名著·简.爱 - 第20节


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  海伦.彭斯,要是这会儿你不去整理抽屉,收拾你的针线活儿,我要告诉斯卡查德小姐,请她来看看了。"

   Helen sighed as her reverie fled, and getting up, obeyed the monitorwithout reply as without delay.

  海伦的幻想烟消云散,她长叹一声,站了起来,没有回答,也没有耽搁,便服从了这位班长。

   My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age; and not the golden ageeither; it comprised an irksome struggle with difficulties inhabituating myself to new rules and unwonted tasks. The fear offailure in these points harassed me worse than the physicalhardships of my lot; though these were no trifles.

  在罗沃德度过的一个季度,仿佛是一个时代,而且并不是黄金时代。我得经历一场恼人的搏斗,来克服困难,适应新的规矩和不熟悉的工作。我担心这方面出错。为此所受的折磨,甚过于我命里注定肉体上要承受的艰苦,虽说艰苦也并不是小事。

   During January, February, and part of March, the deep snows, and,after their melting, the almost impassable roads, prevented ourstirring beyond the garden walls, except to go to church; but withinthese limits we had to pass an hour every day in the open air. Ourclothing was insufficient to protect us from the severe cold: wehad no boots, the snow got into our shoes and melted there: ourungloved hands became numbed and covered with chilblains, as wereour feet: I remember well the distracting irritation I endured fromthis cause every evening, when my feet inflamed; and the torture ofthrusting the swelled, raw, and stiff toes into my shoes in themorning. Then the scanty supply of food was distressing: with thekeen appetites of growing children, we had scarcely sufficient tokeep alive a delicate invalid. From this deficiency of nourishmentresulted an abuse, which pressed hardly on the younger pupils:whenever the famished great girls had an opportunity, they wouldcoax or menace the little ones out of their portion. Many a time Ihave shared between two claimants the precious morsel of brown breaddistributed at tea-time; and after relinquishing to a third half thecontents of my mug of coffee, I have swallowed the remainder with anaccompaniment of secret tears, forced from me by the exigency ofhunger.

  在一月、二月和三月的部分日子里,由于厚厚的积雪,以及化雪后道路几乎不通,我们的活动除了去教堂,便被困在花园的围墙之内了。但就在这个牢笼内,每天仍得在户外度过一小时。我们的衣服不足以御寒。大家没有靴子,雪灌进了鞋子,并在里面融化。我们没有手套,手都冻僵了,像脚上一样,长满了冻疮。每晚我的双脚红肿,早上又得把肿胀、疼痛和僵硬的脚趾伸进鞋子,一时痛痒难熬,至今记忆犹新。食品供应不足也令人沮丧,这些孩子都正是长身体的年纪,胃口很好,而吃的东西却难以养活一个虚弱的病人。营养缺乏带来了不良习气,这可苦了年纪较小的学生。饥肠辘辘的大龄女生一有机会,便连哄带吓,从幼小学生的份里弄到点吃的。有很多回,我在吃茶点时把那一口宝贵的黑面包分给两位讨食者,而把半杯咖啡给了第三位,自己便狼吞虎唱地把剩下的吃掉,一面因为饿得发慌而暗暗落泪。

   Sundays were dreary days in that wintry season. We had to walk twomiles to Brocklebridge Church, where our patron officiated. We setout cold, we arrived at church colder: during the morning servicewe became almost paralysed. It was too far to return to dinner, andan allowance of cold meat and bread, in the same penuriousproportion observed in our ordinary meals, was served round betweenthe services.

