II

二

"I must work the garden—I must work the garden, " I said to myself, five minutes later, as I waited, upstairs, in the long, dusky sala, where the bare scagliola floor gleamed vaguely in a chink of the closed shutters.

“我得在花园上下功夫——我得在花园上下功夫。” 我自忖着，当时我已在楼上那间长长的、满是灰尘的正厅里等了有五分钟。借着关闭的百叶窗的细缝里透出的光，大厅里空荡的人造大理石地板隐隐闪着光。

The place was impressive but it looked cold and cautious.

这地方让人印象深刻，但看起来冷冰冰的，让人心生警惕。

Mrs. Prest had floated away, giving me a rendezvous at the end of half an hour by some neighboring water steps; and I had been let into the house, after pulling the rusty bell wire, by a little red—headed, white—faced maidservant, who was very young and not ugly and wore clicking pattens and a shawl in the fashion of a hood.

普雷斯顿夫人的小船划走了，约我半个小时后在附近水畔的石阶上见面。我拉动了生锈的门铃绳子，一位发红肤白的小个子侍女让我进去。她很年轻，也不丑，穿着那种走起来嗒嗒作响的木鞋，用一条围巾裹着头。

She had not contented herself with opening the door from above by the usual arrangement of a creaking pulley, though she had looked down at me first from an upper window, dropping the inevitable challenge which in Italy precedes the hospitable act.

她不愿意按通常的做法从上面用吱嘎作响的滑轮开门，虽然她先是从楼上的窗户往下看到我，然后盘问了我一番。在意大利，招呼客人之前，免不了先盘问一番。

As a general thing I was irritated by this survival of medieval manners, though as I liked the old I suppose I ought to have liked it; but I was so determined to be genial that I took my false card out of my pocket and held it up to her, smiling as if it were a magic token. It had the effect of one indeed, for it brought her, as I say, all the way down.

总体来说，我对于保留下来的这种中世纪的礼仪很是恼恨，虽然照理我该喜欢这个习俗，因为我喜欢旧事物；但我下定决心表达亲切之意，于是从口袋里拿出我的伪名片呈递给她，当时我笑得就好像这名片是个有魔力的信物一样。它的确产生了某种效果，正如我说的，因为它让这位女仆下楼来了。

I begged her to hand it to her mistress, having first written on it in Italian the words, "Could you very kindly see a gentleman, an American, for a moment? "

我请求她把这名片交给她的女主人，我事先在名片上用意大利语写了这样一句话： “请问你能否赏脸接见一位先生片刻？他是个美国人。”

The little maid was not hostile, and I reflected that even that was perhaps something gained. She colored, she smiled and looked both frightened and pleased.

这个年轻的女仆并没有表现出敌意，我认为这甚至也可能是一种收获。她有点儿脸红，笑了起来，看起来带些怯意，也有些高兴。

I could see that my arrival was a great affair, that visits were rare in that house, and that she was a person who would have liked a sociable place. When she pushed forward the heavy door behind me I felt that I had a foot in the citadel.

我感觉到我的到来是件大事情，因为这宅子的访客很少，而她则是个希望有社交场合的人。当她推上我身后沉重的大门的时候，我觉得自己已经一脚踏进根据地了。

She pattered across the damp, stony lower hall and I followed her up the high staircase—stonier still, as it seemed—without an invitation. I think she had meant I should wait for her below, but such was not my idea, and I took up my station in the sala. She flitted, at the far end of it, into impenetrable regions, and I looked at the place with my heart beating as I had known it to do in the dentist's parlor.

她轻快地穿过潮湿冷清的底厅，我跟着她上了高高的台阶——看起来比底厅更冷清无情——她没有邀请我跟着她。我猜她的意思是让我在下面等她，但我可不是这么想的，我要在正厅里呆着。她在正厅远远的那一端飞快地走进了旁人无法进入的区域，而我看着那里，心跳加快，就好像在牙医的诊室里那样。

It was gloomy and stately, but it owed its character almost entirely to its noble shape and to the fine architectural doors—as high as the doors of houses—which, leading into the various rooms, repeated themselves on either side at intervals. They were surmounted with old faded painted escutcheons, and here and there, in the spaces between them, brown pictures, which I perceived to be bad, in battered frames, were suspended.

