阿斯本文稿(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：Henry James 亨利·詹姆斯

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

阿斯本文稿(外研社双语读库)试读：

I had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth without her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips. It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot.

我视普雷斯顿夫人为我的心腹。老实说，没有她，我不会有太大进展，因为整个计划中有成效的想法是她友善地提出的。正是她找到了捷径，也是她解决了这个难题。

It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to the largest and most liberal view—I mean of a practical scheme; but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conception—such as a man would not have risen to—with singular serenity.

一般说来，不应指望女人能提出最全面、最开明的观点——我指的是可行的计划。但让我很吃惊的是，她们有时候会提出个大胆的主意——那种主意连男人都想不到——同时还出奇地平静。

"Simply ask them to take you in on the footing of a lodger"—I don't think that unaided I should have risen to that.“就让他们把你当成房客，让你进去”——我觉得只靠我一个人是不会想到这个主意的。

I was beating about the bush, trying to be ingenious, wondering by what combination of arts I might become an acquaintance, when she offered this happy suggestion that the way to become an acquaintance was first to become an inmate.

我当时拐弯抹角，试图想到些妙招，盘算着要使些手段认识她们。这时，她提出这个令人愉快的建议，认为要成为熟人，首先要成为住在一起的人。

Her actual knowledge of the Misses Bordereau was scarcely larger than mine, and indeed I had brought with me from England some definite facts which were new to her.

其实她并不比我更了解博尔德罗的小姐们。事实上，我从英格兰带来的一些明白无误的事实，这些事实她并不知道。

Their name had been mixed up ages before with one of the greatest names of the century, and they lived now in Venice in obscurity, on very small means, unvisited, unapproachable, in a dilapidated old palace on an out-of-the-way canal: this was the substance of my friend's impression of them.

很多年前，她们的名字是和那个世纪最伟大的人物之一的名字联系在一起的。而今，她们隐居在威尼斯一个偏僻的水道边的破败的老宅子里，生活简朴，无人问津，无法接近：这是我朋友对她们的基本印象。

She herself had been established in Venice for fifteen years and had done a great deal of good there; but the circle of her benevolence did not include the two shy, mysterious and, as it was somehow supposed, scarcely respectable Americans (they were believed to have lost in their long exile all national quality, besides having had, as their name implied, some French strain in their origin), who asked no favors and desired no attention.

普雷斯顿夫人自己在威尼斯定居已经十五年了，在那里她做了不少好事。但是她的善举并没惠及这两位害羞而神秘的女士。大家不知何故认为这两个美国人没什么好值得尊敬的，（人们认为她们在长期的离乡背井中迷失了所有的民族特征，除了名字多少显出点儿她们有法国血统）她们不寻求帮助，也不想惹人注意。

In the early years of her residence she had made an attempt to see them, but this had been successful only as regards the little one, as Mrs. Prest called the niece; though in reality as I afterward learned she was considerably the bigger of the two.

刚来的那几年，她曾试图探望她们，但只见到了小的，普雷斯顿夫人是这样称呼那个侄女的。尽管我后来发现她其实个头比另一个大。

She had heard Miss Bordereau was ill and had a suspicion that she was in want; and she had gone to the house to offer assistance, so that if there were suffering (and American suffering), she should at least not have it on her conscience. The "little one" received her in the great cold, tarnished Venetian sala, the central hall of the house, paved with marble and roofed with dim crossbeams, and did not even ask her to sit down.

她听说博尔德罗小姐病了，猜测她可能生活拮据，于是上门去帮忙，这样一来，就算她们受苦（尤其是美国人受苦），她至少也不必良心不安。“小的”接待她的地方是一个冰冷褪色的威尼斯式的宽大客厅，是这个宅子的正厅，地面铺着大理石，房顶的横梁已经失去光泽了。“小的”甚至都没有请她坐下。

This was not encouraging for me, who wished to sit so fast, and I remarked as much to Mrs. Prest. She however replied with profundity, "Ah, but there's all the difference: I went to confer a favor and you will go to ask one. If they are proud you will be on the right side.”

这让想稳稳当当地住下来的我感到气馁。我把这想法老实地告诉了普雷斯顿夫人。然而她意味深长地回答道：“噢，这可不一样，我去是想要帮忙，而你是为了求助。如果她们是高傲的人，那你就站对地方了。”

And she offered to show me their house to begin with—to row me thither in her gondola. I let her know that I had already been to look at it half a dozen times; but I accepted her invitation, for it charmed me to hover about the place.

然后，她提议先带我去看看她们的宅子——用她的平底小船把我划到那里去。我告诉她我已经去考察过六七次了。但我还是接受了她的邀请，因为在那个地方逗留很是让我陶醉。

I had made my way to it the day after my arrival in Venice (it had been described to me in advance by the friend in England to whom I owed definite information as to their possession of the papers), and I had besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of campaign. Jeffrey Aspern had never been in it that I knew of; but some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout implication, a faint reverberation.

我到威尼斯后的第二天就去了那里（在英国的一个朋友提前就给我描述了这个宅子的情况，这个朋友就是明白地告诉我她们是手里有这些文稿的人）。在考虑行动计划的时候，我仔细地察看了这里。据我所知，杰弗里·阿斯本从来没有到过这里，但他的声音似乎停留在这里，迂回缭绕，隐约回响着。

Mrs. Prest knew nothing about the papers, but she was interested in my curiosity, as she was always interested in the joys and sorrows of her friends.

普雷斯顿夫人完全不知道文稿的事，但她对我的好奇心很感兴趣，正如她一贯关心朋友们的快乐和悲伤那样。

As we went, however, in her gondola, gliding there under the sociable hood with the bright Venetian picture framed on either side by the movable window, I could see that she was amused by my infatuation, the way my interest in the papers had become a fixed idea.

不过，我们乘着她的平底小船划行，坐在这适合社交的船篷下，随着两旁窗户的移动，观赏着威尼斯风景，这时候，我能感觉到她认为我的痴迷很好笑，我对于手稿的兴趣已经到了执着的程度。

"One would think you expected to find in them the answer to the riddle of the universe," she said; and I denied the impeachment only by replying that if I had to choose between that precious solution and a bundle of Jeffrey Aspern's letters I knew indeed which would appear to me the greater boon.“别人会以为你想要从中发现宇宙之谜的答案。”她说。我否认她的怀疑，但只是说，如果必须在珍贵的答案和杰弗里·阿斯本的文稿间作出选择的话，我明确地知道哪个对我是一种较大的恩赐。

She pretended to make light of his genius, and I took no pains to defend him. One doesn't defend one's god: one's god is in himself a defense.

她装作轻视阿斯本的天才，而我并不费心替他辩护。一个人不会为自己的上帝而辩护；一个人的上帝本身就是一种辩护。

Besides, today, after his long comparative obscuration, he hangs high in the heaven of our literature, for all the world to see; he is a part of the light by which we walk. The most I said was that he was no doubt not a woman's poet: to which she rejoined aptly enough that he had been at least Miss Bordereau's.

而今，就算是在他沉寂了相当久以后，他依然在文学圣堂里高高在上，为全世界所仰望。我们前进道路上的光明，他也有所贡献。我只不过是说他无疑不是一位女性的诗人：她则说至少是博尔德罗小姐的诗人，回答得恰到好处。

The strange thing had been for me to discover in England that she was still alive: it was as if I had been told Mrs. Siddons was, or Queen Caroline, or the famous Lady Hamilton, for it seemed to me that she belonged to a generation as extinct.

在英国发现博尔德罗小姐还活着，对我来说是件奇怪的事情：就好像别人告诉我西登斯夫人、卡罗琳王后又或是著名的汉密尔顿夫人还活着一样，因为在我看来，博尔德罗小姐是属于早就逝去的那一代人的。

"Why, she must be tremendously old—at least a hundred," I had said; but on coming to consider dates I saw that it was not strictly necessary that she should have exceeded by very much the common span.“哇，她一定非常老——至少一百岁。”我当时这么说。但是算算时间，我发现她其实也没有一定比一般人的寿命长多少。

Nonetheless she was very far advanced in life, and her relations with Jeffrey Aspern had occurred in her early womanhood.

尽管如此，她年纪也很大了，而她和杰弗里·阿斯本的关系是她少女时代的事情了。

"That is her excuse," said Mrs. Prest, half-sententiously and yet also somewhat as if she were ashamed of making a speech so little in the real tone of Venice. As if a woman needed an excuse for having loved the divine poet! He had been not only one of the most brilliant minds of his day (and in those years, when the century was young, there were, as everyone knows, many), but one of the most genial men and one of the handsomest.

普雷斯顿夫人说：“那是她的借口。”话说得半是说教，又似乎感到有点羞耻，因为她说话几乎没有一点儿真正的威尼斯腔调。似乎一个女人爱上这位神圣的诗人，需要一个理由似的！他不仅仅是那个年代最有才气的人（大家都知道，世纪之初那个时候，才华横溢的人很多），也是最和蔼可亲、最英俊的人。

The niece, according to Mrs. Prest, was not so old, and she risked the conjecture that she was only a grandniece.

按普雷斯顿夫人的说法，这位侄女年龄不太大，她还大胆地推测她只是位侄孙女。

This was possible; I had nothing but my share in the very limited knowledge of my English fellow worshipper John Cumnor, who had never seen the couple.

这有可能。我对她们一无所知，只是从约翰·卡姆诺那里了解到一些极其有限的情况。卡姆诺是英国人，和我一样崇拜阿斯本，但他从没见过这两位女士。

The world, as I say, had recognized Jeffrey Aspern, but Cumnor and I had recognized him most.

正如我所说，这个世界赏识杰弗里·阿斯本，而卡姆诺和我则是最欣赏他的人。

The multitude, today, flocked to his temple, but of that temple he and I regarded ourselves as the ministers. We held, justly, as I think, that we had done more for his memory than anyone else, and we had done it by opening lights into his life.

如今，人们涌向他的神殿，而我们自认是这神殿里的牧师。我有充分的理由认为，就像我所想的那样，我们为了纪念他，做得比任何人都多。我们所做的是将他的人生予以展现。

He had nothing to fear from us because he had nothing to fear from the truth, which alone at such a distance of time we could be interested in establishing. His early death had been the only dark spot in his life, unless the papers in Miss Bordereau's hands should perversely bring out others.

他对于真实无所畏惧，所以也不怕向我们展示一切。就算年代久远，我们依然有兴趣确定这个真实。除非博尔德罗小姐手上的文稿能呈现其他相反的证据，否则他的英年早逝将会是他人生唯一的谜团。

There had been an impression about 1825 that he had "treated her badly," just as there had been an impression that he had "served," as the London populace says, several other ladies in the same way. Each of these cases Cumnor and I had been able to investigate, and we had never failed to acquit him conscientiously of shabby behavior. I judged him perhaps more indulgently than my friend; certainly, at any rate, it appeared to me that no man could have walked straighter in the given circumstances.

在人们的印象中，他在一八二五年左右曾经“虐待她”，正如人们印象中的他，“对待”其他几位女士也如出一辙。伦敦的大众就是这么说的。卡姆诺和我调查过每一件案例，而且，我们总能负责任地证明他没有无礼的行为。我评价他时，比我的朋友更为宽容。当然，无论如何，在我看来，没有人能在特定的环境下比他更为循规蹈矩。

These were almost always awkward.

那时的情形总是很难应付。

Half the women of his time, to speak liberally, had flung themselves at his head, and out of this pernicious fashion many complications, some of them grave, had not failed to arise.

大胆地说，在他那个年代，一半的女性曾对他投怀送抱。由于这种恶劣的风气，许多复杂的情况，其中还有些严重的情况，也就发生了。

He was not a woman's poet, as I had said to Mrs. Prest, in the modern phase of his reputation; but the situation had been different when the man's own voice was mingled with his song.

正如我告诉普雷斯顿夫人的一样，就他在现代的名声来讲，他不是一位女性的诗人。但当他的嗓音和他的诗歌融合在一起的时候，情形就不一样了。

That voice, by every testimony, was one of the sweetest ever heard.

所有的证据都证明，他的嗓音是人们所听过的最悦耳的嗓音。

"Orpheus and the Maenads!" was the exclamation that rose to my lips when I first turned over his correspondence. Almost all the Maenads were unreasonable, and many of them insupportable; it struck me in short that he was kinder, more considerate than, in his place (if I could imagine myself in such a place!), I should have been.“奥菲厄斯与巴克斯的女祭司们！”这是当我首次翻阅他的信件时，嘴里发出的感叹。几乎所有的女祭司们都是无理取闹的，其中有些更是令人难以忍受的。我一度固执地认为，处在这样的情况下（要是我能想象出自己在这种情形下的话！），他比我更为仁慈，更为体贴。

It was certainly strange beyond all strangeness, and I shall not take up space with attempting to explain it, that whereas in all these other lines of research we had to deal with phantoms and dust, the mere echoes of echoes, the one living source of information that had lingered on into our time had been unheeded by us.

