On the 16th, at one o'clock, I made my way to the rue d' Antin.

十六号下午一点钟，我就到安坦街去了。

The raised voices of the auctioneers could be heard from the carriage entrance.

拍卖师高亢响亮的声音在供马车进入的大门口就可以听见。

The apartment was filled with inquisitive spectators.

宅子里挤满了好奇的观众。

All the famous names from the world of fashionable vice were there. They were being slyly observed by a number of society ladies who had again used the sale as a pretext for claiming the right to see, at close quarters, women in whose company they would not otherwise have had occasion to find themselves, and whose easy pleasures they perhaps secretly envied.

所有烟花之地的知名人物都在那里了。她们正被一些贵妇人狡猾地打量着，这些贵妇又一次把这个拍卖作为一个借口，声称自己有权利近距离观察这些她们从来没有机会与之共同相处的女人，而且说不定这些贵妇人还暗自在羡慕她们自由放荡的轻松生活呢。

The Duchesse de F rubbed shoulders with Mademoiselle A, one of the sorriest specimens of our modern courtesans; the Marquise de Tshrank from buying an item of furniture for which the bidding was led by Madame D, the most elegant and most celebrated adulteress of our age; the Duc d'Y, who is believed in Madrid to be ruining himself in Paris, and in Paris to be ruining himself in Madrid, and who, when all is said and done, cannot even spend all his income, while continuing to chat with Madame M, one of our wittiest taletellers, who occasionally agrees to write down what she says and to sign what she writes, was exchanging confidential glances with Madame de N, the beauty who may be regularly seen driving on the Champs- lys es, dressed almost invariably in pink or blue, in a carriage drawn by two large black horses sold to her by Tony for ten thousand francs...and paid for in full; lastly, Mademoiselle R, who by sheer talent makes twice what ladies of fashion make with their dowries, and three times as much as what the rest make out of their love affairs, had come in spite of the cold to make a few purchases, and it was not she who attracted the fewest eyes.

F公爵夫人撞上了A小姐的肩膀，后者是当今妓女圈子里最不幸的一位；T侯爵夫人放弃了购买一件D夫人在不断抬价的家具，因为D夫人是眼下最有风姿又最有名的荡妇。Y公爵，马德里的人们说他在巴黎破了产，巴黎的人们说他在马德里破了产，但当这些流言都过去了之后，他其实有花不完的收入，这会儿他正在和M太太闲聊。M太太是最聪明，也是最爱搬弄是非的人之一，她常想把自己讲的东西写下来，并签上自己的大名。Y公爵同时还在和N夫人眉目传情。人们可以经常在香榭丽舍大街上看到N夫人乘马车驶过，她穿的衣衫总是粉红和天蓝两种颜色，她坐在由两匹高大的黑色骏马拉着的马车里，这两匹马，托尼向她要价一万法郎，她都如数照付。最后还有R小姐，她靠自己的才能挣得的财产比那些靠嫁妆的上流社会妇人挣得的要高两倍，比其他那些靠风流韵事赚钱的女人挣得的还要高三倍，尽管患了感冒她还是赶来购买一些东西，她吸引的目光绝不会是最少的。

We could go on quoting the initials of many of those who had gathered in that drawing-room and who were not a little astonished at the company they kept; but we should, we fear, weary the reader.

我们还可以继续列举聚集在这间客厅中的很多人的姓氏打头字母，他们对于在这里遇到的人都感觉非常惊讶；但是我们担心，那样让读者感到厌烦。

Suffice it to say that everyone was in the highest spirits and that, of all the women there, many had known the dead girl and gave no sign that they remembered her.

还值得一提的就是当时每个人都非常兴奋，在场的所有女人中有很多都认识那个死去的女孩，但她们没有做出任何怀念她的表示。

There was much loud laughter; the auctioneers shouted at the tops of their voices; the dealers who had crowded on to the benches placed in front of the auction tables called vainly for silence in which to conduct their business in peace. Never was a gathering more varied and more uproarious.

房子里充满了大笑声；拍卖师们用他们最大的声音吆喝着；满坐在拍卖桌前面板凳上的商人们徒劳地叫着让大家安静，好让他们在安静的环境里做生意。从来没有一个集会像今天这样，各种身份混杂，环境喧闹嘈杂。

I slipped unobtrusively into the middle of the distressing tumult, saddened to think that all this was taking place next to the very room where the unfortunate creature whose furniture was being sold up to pay her debts, had breathed her last. Having come to observe rather than to buy, I watched the faces of the tradesmen who had forced the sale and whose features lit up each time an item reached a price they had never dared hope for.

