古瓷器

Old China

I have an almost feminine partiality for old china. When I go to see any great house, I inquire for the china—closet, and next for the picture gallery. I cannot defend the order of preference, but by saying, that we have all some taste or other, of too ancient a date to admit of our remembering distinctly that it was an acquired one. I can call to mind the first play, and the first exhibition, that I was taken to; but I am not conscious of a time when china jars and saucers were introduced into my imagination.

对于古瓷器，我怀有一种近乎女性的偏爱。每次进入大宅，我总是要求看看他们的瓷器橱柜，然后才去画室观赏。我不知道为什么我会分出这样的先后顺序，我只能说我们每个人都有这样那样的癖好，这些癖好古老得连我们自己也记不清究竟是何时养成的了。我至今仍记得我所观看的第一出戏和第一次展览，却记不起是什么时候喜欢上瓷罐和瓷碟的。

I had no repugnance then—why should I now have? —to those little, lawless, azure—tinctured grotesques, that under the notion of men and women, float about, uncircumscribed by any element, in that world before perspectives—a china tea—cup.

那时，我很喜欢——瓷茶杯上那些小巧的、不合章法的天青色奇异图像，男男女女浮在那里，既不受任何元素的限制，也还没有透视的说法——一个瓷茶杯。为什么现在会生出厌烦呢？

I like to see my old friends—whom distance cannot diminish—figuring up in the air （so they appear to our optics）yet on terra firma still—so we must in courtesy interpret that speck of deeper blue, which the decorous artist, to prevent absurdity, has made to spring up beneath their sandals.

我喜欢看我那些老朋友——距离不会使他们变小——漂浮在空中（我们看上去是这样），但同时又好像是脚踏实地——那位周到的画师为避荒谬之嫌，特地在他们的凉鞋下抹了一笔深蓝，而我们出于礼貌，就将那抹蓝色理解为土地。

I love the men with women's faces, and the women, if possible, with still more womanish expressions.

我喜欢那些长着女人般脸孔的男人，而女人呢，如果可能的话，我喜欢她们更有女人的神态。

Here is a young and courtly Mandarin, handing tea to a lady from a salver—two miles off. See how distance seems to set off respect! And here the same lady, or another—for likeness is identity on teacups—is stepping into a little fairy boat, moored on the hither side of this calm garden river, with a dainty mincing foot, which in a right angle of incidence （as angles go in our world）must infallibly land her in the midst of a flowery mead—a furlong off on the other side of the same strange stream!

这个茶杯上画着一位年轻有礼的官员，正托着杯盏向一位女士敬茶——两人相隔有两英里远。大概距离就象征着尊重！而这里，同一位女士，又或是另一位——因为茶杯上的人物容貌十分相似——正款款移步，登上一叶小巧精致的小舟。小舟停在安静的花园溪流的这一侧岸边，而照她举步的角度推测（依照我们的角度原理），她那只纤足恰恰会落在一片鲜花盛开的草地之上——都已经越过这奇怪溪流的对岸一弗隆了呢！

Farther on—if far or near can he predicated of their world—see horses, trees, pagodas, dancing the hays.

再远一些——如果他的世界里可以推算远近——我们可以看到马匹、树木、塔楼，好像都在围着草垛跳舞。

Here—a cow and rabbit couchant, and co—extensive—so objects show, seen through the lucid atmosphere of fine Cathay.

这件瓷器上画着一头牛和一只抬头伏卧的兔子，所占面积相同——也许，在那美丽的中国，透过澄明空气所见到的事物真的是这般模样。

I was pointing out to my cousin last evening, over our Hyson （which we are old fashioned enough to drink unmixed still of an afternoon）some of these speciosa miracula upon a set of extra—ordinary old blue china （a recent purchase）which we were now for the first time using; and could not help remarking, how favourable circumstances had been to us of late years, that we could afford to please the eye sometimes with trifles of this sort—when a passing sentiment seemed to over—shade the brows of my companion. I am quick at detecting these summer clouds in Bridget.

