目 录 上一节 下一节 
瞧，我是谁？"他问。 I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: hetook it, smiling and saying, "We shall do very well by-and-by."Then he laid me down, and addressing Bessie, charged her to be verycareful that I was not disturbed during the night. Having givensome further directions, and intimates that he should call again thenext day, he departed; to my grief: I felt so sheltered andbefriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and as heclosed the door after him, all the room darkened and my heart againsank: inexpressible sadness weighed it down. 我说出了他的名字，同时把手伸给他，他握住了我的手、微微一笑说："慢慢会好起来的。"随后他扶我躺下，并吩咐贝茜千万小心，在夜里别让我受到打扰。他又叮嘱了一番，说了声第二天再来后，便走了。我非常难过。有他坐在我枕边的椅子上，我感到既温暖又亲近，而他一走，门一关上，整个房间便暗了下来，我的心再次沉重起来，一种无可名状的哀伤威压着我。 "Do you feel as if you should sleep, Miss?" asked Bessie, rathersoftly." 你觉得该睡了吗，小姐？"贝茜问，口气相当温存。 Scarcely dared I answer her; for I feared the next sentence might berough. "I will try." 我几乎不敢回答她，害怕接着的话粗鲁不中听。"我试试。" "Would you like to drink, or could you eat anything?"" 你想喝什么，或者能吃点什么吗？" 
不啦，谢谢，贝茜。" "Then I think I shall go to bed, for it is past twelve o'clock; butyou may call me if you want anything in the night."" 那我去睡了，已经过了十二点啦，不过要是夜里需要什么，你尽管叫我。" Wonderful civility this! It emboldened me to ask a question. 多么彬彬有礼啊！于是我大着胆子问了个问题。 "Bessie, what is the matter with me? Am I ill?"" 贝茜，我怎啦？病了吗？" "You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you'll bebetter soon, no doubt."" 你是病了，猜想是在红房子里哭出病来的，肯定很快就会好的。" 
贝茵走进了附近佣人的卧房。我听见她说： "Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I daren't for my lifebe alone with that poor child to-night: she might die; it's such astrange thing she should have that fit: I wonder if she sawanything. Missis was rather too hard."" 萨拉，过来同我一起睡在保育室吧，今儿晚上，就是要我命，我也不敢同那个可怜孩子单独过夜了。她说不定会死的。真奇怪她竟会昏过去。不知道她看见了什么没有。里德太太也太狠心了。" Sarah came back with her; they both went to bed; they werewhispering together for half-an-hour before they fell asleep. Icaught scraps of their conversation, from which I was able only toodistinctly to infer the main subject discussed. 萨拉跟着她回来了，两人都上了床，嘁嘁喳喳讲了半个小时才睡着。我只听到了片言只语，但我可以清楚地推断出她们讨论的主题。 "Something passed her, all dressed in white, and vanished"--"A greatblack dog behind him"--"Three loud raps on the chamber door"--"Alight in the churchyard just over his grave," &c. &c." 有个东西从她身边经过，一身素装，转眼就不见了"--"一条大黑狗跟在后面"--"在房门上砰砰砰"敲了三下--"墓地里一道白光正好掠过他坟墓"等等等等。 At last both slept: the fire and the candle went out. For me, thewatches of that long night passed in ghastly wakefulness; strainedby dread: such dread as children only can feel. 最后，两人都睡着了，炉火和烛光也都熄灭。我就这么可怕地醒着挨过了漫漫长夜，害怕得耳朵、眼睛和头脑都紧张起来，这种恐俱是只有儿童才能感受到的， 
红房子事件并没有给我身体留下严重或慢性的后遗症，它不过使我的神经受了惊吓，对此我至今记忆犹新。是的，里德太太，你让我领受了可怕的精神创伤，但我应当原谅你、因为你并不明白自己干了些什么，明明是在割断我的心弦，却自以为无非是要根除我的恶习。 Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed, and sat wrapped in a shawlby the nursery hearth. I felt physically weak and broken down: butmy worse ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind: awretchedness which kept drawing from me silent tears; no sooner hadI wiped one salt drop from my cheek than another followed. Yet, Ithought, I ought to have been happy, for none of the Reeds werethere, they were all gone out in the carriage with their mama.Abbot, too, was sewing in another room, and Bessie, as she movedhither and thither, putting away toys and arranging drawers,addressed to me every now and then a word of unwonted kindness.This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace,accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thanklessfagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a statethat no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably. 第二天中午，我起来穿好衣服，裹了块浴巾，坐在保育室壁炉旁边。我身体虚弱，几乎要垮下来。但最大的痛楚却是内心难以言传的苦恼，弄得我不断地暗暗落泪。才从脸颊上抹去一滴带咸味的泪水，另一滴又滚落下来。不过，我想我应当高兴，因为里德一家人都不在，他们都坐了车随妈妈出去了。艾博特也在另一间屋里做针线活。而贝茵呢，来回忙碌着，一面把玩具收拾起来，将抽屉整理好，一面还不时地同我说两句少有的体贴话。对我来说，过惯了那种成天挨骂、辛辛苦苦吃力不讨好的日子后，这光景该好比是平静的乐园。然而，我的神经己被折磨得痛苦不堪，终于连平静也抚慰不了我，欢乐也难以使我兴奋了。 Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her atart on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird ofparadise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had beenwont to stir in me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; andwhich plate I had often petitioned to be allowed to take in my handin order to examine it more closely, but had always hitherto beendeemed unworthy of such a privilege. This precious vessel was nowplaced on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet ofdelicate pastry upon it. Vain favour! coming, like most otherfavours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could noteat the tart; and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers,seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away. Bessieasked if I would have a book: the word BOOK acted as a transientstimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from thelibrary. This book I had again and again perused with delight. Iconsidered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein ofinterest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to theelves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells,under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks,I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were allgone out of England to some savage country where the woods werewilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliputand Brobdignag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth'ssurface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a longvoyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees,the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the onerealm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, themonster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other. Yet, whenthis cherished volume was now placed in my hand--when I turned overits leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had,till now, never failed to find--all was eerie and dreary; the giantswere gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps,Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerousregions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and putit on the table, beside the untasted tart. 贝茜下楼去了一趟厨房，端上来一个小烘饼，放在一个图案鲜艳的瓷盘里，图案上画的是一只极乐鸟，偎依在一圈旋花和玫瑰花苞上。这幅画曾激起我热切的羡慕之情。我常常恳求让我端一端这只盘子，好仔细看个究竟，但总是被认为不配享受这样的特权。此刻，这只珍贵的器皿就搁在我膝头上，我还受到热诚邀请，品尝器皿里一小圈精美的糕点。徒有虚名的垂爱啊！跟其他久拖不予而又始终期待着的宠爱一样，来得太晚了！我已无意光顾这烘饼，而且那鸟的羽毛和花卉的色泽也奇怪地黯然无光了。我把盘子和烘饼挪开。贝茜问我是否想要一本书。"书"字产生了瞬间的刺激，我求她去图书室取来一本《格列佛游记》。我曾兴致勃动地反复细读过这本书，认为书中叙述的都实有其事，因而觉得比童话中写的有趣。至于那些小精灵们，我在毛地黄叶子与花冠之间，在蘑菇底下和爬满老墙角落的长春藤下遍寻无着之后，终于承认这悲哀的事实：他们都己逃离英国到某个原始的乡间去了，那儿树林更荒凉茂密，人口更为稀少。而我虔信，小人国和大人国都是地球表面实实在在的一部份。我毫不怀疑有朝一日我会去远航，亲眼看一看一个王国里小小的田野、小小的房子、小小的树木；看一看那里的小人、小牛、小羊和小鸟们；目睹一下另一个王国里如森林一般高耸的玉米地、硕大的猛犬、巨大无比的猫以及高塔一般的男男女女。然而，此刻当我手里捧着这本珍爱的书，一页页翻过去，从精妙的插图中寻觅以前每试必爽的魅力时，我找到的只是怪异和凄凉。巨人成了憔悴的妖怪，矮子沦为恶毒可怖的小鬼，而格列佛则已是陷身于险境的孤独的流浪者了。我不敢往下看了，合上书，把它放在桌上一口未尝的小烘饼旁边。 I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight;for Bessie had a sweet voice,--at least, I thought so. But now,though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody anindescribable sadness. Sometimes, preoccupied with her work, shesang the refrain very low, very lingeringly; "A long time ago" cameout like the saddest cadence of a funeral hymn. She passed intoanother ballad, this time a really doleful one. 我以前常听这首歌，而且总觉得它欢快悦耳，因为贝茜的嗓子很甜，至少我认为如此。而此刻，虽然她甜蜜的嗓子依旧，但歌里透出了一种难以言喻的悲哀。有时，她干活出了神，把迭句唱得很低沉，拖得很长。一句"很久很久以前"唱出来，如同挽歌中最哀伤的调子。她接着又唱起一首民谣来，这回可是真的哀怨凄恻了。 "My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary;Long is the way, and the mountains are wild;Soon will the twilight close moonless and drearyOver the path of the poor orphan child. 我的双脚酸痛啊四肢乏力，前路漫漫啊大山荒芜。没有月光啊天色阴凄，暮霭沉沉啊笼罩着可怜孤儿的旅途。 
为什么要让我孤苦伶丁远走他乡，流落在荒野连绵峭岩重叠的异地。人心狠毒啊，唯有天使善良，关注着可怜孤儿的足迹。 Yet distant and soft the night breeze is blowing,Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild,God, in His mercy, protection is showing,Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child. 从远处吹来了柔和的夜风，晴空中繁星闪烁着温煦的光芒。仁慈的上帝啊，你赐福于万众，可怜的孤儿得到了保护、安慰和希望。
| 
