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先生，贝纳西先生也是这么说的。但是既然别人能以这样的条件养活孩子，那我也可以做到。没人想要这些孩子，但尽管如此，我们在得到他们的允许来领养这些孩子之前还得做大量工作。因为他们喝的牛奶是自家产的，不花钱，所以抚养他们也花不了多少钱。况且，三个法郎可是个不小的数目啊。先生，这样一来，我每个月可以有十五法郎的进账，更不用说还能拿到五磅肥皂呢。对我们这样的人而言，一天干到晚费尽力气，也就只能挣十个苏。
"Then you have some land of your own? " asked the commandant.
那您自己有地吗？指挥官问道。
"No, sir. I had some land once when my husband was alive; since he died I have done so badly that I had to sell it. "
没有地，先生。我家那口子活着时曾经有地。但自从他死后，我生活过得紧巴，也就把地给卖了。
"Why, how do you reach the years end without debts? " Genestas went on, "when you bring up children for a livelihood and wash and feed them on two sous a day? "
哦，那您怎么能做到年底不欠债呢？热奈斯塔接着问，您靠抚养这些孩子来谋生，每天花两个苏来清洗、喂养他们呀？
"Well, we never go to St. Sylvesters Day without debt, sir, " she went on without ceasing to comb the childs hair. "But so it is……Providence helps us out. I have a couple of cows. Then my daughter and I do some gleaning at harvest……time, and in winter we pick up firewood. Then at night we spin. Ah! we never want to see another winter like this last one, that is certain! I owe the miller seventy……five francs for flour. Luckily he is M. Benassis miller. M. Benassis, ah! he is a friend to poor people. He has never asked for his due from anybody, and he will not begin with us. Besides, our cow has a calf, and that will set us a bit straighter.
是啊，每个圣西尔维斯特节前我们都会欠下债呢，先生。她接着说道，手上仍在给孩子梳头发，不过多亏上帝保佑啊。我自己养了两头母牛。而且，我和女儿到了收割的季节会去捡谷拾麦，到了冬天就捡些柴火。到了晚上，我们就纺线。我真不希望再像去年冬天一样，真的不想！我欠了磨坊主七十五法郎的面粉钱呢。幸好磨坊主是贝纳西先生。啊，贝纳西先生！他可是我们穷人的朋友。他从不会催任何人还钱，当然也就不会催我们了。而且我家有头牛还下了崽，多少总可以抵一抵吧。
The four orphans for whom the old womans affection represented all human guardianship had come to an end of their prunes. As their foster……mothers attention was taken up by the officer with whom she was chatting, they seized the opportunity, and banded themselves together in a compact file, so as to make yet another assault upon the latch of the door that stood between them and the tempting heap of dried plums. They advanced to the attack, not like French soldiers, but as stealthily as Germans, impelled by frank animal greediness.
这时，四个孤儿把李子吃完了，老妇人的慈爱代表了人类对他们的全部照料。他们趁着养母在专心和军官说话这个机会，紧紧地排成纵列，企图再次向把他们和大堆诱人的干李子隔开的门锁发动进攻。他们在天生的馋瘾驱使下，开始行动了，他们像德国士兵那样偷偷行动，而不是像法国士兵那样。
"Oh! your little rogues! Do you want to finish them up? "
嘿！捣蛋鬼！你们想吃个精光吗？
The old woman rose, caught the strongest of the four, administered a gentle slap on the back, and flung him out of the house. Not a tear did he shed, but the others remained breathless with astonishment.
老妇人起身抓住四个孩子中最结实的一个，在他背上轻轻拍了一下，然后把他扔了出去。那孩子没哭，倒是把其他几个吓得一声不吭。
"They give you a lot of trouble.
他们给您惹了不少麻烦。
"Oh! no, sir, but they can smell the prunes, the little dears. If I were to leave them alone here for a moment, they would stuff themselves with them. "
哦！不会的，先生，不过他们能闻到李子的味道，这帮小家伙。要是我让他们在这儿单独呆一会儿，他们肯定会填满肚子呢。
"You are very fond of them? "
您很爱他们吧？
The old woman raised her head at this, and looked at him with gentle malice in her eyes.
听了这话，老妇人抬起头，眼神中略带不满。
"Fond of them! " she said. "I have had to part with three of them already. I only have the care of them until they are six years old, " she went on with a sigh.
