現(xiàn)代英文選評(píng)：A Pretty Girl 美麗的姑娘

A Pretty Girl 美麗的姑娘

Max Beerbohm (1872—1956)

麥克斯·比亞卜姆出生于維多利亞女王統(tǒng)治下的英國，逝于意大利。比氏壽登耄耋，久無作品問世，很多讀者以為他早已不在人世了。事實(shí)上，按他的文章風(fēng)格和生活趣味來說，他和十九世紀(jì)末葉所謂唯美主義作家如王爾德等比較接近，同我們這一代，確是疏遠(yuǎn)了。他的文章，大抵近乎“游戲人間”一路，俏皮，幽默，機(jī)智，但不一定深刻。他有過人的聰明，在文字修飾上所用的功夫卻極大，作品數(shù)量不多，大多是經(jīng)過精心雕琢之作。

比氏的小品文最有名，但他也寫小說。這里所選的幾段采自他的長篇小說Zuleika Dobson（1911）的第二章。Zuleika Dobson是一部胡鬧的諷刺小說，Zuleika是個(gè)十分美麗的姑娘，她在牛津住了一個(gè)時(shí)候，牛津的大學(xué)生都被她弄得神魂顛倒，但是誰也得不到她的青睞，結(jié)果大家跳河自殺，集體殉情以死！學(xué)生都死完了，牛津大學(xué)也開不下去了。

She was a nymph to whom men's admiration was the greater part of life. By day, whenever she went into the streets, she was conscious that no man passed her without a stare; and this consciousness gave a sharp zest to her outings. Sometimes she was followed to her door—crude flattery which she was too innocent to fear. Even when she went into the haberdasher's to make some little purchase of tape or riband, or into the grocer's—for she was an epicure in her humble way—to buy a tin of meat for her supper, the homage of the young men behind the counter did flatter and exhilarate her.

● nymph：希臘神話中的女仙，常借用作“年輕貌美的女子”。men's admiration：男人的愛慕。這種女子，生活中主要的事情（greater part），就是給男人愛慕。

● no man passed her without a stare：路人看見她，都要張大眼睛，對(duì)她注視。no…without：兩重否定，等于一重肯定。passed her：在她身旁走過。

● this consciousness照應(yīng)前面的was conscious。她知道人家都要看她，出門游散（outings）時(shí)，分外有勁。zest：（很濃的）興味。

● she was followed：從這一句里，可以看出被動(dòng)語態(tài)勝過主動(dòng)語態(tài)的地方?！八桓S”——（by whom?）誰在跟？這可不必說了，總是街上那些男子。crude flattery：這一個(gè)短語用得很見功夫。男人覺得女人長得美，這是一種恭維（flattery），但是用眼睛看看，或嘴上贊美足矣，那種人尾隨不舍，一直盯到她的家門，未免顯得粗野（crude）。crude flattery即指此句之main clause（Sometimes…door），總括說明這一種人的行為。innocent：盯梢的人可能不懷好意，但是小姐一派天真，只引以為得意，并不覺得恐懼。

● haberdasher：販賣針線等小件裝飾品的雜貨商。他的“店”，英文里不用說，只要加apostrophe s（'s）即可。同樣的，販賣食品的雜貨商是grocer，這一種店就是the grocer's。tape：扁帶。riband：是ribbon（絲帶）較古的拼法。to make some little purchase of：這一個(gè)短語相當(dāng)古雅，我們普通說話作文，只要用to buy some (tape or ribbon)就夠了。

● epicure：講究飲食的人。in her humble way：那個(gè)時(shí)候，她并沒有錢，可是在她的經(jīng)濟(jì)范圍之內(nèi)，她還是很講究的。young men behind the counter：柜臺(tái)后面的青年人、伙計(jì)。homage：大恭敬。exhilarate：使（她）高興。

As the homage of men became for her, more and more, a matter of course, the more subtly necessary was it to her happiness. The more she won of it, the more she treasured it. She was alone in the world, and it saved her from any moment of regret that she had neither home nor friends. For her the streets that lay around her had no squalor, since she paced them always in the gold nimbus of her fascinations. Her bedroom seemed not mean nor lonely to her, since the little square of glass, nailed above the wash-stand, was ever there to reflect her face. Thereinto, indeed, she was ever peering. She would smile, frown, pout, languish—let all the emotions hover upon her face; and always she seemed to herself lovelier than she had ever been.

