The Snob Morley Callaghan原文加译文
2013-06-24 18:19阅读：
The Snob
Morley Callaghan
IT WAS at the book counter in the department store that John
Harcourt, the student, caught a glimpse of his father. At first he
could not be sure in the crowd that pushed along the aisle, but
there was something about the color of the back of the elderly
man’s neck, something about the faded felt hat, that he knew very
well.
就在一家百货商店的图书专柜旁，大学生约翰·哈克特一眼就看见了父亲。在过道里挤挤插插的人群中，起初，他不能肯定，可是那老人的后颈根，还有那褪了色的毡帽，他是多么熟悉啊！
Harcourt was standing with the girl he loved, buying a book for
her. All afternoon he had been talking to her, eagerly, but with an
anxious diffidence, as if there still remained in him an innocent
wonder that she should be delighted to be with him. From underneath
her wide-brimmed1 straw hat, her face, so fair and beautifully
strong with its expression of cool independence, kept turning up to
him and sometimes smiled at what he said. That was the way they
always talked, never daring to show much full, strong feeling.
Harcourt had just bo
ught the book, and had reached into his pocket for the money with a
free, ready gesture to make it appear that he was accustomed to
buying books for young ladies, when the white-haired man in the
faded felt hat, at the other end of the counter, turned half-toward
him, and Harcourt knew he was standing only a few feet away from
his father.
这时他正站在自己心爱的姑娘身边，买本书送给她。整个下午，他一直跟姑娘亲切地谈着，可心里总有点胆怯不安，想不到姑娘竟乐意跟自己在一起，真叫他有点受宠若惊。格雷丝昂脸望着哈克特，在那宽边草帽下面，她的面孔显得那么白皙娇嫩、妩媚动人，神态是那么文静端庄，不时对他说的话报以嫣然一笑。他们总是用这种方式谈着，从不流露出过分强烈的感情。哈克特刚买好书，用潇洒自如的姿态把手伸进口袋里去掏钱，显得是为妙龄女郎买书的老手哩！在这当儿，柜台另一端一位戴着褪色毡帽的白发老人突然侧面转向他，哈克特这才发现离父亲只有几步之遥了。
The young man’s easy words trailed away and his voice became little
more than a whisper, as if he were afraid that everyone in the
store might recognize it. There was rising in him a dreadful
uneasiness; something very precious that he wanted to hold seemed
close to destruction. His father, standing at the end of the
bargain counter, was planted squarely on his two feet, turning a
book over thoughtfully in his hands. Then he took out his glasses
from an old, worn leather case and adjusted them on the end of his
nose, looking down over them at the book. His coat was thrown open,
two buttons on his vest were undone, his hair was too long, and in
his rather shabby clothes he looked very much like a workingman, a
carpenter perhaps. Such a resentment rose in young Harcourt that he
wanted to cry out bitterly, “Why does he dress as if he never owned
a decent suit in his life? He doesn’t care what the whole world
thinks of him. He never did. I’ve told him a hundred times he ought
to wear his good clothes when he goes out. Mother’s told him the
same thing. He just laughs. And now Grace may see him. Grace will
meet him.”
年轻人从容的谈吐顿时销声匿迹了。声音小得几乎是在窃窃私语，生怕让别人听见，心里真是十五个吊桶打水七上八下，就像他想珍藏的宝贝马上就要毁掉似的。柜台那边，父亲两脚岔开站着，正专心致志地翻阅手中的一本书。接着，他又从一只破旧不堪的皮盒中取出眼镜，往鼻尖上一扣，低头透过眼镜看起书来，上衣敞着，背心上两个纽扣也没扣上，头发长得不像样子，再加上那褴褛的衣着，看上去真像个做工的，倒很像个木匠。一种怨恨的情绪涌上心头，使得哈克特真想大声抱怨一番。“他干吗要穿得这样寒呛，好像这辈子连件像样的衣服都没有似的。他根本不在乎外界人会怎样看待它，从来也不在乎那一套。我告诉过他一百遍了，出去时要穿得好一点。母亲也这样说，可是他只是一笑了之。现在格雷丝也许就要看到他了，就要和他见面了。”
So young Harcourt stood still, with his head down, feeling that
something very painful was impending. Once he looked anxiously at
Grace, who had turned to the bargain counter. Among those people
drifting aimlessly by with hot red faces, getting in each other’s
way, using their elbows but keeping their faces detached and
wooden, she looked tall and splendidly alone. She was so sure of
herself, her relation to the people in the aisles, the clerks
behind the counters, the books on the shelves, and everything
around her. Still keeping his head down and moving close, he
whispered uneasily, “Let’s go and have tea somewhere, Grace.”
