作者：Honoré de Balzac 巴尔扎克
出版社：外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
德卡迪央王妃的秘密(外研社双语读库)试读：
CHAPTER ITHE LAST WORD OF TWO GREAT COQUETTES第一章两位风情女子的定论
After the disasters of the revolution of July, which destroyed so many aristocratic fortunes dependent on the court, Madame la Princesse de Cadignan was clever enough to attribute to political events the total ruin she had caused by her own extravagance. The prince left France with the royal family, and never returned to it, leaving the princess in Paris, protected by the fact of his absence; for their debts, which the sale of all their salable property had not been able to extinguish, could only be recovered through him. The revenues of the entailed estates had been seized. In short, the affairs of this great family were in as bad a state as those of the elder branch of the Bourbons.
七月革命摧毁了众多依附于王室的贵族产业，这一灾难之后，德卡迪央王妃居然聪明地把由自己的挥霍无度造成的家庭破产，统统归因于这次政治事件。亲王把王妃一人留在巴黎，自己随同王室离开了法国，并且永远不会再回来。他们所欠下的债务，即使变卖所有的家当也无法偿还，不过这只是亲王本人的责任。他既然离家出走，王妃便不会受到法律的追究。世袭的财产已经被扣押。简而言之，这个大家庭的处境也就和波旁王朝长房其他家庭的处境一样糟糕。
This woman, so celebrated under her first name of Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, very wisely decided to live in retirement, and to make herself, if possible, forgotten. Paris was then so carried away by the whirling current of events that the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, buried in the Princesse de Cadignan, a change of name unknown to most of the new actors brought upon the stage of society by the revolution of July, did really become a stranger in her own city.
这位往日以德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人的头衔闻名的女人，非常明智地选择隐退的生活，如果可能的话，她希望自己被大众遗忘。巴黎当时正经受着一股令人晕眩的革命浪潮冲击，曾经的德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人这一称呼便被德卡迪央王妃这一称呼取代。七月革命中登上社会舞台的大部分新社会的演员都对改名换姓这件事一无所知，因此，王妃在自己生活的城市里竟然成了一位陌生人物。
In Paris the title of duke ranks all others, even that of prince; though, in heraldic theory, free of all sophism, titles signify nothing; there is absolute equality among gentlemen. This fine equality was formerly maintained by the House of France itself; and in our day it is so still, at least, nominally; witness the care with which the kings of France give to their sons the simple title of count.
在巴黎，公爵的头衔和其他头衔比起来是最高的，甚至高于亲王；不考虑一切诡辩的说法，按照纹章学理论，头衔没有任何意义，贵族之间是绝对平等的。这种值得赞赏的平等曾一度被法国王室保留下来；现如今，这样的平等仍然存在，至少名义上存在；法国国王仅仅赐予自己的儿子普通的伯爵头衔。
It was in virtue of this system that Francois crushed the splendid titles assumed by the pompous Charles the Fifth, by signing his answer: "Francois, seigneur de Vanves."Louis XI. did better still by marrying his daughter to an untitled gentleman, Pierre de Beaujeu. The feudal system was so thoroughly broken up by Louis XIV. that the title of duke became, during his reign, the supreme honor of the aristocracy, and the most coveted.
正是按照这种制度，弗朗索瓦一世在给高傲自大的查理五世的回信中，只签署了“弗朗索瓦，旺弗的领主”这个称呼，以示他对一切显赫头衔的不屑。路易十一做得更好，他把自己的女儿许配给了一个没有头衔的上流人士，名字叫皮埃尔·德博热。在路易十四统治时期，封建体系受到极大破坏，此时，公爵变成了贵族阶级最高且最让人仰慕的头衔。
Nevertheless there are two or three families in France in which the principality, richly endowed in former times, takes precedence of the duchy. The house of Cadignan, which possesses the title of Duc de Maufrigneuse for its eldest sons, is one of these exceptional families. Like the princes of the house of Rohan in earlier days, the princes of Cadignan had the right to a throne in their own domain; they could have pages and gentlemen in their service. This explanation is necessary, as much to escape foolish critics who know nothing, as to record the customs of a world which, we are told, is about to disappear, and which, evidently, so many persons are assisting to push away without knowing what it is.
尽管如此，在法国还有两三个王族家庭，曾经占有广大的领地，因此其地位仍在公爵之上。例如卡迪央家族，拥有指定由长子继承的德摩弗里纽斯公爵头衔，便是上文所说的几家例外的王族中的一家。像早期罗昂家族的亲王一样，德卡迪央亲王有权利在家中设立王座；还可以有侍从、陪臣为自己服务。这一解释是很有必要的，一方面可以摆脱那些虽然一无所知但对此事进行愚蠢批判的人，另一方面，也可以对一个将要不复存在的社会的各种风俗惯例做个记录。很明显，这个社会，众人对其一无所知，却竞相推倒它。
The Cadignans bear: or, five lozenges sable appointed, placed fess—wise, with the word "Memini" for motto, a crown with a cap of maintenance, no supporters or mantle. In these days the great crowd of strangers flocking to Paris, and the almost universal ignorance of the science of heraldry, are beginning to bring the title of prince into fashion. There are no real princes but those possessed of principalities, to whom belongs the title of highness. The disdain shown by the French nobility for the title of prince, and the reasons which caused Louis XIV. to give supremacy to the title of duke, have prevented Frenchmen from claiming the appellation of "highness" for the few princes who exist in France, those of Napoleon excepted. This is why the princes of Cadignan hold an inferior position, nominally, to the princes of the continent.
卡迪央家族的家徽，设计为五个相互联结的黑色菱形图案，中央贯穿一条横带，其上刻着"Memini"（表示“纪念”，拉丁文）作为箴言。家徽上有封口皇冠，但是既没有支撑物，也没有覆盖物。这段时间以来，大批陌生人涌进巴黎，他们对纹章学几乎一无所知，却开始把亲王这一头衔变得时髦起来。事实上，只有拥有封地和享有殿下称号的人才能算作真正的亲王。法国贵族对亲王头衔的蔑视，以及路易十四把公爵设为最高地位的种种原因，使法国人民无法给予现存的寥寥几个亲王以“殿下”的称号，但拿破仑家族的亲王例外。正是出于这个原因，卡迪央家族的亲王们从名义上来说，是没有欧洲大陆的亲王地位高的。
The members of the society called the faubourg Saint-Germain protected the princess by a respectful silence due to her name, which is one of those that all men honor, to her misfortunes, which they ceased to discuss, and to her beauty, the only thing she saved of her departed opulence. Society, of which she had once been the ornament, was thankful to her for having, as it were, taken the veil, and cloistered herself in her own home. This act of good taste was for her, more than for any other woman, an immense sacrifice. Great deeds are always so keenly felt in France that the princess gained, by her retreat, as much as she had lost in public opinion in the days of her splendor.
圣日耳曼地区的群众都用满怀崇敬的沉默来保护王妃。首先是出于她那让所有人尊敬的姓氏；其次是出于她的不幸遭遇，这一点人们现在已不再议论了；最后是出于她的美丽，这是她从曾经富裕的生活中唯一保存下来的东西。她曾经为之增光的社会，对她充满感激，因为她现在像是当起了修女，闭门不出，退隐在家中。这一得体的举动，对她而言，比其他女人都更是一种巨大的牺牲。在法国，人们总是能够极其敏锐地感受到高尚的举动。王妃的隐退得到了她在过去荣华富贵中失去的一切声望。
She now saw only one of her old friends, the Marquise d'Espard, and even to her she never went on festive occasions or to parties. The princess and the marquise visited each other in the forenoons, with a certain amount of secrecy. When the princess went to dine with her friend, the marquise closed her doors. Madame d'Espard treated the princess charmingly; she changed her box at the opera, leaving the first tier for a baignoire on the ground-floor, so that Madame de Cadignan could come to the theatre unseen, and depart incognito. Few women would have been capable of a delicacy which deprived them of the pleasure of bearing in their train a fallen rival, and of publicly being her benefactress. Thus relieved of the necessity for costly toilets, the princess could enjoy the theatre, whither she went in Madame d'Espard's carriage, which she would never have accepted openly in the daytime. No one has ever known Madame d'Espard's reasons for behaving thus to the Princesse de Cadignan; but her conduct was admirable, and for a long time included a number of little acts which, viewed single, seem mere trifles, but taken in the mass become gigantic.
