两兄弟(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：Guy de Maupassant 莫泊桑

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

两兄弟(外研社双语读库)试读：

CHAPTER I

第一章

"Tschah!" exclaimed old Roland suddenly, after he had remained motionless for a quarter of an hour, his eyes fixed on the water, while now and again he very slightly lifted his line sunk in the sea.“该死！”罗兰老爹突然喊了一声。过去的一刻钟，他一直一动不动地紧盯着水面，隔一会儿就轻轻地提一提那根浸在海水里的钓线。

Mme. Roland, dozing in the stern by the side of Mme. Rosemilly, who had been invited to join the fishing-party, woke up, and turning her head to look at her husband, said:

罗兰太太本来在船尾打着瞌睡，身旁坐着应邀参加这次钓鱼派对的罗塞米伊太太。现在罗兰太太被吵醒了，转头看着她丈夫，说：

"Well, well! Gerome."

哦，怎么啦！热罗姆。”

And the old fellow replied in a fury:

老头子怒气冲冲地回答道：

"They do not bite at all. I have taken nothing since noon. Only men should ever go fishing. Women always delay the start till it is too late."“它们根本不咬钩！从中午到现在，我一条都没钓到！钓鱼从来就只应该是男人们的事。女人总是拖拖拉拉，结果耽误了时机。”

His two sons, Pierre and Jean, who each held a line twisted round his forefinger, one to port and one to starboard, both began to laugh, and Jean remarked:

他的两个儿子——皮埃尔和让，每人的食指上都绕着一根钓线，一个坐在船的左舷，一个坐在船的右舷。他俩不约而同地笑了起来，让回应道：

"You are not very polite to our guest, father."“爸爸，你对我们的客人不太有礼貌啊。”

M. Roland was abashed, and apologized.

罗兰先生有些不好意思，抱歉地说道：

"I beg your pardon, Mme. Rosemilly, but that is just like me. I invite ladies because I like to be with them, and then, as soon as I feel the water beneath me, I think of nothing but the fish."“对不起，罗塞米伊太太，可我就是这样的人。我邀请太太们来是因为我喜欢和她们在一起，不过，我一来到水上，心里就只有鱼了。”

Mme. Roland was now quite awake, and gazing with a softened look at the wide horizon of cliff and sea.

罗兰太太现在已经完全醒了，她满怀柔情地望着广阔的天际和海边的悬崖峭壁。

"You have had good sport, all the same," she murmured.“不过，你们这次也还算收获不小啦。”她小声说。

But her husband shook his head in denial, though at the same time he glanced complacently at the basket where the fish caught by the three men were still breathing spasmodically, with a low rustle of clammy scales and struggling fins, and dull, ineffectual efforts, gasping in the fatal air. Old Roland took the basket between his knees and tilted it up, making the silver heap of creatures slide to the edge that he might see those lying at the bottom, and their death-throes became more convulsive, while the strong smell of their bodies, a wholesome reek of brine, came up from the full depths of the creel. The old fisherman sniffed it eagerly, as we smell at roses, and exclaimed:

但她丈夫一边摇头表示否定，一边沾沾自喜地朝篓子里瞥了一眼。三个男人钓到的鱼还在篓子里断断续续地呼吸着，在就要夺去它们生命的空气中大口喘着气，笨拙而徒劳地挣扎着。它们扑腾着鱼鳍，发出细碎的响声，全身的鱼鳞又黏又湿。罗兰老爹把鱼篓抓过来夹在两膝中间，把鱼篓倾斜好让里面银色的鱼堆滑到边上来，这样他就可以看到篓底的鱼了。这些鱼更加痉挛地垂死挣扎起来，一股刺鼻的鱼腥味混合着有益健康的海水味从鱼篓底部升起。老渔夫热切地嗅着这股腥味，就像我们闻玫瑰花香似的，还高声叫道：

"Cristi! But they are fresh enough!" and he went on: "How many did you pull out, doctor?"“上帝啊！这些鱼真是新鲜！”他接着说，“你钓到了多少？医生？”

His eldest son, Pierre, a man of thirty, with black whiskers trimmed square like a lawyer's, his mustache and beard shaved away, replied:

他的大儿子皮埃尔是一个三十岁的男子，蓄着律师那样的黑色络腮胡，嘴唇上下的胡子都剃得光光的。他回答说：

"Oh, not many; three or four."“哦，不多，三四条吧。”

The father turned to the younger. "And you, Jean?" said he.

父亲转向小儿子，问道：“让,你呢？”

Jean, a tall fellow, much younger than his brother, fair, with a full beard, smiled and murmured:

让是个高个子青年，皮肤白皙、胡子浓密，比他哥哥年轻许多。他微笑着低声说道：

"Much the same as Pierre—four or five."“和皮埃尔差不多——四五条吧。”

Every time they told the same fib, which delighted father Roland. He had hitched his line round a row-lock, and folding his arms he announced:

每次他们都撒着一样的小谎，为的是让罗兰老爹高兴。他把钓线绕到了桨架上，然后双臂合抱在胸前,大声说道：

"I will never again try to fish after noon. After ten in the morning it is all over. The lazy brutes will not bite; they are taking their siesta in the sun." And he looked round at the sea on all sides, with the satisfied air of a proprietor.“我以后绝不再在下午钓鱼了。一过早上十点，就不会钓到鱼了。这些懒畜生不会再咬钩；它们都到太阳底下睡午觉去了。”他带着满足的神情环顾着四周的大海，好像他是大海的所有者似的。

He was a retired jeweller who had been led by an inordinate love of seafaring and fishing to fly from the shop as soon as he had made enough money to live in modest comfort on the interest of his savings. He retired to le Havre, bought a boat, and became an amateur skipper. His two sons, Pierre and Jean, had remained at Paris to continue their studies, and came for the holidays from time to time to share their father's amusements.

他以前是一个珠宝商，一直酷爱航海和钓鱼，因此在他赚了一笔钱，能够靠储蓄利息过上比较舒适的生活后，他就立马离开了柜台。他隐退到勒阿弗尔，买下一只船，成了一名业余船长。他的两个儿子——皮埃尔和让则留在巴黎继续他们的学业。放假的时候，他们时而会来和他们的父亲共享航海和钓鱼的乐趣。

On leaving school, Pierre, the elder, five years older than Jean, had felt a vocation to various professions and had tried half a dozen in succession, but, soon disgusted with each in turn, he started afresh with new hopes. Medicine had been his last fancy, and he had set to work with so much ardour that he had just qualified after an unusually short course of study, by a special remission of time from the minister. He was enthusiastic, intelligent, fickle, but obstinate, full of Utopias and philosophical notions.

大儿子皮埃尔比让大五岁，他大学毕业后想从事各种不同的职业，于是接二连三地尝试做过五六个行当，可都很快就厌倦了，随即又开始满怀希望地寻找新职业。最后，医学吸引了他。他满腔热情地投入其中，在经过了一段非常短时间的学习后，他从部长那里取得了缩短修业时间的特许证，拿到了医生的资格证。他是一个热情、机智、性情多变却又倔强的人，满脑子的乌托邦和哲学思想。

Jean, who was as fair as his brother was dark, as deliberate as his brother was vehement, as gentle as his brother was unforgiving, had quietly gone through his studies for the law and had just taken his diploma as a licentiate, at the time when Pierre had taken his in medicine. So they were now having a little rest at home, and both looked forward to settling in le Havre if they could find a satisfactory opening.

让和他哥哥完全不同。他肤色白皙，他哥哥却皮肤黝黑；他生性从容，他哥哥却暴躁冲动；他温顺和善，而他哥哥却衔恨记仇；他顺顺利利地学完了法律，在哥哥皮埃尔拿到医学学士学位的同时，他也通过了法学学士的考试。于是，两人现在都回家来休息一段时间，而且如果能找到满意的职位空缺，两人都打算在勒阿弗尔安定下来。

But a vague jealousy, one of those dormant jealousies which grow up between brothers or sisters and slowly ripen till they burst, on the occasion of a marriage perhaps, or of some good fortune happening to one of them, kept them on the alert in a sort of brotherly and non-aggressive animosity. They were fond of each other, it is true, but they watched each other. Pierre, five years old when Jean was born, had looked with the eyes of a little petted animal at that other little animal which had suddenly come to lie in his father's and mother's arms and to be loved and fondled by them. Jean, from his birth, had always been a pattern of sweetness, gentleness, and good temper, and Pierre had by degrees begun to chafe at ever-lastingly hearing the praises of this great lad, whose sweetness in his eyes was indolence, whose gentleness was stupidity, and whose kindliness was blindness. His parents, whose dream for their sons was some respectable and undistinguished calling, blamed him for so often changing his mind, for his fits of enthusiasm, his abortive beginnings, and all his ineffectual impulses towards generous ideas and the liberal professions.

可是有一种嫉妒心理总在隐隐作祟；一种在兄弟或姐妹之间日渐滋长、慢慢成熟，直到其中一方结了婚或是遇到意外的好运时才爆发出的嫉妒心理，使他们在一种兄弟间没有攻击性的敌意中相互戒备着。的确，他们是相亲相爱的，可他们又在相互提防着。让出生的时候，皮埃尔已经五岁了。他带着一种被溺爱坏了的小动物的妒意，瞅着突然出现在他父母怀里，被他们百般疼爱的另一只小动物。让从出生开始，就一直是一个温顺、善良、好脾气的模范乖孩子。日子久了，皮埃尔总是听到别人夸奖这个好孩子，渐渐地开始愠怒。因为在他看来，弟弟的温顺就是软弱，他的和善就是愚蠢，他的厚道就是盲目。他的父母亲期望着儿子们将来能有个平凡但体面的职业，因此责备皮埃尔总是三心二意、头脑发热、半途而废，指责他异想天开，总是心血来潮地换工作。

Since he had grown to manhood they no longer said in so many words: "Look at Jean and follow his example," but every time he heard them say "Jean did this—Jean does that," he understood their meaning and the hint the words conveyed.

自他成人之后，父母不再总对他说：“你多跟让学学！”但每次听到他们说“让做了这个，让做了那个”的时候，他很清楚这些话的言外之意。

Their mother, an orderly person, a thrifty and rather sentimental woman of the middle class, with the soul of a soft-hearted book-keeper, was constantly quenching the little rivalries between her two big sons to which the petty events of their life constantly gave rise. Another little circumstance, too, just now disturbed her peace of mind, and she was in fear of some complications; for in the course of the winter, while her boys were finishing their studies, each in his own line, she had made the acquaintance of a neighbour, Mme. Rosemilly, the widow of a captain of a merchantman who had died at sea two years before. The young widow—quite young, only three-and-twenty—a woman of strong intellect who knew life by instinct as the free animals do, as though she had seen, gone through, understood, and weighted every conceivable contingency, and judged them with a wholesome, strict, and benevolent mind, had fallen into the habit of calling to work or chat for an hour in the evening with these friendly neighbours, who would give her a cup of tea.

他们的母亲是个将一切都打理得井井有条的人，一个节俭的、感情细腻的中产阶级妇女，一个天性温和柔顺的簿记员。她不断地平息着两个长大成人的儿子之间因日常琐事而频繁引发的小对抗。可现在，有件小事使她心绪不宁起来，她害怕事情会复杂化。因为去年冬天，在她的儿子们结束各自的学业之际，她结识了邻居罗塞米伊太太，一个商船船长的遗孀，丈夫两年前死在了海上。这个寡妇很年轻，只有23岁，是个很明达的女人，像自由的动物那样本能地懂得如何生活，好像她是个过来人，看过、经历过、研究过、衡量过人们能想象得到的一切可能发生的事。她用健全的心智、缜密的思维和善良的心来作判断。她还养成了一个习惯，每天晚上都要到这几位友善的邻居家里去呆上一会儿，喝杯茶，话话家常。

Father Roland, always goaded on by his seafaring craze, would question their new friend about the departed captain; and she would talk of him, and his voyages, and his old-world tales, without hesitation, like a resigned and reasonable woman who loves life and respects death.

对航海的狂热一直在刺激着罗兰老爹，驱使他向这位新结识的女邻居打听已故船长的事情。罗塞米伊太太便毫不迟疑地畅谈她丈夫，他的航海历程，他过去的轶事。她像一个乐天知命、通情达理、热爱生命且又尊重死亡的女人那样侃侃而谈。

The two sons on their return, finding the pretty widow quite at home in the house, forthwith began to court her, less from any wish to charm her than from the desire to cut each other out.

两个儿子回来以后，发现这个漂亮的寡妇在自己家里无拘无束，便马上开始向她献起了殷勤，这倒不是为了讨她喜欢，而主要是想在女人面前争雄。

Their mother, being practical and prudent, sincerely hoped that one of them might win the young widow, for she was rich; but then she would have liked that the other should not be grieved.

他们的母亲很实际，也很精明。她巴不得他们中的一个能赢得美人心，因为那个年轻的寡妇很有钱。但她又同样希望另一个不要因此而痛苦。

Mme. Rosemilly was fair, with blue eyes, a mass of light waving hair, fluttering at the least breath of wind, and an alert, daring, pugnacious little way with her, which did not in the least answer to the sober method of her mind.

罗塞米伊太太皮肤白皙、眼睛碧蓝，浓密而细软的一头卷发稍有微风便会飞扬起来。一副果敢、无畏、好斗的的神气和她那明智冷静的思维方式极不相称。

She already seemed to like Jean best, attracted, no doubt, by an affinity of nature. This preference, however, she betrayed only by an almost imperceptible difference of voice and look and also by occasionally asking his opinion. She seemed to guess that Jean's views would support her own, while those of Pierre must inevitably be different. When she spoke of the doctor's ideas on politics, art, philosophy, or morals, she would sometimes say: "Your crotchets." Then he would look at her with the cold gleam of an accuser drawing up an indictment against women—all women, poor weak things.

她看起来似乎对让有所偏爱，毫无疑问，她是被一种与生俱来的亲和力所吸引。但是，这种偏爱只流露在她略有不同的眼神和语气中，几乎察觉不出；偶尔在她征求他的意见时也会表现出来一些。她似乎猜到了让的观点会支持她的观点，而皮埃尔的看法则必定与她相左。当谈到这位医生在政治、艺术、哲学或道德伦理方面的观点时，她总会说：“你的这些怪念头。”然后，皮埃尔就会用一种冷峻的目光看着她，好似原告在起草诉状控诉女人——所有女人，软弱的可怜虫。

Never till his sons came home had M. Roland invited her to join his fishing expeditions, nor had he ever taken his wife; for he liked to put off before daybreak, with his ally, Captain Beausire, a master mariner retired, whom he had first met on the quay at high tides and with whom he had struck up an intimacy, and the old sailor Papagris, known as Jean Bart, in whose charge the boat was left.

在他的儿子们回家以前，罗兰老爹从来没邀请过罗塞米伊太太一起去钓鱼，连她妻子都没有带去过，因为他喜欢在天亮以前就同博西尔船长和老水手帕帕格里斯一起启航出发。博西尔船长是一个退休的远洋海员，罗兰在一次涨潮时在码头上遇到他，后来两人成为了亲密的朋友；人们都叫老水手帕帕格里斯为让·巴尔特，是专门负责看管船只的。

But one evening of the week before, Mme. Rosemilly, who had been dining with them, remarked, "It must be great fun to go out fishing." The jeweller, flattered by her interest and suddenly fired with the wish to share his favourite sport with her, and to make a convert after the manner of priests, exclaimed: "Would you like to come?"

可上周的一个晚上，罗塞米伊太太在他们家吃晚饭时说：“钓鱼一定是件很有趣的事情吧。”这个老珠宝商，因为她感兴趣而受宠若惊，突然很想与她分享自己最喜爱的活动，于是他就像传教士劝人信教一样高声说：“你想一同去钓鱼吗？”

"To be sure I should."“我当然想！”

"Next Tuesday?"“那下周二去怎样？”

"Yes, next Tuesday."“行啊，就下周二。”

"Are you the woman to be ready to start at five in the morning?"“你是那种早上五点就能准备好出发的女人吗？”

She exclaimed in horror:

她惊呼一声：

"No, indeed: that is too much."“不，不行，那太早了。”

He was disappointed and chilled, suddenly doubting her true vocation. However, he said:

他失望了，心凉了半截，顿时怀疑起她所谓的兴趣来。可他还是问道：

"At what hour can you be ready?"“那您几点可以出发呢？”

"Well—at nine?"“嗯——九点如何？”

"Not before?"“不能再早些吗？”

"No, not before. Even that is very early."“不，不能再早了。九点已经很早了。”

The old fellow hesitated; he certainly would catch nothing, for when the sun has warmed the sea the fish bite no more; but the two brothers had eagerly pressed the scheme, and organized and arranged everything there and then.

