評(píng)論
打印
'Think of me more leniently, if you can, James,' said John Carker, 'when I tell you I have had - how could I help having, with my history, written here' - striking himself upon the breast - 'my whole heart awakened by my observation of that boy, Walter Gay. I saw in him when he first came here, almost my other self.'
“如果你能夠的話(huà)，詹姆斯，請(qǐng)想到我的時(shí)候?qū)捄褚恍┌桑奔s翰·卡克說(shuō)道，“當(dāng)我告訴你，我對(duì)那孩子，沃爾特·蓋伊的觀察，已把我整個(gè)心靈都喚醒了；——我怎么能不這樣呢。我的歷史寫(xiě)在這里，”——這時(shí)他敲打著自己的胸膛——“當(dāng)他初到這里來(lái)的時(shí)候，我在他身上看到了幾乎是另一個(gè)我。”
'Your other self!' repeated the Manager, disdainfully.
“另一個(gè)你！”經(jīng)理輕蔑地重復(fù)著。
'Not as I am, but as I was when I first came here too; as sanguine, giddy, youthful, inexperienced; flushed with the same restless and adventurous fancies; and full of the same qualities, fraught with the same capacity of leading on to good or evil.'
“并不是現(xiàn)在的我，而是也是初到這里時(shí)的我，那時(shí)候我跟他一樣樂(lè)觀、輕率、年輕、沒(méi)有經(jīng)驗(yàn)，跟他一樣揚(yáng)揚(yáng)得意地充滿(mǎn)了永不平靜、愛(ài)好冒險(xiǎn)的幻想，跟他一樣賦有能通向善良或通向邪惡的品質(zhì)。”
'I hope not,' said his brother, with some hidden and sarcastic meaning in his tone.
“我希望不是，”他的弟弟說(shuō)道，語(yǔ)氣中有著某種隱藏的與諷刺的意義。
'You strike me sharply; and your hand is steady, and your thrust is very deep,' returned the other, speaking (or so Walter thought) as if some cruel weapon actually stabbed him as he spoke. 'I imagined all this when he was a boy. I believed it. It was a truth to me. I saw him lightly walking on the edge of an unseen gulf where so many others walk with equal gaiety, and from which 'The old excuse,' interrupted his brother, as he stirred the fire. 'So many. Go on. Say, so many fall.''From which ONE traveller fell,' returned the other, 'who set forward, on his way, a boy like him, and missed his footing more and more, and slipped a little and a little lower; and went on stumbling still, until he fell headlong and found himself below a shattered man. Think what I suffered, when I watched that boy.'
“你把我刺得很痛；你的手沒(méi)有顫抖，你戳進(jìn)得很深，”另一位回答道，仿佛在他說(shuō)話(huà)的時(shí)候，什么殘酷的武器真正捅了他似的（或者沃爾特覺(jué)得是這樣）。“當(dāng)他初到這里來(lái)的時(shí)候，我想像著這一切。我相信它。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，這是真實(shí)的。我看到他在一個(gè)看不到的深淵的邊緣輕快地走著，那么多其他的人們都以同樣愉快的神情在那里走著，并且從那里——” “老借口，”弟弟捅捅爐火，插嘴道，“那么多的人們。說(shuō)下去吧。說(shuō)，那么多的人們掉下去了。” “一位走著的人從那里掉下去了；”另一位回答道，“一位像他那樣的孩子開(kāi)始走上路途，一次又一次地失足，一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)地往下滑，繼續(xù)摔倒，直到后來(lái)，他倒栽蔥地掉下去，并在底層發(fā)現(xiàn)他自己成了一個(gè)體無(wú)完膚的人。請(qǐng)想一想當(dāng)我注意觀察那個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，我心里是多么痛苦呵。”