那里阴郁而庄严，但它的特色几乎全在于它高贵的造型和富有建筑风格的门——门像房子的正门那么高——通往不同的房间，每隔一段就是一道门。门上悬着古老褪色的、饰有纹章的锁眼盖。门之间，随处挂着棕色的图画，我认为这些图画很糟糕，画框都破掉了。

With the exception of several straw—bottomed chairs with their backs to the wall, the grand obscure vista contained nothing else to minister to effect. It was evidently never used save as a passage, and little even as that.

除了背靠着墙的那几个稻草做底的椅子，没什么其他物件可以为这幅庄严晦暗的景象增添效果。除了被当成过道，这里很明显没有什么用途，甚至作为过道，也很少用。

I may add that by the time the door opened again through which the maidservant had escaped, my eyes had grown used to the want of light.

我可以补充一句，当女仆逃进去的那道门再一次打开时，我的眼睛已经适应了缺乏光线的环境。

I had not meant by my private ejaculation that I must myself cultivate the soil of the tangled enclosure which lay beneath the windows, but the lady who came toward me from the distance over the hard, shining floor might have supposed as much from the way in which, as I went rapidly to meet her, I exclaimed, taking care to speak Italian: "The garden, the garden—do me the pleasure to tell me if it's yours! "

我暗自说要在花园上下功夫，可不是真的要亲自在窗子底下这块围起来的，杂乱的土地上种什么东西，但这位远远地朝我走来的女士，这位走在坚硬的、闪闪发亮的地板上的女士可能会这样想。我迅速迎上去，努力地用意大利语赞叹道： “这个花园，这个花园——拜托你，告诉我这是你的！”

She stopped short, looking at me with wonder; and then, "Nothing here is mine, " she answered in English, coldly and sadly.

她猛地站住，疑惑地看着我，然后说： “这里什么都不是我的。” 她用英语冷冷地回答，语气感伤。

"Oh, you are English; how delightful! " I remarked, ingenuously. "But surely the garden belongs to the house? "

“啊！你是英国人。真是幸会！” 我天真地说道， “但这花园一定属于这个宅邸的吧？”

"Yes, but the house doesn't belong to me. " She was a long, lean, pale person, habited apparently in a dull—colored dressing gown, and she spoke with a kind of mild literalness. She did not ask me to sit down, any more than years before (if she were the niece) she had asked Mrs. Prest, and we stood face to face in the empty pompous hall.

“是，但这宅子不是我的。” 她又高又瘦，人显得苍白。她显然习惯穿着色彩暗淡的晨衣，说话也带着一种温和朴实的感觉。她没有叫我坐下，没有比几年前接待普雷斯顿夫人时更友好（如果她是那位侄女的话）。于是，我们面对面站在空旷的大厅里面。

"Well then, would you kindly tell me to whom I must address myself? I 'm afraid you'll think me odiously intrusive, but you know I MUST have a garden—upon my honor I must! "

“那好，请问我该请教谁呢？恐怕你会觉得我闯入这里很莽撞，但你知道，我必须要一个花园——实实在在必须要一个！”

Her face was not young, but it was simple; it was not fresh, but it was mild. She had large eyes which were not bright, and a great deal of hair which was not "dressed, " and long fine hands which were—possibly—not clean. She clasped these members almost convulsively as, with a confused, alarmed look, she broke out, "Oh, don't take it away from us; we like it ourselves! "

她的脸看起来不年轻，却是单纯的；看起来并不容光焕发，却是温和的。她眼睛很大却没有神采，头发虽多却未加 “装扮” ，手又细又长却——很可能——不干净。她双手痉挛似的扣在一起，疑惑而警觉地看着我，脱口而出： “啊，不要把它抢走，我们自己很喜欢它！”

"You have the use of it then? "

“那你们在使用这里咯？”

"Oh, yes. If it wasn't for that! " And she gave a shy, melancholy smile.

