Philip soon realised that the spirit which informed his friends was Cronshaw’s. It was from him that Lawson got his paradoxes ; and even Clutton, who strained after individuality, expressed himself in the terms he had insensibly acquired from the older man. It was his ideas that they bandied about at table, and on his authority they formed their judgments . They made up for the respect with which unconsciously they treated him by laughing at his foibles and lamenting his vices .
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"不用说,可怜的老克朗肖再也成不了气候啦,"他们说,"这老头已无可救药。"
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‘Of course, poor old Cronshaw will never do any good,’ they said. ‘He’s quite hopeless.’
They prided themselves on being alone in appreciating his genius; and though, with the contempt of youth for the follies of middle-age, they patronised him among themselves, they did not fail to look upon it as a feather in their caps if he had chosen a time when only one was there to be particularly wonderful. Cronshaw never came to Gravier’s. For the last four years he had lived in squalid conditions with a woman whom only Lawson had once seen, in a tiny apartment on the sixth floor of one of the most dilapidated houses on the Quai des Grands Augustins: Lawson described with gusto the filth , the untidiness, the litter.
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"那股扑鼻的臭气,熏得你五脏六腑都要翻倒出来。"
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‘And the stink nearly blew your head off.’
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"吃饭的时候别谈这些,劳森,"有人劝阻说。
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‘Not at dinner, Lawson,’ expostulated one of the others.
But he would not deny himself the pleasure of giving picturesque details of the odours which met his nostril. With a fierce delight in his own realism he described the woman who had opened the door for him. She was dark, small, and fat, quite young, with black hair that seemed always on the point of coming down. She wore a slatternly blouse and no corsets. With her red cheeks, large sensual mouth, and shining, lewd eyes, she reminded you of the Bohemienne in the Louvre by Franz Hals.
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7
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她浑身上下透出一股招蜂引蝶的浪劲儿,既让人觉得有趣,又令人不胜骇然。一个蓬头垢面的婴儿正趴在地上玩。那个荡妇背着克朗肖,同拉丁区一些不三不四的野小子勾勾搭搭,已不成其为什么秘密。然而才智过人、爱美胜似性命的克朗肖竟然和这样一个宝贝货搅在一起,真叫那些常在咖啡馆餐桌旁汲取克朗肖的睿智敏慧的天真青年百思而不得其解。克朗肖自己呢,对她满口不登大雅之堂的粗俗言词倒似乎大加赞赏,还常常把一些不堪入耳的粗话转述给别人听。他调侃地称她La fille de mon concierge。
withE
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She had a flaunting vulgarity which amused and yet horrified . A scrubby, unwashed baby was playing on the floor. It was known that the slut deceived Cronshaw with the most worthless ragamuffins of the Quarter, and it was a mystery to the ingenuous youths who absorbed his wisdom over a cafe table that Cronshaw with his keen intellect and his passion for beauty could ally himself to such a creature. But he seemed to revel in the coarseness of her language and would often report some phrase which reeked of the gutter . He referred to her ironically as la fille de mon concierge .
Cronshaw was very poor. He earned a bare subsistence by writing on the exhibitions of pictures for one or two English papers, and he did a certain amount of translating. He had been on the staff of an English paper in Paris, but had been dismissed for drunkenness; he still however did odd jobs for it, describing sales at the Hotel Drouot or the revues at music-halls.
The life of Paris had got into his bones, and he would not change it, notwithstanding its squalor, drudgery , and hardship, for any other in the world. He remained there all through the year, even in summer when everyone he knew was away, and felt himself only at ease within a mile of the Boulevard St. Michel. But the curious thing was that he had never learnt to speak French passably, and he kept in his shabby clothes bought at La BelleJardiniere an ineradicably English appearance.
‘I ought to have lived in the eighteen hundreds,’ he said himself. ‘What I want is a patron. I should have published my poems by subscription and dedicated them to a nobleman. I long to compose rhymed couplets upon the poodle of a countess. My soul yearns for the love of chamber-maids and the conversation of bishops .’
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12
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说着,他随口援引了浪漫诗人罗拉的诗句:‘Je suis venu trop tard dans un monde trop vieux.’
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He quoted the romantic Rolla :‘Je suis venu trop tard dans un monde trop vieux.’
He liked new faces, and he took a fancy to Philip, who seemed to achieve the difficult feat of talking just enough to suggest conversation and not too much to prevent monologue . Philip was captivated. He did not realise that little that Cronshaw said was new. His personality in conversation had a curious power. He had a beautiful and a sonorous voice, and a manner of putting things which was irresistible to youth.
All he said seemed to excite thought, and often on the way home Lawson and Philip would walk to and from one another’s hotels, discussing some point which a chance word of Cronshaw had suggested. It was disconcerting to Philip, who had a youthful eagerness for results, that Cronshaw’s poetry hardly came up to expectation. It had never been published in a volume, but most of it had appeared in periodicals; and after a good deal of persuasion Cronshaw brought down a bundle of pages torn out of The Yellow Book, The Saturday Review, and other journals, on each of which was a poem.
