雙語小說連載:《董貝父子》第四章 Part 3

'He didn't take any notice of you, I suppose?'.

'Yes he did. He walked up to my seat, - I wish he wasn't so solemn and stiff, Uncle, - and said, "Oh! you are the son of Mr Gills the Ships' Instrument-maker." "Nephew, Sir," I said. "I said nephew, boy," said he. But I could take my oath he said son, Uncle.'

“我想他沒有注意到你吧。”

“不，他注意到了。他走到我的坐位跟前——我真但願他不那麼嚴肅，不那麼生硬呆板，舅舅——，說，‘哦！您就是船舶儀器製造商吉爾斯先生的兒子吧。’我說，‘他的外甥，先生。’他說，‘我是說外甥，孩子。’但是，舅舅，我可以發誓，他確實是說兒子。”

'You're mistaken I daresay. It's no matter.

'No, it's no matter, but he needn't have been so sharp, I thought. There was no harm in it though he did say son. Then he told me that you had spoken to him about me, and that he had found me employment in the House accordingly, and that I was expected to be attentive and punctual, and then he went away. I thought he didn't seem to like me much.'

“我想是你弄錯了，這不要緊。”

“是的，這不要緊，但是我想，他不用那麼嚴厲。雖然他確實是說兒子，但這話倒不含有什麼惡意。然後他告訴我，你曾經對他說到我，因此他就在公司裏給我找了個工作；他希望我勤勤懇懇工作，按時上班下班，然後他就走開了。我覺得他好像不是很喜歡我。”

'You mean, I suppose,' observed the Instrument-maker, 'that you didn't seem to like him much?'

'Well, Uncle,' returned the boy, laughing. 'Perhaps so; I never thought of that.'

“我想，你的意思是想說，”儀器製造商說道，“你好像不很喜歡他吧？”

“唔，舅舅，”孩子大笑着回答道，“也許是的。我從沒有想到過這一點。”

註釋：attentive adj. 留意的，注意的
例句：
1. He was always attentive to his wife.
他對妻子總是很體貼。
2. You should be attentive to what your parents have said.
你應該注意傾聽父母所說的話。

Solomon looked a little graver as he finished his dinner, and glanced from time to time at the boy's bright face. When dinner was done, and the cloth was cleared away (the entertainment had been brought from a neighbouring eating-house), he lighted a candle, and went down below into a little cellar, while his nephew, standing on the mouldy staircase, dutifully held the light. After a moment's groping here and there, he presently returned with a very ancient looking bottle, covered with dust and dirt.

所羅門吃完晚飯的時候，神情比剛纔沉着一些；他不時向孩子快活的臉看一眼。當晚餐已經結束，桌布已經撤走（這頓飯菜是從鄰近的小餐館裏取來的）以後，他點亮了一支蠟燭，下樓走到一個小地窖裏；他的外甥則站在生了黴的樓梯上，孝順地拿着蠟燭照他；他這裏那裏摸索了一番之後，不久就拿着一個樣子很古老並積滿了灰塵的瓶子回來了。

'Why, Uncle Sol!' said the boy, 'what are you about? that's the wonderful Madeira! - there's only one more bottle!'

“哎呀，所爾舅舅！”孩子說道，“你想幹什麼？那是珍貴的馬德拉白葡萄酒①呀！那裏只剩下一瓶了。”

Uncle Sol nodded his head, implying that he knew very well what he was about; and having drawn the cork in solemn silence, filled two glasses and set the bottle and a third clean glass on the table.

'You shall drink the other bottle, Wally,' he said, 'when you come to good fortune; when you are a thriving, respected, happy man; when the start in life you have made to-day shall have brought you, as I pray Heaven it may! - to a smooth part of the course you have to run, my child. My love to you!'

