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He had seen better days,despite his present misery and infirmities.
虽然现在贫困潦倒，体弱多病，他也有过好日子。
At the age of fifteen both his legs had been crushed by a carriage on the Varville highway.From that time forth he begged,dragging himself along the roads and through the farmyards,supported by crutches which forced his shoulders up to his ears.His head looked as if it were squeezed in between two mountains.
他十五岁那年，在瓦尔维尔的大路上，两条腿被一辆马车压断了。从那天起，他就撑着一对木拐杖，拖着身子，穿过农家庭院开始沿路乞讨了。那对拐杖使得他的肩都耸到了耳朵那么高。他的头就像是被挤在了两座山中间一样。
A foundling,picked up out of a ditch by the priest of Les Billettes on the eve of All Saints'Day and baptized,for that reason,Nicholas Toussaint,reared by charity,utterly without education,crippled in consequence of having drunk several glasses of brandy given him by the baker（such a funny story!）and a vagabond all his life afterward—the only thing he knew how to do was to hold out his hand for alms.
他原本是一个弃婴，在亡人节的前夕被皮乙忒镇的牧师从壕沟里拾到并给他进行了洗礼。也正是出于这个原因，他被取名为尼古拉斯·图桑。他是靠施舍养长大的，完全没有受过教育。面包店老板请他喝了几杯白兰地，就害他变成残废，（多么可笑的故事啊！）从此过起了流浪汉的生活——他唯一会做的事情就是伸出手乞讨。
At one time the Baroness d'Avary allowed him to sleep in a kind of recess spread with straw,close to the poultry yard in the farm adjoining the chateau,and if he was in great need he was sure of getting a glass of cider and a crust of bread in the kitchen.Moreover,the old lady often threw him a few pennies from her window.But she was dead now.
曾有一段时间，珂伐里男爵夫人准许他睡在一个铺满了麦秸的角落里，这里靠近男爵夫人的古堡边上田庄里的饲养家禽的院子。如果他很饿，他还可以从厨房里得到一杯果酒和一片面包。而且，这位老太太还经常从窗口边扔给他几个铜子。但是现在她已经去世了。
In the villages people gave him scarcely anything—he was too well known.Everybody had grown tired of seeing him,day after day for forty years,dragging his deformed and tattered person from door to door on his wooden crutches.But he could not make up his mind to go elsewhere,because he knew no place on earth but this particular corner of the country,these three or four villages where he had spent the whole of his miserable existence.He had limited his begging operations and would not for worlds have passed his accustomed bounds.
在周围的村子里，几乎没有人给他施舍了：因为大家太了解他了。四十年来，天天看着他拖着那畸形的、褴褛的身子，拄着木拐杖一家一户乞讨，人们都已经厌倦了。然而他下不了决心去别的地方，因为在世界上除了这一个小角落之外，其他的地方都不熟悉。这个特殊的小角落也就是那三四个可以让他苟延残喘度过余生的穷村子。他已经给自己的乞讨生活划好了界限，绝不会走到那已经习惯的界限之外。
He did not even know whether the world extended for any distance beyond the trees which had always bounded his vision.He did not ask himself the question.And when the peasants,tired of constantly meeting him in their fields or along their lanes,exclaimed:
他甚至不清楚在他所能看到的那些树木后面是不是还有世界。他也从没有问过自己这个问题。村民们厌倦了常常在自己的田边或小路上见到他时，就会冲他嚷道：
Why don't you go to other villages instead of always limping about here?"he did not answer,but slunk away,possessed with a vague dread of the unknown—the dread of a poor wretch who fears confusedly a thousand things—new faces,taunts,insults,the suspicious glances of people who do not know him and the policemen walking in couples on the roads.These last he always instinctively avoided,taking refuge in the bushes or behind heaps of stones when he saw them coming.
“你为什么不去别的村子，而总是要一瘸一拐地在这里走来走去呢？”他并不回答，只是悄悄溜走，带着对人地生疏的模糊的恐惧感，带着穷苦人怀有的模糊的、成百成千的恐惧：陌生的面孔、嘲笑、侮辱，素不相识的人的怀疑目光，还有成群列队出现在路上的警察。他对于警察会出于本能地躲避。一看到他们过来，他就会躲到灌木丛里或者是小碎石堆后面。
When he perceived them in the distance,With uniforms gleaming in the sun,he was suddenly possessed with unwonted agility—the agility of a wild animal seeking its lair.He threw aside his crutches,fell to the ground like a limp rag,made himself as small as possible and crouched like a hare under cover,his tattered vestments blending in hue with the earth on which he cowered.
