打字猴:1.705001693e+09
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
1705001732 ● again to her surprise:又是使她惊奇的。她历经沧桑,自以为已经磨炼得心如铁石,冷酷无情。不料今晚大火一起,所见所思,无不触目惊心,甚至悲从中来,她自己也觉得惊奇起来了。
1705001733
1705001734 ● immune(形容词):有力抗拒,不受支配或伤害。其所以“支配”或“伤害”的东西放在介词to(或from或against)之后。她本来以为(had thought)她可以不受简单情感的支配。简单的情感有两个例子,一是思乡病(nostalgia),一是当老朋友远行忘了来辞行时所感觉到的那种“淡淡的轻愁”(faint sadness)。这一类的情感,她自以为是不能支配她的了。现在床和帐子被焚,其最后一瞥,她竟亦未能见到,直如老友之不辞而别,心中难免怅然耳。
1705001735
1705001736 Someone was walking that way, hailing her. “They’ve got here at last, Mrs. James. They may be able to save some of the things downstairs.”
1705001737
1705001738 “It’s all right.” She did not try to compete with fire and hose roar and the bells of rescuers arriving.
1705001739
1705001740 “What?” the voice shouted to her. “What did you say?”
1705001741
1705001742 “Never mind.”
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