《呼啸山庄》重译07B

“Make haste, Heathcliff!” I said, “the kitchen is so comfortable; and Joseph is upstairs: make haste, and let me dress you smart before Miss Cathy comes out, and then you can sit together, with the whole hearth to yourselves, and have a long chatter till bedtime.”

He proceeded with his task, and never turned his head towards me.

“Come—are you coming?” I continued. “There’s a little cake for each of you, nearly enough; and you’ll need half-an-hour’s donning.”

I waited five minutes, but getting no answer left him. Catherine supped with her brother and sister-in-law: Joseph and I joined at an unsociable meal, seasoned with reproofs on one side and sauciness on the other. His cake and cheese remained on the table all night for the fairies. He managed to continue work till nine o’clock, and then marched dumb and dour to his chamber. Cathy sat up late, having a world of things to order for the reception of her new friends: she came into the kitchen once to speak to her old one; but he was gone, and she only stayed to ask what was the matter with him, and then went back. In the morning he rose early; and, as it was a holiday, carried his ill-humour on to the moors; not re-appearing till the family were departed for church. Fasting and reflection seemed to have brought him to a better spirit. He hung about me for a while, and having screwed up his courage, exclaimed abruptly—“Nelly, make me decent, I’m going to be good.”

“快，黑思克里夫！”我说，“厨房里挺舒服的。周思福在楼上哩。快，阚思小姐出来之前让我把你打扮得漂漂亮亮的，那样你俩就可以坐在一起，围着整个火炉，可以长聊，一直到临睡觉之前。”

他继续干他的事，连头都不朝我回一下。

“来呀——你过来嘛！”我接着说，“你俩一人一个小蛋糕，差不多够了，你得需要半个钟头梳洗打扮呢。”

我等了片刻，没有回应，于是我就走开了。阚思睿和她的哥嫂共进晚餐。周思福和我一起用餐，晚餐气氛相当不友好，其中一个人在无礼责骂，另一人在傲慢回嘴，我俩就这样蘸着这些“佐料”用了晚餐。周思福的蛋糕和奶酪一整夜摆在桌上给神仙供着。他干活一直干到九点钟，然后不声不响，决绝地大步走进他的卧房。阚思坐在那里一直到很晚，为了接待她的新朋友，她有一大堆事情要吩咐仆人们去做。她到厨房来过一次，想跟她的老朋友说话。可是他不在，只是问一下他怎么回事，就又回去了。第二天早晨他起得很早，那天是个节日，他就揣着闷闷不乐的心情去了旷野，直到全家人都出发去了教堂，他才重新现身。绝食和反省看来使他精神变得好些。他跟着我，过了一会儿，他鼓起勇气，突然高声说：

“耐莉，把我打扮得体面些，我要学好啦！”

“High time, Heathcliff,” I said; “you have grieved Catherine: she’s sorry she ever came home, I daresay! It looks as if you envied her, because she is more thought of than you.”

The notion of envying Catherine was incomprehensible to him, but the notion of grieving her he understood clearly enough.

“Did she say she was grieved?” he inquired, looking very serious.

“She cried when I told her you were off again this morning.”

“Well, I cried last night,” he returned, “and I had more reason to cry than she.”

“Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an empty stomach,” said I. “Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But, if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say—you know best what to say; only do it heartily, and not as if you thought her converted into a stranger by her grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to get ready, I’ll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look quite a doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet, I’ll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders; you could knock him down in a twinkling; don’t you feel that you could?”

Heathcliff’s face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh, and he sighed.

“But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn’t make him less handsome or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!”