现在她只与一位旧友德埃斯巴侯爵夫人有往来。她既不出席节日庆祝场合也不参加聚会。王妃和侯爵夫人总是在上午相互拜访，像是刻意避人耳目。每当王妃去她这位女友家共进晚餐，侯爵夫人便会命人关上大门。德埃斯巴侯爵夫人对待王妃非常友好真诚；她曾把剧院里楼上的包厢退掉，换成了楼下的包厢，这样便于德卡迪央夫人能够悄悄地进入剧院，也能秘密地离开。很少有女人能够这么体贴，因为这样会使她们失去很多乐趣——不能亲眼看着落魄的对手跟在自己屁股后面团团转，也不能使自己在大众面前成为她的恩人。王妃可以享受在剧院的时光，乘坐侯爵夫人的马车到任何地方，她从来不会在白天公开地接受侯爵夫人的马车，只会悄悄地乘坐，这样一来便不必穿着昂贵服装了。没有人知道德埃斯巴侯爵夫人为什么对德卡迪央王妃这么友好；但是她的举动真的很令人钦佩，她这么长时间以来那些一点一滴的付出，如果孤立地看，似乎都是微乎其微的琐事，可是总体来看的话，的确很伟大。
In 1832, three years had thrown a mantle of snow over the follies and adventures of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, and had whitened them so thoroughly that it now required a serious effort of memory to recall them.
到一八三二年为止，三年的时间已经给德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人的风流韵事和冒险经历蒙上了一层霜雪，把她洗刷得一干二净，现在她必须经过一番努力，才能记起那段生活。
Of the queen once adored by so many courtiers, and whose follies might have given a theme to a variety of novels, there remained a woman still adorably beautiful, thirty-six years of age, but quite justified in calling herself thirty, although she was the mother of Duc Georges de Maufrigneuse, a young man of eighteen, handsome as Antinous, poor as Job, who was expected to obtain great successes, and for whom his mother desired, above all things, to find a rich wife. Perhaps this hope was the secret of the intimacy she still kept up with the marquise, in whose salon, which was one of the first in Paris, she might eventually be able to choose among many heiresses for Georges' wife. The princess saw five years between the present moment and her son's marriage,—five solitary and desolate years; for, in order to obtain such a marriage for her son, she knew that her own conduct must be marked in the corner with discretion.
这位曾经被众多侍臣崇拜的王后，她的轻佻放纵可以为无数小说提供素材。现在她仍然是一位美妙的漂亮女人，三十六岁的年纪，但完全可以说自己只有三十岁，尽管她的儿子乔治·德摩弗里纽斯公爵已经十八岁了。她的儿子像安提弩斯一样英俊，却如同约伯一般贫穷。人们期望他日后取得伟大成就。他母亲认为首要任务是为他娶一位千金小姐。或许这个愿望就是她和侯爵夫人保持如此亲密关系的秘密，因为侯爵夫人有个在巴黎算得上一流的沙龙，在那里，她可能会在众多女继承人中为乔治挑选一位妻子。王妃认为从现在起到她儿子结婚要有五年的时间——孤独和忧郁的五年时光；因为她明白，为了儿子的美好姻缘能够成功，她必须谨慎行事。
The princess lived in the rue de Miromesnil, in a small house, of which she occupied the ground-floor at a moderate rent. There she made the most of the relics of her past magnificence. The elegance of the great lady was still redolent about her. She was still surrounded by beautiful things which recalled her former existence. On her chimney-piece was a fine miniature portrait of Charles X., by Madame Mirbel, beneath which were engraved the words, "Given by the King"; and, as a pendant, the portrait of "Madame", who was always her kind friend. On a table lay an album of costliest price, such as none of the bourgeoises who now lord it in our industrial and fault-finding society would have dared to exhibit. This album contained portraits, about thirty in number, of her intimate friends, whom the world, first and last, had given her as lovers. The number was a calumny; but had rumor said ten, it might have been, as her friend Madame d'Espard remarked, good, sound gossip. The portraits of Maxime de Trailles, de Marsay, Rastignac, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, General Montriveau, the Marquis de Ronquerolles and d'Ajuda-Pinto, Prince Galathionne, the young Ducs de Grandlieu and de Rhetore, the Vicomte de Serizy, and the handsome Lucien de Rubempre, had all been treated with the utmost coquetry of brush and pencil by celebrated artists. As the princess now received only two or three of these personages, she called the book, jokingly, the collection of her errors.
王妃住在米罗梅尼尔大街的一所小房子里，她以适中的价格租了这所房子的底层。她用自己曾经富丽堂皇的生活遗留下的东西布置了房间。因此在她的住所里，仍然可以感受到贵族夫人的华贵。房子里陈设特别漂亮，这会使她想起从前的豪华生活。在她家的壁炉上，有一幅弥尔贝尔夫人画的查理十世的微型画像，非常精美，下面刻着这样的文字：国王赠送；作为垂饰的是一幅皇后的画像，皇后过去一直对王妃很好。桌子上放着一本价值连城的相册，这是在我们这个吹毛求疵的工业社会里任何一个自命不凡的资产阶级妇女都不敢公开摆出来的东西。这个相册里面有大约三十张画像，都是她非常亲密的朋友，老天完全把他们作为情人馈赠给她。这个数目本身就是一种诽谤；像她的朋友德埃斯巴侯爵夫人所说，如果只有十张的话，则可算作巧妙的流言。画册里面有马克西姆·德特拉伊、德马尔赛、拉斯蒂涅、埃斯格里尼侯爵、蒙特里沃将军、德龙克罗尔侯爵以及阿瞿达-潘托侯爵、加拉蒂奥讷亲王和年轻的德葛朗利厄公爵、德雷托雷公爵、德塞里齐子爵、英俊的吕西安·德吕邦泼雷等人的画像，都是由著名的艺术家用最美艳的线条和笔墨勾勒而成的。现在王妃仅仅接见过他们中的两三个人物，因此，她开玩笑似地称这本书为《过错汇编》。
Misfortune had made this woman a good mother. During the fifteen years of the Restoration she had amused herself far too much to think of her son; but on taking refuge in obscurity, this illustrious egoist bethought her that the maternal sentiment, developed to its extreme, might be an absolution for her past follies in the eyes of sensible persons, who pardon everything to a good mother. She loved her son all the more because she had nothing else to love.
她所遭遇的不幸倒使她成为了一位好母亲。在王朝复辟的十五年中，她沉浸在自己的快乐中，很少能想到儿子；但是在默默无闻的隐居生活中，这位傲慢且地位显赫的母亲认识到，如果她能把母爱发展到极致，可能那些理智的人会宽恕她从前的过错，因为他们愿意宽恕一位好母亲所有的过错。她更加疼爱自己的儿子，因为她没有其他值得爱的东西了。
Georges de Maufrigneuse was, moreover, one of those children who flatter the vanities of a mother; and the princess had, accordingly, made all sorts of sacrifices for him. She hired a stable and coach-house, above which he lived in a little entresol with three rooms looking on the street, and charmingly furnished; she had even borne several privations to keep a saddle-horse, a cab-horse, and a little groom for his use. For herself, she had only her own maid, and as cook, a former kitchen—maid. The duke's groom had, therefore, rather a hard place. Toby, formerly tiger to the "late" Beaudenord (such was the jesting term applied by the gay world to that ruined gentleman),—Toby, who at twenty-five years of age was still considered only fourteen, was expected to groom the horses, clean the cabriolet, or the tilbury, and the harnesses, accompany his master, take care of the apartments, and be in the princess's antechamber to announce a visitor, if, by chance, she happened to receive one.