当然爱他们！她说，我以前还抚养了三个孩子，已经送回去了。因为我只能把他们带到六岁。说到这里，老妇叹了口气。
"But where are your own children? "
不过，您自己的孩子呢？
"I have lost them. "
已经没了。
"How old are you? " Genestas asked, to efface the impression left by his last question.
您多大年纪了？为了消除上一个话题对情绪的影响，热奈斯塔问道。
"I am thirty……eight years old, sir. It will be two years come next St. Johns Day since my husband died.
我三十八岁了，先生，到圣约翰节就是我家那口子两周年的祭日了。
She finished dressing the poor sickly mite, who seemed to thank her by a loving look in his faded eyes.
她帮那个病怏怏的小家伙穿好衣服。小家伙看着妇人，无神的眼睛中充满了感激。
"What a life of toil and self……denial! " thought the cavalry officer.
多么艰辛而又无私的一生啊！骑兵军官心里暗想。
Beneath a roof worthy of the stable wherein Jesus Christ was born, the hardest duties of motherhood were fulfilled cheerfully and without consciousness of merit. What hearts were these that lay so deeply buried in neglect and obscurity! What wealth, and what poverty! Soldiers, better than other men, can appreciate the element of grandeur to be found in heroism in sabots, in the Evangel clad in rags. The Book may be found elsewhere, adorned, embellished, tricked out in silk and satin and brocade, but here, of a surety, dwelt the spirit of the Book. It was impossible to doubt that Heaven had some holy purpose underlying it all, at the sight of the woman who had taken a mothers lot upon herself, as Jesus Christ had taken the form of a man, who gleaned and suffered and ran into debt for her little waifs; a woman who defrauded herself in her reckonings, and would not own that she was ruining herself that she might be a Mother. One was constrained to admit, at the sight of her, that the good upon earth have something in common with the angels in heaven; Commandant Genestas shook his head as he looked at her.
在这个能与基督出生的马厩相媲美的小破屋里，老妇全心全意、乐观无私地履行着一个母亲最为艰难的职责。这该是颗多么伟大而不为人知的心啊！何等富有，却又如此贫穷啊！士兵比其他任何人都更懂得欣赏穿着木屐鞋却表现出的英雄主义和穿着破衣烂衫却传播出的福音。装饰精美的《圣经》可能随处可见，甚至包裹在绫罗绸缎里。然而在这里，我们却可以亲眼看到《圣经》里的精神。毫无疑问，这是上天的安排，我们在这里看到的这位妇人让自己充当了母亲的角色，正如耶稣基督在人间找到了替身。她为了这些孤儿受苦受累，过着捡谷拾麦的生活，还背负重债。她为了孩子省吃俭用，却不认为自己作为母亲牺牲了自己。当看到她的那一刻，我们不得不承认，人间的好人与天堂里的天使一样有着共同之处。热奈斯塔看着她，不住地点头。
"Is M. Benassis a clever doctor? " he asked at last.
贝纳西先生医术好吗？最后，他问道。
"I do not know, sir, but he cures poor people for nothing. "
我不知道，先生，但他给穷人看病从不收钱。
"It seems to me that this is a man and no mistake! " he went on, speaking to himself.
看来他是个好人，不会错！他接着自言自语地说道。
"Oh! yes, sir, and a good man too! There is scarcely any one hereabouts that does not put his name in their prayers, morning and night! "
哦！对，先生，贝纳西先生真是个大好人！我们这一带的人很少有不为他祈祷的呢，从早到晚都为他祈祷！
"That is for you, mother, " said the soldier, as he gave her several coins, "and that is for the children, " he went on, as he added another crown. "Is M. Benassis house still a long way off? " he asked, when he had mounted his horse.
这是给您的，大嫂。军人一边说，一边递给妇人几个硬币，这是给孩子们的。说着，他又递给妇人一个克朗。贝纳西先生家离这儿远吗？军人问道，这时他已经骑上马了。
"Oh! no, sir, a bare league at most. "
哦！不远，先生，顶多一里格远。
The commandant set out, fully persuaded that two leagues remained ahead of him. Yet after all he soon caught a glimpse through the trees of the little towns first cluster of houses, and then of all the roofs that crowded about a conical steeple, whose slates were secured to the angles of the wooden framework by sheets of tin that glittered in the sun. This sort of roof, which has a peculiar appearance, denotes the nearness of the borders of Savoy, where it is very common. The valley is wide at this particular point, and a fair number of houses pleasantly situated, either in the little plain or along the side of the mountain stream, lend human interest to the well……tilled spot, a stronghold with no apparent outlet among the mountains that surround it.
