評(píng)論
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Packed in the family landau they rolled from one tribal doorstep to another, and Archer, when the afternoon's round was over, parted from his betrothed with the feeling that he had been shown off like a wild animal cunningly trapped. He supposed that his readings in anthropology caused him to take such a coarse view of what was after all a simple and natural demonstration of family feeling; but when he remembered that the Wellands did not expect the wedding to take place till the following autumn, and pictured what his life would be till then, a dampness fell upon his spirit.
他們擠在家用四輪馬車?yán)铮瑥淖迦说囊粋€(gè)門階趕到另一個(gè)門階。下午的一輪拜訪結(jié)束，阿切爾與未婚妻分手之后，覺得自己仿佛是一頭被巧妙捕獲的野獸，剛剛被展覽過一番。他想可能是因?yàn)樗x了些人類學(xué)的書，才對(duì)家族感情這種單純與自然的表露持如此粗俗的看法；想起韋蘭夫婦指望明年秋天才舉辦婚禮，他展望這段時(shí)間的生活，心里像潑上一盆冷水。
"Tomorrow," Mrs. Welland called after him, "we'll do the Chiverses and the Dallases"; and he perceived that she was going through their two families alphabetically, and that they were only in the first quarter of the alphabet.
“明天，”韋蘭太太在他身后喊道，“我們?nèi)テ娓ニ辜液瓦_(dá)拉斯家。”他發(fā)現(xiàn)她準(zhǔn)備按字母順序走遍他們的兩個(gè)家族，而他們目前僅僅處于字母表的前四分之一。
He had meant to tell May of the Countess Olenska's request--her command, rather--that he should call on her that afternoon; but in the brief moments when they were alone he had had more pressing things to say. Besides, it struck him as a little absurd to allude to the matter. He knew that May most particularly wanted him to be kind to her cousin; was it not that wish which had hastened the announcement of their engagement? It gave him an odd sensation to reflect that, but for the Countess's arrival, he might have been, if not still a free man, at least a man less irrevocably pledged. But May had willed it so, and he felt himself somehow relieved of further responsibility--and therefore at liberty, if he chose, to call on her cousin without telling her.
他本打算告訴梅，奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人要求——或者不如說命令——他今天下午去看她，可是在他倆單獨(dú)一起的短暫時(shí)刻，他還有更要緊的事要講，而且他覺得提這件事有點(diǎn)不合情理。他知道，梅特別希望他善待她的表姐。不正是出于這種愿望，才加快了他們訂婚消息的宣布嗎？若不是伯爵夫人的到來，即使他不再是一個(gè)自由人，至少也不會(huì)像現(xiàn)在這樣無可挽回地受著婚約的束縛。一想到此，他心里產(chǎn)生了一種奇怪的感覺。可這一切都是梅的意愿，他不由覺得自己無須承擔(dān)更多的責(zé)任；因而只要他樂意，他完全可以去拜訪她的表姐，而無須事先告訴她。
As he stood on Madame Olenska's threshold curiosity was his uppermost feeling. He was puzzled by the tone in which she had summoned him; he concluded that she was less simple than she seemed.
他站在奧蘭斯卡夫人住宅的門口，心里充滿了好奇。她約他前來時(shí)的口吻令他困惑不解，他斷定她并不像表面上那樣單純。
The door was opened by a swarthy foreign-looking maid, with a prominent bosom under a gay neckerchief, whom he vaguely fancied to be Sicilian. She welcomed him with all her white teeth, and answering his enquiries by a head-shake of incomprehension led him through the narrow hall into a low firelit drawing- room. The room was empty, and she left him, for an appreciable time, to wonder whether she had gone to find her mistress, or whether she had not understood what he was there for, and thought it might be to wind the clock--of which he perceived that the only visible specimen had stopped. He knew that the southern races communicated with each other in the language of pantomime, and was mortified to find her shrugs and smiles so unintelligible. At length she returned with a lamp; and Archer, having meanwhile put together a phrase out of Dante and Petrarch, evoked the answer: "La signora e fuori; ma verra subito"; which he took to mean: "She's out--but you'll soon see."