“哦，是的。还能有什么别的原因呢！” 她说完害羞地又有点儿忧伤地笑了笑。

"Isn't it a luxury, precisely? That's why, intending to be in Venice some weeks, possibly all summer, and having some literary work, some reading and writing to do, so that I must be quiet, and yet if possible a great deal in the open air—that's why I have felt that a garden is really indispensable. I appeal to your own experience, " I went on, smiling. "Now can't I look at yours? "

“这难道不正是一种享受吗？这原因就是，我打算在威尼斯呆个几周，也可能一整个夏天，做些文字工作，读读写写，所以我需要安静。而且如果可能的话，需要常常呆在户外——因此，我认为花园是必不可少的。相信你也有这样的经验，” 我微笑着继续说， “现在我能不能去看看你的花园？”

"I don't know, I don't understand, " the poor woman murmured, planted there and letting her embarrassed eyes wander all over my strangeness.

“我不知道，我不明白。” 这可怜的女士喃喃自语，定在那里，用窘迫的眼神上下打量着我这个陌生人。

"I mean only from one of those windows—such grand ones as you have here—if you will let me open the shutters. " And I walked toward the back of the house. When I had advanced halfway I stopped and waited, as if I took it for granted she would accompany me.

“我只想要从其中一个窗口看看——比如你这里这些高大的窗户——如果你能让我打开百叶窗的话。” 接下来我朝着房间的后面走去。我走到一半就停下等着，就像是吃准了她会跟我一道似的。

I had been of necessity very abrupt, but I strove at the same time to give her the impression of extreme courtesy. "I have been looking at furnished rooms all over the place, and it seems impossible to find any with a garden attached. Naturally in a place like Venice gardens are rare. It's absurd if you like, for a man, but I can't live without flowers. "

我必须要这么出人意料，但同时也努力给她一个非常谦恭的印象。 “我在这里找遍了带家具的房间，但看起来要找到一个带花园的房间简直是不可能。很自然，像威尼斯这样的地方，花园真的很少见。你也许觉得，作为男士，这样显得很奇怪，但我没有花真的不行。”

"There are none to speak of down there. " She came nearer to me, as if, though she mistrusted me, I had drawn her by an invisible thread. I went on again, and she continued as she followed me: "We have a few, but they are very common. It costs too much to cultivate them; one has to have a man. "

“下面也没有什么花呀。” 她走近我，虽然她不信任我，却好像被我用一条看不见的线牵引着一样。我继续走，她跟着我，接着说： “我们有几种花，但是是很常见的品种。种花的成本太高了，得雇一位男工才行。”

"Why shouldn't I be the man? " I asked. "I'll work without wages; or rather I'll put in a gardener. You shall have the sweetest flowers in Venice. "

“为什么我不能是那位男工呢？” 我问， “我可以免费工作，或者我雇个园丁。这样你就会拥有威尼斯最芳香的花了。”

She protested at this, with a queer little sigh which might also have been a gush of rapture at the picture I presented. Then she observed, "We don't know you—we don't know you. "

她有点儿抵触，不舒服地微微叹了一口气，也有可能是我描述的画面让她一阵狂喜。然后她提醒道： “我们不认识你——我们不认识你。”

"You know me as much as I know you: that is much more, because you know my name. And if you are English I am almost a countryman. "

“你了解我，就像我了解你一样：还不止呢，因为你知道我的名字。而且如果你是英国人，我们几乎算是同胞了。”

"We are not English, " said my companion, watching me helplessly while I threw open the shutters of one of the divisions of the wide high window.

“我们不是英国人。” 我的同伴说道，绝望地看着我。因为我甩手拉开了一扇又宽又高的窗户的百叶窗。

"You speak the language so beautifully: might I ask what you are? " Seen from above the garden was certainly shabby; but I perceived at a glance that it had great capabilities. She made no rejoinder, she was so lost in staring at me, and I exclaimed, "You don't mean to say you are also by chance American? "

“你的英语讲得那么漂亮：我能请问你是哪里人么？” 从上面看，这个花园确实很寒碜，但我一眼看出它很有潜力。她没有反驳我，她入神地注视着我。于是我惊呼道： “你该不会是说，你碰巧也是美国人吧？”

"I don't know; we used to be. "

“我不知道，我们曾经是。”

"Used to be? Surely you haven't changed? "

“曾经是？你们确定没有改变过吗？”

