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He was an old man with a white beard and huge nose and hands. Long before the time during which we will know him, he was a doctor and drove a jaded white horse from house to house through the streets of Winesburg. Later he married a girl who had money. She had been left a large fertile farm when her father died. The girl was quiet, tall, and dark, and to many people she seemed very beautiful. Everyone in Winesburg wondered why she married the doctor. Within a year after the marriage she died.
他是一个大鼻子、大手的白胡子老头。很久以前，早在我们认识他以前，他曾是一个医生，赶着匹疲倦的白马穿过温斯堡的街道，从这个房子到下个房子。后来，他娶了个有钱的姑娘。他的岳父在死后给女儿留下了一大片肥沃的农场。这个姑娘文静、高挑，肤色偏黑。在很多人看来，她十分漂亮。温斯堡的人都很好奇，为什么她最后嫁给了这个医生。婚后不到一年，她就死了。
The knuckles of the doctor's hands were extraordinarily large. When the hands were closed they looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls as large as walnuts fastened together by steel rods. He smoked a cob pipe and after his wife's death sat all day in his empty office close by a window that was covered with cobwebs. He never opened the window. Once on a hot day in August he tried but found it stuck fast and after that he forgot all about it.
这个医生的手指关节特别粗大。当他双手紧握的时候，看上去就像两个未经涂漆的木制大球，还是用钢针串在一起的、胡桃般大的那种。他用科波烟斗抽烟。在妻子死后，他成天坐在空荡荡的办公室里，挨着一扇结满了蜘蛛网的窗户。他从不打开这扇窗户。他也曾在八月的一个热天试着开窗，却发现窗子已经卡死了。此后，他也完全忘记了这件事。
Winesburg had forgotten the old man, but in Doctor Reefy there were the seeds of something very fine. Alone in his musty office in the Heffner Block above the Paris Dry Goods Company's store, he worked ceaselessly, building up something that he himself destroyed. Little pyramids of truth he erected and after erecting knocked them down again that he might have the truths to erect other pyramids.
温斯堡已经忘记了这个老人，但是，瑞非医生这个人身上有些非常优秀的品质。他的办公室在海夫纳街区的巴黎干货公司大楼上。他独自一人在发霉的办公室里无休止地工作，试图把他亲手毁掉的东西重新建立起来。他建起一座座小型真理金字塔，然后再将它们敲碎，这样，他或许就有理由去建立其他的金字塔。
Doctor Reefy was a tall man who had worn one suit of clothes for ten years. It was frayed at the sleeves and little holes had appeared at the knees and elbows. In the office he wore also a linen duster with huge pockets into which he continually stuffed scraps of paper. After some weeks the scraps of paper became little hard round balls, and when the pockets were filled he dumped them out upon the floor. For ten years he had but one friend, anothe old man named John Spaniard who owned a tree nursery. Sometimes, in a playful mood, old Doctor Reefy took from his pockets a handful of the paper balls and threw them at the nursery man. "That is to confound you, you blathering old sentimentalist, " he cried, shaking with laughter.
瑞非医生是个高个子，一套衣服穿了十年。衣服的袖子磨损了，膝盖和手肘的地方都有小的破洞。他在办公室里也穿着一件亚麻的防尘服，衣服上有大大的口袋，里面总是被他塞满了纸片。数周后，这些纸片就会变成坚硬的、圆圆的小纸球。当口袋被装满的时候，他就把它们倒在地板上。十年来，他只有一个朋友。那是另一个老头，名叫约翰•斯帕尼亚德；他有一间苗圃。有时，老瑞非医生会开玩笑似的从口袋里掏出一把纸球，朝着苗圃的主人扔过去。那是用来砸晕你的，你这个唠唠叨叨的老感伤派。他大声地叫道，然后笑得全身直抖。
The story of Doctor Reefy and his courtship of the tall dark girl who became his wife and left her money to him is a very curious story. It is delicious, like the twisted little apples that grow in the orchards of Winesburg. In the fall one walks in the orchards and the ground is hard with frost under—foot. The apples have been taken from the trees by the pickers. They have been put in barrels and shipped to the cities where they will be eaten in apartments that are filled with books, magazines, furniture, and people. On the trees are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected. They look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy's hands. One nibbles at them and they are delicious. Into a little round place at the side of the apple has been gathered all of its sweetness. One runs from tree to tree over the frosted ground picking the gnarled, twisted apples and filling his pockets with them. Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples.
