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There were no candles in any of the rooms. The only light came from fires, in hanging metal baskets, which were in the passages outside the rooms. Each fire was opposite a window, and so the light from the fire shone through the coloured glass and filled each room with strange and fantastic shadows. But in the black room the firelight that shone through the blood-red window changed the room into something too horrible to describe. In that strange light, faces became wild and frightening, and few people were brave enough to enter the room at all.
哪间屋子里都是不点蜡烛的。唯有的光亮来自屋子外面走廊里挂着的金属吊篮中燃着的火焰。每一团火焰正对着一扇窗户，于是火光透过彩色玻璃映射进来，使每一间屋子都布满古怪、奇异的影子。可是，那间黑色屋子在透过血红色窗户投射进来的火光映照下却变得难以形容地恐怖瘆人。在那怪异的光芒中，一张张面孔显得又疯狂又可怖；根本就没有几个人胆大得敢走进那间屋子。
In this room, against the farthest wall, stood a huge black clock Every hour it chimed loud and deep and clear, filling the castle with its long, gloomy sound. And while the clock chimed, the musicians stopped playing and even the wildest dancers stood still, in silence and fear, listening to the passing of another hour…But when the chiming stopped, people looked at each other and laughed, trying hard to pretend that they had not been frightened. Happiness came into the castle again, until the clock chimed the passing of the next hour, and the same fear returned.
在这间屋子里，靠着最远处那面墙立着一座黑色的大钟，每到整点便以洪亮、深沉、清晰的声音报时，让那悠长、阴森的轰鸣响彻整个城堡。每当大钟报时，乐师们便停止演奏音乐，就连最狂热的舞者也要呆呆地站定，一声不吭、满心恐惧地谛听着又一个钟头的流逝……但是一旦报时结束，人们便彼此相视大笑，尽力装出一副根本没有受到惊吓的样子。欢乐再一次降临到城堡之中，直到大钟宣布下一个钟头逝去的时候，相同的恐惧才会回到他们心里。
Prince Prospero's ball, although given in these strange rooms, was wild and happy. The Prince had planned everything-the colours, the paintings on the walls, even the cloaks and masks worn by each one of his friends. He had chosen all the clothes with the greatest of care, putting together the beautiful and the ugly, the strange and the fantastic, the surprising and the frightening.
普洛斯佩罗亲王的舞会尽管是在这样几间希奇占怪的屋子中举行的，却开得甚为无法无天、恣情纵欲。亲王筹划了一切——房间的色彩，墙上挂的图画，甚至供每一位朋友穿戴的斗篷和面具都准备好了。他尽最大努力精心挑选了所有的衣装，集美与丑、荒诞不经与异想天开、别出心裁与怵目惊心于一体襄此盛举。