何况乔治·德摩弗里纽斯是一个可以使母亲的虚荣心得到满足的孩子，相应地，王妃愿意为他做出各种牺牲。她为儿子租了一个马厩和马车房，楼上小小一层里有三间装饰华丽，面向大街的屋子是他的住所；她甚至节约下钱为儿子买下一匹乘马，一匹拉马，还雇了一个小仆人。至于她自己，仅有一个贴身女仆，做饭的也只留了一个原来的厨娘。因此，公爵的马夫总是有相当繁重的差事。这个名叫托比的马夫，曾经是已故的博德诺的小老虎（这是上流社会对这个落魄青年的一种嘲笑说法）——这个年轻人已经二十五岁了，但人们总认为他只有十四岁。他一个人要照料马匹、擦洗双轮马车或者英国式轻便双轮车、清洗马具、跟随主人出入、照看房子，如果正巧碰到有人来访，他还要站在前厅向王妃通报。
When one thinks of what the beautiful Duchesse de Maufrigneuse had been under the Restoration,—one of the queens of Paris, a dazzling queen, whose luxurious existence equalled that of the richest women of fashion in London,—there was something touching in the sight of her in that humble little abode in the rue de Miromesnil, a few steps away from her splendid mansion, which no amount of fortune had enabled her to keep, and which the hammer of speculators has since demolished. The woman who thought she was scarcely well served by thirty servants, who possessed the most beautiful reception-rooms in all Paris, and the loveliest little private apartments, and who made them the scene of such delightful fetes, now lived in a small apartment of five rooms,—an antechamber, dining-room, salon, one bed-chamber, and a dressing—room, with two women-servants only.
人们时常想起复辟年代漂亮的德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人——巴黎一位光彩夺目的王后，她奢华的生活可以和伦敦最富有的时髦夫人相提并论——现在她居住在离从前的豪宅仅有几步之遥的米罗梅尼尔街上的简陋房子里，每当人们看到她总是感慨万分。她没有资产把那所豪宅留住，何况投机者已经将它捣毁了。当时这位贵妇有三十个仆人侍候才算勉强满意，拥有巴黎最豪华的接待厅，最漂亮的小套间，在这所豪宅里举行令人愉快的聚会，现在却住在仅仅拥有五个房间的寓所里——一间前厅，一间餐厅、一间客厅、一间卧室、一间更衣室，身边的佣人只剩两个妇女了。
"Ah!she is devoted to her son," said that clever creature, Madame d'Espard, "and devoted without ostentation; she is happy.“啊！她为儿子付出得太多了，”聪明的德埃斯巴侯爵夫人这么说道，“她从没有炫耀过自己的付出；她是幸福的。
Who would ever have believed so frivolous a woman was capable of such persistent resolution! Our good archbishop has, consequently, greatly encouraged her; he is most kind to her, and has just induced the old Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne to pay her a visit.”
有谁会相信这么一位轻浮的贵妇会有如此坚持不懈的决心呢！因此，我们善良的大主教鼓励她；他对她非常友好，并且说服德五天鹅老伯爵夫人去拜访她。”
Let us admit a truth! One must be a queen to know how to abdicate, and to descend with dignity from a lofty position which is never wholly lost. Those only who have an inner consciousness of being nothing in themselves, show regrets in falling, or struggle, murmuring, to return to a past which can never return,—a fact of which they themselves are well aware. Compelled to do without the choice exotics in the midst of which she had lived, and which set off so charmingly her whole being (for it is impossible not to compare her to a flower), the princess had wisely chosen a ground-floor apartment; there she enjoyed a pretty little garden which belonged to it,—a garden full of shrubs, and an always verdant turf, which brightened her peaceful retreat. She had about twelve thousand francs a year; but that modest income was partly made up of an annual stipend sent her by the old Duchesse de Navarreins, paternal aunt of the young duke, and another stipend given by her mother, the Duchesse d'Uxelles, who was living on her estate in the country, where she economized as old duchesses alone know how to economize; for Harpagon is a mere novice compared to them. The princess still retained some of her past relations with the exiled royal family; and it was in her house that the marshal to whom we owe the conquest of Africa had conferences, at the time of "Madame's" attempt in La Vendee, with the principal leaders of legitimist opinion,—so great was the obscurity in which the princess lived, and so little distrust did the government feel for her in her present distress.
我们必须承认事实！只有王后才懂得如何退位，如何保持尊严地从一个并非完全丧失的崇高地位上下台。只有那些意识到自己一文不值的人，才会对自己的落魄感到悔恨，奋力挣扎，怨天尤人，希望回到已经一去不复返的过去——这一点他们自己很清楚。她习惯了被奇花异草环绕的生活，美丽的花草更衬托出她本人的妩媚（不把她比作一朵奇葩是不可能的）。如今她被迫放弃了这种生活，明智地选择了一楼的住房，在那里她拥有一个属于自己的漂亮小花园——长满了灌木，草地总是碧绿的，这给她隐退后的安静生活带来了愉悦。她每年大约有一万二千法郎的收入；但是这笔微小的收入还是由两部分拼凑而成。一部分来自年轻公爵的姑母德纳瓦兰老公爵夫人给的补助金，还有一部分是她的母亲德于克赛尔公爵夫人给的，她在国内自己的封地生活，就像其他老公爵夫人那样善于精打细算；和她们比起来，阿巴贡只能算是一个初学者。王妃仍然和她被流放的王族亲戚往来；当夫人策划在“旺代”地区发动政变时，那位曾经替我们征服非洲的元帅就是在王妃家里和一些正统派的主要领导举行会议——因为王妃已经默默无闻，身处困境，行动几乎不会引起政府的注意。
Beholding the approach of that terrible fortieth year, the bankruptcy of love, beyond which there is so little for a woman as woman, the princess had flung herself into the kingdom of philosophy. She took to reading, she who for sixteen years had felt a cordial horror for serious things. Literature and politics are today what piety and devotion once were to her sex,—the last refuge of their feminine pretensions. In her late social circle it was said that Diane was writing a book. Since her transformation from a queen and beauty to a woman of intellect, the princess had contrived to make a reception in her little house a great honor which distinguished the favored person. Sheltered by her supposed occupation, she was able to deceive one of her former adorers, de Marsay, the most influential personage of the political bourgeoisie brought to the fore in July 1830. She received him sometimes in the evenings, and, occupied his attention while the marshal and a few legitimists were talking, in a low voice, in her bedroom, about the recovery of power, which could be attained only by a general cooperation of ideas,—the one element of success which all conspirators overlook. It was the clever vengeance of the pretty woman, who thus inveigled the prime minister, and made him act as screen for a conspiracy against his own government.
