雙語小說連載:《董貝父子》第7章 Part 1大綱

There was another private house besides Miss Tox's in Princess's Place: not to mention an immense Pair of gates, with an immense pair of lion-headed knockers on them, which were never opened by any chance, and were supposed to constitute a disused entrance to somebody's stables. Indeed, there was a smack of stabling in the air of Princess's Place; and Miss Tox's bedroom (which was at the back) commanded a vista of Mews, where hostlers, at whatever sort of work engaged, were continually accompanying themselves with effervescent noises; and where the most domestic and confidential garments of coachmen and their wives and families, usually hung, like Macbeth's banners, on the outward walls.'At this other private house in Princess's Place, tenanted by a retired butler who had married a housekeeper, apartments were let Furnished, to a single gentleman: to wit, a wooden-featured, blue-faced Major, with his eyes starting out of his head, in whom Miss Tox recognised, as she herself expressed it, 'something so truly military;' and between whom and herself, an occasional interchange of newspapers and pamphlets, and such Platonic dalliance, was effected through the medium of a dark servant of the Major's who Miss Tox was quite content to classify as a 'native,' without connecting him with any geographical idea whatever.

除了托克斯小姐的房屋外，公主廣場上還有另一座私人房屋；不用說，它也有兩扇很大的門，門上也有一對很大的獅子頭形狀的門環；這門從來不曾在什麼情況下開過，人們猜想，它是一個通向什麼人的馬廄的廢棄不用的入口。確實，在公主廣場的空氣中是可以聞到馬廄的氣味的。從托克斯小姐的臥室（它在房屋的後面）望出去，可以望到馬店的外景；馬伕們在那裏不論從事哪一種工作，總是連續不斷地發出興奮的吆喝來伴隨自己。馬車伕和他們老婆、孩子的最適合家裏穿着和最隱蔽的衣褲通常都像麥克佩斯的旗幟一樣，懸掛在外面的牆上①。公主廣場的這另一座房屋由一位過去當過男管家、現已退休、並已與一位女管家結婚的男子承租；他把一些帶傢俱的房間轉租給一位單身的紳士，也就是說，一位面孔像木頭一樣沒有表情，臉色發青的陸軍少校；他的眼睛從臉上鼓出，托克斯小姐對這一點表示賞識，她本人曾說它“有些真正的軍人氣概”。他和她之間偶爾交換交換報紙和小冊子，這種柏拉圖式的互通款曲②是通過少校的一位黑膚色的僕人作爲中間媒介來實現的，托克斯小姐甘心樂意地把這位僕人劃爲“本地人”，而並沒有把他與任何地理概念相聯繫。

Perhaps there never was a smaller entry and staircase, than the entry and staircase of Miss Tox's house. Perhaps, taken altogether, from top to bottom, it was the most inconvenient little house in England, and the crookedest; but then, Miss Tox said, what a situation! There was very little daylight to be got there in the winter: no sun at the best of times: air was out of the question, and traffic was walled out. Still Miss Tox said, think of the situation! So said the blue-faced Major, whose eyes were starting out of his head: who gloried in Princess's Place: and who delighted to turn the conversation at his club, whenever he could, to something connected with some of the great people in the great street round the corner, that he might have the satisfaction of saying they were his neighbours.

也許，從來沒有比托克斯小姐家的穿堂與樓梯更小的穿堂與樓梯了。也許，從上到下，總的來說，它是英國最不舒適的小房屋，也是形狀最歪歪扭扭的。但是這時托克斯小姐就會說，它坐落在一個什麼地方呵！冬天屋子裏很少有亮光；在一年最好的時光中也見不到太陽；空氣是根本談不上的；街道交通也是不用提了。但是托克斯小姐仍然會說，想一想它是坐落在什麼地方呵！臉色發青、眼睛從臉上鼓出的少校也是這麼說的；他對公主廣場感到自豪；他在俱樂部裏，不論什麼時候，只要可能，就高興把談話轉到與住在通過拐角的大街上的大人物有關的一些事情上；他會得意洋洋地說，他們是他的鄰居。

The dingy tenement inhabited by Miss Tox was her own; having been devised and bequeathed to her by the deceased owner of the fishy eye in the locket, of whom a miniature portrait, with a powdered head and a pigtail, balanced the kettle-holder on opposite sides of the parlour fireplace. The greater part of the furniture was of the powdered-head and pig-tail period: comprising a plate-warmer, always languishing and sprawling its four attenuated bow legs in somebody's way; and an obsolete harpsichord, illuminated round the maker's name with a painted garland of sweet peas. In any part of the house, visitors were usually cognizant of a prevailing mustiness; and in warm weather Miss Tox had been seen apparently writing in sundry chinks and crevices of the wainscoat with the the wrong end of a pen dipped in spirits of turpentine.

