麥琪的禮物：Chapter 1

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

一元八角七。全都在這兒了,其中六角是一分一分的銅板。這些小錢是雜貨店老板、菜販子和肉店老板那兒軟硬兼施地一分兩分地扣下來(lái),直弄得自己羞愧難當(dāng),深感這種掂斤播兩的交易實(shí)在丟人現(xiàn)眼。德拉反復(fù)數(shù)了三次,還是一元八角七,而第二天就是圣誕節(jié)了。

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

除了撲倒在那破舊的小睡椅上哭嚎之外,顯然別無(wú)他途。德拉這樣作了,可精神上的感慨油然而生,生活就是哭泣、抽噎和微笑,尤以抽噎占統(tǒng)治地位。

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

當(dāng)這位家庭主婦逐漸平靜下來(lái)之際,讓我們看看這個(gè)家吧。一套帶家具的公寓房子,每周房租八美元。盡管難以用筆墨形容,可它真真夠得上乞丐幫這個(gè)詞兒。

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

樓下的門道里有個(gè)信箱,可從來(lái)沒(méi)有裝過(guò)信,還有一個(gè)電鈕,也從沒(méi)有人的手指按響過(guò)電鈴。而且,那兒還有一張名片,上寫著“詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·楊先生"。