评论
打印
She turned away without answering and got quickly into the carriage.
她没有回答便转过身去，立即上了马车。
As it drove off she leaned forward, and he thought she waved her hand in the obscurity.
马车驶走的时候，她向前探了探身，他觉得她好像在黑暗中摆了摆手。
He stared after her in a turmoil of contradictory feelings.
他怀着矛盾混乱的心情从后面凝望着她，
It seemed to him that he had been speaking not to the woman he loved but to another, a woman he was indebted to for pleasures already wearied of: it was hateful to find himself the prisoner of this hackneyed vocabulary.
觉得自己仿佛不是在跟他心爱的女人谈话，他面对的好像是他已经厌倦、欠下感情债的另一个女人。发现自己老是摆脱不掉这些陈腐的词语，他对自己深感气愤。
"She'll come!" he said to himself, almost contemptuously.
“她会来的！”他几乎是轻蔑地对自己说。
Avoiding the popular "Wolfe collection," whose anecdotic canvases filled one of the main galleries of the queer wilderness of cast-iron and encaustic tiles known as the Metropolitan Museum, they had wandered down a passage to the room where the "Cesnola antiquities" mouldered in unvisited loneliness.
称作都会博物馆的这一由铸铁与彩瓦构成的古里古怪的建筑物，有几个主要的画廊。其中之一挂满了描绘轶事趣闻的油画。他们躲开了这个最受欢迎的“伍尔夫珍藏”画廊，沿过道漫步来到一间房于，里面陈列的“查兹诺拉古代文物”在无人问津的孤独中渐渐消蚀。
They had this melancholy retreat to themselves, and seated on the divan enclosing the central steam-radiator, they were staring silently at the glass cabinets mounted in ebonised wood which contained the recovered fragments of Ilium.
他们两人来到这样一个忧郁的隐避之处，坐在环绕中央散热器的长沙发椅上，默默地凝视着架在黑檀木上的那些玻璃柜，里面陈列着发掘出土的骼骨碎片。
"It's odd," Madame Olenska said, "I never came here before."
“真奇怪，”奥兰斯卡夫人说，“我以前从没来过这儿。”
"Ah, well--. Some day, I suppose, it will be a great Museum."
“啊，唔--我想，有一天它会变成一个了不起的博物馆。”
"Yes," she assented absently.
“是啊，”她心不在焉地赞同说。
She stood up and wandered across the room.
她站起来，在屋里来回走动。
Archer, remaining seated, watched the light movements of her figure, so girlish even under its heavy furs, the cleverly planted heron wing in her fur cap, and the way a dark curl lay like a flattened vine spiral on each cheek above the ear.
阿切尔仍旧坐着，观察她身体轻盈的动作。即使穿着厚重的毛皮外衣她也显得像个小姑娘似的。她的皮帽子上巧妙地插了一片鹭翅，两颊各有一个深色发鬈像螺旋形藤蔓平伏在耳朵上方。
His mind, as always when they first met, was wholly absorbed in the delicious details that made her herself and no other.
他的思想又像他们刚一见面时总会发生的那样，
Presently he rose and approached the case before which she stood.
完全集中在使她区别于他人的那些，冶人的微枝末节上了。
Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects--hardly recognisable domestic utensils, ornaments and personal trifles--made of glass, of clay, of discoloured bronze and other time- blurred substances.
接着他起身走到她伫立的匣子跟前，匣子的玻璃搁板上堆满了破碎的小物件--几乎无法辨认的家用器皿、装饰品及个人用的小东西，有玻璃制的，泥土制的，褪色的铜制品，以及被时光模糊了的其他材料的物品。
"It seems cruel," she said, "that after a while nothing matters... any more than these little things, that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labelled:"Use unknown."