于是这位指挥官出发了，不过他确信至少还得走两里格。然而，没过一会儿，透过树丛，他就看见了小镇上的第一处房屋群，然后又看到了一些围绕在圆锥形尖塔四周的房顶。房顶是用铁皮将石板固定在木框上做成的，铁皮在阳光下闪闪发光。这种房顶很特别，在萨瓦省地区非常普遍，这说明离目的地应该不远了。峡谷在这片特定的地方变得开阔，许多房子整齐地坐落在这片小平原上或是沿着山溪而建。这让人产生兴趣继续走下去，来到一片被群山围绕着的、精心耕种的土地，这是个没有明显通道的要塞。
It was noon when Genestas reined in his horse beneath an avenue of elm……trees half……way up the hillside, and only a few paces from the town, to ask the group of children who stood before him for M. Benassis house. At first the children looked at each other, then they scrutinized the stranger with the expression that they usually wear when they set eyes upon anything for the first time; a different curiosity and a different thought in every little face. Then the boldest and the merriest of the band, a little bright……eyed urchin, with bare, muddy feet, repeated his words over again, in child fashion.
中午时分，热奈斯塔在山腰半路处勒住马，停在榆树下的林荫道上。眼看离小镇不远了，他便向面前的一群孩子打听贝纳西先生的住处。刚开始，这群孩子面面相觑，然后仔细地观察这个陌生人，脸上带着不经常显露的表情。当他们第一次见到什么东西时都会这样，每个人的小脸上都是不一样的好奇、不一样的遐想。随后，其中一个看起来最大胆、最活泼的小孩以孩子特有的方式重复着少校的话。他两眼炯炯有神，光着脚丫，脚上满是泥土。
"M. Benassis house, sir? " adding, "I will show you the way there. "
贝纳西先生的家吗，先生？他补充说，我带你去吧。
He walked along in front of the horse, prompted quite as much by a wish to gain a kind of importance by being in the strangers company, as by a childs love of being useful, or the imperative craving to be doing something, that possesses mind and body at his age. The officer followed him for the entire length of the principal street of the country town. The way was paved with cobblestones, and wound in and out among the houses, which their owners had erected along its course in the most arbitrary fashion. In one place a bake……house had been built out into the middle of the roadway; in another a gable protruded, partially obstructing the passage, and yet farther on a mountain stream flowed across it in a runnel. Genestas noticed a fair number of roofs of tarred shingle, but yet more of them were thatched; a few were tiled, and some seven or eight (belonging no doubt to the cure, the justice of the peace, and some of the wealthier townsmen) were covered with slates. There was a total absence of regard for appearances befitting a village at the end of the world, which had nothing beyond it, and no connection with any other place. The people who lived in it seemed to belong to one family that dwelt beyond the limits of the bustling world, with which the collector of taxes and a few ties of the very slenderest alone served to connect them.
小孩走在马前面带路，他似乎深受鼓舞，因为给陌生人带路让他觉得自己挺重要的。这种年纪的小孩在思想上和行动上都希望能证明自己有用，也总是迫切想要有所作为。军官跟在孩子后面沿着小镇的主干道走。这是条由鹅卵石铺成的路，在房子之间蜿蜒曲折。路两边矗立的房子建得很随意，一点都不整齐。有一个地方，一座面包厂都快建到路中央了；而另一个地方，又有一堵墙突出来，把路都堵了半边；不远处，又有条顺山流而下的小溪穿过路面。热奈斯塔注意到许多房子的屋顶是用涂有焦油的木板搭成的，更多的则是以稻草为顶，还有几座是用瓦片盖的，而只有七八间房子是石板瓦屋顶（毫无疑问，这几间房子的主人应该是神父、治安法官和当地几户富裕人家）。位于世界尽头的这个村子完全没有经过精心规划，村子以外似乎什么都没有，也没有路通向其他地方。镇上住着的人像一家人一样，和喧嚣的外界也没什么联系。几个税务员和几条非常狭窄的通道成为村民与外界联系的唯一纽带。
When Genestas had gone a step or two farther, he saw on the mountain side a broad road that rose above the village. Clearly there must be an old town and a new town; and, indeed, when the commandant reached a spot where he could slacken the pace of his horse, he could easily see between the houses some well……built dwellings whose new roofs brightened the old……fashioned village. An avenue of trees rose above these new houses, and from among them came the confused sounds of several industries. He heard the songs peculiar to busy toilers, a murmur of many workshops, the rasping of files, and the sound of falling hammers. He saw the thin lines of smoke from the chimneys of each household, and the more copious outpourings from the forges of the van……builder, the blacksmith, and the farrier. At length, at the very end of the village towards which his guide was taking him, Genestas beheld scattered farms and well……tilled fields and plantations of trees in thorough order. It might have been a little corner of Brie, so hidden away in a great fold of the land, that at first sight its existence would not be suspected between the little town and the mountains that closed the country round.