这个老头儿不由得犹豫起来。这么晚动身，他一定会空手而归，因为暖和的太阳晒着海水，鱼儿们就不再咬钩。可两兄弟迫切地想要施行这个计划，他俩当场就把一切都组织安排好了。

So on the following Tuesday the Pearl had dropped anchor under the white rocks of Cape Havre; they had fished till midday, then they had slept awhile, and then fished again without catching anything; and then it was that father Roland, perceiving, rather late, that all that Mme. Rosemilly really enjoyed and cared for was the sail on the sea, and seeing that his lines hung motionless, had uttered in a spirit of unreasonable annoyance, that vehement "Tschah!" which applied as much to the pathetic widow as to the creatures he could not catch.

因此，到了下个星期二，“珍珠号”就在勒阿弗尔海角的白色岩石下抛锚了。他们在那里一直钓到中午，小憩了一会儿之后又钓了一阵，可什么都没钓到。罗兰老爹这时候才明白罗塞米伊太太其实只是喜欢泛舟海上，但为时已晚。当看到他的钓线不再抖动的时候，他便不理智地大喊了一声“该死！”，这既是骂那个可怜的寡妇，也是骂他钓不到的那些鱼。

Now he contemplated the spoil—his fish—with the joyful thrill of a miser; seeing as he looked up at the sky that the sun was getting low: "Well, boys," said he, "suppose we turn homeward."

现在，他像个吝啬鬼那样欣喜地凝视着那些战利品——他的鱼。随后，他抬头看看天色，太阳已经开始西沉了。“好吧，孩子们，”他说，“我们回家吧。”

The young men hauled in their lines, coiled them up, cleaned the hooks and stuck them into corks, and sat waiting.

兄弟俩收起了手中的钓线，把它们卷好，把擦干净的鱼钩嵌到软木塞上，然后便坐着等待。

Roland stood up to look out like a captain.

罗兰老爹站起来，像个船长那样眺望着天际。

"No wind," said he. "You will have to pull, young 'uns."“没有风，”他说，“你们得划船了，孩子们。”

And suddenly extending one arm to the northward, he exclaimed:

突然他又伸出一条胳膊，指着北方大声说：

"Here comes the packet from Southampton."“南安普敦的班轮来了！”

Away over the level sea, spread out like a blue sheet, vast and sheeny and shot with flame and gold, an inky cloud was visible against the rosy sky in the quarter to which he pointed, and below it they could make out the hull of the steamer, which looked tiny at such a distance. And to southward other wreaths of smoke, numbers of them, could be seen, all converging towards the Havre pier, now scarcely visible as a white streak with the lighthouse, upright, like a horn, at the end of it.

碧波浩瀚的大海好似一块平铺的蓝色布面，海面上金光闪烁，反射着如火的阳光。在罗兰老爹所指的方向，玫瑰色的天空中有一团黑云，云团下方，那轮船的轮廓依稀可辨，由于相距甚远，那船看起来很小。往南望去，还可以看到许多环状的烟雾，许多艘轮船都在往勒阿弗尔码头靠拢。现在几乎看不清码头了，只见它像一条白纹，其尽头处的灯塔像只触角似的挺立着。

Roland asked: "Is not the Normandie due to-day?" And Jean replied:

罗兰问道：“‘诺曼底号’是不是今天该进港了？”让回答：

"Yes, to-day."“是的，是今天。”

"Give me my glass. I fancy I see her out there."“把我的望远镜给我。我想我看到它在那儿了。”

The father pulled out the copper tube, adjusted it to his eye, sought the speck, and then, delighted to have seen it, exclaimed:

老爹拉出了望远镜的铜管，放在一只眼睛前面调整，寻找焦点，随后他终于看到了，便高兴地大喊：

"Yes, yes, there she is. I know her two funnels. Would you like to look, Mme. Rosemilly?"“是的，是的，是它。我认得出它的两根烟囱。您要不要也看看，罗塞米伊太太？”

She took the telescope and directed it towards the Atlantic horizon, without being able, however, to find the vessel, for she could distinguish nothing—nothing but blue, with a coloured halo round it, a circular rainbow—and then all manner of queer things, winking eclipses which made her feel sick.

她接过望远镜，朝着大西洋的远处望去。可她没有发现那艘船，因为她什么也没辨认出来——只是看见了一片被五彩的光晕包围的蔚蓝色，一条环状的彩虹——还有其他各式稀奇古怪的东西，灯塔一明一暗的遮暗间歇弄得她晕头转向。

She said as she returned the glass:

她把望远镜还给罗兰老爹，说：

"I never could see with that thing. It used to put my husband in quite a rage; he would stand for hours at the windows watching the ships pass."“我用这东西啥也看不到。这玩意还曾让我丈夫一度着了魔。他总是在窗前一站就是几个小时，看那些来来往往的船只。”

Old Roland, much put out, retorted:

罗兰老爹，觉得很没趣，反驳道：

"Then it must be some defect in your eye, for my glass is a very good one."“那一定是你的眼睛有毛病，我的望远镜可是非常好的。”

Then he offered it to his wife.

接着他把望远镜递给了他的妻子。

"Would you like to look?"“你要不要看看？”

"No, thank you. I know before hand that I could not see through it."“不了，谢谢。我不用看就知道我是看不到的。”

Mme. Roland, a woman of eight-and-forty but who did not look it, seemed to be enjoying this excursion and this waning day more than any of the party.

罗兰太太是一个四十八岁的女人，但看起来还要略显年轻一些，她似乎非常享受这次海上泛舟的乐趣和夕阳西下的美景，胜过喜欢这次聚会的任何其他内容。

Her chestnut hair was only just beginning to show streaks of white. She had a calm, reasonable face, a kind and happy way with her which it was a pleasure to see. Her son Pierre was wont to say that she knew the value of money, but this did not hinder her from enjoying the delights of dreaming. She was fond of reading, of novels, and poetry, not for their value as works of art, but for the sake of the tender melancholy mood they would induce in her. A line of poetry, often but a poor one, often a bad one, would touch the little chord, as she expressed it, and give her the sense of some mysterious desire almost realized. And she delighted in these faint emotions which brought a little flutter to her soul, otherwise as strictly kept as a ledger.

她栗色的头发刚刚开始长出几缕白发。她看起来很沉静，通情达理，给人一种善解人意、幸福快乐的感觉，看着就令人愉悦。她儿子皮埃尔总说她看重钱财，但这一点也没妨碍她享受梦幻的乐趣。她喜爱读书，喜欢小说，喜欢诗歌，这不是因为它们的艺术价值，而是因为它们能唤起她心中那种淡淡的忧郁。她说，一行诗句，通常只是一行平庸的、拙劣的诗句，也会触动她那小小的心弦，让她有种好像实现了某个神秘愿望的感觉。她在这些淡淡的情绪里感到欣喜，灵魂开始泛起微澜。其他时候，她总是像管账簿那样严格地约束着自己的内心。

Since settling at Havre she had become perceptibly stouter, and her figure, which had been very supple and slight, had grown heavier.

自从他们在勒阿弗尔安家以来，她明显发福了，往日那柔软苗条的身段已经变得笨重起来。

This day on the sea had been delightful to her. Her husband, without being brutal, was rough with her, as a man who is the despot of his shop is apt to be rough, without anger or hatred; to such men to give an order is to swear. He controlled himself in the presence of strangers, but in private he let loose and gave himself terrible vent, though he was himself afraid of every one. She, in sheer horror of the turmoil, of scenes, of useless explanations, always gave way and never asked for anything; for a very long time she had not ventured to ask Roland to take her out in the boat. So she had joyfully hailed this opportunity, and was keenly enjoying the rare and new pleasure.

在海上的这一天，她一直很高兴。她丈夫对她比较粗暴，但并非一个恶人，就像那些店铺里的蛮横老板，对人有些野蛮，却并没有愤怒或憎恶。对这样的人来说，对其下命令就等于是谩骂。要是有外人在，他还较为克制，但回到家他就放肆起来，摆出一副唬人的姿态，而事实上他见什么人都害怕。而她则极度害怕口角，怕吵闹，怕做无用的解释，所以她总是让着他，从来也不提什么要求；很长一段时间以来，她都没敢请求罗兰带他出海。因此，她高兴地抓住这个机会，深深地陶醉在这难能可贵的新鲜乐趣中。

From the moment when they started she surrendered herself completely, body and soul, to the soft, gliding motion over the waves. She was not thinking; her mind was not wandering through either memories or hopes; it seemed to her as though her heart, like her body, was floating on something soft and liquid and delicious which rocked and lulled it.

从他们出发的那一刻起，她就全身心地、彻彻底底地投入到了这柔和的水上滑行中。她什么都没想，既不沉缅于过去，也不憧憬未来。她仿佛觉得自己的心就像自己的身体一样，飘飘然于一种柔软的、流动的、美妙的东西之上，心灵有些震颤而又得到了抚慰。

When their father gave the word to return, "Come, take your places at the oars!" she smiled to see her sons, her two great boys, take off their jackets and roll up their shirt-sleeves on their bare arms.

他们的父亲下令返航：“快来，做好准备划船了！”她则笑着看着自己的两个乖儿子，给他们脱去外套，卷起他们衬衣的袖子，露出了他们光溜溜的胳膊。

Pierre, who was nearest to the two women, took the stroke oar, Jean the other, and they sat waiting till the skipper should say: "Give way!" For he insisted on everything being done according to strict rule.

离两个女人最近的皮埃尔抓起右舷桨，让抓起左舷桨，坐在那里等着，一直等到他们的船长父亲发令：“撤！”因为他坚持一切都要严守规矩。

Simultaneously, as if by a single effort, they dipped the oars, and lying back, pulling with all their might, began a struggle to display their strength. They had come out easily, under sail, but the breeze had died away, and the masculine pride of the two brothers was suddenly aroused by the prospect of measuring their powers. When they went out alone with their father they plied the oars without any steering, for Roland would be busy getting the lines ready, while he kept a lookout in the boat's course, guiding it by a sign or a word: "Easy, Jean, and you, Pierre, put your back into it." Or he would say, "Now, then, number one; come, number two—a little elbow grease." Then the one who had been dreaming pulled harder, the one who had got excited eased down, and the boat's head came round.

他们同时让船桨入水，接着向后仰，全力以赴地把桨朝前划去，开始了一场显示彼此力量的争夺战。他们来的时候很容易，因为可以借助船帆，可现在风停了，于是两兄弟的男性好胜心突然被一决胜负的念头唤醒。当他们只和父亲一块儿出海钓鱼时，没人会去掌舵，就是这么划着，因为罗兰会一边忙着准备钓线，一边注意船的航向，仅以手势或是一句话来导航：“轻点儿，让，还有你，皮埃尔，用力些。”或者他会说，“好了，现在一号加油；二号，胳膊使点劲儿。”这时，走神的那个就划得更卖力些，划得过猛的那个就少使点劲儿，这样船的航向就摆正了。

But to-day they meant to display their biceps. Pierre's arms were hairy, somewhat lean but sinewy; Jean's were round and white and rosy, and the knot of muscles moved under the skin.

但今天他们却都想炫耀一下他们的力量。皮埃尔的胳膊汗毛很多，有点儿瘦但肌肉发达；让的胳膊浑圆，白里透红，肌肉块儿在皮肤下来回滑动。

At first Pierre had the advantage. With his teeth set, his brow knit, his legs rigid, his hands clinched on the oar, he made it bend from end to end at every stroke, and the Pearl was veering landward. Father Roland, sitting in the bows, so as to leave the stern seat to the two women, wasted his breath shouting, "Easy, number one; pull harder, number two!" Pierre pulled harder in his frenzy, and "number two" could not keep time with his wild stroke.

一开始是皮埃尔占上风。他咬着牙，紧锁眉头，双腿伸直，双手紧攥着船桨，每次都把浆划到底，“珍珠号”朝岸边飞驶而去。罗兰老爹坐在船头，以便把船尾的位置让给两位太太，他大声喊道：“老大慢点儿！老二使点劲儿！”皮埃尔情绪激动，划得更起劲儿了，老二却无法配合他这种疯狂的划法。

At last the skipper cried: "Stop her!" The two oars were lifted simultaneously, and then by his father's orders Jean pulled alone for a few minutes. But from that moment he had it all his own way; he grew eager and warmed to his work, while Pierre, out of breath and exhausted by his first vigorous spurt, was lax and panting. Four times running father Roland made them stop while the elder took breath, so as to get the boat into her right course again. Then the doctor, humiliated and fuming, his forehead dropping with sweat, his cheeks white, stammered out:

最后船长只能下令：“把船停下！”两支桨同时举了起来，按他父亲的命令，让一个人划了一会儿。可从那个时刻起，优势就转到他这边来了。他兴奋无比，越划越起劲。而皮埃尔一开始用力过猛，现在已经上气不接下气、筋疲力尽了，他浑身乏力、气喘吁吁。罗兰老爹一连四次下令停划，好让老大能松口气，摆正船的航向。这时医生感到丢了颜面，一肚子的火。他满头大汗、脸色苍白，结结巴巴地说：

"I cannot think what has come over me; I have a stitch in my side. I started very well, but it has pulled me up."“我不知道是怎么回事，肋部突然剧痛。一开始我还划得很好，可现在我都无法动弹了。”

Jean asked: "Shall I pull alone with both oars for a time?"

让问道：“要不我一个人用双桨来划会儿？”

"No, thanks, it will go off."“不，谢谢，我很快就会好的。”

And their mother, somewhat vexed, said:

他们的母亲有点不耐烦了，说：

"Why, Pierre, what rhyme or reason is there in getting into such a state. You are not a child."“我说，皮埃尔，你把自己弄成现在这样有什么意思啊。你不是个小孩子了。”

And he shrugged his shoulders and set to once more.

他耸了耸肩膀，又开始划了起来。

Mme. Rosemilly pretended not to see, not to understand, not to hear. Her fair head went back with an engaging little jerk every time the boat moved forward, making the fine wayward hairs flutter about her temples.

罗塞米伊太太假装什么都没瞧见，什么都不知道，什么都没听见。船每次往前一划动，她那满头金发的脑袋便姿势优美地往后一仰，两鬓的碎发也随之飘动起来。

But father Roland presently called out:

可罗兰老爹这时叫了起来：

"Look, the Prince Albert is catching us up!"“看哪，‘阿尔贝王子号’快要赶上我们了！”

They all looked round. Long and low in the water, with her two raking funnels and two yellow paddle-boxes like two round cheeks, the Southampton packet came ploughing on at full steam, crowded with passengers under open parasols. Its hurrying, noisy paddle-wheels beating up the water which fell again in foam, gave it an appearance of haste as of a courier pressed for time, and the upright stem cut through the water, throwing up two thin translucent waves which glided off along the hull.

大家都朝那边望去。南安普敦的轮船正全速驶来，这条长长的班轮吃水很深，两根烟囱往后倾斜着，两只黄色的轮罩圆滚滚的，像脸盘一样。撑开的太阳伞下面挤满了乘客。它那发着隆隆巨响的叶轮飞速地运转着，把海水拍打得白沫四处飞溅。它看上去行色匆匆，像个十万火急的信使，笔直的船头劈开了海面，船身两侧激起了两道薄薄的透明波痕。

When it had come quite near the Pearl, father Roland lifted his hat, the ladies shook their handkerchiefs, and half a dozen parasols eagerly waved on board the steamboat responded to this salute as she went on her way, leaving behind her a few broad undulations on the still and glassy surface of the sea.

当那条船靠近“珍珠号”的时候，罗兰老爹举起他的帽子，两位太太挥舞着她们的手帕，汽船上也有五六个阳伞下的乘客热情地挥手致意，以示还礼。汽船渐行渐远，在平静而又闪着波光的海面上留下了一道道翻滚的波浪。

There were other vessels, each with its smoky cap, coming in from every part of the horizon towards the short white jetty, which swallowed them up, one after another, like a mouth. And the fishing barks and lighter craft with broad sails and slender masts, stealing across the sky in tow of inconspicuous tugs, were coming in, faster and slower, towards the devouring ogre, who from time to time seemed to have had a surfeit, and spewed out to the open sea another fleet of steamers, brigs, schooners, and three-masted vessels with their tangled mass of rigging. The hurrying steamships flew off to the right and left over the smooth bosom of the ocean, while sailing vessels, cast off by the pilot-tugs which had hauled them out, lay motionless, dressing themselves from the main-mast to the fore-tops in canvas, white or brown, and ruddy in the setting sun.

