【經(jīng)典名著閱讀】《德伯家的苔絲》第十八章(中)
作者:托馬斯·哈代
2011-11-10 10:00
'I will do without Cambridge,' said Angel at last. 'I feel that I have no right to go there in the circumstances.'
“我不上劍橋大學(xué)也行,”安琪爾后來說?!拔矣X得在目前情況下,我沒有權(quán)利進(jìn)劍橋大學(xué)。”
The effects of this decisive debate were not long in showing themselves. He spent years and years in desultory studies, undertakings, and meditations; he began to evince considerable indifference to social forms and observances. The material distinctions of rank and wealth he increasingly despised. Even the 'good old family' (to use a favourite phrase of a late local worthy) had no aroma for him unless there were good new resolutions in its representatives. As a balance to these austerities, when he went to live in London to see what the world was like, and with a view to practising a profession or business there, he was carried off his head, and nearly entrapped by a woman much older than himself, though luckily he escaped not greatly the worse for the experience.
這場關(guān)鍵性的辯論結(jié)束了,它的影響不久也顯現(xiàn)出來。多少年來,他進(jìn)行了許多漫無邊際的研究,嘗試過多次雜亂無章的計劃,進(jìn)行過無數(shù)毫無系統(tǒng)的思考;開始對社會習(xí)俗和禮儀明顯表現(xiàn)出滿不在乎的態(tài)度。他越來越鄙夷地位、財富這種物質(zhì)上的差別。在他看來,即使“古老世家”(使用近來故去的一個本地名人的字眼兒)也沒有了香味,除非它的后人能有新的良好變化。為了使這種嚴(yán)酷單調(diào)的生活得到平衡,他就到倫敦去住,要看看倫敦的世界是什么樣子,同時也為了從事一種職業(yè)或者生意在那兒進(jìn)行鍛煉,他在那兒遇上了一個年紀(jì)比他大得多的女人,被她迷昏廠頭腦,差一點兒掉進(jìn)她的陷阱,幸好他擺脫開了,沒有因為這番經(jīng)歷吃了大虧。
Early association with country solitudes had bred in him an unconquerable, and almost unreasonable, aversion to modern life, and shut him out from such success as he might have aspired to by following a mundane calling in the impracticability of the spiritual one. But something had to be done; he had wasted many valuable years; and having an acquaintance who was starting on a thriving life as a Colonial farmer, it occurred to Angel that this might be a lead in the right direction. Farming, either in the Colonies, America, or at home - farming, at any rate, after becoming well qualified for the business by a careful apprenticeship - that was a vocation which would probably afford an independence without the sacrifice of what he valued even more than a competency - intellectual liberty.
他的幼年生活同鄉(xiāng)村幽靜生活的聯(lián)系,使他對現(xiàn)代城市生活生出一種不可抑制的幾乎是非理性的厭惡來,因此也使他同另一種成功隔離開來,使他既不愿從事精神方面的工作,也不愿立志追求一種世俗的職業(yè)。但是他不能不做一件工作;他已經(jīng)虛度了許多年的寶貴光陰;后來認(rèn)識了一個在殖民地務(wù)農(nóng)而發(fā)達(dá)起來的朋友,因此他想到這也許是一條正確的途徑。在殖民地,在美國,或者在國內(nèi)務(wù)農(nóng)——通過認(rèn)真地學(xué)習(xí)務(wù)農(nóng),無論如何,在學(xué)會了這件事之后——也許務(wù)農(nóng)是使他得到獨立的一種職業(yè),而不用犧牲他看得比可觀的財產(chǎn)更為寶貴的東西,即精神自由。
So we find Angel Clare at six-and-twenty here at Talbothays as a student of kine, and, as there were no houses near at hand in which he could get a comfortable lodging, a boarder at the dairyman's. His room was an immense attic which ran the whole length of the dairy-house. It could only be reached by a ladder from the cheese-loft, and had been closed up for a long time till he arrived and selected it as his retreat. Here Clare had plenty of space, and could often be heard by the dairy-folk pacing up and down when the household had gone to rest. A portion was divided off at one end by a curtain, behind which was his bed, the outer part being furnished as a homely sitting-room.
因此,我們就看到安琪爾·克萊爾在二十六歲時來到泰波塞斯,做一個學(xué)習(xí)養(yǎng)牛的學(xué)徒,同時,因為附近找不到一個舒適的住處,所以他吃住都和奶牛場的老板在一起。他的房間是一個很大的閣樓,同整個牛奶房的長度一樣長。奶酪間里有一架樓梯,只有從那兒才能上樓去,閣樓已經(jīng)關(guān)閉了很長時間,他來了以后才把它打開作他的住處??巳R爾住在這兒,擁有大量空間,所有的人都睡了,奶牛場的人還聽見他在那兒走來走去。閣樓的一頭用簾子隔出了一部分,里面就是他的床鋪,外面的部分則被布置成一個樸素的起居室。