这样年青的哈克特低头站在那里，一动不动，预感到某种非常痛苦的事情即将发生。他忐忑不安地看了格雷丝一眼，见她正回头转向那柜台。在那川流不息、你推我搡、汗流满面、呆若木鸡的人群中，她显得多么亭亭玉立、秀丽出众呀！面对走廊上的人流、柜台后的营业员和那一架架的图书以及一切的一切，她流露出一种泰然自若、从容不迫的神态。哈克特仍然低着头，凑近格雷丝怯声怯气地说道：“格雷丝，咱们找个地方喝茶去吧！”
“In a minute, dear,” she said.
“Let’s go now.”
“In just a minute, dear,” she repeated absently.
“There’s not a breath of air in here. Let’s go now.”
“What makes you so impatient?”
“There’s nothing but old books on that counter.”
“There may be something here I’ve wanted all my life,” she said,
smiling at him brightly and not noticing the uneasiness in his
face.
“亲爱的，等一会。”
“我们现在就走吧。”
“稍等一会儿，亲爱的，”她心不在焉地重复了一句。
“这儿简直让人透不过气来，咱们马上就走吧！”
“你怎么这样不耐烦呢？”
“这儿尽是些破书，真叫人心烦。”
“这儿说不定会碰上我想要买的东西呢。”
她笑容可掬地说，没注意到哈克特脸上那焦躁不安的神色。
So Harcourt had to move slowly behind her, getting closer to his
father all the time. He could feel the space that separated them
narrowing. Once he looked up with a vague, sidelong glance. But his
father, red-faced and happy, was still reading the book, only now
there was a meditative expression on his face, as if something in
the book had stirred him and he intended to stay there reading for
some time.
这样一来哈克特只好跟在她身后慢吞吞地挪步。离父亲越来越近了，他能感到他们之间的距离在缩小。偶尔他抬起头来模模糊糊地瞟了一眼，见他那气色红润，心情愉快的父亲还是在看那本书，只是现在脸上露出沉思的表情，似乎书里的情节打动了他，使他决意再看一会。
Old Harcourt had lots of time to amuse himself, because he was on a
pension after working hard all his life. He had sent John to the
university and he was eager to have him distinguish himself. Every
night when John came home, whether it was early or late, he used to
go into his father and mother’s bedroom and turn on the light and
talk to them about the interesting things that had happened to him
during the day. They listened and shared this new world with him.
They both sat up in their night clothes and, while his mother asked
all the questions, his father listened attentively with his head
cocked on one side and a smile or a frown on his face. The memory
of all this was in John now, and there was also a desperate longing
and a pain within him growing harder to bear as he glanced
fearfully at his father, but he thought stubbornly, “I can’t
introduce him. It’ll be easier for everybody if he doesn’t see us.
I’m not ashamed. But it will be easier. It’ll be more sensible.
It’ll only embarrass him to see Grace.” By this time he knew he was
ashamed, but he felt that his shame was justified, for Grace’s
father had the smooth, confident manner of a man who had lived all
his life among people who were rich and sure of themselves. Often
when he had been in Grace’s home talking politely to her mother,
John had kept on thinking of the plainness of his own home and of
his parents’ laughing, good-natured untidiness, and he resolved
desperately that he must make Grace’s people admire him.
老哈克特悠闲自在，辛苦了一辈子现在靠退休金生活。他送哈克特上大学，希望儿子出人头地。每天晚上哈克特到家后，无论早晚，总要到父亲卧室里打开灯谈谈一天的轶闻趣事。老俩口倾听着，分享儿子那新生活的乐趣。老俩口穿着睡衣坐起来，母亲问长问短，父亲侧耳倾听，时而微笑，时而蹙眉。这一切哈克特当时是记忆犹新的。同时，他在畏惧地朝父亲瞥了一眼的当儿，一种令人绝望的渴望和痛苦笼罩心头，使他越来越难以忍受。但是他还是固执地认为：“我不能把父亲介绍给格雷丝，如果他没看见我们，大家都轻松些，我倒并不是怕丢脸，不过这样更轻松些更明智些。这种场合见到格雷丝只会使父亲感到难堪。”不过就在此时此刻，他明白自己的确因为父亲的寒呛相而感到丢脸。但这能怪他吗？要知道人家格雷丝的父亲总是那样温文尔雅，从容不迫。人家可是一辈子跟有钱有势的人打交道的呀！在格雷丝家里，每当和她母亲彬彬有礼交谈时，他禁不住想到自己那清贫的家庭，双亲那爽朗的笑声以及漫不经心的不修边幅。这是他下了狠心一定要让格雷丝一家看重他。
He looked up cautiously, for they were about eight feet away from
his father, but at that moment his father, too, looked up and
John’s glance shifted swiftly far over the aisle, over the
counters, seeing nothing. As his father’s blue, calm eyes stared
steadily over the glasses, there was an instant when their glances
might have met. Neither one could have been certain, yet John, as
he turned away and began to talk hurriedly to Grace, knew surely
that his father had seen him. He knew it by the steady calmness in
his father’s blue eyes. John’s shame grew, and then humiliation
sickened him as he waited and did nothing.