一位黑黝黝的異國面孔的女傭開了門。她胸部高高隆起，戴著花哨的圍巾，他隱隱約約覺得她是個(gè)西西里人。她露出滿口潔白的牙齒歡迎他，對(duì)他的問詢困惑地?fù)u了搖頭，帶他穿過狹窄的門廊，進(jìn)了一間生了火的低矮客廳。客廳里空無一人，她把他留在那兒，給他足夠的時(shí)間琢磨她是去找女主人呢，還是原本就沒弄明白他來此有何貴干。或者她會(huì)以為他是來給時(shí)鐘上弦的吧——他發(fā)覺惟一看得見的那只鐘已經(jīng)停了擺。他知道南歐人常用手語相互交談，而現(xiàn)在他卻無法理解她的聳肩與微笑，感到十分難堪。她終于拿著一盞燈回來了，阿切爾這時(shí)已從但丁與彼特拉克的作品中拼湊出一個(gè)短語，引得她回答說：“拉西格諾拉埃夫奧里；馬維拉蘇比托。”他認(rèn)為這句話的意思是：“她出去了——不過一會(huì)兒你就能見到她。
What he saw, meanwhile, with the help of the lamp, was the faded shadowy charm of a room unlike any room he had known. He knew that the Countess Olenska had brought some of her possessions with her--bits of wreckage, she called them--and these, he supposed, were represented by some small slender tables of dark wood, a delicate little Greek bronze on the chimney- piece, and a stretch of red damask nailed on the discoloured wallpaper behind a couple of Italian-looking pictures in old frames.
同時(shí)，他借助燈光發(fā)現(xiàn)這屋子自有一種幽冥淡雅的魅力，與他熟悉的任何房間都不相同。他知道奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人帶回來少量的財(cái)物——她稱作殘骸碎片。他想，這幾張雅致的深色小木桌，壁爐上那一尊優(yōu)美的希臘小青銅像，還有幾幅裝在老式畫框里的好像是意大利的繪畫（后面是釘在褪色墻紙上的一片紅色錦緞）—— 便是其代表了。
Newland Archer prided himself on his knowledge of Italian art. His boyhood had been saturated with Ruskin, and he had read all the latest books: John Addington Symonds, Vernon Lee's "Euphorion," the essays of P. G. Hamerton, and a wonderful new volume called "The Renaissance" by Walter Pater. He talked easily of Botticelli, and spoke of Fra Angelico with a faint condescension. But these pictures bewildered him, for they were like nothing that he was accustomed to look at (and therefore able to see) when he travelled in Italy; and perhaps, also, his powers of observation were impaired by the oddness of finding himself in this strange empty house, where apparently no one expected him. He was sorry that he had not told May Welland of Countess Olenska's request, and a little disturbed by the thought that his betrothed might come in to see her cousin. What would she think if she found him sitting there with the air of intimacy implied by waiting alone in the dusk at a lady's fireside?
紐蘭·阿切爾以懂得意大利藝術(shù)而自豪。他童年時(shí)代受過拉斯金的熏陶，讀過各種各樣的新書：像約翰·阿丁頓·西蒙茲的作品，弗農(nóng)·李的《尤福里翁》，菲· 吉·哈默頓的隨筆，以及瓦爾特·佩特一本叫做《文藝復(fù)興》的絕妙新書。他談?wù)摬┑偃锏漠嬋鐢?shù)家珍，說起拉安吉里克更有點(diǎn)兒不可一世。然而這幾幅畫卻讓他極為困惑，因?yàn)樗鼈兣c他在意大利旅行時(shí)看慣（因此也能看懂）的那些畫毫無相似之處；也許，還因?yàn)榘l(fā)現(xiàn)自己處境奇特的感覺削弱了他的觀察力——他置身在這個(gè)陌生的空房子里，顯然又沒有誰在恭候他。他為沒有把奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人的要求告訴梅·韋蘭而懊悔，并且有點(diǎn)忐忑不安。他想，他的未婚妻有可能來這兒看望她的表姐，倘若她發(fā)現(xiàn)他坐在這兒，只身在一位夫人爐邊的昏暗中等待著，對(duì)這種親密的樣子她會(huì)怎樣想呢？
But since he had come he meant to wait; and he sank into a chair and stretched his feet to the logs.
不過既然來了，他就要等下去；于是他坐進(jìn)椅子里，把腳伸向燃燒著的木柴。
