The Bridge of San Luis Rey

_The_ BRIDGE _of_ SAN LUIS REY

圣路易斯·雷的_桥

_By_

_由_

THORNTON WILDER

桑顿·怀尔德

_Illustrated by_ AMY DREVENSTEDT

_图鉴_艾米·德文斯泰特

1927

1927年

Copyright, 1927, by ALBERT & CHARLES BONI, INC.

版权所有，1927，阿尔伯特和查尔斯博尼公司。

[Illustration]

[图示]

_To My Mother_

_致我的母亲_

CONTENTS

内容

ILLUSTRATIONS

插图

First Plate Second Plate Third Plate Fourth Plate Fifth Plate Sixth Plate Seventh Plate Eighth Plate Ninth Plate Tenth Plate

第一盘 第二盘 第三盘 第四盘 第五盘 第六盘 第七盘 第八盘 第九盘 第十盘

ON Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.

1714 年 7 月 20 日星期五中午，秘鲁最好的桥梁断裂，五名旅客落入下面的海湾。

This bridge was on the highroad between Lima and Cuzco and hundreds of persons passed over it every day.

这座桥位于利马和库斯科之间的高速公路上，每天有数百人经过它。

It had been woven of osier by the Incas more than a century before and visitors to the city were always led out to see it.

它是一个多世纪前印加人用柳条编织而成的，来到这座城市的游客总是被带出去参观。

It was a mere ladder of thin slats swung out over the gorge, with handrails of dried vine.

那只是一个在峡谷上方荡开的薄板梯，扶手是干藤蔓制成的。

Horses and coaches and chairs had to go down hundreds of feet below and pass over the narrow torrent on rafts, but no one, not even the Viceroy, not even the Archbishop of Lima, had descended with the baggage rather than cross by the famous bridge of San Luis Rey.

马匹、马车和椅子必须下降到数百英尺以下，乘木筏穿过狭窄的激流，但没有人，甚至是总督，甚至是利马大主教，带着行李下来，而不是穿过著名的圣路易斯雷桥。

St. Louis of France himself protected it, by his name and by the little mud church on the further side.

法国的圣路易亲自以他的名字和另一边的小泥教堂保护了它。

The bridge seemed to be among the things that last forever; it was unthinkable that it should break.

这座桥似乎是永恒的事物之一。难以想象它会破裂。

The moment a Peruvian heard of the accident he signed himself and made a mental calculation as to how recently he had crossed by it and how soon he had intended crossing by it again.

一名秘鲁人一听说这起事故，他就在自己的身上签了字，并在心里盘算着他是多久前才经过这里的，以及他打算多久再次经过那里的。

People wandered about in a trance-like state, muttering; they had the hallucination of seeing themselves falling into a gulf.

人们神情恍惚地走来走去，嘀咕着；他们产生了看到自己掉入深渊的幻觉。

There was a great service in the Cathedral.

大教堂里举行了盛大的仪式。

The bodies of the victims were approximately collected and approximately separated from one another, and there was great searching of hearts in the beautiful city of Lima.

遇难者的尸体大致被收集起来，并大致彼此分开，在美丽的利马市，人们进行了巨大的心灵搜查。

Servant girls returned bracelets which they had stolen from their mistresses, and usurers harangued their wives angrily, in defense of usury.

女仆归还从情妇那里偷来的手镯，高利贷者愤怒地斥责他们的妻子，为高利贷辩护。

Yet it was rather strange that this event should have so impressed the Limeans, for in that country those catastrophes which lawyers shockingly call the "acts of God" were more than usually frequent.

然而，奇怪的是，这一事件竟然给利米亚人留下了如此深刻的印象，因为在那个国家，那些被律师们令人震惊地称为“天灾”的灾难比平常更加频繁。

Tidal waves were continually washing away cities; earthquakes arrived every week and towers fell upon good men and women all the time.

海啸不断地冲走城市；地震每周都会发生，塔楼不断倒塌砸在善良的人们身上。

Diseases were forever flitting in and out of the provinces and old age carried away some of the most admirable citizens.

疾病永远在各省间传播，一些最令人敬佩​​的公民也因年老而离去。

That is why it was so surprising that the Peruvians should have been especially touched by the rent in the bridge of San Luis Rey.

这就是为什么秘鲁人对圣路易斯雷桥的租金特别感触如此令人惊讶。

Everyone was very deeply impressed, but only one person did anything about it, and that was Brother Juniper.

大家印象很深，但只有一个人做到了，那就是杜松哥。

By a series of coincidences so extraordinary that one almost suspects the presence of some Intention, this little red-haired Franciscan from Northern Italy happened to be in Peru converting the Indians and happened to witness the accident.

由于一系列非同寻常的巧合，人们几乎怀疑其中存在某种意图，这位来自意大利北部的红发方济会小个子碰巧在秘鲁改变印第安人的信仰，并碰巧目睹了这起事故。

It was a very hot noon, that fatal noon, and coming around the shoulder of a hill Brother Juniper stopped to wipe his forehead and to gaze upon the screen of snowy peaks in the distance, then into the gorge below him filled with the dark plumage of green trees and green birds and traversed by its ladder of osier.

那是一个非常炎热的中午，那个致命的中午，杜松兄弟绕过山肩，停下来擦了擦额头，凝视着远处白雪皑皑的山峰，然后进入了下面的峡谷，峡谷里布满了绿树和绿鸟的深色羽毛，柳条梯子穿过峡谷。

Joy was in him; things were not going badly.

他内心充满喜悦；事情进展得不错。

He had opened several little abandoned churches and the Indians were crawling in to early Mass and groaning at the moment of miracle as though their hearts would break.

他开放了几座废弃的小教堂，印第安人正爬进早期的弥撒，在奇迹出现的那一刻呻吟着，仿佛他们的心都要碎了。

Perhaps it was the pure air from the snows before him; perhaps it was the memory that brushed him for a moment of the poem that bade him raise his eyes to the helpful hills.

也许是因为他面前雪地里的纯净空气；也许正是这首诗的记忆让他想起了那一刻，让他抬头望向有益的山丘。

At all events he felt at peace.

无论如何，他感到很平静。

Then his glance fell upon the bridge, and at that moment a twanging noise filled the air, as when the string of some musical instrument snaps in a disused room, and he saw the bridge divide and fling five gesticulating ants into the valley below.

然后他的目光落到了桥上，就在这时，空气中弥漫着一阵叮叮当当的声音，就像某种乐器的琴弦在一间废弃的房间里折断一样，他看到桥分开了，把五只打着手势的蚂蚁扔进了下面的山谷里。

Anyone else would have said to himself with secret joy: "Within ten minutes myself...!" But it was another thought that visited Brother Juniper: "Why did thin happen to _those_ five?" If there were any plan in the universe at all, if there were any pattern in a human life, surely it could be discovered mysteriously latent in those lives so suddenly cut off.

换做其他人，一定会暗自高兴地对自己说：“我自己十分钟之内……！”但杜松兄弟却想到了另一个想法：“为什么那五个人会变瘦？”如果宇宙中有任何计划，如果人类生命中有任何模式，那么肯定可以在那些突然被切断的生命中神秘地发现它。

Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan, And on that instant Brother Juniper made the resolve to inquire into the secret lives of those five persons, that moment falling through the air, and to surprise the reason of their taking off.

要么我们因意外而生，因意外而死，要么我们因计划而生，因计划而死，就在那一瞬间，杜松兄弟下定决心要探究那五个人的秘密生活，那一刻从空中坠落，并让他们起飞的原因大吃一惊。

* * * * * * *

* * * * * * * *

It seemed to Brother Juniper that it was high time for theology to take its place among the exact sciences and he had long intended putting it there.

在杜松弟兄看来，现在是神学在精确科学中占据一席之地的时候了，而且他早就打算把它放在那里。

What he had lacked hitherto was a laboratory.

迄今为止他所缺少的是一个实验室。

Oh, there had never been any lack of specimens; any number of his charges had met calamity,--spiders had stung them; their lungs had been touched; their houses had burned down and things had happened to their children from which one averts the mind.

噢，标本从来不缺；他所饲养的许多动物都遭遇了灾难——蜘蛛蜇了它们；他们的肺部被触动了；他们的房子被烧毁了，他们的孩子也发生了一些令人忽视的事情。

But these occasions of human woe had never been quite fit for scientific examination.

但这些人类灾难的事件从来不适合进行科学检验。

They had lacked what our good savants were later to call _proper control_.

他们缺乏我们的专家后来所说的“适当的控制”。

The accident had been dependent upon human error, for example, or had contained elements of probability.

例如，该事故取决于人为错误，或者包含概率因素。

But this collapse of the bridge of San Luis Rey was a sheer Act of God.

但圣路易斯雷桥的倒塌纯粹是天灾。

It afforded a perfect laboratory.

它提供了一个完美的实验室。

Here at last one could surprise His intentions in a pure state.

在这里，人们终于可以在纯粹的状态下对他的意图感到惊讶。

You and I can see that coming from anyone but Brother Juniper this plan would be the flower of a perfect skepticism.

你和我都可以看到，除了杜松兄弟之外，任何人提出的这个计划都将是完美怀疑主义的花朵。

It resembled the effort of those presumptuous souls who wanted to walk on the pavements of Heaven and built the Tower of Babel to get there.

这就像那些自以为是的灵魂想要走在天堂的人行道上并建造巴别塔以到达那里所付出的努力。

But to our Franciscan there was no element of doubt in the experiment.

但对于我们的方济各会士来说，这个实验是毫无疑问的。

He knew the answer.

他知道答案。

He merely wanted to prove it, historically, mathematically, to his converts,--poor obstinate converts, so slow to believe that their pains were inserted into their lives for their own good.

他只是想从历史上、数学上向他的皈依者证明这一点——可怜的顽固的皈依者，他们迟迟不肯相信他们的痛苦是为了他们自己的利益而融入他们的生活的。

People were always asking for good sound proofs; doubt springs eternal in the human breast, even in countries where the Inquisition can read your very thoughts in your eyes.

人们总是要求良好的隔音效果。怀疑在人类的心中永远存在，即使在宗教裁判所可以从你的眼睛里读出你的想法的国家也是如此。

This was not the first time that Brother Juniper had tried to resort to such methods.

这种手段，杜松哥已经不是第一次尝试了。

Often on the long trips he had to make (scurrying from parish to parish, his robe tucked up about his knees, for haste) he would fall to dreaming of experiments that justify the ways of God to man.

通常，在他必须进行的长途旅行中（从一个教区匆匆忙忙地跑到另一个教区，为了匆忙，他把长袍卷到膝盖上），他会梦想着进行实验，以证明上帝对待人类的方式是正确的。

For instance, a complete record of the Prayers for Rain and their results.

例如，祈雨及其结果的完整记录。

Often he had stood on the steps of one of his little churches, his flock kneeling before him on the baked street.

他经常站在一座小教堂的台阶上，他的羊群在烘烤的街道上跪在他面前。

Often he had stretched his arms to the sky and declaimed the splendid ritual.

他常常将双臂伸向天空，吟诵着这一辉煌的仪式。

Not often, but several times, he had felt the virtue enter him and seen the little cloud forming on the horizon.

不是经常，而是好几次，他感觉到美德进入他体内，并看到地平线上形成的小云。

But there were many times when weeks went by ...

但有很多时候，几周过去了......

but why think of them?

但为什么要想到它们呢？

It was not himself he was trying to convince that rain and drought were wisely apportioned.

他并不是在试图说服自己，降雨和干旱是明智分配的。

Thus it was that the determination rose within him at the moment of the accident.

所以，在事故发生的那一刻，他内心就升起了决心。

It prompted him to busy himself for six years, knocking at all the doors in Lima, asking thousands of questions, filling scores of notebooks, in his effort at establishing the fact that each of the five lost lives was a perfect whole.

这促使他忙碌了六年，敲遍了利马的所有大门，提出了数千个问题，填写了数十本笔记本，努力证明五个逝去的生命中的每一个都是一个完美的整体。

Everyone knew that he was working on some sort of memorial of the accident and everyone was very helpful and misleading.

每个人都知道他正在为这场事故进行某种纪念活动，每个人都非常有帮助和误导。

A few even knew the principal aim of his activity and there were patrons in high places.

一些人甚至知道他活动的主要目的，并且有高层赞助人。

The result of all this diligence was an enormous book, which as we shall see later, was publicly burned on a beautiful Spring morning in the great square.

所有这些努力的结果是一本巨大的书，正如我们稍后将看到的，它在一个美丽的春天的早晨在大广场上被公开烧毁。

But there was a secret copy and after a great many years and without much notice it found its way to the library of the University of San Marco.

但有一份秘密副本，多年后在没有引起太多注意的情况下进入了圣马可大学图书馆。

There it lies between two great wooden covers collecting dust in a cupboard.

它位于两个巨大的木盖之间，柜子里积满了灰尘。

It deals with one after another of the victims of the accident, cataloguing thousands of little facts and anecdotes and testimonies, and concluding with a dignified passage describing why God had settled upon that person and upon that day for His demonstration of wisdom.

它讲述了事故中的一个又一个受害者，列出了数千个小事实、轶事和证词，并以一段庄严的段落结束，描述了为什么上帝选择了那个人和那一天来展示他的智慧。

Yet for all his diligence Brother Juniper never knew the central passion of Doña María's life; nor of Uncle Pio's, not even of Esteban's.

然而，尽管朱尼珀修士很勤奋，但他从来不知道多纳·玛丽亚一生的核心激情是什么；也不是皮奥叔叔的，甚至不是埃斯特万的。

And I, who claim to know so much more, isn't it possible that even I have missed the very spring within the spring?

而我这个自称懂得多的我，是不是也错过了春天里的春天呢？

Some say that we shall never know and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.

有人说，我们永远不会知道，对众神来说，我们就像男孩们在夏日杀死的苍蝇，而有人说，相反，麻雀不会失去一根未被上帝的手指拂去的羽毛。

ANY Spanish schoolboy is required to know today more about Doña María, Marquesa de Montemayor, than Brother Juniper was to discover in years of research.

今天，任何一个西班牙学生都需要对蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人多纳·玛丽亚有更多的了解，比朱尼珀修士在多年的研究中发现的还要多。

Within a century of her death her letters had become one of the monuments of Spanish literature and her life and times have ever since been the object of long studies.

在她去世后的一个世纪内，她的信件已成为西班牙文学的丰碑之一，她的生活和时代从此成为长期研究的对象。

But her biographers have erred in one direction as greatly as the Franciscan did in another; they have tried to invest her with a host of graces, to read back into her life and person some of the beauties that abound in her letters, whereas all real knowledge of this wonderful woman must proceed from the act of humiliating her and of divesting her of all beauties save one.

但她的传记作者在一个方向上犯的错误与方济各会在另一个方向上犯的错误一样严重。他们试图赋予她许多恩宠，重新解读她的生活，并展现她信中所蕴含的一些美丽，而对这位出色女人的所有真正了解都必须从羞辱她并剥夺她除一个之外的所有美丽的行为开始。

She was the daughter of a cloth-merchant who had acquired the money and the hatred of the Limeans within a stone's-throw of the Plaza.

她是一位布商的女儿，她在距广场仅一箭之遥的地方获得了利米亚人的金钱和仇恨。

Her childhood was unhappy: she was ugly; she stuttered; her mother persecuted her with sarcasms in an effort to arouse some social charms and forced her to go about the town in a veritable harness of jewels.

她的童年并不快乐：她长得很丑；她结巴了；她的母亲为了唤起一些社会魅力而用讽刺的方式迫害她，并强迫她戴着名副其实的珠宝在城里走来走去。

She lived alone and she thought alone.

她一个人生活，一个人思考。

Many suitors presented themselves, but as long as she could she fought against the convention of her time and was determined to remain single.

许多追求者纷纷前来，但只要她能做到，她就与时代习俗作斗争，并决心保持单身。

There were hysterical scenes with her mother, recriminations, screams and slamming of doors.

她和母亲之间出现了歇斯底里的场面，互相指责、尖叫和关门。

At last at twenty-six she found herself penned into marriage with a supercilious and ruined nobleman and the Cathedral of Lima fairly buzzed with the sneers of her guests.

终于，在二十六岁时，她发现自己与一位傲慢而破产的贵族结婚了，利马大教堂里充满了她的客人的嘲笑声。

Still she lived alone and thought alone, and when an exquisite daughter was born to her she fastened upon her an idolatrous love.

她仍然独自生活，独自思考，当她生下一个美丽的女儿时，她对她产生了一种偶像崇拜的爱。

But little Clara took after her father; she was cold and intellectual.

但小克拉拉却很像她的父亲。她冷漠而理智。

At the age of eight she was calmly correcting her mother's speech and presently regarding her with astonishment and repulsion.

八岁那年，她平静地纠正了母亲的言语，不久她就用惊讶和厌恶的目光看着她。

The frightened mother became meek and obsequious but she could not prevent herself from persecuting Doña Clara with nervous attention and a fatiguing love.

受到惊吓的母亲变得温顺和谄媚，但她无法阻止自己用紧张的注意力和令人疲惫的爱来迫害多娜·克拉拉。

Again there were hysterical recriminations, screams and slamming of doors.

歇斯底里的指责、尖叫声和关门声再次响起。

From the offers of marriage that fell to her, Doña Clara deliberately chose the one that required her removal to Spain.

从向她求婚的多娜·克拉拉（Doña Clara）特意选择了需要她移居西班牙的那一位。

So to Spain she went, to that land from which it takes six months to receive an answer to one's letter.

于是她去了西班牙，去了一个需要六个月才能收到回信的国家。

The leave-taking before so long a voyage became in Peru one of the formal services of the Church.

在秘鲁，远航之前的告别已成为教会的正式仪式之一。

The ship was blessed and as the space widened between the vessel and the beach both companies knelt and sang a hymn that never failed to sound weak and timid in all that open air.

这艘船受到了祝福，随着船和海滩之间的空间变宽，两家公司都跪下来唱起了一首赞美诗，在露天的环境中，这首赞美诗听起来总是软弱而胆怯的。

Doña Clara sailed with most admirable composure, leaving her mother to gaze after the bright ship, her hand pressing now her heart and now her mouth.

多娜·克拉拉以令人钦佩的镇静航行，留下她的母亲注视着那艘明亮的船，她的手时而按着她的心，时而按着她的嘴。

Blurred and streaked became her view of the serene Pacific and the enormous clouds of pearl that hang forever motionless above it.

她所看到的平静的太平洋和永远一动不动地悬挂在太平洋上的巨大的珍珠云变得模糊而斑驳。

Left alone in Lima the Marquesa's life grew more and more inward.

独自留在利马，侯爵夫人的生活变得越来越内向。

She became increasingly negligent in her dress and like all lonely people she talked to herself audibly.

她对自己的着装越来越不重视，像所有孤独的人一样，她大声自言自语。

All her existence lay in the burning center of her mind.

她的一切存在都集中在她心灵的燃烧中心。

On that stage were performed endless dialogues with her daughter, impossible reconciliations, scenes eternally recommenced of remorse and forgiveness.

在那个舞台上，她与女儿进行着无尽的对话，不可能的和解，永远重新开始悔恨和宽恕的场景。

On the street you beheld an old woman her red wig fallen a little over one ear, her left cheek angry with a leprous affection, her right with a complementary adjustment of rouge.

在街上，你会看到一位老妇人，她的红色假发垂下来，遮住了一只耳朵，她的左脸因麻风病般的感情而生气，她的右脸则涂着胭脂。

Her chin was never dry; her lips were never still.

她的下巴从来没有干燥过；她的嘴唇从来没有静止过。

Lima was a city of eccentrics, but even there she became its jest as she drove through the streets or shuffled up the steps of its churches.

利马是一座充满怪人的城市，但即使在那里，当她开车穿过街道或拖着脚步走上教堂的台阶时，她也成了人们的笑柄。

She was thought to be continuously drunk.

人们认为她一直处于醉酒状态。

Worse things were said of her and petitions were afloat that she be locked up.

人们对她说了更糟糕的事情，要求将她关起来的请愿书不断涌现。

She had been denounced three times before the Inquisition.

她在宗教裁判所面前曾三度受到谴责。

It is not impossible that she might have been burned had her son-in-law been less influential in Spain and had she not somehow collected a few friends about the viceregal court who suffered her for her oddity and her wide reading.

如果她的女婿在西班牙的影响力较小，如果她没有以某种方式聚集了一些关于总督宫廷的朋友，这些朋友因为她的古怪和广泛的阅读而遭受苦难，她可能会被烧死，这并非不可能。

The distressing character of the relations between mother and daughter were further embittered by misunderstandings over money.

金钱方面的误解进一步加剧了母女之间令人痛苦的关系。

The Condesa received a handsome allowance from her mother and frequent gifts.

康德萨从母亲那里得到了丰厚的津贴，并经常收到礼物。

Doña Clara soon became the outstanding woman of intelligence at the Spanish court.

多娜·克拉拉很快就成为西班牙宫廷中一位杰出的智慧女性。

All the wealth of Peru would have been insufficient to maintain her in the grandiose style she fancied for herself.

秘鲁所有的财富都不足以维持她所想象的宏伟风格。

Strangely enough her extravagance proceeded from one of the best traits in her nature: she regarded her friends, her servants and all the interesting people in the capital, as her children.

奇怪的是，她的奢侈行为源于她本性中最好的特质之一：她把她的朋友、她的仆人和京城里所有有趣的人都视为她的孩子。

In fact there seemed only one person in the world towards whom she did not expend herself in kind offices.

事实上，世界上似乎只有一个人，她没有尽心尽力地为之服务。

Among her _protégés_ was the cartographer De Blasiis (whose _Maps of the New World_ was dedicated to the Marquesa de Montemayor amid the roars of the courtiers at Lima who read that she was the "_admiration of her city and a rising sun in the West_"); another was the scientist Azuarius whose treatise on the laws of hydraulics was suppressed by the Inquisition as being too exciting.

她的门徒中包括制图师德·布拉西斯（她的《新世界地图》是献给蒙特马约尔侯爵的，在利马廷臣们的欢呼声中，他们读到她是“她的城市的钦佩者和西方冉冉升起的太阳”）；另一位是科学家阿祖阿里乌斯（Azuarius），他关于水力学定律的论文因过于令人兴奋而被宗教裁判所压制。

For a decade the Condesa literally sustained all the arts and sciences of Spain; it was not her fault that nothing memorable was produced in that time.

十年来，康德萨确实支撑着西班牙所有的艺术和科学。那段时间没有产生什么令人难忘的作品，这并不是她的错。

About four years after Doña Clara's departure Doña María received her permission to visit Europe.

多娜·克拉拉 (Doña Clara) 离开大约四年后，多娜·玛丽亚 (Doña María) 获准访问欧洲。

On both sides the visit was anticipated with resolutions well nourished on self-reproach: the one to be patient, the other to be undemonstrative.

双方都在自责的基础上做出了这次访问的预期：一方要有耐心，另一方则要沉默寡言。

Both failed.

两者都失败了。

Each tortured the other and was on the point of losing her mind under the alternations of self-rebuke and the outbursts of passion.

彼此互相折磨，在自责与激情的交替中，都快要失去理智了。

At length one day Doña María rose before dawn, daring no more than to kiss the door behind which her daughter was sleeping, took ship and returned to America.

最终有一天，多纳·玛丽亚在黎明前起床，只敢亲吻女儿正在睡觉的门，然后就乘船返回了美国。

Henceforth letter-writing had to take the place of all the affection that could not be lived.

从此以后，所有无法表达的感情都必须用写信来代替。

Hers were the letters that in an astonishing world have become the text-book of schoolboys and the ant-hill of the grammarians.

她的信在一个令人惊奇的世界里已经成为小学生的教科书和语法学家的蚁丘。

Doña María would have invented her genius had she not been born with it, so necessary was it to her love that she attract the attention, perhaps the admiration, of her distant child.

如果多娜·玛丽亚不是生来就有天赋的话，她可能会发明她的天才，所以她必须吸引远方孩子的注意，也许是钦佩，这对她的爱情来说是必要的。

She forced herself to go out into society in order to cull its ridicules; she taught her eye to observe; she read the masterpieces of her language to discover its effects; she insinuated herself into the company of those who were celebrated for their conversation.

她强迫自己走进社会，以消除社会的嘲笑。她教会她用眼睛去观察；她阅读自己语言的杰作，以发现其影响；她混入了那些因谈话而闻名的人的陪伴中。

Night after night in her baroque palace she wrote and rewrote the incredible pages, forcing from her despairing mind those miracles of wit and grace, those distilled chronicles of the viceregal court.

夜复一夜，她在巴洛克式的宫殿里写了又改写了那些令人难以置信的书页，从她绝望的心灵中挤出了那些智慧和优雅的奇迹，以及那些总督宫廷的精炼编年史。

We know now that her daughter barely glanced at the letters and that it is to the son-in-law that we owe their preservation.

我们现在知道，她的女儿几乎没有看一眼这些信件，而我们要感谢女婿，才得以保存这些信件。

The Marquesa would have been astonished to learn that her letters were immortal.

侯爵夫人若得知她的信件是不朽的，一定会感到惊讶。

Yet many critics have accused her of keeping one eye on posterity and point to a number of letters that have all the air of being bravura pieces.

然而，许多批评者指责她只关注后人，并指出她的一些信件看起来像是华丽的作品。

To them it seems impossible that Doña María should have put herself to the same pains to dazzle her daughter that most artists expend on dazzling the public.

在他们看来，唐娜·玛丽亚似乎不可能像大多数艺术家为让公众眼花缭乱而付出同样的努力来让女儿眼花缭乱。

Like her son-in-law they misunderstood her: the Conde delighted in her letters, but he thought that when he had enjoyed the style he had extracted all their richness and intention, missing (as most readers do) the whole purport of literature, which is the notation of the heart.

就像她的女婿一样，他们误解了她：孔德很喜欢她的信，但他认为，当他喜欢她的信时，他已经提取了所有的丰富性和意图，错过了（像大多数读者一样）文学的全部要旨，即心灵的符号。

Style is but the faintly contemptible vessel in which the bitter liquid is recommended to the world.

风格不过是一个略显可鄙的容器，里面盛着苦涩的液体，被推荐给世界。

The Marquesa would even have been astonished to learn that her letters were very good, for such authors live always in the noble weather of their own minds and those productions which seem remarkable to us are little better than a day's routine to them.

侯爵夫人甚至会惊讶地发现她的信非常好，因为这样的作者总是生活在他们自己思想的高贵氛围中，而那些在我们看来非凡的作品对他们来说只不过是一天的例行公事。

This was the old woman who hour by hour would sit upon her balcony, her odd straw hat casting a purple shadow across her lined and yellow face.

这就是那个老妇人，她每时每刻都坐在阳台上，她那顶奇怪的草帽在她布满皱纹的黄脸上投下紫色的阴影。

How often as she turned her pages with her gemmed hands, she would ask herself, almost with amusement, whether the constant pain at her heart had an organic seat.

有多少次，当她用镶满宝石的双手翻阅书页时，她会几乎带着笑意地问自己，内心持续不断的疼痛是否有一个有机的座位。

She wondered whether a subtle doctor cutting through to that battered throne could at last discover a sign and lifting his face to the amphitheatre cry out to his students: "This woman has suffered, and her suffering has left its mark upon the structure of her heart." This idea had so often visited her that one day she wrote it into a letter and her daughter scolded her for an introspective and for making a cult of sorrow.

她想知道一位精明的医生是否能最终发现一个迹象，并抬起头对着圆形剧场向他的学生们喊道：“这个女人受过痛苦，她的痛苦在她的心脏结构上留下了印记。”这个想法经常出现在她的脑海里，有一天她把它写进一封信，她的女儿责备她反省，过度悲伤。

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The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.

她知道自己永远不会被爱，这对她的想法产生了影响，就像潮水作用在悬崖上一样。

Her religious beliefs went first, for all she could ask of a god, or of immortality, was the gift of a place where daughters love their mothers; the other attributes of Heaven you could have for a song.

她的宗教信仰是第一位的，因为她能向神或永生祈求的一切，就是给女儿们一个爱她们母亲的地方。一首歌可以拥有的天堂的其他属性。

Next she lost her belief in the sincerity of those about her.

接下来，她对周围人的真诚失去了信心。

She secretly refused to believe that anyone (herself excepted) loved anyone.

她暗自拒绝相信任何人（除了她自己）爱任何人。

All families lived in a wasteful atmosphere of custom and kissed one another with secret indifference.

所有的家庭都生活在一种浪费的风俗氛围中，彼此之间暗自冷漠地亲吻着。

She saw that the people of this world moved about in an armour of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.

她看到这个世界上的人们穿着自我主义的盔甲四处走动，沉迷于自我凝视，渴望赞美，很少听到别人对他们说的话，对发生在他们最亲密的朋友身上的事故无动于衷，害怕所有的呼吁可能会打断他们与自己的欲望的长期交流。

These were the sons and daughters of Adam from Cathay to Peru.

这些是亚当的儿女，从华夏到秘鲁。

And when on the balcony her thoughts reached this turn, her mouth would contract with shame for she knew that she too sinned and that though her love for her daughter was vast enough to include all the colours of love, it was not without a shade of tyranny: she loved her daughter not for her daughter's sake, but for her own.

当在阳台上的时候，她的思绪转到了这里，她的嘴会因羞愧而收缩，因为她知道自己也犯了罪，虽然她对女儿的爱足够博大，可以包含爱的所有色彩，但也不乏专制的影子：她爱女儿不是为了女儿，而是为了她自己。

She longed to free herself from this ignoble bond; but the passion was too fierce to cope with.

她渴望摆脱这种不光彩的束缚。但激情太强烈，难以应对。

And then on that green balcony a strange warfare would shake the hideous old lady, a singularly futile struggle against a temptation to which she would never have the opportunity of succumbing.

然后，在那个绿色的阳台上，一场奇怪的战争将震动这位丑陋的老太太，这是一场与诱惑的极其徒劳的斗争，而她永远没有机会屈服于诱惑。

How could she rule her daughter when her daughter saw to it that four thousand miles lay between them?

当她的女儿让他们之间相距四千英里时，她怎么能统治她的女儿呢？

Nevertheless Doña María wrestled with the ghost of her temptation and was worsted on every occasion.

尽管如此，多娜·玛丽亚仍与诱惑的幽灵作斗争，但每次都以失败告终。

She wanted her daughter for herself; she wanted to hear her say: "You are the best of all possible mothers"; she longed to hear her whisper: "Forgive me."

她想要自己的女儿；她想听到她说：“你是所有母亲中最好的”；她渴望听到她的低语：“原谅我。”

About two years after her return from Spain there took place a series of inconspicuous events that had a great deal to tell about the inner life of the Marquesa.

她从西班牙回来大约两年后，发生了一系列不起眼的事件，但这些事件却足以讲述侯爵夫人的内心生活。

Only the faintest allusion to them occurs in the Correspondence, but as that is found in Letter XXII which contains other signs I shall do my best to give a translation and commentary of the first part of the letter:

通信中只出现了对它们最微弱的暗示，但由于在包含其他标志的信二十二号中可以找到，我将尽力对信的第一部分进行翻译和评论：

"_Are there no doctors in Spain?

“_西班牙没有医生吗？

Where are those good men from Flanders that used to help you so?

那些曾经帮助过你的佛兰德斯好人在哪里？

Oh, my treasure, how can we punish you enough for letting your cold endure so many weeks?

哦，我的宝贝，我们要怎样惩罚你才让你的感冒持续了这么多周呢？

Don Vicente, I implore you to make my child see reason.

唐·文森特，我恳求你让我的孩子明白道理。

Angels of Heaven, I implore you to make my child see reason.

天堂的天使们，我恳求你们让我的孩子明白理性。

Now that you are better, I beg of you, resolve that when the first warning of a cold comes you will steam yourself well and go to bed.

现在你已经好多了，我恳求你下定决心，当感冒的第一个警告到来时，你要好好蒸一蒸然后上床睡觉。

Here in Peru I am helpless; I can do nothing.

在秘鲁，我很无助；我无能为力。

Do not be self-willed, beloved.

亲爱的，不要任性。

God bless you.

上帝保佑你。

I am enclosing in today's packet the gum of some tree which the sisters of San Tomás peddle from door to door.

我在今天的包裹里附上了圣托马斯姐妹挨家挨户兜售的某种树的口香糖。

Whether it be of much use I know not.

到底有没有用我就不知道了。

It can do no harm.

它不会造成任何伤害。

I am told that in the convent the silly sisters inhale it so diligently that one cannot smell the incense at Mass.

有人告诉我，在修道院里，愚蠢的修女们非常勤奋地吸着它，以至于人们在弥撒时都闻不到焚香的味道。

Whether it be worth anything I know not; try it._

我不知道它是否值得；试试吧._

"_Rest easy, my love, I am sending His Mos.

“_放心吧，我的爱人，我正在送他的莫斯。

Catholic Majesty the perfect gold chain_." (Her daughter had written her: "_The chain arrived in good condition and I wore it at the christening of the Infante.

天主教陛下完美的金链_。” （她女儿写信给她：“链子到货时状况良好，我在王子的洗礼仪式上戴着它。

His Most Catholic Majesty was gracious enough to admire it and when I told Him that you had given it me He sent you His compliments upon your taste.

天主教陛下非常仁慈地欣赏它，当我告诉他你把它送给我时，他对你的品味表示了赞赏。

Do not fail to send Him one as like it as possible; send it at once, by way of the Chamberlain.") "He need never know that in order to obtain it I had to walk into a picture.

不要忘记给他送一个尽可能相似的人；立即通过宫内大臣寄出。”）“他永远不需要知道，为了获得它，我必须走进一幅画。

Do you remember that in the sacristy of San Martín there is a portrait by Velasquez of the Viceroy who founded the monastery and of his wife and brat?

您还记得圣马丁的圣器收藏室里有一幅委拉斯开兹创作的肖像，画的是修道院的创建者、总督及其妻子和孩子吗？

and that his wife is wearing a gold chain?

他的妻子戴着一条金链子？

I resolved that only that chain would do.

我决定只有那条链子才可以。

So one midnight I slipped into the sacristy, climbed upon the robing-table like a girl of twelve and walked in.

于是，有一天午夜，我溜进圣器收藏室，像一个十二岁的女孩一样爬上长袍桌，走了进去。

The canvas resisted for a moment, but the painter himself came forward to lift me through the pigment.

画布暂时抵抗了，但画家亲自上前将我举过颜料。

I told him that the most beautiful girl in Spain wished to present the finest gold chain that could be found to the most gracious king in the world.

我告诉他，西班牙最美丽的女孩希望将最好的金链献给世界上最仁慈的国王。

It was as simple as that, and there we stood talking, we four, in the gray and silvery air that makes a Velasquez.

事情就这么简单，我们四个人站在那里聊天，空气中弥漫着委拉斯开兹式的灰色和银色空气。

Now I keep thinking about a more golden light; I keep looking at the Palace: I must pass the evening in a Titian.

现在我一直在思考更加金光；我一直看着宫殿：我必须在提香的画中度过这个夜晚。

Would the Viceroy let me?_

总督会让我吗？_

"_But His Excellency has the gout again.

“_但是阁下又痛风了。

I say 'again' because the flattery of the court insists that there are times when he is free of it.

我说“再次”是因为宫廷的奉承坚持认为他有时是自由的。

This being Saint Mark's day His Excellency started out to visit the University where twenty-two new doctors were being brought into the world.

这一天是圣马可节，阁下出发参观大学，那里有二十二名新医生即将诞生。

He had hardly been carried from his divan to his coach when he screamed and refused to go any farther.

刚从沙发上抱到马车上，他就尖叫起来，拒绝再走下去。

He was carried back to his bed where he broke a most delicious cigar and sent for the Perichole.

他被抬回床上，折断了一支最美味的雪茄，然后派人去拿 Perichole。

And while we listened to long doctrinal addresses, more or less in Latin, he heard all about us, more or less in Spanish, from the reddest and cruellest lips in town_." (Doña María permitted herself this passage, although she had just read in her daughter's last letter: "_How many times must I tell you to be more cautious in the things you say in your letters?

当我们或多或少地用拉丁语聆听长篇教义演讲时，他或多或少地用西班牙语，从城里最红、最残酷的嘴唇里听到了关于我们的一切。”（多娜·玛丽亚允许自己写这段话，尽管她刚刚在女儿的最后一封信中读到：“_我必须告诉你多少次，在信中所说的事情上要更加谨慎？

They often show signs of having been opened on the journey.

它们经常表现出在旅途中被打开的迹象。

Nothing could be more ill-judged than your remarks on the you-know-what-I-mean at Cuzco.

没有什么比你在库斯科的“你知道我的意思”的言论更错误的了。

Such remarks are not funny, even though Vicente did compliment you upon them in his postscript, and they might get us into a great deal of trouble with Certain Persons here in Spain.

这些言论并不好笑，尽管维森特在他的后记中确实称赞了你，而且它们可能会给我们在西班牙的某些人带来很大的麻烦。

I continue to be astonished that your indiscretions have not long since led to your being ordered to retire to your farm_.")

我仍然感到惊讶的是，你的轻率行为不久就导致你被命令退休到你的农场_。”）

"_There was a great press at the Exercises and two women fell from the balcony, but God in His goodness saw that they fell on Doña Merced.

“演习中发生了巨大的压力，两名妇女从阳台上摔下来，但仁慈的上帝看到她们摔倒在多娜·默塞德身上。

All three are badly hurt, but will be thinking of other things within a year.

三人都受了重伤，但一年内就会考虑其他事情。

The President was speaking at the moment of the accident and being short-sighted could not imagine what the disturbance of cries and talk and falling bodies could be about.