这真是奇上加奇。然而我不会花篇幅来试图解释它，解释为什么尽管在我们研究其他线索的时候，要同不少魅影和尘埃，纯粹的回响之回响这一类的事打交道，我们却没有注意到，这停留在我们这个时代里活生生的消息来源。

Every one of Aspern's contemporaries had, according to our belief, passed away; we had not been able to look into a single pair of eyes into which his had looked or to feel a transmitted contact in any aged hand that his had touched.

我们认为，与阿斯本同一个时代的人都已经去世了。我们不能找到任何一双他曾经注视过的眼睛，感觉不到任何一只年迈的手传递出他接触过的感觉。

Most dead of all did poor Miss Bordereau appear, and yet she alone had survived. We exhausted in the course of months our wonder that we had not found her out sooner, and the substance of our explanation was that she had kept so quiet.

博尔德罗小姐更是早就该去世的人，却唯独她活了下来。我们几个月来一直想不明白为什么没有早点儿找到她，而我们的解释就是，她一直非常沉默。

The poor lady on the whole had had reason for doing so. But it was a revelation to us that it was possible to keep so quiet as that in the latter half of the nineteenth century—the age of newspapers and telegrams and photographs and interviewers.

这可怜的女士完全有道理这么做。在十九世纪后半叶，她们居然还可以如此隐姓埋名，这可真是个新发现——那个年代充斥着报纸、电报、照片和采访。

And she had taken no great trouble about it either: she had not hidden herself away in an undiscoverable hole; she had boldly settled down in a city of exhibition.

但她也没费多大力气就办到了：她没有把自己隐藏在无法发现的洞穴里；她大胆地定居在了供人参观的城市里。

The only secret of her safety that we could perceive was that Venice contained so many curiosities that were greater than she. And then accident had somehow favored her, as was shown for example in the fact that Mrs. Prest had never happened to mention her to me, though I had spent three weeks in Venice—under her nose, as it were—five years before. Mrs. Prest had not mentioned this much to anyone; she appeared almost to have forgotten she was there.

她之所以能安全，我们能想到的唯一秘诀，就是威尼斯有许许多多的稀奇事，远比她来得令人好奇。而且，她运气也不错。关于这一点，有个很好的例证：五年前，我在威尼斯住了三周，我几乎就在普雷斯顿夫人眼前打转，她也从没向我提起博尔德罗小姐。普雷斯顿夫人也没有对任何人说起过什么。看起来，她几乎已经忘记了她的存在。

Of course she had not the responsibilities of an editor. It was no explanation of the old woman's having eluded us to say that she lived abroad, for our researches had again and again taken us (not only by correspondence but by personal inquiry) to France, to Germany, to Italy, in which countries, not counting his important stay in England, so many of the too few years of Aspern's career were spent.

当然，她不必像个编辑一样操心这些事。要说这位老妇人误导我们，要我们以为她住在外国，这也是没有根据的。因为，我们的研究工作一次次使得我们（不仅仅是信件往来，而且是亲自探寻）去了法国、德国和意大利。撇开他在英国度过的重要岁月不说，在这些国家，阿斯本度过了他太过短暂的写作生涯中的许多年。

We were glad to think at least that in all our publishings (some people consider I believe that we have overdone them), we had only touched in passing and in the most discreet manner on Miss Bordereau's connection. Oddly enough, even if we had had the material (and we often wondered what had become of it), it would have been the most difficult episode to handle.

我们很高兴地想到，至少在我们所发表的成果中（我相信，有些人认为我们夸大其辞），我们只是一笔带过地、非常谨慎小心地提到了他和博尔德罗小姐之间的联系。奇怪的是，就算我们掌握了那些资料（我们常常猜想，这些资料究竟出了什么问题），这也会是最难处理的一段插曲。

The gondola stopped, the old palace was there; it was a house of the class which in Venice carries even in extreme dilapidation the dignified name.

平底小船停了下来，古宅就在眼前；尽管极度破败，它在威尼斯城中依然是名副其实的威严府邸。

"How charming! It's gray and pink!" my companion exclaimed; and that is the most comprehensive description of it.“多么壮观！它是灰色和粉色的！”我的同伴感叹道。这是对于这个府邸最为全面的描述。

It was not particularly old, only two or three centuries; and it had an air not so much of decay as of quiet discouragement, as if it had rather missed its career. But its wide front, with a stone balcony from end to end of the piano nobile or most important floor, was architectural enough, with the aid of various pilasters and arches; and the stucco with which in the intervals it had long ago been endued was rosy in the April afternoon. It overlooked a clean, melancholy, unfrequented canal, which had a narrow riva or convenient footway on either side.

它不算特别古老，也就两三个世纪而已；它的气息与其说是衰败，不如说是悄无声息，沮丧泄气，就好像它韶华已逝。然而宅子的正面很宽敞，在最为重要的二楼上有一个拉通的石砌阳台，非常具有建筑感，各色壁柱和拱门也为其添色不少；柱和门之间的外墙早前经过拉毛粉饰，让这宅子在四月的下午显出玫瑰的色彩。它俯瞰着一条清澈忧伤、少人问津的运河。运河两边各有一条很窄的小路，是条便道。

"I don't know why—there are no brick gables," said Mrs. Prest, "but this corner has seemed to me before more Dutch than Italian, more like Amsterdam than like Venice.“我不明白——为什么这里没有砖砌的山形墙，”普雷斯顿夫人说，“不过之前，我就觉得这个角更像是荷兰风格，是阿姆斯特丹的风格，而不是意大利，不是威尼斯的感觉。

It's perversely clean, for reasons of its own; and though you can pass on foot scarcely anyone ever thinks of doing so. It has the air of a Protestant Sunday. Perhaps the people are afraid of the Misses Bordereau. I daresay they have the reputation of witches.”

因为自身的原因，它出奇得干净。虽然可以步行过去，但几乎没有人想这样做。它有一种新教的礼拜天的气息。也许，人们畏惧这两位博尔德罗小姐。我敢说，她们的名声和女巫一样。”

I forget what answer I made to this—I was given up to two other reflections.

我忘了我当时是怎么回答的——我在专注于另外两件事情。

The first of these was that if the old lady lived in such a big, imposing house she could not be in any sort of misery and therefore would not be tempted by a chance to let a couple of rooms. I expressed this idea to Mrs. Prest, who gave me a very logical reply.

第一件事情，如果这位老妇人住在一个这么大、这么壮观的房子里，那么她的生活一点儿也不穷困，因此有可能不愿意拿两个房间来出租。我把这个想法告诉了普雷斯顿夫人，她给了我一个很合理的回答。

"If she didn't live in a big house how could it be a question of her having rooms to spare? If she were not amply lodged herself you would lack ground to approach her. Besides, a big house here, and especially in this quartier perdu, proves nothing at all: it is perfectly compatible with a state of penury. Dilapidated old palazzi, if you will go out of the way for them, are to be had for five shillings a year. And as for the people who live in them—no, until you have explored Venice socially as much as I have you can form no idea of their domestic desolation. They live on nothing, for they have nothing to live on.”“要是她没有住在大宅子里，她怎么可能有空余房间呢？要是她住的地方不够大，你哪有理由接近她。另外，这里的大宅，尤其是在这么偏僻的地方，说明不了什么：这里的宅子同贫困的状态非常契合。古旧而破败的宅子，如果你有意要找，五先令就可以租下一整年。而至于住在里面的人——不，在像我这样探索过了威尼斯的社交界之前，你不会知道其内在的荒凉。她们无依无靠，因为没有什么是可以让她们依靠的。”

The other idea that had come into my head was connected with a high blank wall which appeared to confine an expanse of ground on one side of the house. Blank I call it, but it was figured over with the patches that please a painter, repaired breaches, crumblings of plaster, extrusions of brick that had turned pink with time; and a few thin trees, with the poles of certain rickety trellises, were visible over the top. The place was a garden, and apparently it belonged to the house. It suddenly occurred to me that if it did belong to the house I had my pretext.

我想的另一件事，是关于一堵高高的实墙的，那墙壁似乎隔开了宅子一旁的一块地。尽管可以说没有门窗，墙上却有着一块块画家们中意的图案，修补过的裂缝，剥落的灰泥，还有因为年代久远已经变得粉红的、突出的砖块。墙头显出几株瘦木和某个摇摇晃晃的棚架的柱子。这是个花园，而且很明显是属于这个宅子的。我突然觉得，如果这个地方属于这个宅子，那我就有借口了。

I sat looking out on all this with Mrs. Prest (it was covered with the golden glow of Venice) from the shade of our felze, and she asked me if I would go in then, while she waited for me, or come back another time.

我和普雷斯顿夫人坐在平底小船的船舱里望着外面（一切都披着威尼斯金色的光辉）。她问我要不要进去，她在外面等我，或者下次再来。

At first I could not decide—it was doubtless very weak of me.

一开始我无法决定——毫无疑问，我非常缺乏勇气。

I wanted still to think I MIGHT get a footing, and I was afraid to meet failure, for it would leave me, as I remarked to my companion, without another arrow for my bow.

我希望自己仍然认为我有可能站住脚，而且我也怕遭遇失败。因为正如我告诉同伴的那样，失败的话，我就一筹莫展了。

"Why not another?" she inquired as I sat there hesitating and thinking it over; and she wished to know why even now and before taking the trouble of becoming an inmate (which might be wretchedly uncomfortable after all, even if it succeeded), I had not the resource of simply offering them a sum of money down. In that way I might obtain the documents without bad nights.“为什么其他的方法不行？”就在我坐着，犹豫不决，反复思索的时候，她这样问我。她想知道，为什么甚至现在，在我还没有大费周章地成为房客之前（就算成了房客，想必也很难熬），我连干脆地付给她们一笔钱的办法都想不到。这样一来，我可能就能得到那些文稿，还能睡得安稳了。

"Dearest lady," I exclaimed, "excuse the impatience of my tone when I suggest that you must have forgotten the very fact (surely I communicated it to you) which pushed me to throw myself upon your ingenuity.“最亲爱的夫人，”我大声说，“原谅我急躁的语气，但我认为你一定忘记了一个事实（我肯定告诉过你的），那就是我之所以要仰仗你的才智的原因。

The old woman won't have the documents spoken of; they are personal, delicate, intimate, and she hasn't modern notions, God bless her! If I should sound that note first I should certainly spoil the game. I can arrive at the papers only by putting her off her guard, and I can put her off her guard only by ingratiating diplomatic practices. Hypocrisy, duplicity are my only chance. I am sorry for it, but for Jeffrey Aspern's sake I would do worse still.

那个老妇人不允许别人提及文稿的事。那些是私人的、微妙的和亲密的。而且她也没有时髦的想法。愿上帝保佑她！要是我首先提出这一点，那么游戏也就玩完了。只有卸除了她的心防，我才能得到那些文稿。我也只有以奉行逢迎讨好的交际方式才能让她不防备我。伪善和表里不一是我唯一的机会。我很遗憾。但是为了杰弗里·阿斯本，我可以做得更卑鄙。

First I must take tea with her; then tackle the main job.”And I told over what had happened to John Cumnor when he wrote to her. No notice whatever had been taken of his first letter, and the second had been answered very sharply, in six lines, by the niece.

首先，我必须要和她喝喝茶，然后才能着手解决要务。”我还告诉她约翰·卡姆诺写信给博尔德罗小姐时所发生的事。第一封信石沉大海。第二封则由那位侄女回了信，六行字，言语尖锐。

"Miss Bordereau requested her to say that she could not imagine what he meant by troubling them. They had none of Mr. Aspern's papers, and if they had should never think of showing them to anyone on any account whatever. She didn't know what he was talking about and begged he would let her alone.”I certainly did not want to be met that way.“博尔德罗小姐要她回复，说她不能理解他说打扰她们是什么意思。她们没有什么阿斯本的文稿，就算她们有，她们也不会因为任何原因展示给别人看。她不知道他到底在说什么，请求他还她们清净。”我当然不想遭到这样的待遇。

"Well," said Mrs. Prest after a moment, provokingly, "perhaps after all they haven't any of his things. If they deny it flat how are you sure?”“那么，”普雷斯顿夫人过了一会儿令人恼怒地说，“也许她们根本就没有他的东西。如果她们直截了当地否认了，你又怎么会这么肯定呢？”

"John Cumnor is sure, and it would take me long to tell you how his conviction, or his very strong presumption—strong enough to stand against the old lady's not unnatural fib—has built itself up. Besides, he makes much of the internal evidence of the niece's letter.”“约翰·卡姆诺确信是这样的。至于他的笃信，或者说是有力的推测——这足以推翻这个老妇人无懈可击的谎话——是怎么建立起来的，那就说来话长了。另外，他在那位侄女的信中发现了许多内在的证据。”

"The internal evidence?"“内在证据？”

"Her calling him 'Mr. Aspern.'”“她称呼他‘阿斯本先生’。”

"I don't see what that proves.”“我不明白那说明了什么。”

"It proves familiarity, and familiarity implies the possession of mementoes, or relics. I can't tell you how that 'Mr.' touches me—how it bridges over the gulf of time and brings our hero near to me—nor what an edge it gives to my desire to see Juliana. You don't say, 'Mr.' Shakespeare.”“这证明了亲密度，而亲密则暗示她们拥有纪念品或是遗物。我没法告诉你‘先生’这两个字怎么触动了我——怎样在时间的深渊上架起桥梁，拉近了我和我的主人公的距离——我也不能告诉你，它怎样加剧了我想要见到朱莉安娜的想法。你不会称呼莎士比亚‘先生’吧。”

"Would I, any more, if I had a box full of his letters?"“我会吗？要是我有满满一箱子他的信，我就会这么说吗？”

"Yes, if he had been your lover and someone wanted them!"“会，如果他曾经是你的情人，而又有些人觊觎这些信的话！”

And I added that John Cumnor was so convinced, and so all the more convinced by Miss Bordereau's tone, that he would have come himself to Venice on the business were it not that for him there was the obstacle that it would be difficult to disprove his identity with the person who had written to them, which the old ladies would be sure to suspect in spite of dissimulation and a change of name. If they were to ask him point-blank if he were not their correspondent it would be too awkward for him to lie; whereas I was fortunately not tied in that way. I was a fresh hand and could say no without lying.

