英语美文背诵 生活的故事

Life Story by Tennessee Williams

生活的故事 田纳西·威廉斯

After you've been to bed together for the first time,

这是你们第一次一床同眠，共剪西窗烛

without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance,

而事先没有相互之间带有偏爱或偏见的相知相识

the other party very often says to you,

你们一中的一个伙伴总是会和你说

Tell me about yourself, I want to know all about you,

和我聊聊你自己吧，我对你的一切都有浓厚兴趣

what's your story?

你的经历是什么呢？

And you think maybe they really and truly do sincerely want to know your life story,

然后你觉得他们可能真的真的想要了解你的往事，既然他们这么真诚地想要了解你的生命历程，

and so you light up a cigarette and begin to tell it to them,

所以你就点燃一支烟然后开始向他们讲述你的故事

the two of you lying together in completely relaxed positions like a pair of rag dolls a bored child dropped on a bed.

你和你的伙伴翻身调整到了一个特别舒服的位置，你们就像一个身处无聊的小孩扔在床上的一对布娃娃

You tell them your story, or as much of your story as time or a fair degree of prudence¹ allows,

你告诉他们你的往事，或者说你的整个过去，出于时间的流逝或者一种彬彬有礼，谨慎处事的教养，

and they say,Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

他们说嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯

each time a little more faintly, until the oh is just an audible breath, and then of course there's some interruption.

回应一次比一次渐微渐弱，直到这个“嗯”字，完全变成了听得到的鼾声，然后，理所当然地总会有些干扰突然出现。

Slow room service comes up with a bowl of melting ice cubes, or one of you rises to pee

比如说缓慢的客房服务送来了，一碗融化的糖浆，或者你们中的一个突然想要起夜

and gaze at himself with the mild astonishment² in the bathroom mirror.

面对盥洗室的镜子时，他略带吃惊的凝视着自己的镜像

And then, the first thing you know, before you've had time to pick up where you left off with your enthralling³ life story,

然后，你所知道的第一件事，在你有时间再去陈说你那没有讲完的迷人生命历程前

they're telling you their life story, exactly as they'd intended to all along,

他们开始对你讲说他们以前的故事，这是他们期待已久的倾诉

and you're saying, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

你开始对他们的言语回应，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯

each time a little more faintly, the vowel⁴ at last becoming no more than an audible sigh,

每一次声量都减弱一分，最后这种应答成为了清晰可辨的鼾息

as the elevator, halfway⁵ down the corridor and a turn to the left,

这种鼾声如同一台出门需要左行却早已卡在半层的电梯，

draws one last, long, deep breath of exhaustion⁶ and stops breathing forever.

让某人呼尽最后的、精疲力竭的、长而深的气息便再也没有了呼吸。

Then?

然后呢？

Well, one of you falls asleep and the other one does likewise with a lighted cigarette in his mouth,

其实，当你们中的一个人进入了永恒的梦乡，其他人则继续叼着一支点燃的香烟，开始讲述他们的故事，无可厚非地

and that's how people burn to death in hotel rooms.

这就是人们怎样在一家旅馆中，燃尽自己的生命

1 prudence   

n.谨慎，精明，节俭

参考例句：

• A lack of prudence may lead to financial problems.不够谨慎可能会导致财政上出现问题。
• The happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.幸运者都把他们的成功归因于谨慎或功德。

2 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

3 enthralling   

迷人的

参考例句：

• There will be an enthralling race tomorrow. 明天会有场吸引人的比赛。
• There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. 在这样地施加影响时，令人感到销魂夺魄。

4 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

5 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

6 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。