名著精讀《傲慢與偏見》第十章 第3節

"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," cried her brother -- "because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. -- Do not you, Darcy?"

她的哥哥嚷道：“這種恭維話可不能用在達西身上，珈羅琳，因爲他並不能夠大筆一揮而就，他還得在四個音節的字上面多多推敲。──達西，你可不是這樣嗎？”

"My style of writing is very different from yours."

“我寫信的風格和你很不同。”

"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."

“噢，”彬格萊小姐叫起來了，“查爾斯寫起信來，那種潦草隨便的態度，簡直不可想象。他要漏掉一半字，塗掉一半字。”

"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them -- by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."

“我念頭轉得太快，簡直來有及寫，因此有時候收信人讀到我的信，反而覺得言之無物。”

"Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm reproof."

“彬格萊先生，”伊麗莎白說，“你這樣謙虛，真叫人家本來要責備你也不好意思責備了。”

"Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

達西說：“假裝謙虛偏偏往往就是信口開河，有時候簡直是轉彎抹角的自誇？”

"And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"

“那麼，我剛剛那幾句謙虛的話，究竟是信口開河呢，還是轉彎抹角的自誇？”

"The indirect boast; -- for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of compliment to yourself -- and yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or any one else?"

“要算是轉彎抹角的自誇，因爲你對於你自己寫信方面的缺點覺得很得意，你認爲你思想敏捷，懶得去注意書法，而且你認爲你這些方面即使沒有什麼了不起，完全不考慮到做出來的成績是不是完美。你今天早上跟班納特太太說，如果你決定要從尼日斐花園搬走，你五分鐘之內就可以搬走，這種話無非是誇耀自己，恭維自己。再說，急躁的結果只會使得應該要做好的事情沒有做好，無論對人對已，都沒有真正的好處，這有什麼值得讚美的呢？”

able n. 音節 vt. 分音節

Which syllable does the stress of this word fall on?
這個字的重音是在哪個音節上?

vt. 玷污，弄髒，吸乾（墨汁等） vi. 弄上污跡

His apron was blotted with oil.
他的圍裙上滿是油點。

oof[ri'pru:f] n. 斥責，責備

Impatient of reproof, he left his parents and went away.
忍受不了責難，他離開父母出走了。

gyric n. 讚辭，誇大的頌詞

He made a speech of panegyric.
他作了一個頌揚性的演講。

able adj. 值得稱讚的

His noble ideas and polite behavior are laudable.
他崇高的思想和彬彬有禮的舉止令人讚美。

ipitance n. 急躁，倉促