"It's so many years ago—we are nothing. "

“那已经是很多年前的事了——我们现在什么也不是。”

"So many years that you have been living here? Well, I don't wonder at that; it's a grand old house. I suppose you all use the garden, " I went on, "but I assure you I shouldn't be in your way. I would be very quiet and stay in one corner. "

“你们已经住在这里很多年了吗？哦，这也难怪，这个大房子看起来很老。我想你们大家都会用到这个花园，” 我继续说道， “但我保证不会影响大家。我会很安静地呆在角落里。”

"We all use it? " she repeated after me, vaguely, not coming close to the window but looking at my shoes. She appeared to think me capable of throwing her out.

“我们都会用这园子？” 她模模糊糊地重复我的话。她没有靠近窗子，却盯着我的鞋看。看起来，她觉得我有本事把她扔出去。

"I mean all your family, as many as you are. "

“我是说你们一家人，不管有几位。”

"There is only one other; she is very old—she never goes down. "

“只有另外的一位。她年龄很大了——她从不下楼。”

"Only one other, in all this great house! " I feigned to be not only amazed but almost scandalized. "Dear lady, you must have space then to spare! "

“只有另外一位？住在这么大的房子里？” 我装作不只是觉得惊讶，甚至是匪夷所思。 “亲爱的女士，你一定有空余的房间出租咯！”

"To spare? " she repeated, in the same dazed way.

“出租？” 她还是晕晕乎乎地重复道。

"Why, you surely don't live (two quiet women—I see YOU are quiet, at any rate) in fifty rooms! " Then with a burst of hope and cheer I demanded: "Couldn't you let me two or three? That would set me up! "

“对啊，你们（两位文静的女士——我怎么看都觉得你很文静）肯定不会需要五十个房间来居住吧！” 突然出现的一线希望和愉快心情使我要求道： “你不租两三间屋子给我吗？那可是帮我大忙！”

I had not struck the note that translated my purpose, and I need not reproduce the whole of the tune I played. I ended by making my interlocutress believe that I was an honorable person, though of course I did not even attempt to persuade her that I was not an eccentric one.

我的意图已经顺理成章地说了出来，不需要重复故意摆出的那种腔调了。我最终使得和我谈话的这位女士相信，我是一个体面的人，虽然我全然没有试图去说服她我不是个怪人。

I repeated that I had studies to pursue; that I wanted quiet; that I delighted in a garden and had vainly sought one up and down the city; that I would undertake that before another month was over the dear old house should be smothered in flowers.

我重申我要研究；我需要安静；我喜欢花园；我几乎在这城里上上下下找遍了也没有找到花园；我要开始行动，不出一个月时间，让这花园铺满鲜花。

I think it was the flowers that won my suit, for I afterward found that Miss Tita (for such the name of this high tremulous spinster proved somewhat incongruously to be) had an insatiable appetite for them.

我看是花园的花帮了我大忙，因为我后来发现蒂塔小姐（这么个名字跟这个极其敏感的老处女多少有点儿不协调）对花喜欢得不得了，简直是贪得无厌。

When I speak of my suit as won I mean that before I left her she had promised that she would refer the question to her aunt.

我之所以说我此行是成功的，是因为在我离开之前，她承诺，会就我的事情问问她姑妈的意见。

I inquired who her aunt might be and she answered, "Why, Miss Bordereau! " with an air of surprise, as if I might have been expected to know.

我问她姑妈是谁，她回答道： “当然是博尔德罗小姐！” 她神情讶异，似乎认为我理所当然地知道这一点。

There were contradictions like this in Tita Bordereau which, as I observed later, contributed to make her an odd and affecting person. It was the study of the two ladies to live so that the world should not touch them, and yet they had never altogether accepted the idea that it never heard of them. In Tita at any rate a grateful susceptibility to human contact had not died out, and contact of a limited order there would be if I should come to live in the house.

