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属类: 双语小说 【分类】世界名著 -[作者: 毛姆] 阅读:[36225]
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那时没有谁比萝丝·沃特福德对我更好的了。她身上结合了男性的才智和女性的任性,她写的那些小说很独特,而且读后让人心绪不宁。正是在她的家里,有一天我遇见了查尔斯·斯特里克兰的妻子。

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No one was kinder to me at that time than Rose Waterford. She combined a masculine intelligence with a feminine perversity, and the novels she wrote were original and disconcerting.It was at her house one day that I met Charles Strickland’s wife.

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那天沃特福德小姐正在举办茶会,她那小房间比平时更为拥挤,每个人似乎都在聊天,而我则安静地坐着,觉得有些尴尬。我性格太内向,所以无法加入任何一堆人的谈话,他们好像都在专注于谈论自己的事情。沃特福德小姐是一位相当不错的女主人,看见了我的窘态就径直朝我走来。

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Miss Waterford was giving a tea-party, and her small room was more than usually full.Everyone seemed to be talking, and I, sitting in silence, felt awkward;but I was too shy to break into any of the groups that seemed absorbed in their own affairs.Miss Waterford was a good hostess, and seeing my embarrassment came up to me.

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“我想让你和斯特里克兰太太说会儿话,”她说,“她对你的书可是推崇备至。”

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“I want you to talk to Mrs. Strickland,”she said.“She’s raving about your book.”

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“她是干什么的?”我问道。

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“What does she do?”I asked.

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我意识到自己的孤陋寡闻,如果斯特里克兰太太是位很有名气的作家,我想在我和她说话之前也要把情况摸清楚。

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I was conscious of my ignorance, and if Mrs. Strickland was a well-known writer I thought it as well to ascertain the fact before I spoke to her.

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萝丝·沃特福德为了加强她回答的效果,故意把眼帘一垂,装出一本正经的样子。

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Rose Waterford cast down her eyes demurely to give greater effect to her reply.

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“她经常举办午餐聚会,你只要别那么腼腆,她会邀请你的。”

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“She gives luncheon-parties. You’ve only got to roar a little, and she’ll ask you.”

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萝丝·沃特福德是个玩世不恭的女子,她把生活看成是写小说的机会,把大家作为她小说的素材。如果大家显示出欣赏她的才能,她就会时不时地邀请他们到她的府上,适度破费地款待他们一番。她对大众对名人们崇拜的弱点既感到快乐,又有点鄙夷,但不管怎样,在他们面前她扮演着端庄得体的知名女作家的角色。

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Rose Waterford was a cynic. She looked upon life as an opportunity for writing novels and the public as her raw material.Now and then she invited members of it to her house if they showed an appreciation of her talent and entertained with proper lavishness.She held their weakness for lions in good-humoured contempt, but played to them her part of the distinguished woman of letters with decorum.

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我被领到斯特里克兰太太面前,我们在一起聊了有十分钟的时间。除了她的声音很悦耳外,我没发现她有什么特别之处。她在威斯敏斯特有一栋房子,能够看到尚未竣工的大教堂,因为我们住在同一个街区,所以便觉得亲近了一层。对于所有那些住在泰晤士河和圣詹姆斯公园之间的居民来说,陆海军商店就是连接他们的纽带。斯特里克兰太太要了我的地址,几天之后我便收到了她午餐会的邀请。

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I was led up to Mrs. Strickland, and for ten minutes we talked together.I noticed nothing about her except that she had a pleasant voice.She had a flat in Westminster, overlooking the unfinished cathedral, and because we lived in the same neighbourhood we felt friendly disposed to one another.The Army and Navy Stores are a bond of union between all who dwell between the river and St.James’s Park.Mrs.Strickland asked me for my address, and a few days later I received an invitation to luncheon.