当他远远地看见了穿着在太阳下闪闪发亮的制服的警察，他就突然拥有了罕见的敏捷身姿——怪兽躲入洞穴的敏捷。他将拐杖扔到一边，像一条没有生机的抹布一样滑落到地上，接着让自己缩成一团，尽可能地变小，蹲在地上像伏在巢穴中的兔子，使自己的棕色的破衣服与地上的泥土混为一片。
He had never had any trouble with the police,but the instinct to avoid them was in his blood.He seemed to have inherited it from the parents he had never known.
他从没有与这些警察打过交道，但是躲避他们的本能却是来自于他的血液之中。他似乎是从他从未蒙面的父母那里遗传到这种本能的。
He had no refuge,no roof for his head,no shelter of any kind.In summer he slept out of doors and in winter he showed remarkable skill in slipping unperceived into barns and stables.He always decamped before his presence could be discovered.He knew all the holes through which one could creep into farm buildings,and the handling of his crutches having made his arms surprisingly muscular he often hauled himself up through sheer strength of wrist into hay—lofts,where he sometimes remained for four or five days at a time,provided he had collected a sufficient store of food beforehand.
他没有容身之所，头顶没有半片瓦，没有任何形式的遮蔽物。夏天，他随处睡觉；冬天，他用一种巧妙的方法溜到不被注意的马房里或者谷仓里。他总是在行踪被人发现之前就逃出来了。他知道所有的那些可以钻到农场建筑物里的洞，并且因为长期使用拐杖，他那双胳膊变得惊人地强壮有力，他经常凭着一双手的力量就可以攀上那些收藏草料的阁楼。如果他之前已经乞讨到了足够的食粮，他就可以在阁楼中一次呆上个四、五天。
He lived like the beasts of the field.He was in the midst of men,yet knew no one,loved no one,exciting in the breasts of the peasants only a sort of careless contempt and smoldering hostility.They nicknamed him "Bell,"because he hung between his two crutches like a church bell between its supports.
他生活得如同野兽一般。在人群中，他谁也不认识，谁也不爱，仅仅引起村民们心中一种冷漠的轻视和郁积的仇视。他们给他取了个外号“吊钟”，因为他的身子吊在两拐杖之间，就像教堂的吊钟吊在架子当中一样。
For two days he had eaten nothing.No one gave him anything now.Everyone's patience was exhausted.Women shouted to him from their doorsteps when they saw him coming:
他已经两天没有吃任何东西了。现在没人给他东西吃了。每个人的耐心都耗尽了。妇人们站在门口看见他走过来，就对他大声嚷着：
"Be off with you,you good—for—nothing vagabond!Why,I gave you a piece of bread only three days ago!"
“你给我走远些，你这个没用的要饭的！我三天前才给过过你一块面包。”
And he turned on his crutches to the next house,where he was received in the same fashion.
于是他掉转拐杖朝向另一户人家，在那儿，他受到了同样的待遇。
The women declared to one another as they stood at their doors:
妇人们站在门口，挨户嚷着：
"We can't feed that lazy brute all the year round!"
“我们不能成年喂养这懒惰的畜生！”
And yet the "lazy brute"needed food every day.
然而这“畜生”每天都不得不吃东西。
He had exhausted Saint—Hilaire,Varville and Les Billettes without getting a single copper or so much as a dry crust.His only hope was in Tournolles,but to reach this place he would have to walk five miles along the highroad,and he felt so weary that he could hardly drag himself another yard.His stomach and his pocket were equally empty,but he started on his way.
他走遍了圣伊莱尔，瓦尔维尔和皮乙忒，却没有讨到一个铜子或一块干硬的面包。他唯一的希望就是都尔诺勒了，但是要到达那里他得沿着大路走五英里。而他已经非常疲惫，哪怕走上三英尺的路程都无法拖着自己的身躯了。他的肚子和他的口袋一样的空，然而他还是出发了。
It was December and a cold wind blew over the fields and whistled through the bare branches of the trees;the clouds careered madly across the black,threatening sky.The cripple dragged himself slowly along,raising one crutch after the other with a painful effort,propping himself on the one distorted leg which remained to him.
那是十二月份，一阵冷风刮过田野，吹得光秃秃的树枝呼呼地响；云层疯了似的疾驰在低而阴暗的天空中。这个瘸子拖着身子慢慢地走着，吃力地一前一后移动那两枝拐杖，用身上剩下的那条弯曲的腿支撑着自己。
Now and then he sat down beside a ditch for a few moments'rest.Hunger was gnawing his vitals,and in his confused,slow—working mind he had only one idea—to eat—but how this was to be accomplished he did not know.For three hours he continued his painful journey.Then at last the sight of the trees of the village inspired him with new energy.