昨天晚上，我与堂姐第一次将最近买的一套精美蓝色古瓷器茶具拿出来使用。我们喝着熙春（我们喝这茶时仍保留着过去的习惯，什么都不加，而且在下午饮用），我把茶具上的瑰丽之作向堂姐一一点评。我忍不住说，幸好近几年我们的境况好转不少，所以才买得起这类赏心悦目的玩物。堂姐一听，眉间似乎现了一丝愁容。我会很快地发现布丽奇特脸上的愁云。

"I wish the good old times would come again, " she said, "when we were not quite so rich. I do not mean, that I want to be poor; but there was a middle state" —so she was pleased to ramble on, — "in which I am sure we were a great deal happier. A purchase is but a purchase, now that you have money enough and to spare. Formerly it used to be a triumph. When we coveted a cheap luxury （and, O! how much ado I had to get you to consent in those times! ）we were used to have a debate two or three days before, and to weigh the for and against, and think what we might spare it out of, and what saving we could hit upon, that should be an equivalent. A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money that we paid for it.

“我倒希望过去的美好时光能回来，” 她说， “我是说我们没什么钱的时候。我并不是说我想受穷，我指的是一种中间状态。” 她开心地继续漫谈下去， “我肯定，那时我们要比现在开心得多。现在我们钱够多，都用不完，买件东西轻松得很。但在过去，这可是件高兴的事。每次想买件并不怎么贵的奢侈品，（唉！那时我得花多大劲儿才能说服你答应啊！）我们都要先争辩两三天，反复掂量权衡，还得想好这笔钱要从哪项开支里省下来，又应该怎么省，才刚好抵得上那样东西的价钱。那时我们付款之前都要先掂量一番，那样的东西买了才值得。”

"Do you remember the brown suit, which you made to hang upon you, till all your friends cried shame upon you, it grew so thread—bare—and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which you dragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent—garden? Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to the purchase, and had not come to a determination till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday night, when you set off from Islington, fearing you should be too late—and when the old bookseller with some grumbling opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper （for he was setting bedwards）lighted out the relic from his dusty treasuries and when you lugged it home, wishing it were twice as cumbersome—and when you presented it to me—and when we were exploring the perfectness of it （collating you called it）—and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till day—break—was there no pleasure in being a poor man? or can those neat black clothes which you wear now, and are so careful to keep brushed, since we have become rich and finical, give you half the honest vanity with which you flaunted it about in that over—worn suit—your old corbeau—for four or five weeks longer than you should have done, to pacify your conscience for the mighty sum of fifteen—or sixteen shillings was it? —a great affair we thought it then—which you had lavished on the old folio. Now you can afford to buy any book that pleases you, but I do not see that you ever bring me home any nice old purchases now. "

“还记得你那套棕色的衣服吗？你一直穿到你所有的朋友都说你寒碜，它确实太破了——这都是因为那本博蒙特与弗莱彻的戏集子，那天深夜，你从修道院花园的巴克书店把这套开本拖回了家。你还记不记得，我们对那本书空望了好几个礼拜之后才下定决心要买下，而且是到周六晚上快十点时才下了最后的决心。你从伊斯灵顿出发，就怕去得太晚——那老书商嘟嘟囔囔地开了门，借着摇曳的烛光（因为他准备去睡觉了），从他那落满了灰尘的宝贝书堆里照见了这部旧书。你把它拖回来时，觉得它再重上一倍就更好了——你把它拿到我眼前——我们便一同检查其完好程度（你称之为勘校）——我用浆糊黏散落的书页，你急不可待，不愿把这事儿拖到明天。当穷人不也很快活吗？现在我们有钱了，阔气了，你也穿上了整洁的黑色礼服，还经常仔细地刷来刷去。可是，你现在的神气劲儿，比得上你穿着那件破衣服到处晃悠时的一半吗？你把那件旧衣服多穿了四五周，以平复自己的良心，只因你买那本书花了十五或是十六先令——那时，我们觉得这是件大事——就是你在那本老开本上花了一大笔钱。现在你看上的书都能买得起了，可我却再没见你给我带回什么有趣的古籍了。”

"When you come home with twenty apologies for laying out a less number of shillings upon that print after Lionardo, which we christened the 'Lady Blanch; ' when you looked at the purchase, and thought of the money—and thought of the money, and looked again at the picture—was there no pleasure in being a poor man? Now, you have nothing to do but to walk into Colnaghi's, and buy a wilderness of Lionardos. Yet do you? "

“有一次，你回到家，不停地道歉，因为你花了几个先令买了一幅莱昂纳多的复制品，我们给它取名叫 ‘布兰奇夫人’ 。你看看画，又想想钱——想想钱，又看看画——当穷人不也乐在其中吗？现在你有事没事就往科尔纳吉画廊里跑，莱昂纳多的画都不知买了多少了。但你高兴吗？”