眼看自己就要四十岁了，这是很可怕的时刻，将会面临爱情破产，对于一个女人来说，过了四十，就没有什么大作为了，王妃因此沉浸在了哲学的国度里。她开始读书，十六年来对于严肃的事情她总是充满热情而又心怀畏惧。今天，文学和政治在女性心目中取代了曾经的宗教信仰，成为了女性虚荣心最后的避难所。在她以后的社交圈子中，人们纷纷传说迪亚娜正在写书。自从她由一位美丽的王后变为智慧女性以来，王妃竟设法使在她的小房子中受到接见成为了一项崇高的荣誉，使受到她接见的人显赫一时。正是在这些活动的遮掩下，她蒙骗了一位她早期的追求者，德马尔赛，他是在一八三零年七月建立的资产阶级政权中最有影响力的人物。她有时候在晚上接见他，占据着他的注意力，这时候元帅和几个正统派人物正在她的卧室里密谈恢复政权的事情。恢复政权的事只能通过集思广益才能成功——这是所有阴谋家往往忽视的一个成功因素。她这样诱骗首相，并且把他作为屏风来掩盖反抗他自己政府的阴谋，这是一位貌美女性的精明复仇手段。
This adventure, worthy of the finest days of the Fronde, was the text of a very witty letter, in which the princess rendered to "Madame" an account of the negotiations. The Duc de Maufrigneuse went to La Vendee, and was able to return secretly without being compromised, but not without taking part in "Madame's" perils; the latter, however, sent him home the moment she saw that her cause was lost. Perhaps, had he remained, the eager vigilance of the young man might have foiled that treachery. However great the faults of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse may have seemed in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, the behavior of her son on this occasion certainly effaced them in the eyes of the aristocracy. There was great nobility and grandeur in thus risking her only son, and the heir of an historic name. Some persons are said to intentionally cover the faults of their private life by public services, and vice versa; but the Princesse de Cadignan made no such calculation. Possibly those who apparently so conduct themselves make none. Events count for much in such cases.
王妃写了一封言辞巧妙的信，向夫人汇报了协商的事情，这次冒险可与投石党运动相媲美。德摩弗里纽斯公爵去了旺代，成功地秘密返回而未受牵连，但是他与夫人的危险事业脱不了干系；然而当夫人发现事业垮掉的时候，就将其打发回家了。如果他留下来的话，这个年轻人的高度警惕性也许会挫败那次背叛。不管在资产阶级眼中德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人的过错多么大，可是由于她儿子的这次表现，在贵族眼里，那些过错一定被抹杀了。拿自己的独子，同时又是一个有光荣历史的贵族家庭的继承人去冒险，这一行为是非常高尚和伟大的。据说有人故意用对社会的贡献来掩饰私生活中的过错，反之亦然；但是德卡迪央王妃并没有如此想过。也许在许多这样做的人当中，像她这样的并不多见。生活中总是有这样的事情。
On one of the first fine days in the month of May, 1833, the Marquise d'Espard and the princess were turning about—one could hardly call it walking—in the single path which wound round the grass-plat in the garden, about half-past two in the afternoon, just as the sun was leaving it. The rays reflected on the walls gave a warm atmosphere to the little space, which was fragrant with flowers, the gift of the marquise.
一八三三年五月，在最初那些好天气中的某一天下午两点半左右，德埃斯巴侯爵夫人和王妃来回散步——不能说是散步——她们在园子里草坪边的唯一小道上兜着圈子，太阳即将落下。从墙上反射过来的光线，给充盈着花香的小小空间带来了温暖的气氛，鲜花是侯爵夫人送来的礼物。
"We shall soon lose de Marsay," said the marquise; "and with him will disappear your last hope of fortune for your son. Ever since you played him that clever trick, he has returned to his affection for you."“我们不久会失去德马尔赛。”侯爵夫人说道，“你为儿子积累财富的希望也会随之破灭。自从你巧妙地玩弄了这位精明的政治家，他又萌生了对你的爱恋。”
"My son will never capitulate to the younger branch," returned the princess, "if he has to die of hunger, or I have to work with my hands to feed him. Besides, Berthe de Cinq-Cygne has no aversion to him.”“我儿子绝不会向幼支投降，”王妃回应道，“哪怕他要被饿死，哪怕我得出去工作养活他。况且，贝尔特·德五天鹅并不讨厌他。”
"Children don't bind themselves to their parents' principles," said Madame d'Espard.“孩子们是不会受他们父母所受的束缚的。”德埃斯巴夫人说。
"Don't let us talk about it," said the princess. "If I can't coax over the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne, I shall marry Georges to the daughter of some iron-founderer, as that little d'Esgrignon did.”“咱们别谈论这件事情了。”王妃说道，“如果我讨好不了德五天鹅侯爵夫人，我就让乔治和一个铁匠的女儿结婚，就像小德埃斯格里尼做的那样。”
"Did you love Victurnien?" asked the marquise.“你爱过他吗？”侯爵夫人问道。
"No," replied the princess, gravely, "d'Esgrignon's simplicity was really only a sort of provincial silliness, which I perceived rather too late—or, if you choose, too soon.”“没有。”王妃坚定地说道，“德埃斯格里尼的天真单纯简直和乡下人的愚蠢一样，这一点我发现得太晚了——也可以说太早了。”
"And de Marsay?"“那德马尔赛呢？”
"De Marsay played with me as if I were a doll. I was so young at the time! We never love men who pretend to teach us; they rub up all our little vanities."“德马尔赛把我当成了一个玩偶。那时候我是多么年轻啊！我们从来不爱那种摆出说教架势的人；他们会伤害我们所有小小的虚荣心。”
"And that wretched boy who hanged himself?"“那位上吊自尽的可怜男孩呢？”
"Lucien? An Antinous and a great poet. I worshiped him in all conscience, and I might have been happy. But he was in love with a girl of the town; and I gave him up to Madame de Serizy.“吕西安？他像安提弩斯一样英俊潇洒，并且还是一位诗人。我从心底里崇拜他，我本来可以幸福的。但是他爱上了一个妓女；所以我把他让给了德塞里奇夫人。
If he had cared to love me, should I have given him up?”
如果他真的爱我，我会那么放弃他吗？”
"What an odd thing, that you should come into collision with an Esther!"“太奇怪了，你竟然遇上一位以斯贴！”
"She was handsomer than I," said the Princess.—"Very soon it shall be three years that I have lived in solitude," she resumed, after a pause, "and this tranquillity has nothing painful to me about it. To you alone can I dare to say that I feel I am happy. I was surfeited with adoration, weary of pleasure, emotional on the surface of things, but conscious that emotion itself never reached my heart. I have found all the men whom I have known petty, paltry, superficial; none of them ever caused me a surprise; they had no innocence, no grandeur, no delicacy. I wish I could have met with one man able to inspire me with respect."“她比我漂亮。”王妃说道，“我已经在孤独中生活了快三年。”停了一会儿她接着说：“但这段宁静的生活没有让我感到一丝痛苦。只有对你，我才敢说，我生活得很幸福。对于别人对我的爱慕我已经麻木了，对于享乐也感到厌倦了，表面上情感丰富，实则清醒地意识到真正的情感从来没有抵达过内心深处。我发现我所认识的那些男人都是小气的、卑鄙的、肤浅的家伙；没有一个人使我产生过一点惊喜；他们缺乏纯真的品质，丧失了伟大的情操，也没有细腻的情感。我希望能够碰上一个让我尊重的男人。”
"Then are you like me, my dear?" asked the marquise; "have you never felt the emotion of love while trying to love?"“亲爱的，难道你和我一样吗？”侯爵夫人问道，“当你打算去爱一个人的时候，你没有感受到爱情吗？”
"Never," replied the princess, laying her hand on the arm of her friend.“从来没有过。”王妃把手放在朋友的胳臂上，回答道。
They turned and seated themselves on a rustic bench beneath a jasmine then coming into flower. Each had uttered one of those sayings that are solemn to women who have reached their age.
