目 录 上一节 下一节 
康妮和希尔达立即把要王排挤了。加丝利一家人,多少是她们的同种人,很实在,但是令人讨厌。他们的两个女儿正在找丈无。牧师并不是一个坏爱伙,就是太繁文缛礼了。亚力山大爵干呢,自从他发了小病后,在他的欢快中总是带着一种可怕的呆滞,但是家里来了这么许多美丽的少妇们,依然是一件使他心迷目乱的事情。他的太太一柯泊爵士夫人,是个沉静的善阿澳的妇人。可怜她并不怎么快乐,她只冷静地留心着所有的女子,这竞成了她的第二天性了。她说些冷酷的卑劣的闲话,那证明她对于一切人类天性是多么瞧不起。康妮觉得她对于仆人是非常阴毒虐待的,不过她的样子很静罢了。她巧妙地使亚力山在爵士相信"他"是一家之主和王候,因为他有那自以为快活的隆然大腹,他有那使人厌烦的笑在他有那"滑稽性"一依希尔达的说法。 Sir Malcolm was painting. Yes, he still would do a Venetian lagoonscape, now and then, in contrast to his Scottish landscapes. So in the morning he was rowed off with a huge canvas, to his 'site'. A little later, Lady Cooper would he rowed off into the heart of the city, with sketching-block and colours. She was an inveterate watercolour painter, and the house was full of rose-coloured palaces, dark canals, swaying bridges, medieval facades, and so on. A little later the Guthries, the prince, the countess, Sir Alexander, and sometimes Mr Lind, the chaplain, would go off to the Lido, where they would bathe; coming home to a late lunch at half past one. 麦尔肯爵士作着他的绘画。是的,他还想在有时间时画一幅威尼斯的水景。这种水景和他的苏格兰风景比起来是相异的。于是每天早晨,他带了大画布,乘着游艇到他的取景处去。稍迟一点,柯泊夫人有时也带了画簿和颜色,乘游艇到市区中心去,她是个执迷不悟的水彩画家,满屋里尽是一幅一幅的玫瑰色宫殿,暗淡的运河拱桥,中古时代的建筑物。再迟一点,便是加丝利一家人,亲王,伯爵夫人,亚力山在爵士,有时是牧师林德先生,乘船到丽岛去洗浴。大家都回得晚,午餐总是在一点半左右的。 The house-party, as a house-party, was distinctly boring. But this did not trouble the sisters. They were out all the time. Their father took them to the exhibition, miles and miles of weary paintings. He took them to all the cronies of his in the Villa Lucchese, he sat with them on warm evenings in the piazza, having got a table at Florian's: he took them to the theatre, to the Goldoni plays. There were illuminated water-f êtes, there were dances. This was a holiday-place of all holiday-places. The Lido, with its acres of sun-pinked or pyjamaed bodies, was like a strand with an endless heap of seals come up for mating. Too many people in the piazza, too many limbs and trunks of humanity on the Lido, too many gondolas, too many motor-launches, too many steamers, too many pigeons, too many ices, too many cocktails, too many menservants wanting tips, too many languages rattling, too much, too much sun, too much smell of Venice, too many cargoes of strawberries, too many silk shawls, too many huge, raw-beef slices of watermelon on stalls: too much enjoyment, altogether far too much enjoyment! 别墅里宾主聚会的时候,是特殊地令人厌烦的。但是姊妹俩却用不着埋怨。好司令部整天都在外边。好司令部的父亲带她们去看展览会;几里路几里路的令人头痛的图画。他带她们上卢齐西别墅去看他的老朋友。天热的晚上,他和她们坐在皮亚沙上面的佛负边咖啡馆里。他带她们上剧院,去看哥多尼的戏剧。有的是灯彩辉煌的水上游艺会,有的是跳舞场。这是所有游乐城市中的一个游乐场城市。丽岛上,挤拥着成千成万的阳光晒赤了的或穿着轻便的睡衣裤的肉体,好象是个无限的海豹从水中出来在那里配偶的海滨。