Philip was taken aback to find that most of them reminded him either of Henley or of Swinburne. It needed the splendour of Cronshaw’s delivery to make them personal. He expressed his disappointment to Lawson, who carelessly repeated his words; and next time Philip went to the Closerie des Lilas the poet turned to him with his sleek smile:
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"听说你对我的诗作评价不高。"
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‘I hear you don’t think much of my verses.’
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菲利普窘困难当。
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Philip was embarrassed.
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"没的事,"他回答说,"我非常爱读阁下的大作。"
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‘I don’t know about that,’ he answered. ‘I enjoyed reading them very much.’
‘Do not attempt to spare my feelings,’ returned Cronshaw, with a wave of his fat hand. ‘I do not attach any exaggerated importance to my poetical works. Life is there to be lived rather than to be written about. My aim is to search out the manifold experience that it offers, wringing from each moment what of emotion it presents. I look upon my writing as a graceful accomplishment which does not absorb but rather adds pleasure to existence. And as for posterity —damn posterity.’
Philip smiled, for it leaped to one’s eyes that the artist in life had produced no more than a wretched daub. Cronshaw looked at him meditatively and filled his glass. He sent the waiter for a packet of cigarettes.
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"你听我这么议论,一定觉得好笑。你知道我是个穷措大,同一个俗不可耐的骚婆娘住在公寓的顶楼上,那女人背着我偷野汉子,同理发师和garc ons de cafe勾勾搭搭。我为英国读者翻译不登大雅之堂的书籍,替一些不值一文的画儿写评论文章,而实际上对这些画儿,就连骂几句还嫌弄脏自己的嘴呢。不过,请你告诉我,生活的真谛究竟何在?"
withE
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‘You are amused because I talk in this fashion and you know that I am poor and live in an attic with a vulgar trollop who deceives me with hair-dressers and garcons de cafe; I translate wretched books for the British public, and write articles upon contemptible pictures which deserve not even to be abused. But pray tell me what is the meaning of life?’
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"哦,这倒是个挺难回答的问题!还是请你自己来回答吧。"
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‘I say, that’s rather a difficult question. Won’t you give the answer yourself?’
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"不,答案除非由你自己找出来,否则便一无价值。请问,你活在世上究竟为何来着?"
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‘No, because it’s worthless unless you yourself discover it. But what do you suppose you are in the world for?’
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菲利普从来没问过自己这样的问题,他沉吟了半晌,然后答道:
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Philip had never asked himself, and he thought for a moment before replying.
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"哎,我说不上来:我想是为了聊尽自己的责任,尽量发挥自己的才能,同时还要避免去伤害他人。"
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‘Oh, I don’t know: I suppose to do one’s duty, and make the best possible use of one’s faculties , and avoid hurting other people.’
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"简而言之,就是人以德待吾,吾亦以德待人,对吗?"
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‘In short, to do unto others as you would they should do unto you?’
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"我想可以这么说吧。"
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‘I suppose so.’
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28
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"基督徒的品性。"
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28
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‘Christianity.’
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"才不是呢,"菲利普愤愤然说,"这同基督徒的品性风马牛不相及,纯粹是抽象的道德准则。"
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‘No, it isn’t,’ said Philip indignantly. ‘It has nothing to do with Christianity. It’s just abstract morality.’
‘In that case, supposing under the influence of liquor you left your purse behind when you leave here and I picked it up, why do you imagine that I should return it to you? It’s not the fear of the police.’
‘That may be. Neither did Kant when he devised the Categorical Imperative . You have thrown aside a creed , but you have preserved the ethic which was based upon it. To all intents you are a Christian still, and if there is a God in Heaven you will undoubtedly receive your reward. The Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out. If you keep His laws I don’t think He can care a packet of pins whether you believe in Him or not.’
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"不过、要是我忘了拿钱包,你也一定会完壁奉还的吧,"菲利普说。
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‘But if I left my purse behind you would certainly return it to me,’ said Philip.
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"这可不是出于抽象道德方面的动机,而仅仅是因为我害怕警察。"
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‘Not from motives of abstract morality, but only from fear of the police.’
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"警察绝无可能查明此事。"
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‘It’s a thousand to one that the police would never find out.’
‘My ancestors have lived in a civilised state so long that the fear of the police has eaten into my bones. The daughter of my concierge would not hesitate for a moment. You answer that she belongs to the criminal classes; not at all, she is merely devoid of vulgar prejudice.’
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"但同时也就抛弃了名誉、德行、良知、体面--一抛弃了一切,"菲利普说。
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‘But then that does away with honour and virtue and goodness and decency and everything,’ said Philip.