目 录 上一节 下一节 
这些不幸的人儿出门的时候，身边总是有个什么人陪着的。 Since no man would ever consent to flaunt by day the predilection he has for them by night, and because they abhor solitude, they are usually attended either by less fortunate associates who have no carriages of their own, or else by elderly ladies of refinement who are not the least refined and to whom an interested party may apply without fear, should any information be required concerning the woman they are escorting. 因为没有一个男人愿意把他们和这种女人的暧昧关系公开化，而她们又不堪寂寞，因此总是随身带着女伴。这些陪客有些是因为境况不如她们，自己没有车子；有些是怎么打扮也好看不了的老妇人。如果有人要想知道她们陪同的那位马车女主人的任何私情秘事，那么尽可以放心大胆地向她们去请教。 It was not so with Marguerite. She always appeared alone on the Champs- Elysees, riding in her own carriage where she sat as unobtrusively as possible, enveloped on winter days in a large Indian shawl and, in summer, wearing the simplest dresses. And though there were many she knew along her favourite route, when she chanced to smile at them, her smile was visible to them alone. A Duchess could have smiled no differently. 玛格丽特却不落窠臼，她总是独个儿坐车到香榭丽舍大街去，尽量不招人注意。她冬天裹着一条开司米大披肩，夏天穿着十分淡雅的长裙。在这条她喜欢散步的大道上尽管有很多熟人，她偶尔也对他们微微一笑，但这是一种只有公爵夫人才有的微笑，而且也唯有他们自己才能觉察。 She did not ride from the Rond- Point down to the entrance, to the Champs-Elysees as do ?and did ?all her sort. Her two horses whisked her off smartly to the Bois de Boulogne. There she alighted, walked for an hour, rejoined her brougham and returned home at a fast trot. 她也不像她所有那些同行一样，习惯在圆形广场和香榭丽舍大街街口之间散步，她的两匹马飞快地把她拉到郊外的布洛涅树林①，她在那里下车，漫步一个小时，然后重新登上马车，疾驰回家。 These circumstances, which I had occasionally observed for myself, now came back to me and I sorrowed for this girl's death much as one might regret the total destruction of a beautiful work of art. 所有这些我亲眼目睹的情景至今还历历在目，我很惋惜这位姑娘的早逝，就像人们惋惜一件精美的艺术品被毁掉了一样。 
的确，玛格丽特可真是个绝色女子。 Tall and slender almost to a fault, she possessed in the highest degree the art of concealing this oversight of nature simply by the way she arranged the clothes she wore. Her Indian shawl, with its point reaching down to the ground, gave free movement on either side to the flounced panels of her silk dress, while the thick muff, which hid her hands and which she kept pressed to her bosom, was encompassed by folds so skillfully managed that even the most demanding eye would have found nothing wanting in the lines of her figure. 她身材颀长苗条稍许过了点分，可她有一种非凡的才能，只要在穿着上稍稍花些功夫，就把这种造化的疏忽给掩饰过去了。她披着长可及地的开司米大披肩，两边露出绸子长裙的宽阔的镶边，她那紧贴在胸前藏手用的厚厚的暖手笼四周的褶裥都做得十分精巧，因此无论用什么挑剔的眼光来看，线条都是无可指摘的。 Her face, a marvel, was the object of her most fastidious attentions. It was quite small and, as Musset might have said, her mother had surely made it so to ensure it was fashioned with care. 她的头样很美，是一件绝妙的珍品，它长得小巧玲珑，就像缪塞①所说的那样，她母亲好像是有意让它生得这么小巧，以便把它精心雕琢一番。 Upon an oval of indescribable loveliness, place two dark eyes beneath brows so cleanly arched that they might have been painted on; veil those eyes with lashes so long that, when lowered, they cast shadows over the pink flush of the cheeks; sketch a delicate, straight, spirited nose and nostrils slightly flared in a passionate aspiration towards sensuality; draw a regular mouth with lips parting gracefully over teeth as white as milk; tint the skin with the bloom of peaches which no hand has touched ?and you will have a comprehensive picture of her entrancing face. 在一张流露着难以描绘其风韵的鹅蛋脸上，嵌着两只乌黑的大眼睛，上面两道弯弯细长的眉毛，纯净得犹如人工画就的一般，眼睛上盖着浓密的睫毛，当眼帘低垂时，给玫瑰色的脸颊投去一抹淡淡的阴影；细巧而挺直的鼻子透出股灵气，鼻翼微鼓，像是对情欲生活的强烈渴望；一张端正的小嘴轮廓分明，柔唇微启，露出一口洁白如奶的牙齿；皮肤颜色就像未经人手触摸过的蜜桃上的绒衣：这些就是这张美丽的脸蛋给您的大致印象。 Her jet-black hair, naturally or artfully waved, was parted over her forehead in two thick coils which vanished behind her head, just exposing the lobes of her ears from which hung two diamonds each worth four or five thousand francs. 黑玉色的头发，不知是天然的还是梳理成的，像波浪一样地鬈曲着，在额前分梳成两大绺，一直拖到脑后，露出两个耳垂，耳垂上闪烁着两颗各值四五千法郎的钻石耳环。 