正如我后来发现的那样，在蒂塔·博尔德罗的身上有类似的矛盾，使她成为古怪却又动人的人。这两位女士活在一个拒绝外界打扰的地方，但同时，想到别人对她们闻所未闻，她们也不能完全接受。无论如何，可喜的是，蒂塔对于与他人接触的那点儿想法还没有完全泯灭。要是我能住进来，也许我们还能多少打些交道。

"We have never done anything of the sort; we have never had a lodger or any kind of inmate. " So much as this she made a point of saying to me. "We are very poor, we live very badly. The rooms are very bare—that you might take; they have nothing in them. I don't know how you would sleep, how you would eat. "

“我们从来没有这样做过。我们从来没有寄宿者，或是其他任何一种房客。” 她向我着重说明了这一点。 “我们很穷，生活得很不好。房间空荡荡的——就是你可能会住下来的那些房间，里面什么也没有。我不知道你怎么睡觉，怎么吃饭。”

"With your permission, I could easily put in a bed and a few tables and chairs. C 'est la moindre des choses and the affair of an hour or two. I know a little man from whom I can hire what I should want for a few months, for a trifle, and my gondolier can bring the things round in his boat. Of course in this great house you must have a second kitchen, and my servant, who is a wonderfully handy fellow" (this personage was an evocation of the moment), can easily cook me a chop there. My tastes and habits are of the simplest; I live on flowers!

“你同意的话，我很容易就能放进一张床、几张桌子和几把椅子。这事轻而易举，就是一两个小时的事情。我认识一个小人物，我可以向他租几个月我想要的东西，这不费事。再说我的船夫可以用他的平底小船将东西运过来。这么大的房子一定不止一个厨房，我的仆人，手艺非常好，” （这个仆人的人选眼下还是空缺。） “他可以轻轻松松为我做一顿排骨。我的口味和习惯都很平常。我就是不能离开花！”

And then I ventured to add that if they were very poor it was all the more reason they should let their rooms. They were bad economists—I had never heard of such a waste of material.

然后我还斗胆补充说，如果她们真的很穷，那就更应该把房间租出去了。她们不会理财——我从没听过有人如此浪费资源。

I saw in a moment that the good lady had never before been spoken to in that way, with a kind of humorous firmness which did not exclude sympathy but was on the contrary founded on it. She might easily have told me that my sympathy was impertinent, but this by good fortune did not occur to her. I left her with the understanding that she would consider the matter with her aunt and that I might come back the next day for their decision.

我马上看出，这位淑女从没遇到过人这样和她讲话，既幽默又有力，同时还不无同情，相反，同情也是用幽默的方式表达的。她本来很可能告诉我，我的同情很莽撞无礼，不过幸运的是，她没这样想。临走时我告诉她，我相信她一定会和她姑妈讨论我的事，告诉她我第二天会回来看看她们是如何决定的。

"The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche! "

“这个姑妈一定会拒绝。她会认为整个事情有阴谋！”

Mrs. Prest declared shortly after this, when I had resumed my place in her gondola. She had put the idea into my head and now (so little are women to be counted on) she appeared to take a despondent view of it. Her pessimism provoked me and I pretended to have the best hopes; I went so far as to say that I had a distinct presentiment that I should succeed.

我刚在平底小船上坐下来，普雷斯顿夫人就立刻这样说。是她让我产生这样的想法（女人就是这么不可靠），现在她又显得很悲观。她的悲观惹恼了我，于是我宣称自己抱有最大的希望。我甚至说我确实预感到会成功。

Upon this Mrs. Prest broke out, "Oh, I see what's in your head! You fancy you have made such an impression in a quarter of an hour that she is dying for you to come and can be depended upon to bring the old one round. If you do get in you'll count it as a triumph. "

看我这样说，普雷斯顿夫人脱口而出： “哈，我知道你在想什么！你以为自己在短短一刻钟给她留下了如此深刻的印象，以至于她巴不得你去，你还以为靠着她就能说服老的那位。住进去了才算是真的胜利。”

I did count it as a triumph, but only for the editor (in the last analysis), not for the man, who had not the tradition of personal conquest.

我确实认为这是个凯旋。不过只是作为编辑的我的凯旋（归根结底），不是我本人的。因为我本人没有征服他人的习惯。

When I went back on the morrow the little maidservant conducted me straight through the long sala (it opened there as before in perfect perspective and was lighter now, which I thought a good omen) into the apartment from which the recipient of my former visit had emerged on that occasion.

