《呼啸山庄》重译07C

In the evening we had a dance. Cathy begged that he might be liberated then, as Isabella Linton had no partner: her entreaties were vain, and I was appointed to supply the deficiency. We got rid of all gloom in the excitement of the exercise, and our pleasure was increased by the arrival of the Gimmerton band, mustering fifteen strong: a trumpet, a trombone, clarionets, bassoons, French horns, and a bass viol, besides singers. They go the rounds of all the respectable houses, and receive contributions every Christmas, and we esteemed it a first-rate treat to hear them. After the usual carols had been sung, we set them to songs and glees. Mrs. Earnshaw loved the music, and so they gave us plenty.

Catherine loved it too: but she said it sounded sweetest at the top of the steps, and she went up in the dark: I followed. They shut the house door below, never noting our absence, it was so full of people. She made no stay at the stairs’-head, but mounted farther, to the garret where Heathcliff was confined, and called him. He stubbornly declined answering for a while: she persevered, and finally persuaded him to hold communion with her through the boards. I let the poor things converse unmolested, till I supposed the songs were going to cease, and the singers to get some refreshment: then I clambered up the ladder to warn her. Instead of finding her outside, I heard her voice within. The little monkey had crept by the skylight of one garret, along the roof, into the skylight of the other, and it was with the utmost difficulty I could coax her out again. When she did come, Heathcliff came with her, and she insisted that I should take him into the kitchen, as my fellow-servant had gone to a neighbour’s, to be removed from the sound of our “devil’s psalmody,” as it pleased him to call it. I told them I intended by no means to encourage their tricks: but as the prisoner had never broken his fast since yesterday’s dinner, I would wink at his cheating Mr. Hindley that once. He went down: I set him a stool by the fire, and offered him a quantity of good things: but he was sick and could eat little, and my attempts to entertain him were thrown away. He leant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands, and remained rapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the subject of his thoughts, he answered gravely—“I’m trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don’t care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!”

“For shame, Heathcliff!” said I. “It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.”

“No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall,” he returned. “I only wish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I’ll plan it out: while I’m thinking of that I don’t feel pain.”

But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales cannot divert you. I’m annoyed how I should dream of chattering on at such a rate; and your gruel cold, and you nodding for bed! I could have told Heathcliff’s history, all that you need hear, in half a dozen words.

* * * * *

那天晚上我们有个舞会。阚思乞求把黑思克里夫给放了，因为伊飒拜菈•林腾没有舞伴。她的乞求只是枉然，我被指派来补缺。舞会热烈的气氛把我们所有的阴霾一扫而空。吉默屯乐队的到来更增添了我们的快乐。乐队足有十五个人——除了歌手外，还有一个小号手，一个长号手，几个单簧管手，几个低音管手，几个圆号手和一个低音提琴手。每逢圣诞节，乐手们走穴于所有名门望族之间，赚点演出费。能听到他们的表演，我们奉为一件难得的头等乐事。通常他们唱完圣歌之后，我们就请他们唱一些小调和无伴奏重唱曲。俄韶太太爱好音乐，所以乐队表演了不少歌曲。

阚思睿也爱好音乐，可是她说在楼上听起来会最为悦耳。于是，她就摸黑上了楼，我跟在她身后。他们把楼下正屋的门关着，根本没人注意到我们已经离开，因为正屋里挤满了好多人。她到了楼梯口并没有停下来，却往上走，来到了阁楼，黑思克里夫被关押在那里，她叫着他的名字。好一阵子，他脾气倔地拒绝回应。她就一直叫着他的名字，最后终于把他说服，隔着木板和她交谈。我让这两个可怜的家伙说着话，免得受到干扰，直等到我约摸楼下的歌唱得差不多要结束了，那些歌手要吃点东西时，我就爬上梯子去提醒她。我在阁楼外面没找到她，却听见她在阁楼里面说话。这小猴子是从一个阁楼的天窗爬进去，沿着房顶，又爬进另一个阁楼的天窗。于是我费了好大劲才把她哄骗出来。当她真出来时，黑思克里夫也跟她来了。她坚持要我把他带到厨房去，因为我那位仆人同伴周思福，为了躲避我们的“魔鬼赞美诗”（这是他对我们所唱歌曲的称呼），到邻居家去了。我告诉他俩我绝不会助长他们玩把戏，但是既然这位被关押的囚犯自从昨天午饭后到现在还没有吃过东西，我就默许他欺瞒亨得利这一回。他下去了，我搬了条凳子叫他坐在火炉旁，给他一大堆好吃的。可是他病了，吃不下，我本想款待他的好意也只好浪费掉了。他双肘支在膝上，手托下巴，一直闷声不响，坐在那里出神。我问他想些什么，他态度严肃地答道——

“我在谋划怎样报复亨得利。君子报仇，十年不晚，我只希望他在我报复之前不要死掉就行！”

“我真为你感到害臊，黑思克里夫！”我说，“惩罚恶人，那是上帝的事，我们要学着宽恕人。”

“不，上帝不会得到我要的那种满足，”他回答道，“但愿我知道最好的方法！让我一个人呆着吧，我要制定计划。我一想到这件事，我就不觉得痛苦了。”

 “可是，劳克伍德先生，我倒给忘了，这些故事不能给你解闷。没想到我这样絮絮叨叨，真叫人扫兴。你的粥凉啦，你在瞌睡打盹呢！本来只需要几句话，我就可以把你要听的有关黑思克里夫的来历说清楚。”

* * * * *

Thus interrupting herself, the housekeeper rose, and proceeded to lay aside her sewing; but I felt incapable of moving from the hearth, and I was very far from nodding. “Sit still, Mrs. Dean,” I cried; “do sit still another half-hour. You’ve done just right to tell the story leisurely. That is the method I like; and you must finish it in the same style. I am interested in every character you have mentioned, more or less.”