  冬季的星期日沉闷乏味。我们得走上两里路,到保护人所主持的布罗克布里奇教堂去。出发的时候很冷,到达的时刻就更冷了。早祷时我们几乎都已冻僵,这儿离校太远,不能回去用饭,两次祷告之间便吃一份冷肉和面包,份量也跟平时的饭食一样,少得可怜。

  下午的祷告结束以后,我们沿着一条无遮无拦的山路回校。刺骨的寒风,吹过大雪覆盖的山峰,刮向北边来,几乎要从我们的脸上刮去一层皮。

   I can remember Miss Temple walking lightly and rapidly along ourdrooping line, her plaid cloak, which the frosty wind fluttered,gathered close about her, and encouraging us, by precept andexample, to keep up our spirits, and march forward, as she said,"like stalwart soldiers." The other teachers, poor things, weregenerally themselves too much dejected to attempt the task ofcheering others.

  我至今仍然记得,坦普尔小姐轻快地走在我们萎靡不振的队伍旁边,寒风吹得她的花呢斗篷紧贴在身上。她一面训导,一面以身作则,鼓励我们振作精神,照她所说的,"像不屈不挠的战士"那样奋勇前进。可怜的其他教师,大都自己也十分颓丧,更不想为别人鼓劲了。

   How we longed for the light and heat of a blazing fire when we gotback! But, to the little ones at least, this was denied: eachhearth in the schoolroom was immediately surrounded by a double rowof great girls, and behind them the younger children crouched ingroups, wrapping their starved arms in their pinafores.

  回校以后,我们多么渴望熊熊炉火发出的光和热!但至少对年幼学生来说,并没有这福份。教室里的每个壁炉立刻被两排大姑娘围住,小一点的孩子只好成群蹲在她们身后,用围涎裹着冻僵了的胳膊。

   A little solace came at tea-time, in the shape of a double ration ofbread--a whole, instead of a half, slice--with the deliciousaddition of a thin scrape of butter: it was the hebdomadal treat towhich we all looked forward from Sabbath to Sabbath. I generallycontrived to reserve a moiety of this bounteous repast for myself;but the remainder I was invariably obliged to part with.

  吃茶点时,我们才得到些许安慰,发给了双份面包--一整片而不是半片--附加薄薄一层可口的黄油,这是一周一次的享受,一个安息日复一个安息日,大家都翘首企盼着。通常我只能把这美餐的一部分留给自己,其余的便总是不得不分给别人。

   The Sunday evening was spent in repeating, by heart, the ChurchCatechism, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of St.Matthew; and in listening to a long sermon, read by Miss Miller,whose irrepressible yawns attested her weariness. A frequentinterlude of these performances was the enactment of the part ofEutychus by some half-dozen of little girls, who, overpowered withsleep, would fall down, if not out of the third loft, yet off thefourth form, and be taken up half dead. The remedy was, to thrustthem forward into the centre of the schoolroom, and oblige them tostand there till the sermon was finished. Sometimes their feetfailed them, and they sank together in a heap; they were thenpropped up with the monitors' high stools.

  星期天晚上我们要背诵教堂的教义问答和《马太福音》的第五、六、七章,还要听米勒小姐冗长的讲道,她禁不住哈欠连天,证明她也倦了。在这些表演中间,经常有一个插曲,六、七个小姑娘总要扮演犹推古的角色,她们因为困倦不堪,虽然不是从三楼上而是从第四排长凳上摔下来,扶起来时也已经半死了。补救办法是把她们硬塞到教室的中间,迫使她们一直站着,直至讲道结束。有时她们的双脚不听使唤,瘫下来缩作一团,于是便不得不用班长的高凳把她们支撑起来。

  我还没有提到布罗克赫斯特先生的造访,其实这位先生在我抵达后第一个月的大部分日子里,都不在家,也许他在朋友副主教那里多逗留了些时间。他不在倒使我松了口气,不必说我自有怕他来的理由,但他终究还是来了。

   One afternoon (I had then been three weeks at Lowood), as I wassitting with a slate in my hand, puzzling over a sum in longdivision, my eyes, raised in abstraction to the window, caught sightof a figure just passing: I recognised almost instinctively thatgaunt outline; and when, two minutes after, all the school, teachersincluded, rose en masse, it was not necessary for me to look up inorder to ascertain whose entrance they thus greeted. A long stridemeasured the schoolroom, and presently beside Miss Temple, whoherself had risen, stood the same black column which had frowned onme so ominously from the hearthrug of Gateshead. I now glancedsideways at this piece of architecture. Yes, I was right: it wasMr. Brocklehurst, buttoned up in a surtout, and looking longer,narrower, and more rigid than ever.

