LESSON 33 Panegyric on Marie Antoinette
第三十三課 瑪麗·安托瓦內特的頌歌
It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France—then the Dauphiness—at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in—glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendour, and joy.
我上次在凡爾賽見到法國女王——后來的皇太子妃已經是六、七年前的事情了。她定不會點亮那對她來說難以觸及的王權寶球，雖然必是一番愉悅景象。我看見她，她正在裝飾并為那高貴的寶球而歡呼，她剛剛入場，像晨星一樣閃閃發光，洋溢著激情，光彩奪目，充滿歡樂。
Oh, what a revolution! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation, and that fall! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I should live to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.
啊，多么偉大的一場革命啊！我須以怎樣的內心，來注視那沉浮！我從未想到，她將尊貴的頭銜授予了那些熱情、遙遠及尊敬之人。她將不得不帶著尖銳的解藥來對抗藏在她懷里的恥辱；我也從未想到，我將活著看到這樣的災難降臨在她身上，降臨在一個勇敢的民族里、一個榮譽的民族里、一個騎士的民族里。哪怕是一個侮辱性的威脅她的眼神，我想也定會有一萬把劍從鞘中跳出來為她復仇。
But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex—that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart—which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone! It is gone,—that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound; which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity; which ennobled whatever it touched; and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
但是，騎士時代已經過去，詭辯家、經濟學家和計算家成了主宰，歐洲的榮耀也不復存在。我們再也看不到那種對等級和性別的慷慨的忠誠——那種驕傲的屈服、那種帶著尊嚴的順從、那種心靈的從屬——即使在奴役中，也能保持一種崇高的自由精神。那未被收買的生命的恩典，國家的廉價防御，男子氣概和英雄主義的滋養都已一去不復返！那對原則的敏感，貞潔的榮譽，像傷口上的污跡，全部蕩然無存。在激發了勇氣的同時卻讓兇殘減緩。這令它所觸碰的東西更加高貴，如此，罪惡則通過失去它的粗鄙而失去了自己的一半邪惡。
評論
打印