“The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir.”

“No matter—I’m not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours. One or two is early enough for a person who lies till ten.”

“You shouldn’t lie till ten. There’s the very prime of the morning gone long before that time. A person who has not done one-half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”

“Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least.”

“I hope not, sir. Well, you must allow me to leap over some three years; during that space Mrs. Earnshaw—”

“No, no, I’ll allow nothing of the sort! Are you acquainted with the mood of mind in which, if you were seated alone, and the cat licking its kitten on the rug before you, you would watch the operation so intently that puss’s neglect of one ear would put you seriously out of temper?”

“A terribly lazy mood, I should say.”

“On the contrary, a tiresomely active one. It is mine, at present; and, therefore, continue minutely. I perceive that people in these regions acquire over people in towns the value that a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their various occupants; and yet the deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of the looker-on. They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous external things. I could fancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any love of a year’s standing. One state resembles setting a hungry man down to a single dish, on which he may concentrate his entire appetite and do it justice; the other, introducing him to a table laid out by French cooks: he can perhaps extract as much enjoyment from the whole; but each part is a mere atom in his regard and remembrance.”

管家站起身来，自己打着岔，准备放下手中的针线活，但是我感觉我不能离开壁炉，而且我毫无一点睡意。“坐着吧，丁太太，”我大声叫道，“坐吧，再坐半个钟头！你慢悠悠地讲，这正合我意，你就用同样的方式把故事讲完吧。对你提到的每个人，我多多少少都感兴趣。”

“钟敲十一下啦，先生。”

“没关系——我晚上不习惯十二点之前上床睡觉。对于一个睡到早上十点钟才起床的人，凌晨一两点钟算是睡得够早啦。”

“你不应该睡到十点钟才起床。一天之计在于辰。一个人要是到十点钟还没有做完他一天工作的一半，就大有可能剩下那一半工作一天之内也做不完。”

“不管怎样，丁太太，还是再坐一会儿吧，因为明天我打算把下午就当成夜晚提前过啦。我已经预感到我自己至少要得一场重感冒。”

“我希望你不会，先生。好吧，你得让我跳过差不多三年的时间不讲，在那三年期间，俄韶太太——”

“不，不，我不允许你这样讲故事！你是否熟悉这样一种心情？如果你一个人单独坐着，母猫在你面前地毯上舔舐着小猫的耳朵，你那么专心看着这个过程，结果你发现母猫忽略了舔舐小猫的一只耳朵，就会令你脾气大发。”

“我得说，这是一种很糟糕的懒人脾性。”

“恰恰相反，是一种烦人的活跃心情。目前我正是这种心情。因此，你要详详细细、原原本本地接着讲下去。我看出来这些区域的居民，看待城里各色人等，就好比地牢里的蜘蛛见着茅屋里的蜘蛛，得益不少。这并不完全是因为旁观者的缘故，我才有了更深的吸引力。他们确实活地更认真，更在乎自己，不太在乎表面、变化和无足轻重的外部事物。我能想象，在这儿完全有可能存在着一种一生之爱；而我过去死也不会相信，会有什么爱情可以维持一年。一种情况像是把一个饥饿的人放在一盘菜前面，他可以精神专注地大嚼一顿，毫不怠慢它。另一种情况，是把他介绍到法国厨师摆下的一桌筵席，他也可能从这整桌菜肴中同样享用一番，但是每道菜在他心目中和记忆里却仅仅是极微小的粒子而已。”

“Oh! here we are the same as anywhere else, when you get to know us,” observed Mrs. Dean, somewhat puzzled at my speech.

“Excuse me,” I responded; “you, my good friend, are a striking evidence against that assertion. Excepting a few provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated to consider as peculiar to your class. I am sure you have thought a great deal more than the generality of servants think. You have been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for frittering your life away in silly trifles.”

Mrs. Dean laughed.

“I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable kind of body,” she said; “not exactly from living among the hills and seeing one set of faces, and one series of actions, from year’s end to year’s end; but I have undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I have read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of also: unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French; and those I know one from another: it is as much as you can expect of a poor man’s daughter. However, if I am to follow my story in true gossip’s fashion, I had better go on; and instead of leaping three years, I will be content to pass to the next summer—the summer of 1778, that is nearly twenty-three years ago.”

“啊！你跟我们混熟了之后，就知道我们这儿跟别地方的人一样。”丁太太说，对我这番话多少有点莫名其妙。

“对不起，”我答道，“作为我的好朋友，你就是对你刚才说的这句话最好的一个反证。我一贯认为你们这类人所固有的习气，在你身上却没有痕迹，你只是有那么一点点乡土气而已。我敢断定你比一般仆人考虑事情更周全一些。你不得不培养你的反思能力，因为你没有必要把生命白白耗在愚蠢琐事之中。

丁太太笑了起来。

“我的确把自己看作是一个沉着理性之人，”她说，“这倒不完全是由于年复一年住在山里，面对着千篇一律同一组脸孔，以及毫无变化的老一套动作，而是我接受过严格的训练，这教给了我智慧；而且我读的书比你能想到的还要多，劳克伍德先生。在这个书房里，你可找不到有哪本书我没看过，而且每本书我都有所收获。除过那排希腊文和拉丁文的，还有那排法文的，但那些书我也能分辨得出。对于一个穷人家的女儿，你也只能期望这么多。只是，如果我按照真正谝闲话那样接着讲我的故事，那我就这样讲下去。而且不跳过那三年，就从第二年夏天讲起也可以啦——一七七八年的夏天，那是差不多二十三年前。”