热奈斯塔又向前走了几步，看到山边上有条凌驾村子之上的大路。显然，这里应该有两座镇，一新一旧。的确是这样，指挥官在一个地方放慢马步，朝前望去，一眼就看到了建构坚固的房子，新房顶给老村庄增色不少。新房子被一条种着树木的街道环绕着，房子里面传出工厂里的嘈杂声。他听到繁忙的工人们那特有的号子声、厂房里的机器声、锉刀声和锤子的敲打声。他看到从每家房子的烟囱里升起的袅袅炊烟，还有从车匠、铜匠和蹄铁匠的铺子里冒出的浓烟。最后，小向导把热奈斯塔带到了村子尽头。在那里，热奈斯塔看到了分散的农场、精心耕作的田地和大片井然有序的林场。这里真像是隐藏在大地深处的布里的一角。一开始，还真不敢相信在小镇和作为边界的群山之间会看到这样一块好地方。
Presently the child stopped.
没过一会儿，小孩停了下来。
"There is the door of his house, " he remarked.
这就是他家了。小孩说。
The officer dismounted and passed his arm through the bridle. Then, thinking that the laborer is worthy of his hire, he drew a few sous from his waistcoat pocket, and held them out to the child, who looked astonished at this, opened his eyes very wide, and stayed on, without thanking him, to watch what the stranger would do next.
军官跳下马，将缰绳绕在胳膊上。随后，他意识到应该给小向导一些报酬，于是从马甲口袋里掏出几个苏递给小孩。那小孩似乎很吃惊，眼睛睁得大大的，也没说声谢谢，仍站在那里，想看看接下来陌生人要做什么。
"Civilization has not made much headway hereabouts, " thought Genestas; "the religion of work is in full force, and begging has not yet come thus far. "
这里还不怎么开化。热奈斯塔心想，在这里，人们都信奉辛勤劳作的美德，行乞的风气还没传过来。
His guide, more from curiosity than from any interested motive, propped himself against the wall that rose to the height of a mans elbow. Upon this wall, which enclosed the yard belonging to the house, there ran a black wooden railing on either side of the square pillars of the gates. The lower part of the gates themselves was of solid wood that had been painted gray at some period in the past; the upper part consisted of a grating of yellowish spear……shaped bars. These decorations, which had lost all their color, gradually rose on either half of the gates till they reached the centre where they met; their spikes forming, when both leaves were shut, an outline similar to that of a pine……cone. The worm……eaten gates themselves, with their patches of velvet lichen, were almost destroyed by the alternate action of sun and rain. A few aloe plants and some chance……sown pellitory grew on the tops of the square pillars of the gates, which all but concealed the stems of a couple of thornless acacias that raised their tufted spikes, like a pair of green powder……puffs, in the yard.
