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现代英文选评注 Natives Don’t Cry亨利小姐的信
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Kay Boyle (1902—1992)
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作者凯·博伊尔为美国现代女作家，生于明尼苏达州之圣保罗（St. Paul），曾在欧洲各处寄居多年，著书有长篇及短篇小说集多种。
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博伊尔的文字很简单，故事亦不离奇曲折，然而轻描淡写之中，言似未尽而意亦未尽，颇耐人寻味。其描绘人生，凄怆处有含蓄，挖苦处存忠厚，哀而不怨，谑而不虐，皆深得“简约”之妙者。本文原题直译应为“土人是不哭的”，与全文有何关系，在下面注解中再研究，今姑且译为“亨利小姐的信”。原文见其短篇小说集《维也纳之白马》（The White Horses of Vienna），1937年出版，1949年收入英国“企鹅丛书”。
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We went to Austria that summer, and Miss Henley came to us the night before we left. She was not very pleased to come, but it was only for the month, so she came as a gift to us. She did not believe she would like us because of the hotel, where we were in London and because of the colour of mother’s hair. She did not say these things to us in the same words, but she said them in other ways so that we knew.
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● We：从下文看来，指的是一家到欧洲去旅行的美国人：父亲、母亲、两个女小孩、一个男小孩。全篇叙事都是用一个女小孩的第一人称的口气。that summer：某年夏天。年代可能隔得很远。
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● Miss Henley的职位是保姆兼家庭教师，所谓governess便是。她是英国人，临时在英国受那美国家庭之聘，随赴奥地利，照料孩子。
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● 第二句说她不大高兴来，可是因为好歹只有一个月，勉强答应的。由此可见亨利小姐是个架子相当大的人。
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● gift 本意是“礼物”：自己没有出钱、别人好意送来的东西谓之“礼物”。我们不好算是出钱雇她的，只好算是她来帮我们的忙的。
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● 第三句还是说明这位小姐架子之大，而且夹着一点脾气怪僻在里面。她以为她不会喜欢我们这一家人的，第一因为是我们在伦敦所住的旅馆（不中她的意）；第二因为是母亲头发的颜色（也不中她的意）。
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● 她的话并不是这样说的。措辞虽然不同，话里的意思是一样的，所以我们听得出来（so that we knew）。
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We thought she was fifty because she had no colour in her face, and her hair was pinned back in a knot in her neck, and it was grey near the ears. Father took her passport on the French side, and when he came back to the car he said:
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“I think you’re much too young to be leaving home, Miss Henley.”
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● colour：肤色之红润。knot：发髻。pinned back：梳到后面去，用发针扣住的。头发在脑后扣成一个髻，打扮不像少女。
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● near the ears：耳旁之头发，约相当于中文的“鬓”。
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● passport：护照。一行人到了法国，护照统归父亲拿去办理过境手续。父亲从她的护照里看见了她的年龄。
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● to be leaving home在to leave home之外更多一层“正在路上”的意思。假如说you’re too young to leave home，这可能表示根本还没有动身。much加强too的意思。
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“Miss Henley’s almost as young as you girls,” said father, and we saw the colour run into her cheeks. “She’s only twenty-five!”
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“How old did you think I was?” she said, and Francis said: “A hundred.”
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But he was so young there was nothing to say to him. It was just a number he had heard somewhere.
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● Miss Henley’s=Miss Henley is。
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● How old did you think I was? 你们现在是知道我的年纪了，你们本来以为我是多大了？动词用过去式。
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● Francis是小弟弟的名字。他脱口而出地说是“一百岁”。
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● so young的后面省去了一个that。他年纪太小了，跟他没有什么好说的。他说“一百”，并不是真懂什么意思，不知道他哪里听来这样一个数目字而已。
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She had been born in Burma, she was a civil servant’s daughter, and she had no patience for the ways of any children except the children she and her brothers had been. In the hotels at night she took their pictures from her bag and set them on the bureau. She spoke of them all, and of the places they had lived. And she spoke of them only a little at a time, and not too often, as if they were too good to be given quite away.
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