月亮和六便士 第三十三章(1)

 Chapter 33 第三十三章

Two or three days later Dirk Stroeve called on me. 两三天以后，戴尔克·施特略夫来找我。

I hear you've seen Blanche, he said. “听说你见到勃朗什了？”他说。

How on earth did you find out? “你怎么会知道的？”

I was told by someone who saw you sitting with them. Why didn't you tell me? “有人看见你同他们坐在一起，告诉我了。你干嘛不告诉我？”

I thought it would only pain you. “我怕会使你痛苦。”

What do I care if it does? You must know that I want to hear the smallest thing about her. “使我痛苦又有什么关系？你必须知道，只要是她的事，哪怕最微不足道的，我也想知道。”

I waited for him to ask me questions. 我等着他向我提问。

What does she look like? he said. “她现在是什么样子？”他问。

Absolutely unchanged. “一点儿也没改变。”

Does she seem happy? “你看她的样子幸福吗？”

I shrugged¹ my shoulders. 我耸了耸肩膀。

How can I tell? We were in a cafe; we were playing chess; I had no opportunity to speak to her. “我怎么知道？我们是在咖啡馆里，我在同思特里克兰德下棋。我没有机会同她谈话。”

Oh, but couldn't you tell by her face? “啊，但是你从她的面容看不出来吗？”

I shook my head. I could only repeat that by no word, by no hinted gesture, had she given an indication of her feelings. 我摇了摇头。我只能把我想到的给他讲了一遍：她既没用话语也没用手势向我透露她的任何感情。

He must know better than I how great were her powers of self-control. 他一定比我更了解，她自我克制的力量多么大。

He clasped his hands emotionally. 戴尔克感情激动地两手紧握在一起。

Oh, I'm so frightened. I know something is going to happen, something terrible, and I can do nothing to stop it. “啊，我非常害怕。我知道一定会发生一件事，一件可怕的事，可是我却没有办法阻止它。”

What sort of thing? I asked. Oh, I don't know, he moaned, seizing his head with his hands. "I foresee some terrible catastrophe²." “会发生什么样儿的事？”我问道。“啊，我也不知道，”他用两手把头抱住，呻吟道，“我预见到一件可怕的灾难。”

Stroeve had always been excitable, but now he was beside himself; there was no reasoning with him. 施特略夫一向就很容易激动，现在简直有些神经失常了。

I thought it probable enough that Blanche Stroeve would not continue to find life with Strickland tolerable, 我根本无法同他讲道理。我认为很可能勃朗什·施特略夫已经发觉不可能再同思特里克兰德继续生活下去，

but one of the falsest of proverbs is that you must lie on the bed that you have made. 但是人们经常说的那句俗话“自作自受”，实在是最没有道理的。

The experience of life shows that people are constantly doing things which must lead to disaster, 生活的经验让我们看到的是，尽管人们不断地做一些必然招灾惹祸的事，

and yet by some chance manage to evade³ the result of their folly⁴. 但总能找个机会逃避掉这些蠢事带来的后果。

1 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

3 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

4 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。