小向导靠在与大人胳膊齐高的墙上，更多的是出于好奇，而不是有何企图。这段墙围住了房前的院子，大门两侧的壁柱则装着黑色的木栅栏。大门下面的部分是曾被漆成灰色的硬木，上面的部分装着一排淡黄色的尖头木条。这些用来装饰的木条已经完全褪色了，从两扇门的两侧逐渐延伸至中间汇合。当两扇门关起来时，它们的尖头形成了一个松球的图案。大门被虫子蛀蚀，又长满了苔藓，经过长期的日晒雨淋，已经被毁得差不多了。门柱顶部长出几根芦荟和茅草，柱子后面是院子里的两株无刺洋槐，树干被壁柱挡住了，却可以看见树上像粉扑般的蓬松绿叶。
The condition of the gateway revealed a certain carelessness of its owner which did not seem to suit the officers turn of mind. He knitted his brows like a man who is obliged to relinquish some illusion. We usually judge others by our own standard; and although we indulgently forgive our own shortcomings in them, we condemn them harshly for the lack of our special virtues. If the commandant had expected M. Benassis to be a methodical or practical man, there were unmistakable indications of absolute indifference as to his material concerns in the state of the gates of his house. A soldier possessed by Genestas passion for domestic economy could not help at once drawing inferences as to the life and character of its owner from the gateway before him; and this, in spite of his habits of circumspection, he in nowise failed to do. The gates were left ajar, moreover……another piece of carelessness!
大门的这副模样说明主人有些粗枝大叶，跟军官之前的想法可完全不一样。他皱了皱眉头，像是放弃了某种幻想。我们总是以自己的标准去评价别人。虽然我们乐于原谅别人身上和自己一样的缺点，但也会强烈谴责别人身上缺少跟自己一样的独特美德。这位指挥官曾经还以为贝纳西先生是个做事井井有条的人，或是个注重实干的人，但这扇破门却在昭示着他对财产的漠不关心。像热奈斯塔这样喜欢管理内政的军人立刻不由自主地从眼前的大门推测出主人的生活状况和性格。尽管他一向谨慎小心，却还是会这样。门半开着……又一处粗枝大叶的表现！
Encouraged by this countrified trust in all comers, the officer entered the yard without ceremony, and tethered his horse to the bars of the gate. While he was knotting the bridle, a neighing sound from the stable caused both horse and rider to turn their eyes involuntarily in that direction. The door opened, and an old servant put out his head. He wore a red woolen bonnet, exactly like the Phrygian cap in which Liberty is tricked out, a piece of head……gear in common use in this country.
主人对所有来访者纯朴的信任令他受到鼓舞。军官没打招呼便走进了院子，将马拴在门闩上。当他正在系缰绳时，突然听到马厩里的马嘶声，引得他和自己的马都不由自主地朝声音传来的方向望去。马厩的门开了，一位老仆人探出头来。他戴着一顶红色羊毛软帽，帽子酷似象征自由的弗里吉亚帽，这种帽子在当地很流行。
As there was room for several horses, this worthy individual, after inquiring whether Genestas had come to see M. Benassis, offered the hospitality of the stable to the newly……arrived steed, a very fine animal, at which he looked with an expression of admiring affection. The commandant followed his horse to see how things were to go with it. The stable was clean, there was plenty of litter, and there was the same peculiar air of sleek content about M. Benassis pair of horses that distinguished the cures horse from all the rest of his tribe. A maid……servant from within the house came out upon the flight of steps and waited. She appeared to be the proper authority to whom the strangers inquiries were to be addressed, although the stableman had already told him that M. Benassis was not at home.
由于马厩里还有空地儿，老仆人在确定热奈斯塔先生是来找贝纳西先生后，便很热情地将马带到马厩里去，同时很羡慕地盯着这匹骏马看。指挥官紧跟在马后面，想看看马厩如何。马厩里很干净，铺着厚厚的草。贝纳西先生的两匹马被照顾得相当不错，就像神父的马一样，即使身处群马之中，也能一眼被认出。屋里走出一位女仆，她站在台阶上等着。她看起来一本正经，似乎在等着陌生人来打听什么。然而养马的仆人已经告诉他，贝纳西先生不在家。
"The master has gone to the flour……mill, " said he. "If you like to overtake him, you have only to go along the path that leads to the meadow; and the mill is at the end of it. "
我家主人去磨坊了。他说，如果你想过去找他，只需顺着这条通往牧场的路走下去，走到尽头就到了。
Genestas preferred seeing the country to waiting about indefinitely for Benassis return, so he set out along the way that led to the flour……mill. When he had gone beyond the irregular line traced by the town upon the hillside, he came in sight of the mill and the valley, and of one of the loveliest landscapes that he had ever seen.
