雙語小說連載:《董貝父子》第11章 Part 7

Miss Blimber, too, although a slim and graceful maid, did no soft violence to the gravity of the house. There was no light nonsense about Miss Blimber. She kept her hair short and crisp, and wore spectacles. She was dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages. None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead - stone dead - and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoul.
布林伯小姐雖然是一位苗條、優雅的姑娘，但也沒有做任何事情破壞這房屋裏的嚴肅氣氛。輕浮的胡鬧與布林伯小姐格格不入。她留着短而捲曲的頭髮，並戴着眼鏡。她在已死去的語言的墳墓中挖掘着，所以皮膚乾枯，表面是沙子的顏色。布林伯小姐不需要你們那些活的語言。她所需要的語言必須是死的——完全斷了氣的——，那時布林伯小姐纔像食屍鬼一樣，把它們挖掘出來。
Mrs Blimber, her Mama, was not learned herself, but she pretended to be, and that did quite as well. She said at evening parties, that if she could have known Cicero, she thought she could have died contented. It was the steady joy of her life to see the Doctor's young gentlemen go out walking, unlike all other young gentlemen, in the largest possible shirt-collars, and the stiffest possible cravats. It was so classical, she said.
她的媽媽布林伯夫人本人並沒有學問，但是她卻裝出有學問的樣子，而且裝得還不壞。她在一些晚會上說，如果她能認識西塞羅①的話，那麼她想她就能甘心滿意地死去了。她的永不改變的生活樂趣就是看着博士手下的年輕的先生們，與其他年輕人不一樣，敞開大得不能再大的襯衫領子，佩戴着硬得不能再硬的領帶，出去散步。她說，那是古典式的。
As to Mr Feeder, B.A., Doctor Blimber's assistant, he was a kind of human barrel-organ, with a little list of tunes at which he was continually working, over and over again, without any variation. He might have been fitted up with a change of barrels, perhaps, in early life, if his destiny had been favourable; but it had not been; and he had only one, with which, in a monotonous round, it was his occupation to bewilder the young ideas of Doctor Blimber's young gentlemen. The young gentlemen were prematurely full of carking anxieties. They knew no rest from the pursuit of stony-hearted verbs, savage noun-substantives, inflexible syntactic passages, and ghosts of exercises that appeared to them in their dreams. Under the forcing system, a young gentleman usually took leave of his spirits in three weeks. He had all the cares of the world on his head in three months. He conceived bitter sentiments against his parents or guardians in four; he was an old misanthrope, in five; envied Curtius that blessed refuge in the earth, in six; and at the end of the first twelvemonth had arrived at the conclusion, from which he never afterwards departed, that all the fancies of the poets, and lessons of the sages, were a mere collection of words and grammar, and had no other meaning in the world.
至於布林格博士的助手、文學士菲德先生，他是一個人爲的手搖風琴；他根據一份小小的曲調目錄，一遍又一遍、毫無變化地演奏着。如果他的命運好的話，那麼他可能在早年就裝備好一個備用的手搖風琴；但是他的命運不好，他只有他本人這個手搖風琴，他的職業就是用這個單調的圓筒來迷糊博士手下的這些年輕的先生們的年輕的思想。這些年輕的先生們過早地操心、憂慮。鐵石心腸的動詞、殘暴粗野的名詞、毫不通融的句法，以及出現在他們夢中的練習的魔鬼在追趕着他們，使他們得不到休息；在催熟的制度下，一位年輕的先生通常在三個星期以後就失去了朝氣；他在三個月以後就爲世界上各種事情操心；他在四個月以後對他的父母和監護人懷着怨恨的情緒；他在五個月以後成了個老厭世者；他在六個月以後羨慕庫爾提烏斯②幸運地遁身在地中；他在頭十二個月末尾的時候得出結論：詩篇中的幻想和聖人的教訓只不過是詞與語法的彙集，在世界上沒有其他意義；從此以後他就再也沒有拋棄過這個結論。
But he went on blow, blow, blowing, in the Doctor's hothouse, all the time; and the Doctor's glory and reputation were great, when he took his wintry growth home to his relations and friends.
可是他在博士的溫室中一直繼續生長着，生長着，生長着。當他把他冬天生長出的產品帶回家中，呈現在他的親友面前時，博士就得到了極大的光榮與聲譽。
Upon the Doctor's door-steps one day, Paul stood with a fluttering heart, and with his small right hand in his father's. His other hand was locked in that of Florence. How tight the tiny pressure of that one; and how loose and cold the other!
有一天，保羅懷着一顆忐忑不安的心，由他父親握着小小的右手，站立在博士的門階上。他的另一隻手由弗洛論斯緊緊地握在她的手中。那隻小手是握得多麼緊，而另一隻手是多麼鬆馳與冷淡呵！
Mrs Pipchin hovered behind the victim, with her sable plumage and her hooked beak, like a bird of ill-omen. She was out of breath - for Mr Dombey, full of great thoughts, had walked fast - and she croaked hoarsely as she waited for the opening of the door.
皮普欽太太像只兇鳥，長着烏黑的羽毛和鉤狀的喙，在他的犧牲品後面盤旋。因爲董貝先生腦子裏在思考重大的事情，走得很快，所以她走得上氣不接下氣；當等着開門的時候，她嘶啞地發出了哭喪的聲音。
'Now, Paul,' said Mr Dombey, exultingly. 'This is the way indeed to be Dombey and Son, and have money. You are almost a man already.'
“保羅，”董貝先生喜不自勝地說道。“這就是真正通向董貝父子和有錢的道路。你幾乎已成爲一個大人了。”
'Almost,' returned the child.
“幾乎，”孩子回答道。
-------- ①西塞羅（MarcusTulliusCicero）（公元前106—43年）：古羅馬政治家、雄辯家和著作家。 ②庫爾提烏斯（MarcusCurtius）：據古羅馬神話傳說，公元前362年，羅馬廣場裂開一條無底深溝；預言師說，只有把羅馬最寶貴的東西扔下去，裂縫才能重新合攏。這時年輕人庫爾提烏斯宣稱，沒有什麼能比一個勇敢的公民更可寶貴的了，於是他全副武裝跳下了深溝。他剛一跳下，裂縫就立即重新合攏。後來這處地方變成了一片池塘，稱爲庫爾提烏斯湖（LacusCurtius）。