玛格丽特过着热情纵欲的生活，但是她的脸上却呈现出处女般的神态，甚至还带着稚气的特征，这真使我们百思而不得其解。 Marguerite possessed a marvelous portrait of herself by Vidal, the only man whose pencil strokes could capture her to the life. After her death, this portrait came into my keeping for a few days and the likeness was so striking that it has helped me to furnish details for which memory alone might not have sufficed. 玛格丽特有一幅她自己的画像，是维达尔①的杰作，也唯有他的画笔才能把玛格丽特画得如此惟妙惟肖。在她去世以后，有几天，这幅画在我手里。这幅画画得跟真人一样，它弥补了我记忆力的不足。 Some of the particulars contained in the present chapter did not become known to me until some time later, but I set them down here so as not to have to return to them once the narrative account of this woman's life has begun. 这一章里叙述的情节，有些是我后来才知道的，不过我现在就写下来，免得以后开始讲述这个女人的故事时再去重新提起。 Marguerite was present at all first nights and spent each evening in the theatre or at the ball. Whenever a new play was performed, you could be sure of seeing her there with three things which she always had with her and which always occupied the ledge of her box in the stalls: her opera- glasses, a box of sweets and a bunch of camellias. 每逢首场演出，玛格丽特必定光临。每天晚上，她都在剧场里或舞会上度过。只要有新剧本上演，准可以在剧场里看到她。她随身总带着三件东西：一副望远镜、一袋蜜饯和一束茶花，而且总是放在底层包厢的前栏上。 For twenty-five days in every month the camellias were white, and for five they were red. No one ever knew the reason for this variation in colour which I mention but cannot explain, and which those who frequented the theatres where she was seen most often, and her friends too, had noticed as I had. 一个月里有二十五天玛格丽特带的茶花是白的，而另外五天她带的茶花却是红的，谁也摸不透茶花颜色变化的原因是什么，而我也无法解释其中的道理。在她常去的那几个剧院里，那些老观众和她的朋友们都像我一样注意到了这一现象。 
除了茶花以外，从来没有人看见过她还带过别的花。因此，在她常去买花的巴尔戎夫人的花店里，有人替她取了一个外号，称她为茶花女，这个外号后来就这样给叫开了。 Like all who move in certain social circles in Paris, I knew further that Marguerite had been the mistress of the most fashionable young men, that she admitted the fact openly, and that they themselves boasted of it. Which only went to show that loves and mistress were well pleased with each other. 此外，就像所有生活在巴黎某一个圈子里的人一样，我知道玛格丽特曾经做过一些翩翩少年的情妇，她对此毫不隐讳，那些青年也以此为荣，说明情夫和情妇他们彼此都很满意。 However, for some three years previously, ever since a visit she had made to Bagneres, she was said to be living with just one man, an elderly foreign duke who was fabulously wealthy and had attempted to detach her as far as possible form her old life. This she seems to have been happy enough to go along with. 然而，据说有一次从巴涅尔①旅行回来以后，有几乎三年时间她就只跟一个外国老公爵一起过日子了。这位老公爵是个百万富翁，他想尽方法要玛格丽特跟过去的生活一刀两断。而且，看来她也甘心情愿地顺从了。 Here is what I have been told of the matter. 关于这件事别人是这样告诉我的： In the spring of 1842, Marguerite was so weak, so altered in her looks, that the doctors had ordered her to take the waters. She accordingly set out for Bagneres. 一八四二年春天，玛格丽特身体非常虚弱，气色越来越不好，医生嘱咐她到温泉去疗养，她便到巴涅尔去了。 
在巴涅尔的病人中间，有一位公爵的女儿，她不仅害着跟玛格丽特同样的病，而且长得跟玛格丽特一模一样，别人甚至会把她们看作是姐妹俩。不过公爵小姐的肺病已经到了第三期，玛格丽特来巴涅尔没几天，公爵小姐便离开了人间。 One morning the Duke, who had remained at Bagneres just as people will remain on ground where a piece of their heart lies buried, caught sight of Marguerite as she turned a corner of a gravel walk. 就像有些人不愿意离开埋葬着亲人的地方一样，公爵在女儿去世后仍旧留在巴涅尔。一天早上，公爵在一条小路的拐角处遇见了玛格丽特。 It seemed as though he was seeing the spirit of his dead child and, going up to her, he took both her hands, embraced her tearfully and, without asking who she was, begged leave to call on her and to love in her person the living image of his dead daughter. 他仿佛看到他女儿的影子在眼前掠过，便上前拉住了她的手，老泪纵横地搂着她，甚至也不问问清楚她究竟是谁，就恳求她允许他去探望她，允许他像爱自己去世的女儿的替身那样爱她。 Marguerite, alone at Bagneres with her maid, and in any case having nothing to lose by compromising herself, granted the Duke what he asked. 和玛格丽特一起到巴涅尔去的只有她的侍女，再说她也不怕名声会受到什么损害，就同意了公爵的请求。 Now there were a number of people at Bagneres who knew her, and they made a point of calling on the Duke to inform him of Mademoiselle Gautier's true situation. It was a terrible blow for the old man, for any resemblance with his daughter stopped there. But it was too late. The young woman had become an emotional necessity, his only pretext and his sole reason for living. 在巴涅尔也有一些人认识玛格丽特，他们专诚拜访公爵，将戈蒂埃小姐的社会地位据实相告。这对这个老年人来说，是一个沉重的打击，因为这一下就再也谈不上他女儿与玛格丽特还有什么相似之处了，但为时已晚，这个少妇已经成了他精神上的安慰，简直成了他赖以生存下去的唯一的借口和托词。
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