讀點好英文:Tess of the d’Urbervilles 德伯家的苔絲

Tess of the d’Urbervilles 德伯家的苔絲

[英]托馬斯·哈代（Thomas Hardy）

在偶爾得知自己是古老的武士后裔時，小販德貝菲爾高興得手舞足蹈。他幻想著讓苔絲去認毫無淵源的“本家”，這樣能幫他擺脫經(jīng)濟上的困境。苔絲在被“本家”亞雷奸污后，遭到了社會的恥笑和指責(zé)。后來，苔絲遇到了“真命天子”安璣，但這段姻緣在新婚之夜突變，愛人遠走巴西。由于生活所迫，苔絲殺死了乘虛而入的亞雷。

On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and mere was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line.He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some opinion, though he was not thinking of anything in particular.An empty egg-basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his thumb came in taking it off.Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune.“Good night t’ee,”said the man with the basket.

“Good night, Sir John,”said the parson.

The pedestrian, after another pace or two, halted, and turned round.

“Now, sir, begging your pardon;we met last market-day on this road about this time, and I said‘Good-night’，and you made reply‘Good night, Sir John’，as now.”

“I did,”said the parson.

“And once before that near a month ago.”

“I may have.”

“Then what might your meaning be in calling me‘Sir John’these different times, when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield, the haggler?”

The parson rode a step or two nearer.

“It was only my whim,”he said, and, after a moment's hesitation:“It was on account of a discovery I made some little time ago, whilst I was hunting up pedigrees for the new county history. I am Parson Tringham, the antiquary, of Stagfoot Lane.Don't you really know, Durbeyfield, that you are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the d'Urbervilles, who derived their descent from Sir Pagan d'Urberville, that renowned knight who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, as appears by Battle Abbey Roll?”

“Never heard it before, si r!”

“Well it's true. Throw up your chin a moment, so that I may catch me profile of your face better.Yes, that's the d'Urberville nose and chin—a little debased.Your ancestor was one of the twelve knights who assisted the Lord of Estremavilla in Normandy in his conquest of Glamorganshire.Branches of your family held manors over all this part of England;their names appear in the Pipe Rolls in the time of King Stephen.In the reign of King John one of them was rich enough to give a manor to the Knights Hospitallers;and in Edward the Second's time your forefather Brian was summoned to Westminster to attend the great Council there.You declined a little in Oliver Cromwell's time, but to no serious extent, and in Charles the Second’s reign you were made Knights of the Royal Oak for your loyalty.Aye, there have been generations of Sir Johns among you, and if knighthood were hereditary, like a baronetcy, as it practically was in old times, when men were knighted from father to son, you would be Sir John now.”

“Ye don't say s o!”

“In short,”concluded the parson, decisively smacking his leg with his switch,“there's hardly such another family in England.”

“Daze my eyes, and isn't there?”said Durbeyfield.“And here have I been knocking about, year after year, from pillar to post, as if I was no more than the commonest feller in the parish……And how long hev this news about me been knowned, Parson Tringham?”

The clergyman explained that, as far as he was aware, it had quite died out of knowledge, and could hardly be said to be known at all. His own investigations had begun on a day in the preceding spring when, having been engaged in tracing the vicissitudes of the d'Urberville family, he had observed Durbeyfield's name on his wagon, and had thereupon been led to make inquiries about his father and grandfather till he had no doubt on the subject.

“At first I resolved not to disturb you with such a useless piece of information,”said he.“However, our impulses are too strong for our judgment sometimes. I thought you might perhaps know something of it all the while.”

“Well, I have heard once or twice,'tis true, that my family had seen better days afore they came to Blackmoor. But I took no notice o't, thinking it to mean that we had once kept two horses where we now keep only one.I've got a wold silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too;but, Lord, what's a spoon and seal?……And to think that I and these noble d'Urbervilles were one flesh all the time.’Twas said that my great grandfatherhad secrets, and didn’t care to talk of where he came from……And where do we raise our smoke, now, parson, if I may make so bold;I mean, where do we d’Urbervilles live?”

“You don't live anywhere. You are extinct as a county family.”

“That's bad.”

“Yes what the mendacious family chronicles call extinct in the male line that is, gone down gone under.”

五月下旬的一個傍晚，一位中年男子正從沙斯頓趕回自己的家鄉(xiāng)——馬洛特。該村莊坐落在與沙斯頓毗鄰的布雷克摩（或布萊克摩）山谷里。這位中年人拖著兩條蹣跚的腿，步態(tài)傾斜，整個身子總是向左邊歪著。他偶爾也把頭輕巧地一點，仿佛是對什么事情表示贊同，其實他什么都沒想。他胳膊上挎著一只盛雞蛋的空籃子，帽子的絨面皺皺巴巴的，摘帽子時大拇指接觸的那個地方已經(jīng)磨損了一大塊。不一會兒，一個騎著灰色母馬、隨口哼著小調(diào)的老牧師迎面而來。