她们转过身，坐在竞相开放的茉莉花下一张粗糙的长椅上。她们互相倾诉了一些对这个年纪的女人来说很庄严的话。
"Like you," resumed the princess, "I have received more love than most women; but through all my many adventures, I have never found happiness. I committed great follies, but they had an object, and that object retreated as fast as I approached it. I feel today in my heart, old as it is, an innocence which has never been touched. Yes, under all my experience, lies a first love intact,—just as I myself, in spite of all my losses and fatigues, feel young and beautiful. We may love and not be happy; we may be happy and never love; but to love and be happy, to unite those two immense human experiences, is a miracle. That miracle has not taken place for me.”“就像你一样，”王妃说道，“与其他的女人相比，我得到更多的爱，但是在我所有的风流韵事中，我没有感到过幸福。我做过很多愚蠢的事情，可是那时我总有一个目标，我越是要接近它，它却离我越来越远。今天，在我已经衰老的内心，涌动着一种从来未被触及的纯洁。是的，在无数的经历下面保存着一种完整无缺的、最初的爱——就像我自己一样，尽管我失去了很多，疲惫不堪，但还是感觉自己年轻漂亮。我们可能爱过但是不幸福；我们也可能幸福着却从没有爱过；可是爱与幸福，如果把这两个伟大的经历结合起来，将是一个奇迹。那个奇迹没有发生在我身上。”
"Nor for me," said Madame d'Espard.“也没有发生在我身上。”德埃斯巴侯爵夫人说道。
"I own I am pursued in this retreat by dreadful regret: I have amused myself all through life, but I have never loved.”“隐退后，我被一种难堪的悔恨折磨着：我一生都在玩乐，可是我从来没有爱过。”
"What an incredible secret!" cried the marquise.“这是一个多么难以置信的秘密啊！”侯爵夫人惊叹道。
"Ah!my dear," replied the princess, "such secrets we can tell to ourselves, you and I, but nobody in Paris would believe us."“啊！亲爱的，”王妃回答道，“这样的秘密也就是在我俩之间说说，在巴黎没有人会信以为真。”
"And," said the marquise, "if we were not both over thirty-six years of age, perhaps we would not tell them to each other.”
侯爵夫人说：“再说，要不是我们都过了三十六岁的年纪，可能还不会相互诉说秘密。”
"Yes; when women are young they have so many stupid conceits," replied the princess.“是的，当女人年轻的时候，总是怀着愚蠢的虚荣心。”王妃回答道。
"We are like those poor young men who play with a toothpick to pretend they have dined."“我们像那些可怜的年轻人，手里玩弄着牙签，假装已经吃过一顿丰盛的晚餐。”
"Well, at any rate, here we are!" said Madame d'Espard, with coquettish grace, and a charming gesture of well-informed innocence; "and, it seems to me, sufficiently alive to think of taking our revenge."“无论如何，我们走到了现在！”德埃斯巴侯爵夫人妩媚地说道，同时做了一个迷人姿态，仿佛什么都懂，但又显得很无辜，“在我看来，我们似乎还有足够的活力，在情场上进行报复。”
"When you told me, the other day, that Beatrix had gone off with Conti, I thought of it all night long," said the princess, after a pause. "I suppose there was happiness in sacrificing her position, her future, and renouncing society forever."“前几天当你告诉我贝娅特丽克斯和孔蒂一起私奔了，我想了一整夜。”王妃停了一会儿说道，“我想，她放弃自己的地位、未来，永远离开社交界，必定是觉得幸福才这么做的。”
"She was a little fool," said Madame d'Espard, gravely. "Mademoiselle des Touches was delighted to get rid of Conti. Beatrix never perceived how that surrender, made by a superior woman who never for a moment defended her claims, proved Conti's nothingness.”“她有点傻。”德埃斯巴侯爵夫人面色沉重地说道，“德图西小姐为摆脱了孔蒂感到高兴。贝娅特丽克斯没有意识到，一个上流社会的女人没花一分一秒捍卫属于自己的财产地位，这种屈服证明了孔蒂的无能。”
"Then you think she will be unhappy?"“那么你觉得她不会幸福吗？”
"She is so now," replied Madame d'Espard. "Why did she leave her husband? What an acknowledgment of weakness!"“现在她就不幸福。”德埃斯巴侯爵夫人回答道。“她为什么离开自己的丈夫呢？这真是一种脆弱的表现啊！”
"Then you think that Madame de Rochefide was not influenced by the desire to enjoy a true love in peace?" asked the princess.“那么，依你看来，德罗什菲德夫人并不是希望在宁静中享受真爱才这么做的？”王妃问道。
"No; she was simply imitating Madame de Beausant and Madame de Langeais, who, be it said, between you and me, would have been, in a less vulgar period than ours, the La Villiere, the Diane de Poitiers, the Gabrielle d'Estrees of history.”“是的；她仅仅是在简单地模仿德鲍塞夫人和德朗热夫人，我不妨这样和你说，如果她们不是处在我们这个庸俗的历史时期，将会变成像历史上拉瓦利埃、迪亚娜·德普瓦蒂埃、和卡布里尔·德埃斯特那样的人物。”
"Less the king, my dear.“亲爱的，那就只缺国王了。
Ah!I wish I could evoke the shades of those women, and ask them—”
啊！我希望我能召回那些女人，问问她们——”
"But," said the marquise, interrupting the princess, "why ask the dead? We know living women who have been happy. I have talked on this very subject a score of times with Madame de Montcornet since she married that little Emile Blondet, who makes her the happiest woman in the world; not an infidelity, not a thought that turns aside from her; they are as happy as they were the first day. These long attachments, like that of Rastignac and Madame de Nucingen, and your cousin, Madame de Camps, for her Octave, have a secret, and that secret you and I don't know, my dear. The world has paid us the extreme compliment of thinking we are two rakes worthy of the court of the regent; whereas we are, in truth, as innocent as a couple of school-girls.”"I should like that sort of innocence," cried the princess, laughing; "but ours is worse, and it is very humiliating. Well, it is a mortification we offer up in expiation of our fruitless search; yes, my dear, fruitless, for it isn't probable we shall find in our autumn season the fine flower we missed in the spring and summer.”"That's not the question," resumed the marquise, after a meditative pause. "We are both still beautiful enough to inspire love, but we could never convince any one of our innocence and virtue.""If it were a lie, how easy to dress it up with commentaries, and serve it as some delicious fruit to be eagerly swallowed! But how is it possible to get a truth believed? Ah! the greatest of men have been mistaken there!" added the princess, with one of those meaning smiles which the pencil of Leonardo da Vinci alone has rendered. "Fools love well, sometimes," returned the marquise. "But in this case," said the princess, "fools wouldn't have enough credulity in their nature.”“可是，”侯爵夫人打断了王妃的话说道，“为什么要询问死去的人呢？我们认识一些在世的女人，她们幸福地生活着。自从德蒙科尔内伯爵夫人嫁给了小埃弥尔·布隆代之后，我已经就这个话题和她谈过二十多次了，布隆代使她成为了世界上最幸福的女人。他们从来没有不忠的行为，也没有过相互隐瞒的想法，他们如今和刚结婚时一样相爱。这种长期的亲密关系，正像德拉斯蒂涅和纽沁根夫人，以及你的表妹德康夫人和她的奥克塔夫的关系一样，都有一个不为你我所知的秘密，亲爱的。世人极力恭维我们，把我们比做摄政王朝宫廷里的放荡女人，可事实上，我们像女学生一样纯洁。”“要是有那么纯洁就好了，”王妃又哭又笑，“实际上我们的处境更糟糕，真是太丢人了。唉，我们为我们毫无结果的追求赎罪，这是一种耻辱。是的，亲爱的，一切都毫无结果，因为我们不可能在秋天找到我们在春天和夏天错过的芬芳的花朵。”经过片刻沉思，侯爵夫人说：“问题不在这里。虽然我们还都很漂亮，还能激起别人的爱慕之情，但我们无法让任何人相信我们的纯洁和美德。”“如果这是一个谎言，我们很容易用人们的评论装饰它，把它当作美味的水果供给人们，让人们迫不及待地吞掉！可是，我们怎么让人们相信一个真理呢？啊!不知道有多少最伟大的人物都在这上面遭了殃！”王妃补充道，脸上露出意味深长的笑容，这种笑只有列奥纳多·达芬奇的画笔才能描绘出来。“有时候傻人倒挺会恋爱。”侯爵夫人说。“但是这种事，即便是糊涂人，也没那么糊涂，会轻易相信。”王妃说。
"You are right," said the marquise. "But what we ought to look for is neither a fool nor even a man of talent. To solve our problem we need a man of genius. Genius alone has the faith of childhood, the religion of love, and willingly allows us to band its eyes. Look at Canalis and the Duchesse de Chaulieu! Though we have both encountered men of genius, they were either too far removed from us or too busy, and we too absorbed, too frivolous."“你说得没错。”侯爵夫人说，“但我们应该寻找的，既不是傻瓜，也不是有才能的人。要解决我们的问题，我们需要一个天才人物。只有天才才拥有儿童的天真，对爱情像对宗教那样虔诚，并且甘愿被我们绑住双眼。看看卡那利和德肖利厄公爵夫人吧！虽然我们都曾邂逅过那些天才，但那时他们要么离我们太遥远，要么太忙碌，我们也太轻浮，过度沉浸于享乐之中。”