瑞非医生的故事，还有他向他的妻子——那个高挑的、黑皮肤的姑娘——求爱、结婚，然后获得一大笔遗产的故事非常具有传奇色彩。这个故事很有趣，就像温斯堡果园里长的那种不够圆溜的小苹果一样很美味。秋天里，人们在果园里散步，脚下的土地因结了霜，变得十分坚硬。苹果被工人从树上摘下来。苹果被放进桶里并装船运往各个城市，然后被人们吃掉。被吃掉的地点是在挤满了人，放满了书籍、杂志和家具的公寓里。树上只剩下一些结疤的苹果，工人们一般不会把它们摘下来。它们看起来就像瑞非医生的指关节。咬上一口，真是美味无比。苹果的甜味都集中在边上一个小小的、圆圆的地方。有人会从这棵树跑到那棵树，踩在结了霜的地面上，采摘那些结疤的歪苹果，把口袋装得满满的。只有少数几个人知道这种苹果是甜的。
The girl and Doctor Reefy began their courtship on a summer afternoon. He was forty—five then and already he had begun the practice of filling his pockets with the scraps of paper that became hard balls and were thrown away. The habit had been formed as he sat in his buggy behind the jaded white horse and went slowly along country roads. On the papers were written thoughts, ends of thoughts, beginnings of thoughts.
瑞非医生和那个姑娘的爱情故事开始于一个夏日的下午。那时他已四十五岁，已经开始养成把口袋装满纸片，把纸片变成硬硬的纸球，然后扔掉的习惯。当他坐着马车，由一匹疲倦的白马拉着在乡村公路上慢慢行进的时候，这种习惯就养成了。他把所思所想都写在纸上，有的是结尾，有的是开头。
One by one the mind of Doctor Reefy had made the thoughts. Out of many of them he formed a truth that arose gigantic in his mind. The truth clouded the world. It became terrible and then faded away and the little thoughts began again.
瑞非医生的念头一个个渐渐变成了思想。众多的思想汇集在一起变成了真理，在他脑海里变成了庞然大物。这个真理遮蔽了整个世界。它先是变得可怕，然后渐渐淡去，但随即那些琐碎的思绪又重新冒了出来。
The tall dark girl came to see Doctor Reefy because she was in the family way and had become frightened. She was in that condition because of a series of circumstances also curious.
那个高个子的黑皮肤姑娘来找瑞非医生，是因为她怀了孕，心中惊惶不安。她之所以会沦落到这步田地也是因为一系列奇妙的际遇。
The death of her father and mother and the rich acres of land that had come down to her had set a train of suitors on her heels. For two years she saw suitors almost every evening. Except two they were all alike. They talked to her of passion and there was a strained eager quality in their voices and in their eyes when they looked at her. The two who were different were much unlike each other. One of them, a slender young man with white hands, the son of a jeweler in Winesburg, talked continually of virginity. When he was with her he was never off the subject. The other, a black—haired boy with large ears, said nothing at all but always managed to get her into the darkness, where he began to kiss her.