● a matter of course：當(dāng)然之事，沒有什么希罕的了。第一句中的主句的主語置于動(dòng)詞之后，正當(dāng)?shù)拇涡蚴莍t (=the homage) was necessary to her happiness。the more的the是副詞，有“因此”（on that account）之意。這種用法很常見，如nevertheless即為never the less（并不因此減少）三字合成的。subtly：subtle的副詞形式，解作“微妙地，神秘地，不可捉摸地”。她的快樂，更不可思議地有賴于男人對(duì)她的恭敬了。

● 第二句的The more…the more也是常見的句法結(jié)構(gòu)：第一個(gè)The=in whatever degree；第二個(gè)the=in that degree。那邊增加，這邊也同樣地增加。of it連前面的The more，it代替the homage，她所得到的恭敬愈多，她對(duì)于這個(gè)恭敬也愈為珍視。it saved的it仍是代替the homage。有了男人獻(xiàn)殷勤，她也用不著為身世興悲了。

● For her：對(duì)她來說。squalor：污穢（此字的形容詞是squalid，squalid比dirty更多“未經(jīng)掃除，無人清理”之意）。paced在這里是及物動(dòng)詞，“走過”。paced them=paced the streets。nimbus：（神佛頭上的）光輪。她走在街上，遍體似有彩云環(huán)繞，令人目移神奪（fascinations），她自己因此也看不出街上的污穢了。

● mean：寒酸相。她的臥室本來是寒酸而又寂寞的，但是現(xiàn)在看來卻并不如此，因?yàn)橄茨樇茏由厦妫斄艘幻娣界R子，常得美人照看；鏡中玉容，就足使陋室生春了。

● Thereinto=into that (glass)。indeed：說真的；indeed這個(gè)字很常見，但是不易應(yīng)用。這里大約是怕讀者不相信上面一句所說的the…glass…was ever there to reflect her face，特再補(bǔ)充說明一句：“這是真的”，這位小姐老是在照（peer into）鏡子的。ever本來和always一樣，解作“無論何時(shí)，永遠(yuǎn)如此”，但是這種副詞（另外的例子如perpetually, constantly等）倘若和進(jìn)行式動(dòng)詞一起用，那就表示“常常，老是這么做”了。she ever peered (into the glass)：那是說不通的，因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)人不可能什么事情不做，“永遠(yuǎn)”看著鏡子的。she was ever peering：那就表示她“常?！边@么做，現(xiàn)在看一下，過一會(huì)又看一下，再過一會(huì)又看一下。

● peer解作“凝視”，意義大致同gaze相仿。但gaze常常指看的人因愛慕而看得出神，peer則指仔細(xì)地看，或吃力地看，或帶著好奇心地看，或看的人和所看的東西中間隔了一層什么東西。人和鏡中反影之間隔了一層玻璃，用peer是很合適的。

● frown：皺眉。pout：撅嘴。languish：作出嬌慵之態(tài)。這些動(dòng)詞前面的助動(dòng)詞would表示“習(xí)慣”。let=she would let。hover本指鳥類不振翼遠(yuǎn)飛，而在某一地點(diǎn)拍翅盤旋；或云霧等浮掛在一個(gè)地方。現(xiàn)在她故意對(duì)鏡子做出各種“表情”，那些情感也好像在她臉上低回飛翔。

● lovelier：每對(duì)鏡子看一次，總覺得自己比以前更可愛了。注意時(shí)態(tài)seemed和had been之間的先后關(guān)系。

Yet was there nothing Narcissine in her spirit. Her love for her own image was not cold aestheticism. She valued that image not for its own sake, but for the sake of the glory it always won for her.

● Yet was there nothing=yet there was nothing。Narcissine是Narcissus的形容詞。Narcissus是水仙花，據(jù)希臘神話，此花原是一美少年，見水中自身反影而悅之，顧影自憐，憔悴不堪，天神將他化身為花，俾得永遠(yuǎn)臨泉自照也。變態(tài)心理學(xué)中有一種病，叫做Narcissism。這位小姐可沒有這種“自戀”的病。

● aestheticism：唯美主義。前面所以加形容詞cold者，表示唯美主義不注重情感；看見美的東西心里用不著激動(dòng)，美是應(yīng)該冷靜地欣賞的。

● for its own sake：只因?yàn)檫@個(gè)影子的美，才覺得它寶貴，此外別無其他情感攙雜在內(nèi)。這位小姐并不如此。她長得美，博得無數(shù)男人的追求，她為了這種“光榮”，才對(duì)于鏡子里自己的影子看個(gè)不厭的。

● it always won for her：定語從句。

Though Zuleika had never given her heart, strong in her were the desire and the need that it should be given. Whithersoever she had fared, she had seen nothing but youths fatuously prostrate to her—not one upright figure which she could respect. There were the middle-aged men, the old men, who did not bow down to her; but from middle-age, as from eld, she had a sanguine aversion. She could love none but a youth. Nor could she love one who fell prone before her. And before her all youths always did fall prone. She was an empress, and all youths were her slaves. Their bondage delighted her, as I have said. But no empress who has any pride can adore one of her slaves. Whom, then, could proud Zuleika adore?