托克斯小姐所住的這座黑暗的房屋是她自己的房屋；這是她的小金盒中的那顆沒有光澤的眼睛的已故的主人立了遺囑，贈送給她的；他有一幅頭上撒了粉、留着辮子的小小的肖像畫，如今已成爲與壁爐架另一端上面的水壺支架保持平衡的物品。大部分傢俱都是男人們頭上撒粉和留辮子時期的傢俱，包括一個飯菜加溫器，它經常疲勞無力，伸開四條細弱的羅圈腿，擋住人們的道路；還有一個已陳舊過時的大鍵琴，琴上製造者的姓名周圍畫着一環香豌豆，作爲裝飾。

Although Major Bagstock had arrived at what is called in polite literature, the grand meridian of life, and was proceeding on his journey downhill with hardly any throat, and a very rigid pair of jaw-bones, and long-flapped elephantine ears, and his eyes and complexion in the state of artificial excitement already mentioned, he was mightily proud of awakening an interest in Miss Tox, and tickled his vanity with the fiction that she was a splendid woman who had her eye on him. This he had several times hinted at the club: in connexion with little jocularities, of which old Joe Bagstock, old Joey Bagstock, old J. Bagstock, old Josh Bagstock, or so forth, was the perpetual theme: it being, as it were, the Major's stronghold and donjon-keep of light humour, to be on the most familiar terms with his own name.

雖然白格斯托克少校已經到達純文學中所稱的盛壯之年，現正走着下坡路；他幾乎沒有脖子，顎骨十分堅硬，象一般的長耳朵下垂着，眼睛與臉色呈現出一種前面已經敘述過的不自然的興奮狀態，然而他卻以在托克斯小姐心中喚醒了對他的興趣而十分自豪，而且假想她是一位有意於他的出色的女人，這樣來滿足自己的虛榮心。他在俱樂部裏講一些小小的笑話時好幾次暗示了這一點。在他的笑話中，老喬?白格斯托克，老喬埃?白格斯托克，老約?白格斯托克，老喬希?白格斯托克，等等，是個永恆不變的主題，彷彿少校的幽默的要塞與主塔與他自己的姓名有着最親暱的關係。

--------①見莎士比亞著名悲劇《麥克佩斯》第五幕第五場：麥克佩斯：“把我們的旗幟掛在城牆外面；……我們這座城堡防禦得這樣堅強，還怕他們圍攻嗎？……”②指精神戀愛。

註釋: 1. immense adj. 巨大的，廣大的；無邊無際的；非常好的例句：(1). The importance of Rutherford's work is immense.盧瑟福的研究成果極爲重要。(2). She drew immense strength and wisdom from the masses.她從羣衆中吸取了巨大的力量和智慧。(3)e do the Gulf states invest their immense wealth?海灣國家這些資金都投哪兒去了呢？(4). Some of the industry's innovations have caused immense damage.該行業的部分創新造成了巨大損失。(5). Just for this reason, it has caused an immense amount of trouble.正因爲這一緣故，它引起了很大的麻煩。(6). In the wider world, there is immense pressure to start the tightening now.從全球範圍看，要求立即開始收緊政策的壓力異常大。2. rigid adj. 嚴格的；僵硬的，死板的；堅硬的；精確的[ 比較級more rigid 最高級most rigid ]詞組：rigid body 剛體；剛性體rigid frame 剛性構架rigid frame bridge 剛構橋，剛架橋；剛架式橋樑rigid plastic 硬質塑料rigid pavement 剛性路面；混凝土路面rigid foam 硬質泡沫塑料；硬塑膠rigid foundation 剛性基礎；剛性地基；鋼性基礎例句：(1). It is a rigid dogma.這是一種僵硬的教條。(2). TheHindu caste system has never been rigid.印度教種姓體系從來就不是剛性的。(3). But education systems are rigid and rife with cheating.但是教育制度僵化，並且普遍存在欺騙問題。(4). Rigid convention prescribes that such meetings open with prayer.嚴格的習俗規定這樣的開會必以祈禱開始。(5). But thanks to rigid labour laws, it is fragmented and inefficient.但由於嚴格的勞動法的約束，行業不成規模，效率低下。(6). If exporters were too rigid, they would not be quite so successful.如果出口商太呆板，他們就不可能如此的成功。