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Madame Julie Roubere was expecting her elder sister, Madame Henriette Letore, who had just returned from a trip to Switzerland.
朱莉·鲁贝尔夫人正在等她刚从瑞士旅游回来的姐姐亨丽埃特·勒托雷夫人。
The Letore household had left nearly five weeks before. Madame Henriette had allowed her husband to return alone to their estate in Calvados, where some business required his attention, and had come to spend a few days in Paris with her sister. Night came on. In the quiet parlor Madame Roubere was reading in the twilight in an absent—minded way, raising her eyes, whenever she heard a sound.
勒托雷夫妇大约五周前就动身了。亨丽埃特夫人让丈夫先独自回他们在卡尔瓦多斯省的庄园。庄园里有些生意上的事情需要他处理，她自己则到巴黎妹妹那儿小住几天。夜色降临。在安静的客厅里，鲁贝尔夫人正在暮色下心不在焉地读书。每当她听到什么声音，她的两只眼睛就立刻抬起来。
At last, she heard a ring at the door, and her sister appeared, wrapped in a travelling cloak. And without any formal greeting, they clasped each other in an affectionate embrace, only desisting for a moment to give each other another hug. Then they talked about their health, about their respective families, and a thousand other things, gossiping, jerking out hurried, broken sentences as they followed each other about, while Madame Henriette was removing her hat and veil.
门铃终于响了，她的姐姐到了，身上裹了件旅行披风。她们甚至没有任何寒暄，就立刻深情拥抱，刚松开一下又马上抱在一起。接着在亨丽埃特取面纱脱帽子时，她们开始交谈，相互问到身体情况、各自的家庭以及许多别的事情，说长道短，一句话还没有说完，下一句就急匆匆地跳了出来。
It was now quite dark. Madame Roubere rang for a lamp, and as soon as it was brought in, she scanned her sister's face, and was on the point of embracing her once more. But she held back, scared and astonished at the other's appearance.
现在，夜色已深。鲁贝尔夫人打铃要一盏灯。灯一送进来，她就仔细打量姐姐的脸，准备再次拥抱她。但她却停住了，因为姐姐的外表让她感到害怕和震惊。
On her temples Madame Letore had two large locks of white hair. All the rest of her hair was of a glossy, raven—black hue; but there alone, at each side of her head, ran, as it were, two silvery streams which were immediately lost in the black mass surrounding them. She was, nevertheless, only twenty—four years old, and this change had come on suddenly since her departure for Switzerland.
勒托雷夫人的太阳穴那儿有两大缕白发。她头上其余部分的头发乌黑发亮；但是仅仅在那儿，在两鬓，仿佛有两条银白色的小溪在流淌，又立刻消失在它们周围那一大堆黑发里。然而，她只有24岁呀。她去了瑞士后，就突然变成这个样子。
Without moving, Madame Roubere gazed at her in amazement, tears rising to her eyes, as she thought that some mysterious and terrible calamity must have befallen her sister. She asked: "What is the matter with you, Henriette? "
鲁贝尔夫人一动不动，目瞪口呆地盯着姐姐。当她想到姐姐一定是经历了什么神秘可怕的不幸时，眼泪几乎就要从她眼睛里溢出来了。她问： “你怎么啦，亨丽埃特？”
Smiling with a sad face, the smile of one who is heartsick, the other replied: "Why, nothing, I assure you. Were you noticing my white hair? "
鲁贝尔夫人脸上带着苦笑，心情很沮丧，亨丽埃特夫人回答说： “没什么，我向你保证没事的。你是不是注意到了我的白头发？”
But Madame Roubere impetuously seized her by the shoulders, and with a searching glance at her, repeated: "What is the matter with you? Tell me what is the matter with you. And if you tell me a falsehood, I'll soon find it out. "
但是鲁贝尔夫人突然抓住她的肩膀，用锐利的目光看着她，又问了一遍： “你怎么啦？告诉我究竟发生了什么事。如果你撒谎，我很快会发现的。”
They remained face to face, and Madame Henriette, who looked as if she were about to faint, had two pearly tears in the corners of her drooping eyes.
她们仍然面对面，亨丽埃特夫人看上去似乎快要晕倒了。她眼睛低垂，眼角含着两粒如珍珠一般的泪珠。
Her sister continued: "What has happened to you? What is the matter with you? Answer me! "
她的妹妹又问了一遍： “到底发生什么事了？你怎么了？回答我！”
Then, in a subdued voice, the other murmured: "I have—I have a lover. "
于是亨丽埃特低声地咕哝道： “我有了——有了一个情人。”
And, hiding her forehead on the shoulder of her younger sister, she sobbed.
接着她把额头枕在妹妹的肩膀上抽泣。
Then, when she had grown a little calmer, when the heaving of her breast had subsided, she commenced to unbosom herself, as if to cast forth this secret from herself, to empty this sorrow of hers into a sympathetic heart.
