评论
打印
It was just what Archer's eldest son, the pride of his life, was doing; and nobody wondered or reproved.
这正是阿切尔的长子--他一生的骄傲--准备要做的事，而且没有人感到奇怪，没有人有所非难。
Even the boy's Aunt Janey, who still looked so exactly as she used to in her elderly youth, had taken her mother's emeralds and seed-pearls out of their pink cotton-wool, and carried them with her own twitching hands to the future bride; and Fanny Beaufort, instead of looking disappointed at not receiving a "set" from a Paris jeweller, had exclaimed at their old-fashioned beauty, and declared that when she wore them she should feel like an Isabey miniature.
就连孩子的姑妈詹尼--她看起来还跟她成了大龄青年的时候一模一样--也从粉红的棉絮中取出她母亲的绿宝石与小粒珍珠，用她那双颤抖的手捧着送给了未来的新娘。而范妮·博福特非但没有因为没有收到巴黎珠宝商定做的手饰而露出失望的表情，反而大声称赞其老样式的精美，并说等她戴上之后，会觉得自己像一幅伊萨贝的小画像。
Fanny Beaufort, who had appeared in New York at eighteen, after the death of her parents, had won its heart much as Madame Olenska had won it thirty years earlier; only instead of being distrustful and afraid of her, society took her joyfully for granted.
范妮·博福特双亲去世以后，于18岁那年在纽约社交界露面，她像30年前奥兰斯卡夫人那样赢得了它的爱。上流社会非但没有不信任她或惧怕她，反而高高兴兴接纳了她。
She was pretty, amusing and accomplished: what more did any one want?
她漂亮、有趣，并且多才多艺：谁还再需要什么呢？
Nobody was narrow-minded enough to rake up against her the half-forgotten facts of her father's past and her own origin.
没有人那样心胸狭窄，再去翻她父亲的历史和她出身的老账。
Only the older people remembered so obscure an incident in the business life of New York as Beaufort's failure, or the fact that after his wife's death he had been quietly married to the notorious Fanny Ring, and had left the country with his new wife, and a little girl who inherited her beauty.
那些事已经被淡忘了，只有上年纪的人还依稀记得纽约生意场上博福特破产的事件；或者记得他在妻子死后悄悄娶了那位名声不好的范妮·琳，带着他的新婚妻子和一个继承了她的美貌的小女孩离开了这个国家。
He was subsequently heard of in Constantinople, then in Russia; and a dozen years later American travellers were handsomely entertained by him in Buenos Ayres, where he represented a large insurance agency.
后来人们听说他到了君士坦丁堡，再后来又去了俄国。十几年以后，美国的旅行者在布宜诺斯艾利斯受到了他慷慨热情的款待，他在那儿代理一家保险机构。
He and his wife died there in the odour of prosperity; and one day their orphaned daughter had appeared in New York in charge of May Archer's sister-in-law, Mrs. Jack Welland, whose husband had been appointed the girl's guardian.
他和妻子在鼎盛时期在那儿离开了人世。有一天他们的孤女来到了纽约，她受梅·阿切尔的弟媳杰克·韦兰太太的照管，后者的丈夫被指定为姑娘的监护人。
The fact threw her into almost cousinly relationship with Newland Archer's children, and nobody was surprised when Dallas's engagement was announced.
这一事实差不多使她与纽兰·阿切尔的孩子们成了表姊妹的关系，所以在宣布达拉斯的订婚消息时没有人感到意外。
Nothing could more dearly give the measure of the distance that the world had travelled.
这事最清楚地说明了世事变化之大。
People nowadays were too busy--busy with reforms and "movements," with fads and fetishes and frivolities-to bother much about their neighbours.
如今人们太忙碌了--忙于改革与“运动”，忙于时新风尚、偶像崇拜与轻浮浅薄--无法再去对四邻八舍的事过分操心。
And of what account was anybody's past, in the huge kaleidoscope where all the social atoms spun around on the same plane?
在一个所有的社会微粒都在同一平面上旋转的大万花筒里，某某人过去的历史又算得了什么呢？
Newland Archer, looking out of his hotel window at the stately gaiety of the Paris streets, felt his heart beating with the confusion and eagerness of youth.
纽兰·阿切尔从旅馆窗口望着巴黎街头壮观的欢乐景象，他感到自己的心躁动着青春的热情与困惑。
It was long since it had thus plunged and reared under his widening waistcoat, leaving him, the next minute, with an empty breast and hot temples.
他那日益宽松的夹克衫下面那颗心，许久许久没有这样冲动与亢奋过了。因而，随后他觉得胸部有一阵空虚感，太阳穴有些发热。
He wondered if it was thus that his son's conducted itself in the presence of Miss Fanny Beaufort-and decided that it was not.