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我的约会很少,所以便欣然接受了邀请。我到得有点晚了,因为我害怕到得太早,所以绕着大教堂走了三圈,进屋时我发现聚会的人已经到齐了。沃特福德小姐已经在那儿了,还有杰伊太太、理查德·特维宁、乔治·罗德也已落座,我们都是作家。那是早春晴朗的一天,大家的兴致很高,我们谈论了很多的事情。

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My engagements were few, and I was glad to accept. When I arrived, a little late, because in my fear of being too early I had walked three times round the cathedral, I found the party already complete.Miss Waterford was there and Mrs.Jay, Richard Twining, and George Road.We were all writers.It was a fine day, early in spring, and we were in a good humor. We talked about a hundred things.

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来之前,沃特福德小姐甚是纠结,是照她青春年少时的唯美主义打扮呢,她过去参加各种聚会常常要身着淡绿,手持一朵水仙;还是照她成熟女性仪态万方,穿着高跟鞋和巴黎款的女装,戴着一顶新帽子打扮呢。结果她的打扮介于两者之间,这反而让她有了更高的兴致,我还从未听过她用如此俏皮刻薄的语言谈论我们共同的朋友。

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Miss Waterford, torn between the aestheticism of her early youth, when she used to go to parties in sage green, holding a daffodil, and the flippancy of her maturer years, which tended to high heels and Paris frocks, wore a new hat.It put her in high spirits.I had never heard her more malicious about our common friends.

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杰伊太太清楚语不惊人死不休是机智的灵魂,她用比耳语高不了多少的声音发表高见,羞得雪白的桌布也会染上玫瑰色的红晕。理查德·特维宁滔滔不绝地发表着奇谈怪论,而乔治·罗德意识到不必再展示他口吐莲花的才华了,所以只管张开大嘴,不断地往里填上食物。

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Mrs.Jay, aware that impropriety is the soul of wit, made observations in tones hardly above a whisper that might well have tinged the snowy table-cloth with a rosy hue.Richard Twining bubbled over with quaint absurdities, and George Road, conscious that he need not exhibit a brilliancy which was almost a byword, opened his mouth only to put food into it.

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斯特里克兰太太说得不多,但是她有一种可爱的本事,让谈话围绕共同的话题,一旦谈话出现冷场,她就会插入适当的话语使谈话再次进行下去。她这一年三十七岁,身材较高,体态丰满,却不显得肥胖;她说不上漂亮,但是她的面容招人喜爱,也许这要归功于她善良、褐色的双眸。她的肤色不太好,一头乌发梳理得很精巧。她是三个女人中唯一一个没有化妆的,与其他人形成鲜明对照的是,她似乎更为淳朴和自然。

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Mrs.Strickland did not talk much, but she had a pleasant gift for keeping the conversation general;and when there was a pause she threw in just the right remark to set it going once more.She was a woman of thirty-seven, rather tall, and plump, without being fat;she was not pretty, but her face was pleasing, chiefy, perhaps, on account of her kind brown eyes.Her skin was rather sallow.Her dark hair was elaborately dressed.She was the only woman of the three whose face was free of make-up, and by contrast with the others she seemed simple and unaffected.

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餐厅的布置很符合那个时代的品位,非常朴素,高高的木制白色护墙板,绿色的墙纸上挂着惠斯勒的蚀刻画,用四四方方的黑色框架镶嵌着。绿色的窗帘上有着孔雀图案的设计,笔直地悬挂着,地毯也是绿色的,图案是白色的小兔在枝繁叶茂的树林里追逐嬉戏——显然是受到威廉·莫里斯的影响。壁炉架上摆着白釉蓝彩陶器。彼时,在伦敦一定会有五百家餐厅都是如此一模一样的格调,这种风格雅致,富有艺术气息,但是也有一些沉闷。

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The dining-room was in the good taste of the period. It was very severe.There was a high dado of white wood and a green paper on which were etchings by Whistler in neat black frames.The green curtains with their peacock design, hung in straight lines, and the green carpet, in the pattern of which pale rabbits frolicked among leafy trees, suggested the infuence of William Morris.There was blue delft on the chimneypiece.At that time there must have been fve hundred dining-rooms in London decorated in exactly the same manner.It was chaste, artistic, and dull.