“现在正是好机会，黑思克里夫，”我说，“你已经伤了阚思睿的心，我敢说她挺后悔回家来！看上去好像是你嫉妒她似的，因为大家关心她比关心你多一些。”

他无法理解嫉妒阚思睿的念头，可是他清清楚楚明白伤她心的这个念头。

“她说她伤心啦？”他追着问，一脸很严肃的样子。

“今天早上我告诉她你又走掉了，当时她就哭啦。”

“唉，我昨晚也哭了，”他答道，“我比她更有理由哭。”

“是啊，你有理，揣着傲慢之心，饿着肚子上床睡觉。”我说，“傲慢者往往自悔。可是，如果你为你那暴脾气感到惭愧，请记住，在她进来时，你必须请她原谅。你必须走过去主动要求亲亲她，并且说——你很清楚该说什么。只是要做得诚心诚意，别总想着她穿了漂亮衣服就跟变了个陌生人似的。我现在尽管还要准备把午饭做好，我还是可以偷个空把你捯饬一番，爱德嘉•林腾到了之后，在你身旁他就像个洋娃娃——他本来就像个洋娃娃。你虽比他小，可是，我敢断定，你比他高，肩膀也比他的宽一倍，眨眼工夫你就可以把他打倒。难道你不觉得你可以吗？”

黑思克里夫的脸上的光一下子亮了起来，随后又阴沉下来，他叹了口气。

“可是，耐莉，就算我把他打倒二十回，也不会使他变得不帅气，或者使我更帅气啊。但愿我能有浅色头发，白色皮肤，穿着和举止也像他一样，而且有机会变得和他将来一样有钱！”

“And cried for mamma at every turn,” I added, “and trembled if a country lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower of rain. Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor spirit! Come to the glass, and I’ll let you see what you should wish. Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil’s spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to confident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and always seeing friends where they are not sure of foes. Don’t get the expression of a vicious cur that appears to know the kicks it gets are its desert, and yet hates all the world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers.”

“In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton’s great blue eyes and even forehead,” he replied. “I do—and that won’t help me to them.”

“A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,” I continued, “if you were a regular black; and a bad one will turn the bonniest into something worse than ugly. And now that we’ve done washing, and combing, and sulking—tell me whether you don’t think yourself rather handsome? I’ll tell you, I do. You’re fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week’s income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together? And you were kidnapped by wicked sailors and brought to England. Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth; and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer!”

“而且动不动就哭着喊妈妈，”我添上一句，“而且要是一个乡下孩子向你举起拳头就浑身发抖，下一场雷阵雨就成天呆坐在家。啊，黑思克里夫，你这样下去会意志消沉的！过来到镜子跟前，我要让你看看你该许个什么愿。看到你两眼之间的那两条纹路没有？还有那两条浓眉，不在中间往上拱，却在中间往下陷。还有那对黑黑的恶魔，埋得这么深，从未大胆地把窗户打开，却在底下潜伏着，微微闪着光，像是魔鬼的间谍。我希望你要学着把这些乖戾的褶皱抹平，坦率地抬起眼皮，把恶魔变成自信纯真的天使，不要有任何猜忌，把无法确定的敌人永远当朋友看。不要做出恶犬的样子，好像觉得被踢几下是人赏赐的甜点，然后又因为吃了苦头，就恨整个世界，恨那个踢它的人。”

“换句话说，我必须许愿说我会有爱德嘉•林腾的大蓝眼睛，甚至平坦的额头才行，”他答道，“我真地许了愿——可那也不会助我得到那些啊。”

“只要有副好心肠，就会助你有张好脸庞，我的孩子，”我接着说，“即便你真地是个黑人；一副坏心肠就会把最好看的脸庞变得比丑陋还要糟糕。现在我们已经洗好、梳完、闹够了，告诉我现在是不是觉得自己挺帅的？我要告诉你，我觉得你简直就是个乔装打扮的王子。谁知道呢？也许你父亲是中国皇帝，母亲是个印度皇后，他俩中间任何一个人只须用一个礼拜的收入，就能把呼啸山庄和画眉田庄一起买下来？而你遭到恶毒水手的绑票，把你带到了英国。如果我是你的话，我就会想象我的出身高贵，而且一想到我的出身，就会给我勇气和尊严来撑住一个小小农场主的压迫！”

So I chattered on; and Heathcliff gradually lost his frown and began to look quite pleasant, when all at once our conversation was interrupted by a rumbling sound moving up the road and entering the court. He ran to the window and I to the door, just in time to behold the two Lintons descend from the family carriage, smothered in cloaks and furs, and the Earnshaws dismount from their horses: they often rode to church in winter. Catherine took a hand of each of the children, and brought them into the house and set them before the fire, which quickly put colour into their white faces.