我还补充说，约翰·卡姆诺是如此地深信不疑，博尔德罗小姐的语气更加让他笃信这一点。所以，如果不是因为他难以掩饰身份，他就会亲自来威尼斯跑这一趟了。因为他很难证明自己不是给两位写信的人。就算他加以掩饰，更名换姓，她们也一定会怀疑他。如果她们直截了当地问他是不是没有给她们写过信，如果他说谎的话就很尴尬了；而我很幸运，因为我和这事没什么联系。我是个新手，不必说慌就可以否认。

"But you will have to change your name," said Mrs. Prest. "Juliana lives out of the world as much as it is possible to live, but none the less she has probably heard of Mr. Aspern's editors; she perhaps possesses what you have published.”“但你要改个名字，”普雷斯顿夫人说，“朱莉安娜尽量避开尘世，只求能生存下去。但是无论如何，她都有可能听说过阿斯本先生的编辑们，说不定她有你的出版物呢。”

"I have thought of that," I returned; and I drew out of my pocketbook a visiting card, neatly engraved with a name that was not my own.“这我想过了。”我回答道。我从记事本里拿出一张名片，上面整洁地印着一个名字，不是我的名字。

"You are very extravagant; you might have written it," said my companion.“你真是铺张，手写不就好了。”我的同伴这样说道。

"This looks more genuine."“这样看起来更真实。”

"Certainly, you are prepared to go far! But it will be awkward about your letters; they won't come to you in that mask.”“很明显，你是打算深入虎穴了！但是你的信件就不方便了，用假名字的话，信件到不了你那里。”

"My banker will take them in, and I will go every day to fetch them. It will give me a little walk."“我的银行经理会帮我收，我每天自己去取。只是要走上一段路。”

"Shall you only depend upon that?" asked Mrs. Prest. "Aren't you coming to see me?”“你就只靠这些？”普雷斯顿夫人问，“你难道不来找我？”

"Oh, you will have left Venice, for the hot months, long before there are any results. I am prepared to roast all summer—as well as hereafter, perhaps you'll say! Meanwhile, John Cumnor will bombard me with letters addressed, in my feigned name, to the care of the padrona.”“噢，在这个事情有进展之前，你早已经离开威尼斯去避几个月的暑了。我已经准备好整个夏天都在这里接受‘烤’验了——说不定，一直呆在这里了！同时，约翰·卡姆诺会不停地给我寄信，用我的假名，请女主人转交。”

"She will recognize his hand," my companion suggested.“她一定会认出他的笔迹。”我的同伴提醒道。

"On the envelope he can disguise it."“哦，信封他可以掩饰。”

"Well, you're a precious pair! Doesn't it occur to you that even if you are able to say you are not Mr. Cumnor in person they may still suspect you of being his emissary?”“哇，你们真是一对宝！你有没有想过，就算你能说你不是卡姆诺本人，她们也可能怀疑你是他派去的？”

"Certainly, and I see only one way to parry that."“当然，而且我认为只有一个办法可以逃过她们的怀疑。”

"And what may that be?"“那又是什么办法？”

I hesitated a moment. "To make love to the niece."

我迟疑了片刻。“向这位侄女求爱。”

"Ah," cried Mrs. Prest, "wait till you see her!"“啊！”普雷斯顿夫人说，“还是等你见到她再说吧！”II二

"I must work the garden—I must work the garden," I said to myself, five minutes later, as I waited, upstairs, in the long, dusky sala, where the bare scagliola floor gleamed vaguely in a chink of the closed shutters.“我得在花园上下功夫——我得在花园上下功夫。”我自忖着，当时我已在楼上那间长长的、满是灰尘的正厅里等了有五分钟。借着关闭的百叶窗的细缝里透出的光，大厅里空荡的人造大理石地板隐隐闪着光。

The place was impressive but it looked cold and cautious.

这地方让人印象深刻，但看起来冷冰冰的，让人心生警惕。

Mrs. Prest had floated away, giving me a rendezvous at the end of half an hour by some neighboring water steps; and I had been let into the house, after pulling the rusty bell wire, by a little red-headed, white-faced maidservant, who was very young and not ugly and wore clicking pattens and a shawl in the fashion of a hood.

普雷斯顿夫人的小船划走了，约我半个小时后在附近水畔的石阶上见面。我拉动了生锈的门铃绳子，一位发红肤白的小个子侍女让我进去。她很年轻，也不丑，穿着那种走起来嗒嗒作响的木鞋，用一条围巾裹着头。

She had not contented herself with opening the door from above by the usual arrangement of a creaking pulley, though she had looked down at me first from an upper window, dropping the inevitable challenge which in Italy precedes the hospitable act.

她不愿意按通常的做法从上面用吱嘎作响的滑轮开门，虽然她先是从楼上的窗户往下看到我，然后盘问了我一番。在意大利，招呼客人之前，免不了先盘问一番。

As a general thing I was irritated by this survival of medieval manners, though as I liked the old I suppose I ought to have liked it; but I was so determined to be genial that I took my false card out of my pocket and held it up to her, smiling as if it were a magic token. It had the effect of one indeed, for it brought her, as I say, all the way down.

总体来说，我对于保留下来的这种中世纪的礼仪很是恼恨，虽然照理我该喜欢这个习俗，因为我喜欢旧事物；但我下定决心表达亲切之意，于是从口袋里拿出我的伪名片呈递给她，当时我笑得就好像这名片是个有魔力的信物一样。它的确产生了某种效果，正如我说的，因为它让这位女仆下楼来了。

I begged her to hand it to her mistress, having first written on it in Italian the words, "Could you very kindly see a gentleman, an American, for a moment?"

我请求她把这名片交给她的女主人，我事先在名片上用意大利语写了这样一句话：“请问你能否赏脸接见一位先生片刻？他是个美国人。”

The little maid was not hostile, and I reflected that even that was perhaps something gained. She colored, she smiled and looked both frightened and pleased.

这个年轻的女仆并没有表现出敌意，我认为这甚至也可能是一种收获。她有点儿脸红，笑了起来，看起来带些怯意，也有些高兴。

I could see that my arrival was a great affair, that visits were rare in that house, and that she was a person who would have liked a sociable place. When she pushed forward the heavy door behind me I felt that I had a foot in the citadel.

我感觉到我的到来是件大事情，因为这宅子的访客很少，而她则是个希望有社交场合的人。当她推上我身后沉重的大门的时候，我觉得自己已经一脚踏进根据地了。

She pattered across the damp, stony lower hall and I followed her up the high staircase—stonier still, as it seemed—without an invitation. I think she had meant I should wait for her below, but such was not my idea, and I took up my station in the sala. She flitted, at the far end of it, into impenetrable regions, and I looked at the place with my heart beating as I had known it to do in the dentist's parlor.

她轻快地穿过潮湿冷清的底厅，我跟着她上了高高的台阶——看起来比底厅更冷清无情——她没有邀请我跟着她。我猜她的意思是让我在下面等她，但我可不是这么想的，我要在正厅里呆着。她在正厅远远的那一端飞快地走进了旁人无法进入的区域，而我看着那里，心跳加快，就好像在牙医的诊室里那样。

It was gloomy and stately, but it owed its character almost entirely to its noble shape and to the fine architectural doors—as high as the doors of houses—which, leading into the various rooms, repeated themselves on either side at intervals. They were surmounted with old faded painted escutcheons, and here and there, in the spaces between them, brown pictures, which I perceived to be bad, in battered frames, were suspended.

那里阴郁而庄严，但它的特色几乎全在于它高贵的造型和富有建筑风格的门——门像房子的正门那么高——通往不同的房间，每隔一段就是一道门。门上悬着古老褪色的、饰有纹章的锁眼盖。门之间，随处挂着棕色的图画，我认为这些图画很糟糕，画框都破掉了。

With the exception of several straw-bottomed chairs with their backs to the wall, the grand obscure vista contained nothing else to minister to effect. It was evidently never used save as a passage, and little even as that.

除了背靠着墙的那几个稻草做底的椅子，没什么其他物件可以为这幅庄严晦暗的景象增添效果。除了被当成过道，这里很明显没有什么用途，甚至作为过道，也很少用。

I may add that by the time the door opened again through which the maidservant had escaped, my eyes had grown used to the want of light.

我可以补充一句，当女仆逃进去的那道门再一次打开时，我的眼睛已经适应了缺乏光线的环境。

I had not meant by my private ejaculation that I must myself cultivate the soil of the tangled enclosure which lay beneath the windows, but the lady who came toward me from the distance over the hard, shining floor might have supposed as much from the way in which, as I went rapidly to meet her, I exclaimed, taking care to speak Italian: "The garden, the garden—do me the pleasure to tell me if it's yours!”

我暗自说要在花园上下功夫，可不是真的要亲自在窗子底下这块围起来的，杂乱的土地上种什么东西，但这位远远地朝我走来的女士，这位走在坚硬的、闪闪发亮的地板上的女士可能会这样想。我迅速迎上去，努力地用意大利语赞叹道：“这个花园，这个花园——拜托你，告诉我这是你的！”

She stopped short, looking at me with wonder; and then, "Nothing here is mine," she answered in English, coldly and sadly.

她猛地站住，疑惑地看着我，然后说：“这里什么都不是我的。”她用英语冷冷地回答，语气感伤。

"Oh, you are English; how delightful!" I remarked, ingenuously. "But surely the garden belongs to the house?"“啊！你是英国人。真是幸会！”我天真地说道，“但这花园一定属于这个宅邸的吧？”

"Yes, but the house doesn't belong to me.”She was a long, lean, pale person, habited apparently in a dull-colored dressing gown, and she spoke with a kind of mild literalness. She did not ask me to sit down, any more than years before (if she were the niece) she had asked Mrs. Prest, and we stood face to face in the empty pompous hall.“是，但这宅子不是我的。”她又高又瘦，人显得苍白。她显然习惯穿着色彩暗淡的晨衣，说话也带着一种温和朴实的感觉。她没有叫我坐下，没有比几年前接待普雷斯顿夫人时更友好（如果她是那位侄女的话）。于是，我们面对面站在空旷的大厅里面。

"Well then, would you kindly tell me to whom I must address myself? I'm afraid you'll think me odiously intrusive, but you know I MUST have a garden—upon my honor I must!”“那好，请问我该请教谁呢？恐怕你会觉得我闯入这里很莽撞，但你知道，我必须要一个花园——实实在在必须要一个！”

Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not "dressed," and long fine hands which were—possibly—not clean. She clasped these members almost convulsively as, with a confused, alarmed look, she broke out, "Oh, don't take it away from us; we like it ourselves!”

她的脸看起来不年轻，却是单纯的；看起来并不容光焕发，却是温和的。她眼睛很大却没有神采，头发虽多却未加“装扮”，手又细又长却——很可能——不干净。她双手痉挛似的扣在一起，疑惑而警觉地看着我，脱口而出：“啊，不要把它抢走，我们自己很喜欢它！”

"You have the use of it then?"“那你们在使用这里咯？”

"Oh, yes. If it wasn't for that!”And she gave a shy, melancholy smile.“哦，是的。还能有什么别的原因呢！”她说完害羞地又有点儿忧伤地笑了笑。

"Isn't it a luxury, precisely? That's why, intending to be in Venice some weeks, possibly all summer, and having some literary work, some reading and writing to do, so that I must be quiet, and yet if possible a great deal in the open air—that's why I have felt that a garden is really indispensable. I appeal to your own experience," I went on, smiling. "Now can't I look at yours?”“这难道不正是一种享受吗？这原因就是，我打算在威尼斯呆个几周，也可能一整个夏天，做些文字工作，读读写写，所以我需要安静。而且如果可能的话，需要常常呆在户外——因此，我认为花园是必不可少的。相信你也有这样的经验，”我微笑着继续说，“现在我能不能去看看你的花园？”

"I don't know, I don't understand," the poor woman murmured, planted there and letting her embarrassed eyes wander all over my strangeness.“我不知道，我不明白。”这可怜的女士喃喃自语，定在那里，用窘迫的眼神上下打量着我这个陌生人。

"I mean only from one of those windows—such grand ones as you have here—if you will let me open the shutters.”And I walked toward the back of the house. When I had advanced halfway I stopped and waited, as if I took it for granted she would accompany me.“我只想要从其中一个窗口看看——比如你这里这些高大的窗户——如果你能让我打开百叶窗的话。”接下来我朝着房间的后面走去。我走到一半就停下等着，就像是吃准了她会跟我一道似的。

I had been of necessity very abrupt, but I strove at the same time to give her the impression of extreme courtesy. "I have been looking at furnished rooms all over the place, and it seems impossible to find any with a garden attached. Naturally in a place like Venice gardens are rare. It's absurd if you like, for a man, but I can't live without flowers.”