所爾舅舅點點頭，表示他很清楚他想幹什麼。在一片肅靜中，他拔出軟木塞，倒滿了兩隻玻璃杯，然後把酒瓶和第三隻乾淨的空玻璃杯放在桌子上。

“沃利，”他說道，“當你交了好運的時候，當你成爲一個取得成功、受人尊敬、生活幸福的人的時候，當你今天在生活中已經邁出的第一步將把你引向一條康莊大道上去的時候——我向上天祈禱，它會把你引向那裏去的——，你將喝另外那瓶酒，我的孩子。爲我對你的愛乾杯！”

Some of the fog that hung about old Sol seemed to have got into his throat; for he spoke huskily. His hand shook too, as he clinked his glass against his nephew's. But having once got the wine to his lips, he tossed it off like a man, and smacked them afterwards.

'Dear Uncle,' said the boy, affecting to make light of it, while the tears stood in his eyes, 'for the honour you have done me, et cetera, et cetera. I shall now beg to propose Mr Solomon Gills with three times three and one cheer more. Hurrah! and you'll return thanks, Uncle, when we drink the last bottle together; won't you?'

老所爾周圍籠罩着的迷霧，有些似乎已經跑到他的喉嚨裏去了，因爲他講話的聲音乾啞了。當他和外甥碰杯時，他的手也哆嗦了。但是當他把酒杯一舉到脣邊的時候，他卻像堂堂男子漢一樣，一口喝光，然後咂咂嘴。

“親愛的舅舅，”孩子眼中含着淚水，但卻故意裝出沒把這件事放在心上的樣子，說道，“爲了感謝你對我所表示的恩情，等等，等等，我現在建議爲所羅門·吉爾斯先生歡呼三乘三次再加一次。萬歲！舅舅，當我們一起喝那最後一瓶酒的時候，你再來回敬我的這次祝酒，好嗎？”

註釋：toss n. 投擲；搖盪；投擲的距離；擲幣賭勝負
vt. 投擲；使…不安；突然擡起；使…上下搖動；與…擲幣打賭
vi. 輾轉；被亂扔；顛簸；擲錢幣決定某事
例句：
1. Elsewhere, it is a toss-up.
在別處，這是碰運氣的事。
2. The decision depended on the toss of a coin.
那項決定是靠擲硬幣的方法做出的。
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①馬德拉（Madeira）是在非洲西北部大西洋中的一個島，所產的葡萄酒很有名。

They clinked their glasses again; and Walter, who was hoarding his wine, took a sip of it, and held the glass up to his eye with as critical an air as he could possibly assume.

His Uncle sat looking at him for some time in silence. When their eyes at last met, he began at once to pursue the theme that had occupied his thoughts, aloud, as if he had been speaking all the time.

他們又碰了杯；沃爾特杯子裏還剩着酒，他啜了一口，儘可能裝出一副很有鑑別力的神氣，把杯子舉到眼睛前面。

他的舅舅坐在那裏默默地看了他一些時候。當他們的眼光最終相遇時，他立刻開始把他腦子裏思考的問題大聲地繼續說下去，彷彿他一直在說話似的。

'You see, Walter,' he said, 'in truth this business is merely a habit with me. I am so accustomed to the habit that I could hardly live if I relinquished it: but there's nothing doing, nothing doing. When that uniform was worn,' pointing out towards the little Midshipman, 'then indeed, fortunes were to be made, and were made. But competition, competition - new invention, new invention alteration, alteration the world's gone past me. I hardly know where I am myself, much less where my customers are.

“你知道，沃爾特，”他說道，“老實說，經營這個生意對我來說，是一種習慣。我在這個習慣中已經陷得很深，如果我拋棄了它的話，那麼我就難以活下去。可是現在沒有生意呀，沒有生意。當穿那種制服的時候，”他指着小海軍軍官候補生說道，“確實，那時候是可以發財的，我也真的發了財。可是競爭呀，競爭呀——新發明呀，新發明呀，——改變呀，改變呀，——這世界已經從我的身邊走過去了。我不知道我自己現在在哪裏，更不知道我的顧客現在在哪裏。”

'Never mind 'em, Uncle!'

