雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(2)
Newland Archer, during this brief episode, had been thrown into a strange state of embarrassment.
在這個短暫的插曲中間，紐蘭·阿切爾陷入一種奇怪的尷尬境地。
It was annoying that the box which was thus attracting the undivided attention of masculine New York should be that in which his betrothed was seated between her mother and aunt; and for a moment he could not identify the lady in the Empire dress, nor imagine why her presence created such excitement among the initiated. Then light dawned on him, and with it came a momentary rush of indignation. No, indeed; no one would have thought the Mingotts would have tried it on!
討厭的是，如此吸引着紐約男性世界全部注意力的包廂竟是他未婚妻就坐的那一個，她坐在母親與舅媽中間。他一時竟認不出那位穿着法國30年代服裝的女士，也想象不出她的出現爲什麼會在俱樂部會員中引起如此的興奮。接着，他明白過來，並隨之產生一陣憤慨。的確，沒有人會想到明戈特家的人會擺出這種架式！
But they had; they undoubtedly had; for the low- toned comments behind him left no doubt in Archer's mind that the young woman was May Welland's cousin, the cousin always referred to in the family as "poor Ellen Olenska." Archer knew that she had suddenly arrived from Europe a day or two previously; he had even heard from Miss Welland (not disapprovingly) that she had been to see poor Ellen, who was staying with old Mrs. Mingott. Archer entirely approved of family solidarity, and one of the qualities he most admired in the Mingotts was their resolute championship of the few black sheep that their blameless stock had produced. There was nothing mean or ungenerous in the young man's heart, and he was glad that his future wife should not be restrained by false prudery from being kind (in private) to her unhappy cousin; but to receive Countess Olenska in the family circle was a different thing from producing her in public, at the Opera of all places, and in the very box with the young girl whose engagement to him, Newland Archer, was to be announced within a few weeks. No, he felt as old Sillerton Jackson felt; he did not think the Mingotts would have tried it on!
然而他們這樣做了。毫無疑義，他們是這樣做了；因爲阿切爾身後低聲的評論使他心中沒有絲毫懷疑，那位年輕女子就是梅·韋蘭的表姐，那位家裏人一直稱作“可憐的埃倫·奧蘭斯卡”的表姐。阿切爾知道她一兩天前突然從歐洲回來了，甚至還聽韋蘭小姐（並非不滿地）說過，她已經去看過可憐的埃倫了。她住在老明戈特太太那兒。阿切爾完全擁護家族的團結。他最崇拜的明戈特家族的品德之一，就是他們對家族中出的幾個不肖子弟的堅決支持。他並不自私，也不是小雞肚腸；他未來的妻子沒有受到假正經的侷限，能（私下）善待她不幸的表姐，他還爲此感到高興。然而，在家庭圈子內接待奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人是一回事，把她帶到公共場所，尤其是歌劇院這樣的地方，則是完全不同的另一回事。而且就在那位年輕姑娘的包廂裏，她與他紐蘭·阿切爾的訂婚消息幾周之內就要宣佈。是的，他的感覺與老西勒頓·傑克遜一樣：他沒想到明戈特家的人會擺出這種架式！
He knew, of course, that whatever man dared (within Fifth Avenue's limits) that old Mrs. Manson Mingott, the Matriarch of the line, would dare. He had always admired the high and mighty old lady, who, in spite of having been only Catherine Spicer of Staten Island, with a father mysteriously discredited, and neither money nor position enough to make people forget it, had allied herself with the head of the wealthy Mingott line, married two of her daughters to "foreigners" (an Italian marquis and an English banker), and put the crowning touch to her audacities by building a large house of pale cream-coloured stone (when brown sandstone seemed as much the only wear as a frock-coat in the afternoon) in an inaccessible wilderness near the Central Park.