总统在事故发生时正在讲话，他的目光短浅，无法想象哭声、谈话和倒下的尸体的骚动是怎么回事。

It was very pleasant to see him bowing, under the impression that he was being applauded._

很高兴看到他鞠躬，感觉他受到了掌声。_

"_Speaking of the Perichole, and of applause, you should know that Pepita and I decided to go to the Comedia this evening.

“_说到佩里科尔和掌声，你应该知道佩皮塔和我决定今晚去喜剧表演。

The public still idolizes its Perichole; it even forgives her her years.

公众仍然崇拜它的 Perichole；它甚至原谅了她的岁月。

We are told that she saves what she can, every morning, by passing alternate pencils of ice and fire across her cheeks_." (Translation falls especially short of this conceit which carries the whole flamboyance of the Spanish language.

我们被告知，她每天早上都会用冰火交替的铅笔擦过她的脸颊，以节省一切。” （翻译尤其缺乏这种带有西班牙语全部华丽色彩的自负。

It was intended as an obsequious flattery of the Condesa, and was untrue.

这是对康德萨的谄媚奉承，其实并不真实。

The great actress was twenty-eight at this time; her cheeks had the smoothness and polish of dark yellow marble and would certainly have retained that quality for many years.

这位伟大的女演员此时二十八岁。她的脸颊有深黄色大理石般的光滑和光泽，而且这种品质肯定会保持很多年。

Apart from the cosmetics required by her performances the only treatment Camila Perichole afforded her face was to throw cold water at it twice a day, like a peasant woman at a horse trough.) "_That curious man they call Uncle Pio is by her all the time.

除了表演所需的化妆品之外，卡米拉·佩里科尔对她的脸进行的唯一治疗就是每天两次泼冷水，就像农妇在马槽旁一样。）“_那个被他们称为皮奥叔叔的好奇男人一直在她身边。

Don Rubío says that he cannot make out whether Uncle Pio is her father, her lover, or her son.

唐·卢比奥说他无法确定皮奥叔叔是她的父亲、她的情人还是她的儿子。

The Perichole gave a wonderful performance.

Perichole 带来了精彩的表演。

Scold me all you like for a provincial ninny, you have no such actresses in Spain_." And so on.

你就骂我是乡巴佬吧，西班牙没有这样的女演员。”等等。

It is on this visit to the theatre that further matter hangs.

正是在这次参观剧院中，进一步的问题悬而未决。

She decided to go to the Comedia where the Perichole was playing Doña Leonor in Moreto's _Trampa Adelante_; perhaps some material could be derived from the visit for her daughter's next letter.

她决定去喜剧剧院，那里佩里科尔正在莫托的《Trampa Adelante》中扮演多娜·莱昂诺。也许她女儿的下一封信可以从这次访问中获得一些材料。

She took with her Pepita, a little girl about whom later we shall learn much.

她带着佩皮塔，一个小女孩，我们稍后会了解到很多关于她的信息。

Doña María had borrowed her from the orphanage connected with the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas to be her companion.

多纳·玛丽亚从与圣玛丽亚·罗莎·德拉·罗萨斯修道院有关的孤儿院借来她作为她的同伴。

The Marquesa sat in her box gazing with flagging attention at the brilliant stage.

侯爵夫人坐在包厢里，注意力不集中地凝视着辉煌的舞台。

Between the acts it was the Perichole's custom to lay aside the courtly rôle and appear before the curtain to sing a few topical songs.

在演出间隙，佩里科尔家族的习惯是放下宫廷角色，出现在幕布前唱几首时事歌曲。

The malicious actress had seen the Marquesa arrive and presently began improvising couplets alluding to her appearance, her avarice, her drunkenness, and even to her daughter's flight from her.

这位恶毒的女演员看到侯爵夫人到来，立即开始即兴创作对联，暗指她的外表、她的贪婪、她的酗酒，甚至她女儿的逃离。

The attention of the house was subtly directed to the old woman and a rising murmur of contempt accompanied the laughter of the audience.

屋子里的注意力巧妙地集中到了老妇人身上，观众的笑声中响起了一阵轻蔑的低语声。

But the Marquesa, deeply moved by the first two acts of the comedy, scarcely saw the singer and sat staring before her, thinking about Spain.

但侯爵夫人被喜剧的前两幕深深感动，几乎没有看到歌手，只是坐在她面前，想着西班牙。

Camila Perichole became bolder and the air was electric with the hatred and glee of the crowd.

卡米拉·佩里科尔变得更加大胆，空气中充满了人群的仇恨和欢乐。

At last Pepita plucked the Marquesa's sleeve and whispered to her that they should go.

最后，佩皮塔拉着侯爵夫人的袖子，低声对她说，他们该走了。

As they left the box the house arose and burst into a roar of triumph; the Perichole flung herself into a frenzied dance, for she saw the manager at the back of the hall and knew that her salary had been increased.

当他们离开包厢时，全场响起了胜利的欢呼声。佩里科尔女士疯狂地跳舞，因为她看到了大厅后面的经理，知道她的工资已经增加了。

But the Marquesa remained unaware of what had taken place; in fact she was quite pleased, for during the visit she had contrived a few felicitous phrases, phrases (who knows) that might bring a smile to her daughter's face and might make her murmur: "Really, my mother is charming."

但侯爵夫人仍然不知道发生了什么事。事实上，她很高兴，因为在拜访期间，她想出了一些恰当的短语，这些短语（谁知道呢）可能会给她女儿的脸上带来微笑，并可能让她低声说：“真的，我的母亲很迷人。”

In due time the report reached the Viceroy's ears that one of his aristocrats had been openly baited in the theatre.

消息及时传到了总督的耳中，说他的一位贵族在剧院里被公开引诱。

He summoned the Perichole to the Palace and ordered her to call upon the Marquesa and to apologize.

他将佩里科尔传唤到宫殿，并命令她去拜访侯爵夫人并道歉。

The trip was to be made barefoot and in a black dress.

这次旅行必须赤脚并穿着黑色连衣裙。

Camila argued and fought, but all she gained was a pair of shoes.

卡米拉争辩、抗争，但她得到的只是一双鞋子。

The Viceroy had three reasons for insisting.

总督坚持的理由有三个。

In the first place the singer had taken liberties with his court.

首先，这位歌手对他的宫廷进行了调侃。

Don Andrés had contrived to make exile endurable by building up a ceremonial so complicated that it could be remembered only by a society that had nothing else to think about.

唐·安德烈斯设法让流亡变得可以忍受，他举办了一个如此复杂的仪式，以至于只有一个没有其他事情可考虑的社会才能记住它。

He nursed his little aristocracy and its minute distinctions and any insult paid to a Marquesa was an insult to His Person.

他照顾他的小贵族及其细微的差别，对侯爵夫人的任何侮辱都是对他本人的侮辱。

In the second place, Doña María's son-in-law was an increasingly important personage in Spain, laden with possibilities of injury to the Viceroy, nay with the possibility of supplanting him.

其次，多尼亚·玛丽亚的女婿在西班牙是一个日益重要的人物，充满了伤害总督的可能性，甚至还有取代他的可能性。

The Conde Vicente d'Abuirre must not be vexed, even through his half-wit mother-in-law.

文森特·达布尔伯爵决不能生气，即使是他那傻婆婆也不行。

Finally, the Viceroy was delighted to humble the actress.

最后，总督很高兴地羞辱了这位女演员。

He suspected that she was deceiving him with a matador, perhaps with an actor,--between the flattery of the court and the inertia of gout he could not quite make out who it was; at all events, it was clear that the singer was beginning to forget that he was one of the first men in the world.

他怀疑她是用一个斗牛士，也许是一个演员来欺骗他——在宫廷的奉承和痛风的惰性之间，他无法完全辨认出那人是谁；无论如何，很明显这位歌手开始忘记他是世界上最早的男人之一。

The Marquesa, beside not having heard the scurrilous songs, was in other ways unprepared for the actress's visit.

侯爵夫人除了没有听过那些粗俗的歌曲之外，在其他方面也对这位女演员的到来毫无准备。

You should know that after the departure of her daughter, Doña María had lighted upon a certain consolation: she had taken to drinking.

你应该知道，在女儿离开后，多娜·玛丽亚找到了某种安慰：她开始酗酒。

Everyone drank _chicha_ in Peru and there was no particular disgrace in being found unconscious on a feast day.

在秘鲁，每个人都喝奇恰酒，在节日里被发现昏迷并没有什么特别丢脸的。

Doña María had begun to discover that her feverish monologues had a way of keeping her awake all night.

多娜·玛丽亚开始发现，她狂热的独白会让她彻夜难眠。

Once she took a delicate fluted glassful of _chicha_ on retiring.

有一次，她在睡觉时喝了一杯精致的有凹槽的_chicha_。

Oblivion was so sweet that presently she stole larger amounts and tried dissimulating their effects from Pepita; she hinted that she was not well, and represented herself as going into a decline.

遗忘是如此甜蜜，以至于不久她就偷了更多的东西，并试图向佩皮塔隐瞒它们的效果。她暗示自己身体不太好，并表示自己正在走向衰落。

At last she resigned all pretense.

最后她放弃了所有的伪装。

The boats that carried her letter to Spain did not leave oftener than once a month.

载着她的信去西班牙的船只每月最多出发一次。

During the week that preceded the making of the packet she observed a strict regimen and cultivated the city assiduously for material.

在制作包裹之前的一周里，她遵守严格的规定，并勤奋地在这座城市中寻找材料。

At last on the eve of the post she wrote the letter, making up the bundle towards dawn and leaving it for Pepita to deliver to the agent.

最后，在邮递前夕，她写了这封信，并在黎明前将信打包好，然后让佩皮塔交给代理人。

Then as the sun rose she would shut herself up in her room with some flagons and drift through the next few weeks without the burden of consciousness.

然后，当太阳升起时，她会把自己关在房间里，拿着一些酒壶，在接下来的几周里毫无意识地度过。

Finally she would emerge from her happiness and prepare to go into a state of "training" in preparation for the writing of another letter.

终于，她从幸福中走出来，准备进入“训练”状态，为写另一封信做准备。

Thus on the night following the scandal in the theatre she wrote Letter XXII and retired to bed with a carafe.

因此，在剧院丑闻发生后的那个晚上，她写了第二十二封信，然后带着水瓶上床睡觉了。

All next day Pepita moved about the room, glancing anxiously at the figure on the bed.

第二天，佩皮塔在房间里走来走去，焦急地看着床上的人影。

The next afternoon Pepita brought her needlework into the room.

第二天下午，佩皮塔把她的针线活带进了房间。

The Marquesa lay staring at the ceiling with wide-open eyes, talking to herself.

侯爵夫人躺在那里，睁大眼睛盯着天花板，自言自语。

Towards dusk Pepita was called to the door and informed that the Perichole had come to see the mistress.

黄昏时分，佩皮塔被叫到门口，得知佩里科尔来见女主人。

Pepita remembered the theatre very well and sent back word angrily that the mistress refused to see her.

佩皮塔对剧院的事记得很清楚，她愤怒地回信说女主人拒绝见她。

The man carried the message to the street door, but returned awestruck with the news that the Señora Perichole was armed with a letter from the Viceroy presenting her to the lady.

男子把信送到街门口，但回来时却惊讶地发现，佩里科尔夫人手里拿着一封总督写给那位女士的信。

Pepita tiptoed to the bed and started talking to the Marquesa.

佩皮塔蹑手蹑脚地走到床边，开始和侯爵夫人说话。

The glazed eyes moved to the girl's face.

呆滞的目光移到了女孩的脸上。

Pepita shook her gently.

佩皮塔轻轻摇晃她。

With great effort Doña María tried to fix her mind on what was being said to her.

多娜·玛丽亚费了很大的力气才把注意力集中在别人对她说的话上。

Twice she lay back, refusing to seize the meaning, but at last, like a general calling together in a rain and by night the dispersed division of his army she assembled memory and attention and a few other faculties and painfully pressing her hand to her forehead she asked for a bowl of snow.

她有两次向后躺去，拒绝理解其中的含义，但最后，就像一位将军在雨中召集，夜里分散的军队一样，她聚集了记忆、注意力和其他一些能力，痛苦地把手按在额头上，要了一碗雪。

When it was brought her, she long and drowsily pressed handfuls of it against her temples and cheeks; then rising she stood for a long time leaning against the bed and looking at her shoes.

当它被拿来给她时，她昏昏欲睡地把一把它放在她的太阳穴和脸颊上。然后她站了起来，靠在床上，看着自己的鞋子，站了很长时间。

At last she raised her head with decision, she called for her fur-trimmed cloak and a veil.

最后她下定决心地抬起头，叫人拿来她的毛皮斗篷和面纱。

She put them on and tottered into her handsomest reception room where the actress stood waiting for her.

她穿上它们，摇摇晃晃地走进她最漂亮的接待室，女演员站在那儿等着她。

Camila had intended to be perfunctory and if possible impudent, but now she was struck for the first time with the dignity of the old woman.

卡米拉本想敷衍一下，甚至是无礼的，但现在她第一次被老妇人的尊严所震撼。

The mercer's daughter could carry herself at times with all the distinction of the Montemayors and when she was drunk she wore the grandeur of Hecuba.

商人的女儿有时会表现出蒙特马约尔家族的所有特征，而当她喝醉时，她会表现出赫卡芭的威严。

For Camila the half-closed eyes had the air of weary authority and she began almost timidly:

卡米拉半闭的眼睛带着疲惫的权威气息，她几乎胆怯地开始说道：

"I come, señora, to make sure that you could not have misunderstood anything I said on the evening that Your Grace did me the honour to visit my theatre."

“我来，夫人，是为了确保您不会误解我那天晚上说的任何话，陛下让我有幸参观了我的剧院。”

"Misunderstood?

“误会了？

Misunderstood?" said the Marquesa.

误会了？”侯爵夫人说道。

"Your Grace might have misunderstood and thought that my words were intended to be disrespectful to Your Grace."

“陛下可能误会了，认为我这番话是对陛下不敬。”

"To me?"

“大部头书？”

"Your Grace is not offended at her humble servant?

“陛下对她卑微的仆人没有生气吗？

Your Grace is aware that a poor actress in my position may be carried beyond her intentions ...

陛下知道，一个可怜的女演员在我这个位置上可能会超出她的意图......

that it is very difficult ...

这非常困难......

that everything...."

那一切……”

"How can I be offended, señora?

“我怎么会生气呢，夫人？

All that I can remember is that you gave a beautiful performance.

我只记得你的表演很精彩。

You are a great artist.

你是一位伟大的艺术家。

You should be happy, happy.

你应该幸福，幸福。

My handkerchief, Pepita...."

我的手帕，佩皮塔……”

The Marquesa brought out these words very rapidly and vaguely, but the Perichole was confounded.

侯爵夫人非常迅速而含糊地说出这句话，但佩里科尔却感到困惑。

A piercing sense of shame filled her.

一种强烈的羞耻感充满了她。

She turned crimson.

她的脸涨得通红。

At last she was able to murmur:

终于，她能够低声说道：

"It was in the songs between the acts of the comedy.

“这是在喜剧表演之间的歌曲中。

I was afraid Your Grace ..."

我害怕陛下……”

"Yes, yes.

“是的，是的。

I remember now.

我现在想起来了。

I left early.

我提前离开了。

Pepita, we left early, did we not?

佩皮塔，我们离开得很早，不是吗？

But, señora, you are good enough to forgive my leaving early, yes, even in the middle of your admirable performance.

但是，夫人，您足够原谅我提前离开，是的，即使是在您令人钦佩的表演进行到一半的时候。

I forget why we left.

我忘记了我们为什么离开。

Pepita ...

佩皮塔...

oh, some indisposition...."

哦，有点不舒服……”

It was impossible that anyone in the theatre could have missed the intention of the songs.

剧院里的任何人都不可能错过歌曲的意图。

Camila could only assume that the Marquesa, out of a sort of fantastic magnanimity, was playing the farce of not having noticed it.

卡米拉只能假设侯爵夫人出于某种不可思议的宽宏大量，正在上演一场没有注意到的闹剧。

She was almost in tears: "But you are so good to overlook my childishness, señora,--I mean Your Grace.

她几乎热泪盈眶：“但是您真是太好了，竟然忽略了我的幼稚，夫人，——我指的是陛下。

I did not know.

我不知道。

I did not know your goodness, señora, permit me to kiss your hand."

我不知道你的善良，夫人，请允许我亲吻你的手。”

Doña María held out her hand astonished.

玛丽亚夫人惊讶地伸出手。

She had not for a long time been addressed with such consideration.

她已经很久没有受到这样的关怀了。

Her neighbors, her tradespeople, her servants--for even Pepita lived in awe of her,--her very daughter had never approached her thus.

她的邻居、她的商人、她的仆人——甚至连佩皮塔都对她充满敬畏——她的女儿从来没有这样接近过她。

It induced a new mood in her; one that must very likely be called maudlin.

这让她产生了一种新的情绪。很可能被称为伤感的人。

She became loquacious:

她变得喋喋不休：

"Offended, offended at you, my beautiful, ...

“冒犯了，冒犯了你，我美丽的……

my gifted child?

我有天赋的孩子？

Who am I, a ...

我是谁，一个...

an unwise and unloved old woman, to be offended at you?

一个不明智、不被爱的老太婆，竟然会生你的气？

I felt, my daughter, as though I were--what says the poet?--_surprising through a cloud the conversation of the angels_.

我觉得，我的女儿，好像我——诗人怎么说？——_透过云彩惊讶地听到天使的对话_。

Your voice kept finding new wonders in our Moreto.

您的声音不断在我们的 Moreto 中发现新的奇迹。

When you said:

当你说：

'_Don Juan, si mi amor estimas, Y la fe segura es necia, Enojarte mis temores Es no querarme discreta.

'_唐璜，我爱你，你爱我，我爱你，埃诺雅尔特不爱你。

¿Tan seguros_....'

¿Tan seguros_....'

and so on,--that was true!

等等——这是真的！

And what a gesture you made at the close of the First Day.

您在第一天结束时做出了多么伟大的举动啊！

There, with your hand so.

在那里，你的手就这样。

Such a gesture as the Virgin made, saying to Gabriel: _How is it possible that I shall have a child_?

圣母玛利亚做出了这样的手势，对加百列说：_我怎么可能有一个孩子_？

No, no, you will begin to have resentment at me, for I am going to tell you about a gesture that you may remember to use some day.

不，不，你会开始对我产生怨恨，因为我要告诉你一个手势，有一天你可能会记得使用它。

Yes, it would fit well into that scene where you forgive your Don Juan de Lara.

是的，它很适合你原谅你的唐·胡安·德·拉拉的那个场景。

Perhaps I should tell you that I saw it made one day by my daughter.

也许我应该告诉你，有一天我看到它是我女儿做的。

My daughter is a very beautiful woman ...

我的女儿是一个非常美丽的女人......

everyone thinks.

每个人都认为。

Did ...

有没有...

did you know my Doña Clara, Señora?"

你认识我的唐娜·克拉拉吗，夫人？”

"Her Grace often did me the honour of visiting my theatre.

“女王陛下经常让我有幸参观我的剧院。

I knew the Condesa well by sight."

我一眼就认出了康德萨。”

"Do not remain so, on one knee, my child.--Pepita, tell Jenarito to bring this lady some sweet-cakes at once.

“不要一直这样，单膝跪地，我的孩子。——佩皮塔，告诉杰纳里托立即给这位女士带来一些甜蛋糕。

Think, one day we fell out, I forget over what.

想一想，有一天我们闹翻了，我忘记了发生了什么。

Oh, there is nothing strange in that; all we mothers from time to time....

哦，这并没有什么奇怪的；我们所有的母亲时不时......

Look, can you come a little closer?

你看，你能再靠近一点吗？

You must not believe the town that says she was unkind to me.

你千万别相信镇上说她对我不友善。

You are a great woman with a beautiful nature and you can see further than the crowd sees in these matters.--It is a pleasure to talk to you.

你是一位伟大的女性，有着美丽的本性，在这些问题上你的眼光比大众看得更远。——很高兴与你交谈。

What beautiful hair you have!

你的头发多漂亮啊！

What beautiful hair!--She had not a warm impulsive nature, I know that.

多漂亮的头发啊！——我知道，她本性并不热情、冲动。

But, oh, my child, she has such a store of intelligence and graciousness.

但是，哦，我的孩子，她有如此多的智慧和仁慈。

Any misunderstandings between us are so plainly my fault; is it not wonderful that she is so quick to forgive me?

我们之间的任何误会显然都是我的错；她这么快就原谅了我，这不是很棒吗？

This day there fell one of those little moments.

这一天，发生了一个这样的小时刻。

We both said hasty things and went off to our rooms.

我们俩匆匆说了几句话，就各自回房间了。

Then each turned back to be forgiven.

然后每个人都回头寻求宽恕。

Finally only a door separated us and there we were pulling it in contrary ways.

最后只有一扇门将我们隔开，我们以相反的方式拉着它。

But at last she ...

但最后她...

took my ...

拿走了我的...

face ...

脸...

thus, in her two white hands.

于是，在她两只白皙的手中。

So!

那么！

Look!"

快看！”

The Marquesa almost fell out of her chair as she leaned forward, her face streaming with happy tears, and made the beatific gesture.

侯爵夫人身体前倾，做出了这个幸福的手势，脸上挂满了幸福的泪水，差点从椅子上摔下来。

I should say the mythical gesture, for the incident was but a recurring dream.

我应该说这是神话般的姿态，因为这件事只是一个反复出现的梦。

"I am glad you are here," she continued, "for now you have heard from my own lips that she is not unkind to me, as some people say.

“我很高兴你在这里，”她继续说道，“因为现在你已经从我亲口中听到，她并不像有些人说的那样对我不友善。

Listen, señora, the fault was mine.

听着，夫人，错在我。

Look at me.

看着我。

Look at me.

看着我。

There was some mistake that made me the mother of so beautiful a girl.

有一些错误让我成为了如此美丽的女孩的母亲。

I am difficult.

我很难。

I am trying.

我正在努力。

You and she are great women.

你和她都是伟大的女性。

No, do not stop me: you are rare women, and I am only a nervous ...

不，不要阻止我：你们是难得的女人，而我只是一个神经质的......

a foolish ...

一个愚蠢的...

a stupid woman.

一个愚蠢的女人。

Let me kiss your feet.

让我亲吻你的脚。

I am impossible.

我是不可能的。

I am impossible.

我是不可能的。

I am impossible."

我是不可能的。”

Here indeed the old woman did fall out of her chair and was gathered up by Pepita and led back to her bed.

确实，老妇人确实从椅子上摔了下来，被佩皮塔扶了起来，带回了床上。

The Perichole walked home in consternation and sat for a long time gazing into her eyes in the mirror, her palms pressed against her cheeks.

佩里科尔惊愕地走回家，坐了很长时间，盯着镜子里的眼睛，手掌捂着脸颊。

But the person who saw most of the difficult hours of the Marquesa was her little companion, Pepita.

但见证了侯爵夫人的大部分艰难时刻的人是她的小伙伴佩皮塔。

Pepita was an orphan and had been brought up by that strange genius of Lima, the Abbess Madre María del Pilar.

佩皮塔是个孤儿，由利马一位奇怪的天才、女修道院院长马德雷·玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔抚养长大。

The only occasion upon which the two great women of Peru (as the perspective of history was to reveal them) met face to face was on the day when Doña María called upon the directress of the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas and asked if she might borrow some bright girl from the orphanage to be her companion.

秘鲁的两位伟大女性（从历史的角度来看，她们）唯一一次面对面的场合是那天，多娜·玛丽亚拜访了圣玛丽亚·罗莎·德拉·罗萨斯修道院女院长，询问她是否可以从孤儿院借一个聪明的女孩做她的伴侣。

The Abbess gazed hard at the grotesque old woman.

女修道院院长紧紧地盯着这个奇形怪状的老妇人。

Even the wisest people in the world are not perfectly wise and Madre María del Pilar who was able to divine the poor human heart behind all the masks of folly and defiance, had always refused to concede one to the Marquesa de Montemayor.

即使是世界上最聪明的人也不是完全聪明的，玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人能够洞察所有愚蠢和反抗面具背后可怜的人心，却始终拒绝向蒙特马约尔侯爵让步。

She asked her a great many questions and then paused to think.

她问了她很多问题，然后停下来思考。

She wanted to give Pepita the worldly experience of living in the palace.

她想让佩皮塔体验一下在宫殿里生活的世俗体验。

She also wanted to bend the old woman to her own interests.

她还想让老太婆屈服于她自己的利益。

And she was filled with a sombre indignation, for she knew she was gazing at one of the richest women in Peru, and the blindest.

她心中充满了悲痛的愤慨，因为她知道自己正在凝视着秘鲁最富有的女人之一，也是最盲目的女人。

She was one of those persons who have allowed their lives to be gnawed away because they have fallen in love with an idea several centuries before its appointed appearance in the history of civilization.

她是那些让自己的生命被蚕食的人之一，因为他们在文明历史上出现的几个世纪前就爱上了一个想法。

She hurled herself against the obstinacy of her time in her desire to attach a little dignity to women.

她奋力反抗时代的顽固，渴望赋予女性一点尊严。

At midnight when she had finished adding up the accounts of the House she would fall into insane vision of an age when women could be organized to protect women, women travelling, women as servants, women when they are old or ill, the women she had discovered in the mines of Potosi, or in the workrooms of the cloth-merchants, the girls she had collected out of doorways on rainy nights.

午夜时分，当她算完众议院的账目后，她会陷入疯狂的幻想中，想象一个时代，妇女可以被组织起来保护妇女、旅行的妇女、作为仆人的妇女、年老或生病的妇女、她在波托西的矿井里或在布商的工作室里发现的妇女、她在雨夜从门口收集来的女孩。

But always the next morning she had to face the fact that the women in Peru, even her nuns, went through life with two notions: one, that all the misfortunes that might befall them were merely due to the fact that they were not sufficiently attractive to bind some man to their maintenance and, two, that all the misery in the world was worth his caress.

但第二天早上，她总是不得不面对这样一个事实：秘鲁的女人，甚至是她的修女，在生活中都抱有两种观念：一是她们可能遭遇的所有不幸都只是因为她们没有足够的吸引力，无法让某个男人为她们的赡养费付出代价；二是世界上所有的苦难都值得他的爱抚。

She had never known any country but the environs of Lima and she assumed that all its corruption was the normal state of mankind.

除了利马周边地区，她从未了解过任何国家，她认为所有的腐败都是人类的正常状态。

Looking back from our century we can see the whole folly of her hope.

回顾我们这个世纪，我们可以看到她的希望是多么愚蠢。

Twenty such women would have failed to make any impression on that age.

二十个这样的女人在那个年纪是不会留下任何印象的。

Yet she continued diligently in her task.

但她仍继续勤奋地完成自己的任务。

She resembled the swallow in the fable who once every thousand years transferred a grain of wheat, in the hope of rearing a mountain to reach the moon.

她就像传说中的燕子，每隔千年就会转移一粒麦子，希望能竖起一座山到达月球。

Such persons are raised up in every age; they obstinately insist on transporting their grains of wheat and they derive a certain exhilaration from the sneers of the bystanders.

每个时代都有这样的人长大。他们固执地坚持运送自己的麦粒，并从旁观者的嘲笑中获得某种快感。

"How queerly they dress!" we cry.

“他们的穿着多么奇怪啊！”我们哭了。

"How queerly they dress!"

“他们的穿着多么奇怪啊！”

Her plain red face had great kindliness, and more idealism than kindliness, and more generalship than idealism.

她朴素的红脸却充满了极大的慈悲，而且比慈悲更多的是理想主义，比理想主义更多的是将军精神。

All her work, her hospitals, her orphanage, her convent, her sudden journeys of rescue, depended upon money.

她所有的工作，她的医院，她的孤儿院，她的修道院，她突然的救援之旅，都依赖于金钱。

No one harbored a fairer admiration for mere goodness, but she had been obliged to watch herself sacrificing her kindliness, almost her idealism, to generalship, so dreadful were the struggles to obtain her subsidies from her superiors in the church.

没有人对单纯的善良怀有更公平的钦佩，但她不得不看着自己为了将军而牺牲自己的善良，几乎是她的理想主义，从教会的上司那里获得补贴的斗争是如此可怕。

The Archbishop of Lima, whom we shall know later in a more graceful connection, hated her with what he called a Vatinian hate and counted the cessation of her visits among the compensations for dying.

利马大主教（我们稍后会以更优雅的方式认识他）对她怀有一种他所谓的梵蒂冈仇恨，并将她停止探视视为对死亡的补偿。

Lately she had felt not only the breath of old age against her cheek, but a graver warning.

最近，她不仅感受到了苍老的气息拂过脸颊，还感受到了更严重的警告。

A chill of terror went through her, not for herself, but for her work.

一阵恐怖的寒意袭遍她全身，不是为了她自己，而是为了她的工作。

Who was there in Peru to value the things she had valued?

在秘鲁，谁会珍惜她所珍视的东西？

And rising one day at dawn she had made a rapid journey through her hospital and convent and orphanage, looking for a soul she might train to be her successor.

有一天黎明时分，她起床快速走遍医院、修道院和孤儿院，寻找一个可以训练为她的继承人的灵魂。

She hurried from empty face to empty face, occasionally pausing more from hope than conviction.

她匆忙地从一张空洞的脸换到另一张空洞的脸，偶尔停下来更多的是出于希望而不是信念。

In the courtyard she came upon a company of girls at work over the linen and her eyes fell at once upon a girl of twelve who was directing the others at the trough and at the same time recounting to them with great dramatic fire the less probable miracles in the life of Saint Rose of Lima.

在院子里，她遇到了一群正在整理亚麻布的女孩，她的目光立刻落在一个十二岁的女孩身上，她正在指挥其他人去吃水槽，同时以极大的戏剧性热情向她们讲述利马圣罗丝一生中不太可能发生的奇迹。

So it was that the search ended with Pepita.

就这样，对佩皮塔的搜寻就结束了。

The education for greatness is difficult enough at any time, but amid the sensibilities and jealousies of a convent it must be conducted with fantastic indirection.

在任何时候，伟大的教育都是非常困难的，但在修道院的敏感和嫉妒之中，它必须以奇妙的间接方式进行。

Pepita was assigned to the most disliked tasks in the House, but she came to understand all the aspects of its administration.

佩皮塔被分配到众议院最不受欢迎的任务，但她开始了解众议院管理的各个方面。

She accompanied the Abbess on her journeys, even though it was in the capacity of custodian of the eggs and vegetables.

她陪伴女院长出行，尽管她的身份是鸡蛋和蔬菜的保管人。

And everywhere, by surprise, hours would open up in which the Directress suddenly appeared and talked to her at great length, not only on religious experience, but on how to manage women and how to plan contagious wards and how to beg for money.

令人惊讶的是，到处都有几个小时，女院长突然出现，与她进行了长篇大论，不仅谈论宗教经历，还谈论如何管理妇女、如何计划传染性病房以及如何乞讨金钱。

It was a step in this education for greatness that led to Pepita's arriving one day and entering upon the crazy duties of being Doña María's companion.

正是这种伟大教育的一步，导致佩皮塔有一天到来并承担起成为多娜·玛丽亚伴侣的疯狂职责。

For the first two years she merely came for occasional afternoons, but finally she came to the palace to live.

头两年她只是偶尔下午过来，最后还是来到了皇宫居住。

She never had been taught to expect happiness, and the inconveniences, not to say terrors, of her new position did not seem to her excessive for a girl of fourteen.

她从来没有被教导要期待幸福，而且对于一个十四岁的女孩来说，她的新职位所带来的不便，更不用说恐怖，似乎并不过分。

She did not suspect that the Abbess, even there, was hovering above the house, herself estimating the stresses and watching for the moment when a burden harms and not strengthens.

她并不怀疑女院长甚至在那里，也在房子上空徘徊，她自己估计着压力，并留意着负担何时会造成伤害而不是加重。

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A few of Pepita's trials were physical: for example, the servants in the house took advantage of Doña María's indisposition; they opened up the bedrooms of the palace to their relatives; they stole freely.

佩皮塔的一些考验是身体上的：例如，家里的仆人利用了多娜·玛丽亚的身体不适；他们向亲戚开放了宫殿的卧室。他们肆无忌惮地偷窃。

Alone Pepita stood out against them and suffered a persecution of small discomforts and practical jokes.

佩皮塔独自一人站在他们的对立面，并遭受了一些小小的不适和恶作剧的迫害。

Her mind, similarly, had its distresses: when she accompanied Doña María on her errands in the city, the older woman would be seized with the desire to dash into a church, for what she had lost of religion as faith she had replaced with religion as magic.

同样，她的内心也有苦恼：当她陪伴多娜·玛丽亚进城出差时，这位年长的女人就会突然想冲进教堂，因为她已经失去了作为信仰的宗教，而代之以作为魔法的宗教。

"Stay here in the sunlight, my dear child; I shall not be long," she would say.

“留在阳光下，我亲爱的孩子；我不会呆太久的，”她会说。

Doña María would then forget herself in a reverie before the altar and leave the church by another door.

然后，多纳·玛丽亚就会在祭坛前陷入沉思，然后从另一扇门离开教堂。

Pepita had been brought up by Madre María del Pilar to an almost morbid obedience and when after many hours she ventured into the church and made sure that her mistress was no longer there, still she returned to the street-corner and waited while the shadows fell gradually across the square.

佩皮塔被玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人抚养得几乎是病态的服从，几个小时后，当她冒险进入教堂并确定她的女主人不再在那里时，她仍然回到街角，等待着广场上的阴影逐渐降临。

Thus waiting in public she suffered all the torture of a little girl's self-consciousness.

就这样在公共场合等待，她承受着一个小女孩自我意识的所有折磨。

She still wore the uniform of the orphanage (which a minute's thoughtfulness on the part of Doña María could have altered) and she suffered hallucinations wherein men seemed to be staring at her and whispering--nor were these always hallucinations.

她仍然穿着孤儿院的制服（只要多娜·玛丽亚一分钟的体贴，这身制服就可能改变），她产生了幻觉，男人们似乎在盯着她窃窃私语——但这些幻觉并不总是幻觉。

No less her heart suffered, for on some days Doña María would suddenly become aware of her and would talk to her cordially and humorously, would let appear for a few hours all the exquisite sensibility of the Letters; then, on the morrow she would withdraw into herself again and, while never harsh, would become impersonal and unseeing.

她的心也同样痛苦，因为有时候，多娜·玛丽亚会突然意识到她的存在，会与她亲切而幽默地交谈，在几个小时内让信件中所有精致的情感显现出来；但她的心却受到了同样的痛苦。然后，第二天她又会退回到自己的世界，虽然从不严厉，但会变得冷酷无情、冷漠无情。

The beginnings of hope and affection that Pepita had such need to expend would be wounded.

佩皮塔急需花费的最初的希望和感情将会受到伤害。

She tiptoed about the palace, silent, bewildered, clinging only to her sense of duty and her loyalty to her "mother in the Lord," Madre María del Pilar, who had sent her there.

她蹑手蹑脚地在宫殿里走来走去，沉默不语，困惑不解，只坚持自己的责任感和对“主内的母亲”玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人的忠诚，是她把她送到了那里。

* * * * * * *

* * * * * * * *

Finally a new fact appeared that was to have considerable effect on the lives of both the Marquesa and her companion: "_My dear mother_," wrote the Condesa, "_the weather has been most exhausting and the fact that the orchards and gardens are in bloom only makes it the more trying.

最后，一个新的事实出现了，这对侯爵夫人和她的同伴的生活产生了相当大的影响：“我亲爱的母亲，”康德萨写道，“天气一直令人疲惫不堪，而果园和花园盛开的事实只会让一切变得更加艰难。

I could endure flowers if only they had no perfume.

我可以忍受鲜花，只要它们没有香水。

I shall therefore ask your permission to write you at less length than usual.

因此，我将请求您允许我以比平常更短的篇幅给您写信。

If Vicente returns before the post leaves he will be delighted to finish out the leaf and supply you with those tiresome details about myself which you seem to enjoy so.

如果维森特在邮件离开之前回来，他会很高兴完成这页，并向你提供那些关于我自己的令人厌烦的细节，而你似乎很喜欢这些细节。

I shall not go to Grignan in Provence as I expected this Fall, as child will be born in early October_."

今年秋天我不会像预期的那样去普罗旺斯的格里尼昂，因为孩子将于十月初出生_。”

What child?

什么孩子？

The Marquesa leaned against the wall.

侯爵夫人靠在墙上。

Doña Clara had foreseen the exhausting importunities that this news would waken in her mother and had sought to mitigate them by the casualness of her announcement.

多娜·克拉拉预见到这个消息会唤醒她母亲的强烈要求，并试图通过她随意宣布的方式来缓解这种强烈要求。

The ruse did not succeed.

这个诡计没有得逞。

The famous Letter XLII was the answer.

著名的第四十二封信就是答案。

Now at length the Marquesa had something to be anxious about: her daughter was to become a mother.

现在，侯爵夫人终于有了一件值得担心的事情：她的女儿即将成为母亲。

This event, which merely bored Doña Clara, discovered a whole new scale of emotions in the Marquesa.

这件事本来只是让多娜·克拉拉感到无聊，却在侯爵夫人身上发现了一种全新的情绪。

She became a mine of medical knowledge and suggestion.

她成为医学知识和建议的宝库。

She combed the city for wise old women and poured into her letters the whole folk-wisdom of the New World.

她在城里搜寻睿智的老妇人，并在信中倾注了新世界的全部民间智慧。

She fell into the most abominable superstition.

她陷入了最可恶的迷信之中。

She practiced a degrading system of taboos for her child's protection.

为了保护孩子，她实行了一种有辱人格的禁忌制度。

She refused to allow a knot in the house.

