolly green moss bounded by croquet hoops formed the base of shrubs shaped like orange-trees but studded with large pink and red roses. Gigantic pansies, considerably larger than the roses, and closely resembling the floral pen- wipers made by female parishioners for fashionable clergymen, sprang from the moss beneath the rose- trees; and here and there a daisy grafted on a rose- branch flowered with a luxuriance prophetic of Mr. Luther Burbank's far-off prodigies.
布景的制作是不惜工本的，連熟悉巴黎和維也納歌劇院的人也承認布景很美。前景直至腳燈鋪了一塊鮮綠色的畫布，中景的底層是若干覆蓋著毛茸茸綠色地衣的對稱小丘，與槌球游戲的拱門鄰接，上面的灌木叢形狀像桔子樹，但點綴其間的卻是大朵大朵粉紅色和紅色的玫瑰花。比這些玫瑰更大的紫羅蘭，頗似教區女居民為牧師制作的花形筆擦，從玫瑰樹底下的綠苔中拔地而起；在一些鮮花怒放的玫瑰枝頭，嫁接著朵朵雛菊，預告著盧瑟·伯班克先生園藝試驗遙遠的奇觀。