他當然知道，男人敢做的任何事（第五大街範圍之內），老曼森·明戈特太太這位女族長都敢做。他一向崇拜這位高大剛毅的老夫人，儘管她原來不過是斯塔騰島的凱瑟琳·斯派塞，有一位神祕的名譽掃地的父親，那件事無論金錢還是地位都難以讓人們忘記。然而，她卻與富有的明戈特家族的領頭人聯了姻，把兩個女兒嫁給了 “外國人”（一個意大利侯爵，一個英國銀行家），並且在中央公園附近無法插足的荒地裏建了一所乳白色石頭大宅院（正值棕色沙石彷彿像下午的長禮服那樣青一色的時候），從而達到了登峯造極的地步。
Old Mrs. Mingott's foreign daughters had become a legend. They never came back to see their mother, and the latter being, like many persons of active mind and dominating will, sedentary and corpulent in her habit, had philosophically remained at home. But the cream- coloured house (supposed to be modelled on the private hotels of the Parisian aristocracy) was there as a visible proof of her moral courage; and she throned in it, among pre-Revolutionary furniture and souvenirs of the Tuileries of Louis Napoleon (where she had shone in her middle age), as placidly as if there were nothing peculiar in living above Thirty-fourth Street, or in having French windows that opened like doors instead of sashes that pushed up.
老明戈特太太的兩個外籍女兒成了一則神話故事。她們從不回來看望母親。母親依戀故土且身體肥胖，像許多思想活躍意志專橫的人那樣，一直達觀地留在家中，而那幢乳白色的房子（據說是仿照巴黎貴族的私人旅館建造的）卻成了她大無畏精神的見證。她在裏面登上寶座，平靜地生活在獨立戰爭前的傢俱與路易·拿破崙杜伊勒利宮（她中年時曾在那兒大出風頭）的紀念品中間，彷彿住在34街以北、用開得像門一樣大的法式窗戶代替推拉式吊窗絲毫不足爲怪似的。
Every one (including Mr. Sillerton Jackson) was agreed that old Catherine had never had beauty--a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings. Unkind people said that, like her Imperial namesake, she had won her way to success by strength of will and hardness of heart, and a kind of haughty effrontery that was somehow justified by the extreme decency and dignity of her private life. Mr. Manson Mingott had died when she was only twenty-eight, and had "tied up" the money with an additional caution born of the general distrust of the Spicers; but his bold young widow went her way fearlessly, mingled freely in foreign society, married her daughters in heaven knew what corrupt and fashionable circles, hobnobbed with Dukes and Ambassadors, associated familiarly with Papists, entertained Opera singers, and was the intimate friend of Mme. Taglioni; and all the while (as Sillerton Jackson was the first to proclaim) there had never been a breath on her reputation; the only respect, he always added, in which she differed from the earlier Catherine.
人人（包括西勒頓·傑克遜先生）都一致認爲，老凱瑟琳從沒擁有過美貌，而在紐約人眼中，美貌是成功的保證，也可作爲某些失敗的藉口。不友善的人們說，像她那位大英帝國的同名女人一樣，她獲得成功靠的是意志力量與冷酷心腸，外加一種由於私生活絕對正派而使她在一定程度上免遭非議的傲慢。曼森·明戈特先生去世的時候她只有28歲。出於對斯派塞家族的不信任，他用一條附加條款“凍結”了自己的遺產。他那位年輕、果敢的遺孀大無畏地走着自己的路，她無拘無束地混跡在外國的社交界，把女兒嫁到天知道何等腐化時髦的圈子裏，與公爵大使們開懷暢飲，與教皇政治家親密交往，款待歌劇演員，並做了芭蕾名門之後塔戈里奧尼夫人的密友。與此同時（正如西勒頓·傑克遜首先宣佈的），關於她的名聲卻從沒有一句口舌。這是她惟一一點，他總是接着說，與以前那位凱瑟琳的不同之處。
Mrs. Manson Mingott had long since succeeded in untying her husband's fortune, and had lived in affluence for half a century; but memories of her early straits had made her excessively thrifty, and though, when she bought a dress or a piece of furniture, she took care that it should be of the best, she could not bring herself to spend much on the transient pleasures of the table. Therefore, for totally different reasons, her food was as poor as Mrs. Archer's, and her wines did nothing to redeem it. Her relatives considered that the penury of her table discredited the Mingott name, which had always been associated with good living; but people continued to come to her in spite of the "made dishes" and flat champagne, and in reply to the remonstrances of her son Lovell (who tried to retrieve the family credit by having the best chef in New York) she used to say laughingly: "What's the use of two good cooks in one family, now that I've married the girls and can't eat sauces?"