还可以看到其他一些轮船，船顶上也冒着滚滚黑烟，远远地从四面八方向那短短的白色海堤驶来，海堤像一张大嘴，把轮船一条接一条地吞没。还有那些仿佛滑行在天际的渔船和轻桅大帆船，它们被一些小得几乎看不到的拖船拉着，也都或急或缓地正朝着那个食人恶魔驶去。这个吃人的魔鬼有时似乎吃得过饱了，于是向大海吐出了另外一些游船，有双桅横帆船、双桅纵帆船，还有桅帆纵横的三桅帆船。那些飞驰的汽轮有的向右，有的向左，朝着平静的大洋腹地驶去，而那些帆船在被拖船拖出港口后，一动不动地在那里停着，它们正在为自己着装，从主桅到顶桅都扯起了船帆，在夕阳的映照下，有的船帆呈白色，有的是棕色，有的微红。

Mme. Roland, with her eyes half-shut, murmured: "Good heavens, how beautiful the sea is!"

罗兰太太眯着眼睛喃喃自语：“天哪，大海真是太美了！”

And Mme. Rosemilly replied with a long sigh, which, however, had no sadness in it:

罗塞米伊太太深深地叹了一口气，但绝没有悲伤的意味，接着说：

"Yes, but it is sometimes very cruel, all the same."“是啊，可它有时候也是要兴风作浪的。”

Roland exclaimed:

罗兰老爹叫道：

"Look, there is the Normandie just going in. A big ship, isn't she?"“看，‘诺曼底号’正在进港呢。它真是个大家伙，对吧？”

Then he described the coast opposite, far, far away, on the other side of the mouth of the Seine—that mouth extended over twenty kilometres, said he. He pointed out Villerville, Trouville, Houlgate, Luc, Arromanches, the little river of Caen, and the rocks of Calvados which make the coast unsafe as far as Cherbourg. Then he enlarged on the question of the sand-banks in the Seine, which shift at every tide so that even the pilots of Quilleboeuf are at fault if they do not survey the channel every day. He bid them notice how the town of Havre divided Upper from Lower Normandy. In Lower Normandy the shore sloped down to the sea in pasture-lands, fields, and meadows. The coast of Upper Normandy, on the contrary, was steep, a high cliff, ravined, cleft and towering, forming an immense white rampart all the way to Dunkirk, while in each hollow a village or a port lay hidden: Etretat, Fecamp, Saint-Valery, Treport, Dieppe, and the rest.

接着他又描绘了塞纳河河口另一边那遥远的对岸——这个河口有二十公里宽，他如是说。他又指出了维莱维尔、特罗维尔、乌尔加特、吕克、阿罗芒什、卡昂河以及卡尔瓦多斯礁石带，这个礁石带使得从这里一直到瑟堡的航道都险象环生。接着，他又谈到了塞纳河的沙洲问题，这些沙滩每次涨潮后都要移位，如果不每天巡查航道，连基叶伯夫当地的水手也会出差错。他又叫他们注意观察，勒阿弗尔是如何把诺曼底分为上下两部分的。在下诺曼底，平坦的海岸缓缓下降，从牧场、原野、草地，一直延展到海边。与此相反，上诺曼底的海岸又陡又直，是一道犬牙交错的壮观峭壁，形成了一道一直绵延到敦克尔克的白色防护墙，在每个凹口里都隐藏着一个村落或是一个港口：埃特勒塔、费康、圣瓦勒里、特列港、迪耶普等等。

The two women did not listen. Torpid with comfort and impressed by the sight of the ocean covered with vessels rushing to and fro like wild beasts about their den, they sat speechless, somewhat awed by the soothing and gorgeous sunset. Roland alone talked on without end; he was one of those whom nothing can disturb. Women, whose nerves are more sensitive, sometimes feel, without knowing why, that the sound of useless speech is as irritating as an insult.

两个女人根本没听他在说什么。她们因舒适而变得懒洋洋的，看着海面上那么多来来往往的船舶，像围着自己的巢穴奔跑的野兽，觉得很震撼。她们静默地坐着，看着壮丽柔和的落日，充满了敬畏。只有罗兰老爹一个人滔滔不绝地说个没完，他是那种不会受任何事物干扰的人。女人们的神经比较敏感，有时她们会莫名其妙地觉得，听那些毫无意义的废话就跟受到侮辱一样让人恼火。

Pierre and Jean, who had calmed down, were rowing slowly, and the Pearl was making for the harbour, a tiny thing among those huge vessels.

皮埃尔和让这时已经平静了下来，他们不紧不慢地划着，“珍珠号”向着港口驶去，在四周的大船中，它显得十分渺小。

When they came alongside of the quay, Papagris, who was waiting there, gave his hand to the ladies to help them out, and they took the way into the town. A large crowd, the crowd which haunts the pier every day at high tide, was also drifting homeward. Mme. Roland and Mme. Rosemilly led the way, followed by the three men. As they went up the Rue de Paris they stopped now and then in front of a milliner's or a jeweller's shop, to look at a bonnet or an ornament; then after making their comments they went on again. In front of the Place Roland paused, as he did every day, to gaze at the docks full of vessels—the Bassin du Commerce, with other docks beyond, where the huge hulls lay side by side, closely packed in rows, four or five deep. And masts innumerable; along several kilometres of quays the endless masts, with their yards, poles, and rigging, gave this great gap in the heart of the town the look of a dead forest. Above this leafless forest the gulls were wheeling, and watching to pounce, like a falling stone, on any scraps flung overboard; a sailor boy, fixing a pulley to a cross-beam, looked as if he had gone up there bird's-nesting.

他们靠岸后，已经在那里等着的帕帕格里斯用手扶着太太们下船，随后他们就进城了。还有一大群人也在赶往回家的路上，这群人每天在涨潮时都会到码头上来。罗兰太太和罗塞米伊太太走在前面，三个男人跟在后面。走上巴黎大街后，她们时不时在女帽店或珠宝店前面停下来，看看某顶帽子或是某件首饰，议论一番后又继续朝前走去。走到交易所广场前面的时候，罗兰老爹停住了脚步，像往日一样，他细细地打量着泊满船只的巴桑杜商船锚地，和这个船坞紧连着的还有其他几个船坞，那里停泊着四五排大船，一艘贴着一艘，紧紧地靠在一起。数不胜数的桅杆沿着码头绵延数公里，它们上面的横桅、顶桅、缆绳使城市中心的这片空地看上去像一大片枯死的森林。在这片没有树叶的林子上空，一些海鸥在盘旋飞翔。它们在窥伺着被扔进水里的残食，随时准备像落石似的俯冲下来抢食。一个小水手趴在一根顶桅上装滑轮，看上去像是在那里寻找鸟窝。

"Will you dine with us without any sort of ceremony, just that we may end the day together?" said Mme. Roland to her friend.“您愿意和我们一起吃晚餐吗？不用客套，这样大家就一起度过一整天了。”罗兰太太问罗塞米伊太太。

"To be sure I will, with pleasure; I accept equally without ceremony. It would be dismal to go home and be alone this evening."“当然愿意，我非常高兴，那我就不客气了。今天晚上回家一个人呆着，真是太落寞了。”

Pierre, who had heard, and who was beginning to be restless under the young woman's indifference, muttered to himself: "Well, the widow is taking root now, it would seem." For some days past he had spoken of her as "the widow." The word, harmless in itself, irritated Jean merely by the tone given to it, which to him seemed spiteful and offensive.

这个少妇对他的冷漠态度让皮埃尔开始不安起来，他听到这话后低声自语道：“瞧瞧，这个寡妇现在算是要赖到我们家来了。”几天来，他都称她为“寡妇”。这个词，本身并无恶意，可让一听到皮埃尔说这个词时的音调就上火，他觉得这种音调不怀好意，且带有侮辱的味道。

The three men spoke not another word till they reached the threshold of their own house. It was a narrow one, consisting of a ground-floor and two floors above, in the Rue Belle-Normande. The maid, Josephine, a girl of nineteen, a rustic servant-of-all-work at low wages, gifted to excess with the startled animal expression of a peasant, opened the door, went up stairs at her master's heels to the drawing-room, which was on the first floor, and then said:

这三个男人一直走到家门口都没有再开口说过一句话。他们的家坐落在贝尔-诺曼底大街上，很狭小，一共三层楼。女佣叫约瑟芬，是个十九岁的姑娘，工资很低，什么杂事都干，天生一副农民的表情，像个受到惊吓的小动物。她开了门，跟在主人后面到了二楼的客厅，随后说道：

"A gentleman called—three times."“有位先生来过三次了。”

Old Roland, who never spoke to her without shouting and swearing, cried out:

罗兰老爹和这个女佣讲话时向来不是吼就是骂，他叫道：

"Who do you say called, in the devil's name?"“谁来过，连个该死的名字都没有吗？”

She never winced at her master's roaring voice, and replied:

她从来不会因为主人的咆哮而畏缩，她回答说：

"A gentleman from the lawyer's."“是律师事务所的一位先生。”

"What lawyer?"“哪个律师？”

"Why, M'sieu 'Canu—who else?"“迈卡尼律师啊——还能有谁？”

"And what did this gentleman say?"“那这位先生说了什么？”

"That M'sieu 'Canu will call in himself in the course of the evening."“他说迈卡尼先生今晚会亲自来一趟。”

Maitre Lecanu was M. Roland's lawyer, and in a way his friend, managing his business for him. For him to send word that he would call in the evening, something urgent and important must be in the wind; and the four Rolands looked at each other, disturbed by the announcement as folks of small fortune are wont to be at any intervention of a lawyer, with its suggestions of contracts, inheritance, lawsuits—all sorts of desirable or formidable contingencies. The father, after a few moments of silence, muttered:

迈特尔·勒卡尼先生是替罗兰老爹处理事务的律师，也算是他的朋友。他派人传话说他今晚会来拜访，那一定是发生了什么紧急而重要的事情。罗兰家的四个人面面相觑，坐立不安，因为财产不多的人向来都害怕和律师打交道，律师的到访会让人联想到合同、遗产、诉讼之类吉凶未卜的事情。这位父亲沉思了片刻后，低声说：

"What on earth can it mean?"“这到底是什么意思呀？”

Mme. Rosemilly began to laugh.

罗塞米伊太太大笑起来。

"Why, a legacy, of course. I am sure of it. I bring good luck."“当然是关于遗产的事啦。我敢肯定。我会给人带来好运气的。”

But they did not expect the death of any one who might leave them anything.

可是他们没有预计到，谁死后会给他们留下任何遗产。

Mme. Roland, who had a good memory for relationships, began to think over all their connections on her husband's side and on her own, to trace up pedigrees and the ramifications of cousin-ship.

罗兰太太对亲戚关系记得清清楚楚，她马上开始仔细地罗列她婆家和娘家两方面的所有亲戚关系，从直系亲属一直追溯到旁支的堂表姑姨。

Before even taking off her bonnet she said:

她连帽子都没来得及摘下来就说：

"I say, father" (she called her husband "father" at home, and sometimes "Monsieur Roland" before strangers), "tell me, do you remember who it was that Joseph Lebru married for the second time?"“我说，老爹，”（她在家称她丈夫为“老爹”，有时在外人面前叫他“罗兰先生”）“告诉我，你记得约瑟夫·勒伯吕续娶的女人是谁吗？”

"Yes—a little girl named Dumenil, a stationer's daughter."“记得，一个叫迪梅尼的小姑娘，是个文具商的女儿。”

"Had they any children?"“他们有孩子吗？”

"I should think so! four or five at least."“我想应该有的！至少有四五个吧。”

"Not from that quarter, then."“那遗产肯定不会是他那边的人给的了。”

She was quite eager already in her search; she caught at the hope of some added ease dropping from the sky. But Pierre, who was very fond of his mother, who knew her to be somewhat visionary and feared she might be disappointed, a little grieved, a little saddened if the news were bad instead of good, checked her:

她很亢奋地在脑海里搜索着，开始希望天上会掉馅饼了。可是皮埃尔很爱他的母亲，他知道她稍稍有些善于幻想，因此担心如果这是个坏消息而不是好消息，他母亲会失望，会有点伤心、难过，于是便劝阻她说：

"Do not get excited, mother; there is no rich American uncle. For my part, I should sooner fancy that it is about a marriage for Jean."“妈妈，别太兴奋了，我们没有富有的美国叔叔。依我看，这可能关乎让的婚事。”

Every one was surprised at the suggestion, and Jean was a little ruffled by his brother's having spoken of it before Mme. Rosemilly.

所有人听到他这个想法都很吃惊，让也因为他哥哥在罗塞米伊太太面前谈起这样的事情心里有些生气。

"And why for me rather than for you? The hypothesis is very disputable. You are the elder; you, therefore, would be the first to be thought of. Besides, I do not wish to marry."“为什么说是我的婚事，而不是你自己的呢？这个假想太站不住脚了。你是老大，因此考虑先结婚的应该是你。更何况，我还不想结婚。”

Pierre smiled sneeringly:

皮埃尔讥笑他说：

"Are you in love, then?"“那么说，你现在已经坠入爱河了？”

And the other, much put out, retorted: "Is it necessary that a man should be in love because he does not care to marry yet?"

让不高兴了，反驳道：“难道非得爱上谁，才能说还不想结婚吗？”

"Ah, there you are! That 'yet' sets it right; you are waiting."“啊，说的对！那个‘还’字算是讲对了，你在等待。”

"Granted that I am waiting, if you will have it so."“就算我在等吧，随你怎么说。”

But old Roland, who had been listening and cogitating, suddenly hit upon the most probable solution.

可是罗兰老爹边听边思索着，突然找到了一个可能性最大的答案。

"Bless me! what fools we are to be racking our brains. Maitre Lecanu is our very good friend; he knows that Pierre is looking out for a medical partnership and Jean for a lawyer's office, and he has found something to suit one of you."“上帝保佑！我们这样费劲心思去想这个问题真是愚蠢至极。迈特尔·勒卡尼先生是我们的好朋友，他知道皮埃尔一直在找一家医务室，而让在找一家律师事务所，他或许是为你们其中的一个找到了合适工作。”

This was so obvious and likely that every one accepted it.

这个答案显而易见，可能性也极大，因此大家都接受了。

"Dinner is ready," said the maid. And they all hurried off to their rooms to wash their hands before sitting down to table.“晚饭准备好了。”女佣说。于是各人都匆匆回到自己房间，洗手准备就餐。

Ten minutes later they were at dinner in the little dining-room on the ground-floor.

十分钟后，他们都来到了一楼的小餐厅里用餐。

At first they were silent; but presently Roland began again in amazement at this lawyer's visit.

起先大家都沉默不语，可不一会儿，罗兰对律师的这次造访又产生了疑问。

"For after all, why did he not write? Why should he have sent his clerk three times? Why is he coming himself?"“说到底，为什么他不写信给我们呢？为什么他派他事务所的人来找了我三次？为什么他现在要亲自来呢？”

Pierre thought it quite natural.

皮埃尔认为这是很自然的，他说：

"An immediate decision is required, no doubt; and perhaps there are certain confidential conditions which it does not do to put into writing."“毫无疑问，他希望能立即得到答复，又或许他有些机密的事情要告诉我们，不太方便写在纸上。”

Still, they were all puzzled, and all four a little annoyed at having invited a stranger, who would be in the way of their discussing and deciding on what should be done.

可他们心里还是很迷惑，而且四个人都因邀请了这个客人感到有点烦心，因为她妨碍了他们的讨论和应做的决定。

They had just gone upstairs again when the lawyer was announced. Roland flew to meet him.

他们刚回到楼上的客厅里，便被告知说律师来了。罗兰迫不及待地迎上前去。

"Good evening, my dear Maitre," said he, giving his visitor the title which in France is the official prefix to the name of every lawyer.“晚上好，我亲爱的总管。”他这样尊称这位来访者。在法国，所有律师的名字前面都带有这个尊称。

Mme. Rosemilly rose.

罗塞米伊太太站起身来。

"I am going," she said. "I am very tired."“我要走了，”她说，“我很累了。”

A faint attempt was made to detain her; but she would not consent, and went home without either of the three men offering to escort her, as they always had done.

大家稍稍表示了一下想挽留她的意思，可她拒绝了。往常都有人送她回家，可这次三个男人谁也没主动提出送她。

Mme. Roland did the honours eagerly to their visitor.

罗兰太太赶忙走到来访者身边说：

"A cup of coffee, monsieur?"“要不要来杯咖啡，先生？”

"No, thank you. I have just had dinner."“不用了，谢谢。我刚吃过饭。”

"A cup of tea, then?"“那来杯茶好吗？”

"Thank you, I will accept one later. First we must attend to business."“谢谢你，我一会儿再喝吧。我们先谈谈正事。”

The deep silence which succeeded this remark was broken only by the regular ticking of the clock, and below stairs the clatter of saucepans which the girl was cleaning—too stupid even to listen at the door.

这话音刚落，大家顿时安静了下来，只听见钟摆有节奏的滴答声和楼下女佣刷平底锅的叮当声，那声音在门口听起来都笨手笨脚的。

The lawyer went on:

律师接着说：

"Did you, in Paris, know a certain M. Marechal—Leon Marechal?"