她拒绝让房子里出现结。

The maids were forbidden to tie up their hair and she concealed upon her person ridiculous symbols of a happy delivery.

女仆们被禁止把头发扎起来，她身上还藏着一些可笑的、象征着快乐分娩的象征。

On the stairs the even steps were marked with red chalk and a maid who accidentally stepped upon an even step was driven from the house with tears and screams.

楼梯上平坦的台阶上用红粉笔做了标记，一个不小心踩到平坦台阶的女仆被赶出了家门，泪流满面，尖叫不已。

Doña Clara was in the hands of malignant Nature who reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.

多娜·克拉拉（Doña Clara）处于邪恶的大自然手中，大自然保留对她的孩子们施加最可怕的笑话的权利。

There was an etiquette of propitiation which generations of peasant women had found comforting.

有一种安抚礼仪，让一代又一代的农妇感到安慰。

So vast an army of witnesses surely implied that there was some truth in it.

如此众多的目击者无疑暗示着其中有一定的道理。

At least it could do no harm, and Perhaps it did good.

至少它不会造成任何伤害，而且也许还有好处。

But the Marquesa did not only satisfy the rites of paganism; she studied the prescriptions of Christianity as well.

但侯爵夫人不仅满足了异教的仪式，而且还满足了异教的需要。她还研究了基督教的处方。

She arose in the dark and stumbled through the streets to the earliest Masses.

她在黑暗中起床，跌跌撞撞地穿过街道，去参加最早的弥撒。

She hysterically hugged the altar-rails trying to rend from the gaudy statuettes a sign, only a sign, the ghost of a smile, the furtive nod of a waxen head.

她歇斯底里地抱住祭坛栏杆，试图从华丽的小雕像上撕下一个标志，只有一个标志，微笑的幽灵，蜡质头像的鬼鬼祟祟的点头。

Would all be well?

一切都会好起来吗？

Sweet, sweet Mother, would all be well?

亲爱的妈妈，一切都会好起来吗？

At times, after a day's frantic resort to such invocations, a revulsion would sweep over her.

有时，在一天疯狂地诉诸这样的祈祷之后，她会感到一种厌恶。

Nature is deaf.

大自然是聋子。

God is indifferent.

神无动于衷。

Nothing in man's power can alter the course of law.

人的力量无法改变法律的进程。

Then on some street-corner she would stop, dizzy with despair, and leaning against a wall would long to be taken from a world that had no plan in it.

然后在某个街角，她会停下来，绝望得头晕目眩，靠在墙上，渴望离开这个没有计划的世界。

But soon a belief in the great Perhaps would surge up from the depths of her nature and she would fairly run home to renew the candles above her daughter's bed.

但很快，一种对伟大“也许”的信念就会从她本性的深处涌起，她会毫不犹豫地跑回家去更新女儿床上的蜡烛。

At last the time came to satisfy the supreme rite of Peruvian households looking forward to this event: she made the pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa María de Cluxambuqua.

最后，满足秘鲁家庭期待这一事件的最高仪式的时刻到来了：她前往圣玛丽亚·德·克卢桑布夸圣地朝圣。

If there resided any efficacy in devotion at all, surely it lay in a visit to this great shrine.

如果虔诚有任何功效的话，那肯定是参拜这座伟大的神殿。

The ground had been holy through three religions; even before the Incan civilization distraught human beings had hugged the rocks and lashed themselves with whips to wring their will from the skies.

这片土地因三种宗教而变得神圣；甚至在印加文明出现之前，心烦意乱的人类就已经拥抱岩石，用鞭子抽打自己，从天空中榨取自己的意志。

Thither the Marquesa was carried in her chair, crossing the bridge of San Luis Rey and ascending up into the hills toward that city of large-girdled women, a tranquil town, slow-moving and slow-smiling; a city of crystal air, cold as the springs that fed its many fountains; a city of bells, soft and musical, and tuned to carry on with one another the happiest quarrels.

侯爵夫人坐在椅子上，穿过圣路易斯雷伊桥，登上山坡，朝那座穿着宽大腰带的妇女的城市走去，这是一座宁静的小镇，缓慢地移动，缓慢地微笑；一座拥有水晶般空气的城市，冰冷得像供给众多喷泉的泉水一样；一座充满钟声的城市，轻柔而富有音乐性，调好音调，让彼此进行最快乐的争吵。

If anything turned out for disappointment in the town of Cluxambuqua the grief was somehow assimilated by the overwhelming immanence of the Andes and by the weather of quiet joy that flowed in and about the side-streets.

如果说克卢桑布夸镇有什么令人失望的事情的话，那么这种悲伤不知何故被安第斯山脉压倒性的内在性和小巷里和周围流动的安静欢乐的天气所吸收。

No sooner did the Marquesa see from a distance the white walls of this town perched on the knees of the highest peaks than her fingers ceased turning the beads and the busy prayers of her fright were cut short on her lips.

侯爵夫人一从远处看到这座小镇的白色城墙矗立在最高峰的膝盖上，她的手指就停止了转动珠子，她嘴唇上因恐惧而忙碌的祈祷也被打断了。

She did not even alight at the inn, but leaving Pepita to arrange for their stay she went on to the church and knelt for a long time patting her hands softly together.

她甚至没有在旅馆下车，而是让佩皮塔安排他们的住宿，然后她继续走到教堂，跪下很长时间，轻轻地拍着双手。

She was listening to the new tide of resignation that was rising within her.

她正在倾听内心涌起的新的辞职浪潮。

Perhaps she would learn in time to permit both her daughter and her gods to govern their own affairs.

也许她会及时学会允许她的女儿和她的众神管理自己的事务。

She was not annoyed by the whispering of the old women in padded garments who sold candles and medals and talked about money from dawn to dark.

那些穿棉衣的老妇人从早到晚卖蜡烛、卖奖章、谈钱，她们的窃窃私语并没有让她烦恼。

She was not even distracted by an officious sacristan who tried to collect a fee for something or other and who, from spite, made her change her place under the pretext of repairing a tile on the floor.

她甚至没有被一个多管闲事的圣器管理员分心，这个圣器管理员试图收取某物的费用，并且出于恶意，以修理地板上的瓷砖为借口让她改变了位置。

Presently she went out into the sunshine and sat on the steps of the fountain.

不久，她走到阳光下，坐在喷泉的台阶上。

She watched the little processions of invalids slowly revolving about the gardens.

她看着病人的小队伍在花园里慢慢地旋转。

She watched three hawks plunging about the sky.

她看到三只鹰在天空中盘旋。

The children who had been playing by the fountain stared at her for a moment, and went away alarmed, but a llama (a lady with a long neck and sweet shallow eyes, burdened down by a fur cape too heavy for her and picking her way delicately down an interminable staircase) came over and offered her a velvet cleft nose to stroke.

喷泉边玩耍的孩子们盯着她看了一会儿，然后惊慌地走开，但一只美洲驼（一位长着长脖子、浅浅眼睛的女士，身上背着一件对她来说太重的毛皮斗篷，小心翼翼地走下无边无际的楼梯）走过来，给了她一个天鹅绒裂开的鼻子让她抚摸。

The llama is deeply interested in the men about her, is even fond of pretending that she too is one of them and of inserting her head into their conversations as though in a moment she would lift her voice and contribute a wan and helpful comment.

美洲驼对她身边的男人深感兴趣，甚至喜欢假装自己也是他们中的一员，并把头伸进他们的谈话中，仿佛一会儿她就会提高声音，发表苍白而有益的评论。

Soon Doña María was surrounded by a number of these sisters who seemed on the point of asking her why she clapped her hands so and how much her veiling cost a yard.

很快，多娜·玛丽亚就被许多姐妹围住了，她们似乎想问她为什么拍手，以及她的面纱值多少钱一码。

Doña María had arranged that any letters arriving from Spain should be brought to her at once by a special messenger.

玛丽亚夫人已经安排，任何从西班牙寄来的信件都应立即由一名特殊的信使送达给她。

She had travelled slowly from Lima and even now as she sat in the square a boy from her farm ran up and put into her hand a large packet wrapped in parchment and dangling some nuggets of sealing-wax.

她从利马慢慢地走来，甚至现在，当她坐在广场上时，一个来自她农场的男孩跑过来，把一个用羊皮纸包着的大包放在她手里，包里挂着一些密封蜡块。

Slowly she undid the wrappings.

她慢慢地解开包裹。

With measured stoic gestures she read first an affectionate and jocose note from her son-in-law; then her daughter's letter.

她首先读到了女婿充满深情又诙谐的便条；然后是她女儿的信。

It was full of wounding remarks rather brilliantly said, perhaps said for the sheer virtuosity of giving pain neatly.

它充满了伤人的言论，说得相当精彩，也许是为了巧妙地给予痛苦的纯粹技巧。

Each of its phrases found its way through the eyes of the Marquesa, then, carefully wrapped in understanding and forgiveness it sank into her heart.

它的每句话都穿过了侯爵夫人的眼睛，然后，小心翼翼地包裹着理解和宽恕，深入她的内心。

At last she arose, gently dispersed the sympathetic llamas, and with a grave face returned to the shrine.

最后她站了起来，轻轻地驱散了同情的骆驼，然后一脸严肃地回到了神殿。

While Doña María was passing the late afternoon in the Church and in the Square, Pepita was left to prepare their lodging.

当玛丽亚夫人在教堂和广场度过下午晚些时候时，佩皮塔留下来准备住宿。

She showed the porters where to lay down the great wicker hampers and set about unpacking the altar, the brazier, the tapestries and the portraits of Doña Clara.

她向搬运工们展示了放置大柳条篮的地方，然后开始拆开祭坛、火盆、挂毯和多娜·克拉拉肖像的包装。

She descended into the kitchen and gave the cook exact instructions as to the preparations of a certain porridge upon which the Marquesa principally subsisted.

她走进厨房，向厨师详细指示如何准备侯爵夫人主要赖以生存的某种粥。

Then she returned to the rooms and waited.

然后她回到房间等待。

She resolved to write a letter to the Abbess.

她决定给女院长写一封信。

She hung for a long time over the quill, staring into the distance with trembling lip.

她在羽毛笔上悬了很长时间，嘴唇颤抖地凝视着远方。

She saw the face of Madre María del Pilar, so red and scrubbed, and the wonderful black eyes.

她看到了玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人的脸，红扑扑的，还有一双漂亮的黑眼睛。

She heard her voice as at the close of supper (the orphans sitting with lowered eyes and folded hands) she commented on the events of the day, or as, by candlelight, she stood among the beds of the hospital and announced the theme for meditation during the night.

当晚饭结束时（孤儿们低垂着眼睛，双手合十地坐着），她听到自己的声音评论当天发生的事情，或者在烛光下，她站在医院的病床中间，宣布夜间冥想的主题。

But most clearly of all Pepita remembered the sudden interviews when the Abbess (not daring to wait until the girl was older) had discussed with her the duties of her office.

但最清楚的是，佩皮塔记得院长（不敢等到女孩长大）与她讨论她办公室的职责时突然进行的采访。

She had talked to Pepita as to an equal.

她与佩皮塔的交谈是平等的。

Such speech is troubling and wonderful to an intelligent child and Madre María del Pilar had abused it.

对于一个聪明的孩子来说，这样的言论既令人不安又美妙，而玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人却滥用了它。

She had expanded Pepita's vision of how she should feel and act beyond the measure of her years.

她扩展了佩皮塔对自己应该如何感受和行动的愿景，超越了她的年龄。

And she had unthinkingly turned upon Pepita the full blaze of her personality, as Jupiter had turned his upon Semele.

她不假思索地把自己的个性全部倾注在了佩皮塔身上，就像朱庇特把自己的个性倾注在了塞墨勒身上一样。

Pepita was frightened by her sense of insufficiency; she hid it and wept.

佩皮塔被自己的不足感吓坏了。她把它藏了起来，哭了。

And then the Abbess had cast the child into the discipline of this long solitude, where Pepita struggled, refusing to let herself believe that she had been abandoned.

然后女院长把孩子扔进了长期孤独的训练中，佩皮塔在那里挣扎，拒绝让自己相信自己被抛弃了。

And now from this strange inn in these strange mountains, where the altitude was making her lightheaded, Pepita longed for the dear presence, the only real thing in her life.

现在，佩皮塔在这片陌生的山脉中的这家陌生的旅馆里，那里的海拔让她头晕目眩，她渴望亲爱的存在，她生命中唯一真实的东西。

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She wrote a letter, all inkstains and incoherence.

她写了一封信，全是墨迹，语无伦次。

Then she went downstairs to see about fresh charcoal and to taste the porridge.

然后她下楼去看新鲜的木炭，尝尝粥。

The Marquesa came in and sat down at the table.

侯爵夫人进来，在桌边坐下。

"I can do no more.

“我无能为力了。

What will be, will be," she whispered.

会发生什么，就会发生什么。”她低声说道。

She unbound from her neck the amulets of her superstition and dropped them into the glowing brazier.

她解开脖子上迷信的护身符，把它们扔进发光的火盆里。

She had a strange sense of having antagonized God by too much prayer and so addressed Him now obliquely.

她有一种奇怪的感觉，因为太多的祈祷而得罪了上帝，所以现在拐弯抹角地称呼他。

"After all it is in the hands of another.

“毕竟它掌握在另一个人的手中。

I no longer claim the least influence.

我不再声称自己的影响力最小。

What will be, will be." She sat for a long time, her palms against her cheeks, making a blank of her mind.

会怎样，就会怎样。”她坐了很长时间，手掌贴着脸颊，脑子里一片空白。

Her eyes fell on Pepita's letter.

她的目光落在佩皮塔的信上。

She opened it mechanically and started to read.

她机械地打开它，开始阅读。

She had read a full half of it before her attention was aware of the meaning of the words: "...

她读了足足一半，才注意到这几个字的意思：“……

_but all this is nothing if you like me and wish me to stay with her.

_但如果你喜欢我并希望我和她在一起，这一切都不算什么。

I oughtn't to tell you but every now and then the bad chambermaids lock me up in rooms and steal things and perhaps My Lady will think that I steal them.

我不应该告诉你，但坏女服务员时不时地将我锁在房间里偷东西，也许我的女士会认为我偷了它们。

I hope not.

我希望不会。

I hope you are well and not having any trouble in the hospital or anywhere.

我希望你一切都好，在医院或任何地方都没有遇到任何麻烦。

Though I never see you I think of you all the time and I remember what you told me, my dear mother in God.

虽然我从未见过你，但我一直在想你，我记得你告诉我的话，我亲爱的上帝之母。

I want to do only what you want, but if you could let me come back for a few days to the convent, but not if you do not wish it.

我只想做你想做的事，但如果你能让我回到修道院几天，但如果你不希望的话就不要。

But I am so much alone and not talking to anyone, and everything.

但我非常孤独，不与任何人、任何事交谈。

Sometimes I do not know whether you have forgotten me and if you could find a minute to write me a little letter or something, I could keep it, but I know how busy you are_...."

有时我不知道你是否已经忘记了我，如果你能抽出一点时间给我写封信什么的，我可以保留它，但我知道你有多忙……”

Doña María read no further.

玛丽亚夫人没有再读下去。

She folded the letter and put it aside.

她把信折好放在一边。

For a moment she was filled with envy: she longed to command another's soul as completely as this nun was able to do.

有一瞬间，她充满了嫉妒：她渴望像这个修女一样完全控制另一个人的灵魂。

Most of all she longed to be back in this simplicity of love, to throw off the burden of pride and vanity that hers had always carried.

最重要的是，她渴望回到这种简单的爱中，摆脱她一直背负的骄傲和虚荣的负担。

To quiet the tumult in her mind she picked up a book of devotion and tried to fix her attention upon the words.

为了平息心中的骚动，她拿起一本灵修书，试图将注意力集中在文字上。

But after a moment she suddenly felt the need to reread the whole letter, to surprise, if possible, the secret of so much felicity.

但过了一会儿，她突然觉得有必要重读整封信，如果可能的话，让她感到如此幸福的秘密感到惊讶。

Pepita returned bringing the supper in her hands, followed by a maid.

佩皮塔手里端着晚餐回来了，身后跟着一名女仆。

Doña María watched her over the top of her book as she would have watched a visitor from Heaven.

玛丽亚夫人越过书本看着她，就像看着来自天堂的访客一样。

Pepita tiptoed about the room laying the table and whispering directions to her assistant.

佩皮塔蹑手蹑脚地在房间里走来走去，摆好桌子，低声向她的助手说明方向。

"Your supper is ready, My Lady," she said at last.

“您的晚餐已经准备好了，夫人。”她最后说道。

"But, my child, you are going to eat with me?" In Lima Pepita generally sat down at the table with her mistress.

“但是，我的孩子，你要和我一起吃饭吗？”在利马，佩皮塔通常和她的女主人坐在桌边。

"I thought you would be tired, My Lady.

“我以为您会累了，夫人。

I had my supper downstairs."

我在楼下吃晚饭了。”

"She does not wish to eat with me," thought the Marquesa.

“她不想和我一起吃饭，”侯爵夫人想。

"She knows me and has rejected me."

“她认识我，却拒绝了我。”

"Would you like me to read aloud to you while you are eating, My Lady?" asked Pepita, who felt that she had made a mistake.

“小姐，您吃饭的时候需要我给您朗读吗？”佩皮塔问道，她觉得自己犯了一个错误。

"No. You may go to bed, if you choose."

“不。如果你愿意，你可以去睡觉。”

"Thank you, My Lady."

“谢谢您，夫人。”

Doña María had risen and approached the table.

玛丽亚夫人站起身来，走到桌子旁边。

With one hand on the back of the chair she said haltingly: "My dear child, I am sending off a letter to Lima in the morning.

她一只手放在椅背上，结结巴巴地说：“我亲爱的孩子，我早上要给利马寄一封信。

If you have one you can enclose it with mine."

如果你有的话，可以把它和我的放在一起。”

"No, I have none," said Pepita.

“不，我没有，”佩皮塔说。

She added hastily: "I must go downstairs and get you the new charcoal."

她急忙补充道：“我必须下楼去给你拿新的木炭。”

"But, my dear, you have one for ...

“但是，亲爱的，你有一个……

Madre María del Pilar.

玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人。

Wouldn't you ...?"

你不会……吗？”

Pepita pretended to be busy over the brazier.

佩皮塔假装在火盆旁忙碌。

"No, I'm not going to send it," she said.

“不，我不会寄出去，”她说。

She was aware during the long pause that followed that the Marquesa was staring at her in stupefaction.

在随后的长时间停顿中，她意识到侯爵夫人正目瞪口呆地看着她。

"I've changed my mind."

“我改变主意了。”

"I know she would like a letter from you, Pepita.

“我知道她想要你的来信，佩皮塔。

It would make her very happy.

这会让她非常高兴。

I know."

我知道。”

Pepita was reddening.

佩皮塔的脸涨红了。

She said loudly: "The innkeeper said that there would be some new charcoal ready for you at dark.

她大声说道：“店主说天黑了会给你准备一些新木炭。

I'll tell them to bring it up now." She glanced hastily at the old woman and saw that she had not ceased from staring at her with great sad inquiring eyes.

我会告诉他们现在就提出来。”她急忙看了一眼老太婆，发现老太婆一直用一双悲伤而询问的眼睛盯着她。

Pepita felt that these were not things one talked about, but the strange woman seemed to be feeling the matter so strongly that Pepita was willing to concede one more answer: "No, it was a bad letter.

佩皮塔觉得这些不是可以谈论的事情，但那个陌生女人似乎对这件事的感受如此强烈，以至于佩皮塔愿意再承认一个答案：“不，这是一封糟糕的信。

It wasn't a good letter."

这不是一封好信。”

Doña María fairly gasped.

玛丽亚夫人倒吸一口冷气。

"Why, my dear Pepita, I think it was very beautiful.

“为什么，我亲爱的佩皮塔，我觉得它非常美丽。

Believe me, I know.

相信我，我知道。

No, no; what could have made it a bad letter?"

不，不；是什么让它成为一封糟糕的信呢？”

Pepita frowned, hunting for a word that would close the matter.

佩皮塔皱起眉头，寻找一个词来结束这件事。

"It wasn't ...

“这不是...

it wasn't ...

这不是...

brave," she said.

勇敢，”她说。

And then she would say no more.

然后她就不再说话了。

She carried the letter off into her own room and could be heard tearing it up.

她把信带进自己的房间，可以听到她撕毁信的声音。

Then she got into bed and lay staring into the darkness, still uncomfortable at having talked in such a fashion.

然后她上了床，躺在床上，凝视着黑暗，以这样的方式说话仍然让她感到不舒服。

And Doña María sat down to her dish amazed.

唐娜·玛丽亚惊讶地坐下来吃她的菜。

She had never brought courage to either life or love.

她从来没有给生活和爱情带来勇气。

Her eyes ransacked her heart.

她的目光搜遍了她的心。

She thought of the amulets and of her beads, her drunkenness ...

她想起了护身符和珠子，想起了她的醉酒……

she thought of her daughter.

她想到了她的女儿。

She remembered the long relationship, crowded with the wreckage of exhumed conversations, of fancied slights, of inopportune confidences, of charges of neglect and exclusion (but she must have been mad that day; she remembered beating upon the table).

她记得这段漫长的关系，充满了挖掘出来的谈话的残骸，想象中的轻视，不合时宜的秘密，忽视和排斥的指控（但那天她一定很生气；她记得拍桌子）。

"But it's not my fault," she cried.

“但这不是我的错，”她哭道。

"It's not my fault that I was so.

“我这样并不是我的错。

It was circumstance.

这是环境造成的。

It was the way I was brought up.

我就是这样长大的。

Tomorrow I begin a new life.

明天我将开始新的生活。

Wait and see, oh my child." At I last she cleared away the table and sitting down wrote what she called her first letter, her first stumbling misspelled letter in courage.

等着瞧吧，哦我的孩子。”最后，她清理了桌子，坐下来写下了她所谓的第一封信，这是她勇敢地写下的第一封结结巴巴、拼写错​​误的信。

She remembered with shame that in the previous one she had piteously asked her daughter how much she loved her, and had greedily quoted the few and hesitant endearments that Doña Clara had lately ventured to her.

她羞愧地记得，在上一篇文章中，她可怜兮兮地问女儿有多爱她，并贪婪地引用了多娜·克拉拉最近冒险向她表达的几句犹豫不决的爱意。

Doña María could not recall those pages, but she could write some new ones, free and generous.

玛丽亚夫人记不起那些书页了，但她可以自由而慷慨地写一些新的书页。

No one else has regarded them as stumbling.

没有人认为他们是绊脚石。

It is the famous letter LVI, known to the Encyclopedists as her Second Corinthians because of its immortal paragraph about love: "Of the thousands of persons we meet in a lifetime, my child ..." and so on.

这就是著名的字母 LVI，被百科全书称为她的《科林斯第二章》，因为其中关于爱情的不朽段落：“在我们一生中遇到的成千上万的人中，我的孩子……”等等。

It was almost dawn when she finished the letter.

当她写完这封信时，天已经快亮了。

She opened the door upon her balcony and looked at the great tiers of stars that glittered above the Andes.

她打开阳台的门，看着安第斯山脉上空闪闪发光的大星星。

Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.

整个晚上，虽然很少有人听到，但整个天空都充满了这些星座的歌声。

Then she took a candle into the next room and looked at Pepita as she slept, and pushed back the damp hair from the girl's face.

然后她拿着一支蜡烛走进隔壁房间，看着熟睡中的佩皮塔，把女孩脸上湿漉漉的头发拨到脑后。

"Let me live now," she whispered.

“现在就让我活下去吧，”她低声说道。

"Let me begin again."

“让我重新开始吧。”

Two days later they started back to Lima, and while crossing the bridge of San Luis Rey the accident which we know befell them.

两天后，他们启程返回利马，在穿过圣路易斯雷桥时，我们知道发生了一场事故。

[Illustration]

[图示]

ONE morning twin boys were discovered in the foundlings' basket before the door of the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas.

一天早上，人们在圣玛丽亚·罗莎·德拉·罗萨斯修道院门口的弃婴篮子里发现了一对双胞胎男孩。

Names were found for them almost before the arrival of the wet-nurse, but the names were not as useful to them as our names are to most of us, for no one ever succeeded in telling the boys apart.

几乎在奶妈到来之前就为他们找到了名字，但这些名字对他们来说并不像我们的名字对我们大多数人那么有用，因为没有人成功地区分这两个男孩。

There was no way of knowing who their parents were, but Limean gossips, noticing as the boys grew older how straight they held themselves and how silent and sombre they were, declared them to be Castilian and laid them in turn at all sorts of crested doorways.

我们无法知道他们的父母是谁，但利米安的流言蜚语注意到，随着孩子们长大，他们的举止是多么端正，他们是多么沉默和忧郁，于是宣布他们是卡斯蒂利亚人，并把他们轮流放在各种有顶饰的门口。

The person in the world who came nearest to being their guardian was the Abbess of the Convent.

世界上最接近他们监护人的人是修道院的女院长。

Madre María del Pilar had come to hate all men, but she grew fond of Manuel and Esteban.

玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人开始憎恨所有男人，但她却越来越喜欢曼努埃尔和埃斯特万。

In the late afternoon she would call them into her office, send for some cakes from the kitchen, and tell them stories about the Cid and Judas Maccabeus and the thirty-six misfortunes of Harlequin.

下午晚些时候，她会把他们叫到办公室，派人从厨房拿一些蛋糕，给他们讲有关西德和犹大·马卡布的故事，以及丑角的三十六件不幸的事。

She grew to love them so, that she would catch herself gazing deep into their black and frowning eyes, looking for those traits that would appear when they grew to be men, all that ugliness, all that soullessness that made hideous the world she worked in.

她变得如此爱他们，以至于她会发现自己深深地凝视着他们皱着眉头的黑色眼睛，寻找他们长大后会出现的那些特征，所有那些丑陋，所有那些让她工作的世界变得丑陋的无情的东西。

They grew up about the convent until they were a little past the age when their presence began to be a slight distraction to the dedicated sisters.

她们在修道院里长大，直到她们的年龄稍稍过了这个年龄，她们的存在开始对虔诚的修女们造成轻微的干扰。

From thence they became vaguely attached to all the sacristies in town: they trimmed all the cloister hedges; they polished every possible crucifix; they passed a damp cloth once a year over most of the ecclesiastical ceilings.

从那时起，他们对镇上所有的圣器收藏室产生了隐约的依恋：他们修剪了所有回廊的树篱；他们打磨了每一个可能的十字架；他们每年都会用一块湿布覆盖大部分教会的天花板。

All Lima knew them well.

利马人都很了解他们。

When the priest rushed through the streets carrying his precious burden into a sickroom either Esteban or Manuel was to be seen striding behind him, swinging a censer.

当神父带着他珍贵的担子冲过街道进入病房时，可以看到埃斯特万或曼努埃尔大步走在他身后，挥舞着香炉。

As they grew older, however, they showed no desire for the clerical life.

然而，随着年龄的增长，他们对文书生活不再有兴趣。

They gradually assumed the profession of the scribe.

他们逐渐从事了抄写员的职业。

There were few printing presses in the New World and the boys soon made a fair living transcribing comedies for the theatre, ballads for the crowds, and advertisements for the merchants.

新大陆几乎没有印刷机，男孩们很快就靠为剧院抄写喜剧、为群众抄写民谣、为商人抄写广告而过上了不错的生活。

Above all they were the copyists of the choirmasters and made endless parts of the motets of Morales and Vittoria.

最重要的是，他们是唱诗班指挥的抄写员，抄写了莫拉莱斯和维多利亚的经文歌的无数部分。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Because they had no family, because they were twins, and because they were brought up by women, they were silent.

因为他们没有家庭，因为他们是双胞胎，因为他们是由女人抚养长大的，所以他们沉默不语。

There was in them a curious shame in regard to their resemblance.

他们对自己的相似之处感到一种奇怪的羞耻。

They had to live in a world where it was the subject of continual comment and joking.

他们必须生活在一个不断成为评论和笑话主题的世界里。

It was never funny to them and they suffered the eternal pleasantries with stolid patience.

这对他们来说从来都不好笑，他们以坚定的耐心忍受着永恒的寒暄。

From the years when they first learned to speak they invented a secret language for themselves, one that was scarcely dependent on the Spanish for its vocabulary, or even for its syntax.

从他们第一次学会说话的那几年起，他们就为自己发明了一种秘密语言，一种几乎不依赖西班牙语的词汇，甚至语法。

They resorted to it only when they were alone, or at great intervals in moments of stress whispered it in the presence of others.

他们只有在独处时才会诉诸这句话，或者在有压力的时刻，在别人面前低声低语。

The Archbishop of Lima was something of a philologist; he dabbled in dialects; he had even evolved quite a brilliant table for the vowel and consonant changes from Latin into Spanish and from Spanish into Indian-Spanish.

利马大主教是一位语言学家。他涉足方言；他甚至为从拉丁语到西班牙语、从西班牙语到印度-西班牙语的元音和辅音变化制定了一个相当出色的表。

He was storing up notebooks of quaint lore against an amusing old age he planned to offer himself back on his estates outside Segovia.

他正在储存一些记有奇特传说的笔记本，以备度过有趣的晚年之用，他计划将自己送回塞戈维亚郊外的庄园。

So when he heard one day about the secret language of the twin brothers, he trimmed some quills and sent for them.

因此，有一天，当他听说双胞胎兄弟的秘密语言时，他修剪了一些羽毛笔并派人去取。

The boys stood humiliated upon the rich carpets of his study while he tried to extract from them their _bread_ and _tree_ and their _I see_ and _I saw_.

当他试图从他们身上夺走他们的_面包_和_树_以及他们的_我看到_和_我看到_时，男孩们羞辱地站在他书房的华丽地毯上。

They did not know why the experience was I so horrible to them.

他们不知道为什么我的经历对他们来说如此可怕。

They bled.

他们流血了。

Long shocked silences followed each of the Archbishop's questions, until finally one or the other mumbled an answer.

大主教的每一个问题之后都是长时间令人震惊的沉默，直到最后一个或另一个咕哝着回答。

The priest thought for a while that they were merely in awe before his rank and before the luxury of his apartment, but at last, much perplexed, he divined the presence of some deeper reluctance and sadly let them go.

神父想了一会儿，认为他们只是对他的地位和他的豪华公寓感到敬畏，但最后，他感到非常困惑，他察觉到了更深层次的不情愿，于是悲伤地让他们走了。

This language was the symbol of their profound identity with one another, for just as resignation was a word insufficient to describe the spiritual change that came over the Marquesa de Montemayor on that night in the inn at Cluxambuqua, so _love_ is inadequate to describe the tacit almost ashamed oneness of these brothers.

这种语言是他们彼此之间深刻认同的象征，因为正如“顺从”这个词不足以描述那天晚上在克卢桑布夸旅馆里蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人所发生的精神变化一样，“爱”也不足以描述这些兄弟之间默契的、近乎羞愧的团结。

What relationship is it in which few words are exchanged, and those only about the details of food, clothing and occupation; in which the two persons have a curious reluctance even to glance at one another; and in which there is a tacit arrangement not to appear together in the city and to go on the same errand by different streets?

言语不多，只是衣食住行的细节，这是什么关系？两个人甚至都不愿意看对方一眼，这很奇怪。其中有一个不一起出现在城市、在不同街道上执行同一任务的默契安排？

And yet side by side with this there existed a need of one another so terrible that it produced miracles as naturally as the charged air of a sultry day produces lightning.

然而，与此并存的是彼此之间的一种如此可怕的需要，以至于它自然地产生了奇迹，就像闷热的空气中产生闪电一样自然。

The brothers were scarcely aware of it themselves, but telepathy was a common occurrence in their lives, and when one returned home the other was always aware of it when his brother was still several streets away.

兄弟俩自己几乎没有意识到这一点，但心灵感应在他们的生活中很常见，当一个人回到家时，另一个人总是意识到这一点，而他的兄弟还在几条街之外。

Suddenly they discovered that they were tired of writing.

突然他们发现自己厌倦了写作。

They went down to the sea and found an occupation in loading and unloading vessels, not ashamed of working side by side with Indians.

他们下海找到了一份装卸船只的职业，并不以与印第安人并肩工作为耻。

They drove teams across the provinces.

他们带领团队穿越各省。

They picked fruit.

他们摘水果。

They were ferrymen.

他们是摆渡人。

And always they were silent.

他们总是保持沉默。

Their sombre faces took on from these labors a male and gypsy cast.

他们阴沉的面孔因这些劳动而呈现出男性和吉普赛人的特征。

Their hair was seldom cut and under the dark mat their eyes looked up suddenly surprised and a little sullen.

他们的头发很少被剪掉，在黑黑的席子下，他们的眼睛突然抬起来，显得很惊讶，还有点闷闷不乐。

All the world was remote and strange and hostile except one's brother.

除了自己的兄弟之外，整个世界都是遥远、陌生和充满敌意的。

But at last the first shadow fell across this unity and the shadow was cast by the love of women.

但最终，第一个阴影笼罩了这种团结，而这个阴影是由女人的爱投下的。

They had returned to the city and resumed the copying of parts for the theatre.

他们回到了城市，继续为剧院复制零件。

One night the manager, foreseeing a thinning house, gave them a free admission.

一天晚上，经理预见到房子会越来越少，所以给了他们免费入场的机会。

The boys did not like what they found there.

男孩们不喜欢他们在那里发现的东西。

Even speech was for them a debased form of silence; how much more futile is poetry which is a debased form of speech.

对他们来说，即使说话也是一种卑鄙的沉默。诗歌这种低贱的言语形式更无用。

All those allusions to honour, reputation, and the flame of love, all the metaphors about birds, Achilles and the jewels of Ceylon were fatiguing.

所有那些关于荣誉、名誉和爱情火焰的暗示，所有关于鸟类、阿喀琉斯和锡兰珠宝的隐喻都令人疲劳。

In the presence of literature they had the same darkling intelligence that stirs for a time behind the eyes of a dog, but they sat on patiently, gazing at the bright candles and the rich clothes.

在文学面前，他们有着与狗的眼睛一样的黑暗智慧，但他们耐心地坐着，凝视着明亮的蜡烛和华丽的衣服。

Between the acts of the comedy the Perichole stepped out of her rôle, put on twelve petticoats and danced before the curtain.

在喜剧演出间隙，佩里科尔走出自己的角色，穿上十二件衬裙，在幕布前跳舞。

Esteban had some copying still to do, or pretended so, and went home early; but Manuel stayed on.

埃斯特万还有一些抄写工作要做，或者假装是这样，然后很早就回家了。但曼努埃尔留了下来。

The red stockings and shoes of the Perichole had made their impression.

佩里科尔的红色长袜和鞋子给他们留下了深刻的印象。

Both brothers had fetched and carried their manuscripts up and down the dusty stairs behind the stage.

两兄弟都拿着他们的手稿在舞台后面布满灰尘的楼梯上走来走去。

There they had seen an irritable girl in a soiled bodice mending her stockings before a mirror while her stage director read aloud her lines for memorization.

在那里，他们看到一个穿着脏紧身衣、脾气暴躁的女孩在镜子前补袜子，而她的舞台导演则大声朗读她的台词以便背诵。

She had let fall upon the boys for a moment the detonation of her amazing eyes, immediately dissipated in her amused recognition that they were twins.

她那双令人惊叹的眼睛一瞬间落在了男孩们身上，但很快就消散在她有趣的认识中，他们是双胞胎。

Forthwith she had dragged them into the room and placed them side by side.

她立刻把他们拖进房间，并排放置。

Carefully, amusedly and remorselessly she had peered into every square inch of their faces, until finally laying one hand on Esteban's shoulder she had cried out: "This one is the younger!" That had been several years before and neither brother had thought of the episode again.

她小心翼翼地、有趣地、无情地审视着他们脸上的每一寸每一寸，直到最后她把一只手放在埃斯特万的肩膀上，大声喊道：“这个是年轻的！”那是几年前的事了，兄弟俩都没有再想起这件事。

Henceforth all Manuel's errands seemed to lead him past the theatre.

从此以后，曼努埃尔的所有差事似乎都让他经过了剧院。

Late at night he would drift about among the trees beneath her dressing-room window.

深夜，他会在她更衣室窗户下的树林中飘荡。

It was not the first time that Manuel had been fascinated by a woman (both brothers had possessed women, and often, especially during their years at the waterfront; but simply, latinly), but it was the first time that his will and imagination had been thus overwhelmed.

这并不是曼努埃尔第一次对女人着迷（两兄弟都拥有女人，而且经常，尤其是在海滨的那些年；但简单地说，是拉丁语），但这是他第一次如此压倒他的意志和想象力。

He had lost that privilege of simple nature, the dissociation of love and pleasure.

他失去了纯朴本性的特权，失去了爱与快乐的分离。

Pleasure was no longer as simple as eating; it was being complicated by love.

快乐不再是吃饭那么简单；爱情让事情变得复杂起来。

Now was beginning that crazy loss of one's self, that neglect of everything but one's dramatic thoughts about the beloved, that feverish inner life all turning upon the Perichole and which would so have astonished and disgusted her had she been permitted to divine it.

现在开始疯狂地失去自我，忽视一切，除了对所爱的人的戏剧性想法，狂热的内心生活全部转向Perichole，如果她被允许占卜的话，这会让她感到惊讶和厌恶。

This Manuel had not fallen in love through any imitation of literature.

这个曼努埃尔并不是通过任何文学模仿而坠入爱河的。

It was not of him, at all events, that the bitterest tongue in France had remarked only fifty years before: that many people would never have fallen in love if they had not heard about it.

无论如何，五十年前法国最尖酸刻薄的人还说过：如果没有听说过这件事，许多人永远不会坠入爱河。

Manuel read little; he had only been once to the theatre (where above all there reigns the legend that love is a devotion) and the Peruvian tavern-songs that he might have heard, unlike those of Spain, reflected very little of the romantic cult of an idealized woman.