我必须要这么出人意料，但同时也努力给她一个非常谦恭的印象。“我在这里找遍了带家具的房间，但看起来要找到一个带花园的房间简直是不可能。很自然，像威尼斯这样的地方，花园真的很少见。你也许觉得，作为男士，这样显得很奇怪，但我没有花真的不行。”

"There are none to speak of down there."She came nearer to me, as if, though she mistrusted me, I had drawn her by an invisible thread. I went on again, and she continued as she followed me: "We have a few, but they are very common. It costs too much to cultivate them; one has to have a man."“下面也没有什么花呀。”她走近我，虽然她不信任我，却好像被我用一条看不见的线牵引着一样。我继续走，她跟着我，接着说：“我们有几种花，但是是很常见的品种。种花的成本太高了，得雇一位男工才行。”

"Why shouldn't I be the man?" I asked. "I'll work without wages; or rather I'll put in a gardener. You shall have the sweetest flowers in Venice.”“为什么我不能是那位男工呢？”我问，“我可以免费工作，或者我雇个园丁。这样你就会拥有威尼斯最芳香的花了。”

She protested at this, with a queer little sigh which might also have been a gush of rapture at the picture I presented. Then she observed, "We don't know you—we don't know you.”

她有点儿抵触，不舒服地微微叹了一口气，也有可能是我描述的画面让她一阵狂喜。然后她提醒道：“我们不认识你——我们不认识你。”

"You know me as much as I know you: that is much more, because you know my name. And if you are English I am almost a countryman.”“你了解我，就像我了解你一样：还不止呢，因为你知道我的名字。而且如果你是英国人，我们几乎算是同胞了。”

"We are not English," said my companion, watching me helplessly while I threw open the shutters of one of the divisions of the wide high window.“我们不是英国人。”我的同伴说道，绝望地看着我。因为我甩手拉开了一扇又宽又高的窗户的百叶窗。

"You speak the language so beautifully: might I ask what you are?”Seen from above the garden was certainly shabby; but I perceived at a glance that it had great capabilities. She made no rejoinder, she was so lost in staring at me, and I exclaimed, "You don't mean to say you are also by chance American?”“你的英语讲得那么漂亮：我能请问你是哪里人么？”从上面看，这个花园确实很寒碜，但我一眼看出它很有潜力。她没有反驳我，她入神地注视着我。于是我惊呼道：“你该不会是说，你碰巧也是美国人吧？”

"I don't know; we used to be.”“我不知道，我们曾经是。”

"Used to be? Surely you haven't changed?”“曾经是？你们确定没有改变过吗？”

"It's so many years ago—we are nothing.”“那已经是很多年前的事了——我们现在什么也不是。”

"So many years that you have been living here? Well, I don't wonder at that; it's a grand old house. I suppose you all use the garden," I went on, "but I assure you I shouldn't be in your way. I would be very quiet and stay in one corner.”“你们已经住在这里很多年了吗？哦，这也难怪，这个大房子看起来很老。我想你们大家都会用到这个花园，”我继续说道，“但我保证不会影响大家。我会很安静地呆在角落里。”

"We all use it?" she repeated after me, vaguely, not coming close to the window but looking at my shoes. She appeared to think me capable of throwing her out.“我们都会用这园子？”她模模糊糊地重复我的话。她没有靠近窗子，却盯着我的鞋看。看起来，她觉得我有本事把她扔出去。

"I mean all your family, as many as you are."“我是说你们一家人，不管有几位。”

"There is only one other; she is very old—she never goes down.”“只有另外的一位。她年龄很大了——她从不下楼。”

"Only one other, in all this great house!"I feigned to be not only amazed but almost scandalized. "Dear lady, you must have space then to spare!"“只有另外一位？住在这么大的房子里？”我装作不只是觉得惊讶，甚至是匪夷所思。“亲爱的女士，你一定有空余的房间出租咯！”

"To spare?" she repeated, in the same dazed way.“出租？”她还是晕晕乎乎地重复道。

"Why, you surely don't live (two quiet women—I see YOU are quiet, at any rate) in fifty rooms!”Then with a burst of hope and cheer I demanded: "Couldn't you let me two or three? That would set me up!”“对啊，你们（两位文静的女士——我怎么看都觉得你很文静）肯定不会需要五十个房间来居住吧！”突然出现的一线希望和愉快心情使我要求道：“你不租两三间屋子给我吗？那可是帮我大忙！”

I had not struck the note that translated my purpose, and I need not reproduce the whole of the tune I played. I ended by making my interlocutress believe that I was an honorable person, though of course I did not even attempt to persuade her that I was not an eccentric one.

我的意图已经顺理成章地说了出来，不需要重复故意摆出的那种腔调了。我最终使得和我谈话的这位女士相信，我是一个体面的人，虽然我全然没有试图去说服她我不是个怪人。

I repeated that I had studies to pursue; that I wanted quiet; that I delighted in a garden and had vainly sought one up and down the city; that I would undertake that before another month was over the dear old house should be smothered in flowers.

我重申我要研究；我需要安静；我喜欢花园；我几乎在这城里上上下下找遍了也没有找到花园；我要开始行动，不出一个月时间，让这花园铺满鲜花。

I think it was the flowers that won my suit, for I afterward found that Miss Tita (for such the name of this high tremulous spinster proved somewhat incongruously to be) had an insatiable appetite for them.

我看是花园的花帮了我大忙，因为我后来发现蒂塔小姐（这么个名字跟这个极其敏感的老处女多少有点儿不协调）对花喜欢得不得了，简直是贪得无厌。

When I speak of my suit as won I mean that before I left her she had promised that she would refer the question to her aunt.

我之所以说我此行是成功的，是因为在我离开之前，她承诺，会就我的事情问问她姑妈的意见。

I inquired who her aunt might be and she answered, "Why, Miss Bordereau!" with an air of surprise, as if I might have been expected to know.

我问她姑妈是谁，她回答道：“当然是博尔德罗小姐！”她神情讶异，似乎认为我理所当然地知道这一点。

There were contradictions like this in Tita Bordereau which, as I observed later, contributed to make her an odd and affecting person. It was the study of the two ladies to live so that the world should not touch them, and yet they had never altogether accepted the idea that it never heard of them. In Tita at any rate a grateful susceptibility to human contact had not died out, and contact of a limited order there would be if I should come to live in the house.

正如我后来发现的那样，在蒂塔·博尔德罗的身上有类似的矛盾，使她成为古怪却又动人的人。这两位女士活在一个拒绝外界打扰的地方，但同时，想到别人对她们闻所未闻，她们也不能完全接受。无论如何，可喜的是，蒂塔对于与他人接触的那点儿想法还没有完全泯灭。要是我能住进来，也许我们还能多少打些交道。

"We have never done anything of the sort; we have never had a lodger or any kind of inmate."So much as this she made a point of saying to me. "We are very poor, we live very badly. The rooms are very bare—that you might take; they have nothing in them. I don't know how you would sleep, how you would eat.”“我们从来没有这样做过。我们从来没有寄宿者，或是其他任何一种房客。”她向我着重说明了这一点。“我们很穷，生活得很不好。房间空荡荡的——就是你可能会住下来的那些房间，里面什么也没有。我不知道你怎么睡觉，怎么吃饭。”

"With your permission, I could easily put in a bed and a few tables and chairs. C'est la moindre des choses and the affair of an hour or two. I know a little man from whom I can hire what I should want for a few months, for a trifle, and my gondolier can bring the things round in his boat. Of course in this great house you must have a second kitchen, and my servant, who is a wonderfully handy fellow" (this personage was an evocation of the moment), "can easily cook me a chop there. My tastes and habits are of the simplest; I live on flowers!"“你同意的话，我很容易就能放进一张床、几张桌子和几把椅子。这事轻而易举，就是一两个小时的事情。我认识一个小人物，我可以向他租几个月我想要的东西，这不费事。再说我的船夫可以用他的平底小船将东西运过来。这么大的房子一定不止一个厨房，我的仆人，手艺非常好，”（这个仆人的人选眼下还是空缺。）“他可以轻轻松松为我做一顿排骨。我的口味和习惯都很平常。我就是不能离开花！”

And then I ventured to add that if they were very poor it was all the more reason they should let their rooms. They were bad economists—I had never heard of such a waste of material.

然后我还斗胆补充说，如果她们真的很穷，那就更应该把房间租出去了。她们不会理财——我从没听过有人如此浪费资源。

I saw in a moment that the good lady had never before been spoken to in that way, with a kind of humorous firmness which did not exclude sympathy but was on the contrary founded on it. She might easily have told me that my sympathy was impertinent, but this by good fortune did not occur to her. I left her with the understanding that she would consider the matter with her aunt and that I might come back the next day for their decision.

我马上看出，这位淑女从没遇到过人这样和她讲话，既幽默又有力，同时还不无同情，相反，同情也是用幽默的方式表达的。她本来很可能告诉我，我的同情很莽撞无礼，不过幸运的是，她没这样想。临走时我告诉她，我相信她一定会和她姑妈讨论我的事，告诉她我第二天会回来看看她们是如何决定的。

"The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!"“这个姑妈一定会拒绝。她会认为整个事情有阴谋！”

Mrs. Prest declared shortly after this, when I had resumed my place in her gondola. She had put the idea into my head and now (so little are women to be counted on) she appeared to take a despondent view of it. Her pessimism provoked me and I pretended to have the best hopes; I went so far as to say that I had a distinct presentiment that I should succeed.

我刚在平底小船上坐下来，普雷斯顿夫人就立刻这样说。是她让我产生这样的想法（女人就是这么不可靠），现在她又显得很悲观。她的悲观惹恼了我，于是我宣称自己抱有最大的希望。我甚至说我确实预感到会成功。

Upon this Mrs. Prest broke out, "Oh, I see what's in your head! You fancy you have made such an impression in a quarter of an hour that she is dying for you to come and can be depended upon to bring the old one round. If you do get in you'll count it as a triumph.”

看我这样说，普雷斯顿夫人脱口而出：“哈，我知道你在想什么！你以为自己在短短一刻钟给她留下了如此深刻的印象，以至于她巴不得你去，你还以为靠着她就能说服老的那位。住进去了才算是真的胜利。”

I did count it as a triumph, but only for the editor (in the last analysis), not for the man, who had not the tradition of personal conquest.

我确实认为这是个凯旋。不过只是作为编辑的我的凯旋（归根结底），不是我本人的。因为我本人没有征服他人的习惯。

When I went back on the morrow the little maidservant conducted me straight through the long sala (it opened there as before in perfect perspective and was lighter now, which I thought a good omen) into the apartment from which the recipient of my former visit had emerged on that occasion.

第二天我回到大宅，小女仆直接带我穿过长长的正厅（它像以前那么敞开着，视线很好，更为明亮，我认为这是个好兆头），来到一间客房，我头一天就是在这里受到接待的。

It was a large shabby parlor, with a fine old painted ceiling and a strange figure sitting alone at one of the windows.

这是一间宽敞而简陋的会客室，古老的天花板刷得很精细。一个陌生的身形独自坐在一扇窗子的旁边。

They come back to me now almost with the palpitation they caused, the successive feelings that accompanied my consciousness that as the door of the room closed behind me I was really face to face with the Juliana of some of Aspern's most exquisite and most renowned lyrics.

当身后的门关上了，当我意识到我真的和阿斯本最优美、最著名的抒情诗里的朱莉安娜面对面的时候，那种一连串的感觉引发的悸动心情，现在想起也同样让我心跳不已。

I grew used to her afterward, though never completely; but as she sat there before me my heart beat as fast as if the miracle of resurrection had taken place for my benefit. Her presence seemed somehow to contain his, and I felt nearer to him at that first moment of seeing her than I ever had been before or ever have been since.

我后来渐渐习惯了她，虽然没有完全习惯。但当她坐在我面前，我的心跳得很快，就像复活的奇迹为我而发生一样。不知何故，她的出现带着他的气息。看到她的第一眼，我就感觉自己和阿斯本更近了。我从前没有，以后也不会和他那么地接近。

Yes, I remember my emotions in their order, even including a curious little tremor that took me when I saw that the niece was not there.

是的，我记得我的心情变化的顺序，甚至包括我看见她侄女不在场时心里古怪的小颤抖。

With her, the day before, I had become sufficiently familiar, but it almost exceeded my courage (much as I had longed for the event) to be left alone with such a terrible relic as the aunt.

头一天和她在一起，我和她已经算熟络了。而被单独留下，和姑妈这样一位半截入土的人呆在一起，我简直提不起勇气（尽管我非常期待这一刻）。

She was too strange, too literally resurgent. Then came a check, with the perception that we were not really face to face, inasmuch as she had over her eyes a horrible green shade which, for her, served almost as a mask. I believed for the instant that she had put it on expressly, so that from underneath it she might scrutinize me without being scrutinized herself.