"Ah! how I wish I might not leave this world without knowing the happiness of true love," exclaimed the princess. "It is nothing to inspire it," said Madame d'Espard; "the thing is to feel it. I see many women who are only the pretext for a passion without being both its cause and its effect.""The last love I inspired was a beautiful and sacred thing," said the princess. "It had a future in it. Chance had brought me, for once in a way, the man of genius who is due to us, and yet so difficult to obtain; there are more pretty women than men of genius. But the devil interfered with the affair.""Tell me about it, my dear; this is all news to me.""I first noticed this beautiful passion about the middle of the winter of 1829. Every Friday, at the opera, I observed a young man, about thirty years of age, in the orchestra stalls, who evidently came there for me. He was always in the same stall, gazing at me with eyes of fire, but, seemingly, saddened by the distance between us, perhaps by the hopelessness of reaching me.”"Poor fellow! When a man loves he becomes eminently stupid," said the marquise. "Between every act he would slip into the corridor," continued the princess, smiling at her friend's epigrammatic remark. "Once or twice, either to see me or to make me see him, he looked through the glass sash of the box exactly opposite to mine. If I received a visit, I was certain to see him in the corridor close to my door, casting a furtive glance upon me. He had apparently learned to know the persons belonging to my circle; and he followed them when he saw them turning in the direction of my box, in order to obtain the benefit of the opening door. I also found my mysterious adorer at the Italian opera—house; there he had a stall directly opposite to my box, where he could gaze at me in naive ecstasy—oh! it was pretty! On leaving either house I always found him planted in the lobby, motionless; he was elbowed and jostled, but he never moved. His eyes grew less brilliant if he saw me on the arm of some favorite. But not a word, not a letter, no demonstration. You must acknowledge that was in good taste. Sometimes, on getting home late at night, I found him sitting upon one of the stone posts of the porte-cochere. This lover of mine had very handsome eyes, a long, thick, fan-shaped beard, with a moustache and side-whiskers; nothing could be seen of his skin but his white cheek-bones, and a noble forehead; it was truly an antique head. The prince, as you know, defended the Tuileries on the riverside, during the July days. He returned to Saint-Cloud that night, when all was lost, and said to me: 'I came near being killed at four o'clock. I was aimed at by one of the insurgents, when a young man, with a long beard, whom I have often seen at the opera, and who was leading the attack, threw up the man's gun, and saved me.’So my adorer was evidently a republican! In 1831, after I came to lodge in this house, I found him, one day, leaning with his back against the wall of it; he seemed pleased with my disasters; possibly he may have thought they drew us nearer together. But after the affair of Saint-Merri I saw him no more; he was killed there. The evening before the funeral of General Lamarque, I had gone out on foot with my son, and my republican accompanied us, sometimes behind, sometimes in front, from the Madeleine to the Passage des Panoramas, where I was going.”"Is that all?" asked the marquise. "Yes, all," replied the princess. "Except that on the morning Saint—Merri was taken, a gamin came here and insisted on seeing me. He gave me a letter, written on common paper, signed by my republican.”"Show it to me," said the marquise. "No, my dear. Love was too great and too sacred in the heart of that man to let me violate its secrets. The letter, short and terrible, still stirs my soul when I think of it. That dead man gives me more emotions than all the living men I ever coquetted with; he constantly recurs to my mind.""What was his name?" asked the marquise.“啊！在没有尝到真爱的幸福之前，我真不愿离开这个世界。”王妃大声说道。“激起别人的爱慕之情算不了什么，”德埃斯巴夫人说，“问题是要去感受爱情。我看很多女人都只是把爱情当作一种借口，而不曾体会到爱情的前因后果。”“我最近激起的爱情是一种美好而神圣的东西。”王妃说，“它本来是充满希望的。幸运降临到我头上，使我有偶然的机会遇到我们所需要的天才人物。这种机会很难得，因为有姿色的女人要比天才男人多得多。只可惜魔鬼干预了这段姻缘。”“亲爱的，告诉我事情的经过吧。这对我来说真是个新鲜事儿。”“我第一次注意到这美好的爱情，大约是在一八二九年的深冬。每个星期五，我都会在剧院看到一个年轻男人，大约三十岁，坐在乐队前排的座位上。很明显，他是为我而来。他总是坐在同一个座位上，用火热的眼睛注视着我。但或许是由于我们之间的距离太远，又或者他觉得没有希望能接触到我，他看起来总是一副悲伤模样。”“可怜的孩子！人一旦坠入情网就会变得很傻。”侯爵夫人说。“每次幕间休息，他都会悄悄走到走廊上。”被朋友警句式的话语打断后，王妃微微一笑，继续说道，“有一两次，他为了看到我，或者为了让我看到他，就透过我正对面包厢的玻璃窗看我。要是有人来拜访我，我肯定我能在靠近我房门的走廊里看到他，他正鬼鬼祟祟地看着我。显然，他弄清了谁跟我来往。当他看到那些人朝我包厢走来时，他就会紧随其后，想趁房门打开时捞点好处。我也在意大利歌剧院发现了我这位神秘的爱慕者。他坐在我包厢的正对面，天真而又入迷地注视着我——哦！多美好啊！每次离开剧院，我总发现他像是被种在大厅里一样，一动不动。尽管被人挤来挤去，但他还是不动一下。当他看到我靠在某个受宠男性的胳膊上时，他的眼睛就没有那么闪亮了。但他从没跟我说过一句话，也没写过一封信，更没做出过任何表示。你不得不承认，这种品味极高。有时，我晚上回家很晚，就会看到他坐在我家供车马出入的门廊里的一个石柱上。我的这位爱慕者有一双迷人的眼睛，上唇的小胡子和两侧的络腮胡形成又长又浓的扇形胡，我只能看到他白皙的颧骨和给人高贵感的前额，他的头简直就是古代人的头。你知道，在七月暴乱的那些日子里，亲王防守河畔这一带的杜伊勒里宫。那天晚上，他从圣克卢回来，那时局势已经无法扭转。他对我说：‘亲爱的，四点钟的时候我差点被打死。一个暴徒用枪瞄准了我，这时，一个长着长胡子的年轻人，我似乎在意大利歌剧院见过他，正指挥进攻，是他举起那个暴徒的枪口，救了我。’所以说我的爱慕者一定是个共和党人！一八三一年，我搬到了这个小房子里暂住。一天，我发现他背靠着这所房子的墙站着，似乎有点幸灾乐祸的样子，他可能觉得灾难会使我们更为接近。可是自从圣梅丽街垒战以后，我就再也没见过他，他准是在战争中牺牲了。在举行拉马克将军葬礼的前一天晚上，我和儿子出去散步，觉得我那共和党人老是跟踪我，一会在我后面，一会在我前面，从玛德莱娜广场一直跟到全景巷，我到哪里，他就到哪里。”“就这些吗？”侯爵夫人问道。“是的，就这些了。”王妃回答道，“除了圣梅丽教堂被占领的那天早上，一个流浪儿来到我这里，执意要见我。他给了我一封用普通信纸写的信，署名是我的那位共和党人。”“把信给我看看。”侯爵夫人说。“不，亲爱的。在他心中，爱情太伟大、太神圣了，我不能泄露他的秘密。每当我想起这封简短而恐怖的信时，我的心依然无法平静。这个死去的男人比所有得到我青睐的、活着的男人更能引起我情感的波动，他不断地出现在我的脑海里。”“他叫什么名字？”侯爵夫人问。
"Oh! a very common one: Michel Chrestien.”"You have done well to tell me," said Madame d'Espard, eagerly. "I have often heard of him. This Michel Chrestien was the intimate friend of a remarkable man you have already expressed a wish to see,—Daniel d'Arthez, who comes to my house some two or three times a year. Chrestien, who was really killed at Saint-Merri, had no lack of friends. I have heard it said that he was one of those born statesmen to whom, like de Marsay, nothing is wanting but opportunity to become all they might be.”"Then he had better be dead," said the princess, with a melancholy air, under which she concealed her thoughts. "Will you come to my house some evening and meet d'Arthez?" said the marquise. "You can talk of your ghost.""Yes, I will," replied the princess.“哦！一个很普通的名字：米歇尔·克雷斯蒂安。”“还好你把他的名字告诉了我。”德埃斯巴夫人急切地说，“我经常听别人谈起他。米歇尔·克雷斯蒂安是一个杰出人物的密友，你早就想见这个人了，他是德尼埃尔·德阿泰兹，每年都会来我家两三次。这位克雷斯蒂安确实在圣梅丽修道院牺牲了，他生前有许多好友。我曾听说他是像德马尔赛一样出色的政治家：他们需要的是机会，只要时机出现，他们就会成就一切。”“那他还是死去的好。”王妃带着一种忧伤的表情说，这种表情隐藏了她的想法。“你愿意抽一天晚上来我家和德阿泰兹见一面吗？”侯爵夫人说。“这样，你们就可以谈谈死去的亡灵了。”“我很乐意去。”王妃回答说。CHAPTER IIDANIEL D'ARTHEZ
第二章达尼埃尔·德阿泰兹
A few days after this conversation Blondet and Rastignac, who knew d'Arthez, promised Madame d'Espard that they would bring him to dine with her. This promise might have proved rash had it not been for the name of the princess, a meeting with whom was not a matter of indifference to the great writer.
