《月亮和六便士》重译06

Chapter VI

But when at last I met Charles Strickland, it was under circumstances which allowed me to do no more than just make his acquaintance. One morning Mrs. Strickland sent me round a note to say that she was giving a dinner-party that evening, and one of her guests had failed her. She asked me to stop the gap. She wrote:

"It's only decent to warn you that you will be bored to extinction. It was a thoroughly dull party from the beginning, but if you will come I shall be uncommonly grateful. And you and I can have a little chat by ourselves."

It was only neighbourly to accept.

When Mrs. Strickland introduced me to her husband, he gave me a rather indifferent hand to shake. Turning to him gaily, she attempted a small jest.

"I asked him to show him that I really had a husband. I think he was beginning to doubt it."

第六章

但我最终还是同司查尔见了面，并非像司太太之前说的那样，只是让我和他丈夫认识那么简单。一天早上，司太太派人给我送来一张字条，条子上说她当天要搞个晚餐会，其中一位客人爽约，无法出席。她请我把这个缺堵上。她这样写道：

“我只是出于礼节，先警告你，这顿晚餐定会让你觉得无聊透顶。从一开始这就是个彻头彻尾的无聊聚会，但如果你肯赏光的话，我将不胜感激。咱俩可以单独聊一聊。”

接受这个邀请只是因为我和她是邻里街坊的关系。

司太太把我介绍给她的丈夫时，他和我握了下手，他的表情相当冷漠。她兴高采烈地把身子转向她的丈夫，试图露出浅浅地一声姗笑。

“我请他来，是为了向他说明，我真地是有夫之妇。我想他过去一直表示怀疑。”

Strickland gave the polite little laugh with which people acknowledge a facetiousness in which they see nothing funny, but did not speak. New arrivals claimed my host's attention, and I was left to myself. When at last we were all assembled, waiting for dinner to be announced, I reflected, while I chatted with the woman I had been asked to "take in," that civilised man practises a strange ingenuity in wasting on tedious exercises the brief span of his life. It was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid her guests, and why the guests have troubled to come. There were ten people. They met with indifference, and would part with relief. It was, of course, a purely social function. The Stricklands "owed" dinners to a number of persons, whom they took no interest in, and so had asked them; these persons had accepted. Why? To avoid the tedium of dining tete-a-tete, to give their servants a rest, because there was no reason to refuse, because they were "owed" a dinner.

司先生很有礼貌地微微一笑，像是有人说了句不合时宜的俏皮话，而听者并未觉得好笑，假装露出的那种笑容，但他一言未发。这时又有新的客人到场，女主人的注意力被吸引了过去，我被单独晾在一旁。最后客人全都到齐了，我们等着宣布晚餐开始时，我一边和叫我“接待”的一位女客人闲聊，一边心里琢磨着：把短暂的生命白白浪费在各种无聊的应酬上，这恐怕只有文明开化的人类能想得出来，真是匪疑所思，别出心裁。就拿这次晚宴来说，你一定很想弄清楚，女主人为何要大费周章请客，而客人为何不嫌麻烦赴约。那天一共有十个人出席。大家见面时不冷不热，分手时如释重负。当然这是一次纯粹的社交活动。司先生夫妇俩“欠了”这其中许多人一顿晚餐，而他俩对这些人根本毫无兴趣，所以才邀请他们，这些人接受邀请并来赴约。这出于什么原因呢？为了避免用餐时夫妻对坐时越看越生厌，为了给仆人们放个假，还是这些人根本就是为赴约而赴约，因为他们被人“欠了”一顿饭？

The dining-room was inconveniently crowded. There was a K.C. and his wife, a Government official and his wife, Mrs. Strickland's sister and her husband, Colonel MacAndrew, and the wife of a Member of Parliament. It was because the Member of Parliament found that he could not leave the House that I had been invited. The respectability of the party was portentous. The women were too nice to be well dressed, and too sure of their position to be amusing. The men were solid. There was about all of them an air of well-satisfied prosperity.

餐厅里人满为患，活动起来并不方便。这些人中有一位皇室顾问及夫人，一位政府官员及夫人，司太太的姐姐及姐夫麦上校，还有一位国会议员的夫人。正是因为国会议员发现无法离开议院前来赴约，我才被邀请。这些客人身价高贵，自命不凡。女士们显得太过和蔼友善，以至于穿着打扮并不那么雍容华贵，而且她们对各自的地位太过自信，以至于他们的言谈举止并不令人感到妙趣横生。男士们稳重实在。所有这些人身上都流露出一种养尊处优、意得志满的派头。

Everyone talked a little louder than natural in an instinctive desire to make the party go, and there was a great deal of noise in the room. But there was no general conversation. Each one talked to his neighbour; to his neighbour on the right during the soup, fish, and entree; to his neighbour on the left during the roast, sweet, and savoury. They talked of the political situation and of golf, of their children and the latest play, of the pictures at the Royal Academy, of the weather and their plans for the holidays. There was never a pause, and the noise grew louder. Mrs. Strickland might congratulate herself that her party was a success. Her husband played his part with decorum. Perhaps he did not talk very much, and I fancied there was towards the end a look of fatigue in the faces of the women on either side of him. They were finding him heavy. Once or twice Mrs. Strickland's eyes rested on him somewhat anxiously.