我默不作声地溜进了这堆闹闹嚷嚷的人群中间，悲伤地想着所有的这些就发生在这个不幸的女人呼出最后一口气的房间旁边，为的是拍卖她的家具来还清她生前的欠债。与其说我是来买东西的，倒不如说是来凑热闹的，我看着那些强迫拍卖进行的商人，每当一件物品被抬升到了一个他们都不敢奢望的价格时，他们的脸便会散发出光彩。

Honest men all, who had speculated in the prostitution of this woman, had obtained a one-hundred per cent return on her, had dogged the last moments of her life with writs, and came after she was dead to claim both the fruits of their honourable calculations and the interest accruing on the shameful credit they had given her.

那些诚实的男人们，他们在这个女人出卖肉体的时候给了钱，现在又全部从她身上拿了回来，他们在她生命的最后时刻还在用各种借据文件和她纠缠不清，在她死后就来收取他们冠冕堂皇的帐款和卑鄙可耻的高额利息。

How right were the Ancients who had one God for merchants and thieves!

古人说，商人和小偷信仰的是同样一个上帝，这是多么正确啊！

Dresses, Indian shawls, jewels, came under the hammer at an unbelievable rate. None of it took my fancy, and I waited on.

裙子、开司米披肩、珠宝，以令人吃惊的速度都落槌成交了。没有一样让我着迷，所以我一直等着。

Suddenly I heard a voice shout: A book, fully bound, gilt-edges, entitled: Manon Lescaut. There's something written on the first page: ten francs.'

突然我听见一个声音叫道：“一本书，精装，书边烫金，书名《玛农·莱斯科》。扉页上写着一些东西，起价十个法郎。”

'Twelve,' said a voice, after a longish silence.

“十二法郎。”一个声音说道，在很长的一阵沉默之后。

'Fifteen,' I said.

“十五法郎。”我说。

Why? I had no idea. No doubt for that 'something written'.

为什么我要出这个价钱呢？我自己也不清楚。毫无疑问是因为写在扉页上的“一些东西”。

'Fifteen,' repeated the auctioneer.

“十五法郎。”拍卖师重复道。

'Thirty,' said the first bidder, in a tone which seemed to defy anybody to go higher.

“三十法郎。”第一个出价的人叫道，那语气似乎是想阻止别人出更高的价钱。

It was becoming a fight.

这场拍卖变成了一场较量。

'Thirty-five!' I cried, in the same tone of voice.

“三十五法郎！”我叫道，也用一样的口气。

'Forty.'

“四十法郎！”

'Fifty.'

“五十法郎！”

'Sixty.'

“六十法郎！”

'A hundred.'

“一百法郎！”

I confess that if I had set out to cause a stir, I would have succeeded completely, for my last bid was followed by a great silence, and people stared at me to see who this man was who seemed so intent on possessing the volume.

我承认如果我是为了引起一阵骚动，那么我已经完全成功了，因为我最后的一次竞价之后紧跟着是全场的鸦雀无声，人们都盯着我看，想看看这个似乎一心要等到这本书的先生究竟是谁。

Apparently the tone in which I had made my latest bid was enough for my opponent: he chose therefore to abandon a struggle which would have served only to cost me ten times what the book was worth and, with a bow, he said very graciously but a little late:

很明显，我最后一次叫价的口气足以震慑住我的对手了，他因此选择放弃这场最后只是让我花了这本书本身价值十倍的钱的竞争，他向我鞠躬，过了一会，优雅地对我说：

'It's yours, sir.'

“这是你的了，先生。”

No other bids were forthcoming, and the book was knocked down to me.

没有其他竞价了，这本书就拍给我了。

Since I feared a new onset of obstinacy which my vanity might conceivably have borne but which would have assuredly proved too much for my purse, I gave my name, asked for the volume to be put aside and left by the stairs. I must have greatly intrigued the onlookers who, having witnessed this scene, doubtless wondered why on earth I had gone there to pay a hundred francs for a book that I could have got anywhere for ten or fifteen at most.

因为我害怕我的虚荣心很可能会再一次激起我的倔脾气，而这又一定是我的钱包不能承担的，我留下自己的名字，要求他们把书留在一边，就下楼离开了。我一定激起了目击了这个场景的旁观者们的强烈兴趣，他们无疑会好奇我究竟是为什么来到这里花一百法郎买一本我随便到哪里花十个或者最多十五个法郎就能买到的书。

An hour later, I had sent round for my purchase.