你们认不认识巴黎的一位叫马雷夏尔先生的人，莱昂·马雷夏尔？”

M. and Mme. Roland both exclaimed at once: "I should think so!"

罗兰两口子立刻异口同声地惊呼道：“没错，我们认识！”

"He was a friend of yours?"“他是你们的一个朋友吗？”

Roland replied: "Our best friend, monsieur, but a fanatic for Paris; never to be got away from the boulevard. He was a head clerk in the exchequer office. I have never seen him since I left the capital, and latterly we had ceased writing to each other. When people are far apart you know—”

罗兰答道：“先生，他是我们最好的朋友，可他是一个巴黎迷；他不愿意离开巴黎的林阴大道。他是财政部的重要职员。自从我离开首都以后就没再见到过他，后来我们也不再通信了。您知道，当人们离得很远的时候——”

The lawyer gravely put in:

那位律师神情凝重地打断他：

"M. Marechal is deceased."“马雷夏尔先生去世了。”

Both man and wife responded with the little movement of pained surprise, genuine or false, but always ready, with which such news is received.

夫妻二人都流露出一种吃惊而又悲痛的神色，这种情感不管是发自肺腑还是故作姿态，反正是一般人听到这类消息时会立刻表现出来的神态。

Maitre Lecanu went on:

迈特尔·勒卡尼先生接着说：

"My colleague in Paris has just communicated to me the main item of his will, by which he makes your son Jean—Monsieur Jean Roland—his sole legatee."“我在巴黎的同事刚刚告诉我他遗嘱里的主要内容，他指定你们的儿子让·罗兰先生为他的唯一财产继承人。”

They were all too much amazed to utter a single word. Mme. Roland was the first to control her emotion and stammered out:

大家都吃惊得一句话都说不出来。罗兰太太首先控制住了自己的感情，她结结巴巴地说：

"Good heavens! Poor Leon—our poor friend! Dear me! Dear me! Dead!"“上帝啊！我们可怜的朋友，我们可怜的莱昂！天啊！我的天啊！他死了！”

The tears started to her eyes, a woman's silent tears, drops of grief from her very soul, which trickle down her cheeks and seem so very sad, being so clear. But Roland was thinking less of the loss than of the prospect announced. Still, he dared not at once inquire into the clauses of the will and the amount of the fortune, so to work round to these interesting facts he asked:

她开始流泪，那种女人默默流出的眼泪，是悲痛的心灵的泪珠，顺着脸颊流了下来，她看起来是那么悲伤，泪水是那么晶莹明澈。可罗兰想的更多的是刚刚宣布的消息给他带来的前景，对老朋友的死倒并不感到伤心。可他不敢立即询问遗嘱的条款和财产的数目。为了拐弯抹角地谈到他所关心的问题，他问道：

"And what did he die of, poor Marechal?"“可怜的马雷夏尔，他是怎么死的？”

Maitre Lecanu did not know in the least.

迈特尔·勒卡尼先生对此一无所知。

"All I know is," said he, "that dying without any direct heirs, he has left the whole of his fortune—about twenty thousand francs a year ($3,840) in three per cents—to your second son, whom he has known from his birth up, and judges worthy of the legacy. If M. Jean should refuse the money, it is to go to the foundling hospitals."“我只知道死者没有一个直接继承人，”他说，“他把每年两万法郎（合3，840美元）的财产加上百分之三的利息全部留给了您的小儿子。他是看着他出生长大的，觉得他应该得到这笔遗产。如果让先生拒绝接受，那么这笔遗产将转赠给孤儿院。

Old Roland could not conceal his delight and exclaimed:

罗兰老爹掩饰不住他的喜悦，高声嚷道：

"Sacristi! It is the thought of a kind heart. And if I had had no heir I would not have forgotten him; he was a true friend."“上帝啊！他真是个好心肠。要是我没有子女，我也不会忘记他的，他是个真正的朋友。”

The lawyer smiled.

律师笑了。

"I was very glad," he said, "to announce the event to you myself. It is always a pleasure to be the bearer of good news."“能亲自通知您这件事情，我很高兴。”他说，“给人带来好消息总是一件让人高兴的事情。”

It had not struck him that this good news was that of the death of a friend, of Roland's best friend; and the old man himself had suddenly forgotten the intimacy he had but just spoken of with so much conviction.

他压根就没想过，这个好消息是一位朋友的死讯，是罗兰老爹最要好的朋友的死讯。而罗兰老爹自己也很快忘记了他刚刚还口口声声谈论的那种真挚友谊。

Only Mme. Roland and her sons still looked mournful. She, indeed, was still shedding a few tears, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief, which she then pressed to her lips to smother her deep sobs.

只有罗兰太太和她的两个儿子还保持着悲戚的面容。实际上，她一直是眼泪汪汪的，用手绢不停地擦着眼睛，随后用手绢捂着嘴，压制住太响的呜咽声。

The doctor murmured:

医生喃喃地说：

"He was a good fellow, very affectionate. He often invited us to dine with him—my brother and me."“他真是个好人，非常重感情。他经常邀请我们去吃饭——我弟弟和我。”

Jean, with wide-open, glittering eyes, laid his hand on his handsome fair beard, a familiar gesture with him, and drew his fingers down it to the tip of the last hairs, as if to pull it longer and thinner. Twice his lips parted to utter some decent remark, but after long meditation he could only say this:

让泛着泪花的眼睛睁得大大的，像以往那样，右手捋着他漂亮的金色胡子，一直捋到胡子尖儿，像是要把它们拉长拉细似的。他的嘴唇动了两次，想讲几句得体的话，可想了良久他也只能说：

"Yes, he was certainly fond of me. He would always embrace me when I went to see him."“是的，他的确很喜欢我。我每次去看他，他总会抱抱我。”

But his father's thoughts had set off at a gallop—galloping round this inheritance to come; nay, already in hand; this money lurking behind the door, which would walk in quite soon, to-morrow, at a word of consent.

可他父亲这时思潮起伏，思索着那即将到手的，不，是已经到手的遗产。那笔钱就近在咫尺，只要小儿子表示同意，很快，确切的说是明天，就会成为他们家的了。

"And there is no possible difficulty in the way?" he asked. "No lawsuit—no one to dispute it?"“会不会遇到什么麻烦？”他问，“不会有人提起诉讼——不会有人反对吗？”

Maitre Lecanu seemed quite easy.

迈特尔·勒卡尼先生好像很有把握。

"No; my Paris correspondent states that everything is quite clear. M. Jean has only to sign his acceptance."“没有，我巴黎的同行说一切都非常清楚。让先生只需要签字，表示他愿意接受就可以了。”

"Good. Then—then the fortune is quite clear?"“好极了。那么，那财产帐目清楚吗？”

"Perfectly clear."“非常清楚。”

"All the necessary formalities have been gone through?"“所有需要办理的手续都办完了吗？”

"All."“办完了。”

Suddenly the old jeweller had an impulse of shame—obscure, instinctive, and fleeting; shame of his eagerness to be informed, and he added:

突然，这个老珠宝商感到一阵羞愧，一种由他迫不及待打听这些事情而带来的模糊的、本能的、稍纵即逝的羞愧，于是他补充道：

"You understand that I ask all these questions immediately so as to save my son unpleasant consequences which he might not foresee. Sometimes there are debts, embarrassing liabilities, what not! And a legatee finds himself in an inextricable thorn-bush. After all, I am not the heir—but I think first of the little 'un."“您知道我之所以要立即问您所有这些问题，是为了不让儿子碰上一些他也许预料不到的麻烦。有时候，会有些债务、让人为难的义务等等诸如此类的事情！遗产受赠人总会陷进摆脱不了的荆棘丛中。总之，我虽然不是遗产继承人，可我总得先为小家伙们着想。”

They were accustomed to speak of Jean among themselves as the "little one," though he was much bigger than Pierre.

他们已经习惯了把让叫成“小家伙”，尽管他的块头比皮埃尔大得多。

Suddenly Mme. Roland seemed to wake from a dream, to recall some remote fact, a thing almost forgotten that she had heard long ago, and of which she was not altogether sure. She inquired doubtingly:

罗兰太太似乎突然大梦初醒，想起了某件遥远的事情，某件她听说过但几乎忘记了的事情，对这件事她并不能完全肯定。她疑惑不解地问道：

"Were you not saying that our poor friend Marechal had left his fortune to my little Jean?"“您是不是说我们可怜的朋友马雷夏尔把他的财产留给了我亲爱的让？”

"Yes, madame."“是的，夫人。”

And she went on simply:

于是她简单地接着说：

"I am much pleased to hear it; it proves that he was attached to us."“我为此感到很高兴，这证明他很爱我们。”

Roland had risen.

罗兰站了起来。

"And would you wish, my dear sir, that my son should at once sign his acceptance?"“亲爱的先生，您是不是需要我儿子马上签字表示他愿意接受？”

"No—no, M. Roland. To-morrow, at my office to-morrow, at two o'clock, if that suits you."“不，不，罗兰先生。明天，明天下午两点，在我的事务所，如果你们方便的话。”

"Yes, to be sure—yes, indeed. I should think so."“行，行，当然方便。我就是这样想的。”

Then Mme. Roland, who had also risen and who was smiling after her tears, went up to the lawyer, and laying her hand on the back of his chair while she looked at him with the pathetic eyes of a grateful mother, she said:

这时罗兰太太也站了起来，破涕为笑，她走近律师，把手放在他的椅背上，用一个母亲感恩的温和目光看着他，说道：

"And now for that cup of tea, Monsieur Lecanu?"“那么，现在喝杯茶吧，勒卡尼先生？”

"Now I will accept it with pleasure, madame."“现在我想喝了，夫人，非常乐意。”

The maid, on being summoned, brought in first some dry biscuits in deep tin boxes, those crisp, insipid English cakes which seem to have been made for a parrot's beak, and soldered into metal cases for a voyage round the world. Next she fetched some little gray linen doilies, folded square, those tea-napkins which in thrifty families never get washed. A third time she came in with the sugar-basin and cups; then she departed to heat the water. They sat waiting.

女佣被叫来了，她先拿来了一些盛在深锡罐里的干点心，这些细碎而无味的英国糕点像是专门做来给鹦鹉啄食的，而且是塞在金属盒子里，好像是为环游世界的人准备的。接着，她又去拿来了几条折成方形的灰色亚麻茶巾，这些茶巾在穷人家里是从来不洗的。第三次她又拿来了糖罐和茶杯，接着她就去烧水了。大家就坐在那里等着。

No one could talk; they had too much to think about and nothing to say. Mme. Roland alone attempted a few commonplace remarks. She gave an account of the fishing excursion, and sang the praises of the Pearl and of Mme. Rosemilly.

谁也不想说话。他们都思绪万千，什么也不想说。只有罗兰太太试着闲扯了几句。她讲起钓鱼旅行，还夸赞了一番“珍珠号”和罗塞米伊太太。

"Charming, charming!" the lawyer said again and again.“有趣，真有意思！”律师重复地说。

Roland, leaning against the marble mantel-shelf as if it were winter and the fire burning, with his hands in his pockets and his lips puckered for a whistle, could not keep still, tortured by the invincible desire to give vent to his delight. The two brothers, in two arm-chairs that matched, one on each side of the centre-table, stared in front of them, in similar attitudes full of dissimilar expressions.

罗兰背靠在大理石壁炉架上，就像冬天生火时一样，双手插在口袋里，嘟着嘴吹口哨，坐立不安，难以抑制满心的欢喜。两兄弟坐在客厅中央的小圆桌左右两旁两把同样的扶手椅里，双眼直视前方，姿态差不多，但表情却不同。

At last the tea appeared. The lawyer took a cup, sugared it, and drank it, after having crumbled into it a little cake which was too hard to crunch. Then he rose, shook hands, and departed.

茶终于端上来了。律师端起一杯，加了些糖，把一小片硬得啃都啃不动的饼干放在里面浸泡弄碎，然后把茶喝了。接着他便站起来，和大家握手告别。

"Then it is understood," repeated Roland. "To-morrow, at your place, at two?"“就这么说定了，”罗兰重复了一遍，“明天下午两点在您那里见。”

"Quite so. To-morrow, at two."“好的。明天下午两点见。”

Jean had not spoken a word.

让一句话都没说。

When their guest had gone, silence fell again till father Roland clapped his two hands on his younger son's shoulders, crying:

客人走了以后，大家又沉默了一会儿，后来罗兰老爹张开双手拍了拍他小儿子的双肩，大声说：

"Well, you devilish lucky dog! You don't embrace me!"“嘿，该死的走运鬼！怎么还不抱抱我！”

Then Jean smiled. He embraced his father, saying:

让笑了。他一面拥抱他父亲一面说：

"It had not struck me as indispensable."“我没觉得一定要抱你啊。”

The old man was beside himself with glee. He walked about the room, strummed on the furniture with his clumsy nails, turned about on his heels, and kept saying:

罗兰老爹高兴得难以自持。他来回在房里踱步，用他笨拙的手指在家具上敲打着，脚跟转来转去，一直说：

"What luck! What luck! Now, that is really what I call luck!"“多好的运气！多好的运气啊！看吧，这才是我说的好运气！”

Pierre asked:

皮埃尔问道：

"Then you used to know this Marechal well?"“那么您过去和这位马雷夏尔很熟是吗？”

And his father replied:

他父亲回答说：

"I believe! Why, he used to spend every evening at our house. Surely you remember he used to fetch you from school on half-holidays, and often took you back again after dinner. Why, the very day when Jean was born it was he who went for the doctor. He had been breakfasting with us when your mother was taken ill. Of course we knew at once what it meant, and he set off post-haste. In his hurry he took my hat instead of his own. I remember that because we had a good laugh over it afterward. It is very likely that he may have thought of that when he was dying, and as he had no heir he may have said to himself: 'I remember helping to bring that youngster into the world, so I will leave him my savings.'”“那还用说！他以前每晚都来我们家。你肯定也记得，每逢放半天假的时候，他总是去学校接你，还经常在吃过晚饭后送你回学校。噢，还有，让出生的那天，是他去请的医生。你妈妈临产觉得难受的时候，他正和我们一起吃早饭。我们当然马上就知道这意味着什么，他便飞也似的跑去请了医生。忙乱中他还错戴了我的帽子。我记得这件事是因为事后我们为此还笑痛了肚皮。很可能他在临终时也想起了这些小事，又因为他没有任何继承人，他就思量着：‘我记得那小家伙出生时我也出了一把力的，我要把我的财产留给他。’”

Mme. Roland, sunk in a deep chair, seemed lost in reminiscences once more. She murmured, as though she were thinking aloud:

罗兰太太坐在一把很深的椅子里，仿佛再次陷入了回忆中。她自言自语般地嘀咕着：

"Ah, he was a good friend, very devoted, very faithful, a rare soul in these days."“啊，他真是个好人，热情诚恳，在这个年代，这样的人可真不多见啊。”

Jean got up.

让站起来了。

"I shall go out for a little walk," he said.“我要出去散会儿步。”他说。

His father was surprised and tried to keep him; they had much to talk about, plans to be made, decisions to be formed. But the young man insisted, declaring that he had an engagement. Besides, there would be time enough for settling everything before he came into possession of his inheritance. So he went away, for he wished to be alone to reflect. Pierre, on his part, said that he too was going out, and after a few minutes followed his brother.

他爸爸吃了一惊，想留住他。因为他们有很多事情要商量，得订些计划，做些决定。可年轻人推说他有个约会，非出去不可。何况在接受遗产之前，他们还有足够的时间把一切安排妥当。于是他走了，因为他想自己一个人仔细想想。皮埃尔说他也想出去走走，几分钟以后，他也出门了。

As soon as he was alone with his wife, father Roland took her in his arms, kissed her a dozen times on each cheek, and, replying to a reproach she had often brought against him, said:

就只剩下他夫妻俩了，罗兰老爹立即把妻子搂在怀里，在她双颊上各吻了十多下。过去，她经常责备他离开了巴黎，现在他借此机会反驳道：

"You see, my dearest, that it would have been no good to stay any longer in Paris and work for the children till I dropped, instead of coming here to recruit my health, since fortune drops on us from the skies.“瞧瞧，亲爱的，要是我们那时继续呆在巴黎为孩子们操劳，真是毫无益处，反倒是迁到这里来以后，我的健康也好转了，还得到了天降的横财呢。”

She was quite serious.

她表情凝重。

"It drops from the skies on Jean," she said. "But Pierre?"“发横财的是让，”她说，“可皮埃尔呢？”

"Pierre? But he is a doctor; he will make plenty of money; besides, his brother will surely do something for him."“皮埃尔？他可是个医生啊，他能赚大钱的。而且他弟弟也会帮他忙的。”

"No, he would not take it. Besides, this legacy is for Jean, only for Jean. Pierre will find himself at a great disadvantage."“不，他不会接受的。况且这遗产是给让一个人的，他一个人的。皮埃尔会发现自己处境很糟的。”

The old fellow seemed perplexed: "Well, then, we will leave him rather more in our will."

