对于富人和时尚人士来说,19世纪70年代的纽约社交界充斥着各种规矩:何时应该打黑领带,或者何时适宜进行下午拜访;可以邀请谁参加晚上的聚会,或者听歌剧时可以挨着谁坐;哪些人受欢迎,哪些人不受欢迎。 埃伦·奥兰斯卡伯爵夫人是一位波兰伯爵的妻子,曾在欧洲生活多年,现在孤身一人回到了她在纽约的家。她希望摆脱自己不幸婚姻带来的痛苦,但她不了解纽约社交界的各种规矩。而纽兰·阿彻则深谙于此;他的未婚妻——年轻的梅·韦兰——也按照这些规矩生活着,因为她无法想象还有其他的生活方式。 纽兰、梅和埃伦陷入了一场爱情、名誉和责任的战斗之中。在这场战斗中,礼貌的微笑背后隐藏着强烈的情感,一切尽在不言中,而那穿过拥挤房间的意味深长的一瞥,更是胜过千言万语。 For the rich and the fashionable, New York society in the 1870s was a world full of rules: rules about when to wear a black tie, or the correct time to pay an afternoon visit; rules about who you could invite to your evening parties or sit next to at the opera; rules about who was an acceptable person, and who was not. Countess Ellen Olenska, who has lived for many years in Europe as the wife of a Polish Count, returns alone to her family in New York. She hopes to leave the pain of her unhappy marriage behind her, but she does not understand the rules of New York society. Newland Archer, however, understands them only too well, and the girl he is engaged to marry, young May Welland, lives her life by the rules, because she cannot imagine any other way of living. Newland, May, and Ellen are caught in a battle between love, honour, and duty – a battle where strong feelings hide behind polite smiles, where much is left unsaid, and where a single expressive look across a crowded room can carry more meaning than a hundred words.
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妻子的深紫色马车(其婚礼的外饰犹存)在渡口接上阿切尔,将他堂而皇之地送到泽西城的宾夕法尼亚车站。
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His wife’s dark blue brougham (with the wedding varnish still on it) met Archer at the ferry, and conveyed him luxuriously to the Pennsylvaniaterminus in Jersey City.
It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephonic communication without wires, and other Arabian Night marvels.
"I don’t care which of their visions comes true," Archer mused, "as long as the tunnel isn’t built yet." In his senseless school-boy happiness he pictured Madame Olenska’s descent from the train, his discovery of her a long way off, among the throngs of meaningless faces, her clinging to his arm as he guided her to the carriage, their slow approach to the wharf among slipping horses, laden carts, vociferating teamsters, and then the startling quiet of the ferry-boat, where they would sit side by side under the snow, in the motionless carriage, while the earth seemed to glide away under them, rolling to the other side of the sun. It was incredible, the number of things he had to say to her, and in what eloquent order they were forming themselves on his lips . . .
The clanging and groaning of the train came nearer, and it staggered slowly into the station like a prey- laden monster into its lair. Archer pushed forward, elbowing through the crowd, and staring blindly into window after window of the high-hung carriages. And then, suddenly, he saw Madame Olenska’s pale and surprised face close at hand, and had again the mortified sensation of having forgotten what she looked like.
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他们走到了一起,两双手相遇,他用手臂挽着她的手臂。“这边走——我带来了马车,”他说。
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They reached each other, their hands met, and he drew her arm through his. "This way--I have the carriage," he said.
After that it all happened as he had dreamed. He helped her into the brougham with her bags, and had afterward the vague recollection of having properly reassured her about her grandmother and given her a summary of the Beaufort situation (he was struck by the softness of her: "Poor Regina!"). Meanwhile the carriage had worked its way out of the coil about the station, and they were crawling down the slippery incline to the wharf, menaced by swaying coal-carts, bewildered horses, dishevelled express-wagons, and an empty hearse--ah, that hearse! She shut her eyes as it passed, and clutched at Archer’s hand.
"Oh, no, no--she’s much better--she’s all right, really. There--we’ve passed it!" he exclaimed, as if that made all the difference. Her hand remained in his, and as the carriage lurched across the gang-plank onto the ferry he bent over, unbuttoned her tight brown glove, and kissed her palm as if he had kissed a relic. She disengaged herself with a faint smile, and he said: "You didn’t expect me today?"
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“哦,没有。”
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"Oh, no."