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当我们离开时,我和沃特福德小姐一路同行,天气很不错,再加上她戴着新帽子提高了兴致,我们决定漫步穿过圣詹姆斯公园。

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When we left I walked away with Miss Waterford, and the fne day and her new hat persuaded us to saunter through the Park.

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“刚才的聚会真不错。”我说。

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“That was a very nice party,”I said.

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“你觉得饭菜可口吧?我告诉过她,如果她想让作家们登门,就一定得让他们吃好。”

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“Did you think the food was good?I told her that if she wanted writers she must feed them well.”

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“让人佩服的建议,”我答道,“可是为什么她想跟作家们来往呢?”

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Admirable advice,”I answered.“But why does she want them?”

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沃特福德小姐耸了耸肩。

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Miss Waterford shrugged her shoulders.

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“她觉得作家有意思,她想赶潮流,我想她很单纯。可怜的人儿,她认为我们都很了不起,反正请我们去吃午餐会让她很开心,对我们也没有坏处,就冲这一点,我就喜欢她。”

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“She finds them amusing. She wants to be in the movement.I fancy she’s rather simple, poor dear, and she thinks we’re all wonderful.After all, it pleases her to ask us to luncheon, and it doesn’t hurt us.I like her for it.”

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现在回想起来,无论是远离尘嚣居于汉普斯特德庙堂之高的雅士,还是处于切恩街寒酸画室的文人,那些追逐名人的人想方设法要把他们揭个底儿朝天,而我认为斯特里克兰太太是这群人中最不会伤害到人的那一类。她还是少女时是在安静的乡下度过的,从穆迪图书馆借来的书不仅给她带来了不少浪漫故事,而且带来了关于伦敦的浪漫遐想。

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Looking back, I think that Mrs. Strickland was the most harmless of all the lion-hunters that pursue their quarry from the rarifed heights of Hampstead to the nethermost studios of Cheyne Walk.She had led a very quiet youth in the country, and the books that came down from Mudie’s Library brought with them not only their own romance, but the romance of London.

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她对阅读有着真正的激情(在她这一类人中是很少见的,大部分人对作者本人的兴趣浓于对作品的兴趣,对画家的好奇甚于对其画作的品鉴),她为自己创设了一个想象中的世界,在那里她生活得自由自在,那种自由是她在日常的现实世界中绝对无法获得的。当她开始了解了作家们之后,就好像她亲自登上了舞台去历险,而不是在舞台脚灯的另一头遥望舞台上的演出。

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She had a real passion for reading(rare in her kind, who for the most part are more interested in the author than in his book, in the painter than in his pictures),and she invented a world of the imagination in which she lived with a freedom she never acquired in the world of every day.When she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then she had known only from the other side of the footlights.

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她看见这些作家粉墨登场,真正感到了自己生活的圈子扩大了很多,因为她不仅亲自款待了他们,而且在他们封闭的幽居中拜访他们。她接受了这些人游戏人生的种种规则,并认为这些规则对于作家们来说是天经地义的,但她自己片刻也没有想到要按照他们的规则去调整自己的行为。

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She saw them dramatically, and really seemed herself to live a larger life because she entertained them and visited them in their fastnesses.She accepted the rules with which they played the game of life as valid for them, but never for a moment thought of regulating her own conduct in accordance with them.

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他们的伦理标准稀奇古怪,就像他们身着的奇装异服,他们的理论和悖论狂野不羁,如同某种娱乐让她觉得趣味盎然,但是对她的信念没有一丝一毫的影响。

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Their moral eccentricities, like their oddities of dress, their wild theories and paradoxes, were an entertainment which amused her, but had not the slightest infuence on her convictions.

