目 录 上一节 下一节 
接着他对我说： "In that case, madame, it shall not be with remonstrations and threats, but with humble entreaties that I must try to persuade you to make a sacrifice greater than any you have so far made for my son." “那么，夫人，这样的话我就不是用指责和威胁，而是用请求来请您作出一种牺牲，这种牺牲比您已经为我儿子所作的牺牲还要大。” I trembled at these preliminaries. 我一听这个开场白就全身颤抖。 Your father drew closer to me, took both my hands in his and, in a kindly voice, went on: 您父亲向我走来，握住我两只手，亲切地接着说： "Child, you are not to take amiss what I am about to say to you. Please understand that life sometimes places cruel constraints upon our hearts, but submit we must. You are good, and you have generous qualities of soul unknown to many women who may despise you but are not to be compared with you. But reflect that mistresses are one thing and the family quite another; that beyond love lie duties; that after the age of passion comes the time when a man who wishes to be respected needs to be securely placed in a responsible station in life. My son's means are slender, and yet he is prepared to make over all his mother left him to you. If he accepts the sacrifice which you are about to make, then his honour and dignity require that, in return, he would relinquish his legacy which you would always have to fall back on should things go hard. But he cannot accept your sacrifice, because people, who do not know you, would misinterpret his acceptance which must not be allowed to reflect on the name we bear. People would not bother their heads about whether Armand loved you, whether you loved him or whether the love you have for each other meant happiness for him and rehabilitation for you. They would see only one thing, which is that Armand Duval had allowed a kept woman ?forgive me, child, the things I am obliged to say to you ?to sell everything she possessed for his sake. Then the day of reproaches and regrets would dawn, you can be sure of it, for you both just as it would for them, and the pair of you would have a chain around your necks which you could never break. What would you do then? Your youth would be gone, and my son's future would have been destroyed. And I, his father, would have received from only one of my children the return to which I look forward from both of them. “我的孩子，请您别把我就要跟您讲的话往坏的方面想；不过您要懂得生活对于心灵有时是残酷的，但这是一种需要，所以必须忍受。您心地好，您的灵魂里有很多善良的想法是一般女人所没有的，她们也许看不起您，但却及不上您。不过请您想一想，一个人除了情妇之外还有家庭；除了爱情之外还有责任；要想到一个人在生活中经过了充满激情的阶段以后就到了需要受人尊敬的阶段，这就需要有一个稳固的靠得住的地位。我儿子没有财产，然而他准备把他从母亲那里继承来的财产过户给您。如果他接受了您即将作出的牺牲，他也许出于荣誉和尊严就要把他这笔财产给您作为报答。您有了这笔财产，生活就永远不会受苦。但是您的这种牺牲他不能接受，因为社会不了解您，人们会以为同意接受您的牺牲可能出自于一个不光彩的原因，以致玷辱我家的门楣。人们可不管阿尔芒是不是爱您，您是不是爱他；人们可不管这种相互之间的爱情对他是不是一种幸福，对您是不是说明在重新做人；人们只看到一件事，就是阿尔芒·迪瓦尔竟然能容忍一个妓女，我的孩子，请原谅我不得不对您说的这些话，容忍一个妓女为了他而把所有的东西统统卖掉。往后的日子就是埋怨和懊悔，相信这句话吧，对您和别人都一样，你们两个人就套上了一条你们永远不能砸碎的锁链。那时候你们怎么办呢？你们的青春将要消逝，我儿子的前途将被断送；而我，他的父亲，我原来等待着两个孩子的报答，却只能有一个孩子来报答我了。 
“您年轻漂亮，生活会给您安慰的；您是高贵的，做一件好事可以赎清您很多过去的罪过。阿尔芒认识您才六个月，他就忘记了我。我给他写了四封信，他一次也没有想到写回信给我，也许我死了他还不知道呢！ "However determined you are to lead a different kind of existence, Armand, who loves you, will never agree to the retiring life which his modest means would force you to live, for seclusion is no state for beauty like yours. Who knows what he might do! He has already taken to gambling once, as I discovered, and without saying anything to you, as I further discovered. But in a wild moment, he could easily have lost part of what I have been putting aside this many a year for my daughter's dowry, for him, and for the peace of my old age. What might have happened once might still happen. “阿尔芒是那么爱您，不管您怎样下决心今后不再像过去那样生活，他也决不会因他的景况不佳而让您过苦日子的，而清苦生活跟您的美貌是不相称的。到那时候，谁知道他会干出些什么事来！我知道他已经在赌钱了，我也知道他没有对您讲过；但是他很可能在感情冲动的时候，把我多年积蓄起来的钱输掉一部分。这些钱是为了替我女儿置嫁妆，也是为了阿尔芒，也是为了我老来能有一个安静的晚年而储存起来的，还得准备对付其他可能发生的意外事情。 "Besides, can you be sure that the life you'd be giving up for him would never attract you again? Are you certain that, having fallen in love with him, you would never fall in love with anyone else? And, not least, will you not suffer when you see what limitations your affair will set upon your lover's life? You may not be able to console him as he grows older if thoughts of ambition follow the dream of love. Reflect on all these matters, madame. You love Armand. Prove to him in the only way now open to you ?by sacrificing your love to his future. Nothing untoward has happened thus far, but it will, and it may be much worse than I anticipate. Armand may become jealous of some man who once loved you; he may challenge him to a duel, he may fight, he may even be killed, and consider then what you would suffer as you stood before a father who would hold you accountable for the life of his son. “再说您是不是可以肯定您再也不会留恋为了他而抛弃的那种生活呢？您过去是爱他的，您是不是能肯定以后决不再爱别人呢？随着年龄的增长，如果爱情的梦想让位于对事业的勃勃雄心，你们的关系就会给您情人的生活带来某些您可能无法逾越的障碍，到那时候，难道您不觉得痛苦吗？夫人，这一切您要考虑考虑，您爱阿尔芒，您就只能用这个方式向他证明您的爱情：为他的前途而牺牲您的爱情。现在还没有发生什么不幸的事，但是以后会发生的，可能比我预料的还要糟。阿尔芒可能会嫉妒一个曾经爱过您的人，他会向他挑衅，会和他决斗，最后他还会被杀死。您想想，到那时候，在我面前，在这个要求您为他儿子生命负责的父亲面前，您将会感到多么痛苦啊！ "Finally, child, you should know the rest, for I have not told you everything: let me explain my reason for coming to Paris. I have a daughter, as I have just said. She is young, beautiful and pure as an angel. She is in love, and she too has made love the dream of her life. I did write and tell Amand all about it, but, having thoughts for no one but you, he never replied. Well, my daughter is about to be married. As the wife of the man she loves, she will enter a respectable family which requires that there should be nothing dishonourable in my house. The family of the man who is to be my son-in-law has discovered how Armand has been living in Paris, and has declared that the arrangement will be cancelled if Armand continues to live as he does at present. The future of a child of mine who has never harmed you and has every right to look forward to life with confidence, is now in your hands. “总之，我的孩子，把一切全告诉了您吧，因为我还没有把一切全说出来，要知道我是为什么到巴黎来的，我有一个女儿，我刚才跟您提到过她，她年轻漂亮，像一个天使那样纯洁。她在恋爱，她同样也在把这种爱情当作她一生的美梦。我把这一切都写信告诉阿尔芒了，但是他的全部心思都在您身上，他没有给我写回信。现在我的女儿快要结婚了，她要嫁给她心爱的男人，她要走进一个体面的家庭，这个家庭希望能门当户对。我未来的女婿家庭知道了阿尔芒在巴黎的行为，向我宣称，如果阿尔芒继续这样生活下去，他们将收回前言。一个女孩子的前途就掌握在您手里了，她可从来没有冒犯过您啊，而且她是应该有一个美好的未来的。 "Do you have the right to destroy her future? Are you strong enough to? In the name of your love and your repentance, Marguerite, give me my daughter's happiness." “您有权利去破坏她未来的美好生活吗？您下得了手吗？既然您爱阿尔芒，既然您痛悔前非，玛格丽特，把我女儿的幸福给我吧。” 
我的朋友，面对这些过去我也曾反复考虑过的情况，我只能吞声饮泣，而且这些事情出自于您父亲嘴里，这就更加证明了它们是非常现实的。我心里想着所有那些您父亲已经多次到了嘴边，但又不敢对我讲的话：我只不过是一个妓女，不管我讲得多么有理，这种关系看起来总是像一种自私的打算；我过去的生活已经使我没有权利来梦想这样的未来，那么我必须对我的习惯和名誉所造成的后果承担责任。总之，我爱您，阿尔芒。迪瓦尔先生对我像父亲般的态度，我对他产生了纯洁的感情，我就要赢得的这个正直的老人对我的尊敬，我相信以后也必定会得到的您对我的尊敬，所有这一切都在我心里激起了一个崇高的思想，这些思想使我在自己心目中变得有了价值，并使我产生了一种从未有过的圣洁的自豪感。当我想到这个为了他儿子的前途而向我恳求的老年人，有一天会告诉他女儿要把我的名字当作一个神秘的朋友的名字来祈祷，我的思想境界就与过去截然不同了，我的内心充满了骄傲。 In the heat of the moment, the truth of what I felt may perhaps have been exaggerated. But that is what I felt, my dear, and these unaccustomed feelings silence counsels prompted by the memory of happy times spent with you. 一时的狂热可能夸大了这些印象的真实性，但这就是我当时的真实想法。朋友，对和您一起度过的幸福日子的回忆也在从另一边劝我，但有了这些新的感情以后，我也就顾不上这些劝告了。 "Very well," I said to your father as I wiped away my tears. "Do you believe that I love your son?" “好吧，先生，”我抹着眼泪对您父亲说，“您相信我爱您的儿子吗？” "Yes,"said Monsieur Duval. “相信的。”迪瓦尔先生说。 "That money does not come into it?" “是一种无私的爱情吗？” 
“是的。” "Do you believe that I had made this love of mine the hope, the dream of my life, and its redemption?" “我曾经把这种爱情看作我生活的希望，梦想和安慰。您相信吗？” "Absolutely. “完全相信。” "Well, Monsieur Duval, kiss me once as you would kiss your daughter, and I will swear to you that your touch, the only truly chaste embrace I ever received, will make me stand strong against my love. I swear that within a week, your son will be back with you, unhappy for a time perhaps, but cured for good." “那么先生，就像吻您女儿那样地吻我吧，我向您发誓。这个我所得到的唯一真正纯洁的吻会给我战胜爱情的力量，一个星期以内，您儿子就会回到您身边，他可能会难受一个时期，但他从此就得救了。”
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