皮亚沙的人太多了,丽由的人类肢体太多了,游艇太多了,汽船太我了,轮船太多了,鸽儿太多了,冰冻饮食太多了,醇酒太多了,等小帐的仆人太多了,不同的语言太多了,阳光太多了,威尼斯的气味太多了,一船船的杨梅太多了,丝围巾太多了,大块的西瓜,生牛肉片似的摆在货摊上,太多了,娱乐太多了,唉!太多太多的娱乐! Connie and Hilda went around in their sunny frocks. There were dozens of people they knew, dozens of people knew them. Michaelis turned up like a bad penny. 'Hullo! Where you staying? Come and have an ice-cream or something! Come with me somewhere in my gondola.' Even Michaelis almost sun-burned: though sun-cooked is more appropriate to the look of the mass of human flesh. 康妮和希尔达穿着夏季的轻便衣裳,东穿西窜。她们认识许多的人,许多的人认识她们。葛地里蔑克里斯象个不受欢迎的人出现在她们面前:"喂,怎么!你们住在哪儿?来吃杯冰激淋或什么东西吧!和我乘我的游艇上什么地方去罢。"甚至蔑克里斯都差不多给太阳晒赤了。其实不如说给太阳尊焦了,才更适合于这一大堆人内的那种光景。 It was pleasant in a way. It was almost enjoyment. But anyhow, with all the cocktails, all the lying in warmish water and sunbathing on hot sand in hot sun, jazzing with your stomach up against some fellow in the warm nights, cooling off with ices, it was a complete narcotic. And that was what they all wanted, a drug: the slow water, a drug; the sun, a drug; jazz, a drug; cigarettes, cocktails, ices, vermouth. To be drugged! Enjoyment! Enjoyment! 在某点上说来,那是有趣的,那差不多可说是快乐,总之,痛饮醇酒,身体浸在暖水里,在炙人的沙上晒太阳。在暖热的夜里,循着乐队的喧声跳舞,肚儿抵着肚儿。吃些冰冻东西凉快下来,这是个完美的麻醉剂。他们全体所需要的,便是麻醉剂;静流之水,是麻醉剂;太阳,是麻醉剂;跳舞、纸烟、醇酒、冰、苦艾酒,都无非是麻醉剂。麻醉!那便是享乐那!便是享乐! 
希尔达是半喜欢麻醉的。她喜欢望着所有的女人,猜想着她们是什么人,干什么的。女人对于女人的兴趣是十分浓厚的。她是否漂亮?她勾上的是什么男子?她得到的是什么乐趣?……男子们象是一些穿白色法兰绒裤的大狗,等待着被人爱抚。等待着打滚作乐,等待着在音乐声中,用他们的肚皮去摩擦一个女人的肚皮。 Hilda liked jazz, because she could plaster her stomach against the stomach of some so-called man, and let him control her movement from the visceral centre, here and there across the floor, and then she could break loose and ignore 'the creature'. He had been merely made use of. Poor Connie was rather unhappy. She wouldn't jazz, because she simply couldn't plaster her stomach against some 'creature's' stomach. She hated the conglomerate mass of nearly nude flesh on the Lido: there was hardly enough water to wet them all. She disliked Sir Alexander and Lady Cooper. She did not want Michaelis or anybody else trailing her. 希尔达喜欢跳舞,因为他可以把她的肚皮贴着一个所谓男子汉的肚皮,并且让他从那内脏的中央引导着跳的动作,在场中四处打转,然后她可以悄悄地走开,把那"脚色"忘记了。他只不过被利用一下罢了,可怜的康妮,她却有点闷闷不泺。她不愿跳舞,因为她简直就不能把她的肚皮去磨擦他人的肚皮。她厌恨这丽岛上成堆成堆的差不多赤裸裸的人肉的聚合一丽岛的水几乎还不够把他们个个浸湿呢。她不喜欢亚力山大爵士和柯泊爵士夫人。她不愿意蔑克里斯和任何人跟着她。 The happiest times were when she got Hilda to go with her away across the lagoon, far across to some lonely shingle-bank, where they could bathe quite alone, the gondola remaining on the inner side of the reef. 有时,她把希尔达说服了"陪着她渡过浅湖,远远地到了一处荒寂的沙滩上,那儿,她们可以怪孤独的洗浴,把游艇停在礁石的后面,这便是康妮最快乐的时间了。 