他小心翼翼地抬起头来，看到距父亲只有七八步远了。恰巧这是父亲也抬起头来，哈克特把目光迅速移开，扫过国道，扫向柜台，眼前一片茫然。父亲那双碧蓝的眼睛透过眼镜，射出深沉的目光凝视前方。在这一刹那他们的目光本来就会碰到一起的，也许双方谁也没有看清楚。而这是哈克特立克转过身子，匆匆和格雷丝交谈起来。他内心是一清二楚的：父亲已经看到他了。从父亲碧蓝的眼睛射出的深沉的目光中，他看出了这一点。约翰越发感到羞愧无比，问心有愧的羞辱缠住了他，使他茫然不知所措。
His father turned away, going down the aisle, walking erectly in
his shabby clothes, his shoulders very straight, never once looking
back. His father would walk slowly down the street, he knew, with
that meditative expression deepening and becoming grave.
父亲转过身子沿着过道走去，穿着那破旧的衣衫挺起胸脯，头也不回，直挺挺地走着。他知道父亲又会和往常一样沿街慢慢地走着，不过那深沉的表情会变得越发深沉，几乎变得愁眉不展了。
Young Harcourt stood beside Grace, brushing against her soft
shoulder, and made faintly aware again of the delicate scent she
used. There, so close beside him, she was holding within her
everything he wanted to reach out for, only now he felt a sharp
hostility that made him sullen and silent.
年青的哈克特站在格雷丝身边。轻轻碰着她那柔软的肩头，又闻到那沁人心脾的香气。她站在那儿，离他多近啊，她具有的一切都是他所向往得到的。只是眼下一种明显的敌意使他怒气冲冲，一言不发。
“You were right, John,” she was drawling in her soft voice. “It
does get unbearable in here on a hot day. Do let’s go now. Have you
ever noticed that department stores after a time can make you
really hate people?” But she smiled when she spoke, so he might see
that she really hated no one.
“You don’t like people, do you?” he said sharply.
“People? What people? What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he went on irritably, “you don’t like the kind of people
you bump into here, for example.”
“Not especially. Who does? What are you talking about?”
“Anybody could see you don’t,” he said recklessly, full of a savage
eagerness to hurt her. “I say you don’t like simple, honest people,
the kind of people you meet all over the city.” He blurted the
words out as if he wanted to shake her, but he was longing to say,
“You wouldn’t like my family. Why couldn’t I take you home to have
dinner with them? You’d turn up your nose at them, because they’ve
no pretensions2. As soon as my father saw you, he knew you wouldn’t
want to meet him. I could tell by the way he turned.”
“约翰，还是你说得对。”她用温柔的语调慢声拉语地说：“大热天到这儿来真让人受不了，咱们这就走吧。你注意到没有，在百货商店里稍待一会儿以后就会弄得你真的讨厌起人来。”她说着便笑了，显而易见她实际上并不讨厌谁。
“你讨厌人是吗？”他突如其来地说。
“人？什么人？你怎么了？”
“我是说”他愤愤地往下说道：“你讨厌在这儿碰到的那种人，对不对？”
“我没那样啊！谁那样啦？你在讲些什么呀？”
“谁都能看出你讨厌人，”他粗鲁地说道，满心想刺伤对方。
“我是说你讨厌纯朴忠厚的人，讨厌今天在城里到处遇到的那种人。”他信口雌黄说出这一席话，好像是想激怒对方。其实他是想说：“你不喜欢我们一家人。为什么我不能领你到我家吃饭呢？就是因为他们地位低，你会瞧不起他们。我爸爸一眼就知道你不想见他，从他转身就走的那付样子就可以看得出来。”
His father was on his way home now, he knew, and that evening at
dinner they would meet. His mother and sister would talk rapidly,
but his father would say nothing to him, or to anyone. There would
only be Harcourt’s memory of the level look in the blue eyes, and
the knowledge of his father’s pain as he walked away.
他心里明白，现在父亲大概正朝家走着。在就餐时他们会见面的，母亲和姐姐定会喋喋不休地讲着，而父亲将不跟他讲话，也不跟任何人说话。从父亲那双碧蓝色的眼睛里射出的凝视的目光中，他了解父亲走开时的痛苦。然而这一切只能成为哈克特永久的记忆了。
Grace watched John’s gloomy face as they walked through the store,
and she knew he was nursing some private rage, and so her own
resentment and exasperation3 kept growing, and she said crisply4,
“You’re entitled to your moods on a hot afternoon, I suppose, but
if I feel I don’t like it here, then I don’t like it. You wanted to
go yourself. Who likes to spend very much time in a department
store on a hot afternoon? I begin to hate every stupid person that
bangs into me, everybody near me. What does that make me?”
