2.3小说类(Practice26~Practice36)Practice26It is a very long time since I attended a Mass.In this pilgrimage town you get the real thing,with a crowd of real worshippers--those who come include the paralyzed,the crippled,the blind,the deformed,the dying,a terrible parade,a parade Mass proceeded.It would have been only courteous to kneel at the proper time,as all did,since I had voluntarily come:but for all the disapproving glances,I the stiff--necked Jew,would not kneel.I remember the first break with my own religion as though it were yesterday.I can still feel my cheek stinging from the slap of the mashiakh,the study hall supervisor,as I trudge in the snow on t he town square in the purple evening,having been ordered out of the hall for impudent heresy.Perhaps in a larger city,the mashiakh would have had the sense to smile at my effrontery,and pass it off.Then the whole course of my life might have been different.【参考译文】我已经很久没有做过弥散。
在这个众人朝拜的圣城,我看到了真正的弥散。
看到一批一批虔诚的善男信女,其中有瘫痪的,有跛足的,有失明的,有畸形的,有奄奄一息的,他们组成一支令人目不忍赌的行列。
如果有谁果真相信就连麻雀坠地这样的小事上帝也注意到了,那么这些人一定是他有意残酷作弄的对象,或是他千虑一失的牺牲品。
教堂里寒气逼人,但弥撒开始后,教堂里的气氛与我心中的凄凉相比,却温暖如春。
既然我来这里是完全出于自愿。
仅仅为了礼貌起见,我本应该在需要下跪的时候和他们一起下跪。
但是,我这个倔强的犹太人却不顾四周向我射来的非难目光,就是不肯下跪。
我还记得我最初和我的犹太教决裂的情形。
就像昨天发生一样。
那个学堂的学监,认为我胆敢信奉异端邪说,狠狠打了我一记耳光,把我赶出学堂。
我只得在紫色暮霭中,拖着沉重的脚步走在市政广场的雪地里,脸上感到针戳一般痛,现在我还感到那种痛。
这种事如发生在一个大一些的城市,那里的学监可能会通情达理,对我的冒犯行为一笑了之。
如果真是那样,我的生命旅程也许就会完全不同。
Practice27It happened one day,about noon,going towards my boat,I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore,which was very plain to be seen in the sand.I stood like one thunder-struck,or as if I had seen an apparition.I listened,I looked round me,I could hear nothing,nor see anything.I went up to a rising ground,to look farther.I went up the shore,and down the shore,but it was all one;I could see no other impression but that one.I went to it again to see if there were any more,and to observe if it might not be my fancy;but there was no room for that,for there was exactly the very print of a foot-toes,heel,and every part of a foot.How it came thither I knew not,nor could in the least imagine.But after innumerable fluttering thoughts,like a man perfectly confused and out of myself,I came home to my fortification,not feeling,as we say,the ground I went on,but terrified to the last degree,looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree,and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes affrighted imaginationrepresented things to me in,how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy,and what strange,unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.When I came to my castle,for so I think I called it ever after this,I fled into it like one pursued.Whether I went over by the ladder,as first contrived,or went in at the hole in the rock,which I called a door,I cannot remember;no,nor could I remember the next morning,for never frighted hare fled to cover,or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than I to this retreat.【参考译文】一天中午,我正向我的小船走去,忽见岸上有人的赤足脚印一只,从沙上看去,异常明显,见后确实使我吃惊不浅。
我呆立在了那里,一动不动,简直如遭到雷击或见到鬼魂一般。
我细听了听,又望了望,但并没听到什么,也没见到什么。
我走上一块高地,想朝远看看。
我走上岸边,又走了下来,但还是一样;此外再没见着别的印记。
我再次走到脚印地方,看看那里是否还有,并想弄清是否只是我的幻觉;但是没有怀疑余地,这里分明是一只脚的印记——脚趾、脚跟,一样不缺。
这东西究竟是怎么来的,我说不出,想要猜猜,也无从猜起。
翻来覆去想了许久,我终于像个神志不清的人那样,惶惶不安地返回我的堡垒,正像俗话说的,一路脚不觉地,真真骇怕到了极点,三步两步掉头一望,简直草木皆兵,觉得远处每根树桩都像是人;至于惊骇之中想象如何把一切东西都幻作千奇百怪,头脑之中陆续涌现出了多少古怪念头,以及一路上种种离奇而不可言喻的荒唐想法又是如何进入我的思虑之中,这些我就更加描写不来。
当我回到我的城堡(记得自此之后我即以此呼之),我就像逃命一般跑了进去。
至于我是怎么进去的,是从原来设计的那个梯子进去的,还是从我管它叫门的那个石洞进去的,我已记不起来;甚至到第二天早上都没想起,的确当天逃回来时受惊之深,真是连钻土入穴的狐兔也是没法比的。
Practice28About thirty years ago,Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon,with only seven thousand pounds,had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram,of Mansfield Park,in the county of Northampton,and to be there by raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady,with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match,and her uncle,the lawyer,himself,allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it.She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation;and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria,did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage.But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world,as there are pretty women to deserve them.Miss Ward,at the end of half a dozen years,found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev.Mr.Norris,a friend of her brother-in-law,with scarcely any private fortune,and Miss Frances fared yet worse.Miss Ward’s match,indeed,when it came to the point,was not contemptible,Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield,and Mr.and Mrs.Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.But Miss Frances married,in the common phrase,to disoblige her family,and by fixing on a Lieutenant of Marines,without education,fortune,or connections,did it very thoroughly.She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.Sir Thomas Bertram had interest,which,from principle as well as pride,from a general wish of doing right,and a desire of seeing all that were connected with him in situations of respectability,he would have been glad to exert for the advantage of Lady Bertram’s sister;but her husband’s profession was such as no interest could reach;and before he had time to devise any other method of assisting them,an absolute breach between the sisters had taken place.It was the natural result of the conduct of each party,and such as a very imprudent marriage almost always produces.To save herself from useless remonstrance,Mrs.Price never wrote to her family on the subject till actually dy Bertram,who was a woman of very tranquil feelings,and a temper remarkably easy and indolent,would have contented herself with merely giving up her sister,and thinking no more of.the matter:but Mrs.Norris had a spirit of activity,which could not be satisfied till she had written a long and angry letter to Fanny,to point out the folly of her conduct,and threaten her with all its possible ill consequences.Mrs.Price in her turn was injured and angry;and an answer which comprehended each sister in its bitterness,and bestowed such very disrespectful reflections on the pride of Sir Thomas,as Mrs.Norris could not possibly keep to herself,put an end to all intercourse between them for a considerable period.【参考译文】大约三十年前,家产不过七千镑的亨丁顿家的玛丽亚·沃德小姐,居然吉星高照,有幸笼络住了北安普顿郡曼斯斐园的托马斯-伯特伦爵士,因而地位骤升,成了位从男爵的夫人,从此华屋巨资、荣华富贵、不烦细表。