她太陌生了，简直是个复活的人。转念又一想，我们其实没有面对面，因为她的眼睛上方有个很恐怖的绿色罩子，对她而言，就像是个面具一样。我立刻相信，她是刻意戴上这个罩子的，这样，她就可以在遮盖下审视我，而我却无法审视她。

At the same time it increased the presumption that there was a ghastly death's-head lurking behind it. The divine Juliana as a grinning skull—the vision hung there until it passed.

同时，我更怀疑，罩子下藏着的，是骇人的死人脑袋。神圣的朱莉安娜竟像阴笑的骷髅——这个画面在我头脑中停留良久才消失。

Then it came to me that she WAS tremendously old—so old that death might take her at any moment, before I had time to get what I wanted from her.

然后我想到，她的确非常非常老了——老到随时可能会死，我甚至来不及有时间从她那里得到我想要的东西。

The next thought was a correction to that; it lighted up the situation. She would die next week, she would die tomorrow—then I could seize her papers. Meanwhile she sat there neither moving nor speaking.

接下来的想法修正了上一个想法，使得情形有所好转。她可能下周死，也可能明天就死——于是我就可以占有她的文稿了。那时她坐在那里，既不动，也不说话。

She was very small and shrunken, bent forward, with her hands in her lap. She was dressed in black, and her head was wrapped in a piece of old black lace which showed no hair.

她很瘦小，身体萎缩，弯着腰，手搭在腿上。她穿着黑色的衣服，头上缠着一块黑色的旧蕾丝，没有头发露出来。

My emotion keeping me silent she spoke first, and the remark she made was exactly the most unexpected.

我心绪难平，说不出话来，她先开了口，而她说的话实在是太出人意料了。III三

"Our house is very far from the center, but the little canal is very comme il faut."“我们的房子离市中心很远，但这条小运河很不错。”

"It's the sweetest corner of Venice and I can imagine nothing more charming," I hastened to reply. The old lady's voice was very thin and weak, but it had an agreeable, cultivated murmur, and there was wonder in the thought that that individual note had been in Jeffrey Aspern's ear.“这是威尼斯最美妙的一角了，我想象不出比这里更迷人的地方了。”我赶紧回答。这老妇人的声音单薄虚弱，但却有着令人愉悦的、有教养的低语声。想到杰弗里·阿斯本曾经把这独特的嗓音听在耳中，真是觉得惊叹。

"Please do sit down there. I hear very well," she said quietly, as if perhaps I had been shouting at her; and the chair she pointed to was at a certain distance.“请坐在那里。我可以听清楚。”她轻声地说道，就像我朝她嚷嚷过似的。她指的那把椅子离她还有点儿远。

I took possession of it, telling her that I was perfectly aware that I had intruded, that I had not been properly introduced and could only throw myself upon her indulgence. Perhaps the other lady, the one I had had the honor of seeing the day before, would have explained to her about the garden. That was literally what had given me courage to take a step so unconventional.

我坐下来，对她说我非常清楚我打扰她们了，我还没有被适当地引荐，只能请她见谅。也许另外一位女士，就是昨天我有幸见到的那位女士，已经向她说明了有关花园的事了。那就是真正给我勇气，让我走出这不寻常的一步的原因。

I had fallen in love at sight with the whole place (she herself probably was so used to it that she did not know the impression it was capable of making on a stranger), and I had felt it was really a case to risk something.

我对这整个地方一见钟情（她本人可能太习惯这里了，所以无法了解它能留给一个陌生人留下怎样的印象），所以我觉得这里值得我冒险一试。

Was her own kindness in receiving me a sign that I was not wholly out in my calculation? It would render me extremely happy to think so. I could give her my word of honor that I was a most respectable, inoffensive person and that as an inmate they would be barely conscious of my existence. I would conform to any regulations, any restrictions if they would only let me enjoy the garden. Moreover I should be delighted to give her references, guarantees; they would be of the very best, both in Venice and in England as well as in America.

她这么赏脸地亲自见我，是不是表示我并非完全失算？这么想，让我非常开心。我以自己的荣誉向她保证，我是个品行最为端正、最没有恶意的人。作为房客，她们简直可以忽略我的存在。只要她们能让我享有花园，我愿意遵守一切的规矩，一切的约束。而且，我会很荣幸地找人向她引荐我，担保我，这些人不论是在威尼斯，在英国，还是在美国都是有头有脸的人物。

She listened to me in perfect stillness and I felt that she was looking at me with great attention, though I could see only the lower part of her bleached and shriveled face. Independently of the refining process of old age it had a delicacy which once must have been great. She had been very fair; she had had a wonderful complexion.

她极其沉静地听我说话。我感觉得到，她很专注地看着我，虽然我只能看见她蜡白干瘪的脸的下半部分。除了岁月磨砺所留下的痕迹，她显出一种娇美，一种曾经必定非凡的娇美。她以前皮肤很白皙，面色极好。

She was silent a little after I had ceased speaking; then she inquired, "If you are so fond of a garden why don't you go to terra firma, where there are so many far better than this?”

等我说完话，她沉默了一阵，然后问道：“如果你那么喜欢花园，为什么不去陆地？那里有很多花园，远比这里的强。”

"Oh, it's the combination!" I answered, smiling; and then, with rather a flight of fancy, "It's the idea of a garden in the middle of the sea.”“哦，这是一种结合体！”我微笑答道。然后，我灵机一动，“我想的是海中的一座花园。”

"It's not in the middle of the sea; you can't see the water.”“这里不在海中央，你看不见水。”

I stared a moment, wondering whether she wished to convict me of fraud. "Can't see the water? Why, dear madam, I can come up to the very gate in my boat.”

我一时傻眼，不知道她是不是想证明我在说谎。“看不见水吗？怎么会！亲爱的夫人，我坐船就可以到门口啊。”

She appeared inconsequent, for she said vaguely in reply to this, "Yes, if you have got a boat. I haven't any; it's many years since I have been in one of the gondolas.”She uttered these words as if the gondolas were a curious faraway craft which she knew only by hearsay.

她看起来有点儿跑题了，因为她含糊地回应说：“对，如果你有船的话。可我没有船。上次坐平底小船已经是很多年以前了。”她讲这些话的样子，就好像平底小船是一种遥远新奇的交通工具，她只是有所耳闻一样。

"Let me assure you of the pleasure with which I would put mine at your service!" I exclaimed.“请你相信，我非常荣幸可以让我的平底小船为你服务！”我大声地说。

I had scarcely said this, however, before I became aware that the speech was in questionable taste and might also do me the injury of making me appear too eager, too possessed of a hidden motive.

但是，话一出口我就意识到，我说的话令人生疑，还可能对我不利，让我显得过于殷勤，太像隐藏了什么动机似的。

But the old woman remained impenetrable and her attitude bothered me by suggesting that she had a fuller vision of me than I had of her. She gave me no thanks for my somewhat extravagant offer but remarked that the lady I had seen the day before was her niece; she would presently come in. She had asked her to stay away a little on purpose, because she herself wished to see me at first alone.

但这位老妇人仍旧深不可测，她的态度扰乱了我，暗示着她对我有更为全盘的认识，胜过我对她了解。她没有对我刚才那番多少显得有点儿过头的提议表示感谢，而是说，昨天和我见面的那位女士是她的侄女，她很快就会进来。她故意让她在外面呆一会儿，因为她本人想先和我单独见一面。

She relapsed into silence, and I asked myself why she had judged this necessary and what was coming yet; also whether I might venture on some judicious remark in praise of her companion.

她又沉默不语了。我问自己，她为什么认为有这个必要，接下来又会发生什么事情，还有，我到底该不该说些适合的话称赞她的侄女。

I went so far as to say that I should be delighted to see her again: she had been so very courteous to me, considering how odd she must have thought me—a declaration which drew from Miss Bordereau another of her whimsical speeches.

我居然说，我很高兴再见到她：她一定认为我非常古怪，鉴于这一点，她对我算是非常客气的——这个说法又引出博尔德罗小姐的怪谈来。

"She has very good manners; I bred her up myself!"I was on the point of saying that that accounted for the easy grace of the niece, but I arrested myself in time, and the next moment the old woman went on: "I don't care who you may be—I don't want to know; it signifies very little today.”“她很有礼数。我一手把她带大的！”我差点脱口而出，说难怪那位侄女这么从容优雅，但我还是及时管住了自己。然后，这个老妇人继续说道：“我不在乎你会是谁——我也不想知道。如今，这一点也不重要。”

This had all the air of being a formula of dismissal, as if her next words would be that I might take myself off now that she had had the amusement of looking on the face of such a monster of indiscretion. Therefore I was all the more surprised when she added, with her soft, venerable quaver, "You may have as many rooms as you like—if you will pay a good deal of money.”

这种气氛让人感觉像是一种送客的程式，仿佛她下一句话就是让我自行离开，因为她已经瞧过了一个轻率的怪物的样子，已经消遣够了。因此，当听到她用她虚弱柔软的颤音往下说的时候，我更加惊讶了。她说：“你想要几间房都可以——只要你付一大笔钱。”

I hesitated but for a single instant, long enough to ask myself what she meant in particular by this condition. First it struck me that she must have really a large sum in her mind; then I reasoned quickly that her idea of a large sum would probably not correspond to my own. My deliberation, I think, was not so visible as to diminish the promptitude with which I replied, "I will pay with pleasure and of course in advance whatever you may think is proper to ask me."

我只犹豫了片刻，便足够思考她提出这个条件到底是什么意思。我最开始认为，她心里真的有一笔大数目。然后我很快推断，她的大数目和我的大数目可能并不一样。我的考虑，我认为，还没有明显到影响我的快速反应。我回答：“我乐意支付，而且当然是预先付款，你觉得合适，就尽管开口。”

"Well then, a thousand francs a month," she rejoined instantly, while her baffling green shade continued to cover her attitude.“那好，一千法郎一个月。”她马上答道。她那令人迷惑的绿罩子依旧掩盖了她的态度。

The figure, as they say, was startling and my logic had been at fault. The sum she had mentioned was, by the Venetian measure of such matters, exceedingly large; there was many an old palace in an out-of-the-way corner that I might on such terms have enjoyed by the year.

这个数字，正如他人所说，是惊人的。我的推理出错了。她提出的这个数目，用威尼斯的这类标准来衡量的话，高得离谱。这里有很多在这样偏远的角落里的古宅，租这样的房子，同样的钱可以住一年。

But so far as my small means allowed I was prepared to spend money, and my decision was quickly taken. I would pay her with a smiling face what she asked, but in that case I would give myself the compensation of extracting the papers from her for nothing. Moreover if she had asked five times as much I should have risen to the occasion; so odious would it have appeared to me to stand chaffering with Aspern's Juliana.

但是，只要我经济条件允许，我是打算要花这个钱的，于是我很快下了决心。我会笑容满面地支付她的要价，但如此一来，我要分文不花地从她那里拿到文稿，作为补偿。况且，就算她的要价是现在的五倍，我还是会答应。我很反感同阿斯本的朱莉安娜讨价还价。

It was queer enough to have a question of money with her at all. I assured her that her views perfectly met my own and that on the morrow I should have the pleasure of putting three months' rent into her hand. She received this announcement with serenity and with no apparent sense that after all it would be becoming of her to say that I ought to see the rooms first. This did not occur to her and indeed her serenity was mainly what I wanted.

和她争论钱的问题，这就已经够奇怪的了。我请她放心，她的想法和我不谋而合，明天我会很乐意把三个月的租金交到她手上。她平静地听我讲完。她并没有清楚地意识到，她毕竟应该先让我看看房间。她没有想到这些。事实上，她的安静正是我最想要的。

Our little bargain was just concluded when the door opened and the younger lady appeared on the threshold. As soon as Miss Bordereau saw her niece she cried out almost gaily, "He will give three thousand—three thousand tomorrow!”

我们的生意刚谈完，门就打开了，年轻一点儿的那位女士出现在门口。博尔德罗小姐一看见她的侄女，就几乎是很快乐地喊道：“他愿意给三千——明天就给三千！”

Miss Tita stood still, with her patient eyes turning from one of us to the other; then she inquired, scarcely above her breath, "Do you mean francs?"