一个小时以后，我派人把我买下的那本书取了回来。

On the first page, written in ink in an elegant hand, was the dedication of the person who had given the book. This dedication consisted simply of these words: Manon to Marguerite, Humility.'

扉页上是赠书人用钢笔写的两行秀丽的字迹。题词只有寥寥几字：“玛农对玛格丽特，惭愧。”

It was signed: Armand Duval.

下面的署名是：阿尔芒·迪瓦尔。

What did this word 'Humility' mean?

“惭愧”这两个字是什么意思呢？

Was it that Manon, in the opinion of this Monsieur Armand Duval, acknowledged Marguerite as her superior in debauchery or in true love?

根据这位阿尔芒·迪瓦尔先生的意见，玛农是不是承认玛格丽特在生活放荡方面，抑或是在真爱方面，要更胜一筹？

The second interpretation seemed the more likely, for the first was impertinently frank, and Marguerite could never have accepted it, whatever opinion she had of herself.

第二种解释看起来更可能一些，因为第一种显得过于直白唐突，玛格丽特是绝不可能接受的，不管她对自己抱什么看法。

I went out again and thought no more of the book until that night, when I retired to bed.

我又出门了，没有再想着那本书，直到那天晚上我上床的时候。

Manon Lescaut is a truly touching story every detail of which is familiar to me and yet, whenever I hold a copy in my hand, an instinctive feeling for it draws me on. I open it and for the hundredth time I live again with the abb Pr vost's heroine. Now, his heroine is so lifelike that I feel that I have met her. In my new circumstances, the kind of comparison drawn between her and Marguerite added an unexpected edge to my reading, and my forbearance was swelled with pity, almost love, for the poor girl, the disposal of whose estate I could thank for possessing the volume. Manon died in a desert, it is true, but in the terms of the man who loved her with all the strength of his soul and who, when she was dead, dug a grave for her, watered it with his tears and buried his heart with her; whereas Marguerite, a sinner like Manon, and perhaps as truly converted as she, had died surrounded by fabulous luxury, if I could believe what I had seen, on the bed of her own past, but no less lost in the desert of the heart which is much more arid, much vaster and far more pitiless than the one in which Manon had been interred.

《玛农·莱斯科》确实是一个令人感动的故事，其中的每个细节我都熟悉，可是不论什么时候，只要我的手中有这本书，对它从心底生出的一种感情就吸引着我。我打开书，普雷沃神父塑造的女主角第一百次出现在我眼前。他的女主角显得如此栩栩如生，仿佛我真遇到过她似的。现在，把玛农和玛格丽特做比较又为我的阅读增添了意料之外的吸引力，我对这个可怜姑娘的怜悯，甚至可以说是喜爱，使我对她充满了同情。我得感谢那场拍卖，因此我才得到了这本书。不错，玛农是死在一个沙漠里的，但是一个用自己生命的全部力量来爱她的男人在她死后为她挖了一个坟墓，用自己的眼泪来浇灌它，还在那里把自己的心也一同埋葬了；但是玛格丽特，一个像玛农一样有罪的人，也有可能像玛农一样已经改邪归正了，却是在极尽奢华的环境中死去的，如果我所看到的值得相信的话。她死在过去一直睡觉的床上，内心却同样迷失沙漠中，这个沙漠比埋葬玛农的沙漠更加干燥、更加荒凉、更加无情。

Indeed Marguerite, as I had learned from friends informed of the circumstances of her final moments, had seen no true consolation settle at her bedside during the two months when she lay slowly and painfully dying.

确实，我从几个了解她临终情况的朋友那里听说，在玛格丽特慢慢而痛苦地死去的两个月中没有看到过谁在床边给她真正的安慰。

Then, from Manon and Marguerite, my thoughts turned to those women whom I knew and whom I could see rushing gaily towards the same almost invariable death.

然后，从玛农和玛格丽特，我的思想又转到了那些我认识的女人，我能看到她们都快乐地奔向那个几乎不变的同样的死亡。

Poor creatures! If it is wrong to love them, the least one can do is to pity them. You pity the blind man who has never seen the light of day, the deaf man who has never heard the harmonies of nature, the mute who has never found a voice for his soul, and yet, under the specious pretext of decency, you will not pity that blindness of heart, deafness of soul and dumbness of conscience which turn the brains of poor, desperate women and prevent them, despite themselves, from seeing goodness, hearing the Lord and speaking the pure language of love and religion.