然后，等她稍微平静一点，胸口的起伏平息了以后，她开始袒露心扉，她似乎想摆脱这个秘密，想对一颗能够同情她的心倾诉她的这份痛苦。
Thereupon, holding each other's hands tightly clasped, the two women went over to a sofa in a dark corner of the room, into which they sank, and the younger sister, passing her arm over the elder one's neck, and drawing her close to her heart, listened.
于是，这两个妇人紧紧握住对方的手，走到房间的一个昏暗角落，坐到了一张沙发上。妹妹伸出胳膊搂住姐姐的脖子，让她贴着自己的心口，并听她诉说。
"Oh! I know that there was no excuse for me; I do not understand myself, and since that day I feel as if I were mad. Be careful, my child, about yourself—be careful! If you only knew how weak we are, how quickly we yield, and fall. It takes so little, so little, so little, a moment of tenderness, one of those sudden fits of melancholy which come over you, one of those longings to open, your arms, to love, to cherish something, which we all have at certain moments.
“噢！我知道我没有任何理由为自己辩解；我也搞不懂自己，自从那天后，我感觉自己跟疯了似的。小妹，你自己要当心——要当心！但愿你能知道我们有多么脆弱，我们会多么快地屈服、堕落！只需要那么一点，那么一点，那么一点，只需要片刻的款款柔情，只需要一阵那种在你心灵里产生的突如其来的伤感，只需要一点那种张开双臂去爱、去珍视某种东西的渴望，这些我们在某些时候都会产生的。”
"You know my husband, and you know how fond I am of him; but he is mature and sensible, and cannot even comprehend the tender vibrations of a woman's heart. He is always the same, always good, always smiling, always kind, always perfect. Oh! how I sometimes have wished that he would clasp me roughly in his arms, that he would embrace me with those slow, sweet kisses which make two beings intermingle, which are like mute confidences! How I have wished that he were foolish, even weak, so that he should have need of me, of my caresses, of my tears!
“你了解我的丈夫，你也知道我有多爱他；但是他成熟而理性，根本无法理解一个女人内心微妙的变化。他永远是一个样，永远那么温文尔雅，永远那样笑脸迎人，永远那么待人友善，永远是那样完美无缺。噢！有时我多么希望他能粗犷地把我紧紧地拥入怀中，慢慢地给我甜甜的吻，这样的吻能让两个人融合在一起，就像无声的知心话一样！我多么希望他也有愚笨的时候，也有脆弱的时候，那样的话他就会需要我，需要我的爱抚，需要我的眼泪！”
"This all seems very silly; but we women are made like that. How can we help it?
“说这些话似乎太傻了；但是我们女人就是这样。我们又有什么办法呢？”
"And yet the thought of deceiving him never entered my mind. Now it has happened, without love, without reason, without anything, simply because the moon shone one night on the Lake of Lucerne.
“但是我从来也没有想过要背叛他。但是现在却发生了。没有爱，没有理由，什么也没有，只是因为一天夜里卢塞恩湖上的月光。”
"During the month when we were travelling together, my husband, with his calm indifference, paralyzed my enthusiasm, extinguished my poetic ardor. When we were descending the mountain paths at sunrise, when as the four horses galloped along with the diligence, we saw, in the transparent morning haze, valleys, woods, streams, and villages, I clasped my hands with delight, and said to him: 'How beautiful it is, dear! Give me a kiss! Kiss me now! ' He only answered, with a smile of chilling kindliness: 'There is no reason why we should kiss each other because you like the landscape. ' "
在我们一起旅行的一个月中，丈夫镇定冷漠的态度瓦解了我的热情，熄灭了我诗意的兴致。我们坐着驿车，拉车的四匹马不辞劳苦地在日出的时候沿着山路奔驰而下，在半透明的晨雾中我看见了山谷、树林、小溪和村庄，我兴奋地握紧双手对他说： ‘亲爱的，多美啊！吻吻我吧！现在就吻我吧！’ 他只是面带一种那令人发寒的友好的微笑回答我： ‘不能因为你喜欢这里的风景，我们就要接吻。
"And his words froze me to the heart. It seems to me that when people love each other, they ought to feel more moved by love than ever, in the presence of beautiful scenes.
“这些话使我心都凉了。对我来说，当两个彼此相爱的人面对美丽的景色时，他们因爱而感动的情绪应该比从前任何时候都强烈。”
"In fact, I was brimming over with poetry which he kept me from expressing. I was almost like a boiler filled with steam and hermetically sealed.
其实，我心里有一股充满着诗意的情感在翻腾，可是他却不让我发泄出来。我简直就像那充满蒸汽的密封锅炉。
"One evening (we had for four days been staying in a hotel at Fluelen) Robert, having one of his sick headaches, went to bed immediately after dinner, and I went to take a walk all alone along the edge of the lake.