他不时地在路旁的沟渠边坐下休息一会儿。饥饿在吞噬着他的生命，在他迷糊而迟钝的脑海里只有一个想法，那就是“吃”，但是他不知道怎样来实现这一愿望。他痛苦地走了三个小时。随后，他终于望见了村庄里的树木，这给他注入了新的能量。
The first peasant he met,and of whom he asked alms,replied:
他遇到第一个村民，向他请求施舍，对方回答道：
"So it's you again,is it,you old scamp?Shall I never be rid of you?"
“又是你，你这个老流氓。我永远都摆脱不了你了吗？”
And "Bell"went on his way.At every door he got nothing but hard words.He made the round of the whole village,but received not a halfpenny for his pains.
于是“吊钟”走开了。每到一家他除了听到难听的骂声以外什么都没有得到。他在整个村子里面走了一圈，忍着痛苦却一个铜子也没有讨到。
Then he visited the neighboring farms,toiling through the muddy land,so exhausted that he could hardly raise his crutches from the ground.He met with the same reception everywhere.It was one of those cold,bleak days,when the heart is frozen and the temper irritable,and hands do not open either to give money or food.
于是，他只好到邻近的田庄人家去乞讨。他艰难地穿过了那被雨水浸湿的泥泞的路，他疲惫异常，连提起拐杖的力气也没有了。他四处受到了同样的遭遇。那是一个阴冷的日子，大家的心是冷酷的，脾气是易怒的，手不愿意张开，不论是施舍钱或食物。
When he had visited all the houses he knew,"Bell"sank down in the corner of a ditch running across Chiquet's farmyard.Letting his crutches slip to the ground,he remained motionless,tortured by hunger,but hardly intelligent enough to realize to the full his unutterable misery.
等他把所有认识的人家一一走遍后，他沉到了沟渠的一个角落里，那沟渠流经希凯的田庄。他让拐杖滑落到地上，自己也随之落了下来。由于饥饿的折磨，他躺了很久没有动弹，但是他不够聪明，所以无法充分意识自己那难以形容的苦难。
He awaited he knew not what,possessed with that vague hope which persists in the human heart in spite of everything.He awaited in the corner of the farmyard in the biting December wind,some mysterious aid from Heaven or from men,without the least idea whence it was to arrive.A number of black hens ran hither and thither,seeking their food in the earth which supports all living things.Every now and then they snapped up in their beaks a grain of corn or a tiny insect;then they continued their slow,sure search for nutriment.
他也不知道自己在等什么。他抱着一种模糊的希望，那种常常存在于人们心里的那种模糊的希望。在十二月那冰凉的风的吹击下，他在农家小院的角落里等待着，期待着来自天堂或来自人间的神秘救助，但对救助会什么时候来一无所知。一群黑毛母鸡四处走动，在这赋予所有事物生命的大地上寻找着它们的食物。它们不时地啄着一颗谷粒或者一只很小的虫子，随后再继续缓慢而细致地寻觅所需的食物。
"Bell"watched them at first without thinking of anything.Then a thought occurred rather to his stomach than to his mind—the thought that one of those fowls would be good to eat if it were cooked over a fire of dead wood.
“吊钟”呆呆地盯着这群母鸡，头脑里什么想法也没有。随后，一个想法与其说在他的心中萌生，不如说在他的胃里萌发，那就是从鸡群里抓一只，放在一堆枯木生起的火上烤着吃，味道一定不错。
He did not reflect that he was going to commit a theft.He took up a stone which lay within reach,and,being of skillful aim,killed at the first shot the fowl nearest to him.The bird fell on its side,flapping its wings.The others fled wildly hither and thither,and "Bell,"picking up his crutches,limped across to where his victim lay.
他没有想到自己就快要犯盗窃罪了。他捡起手边的一块石头，用敏捷的手法，一击就打死了离他最近的那只母鸡。那只鸡偏着倒了下去，扑腾着它的翅膀。其余的母鸡都四处逃散开去，于是“吊钟”捡起他的拐杖，一瘸一拐地朝向他的战利品走去。
Just as he reached the little black body with its crimsoned head he received a violent blow in his back which made him let go his hold of his crutches and sent him flying ten paces distant.And Farmer Chiquet,beside himself with rage,cuffed and kicked the marauder with all the fury of a plundered peasant as "Bell"lay defenceless before him.