他们走出商店，格雷丝望着约翰那张阴沉的脸，心里明白约翰憋了一肚子气，自己也不由得恼怒起来。于是直截了当地说：“就因为这么个大热天，你就有权发脾气，如果我觉得不喜欢这儿，那我就是不喜欢这儿。你自己要到这儿来的，谁愿意在下午这么个大热天跑到这儿来逛商店呢？我真的讨厌碰到的所有的蠢人，我身边所有的人，那会把我怎么样呢？”
“It makes you a snob.”
“So I’m a snob now?” she asked angrily.
“Certainly you’re a snob,” he said. They were at the door and going
out to the street. As they walked in the sunlight, in the crowd
moving slowly down the street, he was groping for words to describe
the secret thoughts he had always had about her. “I’ve always known
how you’d feel about people I like who didn’t fit into your private
world,” he said.
“You’re a very stupid person,” she said. Her face was flushed now,
and it was hard for her to express her indignation, so she stared
straight ahead as she walked along.
“那会使你成为个势利眼。”
“那么说我现在就是个势利眼啦。”她气愤地问道。
“你就是个势利眼。”他说道，他们走出大门来到街上。这是正是烈日当空，两人走在熙熙攘攘的人群之中，哈克特搜索枯肠来表达自己对格雷丝的看法，“我早就知道你是怎样看待我所喜欢的人，那些人是不合你的口味的。”
“你真是个地道的傻瓜，”她满脸通红，气得不知说什么才好，一边走一边直愣愣地凝视前方。
They had never talked in this way, and now they were both quickly
eager to hurt each other. With a flow of words, she started to
argue with him, then she checked herself and said calmly, “Listen,
John, I imagine you’re tired of my company. There’s no sense in
having tea together. I think I’d better leave you right
here.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “Good afternoon.”
“Good-by.”
“Good-by.”
他们从来没有这样过，可是现在两人都一心想把对方刺伤。格雷丝说话像连珠炮似的，开始跟哈克特争吵起来。接着她极力克制自己，冷静地说：“约翰，你听着，我想你跟我在一起感到厌烦了，既然如此，在一起喝茶又有什么意义呢？我想我还是马上离开你的好！”
“那好吧。”他说：“再见！”“再见！”“再见！”
She started to go, she had gone two paces, but he reached out
desperately and held her arm, and he was frightened, and pleading,
“Please don’t go, Grace.” All the anger and irritation had left
him; there was just a desperate anxiety in his voice as he pleaded,
“Please forgive me. I’ve no right to talk to you like that. I don’t
know why I’m so rude or what’s the matter. I’m ridiculous. I’m
very, very ridiculous. Please, you must forgive me. Don’t leave
me.”
她走了，可是刚迈出两步，约翰突然不顾一切地跟了过去，挽住她的手臂，他害怕了，恳求道，“格雷丝，请别走。”满腹怒气早已飞到九霄云外了。“请原谅我，我没有权力跟你那样讲话，我也不知道为什么变得这么粗鲁，不知道怎么搞的，真可笑，实在是太可笑了，请你一定原谅我吧，千万别离开我。”声音里只剩下绝望的焦虑。
He had never talked to her so brokenly, and his sincerity, the
depth of his feeling, began to stir her. While she listened,
feeling all the yearning in him, they seemed to have been brought
closer together, by opposing each other, than ever before, and she
began to feel almost shy. “I don’t know what’s the matter. I
suppose we’re both irritable. It must be the weather,” she said.
“But I’m not angry, John.”
他从未这样伤心地向她倾诉过自己的感情，他那真挚的神情开始打动了她。她倾听着，一种依恋之情油然升起。这场小小的冲突似乎使他们比以前任何时候更加亲密了，她反倒觉得有些不好意思起来。
“真不知是怎么啦，也许这个大热天弄得我们两这样烦躁。”她说道：“不过我不生气了，哈克特。”
He nodded his head miserably. He longed to tell her that he was
sure she wo
uld have been charming to his father, but he had never felt so
wretched in his life. He held her arm tight, as if he must hold it
or what he wanted most in the world would slip away from him, yet
he kept thinking, as he would ever think, of his father walking
away quietly with his head never turning.
他凄凉地点了点头，真想告诉她说：她准会讨父亲喜欢的。但是有生以来他从未感到像现在这样可怜。他紧紧挽住她的手臂，看来他必须抓住它，否则世界上他最心爱的东西就会从他那里溜掉似的。然而，父亲那头也不会、悄然离去的身影又展现在他的脑海里，而且将永远展现在他的脑海里。
