It was the traditional maidenly interrogation, and he felt ashamed of himself for finding it singularly childish. No doubt she simply echoed what was said for her; but she was nearing her twenty-second birthday, and he wondered at what age "nice" women began to speak for themselves.
這是少女習(xí)慣性的反問，他覺得特別幼稚，并為此感到慚愧。她無疑是在重復(fù)別人對(duì)她說過的話，可是她都快滿22歲了，他不明白，“有教養(yǎng)”的女子要到多大年齡才能開始替自己說話。

"Never, if we won't let them, I suppose," he mused, and recalled his mad outburst to Mr. Sillerton Jackson: "Women ought to be as free as we are--"
“她們永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)的，假如我們不允許她們，”他在心里想道。他突然記起了他對(duì)西勒頓·杰克遜說過的那句義正詞嚴(yán)的話：“女人應(yīng)當(dāng)跟我們一樣自由——”

It would presently be his task to take the bandage from this young woman's eyes, and bid her look forth on the world. But how many generations of the women who had gone to her making had descended bandaged to the family vault? He shivered a little, remembering some of the new ideas in his scientific books, and the much-cited instance of the Kentucky cave-fish, which had ceased to develop eyes because they had no use for them. What if, when he had bidden May Welland to open hers, they could only look out blankly at blankness?
他眼下的任務(wù)是取下蒙在這位年輕女子眼上的繃帶，讓她睜開眼睛看一看世界。然而，在她之前，已經(jīng)有多少代像她這樣的女人，帶著蒙在眼上的繃帶沉入了家族的地下靈堂呢？他不禁打了個(gè)冷顫，想起在科學(xué)書籍中讀到的一些新思想，還想起經(jīng)常被引證的肯塔基的巖洞魚，那種魚由于眼睛派不上用場(chǎng)，它們的眼睛已經(jīng)大大退化了。假如他讓梅·韋蘭睜開眼睛，她只能茫然地看到一片空白，那該怎么辦呢？

"We might be much better off. We might be altogether together--we might travel."
“我們可以過得更快樂，我們可以始終在一起——我們可以去旅行。”

Her face lit up. "That would be lovely," she owned: she would love to travel. But her mother would not understand their wanting to do things so differently.
她臉上露出喜色說：“那倒是很美。”她承認(rèn)她喜愛旅行，但他們想做的事那么與眾不同，她母親是不會(huì)理解的。

"As if the mere `differently' didn't account for it!" the wooer insisted.
“好像這還不僅僅是‘與眾不同’的問題！”阿切爾堅(jiān)持說。

"Newland! You're so original!" she exulted.
“紐蘭！你是多么獨(dú)特呀！”她高興地說。

His heart sank, for he saw that he was saying all the things that young men in the same situation were expected to say, and that she was making the answers that instinct and tradition taught her to make--even to the point of calling him original.
他的心不由一沉。他覺得自己講的完全是處于同樣情況下的年輕人肯定要講的內(nèi)容，而她的回答卻完全是本能與傳統(tǒng)教她的那種回答。她居然會(huì)說他“獨(dú)特”！

"Original! We're all as like each other as those dolls cut out of the same folded paper. We're like patterns stencilled on a wall. Can't you and I strike out for ourselves, May?"
“有什么‘獨(dú)特’的！我們?nèi)几猛粔K折疊的紙剪出的娃娃一樣相似，我們就像用模板印在墻上的圖案。難道你我不能走自己的路嗎，梅？”

He had stopped and faced her in the excitement of their discussion, and her eyes rested on him with a bright unclouded admiration.
他打住話頭，面對(duì)著她，沉浸在因討論產(chǎn)生的興奮之中；她望著他，目光里閃爍著欣喜明朗的傾慕。