'Since you came home from weekly boarding-school at Peckham, for instance - and that's ten days,' said Solomon, 'I don't remember more than one person that has come into the shop.'

“別去想那些事情，舅舅！”

“舉個例子來說吧，你從佩克姆①寄宿學校②回家以後，已有十天了，”所羅門說道，“在這十天中，我記得只有一個人到這店裏來過”。

'Two, Uncle, don't you recollect? There was the man who came to ask for change for a sovereign '
'That's the one,' said Solomon.
'Why Uncle! don't you call the woman anybody, who came to ask the way to Mile-End Turnpike?'

“兩個人，舅舅。你不記得了嗎？不有個男子到這裏來請求把一鎊換成零錢——”
“就是那個人，”所羅門說道。
“怎麼，舅勇！有一位女人到這裏來問到邁爾·恩德收稅柵的路怎麼走法，難道你認爲她就不是人嗎？”

註釋：alteration n. 修改，改變；變更
例句：
1. One obvious impact is the radical alteration of the land surface.
一種顯而易見的影響是大地表面劇烈的改變。
2. There is a structural alteration to the building.
這座建築物在這有一處結構上的改變。

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①佩克姆（Peckham）：倫敦郊區的地方。
②原文爲weeklyboardingschool，是指一個星期寄宿六天的學校。

'Oh! it's true,' said Solomon, 'I forgot her. Two persons.'

'To be sure, they didn't buy anything,' cried the boy.

'No. They didn't buy anything,' said Solomon, quietly.

'Nor want anything,' cried the boy.

“噢！不錯，”所羅門說道，“我把她給忘了。總共兩個人。”

“當然，他們什麼也沒有買，”孩子喊道。

“是的，他們什麼也沒有買，”所羅門平靜地說道。

“他們也不想買什麼東西，”孩子喊道。

'No. If they had, they'd gone to another shop,' said Solomon, in the same tone.

'But there were two of 'em, Uncle,' cried the boy, as if that were a great triumph. 'You said only one.'

“是的。如果他們想買的話，那麼他們會到別的店鋪裏去買的，”所羅門用同樣的聲調說道。
“不過他們是兩個人呀，舅舅，”孩子喊道，彷彿那是個很大的勝利似的。“你剛纔卻說只有一個人。”

'Well, Wally,' resumed the old man, after a short pause: 'not being like the Savages who came on Robinson Crusoe's Island, we can't live on a man who asks for change for a sovereign, and a woman who inquires the way to Mile-End Turnpike. As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don't blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old-fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again. Even the noise it makes a long way ahead, confuses me.'

“唔，沃利，”老人在短時間的沉默之後繼續說道，“我們不像到魯濱孫·克魯索①荒島上去的野人那樣，不能靠一位請求把一鎊換成零錢的男子和一位問到邁爾·恩德收稅柵的路怎麼走法的女人來生活。我剛纔說過，這世界已經從我身邊走過去了。我不責怪它；但我不再瞭解它了。商人和過去的不一樣了；徒弟和過去的不一樣了；商業和過去的不一樣了，商品和過去的不一樣了。我的存貨八分之七都是老式的。我們這條街和我記得的過去的那一條街已經不一樣了；我是這條街上一個老式的店鋪中的一位老式的人。我已經落在時間的後面了，我太老了，不能再趕上它了。甚至它在前面很遠的地方所發出的聲音也把我搞糊塗了。”

註釋：apprentice n. 學徒；生手 vt. 使…當學徒 vi. 當學徒
例句：
1. The shop is taking on two new apprentices.
這個商店新收了兩個學徒。
2. The new apprentices are doing quite well.
新藝徒們進步很快。

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①魯濱孫·克魯索（RobinsonCrusoe）：是英國作家丹尼爾·笛福（DanielDefoe，1660—1731年）所著小說《魯濱孫漂流記》中的主人翁，他在一個杳無人煙的荒島上度過了二十八年。