"Then, do you remember our pleasant walks to Enfield, and Potter's Bar, and Waltham, when we had a holyday—holydays, and all other fun, are gone, now we are rich—and the little hand—basket in which I used to deposit our day's fare of savory cold lamb and salad—and how you would pry about at noon—tide for some decent house, where we might go in, and produce our store—only paying for the ale that you must call for—and speculate upon the looks of the landlady, and whether she was likely to allow us a table—cloth—and wish for such another honest hostess, as Izaak Walton has described many a one on the pleasant banks of the Lea, when he went a fishing—and sometimes they would prove obliging enough, and sometimes they would look grudgingly upon us—but we had cheerful looks still for one another, and would eat our plain food savorily, scarcely grudging Piscator his Trout Hall? Now, when we go out a days pleasuring, which is seldom moreover, we ride part of the way—and go into a fine inn, and order the best of dinners, never debating the expense—which, after all, never has half the relish of those chance country snaps, when we were at the mercy of uncertain usage, and a precarious welcome. "

“还有，你记不记得，以前每逢节日，我们就步行去恩菲尔德、波特斯巴和沃尔瑟姆？现在我们宽裕了，可是节日，还有其他一切乐趣，都没有了——那时，我有个手提篮，用来放每天的食物，无非是些可口的冷羊肉和色拉——每到中午，你就会到处寻找，想找个像样的屋子，好进去吃我们储备好的食物——每次你都要喝淡啤酒，我们只需付酒钱就行——而且还要看女主人的脸色，推测她是不是愿意让我们铺上一块桌布——我们就盼着能遇上一位好客的女主人，就像艾萨克·沃尔顿笔下的那样。他描述了自己外出钓鱼，在迷人的丽河之畔遇上许多热情女主人的情形——有时她们确实热情，但有时也并不怎么待见我们——但我们还是开心地看着彼此，津津有味地吃着我们那些普通的食物，就算是皮斯卡托的鳟鱼旅店也不会羡慕。现在，我们很少出游了，即使偶尔出行，也总有一段路要乘车——而且总要住上等的旅店，点上好的饭菜，从不计较费用问题——可那味道及不上农村小吃的一半，尽管那时我们总吃不准会受到何种待遇，而且不知道能不能受到欢迎。”

"You are too proud to see a play anywhere now but in the pit. Do you remember where it was we used to sit, when we saw the battle of Hexham, and the surrender of Calais, and Bannister and Mrs. Bland in the Children in the Wood—when we squeezed out our shillings a—piece to sit three or four times in a season in the one—shilling gallery—where you felt all the time that you ought not to have brought me—and more strongly I felt obligation to you for having brought me—and the pleasure was the better for a little shame—and when the curtain drew up, what cared we for our place in the house, or what mattered it where we were sitting, when our thoughts were with Rosalind in Arden, or with Viola at the Court of Illyria. You used to say, that the gallery was the best place of all for enjoying a play socially—that the relish of such exhibitions must be in proportion to the infrequency of going—that the company we met there, not being in general readers of plays, were obliged to attend the more, and did attend, to what was going on, on the stage—because a word lost would have been a chasm, which it was impossible for them to fill up. With such reflections we consoled our pride then—and I appeal to you, whether, as a woman, I met generally with less attention and accommodation, than I have done since in more expensive situations in the house? The getting in indeed, and the crowding up those inconvenient staircases, was bad enough, —but there was still a law of civility to women recognised to quite as great an extent as we ever found in the other passage—and how a little difficulty overcome heightened the snug seat, and the play, afterwards! Now we can only pay our money, and walk in. You cannot see, you say, in the galleries now. I am sure we saw, and heard too, well enough then—but sight, and all, I think, is gone with our poverty. "