可怜的女人啊！如果说爱她们是一个错误，那么至少也应该同情她们的遭遇。你们同情从没见过阳光的瞎子，同情从没听过大自然和谐交响的聋子，同情从没有找到声音来表达自己思想的哑巴；但是，在虚伪的以礼貌道德为名的借口之下，你们却不会同情心灵上的失明、灵魂上的失聪、良心上的无语，这些残疾扭曲了可怜、绝望的女人们，并让她们无可奈何地看不到善良美德、听不到上帝的召唤、讲不出关于爱情和信仰的纯洁语言。

Hugo wrote Marion Delorme, Musset wrote Bernerette, Alexandre Dumas wrote Fernande. Thinkers and poets throughout the ages have offered the courtesan the oblation of their mercy and, on occasion, some great man has brought them back to the fold through the gift of his love and even his name. If I dwell on this point, it is because among those who will read these pages, many may already be about to throw down a book in which they fear they will see nothing but an apology for vice and prostitution, and doubtless the youth of the present author is a contributing factor in providing grounds for their fears. Let those who are of such a mind be undeceived. Let them read on, if such fears alone gave them pause.

雨果刻画了马里翁·德洛姆，缪塞创作了贝尔纳雷特，大仲马塑造了费尔南德。各个时期的思想家和诗人将他们的仁慈作为献礼给了妓女，有时候，伟人挺身而出，用他的爱情、甚至姓氏来为她们恢复名誉。我之所以强调这个观点，是因为在那些会读到我这本书的读者中间，很多人可能已经准备把这本书抛开了，他们害怕看到的都是为邪恶和卖淫辩护，而且作者是年轻人这一点想必更容易使人产生这种顾虑。让那些有着这样思想的人觉悟吧。如果只是这样的忧虑使他们停止阅读这本书，那还是请他们继续看下去吧。

I am quite simply persuaded of a principle which states that: To any woman whose education has not imparted knowledge of goodness, God almost invariably opens up two paths which will lead her back to it; these paths are suffering and love. They are rocky paths; women who follow them will cut their feet and graze their hands, but will at the same time leave the gaudy rags of vice hanging on the briars which line the road, and shall reach their journey's end in that naked state for which no one need feel shame in the sight of the Lord.

我只信奉一个原则，即对于任何没有受到过“善”的教育的女子，上帝几乎总是为她们打开两条路，这两条路会让她们殊途同归回到他身边：它们是痛苦和爱。这两条路都是曲折艰难的道路。走上它们的女人会划破她们的脚，磨破她们的手，但同时她们也会把罪孽的盛装留在道路边的荆棘上，以全身赤裸的状态到达旅途的终点，没有人会在上帝面前不好意思。

Any who encounter these brave wayfarers are duty bound to comfort them and to say to all the world that they have encountered them, for by proclaiming the news they show the way.

遇到这些勇敢的旅客的人们都有责任安慰她们，并且告诉所有人说他们曾经遇到过这些女人，因为在告诉大家这件事情的时候，他们也就为这些女人们指出了道路。

It is not a simple matter of erecting two signposts at the gateway to life, one bearing the inscription: 'The Way of Goodness' and the other carrying this warning: 'The Way of Evil', and of saying to those who come: 'Choose!' Each of us, like Christ himself, must point to those paths which will redirect from the second way to the first the steps of those who have allowed themselves to be tempted by the approach roads; and above all let not the beginning of these paths be too painful, nor appear too difficult of access.

这不仅仅是在人生道路的入口处立起两块牌子这么简单的事：一块上面刻着“善之路”，另一块写着警告“恶之路”，然后告诉走过来的人说：“选择吧！”我们中的每一个人，都必须像基督自己一样，向那些受到诱惑走上岔路的人指出从第二条路返回第一条路的途径；尤其是不能让这些途径的开头那一段太痛苦，显得太不好走。

Christianity is ever-present, with its wonderful parable of the prodigal son, to urge us to counsels of forbearance and forgiveness. Jesus was full of love for souls of women wounded by the passions of men, and He loved to bind their wounds, drawing from those same wounds the balm which would heal them. Thus he said to Mary Magdalene: 'Your sins, which are many, shall be forgiven, because you loved much'—a sublime pardon which was to awaken a sublime faith.