Then Giovanni got another gondolier to help him, because it was a long way and he sweated terrifically in the sun. Giovanni was very nice: affectionate, as the Italians are, and quite passionless. The Italians are not passionate: passion has deep reserves. They are easily moved, and often affectionate, but they rarely have any abiding passion of any sort. 那时佐万尼多用了一个舟子来帮助他,因为路达远了,而且他在太阳下面汗流如注。佐万尼是个很可爱、对人很亲切的人一意大利人都是这样,却毫无热情。意大利人不是热情的民族;因为热情是深刻的,蕴蓄的。他们易于感动,常常也很亲切起来;但是他们却罕有持续不变的任何热情。 So Giovanni was already devoted to his ladies, as he had been devoted to cargoes of ladies in the past. He was perfectly ready to prostitute himself to them, if they wanted hint: he secretly hoped they would want him. They would give him a handsome present, and it would come in very handy, as he was just going to be married. He told them about his marriage, and they were suitably interested. 这样,佐万尼早已委身于他的两位太太了,正如他过去曾委身于无数的其他太太们一样他已毫无犹豫地甘心卖身于她们,假如她们要他的话;他暗暗地希望着她们要他。她们定会给他一注可观的缠头,那便巧妙了,因为他正准备结婚。他告诉她们于他的结婚的事,而她们也觉得有味地听着。 
他想,横渡这浅湖到那种荒寂的沙滩上去,大概总是那回事:所谓那回事便是!爱。所以他叫了个帮手,因为路是远的,而且城有两位太太呢。两位太太便得两条鱼!高明的计算!况且是两位鲜丽的太太哟!他想到这个便不禁得意起来,虽然给钱和发命令的是那位大大太,但他却颇希望那位年轻的男爵夫人会选中他去担任那回事。她给的钱一定也会更多的。 The mate he brought was called Daniele. He was not a regular gondolier, so he had none of the cadger and prostitute about him. He was a sandola man, a sandola being a big boat that brings in fruit and produce from the islands. 他带来的助手叫丹尼。他并不是真正的游艇舟子,所以他没有那种卖笑男姐的神气。他本来是个大船上的船户,这种大船是运载附近岛屿所产的水果和其他出品到威尼斯来的。 Daniele was beautiful, tall and well-shapen, with a light round head of little, close, pale-blond curls, and a good-looking man's face, a little like a lion, and long-distance blue eyes. He was not effusive, loquacious, and bibulous like Giovanni. He was silent and he rowed with a strength and ease as if he were alone on the water. The ladies were ladies, remote from him. He did not even look at them. He looked ahead. 丹尼生得标致,身材高大美好,他的圆整的头上,长得淡褐色的细密的卷发。他有一个雄狮似的好看的男子的脸孔,和两只相离很无的蓝色的眼睛,他不象佐万尼似的媚态洋溢、饶舌和嗜酒如命。他静默着,他从容地有力地划着浆,旁若无人。太太们是太太们,和他是远隔关睥。他甚至瞧也不瞧她们,他只望着前面。 He was a real man, a little angry when Giovanni drank too much wine and rowed awkwardly, with effusive shoves of the great oar. He was a man as Mellors was a man, unprostituted. Connie pitied the wife of the easily-overflowing Giovanni. But Daniele's wife would be one of those sweet Venetian women of the people whom one still sees, modest and flower-like in the back of that labyrinth of a town. 这是一个真男子,当佐万尼喝多了,笨掘地乱拔着浆的时候,他便恼怒起来。这是一个男子,正如梅乐士是一个男了,一样是个威武不屈贫贱不移的人,康妮不禁替那放荡的佐万尼的妻室怜惜起来。但是丹尼的妻定是个威尼斯的妖媚可爱的民间妇女之一,这种妇女,我们还可以见到,她们住在这迷宫似的城市的幽僻的地方,幽雅朴素得如花一样。
|