他刚走到那只头上沁血的黑毛母鸡尸体旁边时，他的后背就被人狠狠地打了一下，这使得他丢下了拐杖，身子向前飞出去十来步的距离。他身边的农场主希凯怒气冲天地将他扑倒在地，接着就像疯了一样，带着被盗的乡下人所拥有的那些怒气，对这个无力反击的抢劫犯拳打脚踢。
The farm hands came up also and joined their master in cuffing the lame beggar.Then when they were tired of beating him they carried him off and shut him up in the woodshed,while they went to fetch the police.
田庄里的人也都赶了过来，同他们的主人一起揍打这个瘸腿的乞丐。随后，他们耗尽了力气再也打不动他了，于是就抬走了他，在派人去找警察的同时，将其关进了柴房里。
"Bell,"half dead,bleeding and perishing with hunger,lay on the floor.Evening came—then night—then dawn.And still he had not eaten.
“吊钟”已经是半死的了，流着血并且忍受着饥饿，就那样躺在地上。夜幕降临，接着到了深夜，随后天亮了。他始终没有吃到任何一丁点儿东西。
About midday the police arrived.They opened the door of the woodshed with the utmost precaution,fearing resistance on the beggar's part,for Farmer Chiquet asserted that he had been attacked by him and had had great,difficulty in defending himself.
大约正中午的时候，警察到了。他们怕乞丐会反抗，极其谨慎地打开柴房的门，因为农场主希凯声称自己受到了乞丐的袭击，费了好大的劲才保护住了自己。
The sergeant cried:
巡佐高声喝道：
"Come,get up!"
“赶紧站起来！”
But "Bell"could not move.He did his best to raise himself on his crutches,but without success.The police,thinking his weakness feigned,pulled him up by main force and set him between the crutches.
但是“吊钟”已经无法动弹了。他尽了最大的努力想用拐杖支撑起自己，但是没有成功。警察认为他的这种虚弱是假装的，于是用力地拉他起来并迫使他撑起拐杖。
Fear seized him—his native fear of a uniform,the fear of the game in presence of the sportsman,the fear of a mouse for a cat—and by the exercise of almost superhuman effort he succeeded in remaining upright.
恐惧包围着他——那种他对制服出于本能的害怕，如同运动员马上要开始比赛；如同老鼠见到猫。正是这种害怕让他产生了一种超乎人类的力量，他竟然站得稳了。
"Forward!"said the sergeant.He walked.All the inmates of the farm watched his departure.The women shook their fists at him the men scoffed at and insulted him.He was taken at last!Good riddance!He went off between his two guards.He mustered sufficient energy—the energy of despair—to drag himself along until the evening,too dazed to know what was happening to him,too frightened to understand.
“朝前走！”那巡佐说。他向前进了。所有田庄里的人看着他离开了。妇人们对他扬起了拳头，男人们嘲笑他、辱骂他。他终于被抓走了。总算摆脱他了！他夹在两个警察中间走远了。他聚集了足够的力量，一种绝望的力量，让他拖着身子直到天黑。他神志不清，不知道自己正经历什么，被吓得也什么都不懂了。
People whom he met on the road stopped to watch him go by and peasants muttered:
他在路上遇见的人们都停下来看着他经过，乡下人嘟囔着：
"It's some thief or other."
“他准是个小偷。”
Toward evening he reached the country town.He had never been so far before.He did not realize in the least what he was there for or what was to become of him.All the terrible and unexpected events of the last two days,all these unfamiliar faces and houses struck dismay into his heart.
快到夜晚了他才到达区政府。他从来没有到过如此远的地方。他甚至不知道自己来这儿是干什么的，接下来在他身上会发生什么。所有发生在过去两天里的可怕的、预想不到的事情，所有这些不熟悉的面孔和房子都使他吃了一惊。
He said not a word,having nothing to say because he understood nothing.Besides,he had spoken to no one for so many years past that he had almost lost the use of his tongue,and his thoughts were too indeterminate to be put into words.
他一个字也没有说，本来也没有什么可说的，因为他几乎什么也不明白。此外，他这些年来没有同任何人说过一句话，他几乎早已失掉了舌头的作用，而且他的思想实在是模糊得无法组织出言语来表达意见。
He was shut up in the town jail.It did not occur to the police that he might need food,and he was left alone until the following day.But when in the early morning they came to examine him he was found dead on the floor.Such an astonishing thing!
他被关在了区监狱里。警察根本没有想到他也许需要吃点东西，他就那样被独自关着直到第二天早上。但是，当天刚亮，有人来审问他的时候，却发现他死在了泥地上。多么意想不到的事啊！