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Towards the end of the fifth or sixth month, while the Red Death was at its most deadly outside, the Prince gave a wonderful masked ball for his friends. It was a wild and wonderful ball, but first let me tell you about the rooms in which he gave the ball. There were seven rooms in all. In most castles, of course, the rooms for great parties or dances join each other end to end. In this way, when the doors at the end of each room are opened, the seven rooms become one huge room, and you can see from the first room right through to the last one. In Prospero's castle, it was different. Each room turned suddenly round a corner into the next, so if you were standing in one room it was impossible to see into the other rooms.
到了第五或第六个月的末尾，外面正是红死病最为猖獗的时候，亲王却举办了一个盛大的假面舞会招待他的朋友们。舞会开得热烈奔放、精彩绝伦，不过首先让我来向诸位介绍一下举办舞会的场地。总共有七间屋子。当然，在大多数城堡里，举行大型宴会或舞会的房间都是彼此衔接、首尾相连的。按照这种布局，每一间屋子两端的门一开，七间屋子就会变成一个大房间，你可以从第一间屋子径直望见最后一间。然而在普洛斯佩罗的城堡里，情形就有所不同了，每一个房间要绕过一个拐角才突然转而成为下一个房间。这样，如果你站在其中一个房间里，你是不可能望见其他几个房间的。
In the middle of each wall, on the right and left, there was a tall, narrow window opening onto the closed passage which ran along beside all seven rooms. Each window was made of different coloured glass, and the colour of the glass was the same as the colour of the room that it opened onto. The first room, for example, was blue, and so its windows were also a deep blue. The second room was purple, and so the windows, too, were purple. The third was green, with green windows, the fourth orange, the fifth white, and the sixth violet. The seventh room was black. Its walls were black, its thick, heavy carpet was also black. But its windows were red-a deep blood－red.
在每间屋子左右两面墙的中部，各开着一扇又高又窄的窗户，窗外是一个封闭的走廊，它在全部七个房间旁边经过。每扇窗户都镶着不同颜色的玻璃，而玻璃的颜色又同窗户所处的房间的色调相一致。比如，第一个房间是蓝色的，所以它的两扇窗户都是深蓝色的；第二个房间是紫色的，它的窗户也就是紫色的；第三个房间是绿色的，安着绿窗户；第四个为橙黄色；第五个为白色；第六个为紫罗兰色。第七个房间是黑色的，四壁涂成黑色，又厚又重的地毯也是黑色的；然而这间屋子的窗户却是红色的——一种深浓的血红。