曼森·明戈特太太早已解凍了丈夫的財產，並殷殷實實地活了半個世紀。早年困境的記憶使她格外節儉，雖然她在買衣服或添置傢俱時總是關照要最好的，但卻捨不得爲餐桌上瞬間的享樂過多破費。所以，由於完全不同的原因，她的飯菜跟阿切爾太太家一樣差，她的酒也不能爲之增光添彩。親戚們認爲，她餐桌上的吝嗇損害了明戈特家的名譽——它一向是與吃喝講究連在一起的。然而人們還是不顧那些“拼盤”與走味的香擯，繼續到她家來。針對她兒子洛弗爾的勸告（他企圖僱傭紐約最好的廚師以恢復家族的名譽），她常常笑着說：“既然姑娘們都嫁出去了，我又不能用調味品，一個家庭用兩個好廚師還有什麼用？”
Newland Archer, as he mused on these things, had once more turned his eyes toward the Mingott box. He saw that Mrs. Welland and her sister-in-law were facing their semicircle of critics with the Mingottian APLOMB which old Catherine had inculcated in all her tribe, and that only May Welland betrayed, by a heightened colour (perhaps due to the knowledge that he was watching her) a sense of the gravity of the situation. As for the cause of the commotion, she sat gracefully in her corner of the box, her eyes fixed on the stage, and revealing, as she leaned forward, a little more shoulder and bosom than New York was accustomed to seeing, at least in ladies who had reasons for wishing to pass unnoticed.
紐蘭·阿切爾一面沉思着這些事情，又把目光轉向了明戈特包廂。他見韋蘭太太與她的嫂嫂正帶着老凱瑟琳向族人灌輸的那種明戈特家特有的自恃面對着組成半圓形的批評者。只有梅·韋蘭面色緋紅（也許由於知道他在看她），流露出事態嚴峻的意味。至於引起騷動的那一位，依然優雅地坐在包廂角落裏，兩眼凝視着舞臺。由於身體前傾，她肩膀和胸部露得比紐約社會習慣看到的稍稍多了一點，至少在那些有理由希望不引起注意的女士們中間是如此。
Few things seemed to Newland Archer more awful than an offence against "Taste," that far-off divinity of whom "Form" was the mere visible representative and vicegerent. Madame Olenska's pale and serious face appealed to his fancy as suited to the occasion and to her unhappy situation; but the way her dress (which had no tucker) sloped away from her thin shoulders shocked and troubled him. He hated to think of May Welland's being exposed to the influence of a young woman so careless of the dictates of Taste.
在紐蘭·阿切爾看來，很少有什麼事比與“品味”相悖更難堪的了。品味是一種看不見的神韻，“舉止”僅僅是它直觀的替代物與代表。奧蘭斯卡夫人蒼白而嚴肅的面孔，按他的想象是適合於這種場合及她的不幸處境的，但她的衣服（沒有衣領）從那單薄的肩頭坡下去的樣式卻令他震驚不安。他不願設想梅·韋蘭受到一個如此不顧品味和情趣的年輕女子的影響。
"After all," he heard one of the younger men begin behind him (everybody talked through the Mephistopheles- and-Martha scenes), "after all, just WHAT happened?"
“究竟——”他聽到身後一個年輕人開口說（在靡菲斯特與瑪莎的幾場戲中，大家自始至終都在交談），“究竟發生了什麼事？”
"Well--she left him; nobody attempts to deny that."
“哦——她離開了他；誰也不想否認這一點。”
"He's an awful brute, isn't he?" continued the young enquirer, a candid Thorley, who was evidently preparing to enter the lists as the lady's champion.
“他是個可怕的畜牲，不是嗎？”年輕人接着說，他是索利家族中一位直率的人，顯然準備加入那位女士的護花使者之列。
"The very worst; I knew him at Nice," said Lawrence Lefferts with authority. "A half-paralysed white sneering fellow--rather handsome head, but eyes with a lot of lashes. Well, I'll tell you the sort: when he wasn't with women he was collecting china. Paying any price for both, I understand."
