I could see that Miss Pole's first emotion was disappointment.
我可以看出,波尔小姐的第一反应是失望。
But she was very fond of her cockatoo, and the thought of his smartness in his new habitation made her be reconciled in a moment; besides that she was really grateful to me for having planned a present for her.
但是她非常喜爱她的凤头鹦鹉波利,一想到他要住在新笼子里该是多么神气,她立刻就与失望和解了,此外,她真的很感激我本来打算给她买一件礼物。
“Polly! Well, yes; his old cage is very shabby; he is so continually pecking at it with his sharp bill.
“波利!啊,是的,他的旧笼子非常破旧了,他总是用他锋利的嘴啄笼子。
I dare say Mrs Gordon noticed it when she called here last October.
我敢说,戈登夫人去年10月来这儿的时候她就注意到了。
I shall always think of you, Mary, when I see him in it.
以后每次看到他在笼子里,我都会想起你,玛丽。
Now we can have him in the drawing-room, for I dare say a French cage will be quite an ornament to the room.”
现在我们可以把他放在客厅里了,我敢说,一个法国鸟笼会给房间增添不少光彩。”
And so she talked on, till we worked ourselves up into high delight at the idea of Polly in his new abode, presentable in it even to the Honourable Mrs Jamieson.
她继续这样说下去,直到我们都为波利的新房子感到激动不已,波利住在里面,体面得甚至可以呈给尊贵的贾米森夫人看。
The next morning Miss Pole said she had been dreaming of Polly with her new cap on his head, while she herself sat on a perch in the new cage and admired him.
第二天早上,波尔小姐说她梦见波利戴着她的新帽子,而她自己则坐在新笼子的栖杠上欣赏他。
Then, as if ashamed of having revealed the fact of imagining “such arrant nonsense” in her sleep, she passed on rapidly to the philosophy of dreams, quoting some book she had lately been reading, which was either too deep in itself, or too confused in her repetition for me to understand it.
然后,她似乎为透露自己在睡梦中想象出“如此荒谬的胡话”而感到不好意思,于是迅速把话题转移到梦的哲学上,引用了她最近读过的某本书里的内容,这本书要么本身太深奥,要么她复述得太混乱,总之我没有听懂。
After breakfast, we had the cap out again; and that in its different aspects occupied us for an hour or so; and then, as it was a fine day, we turned into the garden, where Polly was hung on a nail outside the kitchen window.
早餐后,我们又把帽子拿了出来,它的其他方面又让我们聊了一个小时左右。然后因为天气很好,我们走进了花园,波利的笼子就挂在厨房窗外的钉子上。
He clamoured and screamed at the sight of his mistress, who went to look for an almond for him.
他一看到他的主人就大声叫嚷起来,波尔小姐就去给他找杏仁了。
I examined his cage meanwhile, old discoloured wicker-work, clumsily made by a Cranford basket-maker.
这时我仔细观察了他的笼子,那是一个破旧褪色的柳条笼,是克兰福德的一位篮子匠做的,做工很粗糙。
I took out Mrs Gordon's letter; it was dated the fifteenth, and this was the twentieth, for I had kept it secret for two days in my pocket.
我拿出了戈登夫人的信,信上的日期是15日,而今天是20日,我把信秘密地放在口袋里藏了两天。
Mr Ludovic was on the point of setting out for England when she wrote.
当戈登夫人写信时,卢多维克先生正要动身去英国。
“Poor Polly!” said I, as Miss Pole, returning, fed him with the almond.
“可怜的波利!”我说,这时波尔小姐回来给他喂杏仁了。
“Ah! Polly does not know what a pretty cage he is going to have,” said she, talking to him as she would have done to a child; and then turning to me, she asked when I thought it would come?
“啊!波利还不知道他会有一个多么漂亮的笼子。”她说道,就像对孩子说话一样。然后她转向我,问我认为笼子什么时候会到?
We reckoned up dates, and made out that it might arrive that very day.
我们算了算日期,发现可能今天到达。
So she called to her little stupid servant-maiden Fanny, and bade her go out and buy a great brass-headed nail, very strong, strong enough to bear Polly and the new cage, and we all three weighed the cage in our hands, and on her return she was to come up into the drawing-room with the nail and a hammer.
于是她把笨手笨脚的小女仆范妮叫来,吩咐她出去买一颗大铜头钉子,要非常结实,足以承受住波利和新笼子的重量,我们三个都用手掂量了一下笼子,等她回来后,她就要带着钉子和锤子到客厅来。
Fanny was a long time, as she always was, over her errands; but as soon as she came back, we knocked the nail, with solemn earnestness, into the house-wall, just outside the drawing-room window;
范妮像往常一样,出去跑腿花了很长时间,但她一回来,我们就郑重其事地把钉子钉进房子的外墙,就在客厅窗外,
for, as Miss Pole observed, when I was not there she had no one to talk to, and as in summer-time she generally sat with the window open, she could combine two purposes, the giving air and sun to Polly-Cockatoo, and the having his agreeable companionship in her solitary hours.