“现在，你要是去看戏，就非要坐正厅后排，不然脸上就挂不住。你还记不记得我们以前看《赫克瑟姆之役》、《加来的沦陷》、班尼斯特和布兰德夫人出演的《林中的孩子》时坐在哪儿？那时，我们拼命省钱，一个季度里才能看上三四回戏，坐着一先令的位子——你总觉得不该带我去——这样，我更感激你能带我来——正因为有些不好意思，看戏才更有趣——帷幕拉开时，我们哪里还在乎自己坐的是剧院里的什么位子，也不在乎自己坐在什么地方，因为我们的思绪早就随着罗莎琳德进了阿登森林，或是与薇奥拉一起步入了伊利里亚宫。你曾经说过，要与众人共享看戏之乐，最好的位子莫过于楼座了——正因为不常看戏，所以看时才觉得饶有趣味——我们在楼座遇到的观众多半没读过剧本，所以看的时候就会更加仔细，台上所发生的一切他们都看得格外认真——因为只要漏掉只言片语，剧情便会中断，就再也不可能补上。那时我们用这些想法来安慰我们的自尊——现在我想问问你，现在我坐的座位虽比当年昂贵许多，但作为一个女人，难道那时我遭到轻视和怠慢了么？入场时从那狭窄的楼梯爬上去确实不是什么好事——但是，大家对妇女的尊重丝毫不比其他通道差——而且经历了这些小麻烦之后，座位显得更舒适了，戏也更好看了！可现在，我们能做的就只是付钱，然后走进去而已。你说，你觉得现在已经不能在楼座看戏了。我确信，当年我们在楼座看到的和听到的都足够清楚——只是我想那种景象已随同我们的贫困一起消逝了。”

"There was pleasure in eating strawberries, before they became quite common—in the first dish of peas, while they were yet dear—to have them for a nice supper, a treat. What treat can we have now? If we were to treat ourselves now—that is, to have dainties a little above our means, it would be selfish and wicked. It is the very little more that we allow ourselves beyond what the actual poor can get at, that makes what I call a treat—when two people living together, as we have done, now and then indulge themselves in a cheap luxury, which both like; while each apologises, and is willing to take both halves of the blame to his single share. I see no harm in people making much of themselves in that sense of the word. It may give them a hint how to make much of others. But now—what I mean by the word—we never do make much of ourselves. None but the poor can do it. I do not mean the veriest poor of all, but persons as we were, just above poverty. "

“那时候，草莓还没怎么上市时，我们就先尝一点——豌豆还很贵的时候，我们也先在晚饭时来一盘，好好享受一下，这些都是乐趣啊。我们现在能享受到什么？如果我们现在——为了要享受，就在我们的经济能力之外花钱，那未免也太自私太任性了。我所说的享受，不过是允许让开支稍稍超出我们那微薄的收入而已——像我们那样，两个人生活在一起，偶尔买些两人都喜欢的廉价奢侈品；而向对方道歉时，也愿意将本该由两人共同分担的罪过全都揽到自己身上。我觉得人们像那样稍微重视一下自己也没什么不好。这会让他们懂得如何去重视别人。但现在——据我理解——我们是没法再重视自己了。只有穷人才能做到这一点。我指的不是那些赤贫之人，我是指像我们从前那样，比赤贫稍好一些的人。”

"I know what you were going to say, that it is mighty pleasant at the end of the year to make all meet—and much ado we used to have every Thirty—first Night of December to account for our exceedings—many a long face did you make over your puzzled accounts, and in contriving to make it out how we had spent so much—or that we had not spent so much—or that it was impossible we should spend so much next year—and still we found our slender capital decreasing—but then, betwixt ways, and projects, and compromises of one sort or another, and talk of curtailing this charge, and doing without that for the future—and the hope that youth brings, and laughing spirits （in which you were never poor till now, ）we pocketed up our loss, and in conclusion, with 'lusty brimmers' （as you used to quote it out of hearty cheerful Mr. Cotton, as you called him）, we used to welcome in the' coming guest. 'Now we have no reckoning at all at the end of the old year—no flattering promises about the new year doing better for us. "

“我知道你会说什么，你会说，年底收支相抵是件大大的乐事——以前，每年12月31日晚上，我们都会苦苦查找超支的原因——账算不清楚，你就拉长了脸，竭力想弄明白为什么我们花了这么多钱——或者我们并没有花这么多钱——再或者明年绝对不能再有这么大的开支了——但尽管如此，我们发现，我们那一点点家当仍在不断减少——于是，我们便想尽办法，制定各种计划，作出这样或那样的妥协，讨论哪项开支可以缩减，将来哪项又可以取消——年轻带来的希望和开朗的精神状态（你到现在仍保持着这种状态）使我们接受了亏空的事实，最后还高举 ‘满溢的酒杯’ （这是你所称道的快活诗人科顿先生说过的话），欢迎 ‘客人光临’ 。现在，我们不必在年底算账了——但随新年而来的一切盼头也就此失去了。”