老伙计似乎有点困惑不解：“那么，我们在遗嘱里多留些给他吧，我们的那份。”

"No; that again would not be quite just."“不行，这样做也不怎么公平。”

"Drat it all!" he exclaimed. "What do you want me to do in the matter? You always hit on a whole heap of disagreeable ideas. You must spoil all my pleasures. Well, I am going to bed. Good-night. All the same, I call it good luck, jolly good luck!"‘‘见鬼去吧！”他嚷道，“你叫我怎么办呢？你总是找一堆理由来反对我的意见。你总让我扫兴。算了，我睡觉去了。晚安。不管怎样，这就是运气，真是太走运了！”

And he went off, delighted in spite of everything, and without a word of regret for the friend so generous in his death.

于是，他便高高兴兴地走了，别的一概不管，那位如此慷慨的朋友过世了，他连一句惋惜悼念话都没有说。

Mme. Roland sat thinking again in front of the lamp which was burning out.

罗兰太太坐在油灯前陷入了深思。灯油已经快要燃尽了。

CHAPTER II

第二章

As soon as he got out, Pierre made his way to the Rue de Paris, the high-street of Havre, brightly lighted up, lively and noisy. The rather sharp air of the seacoast kissed his face, and he walked slowly, his stick under his arm and his hands behind his back. He was ill at ease, oppressed, out of heart, as one is after hearing unpleasant tidings. He was not distressed by any definite thought, and he would have been puzzled to account, on the spur of the moment, for this dejection of spirit and heaviness of limb. He was hurt somewhere, without knowing where; somewhere within him there was a pin-point of pain—one of those almost imperceptible wounds which we cannot lay a finger on, but which incommode us, tire us, depress us, irritate us—a slight and occult pang, as it were a small seed of distress.

一出门，皮埃尔就往勒阿弗尔的主要街道巴黎大街走去。街上灯火通明，熙熙攘攘。清凉的海风吹拂着他的脸，他背着手慢慢地走着，手杖夹在胳膊下面。他局促不安、心情压抑、心不在焉，就像听到了什么坏消息一样。他的苦恼没有任何明确的原因，一时间他自己也说不清楚是什么让他情绪低落、四肢沉重。他觉得有个地方难受，可又说不出来是哪儿，身体里有个小小的创口——一个几乎觉察不到的伤疤，找不到其确切的部位，却又让人感到难受、乏力、沮丧、恼火——那是一种轻微而隐秘的苦楚，像是一粒痛苦的种子。

When he reached the square in front of the theatre, he was attracted by the lights in the Cafe Tortoni, and slowly bent his steps to the dazzling facade; but just as he was going in he reflected that he would meet friends there and acquaintances—people he would be obliged to talk to; and fierce repugnance surged up in him for this commonplace good-fellowship over coffee cups and liqueur glasses. So, retracing his steps, he went back to the high-street leading to the harbour.

走到剧院前的广场时，他被托托尼咖啡店的灯光所吸引，于是他慢悠悠地向那灯火辉煌的店面走去。可就在他要迈进去的一瞬间，他想起了他在那里或许会遇到一些朋友、熟人——一些他非得和他们交谈不可的人，他突然对这种日常生活中觥筹交错的点头之交感到极度厌恶。于是，他折回来，回到了那条通往码头的大街上。

"Where shall I go?" he asked himself, trying to think of a spot he liked which would agree with his frame of mind. He could not think of one, for being alone made him feel fractious, yet he could not bear to meet any one. As he came out on the Grand Quay he hesitated once more; then he turned towards the pier; he had chosen solitude.“我该去哪儿呢？”他自言自语，努力在脑海里搜索一个能符合他心境的地方。他想不起一个这样的地方，因为独处让他感到很焦躁，而他又无法忍受见到任何人。走到大码头时，他又犹豫了一会儿，然后，他朝着海堤走去，选择一个人静一静。

Going close by a bench on the breakwater he sat down, tired already of walking and out of humour with his stroll before he had taken it.

他走近防波堤上的一张长凳，坐了下来，他已经走累了，他原本就没有散步的兴致。

He said to himself: "What is the matter with me this evening?" And he began to search in his memory for what vexation had crossed him, as we question a sick man to discover the cause of his fever.

他问自己：“今晚我到底是怎么了？”于是，他开始从记忆中搜索，追想是什么让他如此不快，就像我们为了找到病人发烧的原因而追问他那样。

His mind was at once irritable and sober; he got excited, then he reasoned, approving or blaming his impulses; but in time primitive nature at last proved the stronger; the sensitive man always had the upper hand over the intellectual man. So he tried to discover what had induced this irascible mood, this craving to be moving without wanting anything, this desire to meet some one for the sake of differing from him, and at the same time this aversion for the people he might see and the things they might say to him.

他心里既焦躁不安又沉着冷静。他一会儿激动起来，认同了自己的冲动，一会儿又冷静下来，指责自己的冲动。可很快，原始的天性最终占了主导地位，在情感与理智的较量中，情感永远都占上风。所以，他努力探寻，是什么让他这样暴躁易怒，让他渴望这种漫无目的游走，让他希望遇上与他意见相左的人，同时又让他厌恶那些可能会看到的人、可能会听到的话。

And then he put the question to himself, "Can it be Jean's inheritance?"

接着，他质问自己：“难道是让得到了遗产的缘故？”

Yes, it was certainly possible. When the lawyer had announced the news he had felt his heart beat a little faster. For, indeed, one is not always master of one's self; there are sudden and pertinacious emotions against which a man struggles in vain.

是的，当然有这个可能。当律师宣布这个消息的时候，他感到自己的心跳加快了一些。因为人有时候的确是无法控制自己的，总有一些突发而又难以摆脱的情绪是我们无法抑制的。

He fell into meditation on the physiological problem of the impression produced on the instinctive element in man, and giving rise to a current of painful or pleasurable sensations diametrically opposed to those which the thinking man desires, aims at, and regards as right and wholesome, when he has risen superior to himself by the cultivation of his intellect. He tried to picture to himself the frame of mind of a son who had inherited a vast fortune, and who, thanks to that wealth, may now know many long-wished-for delights, which the avarice of his father had prohibited—a father, nevertheless, beloved and regretted.

他开始仔细思考一个生理学问题：某种印象会使人产生本能的反应，并引发一阵痛苦或愉悦的情感，而当那个理性的自己超越了本能的自己时，这个理智的人所渴望的、追求的、认为正确而有益的情感则是与前者截然不同的。他试着去构想一个继承了一笔巨款的儿子的心理状态，这个儿子因为得到了这笔财产而能享受他向往已久的种种乐趣，之前由于父亲的贪婪，他从来没享受过这些乐趣——尽管如此，这位父亲还是受爱戴和被思念的。

He got up and walked on to the end of the pier. He felt better, and glad to have understood, to have detected himself, to have unmasked the other which lurks in us.

他站起身来，朝海堤的尽头走去。他觉得好了一些，而且很满意自己已经理解、洞悉了自己的内心，并揭露了另一个潜在的自我。

"Then I was jealous of Jean," thought he. "That is really vilely mean. And I am sure of it now, for the first idea which came into my head was that he would marry Mme. Rosemilly. And yet I am not in love myself with that priggish little goose, who is just the woman to disgust a man with good sense and good conduct. So it is the most gratuitous jealousy, the very essence of jealousy, which is merely because it is! I must keep an eye on that!"“这么说，我是在嫉妒让，”他想，“这念头真是太可耻了。现在我可以肯定这一点，因为我首先想到的就是他将和罗塞米伊太太结婚。不过，我并不喜欢那个自以为是的小傻瓜，她正是那种通情达理、品行端正的男人所厌恶的女人。因此，这就是一种完全没来由的嫉妒，不折不扣的嫉妒，为了嫉妒而嫉妒的嫉妒！我一定得当心此事啊！”

By this time he was in front of the flag-staff, whence the depth of water in the harbour is signalled, and he struck a match to read the list of vessels signalled in the roadstead and coming in with the next high tide. Ships were due from Brazil, from La Plata, from Chili and Japan, two Danish brigs, a Norwegian schooner, and a Turkish steamship—which startled Pierre as much as if it had read a Swiss steamship; and in a whimsical vision he pictured a great vessel crowded with men in turbans climbing the shrouds in loose trousers.

这时，他走到了标注港口水位线的水位标杆前面。他划亮一根火柴，看了看在近岸锚地做了标志并在下次涨潮时进港的船只名单。等待进港的有来自巴西、拉普拉塔、智利、日本的轮船，两艘丹麦的双桅横帆船、一艘挪威的双桅纵帆船和一艘土耳其汽船——皮埃尔见了它好像看到了一艘瑞士汽船一样吃惊。在一时的幻想中，他仿佛看见了一艘大船，上面满载了许多包着头巾的人穿着肥大的裤子在爬横桅索。

"How absurd!" thought he. "But the Turks are a maritime people, too."“真是荒谬！”他想道。“不过土耳其人本来就是个航海的民族。”

A few steps further on he stopped again, looking out at the roads. On the right, above Sainte-Adresse, the two electric lights of Cape la Heve, like monstrous twin Cyclops, shot their long and powerful beams across the sea. Starting from two neighbouring centres, the two parallel shafts of light, like the colossal tails of two comets, fell in a straight and endless slope from the top of the cliff to the uttermost horizon. Then, on the two piers, two more lights, the children of these giants, marked the entrance to the harbour; and far away on the other side of the Seine others were in sight, many others, steady or winking, flashing or revolving, opening and shutting like eyes—the eyes of the ports—yellow, red, and green, watching the night-wrapped sea covered with ships; the living eyes of the hospitable shore saying, merely by the mechanical and regular movement of their eye-lids: "I am here. I am Trouville; I am Honfleur; I am the Andemer River." And high above all the rest, so high that from this distance it might be taken for a planet, the airy lighthouse of Etouville showed the way to Rouen across the sand banks at the mouth of the great river.

他向前走了几步后又停下来，看着眼前的锚地。在他右边，圣阿德莱斯湾上方，勒阿弗尔海角的两座电力灯塔像一对孪生的独眼巨人，向遥远的海面射出两束强光。两道平行的光束像两颗彗星的巨大尾巴，从相邻的两个光源发出，顺着一条笔直而没有尽头的斜坡，从峭壁顶端一直延伸到遥远的天际。此外，从两座码头上射出另外两束光，它们像是那两束巨光的孩子，标志着勒阿弗尔港的入口。遥远的塞纳河的另一岸，还能看见许多别的灯光，有些是静止不动的，有些是闪烁不定的，忽而明亮，忽而暗淡，像眼睛一睁一闭似的——那是海港的眼睛，黄的、红的、绿的，它们瞭望着夜幕笼罩下泊满船只的海面。那热情好客的海岸，只能机械而规律地眨着眼睛，告诉人们：“我在这里。我是特鲁维尔，我是翁弗勒尔，我是奥特梅尔河。”还有那高踞在其他灯塔之上的埃多维尔空中标灯，它的光芒穿过塞纳河河口的的沙滩，直指鲁昂港。从这里遥望，那高耸入云的灯塔像是一颗行星。

Out on the deep water, the limitless water, darker than the sky, stars seemed to have fallen here and there. They twinkled in the night haze, small, close to shore or far away—white, red, and green, too. Most of them were motionless; some, however, seemed to be scudding onward. These were the lights of the ships at anchor or moving about in search of moorings.

再远一些，在那比天空更黑暗的辽阔深邃的海面上，似乎到处都泛着点点星光。它们在夜雾中闪烁着，小小的，离海岸或近或远——有白的、红的，还有绿色的。大部分的星星都是静止的，但也有少数几颗好像在飞速前移。这些都是已经抛锚停泊的船，或是正在寻找泊位的船只上的灯火。

Just at this moment the moon rose behind the town; and it, too, looked like some huge, divine pharos lighted up in the heavens to guide the countless fleet of stars in the sky. Pierre murmured, almost speaking aloud: "Look at that! And we let our bile rise for twopence!"

就在这时，月亮从城市后面升起来了，它也像一座巨大的神圣灯塔，在苍穹中点亮，为天上数不清的群星指明方向。皮埃尔喃喃地说，几乎叫出声来：“看啊，那多美！可我们却在为一些蝇头小利大伤脑筋！”

On a sudden, close to him, in the wide, dark ditch between the two piers, a shadow stole up, a large shadow of fantastic shape. Leaning over the granite parapet, he saw that a fishing-boat had glided in, without the sound of a voice or the splash of a ripple, or the plunge of an oar, softly borne in by its broad, tawny sail spread to the breeze from the open sea.

突然，就在他身边，从两座码头之间那个漆黑宽阔的沟渠里溜出来一个黑影，体积巨大、形状古怪。他俯身靠在花岗岩的矮墙上，看见那是一条返航的渔船滑进来。没有人声，没有水声，也没有桨声，任凭它迎着海风张开的黄褐色船帆缓缓前进。

He thought to himself: "If one could but live on board that boat, what peace it would be—perhaps!"

他心想：“如果能生活在那条渔船上，那该有多清净——或许吧！”

And then again a few steps beyond, he saw a man sitting at the very end of the breakwater.

随后他又朝前走了几步，看见有个人坐在防波堤的尽头上。

A dreamer, a lover, a sage—a happy or a desperate man? Who was it? He went forward, curious to see the face of this lonely individual, and he recognised his brother.

这是个幻想家、坠入爱河的人，还是个圣贤——是幸福还是绝望？他是谁？他好奇地朝前走去，想看看这个孤独的人的脸，结果认出了那个人原来是他弟弟。

"What, is it you, Jean?"“啊，是你吗，让？”

"Pierre! You! What has brought you here?"“皮埃尔！是你啊！你怎么到这里来了啊？”

"I came out to get some fresh air. And you?"“我出来透透气。你呢？”

Jean began to laugh.

让笑了起来。

"I too came out for fresh air." And Pierre sat down by his brother's side.“我也是出来透透气。”于是皮埃尔挨着弟弟坐下了。

"Lovely—isn't it?"“真美啊，是不是？”

"Oh, yes, lovely."“哦，是啊，挺美的。”

He understood from the tone of voice that Jean had not looked at anything. He went on:

从让的语调里，他听出来他其实根本就没在看风景。他接着说：

"For my part, whenever I come here I am seized with a wild desire to be off with all those boats, to the north or the south. Only to think that all those little sparks out there have just come from the uttermost ends of the earth, from the lands of great flowers and beautiful olive or copper coloured girls, the lands of humming-birds, of elephants, of roaming lions, of negro kings, from all the lands which are like fairy—tales to us who no longer believe in the White Cat or the Sleeping Beauty. It would be awfully jolly to be able to treat one's self to an excursion out there; but, then, it would cost a great deal of money, no end—”“而我，我每次来这儿，都有种疯狂的念头，想随着这些船去走南闯北。想想看，那些点点星火都是来自于天涯海角，来自开满了鲜花和美丽橄榄枝的国度或是有古铜色美女的国家，来自有蜂鸟、大象，有漫步的狮子和黑人国王的国家，来自那些我们以为是童话的国家——我们已经不再相信像《白猫》或《睡美人》那样的故事了。要是能去那样的地方旅行，那真美妙极了。可是，这得花上一大笔钱，无休无止——”

He broke off abruptly, remembering that his brother had that money now; and released from care, released from labouring for his daily bread, free, unfettered, happy, and light-hearted, he might go whither he listed, to find the fair-haired Swedes or the brown damsels of Havana. And then one of those involuntary flashes which were common with him, so sudden and swift that he could neither anticipate them, nor stop them, nor qualify them, communicated, as it seemed to him, from some second, independent, and violent soul, shot through his brain.

他突然打住不说了，想到他的弟弟现在有钱了，可以不被世俗所扰，不为生活所累，自由自在、无拘无束、幸福快乐、无忧无虑，想去哪儿就去哪儿，他可以去找金发的瑞典姑娘，也可以去找棕发的哈瓦那女郎。接着，他脑子里不由自主地闪现了一个经常出现的念头。这念头来得如此突然、如此迅猛，他没有预料到，无法遏制，也不能限制它。他感觉这念头仿佛来自另一个独立的、强大的灵魂。

"Bah! He is too great a simpleton; he will marry that little Rosemilly." He was standing up now. "I will leave you to dream of the future. I want to be moving." He grasped his brother's hand and added in a heavy tone:“呸！他头脑太简单了，他会去娶那个小寡妇罗塞米伊的。”他站起身来。“你自己在这里梦想未来吧。我想走走。”他握了握他兄弟的手，用一种非常严肃的语气补充道：

"Well, my dear old boy, you are a rich man. I am very glad to have come upon you this evening to tell you how pleased I am about it, how truly I congratulate you, and how much I care for you."“好吧，我亲爱的弟弟，你现在有钱了。我非常高兴今晚能遇到你，告诉你我对这事感到多么高兴，我是多么为你庆幸，我是多么爱你。”

Jean, tender and soft-hearted, was deeply touched.

