月亮和六便士 第1章(6)

 　　Personally I think it was rash of Mr. Strickland, in refuting the account which had gained belief of a certain "unpleasantness" between his father and mother,  讲到我个人的意见，我认为思特里克兰德牧师在驳斥外间深入人心的一种传述——关于他父母之间某些“不愉快”的事件时，实在不够慎重。

　　to state that Charles Strickland in a letter written from Paris had described her as "an excellent woman,"  他在传记里引证查理斯·思特里克兰德从巴黎写的一封家信，说他父亲称呼自己的妻子为“了不起的女人”，

　　since Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz was able to print the letter in facsimile,  而魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹却把原信复制出来；

　　and it appears that the passage referred to ran in fact as follows: God damn my wife.  原来思特里克兰德牧师引证的这段原文是这样的：“叫上帝惩罚我的妻子吧！

　　She is an excellent woman. I wish she was in hell.  这个女人太了不起了，我真希望叫她下地狱。

　　It is not thus that the Church in its great days dealt with evidence that was unwelcome. 在教会势力鼎盛的日子，它们并不是用这种方法对待不受欢迎的事实的。

　　Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz was an enthusiastic admirer of Charles Strickland, and there was no danger that he would whitewash¹ him. 特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹博士是查理斯·思特里克兰德的一位热心的崇拜者，如果他想为思特里克兰德涂脂抹粉本来是不会有什么危险的。

　　He had an unerring eye for the despicable motive² in actions that had all the appearance of innocence³.  但他的目光敏锐，一眼就望穿了隐含在一些天真无邪的行为下的可鄙的动机。

　　He was a psycho-pathologist, as well as a student of art, and the subconscious⁴ had few secrets from him.  他既是一个艺术研究者，又是一个心理——病理学家。他对一个人的潜意识了如指掌。

　　No mystic ever saw deeper meaning in common things.  没有哪个探索心灵秘密的人能够象他那样透过普通事物看到更深邃的意义。

　　The mystic sees the ineffable⁵, and the psycho-pathologist the unspeakable.  探索心灵秘密的人能够看到不好用语言表达出来的东西，心理病理学家却看到了根本不能表达的事物。

　　There is a singular fascination⁶ in watching the eagerness with which the learned author ferrets out every circumstance which may throw discredit⁷ on his hero. 我们看到这位学识渊深的作家如何热衷于搜寻出每一件使这位英雄人物丢脸的细节琐事，真是令人拍案叫绝。

　　His heart warms to him when he can bring forward some example of cruelty or meanness,  每当他列举出主人公一件冷酷无情或者卑鄙自私的例证，他的心就对他更增加一分同情。

　　and he exults⁸ like an inquisitor at the auto⁹ da fe of an heretic when with some forgotten story he can confound the filial piety¹⁰ of the Rev¹¹. Robert Strickland.  在他寻找到主人公某件为人遗忘的轶事用来嘲弄罗伯特·思特里克兰德牧帅的一片孝心时，他就象宗教法庭的法官审判异教徒那样乐得心花怒放。

　　His industry has been amazing.  他写这篇文章的那种认真勤奋劲儿也着实令人吃惊。

　　Nothing has been too small to escape him,  没有哪件细小的事情被他漏掉，

　　and you may be sure that if Charles Strickland left a laundry bill unpaid¹² it will be given you in extenso,  如果查理斯·思特里克兰德有一笔洗衣账没有付清，这件事一定会被详细记录下来；

　　and if he forebore to return a borrowed half-crown no detail of the transaction will be omitted. 如果他欠人家一笔借款没有偿还，这笔债务的每一个细节也绝对不会遗漏；这一点读者是完全可以放心的。

1 whitewash   

v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰

参考例句：

• They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
• What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。

2 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

3 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

4 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

5 ineffable   

adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的

参考例句：

• The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.日落的美是难以形容的。
• She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction,as if her cup of happiness were now full.她发出了一声说不出多么满意的叹息，仿佛她的幸福之杯已经斟满了。

6 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

7 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

8 exults   

狂喜，欢跃( exult的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Success exactly exults him. 成功确使他高兴。
• Strong man exults in his delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action. 大力士喜欢炫耀自己的膂力，酷嗜锻炼肌肉之类的运动。

9 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

10 piety   

n.虔诚，虔敬

参考例句：

• They were drawn to the church not by piety but by curiosity.他们去教堂不是出于虔诚而是出于好奇。
• Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.经验使我们看到虔诚与善意之间有着巨大的区别。

11 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

12 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。