● given her heart：把心送人，陷入情網(wǎng)。

● 第一句中主句又是例裝的，動(dòng)詞were在前，主語the desire and the need在后。這許多男人愛慕她，她沒有愛慕過任何男人，可是她很想戀愛，也很需要戀愛。it (the heart) should be given：她的心該“奉獻(xiàn)給”一個(gè)男人。

● Whithersoever she had fared：她不論走到哪里。fare=go，這是比較古雅的字眼。fatuously：癡呆的。prostrate：匍匐在地。事實(shí)上當(dāng)然不一定有人向她三跪九叩首，這不過引伸前面的homage（青年男子都對(duì)她臣服）而已。one upright figure：一個(gè)站直的身軀；有自尊心不向她表示愛慕的男人，這種人才是使她尊敬的。

● bow down：還是引伸homage的意思。eld=old age，這是個(gè)古字。我們現(xiàn)在只有elder和eldest這兩個(gè)形容詞，名詞eld很少有人用了。sanguine在這里應(yīng)該解作“熱誠的”（warm or ardent），也即是strong。aversion連前面的兩個(gè)from（from middle-age，from eld）；中年人老年人對(duì)她不一定“服貼”，但她也很討厭中年人、老年人的。

● 中年人、老年人她不要，青年人毫無骨氣，對(duì)她恭而敬之，俯首貼耳，這種人她也是不能（Nor could）愛的。prone是形容詞，解作“俯伏的”，是subjective complement，形容who。fall prone二字常連用，是idiom。

● before her：在她面前。did fall prone的did用以加強(qiáng)語氣。

● bondage：奴役。

● But no empress一句，用現(xiàn)在時(shí)態(tài)，表示一般情形。adore：敬愛，崇拜。love的含義廣泛，adore一定是一種很崇高的情感。

It was a question which sometimes troubled her.

To be able to love once—would not that be better than all the homage in the world? But would she ever meet whom, looking up to him, she could love—she, the omnisubjugant? Would she ever, ever meet him?

● 她老是受人家的愛，她到底還能不能愛別人呢？不一定見了男人就愛，只要她能愛一個(gè)男人，只要她能主動(dòng)地愛一次——這不是比全世界的恭敬都集中在她一人身上還要強(qiáng)嗎？To be able to love once：不定式，作名詞用。這句的主語that，就是代替這個(gè)infinitive phrase的。

● 后面一句的語法結(jié)構(gòu)，也是比較古的用法。照現(xiàn)代通用說法，應(yīng)該說But would she ever meet the man whom…，但是按古時(shí)的用法，the man這個(gè)antecedent是可以省掉的。

● looking up to him：participial phrase，形容從句中的主語she。looking up：她要“仰首”才看見他，足見這個(gè)男人是不向她俯首稱臣的。she, the omnisubjugant：she是重復(fù)she could love中的she。omnisubjugant是個(gè)罕見的字，字典里都不一定查得到，但意義不難了解。omni：是個(gè)接頭語，表示“全體”（如omnipotent，omniscient……等，這些字的解釋請(qǐng)查字典）。subjugant是subjugate（征服）的形容詞形式，-ant是個(gè)接尾語，表示present participle的意思（如defiant，pliant……等）。連在一起，這個(gè)字的解釋應(yīng)作“征服一切的”。

● 最后一句ever重復(fù)地用，非但是為了音調(diào)好聽，而且也加強(qiáng)情感上絕望的意義。這樣一個(gè)男人，“這一輩子”還找得到嗎？

It was when she wondered thus, that the wistfulness came into her eyes. Even now, as she sat by the window, that shadow returned to them.

● wistfulness是一種“若有所思”的神態(tài)。她心里思量，能不能找到一位如意郎君的時(shí)候，眼睛里就露出這種表情了。這種表情不是一種快樂的表情，它像一種“陰影”。現(xiàn)在她憑窗閑坐，這種陰影又回到她眼睛里來了。