“看起来好残酷啊，”她说。“过上一段时间，一切都会变得无关紧要了……就跟这些小东西一样。对那些被遗忘的人来说，它们当初都是重要的必需品，可如今只有放在放大镜下去猜测了，并且还加上标签：‘用途不详’。”
"Yes; but meanwhile--" "Ah, meanwhile--"
“是啊；可与此同时--”“哦，与此同时--”
As she stood there, in her long sealskin coat, her hands thrust in a small round muff, her veil drawn down like a transparent mask to the tip of her nose, and the bunch of violets he had brought her stirring with her quickly-taken breath, it seemed incredible that this pure harmony of line and colour should ever suffer the stupid law of change.
她站在那儿，身穿海豹皮的外套，两手插在一只小小的圆套筒里，面纱像层透明的面具一样垂到鼻尖上，他给她带来的那束紫罗兰伴随她快节奏的呼吸一抖一动的。这样和谐的线条与色彩也会受讨厌的规律支配而发生变化，简直是不可思议啊。
"Meanwhile everything matters--that concerns you," he said.
“与此同时，一切又都至关重要--只要关系到你，”他说。
She looked at him thoughtfully, and turned back to the divan.
她若有所思地看了看他，又坐回到沙发椅子上。
He sat down beside her and waited; but suddenly he heard a step echoing far off down the empty rooms, and felt the pressure of the minutes.
他坐在她身旁，等待着。突然，他听到一声脚步声从那些空屋子的远处传来，并立即意识到时间的紧迫。
"What is it you wanted to tell me?" she asked, as if she had received the same warning.
“你想对我说什么？”她问，似乎也接到了同样的警告。
"What I wanted to tell you?" he rejoined. "Why, that I believe you came to New York because you were afraid."
“我想对你说什么？”他应声道。“唔，我认为你来纽约是因为害怕了。”
"Afraid?" "Of my coming to Washington."
“害怕什么？”“怕我到华盛顿去。”
She looked down at her muff, and he saw her hands stir in it uneasily.
她低下头看着她的手筒，他见她的双手在里面不安地抖动。
"Well--?" "Well--yes," she said. "You WERE afraid? You knew--?"
“嗯--？”“嗯--是的，”她说。“你是害怕了？你明白了--？”
"Yes: I knew..." "Well, then?" he insisted.
“是的，我明白了……”“唔，那又怎样？”
"Well, then: this is better, isn't it?" she returned with a long questioning sigh.
“哦，所以还是这样比较好，不是吗？”她以疑问的语气拖着长音说。
"Better--?" "We shall hurt others less. Isn't it, after all, what you always wanted?"
“比较好--？”“我们给别人的伤害会少一些，说起来，这不正是你一直想往的吗？”
"To have you here, you mean--in reach and yet out of reach?
“你是说，让你留在这儿--看得见却又摸不着？就这样子与你秘密相会？
To meet you in this way, on the sly? It's the very reverse of what I want. I told you the other day what I wanted."
这与我想的正相反。那天我已经告诉过你我想怎样了。”
She hesitated. "And you still think this--worse?"
她迟疑了。“你仍然认为这样--更糟？”
"A thousand times!" He paused. "It would be easy to lie to you; but the truth is I think it detestable."
“糟一百倍！”他停顿一下又说：“对你说谎很容易，可事实是我认为那很讨厌。”
"Oh, so do I!" she cried with a deep breath of relief.
“啊，我也一样！”她喊道，并宽心地舒了口气。
He sprang up impatiently. "Well, then--it's my turn to ask: what is it, in God's name, that you think better?"
他急不可耐地跃身站了起来。“哎，既然这样--就该由我来问你了：你认为更好的办法究竟是什么呢？”
She hung her head and continued to clasp and unclasp her hands in her muff.
她低下头，两只手在手筒里不停地握住又松开。
The step drew nearer, and a guardian in a braided cap walked listlessly through the room like a ghost stalking through a necropolis.
那脚步声越来越近，一名戴穗带帽的警卫无精打采地从屋里走过，像个鬼魂蹑手蹑脚穿过墓地一样。
They fixed their eyes simultaneously on the case opposite them, and when the official figure had vanished down a vista of mummies and sarcophagi Archer spoke again.
他们俩同时把眼睛盯在对面的匣子上。警卫的身影在那些僵尸与石棺中间消失之后，阿切尔又开口了。