让天性温顺随和，他非常感动。

"Thank you, my good brother—thank you!" he stammered.“谢谢你，我的好哥哥，谢谢你！”他结结巴巴地说。

And Pierre turned away with his slow step, his stick under his arm, and his hands behind his back.

皮埃尔转过身，手杖夹在胳膊下面，背着手，慢慢地朝前走去。

Back in the town again, he once more wondered what he should do, being disappointed of his walk and deprived of the company of the sea by his brother's presence. He had an inspiration. "I will go and take a glass of liqueur with old Marowsko," and he went off towards the quarter of the town known as Ingouville.

回到城里以后，他又开始想他该干些什么，因为碰上了他弟弟，散步被打断了，海景也看不了了，很是扫兴。他突然有了个想法。“我要去和老马露斯科喝上一杯。”于是他又朝着安古唯尔区走去。

He had known old Marowsko—le pere Marowsko, he called him—in the hospitals in Paris. He was a Pole, an old refugee, it was said, who had gone through terrible things out there, and who had come to ply his calling as a chemist and druggist in France after passing a fresh examination. Nothing was known of his early life, and all sorts of legends had been current among the indoor and outdoor patients and afterward among his neighbours. This reputation as a terrible conspirator, a nihilist, a regicide, a patriot ready for anything and everything, who had escaped death by a miracle, had bewitched Pierre Roland's lively and bold imagination; he had made friends with the old Pole, without, however, having ever extracted from him any revelation as to his former career. It was owing to the young doctor that this worthy had come to settle at Havre, counting on the large custom which the rising practitioner would secure him. Meanwhile he lived very poorly in his little shop, selling medicines to the small tradesmen and workmen in his part of the town.

他是在巴黎的几个医院里认识老马露斯科的——他叫他马露斯科老爹。据说，他是个波兰老头，一个老难民，在波兰经历了非常糟糕的事情，来到法国以后，他又重新通过了考查，当上了药剂师。他的过去大家都一无所知，关于他的各种传奇故事在住院和不住院的病人之间传播着，后来他的邻居们也开始谈论了。可怕的谋反分子、虚无主义者、弑君者、不顾一切的爱国者、奇迹般死里逃生的人，这些名声使精力充沛、想象力丰富的皮埃尔·罗兰非常着迷。他成了这个波兰老头的朋友，不过他从来没听他说过关于他过去生活的任何事情。还多亏了这位年轻医生的帮助，他才能到勒阿弗尔开业，他指望着这位有前途的医生给他带来更多的顾客。同时，他住在简陋的药房里，把药卖给本地的小贩和工匠，过着清贫的生活。

Pierre often went to see him and chat with him for an hour after dinner, for he liked Marowsko's calm look and rare speech, and attributed great depth to his long spells of silence.

皮埃尔常在晚饭后去看望他，和他聊上个把钟头，因为他很喜欢马露斯科那张宁静的脸和他的少言寡语，他认为长时间的沉默寡言是极为深沉的表现。

A simple gas-burner was alight over the counter crowded with phials. Those in the window were not lighted, from motives of economy. Behind the counter, sitting on a chair with his legs stretched out and crossed, an old man, quite bald, with a large beak of a nose which, as a prolongation of his hairless forehead, gave him a melancholy likeness to a parrot, was sleeping soundly, his chin resting on his breast. He woke at the sound of the shop-bell, and recognising the doctor, came forward to meet him, holding out both hands.

堆满了小药瓶的柜台上只点着一盏煤气灯。为了省钱，橱窗里的灯全都没点。在柜台后面，一个秃顶的老头儿坐在一把椅子上，两腿交叉向前伸着。他那巨大的鹰钩鼻似乎与光秃秃的前额连为一体了，使他看上去像一只愁眉苦脸的鹦鹉。此时他睡得正香，下巴搁在胸口上。听到门铃声，他醒了，认出是医生来，便伸出双手走上前去迎接他。

His black frock-coat, streaked with stains of acids and sirups, was much too wide for his lean little person, and looked like a shabby old cassock; and the man spoke with a strong Polish accent which gave the childlike character to his thin voice, the lisping note and intonations of a young thing learning to speak.

他身材瘦小，身上穿的黑色礼服显得又肥又了，沾满了各种酸类药剂和糖浆污渍，像一件破烂的老式教士服。他的波兰口音很重，细弱的声音里夹着童音，发音含混不清，就像一个牙牙学语的孩子。

Pierre sat down, and Marowsko asked him: "What news, dear doctor?"

皮埃尔坐下来，马露斯科问道：“有什么新鲜事，亲爱的医生？”

"None. Everything as usual, everywhere."“没有。一切都是老样子，哪儿都一样。”

"You do not look very gay this evening."“今天晚上您看上去好像不高兴。”

"I am not often gay."“不高兴对我来说是常事儿。”

"Come, come, you must shake that off. Will you try a glass of liqueur?"“得啦，得啦，抛开你那些烦恼吧。来杯酒如何？”

"Yes, I do not mind."“好，来一杯吧。”

"Then I will give you something new to try. For these two months I have been trying to extract something from currants, of which only a sirup has been made hitherto—well, and I have done it. I have invented a very good liqueur—very good indeed; very good."“那我就给你来种新口味的酒尝尝。最近两个月我一直在想办法从醋栗里提炼出酒来，之前醋栗只能做糖浆——哦，我做成了。我酿出了一种好酒——确实非常可口，棒极了。”

And quite delighted, he went to a cupboard, opened it, and picked out a bottle which he brought forth. He moved and did everything in jerky gestures, always incomplete; he never quite stretched out his arm, nor quite put out his legs; nor made any broad and definite movements. His ideas seemed to be like his actions; he suggested them, promised them, sketched them, hinted at them, but never fully uttered them.

他兴冲冲地走到一个柜子前，打开柜门，挑了一个瓶子拿出来。他做任何事情都很急促，动作总是不完整。他从来不将胳膊伸直，从不大步走路，从来没有做过大幅度的准确动作。他的思想似乎和他的行动相似，他说话总是旁敲侧击、闪烁其词、躲躲闪闪、话里有话，却从不将话说全。

And, indeed, his great end in life seemed to be the concoction of sirups and liqueurs. "A good sirup or a good liqueur is enough to make a fortune," he would often say.

事实上，他生活中最关心的事莫过于调制糖浆和酒。他常说：“只要作出了好的糖浆或者好酒就能发财。”

He had compounded hundreds of these sweet mixtures without ever succeeding in floating one of them. Pierre declared that Marowsko always reminded him of Marat.

他调制过上百种类似的甜味混合剂，可没有一种得到了成功的推广。皮埃尔说，马露斯科总让他想起马拉。

Two little glasses were fetched out of the back shop and placed on the mixing-board. Then the two men scrutinized the colour of the fluid by holding it up to the gas.

他从药房后间里拿了两只小玻璃杯，放在配药的台板上。随后这两个人把杯子举到煤气灯前面，仔细观察杯里液体的颜色。

"A fine ruby," Pierre declared.“漂亮的红宝石色。”皮埃尔大声说。

"Isn't it?" Marowsko's old parrot-face beamed with satisfaction.“可不是？”马露斯科很满意，鹦鹉脸上面露喜色。

The doctor tasted, smacked his lips, meditated, tasted again, meditated again, and spoke:

医生尝了尝，咂了咂嘴，思索了一会儿，又尝了尝，又沉思了一会儿，随后说：

"Very good-capital; and quite new in flavour. It is a find, my dear fellow."“很好，很好，这味道真是独特。真是种新口味，亲爱的伙计。”

"Ah, really? Well, I am very glad."“啊，真的吗？哦，我太高兴了。”

Then Marowsko took counsel as to baptizing the new liqueur. He wanted to call it "Extract of currants," or else "Fine Groseille" or "Groselia," or again "Groseline." Pierre did not approve of either of these names.

于是马露斯科请皮埃尔为这种新发明的酒取个名字。他想叫它“醋栗露”，或者“醋栗之精”，或者“醋栗菁华”，要么就是“醋栗精”。皮埃尔对这些名字都不赞同。

Then the old man had an idea:

这时老头儿又有了个主意：

"What you said just now would be very good, very good: 'Fine Ruby.'” But the doctor disputed the merit of this name, though it had originated with him. He recommended simply "Groseillette," which Marowsko thought admirable.“您刚才说得很好，就叫它‘美丽的红宝石’。”虽然这个名字是医生自己说出来的，但他还是质疑这个名字的优点。他建议还不如简单地叫“醋栗酒”好，马露斯科也表示赞同。

Then they were silent, and sat for some minutes without a word under the solitary gas-lamp. At last Pierre began, almost in spite of himself:

然后他们就陷入了沉默，在那孤灯下呆坐了几分钟，一语不发。最后，皮埃尔忍不住了，开口说道：

"A queer thing has happened at home this evening. A friend of my father's, who is lately dead, has left his fortune to my brother."“今天晚上我家发生了一件怪事。我父亲的一个朋友最近去世了，把他的遗产赠给了我弟弟。”

The druggist did not at first seem to understand, but after thinking it over he hoped that the doctor had half the inheritance. When the matter was clearly explained to him he appeared surprised and vexed; and to express his dissatisfaction at finding that his young friend had been sacrificed, he said several times over:

一开始药剂师似乎没有听懂，可是想了一会儿后，他希望医生也分到一半遗产。医生把这件事解释清楚后，他好像很吃惊，也很生气。他觉得这位年轻的朋友吃了亏，为了表示不满，他一再说：

"It will not look well."“这不会有好结果的。”

Pierre, who was relapsing into nervous irritation, wanted to know what Marowsko meant by this phrase.

皮埃尔又烦躁恼火了起来，他想弄明白马露斯科这句话是什么意思。

Why would it not look well? What was there to look badly in the fact that his brother had come into the money of a friend of the family?

为什么不会有好结果？他弟弟继承了他们家一个故交的财产，这会有什么坏结果呢？

But the cautious old man would not explain further.

可这个谨慎的老头儿不肯再作进一步的解释了。

"In such a case the money is left equally to the two brothers, and I tell you, it will not look well."“碰上这样的情况，财产应该兄弟两人平分，我告诉你，这不会有好结果的。”

And the doctor, out of all patience, went away, returned to his father's house, and went to bed. For some time afterward he heard Jean moving softly about the adjoining room, and then, after drinking two glasses of water, he fell asleep.

医生觉得不耐烦，就离开了，回到父亲家里便上床睡觉了。有一段时间，他听到隔壁房间里的让在轻轻踱步，后来他喝了两杯水，便睡着了。

CHAPTER III

第三章

The doctor awoke next morning firmly resolved to make his fortune. Several times already he had come to the same determination without following up the reality. At the outset of all his trials of some new career the hopes of rapidly acquired riches kept up his efforts and confidence, till the first obstacle, the first check, threw him into a fresh path. Snug in bed between the warm sheets, he lay meditating. How many medical men had become wealthy in quite a short time! All that was needed was a little knowledge of the world; for in the course of his studies he had learned to estimate the most famous physicians, and he judged them all to be asses. He was certainly as good as they, if not better. If by any means he could secure a practice among the wealth and fashion of Havre, he could easily make a hundred thousand francs a year. And he calculated with great exactitude what his certain profits must be. He would go out in the morning to visit his patients; at the very moderate average of ten a day, at twenty francs each, that would mount up to seventy-two thousand francs a year at least, or even seventy-five thousand; for ten patients was certainly below the mark. In the afternoon he would be at home to, say, another ten patients, at ten francs each—thirty-six thousand francs. Here, then, in round numbers was an income of a hundred and twenty thousand francs. Old patients, or friends whom he would charge only ten francs for a visit, or see at home for five, would perhaps make a slight reduction on this sum total, but consultations with other physicians and various incidental fees would make up for that.

第二天早晨，医生一醒来就下定决心要发家致富。这样的决心他以前曾经下过好多次，可从来没真正去实践过。每次开始尝试一个新的行当时，迅速致富的愿望总在支持着他，给他力量和信心，可一遇到障碍、阻力，他就又去另谋他路了。他舒服地躺在温暖的被窝里，思考着。有多少医生一夜暴富啊！想暴富，只需要略懂世事就行了，因为在上学的时候，他就曾对那些知名的内科医生做过一番评判，并断定那些人全都是蠢驴。就算不比他们强，他肯定也不比他们差。如果他能想出个法子把勒阿弗尔那些有钱有势的顾客吸引过来，他每年就可以轻而易举地赚到十万法郎。他精确地计算着那十拿九稳的利润。他将上午出诊去他的病人家，平均每天至少十个病人，每个病人收二十法郎，那么每年至少能赚七万两千法郎，甚至七万五千法郎，因为每天上午肯定不止十个病人。下午他就在他的诊所接诊，每天也算他平均十个，每人收十法郎，每年就有三万六千法郎。这样的话，算个整数，每年收入就足足有十二万法郎。老顾客和老朋友出诊一次按十法郎收费，门诊收五法郎，这样总收入会略微减少一点儿，不过跟其他医生的会诊和各种附带收入就够弥补这点儿损失了。

Nothing could be easier than to achieve this by skilful advertising remarks in the Figaro to the effect that the scientific faculty of Paris had their eye on him, and were interested in the cures effected by the modest young practitioner of Havre! And he would be richer than his brother, richer and more famous; and satisfied with himself, for he would owe his fortune solely to his own exertions; and liberal to his old parents, who would be justly proud of his fame. He would not marry, would not burden his life with a wife who would be in his way, but he would choose his mistress from the most beautiful of his patients. He felt so sure of success that he sprang out of bed as though to grasp it on the spot, and he dressed to go and search through the town for rooms to suit him.

只要巧妙地做一下宣传，要达到目的是不费吹灰之力的。在《费加罗报》上登几条广告性评论，就说巴黎的学术界很看重他，对这位年轻朴实的勒阿弗尔医生的治疗方法极感兴趣！这样一来，他会比他的弟弟更有钱，更富有且名气更大。他会对自己很满意，因为他的财富是靠他自己挣来的。他还能对他年迈的双亲出手大方，他们也将为他的名声而骄傲，这是情理之中的事。他绝不会结婚，妻子会是个累赘，妨碍他的生活。他不会娶妻的，但他会从他的女病人里挑个最漂亮的做他的情妇。他对自己的成功胸有成竹，便从床上一跃而起，仿佛要把它立即抓到手中似的。他穿好衣服，就去城里寻找适合他开诊所的房子了。

Then, as he wandered about the streets, he reflected how slight are the causes which determine our actions. Any time these three weeks he might and ought to have come to this decision, which, beyond a doubt, the news of his brother's inheritance had abruptly given rise to.

于是，他便在街上四处游荡，心里想着，决定我们行动的原因是多么微不足道。这三个星期的任何时候他都可以也应该作这个决定，而且早该决定了，可毫无疑问，弟弟得到遗产时他才突然打定主意。

He stopped before every door where a placard proclaimed that "fine apartments" or "handsome rooms" were to be let; announcements without an adjective he turned from with scorn. Then he inspected them with a lofty air, measuring the height of the rooms, sketching the plan in his note-book, with the passages, the arrangement of the exits, explaining that he was a medical man and had many visitors. He must have a broad and well-kept stair-case; nor could he be any higher up than the first floor.

他在每一个挂着“雅致套房”或“宽敞房间”出租招牌的门前驻足，而对那些没有华丽修饰语的告示根本不屑一顾。接着他趾高气扬地走进去，量量天花板的高度，在笔记本里勾画房间的平面图及其过道、出口的布置，解释说他是个医生，来访的病人很多。他要求楼梯一定要宽大整洁，而且他的房间位置不能高于二层楼。

After having written down seven or eight addresses and scribbled two hundred notes, he got home to breakfast a quarter of an hour too late.

在记下了七八个地址，草草写下两百来个附注后，他回家吃午饭，那时已经过了开饭时间一刻钟了。

In the hall he heard the clatter of plates. Then they had begun without him! Why? They were never wont to be so punctual. He was nettled and put out, for he was somewhat thin-skinned. As he went in Roland said to him:

在大厅里他就听到了餐盘的声响。他们不等他回来就已经开饭了！为什么？家里还从来没有这样准时开饭的。他不高兴了，生气了，因为他稍微有些敏感。他一进去，罗兰老爹便对他说：

"Come, Pierre, make haste, devil take you! You know we have to be at the lawyer's at two o'clock. This is not the day to be dawdling."“快来，皮埃尔，赶紧，该死的！你知道我们两点钟要到律师那里去。今天可不是什么闲逛的日子。”

Pierre sat down without replying, after kissing his mother and shaking hands with his father and brother; and he helped himself from the deep dish in the middle of the table to the cutlet which had been kept for him. It was cold and dry, probably the least tempting of them all. He thought that they might have left it on the hot plate till he came in, and not lose their heads so completely as to have forgotten their other son, their eldest.