他疑惑地想，当他儿子见到范妮·博福特小姐时，他的心是否也会这样--接着又断定他不会。
"It functions as actively, no doubt, but the rhythm is different," he reflected, recalling the cool composure with which the young man had announced his engagement, and taken for granted that his family would approve.
“他的心跳无疑也会加快，但节奏却不相同，”他沉思道，并回忆起那位年轻人宣布他订婚时泰然自若、相信家人当然会同意的样子。
"The difference is that these young people take it for granted that they're going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn't.
“其区别在于，这些年轻人认为他们理所当然会得到他们想要的东西，而我们那时几乎总认为得不到才合乎情理。
Only, I wonder--the thing one's so certain of in advance: can it ever make one's heart beat as wildly?"
我只是不知道--事前就非常有把握的事，究竟会不会让你的心狂跳呢？”
It was the day after their arrival in Paris, and the spring sunshine held Archer in his open window, above the wide silvery prospect of the Place Vendome.
这是他们到达巴黎的第二天。春天的阳光从敞开的窗口照射进来，沐浴着阿切尔，下面是银光闪闪的翁多姆广场。
One of the things he had stipulated--almost the only one-when he had agreed to come abroad with Dallas, was that, in Paris, he shouldn't be made to go to one of the newfangled "palaces."
当他同意随达拉斯到国外旅行之后，他要求的一个条件--几乎是惟一的条件--是，到了巴黎，不能强迫他到新式的“大厦”去。
"Oh, all right--of course," Dallas good-naturedly agreed.
“啊，好吧--当然可以，”达拉斯温顺地同意说。
"I'll take you to some jolly old-fashioned place-- the Bristol say--" leaving his father speechless at hearing that the century-long home of kings and emperors was now spoken of as an old-fashioned inn, where one went for its quaint inconveniences and lingering local colour.
“我会带你到一个老式的快活去处--比如布里斯托尔--”听他说起那个有百年历史的帝王下榻处，就像谈论一家老式旅馆一样，做父亲的不由得目瞪口呆。人们现在只是因为它的古雅过时与残留的地方色彩而光顾它。
Archer had pictured often enough, in the first impatient years, the scene of his return to Paris; then the personal vision had faded, and he had simply tried to see the city as the setting of Madame Olenska's life.
在最初那几年焦躁不安的日子里，阿切尔曾三番五次地构想他重返巴黎时的情景；后来，对人的憧憬淡漠了，他只想去看一看作为奥兰斯卡夫人生活背景的那个城市。
Sitting alone at night in his library, after the household had gone to bed, he had evoked the radiant outbreak of spring down the avenues of horse-chestnuts, the flowers and statues in the public gardens, the whiff of lilacs from the flower-carts, the majestic roll of the river under the great bridges, and the life of art and study and pleasure that filled each mighty artery to bursting.
夜间他独自坐在图书室里，等全家人都睡下以后，便把它初绽的明媚春光召唤到眼前：大街上的七叶树，公园里的鲜花与雕像，花车上传来的阵阵丁香花的香气，大桥下面的滚滚波涛，还有让人热血沸腾的艺术、研究及娱乐生活。
Now the spectacle was before him in its glory, and as he looked out on it he felt shy, old-fashioned, inadequate: a mere grey speck of a man compared with the ruthless magnificent fellow he had dreamed of being…
如今，这壮观的景象已摆在他面前了，当他放眼观看它的时候，却感到自己畏缩了、过时了，不能适应了。与他曾经梦想过的那种意志坚强的堂堂男儿相比，他变得渺小可悲……
Dallas's hand came down cheerily on his shoulder.
达拉斯的手亲切地落到他的肩上。
"Hello, father: this is something like, isn't it?" They stood for a while looking out in silence, and then the young man continued: "By the way, I've got a message for you: the Countess Olenska expects us both at half- past five."
“嘿，爸爸，真是太美了，对吗？”他们站了一会儿，默默地望着窗外，接着年轻人又说：“哎--对了，告诉你个口信：奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人5点半钟等我们前往。”
He said it lightly, carelessly, as he might have imparted any casual item of information, such as the hour at which their train was to leave for Florence the next evening.
他说得很轻松，那漫不经心的样子就像传达一个很随便的消息，比如明晚他们动身去佛罗伦斯乘车的钟点。
Archer looked at him, and thought he saw in his gay young eyes a gleam of his great-grandmother Mingott's malice.
阿切尔看了看他，觉得在那双青春快活的眼睛里，发现了他曾外婆明戈特那种用心不良的神色。