曼努埃尔读书很少；他只去过一次剧院（那里最盛行的传说是爱情是一种奉献），他可能听过的秘鲁酒馆歌曲与西班牙的歌曲不同，很少反映出对理想化女性的浪漫崇拜。

When he said over to himself that she was beautiful and rich and fatiguingly witty and the Viceroy's mistress, none of these attributes that made her less obtainable had the power to quench his curious and tender excitement.

当他自言自语地说她美丽、富有、机智得令人疲惫不堪，是总督的情妇时，这些使她变得不那么容易获得的品质都无法熄灭他好奇而温柔的兴奋。

So he leaned against the trees in the dark, his knuckles between his teeth, and listened to his loud heart-beats.

于是他在黑暗中靠在树上，咬着指关节，听着自己响亮的心跳声。

But the life that Esteban was leading had been full enough for him.

但埃斯特万现在的生活对他来说已经足够充实了。

There was no room in his imagination for a new loyalty, not because his heart was less large than Manuel's, but because it was of a simpler texture.

他的想象中没有空间容纳新的忠诚，不是因为他的心没有曼努埃尔的大，而是因为他的心质地更简单。

Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other.

现在他发现了一个永远无法完全恢复的秘密，即即使在最完美的爱情中，一个人的爱也不如另一个人深刻。

There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well.

可能有两个同样优秀、同样有天赋、同样美丽的人，但可能永远不会有两个人同样深爱彼此。

So Esteban sat up in their room by a guttering candle, his knuckles between his teeth, and wondered why Manuel was so changed and why the whole meaning had gone out of their life.

于是，埃斯特万在房间里的蜡烛旁坐了起来，指节咬在牙缝里，他想知道为什么曼努埃尔会发生如此大的变化，为什么他们的生活失去了全部意义。

One evening Manuel was stopped on the street by a small boy who announced to him that the Perichole wished him to call upon her at once.

一天晚上，曼努埃尔在街上被一个小男孩拦住，男孩对他说，佩里科尔希望他立即去拜访她。

Manuel turned in his path and went to the theatre.

曼努埃尔转身朝剧院走去。

Straight, sombre and impersonal, he entered the actress's room and stood waiting.

他笔直、阴沉、没有人情味地走进女演员的房间，站在那儿等着。

Camila had a service to ask of Manuel and she thought a few preliminary blandishments were necessary, but she scarcely paused in combing a blond wig that was dressed upon the table before her.

卡米拉有件事要请曼纽尔帮忙，她认为有必要先说几句甜言蜜语，但她几乎没有停下来梳理她面前桌子上的一顶金色假发。

"You write letters for people, don't you?

“你为人们写信，不是吗？

I want you to write a letter for me, please.

我想让你帮我写一封信，谢谢。

Please come in."

请进来。”

He came forward two steps.

他向前走了两步。

"You never pay me the least visit either of you.

“你们从来没有拜访过我一次。

That's not Spanish of you."--meaning 'courteous.'--"Which are you, Manuel or Esteban?"

你这不是西班牙语。”——意思是“有礼貌”。——“你是曼努埃尔还是埃斯特班？”

"Manuel."

“曼努埃尔。”

"It doesn't matter.

“没关系。

You are both unfriendly.

你们俩都不友善。

Neither of you ever comes to see me.

你们两个都没有来看过我。

Here I sit learning stupid lines all day and no one ever comes to see me but a lot of peddlers.

我整天坐在这里学习愚蠢的台词，除了很多小贩之外，没有人来看我。

It is because I am an actress, no?"

因为我是演员，不是吗？”

This was not very artful, but for Manuel it was unspeakably complicated.

这并不是很巧妙，但对曼努埃尔来说却复杂得难以形容。

He merely stared at her from the shadows of his long hair and left her to improvise.

他只是从长发的阴影里凝视着她，让她即兴发挥。

"I am going to engage you to write a letter for me, a very secret letter.

“我要请你帮我写一封信，一封非常秘密的信。

But now I can see that you don't like me and that to ask you to write a letter would be as good as reading it aloud in all the wine-shops.

但现在我看出来你不喜欢我，让你写一封信就跟在所有酒肆里大声朗读一样好。

What does that look mean, Manuel?

那表情是什么意思，曼努埃尔？

Are you my friend?"

你是我的朋友吗？”

"Yes, señora."

“是的，夫人。”

"Go away.

“走开。

Send me Esteban.

送我埃斯特万。

You do not even say _Yes, señora_ as a friend would say it."

你甚至不会像朋友那样说“是的，夫人”。”

Long pause.

长时间的停顿。

Presently she raised her head: "Are you still there, Unfriendly?"

过了一会儿，她抬起头：“不友好的人，你还在吗？”

"Yes, señora ...

“是的，夫人……

you can trust me to do anything for you ...

你可以相信我会为你做任何事......

you can trust ..."

你可以相信……”

"If I ask you to write one letter for me, or two letters, you promise never to mention to a human being what is in them, or even that you wrote them?"

“如果我让你给我写一封信，或者两封信，你保证永远不会向任何人提及其中的内容，甚至不会提及你写的信？”

"Yes, señora."

“是的，夫人。”

"What do you promise by?--by the Virgin Mary?"

“你以什么为保证？——以圣母玛利亚为保证？”

"Yes, señora."

“是的，夫人。”

"And by the heart of Saint Rose of Lima?"

“那利马圣罗丝的心呢？”

"Yes, señora."

“是的，夫人。”

"Name of the Name, Manuel, anyone would think you were as stupid as an ox.

“天啊，曼努埃尔，任何人都会认为你像头牛一样愚蠢。

Manuel, I am very angry with you.

曼努埃尔，我对你很生气。

You are not stupid.

你并不傻。

You don't look stupid.

你看起来并不傻。

Please don't say just _Yes, señora_ again.

请不要再只说_是的，女士_。

Don't be stupid or I'll send for Esteban.

别傻了，不然我就派人去找埃斯特万了。

Is anything the matter with you?"

你有什么事吗？”

Here Manuel cast himself upon the Spanish language and exclaimed with unnecessary vigor: "I swear by the Virgin Mary and the heart of St. Rose of Lima that all that has to do with the letter will be secret."

曼努埃尔在这里用西班牙语，以不必要的活力大声喊道：“我以圣母玛利亚和利马圣罗丝的心发誓，与这封信有关的一切都将保密。”

"Even from Esteban," prompted the Perichole.

“即使是来自埃斯特万，”佩里科尔提示道。

"Even from Esteban."

“甚至是来自埃斯特万。”

"Well, that's better." She motioned him to sit down at a table where writing materials were already laid out.

“嗯，这样好多了。”她示意他在一张已经摆好书写材料的桌子旁坐下。

As she dictated she strode about the room, frowning, swinging her hips.

当她口授时，她在房间里大步走来，皱着眉头，摇摆着臀部。

With her arms akimbo, she hugged her shawl about her shoulders defiantly.

她双手叉腰，挑衅地将披肩抱在肩上。

"_Camila Perichole kisses the hands of Your Excellency and says_--No, take another piece of paper and begin again.

“_卡米拉·佩里科尔亲吻阁下的手并说道_-不，再拿一张纸重新开始。

_The señora Micaela Villegas, artist, kisses the hands of Your Excellency and says that, being the victim of the envious and lying friends that Y.

_艺术家米凯拉·维勒加斯女士亲吻了阁下的双手并说道，她是Y.

E.'s goodness permits about Him, she can no longer endure Y.

E.的善良允许他，她不能再忍受Y。

E.'s suspicions and jealousy.

E.的怀疑和嫉妒。

Y.

Y。

E.'s servant has always valued Y.

E.的仆人一直很重视Y。

E.'s friendship and has never committed, nor even thought, an offense against it, but she can no longer fight against the calumnies that Y.

E. 的友谊，从来没有犯过，甚至没有想过，冒犯它，但她无法再与 Y. 的诽谤作斗争。

E.

E.

believes so readily.

如此轻易地相信。

Señora Villegas, artist, called the Perichole, therefore returns herewith such of Y.

因此，艺术家 Señora Villegas 被称为 Perichole，在此带回 Y 的作品。

E.'s gifts as have not been placed beyond recall, since without Y.

E. 的礼物并没有被放在无法回忆的地方，因为没有 Y.

E.'s confidence, Y.

E. 的信心，Y.

E.'s servant can take no pleasure in them_."

E.的仆人不会对它们感到高兴。”

Camila continued walking about the room for several minutes, consumed by her thoughts.

卡米拉继续在房间里走来走去几分钟，沉浸在自己的思绪中。

Presently without so much as glancing at her secretary, she commanded: "Take another leaf.

过了一会儿，她看都没看秘书一眼，就命令道：“再拿一片叶子。

_Have you gone mad?

_你疯了吗？

Do not ever think of eating another bull to me again.

别再想再给我吃一头牛了。

It has caused a frightful war.

它引发了一场可怕的战争。

Heaven protect you, my colt.

上天保佑你，我的小马驹。

Friday night, the same place, the same time.

周五晚上，同一个地点，同一个时间。

I may be a little late, for the fox is wide-awake_.

我可能有点晚了，因为狐狸已经醒了。

That will be all."

仅此而已。”

Manuel rose.

曼努埃尔站了起来。

"You swear that you have made no errors?"

“你发誓你没有犯任何错误？”

"Yes, I swear."

“是的，我发誓。”

"There is your money."

“这是你的钱。”

Manuel took the money.

曼努埃尔拿走了钱。

"I shall want you to write me more letters from time to time.

“我希望你时常给我写更多的信。

My uncle Pio generally writes my letters; these I do not wish him to know about.

我的信通常是我叔叔皮奥写的。这些我不想让他知道。

Good night.

晚安。

Go with God."

与神同行。”

"Go with God."

“与神同行。”

Manuel descended the stairs and stood for a long time among the trees, not thinking, not moving.

曼努埃尔走下楼梯，在树林里站了很长时间，没有思考，也没有动弹。

Esteban knew that his brother was continually brooding over the Perichole, but he never suspected that he saw her.

埃斯特万知道他的兄弟一直在沉思着佩里科尔，但他从未怀疑过他看到了她。

From time to time during the next two months a small boy would approach him in great haste and ask whether he were Manuel or Esteban, and being informed that he was only Esteban, the boy would add that Manuel was wanted at the theatre.

在接下来的两个月里，时不时会有一个小男孩急忙走近他，问他是曼努埃尔还是埃斯特万，当得知他只是埃斯特万时，男孩会补充说剧院需要曼努埃尔。

Esteban assumed that the call was for copyist's work and was therefore utterly unprepared for a visit that they received one night in their room.

埃斯特班认为这个电话是抄写员的工作，因此对他们在房间里接待的一天晚上的拜访完全没有准备。

It was almost midnight.

已经快半夜了。

Esteban had gone to bed, and lay gazing out from under the blanket at the candle beside which his brother was working.

埃斯特万已经上床睡觉了，躺在毯子下，凝视着蜡烛，他的兄弟正在旁边工作。

There was a light tap at the door and Manuel opened to admit a lady heavily veiled, out of breath and nervous.

有人轻轻敲门，曼纽尔开门进来，一位蒙着厚重面纱、气喘吁吁、紧张的女士进来了。

She threw back the scarf from her face and said hurriedly:

她把脸上的围巾甩开，急忙说道：

"Quick, ink and paper.

“快点，墨水和纸。

You are Manuel, yes?

你是曼努埃尔，是吗？

You must do a letter for me at once."

你必须立刻给我写一封信。”

For a moment her glance fell on the two bright eyes that glared at her from the edge of the cot.

有那么一会儿，她的目光落在了那双在小床边缘瞪着她的明亮的眼睛。

She murmured: "Eu ...

她低声说道：“呃……

you must excuse me.

请原谅我。

I know it is late.

我知道已经晚了。

It was necessary ...

这是必要的...

I must come." Then turning to Manuel, she whispered into his ear: "Write this: _I Perichole, am not accustomed to wait at a rendez-vous_.

我必须来。”然后她转向曼努埃尔，在他耳边低声说道：“写下这个：我佩里科尔，不习惯在约会地点等待。

Have you finished that?

你完成了吗？

_You are only a cholo, and there are better matadors than you, even in Lima.

_你只是一个斗牛士，即使在利马，也有比你更好的斗牛士。

I am half Castilian and there are no better actresses in the world.

我有一半卡斯蒂利亚血统，世界上没有比我更好的女演员了。

You shall not have the opportunity_--Have you got that?--_to keep me waiting again, cholo, and I shall laugh the last, for even an actress does not grow old as fast as a bullfighter_."

你不会有机会——你明白了吗？——让我再等一次，cholo，我会笑到最后，因为即使是女演员也不会像斗牛士一样老得那么快。”

To Esteban in the shadows the picture of Camila leaning over his brother's hand and whispering into his ear was complete evidence that a new congeniality had formed such as he would never know.

对于阴影中的埃斯特万来说，卡米拉靠在他哥哥的手上，在他耳边低语的画面完全证明了一种新的意气相投的关系已经形成，而他永远不会知道。

He seemed to shrink away into space, infinitely tiny, infinitely unwanted.

他似乎缩进了太空，无限渺小，无限不受欢迎。

He took one more glance at the tableau of love, all the paradise from which he was shut out, and turned his face to the wall.

他又看了一眼爱情的画面，以及将他拒之门外的天堂，然后把脸转向墙壁。

Camila seized the note the moment it was done, pushed a coin along the table and in a last flurry of black lace, scarlet beads and excited whispers left the room.

卡米拉一写完就抓住了纸条，把一枚硬币推到桌子上，最后一阵黑色蕾丝、猩红色的珠子和兴奋的低语声离开了房间。

Manuel turned from the door with his candle.

曼努埃尔拿着蜡烛从门口转过身来。

He sat down, put his hand over his ears, his elbows on his knees.

他坐下来，把手放在耳朵上，手肘放在膝盖上。

He worshipped her.

他崇拜她。

He murmured to himself over and over again that he worshipped her, making of the sound a sort of incantation and an obstacle to thought.

他一遍又一遍地低声自言自语，说他崇拜她，把这声音当作一种咒语，一种思考的障碍。

He emptied his mind of everything but a singsong, and it was this vacancy that permitted him to become aware of Esteban's mood.

他清空了脑子里的一切，只剩下一首歌曲，正是这种空虚让他能够意识到埃斯特万的心情。

He seemed to hear a voice that proceeded from the shadows saying: "Go and follow her, Manuel.

他似乎听到阴影中传来一个声音：“去跟着她吧，曼努埃尔。

Don't stay here.

不要留在这里。

You'll be happy.

你会很高兴的。

There's room for us all in the world." Then the realization became even more intense and he received a mental image of Esteban going a long way off and saying good-bye many times as he went.

世界上有我们所有人的空间。”然后这种认识变得更加强烈，他脑海中浮现出埃斯特万正在走很远的路，一路上多次道别。

He was filled with terror; by the light of it he saw that all the other attachments in the world were shadows, or the illusions of fever, even Madre María del Pilar, even the Perichole.

他心里充满了恐惧。借着它的光芒，他看到世界上所有其他的依恋都是阴影，或者是发烧的幻觉，甚至包括玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人，甚至是佩里科尔。

He could not understand why Esteban's misery should present itself as demanding a choice between him and the Perichole, but he could understand Esteban's misery, as misery.

他不明白为什么埃斯特万的痛苦会要求他在他和佩里科尔之间做出选择，但他可以理解埃斯特万的痛苦，就是痛苦。

And at once he sacrificed everything to it, if it can be said we ever sacrifice anything save what we know we can never attain, or what some secret wisdom tells us it would be uncomfortable or saddening to possess.

他立即为此牺牲了一切，如果可以说我们曾经牺牲过任何东西，除了我们知道我们永远无法实现的东西，或者一些秘密智慧告诉我们拥有它会感到不舒服或悲伤的东西。

To be sure there was nothing on which Esteban could base a complaint.

可以肯定的是，埃斯特班没有任何可以投诉的依据。

It was not jealousy, for in their earlier affairs it had never occurred to either of them that their loyalty to one another had been diminished.

这不是嫉妒，因为在他们之前的交往中，他们都没有想到他们对彼此的忠诚度有所减弱。

It was merely that in the heart of one of them there was left room for an elaborate imaginative attachment and in the heart of the other there was not.

只是其中一个人的心里有足够的空间来容纳复杂的想象依恋，而另一个人的心里则没有。

Manuel could not quite understand this and, as we shall see, he nourished a dim sense of being accused unjustly.

曼努埃尔不太明白这一点，正如我们将要看到的，他隐约感到自己受到了不公正的指控。

But he did understand that Esteban was suffering.

但他确实明白埃斯特万正在受苦。

In his excitement he groped for a means of holding this brother who seemed to be receding into the distance.

他兴奋地摸索着如何拉住这位似乎正在远去的兄弟。

And at once, in one unhesitating stroke of the will, he removed the Perichole from his heart.

立刻，他毫不犹豫地用意志一击，将Perichole从他的心中除去了。

He blew out the candle and lay down on his bed.

他吹灭了蜡烛，躺在床上。

He was trembling.

他浑身发抖。

He said aloud with exaggerated casualness: "Well, that's the last letter I write for that woman.

他夸张而随意地大声说道：“好吧，这是我给那个女人写的最后一封信。

She can go and find a pander somewhere else.

她可以去别的地方找个迎合者。

If ever she calls here or sends for me when I'm out, tell her so.

如果我外出时她打电话到这里或派人来找我，请告诉她。

Make it plain.

说得通俗易懂。

That's the last I have to do with her," and with that he began reciting his evening psalm aloud.

这是我与她最后的关系。”说完，他开始大声背诵晚间的诗篇。

But he had hardly reached _A sagitta volante in die_ when he became aware that Esteban had risen and was lighting the candle.

但当他意识到埃斯特班已经站起来并正在点燃蜡烛时，他几乎没有到达“死亡的箭矢”。

"What's the matter?" he asked.

“怎么了？”他问道。

"I'm going out for a walk," replied Esteban sombrely, fastening his belt.

“我要出去散步。”埃斯特万严肃地回答，系紧腰带。

After a moment, he broke out with an assumption of anger: "You don't have to say ...

片刻后，他爆发出一副怒意：“你不必说……

what you just said, for me.

你刚才说的话，是为了我。

I don't care whether you write her letters or not.

我不在乎你是否给她写信。

You don't have to change for me.

你不必为了我而改变。

I haven't anything to do with that."

我与此无关。”

"Go to bed, you fool.

“去睡觉吧，你这个傻瓜。

God, you're a fool, Esteban.

天啊，你真是个傻瓜，埃斯特万。

What made you think I said that, for you?

是什么让你觉得我这么说是为了你？

Don't you believe I mean it when I say I'm through with her?

当我说我和她已经结束时，你不相信我是认真的吗？

Do you think I want to write any more of her dirty letters and get paid for them like that?"

你以为我愿意再写她那些肮脏的信并以此获得报酬吗？”

"It's all right.

“没关系。

You love her.

你爱她。

You don't have to change because of me."

你不必因为我而改变。”

"'_Love_ her?' _Love_ her?

“‘_爱_她？’ _爱_她？

You're crazy, Esteban.

你疯了，埃斯特万。

How could I love her?

我怎么可能爱她？

What chance would there be for me?

我会有什么机会呢？

Do you suppose she'd give me those letters to write if there were any chance?

你认为如果有机会的话她会给我写那些信吗？

Do you suppose she'd push a piece of money across the table every time....

你认为她每次都会把一块钱推过桌子吗……

You're crazy, Esteban, that's all."

你疯了，埃斯特万，仅此而已。”

There was a long pause.

一阵长长的停顿。

Esteban would not go to bed.

埃斯特班不肯睡觉。

He sat by the candle in the middle of the room, tapping with his hand on the edge of the table.

他坐在房间中央的蜡烛旁，用手敲着桌子的边缘。

"Go to bed, you fool," shouted Manuel, rising on one elbow under the blanket.

“去睡觉吧，你这个傻瓜，”曼努埃尔喊道，一边用一只手肘在毯子下站了起来。

He was talking in their secret language and the new pain at his heart, gave a greater ring of reality to his assumption of rage.

他用他们的秘密语言说话，而他内心的新痛苦，让他假装的愤怒更加真实。

"I'm all right."

“我没事。”

"I won't.

“我不会。

I'm going out for a walk," replied Esteban picking up his coat.

我要出去散步。”埃斯特万拿起外套回答道。

[Illustration]

[图示]

"You can't go out for a walk.

“你不能出去散步。

It's two o'clock.

已经两点了。

It's raining.

下雨了。

You can't go and walk about for hours like that.

你不能像这样走几个小时。

Look, Esteban, I swear to you there's nothing left to all that.

听着，埃斯特万，我向你发誓，这一切都没有了。

I don't love her.

我不爱她。

I only did for a time."

我只做过一次。”

By now Esteban stood in the dark of the open door.

这时，埃斯特万站在敞开的门的黑暗中。

In the unnatural voice with which we make the greatest declarations of our lives, he muttered: "I'm in your way," and turned to go.

他用一种不自然的声音低声说道：“我挡住了你的路，”然后转身就走，这是我们一生中最伟大的宣言。

Manuel leapt out of his bed.

曼努埃尔从床上跳了起来。

His head seemed to be full of a great din, a voice crying out that Esteban was going away forever, was leaving him alone forever.

他的脑子里似乎充满了巨大的喧闹，一个声音大声喊叫着埃斯特万要永远离开，永远留下他一个人。

"In the name of God, in the name of God, Esteban, come back here."

“以上帝的名义，以上帝的名义，埃斯特万，回到这里。”

Esteban came back and went to bed and the matter was not mentioned again for many weeks.

埃斯特万回来后就上床睡觉了，之后好几个星期都没有再提起这件事。

The very next evening Manuel had an opportunity of declaring his position.

第二天晚上，曼努埃尔有机会宣布他的立场。

A messenger arrived from the Perichole and was told harshly to inform the actress that Manuel would write no more letters for her.

一位信使从伯里科尔赶来，并被严厉地告知这位女演员，曼努埃尔不会再给她写信。

One evening Manuel tore open the flesh on his knee against a piece of metal.

一天晚上，曼努埃尔用一块金属撕开了膝盖上的肉。

Neither brother had ever been ill for as much as a day in his life, and now Manuel, utterly bewildered, watched his leg swell and felt the waves of pain rise and fall in his body.

兄弟俩一生中都没有生过一天病，现在曼努埃尔完全不知所措，看着自己的腿肿胀，感觉到疼痛在他的身体里起伏。

Esteban sat by and stared at his face trying to imagine what great pain was.

埃斯特班坐在一旁，盯着他的脸，试图想象有多么巨大的痛苦。

At last one midnight Manuel remembered that the signboard of a certain hairdresser in the city described the proprietor as an experienced barber and surgeon.

终于有一天半夜，曼努埃尔想起城里一家理发店的招牌上写着老板是一位经验丰富的理发师和外科医生。

Esteban ran through the streets to fetch him.

埃斯特班跑过街道去接他。

He pounded on the door.

他敲门。

Presently a woman leaned out of a window and announced that her husband would be back in the morning.

不久，一名妇女探出窗外，宣布她的丈夫将于早上回来。

During the fearful hours that followed, they told one another that when the doctor had seen the leg all would be well.

在接下来的可怕的几个小时里，他们互相告诉对方，当医生检查完这条腿后，一切都会好起来的。

He would do something about it, and Manuel would be out around the town in a day or two, even in a day perhaps, even less than a day.

他会采取一些措施，曼努埃尔会在一两天内到镇上走一圈，甚至一天之内，甚至不到一天。

The barber arrived and prescribed various draughts and ointments.

理发师来了，开了各种药水和药膏。

Esteban was instructed to lay cold cloths on his brother's leg every hour.

埃斯特万被指示每小时在他兄弟的腿上放一块冷布。

The barber withdrew and the brothers sat down to wait for the pain to subside.

理发师退了出去，兄弟俩坐下来等待疼痛消退。

But while they continued staring into one another's face waiting for the miracle of science the pain grew worse.

但当他们继续凝视彼此的脸等待科学奇迹时，疼痛却变得更加严重。

Hour after hour Esteban approached with his dripping towel and they discovered that the moment of its application was the worst of all.

一小时又一小时，埃斯特万拿着滴着水的毛巾走近，他们发现擦毛巾的那一刻是最糟糕的。

With all the fortitude in the world Manuel could not prevent himself from shouting and from flinging himself about upon the bed.

尽管曼努埃尔有多么坚强，他还是无法阻止自己大喊大叫，在床上翻来覆去。

Night came on and still Esteban stolidly waited and watched and worked.

夜幕降临，埃斯特班仍然冷漠地等待、观察和工作。

Nine, ten, eleven.

九、十、十一点。

Now when the time drew near to apply the cloths (the hour struck so musically from all those towers) Manuel would plead with Esteban not to do his work.

现在，当涂布的时间临近时（所有塔楼都响起了音乐般的钟声）曼努埃尔会恳求埃斯特班不要做他的工作。

He would resort to guile and declare that he scarcely felt it.

他会用诡计宣称他几乎没有感觉到。

But Esteban, his heart bursting with pain and his lips a line of iron, would roll back the blanket and bind the towel fiercely in its place.

但埃斯特万的心一阵剧痛，嘴唇像铁一样，他会把毯子卷起来，把毛巾紧紧地绑在原处。

Manuel gradually became delirious and under this application all the thoughts he did not permit himself in his right mind would burst magnified from his mouth.

曼努埃尔逐渐变得神志不清，在这种应用下，所有他不允许自己清醒的想法都会从他嘴里爆发出来。

Finally at two o'clock, out of his mind with rage and pain, and flinging himself half out of the bed until his head struck the floor, Manuel cried: "God condemn your soul to the hottest hell there is.

最后到了两点钟，曼纽尔因愤怒和痛苦而失去理智，从床上猛地一跃，直到头撞到地板上，他喊道：“上帝谴责你的灵魂进入最炎热的地狱。

A thousand devils torture you forever, Esteban.

一千个魔鬼永远折磨着你，埃斯特万。

God condemn your soul, do you hear?" At first, the air gone out of his body, Esteban went out into the hall and leaned against the door, his mouth and eyes wide open.

上帝谴责你的灵魂，你听到了吗？”起初，埃斯特班气喘吁吁地走到大厅里，靠在门上，嘴巴和眼睛都睁得大大的。

Still he heard from within: "Yes, Esteban, may God damn your beastly soul forever, do you hear that?

但他仍然从里面听到：“是的，埃斯特万，愿上帝永远诅咒你的野兽灵魂，你听到了吗？

For coming between me and what was mine by right.

因为他挡在了我和理应属于我的东西之间。

She was mine, do you hear, and what right had you...." and he would go off into an elaborate description of the Perichole.

她是我的，你听到了吗，你有什么权利……”然后他会详细描述佩里科尔。

These outbursts recurred hourly.

这些爆发每小时都会发生一次。

It was some time before Esteban was able to realize that his brother's mind was not then clear.

过了一段时间，埃斯特万才意识到他哥哥当时的思维并不清晰。

After some moments of horror, in which his being a devout believer had its part, he would return to the room and go about his duties with bent head.

经过一些恐怖的时刻后，他会回到房间，低着头继续他的职责，这也是他虔诚信徒的一部分。

Towards dawn his brother became serener.

黎明时分，他的兄弟变得平静起来。

(For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation?) It was in one of these intervals that Manuel said quite calmly:

（对于人类的哪些疾病，黎明似乎不是一种缓解？）正是在这些间歇中，曼努埃尔相当平静地说：

"God's son!

“上帝之子！

I feel better, Esteban.

我感觉好多了，埃斯特万。

Those cloths must be good after all.

毕竟那些衣服一定很好。

You'll see.

你会看到的。

I'll be up and around tomorrow.

明天我会起床走动。

You haven't slept for days.

你已经好几天没睡觉了。

You'll see I won't cause you any more trouble, Esteban."

你会发现我不会再给你带来任何麻烦了，埃斯特万。”

"It's no trouble, you fool."

“这不是什么麻烦事，你这个傻瓜。”

"You mustn't take me seriously when I try and stop you putting on the old cloths, Esteban."

“当我试图阻止你穿上旧衣服时，你千万别认真对待我，埃斯特万。”

A long pause.

长时间的停顿。

At last Esteban brought out, barely audible:

最后，埃斯特万以几乎听不见的声音说道：

"I think ...

“我认为...

don't you think it would be fine if I sent for the Perichole?

你不觉得我派人去找 Perichole 就好吗？

She could just come and see you for a few minutes, I mean...."

她可以来看你几分钟，我是说……”

"Her?

“她？

You still thinking about her?

你还在想她吗？

I wouldn't have her here for anything.

我不会让她来这里的。

No."

不。”

But Esteban was not content yet.

但埃斯特班还不满足。

He dragged up a few more phrases from the very centre of his being:

他从心底又拖出几句话：

"Manuel, you still feel, don't you, that I came between you and the Perichole and you don't remember that I told you it was all right with me.

“曼努埃尔，你仍然觉得我挡在你和佩里科尔之间，是吗？你不记得我告诉过你我没问题。

I swear to you I'd have been glad if you'd gone away with her, or anything."

我向你发誓，如果你能和她一起离开，或者别的什么，我会很高兴的。”

"What are you bringing that up for, Esteban?

“你提这个干什么，埃斯特万？

I tell you, in God's own name, I never think of that.

我告诉你，以上帝的名义，我从来没有想过这一点。

She's nothing to me.

她对我来说什么都不是。

When are you going to forget that, Esteban?

你什么时候才能忘记这一点，埃斯特万？

I tell you I'm glad things are as they are.

我告诉你我很高兴事情保持现状。

Look, I got to get angry when you keep going back to that."

听着，当你再这样说的时候，我真生气了。”

"Manuel, I wouldn't speak of it again, only when you get angry at me about the cloths ...

“曼努埃尔，我不会再提这件事了，只有当你因为衣服的事对我生气时......

you, you get angry at me about that, too.

你，你也因此生我的气。

And you talk about it and you ..."

你谈论这件事，然后你……”

"Look, I'm not responsible what I say.

“听着，我不对我所说的话负责。

My old leg hurts then, see."

那我的老腿就疼了，你看。”

"Then you don't damn me to hell because ...

“那你就别让我下地狱了，因为……

it looks like I came between you and the Perichole?"

看来我挡在了你和佩里科尔之间？”

"Damn you to ...?

“该死的你竟然……？

What makes you say that?

是什么让你这么说？

You're going crazy, Esteban; you're imagining things.

你要疯了，埃斯特万；你在想象一些事情。

You haven't had any sleep, Esteban.

你还没睡过觉，埃斯特万。

I been a curse to you and you're losing your health because of me.

我对你来说是一个诅咒，你因为我而失去了健康。

But you'll see, I won't trouble you much more.

但你会看到，我不会再麻烦你了。

How could I damn you to hell, Esteban, when you're all I've got?

当你是我的全部时，我怎么能让你下地狱呢，埃斯特万？

Understand, see, that when the cold cloths go on, I just lose myself, see.

明白了，瞧，当寒冷的衣服继续下去时，我就会迷失自己，瞧。

You know.

你知道。

Don't think about it twice.

不要三思而后行。

It's time to put them on now.

现在是时候穿上它们了。

I won't say a word."

我不会说一句话。”

"No, Manuel, I'll skip this time.

“不，曼努埃尔，这次我会跳过。

It won't do you any harm, I'll just skip this time."

这不会对你造成任何伤害，这次我就跳过吧。”

"I've got to get well, Esteban.

“我必须康复，埃斯特万。

I've got to get up soon, you know.

我得赶紧起床，你知道的。

Put them on.

把它们穿上。

But one minute--give me the crucifix.

但等一下——把十字架给我。

I swear by the blood and body of Christ that if I say anything against Esteban, I don't mean it and it's just the foolish words when I'm dreaming because of the pain in my leg.

我以基督的血和身体发誓，如果我说任何反对埃斯特万的话，我都不是真心的，这只是我因为腿痛而做梦时说的愚蠢的话。

God make me well again soon, amen.

愿上帝让我早日康复，阿门。

Put it back.

把它放回去。

There.

在那里。

Now I'm ready."

现在我准备好了。”

"Look, Manuel, it won't hurt if I skip just this once, see.

“听着，曼努埃尔，如果我跳过这一次也没什么坏处，明白吗。

It'll be good for you, sure, to not get it all stirred up just this once."

当然，这对你有好处，不要把这一切都搅乱了。”

"No, I've got to get well.

“不，我必须康复。

The doctor said it had to be done.

医生说必须这样做。

I won't say a word, Esteban."

我不会说一句话，埃斯特万。”

And it would begin all over again.

一切都会重新开始。

During the second night a prostitute in the next room started beating on the wall, outraged at such language.

第二天晚上，隔壁房间的一名妓女开始敲打墙壁，对这种语言感到愤怒。

A priest in the room on the other side would come out into the hall and beat on the door.

另一边房间里的牧师会走到大厅里敲门。

The whole floor would gather before the room in exasperation.

整个楼层的人都会愤怒地聚集在房间前。

The innkeeper came up the stairs, loudly promising his guests that the brothers would be dumped into the street the very next morning.

旅馆老板走上楼梯，大声向他的客人保证，第二天早上兄弟俩就会被扔到街上。

Esteban, holding his candle, would go into the hall and permit them to rage at him for as long as they pleased; but after that he took to pressing his hand firmly over his brother's mouth during the moments of greatest stress.

埃斯特万会举着蜡烛走进大厅，任由他们对他发脾气，想骂多久就骂多久。但此后，在压力最大的时刻，他开始用手紧紧地捂住弟弟的嘴。

This increased Manuel's personal rage at him and he would babble all through the night.

这增加了曼努埃尔对他的个人愤怒，他整晚都在胡言乱语。

On the third night, Esteban sent for the priest and amidst the enormous shadows Manuel received the sacrament, and died.

第三天晚上，埃斯特万派人去请牧师，曼努埃尔在巨大的阴影中接受了圣餐，然后去世了。

Thereafter Esteban refused to come near the building.

此后埃斯特班拒绝靠近该建筑。

He would start off upon long walks, but presently drifting back, would hang about, staring at passers-by, within two streets of where his brother lay.

他会开始长途散步，但很快就会回来，在距离他哥哥躺着的地方两条街的地方徘徊，盯着路人。

The innkeeper failing to make any impression upon him and remembering that the boys were brought up at the Convent of Santa María Rosa de las Rosas, sent for the Abbess.

旅馆老板没有给他留下任何印象，并记得孩子们是在圣玛丽亚·罗莎·德拉·罗萨斯修道院长大的，于是派人去找女修道院院长。

Simply and soundly she directed all that was to be done.

她简单而稳妥地指挥了所有要做的事情。

At last she went down to the street corner and spoke to Esteban.

最后她走到街角和埃斯特万说话。

He watched her approach him, a glance mixed of longing and distrust.

他看着她走近自己，眼神中夹杂着渴望和不信任。

But when she stood near him he turned sideways and looked away.

但当她站在他身边时，他侧过身去，看向别处。

"I want you to help me.

“我想要你帮助我。

Won't you come in and see your brother?

你不进来看看你弟弟吗？

Won't you come in and help me?"

你不进来帮我吗？”

"No."

“不。”

"You won't help me!" A long pause.

“你不会帮我的！”长时间的停顿。

Suddenly as she stood there full of her helplessness there flashed through her mind an incident of many years before: the twin brothers about fifteen years old were sitting at her knee and she was telling them the story of the crucifixion.

正当她满心无助地站在那里时，突然她的脑海里闪过了多年前的一件事：十五岁左右的双胞胎兄弟坐在她的膝前，她正在向他们讲述受难的故事。

Their large grave eyes were fixed upon her lips.

他们那双严肃的大眼睛盯着她的嘴唇。

Suddenly Manuel had cried out loudly: "If Esteban and I had been there we would have prevented it."

突然，曼努埃尔大声喊道：“如果埃斯特万和我在场，我们就能阻止这一切。”

"Well, then, if you won't help me, will you tell me which you are?"

“那么，如果你不帮我，你能告诉我你是谁吗？”

"Manuel," said Esteban.

“曼努埃尔，”埃斯特万说。

"Manuel, won't you come and sit with me up there for just a short time?"

“曼努埃尔，你愿意过来和我一起坐一会儿吗？”

After a long pause: "No."

良久停顿后：“没有。”

"But Manuel, dear Manuel, can't you remember as children how you did so many things for me?

“但是曼努埃尔，亲爱的曼努埃尔，你难道不记得小时候你为我做了这么多事情吗？

You were willing to go across the town on some little errand.

你愿意穿过城镇去办一些小事。

When I was ill you made the cook let you bring me my soup?" Another woman would have said: "Do you remember how much I did for you?"

我生病的时候你让厨师让你给我端汤？”另一个女人可能会说：“你还记得我为你做了多少事吗？”

"Yes."

“是的。”

"I, too, Manuel have lost.

“我，曼努埃尔，也输了。

I too ...

我也...

once.

一次。

We know that God has taken them into His hands...." But this did not do at all.

我们知道神已将他们交在手中……”但这根本不起作用。

Esteban turned vaguely and walked away from her.

埃斯特万茫然地转过身，从她身边走开。

When he had gone about twenty paces he stopped and stared down a side-street, like a dog who wants to go away, but is reluctant to offend the master who calls him back.

当他走了大约二十步时，他停了下来，凝视着一条小街，就像一只想要走开的狗，但又不愿冒犯把他叫回来的主人。

That was all they could get out of him.