皮埃尔没说什么，吻了吻他母亲，同他父亲和弟弟握过手后就坐下了。随后他从桌子中间的一只深碗里取来留给他的炸肉排。肉排又冷又干，很可能是最差的一块。他想他们原本可以把肉排留在炉子上等他回来后再拿出来，不至于神志不清到完全忘了他们的另一个儿子，而且还是他们的长子。

The conversation, which his entrance had interrupted, was taken up again at the point where it had ceased.

他进来打断了他们的谈话，现在他们又接着话茬开始说了。

"In your place," Mme. Roland was saying to Jean, "I will tell you what I should do at once. I should settle in handsome rooms so as to attract attention; I should ride on horseback and select one or two interesting cases to defend and make a mark in court. I would be a sort of amateur lawyer, and very select. Thank God you are out of all danger of want, and if you pursue a profession, it is, after all, only that you may not lose the benefit of your studies, and because a man ought never to sit idle."“如果是我，”罗兰太太对让说，“我会告诉你我该立刻做什么。我要买一栋豪宅定居，以引人注目；我要骑马；我要选一两件有趣的案子进行辩护，在法庭留名。我要当一个业余律师，而且是百里挑一的那种。感谢上帝，你现在衣食无忧了，你要有个职业，说到底也只是为了不浪费你的学习成果，还因为身为男人绝不应该无所事事。”

Old Roland, who was peeling a pear, exclaimed:

罗兰老爹一边削着梨皮一边大声说：

"Christi! In your place I should buy a nice yacht, a cutter on the build of our pilot-boats. I would sail as far as Senegal in such a boat as that."“老天爷！如果我是你，我要买一艘漂亮的游艇，一艘像我们的引水船一样构造的快艇。有了这种船，我可以一直驶到塞内加尔。”

Pierre, in his turn, spoke his views. After all, said he, it was not his wealth which made the moral worth, the intellectual worth of a man. To a man of inferior mind it was only a means of degradation, while in the hands of a strong man it was a powerful lever. They, to be sure, were rare. If Jean were a really superior man, now that he could never want he might prove it. But then he must work a hundred times harder than he would have done in other circumstances. His business now must be not to argue for or against the widow and the orphan, and pocket his fees for every case he gained, but to become a really eminent legal authority, a luminary of the law. And he added in conclusion:

轮到皮埃尔发表他的意见了。他说，毕竟一个人的道德和智慧的价值是不能用财富衡量的。低能儿拥有财富只会堕落，而在强者手中，它会是强有力的杠杆。不过，这类人只是凤毛麟角而已。如果让是个出类拔萃的人，那他现在有钱了，他的才能就可以表现出来了。可他应当比在其他情况下更努力百倍地工作。现在他要做的，绝不应该是为寡妇孤儿辩护或驳斥他们，也不是如何在每次诉讼中聚敛钱财，而是要成为一个真正杰出的法学权威，成为法律界的名人。他又总结性地加了一句：

"If I were rich wouldn't I dissect no end of bodies!"“如果我有钱，我就买无数尸体来解剖！”

Father Roland shrugged his shoulders.

罗兰老爹耸了耸肩。

"That is all very fine," he said. "But the wisest way of life is to take it easy. We are not beasts of burden, but men. If you are born poor you must work; well, so much the worse; and you do work. But where you have dividends! You must be a flat if you grind yourself to death."“那也不错，”他说，“不过最明智的生活方式是悠闲度日。我们不是苦苦干活的牛马，我们是人。如果生来就穷，就得干活，那也是他活该，那就干吧。可如果有红利可拿！那只有白痴才会去自讨苦吃！”

Pierre replied haughtily:

皮埃尔傲气地回答说：

"Our notions differ. For my part, I respect nothing on earth but learning and intellect; everything else is beneath contempt."“人各有志。就我而言，这个世界上我只尊重知识和智慧，其他一切都微不足道。”

Mme. Roland always tried to deaden the constant shocks between father and son; she turned the conversation, and began talking of a murder committed the week before at Bolbec Nointot. Their minds were immediately full of the circumstances under which the crime had been committed, and absorbed by the interesting horror, the attractive mystery of crime, which, however commonplace, shameful, and disgusting, exercises a strange and universal fascination over the curiosity of mankind. Now and again, however, old Roland looked at his watch. "Come," said he, "it is time to be going."

罗兰太太总是在尽力调和父子间经常发生的冲突，她把话题岔开，谈起了上周发生在博尔贝克·诺英多的一起谋杀案。大家的思想马上就被吸引到这件案子上来，专注地倾听着这件离奇神秘的可怕事件。无论多么普通、可耻、令人厌恶，罪恶对人类的好奇心都有一种普遍而奇异的诱惑力。可罗兰老爹时不时地看他的表。“好了，”他说，“该动身了。”

Pierre sneered.

皮埃尔冷笑了一下。

"It is not yet one o'clock," he said. "It really was hardly worth while to condemn me to eat a cold cutlet."“还没到一点呢，”他说，“害得我吃冷肉排，这真不值得。”

"Are you coming to the lawyer's?" his mother asked.“你去律师那儿吗？”他母亲问。

"I? No. What for?" he replied dryly. "My presence is quite unnecessary."“我？不去。我去干嘛？”他冷冰冰地回答，“我压根没必要去。”

Jean sat silent, as though he had no concern in the matter. When they were discussing the murder at Bolbec he, as a legal authority, had put forward some opinions and uttered some reflections on crime and criminals. Now he spoke no more; but the sparkle in his eye, the bright colour in his cheeks, the very gloss of his beard seemed to proclaim his happiness.

让一直静静地坐着，好像事不关己。他们讨论博尔贝克谋杀案时，他以法律专家的身份表达了一些看法，并对罪行和罪犯发表了一通评论。现在他又不说话了，可他眼睛里闪着光芒，红光满面，连胡子都很有光泽，这些似乎都显示出他很开心。

When the family had gone, Pierre, alone once more, resumed his investigations in the apartments to let. After two or three hours spent in going up and down stairs, he at last found, in the Boulevard Francois, a pretty set of rooms; a spacious entresol with two doors on two different streets, two drawing-rooms, a glass corridor, where his patients while they waited, might walk among flowers, and a delightful dining-room with a bow-window looking out over the sea.

家里人都走了，又只剩下皮埃尔一个人了，他就又去继续查看出租的套房。在各处出租房的楼梯上上下下走了两三个钟头后，他终于在弗朗索瓦大街找到了一套漂亮的房子；一个宽敞的夹层楼面，两扇门面向不同的街道，两间客厅，一条玻璃长廊，病人们在候诊时可以在花丛中散步，饭厅很雅致，弓形的窗户面朝大海。

When it came to taking it, the terms—three thousand francs—pulled him up; the first quarter must be paid in advance, and he had nothing, not a penny to call his own.

等到要定租的时候，三千法郎的租金把他难住了，因为他得预付第一季度的租金，可他什么也没有，连一个子儿都掏不出来。

The little fortune his father had saved brought him in about eight thousand francs a year, and Pierre had often blamed himself for having placed his parents in difficulties by his long delay in deciding on a profession, by forfeiting his attempts and beginning fresh courses of study. So he went away, promising to send his answer within two days, and it occurred to him to ask Jean to lend him the amount of this quarter's rent, or even of a half-year, fifteen hundred francs, as soon as Jean should have come into possession.

他父亲积攒下来的那一笔小钱每年的利息还不到八千法郎，皮埃尔也觉得很自责，觉得自己不该在选择职业时举棋不定，学习起来总是半途而废，不断重新来过，让父母很为难。于是他就走了，答应两天之内给房东回音。他突然想到，等让拿到遗产后，就向他借第一季度或者半年的租金，也就是一千五百法郎。

"It will be a loan for a few months at most," he thought. "I shall repay him, very likely before the end of the year. It is a simple matter, and he will be glad to do so much for me."“我顶多借用几个月，”他想，“我也许年底之前就能还给他。而且，这么简单的小事，他会很乐意帮我这个忙的。”

As it was not yet four o'clock, and he had nothing to do, absolutely nothing, he went to sit in the public gardens; and he remained a long time on a bench, without an idea in his brain, his eyes fixed on the ground, crushed by weariness amounting to distress.

因为还不到四点，他又无事可做，百无聊赖，于是他去公园的长凳上坐了很久，什么也不想，眼睛呆呆地盯着地面，由厌倦而生的痛苦把他压垮了。

And yet this was how he had been living all these days since his return home, without suffering so acutely from the vacuity of his existence and from inaction. How had he spent his time from rising in the morning till bed-time?

虽然从回家以来他每天都是这么过的，可他从没有像现在这样，因生活空虚、无所事事而痛苦不堪。以前从早到晚他都是怎么过的呢？

He had loafed on the pier at high tide, loafed in the streets, loafed in the cafes, loafed at Marowsko's, loafed everywhere. And on a sudden this life, which he had endured till now, had become odious, intolerable. If he had had any pocket-money, he would have taken a carriage for a long drive in the country, along by the farm-ditches shaded by beech and elm trees; but he had to think twice of the cost of a glass of beer or a postage-stamp, and such an indulgence was out of his ken. It suddenly struck him how hard it was for a man of past thirty to be reduced to ask his mother, with a blush for a twenty-franc piece every now and then; and he muttered, as he scored the gravel with the ferule of his stick:

他在涨潮的时候就去海堤上闲逛，在街上闲逛，到咖啡店里闲逛，到马露斯科家闲逛，到处闲逛。可突然之间，他对这种生活感到厌恶，觉得难以忍受。如果他兜里有钱的话，他会搭一辆马车到乡下去，沿着山毛榉和榆树成阴的田沟兜个风。可他现在连一杯啤酒和一枚邮票的钱都得算算，所以这类消遣对他来说太不现实。他猛地又想起，一个三十多岁的男人，还要经常红着脸向母亲要一个二十法郎的钱币，这种事叫人多么难堪。他一面用手杖划着碎石路，一面喃喃自语：

"Christi, if I only had money!"“天啊，要是我有钱该多好！”

And again the thought of his brother's legacy came into his head like the sting of a wasp; but he drove it out indignantly, not choosing to allow himself to slip down that descent to jealousy.

他又一次像被黄蜂蛰了一下似的想起了他弟弟继承的遗产，不过他气愤地把这个念头驱走了，不想让自己在这条妒嫉的下坡路上堕落下去。

Some children were playing about in the dusty paths. They were fair little things with long hair, and they were making little mounds of sand with the greatest gravity and careful attention, to crush them at once by stamping on them.

有几个孩子正在尘土飞扬的小路上玩耍。那是几个留着长发的可爱的小家伙，他们严肃认真、专心致志地堆沙丘，堆好后又马上把它们踩塌。

It was one of those gloomy days with Pierre when we pry into every corner of our souls and shake out every crease.

忧郁的日子里，我们会窥探灵魂的每个角落，抖落出种种琐碎的心事，皮埃尔那时就处于那样的状态。

"All our endeavours are like the labours of those babies," thought he. And then he wondered whether the wisest thing in life were not to beget two or three of these little creatures and watch them grow up with complacent curiosity. A longing for marriage breathed on his soul. A man is not so lost when he is not alone. At any rate, he has some one stirring at his side in hours of trouble or of uncertainty; and it is something only to be able to speak on equal terms to a woman when one is suffering.“我们毕生的努力就像那些孩子在堆沙丘一样。”他想。而后他又在想，生活中最明智的事情，是不是生下两三个这样小生命，然后怀着满足感和好奇心看着他们长大成人。他心里又对婚姻有了一丝期许。男人不孤单的时候，就不会这样迷惘了。至少在他感到心神不宁或者犹豫不定时会有个人陪在身边。在痛苦的时候，能和一个女人平等地谈谈心，这也不错了。

Then he began thinking of women. He knew very little of them, never having had any but very transient connections as a medical student, broken off as soon as the month's allowance was spent, and renewed or replaced by another the following month. And yet there must be some very kind, gentle, and comforting creatures among them. Had not his mother been the good sense and saving grace of his own home? How glad he would be to know a woman, a true woman!

于是，他开始想起女人来了。他对女人还不太了解，只是在学医的时候有过几个相好的，但每次交往都不久，这个月的钱花完了，关系也就断了，到下个月再复合或者另换一个。可这世界上一定会有些非常善良、温柔，还很体贴的女人。他母亲不就是个通情达理、把家里打理得井井有条的女人吗？要能认识一个女人，一个真正的女人该多好啊！

He started up with a sudden determination to go and call on Mme. Rosemilly. But he promptly sat down again. He did not like that woman. Why not? She had too much vulgar and sordid common sense; besides, did she not seem to prefer Jean? Without confessing it to himself too bluntly, this preference had a great deal to do with his low opinion of the widow's intellect; for, though he loved his brother, he could not help thinking him somewhat mediocre and believing himself the superior. However, he was not going to sit there till nightfall; and as he had done on the previous evening, he anxiously asked himself: "What am I going to do?"

他突然站了起来，决定去看看罗塞米伊太太。可他又猛地坐了回去。他不喜欢那个女人。为什么呢？她的思想太庸俗低级了，而且，她似乎更喜欢让吧？他从来没有爽快地承认过，但他认为那个寡妇偏爱他弟弟是出于她的愚昧无知。因为，尽管他爱弟弟，但还是情不自禁地觉得他有点平庸，而自己则要比他高明。可是他不打算就这样一直呆到晚上。于是，他又像昨天晚上一样，焦躁不安地问自己：“我去做什么好呢？”

At this moment he felt in his soul the need of a melting mood, of being embraced and comforted. Comforted—for what? He could not have put it into words; but he was in one of these hours of weakness and exhaustion when a woman's presence, a woman's kiss, the touch of a hand, the rustle of a petticoat, a soft look out of black or blue eyes, seem the one thing needful, there and then, to our heart. And the memory flashed upon him of a little barmaid at a beer-house, whom he had walked home with one evening, and seen again from time to time.

这时，他灵魂深处感觉需要慰藉，需要被拥抱、被抚慰。被抚慰——为什么呢？他说不清楚。可这时他正处于一种软弱疲惫的状态，在这种时候，一个女人的陪伴，她的亲吻，玉手的抚摸，衬裙的沙沙声，黑眼睛或蓝眼睛的温柔一撇，这些似乎是我们当时心中迫切需要的。这时，他脑海中闪现出了一个啤酒店里的女招待，有天晚上他曾跟她去过她家，后来又见过几次。

So once more he rose, to go and drink a bock with the girl. What should he say to her? What would she say to him? Nothing, probably. But what did that matter? He would hold her hand for a few seconds. She seemed to have a fancy for him. Why, then, did he not go to see her oftener?

他又站起身来，准备去和那女孩喝杯啤酒。他要对她说些什么呢？她又会对他说些什么呢？也许，没什么好说的。可那又有什么关系？他能握一会儿她的手。她似乎还挺喜欢他。那么，为什么他以前没常去看看她呢？

He found her dozing on a chair in the beer-shop, which was almost deserted. Three men were drinking and smoking with their elbows on the oak tables; the book-keeper in her desk was reading a novel, while the master, in his shirt-sleeves, lay sound asleep on a bench.

他去的时候，啤酒店里没什么人，那姑娘正在一张椅子上打瞌睡。三个男人胳膊肘支在橡木桌子上抽烟喝酒，会计在办公桌上看小说，而老板只穿着衬衫，在一张长凳上熟睡。

As soon as she saw him the girl rose eagerly, and coming to meet him, said:

一看见他，那姑娘急忙起身，迎上前来说：

"Good-day, monsieur—how are you?"“您好，先生，最近还好吗？”

"Pretty well; and you?"“不错，你呢？”

"I—oh, very well. How scarce you make yourself!"“我嘛——我很好。您可是个稀客！”

"Yes. I have very little time to myself. I am a doctor, you know."“是啊。我自由支配的时间很少。你知道，我是个医生。”

"Indeed! You never told me. If I had known that—I was out of sorts last week and I would have sent for you. What will you take?"“真的！您可从来没对我说过。我上周不大舒服，如果我知道您是个医生，我就去请您看病了。您想要点什么？”

"A bock. And you?"“来杯黑啤酒。你呢？”

"I will have a bock, too, since you are willing to treat me."“我也来一杯吧，既然你愿意请客。”

She had addressed him with the familiar 'tu', and continued to use it, as if the offer of a drink had tacitly conveyed permission. Then, sitting down opposite each other, they talked for a while. Every now and then she took his hand with the light familiarity of girls whose kisses are for sale, and looking at him with inviting eyes she said:

她用“你”称呼他，显得很随和，后来就继续这么叫了，好像请她喝了这杯啤酒就算是默许了。然后，他们两人就面对面地坐下聊了一会儿。她不时轻佻而亲热地拉着他的手，像个烟花女子那样，用眼神勾引他，她说：

"Why don't you come here oftener? I like you very much, sweetheart."“你为什么不常来这儿转转呢？我挺喜欢你，亲爱的。”

He was already disgusted with her; he saw how stupid she was, and common, smacking of low life. A woman, he told himself, should appear to us in dreams, or such a glory as may poetize her vulgarity.