“你好?！笨嬷@子的男子說。

“你好，約翰爵士?！蹦翈熣f道。

步行的男子又走了一兩步，站住了，轉(zhuǎn)過身來。

“呃，先生，俺真不明白，上回趕集的那天，差不多也是在這個時候，俺倆在這條路上相遇了，俺對你說了一聲‘你好’，你也是像方才一樣回答：‘你好，約翰爵士?！?/p>

“不錯，我是這么說的。”牧師說道。

“在那以前還有過一回，大概一個月以前?！?/p>

“或許是的?！?/p>

“那么，你干嗎三番兩次地叫俺‘約翰爵士’呀？俺只不過是個普普通通的小販，名叫杰克·德貝菲爾呀?！?/p>

牧師拍馬走近了一兩步。

“那是我的一時興起?！蹦翈熣f道，然后又遲疑了一會兒說，“那是因為不久前我為編寫新郡志而考察各個家譜時，偶爾發(fā)現(xiàn)了這件事。我是斯塔福特路的特林哈姆牧師。德貝菲爾，你真的不知道你是古老高貴的爵士世家德伯維爾的直系子孫嗎？德伯維爾的始祖是佩根·德伯維爾爵士，根據(jù)《功臣譜》的記載，這位著名的武將是跟隨征服王從諾曼底來的?！?/p>

“以前俺可從來沒聽說過這事呀，先生！”

“這是真的。把你的下巴抬起來一點點，讓我好好看看你的臉。不錯，這正是德伯維爾的鼻子和下巴——但有一點衰落。輔佐諾曼底的埃斯特瑪維拉勛爵征服格拉摩根郡有12個武將，你的祖先就是其中一個。你家族的分支在英格蘭這一帶擁有好多莊園，他們的名字出現(xiàn)在斯蒂芬王朝時代的《國庫年報》里。在約翰王統(tǒng)治時代，其中有幾個富豪還把受封領(lǐng)地捐贈給了僧兵團。在愛德華二世時代，你的祖先布賴恩被召到威斯敏斯特參加過大議會。在克倫威爾時代，你們家族有所衰敗，但不算嚴(yán)重。在查理二世時代，你們家由于忠于君主，被封為‘御橡爵士’。呃，你的家族中已有好幾代約翰爵士了，假如爵士封號也像男爵那樣，可以世襲相傳，那么，你現(xiàn)在不就是約翰爵士了嗎？實際上，在過去，爵士封號就是世襲的?！?/p>

“可你沒有這樣說過呀！”

“簡而言之，”牧師態(tài)度堅決地用馬鞭抽了一下自己的腿，下結(jié)論說，“在英格蘭，你們這樣的家族簡直找不出第二家?！?/p>

“真令我吃驚，在英格蘭找不出第二家嗎？”德貝菲爾說，“可是我一直在這一帶四處漂泊，一年又一年的，糟糕透頂了，好像我同這個教區(qū)里的最普通的人沒什么兩樣……特林哈姆牧師，關(guān)于我們家族的這件事，大家知道嗎，有多久了？”

牧師解釋說，據(jù)他所知，這件事兒已經(jīng)被大家遺忘了，很難說有什么人知道。他自己的調(diào)查是從去年春天開始的，他碰巧看到了刻在馬車上的德貝菲爾這個姓氏，由于對德伯維爾家族的盛衰變遷極感興趣，他就展開了對德貝菲爾父親和祖父的調(diào)查，直至徹底弄清楚了這個問題。

“起初，我并不想把這個毫無價值的事實講給你聽，免得打擾了你，”他說，“但是，我們的沖動有時候強于我們的判斷力。我本以為你或多或少知道一些情況呢?！?/p>

“是啊，的確是的，有過一兩回，俺聽說俺家在來布萊克摩山谷之前，日子要好過得多?？砂硡s沒在意，只是以為俺家曾經(jīng)有過兩匹馬兒，而不像現(xiàn)在這樣，只有一匹。俺家里倒是有一把古老的銀匙，也有一個古老的印章，可是，先生，銀匙和印章又能說明什么呢？……哪里想到俺會和這些高貴的德伯維爾血肉相連。據(jù)說俺老爺子有些秘密事兒，他不肯說出他是打哪兒來的……那么，俺冒昧地問一句，眼下俺家的人在哪兒呢？俺是說，俺德伯維爾家的人眼下住在哪兒呢？”

“哪兒都沒有了。作為郡里的貴族人家，已經(jīng)絕嗣了。”

“真是傷心哪?！?/p>

“是啊，那些編造家史的人，總是把衰敗了的男系世家稱作絕嗣家族。”

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

托馬斯·哈代（1840—1928），英國偉大的小說家和詩人，在文壇上享有盛譽。哈代共發(fā)表了十四部長篇小說，四個短篇小說集，八卷詩和兩部詩劇。就哈代的整個小說創(chuàng)作來說，可以分為三個階段。第一個階段的小說是抒發(fā)田園理想的頌歌，帶有浪漫主義風(fēng)格，主要有《綠蔭下》《遠離塵囂》等。第二個階段的作品描寫威塞克斯社會的悲劇，主要有《還鄉(xiāng)》《卡斯特橋市長》等。第三個階段的作品描寫威塞克斯破產(chǎn)農(nóng)民的前途和命運，主要有《德伯家的苔絲》《無名的裘德》等。

單詞注解

bias[5baiEs]n.偏見，成見；偏心

astride[E5straid]prep.在……兩旁；在其上；橫過

antiquary[5AntikwEri]n.古董商；古物研究者

profile[5prEufail]n.輪廓，外形；外觀；形象

hereditary[hi5reditEri]adj.世襲的，傳代的

parish[5pAriF]n.教區(qū)

mendacious[men5deiFEs]adj.虛偽的；說謊的

名句大搜索

那是我的一時興起。

但是，我們的沖動有時候強于我們的判斷力。

是啊，那些編造家史的人，總是把衰敗了的男系世家稱作絕嗣家族。