这是他们能从他身上得到的一切。

When the fearful procession passed through the city, with its black hoods and masks, its candles in broad daylight, its display of heaped-up skulls, its terrifying psalms, Esteban followed it in the parallel streets, catching glimpses of it from a distance, like a savage.

当可怕的游行队伍穿过城市时，他们戴着黑色的头巾和面具，光天化日之下点着蜡烛，展示着堆积如山的头骨，唱着令人恐惧的圣歌，埃斯特万在平行的街道上跟随它，从远处瞥见它，就像一个野蛮人。

All Lima was interested in this separation of the brothers.

整个利马人都对兄弟的分离感兴趣。

Housewives whispered together sympathetically about it as they unfurled their carpets from the balconies.

家庭主妇们一边从阳台上展开地毯，一边同情地低声议论着这件事。

The men in the wineshops, alluding to it, shook their heads and smoked in silence for a while.

酒肆里的男人们一提到这件事，纷纷摇头，沉默地抽烟了一会儿。

Travellers from the interior told of seeing Esteban as he strayed with eyes like coals along the dried-up beds of rivers or through the great ruins of the old race.

来自内地的旅行者讲述了他们看到埃斯特万的情景，他的眼睛像煤炭一样沿着干涸的河床或古老种族的巨大废墟徘徊。

A herder of llamas had come upon him standing upon a hilltop, asleep or dazed, wet with dew under the stars.

一个骆驼牧民遇到了他，他站在山顶上，在星空下睡着了，或者是头晕目眩，身上沾满了露水。

Some fishermen surprised him swimming far out from shore.

一些渔民让他游到离海岸很远的地方，这让他感到惊讶。

From time to time he would find work to do, he would become a shepherd or a carter, but after a few months he would disappear and stride from province to province.

有时他会找工作做，他会当牧羊人或赶马车的人，但几个月后他就会消失，大步从一个省到另一个省。

But he always returned to Lima.

但他总是回到利马。

One day he appeared at the door of the Perichole's dressing-room; he made as though to speak, gazed earnestly at her and vanished.

有一天，他出现在佩里科尔的更衣室门口。他做出好像要说话的样子，认真地看着她，然后就消失了。

One day a sister came running into the office of Madre María del Pilar with the news that Esteban (whom the world called Manuel) was lingering about the door of the convent.

有一天，一位修女跑进玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人的办公室，带来消息说埃斯特万（世人称他为曼努埃尔）在修道院门口徘徊。

The Abbess hurried out into the street.

女院长急忙跑到街上。

For months she had been asking herself what strategy could reconcile this half-demented boy to living among them again.

几个月来，她一直在问自己，什么策略能让这个半疯的男孩再次生活在他们中间。

She assembled as grave and calm a manner as she was able and appearing at the street door murmured "My friend" and looked at him.

她尽可能地严肃而平静地聚集在一起，出现在临街门口，低声说：“我的朋友”，看着他。

He gazed back at her with the same glance of longing and distrust that he had shown her before, and stood trembling.

他用以前向她看过的同样的渴望和不信任的目光回望着她，浑身颤抖地站着。

Again she whispered "My friend" and moved a step forward.

她再次低声说了声“我的朋友”，然后向前迈了一步。

Suddenly Esteban turned and breaking into a run disappeared.

突然，埃斯特班转身，奔跑消失了。

Madre María del Pilar rushed stumbling back to her desk and fell upon her knees, exclaiming angrily: "I have prayed for wisdom and You have given me none.

玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人跌跌撞撞地冲回办公桌前，跪倒在地，愤怒地喊道：“我祈求智慧，但你却没有给我任何智慧。

You have not chosen to give me the least grace.

你没有选择给予我哪怕一丁点的恩典。

I am a mere scrubber of floors...." But during the penance she set herself for this impudence the thought came to her to send for Captain Alvarado.

我只是一个地板擦洗工……”但在忏悔期间，她为自己的无礼行为设定了一个想法，就是派人去找阿尔瓦拉多船长。

Three weeks later she had a ten-minute conversation with him.

三周后，她与他进行了十分钟的交谈。

And the next day he started for Cuzco where, it was said, Esteban was doing some copying for the University.

第二天，他出发前往库斯科，据说埃斯特万在那里为大学做一些复印工作。

There was this strange and noble figure in Peru during these years, the Captain Alvarado, the traveller.

这些年来，秘鲁出现了一位奇怪而高贵的人物，即旅行者阿尔瓦拉多船长。

He was blackened and cured by all weathers.

他因各种天气而变黑并痊愈。

He stood in the Square with feet apart as though they were planted on a shifting deck.

他站在广场上，双脚分开，仿佛双脚被踩在一个移动的甲板上。

His eyes were strange, unaccustomed to the shorter range, too used to seizing the appearances of a constellation between a cloud and a cloud, and the outline of a cape in rain.

他的眼睛很奇怪，不习惯近距离，更习惯于捕捉云与云之间的星座，以及雨中海角的轮廓。

His reticence was sufficiently explained for most of us by his voyages, but the Marquesa de Montemayor had other light on the matter.

对我们大多数人来说，他的沉默足以从他的航行中得到解释，但蒙特马约尔侯爵对此事有其他的看法。

"_Captain Alvarado is bringing you this letter in person_," she wrote to her daughter.

“_阿尔瓦拉多船长亲自给您带来这封信_，”她写信给女儿。

"_Introduce him to some of your geographers, my treasure, though it may make them a little uncomfortable, for he is the diamond of sincerity.

“把他介绍给你们的一些地理学家，我的宝贝，尽管这可能会让他们有点不舒服，因为他是真诚的钻石。

They will never see anyone who has travelled so far.

他们永远不会见到任何走过这么远的人。

Last night he described to me some of his voyages.

昨晚他向我描述了他的一些航行经历。

Imagine him pushing his prow through a sea of weeds, stirring up a cloud of fish like grasshoppers in June; or sailing between islands of ice.

想象一下，他将船头推过一片杂草海洋，在六月像蚱蜢一样搅动了一群鱼；或在冰岛之间航行。

Oh, he has been to China and up the rivers of Africa.

噢，他去过中国，还曾逆流而上过非洲。

But he is not merely an adventurer and he seems to take no pride in discovering new places; nor is he a mere merchant.

但他不仅仅是一个冒险家，而且他似乎并不以发现新地方为荣；他也不仅仅是一个商人。

One day I asked him narrowly why he lived so, and he avoided my question.

有一天，我狭隘地问他为什么要这样生活，他回避了我的问题。

I found out from my laundress what I think is the reason of his wandering: My child, he had a child; my daughter, he had a daughter.

我从我的洗衣女工那里了解到了我认为他流浪的原因：我的孩子，他有一个孩子；我的孩子，他有一个孩子；我的孩子，他有一个孩子。我的女儿，他有一个女儿。

She was just old enough to cook a holiday meal, and do a little sewing for him.

她刚刚够大，可以做一顿节日大餐，还可以为他做一点缝纫活。

In those days he merely sailed between Mexico and Peru and hundreds of times she waved him farewell or welcome.

那些日子里，他只是在墨西哥和秘鲁之间航行，她数百次向他挥手告别或欢迎。

We have no way of knowing whether she was more beautiful or intelligent than the thousands of other girls that lived about him, but she was his.

我们无法知道她是否比他周围成千上万的其他女孩更美丽或更聪明，但她是他的。

I suppose it seems ignoble to you that a great oak of a man should go about the world like a blind man about an empty house merely because a chit of a girl has been withdrawn from it.

我想，一个伟大的橡树男人应该像一个盲人在一座空房子里走来走去，仅仅因为一个女孩的小故事从里面消失，这对你来说似乎是不光彩的。

No, no, you cannot understand this, my adored one, but I understand and grow pale.

不，不，你无法理解这一点，我心爱的人，但我理解并变得苍白。

Last night he sat with me and talked of her.

昨晚他和我坐在一起谈论她。

He laid his cheek against his hand and looking into the fire, he said: 'It sometimes seems to me that she is away upon a voyage and that I shall see her again.

他把脸颊贴在手上，看着火，他说：“有时我觉得她正在远航，我会再次见到她。”

It seems to me that she is in England.' You will laugh at me, but I think he goes about the hemispheres to pass the time between now and his old age_."

在我看来，她似乎在英国。你会嘲笑我，但我认为他走遍半球是为了打发从现在到晚年的时间。”

The brothers had always entertained a great respect for Captain Alvarado.

兄弟俩一直非常尊重阿尔瓦拉多船长。

They had worked for him a short time and the silence of the three of them had made a little kernel of sense in a world of boasting, self-excuse and rhetoric.

他们为他工作了很短一段时间，在这个充满吹嘘、自我借口和言辞的世界里，他们三个人的沉默显得有些道理。

So now when the great traveller came into the dark kitchen where Esteban was eating the boy drew his chair farther into the shadow, but at a distance, he was glad.

所以现在，当这位伟大的旅行者走进埃斯特万正在吃饭的黑暗厨房时，男孩把椅子拉到阴影深处，但距离很远，他很高兴。

The Captain gave no sign of recognizing or even of seeing him until he had finished his meal.

直到他吃完饭，船长才表现出认出他的迹象，甚至没有看到他。

Esteban had finished long before, but not wishing to be spoken to, waited until the Captain should have left the cave.

埃斯特万早就结束了，但不想被人说话，一直等到船长离开洞穴。

At last the Captain walked over to him and said:

最后，船长走到他面前说道：

"You are Esteban or Manuel.

“你是埃斯特班或曼努埃尔。

You helped me once with some unloading.

有一次你帮我卸货。

I am Captain Alvarado."

我是阿尔瓦拉多队长。”

"Yes," said Esteban.

“是的，”埃斯特万说。

"How are you?"

“你好吗？”

Esteban muttered something.

埃斯特万嘀咕了一句什么。

"I am looking for some strong fellows to go on my next trip with me." Pause.

“我正在寻找一些强大的伙伴与我一起进行下一次旅行。”暂停。

"Would you like to come?" Longer pause.

“你愿意来吗？”停顿时间较长。

"England.

“英格兰。

And Russia....

还有俄罗斯....

Hard work.

辛苦了。

Good wages....

工资不错....

A long way from Peru.--Well?"

距离秘鲁很远——嗯？”

Apparently Esteban had not been listening.

显然埃斯特万没有在听。

He sat with his eyes on the table.

他坐着，眼睛盯着桌子。

At last the Captain raised his voice, as to a deaf person:

最后，船长像对聋子一样提高了声音：

"I said: Do you want to go on my next trip with me...."

“我说：你愿意跟我一起去下一次旅行吗……”

"Yes, I'll go," answered Esteban suddenly.

“是的，我去。”埃斯特万突然回答道。

"Fine.

“好吧。

That's fine.

没关系。

I want your brother, too, of course."

当然，我也想要你弟弟。”

"No."

“不。”

"What's the matter?

“怎么了？

Wouldn't he want to come?"

他不想来吗？”

Esteban mumbled something, looking away.

埃斯特班低声说了些什么，移开了视线。

Then half rising, he said: "I got to go now.

然后他半起身说道：“我现在得走了。

I've got to see somebody about something."

我有事要见某人。”

"Let me see your brother myself.

“让我亲自见见你哥哥。

Where is he?"

他在哪儿？”

"...

“……

'dead," said Esteban.

“死了，”埃斯特万说。

"Oh, I didn't know.

“哦，我不知道。

I didn't know.

我不知道。

I'm sorry." "Yes," said Esteban.

对不起。” “是的，”埃斯特万说。

"I got to go."

“我得走了。”

"Hmm.--Which are you?

「嗯。——你是哪一个？

What's your name?"

你叫什么名字？”

"Esteban."

“埃斯特万。”

"When did Manuel die?"

“曼努埃尔什么时候死的？”

"Oh, just a ...

“哦，只是一个...

just a few weeks.

就几个星期。

He hit his knee against something and ...

他的膝盖撞到了某个东西，然后……

just a few weeks ago."

就在几周前。”

They both kept their eyes on the floor.

他们俩的眼睛都盯着地板。

"How old are you, Esteban?"

“你多大了，埃斯特万？”

"Twenty-two."

“22。”

"Well, that's settled then, you're coming with me?"

“嗯，那就这么定了，你跟我一起去吗？”

"Yes."

“是的。”

"You may not be used to the cold."

“你可能不习惯寒冷。”

"Yes, I'm used to it.--I've got to go now.

“是的，我已经习惯了——我现在得走了。

I got to go in the city and see somebody about something."

我得进城去见某人，有事。”

"Well, Esteban.

“嗯，埃斯特万。

Come back here for supper and we'll talk about the trip.

回来吃晚饭，我们再谈谈这次旅行。

Come back and have some wine with me, see.

回来陪我喝点酒吧，瞧。

Will you?"

你会吗？”

"Yes, I will."

“是的，我会。”

"Go with God."

“与神同行。”

"Go with God."

“与神同行。”

They had supper together and it was arranged that they were to start for Lima the next morning.

他们一起吃了晚饭，并安排第二天早上出发前往利马。

The Captain got him very drunk.

船长把他灌醉了。

At first they poured and drank and poured and drank in silence.

起初，他们默默地倒、喝、倒、喝。

Then the Captain began to talk about ships and their courses.

然后船长开始谈论船只及其航线。

He asked Esteban questions about tackle and about the guide-stars.

他向埃斯特班询问了有关铲球和引导星的问题。

Then Esteban began to talk about other things, and to talk very loudly:

然后埃斯特班开始谈论其他事情，而且说话声音很大：

"On the ship you must give me something to do all the time.

“在船上你必须一直给我一些事情做。

I'll do anything, anything.

我会做任何事，任何事。

I'll climb up high and fix ropes; and I'll watch all night,--because, you know, I don't sleep well anyway.

我会爬到高处，修好绳索；我会整夜观看——因为，你知道，我无论如何都睡不好。

And, Captain Alvarado, on the ship you must pretend that you don't know me.

而且，阿尔瓦拉多船长，在船上你必须假装不认识我。

Pretend that you hate me the most.

假装你最恨我。

So that you'll always give me things to do.

这样你就会一直给我事情做。

I can't sit still and write at a table any more.--And don't tell the other men about me ...

我不能再安静地坐在桌子旁写字了。--并且不要告诉其他人关于我的事情......

that is, about ..."

也就是说，关于……”

"I hear you went into a burning house, Esteban, and pulled someone out."

“我听说你走进了一座着火的房子，埃斯特万，把一个人救了出来。”

"Yes.

“是的。

I didn't get burned or anything.

我没有被烧伤什么的。

You know," cried Esteban, leaning across the table, "you're not allowed to kill yourself; you know you're not allowed.

你知道，”埃斯特万靠在桌子上喊道，“你不被允许自杀；你知道你不被允许。

Everybody knows that.

每个人都知道这一点。

But if you jump into a burning house to save somebody, that wouldn't be killing yourself.

但如果你跳进着火的房子去救人，那并不是自杀。

And if you became a matador and the bull caught you that wouldn't be killing yourself.

如果你成为斗牛士并且公牛抓住了你，那也不会自杀。

Only you mustn't put yourself in the bull's way on purpose.

只是你不能故意让自己陷入公牛的困境。

Did you ever notice that animals never kill themselves, even when they're sure to lose?

你有没有注意到，动物永远不会自杀，即使它们肯定会失败？

They never jump into a river or anything, even when they're sure to lose.

他们从不跳进河里或任何东西，即使他们肯定会输。

Some people say that horses run into bonfires.

有人说，马跑进篝火。

Is that true?"

是这样吗？”

"No, I don't think that's true."

“不，我不认为这是真的。”

"I don't think it's true.

“我不认为这是真的。

We had a dog once.

我们曾经养过一只狗。

Well, I mustn't think of that.--Captain Alvarado, do you know Madre María del Pilar?"

好吧，我不能这么想。——阿尔瓦拉多队长，你认识玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人吗？”

"Yes."

“是的。”

"I want to give her a present before I go away.

“我想在离开之前给她一份礼物。

Captain Alvarado, I want you to give me all my wages before I start--I won't need any money anywhere--and I want to buy her a present now.

阿尔瓦拉多上尉，我希望你在我开始之前把我所有的工资都给我——我在任何地方都不需要任何钱——我现在想给她买一件礼物。

The present isn't from me only.

这份礼物不只属于我一个人。

She was ...

她是...

was ..." Here Esteban wished to say his brother's name, but was unable to.

是……”说到这里，埃斯特万想说出他哥哥的名字，但无法说出。

Instead he continued in a lower voice: "She had a kind of a ...

相反，他压低声音继续说道：“她有一种……

she had a serious loss, once.

她曾经遭受过严重损失。

She said so.

她这么说。

I don't know who it was, and I want to give her a present.

我不知道是谁，但我想送她一份礼物。

Women can't bear that kind of a thing like we can."

女人不能像我们一样忍受这种事情。”

The Captain promised him that they would choose something in the morning.

船长答应他，他们早上会选择一些东西。

Esteban talked about it at great length.

埃斯特万详细地谈论了这个问题。

At last the Captain saw him slip under the table, and himself, rising up, went out into the square before the inn.

最后，船长看见他溜到了桌子底下，他自己也站起来，走到客栈前的广场上。

He looked at the line of the Andes and at the streams of stars crowding forever across the sky.

他看着安第斯山脉的线条，看着永远聚集在天空中的星星流。

And there was that wraith hanging in mid-air and smiling at him, the wraith with the silvery voice that said for the thousandth time: "Don't be gone long.

而那个幽灵正悬浮在半空中，对着他微笑，那个幽灵用银色的声音第一千次说道：“不要走太久。

But I'll be a big girl when you get back." Then he went within and carried Esteban to his room and sat looking at him for a long while.

但等你回来我就会变成一个大女孩了。”然后他走进去，把埃斯特万抱进自己的房间，坐在那里看了他很长一段时间。

The next morning he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Esteban appeared:

第二天早上，当埃斯特万出现时，他正在楼梯底下等待：

"We're starting when you're ready," said the Captain.

“等你准备好了，我们就开始了。”船长说道。

The strange glitter had returned to the boy's eyes.

男孩的眼中又恢复了奇异的光芒。

He blurted out: "No, I'm not coming.

他脱口而出：“不，我不会来。

I'm not coming after all."

我终究不会来。”

"Aïe!

“哎呀！

Esteban!

埃斯特万！

But you have promised me that you would come."

但你答应过我你会来的。”

"It's impossible.

“这是不可能的。

I can't come with you," and he turned back up the stairs.

我不能跟你一起去。”然后他转身走上楼梯。

"Come here a moment, Esteban, just a moment."

“埃斯特万，过来一会儿，就一会儿。”

"I can't come with you.

“我不能跟你一起去。

I can't leave Peru."

我不能离开秘鲁。”

"I want to tell you something."

“我想告诉你一件事。”

Esteban came down to the foot of the stairs.

埃斯特班来到楼梯脚下。

"How about that present for Madre María del Pilar?" asked the Captain in a low voice.

“给玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔妈妈的礼物怎么样？”船长低声问道。

Esteban was silent, looking over the mountains.

埃斯特班沉默不语，眺望着群山。

"You aren't going to take that present away from her?

“你不打算把她的礼物拿走吗？

It might mean a lot to her ...

这对她来说可能意义重大……

you know."

你知道。”

"All right," murmured Esteban, as though much impressed.

“好吧，”埃斯特万低声说道，似乎印象深刻。

"Yes.

“是的。

Besides the ocean's better than Peru.

此外，海洋比秘鲁好。

You know Lima and Cuzco and the road.

你了解利马和库斯科以及道路。

You have nothing more to know about them.

关于他们你没有什么可了解的了。

You see it's the ocean you want.

你看，这就是你想要的海洋。

Besides on the boat you'll have something to do every minute.

除了在船上，您每分钟都有事可做。

I'll see to that.

我会注意的。

Go and get your things and we'll start."

去拿你的东西，我们就开始吧。”

Esteban was trying to make a decision.

埃斯特班试图做出决定。

It had always been Manuel who had made the decisions and even Manuel had never been forced to make as great a one as this.

一直都是曼努埃尔做出决定，甚至曼努埃尔也从未被迫做出如此伟大的决定。

Esteban went slowly upstairs.

埃斯特万慢慢地上楼。

The Captain waited for him and waited so long that presently he ventured half the way up the stairs and listened.

船长等了他很久，以至于他冒险登上了一半的楼梯，听着。

At first there was silence; then a series of noises that his imagination was able to identify at once.

起初一片寂静，后来又一片寂静。然后是一系列他的想象力能够立即识别出的声音。

Esteban had scraped away the plaster about a beam and was adjusting a rope about it.

埃斯特班已经刮掉了横梁上的灰泥，正在调整横梁上的一根绳子。

The Captain stood on the stairs trembling: "Perhaps it's best," he said to himself.

船长站在楼梯上颤抖着：“也许这样是最好的，”他自言自语道。

"Perhaps I should leave him alone.

“也许我应该让他一个人呆着。

Perhaps it's the only thing possible for him." Then on hearing another sound he flung himself against the door, fell into the room and caught the boy.

也许这对他来说是唯一可能的事情。”然后，当听到另一声声音时，他猛地撞到门上，掉进房间里，抓住了男孩。

"Go away," cried Esteban.

“走开，”埃斯特万喊道。

"Let me be.

“让我来吧。

Don't come in now."

现在别进来。”

Esteban fell face downward upon the floor.

埃斯特班面朝下倒在地板上。

"I am alone, alone, alone" he cried.

“我孤身一人，孤身一人，孤身一人。”他哭喊道。

The Captain stood above him, his great plain face ridged gray with pain; it was his own old hours he was reliving.

船长站在他上方，他那张朴素的大脸因痛苦而变得灰白。他正在重温他自己的旧时光。

He was the awkwardest speaker in the world apart from the lore of the sea, but there are times when it requires a high courage to speak the banal.

除了海洋知识之外，他是世界上最笨拙的演讲者，但有时讲平庸的话需要很大的勇气。

He could not be sure the figure on the floor was listening, but he said "We do what we can.

他不确定地板上的人是否在听，但他说：“我们会尽力而为。

We push on, Esteban, as best we can.

埃斯特万，我们会尽最大努力继续前进。

It isn't for long, you know.

你知道，这不会持续太久。

Time keeps going by.

时间一直在流逝。

You'll be surprised at the way time passes."

你会对时间流逝的方式感到惊讶。”

They started for Lima.

他们出发前往利马。

When they reached the bridge of San Luis Rey, the Captain descended to the stream below in order to supervise the passage of some merchandise, but Esteban crossed by the bridge and fell with it.

当他们到达圣路易斯雷伊桥时，船长下降到下面的溪流中，以监督一些货物的通过，但埃斯特万穿过桥并随之坠落。

IN one of her letters (the XXIXth) the Marquesa de Montemayor tries to describe the impression that Uncle Pio "_our aged Harlequin_" made upon her: "_I have been sitting all morning on the green balcony making you a pair of slippers, my soul_," she tells her daughter.

在她的一封信（第二十九封）中，蒙特马约尔侯爵试图描述皮奥叔叔“我们年迈的丑角”给她留下的印象：“我整个早上都坐在绿色的阳台上，为你做一双拖鞋，我的灵魂，”她告诉女儿。

"_As the golden wire did not take up my whole attention I was able to follow the activity of a coterie of ants in the wall beside me.

“_由于金线没有占据我的全部注意力，所以我能够跟踪我旁边墙上的一群蚂蚁的活动。

Somewhere behind the partition they were patiently destroying my house.

他们正在隔断后面的某个地方耐心地摧毁我的房子。

Every three minutes a little workman would appear between two boards and drop a grain of wood upon the floor below.

每隔三分钟就会有一个小工人出现在两块木板之间，并把一粒木头扔到下面的地板上。

Then he would wave his antennae at me and back busily into his mysterious corridor.

然后他会向我挥动触角，然后忙着回到他神秘的走廊。

In the meantime various brothers and sisters of his were trotting back and forth on a certain highway, stopping to massage one another's heads, or if the messages they bore were of first importance, refusing angrily to massage or to be massaged.

与此同时，他的几个兄弟姐妹在某条高速公路上来回小跑，停下来互相按摩头部，或者如果他们传达的信息是最重要的，则愤怒地拒绝按摩或被按摩。

And at once I thought of Uncle Pio.

我立刻想到了皮奥叔叔。

Why?

为什么？

Where else but with him had I seen that very gesture with which he arrests a passing abbé or a courtier's valet, and whispers, his lips laid against his victim's ear?

除了他以外，我在哪里见过他逮捕路过的神父或朝臣的贴身男仆，然后将嘴唇贴在受害者的耳朵上低声说话的姿势？

And surely enough, before noon I saw him hurry by on one of those mysterious errands of his.

果然，中午之前我看到他匆匆走过，执行他的一项神秘任务。

As I am the idlest and silliest of women I sent Pepita to get me a piece of nougat which I placed on the ant's highway.

因为我是最懒惰、最愚蠢的女人，所以我派佩皮塔去给我拿一块牛轧糖，然后我把它放在蚂蚁的高速公路上。

Similarly I sent word to the Café Pizarro asking them to send Uncle Pio to see me if he dropped in before sunset.

同样，我给皮萨罗咖啡馆发了话，要求他们派皮奥叔叔来见我，如果他在日落之前来的话。

I shall give him that old bent salad fork with the turquoise in it, and he will bring me a copy of the new ballad that everyone is singing about the d--q--a of Ol--v--s.

我会给他那个里面有绿松石的旧弯曲沙拉叉子，他会给我一份新歌谣，每个人都在唱关于《Ol-v-s》中的 d--q--a 的歌谣。

My child, you shall have the best of everything, and you shall have it first_."

我的孩子，你将拥有最好的一切，而且你将首先拥有它。”

And in the next letter: "_My dear, Uncle Pio is the most delightful man in the world, your husband excepted.

在下一封信中：“亲爱的，皮奥叔叔是世界上最可爱的人，除了你的丈夫。

He is the second most delightful man in the world.

他是世界上第二可爱的人。

His conversation is enchanting.

他的谈话很迷人。

If he weren't so disreputable I should make him my secretary.

如果他不是那么声名狼藉的话，我应该让他做我的秘书。

He could write all my letters for me and generations would rise up and call me witty.

他可以为我写所有的信，几代人都会站起来称我机智。

Alas, however, he is so moth-eaten by disease and bad company, that I shall have to leave him to his underworld.

然而，可惜的是，他饱受疾病和坏伙伴的摧残，我不得不把他留在地下世界。

He is not only like an ant, he is like a soiled pack of cards.

他不仅像一只蚂蚁，而且像一副脏纸牌。

And I doubt whether the whole Pacific could wash him sweet and fragrant again.

我怀疑整个太平洋能否再次给他洗去甜蜜和芬芳。

But what divine Spanish he speaks and what exquisite things he says in it!

但他说的西班牙语是多么神圣，他用西班牙语说的话又是多么美妙啊！

That's what one gets by hanging around a theatre and hearing nothing but the conversation of Calderón.

这就是一个人在剧院闲逛，除了卡尔德隆的谈话之外什么也听不到的结果。

Alas, what is the matter with this world, my soul, that it should treat such a being so ill!

唉，我的灵魂，这个世界到底怎么了，竟然对待这样的人如此恶劣！

His eyes are as sad as those of a cow that has been separated from its tenth calf_."

他的眼神就像一头与第十只小牛失散的母牛一样悲伤。”

You should know first that this Uncle Pio was Camila Perichole's maid.

你首先应该知道，这位皮奥叔叔是卡米拉·佩里科尔的女仆。

He was also her singing-master, her coiffeur, her masseur, her reader, her errand-boy, her banker; rumor added: her father.

他也是她的歌唱大师、她的理发师、她的按摩师、她的读者、她的跑腿者、她的银行家；谣言补充道：她的父亲。

For example, he taught her her parts.

例如，他教她她的部分。

There was a whisper around town that Camila could read and write.

镇上有传言说卡米拉会读书写字。

The compliment was unfounded; Uncle Pio did her reading and writing for her.

这种赞美是毫无根据的；皮奥叔叔为她读书和写作。

At the height of the season the company put on two or three new plays a week, and as each one contained a long and flowery part for the Perichole the mere task of memorization was not a trifle.

在演出季高峰期，剧团每周上演两到三部新剧，由于每部剧目都包含 Perichole 的长而华丽的部分，单纯的记忆任务就不是一件小事了。

Peru had passed within fifty years from a frontier state to a state in renaissance.

秘鲁在五十年内从一个边境国家转变为一个文艺复兴国家。

Its interest in music and the theatre was intense.

它对音乐和戏剧有着浓厚的兴趣。

Lima celebrated its feast days by hearing a Mass of Tomás Luis da Victoria in the morning and the glittering poetry of Calderón in the evening.

利马通过早上聆听托马斯·路易斯·达·维多利亚的弥撒和晚上聆听卡尔德隆闪闪发光的诗歌来庆祝节日。

It is true that the Limeans were given to interpolating trivial songs into the most exquisite comedies and some lachrymose effects into the austerest music; but at least they never submitted to the boredom of a misplaced veneration.

确实，利米安人擅长将琐碎的歌曲插入最精致的喜剧中，并将一些催人泪下的效果插入最朴素的音乐中。但至少他们从未屈服于错误的崇拜带来的无聊。

If they had disliked heroic comedy the Limeans would not have hesitated to remain at home; and if they had been deaf to polyphony nothing would have prevented their going to an earlier service.

如果利米安一家不喜欢英雄喜剧，他们会毫不犹豫地留在家里；如果他们对复调音乐充耳不闻，那么没有什么可以阻止他们去参加较早的仪式。

When the Archbishop returned from a short trip to Spain, all Lima kept asking: "What has he brought?" The news finally spread abroad that he had returned with tomes of masses and motets by Palestrina, Morales I and Vittoria, as well as thirty-five plays by Tirso de Molina and Ruiz de Alarçon and Moreto.

当大主教从西班牙短暂旅行归来时，利马人不断地问：“他带来了什么？”消息最终传到了国外，他带着帕莱斯特里纳、莫拉莱斯一世和维多利亚的大部头弥撒和经文歌归来，以及蒂尔索·德·莫利纳、鲁伊斯·德·阿拉尔松和莫雷托的三十五部戏剧。

There was a civic fête in his honor.

为了纪念他，人们举办了一场公民庆典。

The choirboys' school and the green room of the Comedia were swamped with the gifts of vegetables and wheat.

唱诗班学校和喜剧演员休息室里堆满了蔬菜和小麦的礼物。

All the world was eager to nourish the interpreters of so much beauty.

全世界都渴望滋养如此美丽的诠释者。

This was the theatre in which Camila Perichole gradually made her reputation.

卡米拉·佩里科尔就是在这个剧院逐渐成名的。

So rich was the repertory and so dependable the prompter's box that few plays were given more than four times a season.

剧目如此丰富，提词箱如此可靠，以至于很少有剧目每季上演超过四次。

The manager had the whole flowering of the 17th Century Spanish drama to draw upon, including many that are now lost to us.

经理拥有 17 世纪西班牙戏剧的全部精华可供借鉴，其中包括许多我们现在已经失去的内容。

The Perichole had appeared in a hundred plays of Lope de Vega alone.

仅洛佩·德·维加一人的一百部戏剧中就出现了 Perichole。

There were many admirable actresses in Lima during these years, but none better.

这些年来，利马出现了许多令人钦佩的女演员，但没有比这更好的了。

The citizens were too far away from the theatres of Spain to realize that she was the best in the Spanish world.

市民们距离西班牙剧院太远，无法意识到她是西班牙世界上最好的。

They kept sighing for a glimpse of the stars of Madrid whom they had never seen and to whom they assigned vague new excellences.

他们不断叹息，想一睹马德里的明星们的风采，他们从未见过他们，也给他们赋予了模糊的新的卓越。

Only one person knew for certain that the Perichole was a great performer and that was her tutor Uncle Pio.

只有一个人确信佩里科尔是一位伟大的表演者，那就是她的导师皮奥叔叔。

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Uncle Pio came of a good Castilian house, illegitimately.

皮奥叔叔出身于卡斯蒂利亚的一所上流家庭，但他是私生子。

At the age of ten he ran away to Madrid from his father's hacienda and was pursued without diligence.

十岁时，他从父亲的庄园逃到马德里，并遭到不遗余力的追捕。

He lived ever after by his wits.

从此他靠自己的智慧生活。

He possessed the six attributes of the adventurer--a memory for names and faces, with the aptitude for altering his own; the gift of tongues; inexhaustible invention; secrecy; the talent for falling into conversation with strangers; and that freedom from conscience that springs from a contempt for the dozing rich he preyed upon.

他拥有冒险家的六大特质——对名字和面孔的记忆，以及改变自己的能力；说方言的恩赐；取之不尽、用之不竭的发明；保密;与陌生人交谈的天赋；这种摆脱良心的自由源于对他所掠夺的那些打瞌睡的富人的蔑视。

From ten to fifteen he distributed handbills for merchants, held horses, and ran confidential errands.

从十点到十五点，他为商人分发传单、牵马、处理机密事务。

From fifteen to twenty he trained bears and snakes for travelling circuses; he cooked, and mixed punches; he hung about the entries of the more expensive taverns and whispered informations into the travellers' ears--sometimes nothing more dubious than that a certain noble house was reduced to selling its plate and could thus dispense with the commission of a silversmith.

从十五岁到二十岁，他为巡回马戏团训练熊和蛇。他做饭，打拳；他在更昂贵的酒馆入口处徘徊，并向旅行者耳语低声传达信息——有时，没有什么比某个贵族家族被迫出售其盘子并因此可以免除银匠的佣金更可疑的了。

He was attached to all the theatres in town and could applaud like ten.

他对镇上所有的剧院都有兴趣，可以鼓掌十次。

He spread slanders at so much a slander.

他散布诽谤，诽谤如此之多。

He sold rumors about crops and about the value of land.

他散布有关农作物和土地价值的谣言。

From twenty to thirty his services came to be recognized in very high circles--he was sent out by the government to inspirit some half-hearted rebellions in the mountains, so that the government could presently arrive and whole-heartedly crush them.

从二十岁到三十岁，他的功绩在高层圈子里得到了认可——政府派他去山区煽动一些半心半意的叛乱，以便政府很快就能到达并全心全意地镇压他们。

His discretion was so profound that the French party used him even when they knew that the Austrian party used him also.

他的判断力如此深刻，以至于法国党在知道奥地利党也使用他的情况下仍然使用他。

He had long interviews with the Princesse des Ursins, but he came and went by the back stairs.

他与乌尔辛公主进行了长时间的会面，但他都是从后楼梯来去的。

During this phase he was no longer obliged to arrange gentlemen's pleasures, nor to plant little harvests of calumny.

在这个阶段，他不再有义务安排绅士的享乐，也不再有小收获的诽谤。

He never did one thing for more than two weeks at a time even when enormous gains seemed likely to follow upon it.

他做一件事从来不会一次超过两周，即使这件事可能会带来巨大的收益。

He could have become a circus manager, a theatrical director, a dealer in antiquities, an importer of Italian silks, a secretary in the Palace or the Cathedral, a dealer in provisions for the army, a speculator in houses and farms, a merchant in dissipations and pleasures.

他本可以成为马戏团经理、戏剧导演、古物经销商、意大利丝绸进口商、宫殿或大教堂的秘书、军队粮食经销商、房屋和农场的投机者、享乐的商人。

But there seemed to have been written into his personality, through some accident or early admiration of his childhood, a reluctance to own anything, to be tied down, to be held to a long engagement.

但由于一些偶然事件或对童年的早期崇拜，他的性格似乎已经写入了一种不愿拥有任何东西、不愿被束缚、不愿被长期订婚的态度。

It was this that prevented his thieving, for example.

例如，正是这一点阻止了他的盗窃行为。

He had stolen several times, but the gains had not been sufficient to offset his dread of being locked up; he had sufficient ingenuity to escape on the field itself all the police in the world, but nothing could protect him against the talebearing of his enemies.

他偷了好几次，但所得并不足以抵消他对被关起来的恐惧；他有足够的聪明才智，可以在战场上逃脱世界上所有警察的追捕，但没有什么可以保护他免受敌人的诽谤。

Similarly he had been reduced for a time to making investigations for the Inquisition, but when he had seen several of his victims led off in hoods he felt that he might be involving himself in an institution whose movements were not evenly predictable.

同样，他曾一度沦落为宗教裁判所进行调查，但当他看到几名受害者被蒙着头巾带走时，他觉得自己可能卷入了一个行动难以预测的机构。

As he approached twenty, Uncle Pio came to see quite clearly that his life had three aims.

当皮奥叔叔年近二十岁时，他清楚地认识到自己的人生有三个目标。

There was first this need of independence, cast into a curious pattern, namely: the desire to be varied, secret and omniscient.

首先是这种独立的需要，形成了一种奇怪的模式，即：对变化、秘密和无所不知的渴望。

He was willing to renounce the dignities of public life, if in secret he might feel that he looked down upon men from a great distance, knowing more about them than they knew themselves; and with a knowledge which occasionally passed into action and rendered him an agent in the affairs of states and persons.

他愿意放弃公共生活的尊严，如果私下里他可能觉得自己远远地瞧不起人们，对他们的了解比他们对自己的了解还多；他的知识偶尔会付诸行动，使他成为国家和个人事务的代理人。

In the second place he wanted to be always near beautiful women, of whom he was always in the best and worst sense the worshipper.

其次，他希望永远靠近美丽的女人，从最好的和最坏的意义上来说，他总是她们的崇拜者。

To be near them was as necessary to him as breathing.

靠近他们对他来说就像呼吸一样必要。

His reverence for beauty and charm was there for anyone to see and to laugh at, and the ladies of the theatre and the court and the houses of pleasure loved his connoisseurship.

他对美和魅力的崇敬是任何人都可以看到和嘲笑的，剧院、宫廷和娱乐场所的女士们都喜欢他的鉴赏力。

They tormented him and insulted him and asked his advice and were singularly comforted by his absurd devotion.