蒂塔小姐定在那里，眼神很有耐性地在我们两人身上转来转去。然后她语气平静地问道：“你是说法郎？”

"Did you mean francs or dollars?" the old woman asked of me at this.“你是说法郎还是美元？”这个老妇人问我。

"I think francs were what you said," I answered, smiling.“我想，你说的是法郎。”我微笑着回答道。

"That is very good," said Miss Tita, as if she had become conscious that her own question might have looked overreaching.“很好。”蒂塔小姐说道，似乎意识到自己的问题显得有点儿过分。

"What do YOU know? You are ignorant," Miss Bordereau remarked; not with acerbity but with a strange, soft coldness.“你知道什么？你什么都不知道。”博尔德罗小姐说。语气不算尖酸，但带有一种奇怪的、些许冷漠的意味。

"Yes, of money—certainly of money!" Miss Tita hastened to exclaim.“是的，有关钱——我的确不懂货币！”蒂塔小姐马上承认。

"I am sure you have your own branches of knowledge," I took the liberty of saying, genially. There was something painful to me, somehow, in the turn the conversation had taken, in the discussion of the rent.“我相信你一定有拿手的方面。”我冒昧但温和地说。不知何故，话题转向讨论我的租金问题，我觉得有点儿痛苦。

"She had a very good education when she was young. I looked into that myself," said Miss Bordereau. Then she added, "But she has learned nothing since."“她年轻的时候接受了很好的教育。我那时亲自负责。”博尔德罗小姐说。然后她又说：“但从那以后，她什么也没有学到。”

"I have always been with you," Miss Tita rejoined very mildly, and evidently with no intention of making an epigram.“我一直和你在一起。”蒂塔小姐反驳，语气非常轻柔，很明显不想把话说得太重。

"Yes, but for that!" her aunt declared with more satirical force. She evidently meant that but for this her niece would never have got on at all; the point of the observation however being lost on Miss Tita, though she blushed at hearing her history revealed to a stranger. Miss Bordereau went on, addressing herself to me: "And what time will you come tomorrow with the money?"“是啊，如果不是这个原因的话！”她的姑妈讽刺意味加重了。她明显是说，如果不是这样，她的侄女一定不会有所发展。虽然，当听见自己的故事被透露给一个陌生人，蒂塔小姐的脸红了起来，她却没有领会到姑妈说的这一点。博尔德罗小姐接着对我说：“明天你什么时候拿钱来？”

"The sooner the better. If it suits you I will come at noon."“越快越好。你觉得合适的话，我中午就会来。”

"I am always here but I have my hours," said the old woman, as if her convenience were not to be taken for granted.“我一直都在，但时间上也有要求。”这个老妇说道，别人似乎不可以想当然地打扰她似的。

"You mean the times when you receive?"“你是说你待客的时间？”

"I never receive. But I will see you at noon, when you come with the money."“我从不待客。但是中午你带钱来的时候，我会同你见面。”

"Very good, I shall be punctual;" and I added, "May I shake hands with you, on our contract?"I thought there ought to be some little form, it would make me really feel easier, for I foresaw that there would be no other.“太好了，我一定准时到，”我又说，“我可以跟你握手，为我们的约定握手吗？”我认为应该有点儿小仪式，能让我自在一点儿。而且我也想不到其他的方式了。

Besides, though Miss Bordereau could not today be called personally attractive and there was something even in her wasted antiquity that bade one stand at one's distance, I felt an irresistible desire to hold in my own for a moment the hand that Jeffrey Aspern had pressed.

另外，虽然今天的博尔德罗小姐不能说有什么个人魅力，甚至这行将就木的老人还有种拒人千里的姿态，我还是感觉到不可抗拒的欲望，想要用我的手握一下杰弗里·阿斯本曾经紧握的手。

For a minute she made no answer, and I saw that my proposal failed to meet with her approbation. She indulged in no movement of withdrawal, which I half-expected; she only said coldly, "I belong to a time when that was not the custom."

过了一阵，她没有回答，我知道自己的提议没有获得她的许可。她并没有做出离开的动作，我料到了一半。她只是冷冷地说：“我那个年代没有这样的礼节。”

I felt rather snubbed but I exclaimed good humoredly to Miss Tita, "Oh, you will do as well!"I shook hands with her while she replied, with a small flutter, "Yes, yes, to show it's all arranged!”

我有点儿受挫，但还是很幽默地对蒂塔小姐说：“那么，你和我握手也一样！”我和她握手，她有一点儿受宠若惊地回应道：“是的，是的，表示一切安排妥当！”

"Shall you bring the money in gold?" Miss Bordereau demanded, as I was turning to the door.“你是带金币来吗？”在我转身朝门口走去的时候，博尔德罗小姐问道。

I looked at her for a moment. "Aren't you a little afraid, after all, of keeping such a sum as that in the house?”It was not that I was annoyed at her avidity but I was really struck with the disparity between such a treasure and such scanty means of guarding it.

我看了她一会儿。“说到底，你是有点儿害怕在这宅子里有这么一大笔钱吧？”不是我厌烦她的贪婪，而是我确实想到，这样一笔财富和如此欠缺的保护措施之间，差距是多么大。

"Whom should I be afraid of if I am not afraid of you?" she asked with her shrunken grimness.“除了你，我会担心谁呢？”她用她那萎缩却冷酷的语气问道。

"Ah well," said I, laughing, "I shall be in point of fact a protector and I will bring gold if you prefer."“好吧，”我笑着说，“实话实说，我会是个保护者。如果你喜欢，我会带金币来。”

"Thank you," the old woman returned with dignity and with an inclination of her head which evidently signified that I might depart.“谢谢！”这个老妇人重新摆起了架子，点一下头，明白地示意我该离开了。

I passed out of the room, reflecting that it would not be easy to circumvent her. As I stood in the sala again I saw that Miss Tita had followed me, and I supposed that as her aunt had neglected to suggest that I should take a look at my quarters it was her purpose to repair the omission.

我出了房间，心想，要智取她可不容易。我在正厅停下来，看见蒂塔小姐跟着我。我还以为，她姑妈忘记让我看看自己的房间，所以她要出来弥补这个疏忽。

But she made no such suggestion; she only stood there with a dim, though not a languid smile, and with an effect of irresponsible, incompetent youth which was almost comically at variance with the faded facts of her person. She was not infirm, like her aunt, but she struck me as still more helpless, because her inefficiency was spiritual, which was not the case with Miss Bordereau's.

但她也没这样提议，她只是站在那里，脸上有一种模糊的，虽然说不上是憔悴的笑容。她看起来有一点儿年轻人那种不可靠、没能力的感觉，这种感觉和她本人衰老憔悴的真实情况不相配到了滑稽的程度。她不像她姑妈那样身体羸弱，但她给我的感觉却更加无助。因为她的不足是精神上的，而博尔德罗小姐却不是。

I waited to see if she would offer to show me the rest of the house, but I did not precipitate the question, inasmuch as my plan was from this moment to spend as much of my time as possible in her society.

我等着看她是否邀请我看看这房子的其他地方，但我没有冒昧地抛出这个问题，因为我的计划是，从这一刻开始，我要尽可能多花时间和她交往。

I only observed at the end of a minute:"I have had better fortune than I hoped. It was very kind of her to see me. Perhaps you said a good word for me."

我过了一分钟才说：“我的运气比我希望的更好。她能见我，真是太好了。可能是因为你替我美言了几句。”

"It was the idea of the money," said Miss Tita.“其实是因为钱的关系。”蒂塔小姐说。

"And did you suggest that?"“是你提出来的么？”

"I told her that you would perhaps give a good deal."“我告诉她，你有可能会给很大一笔钱。”

"What made you think that?"“你是怎么想到的？”

"I told her I thought you were rich."“我告诉她，我觉得你很富有。”

"And what put that idea into your head?"“你为什么会这么想呢？”

"I don't know; the way you talked.”“我不知道，可能是因为你讲话的方式吧。”

"Dear me, I must talk differently now," I declared. "I'm sorry to say it's not the case.”“天哪，我现在一定要换换说话的方式了，”我宣称，“很抱歉，实情不是这样的。”

"Well," said Miss Tita, "I think that in Venice the forestieri, in general, often give a great deal for something that after all isn't much.”“哦，”蒂塔小姐说，“我想，在威尼斯，游客们总是为无足轻重的东西花很多钱。”

She appeared to make this remark with a comforting intention, to wish to remind me that if I had been extravagant I was not really foolishly singular. We walked together along the sala, and as I took its magnificent measure I said to her that I was afraid it would not form a part of my quartiere. Were my rooms by chance to be among those that opened into it?

她说这话，看起来是为了安慰我，提醒我，就算我铺张浪费，我也不是那傻傻的唯独一个。我们沿着客厅一起走着，我一边估量它的宏伟程度，一边对她说，恐怕我的住处不包括这里吧。我的房间是不是刚好开门就能进这个客厅呢？

"And I infer that that's where your aunt would like me to be.”“我猜那是你姑妈要我住的地方吧。”

"She said your apartments ought to be very distinct."“她说你的房间是要分开的。”

"That certainly would be best."And I listened with respect while she told me that up above I was free to take whatever I liked; that there was another staircase, but only from the floor on which we stood, and that to pass from it to the garden-story or to come up to my lodging I should have in effect to cross the great hall. This was an immense point gained; I foresaw that it would constitute my whole leverage in my relations with the two ladies.“那最好不过了。”我恭敬地听她告诉我，我可以随心所欲地带我喜欢的东西到楼上去。她告诉我，还有另外一个梯子，但只能从我们现在站的这层楼上去，如果我要下到有花园的那一层，或是要回到我寄宿的地方，就免不了要穿过正厅。这真是一大进步。我预计到，这将会成为我和这两位女士的关系的杠杆。

When I asked Miss Tita how I was to manage at present to find my way up she replied with an access of that sociable shyness which constantly marked her manner.

当我问蒂塔小姐，现在我要怎样上楼的时候，她回答时带着她与人交际时的害羞表情，这习惯性的表情常常出现。

"Perhaps you can't. I don't see—unless I should go with you.”She evidently had not thought of this before.“也许你找不到。我不认为——除非我带你去。”她之前明显没想过这一点。

We ascended to the upper floor and visited a long succession of empty rooms.

我们上了楼，看过了一长排空房间。

The best of them looked over the garden; some of the others had a view of the blue lagoon, above the opposite rough-tiled housetops. They were all dusty and even a little disfigured with long neglect, but I saw that by spending a few hundred francs I should be able to convert three or four of them into a convenient habitation.

最好的房间可以俯瞰花园，其他有些房间可以看见对面的粗瓦房顶上那蓝色的泻湖。这些房间满是灰尘，由于长期无人问津，甚至有点儿走样。但我觉得花个几百法郎，我应该可以把三四间屋子打理成舒适的居所。

My experiment was turning out costly, yet now that I had all but taken possession I ceased to allow this to trouble me. I mentioned to my companion a few of the things that I should put in, but she replied rather more precipitately than usual that I might do exactly what I liked; she seemed to wish to notify me that the Misses Bordereau would take no overt interest in my proceedings. I guessed that her aunt had instructed her to adopt this tone, and I may as well say now that I came afterward to distinguish perfectly (as I believed) between the speeches she made on her own responsibility and those the old lady imposed upon her.

我的试验是很昂贵的，但是，既然我除了拥有文稿，什么都不缺，我还是不允许自己为钱的事情烦恼。我向我的同伴提到几样我想要放进来的东西，但她异常突然地回应说，我想做什么都可以。她似乎想提醒我，博尔德罗小姐们对于我的举动没有什么明显的兴趣。我猜是她姑妈教她用这样的语气说话的。我可以顺便说一下，我后来就能清楚地区分（正如我深信的那样）哪些是她自己想说的话，哪些是那个老太太要她说的。

She took no notice of the unswept condition of the rooms and indulged in no explanations nor apologies.

她注意不到这些房间未经打扫的情况，也不费心解释或是致歉。

I said to myself that this was a sign that Juliana and her niece (disenchanting idea!) were untidy persons, with a low Italian standard; but I afterward recognized that a lodger who had forced an entrance had no locus standi as a critic.

我告诉自己，这表明以较低的意大利标准来看，朱莉安娜和她的侄女（这样的想法可不迷人！）是不爱整洁的人。但我后来认识到，作为一个硬闯进来的房客，我没有资格批评他人。

We looked out of a good many windows, for there was nothing within the rooms to look at, and still I wanted to linger. I asked her what several different objects in the prospect might be, but in no case did she appear to know.

我们从很多扇窗户往外看，因为房间里面没什么可看的，但我还是想逗留。我问她我们看见的景色里的几件不寻常的事物是什么，但她没有一处说得上来。

She was evidently not familiar with the view—it was as if she had not looked at it for years—and I presently saw that she was too preoccupied with something else to pretend to care for it.

她很明显对这里的景色不熟悉——好像很多年都没有看过似的——我当下便看出，她正专注于其他的什么事情，根本没有装作在意这番风景。

Suddenly she said—the remark was not suggested:

突然，她说道——不是我问她才说的：

"I don't know whether it will make any difference to you, but the money is for me.”“我不知道这对你来说是否重要，但这钱是给我的。”

"The money?"“钱？”

"The money you are going to bring."“你将要带来的钱。”

"Why, you'll make me wish to stay here two or three years.”I spoke as benevolently as possible, though it had begun to act on my nerves that with these women so associated with Aspern the pecuniary question should constantly come back.“哦，那你会让我想要在这里住个两三年。”我说得尽可能仁慈，尽管我开始厌烦这些与阿斯本联系如此紧密的女人们不断和我讨论金钱的问题。

"That would be very good for me," she replied, smiling.“那对我来说很好。”她回答，微笑着。

"You put me on my honor!"“是你给我这个荣幸！”

She looked as if she failed to understand this, but went on: "She wants me to have more. She thinks she is going to die."

她看起来没理解这意思，但继续说道：“她希望我能得到更多。她认为她快要死了。”

"Ah, not soon, I hope!"I exclaimed with genuine feeling.“哦，我希望她能长寿！”我说这话可是很诚恳的。

I had perfectly considered the possibility that she would destroy her papers on the day she should feel her end really approach.