我就这样絮絮叨叨地说下去，黑思克里夫的眉头渐渐舒展开来，开始变得高兴了起来。这时我们的谈话一下子被辚辚车轮声打断，车轮声从大路上传来，一直进到院子中。他跑到了窗口，我跑到了门口，正看见林腾兄妹俩从家用马车中走了下来，裹着厚厚大氅皮袄，俄韶一家也从他们的马上下来，他们在冬天常常骑马去教堂。阚思睿一手牵着一个孩子，带他们来到正屋，安置在火炉前，他们苍白的脸蛋很快就有了血色。

I urged my companion to hasten now and show his amiable humour, and he willingly obeyed; but ill luck would have it that, as he opened the door leading from the kitchen on one side, Hindley opened it on the other. They met, and the master, irritated at seeing him clean and cheerful, or, perhaps, eager to keep his promise to Mrs. Linton, shoved him back with a sudden thrust, and angrily bade Joseph “keep the fellow out of the room—send him into the garret till dinner is over. He’ll be cramming his fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with them a minute.”

“Nay, sir,” I could not avoid answering, “he’ll touch nothing, not he: and I suppose he must have his share of the dainties as well as we.”

“He shall have his share of my hand, if I catch him downstairs till dark,” cried Hindley. “Begone, you vagabond! What! you are attempting the coxcomb, are you? Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks—see if I won’t pull them a bit longer!”

“They are long enough already,” observed Master Linton, peeping from the doorway; “I wonder they don’t make his head ache. It’s like a colt’s mane over his eyes!”

我督促我的同伴现在要抓紧时间，表现出他讨人喜欢的脾性，他心甘情愿地听从了。可是真倒霉，他从厨房这边打开门，亨得利也正从另外一边打开同一扇门。他们碰上了，亨得利看见他既干净又愉快的样子就生气了——或许因为着急要对林腾夫人守信用吧——猛然一下把他推了回去，而且生气地叫周思福，“不许这家伙进这间屋子——把他给我送到阁楼里去，等午饭吃过后再说。要是让他跟他们在一起呆上哪怕一分钟，他就要用手指头塞到果酱蛋糕里去，还会偷水果吃呢。”

“不会的，少爷，”我忍不住答道，“他什么也不会碰，他不会的。而且我想他应该和我们一样也有他那份点心。”

“要是天黑以前我在楼下抓到他，我叫他尝尝我给他准备的这记耳光，”亨得利吼叫着。“滚开，你这个流浪汉！什么？你还想学着当个花花公子吗？等我抓住你那些漂亮的头发——看我会不会把他们再拉长一点！”

“那些已经够长的啦，”林腾少爷说，从门口窥视着，“我奇怪这些头发没让他头疼。像马鬃似把他的眼睛都遮住了！”

He ventured this remark without any intention to insult; but Heathcliff’s violent nature was not prepared to endure the appearance of impertinence from one whom he seemed to hate, even then, as a rival. He seized a tureen of hot apple sauce, the first thing that came under his gripe, and dashed it full against the speaker’s face and neck; who instantly commenced a lament that brought Isabella and Catherine hurrying to the place. Mr. Earnshaw snatched up the culprit directly and conveyed him to his chamber; where, doubtless, he administered a rough remedy to cool the fit of passion, for he appeared red and breathless. I got the dish-cloth, and rather spitefully scrubbed Edgar’s nose and mouth, affirming it served him right for meddling. His sister began weeping to go home, and Cathy stood by confounded, blushing for all.

“You should not have spoken to him!” she expostulated with Master Linton. “He was in a bad temper, and now you’ve spoilt your visit; and he’ll be flogged: I hate him to be flogged! I can’t eat my dinner. Why did you speak to him, Edgar?”

“I didn’t,” sobbed the youth, escaping from my hands, and finishing the remainder of the purification with his cambric pocket-handkerchief. “I promised mamma that I wouldn’t say one word to him, and I didn’t.”

“Well, don’t cry,” replied Catherine, contemptuously; “you’re not killed. Don’t make more mischief; my brother is coming: be quiet! Hush, Isabella! Has anybody hurt you?”