他们折磨他、侮辱他，征求他的意见，并因他荒唐的奉献精神而感到特别安慰。

He suffered greatly their rages and their meannesses and their confiding tears; all he asked was to be accepted casually, to be trusted, to be allowed like a friendly and slightly foolish dog to come and go in their rooms and to write their letters for them.

他极大地忍受了他们的愤怒、卑鄙和吐露心声的泪水。他所要求的只是被随意地接受，被信任，被允许像一只友好但有点愚蠢的狗一样进出他们的房间并为他们写信。

He was insatiably curious about their minds and their hearts.

他对他们的思想和内心充满好奇。

He never expected to be loved by them (borrowing for a moment another sense of that word); for that, he carried his money to the obscurer parts of the city; he was always desperately unprepossessing, with his whisp of a moustache and his whisp of a beard and his big ridiculous sad eyes.

他从没想过会被他们所爱（暂时借用这个词的另一种含义）；为此，他把钱带到了城市的偏僻地区。他总是非常不讨人喜欢，留着一撇小胡子，一撇胡须，还有他那双可笑而悲伤的大眼睛。

They constituted his parish; it was from them that he acquired the name of Uncle Pio and it was when they were in trouble that he most revealed himself; when they fell from favour he lent them money, when they were ill he outlasted the flagging devotion of their lovers and the exasperation of their maids; when time or disease robbed them of their beauty, he served them still for their beauty's memory; and when they died his was the honest grief that saw them as far as possible on their journey.

他们构成了他的教区；正是从他们那里，他获得了皮奥叔叔的名字，而当他们陷入困境时，他最能暴露自己。当他们失宠时，他借钱给他们；当他们生病时，他战胜了情人的忠诚度的衰退和女仆的愤怒。当时间或疾病夺走了她们的美丽时，他仍然为她们服务，以纪念她们的美丽。当他们去世时，他的悲伤是在他们的旅程中尽可能远地看着他们的。

In the third place he wanted to be near those that loved Spanish literature and its masterpieces, especially in the theatre.

第三，他想接近那些热爱西班牙文学及其杰作的人，尤其是戏剧界的人。

He had discovered all that treasure for himself, borrowing or stealing from the libraries of his patrons, feeding himself upon it in secrecy,--behind the scenes, as it were, of his mad life.

他为自己发现了所有这些宝藏，从他赞助人的图书馆借来或偷来的，秘密地用它们来养活自己——在他疯狂的生活的幕后。

He was contemptuous of the great persons who for all their education and usage, exhibited no care nor astonishment before the miracles of word order in Calderón and Cervantes.

他鄙视那些伟大的人物，尽管他们受过良好的教育和使用，但他们对卡尔德隆和塞万提斯的词序奇迹没有表现出任何关心或惊讶。

He longed himself to make verses.

他渴望自己创作诗歌。

He never realized that many of the satirical songs he had written for the vaudevilles passed into folk-music and have been borne everywhere along the highroads.

他从来没有意识到，他为歌舞杂耍创作的许多讽刺歌曲后来变成了民间音乐，并在大街上到处传播。

As the result of one of those quarrels that arise so naturally in brothels his life became too complicated and he removed to Peru.

由于妓院中自然发生的一场争吵，他的生活变得过于复杂，他搬到了秘鲁。

Uncle Pio in Peru was even more versatile than Uncle Pio in Europe.

秘鲁的皮奥叔叔甚至比欧洲的皮奥叔叔还要多才多艺。

Here too he touched upon real-estate, circuses, pleasures, insurrections and antiques.

在这里，他也谈到了房地产、马戏团、享乐、叛乱和古董。

A Chinese junk had been blown from Canton to America; he dragged up the beach the bales of deep-red porcelain and sold the bowls to the collectors of virtú.

一艘中国帆船从广州被吹到了美国；他把成捆的深红色瓷器拖上海滩，把碗卖给了美德收藏家。

He traced down the sovereign remedies of the Incas and started a smart trade in pills.

他追查了印加人的主权疗法，并开始了明智的药丸贸易。

Within four months he knew practically everyone in Lima.

在四个月内，他几乎认识了利马的每个人。

He presently added to this acquaintance the inhabitants of scores of seacoast towns, mining camps and settlements in the interior.

不久，他又结识了数十个沿海城镇、采矿营地和内陆定居点的居民。

His pretensions to omniscience became more and more plausible.

他自诩无所不知的说法变得越来越可信。

The Viceroy discovered Uncle Pio and all this richness of reference; he engaged his services in many affairs.

总督发现了皮奥叔叔和所有这些丰富的参考资料；他参与了许多事务。

In the decay of his judgment Don Andrés had retained one talent, he was a master of the technique of handling confidential servants.

唐·安德烈斯在判断力衰退的过程中保留了一项才能，他是一位处理机密仆人技巧的大师。

He treated Uncle Pio with great tact and some deference; he understood which errands the other should not be asked to undertake and he understood his need for variety and intermission.

他对待皮奥叔叔非常机智，而且有些尊重。他明白哪些事情不应该被要求对方承担，他也明白自己需要多样化和间歇性。

Uncle Pio in turn was perpetually astonished that a prince should make so little use of his position, for power, or for fantasy, or for sheer delight in the manipulation of other men's destinies; but the servant loved the master because he could quote from any of Cervantes' prefaces and because his tongue had a little Castilian salt about it still.

反过来，皮奥叔叔也永远感到惊讶，一位王子竟然很少利用自己的地位来获取权力，或者为了幻想，或者纯粹为了操纵其他人的命运而感到高兴。但仆人爱主人，因为他可以引用塞万提斯的任何序言，而且他的舌头仍然带有一点卡斯蒂利亚盐。

Many a morning Uncle Pio entered the Palace through corridors where there was no one to cross but a confessor or a confidential bully and sat with the Viceroy over his morning chocolate.

很多个早晨，皮奥叔叔都会穿过走廊进入宫殿，那里除了忏悔神父或机密的恶霸之外，没有人可以穿过，他和总督坐在一起吃早餐的巧克力。

But for all his activity nothing made Uncle Pio rich.

但尽管皮奥叔叔做了这么多的事，但并没有让他变得富有。

One would have said that he abandoned a venture when it threatened to prosper.

有人会说，当一项事业有可能繁荣时，他就放弃了。

Although no one knew it, he owned a house.

尽管没有人知道，他拥有一栋房子。

It was full of dogs that could add and multiply and the top floor was reserved for birds.

里面养满了可以加倍繁殖的狗，顶层是为鸟类保留的。

But even in this kingdom he was lonely, and proud in his loneliness, as though there resided a certain superiority in such a solitude.

但即使在这个王国里，他也是孤独的，并为自己的孤独而自豪，仿佛在这样的孤独中存在着某种优越感。

Finally he stumbled upon an adventure that came like some strange gift from the skies and that combined the three great aims of his life: his passion for overseeing the lives of others, his worship of beautiful women, and his admiration for the treasures of Spanish literature.

最后，他偶然发现了一次冒险，就像来自天空的某种奇怪的礼物，结合了他一生的三个伟大目标：他对监督他人生活的热情，他对美丽女性的崇拜，以及他对西班牙文学宝藏的钦佩。

He discovered Camila Perichole.

他发现了卡米拉·佩里科尔。

Her real name was Micaela Villegas.

她的真名是米凯拉·维勒加斯。

She was singing in cafés at the age of twelve and Uncle Pio had always been the very soul of cafés.

她十二岁时就在咖啡馆唱歌，皮奥叔叔一直是咖啡馆的灵魂。

Now as he sat among the guitarists and watched this awkward girl singing ballads, imitating every inflection of the more experienced singers who had preceded her, the determination entered his mind to play Pygmalion.

现在，当他坐在吉他手中间，看着这个笨拙的女孩唱民谣，模仿她之前更有经验的歌手的每一个音调时，他下定决心要扮演皮格马利翁。

He bought her.

他买下了她。

Instead of sleeping locked up in the wine bin, she inherited a cot in his house.

她没有把自己锁在酒箱里睡觉，而是继承了他家里的一张婴儿床。

He wrote songs for her, he taught her how to listen to the quality of her tone, and bought her a new dress.

他为她写歌，教她如何聆听自己的音质，还给她买了一件新衣服。

At first all she noticed was that it was wonderful not to be whipped, to be offered hot soups, and to betaught something.

起初，她注意到的是，不被鞭打、被提供热汤、被授与一些东西真是太棒了。

But it was Uncle Pio who was really dazzled.

但真正眼花缭乱的却是皮奥叔叔。

His rash experiment flourished beyond all prophecy.

他鲁莽的实验的成功超出了所有人的预料。

The little twelve-year-old, silent and always a little sullen, devoured work.

这个十二岁的小孩子，沉默寡言，总是有点闷闷不乐，埋头工作。

He set her endless exercises in acting and mimicry; he set her problems in conveying the atmosphere of a song; he took her to the theatres and made her notice all the details of a performance.

他给她设置了无穷无尽的表演和模仿练习；他给她提出了如何传达歌曲氛围的问题；他带她去剧院，让她注意表演的所有细节。

But it was from Camila as a woman that he was to receive his greatest shock.

但最让他震惊的是卡米拉作为一个女人。

The long arms and legs were finally harmonized into a body of perfect grace.

修长的手臂和修长的双腿终于和谐地融为一体，形成了完美优雅的身体。

The almost grotesque and hungry face became beautiful.

那张近乎怪诞而饥饿的脸变得美丽起来。

Her whole nature became gentle and mysterious and oddly wise; and it all turned to him.

她的整个本性变得温柔、神秘，而且有着奇异的智慧。一切都转向了他。

She could find no fault in him and she was sturdily loyal.

她挑不出他的任何毛病，而且她非常忠诚。

They loved one another deeply but without passion.

他们彼此深爱着，但没有激情。

He resected the slight nervous shadow that crossed her face when he came too near her.

当他离她太近时，他消除了她脸上轻微的紧张阴影。

But there arose out of this denial itself the perfume of a tenderness, that ghost of passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make even a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream.

但这种否认本身却产生了一种温柔的芬芳，那种激情的幽灵，在最意想不到的关系中，甚至可以使一生致力于令人厌烦的责任像一场优雅的梦一样过去。

They travelled a great deal, seeking new taverns, for the highest attribute of a café singer will always be her novelty.

他们走了很多地方，寻找新的酒馆，因为咖啡馆歌手的最高品质永远是她的新奇。

They went to Mexico, their odd clothes wrapped up in the self-same shawl.

他们去了墨西哥，奇怪的衣服裹着同样的披肩。

They slept on beaches, they were whipped at Panama and shipwrecked on some tiny Pacific islands plastered with the droppings of birds.

他们睡在海滩上，在巴拿马遭到鞭打，在一些沾满鸟粪的太平洋小岛上遭遇海难。

They tramped through jungles delicately picking their way among snakes and beetles.

他们在丛林中艰难前行，在蛇和甲虫之间小心翼翼地前进。

They sold themselves out as harvesters in a hard season.

他们在艰难的季节里卖身为收割机。

Nothing in the world was very surprising to them.

世界上没有什么事情对他们来说是非常令人惊讶的。

Then began an even harder course of training for the girl, a regimen that resembled more the preparation for an acrobat.

然后，女孩开始了更艰苦的训练课程，这种训练方式更像是杂技演员的准备。

The instruction was a little complicated by the fact that her rise to favor was very rapid; and there was some danger that the applause she received would make her content with her work too soon.

由于她的受欢迎程度非常快，这一指示有点复杂。她所获得的掌声可能会让她过早地对自己的工作感到满意。

Uncle Pio never exactly beat her, but he resorted to a sarcasm that had terrors of its own.

皮奥叔叔从来没有真正打过她，但他却诉诸了一种本身就令人恐惧的讽刺。

At the close of a performance Camila would return to her dressing room to find Uncle Pio whistling nonchalantly in one corner.

演出结束后，卡米拉回到更衣室，发现皮奥叔叔在一个角落里若无其事地吹着口哨。

She would divine his attitude at once and cry angrily:

她一下子就猜到了他的态度，愤怒地喊道：

"Now what is it?

“现在是什么？

Mother of God, Mother of God, what is it now?"

上帝之母，上帝之母，现在怎么样了？”

"Nothing, little pearl.

“没什么，小珍珠。

My little Camila of Camilas, nothing."

我的卡米拉的小卡米拉，什么也没有。”

"There was something you didn't like.

“有件事你不喜欢。

Ugly fault-finding thing that you are.

你真是个丑陋的爱挑剔的人。

Come on now, what was it?

来吧，那是什么？

Look, I'm ready."

你看，我已经准备好了。”

"No, little fish.

“不，小鱼。

Adorable morning star, I suppose you did as well as you could."

可爱的晨星，我想你已经尽力了。”

The suggestion that she was a limited artist and that certain felicities would be forever closed to her never failed to make Camila frantic.

有人说她是一位能力有限的艺术家，而且某些幸福将永远对她关闭，这总是让卡米拉抓狂。

She would burst into tears: "I wish I had never known you.

她会泪流满面：“我希望我从来没有认识过你。

You poison my whole life.

你毒害了我的一生。

You just think I did badly.

你只是觉得我做得不好。

It pleases you to pretend that I was bad.

你很高兴假装我很坏。

All right then, be quiet."

好吧，那就安静吧。”

Uncle Pio went on whistling.

皮奥叔叔继续吹口哨。

"The fact is I know I was weak to-night, and don't need you to tell me so.

“事实上，我知道我今晚很虚弱，不需要你告诉我。

So there.

就这样。

Now go away.

现在走开。

I don't want to see you around.

我不想看到你在身边。

It's hard enough to play that part without coming back and finding you this way."

扮演这个角色而不回来并以这种方式找到你已经够难的了。”

Suddenly Uncle Pio would lean forward and ask with angry intensity: "Why did you take that speech to the prisoner so fast?"

突然，皮奥叔叔会向前倾身，愤怒地问道：“你为什么这么快就向囚犯发表讲话？”

More tears from the Perichole: "Oh God, let me die in peace!

佩里科尔流下了更多的眼泪：“哦上帝，让我平静地死去吧！

One day you tell me to go faster and another to go slower.

有一天你告诉我走快一点，另一天你告诉我走慢一点。

Anyway I shall be crazy in a year or two and then it won't matter."

不管怎样，一两年内我就会发疯，然后就没关系了。”

More whistling.

更多的口哨声。

"Besides the audience applauded as never before.

“此外，观众们发出了前所未有的掌声。

Do you hear me?

你听到我说话了吗？

_As never before_.

_前所未有_。

There!

在那里！

Too fast or too slow is nothing to them.

太快或太慢对他们来说都没什么。

They wept.

他们哭了。

I was divine.

我是神圣的。

That's all I care for.

这就是我所关心的。

Now be silent.

现在保持沉默。

Be silent."

保持沉默。”

He was absolutely silent.

他完全沉默了。

"You may comb my hair, but if you say another word I shall never play again.

“你可以给我梳头发，但如果你再说一句话，我就再也不会玩了。

You can find some other girl, that's all."

你可以去找别的女孩，仅此而已。”

Thereupon he would comb her hair soothingly for ten minutes, pretending not to notice the sobs that were shaking her exhausted body.

然后他会安抚地梳理她的头发十分钟，假装没有注意到她疲惫的身体颤抖着的抽泣。

At last she would turn quickly and catching one of his hands would kiss it frantically: "Uncle Pio, was I so bad?

最后她会迅速转身，抓住他的一只手，疯狂地吻着：“皮奥叔叔，我有那么糟糕吗？

Was I a disgrace to you?

我是你的耻辱吗？

Was it so awful _that you left the theatre_?"

你离开剧院是不是太糟糕了？”

After a long pause Uncle Pio would admit judiciously: "You were good in the scene on the ship."

停顿了很长一段时间后，皮奥叔叔明智地承认：“你在船上的那场戏演得很好。”

"But I've been better, Uncle Pio.

“但我好多了，皮奥叔叔。

You remember the night you came back from Cuzco----?"

你还记得你从库斯科回来的那天晚上吗——？”

"You were pretty good at the close."

“你最后的表现相当不错。”

"Was I?"

“我是吗？”

"But my flower, my pearl, _was the matter in the speech to the prisoner_?"

“但是我的花，我的珍珠，问题是在对囚犯的演讲中吗？”

Here the Perichole would fling her face and arms upon the table amid the pomades, caught up into a tremendous fit of weeping.

在这里，佩里科尔会把脸和手臂放在桌上的润发油中间，痛哭起来。

Only perfection would do, only perfection.

只有完美才行，只有完美。

And that had never come.

但那从未发生过。

Then beginning in a low voice Uncle Pio would talk for an hour, analyzing the play, entering into a world of finesse in matters of voice and gesture and tempo, and often until dawn they would remain there declaiming to one another the lordly conversation of Calderón.

然后，皮奥叔叔会低声交谈一个小时，分析剧本，进入声音、手势和节奏的巧妙世界，通常直到黎明，他们都会留在那里互相朗诵卡尔德隆的高贵谈话。

Whom were these two seeking to please?

这两个人想取悦谁？

Not the audiences of Lima.

不是利马的观众。

They had long since been satisfied.

他们早已心满意足了。

We come from a world where we have known incredible standards of excellence, and we dimly remember beauties which we have not seized again; and we go back to that world.

我们来自一个我们知道令人难以置信的卓越标准的世界，我们依稀记得我们没有再次抓住的美丽；然后我们回到那个世界。

Uncle Pio and Camila Perichole were tormenting themselves in an effort to establish in Peru the standards of the theatres in some Heaven whither Calderón had preceded them.

皮奥叔叔和卡米拉·佩里科尔正在折磨自己，努力在秘鲁建立卡尔德龙之前的某个天堂的剧院标准。

The public for which masterpieces are intended is not on this earth.

杰作所针对的公众并不在这个地球上。

With the passing of time Camila lost some of this absorption in her art.

随着时间的流逝，卡米拉不再那么专注于她的艺术了。

A certain intermittent contempt for acting made her negligent.

某种间歇性的对表演的蔑视让她变得疏忽大意。

It was due to the poverty of interest in women's rôles throughout Spanish classical drama.

这是由于整个西班牙古典戏剧对女性角色缺乏兴趣。

At a time when the playwrights grouped about the courts of England and France (a little later, of Venice) were enriching the parts of women with studies in wit, charm, passion and hysteria, the dramatists of Spain kept their eyes on their heroes, on gentlemen torn between the conflicting claims of honour, or, as sinners, returning at the last moment to the cross.

当英国和法国宫廷（稍后是威尼斯）的剧作家们通过对智慧、魅力、激情和歇斯底里的研究来丰富女性角色的时候，西班牙剧作家则把目光投向他们的英雄，关注在相互冲突的荣誉要求之间左右为难的绅士，或者作为罪人，在最后一刻回到十字架上。

For a number of years Uncle Pio spent himself in discovering ways to interest the Perichole in the rôles that fell to her.

多年来，皮奥叔叔一直在寻找方法，让佩里科尔对她所承担的角色感兴趣。

Upon one occasion he was able to announce to Camila that a granddaughter of Vico de Barrera had arrived in Peru.

有一次，他向卡米拉宣布维科·德·巴雷拉的孙女已经抵达秘鲁。

Uncle Pio had long since communicated to Camila his veneration for great poets and Camila never questioned the view that they were a little above the kings and not below the saints.

皮奥叔叔很早就向卡米拉表达了他对伟大诗人的崇敬，而卡米拉从未质疑过这样的观点：他们比国王稍高一些，但并不低于圣人。

So it was in great excitement that the two of them chose one of the master's plays to perform before his granddaughter.

于是两人就选了一部大师的剧作在他的孙女面前表演，十分兴奋。

They rehearsed the poem a hundred times, now in the great joy of invention, now in dejection.

他们把这首诗背诵了一百遍，时而欣喜若狂，时而沮丧。

On the night of the performance Camila peering out between the folds of the curtain had Uncle Pio point out to her the little middle-aged woman worn with the cares of penury and a large family; but it seemed to Camila that she was looking at all the beauty and dignity in the world.

演出当晚，卡米拉在窗帘的褶皱间向外张望，皮奥叔叔向她指出了那个因贫困和大家庭而疲惫不堪的中年妇女；但卡米拉似乎看到了世界上所有的美丽和尊严。

As she waited for the lines that preceded her entrance she clung to Uncle Pio in reverent silence, her heart beating loudly.

当她等待入场前的队伍时，她虔诚地安静地依偎着皮奥叔叔，她的心剧烈地跳动着。

Between the acts she retired to the dusty corner of the warehouse where no one would find her and sat staring into the corners.

在表演间隙，她躲到仓库里一个布满灰尘的角落里，在那里没人会发现她，她坐在那儿盯着角落里看。

At the close of the performance Uncle Pio brought the granddaughter of Vico de Barrera into Camila's room.

演出结束后，皮奥叔叔将维科·德·巴雷拉的孙女带进了卡米拉的房间。

Camila stood among the clothes that hung upon the wall, weeping with happiness and shame.

卡米拉站在挂在墙上的衣服中间，因幸福和羞愧而哭泣。

Finally she flung herself on her knees and kissed the older woman's hands, and the older woman kissed hers, and while the audience went home and went to bed the Visitor remained telling Camila the little stories that had remained in the family, of Vico's work and of his habits.

最后，她跪倒在地，亲吻老妇人的手，老妇人也亲吻她的手，当观众回家上床睡觉时，来访者仍然给卡米拉讲着这个家庭中遗留下来的小故事，关于维科的工作和他的习惯。

Uncle Pio was at his happiest when a new actress entered the company, for the discovery of a new talent at her side never failed to bestir the Perichole.

当一位新女演员进入公司时，皮奥叔叔感到最高兴，因为在她身边发现新人才总是让佩里科尔感到兴奋。

To Uncle Pio (standing at the back of the auditorium, bent double with joy and malice) it seemed that the body of the Perichole had become an alabaster lamp in which a strong light had been placed.

对皮奥叔叔（站在礼堂后面，因喜悦和恶意而弯下腰）来说，佩里科尔的身体似乎变成了一盏雪花石膏灯，里面放着强光。

Without any resort to tricks or to false emphasis, she set herself to efface the newcomer.

她没有采取任何诡计或虚假强调，而是让自己抹去这个新来者。

If the play were a comedy she became the very abstraction of wit, and (as was more likely) it was a drama of wronged ladies and implacable hates, the stage fairly smouldered with her emotion.

如果这部剧是一部喜剧，她就变成了机智的抽象化，而且（更有可能的是）这是一部关于受委屈的女士和难以平息的仇恨的戏剧，舞台上充满了她的情感。

Her personality became so electric that if she so much as laid her hand upon that of a fellow actor a sympathetic shudder ran through the audience.

她的个性变得如此激动人心，以至于只要她把手放在一位演员的手上，观众就会产生同情的颤抖。

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent.

但这样的优秀场合却越来越少了。

As her technique became sounder, Camila's sincerity became less necessary.

随着技术的成熟，卡米拉的诚意也变得不再那么必要了。

Even when she was absentminded the audience did not notice the difference and only Uncle Pio grieved.

即使她心不在焉，观众也没有注意到其中的差别，只有皮奥叔叔感到悲伤。

Camila had a very beautiful face, or rather a face beautiful save in repose.

卡米拉有一张非常美丽的脸，或者更确切地说，一张除了休息之外很美丽的脸。

In repose one was startled to discover that the nose was long and thin, the mouth tired and a little childish, the eyes unsatisfied--a rather pinched peasant girl, dragged from the cafés-chantants and quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, of her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine.

休息时，人们会惊讶地发现，鼻子又长又细，嘴巴疲倦而有点孩子气，眼睛不满意——一个相当拮据的农家女孩，从咖啡馆里拖出来——吟诵者，完全无法在她的艺术主张、她的胃口、她的梦想和她拥挤的日常生活之间建立任何和谐。

Each of these was a world in itself, and the warfare between them would soon have reduced to idiocy (or triviality) a less tenacious physique.

每一个都是一个独立的世界，如果体质不那么顽强，它们之间的战争很快就会变得愚蠢（或琐碎）。

We have seen that in spite of her discontent with her parts, the Perichole knew very well the joy that might reside in acting and warmed herself from time to time at that flame.

我们看到，尽管佩里科尔对自己的角色不满意，但她很清楚表演中可能存在的乐趣，并时不时地在那火焰中温暖自己。

But that of love attracted her more often, though with no greater assurance of happiness, until Jupiter himself sent her some pearls.

但爱情更频繁地吸引着她，尽管并没有更大的幸福保证，直到朱庇特亲自送给她一些珍珠。

Don Andrés de Ribera, the Viceroy of Peru, was the remnant of a delightful man, broken by the table, the alcove, a grandeeship and ten years of exile.

秘鲁总督唐·安德烈斯·德·里贝拉是一个令人愉快的人的残余，被桌子、壁龛、显赫的爵位和十年的流放所打破。

As a youth he had accompanied embassies to Versailles and Rome; he had fought in the wars in Austria; he had been in Jerusalem.

年轻时，他曾随使馆前往凡尔赛和罗马；他曾参加过奥地利的战争；他曾在耶路撒冷。

He was a widower and childless of an enormous and wealthy woman; he had collected coins a little, wines, actresses, orders and maps.

他是一位鳏夫，没有孩子，父亲是一位身材高大、富有的女人。他收集了一些硬币、葡萄酒、女演员、订单和地图。

From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,--he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.

他从餐桌上得了痛风。从凹处有抽搐的倾向；他的显赫地位是如此巨大而幼稚，以至于他很少听到有人对他说任何话，而是对着天花板进行无休无止的独白。从流放中，无聊的海洋，一种如此令人信服的无聊，就像痛苦一样——他带着它醒来，并与它度过了一天，而它整夜坐在他的床边看着他的睡眠。

Camila was passing the years in the hard-working routine of the theatre, savoured by a few untidy love-affairs, when this Olympian personage (for he had a face and port fit to play gods and heroes on the scene) suddenly transported her to the most delicious midnight suppers at the Palace.

卡米拉在剧院辛勤工作的日常中度过了这些年，享受着一些不整洁的风流韵事，这时这位奥林匹亚人物（因为他有一张适合在现场扮演众神和英雄的脸和港口）突然把她带到了皇宫最美味的午夜晚餐。

Contrary to all the traditions of the stage and state she adored her elderly admirer; she thought she was going to be happy forever.

与舞台和国家的所有传统相反，她崇拜她年长的仰慕者。她以为她会永远幸福。

Don Andrés taught the Perichole a great many things and to her bright eager mind that was one of the sweetest ingredients of love.

唐·安德烈斯教给佩里科尔很多东西，对她聪明而热切的头脑来说，这是爱情中最甜蜜的成分之一。

He taught her a little French; to be neat and clean; the modes of address.

他教了她一点法语；保持整洁、干净；寻址方式。

Uncle Pio had taught her how great ladies carry themselves on great occasions; he taught her how they relax.

皮奥叔叔教过她，伟大的女士们在重要场合如何表现自己。他教她如何放松。

Uncle Pio and Calderón had trained her in beautiful Spanish; Don Andrés furnished her with the smart slang of _El Buen Retiro_.

皮奥叔叔和卡尔德隆用优美的西班牙语训练了她。唐·安德烈斯为她提供了_El Buen Retiro_这句聪明的俚语。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Uncle Pio was made anxious by Camila's invitation from the Palace.

卡米拉从王宫发出的邀请让皮奥叔叔很着急。

He would have much preferred that she continue with her little vulgarian love-affairs in the theatrical ware-house.

他更希望她能在戏剧仓库里继续她那段庸俗的风流韵事。

But when he saw that her art was gaining a new finish he was well content.

但当他看到她的艺术焕然一新时，他很满意。

He would sit in the back of the theatre, rolling about in his seat for sheer joy and amusement, watching the Perichole intimate to the audience that she frequented the great world about whom the dramatists wrote.

他会坐在剧院的后面，在座位上打滚，纯粹是出于喜悦和娱乐，看着佩里科尔与观众亲密接触，她经常光顾剧作家所描写的伟大世界。

She had a new way of fingering a wine-glass, of exchanging an adieu, a new way of entering a door that told everything.

她有了一种新的方式来敲击酒杯，一种新的告别方式，一种新的进入一扇说明了一切的门的方式。

To Uncle Pio nothing else mattered.

对于皮奥叔叔来说，其他一切都不重要。

What was there in the world more lovely than a beautiful woman doing justice to a Spanish masterpiece?--a performance (he asks you), packed with observation, in which the very spacing of the words revealed a comment on life and on the text--delivered by a beautiful voice--illustrated by a faultless carriage, considerable personal beauty and irresistible charm.

世界上还有什么比一个美丽的女人公正地对待一部西班牙杰作更可爱的呢？——一场表演（他问你），充满了观察力，其中的每一个字的间距都揭示了对生活和文本的评论——由美丽的声音传达——通过完美的举止、相当的个人美感和不可抗拒的魅力来说明。

"We are almost ready to take this marvel to Spain," he would murmur to himself.

“我们已经准备好将这一奇迹带到西班牙了，”他自言自语道。

After the performance he would go around to her dressing-room and say "Very good!" But before taking his leave he would manage to ask her where, in the name of the eleven thousand virgins of Cologne, she had acquired that affected way of saying _Excelencia_.

演出结束后，他会绕到她的更衣室说“很好！”但在离开之前，他会设法问她，以科隆一万一千名处女的名义，她是从哪里学会了那种装腔作势的说法_Excelencia_。

After a time the Viceroy asked the Perichole whether it would amuse her to invite a few discreet guests to their midnight suppers, and he asked her whether she would like to meet the Archbishop.

过了一会儿，总督问佩里科尔邀请几位谨慎的客人参加午夜晚餐是否会让她感到高兴，他问她是否愿意见见大主教。

Camila was delighted.

卡米拉很高兴。

The Archbishop was delighted.

大主教很高兴。

On the eve of their first meeting he sent the actress an emerald pendant as big as a playing-card.

在他们第一次见面的前夕，他送给这位女演员一个像扑克牌那么大的祖母绿吊坠。

There was something in Lima that was wrapped up in yards of violet satin from which protruded a great dropsical head and two fat pearly hands; and that was its archbishop.

利马有一种东西，包裹在紫罗兰色的缎子里，从里面伸出一个长着水泡的大脑袋和两只肥胖的珍珠手。那是它的大主教。

Between the rolls of flesh that surrounded them looked out two black eyes speaking discomfort, kindliness and wit.

在他们周围的肉卷之间，有两只黑色的眼睛，流露出不安、友善和机智。

A curious and eager soul was imprisoned in all this lard, but by dint of never refusing himself a pheasant or a goose or his daily procession of Roman wines, he was his own bitter jailer.

一个好奇而热切的灵魂被囚禁在所有这些猪油中，但由于从不拒绝自己的野鸡或鹅或他每天的罗马葡萄酒，他成为了自己的苦毒狱卒。

He loved his cathedral; he loved his duties; he was very devout.

他热爱他的大教堂；他热爱自己的职责；他非常虔诚。

Some days he regarded his bulk ruefully; but the distress of remorse was less poignant than the distress of fasting and he was presently found deliberating over the secret messages that a certain roast sends to the certain salad that will follow it.

有时他会悲伤地看着自己的大块头。但悔恨的痛苦没有禁食的痛苦那么令人心酸，他很快就被发现在思考某种烤肉向随后的某种沙拉发送的秘密信息。

And to punish himself he led an exemplary life in every other respect.

为了惩罚自己，他在其他方面都过着模范的生活。

He had read all the literature of antiquity and forgotten all about it except a general aroma of charm and disillusion.

他读过所有的古代文学，但除了普遍的魅力和幻灭的香气之外，什么都忘记了。

He had been learned in the Fathers and the Councils and forgotten all about them save a floating impression of dissensions that had no application to Peru.

他在教父们和议会中学到了很多知识，但后来却忘记了他们的一切，只留下了一些与秘鲁无关的浮现的分歧印象。

He had read all the libertine masterpieces of Italy and France and reread them annually; even in the torments of the stone (happily dissolved by drinking the water from the springs of Santa María de Cluxambuqua), he could find nothing more nourishing than the anecdotes of Brantôme and the divine Aretino.

他读过意大利和法国所有的放荡名著，并且每年都会重读。即使在石头的折磨中（喝了圣玛丽亚·德·克卢桑布夸的泉水，石头就溶解了），他也找不到比布朗托姆和神圣的阿雷蒂诺的轶事更能滋养他的了。

The Archbishop knew that most of the priests of Peru were scoundrels.

大主教知道秘鲁的大部分神父都是无赖。

It required all his delicate Epicurean education to prevent his doing something about it; he had to repeat over to himself his favourite notions: that the injustice and unhappiness in the world is a constant; that the theory of progress is a delusion; that the poor, never having known happiness, are insensible to misfortune.

这需要他接受的所有精致的伊壁鸠鲁主义教育才能阻止他采取行动。他不得不对自己重复他最喜欢的观念：世界上的不公正和不幸是持续存在的；进步理论是一种错觉；穷人从来不知道幸福，对不幸也无动于衷。

Like all the rich he could not bring himself to believe that the poor (look at their houses, look at their clothes) could really suffer.

像所有富人一样，他无法让自己相信穷人（看看他们的房子，看看他们的衣服）真的会受苦。

Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely-read could be said to _know_ that they were unhappy.

像所有有教养的人一样，他相信只有博览群书的人才能说自己知道自己不快乐。

On one occasion, the iniquities in his see having been called to his notice, he almost did something about it.

有一次，他注意到自己辖区内的罪恶，差点就采取了行动。

He had just heard that it was becoming a rule in Peru for priests to exact two measures of meal for a fairly good absolution, and five measures, for a really effective one.

他刚刚听说，在秘鲁，牧师要吃两份饭才能获得相当好的赦罪，而要吃五份饭才能真正有效。

He trembled with indignation; he roared to his secretary and bidding him bring up his writing materials, announced that he was going to dictate an overwhelming message to his shepherds.

他气得浑身发抖。他向他的秘书咆哮，命令他拿出写作材料，宣布他将向他的牧羊人口述一条压倒性的信息。

But there was no ink left in the inkwell; there was no ink left in the next room; there was no ink to be found in the whole palace.

但墨水池里已经没有墨水了；隔壁房间里已经没有墨水了。整个宫殿里找不到墨水。

This state of things in his household so upset the good man that he fell ill of the combined rages and learned to guard himself against indignations.

家里的这种状况让这位好心人非常心烦意乱，他因愤怒而病倒，并学会了如何避免愤怒。

The addition of the Archbishop to the suppers was so successful that Don Andrés began to think of new names.

大主教加入晚餐是如此成功，以至于唐·安德烈斯开始考虑新的名字。

He had grown increasingly dependent upon Uncle Pio, but waited until Camila should propose his inclusion of her own accord.

他越来越依赖皮奥叔叔，但一直等到卡米拉主动提出将他纳入其中。

And in due time Uncle Pio brought with him that courser of the seas, the Captain Alvarado.

在适当的时候，皮奥叔叔带来了海上的骏马阿尔瓦拉多船长。

Generally the reunion had been several hours under way before Camila was able to join them after her performance at the theatre.

一般来说，重聚已经进行了几个小时，卡米拉在剧院演出后才能够加入他们。

She would arrive towards one o'clock, radiant and bejewelled and very tired.

她会在一点钟左右到达，容光焕发，珠光宝气，而且非常疲惫。

The four men received her as they would a great queen.

这四个人像对待一位伟大的女王一样接待了她。

For an hour or so she would carry the conversation, but gradually reclining more and more against Don Andrés' shoulder she would follow the talk as it flitted from one humorous lined face to the other.

大约一个小时左右，她会继续谈话，但逐渐靠在唐·安德烈斯的肩膀上，她会随着谈话从一张幽默的、布满皱纹的脸上掠过到另一张脸上。

All night they talked, secretly comforting their hearts that longed always for Spain and telling themselves that such a symposium was after the manner of the high Spanish soul.

他们整晚都在交谈，暗自安慰着一直向往西班牙的心，告诉自己这样的座谈会是西班牙高尚灵魂的作风。

They talked about ghosts and second-sight, and about the earth before man appeared upon it and about the possibility of the planets striking against one another; about whether the soul can be seen, like a dove, fluttering away at the moment of death; they wondered whether at the second coming of Christ to Jerusalem, Peru would be long in receiving the news.

他们谈论鬼魂和第二视觉，谈论人类出现之前的地球，以及行星相互撞击的可能性；关于是否可以看到灵魂，像鸽子一样，在死亡的那一刻飞走；他们想知道当基督第二次来到耶路撒冷时，秘鲁是否会很久才收到这个消息。

They talked until the sun rose, about wars and kings, about poets and scholars, and about strange countries.

他们谈论战争和国王，谈论诗人和学者，谈论陌生的国家，直到太阳升起。

Each one poured into the conversation his store of wise sad anecdotes and his dry regret about the race of men.

每个人都在谈话中倾注了自己丰富的悲伤轶事和对人类的干涩遗憾。

The flood of golden light struck across the Andes and entering the great window fell upon the piles of fruit, the stained brocade upon the table, and the sweet thoughtful forehead of the Perichole as she lay sleeping against the sleeve of her protector.

金色的光芒穿过安第斯山脉，进入大窗户，落在一堆水果上，落在桌子上污迹斑斑的锦缎上，落在佩里科尔靠着保护者的袖子熟睡时甜美而深思熟虑的额头上。

There would ensue a long pause, no one wishing to make the first move to go, and the glances of them all would rest upon this strange beautiful bird who lived among them.