热奈斯塔心想，与其在这里漫无目的地等，还不如看看乡村风景，于是他沿着通往磨坊的路出发了。当他走完了小镇在山腰上辟出的一条崎岖不平的小路后，便看到了磨坊、山谷和他从未见过的美丽风景。
The mountains bar the course of the river, which forms a little lake at their feet, and raise their crests above it, tier on tier. Their many valleys are revealed by the changing hues of the light, or by the more or less clear outlines of the mountain ridges fledged with their dark forests of pines. The mill had not long been built. It stood just where the mountain stream fell into the little lake. There was all the charm about it peculiar to a lonely house surrounded by water and hidden away behind the heads of a few trees that love to grow by the water……side. On the farther bank of the river, at the foot of a mountain, with a faint red glow of sunset upon its highest crest, Genestas caught a glimpse of a dozen deserted cottages. All the windows and doors had been taken away, and sufficiently large holes were conspicuous in the dilapidated roofs, but the surrounding land was laid out in fields that were highly cultivated, and the old garden spaces had been turned into meadows, watered by a system of irrigation as artfully contrived as that in use in Limousin. Unconsciously the commandant paused to look at the ruins of the village before him.
群山阻止了前行的水流，在山脚下形成了一片小小的湖泊。湖面上的山峰，层峦叠嶂。山间沟壑重重，山上长满了大片黑色松木，疏密不一，使得山谷看上去或明或暗。这间磨坊刚建成不久。它就建立在山流汇入小湖的地方。孤零零的磨坊四面环水，掩映在几棵水生树的树梢间，颇有一番独特韵味。溪流彼岸，落日的余晖微微照在山峰上。热奈斯塔看到山脚下有十几所废弃的茅屋。茅屋的门窗都被拆了，破损的屋顶上有一个大窟窿格外惹眼。然而四周却是精耕细作的田地和由院子改成的牧场。牧场有一套精心设计的、像利穆赞地区一样的灌溉系统。指挥官不由自主地停下脚步，打量起眼前村落的残迹。
How is it that men can never behold any ruins, even of the humblest kind, without feeling deeply stirred? Doubtless it is because they seem to be a typical representation of evil fortune whose weight is felt so differently by different natures. The thought of death is called up by a churchyard, but a deserted village puts us in mind of the sorrows of life; death is but one misfortune always foreseen, but the sorrows of life are infinite. Does not the thought of the infinite underlie all great melancholy?
为什么人们在看到废墟时，哪怕是最微不足道的那种，内心都会被深深触动呢？毫无疑问，这是因为废墟往往是灾难的象征，尽管每个人天性不同，对灾难的感受也有所不同。墓地会让人联想到死亡，而废弃的村庄则会让人想到生活的苦难；死亡是可以预知的不幸，而生活的苦难却没有边际。不正是这种无尽苦难的想法引发了巨大的伤感？
The officer reached the stony path by the mill……pond before he could hit upon an explanation of this deserted village. The millers lad was sitting on some sacks of corn near the door of the house. Genestas asked for M. Benassis.
直到军官走到了磨坊前的石路上，他也没有想出这个村庄被遗弃的原因。磨坊的一个小伙子坐在门边的一堆麦袋上。热奈斯塔上前打听贝纳西先生在哪里。
"M. Benassis went over there, " said the miller, pointing out one of the ruined cottages.
贝纳西先生去那边了。那个磨工指着一个破茅屋说道。
"Has the village been burned down? " asked the commandant.
这个村庄是被烧毁过吗？指挥官问。
"No, sir. "
不是的，先生。
"Then how did it come to be in this state? " inquired Genestas.
那村庄怎么变成现在这个样子呢？热奈斯塔又问。
"Ah! how? " the miller answered, as he shrugged his shoulders and went indoors; "M. Benassis will tell you that. "
啊！怎么变成这样的？磨坊小伙子耸了耸肩，往屋里走去，回答道，贝纳西先生会跟你说的。
The officer went over a rough sort of bridge built up of boulders taken from the torrent bed, and soon reached the house that had been pointed out to him. The thatched roof of the dwelling was still entire; it was covered with moss indeed, but there were no holes in it, and the door and its fastenings seemed to be in good repair. Genestas saw a fire on the hearth as he entered, an old woman kneeling in the chimney……corner before a sick man seated in a chair, and another man, who was standing with his face turned toward the fireplace. The house consisted of a single room, which was lighted by a wretched window covered with linen cloth. The floor was of beaten earth; the chair, a table, and a truckle……bed comprised the whole of the furniture. The commandant had never seen anything so poor and bare, not even in Russia, where the moujiks huts are like the dens of wild beasts. Nothing within it spoke of ordinary life; there were not even the simplest appliances for cooking food of the commonest description. It might have been a dog……kennel without a drinking……pan. But for the truckle……bed, a smock……frock hanging from a nail, and some sabots filled with straw, which composed the invalids entire wardrobe, this cottage would have looked as empty as the others. The aged peasant woman upon her knees was devoting all her attention to keeping the sufferers feet in a tub filled with a brown liquid. Hearing a footstep and the clank of spurs, which sounded strangely in ears accustomed to the plodding pace of country folk, the man turned to Genestas. A sort of surprise, in which the old woman shared was visible in his face.