这次谈话几天后，布隆代和拉斯蒂涅（他们都认识德阿泰兹）答应德帕夫人设法带德阿泰兹到她家赴宴。他们事先说好王妃也会在场，否则这种许诺会显得草率，毕竟对于一个著名的作家而言，同王妃的会面不是那么随便的事。
Daniel d'Arthez, one of the rare men who, in our day, unite a noble character with great talent, had already obtained, not all the popularity his works deserve, but a respectful esteem to which souls of his own calibre could add nothing. His reputation will certainly increase; but in the eyes of connoisseurs it had already attained its full development. He is one of those authors who, sooner or later, are put in their right place, and never lose it. A poor nobleman, he had understood his epoch well enough to seek personal distinction only. He had struggled long in the Parisian arena, against the wishes of a rich uncle who, by a contradiction which vanity must explain, after leaving his nephew a prey to the utmost penury, bequeathed to the man who had reached celebrity the fortune so pitilessly refused to the unknown writer. This sudden change in his position made no change in Daniel d'Arthez's habits; he continued to work with a simplicity worthy of the antique past, and even assumed new toils by accepting a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, where he took his seat on the Right.
达尼埃尔·德阿泰兹集高尚的品格和伟大的天才于一身，是我们这一时代少有的人物之一，即便他的作品还没有得到所有人的欢迎，但至少他已得到学术界的尊敬和好评。当然他的声望还会继续升高；但在一些业内人士看来，他已经获得了足够的荣耀。他属于那种最终会得到社会认可的作家，一旦确立地位，就会岿然不动。他虽出身贵族，却一贫如洗，他深深了解他所处的这个时代，只追求个人殊荣。他没有按照他一个富有叔父的意愿行事，而是选择在巴黎这个竞技的大舞台上奋斗。他的叔父在他极度贫困的时候，无情地拒绝援助他，而在他成名后却又突然赠给他一笔财产。这种极为矛盾的做法完全是虚荣心所致。而身份地位的突然转变并未改变达尼埃尔·德阿尔泰兹的生活习惯；他继续像过去一样，简朴地从事着自己的工作，即便是他接受了众议院右翼议员的席位并在那里任职。
Since his accession to fame he had sometimes gone into society. One of his old friends, the now-famous physician, Horace Bianchon, persuaded him to make the acquaintance of the Baron de Rastignac, under—secretary of State, and a friend of de Marsay, the prime minister. These two political officials acquiesced, rather nobly, in the strong wish of d'Arthez, Bianchon, and other friends of Michel Chrestien for the removal of the body of that republican to the church of Saint-Merri for the purpose of giving it funeral honors. Gratitude for a service which contrasted with the administrative rigor displayed at a time when political passions were so violent, had bound, so to speak, d'Arthez to Rastignac. The latter and de Marsay were much too clever not to profit by that circumstance; and thus they won over other friends of Michel Chrestien, who did not share his political opinions, and who now attached themselves to the new government. One of them, Leon Giraud, appointed in the first instance master of petitions, became eventually a Councillor of State.
他自从名声鹊起之后，有时也出入交际场所。他的一个老朋友，出色的医生奥拉斯·毕安训劝他与拉斯蒂涅男爵结识，此人是议会某部的副秘书长，和德马尔塞首相是好友。这两位政客相当绅士地默许自愿帮助德阿泰兹、毕安训和米歇尔·克雷斯蒂安生前的其他几位好友，将这位共和党人的遗体运到修道院并为他举行体面的葬礼。在当时那个充满暴力的政治环境下，行政处罚极其严酷，在这样的险境下提供这样的帮助实属不易。正是出于感激之情，德阿泰斯和拉斯蒂涅的关系变得密切。这位副国务秘书和德马尔塞如此高明地利用当时的环境；最终他们赢得了米歇尔·克雷斯蒂的几个朋友的信任，这些人起初与德马尔塞的政见并不相同，但这些人现在也都支持新政府。其中一个叫莱昂·吉罗的，先是被任命为行政法院查案主事，最后做到参政院议员。
The whole existence of Daniel d'Arthez is consecrated to work; he sees society only by snatches; it is to him a sort of dream. His house is a convent, where he leads the life of a Benedictine; the same sobriety of regimen, the same regularity of occupation. His friends knew that up to the present time woman had been to him no more than an always dreaded circumstance; he had observed her too much not to fear her; but by dint of studying her he had ceased to understand her,—like, in this, to those deep strategists who are always beaten on unexpected ground, where their scientific axioms are either modified or contradicted. In character he still remains a simple-hearted child, all the while proving himself an observer of the first rank. This contrast, apparently impossible, is explainable to those who know how to measure the depths which separate faculties from feelings; the former proceed from the head, the latter from the heart. A man can be a great man and a wicked one, just as he can be a fool and a devoted lover. D'Arthez is one of those privileged beings in whom shrewdness of mind and a broad expanse of the qualities of the brain do not exclude either the strength or the grandeur of sentiments. He is, by rare privilege, equally a man of action and a man of thought. His private life is noble and generous. If he carefully avoided love, it was because he knew himself, and felt a premonition of the empire such a passion would exercise upon him.
