1705001682 ● burned to its bones：烧到骨头里去；烧完。

1705001683

1705001684 ● summing up：总括。这幢房子把她的一生（回忆）都包括在内了（房子烧掉，把许多可以引起过去生活的联想的东西都烧掉了）。

1705001685

1705001686 ● 第二句动词（was included）在先，主语（everything）在后，为加强logically included之用。everything…：这个女人所经历的一切，都包括在这座房子里。包括在内，是理之当然，故曰logically。但是作者并不说“包括在这座房子里”，而把“房子”这一概念分成三点来说，一是“屋顶的斜度”，二是“壁橱里的空地位”，三是“房子僻处乡间的形势”。这三点恐怕是房子主人随便想起来的，但是当一个人想起一座房子的时候，很少会空空洞洞地想到房子而已，很容易想起它的屋顶是怎么的，壁橱里可以放些什么东西，左右邻居又是怎么的等等。

1705001687

1705001688 ● and以下另一从句，结构如前，她以前所住过的房子也都包括在里边——过去生活的回忆，重重叠叠，层层交织，不可分割，现在一起都要烧去了。

1705001689

1705001690 When, shortly before, the housekeeper had come pounding on her door, screaming, beating on the wood, “Wake up, wake up quick, Mrs. James! The furnace has burst, the house is afire, get up quick!” She had had time to get the bracelet and bring it out. She had, half consciously, gone to the window and called for help. Then she had wrapped herself in a heavy gray dressing gown and had looked around the room deciding whether to take out her fur coats and some letters. In her mind’s eye she had seen the bracelet lying in the top drawer of her green French Provencal dressing table along with the other trinkets. She had had time to think, No, I won’t take it; leave it where it is. So, remembering now the bracelet’s earlier associations, which for many years she had forgotten, she was more glad than ever that it was gone. She was honest enough to admit that life had failed her. And as between apathy and pain she had made her choice.

1705001691

1705001692 ● 女主人面对大火，回首前尘，想起了丈夫于某年圣诞节所送给她的一只手镯（bracelet）。手镯象征了他们婚姻生活的幸福，现在他们的婚姻既已破裂，她不愿意再想起这只手镯，也不愿意把它从火里救出来。本段之前，原文有三段回忆描写，今已节去。

1705001693

1705001694 ● 本段开始，她想起了火起之时，她于睡梦中惊醒，仓皇呼救逃生这一段情景。

1705001695

1705001696 ● pounding：用力地打。beating on the wood：打门。管家婆来报讯的时候，她还有工夫把手镯抢救出来。

1705001697

1705001698 ● 第二三两句叙她惊醒后所做的事：迷迷糊糊地跑到窗口去叫救命，披起一件灰色的厚晨服，把全身裹住，再检点一下什么东西该抢救出去。

1705001699

1705001700 ● In her mind’s eye：脑筋里很清楚地想到，好像看见一般。drawer：抽屉。dressing table：梳妆台。Provencal：法国东南部式的（家具的一种形式）。trinkets：小件珠宝玩物。

1705001701

1705001702 ● She had had time to think之后跟的是直接引语，可是把引号省去了。

1705001703

1705001704 ● So, remembering now之now又跳到她在火场前的那时候了。读英美新派的心理小说，一定要把书中主角所处的时间空间，时时留心辨明，才有线索可寻。因为近代心理小说的特点，就是描写“回忆”，而且是把“回忆”同“眼前情景”夹杂着写，看惯十八、十九世纪那种条理清楚、层次井然的小说的读者，乍读新派小说，往往有“茫无头绪，不知所云”之感。

1705001705

1705001706 ● associations：联想。想起了当初和手镯有关的种种联想，她想把它丢了也好。admit：承认。life had failed her：生命没有给她什么好处。

1705001707

1705001708 ● apathy：麻木，尤其指对于痛苦的麻木。pain：痛苦。痛苦与麻木之间，她挑选了一样。把手镯带出去，过去的一切悲喜哀乐，又要在她心头重演，这是所谓“痛苦”。让火把手镯给烧了，把过去都毁灭了，这是所谓“麻木”。两者之间，她早已经决定了采取一样。as between这一phrase，是从as for（至于）化出来的。这里的as不可省。

1705001709

1705001710 As if to test that decision, the fire peeled off one wall of the house, and the room she had just left opened up before her. There was no distortion; the fire illumined and had not begun to destroy the room which she suddenly realized was dear to her. There was the Provencal dressing table, bought for a white-plastered bedroom they had had in a house in the Berkeley hills.

1705001711

1705001712 ● peeled off：剥去。屋子有一面的墙已经烧去，但是烧得很快，干净利落，好像剥去一层皮似的。

1705001713

1705001714 ● 墙剥去以后，她的卧室赫然在目，好像要考验（test）她所下的决心似的：到底她真是麻木呢，还是痛苦。she had just left是定语从句。

1705001715

1705001716 ● 她的卧室还没有烧坏，还没有走样（distortion）。illumined：照亮。火还没有把房间毁了，只是把它照亮了，使她看得更清楚。realized：觉悟。

1705001717

1705001718 ● 盛手镯的梳妆台就在眼前。她想起了这只梳妆台还是以前住在别所房子的时候所买，后来搬来的。white-plastered：四周墙壁和天花板涂白灰的。

1705001719

1705001720 Now she saw the fire whirl up in a rotating gesture to snatch the clock and the vase with its white flowers, and, as if that were the signal for holocaust, the room was blotted out in a dance of up-prancing, laughing, clapping flames and the dressing table writhed in their grip. I never saw the bed, she thought, nor the curtains, the fabrics I loved. Now they were gone and, again to her surprise, she was grieved; she had thought she was immune to simple emotions like nostalgia or the faint sadness of having old friends depart who forget to say good-by.

1705001721

1705001722 ● whirl up：回旋而上。in a rotating gesture：以旋转之势。snatch：抢走，攫取。形容火势之迅速。

1705001723

1705001724 ● holocaust原意为“燔祭”，烧全牛全羊以祭神，转为“彻底毁灭”，尤其是用火来烧毁的。signal：信号。火把台钟和花瓶一烧去，好像是一声信号似的，立刻火势大作。blotted out：涂没。满室是火，房间都看不见了。

1705001725

1705001726 ● 形容flames的三个形容词都很有力量：prancing原意为马用后脚站起来跳，借作“跳跃”。up-prancing：往上跳的。laughing, clapping：火焰会笑，会鼓掌吗？这三个形容词都和前面的名词dance呼应。

1705001727

1705001728 ● writhed：辗转反侧，受煎熬之状。in their grip：在火焰的魔掌之中。盛手镯的梳妆台终于不保了。

1705001729

1705001730 ● she thought的前后是没有加引号的直接引语。从墙壁被剥去，到卧室被毁，只有很短的时间，她来不及周览全室，很多东西已经不可复见了。床没有见到，帐子幕帘等也没有见到，而这些编织物（fabrics）是她所喜欢的。fabrics是curtains的同位语。

1705001731

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