我完全考虑过这种可能性，那就是，某一天，她要是觉得自己大限将至，她可能会毁了文稿。

I believed that she would cling to them till then, and I think I had an idea that she read Aspern's letters over every night or at least pressed them to her withered lips. I would have given a good deal to have a glimpse of the latter spectacle.

我相信，一直到那个时候，她都会留着文稿。我有个想法，认为她会每夜读一遍阿斯本的信，或是至少也要用自己干枯的嘴唇亲吻这些信件。为了看一眼后者这个画面，我愿意付出大代价。

I asked Miss Tita if the old lady were seriously ill, and she replied that she was only very tired—she had lived so very, very long. That was what she said herself—she wanted to die for a change. Besides, all her friends were dead long ago; either they ought to have remained or she ought to have gone. That was another thing her aunt often said—she was not at all content.

我问蒂塔小姐，老太太是不是病得很严重。她回答说，她只是累了——她活得太久太久了。这是她自己说的——她想死了，图个改变。再者，她的朋友们早都死了。不是他们还该活着，就是她已经该死了。那是她姑妈常说的另一件事——她一点儿都不开心。

"But people don't die when they like, do they?" Miss Tita inquired. I took the liberty of asking why, if there was actually enough money to maintain both of them, there would not be more than enough in case of her being left alone.“可人们不是想死就会死的，不是吗？”蒂塔小姐询问道。我冒昧地问她原因，如果真有一笔钱够两人的生活，那么她一个人的生活更是不成问题了。

She considered this difficult problem a moment and then she said, "Oh, well, you know, she takes care of me. She thinks that when I'm alone I shall be a great fool, I shall not know how to manage.”

她一时觉得这个问题很棘手，于是，她说：“嗯，你知道，我是受她照顾的。她认为，我如果独自一人的话，一定是个傻瓜，我肯定不知道怎么理财。”

"I should have supposed that you took care of her. I'm afraid she is very proud.”“我早该猜到是你在照顾她。恐怕她是个很骄傲的人。”

"Why, have you discovered that already?" Miss Tita cried with the glimmer of an illumination in her face.“啊，你已经发现了？”蒂塔小姐叫道，脸上闪着光。

"I was shut up with her there for a considerable time, and she struck me, she interested me extremely. It didn't take me long to make my discovery. She won't have much to say to me while I'm here.”“我和她呆在一个房间里的时间相当长，她让我印象深刻，使我觉得很有意思。我很快就发现这一点了。我在这里的时候，她是不会和我多谈的。”

"No, I don't think she will," my companion averred.“是的，我认为她不会。”我的同伴断言说。

"Do you suppose she has some suspicion of me?"“你认为她对我有所怀疑？”

Miss Tita's honest eyes gave me no sign that I had touched a mark. "I shouldn't think so—letting you in after all so easily.”

蒂塔诚实的眼神没有让我看到任何信号，表明我触动到了什么。“我觉得没有——毕竟你很轻易地就住进来了。”

"Oh, so easily! She has covered her risk. But where is it that one could take an advantage of her?"“是，太容易了！她说自己这样做是冒险。但谁能占她什么便宜呢？”

"I oughtn't to tell you if I knew, ought I?”And Miss Tita added, before I had time to reply to this, smiling dolefully, "Do you think we have any weak points?"“我就算知道了也不该告诉你，不是吗？”在我还没有来得及回答之前，蒂塔小姐又苦笑着说：“你觉得我们有什么弱点吗？”

"That's exactly what I'm asking. You would only have to mention them for me to respect them religiously.”“我问的正是这个问题。你告诉我的话，我定会像信仰宗教一样地敬重它们。”

She looked at me, at this, with that air of timid but candid and even gratified curiosity with which she had confronted me from the first; and then she said, "There is nothing to tell. We are terribly quiet. I don't know how the days pass. We have no life.”

我这样说的时候，她看着我，带着一种初见时便对我产生的羞怯，坦诚，甚至是感激的好奇感。然后她说：“没什么可说的。我们极其安静。我不知道日子是怎么过的。我们没有人生。”

"I wish I might think that I should bring you a little."“我希望我可以为你带来一点点人生。”

"Oh, we know what we want," she went on. "It's all right.”“哦，我们知道我们想要什么，”她继续说道，“没关系。”

There were various things I desired to ask her: how in the world they did live; whether they had any friends or visitors, any relations in America or in other countries. But I judged such an inquiry would be premature; I must leave it to a later chance. "Well, don't YOU be proud," I contented myself with saying. "Don't hide from me altogether.”

有很多事情我想问她：她们到底怎么生活？她们有朋友或访客吗？在美国或其他国家有亲戚吗？“那，你不可以太骄傲，”我还是忍不住说道，“不要总对我避而不见。”

"Oh, I must stay with my aunt," she returned, without looking at me. And at the same moment, abruptly, without any ceremony of parting, she quitted me and disappeared, leaving me to make my own way downstairs.“哦，我必须和我的姑妈呆在一起。”她回答，不看我。同时，也不尽告别的礼数，她就突然离开我，消失了，留下我自己走下楼。

I remained a while longer, wandering about the bright desert (the sun was pouring in) of the old house, thinking the situation over on the spot. Not even the pattering little serva came to look after me, and I reflected that after all this treatment showed confidence.

我停留了一阵，在这明亮的沙漠般（太阳照进来了）的古宅里徘徊，当场考虑自己当前的情形。连那个跑上跑下的小侍女也没有来找我。我想，这个待遇毕竟表明了信任。IV四

Perhaps it did, but all the same, six weeks later, toward the middle of June, the moment when Mrs. Prest undertook her annual migration, I had made no measurable advance.

也许那的确是表明了信任吧。但六周以后，也就是快六月中旬的时候，那时，普雷斯顿夫人开始了她的年度移居，而我没有大的进展，还是老样子。

I was obliged to confess to her that I had no results to speak of.

我只好向她承认，我目前没有什么成效可言。

My first step had been unexpectedly rapid, but there was no appearance that it would be followed by a second. I was a thousand miles from taking tea with my hostesses—that privilege of which, as I reminded Mrs. Prest, we both had had a vision.

我的第一步令人意外地迅速，但看起来第二步就没有办法跟上这个速度了。和我的女主人喝茶还有千里之遥——这个特权，就像我提醒普雷斯顿夫人的那样，我俩原本都曾幻想过。

She reproached me with wanting boldness, and I answered that even to be bold you must have an opportunity: you may push on through a breach but you can't batter down a dead wall. She answered that the breach I had already made was big enough to admit an army and accused me of wasting precious hours in whimpering in her salon when I ought to have been carrying on the struggle in the field.

她责怪我不够大胆，我反驳说就算大胆，也必须要有机会：你也许可以通过一条缝隙而有所推进，但是要推倒一堵死墙却做不到。她说我打开的缺口已经大到可以通过一支军队了。她指责我浪费宝贵的时间在她的客厅里抱怨哭诉，而没有在应该去的战场上拼杀。

It is true that I went to see her very often, on the theory that it would console me (I freely expressed my discouragement) for my want of success on my own premises. But I began to perceive that it did not console me to be perpetually chaffed for my scruples, especially when I was really so vigilant; and I was rather glad when my derisive friend closed her house for the summer.

我的确常常去见她，希望获得安慰（我把自己的失望毫无拘束地讲出来），因为我没有取得预期的成功。但我开始意识到，因为犹豫不决而遭人戏谑并不能安慰我，况且我其实非常警觉。所以，这位爱嘲弄人的朋友度假离家，我还蛮高兴的。

She had expected to gather amusement from the drama of my intercourse with the Misses Bordereau, and she was disappointed that the intercourse, and consequently the drama, had not come off.

她希望能从我和两位博尔德罗小姐的来往中寻求乐趣。但令她失望的是，我们没有什么来往，随之而来的好戏也并未上演。

"They'll lead you on to your ruin," she said before she left Venice. "They'll get all your money without showing you a scrap.”I think I settled down to my business with more concentration after she had gone away.“她们会让你破产的，”离开威尼斯前，她这样说，“她们能弄走你所有的钱，而你连纸屑都看不到。”我觉得她走了以后，我可以更专心地做我的事了。

It was a fact that up to that time I had not, save on a single brief occasion, had even a moment's contact with my queer hostesses. The exception had occurred when I carried them according to my promise the terrible three thousand francs.

事实上到那时候为止，我都没有机会和我古怪的女主人有一刻的接触，除了有一次短暂的机会。那次的例外是我依据我的承诺，给她们送去那骇人的三千法郎。

Then I found Miss Tita waiting for me in the hall, and she took the money from my hand so that I did not see her aunt. The old lady had promised to receive me, but she apparently thought nothing of breaking that vow. The money was contained in a bag of chamois leather, of respectable dimensions, which my banker had given me, and Miss Tita had to make a big fist to receive it.

然后，我发现蒂塔小姐在大厅里等我，她从我手里接过钱，这样我就见不到她的姑妈了。这个老妇人答应了要见我，可是，她显然认为不守承诺无所谓。钱是用麂皮袋子装着的，以示尊重。袋子是我的银行经理给我的，蒂塔小姐必须要张开手来接住它。

This she did with extreme solemnity, though I tried to treat the affair a little as a joke. It was in no jocular strain, yet it was with simplicity, that she inquired, weighing the money in her two palms: "Don't you think it's too much?”

她极度郑重其事，而我则稍稍试图把这事当成个笑话。虽然不算是打趣，她还是掂掂双手的钱，简洁地问道：“你会不会觉得太多了？”

To which I replied that that would depend upon the amount of pleasure I should get for it.

对于这个问题，我回答道，那要取决于我能从中获得多少乐趣。

Hereupon she turned away from me quickly, as she had done the day before, murmuring in a tone different from any she had used hitherto: "Oh, pleasure, pleasure—there's no pleasure in this house!”

听到这话，她像头一天那样迅速地背过身去，用一种和以前截然不同的语气低声说道：“哦，乐趣，乐趣——这个宅子没有乐趣！”

After this, for a long time, I never saw her, and I wondered that the common chances of the day should not have helped us to meet.

从那以后，很长一段时间，我完全没有见到她。我很疑惑，平日里的常有的机会怎么竟然没有帮助我们相遇。

It could only be evident that she was immensely on her guard against them; and in addition to this the house was so big that for each other we were lost in it. I used to look out for her hopefully as I crossed the sala in my comings and goings, but I was not rewarded with a glimpse of the tail of her dress. It was as if she never peeped out of her aunt's apartment.

很明显，她极其小心地警惕这类事情的发生。而且，这个宅子也实在太大了，所以我们会相互错过。当我来来回回地穿过正厅，我曾经希望能看到她，但是，我连瞥见她的裙摆的机会都没有。似乎她从来没有从她姑妈的房间往外窥探过。

I used to wonder what she did there week after week and year after year. I had never encountered such a violent parti pris of seclusion; it was more than keeping quiet—it was like hunted creatures feigning death.

我曾经很好奇，她在那里周复一周，年复一年，到底在做什么。我从未遇过如此偏执的与世隔绝。这不仅仅是保持安静——这像是被捕的生物装死以自保。

The two ladies appeared to have no visitors whatever and no sort of contact with the world.

这两位女士看起来没有访客，同这个世界也没有任何联系。

I judged at least that people could not have come to the house and that Miss Tita could not have gone out without my having some observation of it.

我断定，至少，如果有人来过这里，或是蒂塔小姐要是出门的话，我也不会没有留意到。

I did what I disliked myself for doing (reflecting that it was only once in a way): I questioned my servant about their habits and let him divine that I should be interested in any information he could pick up.

我做了一件自己很不喜欢的事（告诉自己仅此一次）：我问我的仆人她们的习惯，让他以为我对于他获得的任何信息都感兴趣。

But he picked up amazingly little for a knowing Venetian: it must be added that where there is a perpetual fast there are very few crumbs on the floor. His cleverness in other ways was sufficient, if it was not quite all that I had attributed to him on the occasion of my first interview with Miss Tita.

但是作为一个精明的威尼斯人，他获得的信息少得惊人：不得不补充一下，在一个长期斋戒的地方，地上是很难看到面包屑的。虽然比不上我第一次和蒂塔小姐谈话时所描述的那样能干，他的聪明在其他地方还是很够用的。

He had helped my gondolier to bring me round a boatload of furniture; and when these articles had been carried to the top of the palace and distributed according to our associated wisdom he organized my household with such promptitude as was consistent with the fact that it was composed exclusively of himself. He made me in short as comfortable as I could be with my indifferent prospects. I should have been glad if he had fallen in love with Miss Bordereau's maid or, failing this, had taken her in aversion; either event might have brought about some kind of catastrophe, and a catastrophe might have led to some parley.

他帮我的船夫，把我一整船的家具搬来。家具一件件搬上顶楼之后，他按照我俩的共同智慧把家具摆放整理好，动作迅速得好像是他自己一个人的杰作似的。简而言之，我对自己的前途不太确定，他却使我尽可能地感觉舒心。要是他能爱上博尔德罗小姐家的女仆的话，我会非常高兴。如若未遂，那就讨厌她也好。两个事件都会引发某种剧变，而一场剧变则可以引起某种谈判。

It was my idea that she would have been sociable, and I myself on various occasions saw her flit to and fro on domestic errands, so that I was sure she was accessible. But I tasted of no gossip from that fountain, and I afterward learned that Pasquale's affections were fixed upon an object that made him heedless of other women.

