1705005919

1705005920 She never told her love except to Smith Harvey, the boy she married. She had had to tell someone and it was Smith she told inevitably. Smith was a junior at the University of Rochester when she was a freshman. They had met during her first year and, with no thought of the marriage that was to take place later, had started going together. One Saturday he took her to the matinée at the Lyceum to see the famous Constance Hope and her leading man Gavin Douglas in Romeo and Juliet. She had fallen in love at sight with the handsome actor, and through him (though no two men in the world could have been more unlike) with Smith Harvey.

1705005921

1705005922 ● 她私下恋慕之情，不得不对人说。她那时有一个男朋友，很自然地（inevitably）她就对他说了。

1705005923

1705005924 ● junior：三年级学生。University of Rochester：在纽约州的Rochester。

1705005925

1705005926 ● started going together：开始一同出去玩。他们以后结为夫妇，但是在开始的时候，他们并没有想到婚姻之事。take place：发生或举行。“婚姻发生”是很坏的中文，可是这是合口语习惯的英文的。

1705005927

1705005928 ● the Lyceum：戏院名。以前上海有家同名的戏院，中文译名为“兰心”，此字原指雅典一处花园，当年亚里斯多德讲学之所。注意：戏院的Theater可以不写出来，但冠词the非加不可。同样的，扬子江的英文名称，可以不说River，但是冠词the非加不可。

1705005929

1705005930 ● Constance Hope想是比Douglas更有名的女伶，leading man：男主角。

1705005931

1705005932 ● through him：因为爱舞台上的罗密欧，也连带地爱上了台下的男同学。虽然这两个人绝不相像：天下人之间个性的不同，无有过于他们两个人者。一个是热情奔放的罗密欧，至于另外一个，我们前面已经有了一点认识，他同他的儿子一样，是缺乏想象力的。

1705005933

1705005934 She loved her husband and had always loved him, but somehow married love had never quite come up to what she had seen and felt that afternoon across the footlights. What puzzled her was the question that baffled her to this day: What was the nature of that youthful ardor, what did love of that kind really consist of, what was it? Illusion, perhaps; poetry and Shakespeare and the actor’s art. But could make-believe—make-believe and nothing more—cause her to experience love, really experience it, so powerfully that it still held after twenty years of a marriage which, at its worst, had never been unhappy? No, she could not believe it had been illusion merely. It was something in the nature of Gavin Douglas, a special ardor he possessed that other men did not, a mysterious and ineffable quality in the artist. What she and Smith had together had lasted and would always last; it was durable and sound. Yet the other was durable, too; how else could she respond to, and even feel again, at this very moment, that powerful emotion that Romeo had given her from the stage?—pure, heart-piercing, like the poetry he spoke…

1705005935

1705005936 ● 这一段分析夫妻之爱和浪漫的爱之间的不同。但这不是说理文章（小说中最好不要插入说理文章），这里仍旧是在描写女主角的心理，她觉得爱情有两种，夫妻间的恩爱似乎还不能满足她心里的要求。

1705005937

1705005938 ● somehow：不知怎么的。married love：夫妻之爱。come up to：达到（她所见所感的那种热烈的情形）。footlights：舞台前面的一排照明灯。across the footlights：隔了这么一排的灯；（台下人）所看到的台上。

1705005939

1705005940 ● that baffled her to this day：这个问题她至今不能索解。

1705005941

1705005942 ● 这个问题作者用三种方式来表达：那种青春热情（youthful ardor）的性质是什么？那一种的爱到底是什么东西所组成的？它到底是什么东西？

1705005943

1705005944 ● Illusion：幻觉。

1705005945

1705005946 ● make-believe：假戏，以假作真的东西。台上所看到的只是演员的艺术，所听到的只是莎士比亚的诗句，这些并不是真人真事——但是这种以假作真的东西竟能使她经验到“爱”吗？

1705005947

1705005948 ● really experience it, so powerfully (experience it)：这种话重复地说，更可以表示女主角强烈的感情。held（不及物动词）：保持不失。at its worst：二十年的婚姻，当然不能说一无阴翳，但是在最坏的时候，她的婚姻并不是不快乐的。a marriage：冠词a用得很好。先用不定冠词，范围不加限制；然后接着用一个限制性的定语从句（restrictive clause），把性质确定。这一种用法是很常见的。

1705005949

1705005950 ● No：这一段是心理描写，难免有自问自答的话。戏台上的爱情只是幻觉吗？不是的。it had been illusion：动词时态表示，这是专指“那天下午”所看到的戏。

1705005951

1705005952 ● It was something中的It，仍是代替love。这种爱是那演员性格（nature）里的某种性质（something）。a special ardor和something是同位语。other men did not=other men did not possess。

1705005953

1705005954 ● something这个字用处很大。凡是抽象的性质，作者怕一下子说不清楚，都可暂时用这个字来代替，多用抽象的名词和形容词，文章可能成为古板；something是一个容易为读者所接受的字，用了它，文章就较流畅。但是something意义广泛，作者仍旧应该设法用比较确定的字眼把意义说明白。这里作者用了两个同位格的词，加以说明补充：一个是a special ardor，第二个是a mysterious and ineffable（言语难以表达的）quality。

1705005955

1705005956 ● 代替抽象名词的除something外，更可以用“what”clasue。本段第一句what she had seen and felt就是一个例子。这里What she and Smith had together也是一样。“她和她丈夫所共有”，是什么东西呢？当然是夫妻之间的恩爱。但是作者为了避免多用love之类的抽象名词，用了这样一个名词性从句。读者诸君于习作英文论说文时，如觉得抽象名词运用不易，这里所介绍的补救办法，不妨一试。

1705005957

1705005958 ● 他们夫妻间的爱情，历久不衰（had lasted）；以后始终如一，也是在意料之中。这无疑是一种持久（durable）健全（sound）的爱。

1705005959

1705005960 ● respond to：感应。请注意：英文逗点的用法和中文不同。我们写中文时，很少把动词和它的宾语用逗点分开来的。这里respond to的宾语是that powerful emotion，但是二者隔得很远，中间用了三个逗点。

1705005961

1705005962 ● 舞台上那种浪漫的爱，也是能持久不变的；要不然的话（else），她怎么此刻（at this very moment）对于那种强烈的感情，仍旧能发生感应呢？非但发生感应而已，她心里还能够体会到那种感情。

1705005963

1705005964 ● 最后几个字形容emotion：纯洁而摧人肝肠的感情，如同他所念的（剧中的）诗句一般。（按：莎士比亚的戏剧中的对白大半均系诗句。）

1705005965

1705005966 To this day she had only to pick up the play at any time and read again that passionate but plaintive plea

1705005967

1705005968 　　O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

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