她的父母双亡，一大片富饶的土地落到了她手里，这就招致了一大群求婚者尾追不舍。两年内，她几乎每晚都有求婚者。除了两个人以外，其他求婚者都大同小异。他们同她谈论激情，望着她的时候，声音和眼睛里有种压抑的渴望。而这与众不同的两个人，彼此也是截然不同的。其中一位身材颀长的年轻人有着白净的手，是温斯堡一个珠宝商的儿子。他总是不停地同她谈及贞洁。每当他同她相处时，总是提到这个话题。而另一个黑发的男子，长着大耳朵，什么也不说，可总是想方设法地将她拉到暗处，然后开始亲吻她。
For a time the tall dark girl thought she would marry the jeweler's son. For hours she sat in silence listening as he talked to her and then she began to be afraid of something. Beneath his talk of virginity she began to think there was a lust greater than in all the others. At times it seemed to her that as he talked he was holding her body in his hands. She imagined him turning it slowly about in the white hands and staring at it. At night she dreamed that he had bitten into her body and that his jaws were dripping. She had the dream three times, then she became in the family way to the one who said nothing at all but who in the moment of his passion actually did bite her shoulder so that for days the marks of his teeth showed. After the tall dark girl came to know Doctor Reefy it seemed to her that she never wanted to leave him again. She went into his office one morning and without her saying anything he seemed to know what had happened to her.
这个高个的黑姑娘一度曾考虑着应该嫁给珠宝商的儿子。她一言不发地坐上几个小时听他说话，接着她开始感到有些害怕。她觉得，在他关于贞洁的言论表象之下，隐藏着比其他人更加强烈的欲望。有时，在她看来，他说话时是将她的身体抱在手里的。她想象着他用那白净的双手慢慢转动自己的身体，定睛凝视着。夜晚，她梦到他咬了她身上，他的嘴里还滴着血。这样的梦她重复做了三次，然后，她就怀上了那位沉默的求婚者的孩子。他在激情迸发的时刻切切实实地咬在她的肩上，以至于那些牙印多日后还清晰可见。这位姑娘结识了瑞非医生后，似乎不想再离开他。一个清晨，她走进他的办公室，什么都没说，医生却似乎知道她发生了什么事。
In the office of the doctor there was a woman, the wife of the man who kept the bookstore in Winesburg. Like all old—fashioned country practitioners, Doctor Reefy pulled teeth, and the woman who waited held a handkerchief to her teeth and groaned. Her husband was with her and when the tooth was taken out they both screamed and blood ran down on the woman's white dress. The tall dark girl did not pay any attention. When the woman and the man had gone the doctor smiled. "I will take you driving into the country with me, " he said.
他的办公室里有个女人，是温斯堡书店的老板娘。像所有老式的乡村医师一样，瑞非医生也拔牙。候诊的这个女人用块手帕捂住牙齿在呻吟着。书店老板陪着妻子。当那颗牙被拔出来的时候，他们都尖叫起来，血流到了女人的白色裙子上。可那个高挑的黑姑娘丝毫没有注意。书店老板夫妇离开后，医生笑了起来。我开车带你去乡下吧。他说。
For several weeks the tall dark girl and the doctor were together almost every day. The condition that had brought her to him passed in an illness, but she was like one who has discovered the sweetness of the twisted apples, she could not get her mind fixed again upon the round perfect fruit that is eaten in the city apartments. In the fall after the beginning of her acquaintanceship with him she married Doctor Reefy and in the following spring she died. During the winter he read to her all of the odds and ends of thoughts he had scribbled on the bits of paper. After he had read them he laughed and stuffed them away in his pockets to become round hard balls.
姑娘和医生好几个星期来几乎天天呆在一起。使姑娘结识医生的那件事经过一场病痛后过去了。但是，她就像那些发现了歪苹果的甜蜜秘密的人一样，对于坐在城市的公寓里吃那些圆溜溜的苹果再也喜欢不起来。在他们结识后的那个秋天，姑娘嫁给了瑞非医生，第二年的春天，她就死了。整个冬天，他把自己写在纸片上的那些零零碎碎的思想都念给她听了。念过之后，他便哈哈大笑，重新把纸片塞进衣袋里，让它们变成又圆又硬的纸球。
CHAPTER 3 Mother