Bridget is so sparing of her speech on most occasions, that when she gets into a rhetorical vein, I am careful how I interrupt it. I could not help, however, smiling at the phantom of wealth which her dear imagination had conjured up out of a clear income of poor—hundred pounds a year. "It is true we were happier when we were poorer, but we were also younger, my cousin. I am afraid we must put up with the excess, for if we were to shake the superflux into the sea, we should not much mend ourselves. That we had much to struggle with, as we grew up together, we have reason to be most thankful. It strengthened, and knit our compact closer. We could never have been what we have been to each other, if we had always had the sufficiency which you now complain of. The resisting power—those natural dilations of the youthful spirit, which circumstances cannot straiten—with us are long since passed away. Competence to age is supplementary youth; a sorry supplement indeed, but I fear the best that is to be had. We must ride where we formerly walked: live better, and lie softer—and shall be wise to do so—than we had means to do in those good old days you speak of. Yet could those days return—could you and I once more walk our thirty miles a—day—could Bannister and Mrs. Bland again be young, and you and I young to see them—could the good old one shilling gallery days return—they are dreams, my cousin, now—but could you and I at this moment, instead of this quiet argument, by our well—carpeted fire—side, sitting on this luxurious sofa—be once more struggling up those inconvenient stair—cases, pushed about, and squeezed, and elbowed by the poorest rabble of poor gallery scramblers—could I once more hear those anxious shrieks of yours—and the delicious Thank God, we are safe, which always followed when the topmost stair, conquered, let in the first light of the whole cheerful theatre down beneath us—I know not the fathom line that ever touched a descent so deep as I would be willing to bury more wealth in than Croesus had or the great Jew R—is supposed to have, to purchase it. And now do just look at that merry little Chinese waiter holding an umbrella, big enough for a bed—tester, over the head of that pretty insipid half—Madonna—ish chit of a lady in that very blue summer—house. "

布丽奇特平时很少开口，现在却滔滔不绝，我都不知道怎么才插得上话。但是，听到她说我们现在阔绰了，我不免觉得好笑，那不过是她自己的错觉罢了，其实我们现在的收入依然微薄，每年不过一百镑而已。 “我们条件更差时，确实更开心，但那时我们也更年轻啊，堂姐。现在我们多出来那么多收入，恐怕也只好将就一下了，因为即使我们把那些钱都扔到海里去，也起不了什么补救作用。我俩历尽艰辛一起长大的岁月确实值得感谢。那些岁月加固了也加深了我们的情谊。要是我们当年就已像你如今所抱怨的那样富足，那我们彼此之间的情谊就不会像现在这样了。我们那股抗争的劲头——那种自然散发的、逆境无法摧折的青春朝气——早已经消散不见了。老年时的富足可以补偿逝去的青春，尽管这种补偿令人遗憾，但我想这总比没有好。现在我们以车代步，以前却只能步行：较之你所称道的那些美好的过往岁月，现在我们活得更好，睡得更舒服——这样做是明智的。但是，假如过去的岁月能再回来——你我一天仍能步行三十英里——班尼斯特和布兰德夫人恢复青春，你我也再度年轻，还能去看他们的戏——假如我们还能回到坐一先令楼座座位的美好年代——现在这些都只是一场梦，堂姐——此时此刻，你我不是呆在铺了地毯的火炉旁，不是坐在高级的沙发上进行这场安静的辩论——而是再次挣扎于狭窄的楼道之中，被那群再穷不过的楼座观众推搡着，拥挤着，碰撞着——我能再次听见你焦急的尖叫——当我们终于克服万难爬完最后一级台阶，一道亮光从脚下整个欢乐的剧院照上来，你发出甜美的感叹： ‘感谢上帝，我们总算安全了。’ 如果这一切能够重来，我愿意用比克里萨斯或犹太富翁罗所拥有的更多的财富去填满一个深渊，不管多深，我都愿意。而现在，我们还是来欣赏一下这打着伞的、可爱小巧的中国侍从吧。那伞大得可以当床罩，伞下是一位美貌却沉闷的小妇人。她有点像圣母，正躲在蓝色的夏季房屋中。”