“There, there, children—to your seats!” cried Hindley, bustling in. “That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely. Next time, Master Edgar, take the law into your own fists—it will give you an appetite!”

The little party recovered its equanimity at sight of the fragrant feast. They were hungry after their ride, and easily consoled, since no real harm had befallen them. Mr. Earnshaw carved bountiful platefuls, and the mistress made them merry with lively talk. I waited behind her chair, and was pained to behold Catherine, with dry eyes and an indifferent air, commence cutting up the wing of a goose before her. “An unfeeling child,” I thought to myself; “how lightly she dismisses her old playmate’s troubles. I could not have imagined her to be so selfish.” She lifted a mouthful to her lips: then she set it down again: her cheeks flushed, and the tears gushed over them. She slipped her fork to the floor, and hastily dived under the cloth to conceal her emotion. I did not call her unfeeling long; for I perceived she was in purgatory throughout the day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting by herself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been locked up by the master: as I discovered, on endeavouring to introduce to him a private mess of victuals.

林腾少爷仗着胆子说这话时，丝毫没有奚落的意图。可是黑思克里夫的暴脾性却无法忍受他所恨之人的无礼表现，他看起来甚至已经把林腾少爷当成了情敌。他抓起一整盘热苹果酱（这是他顺手抄起的第一件东西），朝着刚才说话之人的脸和脖子上泼去。那人立刻开始哀叫起来，引得伊飒拜菈和阚思睿都赶了过来。俄韶先生直接揪起刚才的肇事者，扭送到了他的卧房。毫无疑问，他狠狠地揍了黑思克里夫一顿，用这种粗暴解决办法算是镇住了那阵盛怒，因为他出来时脸色发红，而且上气不接下气。我拿起洗碗布，使劲用力擦拭林腾少爷的鼻子和嘴巴，并肯定地说他这是自作自受。林腾少爷的妹妹开始哭了，闹着要回家，阚思惊慌失措地站在那里，为这一切羞得满脸通红。

“你就不该和他说话！”她埋怨着林腾少爷道，“他脾气坏，你现在把这一趟来访搞砸啦。他还要挨鞭子，我可不愿意他挨鞭子！我吃不下饭啦。你干吗要和他说话呢，爱德嘉？”

“我没有，”小伙子抽泣着答道，并从我手里挣脱出来，用他的细棉布手绢擦掉脸上和脖子上剩余的残渣。“我答应过妈妈一个字都不会和他说，我没有说。”

“好啦，别哭啦，”阚思睿冷笑着答道，“你并没被人杀了啊。别再淘气了。我哥哥来啦，别闹啦！嘘，伊飒拜菈！有人伤着你了吗？”

“好啦，好啦，孩子们——坐到自己的位子上吧！”亨得利匆匆忙忙进来喊着。“那个小畜生刚才恰恰让我热了热身。爱德嘉少爷，下回用你自己的拳头来执法吧——那将会令你胃口大开！”

这一小伙人看到香喷喷的丰盛菜肴，一下子就恢复了平静。骑完马之后，大家都饿了，因为没有人真正受到什么伤害，所以刚才的不愉快气氛很容易就得到平息。俄韶先生切了几大盘肉，俄韶太太谈笑风生，引得大家都非常开心。我站在俄韶太太椅子背后伺候着，并且很难过地注视着阚思睿，她目光呆滞，神情冷淡，她开始切眼前的鹅翅膀。“真是个没心没肺的孩子，”我心想，“她就这么轻飘飘地把旧时玩伴的痛苦打发啦。没想到她竟这样自私。”她用叉子把一口食物提到唇边，随后又把叉子放下。她的脸颊绯红，眼泪涌到了双颊。她把叉子滑落到了地板上，快速钻到桌布底下以便掩饰她的情绪。我说她没心没肺，这并没有持续多长时间，因为我看得出她的内心整天都在煎熬着，苦苦想找个机会，好让自己一个人呆着，或是去看望一下黑思克里夫——他已经被少爷关起来了——我看得出来，她想私下给他送些食物。