基督教义无时无刻不在显现，它用浪子回头的动人寓言，督促我们对人要仁慈、要宽容。耶稣对那些被男人热情伤害的女人的灵魂充满了爱，他喜欢在包扎她们伤口的时候，从伤口本身取出能治愈伤口的香膏敷在其上。因此，他对从良的马丽说：“你深重的罪孽将得到宽恕，因为你爱得多。”这种崇高的宽恕行为自然唤起了一种崇高的信仰。

Why should we judge more strictly than Christ? Why, clinging stubbornly to the opinions of the world which waxes hard so that we shall think it strong, why should we too turn away souls that bleed from wounds oozing with the evil of their past, like infected blood from a sick body, as they wait only for a friendly hand to bind them up and restore them to a convalescent heart?

我们做出评价的时候为什么要比基督严厉呢？这个世界为了让我们认为它很强大而故作严厉，而我们也固执地接受它的成见。我们为什么要和它一样抛弃那些伤口里流着血的灵魂呢？这些伤口里面像病人渗出污血一样渗出他们过去的罪恶，它们在等待着一只友好的手来包扎它们的伤口，治愈它们心头的创伤。

It is to my generation that I speak, to those for whom the theories of Monsieur de Voltaire are, happily, defunct, to those who, like myself, can see that humanity has, these fifteen years past, been engaged in one of its boldest leaps forward. The knowledge of good and evil is ours forever; religion is rebuilding, the respect for holy things has been restored to us, and, if the world is not yet wholly good, then at least it is becoming better. The efforts of all intelligent men tend to the same goal, and all those firm in purpose are yoked to the same principle: let us be good, let us be young, let us be true! Evil is but vanity: let us take pride in Goodness and, above all, let us not despair. Let us not scorn the woman who is neither mother nor sister nor daughter nor wife. Let us not limit respect to the family alone nor reduce forbearance to mere egoism. Since there is more rejoicing in heaven for the repentance of one sinner than for a hundred just men who have never sinned, let us try to give heaven cause to rejoice. Heaven may repay us with interest. Let us leave along our way the charity of our forgiveness for those whom earthly desires have brought low, who shall perhaps be saved by hope in heaven and, as wise old dames say when they prescribe remedies of their own making, if it does no good then at least it can do no harm.

我这是在向我同时代的人呼吁，向那些对他们来说伏尔泰的理论已经不起作用的人们呼吁，向那些像我一样知道近十五年来人道主义向前跨了有史以来最大一步的人呼吁。我们已经永远地拥有了善与恶的知识，宗教信仰正得到重建，我们又重新开始尊敬神圣的事物，如果还不能说这个世界是十全十美的，至少它正变得越来越好。所有聪明人努力的结果都是朝向同一个目标，所有坚定的意志都服从于同一个原则：让我们变善良、变年轻、变真实！邪恶只不过是一种空虚的东西。让我们为善良的行为感到骄傲，除此之外更重要的是，不要丧失希望。不要鄙视那些既不是母亲、姐妹，又不是女儿、妻子的女人。不要将尊敬仅限于对亲人，也不要将宽容仅限于对自己。既然天堂因一个罪人的悔悟而体验到的喜悦，要多于一百个从来没有犯过罪的正直的人所能带来的喜悦，那么我们就努力地给上帝高兴的理由吧。上天会加倍赐福于我们。让我们在前进的道路上给那些被世俗的欲望所打击的人们一些宽恕吧！他们也许可以被天上的希望所拯救，就像老妇人们在开出自制的处方时说的那样，即使没有什么好处，至少也不会有害于人。

In truth, it must seem very forward of me to seek to derive such great results from the slender subject which I treat; but I am of those who believe that the whole is in the part. The child is small, and yet he is father to the man; the brain is cramped, and yet it is the seat of thought; the eye is but a point, yet it encompasses leagues of space.

实际上，我看起来一定太极端、太鲁莽了，试图从细小的论题里面得出如此伟大的结论来，但是我是相信一切都存在于渺小之中的众人之一。孩子虽然幼小，但足以看出他成年后的样子；大脑虽然狭窄，但它是无限思想的产生之处；眼睛只有一点儿大，但它可以看见广阔的天地。 RWs7bOlNnexQEzTAO7c+Jj3xnIACVyLa4nJgKgvzlauen8CyrmU0uIe7IuSl7XN3