军官走过一座用大石块修砌的、高低不平的石桥，石块是从河床上取来的。不一会儿，他就走到了磨工给他指的那间茅屋前。茅屋顶完整无损，虽然上面长满了青苔，不过没有窟窿，房屋的门和门锁看上去也是完好的。热奈斯塔进屋后看见壁炉里生着火，一位老妇跪在炉角处，她的面前是一个坐在凳子上的病人。另外有个男人站着，面朝壁炉。整个房子只有一个房间，光线从一扇挂着亚麻布的破窗户里射进来，照亮了屋子。屋子的地面是坚实的泥地。一张凳子和一张装有脚轮的矮床便是屋内全部的家当。指挥官从未见过这样四壁空徒的屋子，即使是在农民的棚屋如野兽洞穴般的俄国也未曾见过。屋里没有一件日常生活必需品，甚至连最常见的、最简单的做饭厨具都没有。这完全就是个连狗钵都没有的狗窝。一张装着脚轮的矮床、一件挂在钉子上的破衣服，以及几只垫着草的木鞋，这便是那个病人的所有衣物。要不是有这些，这间茅屋看起来就和其他屋子一样空荡荡的。那位跪着的老农妇全神贯注地将病人的双脚按在装有棕色液体的盆里。由于听到带有鞋掌声的脚步声，这和乡下人沉重缓慢的步子是不一样的，那个面朝壁炉的男人回头看着热奈斯塔。和老妇人一样，那男人脸上露出一脸的惊讶。
"There is no need to ask if you are M. Benassis, " said the soldier. "You will pardon me, sir, if, as a stranger impatient to see you, I have come to seek you on your field of battle, instead of awaiting you at your house. Pray do not disturb yourself; go on with what you are doing. When it is over, I will tell you the purpose of my visit. "
没有必要问您是不是贝纳西先生了。军人说，请原谅我这个陌生人的冒昧来访，因为期望快些见到您，就没有在家里等您，而是直接到您工作的地方来了。只希望没有打扰您，您接着忙吧。等忙完了，我再告诉您此次来访的目的。
Genestas half seated himself upon the edge of the table, and remained silent. The firelight shone more brightly in the room than the faint rays of the sun, for the mountain crests intercepted them, so that they seldom reached this corner of the valley. A few branches of resinous pinewood made a bright blaze, and it was by the light of this fire that the soldier saw the face of the man towards whom he was drawn by a secret motive, by a wish to seek him out, to study and to know him thoroughly well. M. Benassis, the local doctor, heard Genestas with indifference, and with folded arms he returned his bow, and went back to his patient, quite unaware that he was being subjected to a scrutiny as earnest as that which the soldier turned upon him.