“一個糟糕透了的傢伙；我在尼斯見過他，”勞倫斯·萊弗茨以權威的口氣說。“老喝得半醉，蒼白的面孔上露出譏笑——但腦袋倒很漂亮，不過眼睫毛太多。噢，我來告訴你他那德行：他不是跟女人在一起，就是去收集瓷器。據我所知，他對兩者都不惜任何代價。”
There was a general laugh, and the young champion said: "Well, then----?"
這話引出一陣鬨堂大笑，那位年輕的護花使者說：“唔，可是——”
"Well, then; she bolted with his secretary."
“唔，可是，她跟他的祕書逃跑了。”
"Oh, I see." The champion's face fell.
“噢，我明白了。”護花使者的臉沉了下來。
"It didn't last long, though: I heard of her a few months later living alone in Venice. I believe Lovell Mingott went out to get her. He said she was desperately unhappy. That's all right--but this parading her at the Opera's another thing."
“可是，這並沒有持續多久：我聽說她幾個月後就獨自住在威尼斯，我相信洛弗爾·明戈特那次出國是去找她的。他曾說她非常地不快活。現在沒事了——不過在歌劇院裏這樣炫耀她卻另當別論。”
"Perhaps," young Thorley hazarded, "she's too unhappy to be left at home."
“也許，”那位小索利冒險地說，“她太不快活了，不會願意一個人被晾在家裏。”
This was greeted with an irreverent laugh, and the youth blushed deeply, and tried to look as if he had meant to insinuate what knowing people called a "double entendre."
這話引來一陣無禮的笑聲，年輕人臉色深紅，竭力裝出是想巧妙使用聰明人所說的“雙關語”的樣子。
"Well--it's queer to have brought Miss Welland, anyhow," some one said in a low tone, with a side- glance at Archer.
“唔——不管怎麼說，把韋蘭小姐帶來總是令人費解，”有人悄悄地說，一面斜視了阿切爾一眼。
"Oh, that's part of the campaign: Granny's orders, no doubt," Lefferts laughed. "When the old lady does a thing she does it thoroughly."
“噢，這是運動的一個組成部分嘛：肯定是老祖宗的命令，”萊弗茨笑着說。“老夫人要是幹一件事，總要幹得完全徹底。”
The act was ending, and there was a general stir in the box. Suddenly Newland Archer felt himself impelled to decisive action. The desire to be the first man to enter Mrs. Mingott's box, to proclaim to the waiting world his engagement to May Welland, and to see her through whatever difficulties her cousin's anomalous situation might involve her in; this impulse had abruptly overruled all scruples and hesitations, and sent him hurrying through the red corridors to the farther side of the house.
這一幕結束了，包廂裏一陣普遍的騷動。紐蘭·阿切爾突然感到必須採取果斷行動。他要第一個走進明戈特太太的包廂，第一個向期望中的社交界宣佈他與梅·韋蘭的訂婚消息，第一個去幫助她度過表姐的異常處境可能使她卷人的任何困難。這一衝動猛然間壓倒了一切顧慮與遲疑，促使他匆匆穿過一節節紅色走廊，向劇院較遠的一端走去。
As he entered the box his eyes met Miss Welland's, and he saw that she had instantly understood his motive, though the family dignity which both considered so high a virtue would not permit her to tell him so. The persons of their world lived in an atmosphere of faint implications and pale delicacies, and the fact that he and she understood each other without a word seemed to the young man to bring them nearer than any explanation would have done. Her eyes said: "You see why Mamma brought me," and his answered: "I would not for the world have had you stay away."
進入包廂的時候，他的眼睛遇到了韋蘭小姐的目光，而且他發現她立即明白了他的來意，儘管家族的尊嚴不允許她對他明講——兩個人都認爲這是一種很高尚的美德。他們這個圈子的人都生活在一種含而不露、稍顯矜持的氣氛中，年輕人覺得，他與她不用說一句話就能互相溝通，任何解釋都不能使他們更加貼近。她的眼睛在說：“你明白媽媽爲什麼帶我來。”他的眼睛則回答：“無論如何我都不肯讓你離開這兒。”
"You know my niece Countess Olenska?" Mrs. Welland enquired as she shook hands with her future son- in-law. Archer bowed without extending his hand, as was the custom on being introduced to a lady; and Ellen Olenska bent her head slightly, keeping her own pale-gloved hands clasped on her huge fan of eagle feathers. Having greeted Mrs. Lovell Mingott, a large blonde lady in creaking satin, he sat down beside his betrothed, and said in a low tone: "I hope you've told Madame Olenska that we're engaged? I want everybody to know--I want you to let me announce it this evening at the ball."