他已经开始厌恶她了，觉得她很蠢，很庸俗，生活下贱。他心想，女人应该出现在我们的梦幻里，或者笼罩在光环里，那样她的粗俗就会带点儿诗意。

Next she asked him:

她接着问：

"You went by the other morning with a handsome fair man, wearing a big beard. Is he your brother?"“有一天早上，你和一个留着大胡子、皮肤白皙的帅小伙儿路过这儿。那是你弟弟吗？”

"Yes, he is my brother."“是的，他是我弟弟。”

"Awfully good-looking."“他可真是个美男子。”

"Do you think so?"“你真这么想吗？”

"Yes, indeed; and he looks like a man who enjoys life, too."“当然，而且他看上去还是个很热爱生活的人。”

What strange craving impelled him on a sudden to tell this tavern-wench about Jean's legacy? Why should this thing, which he kept at arm's length when he was alone, which he drove from him for fear of the torment it brought upon his soul, rise to his lips at this moment? And why did he allow it to overflow them as if he needed once more to empty out his heart to some one, gorged as it was with bitterness?

是什么奇怪的欲望，促使他突然想把让得到遗产的事情告诉这个酒店的荡妇呢？他独自一人的时候尽量不去想这件事情，总要把它赶出脑海，因为他害怕灵魂会受折磨，而为什么这时候他却想一吐为快？为什么他好像觉得如鲠在喉、不吐不快，就允许自己向她倾诉了呢？

He crossed his legs and said:

他叉起双腿说：

"He has wonderful luck, that brother of mine. He had just come into a legacy of twenty thousand francs a year."“我那个弟弟，他可是交了好运啦。他刚刚继承了一笔可以拿到两万年金的遗产。

She opened those covetous blue eyes of hers very wide.

她睁圆了她那贪婪的蓝眼睛。

"Oh! and who left him that? His grandmother or his aunt?"“哟！谁留给他的啊？他祖母还是他姑妈？”

"No. An old friend of my parents'."“不，是我父母的一个老朋友。”

"Only a friend! Impossible! And you—did he leave you nothing?"“只是个朋友！不可能！那你呢——他一点儿都没给你留吗？”

"No. I knew him very slightly."“不，我和他不太熟。”

She sat thinking some minutes; then, with an odd smile on her lips, she said:

她坐在那里想了一会儿，然后嘴角挂着怪异的笑容说道：

"Well, he is a lucky dog, that brother of yours, to have friends of this pattern. My word! and no wonder he is so unlike you."“好啊，你兄弟真是个幸运儿，能交到这样的朋友。哎呀！难怪他和你一点儿也不像。”

He longed to slap her, without knowing why; and he asked with pinched lips: "And what do you mean by saying that?"

他莫名地想扇她一耳光，他抿着嘴唇问：“你这话是什么意思？”

She had put on a stolid, innocent face.

她摆出一副漠然而无辜的样子。

"Oh, nothing. I mean he has better luck than you."“喔，没什么意思。我只是说他比你运气好。”

He tossed a franc piece on the table and went out.

他在桌上扔了一个法郎就走了。

Now he kept repeating the phrase: "No wonder he is so unlike you."

现在他不停地重复着这句话：“怪不得他和你一点儿都不像。”

What had her thought been, what had been her meaning under those words? There was certainly some malice, some spite, something shameful in it. Yes, that hussy must have fancied, no doubt, that Jean was Marechal's son. The agitation which came over him at the notion of this suspicion cast at his mother was so violent that he stood still, looking about him for some place where he might sit down. In front of him was another cafe. He went in, took a chair, and as the waiter came up, "A bock," he said.

她到底是怎么想的？这话言外之意是什么？这话显然不怀好意，还带有侮辱的意味。没错，这个贱妇肯定以为让是马雷夏尔的儿子。他想起母亲受到这种怀疑，情绪激动不已，他停了下来，朝四周看了看，想找个地方坐坐。面前是另一家咖啡店。他走了进去，找了个位置坐下，这时侍者走了过来。“一杯啤酒，”他说。

He felt his heart beating, his skin was gooseflesh. And then the recollection flashed upon him of what Marowsko had said the evening before. "It will not look well." Had he had the same thought, the same suspicion as this baggage? Hanging his head over the glass, he watched the white froth as the bubbles rose and burst, asking himself: "Is it possible that such a thing should be believed?"

他觉得心跳加快，全身都起了鸡皮疙瘩。这时，他突然想起了昨晚马露斯科对他说的话。“这不会有好结果的。”他是不是和这个贱妇有同样的想法，同样的怀疑呢？他俯视着酒杯，看着那白色的泡沫不断冒出又破裂，他问自己：“别人会相信有这样的事情吗？”

But the reasons which might give rise to this horrible doubt in other men's minds now struck him, one after another, as plain, obvious, and exasperating. That a childless old bachelor should leave his fortune to a friend's two sons was the most simple and natural thing in the world; but that he should leave the whole of it to one alone—of course people would wonder, and whisper, and end by smiling. How was it that he had not foreseen this, that his father had not felt it? How was it that his mother had not guessed it? No; they had been too delighted at this unhoped-for wealth for the idea to come near them. And besides, how should these worthy souls have ever dreamed of anything so ignominious?

可这时候，他脑海里浮现出种种可能让人产生这种可怕怀疑的理由，清清楚楚、明明白白，让他恼怒不已。一个没有子嗣的老单身汉把他的财产遗赠给了他一个朋友的两个儿子，那是件简单自然的事，可如果他将全部财产都留给了这两个孩子中的一个——人们肯定要奇怪了，会窃窃私语，最终是会心的一笑。他之前怎么没想到这点，他父亲也没有感觉不对劲吗？他母亲怎么会猜不到呢？不，他们是对于这笔意外之财太欣喜若狂了，因此他们是不会想到这点的。而且，这些老实人怎么会想到这样耻辱的事情呢？

But the public—their neighbours, the shopkeepers, their own tradesmen, all who knew them—would not they repeat the abominable thing, laugh at it, enjoy it, make game of his father and despise his mother?

可是众人——他们的邻居、店主、他们自己的工匠，所有认识他们的人——难道不会到处议论这件丑事，对此津津乐道，嘲笑他的父亲，鄙视他的母亲吗？

And the barmaid's remark that Jean was fair and he dark, that they were not in the least alike in face, manner, figure, or intelligence, would now strike every eye and every mind. When any one spoke of Roland's son, the question would be: "Which, the real or the false?"

正如那个酒吧女招待说的，让的皮肤白皙而他肤色黝黑，他们的面部特征、言谈举止、神态和智力都迥然不同。这将引起众人的旁观，让所有的人浮想联翩。每当谈起罗兰的儿子时，就会有人问：“哪一个？亲生的那个还是私生的那个？”

He rose, firmly resolved to warn Jean, and put him on his guard against the frightful danger which threatened their mother's honour.

他站起来，决心去警告他弟弟，要他提防损毁母亲名誉的可怕危险。

But what could Jean do? The simplest thing no doubt, would be to refuse the inheritance, which would then go to the poor, and to tell all friends or acquaintances who had heard of the bequest that the will contained clauses and conditions impossible to subscribe to, which would have made Jean not inheritor but merely a trustee.

可让能怎么做呢？毫无疑问，最简单的办法就是拒绝接受这笔遗产，这样一来，这笔钱就会被拿去接济穷人，那么只要告诉朋友和熟人，遗嘱里有一些不能接受的条款，让不能成为遗产的继承人，而只能是受托人。

As he made his way home he was thinking that he must see his brother alone, so as not to speak of such a matter in the presence of his parents. On reaching the door he heard a great noise of voices and laughter in the drawing-room, and when he went in he found Captain Beausire and Mme. Rosemilly, whom his father had brought home and engaged to dine with them in honour of the good news. Vermouth and absinthe had been served to whet their appetites, and every one had been at once put into good spirits. Captain Beausire, a funny little man who had become quite round by dint of being rolled about at sea, and whose ideas also seemed to have been worn round, like the pebbles of a beach, while he laughed with his throat full of r's, looked upon life as a capital thing, in which everything that might turn up was good to take. He clinked his glass against father Roland's, while Jean was offering two freshly filled glasses to the ladies. Mme. Rosemilly refused, till Captain Beausire, who had known her husband, cried:

回家的路上，他想和弟弟单独见见，不能在父母面前谈论这样的事情。一到家门口，他就听到客厅里人声嘈杂，笑声连连，走进去时，他看到了博西尔船长和罗塞米伊太太，他们二人都是他父亲请来吃饭，庆祝这件大喜事的。味美思酒和苦艾酒已经上桌了，大家都立即兴高采烈起来。博西尔船长是个有趣的小个子，由于长年在海上颠簸，他的身子也变得圆滚滚的，而且他的所有想法也像海滩上的卵石一样被打磨得没棱没角。他笑的时候嗓子里发出大量的小舌颤音。他觉得生活是件大事，人们应该欣然接受生活中的一切。当让把两只刚斟满酒的杯子递给两位太太时，博西尔船长正和罗兰老爹碰杯。罗塞米伊太太不肯喝酒，这时认识她已故丈夫的博西尔船长大声说道：

"Come, come, madame, bis repetita placent, as we say in the lingo, which is as much as to say two glasses of vermouth never hurt any one. Look at me; since I have left the sea, in this way I give myself an artificial roll or two every day before dinner; I add a little pitching after my coffee, and that keeps things lively for the rest of the evening. I never rise to a hurricane, mind you, never, never. I am too much afraid of damage.“喝吧，喝吧，太太，我们有句土话叫‘好事成双’，意思就是说，喝两杯苦艾酒绝不会有什么坏处的。你瞧我，自打我不出海之后，我每天都像这样在饭前喝上几口，喝完后就好似船身在左右摇晃；喝过咖啡后再喝上几口，就好像在穿上颠簸，这样晚上的时光就会充满了生气。但我决不会喝到狂澜汹涌的程度，决不，决不。因为我特害怕造成破坏。

Roland, whose nautical mania was humoured by the old mariner, laughed heartily, his face flushed already and his eye watery from the absinthe. He had a burly shop-keeping stomach—nothing but stomach—in which the rest of his body seemed to have got stowed away; the flabby paunch of men who spend their lives sitting, and who have neither thighs, nor chest, nor arms, nor neck; the seat of their chairs having accumulated all their substance in one spot. Beausire, on the contrary, though short and stout, was as tight as an egg and as hard as a cannon-ball.

罗兰老爹听了老远洋船员迎合他的航海癖的一番话，乐得开怀大笑，脸涨得通红，视线也因为喝了苦艾酒而有点儿模糊不清了。他的肚子跟个小店老板一样肥大——整个身体就剩下肚子了——仿佛身体的其他部分都藏到肚子里去了。他跟那些整日坐着的人一样，大腹便便，好像没有大腿，没有胸脯，没有胳膊，也没有脖子。这种人整日坐在椅子上，似乎整个身体都集聚到肚子这一个点上了。博西尔却不一样，虽说他长得又矮又胖，但他的肉结实得像个鸡蛋，坚硬得像个炮弹。

Mme. Roland had not emptied her glass and was gazing at her son Jean with sparkling eyes; happiness had brought a colour to her cheeks.

罗兰太太第一杯酒没喝完，目光炯炯地注视着她的儿子让，高兴得脸上红扑扑的。

In him, too, the fulness of joy had now blazed out. It was a settled thing, signed and sealed; he had twenty thousand francs a year. In the sound of his laugh, in the fuller voice with which he spoke, in his way of looking at the others, his more positive manners, his greater confidence, the assurance given by money was at once perceptible.

让现在也是满心的欢喜溢于言表。这件事已经定了，签过字了，他每年可以获得两万法郎的收入了。他的笑声，他比平时更圆润的说话声，他看人的眼神，更潇洒的姿态，更多的自信，这些都显露出，金钱让他立马就底气十足了。

Dinner was announced, and as the old man was about to offer his arm to Mme. Rosemilly, his wife exclaimed:

晚餐宣布开始了，罗兰老爹伸出胳膊去请罗塞米伊太太，这时候他妻子大叫道：

"No, no, father. Everything is for Jean to-day."“不，不，老爹。让才是今天的主角。

Unwonted luxury graced the table. In front of Jean, who sat in his father's place, an enormous bouquet of flowers—a bouquet for a really great occasion-stood up like a cupola dressed with flags, and was flanked by four high dishes, one containing a pyramid of splendid peaches; the second, a monumental cake gorged with whipped cream and covered with pinnacles of sugar-a cathedral in confectionery; the third, slices of pine-apple floating in clear sirup; and the fourth—unheard-of lavishness—black grapes brought from the warmer south.

餐桌上的一切都异乎寻常的奢华。让坐在他父亲的位置上，他的面前一大束花——非常重大的日子才用的那种大花束——像一座挂满了彩旗的炮塔一样耸立在那里。花束周围摆放着四只高脚盘，一只装着堆得像金字塔般的鲜艳桃子，第二只里是一个掼足了奶油的大蛋糕，上面是用糖做成的尖顶——活像一座用甜点搭成的天主教堂，第三只里是浸在透明糖浆里的凤梨片，而第四只盘子——闻所未闻的奢华——装着气候温暖的南方生产的黑葡萄。

"The devil!" exclaimed Pierre as he sat down. "We are celebrating the accession of Jean the rich."“见鬼！”皮埃尔坐下时大声说，“我们在祝贺百万富翁让登基啊。”

After the soup, Madeira was passed round, and already every one was talking at once. Beausire was giving the history of a dinner he had eaten at San Domingo at the table of a negro general. Old Roland was listening, and at the same time trying to get in, between the sentences, his account of another dinner, given by a friend of his at Mendon, after which every guest was ill for a fortnight. Mme. Rosemilly, Jean, and his mother were planning an excursion to breakfast at Saint Jouin, from which they promised themselves the greatest pleasure; and Pierre was only sorry that he had not dined alone in some pot-house by the sea, so as to escape all this noise and laughter and glee which fretted him. He was wondering how he could now set to work to confide his fears to his brother, and induce him to renounce the fortune he had already accepted and of which he was enjoying the intoxicating foretaste. It would be hard on him, no doubt; but it must be done; he could not hesitate; their mother's reputation was at stake.

上过汤之后，端上了马德拉白葡萄酒，大家都同时说起话来。博西尔说起了他在圣多明戈和一个黑人将军同桌吃饭的情景。罗兰老爹一边听着，一边试图在他的故事里面插进几句关于他在门登的一个朋友家里聚餐的情况，他说参加那次宴会的宾客后来都生了两周的病。罗塞米伊太太、让以及他的母亲正在商量一起到圣儒安去远足，在那里吃午饭，他们对那里的无尽乐趣谈得津津有味。可皮埃尔却后悔没有在海边的一家小饭馆里单独吃晚饭，这样他就可以避开这些令他心烦的欢笑和喧闹场面了。他在考虑现在怎样才能把他的顾虑告诉他的弟弟，并让他放弃这笔财产。弟弟已经接受并正陶醉于这笔财产带来的美好前景中。毫无疑问，这对他来说一定很难，可非得这么做不可；他不能再犹豫了，他们母亲的名誉受到了威胁。

The appearance of an enormous shade-fish threw Roland back on fishing stories. Beausire told some wonderful tales of adventure on the Gaboon, at Sainte-Marie, in Madagascar, and above all, off the coasts of Japan, where the fish are as queer-looking as the natives. And he described the appearance of these fishes—their goggle gold eyes, their blue or red bellies, their fantastic fins like fans, their eccentric crescent-shaped tails—with such droll gesticulation that they all laughed till they cried as they listened.

一条深颜色的大鱼端上桌，罗兰老爹又开始说起了他钓鱼的故事。博西尔讲起了加蓬湾、圣玛丽港、马达加斯加岛的奇闻轶事，尤其是在日本海岸的奇遇，那里的鱼就像那儿的居民一样，长得稀奇古怪。他描绘起那些鱼的样子——它们长着金色的大眼睛，蓝色或是

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