  一天下午(那时我到罗沃德已经三星期了),我手里拿了块写字板坐着,正为长除法中的一个总数发窘,眼睛呆呆地望着窗外,看到有一个人影闪过。我几乎本能地认出了这瘦瘦的轮廓。因此两分钟后,整个学校的人,包括教师在内都全体起立时,我没有必要抬起头来后过究竟,便知道他们在迎接谁进屋了。这人大步流星走进教室。眨眼之间,在早已起立的坦普尔小姐身边,便竖起了同一根黑色大柱,就是这根柱子曾在盖茨黑德的壁炉地毯上不祥地对我皱过眉。这时我侧目瞟了一眼这个建筑物。对,我没有看错,就是那个布罗克赫斯特先生,穿着紧身长外衣,扣紧了钮扣,看上去越发修长、狭窄和刻板了。

   I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition; too wellI remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about mydisposition, &c.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to appriseMiss Temple and the teachers of my vicious nature. All along I hadbeen dreading the fulfilment of this promise,--I had been lookingout daily for the "Coming Man," whose information respecting my pastlife and conversation was to brand me as a bad child for ever: nowthere he was.

  见到这个幽灵,我有理由感到丧气。我记得清清楚楚,里德太太曾恶意地暗示过我的品行等等,布罗克赫斯特先生曾答应把我的恶劣本性告诉坦普尔小姐和教师们。我一直害怕这一诺言会得到实现--每天都提防着这个"行将到来的人"。他的谈话和对我往事的透露,会使我一辈子落下个坏孩子的恶名,而现在他终于来了。

   He stood at Miss Temple's side; he was speaking low in her ear: Idid not doubt he was making disclosures of my villainy; and Iwatched her eye with painful anxiety, expecting every moment to seeits dark orb turn on me a glance of repugnance and contempt. Ilistened too; and as I happened to be seated quite at the top of theroom, I caught most of what he said: its import relieved me fromimmediate apprehension.

  他站在坦普尔小姐身旁,跟她在小声耳语。毫无疑问他在说我坏话,我急切而痛苦地注视着她的目光,无时无刻不期待着她乌黑的眸子转向我,投来厌恶与蔑视的一瞥。我也细听着,因为碰巧坐在最靠房子头上的地方,所以他说的话,一大半都听得见。谈话的内容消除了我眼前的忧虑。

   "I suppose, Miss Temple, the thread I bought at Lowton will do; itstruck me that it would be just of the quality for the calicochemises, and I sorted the needles to match. You may tell MissSmith that I forgot to make a memorandum of the darning needles, butshe shall have some papers sent in next week; and she is not, on anyaccount, to give out more than one at a time to each pupil: if theyhave more, they are apt to be careless and lose them. And, O ma'am!I wish the woollen stockings were better looked to!--when I was herelast, I went into the kitchen-garden and examined the clothes dryingon the line; there was a quantity of black hose in a very bad stateof repair: from the size of the holes in them I was sure they hadnot been well mended from time to time.""

  坦普尔小姐,我想在洛顿买的线是管用的,质地正适合做白布衬衣用,我还挑选了同它相配的针。请你告诉史密斯小姐,我忘掉了买织补针的事。不过下星期我会派人送些纸来,给每个学生的一次不得超过一张,给多了,她们容易粗枝大叶,把它们弄丢了。啊,小姐!但愿你们的羊毛袜子能照看得好些!上次我来这里的时候到菜园子里转了一下,仔细瞧了瞧晾在绳子上的衣服,看见有不少黑色长袜都该补了,从破洞的大小来看,肯定一次次都没有好好修补。"

  他顿了一下。

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名著·简.爱 - 第20节