因为正如波尔小姐所说,我不在的时候,她没有人可以说话,而在夏天,她通常会开着窗户坐着,这样她就可以一举两得,既可以让鹦鹉波利享受空气和阳光,又可以在她独处的时候享受它令人愉快的陪伴。
“When it rains, my dear, or even in a very hot sun, I shall take the cage in.
“亲爱的,下雨天,甚至是大热天,我都会把笼子拿进来。
I would not have your pretty present spoilt for the world.
我绝对不会让你的漂亮礼物受到任何损害。
It was very kind of you to think of it; I am quite come round to liking it better than any present of mere dress; and dear Mrs Gordon has shown all her usual pretty observation in remembering my Polly-Cockatoo.”
你能想到这个,真是太好了,我现在非常喜欢它,甚至超过了任何裙子。亲爱的戈登夫人也一如既往地细心,还记得我的凤头鹦鹉波利。”
“Polly-Cockatoo” was his grand name; I had only once or twice heard him spoken of by Miss Pole in this formal manner, except when she was speaking to the servants; then she always gave him his full designation, just as most people call their daughters Miss, in speaking of them to strangers or servants.
“凤头鹦鹉波利”是他的全名,除了对仆人们说话的时候,我只一两次听到过波尔小姐用这种正式的方式称呼他;对仆人们说话时,她总是用他的全名,就像大多数人在对陌生人和仆人提起自己的女儿时称呼她们为某某小姐一样。
But since Polly was to have a new cage, and all the way from Paris too, Miss Pole evidently thought it necessary to treat him with unusual respect.
但是因为波利要有一个新笼子了,而且还是从巴黎一路运来的,所以波尔小姐显然认为有必要对他格外尊重。
We were obliged to go out to pay some calls; but we left strict orders with Fanny what to do if the cage arrived in our absence, as (we had calculated) it might.
我们必须出去拜访一些人,但我们给范妮留下了严格的指示,如果笼子在我们不在家的时候到了(我们已经算好了可能是这样),她该怎么办。
Miss Pole stood ready bonneted and shawled at the kitchen door, I behind her, and cook behind Fanny, each of us listening to the conversation of the other two.
波尔小姐站在厨房门口,戴着帽子,围着披肩,准备出门,我站在她身后,厨娘站在范妮身后,我和厨娘都在听另外两个人的谈话。
“And Fanny, mind if it comes you coax Polly-Cockatoo nicely into it.
“还有,范妮,要是笼子到了,你要好好哄凤头鹦鹉波利进去。
He is very particular, and may be attached to his old cage, though it is so shabby.
他非常挑剔,可能会依恋旧笼子,虽然旧笼子已经很破旧了。
Remember, birds have their feelings as much as we have!
记住,鸟和我们一样有自己的感情!
Don't hurry him in making up his mind.”
不要催促他做决定。”
“Please, ma'am, I think an almond would help him to get over his feelings,' said Fanny, dropping a curtsey at every speech, as she had been taught to do at her charity school.
“好了好了,太太,我想给他一颗杏仁就能帮助他克服依恋感情了。”范妮说,每说一句话就行一个屈膝礼,她在慈善学校里被教导要这样。
“A very good idea, very.
“这个主意很好,非常好。
If I have my keys in my pocket I will give you an almond for him.
如果我口袋里有钥匙,我会给你一颗杏仁让你拿给他。
I think he is sure to like the view up the street from the window; he likes seeing people, I think.”
我觉得他一定会喜欢从窗口看到的街道景色,我觉得他喜欢看人。”
“It's but a dull look-out into the garden; nowt but dumb flowers,” said cook, touched by this allusion to the cheerfulness of the street, as contrasted with the view from her own kitchen window.
“朝着花园望出去可无聊了,除了花什么都没有。”厨娘说,波尔小姐的话触动了她,街上的欢乐景象与她从自己的厨房窗户看到的景色形成了鲜明的对比。(注:nowt即nothing的古代形式。)
“It's a very good look-out for busy people,” said Miss Pole, severely.
“这风景对忙碌的人来说很合适。”波尔小姐严肃地说。
And then, feeling she was likely to get the worst of it in an encounter with her old servant, she withdrew with meek dignity, being deaf to some sharp reply; and of course I, being bound to keep order, was deaf too.
然后她觉得自己很可能在与老仆人的斗嘴中处于下风,于是她带着温顺的尊严退出了争论了,对一些尖锐的回答充耳不闻,当然,我有责任维持秩序,所以我也装作没听见。
If the truth must be told, we rather hastened our steps, until we had banged the street-door behind us.
如果一定要说实话,那么我们其实是加快了脚步,直到砰地一声关上了身后的临街大门。