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“我本来打算去华盛顿看你的,我全都安排好了——险些与你在火车上擦肩而过。”
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"I meant to go to Washington to see you. I’d made all my arrangements--I very nearly crossed you in the train."
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“啊——”她喊了一声,仿佛被难得逃过的危险给吓坏了。
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"Oh--" she exclaimed, as if terrified by the narrowness of their escape.
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“你知道吗——我几乎把你忘了?”
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"Do you know--I hardly remembered you?"
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“几乎把我忘了?”
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"Hardly remembered me?"
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“我的意思是——怎么说呢?我——总是这样,你对我来说,每一次都是重新开始。”
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"I mean: how shall I explain? I--it’s always so. EACH TIME YOU HAPPEN TO ME ALL OVER AGAIN."
She made no answer, and he sat in silence, watching her profile grow indistinct against the snow-streaked dusk beyond the window. What had she been doing in all those four long months, he wondered? How little they knew of each other, after all! The precious moments were slipping away, but he had forgotten everything that he had meant to say to her and could only helplessly brood on the mystery of their remoteness and their proximity, which seemed to be symbolised by the fact of their sitting so close to each other, and yet being unable to see each other’s faces.
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“多漂亮的马车啊!是梅的吗?”她突然从窗口转过脸来问。
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"What a pretty carriage! Is it May’s?" she asked, suddenly turning her face from the window.
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“是的。”
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"Yes."
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“这么说,是梅让你来接我的了?她真是太好了!”
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"It was May who sent you to fetch me, then? How kind of her!"
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他一时没有应声;接着又暴躁地说:“我们在波士顿相会的第一二天,你丈夫的秘书来见过我。”
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He made no answer for a moment; then he said explosively: "Your husband’s secretary came to see me the day after we met in Boston."
In his brief letter to her he had made no allusion to M. Riviere’s visit, and his intention had been to bury the incident in his bosom. But her reminder that they were in his wife’s carriage provoked him to an impulse of retaliation. He would see if she liked his reference to Riviere any better than he liked hers to May! As on certain other occasions when he had expected to shake her out of her usual composure, she betrayed no sign of surprise: and at once he concluded: "He writes to her, then."
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“里维埃先生去看你了?”
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"M. Riviere went to see you?"
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“是的,难道你不知道?”
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"Yes: didn’t you know?"
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“不知道,”她坦率地说。
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"No," she answered simply.
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“你听了并不感到意外?”
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"And you’re not surprised?"
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她犹豫了。“干吗我会意外呢?他在波士顿对我说过他认识你;我想他是在英国与你相识的吧。”
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She hesitated. "Why should I be? He told me in Boston that he knew you; that he’d met you in England I think."
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“埃伦——我必须问你一件事。”
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"Ellen--I must ask you one thing."
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“好吧。”
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"Yes."
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“我见过他之后就想问你来着,可在信中不好讲。当你离开你丈夫的时候,是里维埃帮你逃走的吗?”
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"I wanted to ask it after I saw him, but I couldn’t put it in a letter. It was Riviere who helped you to get away--when you left your husband?"
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他的心决要窒息了。她还会那样镇静地对待这个问题吗?
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His heart was beating suffocatingly. Would she meet this question with the same composure?
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“是的。我欠他很多债,”她回答说,声音平静,没有一丝颤抖。
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"Yes: I owe him a great debt," she answered, without the least tremor in her quiet voice.
Her tone was so natural, so almost indifferent, that Archer’s turmoil subsided. Once more she had managed, by her sheer simplicity, to make him feel stupidly conventional just when he thought he was flinging convention to the winds.
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“我认为你是我见过的最诚实的女人!”他大声说。
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"I think you’re the most honest woman I ever met!" he exclaimed.
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“哦,不——不过也许得算个最不大惊小怪的女人吧,”她回答说,声音里含着一丝笑意。
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"Oh, no--but probably one of the least fussy," she answered, a smile in her voice.
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“不管你怎么说,你看问题是很实际的。”
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"Call it what you like: you look at things as they are."
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“唔——我只能如此。我不得不正视戈尔工。”
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"Ah--I’ve had to. I’ve had to look at the Gorgon."
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“可是——这并没有弄瞎你的眼睛!你看清了她不过是个老妖怪,跟别的妖怪没什么两样。”
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"Well--it hasn’t blinded you! You’ve seen that she’s just an old bogey like all the others."