热奈斯塔半坐在桌沿上，一声不吭。房间里，从壁炉发出的火光比太阳光还要亮，因为这里的太阳光总是被山峰挡住了，基本上照不到山谷的这个角落。几根松树枝散发出明亮的火焰。借着火焰的亮光，军人出于好奇看着贝纳西先生的脸，试图观察、研究，从而彻底了解这个人。本地医生贝纳西先生，静静地听热奈斯塔说话，双臂交叉，给热奈斯塔回敬了个礼，随后便回到病人身旁。他完全没有意识到热奈斯塔先生在认真仔细地观察他。
Benassis was a man of ordinary height, broad……shouldered and deep……chested. A capacious green overcoat, buttoned up to the chin, prevented the officer from observing any characteristic details of his personal appearance; but his dark and motionless figure served as a strong relief to his face, which caught the bright light of the blazing fire. The face was not unlike that of a satyr; there was the same slightly protruding forehead, full, in this case, of prominences, all more or less denoting character; the same turned……up nose, with a sprightly cleavage at the tip; the same high cheek……bones. The lines of the mouth were crooked; the lips, thick and red. The chin turned sharply upwards. There was an alert, animated look in the brown eyes, to which their pearly whites gave great brightness, and which expressed passions now subdued. His iron……gray hair, the deep wrinkles in his face, the bushy eyebrows that had grown white already, the veins on his protuberant nose, the tanned face covered with red blotches, everything about him, in short, indicated a man of fifty and the hard work of his profession. The officer could come to no conclusion as to the capacity of the head, which was covered by a close cap; but hidden though it was, it seemed to him to be one of the square……shaped kind that gave rise to the expression "square……headed. Genestas was accustomed to read the indications that mark the features of men destined to do great things, since he had been brought into close relations with the energetic natures sought out by Napoleon; so he suspected that there must be some mystery in this life of obscurity, and said to himself as he looked at the remarkable face before him:
贝纳西先生中等身高，肩膀宽阔，胸膛厚实。他身穿一件宽松的绿大衣，连领口的扣子都扣上了，这让热奈斯塔先生无法看到他外表的细节特征。不过他那一动不动的黑色身影更加衬托了在火焰明亮的光线下映射出的脸庞。他的脸简直和森林之神的一模一样：一样微微突出的前额，只是贝纳西先生的额头上有疙瘩，这也多多少少显示了其性格特征；一样的翘鼻子，鼻孔还向两边轻微张开；还有一样的高颧骨。他的嘴轮廓清晰，嘴唇厚实而红润。下巴高高翘起。褐色的眼睛在眼白的衬托下显得炯炯有神，机警而充满活力，流露出减缓了的激情。花白的头发，面孔上深深的皱纹，已发白的浓眉，血管清晰可见的鼻子，还有长满红斑的、晒黑的脸，所有这些都表明这个大约五十岁的人工作很辛苦。军官看不到贝纳西先生的头有多大，因为他戴着一顶贴头帽子。不过虽然头被帽子遮住了，但看上去是方形的，应该是个四方脑袋。热奈斯塔总是喜欢去辨别那些能够做大事的人的特征，因为他曾经与拿破仑发现的那些有活力的人物走得很近，所以总是怀疑在这些人普通的生活背后肯定有什么奥秘。他一边看着眼前贝纳西先生这张不同寻常的脸，一边问自己：
"How comes it that he is still a country doctor? "
为什么他一直都只是个乡村医生呢？
When he had made a careful study of this countenance, that, in spite of its resemblance to other human faces, revealed an inner life nowise in harmony with a commonplace exterior, he could not help sharing the doctors interest in his patient; and the sight of that patient completely changed the current of his thoughts.
热奈斯塔仔细观察贝纳西先生的容貌后发现，尽管这张面孔和其他人的没太大差异，却透露出与其他普通长相的人很不一样的内心世界。随后，热奈斯塔不由自主地开始关注那个病人，这一瞥却让他彻底改变了刚才的思路。
Much as the old cavalry officer had seen in the course of his soldiers career, he felt a thrill of surprise and horror at the sight of a human face which could never have been lighted up with thought……a livid face in which a look of dumb suffering showed so plainly……the same look that is sometimes worn by a child too young to speak, and too weak to cry any longer; in short, it was the wholly animal face of an old dying cretin. The cretin was the one variety of the human species with which the commandant had not yet come in contact. At the sight of the deep, circular folds of skin on the forehead, the sodden, fish……like eyes, and the head, with its short, coarse, scantily……growing hair……a head utterly divested of all the faculties of the senses……who would not have experienced, as Genestas did, an instinctive feeling of repulsion for a being that had neither the physical beauty of an animal nor the mental endowments of man, who was possessed of neither instinct nor reason, and who had never heard nor spoken any kind of articulate speech? It seemed difficult to expend any regrets over the poor wretch now visibly drawing towards the very end of an existence which had not been life in any sense of the word; yet the old woman watched him with touching anxiety, and was rubbing his legs where the hot water did not reach them with as much tenderness as if he had been her husband. Benassis himself, after a close scrutiny of the dull eyes and corpse……like face, gently took the cretins hand and felt his pulse.