我认为，她应该是爱好交际的，我自己就很多次看见她在家里跑上跑下做家务，所以，我确定她是可以接近的。但我从那个来源没有听到一点儿流言蜚语。我后来了解到，帕斯夸莱有钟情的目标，这使他对其他女人视而不见。

This was a young lady with a powdered face, a yellow cotton gown, and much leisure, who used often to come to see him. She practiced, at her convenience, the art of a stringer of beads (these ornaments are made in Venice, in profusion; she had her pocket full of them, and I used to find them on the floor of my apartment), and kept an eye on the maiden in the house. It was not for me of course to make the domestics tattle, and I never said a word to Miss Bordereau's cook.

那是个年轻女士，脸上扑着粉，穿一件黄色棉质长裙。她很闲，常常来看他。她方便的时候，就做些串珠的活计（威尼斯盛产这些饰物。她的口袋里装满了珠子，我曾经在我房间的地板上也发现了一些珠子），也密切注意这家人的女仆。我当然不好讲这些家长里短，我也从来没有对博尔德罗小姐家的厨娘说过一句话。

It seemed to me a proof of the old lady's determination to have nothing to do with me that she should never have sent me a receipt for my three months' rent.

我付了三个月租金，这个老太太竟然没有给一张收据。我想，这说明她铁了心不想和我有任何关系。

For some days I looked out for it and then, when I had given it up, I wasted a good deal of time in wondering what her reason had been for neglecting so indispensable and familiar a form.

我期待了好多天，然后，当我放弃的时候，我又浪费了很多时间猜测，为什么她会忽略这么必要而又常见的形式。

At first I was tempted to send her a reminder, after which I relinquished the idea (against my judgment as to what was right in the particular case), on the general ground of wishing to keep quiet.

一开始，我打算送便条提醒她，随后我否定了这个想法（不同于我对特定情况下正确作为的判断），因为基本上，我还是希望保持沉默。

If Miss Bordereau suspected me of ulterior aims she would suspect me less if I should be businesslike, and yet I consented not to be so. It was possible she intended her omission as an impertinence, a visible irony, to show how she could overreach people who attempted to overreach her. On that hypothesis it was well to let her see that one did not notice her little tricks.

如果博尔德罗小姐怀疑我别有用心，那么，要是我表现得实际一点儿，她就不那么怀疑我了。但我还是不愿这样做。她很有可能是故意显得无礼才不给我收据，这真是显而易见的讽刺，表明她可以骗过一切想要欺骗她的人。如果这个假设成立的话，那么最好让她了解，大家没有注意到她耍的把戏。

The real reading of the matter, I afterward perceived, was simply the poor old woman's desire to emphasize the fact that I was in the enjoyment of a favor as rigidly limited as it had been liberally bestowed. She had given me part of her house, and now she would not give me even a morsel of paper with her name on it.

此事最终要表明的意义，我后来体会到，仅仅是这可怜的老妇人期望强调一个事实，那就是，我所享有的恩惠，可以被慷慨地施予，也有同样严格的限制。她把她宅子的一部分给了我，但如今，她却连个签了她名字的小纸片都不给我。

Let me say that even at first this did not make me too miserable, for the whole episode was essentially delightful to me.

这样说吧，即使是最开始的时候，我也不感到太难受，因为整个插曲对我来说，本质上是令人高兴的。

I foresaw that I should have a summer after my own literary heart, and the sense of holding my opportunity was much greater than the sense of losing it. There could be no Venetian business without patience, and since I adored the place I was much more in the spirit of it for having laid in a large provision.

我估计，爱好文学的我，要过一个称心如意的夏天了。我想要抓住机会的想法，比认输的想法要强烈得多。威尼斯的事情，没有不需要耐心的。我不但仰慕这个地方，更仰慕这种精神，而且为此下了大量功夫。

That spirit kept me perpetual company and seemed to look out at me from the revived immortal face—in which all his genius shone—of the great poet who was my prompter.

这种精神一直伴随着我，似乎它来自一张复活过来的不朽的脸——那脸上闪耀着他所有的才华——那张给我动力的伟大诗人的脸。

I had invoked him and he had come; he hovered before me half the time; it was as if his bright ghost had returned to earth to tell me that he regarded the affair as his own no less than mine and that we should see it fraternally, cheerfully to a conclusion. It was as if he had said, "Poor dear, be easy with her; she has some natural prejudices; only give her time. Strange as it may appear to you she was very attractive in 1820. Meanwhile are we not in Venice together, and what better place is there for the meeting of dear friends? See how it glows with the advancing summer; how the sky and the sea and the rosy air and the marble of the palaces all shimmer and melt together.”

我向他召唤，他就来了。他半数的时间盘旋在我面前，仿佛他睿智的鬼魂重回人间，告诉我，他不仅仅把这事看作是我的事，更是他自己的事，我们应当互相帮助，使它有个欢喜的结局。就好像他说：“可怜可亲的人啊，对她宽容一些吧。她天生带有些成见。她需要时间。尽管你可能会觉得奇怪，但她在一八二零年的时候，是个很有魅力的人。那时候，我们不是同在威尼斯吗？要和亲爱的朋友见面，还有什么更好的地方呢？你看，夏日临近时，它是如此地绚丽。天空、海洋、玫瑰色的空气，还有这宅子里的大理石，全都那样闪耀着，并浑然一体。”

My eccentric private errand became a part of the general romance and the general glory—I felt even a mystic companionship, a moral fraternity with all those who in the past had been in the service of art. They had worked for beauty, for a devotion; and what else was I doing? That element was in everything that Jeffrey Aspern had written, and I was only bringing it to the light.

我古怪的秘密使命成为我全部的浪漫和荣耀的一部分——我甚至感觉到同过去那些为艺术奉献的人有一种神秘的伙伴关系，一种精神上的兄弟情谊。他们为了美，为了一种虔诚而工作，而我又在做着什么别的呢？那种因素存在于杰弗里·阿斯本所写的一切东西里，而我只是要把它公诸于众。

I lingered in the sala when I went to and fro; I used to watch—as long as I thought decent—the door that led to Miss Bordereau's part of the house. A person observing me might have supposed I was trying to cast a spell upon it or attempting some odd experiment in hypnotism.

我进出的时候，常在正厅逗留。我曾经观察过——只要我认为得体——那扇通往博尔德罗小姐房间的门。要是有人观察我，可能会认为我在试着对它施咒，或是在尝试某种奇怪的催眠实验。

But I was only praying it would open or thinking what treasure probably lurked behind it. I hold it singular, as I look back, that I should never have doubted for a moment that the sacred relics were there; never have failed to feel a certain joy at being under the same roof with them. After all they were under my hand—they had not escaped me yet; and they made my life continuous, in a fashion, with the illustrious life they had touched at the other end.

但我只是祈祷那门能打开，猜测里面可能藏着什么样的宝藏。我一心一意，正如我回首过去，没有一刻怀疑过这神圣的遗物就在那里，没有一刻不感觉到与他们同在一个屋檐下的那种喜悦。毕竟，他们在我的掌控之下——他们还没有逃出我的手心。他们多多少少让我的生活继续，并和一种他们所接触的杰出人生保持关联。

I lost myself in this satisfaction to the point of assuming—in my quiet extravagance—that poor Miss Tita also went back, went back, as I used to phrase it. She did indeed, the gentle spinster, but not quite so far as Jeffrey Aspern, who was simply hearsay to her, quite as he was to me.

我迷失在这种满足感里，甚至认为——在我安静的奢想里——那可怜的蒂塔小姐也回到过去，就像我曾经描述的那样，回到了从前。她的确，这位温和的老处女，没有像杰弗里·阿斯本一样那么年代久远。阿斯本之于她，就像她之于我。

Only she had lived for years with Juliana, she had seen and handled the papers and (even though she was stupid) some esoteric knowledge had rubbed off on her. That was what the old woman represented—esoteric knowledge; and this was the idea with which my editorial heart used to thrill. It literally beat faster often, of an evening, when I had been out, as I stopped with my candle in the reechoing hall on my way up to bed. It was as if at such a moment as that, in the stillness, after the long contradiction of the day, Miss Bordereau's secrets were in the air, the wonder of her survival more palpable. These were the acute impressions.

只是，她和朱莉安娜一起住了多年，她看过，也处理过这些文稿（虽然她愚蠢），她多少还是了解一些秘密。那就是那位老妇人所代表的——秘密。这也是我这颗编辑的心为之颤动的事物。要是晚上出门回来，要上楼睡觉的时候，当我手持蜡烛，站在这个不断回响的大厅的时候，我的确心跳得比平时快。似乎在那样的时刻，在寂静之中，在经过了白天漫长的压抑之后，博尔德罗小姐的秘密就在空气里，而她活下来的奇迹也越发明显。这些就是强烈的印象。

I had them in another form, with more of a certain sort of reciprocity, during the hours that I sat in the garden looking up over the top of my book at the closed windows of my hostess. In these windows no sign of life ever appeared; it was as if, for fear of my catching a glimpse of them, the two ladies passed their days in the dark.

我还有其他的印象，更像是对这种印象的一种补充。那是来自于我数小时坐在花园里，从书本的顶端望向我的女主人关闭的窗户时的感受。这些窗户从来没有出现过生命的迹象。就好像这两位女士在黑暗中生活着，以防我瞥见她们。

But this only proved to me that they had something to conceal; which was what I had wished to demonstrate. Their motionless shutters became as expressive as eyes consciously closed, and I took comfort in thinking that at all events through invisible themselves they saw me between the lashes.

但对我来说，这只是证明了她们隐藏了某些东西。而那正是我想要证实的。那些一动不动的百叶窗变得很富有表情，就像一直闭上的眼睛。我舒心地想，无论如何，在她们自身的隐匿中，还是能透过睫毛一样的百叶窗看着我。

I made a point of spending as much time as possible in the garden, to justify the picture I had originally given of my horticultural passion. And I not only spent time, but (hang it! as I said) I spent money.

我尽可能多花时间在花园里，以证明我最初留给她们的印象，那就是我对园艺的热情。我不光花了时间，而且（该死！正如我说的）我还花了钱。

As soon as I had got my rooms arranged and could give the proper thought to the matter I surveyed the place with a clever expert and made terms for having it put in order. I was sorry to do this, for personally I liked it better as it was, with its weeds and its wild, rough tangle, its sweet, characteristic Venetian shabbiness.

当我安顿好了房间，可以好好想想我的事情的时候，我就马上找了个机灵的专家考察了这个地方，和他达成协议，好让事情步入正轨。这样做，我感到抱歉，因为就我个人来讲，我希望维持原样，让它杂草丛生，让它保有野性、粗糙和杂乱，让它保有它的美，这特有的威尼斯式的破败感。

I had to be consistent, to keep my promise that I would smother the house in flowers. Moreover I formed this graceful project that by flowers I would make my way—I would succeed by big nosegays. I would batter the old women with lilies—I would bombard their citadel with roses. Their door would have to yield to the pressure when a mountain of carnations should be piled up against it.

我必须言行一致，信守承诺，让鲜花包围这个宅子。更重要的是，我定下了这个“优雅”的计划：那就是，通过花，我可以长驱直入——我可以用一大束花获得成功。我可以用百合花击溃这两个妇人——我可以用玫瑰轰炸她们的根据地。当山一样的康乃馨堆积其上，她们的门必会屈服于这个压力而打开。

The place in truth had been brutally neglected. The Venetian capacity for dawdling is of the largest, and for a good many days unlimited litter was all my gardener had to show for his ministrations. There was a great digging of holes and carting about of earth, and after a while I grew so impatient that I had thoughts of sending for my bouquets to the nearest stand.

这个地方事实上被严重地忽略了。威尼斯人游手好闲的本事实在无可比拟。有好多天，我的园丁展示出来的功劳，不过是四处狼籍。有很多洞要挖，很多土要运走。不久，我变得很不耐烦，以至于我想到要在附近的花铺买点儿花束，当成我自己的成果。

But I reflected that the ladies would see through the chinks of their shutters that they must have been bought and might make up their minds from this that I was a humbug.

但我又想到，女士们可能会从百叶窗的缝隙里看见他们是买来的，然后认定我是个骗子。

So I composed myself and finally, though the delay was long, perceived some appearances of bloom. This encouraged me, and I waited serenely enough till they multiplied.

于是我镇定下来。虽然推迟了很久，最终我还是看见了开花的迹象。我受到了鼓舞，稳重地等待了足够久，直到它们繁茂起来。

Meanwhile the real summer days arrived and began to pass, and as I look back upon them they seem to me almost the happiest of my life. I took more and more care to be in the garden whenever it was not too hot.

那时，真正的夏天到来又开始过去。当我回想起来，那似乎是我人生中最快乐的时候。我越来越爱呆在花园，只要天不是太热。

I had an arbor arranged and a low table and an armchair put into

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