接下来是很长一段时间的停顿，没有人愿意主动走开，所有人的目光都会落在这只生活在他们中间的奇怪美丽的鸟身上。

But Uncle Pio's glance had been upon her all night, a quick glance from his black eyes, full of tenderness and anxiety, resting on the great secret and reason of his life.

但皮奥叔叔的目光整个晚上都在她身上，他的黑眼睛快速地扫了一眼，充满了温柔和焦虑，停留在他生命中的伟大秘密和理智上。

But Uncle Pio never ceased watching Camila.

但皮奥叔叔从未停止注视着卡米拉。

He divided the inhabitants of this world into two groups, into those who had loved and those who had not.

他把这个世界上的居民分为两类：有爱过的人和没有爱过的人。

It was a horrible aristocracy, apparently, for those who had no capacity for love (or rather for suffering in love) could not be said to be alive and certainly would not live again after their death.

显然，这是一个可怕的贵族制度，因为那些没有爱的能力（或者更确切地说，没有能力在爱中受苦）的人不能说是活着的，死后也肯定不会再活下去。

They were a kind of straw population, filling the world with their meaningless laughter and tears and chatter and disappearing still lovable and vain into thin air.

他们是一群稻草人，让世界充满了毫无意义的笑声、泪水和喋喋不休，但仍然可爱而虚荣地消失在稀薄的空气中。

For this distinction he cultivated his own definition of love that was like no other and that had gathered all its bitterness and pride from his odd life.

为了这一殊荣，他形成了自己对爱的定义，这种定义与其他人不同，并且从他古怪的生活中聚集了所有的痛苦和骄傲。

He regarded love as a sort of cruel malady through which the elect are required to pass in their late youth and from which they emerge, pale and wrung, but ready for the business of living.

他认为爱情是一种残酷的疾病，选民在晚年时必须经历这种疾病，从这种疾病中出来后，他们面色苍白，疲惫不堪，但已为生活做好了准备。

There was (he believed) a great repertory of errors mercifully impossible to human beings who had recovered from this illness.

（他相信）有一大堆错误，幸运的是，对于从这种疾病中康复的人来说，这是不可能的。

Unfortunately there remained to them a host of failings, but at least (from among many illustrations) they never mistook a protracted amiability for the whole conduct of life, they never again regarded any human being, from a prince to a servant, as a mechanical object.

不幸的是，他们仍然存在许多缺点，但至少（从许多例证来看）他们从未将长期的和蔼误认为是整个生活的行为，他们再也没有将任何人，从王子到仆人，视为机械物体。

Uncle Pio never ceased watching Camila because it seemed to him that she had never undergone this initiation.

皮奥叔叔从未停止注视着卡米拉，因为在他看来，她从未接受过这种启蒙。

In the months that followed her introduction to the Viceroy he held his breath and waited.

在她介绍给总督之后的几个月里，他屏住呼吸等待着。

He held his breath for years.

多年来他一直屏住呼吸。

Camila bore the Viceroy three children, yet remained the same.

卡米拉为总督生了三个孩子，但仍保持不变。

He knew that the first sign of her entrance into the true possession of the world would be the mastery of certain effects in her acting.

他知道她真正拥有这个世界的第一个标志就是她对表演中某些效果的掌握。

There were certain passages in the plays that she would compass some day, simply, easily, and with secret joy, because they alluded to the new rich wisdom of her heart; but her treatment of such passages became more and more cursory, not to say embarrassed.

有一天，她会简单地、轻松地、带着秘密的喜悦来阅读戏剧中的某些段落，因为它们暗示了她内心新的丰富智慧；但她对这些段落的处理却变得越来越草率，甚至不说是尴尬。

He presently saw that she had tired of Don Andrés and had returned to a series of furtive love-affairs with the actors and matadors and merchants of the town.

他很快发现她已经厌倦了唐·安德烈斯，又开始与镇上的演员、斗牛士和商人进行一系列秘密的恋情。

She became more and more impatient of acting and another parasite found its way into her mind.

她对表演越来越不耐烦，另一种寄生虫进入了她的脑海。

She wanted to be a lady.

她想成为一名女士。

She slowly contracted a greed for respectability and began to refer to her acting as a pastime.

她慢慢地产生了对受人尊敬的渴望，并开始把表演当作一种消遣。

She acquired a duenna and some footmen and went to church at the fashionable hours.

她雇了一个杜纳和一些男仆，并在时髦的时间去教堂。

She attended the prize days at the University and appeared among the donors of the great charities.

她参加了大学的颁奖日，并成为大型慈善机构的捐赠者之一。

She even learned to read and write a little.

她甚至学会了一点读书和写字。

Any faint discrimination against, her as a bohemian she challenged with fury.

任何对她的轻微歧视，作为一个波西米亚人，她都会愤怒地挑战。

She led the Viceroy a horrible life with her passion for concessions and her gradual usurpation of privileges.

她热衷于让步，并逐渐篡夺特权，让总督过着可怕的生活。

The new vice displaced the old and she became noisily virtuous.

新的恶习取代了旧的恶习，她变得非常贤惠。

She invented some parents and produced some cousins.

她创造了一些父母并产生了一些表兄弟姐妹。

She obtained an undocumented legitimatization of her children.

她获得了她孩子的无证合法化。

In society she cultivated a delicate and languid magdelinism, as a great lady might, and she carried a candle in the penitential parades, side by side with ladies who had nothing to regret but an outburst of temper and a furtive glance into Descartes.

在社交场合，她像一位伟大的女士那样，培养了一种精致而慵懒的精神，她在忏悔游行中举着一支蜡烛，与那些除了发脾气和偷偷地瞥一眼笛卡尔之外没有什么可遗憾的女士并肩而行。

Her sin had been acting and everyone knows that there were even saints who had been actors,--there was Saint Gelasius and Saint Genesius and Saint Margaret of Antioch and Saint Pelagia.

她的罪过就是演戏，每个人都知道，甚至有一些圣人也曾当过演员，比如圣格拉修斯、圣杰尼修斯、安提阿的圣玛格丽特和圣佩拉吉亚。

There was a fashionable watering place in the hills not far from Santa María de Cluxambuqua.

距离圣玛丽亚·德·克卢桑布夸不远的山上有一个时尚的饮水场所。

Don Andrés had travelled in France and had thought to build himself a little mock Vichy; there was a pagoda, some drawing-rooms, a theatre, a little arena for bull-fights and some French gardens.

唐·安德烈斯曾在法国旅行过，他想给自己打造一个模仿维希的风格。那里有一座宝塔、一些客厅、一个剧院、一个斗牛场和一些法式花园。

Camila's health had never known a shadow, but she built herself a villa in the vicinity and sipped the hateful waters at eleven o'clock.

卡米拉的健康状况从未出现过任何阴影，但她在附近为自己建造了一栋别墅，并在十一点钟喝着可恶的水。

The Marquesa de Montemayor has left a brilliant picture of this _opéra bouffe_ paradise with the reigning divinity parading her fierce sensitiveness along the avenues of powdered shell and receiving the homage of all those who could not afford to offend the Viceroy.

蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人为这个歌剧院天堂留下了一幅辉煌的图画，统治的神灵沿着贝壳粉的大道展示她强烈的敏感性，并接受所有不能冒犯总督的人的敬意。

Doña María draws a portrait of this ruler, stately and weary, gambling all through the night in sums that would have raised another Escurial.

多纳·玛丽亚（Doña María）为这位统治者画了一幅肖像，他庄严而疲惫，整夜赌博的金额足以筹集另一个埃斯库里亚尔的钱。

And beside him she sets the portrait of his son, Camila's little Don Jaime.

在他旁边，她放置了他儿子卡米拉的小唐·海梅的肖像。

Don Jaime, at seven years, was a rachitic little body who seemed to have inherited not only his mother's forehead and eyes, but his father's liability to convulsions.

七岁的唐·海梅身材瘦小，似乎不仅继承了母亲的额头和眼睛，还继承了父亲容易抽搐的毛病。

He bore his pain with the silent bewilderment of an animal, and like an animal he was mortally ashamed when any evidences of it occurred in public.

他像动物一样默默地困惑地承受着痛苦，当任何证据出现在公共场合时，他都像动物一样感到非常羞愧。

He was so beautiful that the more trivial forms of pity were hushed in his presence and his long thoughts about his difficulties had given his face a patient and startling dignity.

他是如此美丽，以至于在他面前，更琐碎的怜悯都被掩盖了，他对自己的困难的长期思考使他的脸呈现出一种耐心和惊人的尊严。

His mother dressed him in garnet velvet, and when he was able he followed her about at a distance of several yards, extricating himself gravely from the ladies who tried to detain him in conversation.

他的母亲给他穿上石榴石天鹅绒的衣服，当他可以的时候，他就在几码的距离外跟着她，严肃地摆脱那些试图阻止他谈话的女士们。

Camila was never cross to Don Jaime and she was never demonstrative.

卡米拉从不生唐·海梅的脾气，也从不外露。

When the sun was shining the two could be seen walking along those artificial terraces in silence, Camila wondering when the felicity would begin that she had always associated with social position, Don Jaime rejoicing merely in the sunlight and anxiously estimating the approach of a cloud.

当阳光明媚时，可以看到两人默默地沿着那些人造露台行走，卡米拉想知道她一直与社会地位联系在一起的幸福何时开始，唐·海梅只是在阳光下感到高兴，焦急地估计着云的到来。

They looked like figures that had strayed there from some remote country, or out of an old ballad, that had not yet learned the new language and had not yet found any friends.

他们看起来像是从某个遥远的国家流浪到那里的人物，或者是从一首古老的歌谣中走出来的人物，他们还没有学会新的语言，还没有找到任何朋友。

Camila was about thirty when she left the stage and it required five years for her to achieve her place in society.

卡米拉离开舞台时大约三十岁，她用了五年的时间才在社会上取得了自己的地位。

She gradually became almost stout, though her head seemed to grow more beautiful every year.

她渐渐变得近乎粗壮，尽管她的头似乎一年比一年美丽。

She took to overdressing and the floors of the drawing-rooms reflected a veritable tower of jewels and scarves and plumes.

她开始穿得太过分，客厅的地板上映出一座名副其实的珠宝、围巾和羽毛塔。

Her face and hands were covered with a bluish powder against which she drew an irritable mouth in scarlet and orange.

她的脸和手上涂满了蓝色的粉末，在粉末上她用猩红色和橙色画出了一张烦躁的嘴。

The almost distraught fury of her temper was varied by the unnatural sweetness of her address in the company of the dowagers.

她的脾气近乎心烦意乱，但在太后的陪伴下，她的讲话却异常甜蜜。

In the earliest stages of her progress upward she had intimated to Uncle Pio that he was not to be seen with her in public, but finally she became impatient even of his discreeter visits.

在她向上发展的最初阶段，她曾向皮奥叔叔暗示过，他不能和她一起出现在公共场合，但最后，即使是他谨慎的来访，她也变得不耐烦了。

She conducted the interviews with formality and evasion.

她进行采访时既拘谨又回避。

Her eyes never crossed his and she angled for pretexts to quarrel with him.

她的目光从未与他的目光交汇，她总是找借口与他争吵。

Still he ventured out once a month to try her patience and when the call had become impossible he would climb the stairs and finish the hour among her children.

尽管如此，他每个月还是冒险出去一次，考验她的耐心，当无法打电话时，他会爬上楼梯，和她的孩子们一起度过这一小时。

One day he arrived at her villa in the hills and, through her maid, begged for an opportunity to talk with her.

有一天，他来到她的山庄，通过她的女仆，请求有机会与她交谈。

He was told that she would see him in the French gardens a little before sunset.

有人告诉他，她会在日落前不久在法国花园里见到他。

He had come up from Lima on a strange sentimental impulse.

他带着一种奇怪的感伤的冲动从利马来到这里。

Like all solitary persons he had invested friendship with a divine glamour: he imagined that the people he passed on the street, laughing together and embracing when they parted, the people who dined together with so many smiles,--you will scarcely believe me, but he imagined that they were extracting from all that congeniality great store of satisfaction.

像所有孤独的人一样，他给友谊赋予了神圣的魅力：他想象着他在街上经过的人们，在一起欢笑，分手时拥抱，一起吃饭的人们带着如此多的微笑，——你很难相信我，但他想象他们从所有这些友善中获得了巨大的满足。

So that suddenly he was filled with the excitement of seeing her again, of being called "Uncle Pio," and of reviving for a moment the trust and humour of their long vagabondage.

因此，他突然充满了再次见到她、被称为“皮奥叔叔”的兴奋，以及暂时恢复了他们长期流浪的信任和幽默。

The French Gardens were at the southern end of the town.

法国花园位于城镇的南端。

Behind them rose the higher Andes and before them there was a parapet overlooking a deep valley and overlooking wave after wave of hills that stretched toward the Pacific.

他们身后是更高的安第斯山脉，前面是一道护墙，俯瞰着深深的山谷，俯瞰着一波又一波的山丘，一直延伸到太平洋。

It was the hour when bats fly low and the smaller animals play recklessly underfoot.

这是蝙蝠飞得很低、小动物在脚下肆意玩耍的时刻。

A few solitaries lingered about the gardens, gazing dreamily into the sky that was being gradually emptied of its colour, or leaned upon the balustrade and looked down into the valley, noting in which village a dog was barking.

几个孤独的人在花园里徘徊，出神地凝视着渐渐褪色的天空，或者靠在栏杆上俯视山谷，注意到哪个村庄有狗在吠叫。

It was the hour when the father returns home from the fields and plays for a moment in the yard with the dog that jumps upon him, holding his muzzle closed or throwing him upon his back.

那个时候，父亲从田里回到家，在院子里和狗玩耍一会儿，狗跳到他身上，捂住他的口鼻，或者把他扔到背上。

The young girls look about for the first star to fix a wish upon it, and the boys grow restless for supper.

年轻的女孩们四处寻找第一颗星星并在上面许愿，而男孩们则对晚饭焦躁不安。

Even the busiest mother stands for a moment idle-handed, smiling at her dear and exasperating family.

即使是最忙碌的母亲也会有那么一刻闲着，对着她亲爱的、令人恼火的家人微笑。

Uncle Pio stood against one of the chipped marble benches and watched Camila coming towards him:

皮奥叔叔靠在一张有缺口的大理石长凳上，看着卡米拉朝他走来：

"I am late," she said.

“我迟到了，”她说。

"I am sorry.

“对不起。

What is it you wish to say to me?"

你到底想对我说什么？”

"Camila,--" he began.

“卡米拉——”他开始说道。

"My name is Doña Micaela."

“我的名字是多纳·米凯拉。”

"I do not wish to offend you, Doña Micaela, but when you let me call you Camila for twenty years, I should think----"

“我不想冒犯你，多娜·米凯拉，但当你让我二十年来一直叫你卡米拉时，我应该想——”

"Oh, do as you like.

“哦，随你喜欢吧。

Do as you like."

做你喜欢做的事。”

"Camila, promise me that you will listen to me.

“卡米拉，答应我你会听我的。

Promise me that you will not run away at my first sentence."

答应我，我第一句话你就不会逃跑。”

At once she burst out with unexpected passion: "Uncle Pio, listen to me.

她立刻爆发出意想不到的热情：“皮奥叔叔，听我说。

You are mad if you think you can make me return to the theatre.

如果你认为你能让我回到剧院，你就生气了。

I look back at the theatre with horror.

我惊恐地回头看向剧院。

Understand that.

明白这一点。

The theatre!

剧院！

The theatre, indeed!

确实是剧院！

The daily payment of insults in that filthy place.

每天在那个肮脏的地方遭受侮辱。

Understand that you are wasting your time."

你要明白，你是在浪费时间。”

He answered gently: "I would not have you come back if you are happy with these new friends."

他温和地回答：“如果你对这些新朋友感到满意，我就不会让你回来了。”

"You don't like my new friends, then?" she answered quickly.

“那你不喜欢我的新朋友吗？”她回答得很快。

"Whom do you offer me in their stead?"

“你愿意让谁来代替他们？”

"Camila, I only remember ..."

“卡米拉，我只记得……”

"I will not be criticized.

“我不会受到批评。

I don't want any advice.

我不需要任何建议。

It will be cold in a moment, I must go back to my house.

一会儿就冷了，我得回家了。

Just give me up, that's all.

放弃我吧，仅此而已。

Just put me out of your mind."

只要把我从你的脑海中抹去就可以了。”

"Dear Camila, don't be angry.

“亲爱的卡米拉，别生气。

Let me talk to you.

让我跟你谈谈。

Just suffer me for ten minutes."

就让我忍忍十分钟吧。”

He did not understand why she was weeping.

他不明白她为什么哭。

He did not know what to say.

他不知道该说什么。

He talked at random: "You never even come to see the theatre, and they all notice it.

他随口说道：“你从来不去看戏，他们都注意到了。

The audiences are falling away now, too.

现在观众也在流失。

They only put on the Old Comedy twice a week; all the other nights there are these new farces in prose.

他们每周只上演两次老喜剧；其他的夜晚都有这些新的散文闹剧。

All is dull and childish and indecent.

一切都是沉闷、幼稚和不雅的。

No one can speak Spanish any more.

没有人会说西班牙语了。

No one can even walk correctly any more.

甚至没有人能够正确行走。

On Corpus Christi Day they gave _Belshazzar's Feast_ where you were so wonderful.

在科珀斯克里斯蒂日，他们举行了_伯沙撒的盛宴_，你在那里表现得非常出色。

Now it was shameful."

现在这是可耻的。”

There was a pause.

一阵停顿。

A beautiful procession of clouds, like a flock of sheep, was straying up from the sea, slipping up the valleys between the hills.

美丽的云彩，像一群羊，从海上飘过，滑过山间的山谷。

Camila suddenly touched his knee, and her face was like her face twenty years before: "Forgive me, Uncle Pio, for being so bad.

卡米拉突然触碰了他的膝盖，脸色一如二十年前的样子：“皮奥叔叔，请原谅我这么坏。

Jaime was ill this afternoon.

海梅今天下午病了。

There's nothing one can do.

一个人无能为力。

He lies there, so white and ...

他躺在那里，那么苍白，那么……

so surprised.

太惊讶了。

One must just think of other things.

一个人必须只想到其他事情。

Uncle Pio, it would be no good if I went back to the theatre.

皮奥叔叔，我再去剧院就不行了。

The audiences come for the prose farces.

观众是来看散文闹剧的。

We were foolish to try and keep alive the Old Comedy.

我们愚蠢地试图让老喜剧继续存在。

Let people read the old plays in books if they choose to.

如果人们愿意的话，就让他们在书本上读老戏剧吧。

It is not worth while fighting with the crowd."

与人群争斗是不值得的。”

"Wonderful Camila, I was not just to you when you were on the stage.

“很棒的卡米拉，当你在舞台上时，我不仅仅对你感兴趣。

It was some foolish pride in me.

这是我的一些愚蠢的骄傲。

I grudged you the praise that you deserved.

我不愿意让你得到你应得的赞扬。

Forgive me.

请原谅我。

You have always been a very great artist.

你一直是一位非常伟大的艺术家。

If you come to see that you are not happy among these people you might think about going to Madrid.

如果你发现自己在这些人中感到不开心，你可能会考虑去马德里。

You would have a great triumph there.

你会在那里取得伟大的胜利。

You are still young and beautiful.

你还年轻、美丽。

There will be time later to be called Doña Micaela.

稍后会有时间称为Doña Micaela。

We shall be old soon.

我们很快就会老了。

We shall be dead soon."

我们很快就会死掉。”

"No, I shall never see Spain.

“不，我永远不会去西班牙。

All the world is alike, Madrid or Lima."

世界都是一样的，无论是马德里还是利马。”

"Oh, if we could go away to some island where the people would know you for yourself.

“哦，如果我们能去某个岛上，那里的人们就能认识你就好了。

And love you."

并且爱你。”

"You are fifty years old and you are still dreaming of such islands, Uncle Pio."

“你已经五十岁了，你仍然梦想着这样的岛屿，皮奥叔叔。”

He bent his head and mumbled: "Of course I love you, Camila, as I always must and more than I can say.

他低下头，咕哝道：“我当然爱你，卡米拉，就像我一直必须的那样，而且比我能说的还要多。

To have known you is enough for my whole life.

认识你就足够我一生了。

You are a great lady now.

你现在是一位伟大的女士了。

And you are rich.

而且你很富有。

There is no longer any way that I can help you.

我已经没有办法帮助你了。

But I am always ready."

但我随时准备着。”

"How absurd you are," she said smiling.

“你真是太荒唐了。”她微笑着说道。

"You said that as boys say it.

“你说的就像男孩子说的那样。

You don't seem to learn as you grow older, Uncle Pio.

皮奥叔叔，你似乎不会随着年龄的增长而学习。

There is no such thing as that kind of love and that kind of island.

不存在那样的爱和那样的岛屿。

It's in the theatre you find such things."

在剧院里你会发现这样的事情。”

He look shamefaced, but unconvinced.

他看上去很羞愧，但又不相信。

At last she rose and said sadly: "What are we talking about!

最后她站起来，悲伤地说：“我们在说什么啊！

It is growing cold.

天越来越冷了。

I must be going in.

我一定要进去。

You must be resigned.

你必须辞职。

I have no heart for the theatre." There was a pause.

我对戏剧没有兴趣。” 停顿了一下。

"And for the rest?...

“那么剩下的呢？...

Oh, I do not understand.

哦，我不明白。

It is just circumstance.

这只是情况。

I must be what I must.

我必须成为我必须的。

Do not try to understand either.

也不要试图去理解。

Don't think about me, Uncle Pio.

别想我，皮奥叔叔。

Just forgive, that's all.

只要原谅，仅此而已。

Just try to forgive."

只是试着原谅。”

She stood still a moment, searching for something deeply felt to say to him.

她静静地站了一会儿，寻找着一些深切的感觉要对他说的话。

The first cloud reached the terrace; it was dark; the last stragglers were leaving the gardens.

第一朵云到达了露台；天黑了；最后一批掉队的人正离开花园。

She was thinking of Don Jaime, and of Don Andrés and of himself.

她想到了唐·海梅、唐·安德烈斯和他自己。

She could not find the words.

她找不到合适的词来形容。

Suddenly she bent down and kissed his fingers and went quickly away.

突然，她弯下腰，吻了一下他的手指，然后快步走开了。

But he sat for a long time in the gathering clouds trembling with happiness and trying to penetrate into the meaning of these things.

但他在聚集的云彩中坐了很长一段时间，幸福地颤抖着，试图洞察这些事情的意义。

Suddenly the news was all over Lima.

突然，这个消息传遍了利马。

Doña Micaela Villegas, the lady that used to be Camila the Perichole, had the small-pox.

多纳·米凯拉·维勒加斯（Doña Micaela Villegas），也就是曾经的卡米拉·佩里科尔（Camila the Perichole）女士，患有天花。

Several hundred other persons had the small-pox also, but popular interest and malignity were concentrated upon the actress.

其他数百人也患有天花，但公众的兴趣和恶意都集中在这位女演员身上。

A wild hope ran about the town that the beauty would be impaired that had enabled her to despise the class from which she sprang.

镇上弥漫着一种疯狂的希望，希望她的美貌会受到损害，这种美貌使她能够鄙视她出身的阶级。

The news escaped from the sick-room that Camila had become ludicrous in homeliness and the cup of the envious overflowed.

病房里传出卡米拉变得朴素可笑的消息，嫉妒之酒四溢。

As soon as she was able she had herself carried from the city to her villa in the hills; she ordered the sale of her elegant little palace.

一旦有能力，她就被人从城里抬到她山上的别墅里。她下令卖掉她那座优雅的小宫殿。

She returned her jewels to their givers and she sold her fine clothes.

她将珠宝归还给赠予者，并卖掉了漂亮的衣服。

The Viceroy, the Archbishop, and the few men at court who had been her sincerest admirers besieged her door still with messages and gifts; the messages were ignored and the gifts were returned without comment.

总督、大主教和宫廷里少数几个曾经是她最真诚的崇拜者的人仍然围着她的门，送来口信和礼物。这些消息被忽略，礼物被退回，没有任何评论。

No one but her nurse and maids had been permitted to see her since the commencement of her illness.

自从她生病以来，除了她的护士和女佣之外，没有人被允许探望她。

As an answer to his repeated attempts Don Andrés received a large sum of money from her with a letter compounded of all that is possible in bitterness and pride.

作为对他一再尝试的回应，唐·安德烈斯从她那里得到了一大笔钱，并附上了一封充满痛苦和骄傲的信。

Like all beautiful women who have been brought up amid continual tributes to her beauty she assumed without cynicism that it must necessarily be the basis of anyone's attachment to herself; henceforth any attention paid to her must spring from a pity full of condescension and faintly perfumed with satisfaction at so complete a reversal.

就像所有在不断赞美自己的美貌的环境中长大的美丽女人一样，她毫无愤世嫉俗地认为，美貌必然是任何人对自己依恋的基础。从此以后，对她的任何关注都必须源于一种充满屈尊的怜悯，并因如此彻底的逆转而略带满足感。

This assumption that she need look for no more devotion now that her beauty had passed proceeded from the fact that she had never realized any love save love as passion.

既然她的美丽已经过去，她就不再需要寻求更多的奉献，这种假设源于这样一个事实：除了作为激情的爱情之外，她从未意识到任何爱情。

Such love, though it expends itself in generosity and thoughtfulness, though it give birth to visions and to great poetry, remains among the sharpest expressions of self-interest.

这种爱虽然表现在慷慨和体贴上，尽管它产生了远见和伟大的诗歌，但它仍然是自利的最尖锐的表达之一。

Not until it has passed through a long servitude, through its own self-hatred, through mockery, through great doubts, can it take its place among the loyalties.

直到它经历了长期的奴役，经历了自己的自我憎恨，经历了嘲笑，经历了巨大的怀疑，它才能在忠诚之中占据一席之地。

Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.

许多在其中度过了一生的人所能告诉我们的爱还不如昨天失去一只狗的孩子。

As her friends continued in their efforts to draw her again into society she grew more and more angry and dispatched insulting messages to the city.

当她的朋友们继续努力让她重新融入社会时，她变得越来越愤怒，并向这座城市发送了侮辱性的信息。

It was said for a time that she was retiring into religion.

一度有人说她要隐退到宗教中去。

But new rumours that all was fury and despair on the little farm, contradicted the old.

但新的谣言称这个小农场里充满了愤怒和绝望，这与旧的谣言相矛盾。

For those near to her the despair was fearful to behold.

对于那些靠近她的人来说，这种绝望是可怕的。

She was convinced that her life was over, her life and children's.

她确信她的生命结束了，她的生命和孩子们的生命都结束了。

In her hysterical pride she had given back more than she owed and the approach of poverty was added to the loneliness and the gloom of her future.

在她歇斯底里的骄傲中，她回报的比她所欠的更多，贫穷的临近给她的未来增添了孤独和黯淡。

There was nothing left for her to do but to draw out her days in jealous solitude in the center of the little farm that was falling into decay.

她别无选择，只能在这座日渐衰败的小农场中心，怀着嫉妒的孤独度过日子。

She brooded for hours upon the joy of her enemies and could be heard striding about her room with strange cries.

她在敌人的喜悦中沉思了几个小时，可以听到她在房间里大步走来，发出奇怪的叫声。

Uncle Pio did not allow himself to be discouraged.

皮奥叔叔并没有让自己气馁。

By dint of making himself useful to the children, by taking a hand in the management of the farm and by discreetly lending her some money he obtained his entrance into the house and even into the presence of its veiled mistress.

通过让自己对孩子们有用，通过参与农场的管理，通过谨慎地借给她一些钱，他得以进入这座房子，甚至进入了蒙着面纱的女主人的面前。

But even then Camila, convinced in her pride that he _pitied_ her, lashed him with the blade of her tongue and derived some strange comfort from heaping him with sneers.

但即便如此，卡米拉仍深信他可怜她，她用舌尖抽打着他，并从对他的冷笑中获得了某种奇怪的安慰。

He loved her the more, understanding better than she did herself all the stages in the convalescence of her humiliated spirit.

他更爱她，比她更了解她受辱的精神康复的各个阶段。

But one day an accident befell that lost him his share in her progress.

但有一天，一场意外发生，让他失去了她的进步。

He pushed open a door.

他推开一扇门。

She thought she had locked it.

她以为她已经把门锁上了。

For just one hour a foolish secret hope had come to her; she wondered whether she could make a paste of chalk and cream to spread upon her face.

仅仅一个小时，她就产生了一个愚蠢的秘密希望；她想知道是否可以将粉笔和奶油制成糊状，涂在脸上。

She who had sneered so often at the befloured grandmothers of the court wondered for a few moments whether she had learned anything on the stage that would aid her now.

她经常嘲笑宫廷里那些盛气凌人的祖母，有一会儿她想知道自己是否在舞台上学到了一些对她现在有帮助的东西。

She thought she had locked the door and with hurried hands and beating heart she laid on the coat, the grotesque pallor, and as she gazed into the mirror and recognized the futility of her attempt she caught the image of Uncle Pio standing in the door amazed.

她以为她已经锁上了门，于是她匆匆忙忙地把手放在外套上，脸色苍白得怪异。当她凝视着镜子，意识到自己的尝试是徒劳的时，她看到了皮奥叔叔惊讶地站在门口的景象。

She rose from the chair with a cry and covered her face with her hands.

她大叫一声从椅子上站起来，用手捂住脸。

"Go away.

“走开。

Go away out of my house forever," she screamed.

永远离开我的房子，”她尖叫道。

"I never want to see you again." In her shame she drove him out with blasphemy and hatred, she pursued him down the corridor and hurled objects down the stairs.

“我再也不想见到你了。”她羞愧地用亵渎和仇恨把他赶了出去，沿着走廊追赶他，并向楼梯上扔东西。

She gave her farmer orders that Uncle Pio was forbidden to come into the grounds.

她向农民发出命令，禁止皮奥叔叔进入庄园。

But he continued for a week trying to see her again.

但他持续了一个星期试图再次见到她。

At last he went back to Lima; he filled in the time as best he could, but he longed to be by her as a boy of eighteen would long.

最后他回到了利马。他尽可能地打发时间，但他渴望像十八岁的男孩一样渴望陪伴在她身边。

At last he devised a stratagem and returned up into the hills to put it into effect.

最后他想出了一个计策，回到山上施展了计谋。

One morning before dawn he arose and lay on the ground below her window.

一天早晨，黎明前，他起身躺在她窗下的地上。

He imitated in the darkness the sound of weeping, and, as nearly as he could, of a young girl's weeping.

他在黑暗中模仿哭泣的声音，并且尽可能模仿一个年轻女孩的哭泣。

He continued in this for the whole quarter of an hour.

他这样持续了整整一刻钟。

He did not let his voice rise above that degree of loudness which Italian musicians would represent by the direction piano, but he frequently intermitted the sound trusting that if she were asleep it would insinuate itself into her mind as well by duration as by degree.

他没有让自己的声音超过意大利音乐家用指挥钢琴所代表的响度，但他经常间歇性地发出声音，相信如果她睡着了，声音会随着持续时间和程度而潜入她的脑海中。

The air was cool and agreeable.

空气凉爽宜人。

The first faint streak of sapphire was appearing behind the peaks and in the east the star of morning was pulsating every moment with a more tender intention.

第一条淡淡的蓝宝石出现在山峰后面，东方的晨星每时每刻都在以更加温柔的意图跳动。

A profound silence wrapped all the farm buildings, only an occasional breeze set all the grasses sighing.

一片深沉的寂静笼罩着所有的农舍，只有偶尔的一阵微风吹得所有的小草都在叹息。

Suddenly a lamp was lit in her room and a moment later the shutter was thrown back and a head wrapped in veils leaned far out.

突然，她的房间里亮起了一盏灯，过了一会儿，百叶窗被掀开，一个蒙着面纱的头探出很远的地方。

"Who is there?" asked the beautiful voice.

“谁在那儿？”美丽的声音问道。

Uncle Pio remained silent.

皮奥叔叔保持沉默。

Camila said again in a tone edged with impatience:

卡米拉用略显不耐烦的语气再次说道：

"Who is there?

“谁在那儿？

Who is there weeping?"

谁在那里哭？”

"Doña Micaela, my lady, I beg of you to come here to me."

“多纳·米凯拉，我的女士，我恳求你到我这里来。”

"Who are you and what do you want?"

“你是谁，你想要什么？”

"I am a poor girl.

“我是一个可怜的女孩。

I am Estrella.

我是埃斯特雷拉。

I beg of you to come and help me.

我恳求你过来帮助我。

Do not call your maid.

不要叫你的女佣。

I pray you, Doña Micaela, to come yourself."

我请求你，多娜·米凯拉，亲自来。”

Camila was silent a moment, then said abruptly: "Very well," and closed the shutter.

卡米拉沉默了一会儿，然后突然说道：“很好。”然后关上了百叶窗。

Presently she appeared around the corner of the house.

不久，她出现在房子的拐角处。

She wore a thick cloak that dragged in the dew.

她穿着一件厚厚的斗篷，拖着露水。

She stood at a distance and said: "Come over here to where I am standing,--Who are you?"

她站在远处说道：“到我站的地方过来——你是谁？”

Uncle Pio rose up.

皮奥叔叔站了起来。

"Camila, it is I,--Uncle Pio.

“卡米拉，是我，——皮奥叔叔。

Forgive me, but I must speak to you."

请原谅我，但我必须和你谈谈。”

"Mother of God, when shall I be free of this dreadful person!

“上帝之母，我什么时候才能摆脱这个可怕的人！

Understand: I want to see no one.

了解：我不想见任何人。

I don't want to speak to a soul.

我不想和任何人说话。

My life is over.

我的生命结束了。

That is all."

仅此而已。”

"Camila, by our long life together, I beg of you to grant me one thing.

“卡米拉，以我们长久的共同生活起誓，我请求你赐予我一件事。

I shall go away and never trouble you again."

我这就走，不再麻烦你了。”

"I grant you nothing, nothing.

“我什么也不给你，什么都没有。

Stay away from me."

离我远点。”

"I promise you I shall never trouble you again if you listen to me this once." She was hurrying around to the door on the other side of the house and Uncle Pio was obliged to run beside her to make sure that she heard what he was saying.

“我保证，只要你听我这一次，我就不再打扰你了。”她正急忙绕到房子另一边的门口，皮奥叔叔不得不跑到她身边，以确保她听到他在说什么。

She stopped:

她停了下来：

"What is it then?

“那又是什么？

Hurry.

快点。

It is cold.

天气很冷。

I am not well.

我身体不太好。

I must go back to my room."

我必须回我的房间了。”

"Camila, let me take Don Jaime for a year to live with me in Lima.

“卡米拉，让我带唐·海梅到利马一起住一年。

Let me be his teacher.

让我当他的老师吧。

Let me teach him the Castilian.

让我教他卡斯蒂利亚语。

Here he is left among the servants.

他被留在仆人中间。

He is learning nothing."

他什么也没学到。”

"No."

“不。”

"Camila, what will become of him?

“卡米拉，他会怎么样？

He has a good mind and he wants to learn."

他头脑很好，而且想学习。”

"He is sick.

“他病了。

He is delicate.

他很脆弱。

Your house is a sty.

你的房子是一个猪圈。

Only the country is good for him."

只有国家对他有利。”

"But he has been much better these last few months.

“但过去几个月他好多了。

I promise you I shall clean out my house.

我向你保证我会打扫我的房子。

I shall apply to Madre María del Pilar for a housekeeper.

我将向玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人申请一名管家。

Here he is in your stables all day.

他整天都在你的马厩里。

I shall teach him all that a gentleman should know,--fencing and Latin and music.

我将教他绅士应该知道的一切——击剑、拉丁语和音乐。

We shall read all...."

我们将阅读所有……”

"A mother cannot be separated from her child like that.

“母亲不能就这样与她的孩子分开。

It is impossible.

这是不可能的。

You are crazy to have thought of it.

你想起来真是太疯狂了。

Give up thinking of me and of everything about me.

放弃对我和关于我的一切的思考。

I no longer exist.

我已经不存在了。

I and my children will get on as best we can.

我和我的孩子们将尽我们所能地相处。

Do not try to disturb me again.

不要再试图打扰我。

I do not want to see any human being."

我不想看到任何人。”

Now it was that Uncle Pio felt obliged to use a hard measure.

现在，皮奥叔叔觉得有必要采取强硬措施。

"Then pay me the money that you owe me," he said.

“那就把你欠我的钱还给我吧，”他说。

Camila stood still, confounded.

卡米拉一动不动地站着，一脸困惑。

To herself she said: "Life is too fearful to bear.

她对自己说：“生活太可怕了，让人难以承受。

When may I die?" After a moment she answered him, in a hoarse voice: "I have very little money.

我什么时候才能死？”过了一会儿，她用沙哑的声音回答他：“我的钱很少。

I will pay you what I can.

我会付给你我能付的钱。

I will pay you now.

我现在就付钱给你。

I have a few jewels here.

我这里有一些珠宝。

Then we need never see one another again." She was ashamed of her poverty.

那么我们就再也不用见面了。”她为自己的贫穷感到羞耻。

She took a few steps, then turned and said: "Now I see that you are a very hard man.

她走了几步，转身说道：“现在我看出你是一个很狠心的人了。

But it is right that I pay you what I owe you."

但我欠你的，我付给你，是理所当然的。”

"No, Camila, I only said that to enforce my request.

“不，卡米拉，我这么说只是为了执行我的要求。

I shall take no money from you.

我不会拿你的钱。

But lend me Don Jaime for one year.

但唐·海梅借给我一年。

I shall love him and take every care of him.

我会爱他并尽一切努力照顾他。

Did I harm you?

我伤害你了吗？

Was I a bad teacher to you in those other years?"

那些年我对你来说是不是一个不好的老师？”

"It is cruel of you to keep urging gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.