在座的每个人不由自主地想让气氛热闹起来，说话时都把自己的嗓门比平时抬高了一些，屋子里顿时一片哗然。但聊天没有统一话题。每个人都在和自己身旁的人聊；喝汤、吃鱼和主菜时同身右边的人聊，吃烤肉、甜品和开胃菜时同身左边的人聊。他们聊时局、聊高尔夫、聊孩子以及最新上演的戏剧、聊皇家艺术学院的绘画、聊天气、聊度假计划。聊天一直没有中断，声音也越来越大。司太太也许可以暗自庆幸，此次聚会取得了成功。她丈夫扮演着自己的角色，显得既得体大方又彬彬有礼。也许他没说几句话，我觉得晚宴快结束时，坐在他身旁的两位女客脸上都有些疲惫之色。她们肯定发现和他聊天比较费劲。有那么一两次，司太太神情有些焦躁不安，两只眼睛一直盯着他看。

At last she rose and shepherded the ladies out of one room. Strickland shut the door behind her, and, moving to the other end of the table, took his place between the K.C. and the Government official. He passed round the port again and handed us cigars. The K.C. remarked on the excellence of the wine, and Strickland told us where he got it. We began to chat about vintages and tobacco. The K.C. told us of a case he was engaged in, and the Colonel talked about polo. I had nothing to say and so sat silent, trying politely to show interest in the conversation; and because I thought no one was in the least concerned with me, examined Strickland at my ease. He was bigger than I expected: I do not know why I had imagined him slender and of insignificant appearance; in point of fact he was broad and heavy, with large hands and feet, and he wore his evening clothes clumsily. He gave you somewhat the idea of a coachman dressed up for the occasion. He was a man of forty, not good-looking, and yet not ugly, for his features were rather good; but they were all a little larger than life-size, and the effect was ungainly. He was clean shaven, and his large face looked uncomfortably naked. His hair was reddish, cut very short, and his eyes were small, blue or grey. He looked commonplace. I no longer wondered that Mrs. Strickland felt a certain embarrassment about him; he was scarcely a credit to a woman who wanted to make herself a position in the world of art and letters. It was obvious that he had no social gifts, but these a man can do without; he had no eccentricity even, to take him out of the common run; he was just a good, dull, honest, plain man. One would admire his excellent qualities, but avoid his company. He was null. He was probably a worthy member of society, a good husband and father, an honest broker; but there was no reason to waste one's time over him.

最后她站起身来，像只带头羊一样引领着其他女士离开房间。她们走后，司先生随手把门一关，走到桌子另一头，在皇室顾问和政府官员中间坐了下来。他再次把波特酒递过来，给我们发雪茄。皇室顾问称赞说酒的味道很好，司先生告诉我们他从何处购得。我们开始聊起酿酒和烟草。皇室顾问告诉大家他正审理的一个案件，上校聊起打马球的事。我无话可说，所以只好一言不发地坐着，出于礼貌，我试图表示出对聊天内容感兴趣的样子。因为我想他们根本就不会在意我，于是我就从容不迫地打量着司先生。他比我预料的高大一些；我不知道为何我之前会觉得他比较修长，其貌不扬。事实上，他膀阔腰圆，手脚宽大，他穿着晚礼服显得笨手笨脚，他给人的印象有点像是一位身穿盛装去参加宴会的马车夫。他正值不惑之年，相貌不英俊，但也不难看，因为他五官比较端正，但都稍微大了一号，所以整体效果并不好看。他的胡须刮得干干净净，脸庞很大，光溜溜地看起来让人感觉很不舒服。他一头红发留得很短，两只眼睛较小，说蓝不蓝，说灰不灰。他看上去相貌平平。我不再奇怪为何司太太提起他总是有些尴尬；对于想在文艺界为自己取得一席之地的一个女人而言，司先生几乎不可能给她增光添彩。显而易见，他根本没有任何社交天分，但这种天分并非人人都非要有不可。他甚至没有什么怪癖，可以使他免于平凡庸俗。他只不过是个心地善良、乏味无趣、忠厚老实、平凡无奇之人。人们钦佩他的优秀品格，却躲着不愿意和他相处。在这个世上，他是个可有可无之人。他可能是一位社会精英、一位模范丈夫、一位慈祥的父亲、一位诚实可靠的经纪人；但没有任何理由要把时间浪费在他身上。