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“有没有一位斯特里克兰先生呢?”我问道。

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“Is there a Mr. Strickland?”I asked.

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“哦,当然有,他在城里做事,我想他是个证券经纪人,他这人非常古板无趣。”

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“Oh yes;he’s something in the city. I believe he’s a stockbroker.He’s very dull.”

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“他俩感情好吗?”

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“Are they good friends?”

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“他们彼此相敬如宾,如果你在他们家吃晚餐你就会遇见他,但斯特里克兰太太不常请人吃晚餐。他很安静,对文学或者艺术没有一丁点儿兴趣。”

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“They adore one another. You’ll meet him if you dine there.But she doesn’t often have people to dinner.He’s very quiet.He’s not in the least interested in literature or the arts.”

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“为什么讨人喜欢的女人总是嫁给乏味的男人啊?”

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“Why do nice women marry dull men?”

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“因为有头脑的男人是不会娶讨人喜欢的女人的。”

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“Because intelligent men won’t marry nice women.”

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我对这话想不出怎么回答好,所以我又问斯特里克兰太太是否有孩子。

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I could not think of any retort to this, so I asked if Mrs. Strickland had children.

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“对,她有一个儿子和一个女儿,他俩都在上学。”

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“Yes;she has a boy and a girl. They’re both at school.”

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这个话题已经没什么可说的了,我们又开始谈起了别的事情。

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The subject was exhausted, and we began to talk of other things.

序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

disconcert

[ˌdɪskən’sɜːt]

v.使困惑;使仓皇失措;使尴尬

felted

[’feltɪd]

v. 把 ... 制成毡(使 ... 粘结)

rave

[reɪv]

v.极力赞扬;说胡话;咆哮

ignorance

[’ɪɡnərəns]

n.无知;愚昧

casting

[’kɑːstɪŋ]

n.铸造

demure

[dɪ’mjʊə(r)]

adj.严肃的;端庄的;矜持的

roar

[rɔː(r)]

v.吼叫;咆哮

decorum

[dɪ’kɔːrəm]

n.礼貌合宜

luncheon

[’lʌntʃən]

n.午宴;正式的午餐

twine

[twaɪn]

n.合股线;细绳;捻;搓;结

sage

[seɪdʒ]

n.圣人;哲人

frock

[frɒk]

n.罩袍;僧衣;女上装

malicious

[mə’lɪʃəs]

adj.怀恶意的;恶毒的

ting

[tɪŋ]

n.铃的响声;叮叮声

Richard

[’ritʃəd]

n.理查德(男子名)

conversation

[ˌkɒnvə’seɪʃn]

n.谈话;会话

make-up

[meɪkʌp]

n.化妆品;性格;补考

chaste

[tʃeɪst]

adj.贞洁的;纯洁的;朴素的

saunter

[’sɔːntə(r)]

v.闲逛;漫步

Admirable

[’ædmərəbl]

adj.令人钦佩的;令人赞赏的

nethermost

[’neðəməʊst]

adj.最低的;最下方的

footlights

[’fʊtlaɪts]

n.舞台前缘灯(脚光)

entertain

[ˌentə’teɪn]

v.娱乐;使有兴趣;招待;考虑;抱有;容纳

fastness

[’fɑːstnəs]

n.坚固

accordance

[ə’kɔːdns]

n.一致;符合

eccentricity

[ˌeksen’trɪsəti]

n.古怪;古怪的行为;怪癖;离心率

oddity

[’ɒdəti]

n.古怪;奇异;怪人;怪事

paradox

[’pærədɒks]

n.悖论;似非而是的论点;自相矛盾的话

stockbroker

[’stɒkbrəʊkə(r)]

n.股票经纪人

dine

[daɪn]

v.用正餐;进餐

retort

[rɪ’tɔːt]

v.反驳;回嘴;反击

简典