达尼埃尔·德阿尔泰兹的一生都投入到工作当中；他对社会的了解支离破碎；对他来说社会只是一种虚幻的梦境。他的家像个修道院，在这里他过着本笃会修道士般的生活：有节制地饮食，有规律地工作。他的朋友都知道至今他仍害怕和女人接触，那会令他窒息；他对女人观察得太细致了以至于对其产生了一种恐惧感；结果对女人的研究越深入，越不了解女人——就像那些高深的战略家一样，总会在一些意料不到的阵地被击败，因为此时的实际情况与他们在书上看到的理论不相符或相悖。如今他依然是一个心思纯净的小伙子，却总是摆出观察员的派头来。表面上看，这种对比让人难以接受，但是对于那些善于把握才能和情感之间尺度的人来说，可以解释得通：有才能的人用头脑行事，心思细腻的人则凭借感情。因此一个人可以既邪恶又伟大，就像一个傻瓜同时又是个忠实的情人一样。德阿泰兹就是这样一个幸运儿，他才思敏捷，精力充沛，既拥有坚强的意志，又不乏伟大的感情。他既是实干家，又是思想家，拥有这种罕见的天赋。他的个人生活高尚而丰富。如果他刻意回避爱情，那是因为他有自知之明，他预感爱情的威力会给他带来很大的影响。
For several years the crushing toil by which he prepared the solid ground of his subsequent works, and the chill of poverty, were marvellous preservatives.
数年来，他辛苦地工作，以便为自己接下来的创作打好坚实的基础，加之凄惨的生活，倒成了防止他生活堕落的预防剂。
But when ease with his inherited fortune came to him, he formed a vulgar and most incomprehensible connection with a rather handsome woman, belonging to the lower classes, without education or manners, whom he carefully concealed from every eye. Michel Chrestien attributed to men of genius the power of transforming the most massive creatures into sylphs, fools into clever women, peasants into countesses; the more accomplished a woman was, the more she lost her value in their eyes, for, according to Michel, their imagination had the less to do. In his opinion love, a mere matter of the senses to inferior beings, was to great souls the most immense of all moral creations and the most binding. To justify d'Arthez, he instanced the example of Raffaele and the Fornarina. He might have offered himself as an instance for this theory, he who had seen an angel in the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. This strange fancy of d'Arthez might, however, be explained in other ways; perhaps he had despaired of meeting here below with a woman who answered to that delightful vision which all men of intellect dream of and cherish; perhaps his heart was too sensitive, too delicate, to yield itself to a woman of society; perhaps he thought best to let nature have her way, and keep his illusions by cultivating his ideal; perhaps he had laid aside love as being incompatible with his work and the regularity of a monastic life which love would have wholly upset.
但生活渐渐富裕以后，他同一个漂亮的女人有了一段庸俗的、让人最捉摸不透的恋情：这个女人出身下层阶级，没有受过什么教育，也毫无高贵的气质，但却被他小心地呵护着。米歇尔·克雷斯蒂曾承认天才人物能将最普通的女人变成窈窕淑女，使愚笨的女人变成才女，将村妇变成侯爵夫人；越是有成就的女人在他们眼里越是没有价值；因为米歇尔认为天才人物的想象力在这些女人身上发挥不了太大的作用。他认为，爱情之于下等人，只是感官的需要；而之于崇高的灵魂，则是最伟大、最具吸引力的精神创造。为了替德阿泰兹辩解，他还举了拉斐尔和福娜丽娜的例子。其实他本可举自己作为这种理论的一个例子：他曾将德摩弗里纽斯公爵夫人看成一个天使。可以从其他方面来解释德阿泰兹的这种奇怪的幻想：他可能早就感到绝望，认为根本找不到一个符合所有仁人志士所梦想和期待的尘世上的美女；或许是他的心太过敏感、太过细腻，不愿结交一个世俗女子；抑或他认为最好还是顺其自然，继续幻想理想的爱人；或者是他认为爱情与工作无法协调，而且妨碍他的隐士生活而将这件事搁置。
For several months past d'Arthez had been subjected to the jests and satire of Blondet and Rastignac, who reproached him with knowing neither the world nor women. According to them, his authorship was sufficiently advanced, and his works numerous enough, to allow him a few distractions; he had a fine fortune, and here he was living like a student; he enjoyed nothing,—neither his money nor his fame; he was ignorant of the exquisite enjoyments of the noble and delicate love which well-born and well-bred women could inspire and feel; he knew nothing of the charming refinements of language, nothing of the proofs of affection incessantly given by refined women to the commonest things. He might, perhaps, know woman; but he knew nothing of the divinity. Why not take his rightful place in the world, and taste the delights of Parisian society?
过去的几个月，布隆代和德拉斯蒂涅经常嘲笑讽刺德阿泰兹，责备他根本不了解这个世界，也不了解女人。他们认为像他这样一个相当有成就、相当多产的人可以享受一下生活了；他拥有丰厚的财产，却还过着学生般的生活；他既不懂得享用金钱，也不懂得享用功名；他既摒弃贵族阶级放纵奢华的生活，也不喜欢贵族出身的女人所向往和体验的美妙的爱情；他不会说一些甜言蜜语，且对浓妆艳抹的女人不断提及的鸡毛蒜皮之事毫无兴致。他或许了解女人；但他对女人的神性一无所知。他应该在巴黎社会中找到适合自己的位置，细细地品味生活的快乐。
"Why doesn't a man who bears party per bend gules and or, a bezant and crab counterchanged," cried Rastignac, "display that ancient escutcheon of Picardy on the panels of a carriage? You have thirty thousand francs a year, and the proceeds of your pen; you have justified your motto: Ars thesaurusque virtus, that punning device our ancestors were always seeking, and yet you never appear in the Bois de Boulogne! We live in times when virtue ought to show itself.”“你家有正面红、金两色斜线分角式，反面镶有珐琅图案的盾形家徽，你为什么不把这个皮卡尔迪古老盾章镶在你的马车上？”拉斯蒂涅喊道，“你每年有三万法郎的收入，外加你的稿费；你也证实了你的箴言：艺术乃德行的宝库（这是一句拉丁文）这句话用了双关的艺术手法，也是我们祖先一直追求的境界，而你从未到布洛涅森林漫游过，却得出这样的箴言，这是值得骄傲的事。我们生活的这个时代需要自己用德行去彰显自己。”
"If you read your works to that species of stout Laforet, whom you seem to fancy, I would forgive you," said Blondet. "But, my dear fellow, you are living on dry bread, materially speaking; in the matter of intellect you haven't even bread.”“如果拉弗雷特那样的庸俗女人能够读懂你的作品，能给你带来快乐，你就把她留下，我会原谅你的。”布隆代说，“可是我亲爱的朋友，在物质上来讲，你要是仅仅满足于干面包的话，那么在精神方面你甚至连面包都没有。”
This friendly little warfare had been going on for several months between Daniel and his friends, when Madame d'Espard asked Rastignac and Blondet to induce d'Arthez to come and dine with her, telling them that the Princesse de Cadignan had a great desire to see that celebrated man. Such curiosities are to certain women what magic lanterns are to children,—a pleasure to the eyes, but rather shallow and full of disappointments. The more sentiments a man of talent excites at a distance, the less he responds to them on nearer view; the more brilliant fancy has pictured him, the duller he will seem in reality. Consequently, disenchanted curiosity is often unjust.
达尼埃尔和他的朋友们之间的这种友好的小征战持续了好几个月，这时德帕夫人请求拉斯蒂涅和布隆代劝说德阿泰兹到她家赴宴，并告诉他们说德卡迪央王妃非常渴望认识这位伟大的人物。一些女人对这类事情的好奇心就像孩子们痴迷魔幻的走马灯一样，只是为了换取眼球的片刻欢愉，却往往流于肤浅，令人失望。一个天才人物越是在远处有名声，那么靠近他时就会越失望；人们越是把他幻想得光芒四射，现实中他就会越显得黯然失色。因此，人一旦失去了好奇心就会常常做出不公正的评价。
Neither Blondet nor Rastignac could deceive d'Arthez; but they told him, laughing, that they now offered him a most seductive opportunity to polish up his heart and know the supreme fascinations
试读结束[说明：试读内容隐藏了图片]