“你不断地催促感恩、感恩、感恩，这太残忍了。

I was grateful,--good, good!

我很感激，——好，好！

but now that I am no longer the same woman there remains nothing to be grateful for." There was a silence.

但现在我不再是原来的那个女人了，就没有什么值得感激的了。” 一阵沉默。

Her eyes were resting on the star that seemed to be leading forth the whole sky in its wonder.

她的目光停留在那颗星星上，那颗星星似乎在奇妙地引领着整个天空。

A great pain lay at her heart, the pain of a world that was meaningless.

她的心里有一种巨大的痛苦，一种没有意义的世界的痛苦。

Then she said: "If Jaime wishes to go with you, very well.

然后她说：“如果詹姆愿意和你一起去，那很好。

I shall talk to, him in the morning.

早上我会和他谈谈。

If he wishes to go with you, you will find him at the Inn about noon.

如果他想和你一起去，你可以在中午左右在旅馆找到他。

Good night.

晚安。

Go with God."

与神同行。”

"Go with God."

“与神同行。”

[Illustration]

[图示]

She returned to the house.

她回到屋里。

The next day the grave little boy appeared at the Inn.

第二天，那个严肃的小男孩出现在旅馆里。

His fine clothes were torn and stained now and he carried a small bundle for change.

他的漂亮衣服现在已经破烂不堪，脏兮兮的，他还带着一小包零钱。

His mother had given him a gold piece for spending-money and a little stone that shown in the dark to look at in his sleepless nights.

他的母亲给了他一块金币作为零用钱，还有一块小石头，可以在黑暗中显现出来，供他在不眠之夜时观看。

They set off together in a cart, but soon Uncle Pio became aware that the jolting was not good for the boy.

他们一起乘一辆马车出发，但很快皮奥叔叔就意识到颠簸对男孩不利。

He carried him on his shoulder.

他把他扛在肩上。

As they drew near to the bridge of San Luis Rey, Jaime tried to conceal his shame for he knew that one of those moments was coming that separated him from other people.

当他们接近圣路易斯雷桥时，海梅试图掩饰自己的羞耻，因为他知道，将他与其他人分开的时刻即将到来。

He was especially ashamed because Uncle Pio had just overtaken a friend of his, a sea-captain.

他特别感到羞愧，因为皮奥叔叔刚刚超越了他的一位朋友，一位船长。

And just as they got to the bridge he spoke to an old lady who was travelling with a little girl.

就在他们到达桥时，他和一位带着小女孩旅行的老太太说话了。

Uncle Pio said that when they had crossed the bridge they would sit down and rest, but it turned out not to be necessary.

皮奥叔叔说过桥后就坐下来休息，但事实证明没有必要。

A NEW bridge of stone has been built in the place of the old, but the event has not been forgotten.

一座新的石桥在旧的地方建造起来，但这一事件并没有被忘记。

It has passed into proverbial expressions.

它已成为谚语。

"I may see you Tuesday," says a Limean, "unless the bridge falls." "My cousin lives by the bridge of San Luis Rey," says another, and a smile goes around the company, for that also means: under the sword of Damocles.

“我可能会在周二见到你，”一个利明人说道，“除非桥塌了。” “我的表弟住在圣路易斯雷伊桥边，”另一个人说道，整个公司都微笑起来，因为这也意味着：在达摩克利斯之剑下。

There are some poems about the accident, classics to be found in every Peruvian anthology, but the real literary monument is Brother Juniper's book.

有一些关于这次事故的诗歌，在每本秘鲁选集中都能找到经典，但真正的文学丰碑是杜松兄弟的书。

There are a hundred ways of wondering at circumstance.

对环境感到好奇的方式有一百种。

Brother Juniper would never have arrived at his method had it not been for his friendship with a certain master in the University of San Martín.

如果不是因为他与圣马丁大学的一位大师的友谊，杜松兄弟永远不会得出他的方法。

This student's wife had stolen away one morning on a boat for Spain, following a soldier, and had left him the care of two daughters in their cradle.

一天早上，这位学生的妻子跟随一名士兵偷偷乘船前往西班牙，留下两个女儿在摇篮里照顾他。

He was possessed of all the bitterness that Brother Juniper lacked and derived a sort of joy from the conviction that all was wrong in the world.

他拥有杜松兄弟所缺乏的所有苦涩，并从相信世界上一切都是错误的信念中获得了一种快乐。

He whispered into the Franciscan's ear such thoughts and anecdotes as belied the notion of a guided world.

他在方济会修士耳边低声讲述了一些与引导世界的概念相悖的想法和轶事。

For a moment a look of distress, almost of defeat, would come into the Brother's eyes; then he would begin patiently explaining why such stories held no difficulty for a believer.

有一瞬间，修士的眼中闪现出一种痛苦、几乎是失败的神情。然后他会开始耐心地解释为什么这些故事对信徒来说并不困难。

"There was a queen of Naples and Sicily," the student would say, "who discovered that she was carrying an angry tumor in her side.

“那不勒斯和西西里岛有一位女王，”学生会说，“她发现自己的肋旁长了一个愤怒的肿瘤。

In great dismay she commanded her subjects to fall to their prayers and ordered that all the garments in Sicily and Naples be sewn with votive crosses.

她非常沮丧，命令她的臣民祈祷，并下令西西里岛和那不勒斯的所有衣服都缝上许愿十字架。

She was well loved by her people and all their prayers and embroideries were sincere, but ineffectual.

她深受人民的爱戴，他们所有的祈祷和刺绣都是真诚的，但没有效果。

Now she lies in the splendor of Monreale, and a few inches above her heart may be read the words: _I shall fear no evil_."

现在她躺在蒙雷阿莱的辉煌中，在她心脏上方几英寸的地方可以读到这样的话：“我不会害怕邪恶”。

It was by dint of hearing a great many such sneers at faith that Brother Juniper became convinced that the world's time had come for proof, tabulated proof, of the conviction that was so bright and exciting within him.

正是由于听到了许多这样对信仰的嘲笑，杜松弟兄才确信，全世界需要证明的时候到了，用表格证明他内心如此明亮和令人兴奋的信念。

When the pestilence visited his dear village of Puerto and carried off a large number of peasants, he secretly drew up a diagram of the characteristics of fifteen victims and fifteen survivors, the statistics of their value _sub specie aeternitatis_.

当瘟疫袭击他亲爱的波多黎各村庄并带走大量农民时，他秘密绘制了一张图表，显示了十五名受害者和十五名幸存者的特征，并统计了他们的价值_亚种永恒_。

Each soul was rated upon a basis of ten as regards its goodness, its diligence in religious observance, and its importance to its family group.

每个灵魂的善良程度、宗教仪式的勤奋程度以及对其家庭群体的重要性都按照十分制进行评分。

Here is a fragment of this ambitious chart:

这是这个雄心勃勃的图表的一部分：

Goodness Piety Usefulness

善良 虔诚 有用

Alfonso G.

阿方索·G.

4 4 10 Nina 2 5 10 Manuel B.

4 4 10 尼娜 2 5 10 曼努埃尔·B.

10 10 0 Alfonso V.

10 10 0 阿方索五世

-8 —10 10 Vera N.

-8 —10 10 维拉 N.

0 10 10

0 10 10

The thing was more difficult than he had foreseen.

事情比他预想的还要困难。

Almost every soul in a difficult frontier community turned out to be indispensable economically, and the third column was all but useless.

事实证明，在困难的边疆社区中，几乎每个人在经济上都是不可或缺的，而第三纵队几乎毫无用处。

The examiner was driven to the use of minus terms when he confronted the personal character of Alfonso V., who was not, like Vera N., merely bad: he was a propagandist for badness and not merely avoided church but led others to avoid it.

当考官面对阿方索五世的个人性格时，他被迫使用贬义词，阿方索五世并不像维拉·N.那样，只是坏人：他是坏人的宣传者，不仅回避教堂，还引导其他人回避教堂。

Vera N.

维拉·N.

was indeed bad, but she was a model worshipper and the mainstay of a full hut.

确实不好，但她是模范崇拜者，也是满堂的中流砥柱。

From all this saddening data Brother Juniper contrived an index for each peasant.

根据所有这些令人悲伤的数据，杜松兄弟为每个农民设计了一个指数。

He added up the total for victims and compared it with the total for survivors, to discover that the dead were five times more worth saving.

他将受害者的总数加起来，并将其与幸存者的总数进行比较，发现死者的价值是其五倍。

It almost looked as though the pestilence had been directed against the really valuable people in the village of Puerto.

看起来瘟疫似乎是针对波多黎各村里那些真正有价值的人的。

And on that afternoon Brother Juniper took a walk along the edge of the Pacific.

那天下午，杜松弟兄沿着太平洋边缘散步。

He tore up his findings and cast them into the waves; he gazed for an hour upon the great clouds of pearl that hang forever upon the horizon of that sea, and extracted from their beauty a resignation that he did not permit his reason to examine.

他撕碎了他的发现并把它们扔进了海里。他凝视着那片永远悬在海平面上的珍珠般的巨大云朵，看了一个小时，从它们的美丽中提取出一种顺从的感觉，但他不允许自己的理智去审视。

The discrepancy between faith and the facts is greater than is generally assumed.

信仰与事实之间的差异比一般假设的要大。

But there was another story of the master of San Martín (not so subversive, this one) that probably gave to Brother Juniper the hint for his procedure after the fall of the bridge of San Luis Rey.

但还有另一个关于圣马丁大师的故事（这个故事不那么具有颠覆性），可能为杜松兄弟在圣路易斯雷桥倒塌后的行动提供了暗示。

This master was one day walking through the Cathedral of Lima and stopped to read the epitaph of a lady.

有一天，这位大师走过利马大教堂，停下来读一位女士的墓志铭。

He read with an increasingly prominent lower lip that she had been for twenty years the centre and joy of her home, that she had been the delight of her friends, that all who met her went away in astonishment at her goodness and beauty, and that there she lay awaiting the return of her Lord.

他用越来越突出的下唇读到，二十年来，她一直是她家里的中心和欢乐，她一直是她朋友们的欢乐，所有见过她的人都对她的善良和美丽感到惊讶，她躺在那里等待着她的主的归来。

Now on the day that he read these words, the master of San Martín had had much to fret him, and raising his eyes from the tablet he spoke aloud in his rage: "The shame of it, the persecution of it!

在他读到这些话的那天，圣马丁的主人有很多事情让他烦恼，他从石碑上抬起眼睛，愤怒地大声说道：“这是耻辱，是迫害！

Everyone knows that in the world we do nothing but feed our wills.

大家都知道，在这个世界上，我们除了满足自己的意志之外，什么也不做。

Why perpetuate this legend of selflessness?

为什么要让这种无私的传奇永垂不朽？

Why keep this thing alive, this rumour of disinterestedness?"

为什么要让这种无私的谣言继续存在呢？”

And so saying he resolved to expose this conspiracy of the stone-cutters.

说罢，他决心揭露石匠们的这一阴谋。

The lady had been dead only twelve years.

这位女士去世才十二年。

He sought out her servants, her children and her friends.

他找到了她的仆人、孩子和朋友。

And everywhere he went, like a perfume, her dear traits had survived her and wherever she was mentioned there arose a suffering smile and the protest that words could not describe the gracious ways of her.

无论他走到哪里，她的可爱特质都像香水一样在她身上留下来，无论何时提到她，都会引起痛苦的微笑，并抗议语言无法描述她的优雅方式。

Even the eager youth of her grandchildren, who had never seen her, was made more difficult by the news that it was possible to be as good as that.

即使是从未见过她的孙辈们，也因为有可能做到如此出色的消息而变得更加困难。

And the man stood amazed; only at last he muttered: "Nevertheless, what I said was true.

那人惊讶地站着；最后他嘟哝道：“不过，我说的是真的。

This woman was an exception, perhaps an exception."

这个女人是个例外，也许是个例外。”

In compiling his book about these people Brother Juniper seemed to be pursued by the fear that in omitting the slightest detail he might lose some guiding hint.

在编写关于这些人的书时，杜松弟兄似乎一直担心，如果忽略了最微小的细节，他可能会失去一些指导性的暗示。

The longer he worked the more he felt that he was stumbling about among great dim intimations.

他工作的时间越长，他就越觉得自己在巨大而模糊的暗示中跌跌撞撞。

He was forever being cheated by details that looked as though they were significant if only he could find their setting.

他永远被细节所欺骗，这些细节看起来似乎只要他能找到它们的背景就很重要。

So he put everything down on the notion perhaps that if he (or a keener head) reread the book twenty times, the countless facts would suddenly start to move, to assemble, and to betray their secret.

因此，他把一切都放在这样的想法上：也许，如果他（或者更敏锐的头脑）将这本书重读二十遍，无数的事实就会突然开始移动、聚集并泄露他们的秘密。

The Marquesa de Montemayor's cook told him that she lived almost entirely on rice, fish and a little fruit and Brother Juniper put it down on the chance that it would some day reveal a spiritual trait.

蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人的厨师告诉他，她几乎完全靠大米、鱼和一点水果过活，杜松兄弟认为有一天这会揭示出一种精神特征，因此将其视为可能。

Don Rubío said of her that she used to appear at his receptions without invitation in order to steal the spoons.

唐·卢比奥谈到她时说，她常常未经邀请就出现在他的招待会上，以便偷走勺子。

A midwife on the edge of the town declared that Doña María called upon her with morbid questions until she had been obliged to order her away from the door like a beggar.

镇边的一位助产士宣称，多娜·玛丽亚用病态的问题来拜访她，直到她不得不像乞丐一样命令她离开门口。

The bookseller of the town reported that she was one of the three most cultivated persons in Lima.

镇上的书商说她是利马最有教养的三个人之一。

Her farmer's wife declared that she was absent-minded, but compact of goodness.

她的农夫妻子宣称她心不在焉，但心地善良。

The art of biography is more difficult than is generally supposed.

传记的艺术比一般想象的更困难。

Brother Juniper found that there was least to be learned from those who had been most closely associated with the subjects of his inquiry.

杜松弟兄发现，从那些与他探究的主题关系最密切的人那里，能学到的东西最少。

Madre María del Pilar talked to him at length about Pepita, but she did not tell him of her own ambitions for her.

玛丽亚·德尔·皮拉尔夫人与他详细谈论了佩皮塔，但她没有告诉他自己对她的抱负。

The Perichole was at first difficult of approach, but presently even liked the Franciscan.

佩里科尔一开始很难接近，但现在甚至喜欢上了方济各会。

Her characterization of Uncle Pio flatly contradicted the stores of unsavory testimonies that he had acquired elsewhere.

她对皮奥叔叔的描述与他在其他地方获得的令人厌恶的证词完全矛盾。

Her allusions to her son were few and conceded with pain.

她对儿子的提及很少，而且是痛苦地承认的。

They closed the interview abruptly.

他们突然结束了采访。

The Captain Alvarado told what he could of Esteban and of Uncle Pio.

阿尔瓦拉多上尉讲述了他所知道的埃斯特万和皮奥叔叔的情况。

Those who know most in this realm, venture least.

那些在这个领域了解最多的人，冒险最少。

I shall spare you Brother Juniper's generalizations.

我不会再对杜松兄弟进行概括了。

They are always with us.

他们永远和我们在一起。

He thought he saw in the same accident, the wicked visited by destruction and the good called early to Heaven.

他认为他在同一次事故中看到了恶人遭到毁灭，而好人则早早被召唤到天堂。

He thought he saw pride and wealth confounded as an object lesson to the world, and he thought he saw humility crowned and rewarded for the edification of the city.

他认为他看到骄傲和财富混为一谈，作为对世界的直观教训，他认为他看到谦卑因对这座城市的熏陶而得到加冕和奖励。

But Brother Juniper was not satisfied with his reasons.

但杜松哥对他的理由并不满意。

It was just possible that the Marquesa de Montemayor was not a monster of avarice, and Uncle Pio of self-indulgence.

蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人很可能不是一个贪婪的怪物，皮奥叔叔也不是一个自我放纵的怪物。

The book being done fell under the eyes of some judges and was suddenly pronounced heretical.

正在完成的这本书受到了一些法官的关注，并突然被宣布为异端。

It was ordered to be burned in the Square with its author.

它被勒令在广场上与它的作者一起被烧毁。

Brother Juniper submitted to the decision that the devil had made use of him to effect a brilliant campaign in Peru.

杜松弟兄接受了魔鬼利用他在秘鲁进行一场辉煌战役的决定。

He sat in his cell that last night trying to seek in his own life the pattern that had escaped him in five others.

昨晚，他坐在牢房里，试图在自己的生活中寻找其他五个人的生活模式。

He was not rebellious.

他并不叛逆。

He was willing to lay down his life for the purity of the church, but he longed for one voice somewhere to testify for him that his intention, at least, had been for faith; he thought there was no one in the world who believed him.

他愿意为了教会的纯洁而献出自己的生命，但他渴望在某个地方有一个声音为他作证，至少他的意图是为了信仰；他以为世界上没有人相信他。

But the next morning in all that crowd and sunlight there were many who believed, for he was much loved.

但第二天早上，在那么多的人群和阳光下，有很多人相信了，因为他深受爱戴。

[Illustration]

[图示]

There was a little delegation from the village of Puerto, and Nina (Goodness 2, Piety 5, Usefulness 10) and others stood with drawn puzzled faces while their little friar was given to the congenial flames.

有一个来自波多黎各村的小代表团，尼娜（善良 2，虔诚 5，有用 10）和其他人站着，脸上挂着困惑的表情，而他们的小修士则被献给了友善的火焰。

Even then, even then, there remained in his heart an obstinate nerve insisting that at least St. Francis would not utterly have condemned him, and (not daring to call upon a greater name, since he seemed so open to error in these matters) he called twice upon St. Francis I and leaning upon a flame he smiled and died.

即使在那时，即使在那时，他心中仍然有一股顽固的神经坚持认为至少圣弗朗西斯不会完全谴责他，并且（不敢呼唤更大的名字，因为他在这些问题上似乎很容易犯错误）他两次呼唤圣弗朗西斯一世，并靠在火焰上微笑着死去。

* * * * * * *

* * * * * * * *

The day of the service was clear and warm.

礼拜当天天气晴朗、温暖。

The Limeans, their black eyes wide with awe, poured through the streets into their Cathedral and stood gazing at the mound of black velvet and silver.

利米安人的黑眼睛充满敬畏，穿过街道涌入大教堂，站在那里凝视着那堆黑色天鹅绒和银色的东西。

The Archbishop enclosed in his wonderful and almost wooden vestments perspired upon his throne, lending from time to time a connoisseur's ear to the felicities of Vittoria's counterpoint.

大主教穿着精美的、几乎是木制的法衣，在他的宝座上出汗，时不时地让鉴赏家倾听维多利亚对位的巧妙之处。

The choir had restudied the pages that, as his farewell to music, Tomás Luis had composed for his friend and patron, the Empress of Austria, and all that grief and sweetness, all that Spanish realism filtering through an Italian mode, rose and fell above the sea of mantillas.

合唱团重新研究了托马斯·路易斯在告别音乐时为他的朋友和赞助人奥地利皇后创作的诗篇，所有的悲伤和甜蜜，所有的西班牙现实主义渗透到意大利模式中，在曼蒂拉的海洋上起起落落。

Don.

大学教师。

Andrés, under the colours and feathered hangings of his office, knelt, ill and troubled.

安德烈斯跪在他办公室的色彩和羽毛帷幔下，病态且困扰。

He knew that the crowd was furtively glancing at him, expecting him to play the father who has lost his only son.

他知道，众人都在偷偷地看他，期待他扮演失去独生子的父亲。

He wondered whether the Perichole was present.

他想知道Perichole是否在场。

He had never been obliged to go so long without smoking.

他从来没有被迫这么长时间不吸烟。

The Captain Alvarado pushed in from the sunny square for a moment.

阿尔瓦拉多上尉从阳光明媚的广场上推了一会儿。

He looked across the fields of black hair and lace at the trooping of the candles and the ropes of incense.

他的目光越过黑发和蕾丝的田野，看着排列整齐的蜡烛和香绳。

"How false, how unreal," he said and pushed his way out.

“多么虚假，多么不真实，”他说完就推身而出。

He descended to the sea and sat on the edge of his boat, gazing down into the clear water.

他下到海边，坐在船边，凝视着清澈的海水。

"Happy are the drowned, Esteban," he said.

“埃斯特万，溺水者有福了，”他说。

Behind the screen the Abbess sat among her girls.

屏风后面，女院长坐在她的女儿们中间。

The night before she had torn an idol from her heart and the experience had left her pale but firm.

前一天晚上，她把心中的偶像撕了下来，这次经历让她脸色苍白，但坚定不移。

She had accepted the fact that it was of no importance whether her work went on or not; it was enough to work.

她已经接受了这样一个事实：她的工作是否继续下去并不重要；重要的是，她可以继续工作。工作就足够了。

She was the nurse who tends the sick who never recover; she was the priest who perpetually renews the office before an altar to which no worshippers come.

她是一名护士，照顾那些永远无法康复的病人；她是一位牧师，在没有信徒前来的祭坛前不断地更新自己的职责。

There would be no Pepita to enlarge her work; it would relapse into the indolence and the indifference of her colleagues.

没有佩皮塔来扩大她的工作；它将再次陷入同事们的懒惰和冷漠之中。

It seemed to be sufficient for Heaven that for a while in Peru a disinterested love had flowered and faded.

在秘鲁，一段时间里，一种无私的爱情盛开又凋零，这对天堂来说似乎已经足够了。

She leaned her forehead upon her hand, following the long tender curve that the soprano lifts in the Kyrie.

她把额头靠在手上，顺着女高音在凯里琴中扬起的长而温柔的曲线。

"My affection should have had more of that colour, Pepita.

“我的感情应该有更多这种颜色，佩皮塔。

My whole life should have had more of that quality.

我的一生应该有更多这样的品质。

I have been too busy," she added ruefully and her mind drifted into prayer.

我太忙了，”她悲伤地补充道，然后她的心思转向了祈祷。

Camila had started from the farm to attend the service.

卡米拉从农场出发去参加仪式。

Her heart was filled with consternation and amazement.

她的心里充满了惊愕和惊愕。

Here was another comment from the skies; that was the third time she had been spoken to.

这是来自天空的另一条评论；这是第三次有人跟她说话。

Her small-pox, Jaime's illness, and now the fall of the bridge,--oh, these were not accidents.

她的天花、詹姆的病，以及现在的桥塌陷，——哦，这些都不是意外。

She was as ashamed as though letters had appeared on her forehead.

她羞愧得就像额头上出现了字母一样。

An order from the Palace announced that the Viceroy was sending her two daughters to a convent-school in Spain.

皇宫发布命令宣布总督将把她的两个女儿送到西班牙的一所修道院学校。

That was right.

没错。

She was alone.

她独自一人。

She gathered a few things together mechanically and started to the city for the Service.

她机械地收集了一些东西，然后出发前往城市进行服务。

But she fell to thinking of the crowds gaping over her Uncle Pio and over her son; she thought of the vast ritual of the church, like a chasm into which the beloved falls, and of the storm of the _dies irae_ where the individual is lost among the millions of the dead, features grow dim and traits fade.

但她开始想到那些目瞪口呆地注视着她的皮奥叔叔和她的儿子的人群；她想到了教堂里庞大的仪式，就像心爱的人掉入的深渊，想到了“死亡之伊”的风暴，个体在数以百万计的死者中迷失，面容变得暗淡，特征消失。

At a little more than half the journey, at the mud church of San Luis Rey she slipped in and knelt against a pillar to rest.

走了一半多一点，在圣路易斯雷的泥土教堂里，她溜进去，跪在柱子上休息。

She wandered through her memory, searching for the faces of her two.

她在记忆中徘徊，寻找着两人的面孔。

She waited for some emotion to appear.

她等待着某种情绪的出现。

"But I feel nothing," she whispered to herself.

“但我什么感觉也没有，”她低声自言自语道。

"I have no heart.

“我没有心。

I am a poor meaningless woman, that's all.

我只是一个可怜的、毫无意义的女人，仅此而已。

I am shut out.

我被拒之门外。

I have no heart.

我没有心。

Look, I won't try and think of anything; let me just rest here." And scarcely had she paused when again that terrible incommunicable pain swept through her, the pain that could not speak once to Uncle Pio and tell him of her love and just once offer her courage to Jaime in his sufferings.

听着，我不会尝试去想任何事情；让我在这里休息吧。”她刚停下来，那种可怕的、无法言喻的痛苦再次席卷了她，这种痛苦让她无法向皮奥叔叔倾诉，告诉他她的爱，也无法在海梅的痛苦中向他提供勇气。

She started up wildly: "I fail everybody," she cried.

她惊慌失措地惊呼道：“我让所有人都失望了。”

"They love me and I fail them." She returned to the farm and carried for a year the mood of her self-despair.

“他们爱我，但我辜负了他们。”她回到农场，带着自我绝望的心情度过了一年。

One day she heard by accident that the wonderful Abbess had lost two persons whom she loved in the same accident.

有一天，她偶然听说这位出色的女院长在同一场事故中失去了两个她所爱的人。

Her sewing fell from her hand: then she would know, she would explain.

她的针线活从她手里掉下来：然后她就会知道，她就会解释。

"But no, what would she say to me!

“但是不，她会对我说什么！

She would not even believe that such a person as I could love or could lose." Camila decided to go to Lima and look at the Abbess from a distance.

她甚至不相信我会爱或失去这样一个人。”卡米拉决定去利马远远地看看女院长。

"If her face tells me that she would not despise me, I will speak to her," she said.

“如果她的表情告诉我她不会鄙视我，我就会和她说话，”她说。

Camila lurked about the convent church and fell humbly in love with the homely old face, though it frightened her a little.

卡米拉潜伏在修道院教堂周围，谦卑地爱上了这张相貌平平的老脸，尽管这让她有点害怕。

At last she called upon her.

最后她呼唤了她。

"Mother," she said, "I ...

“妈妈，”她说，“我……

I ..."

我……”

"Do I know you, my daughter?"

“我认识你吗，我的女儿？”

"I was the actress, I was the Perichole."

“我是演员，我是 Perichole。”

"Oh, yes.

“哦，是的。

Oh, I have wished to know you for a long while, but they told me you did not wish to be seen.

哦，我想认识你很久了，但他们告诉我你不想被看见。

You too, I know, lost in the fall of the bridge of San...."

我知道，你也迷失在桑桥的倒塌中……”

Camila rose and swayed.

卡米拉站起身来，身体摇晃起来。

There!

那里！

again that access of pain, the hands of the dead she could not reach.

又是那痛苦的通道，是她无法触及的死者之手。

Her lips were white.

她的嘴唇是白色的。

Her head brushed the Abbess's knee: "Mother, what shall I do?

她的头擦着院长的膝盖：“母亲，我该怎么办？

I am all alone.

我孤身一人。

I have nothing in the world.

我在世上一无所有。

I love them.

我爱他们。

What shall I do?"

我该怎么办？”

The Abbess looked at her closely.

女院长仔细地看着她。

"My daughter, it is warm here.

“我的女儿，这里很温暖。

Let us go into the garden.

让我们到花园里去吧。

You can rest there." She made a sign to a girl in the cloister to bring some water.

你可以在那里休息。”她向回廊里的一个女孩做了个手势，叫她拿点水来。

She continued talking mechanically to Camila.

她继续机械地和卡米拉说话。

"I have wished to know you for a long while, señora.

“我想认识你很久了，女士。

Even before the accident I had wished much to know you.

甚至在事故发生之前我就非常希望认识你。

They told me that in the _autos sacrementales_ you were a very great and beautiful actress, in _Belshazzar's Feast_."

他们告诉我，在《汽车圣事》中，在《伯沙撒的盛宴》中，你是一位非常伟大和美丽的女演员。”

"Oh, Mother, you must not say that.

“哦，妈妈，你不可以这么说。

I am a sinner.

我是一个罪人。

You must not say that."

你不可以这么说。”

"Here, drink this, my child.

“来，喝这个，我的孩子。

We have a beautiful garden, do you not think so?

我们有一个美丽的花园，你不这么认为吗？

You will come and see us often and some day you will meet Sister Juana who is our gardener-in-chief.

你会经常来看我们，有一天你会见到我们的园丁胡安娜修女。

Before she entered religion she had almost never seen a garden, for she worked in the mines high up in the mountains.

在她进入宗教之前，她几乎从未见过花园，因为她在高山的矿井里工作。

Now everything grows under her hand.--A year has gone by, señora, since our accident.

现在一切都在她的手下生长。——自从我们发生事故以来，一年过去了，夫人。

I lost two who had been children in my orphanage, but you lost a real child of your own?"

我在孤儿院失去了两个孩子，而你却失去了自己的一个真正的孩子？”

"Yes, Mother."

“是的，妈妈。”

"And a great friend?"

“还有一个好朋友？”

"Yes, Mother."

“是的，妈妈。”

"Tell me...."

“告诉我……”

And then the whole tide of Camila's long despair, her lonely obstinate despair since her girlhood, found its rest on that dusty friendly lap among Sister Juana's fountains and roses.

然后，卡米拉长久以来的绝望，她从少女时代以来孤独而顽固的绝望，全部在胡安娜修女的喷泉和玫瑰之间那尘土飞扬的友善腿上得到了休息。

* * * * * * *

* * * * * * * *

But where are sufficient books to contain the events that would not have been the same without the fall of the bridge?

但是哪里有足够的书籍来记录那些如果没有桥倒塌就不会发生的事件呢？

From such a number I choose one more.

从这样的数字中我再选择一个。

"The Condesa d'Abuirre wishes to see you," said a lay-sister at the door of the Abbess's office.

“阿布尔伯爵夫人想见你，”女修道院院长办公室门口的一位修女说道。

"Well," said the Abbess, laying down her pen, "who is she?"

“那么，”女修道院院长放下笔说道，“她是谁？”

"She has just come from Spain.

“她刚从西班牙回来。

I don't know."

我不知道。”

"Oh, it is some money, Inez, some money for my house for the blind.

“哦，这是一些钱，伊内兹，一些钱给我的盲人房子。

Quick, bid her come in."

快，请她进来。”

The tall, rather languorous beauty entered the room.

身材高挑、颇为慵懒的美女走进了房间。

Doña Clara, who was generally so adequate, seemed constrained for once.

多娜·克拉拉一向表现得很好，但这次却显得有些拘束。

"Are you busy, dear Mother, may I talk to you for a while?"

“亲爱的妈妈，您忙吗？我可以和您聊一会儿吗？”

"I am quite free, my daughter.

“我很自由，我的女儿。

You will excuse an old woman's memory; have I known you before?"

你会原谅一个老妇人的记忆力；我以前认识你吗？”

"My mother was the Marquesa de Montemayor...." Doña Clara suspected that the Abbess had not admired her mother and would not let the older woman speak until she herself had made a long passionate defense of Doña María.

“我的母亲是蒙特马约尔侯爵夫人……” 克拉拉夫人怀疑女修道院院长并不欣赏她的母亲，在她本人对玛丽亚夫人进行了长时间的热情辩护之前，她不会让这位年长的女人说话。

The languor fell away in her self-reproach.

她的倦怠在自责中消失了。

At last the Abbess told her of Pepita and Esteban, and of Camila's visit.

最后，女院长告诉她佩皮塔和埃斯特万的事，以及卡米拉的来访。

"All, all of us have failed.

“所有人，我们所有人都失败了。

One wishes to be punished.

一个人希望受到惩罚。

One is willing to assume all kinds of penance, but do you know, my daughter, that in love--I scarcely dare say it--but in love our very mistakes don't seem to be able to last long?"

人们愿意承担各种各样的忏悔，但是你知道吗，我的女儿，在爱情中——我几乎不敢说——但在爱情中，我们的错误似乎无法持续太久？”

The Condesa showed the Abbess Doña María's last letter.

康德萨展示了女修道院院长多娜·玛丽亚的最后一封信。

Madre María dared not say aloud how great her astonishment was that such words (words that since then the whole world has murmured over with joy) could spring in the heart of Pepita's mistress.

玛丽亚妈妈不敢大声说出她是多么惊讶，因为佩皮塔情妇的心里竟然会出现这样的话（从那时起，全世界都在欢呼雀跃）。

"Now learn," she commanded herself, "learn at last that anywhere you may expect grace." And she was filled with happiness like a girl at this new proof that the traits she lived for were everywhere, that the world was ready.

“现在，”她命令自己，“终于明白，无论在什么地方，你都可以期待恩典。”她像一个女孩一样充满了幸福，因为这个新的证据证明了她为之而活的特质无处不在，世界已经准备好了。

"Will you do me a kindness, my daughter?

“我的女儿，你能帮我一个忙吗？

Will you let me show you my work?"

可以让我给你看看我的作品吗？”

The sun had gone down, but the Abbess led the way with a lantern down corridor after corridor.

太阳已经落山了，但女院长提着灯笼在前面引路，穿过一条又一条的走廊。

Doña Clara saw the old and the young, the sick and the blind, but most of all she saw the tired, bright old woman who was leading her.

多娜·克拉拉看到了老人和年轻人、病人和盲人，但最重要的是，她看到了带领她的疲惫而明亮的老妇人。

The Abbess would stop in a passageway and say suddenly: "I can't help thinking that something could be done for the deaf-and-dumb.

女院长会在过道里停下来，突然说道：“我不禁想到可以为聋哑人做点什么。

It seems to me that some patient person could, ...

在我看来，一些有耐心的人可以，...

could study out a language for them.

可以为他们学习一门语言。

You know there are hundreds and hundreds in Peru.

你知道秘鲁有成百上千的人。

Do you remember whether anyone in Spain has found a way for them?

你还记得西班牙是否有人为他们找到了出路吗？

Well, some day they will." Or a little later: "Do you know, I keep thinking that something can be done for the insane.

好吧，总有一天他们会的。”或者稍后说道：“你知道吗，我一直认为可以为疯子做点什么。

I am old, you know, and I cannot go where these things are talked about, but I watch them sometimes and it seems to me ...

我老了，你知道，我不能去谈论这些事情的地方，但我有时会看它们，在我看来……

In Spain, now, they are gentle with them?

现在在西班牙，他们对他们很温柔吗？

It seems to me that there is a secret about it, just hidden from us, just around the corner.

在我看来，它似乎有一个秘密，只是对我们隐藏着，就在拐角处。

Some day back in Spain, if you hear of anything that would help us, you will write me a letter ...

有一天回到西班牙，如果您听说任何可以帮助我们的事情，请给我写一封信......

if you are not too busy?"

如果你不太忙的话？”

At last after Doña Clara had seen even the kitchens, the Abbess said: "Now will you excuse me, for I must go into the room of the very sick and say a few words for them to think about when they cannot sleep.

最后，在多娜·克拉拉甚至参观了厨房之后，女修道院院长说道：“现在请原谅我，因为我必须走进重病患者的房间，对他们说几句话，让他们在无法入睡时思考。

I will not ask you to come with me there, for you are not accustomed to such ...

我不会要求你和我一起去那里，因为你不习惯这样......

such sounds and things.

这样的声音和事物。

And besides I only talk to them as one talks to children." She looked up at her with her modest rueful smile.

而且我跟他们说话就像跟小孩子说话一样。”她抬起头看着她，脸上带着谦虚、悲伤的微笑。

Suddenly she disappeared a moment to return with one of her helpers, one who had likewise been involved in the affair of the bridge and who had formerly been an actress.

突然，她消失了一会儿，带着一名助手回来了，这名助手也参与了这座桥的事件，以前是一名演员。

"She is leaving me," said the Abbess, "for some work across the city and when I have spoken here I must leave you both, for the flour-broker will not wait for me any longer, and our argument will take a long time."

“她要离开我了，”女修道院院长说，“去城里干点事，等我在这里说完话后，我就必须离开你们俩了，因为面粉商人不会再等我了，我们的争论要花很长时间。”

But Doña Clara stood in the door as the Abbess talked to them, the lamp placed on the floor beside her.

但当女院长与他们谈话时，多娜·克拉拉站在门口，灯放在她旁边的地板上。

Madre María stood with her back against a post; the sick lay in rows gazing at the ceiling and trying to hold their breaths.

玛丽亚妈妈背靠着一根柱子站着。病人成排地躺着，盯着天花板，屏住呼吸。

She talked that night of all those out in the dark (she was thinking of Esteban alone, she was thinking of Pepita alone) who had no one to turn to, for whom the world perhaps was more than difficult, without meaning.

那天晚上，她谈到了那些在黑暗中的人（她独自想着埃斯特万，她独自想着佩皮塔），他们没有人可以求助，对他们来说，这个世界可能不仅仅是困难，没有意义。

And those who lay in their beds there felt that they were within a wall that the Abbess had built for them; within all was light and warmth, and without was the darkness they would not exchange even for a relief from pain and from dying.

那些躺在床上的人感觉自己身处女修道院院长为他们建造的围墙内。一切都是光和温暖，外面是黑暗，他们甚至无法换取痛苦和死亡的解脱。

But even while she was talking, other thoughts were passing in the back of her mind.

但尽管她说话的时候，她的脑海里却闪过其他的想法。

"Even now," she thought, "almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita, but myself.

“即使是现在，”她想，“几乎没有人记得埃斯特万和佩皮塔，除了我自己。

Camila alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother.

只有卡米拉记得她的叔叔皮奥和她的儿子；这个女人，她的母亲。

But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten.

但很快我们就会死去，关于这五个人的所有记忆都将离开地球，我们自己将暂时被爱并被遗忘。

But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them.

但有爱就足够了；所有那些爱的冲动都回到了创造它们的爱。

Even memory is not necessary for love.

甚至爱情也不需要记忆。

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."

有生者之地，也有死者之地，而这座桥就是爱，是唯一的生存，唯一的意义。”

THE END

结局