第二天我回到大宅，小女仆直接带我穿过长长的正厅（它像以前那么敞开着，视线很好，更为明亮，我认为这是个好兆头），来到一间客房，我头一天就是在这里受到接待的。

It was a large shabby parlor, with a fine old painted ceiling and a strange figure sitting alone at one of the windows.

这是一间宽敞而简陋的会客室，古老的天花板刷得很精细。一个陌生的身形独自坐在一扇窗子的旁边。

They come back to me now almost with the palpitation they caused, the successive feelings that accompanied my consciousness that as the door of the room closed behind me I was really face to face with the Juliana of some of Aspern's most exquisite and most renowned lyrics.

当身后的门关上了，当我意识到我真的和阿斯本最优美、最著名的抒情诗里的朱莉安娜面对面的时候，那种一连串的感觉引发的悸动心情，现在想起也同样让我心跳不已。

I grew used to her afterward, though never completely; but as she sat there before me my heart beat as fast as if the miracle of resurrection had taken place for my benefit. Her presence seemed somehow to contain his, and I felt nearer to him at that first moment of seeing her than I ever had been before or ever have been since.

我后来渐渐习惯了她，虽然没有完全习惯。但当她坐在我面前，我的心跳得很快，就像复活的奇迹为我而发生一样。不知何故，她的出现带着他的气息。看到她的第一眼，我就感觉自己和阿斯本更近了。我从前没有，以后也不会和他那么地接近。

Yes, I remember my emotions in their order, even including a curious little tremor that took me when I saw that the niece was not there.

是的，我记得我的心情变化的顺序，甚至包括我看见她侄女不在场时心里古怪的小颤抖。

With her, the day before, I had become sufficiently familiar, but it almost exceeded my courage (much as I had longed for the event) to be left alone with such a terrible relic as the aunt.

头一天和她在一起，我和她已经算熟络了。而被单独留下，和姑妈这样一位半截入土的人呆在一起，我简直提不起勇气（尽管我非常期待这一刻）。

She was too strange, too literally resurgent. Then came a check, with the perception that we were not really face to face, inasmuch as she had over her eyes a horrible green shade which, for her, served almost as a mask. I believed for the instant that she had put it on expressly, so that from underneath it she might scrutinize me without being scrutinized herself.

她太陌生了，简直是个复活的人。转念又一想，我们其实没有面对面，因为她的眼睛上方有个很恐怖的绿色罩子，对她而言，就像是个面具一样。我立刻相信，她是刻意戴上这个罩子的，这样，她就可以在遮盖下审视我，而我却无法审视她。

At the same time it increased the presumption that there was a ghastly death 's—head lurking behind it. The divine Juliana as a grinning skull—the vision hung there until it passed.

同时，我更怀疑，罩子下藏着的，是骇人的死人脑袋。神圣的朱莉安娜竟像阴笑的骷髅——这个画面在我头脑中停留良久才消失。

Then it came to me that she WAS tremendously old—so old that death might take her at any moment, before I had time to get what I wanted from her.

然后我想到，她的确非常非常老了——老到随时可能会死，我甚至来不及有时间从她那里得到我想要的东西。

The next thought was a correction to that; it lighted up the situation. She would die next week, she would die tomorrow—then I could seize her papers. Meanwhile she sat there neither moving nor speaking.

接下来的想法修正了上一个想法，使得情形有所好转。她可能下周死，也可能明天就死——于是我就可以占有她的文稿了。那时她坐在那里，既不动，也不说话。

She was very small and shrunken, bent forward, with her hands in her lap. She was dressed in black, and her head was wrapped in a piece of old black lace which showed no hair.

她很瘦小，身体萎缩，弯着腰，手搭在腿上。她穿着黑色的衣服，头上缠着一块黑色的旧蕾丝，没有头发露出来。

My emotion keeping me silent she spoke first, and the remark she made was exactly the most unexpected.

我心绪难平，说不出话来，她先开了口，而她说的话实在是太出人意料了。 zTZol8mgnGfhSeXZncPmqaV4XXOf1OXB8IEdLYdfe5dprno9etLoPK6Ck5wDIEo3