“你認識我的侄女奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人嗎？”韋蘭太太與她未來的女婿握手時問道。按照引見給女士的習慣，阿切爾欠一下身子，沒有伸出手；埃倫·奧蘭斯卡輕輕低一下頭，兩隻戴淺色手套的手繼續握着那把大鷹毛扇子。與洛弗爾·明戈特太太打過招呼——她是個大塊頭的金髮女人，穿一身悉索作響的緞子衣裙——他在未婚妻的身旁坐下，低聲說：“我希望你已經告訴奧蘭斯卡夫人我們訂婚了吧？我想讓每個人都知道——我要你允許我今晚在舞會上宣佈。”
Miss Welland's face grew rosy as the dawn, and she looked at him with radiant eyes. "If you can persuade Mamma," she said; "but why should we change what is already settled?" He made no answer but that which his eyes returned, and she added, still more confidently smiling: "Tell my cousin yourself: I give you leave. She says she used to play with you when you were children."
韋蘭小姐的臉變成曙光般的玫瑰紅色，她兩眼發光地看着他。“如果你能說服媽媽的話，”她說，“不過，已經定了的事，幹嗎要改變呢？”他沒有說話，只用眼睛做了回答。她信心更足地笑着補充說：“你自己告訴我表姐吧，我允許你。她說你還是孩子的時候，她常和你一起玩耍。”
She made way for him by pushing back her chair, and promptly, and a little ostentatiously, with the desire that the whole house should see what he was doing, Archer seated himself at the Countess Olenska's side.
她把椅子向後推了推，給他讓出了路。阿切爾懷着一種讓全場的人都能看見自己的舉動的願望，立刻示威性地坐到了奧蘭斯卡伯爵夫人身邊。
"We DID use to play together, didn't we?" she asked, turning her grave eyes to his. "You were a horrid boy, and kissed me once behind a door; but it was your cousin Vandie Newland, who never looked at me, that I was in love with." Her glance swept the horse-shoe curve of boxes. "Ah, how this brings it all back to me--I see everybody here in knickerbockers and pantalettes," she said, with her trailing slightly foreign accent, her eyes returning to his face.
“我們過去的確常在一起玩，不是嗎？”她問道，一面用嚴肅的目光看着他的眼睛。“你那時是個很討厭的男孩，有一次你在門後面吻了我，但那時我愛上的卻是你的堂兄範迪·紐蘭，可他從來不看我一眼。”她的目光掃視着那些馬蹄形排列的包廂。“啊，這場面多讓我回想起過去的一切啊——我發現這裏人人都穿燈籠褲或寬鬆褲，”她帶着略微拖長的異國口音說，目光又回到他的臉上。
Agreeable as their expression was, the young man was shocked that they should reflect so unseemly a picture of the august tribunal before which, at that very moment, her case was being tried. Nothing could be in worse taste than misplaced flippancy; and he answered somewhat stiffly: "Yes, you have been away a very long time."
這番話儘管表達的感情是令人愉快的，卻竟然使他想到了威嚴的法庭，這一不相稱的聯想令年輕人感到震驚。而此時此刻，這個法庭就擺在她的面前，她的案子正在進行審理。沒有什麼東西比不合時宜的輕率更有傷大雅了。他有點生硬地回答說：“是啊，你離開這兒已經很久了。”
"Oh, centuries and centuries; so long," she said, "that I'm sure I'm dead and buried, and this dear old place is heaven;" which, for reasons he could not define, struck Newland Archer as an even more disrespectful way of describing New York society.
“啊，好像有好幾百年了。太久了，”她說，“讓我覺得自己已經死了，被埋掉了，而這方親切的故土就是天堂。”說不清是什麼理由，紐蘭·阿切爾只覺得這樣形容紐約社會就更加失禮了。
雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(1)