“一天晚上（我们已经在弗吕埃伦的旅馆呆了四天），罗贝尔因为头疼，晚餐后就马上去睡觉了，我独自一人沿着湖边散步。”
"It was a night such as one reads of in fairy tales. The full moon showed itself in the middle of the sky; the tall mountains, with their snowy crests, seemed to wear silver crowns; the waters of the lake glittered with tiny shining ripples. The air was mild, with that kind of penetrating warmth which enervates us till we are ready to faint, to be deeply affected without any apparent cause. But how sensitive, how vibrating the heart is at such moments! how quickly it beats, and how intense is its emotion!
“这是一个就像人们在童话故事中读到的夜晚。满月悬挂在半空中，巍峨的高山山顶上覆盖着层层白雪，整座山仿佛戴了一个银色的王冠；湖面荡起阵阵细小的涟漪，波光粼粼。空气是温和的，那种沁人心脾的温暖让人浑身无力，简直都快让人晕倒了，还让人莫名其妙地被深深感染着。但是，在这样的时刻一个人的心是多么敏感，多么容易激动啊！心跳是多么快，心中的情绪是多么强烈！”
"I sat down on the grass, and gazed at that vast, melancholy, and fascinating lake, and a strange feeling arose in me; I was seized with an insatiable need of love, a revolt against the gloomy dullness of my life. What! would it never be my fate to wander, arm in arm, with a man I loved, along a moon—kissed bank like this? Was I never to feel on my lips those kisses so deep, delicious, and intoxicating which lovers exchange on nights that seem to have been made by God for tenderness? Was I never to know ardent, feverish love in the moonlit shadows of a summer's night?
“我坐在草坪上，凝视着那开阔、忧郁、迷人的湖面，一种奇妙的感觉油然而生；我产生了一种对爱的渴求，一种对我的沉闷单调生活的反抗。什么！难道我就永远不能和我心爱的男人挽着手，像这样沿着被月光沐浴的湖岸散步？难道我就不能在我的嘴唇上感觉爱人们晚上会有的那深沉的、甜美的、令人陶醉的吻？这样的吻仿佛是上帝专门为爱情创造的。难道我就不能领会在这夏夜的月影下热恋的感觉？”
"And I burst out weeping like a crazy woman. I heard something stirring behind me. A man stood there, gazing at me. When I turned my head round, he recognized me, and, advancing, said: 'You are weeping, madame? ' It was a young barrister who was travelling with his mother, and whom we had often met. His eyes had frequently followed me.
“我突然就像一个疯子似的开始哭泣。我听到身后有什么动静。一个男人站在那儿，注视着我。我回过头去，他认出了我，并走过来对我说： ‘您在哭，夫人？’ 他是一个年轻的律师，陪他妈妈一起旅行，我们经常会遇到。他的目光紧紧地跟着我。”
"I was so confused that I did not know what answer to give or what to think of the situation. I told him I felt ill.
“我心慌意乱，不知道该如何回答他，也不知道该如何面对这样的情况。我告诉他我不舒服。”
"He walked on by my side in a natural and respectful manner, and began talking to me about what we had seen during our trip. All that I had felt he translated into words; everything that made me thrill he understood perfectly, better than I did myself. And all of a sudden he repeated some verses of Alfred de Musset. I felt myself choking, seized with indescribable emotion. It seemed to me that the mountains themselves, the lake, the moonlight, were singing to me about things ineffably sweet.
“他在我旁边走着，态度自然而恭敬，开始与我谈论我们旅途中的所见所闻。我曾经感受过的一切，他都用语言表达了出来；曾经使我激动的一切，他都完全了解，甚至比我还要了解。他突然朗诵起阿尔弗雷德·缪塞的诗句。我感到自己喉咙哽咽了，一种难以言喻的情愫占据了我的内心。我觉得似乎高山、湖泊、月光都在向我歌唱一些温柔得难以言喻的事物。”
"And it happened, I don't know how, I don't know why, in a sort of hallucination.
“这一切就这样发生了，我甚至不知道是如何发生的，为什么会发生这一切，彷佛这一切都是幻觉。”
"As for him, I did not see him again till the morning of his departure.
“至于他，直到他离开的那天早晨，我才再见到他。”
"He gave me his card! "
“他把他的名片给了我！”
And, sinking into her sister's arms, Madame Letore broke into groans —almost into shrieks.
勒托雷夫人投入妹妹怀中呻吟，都快要哭喊了。
Then, Madame Roubere, with a self—contained and serious air, said very gently: "You see, sister, very often it is not a man that we love, but love itself. And your real lover that night was the moonlight. "
鲁贝尔夫人神情沉着冷静，一脸严肃，温和地说道： “你知道，姐姐，很多时候我们爱上的不是一个男人，而是爱情本身。你那晚真正的情人其实是那月光。”
The Assignation