美文欣賞:如此完美的妻子

 

　　By Ellen Glasgow/ 埃倫·格拉斯哥

 

After thirty years of married happiness, he could still remind himself that Victoria was endowed with every charm except the thrilling touch of human frailty. Though her perfection discouraged pleasures, especially the pleasures of love, he had learned in time to feel the pride of a husband in her natural frigidity. For he still clung, amid the decay of moral platitudes, to the discredited ideal of chivalry. In his youth the world was suffused with the after-glow of the long Victorian age, and a graceful feminine style had softened the manners, if not the natures, of men. At the end of that interesting epoch, when womanhood was exalted from a biological factsintosa miraculous power, Virginius Littlepage, the younger son of an old and affluent family, had married Victoria Brooke, the grand-daughter of a tobacco planter, who had made a satisfactory fortune by forsaking his plantation and converting tobaccos into cigarettes. While Virginius had been trained by stern tradition to respect every woman who had not stooped to folly, the virtue peculiar to her sex was among the least of his reasons for admiring Victoria. She was not only modest, which was usual in the nineties, but she was beautiful, which is unusual in any decade.

 

經(jīng)過(guò)了三十年的幸?；橐觯阅軙r(shí)常提醒自己，維多利亞除了缺乏那么一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)令人心動(dòng)的人性脆弱以外,擁有一切美妙的品質(zhì)。盡管她的完美減少了樂(lè)趣，尤其是愛(ài)情的樂(lè)趣，經(jīng)過(guò)長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的生活，作為一個(gè)丈夫，他漸漸為她天性中的保守感到驕傲。雖然陳腐的道德已經(jīng)沒(méi)落，他卻仍然堅(jiān)守遭到懷疑的騎士風(fēng)范。他年輕的時(shí)候，漫長(zhǎng)的維多利亞時(shí)代的余暉仍未散去;如果說(shuō)優(yōu)雅的女性化風(fēng)尚沒(méi)有軟化男人們的本性，那它也軟化了他們的舉止。在這個(gè)有趣的年代行將結(jié)束的時(shí)候，人們對(duì)女性的贊美已不再停留在對(duì)女人的自然屬性的贊美上，而是近乎把女人作為神明來(lái)膜拜。在這個(gè)時(shí)候，弗吉尼亞斯·里托爾培奇，一個(gè)古老富有家庭中的小兒子，和維多利亞·布魯克結(jié)婚了。維多利亞是一個(gè)大煙草種植園主的孫女，這個(gè)種植園主因不再種植煙草而是把煙草做成卷煙而發(fā)了財(cái)。盡管?chē)?yán)格的傳統(tǒng)教育使弗吉尼亞斯尊重所有不甘墮落至做蠢事的女性，女性獨(dú)有的美德并不是他愛(ài)慕維多利亞的原因。她不僅謙虛——這個(gè)品質(zhì)在九十年代很普遍，她還非常美麗，這在任何年代都是不常見(jiàn)的。

 

In the beginning of their acquaintance he had gone even further and ascribed intellect to her; but a few months of marriage had shown this to be merely one of the many delusions created by perfect features and noble expression. Everything about her had been smooth and definite, even the tones of her voice and the way her light brown hair, which she wore a la Pompadour*, was rolled stiffly back from her forehead and coiled in a burnished rope on the top of her head.

 

在他們相識(shí)之初，他甚至還認(rèn)為她才華出眾。但是幾個(gè)月的婚姻生活證明了這不過(guò)是完美的外表和高貴的言辭帶來(lái)的眾多錯(cuò)覺(jué)之一。她的一切都是那么安詳平淡，那么不事張揚(yáng)，甚至包括她說(shuō)話的聲調(diào)和她選擇的發(fā)式;她梳的是高卷式發(fā)型，淡褐色的頭發(fā)從前額向后緊緊地卷過(guò)去用一根光亮的頭繩盤(pán)繞在頭頂上。那是一個(gè)凡事都嚴(yán)肅認(rèn)真的年代，甚至戀人的情感和頭腦都是有條理的。

 

A serious young man, ambitious to attain a place in the world more brilliant than the secluded seat of his ancestors, he had been impressed at their first meeting by the compactness and precision of Victoria's orderly mind. For in that earnest period the minds, as well as the emotions, of lovers were orderly. It was an age when eager young men flocked to church on Sunday morning, and eloquent divines discoursed upon the Victorian poets in the middle of the week. He could afford to smile now when he recalled the solemn Browning class in which he had first lost his heart. How passionately he had admired Victoria's virginal features! How fervently he had envied her competent but caressing way with the poet!

 

弗吉尼亞斯就是這樣一個(gè)嚴(yán)肅的年輕人，他夢(mèng)想有朝一日能在世上贏得輝煌的地位，遠(yuǎn)勝于他名聲不旺的祖先。他們第一次見(jiàn)面的時(shí)候，他就發(fā)現(xiàn)維多利亞不僅思想有條理，而且思維縝密精確，因而留下了深刻的印象。在那個(gè)年代，滿懷激情的年輕男子星期天早晨都涌向教堂;每星期三牧師們繪聲繪色地講述維多利亞詩(shī)人的詩(shī)歌?，F(xiàn)在他回想起在那討論詩(shī)人布朗寧的嚴(yán)肅課堂上，自己竟然春心萌動(dòng)，不禁啞然失笑。他那時(shí)是多么醉心于維多利亞清純的容顏，而看到她對(duì)布朗寧的詩(shī)心領(lǐng)神會(huì)，愛(ài)不釋手時(shí)，他又是多么妒忌!

 

Incredible as it seemed to him now, he had fallen in love with her while she recited from the more ponderous passages in The Ring and the Book. He had fallen in love with her then, though he had never really enjoyed Browning, and it had been a relief to him when the Unseen, in company with its illustrious poet, had at last gone out of fashion. Yet, since he was disposed to admire all the qualities he did not possess, he had never ceased to respect the firmness with which Victoria continued to deal in other forms with the Absolute.

 

現(xiàn)在看起來(lái)真是難以置信，他居然是在她背誦《戒指和書(shū)》中非常沉悶的段落時(shí)愛(ài)上她的。盡管他從來(lái)沒(méi)有真正喜歡過(guò)布朗寧的詩(shī)，他還是在那時(shí)愛(ài)上了她。當(dāng)這個(gè)杰出的詩(shī)人與他的詩(shī)“幽冥”終于不再時(shí)興的時(shí)候，他感到如釋重負(fù)般的輕松。可是，對(duì)維多利亞繼續(xù)以其它形式信奉絕對(duì)真理所表現(xiàn)出的堅(jiān)定精神，他向來(lái)無(wú)比欽佩，因?yàn)樗偸菤J佩他所沒(méi)有的所有品質(zhì)。

 

As the placid years passed, and she came to rely less upon her virginal features, it seemed to him that the ripe opinions of her youth began to shrink and flatten as fruit does that has hung too long on the tree. She had never changed, he realized, since he had first known her; she had become merely riper, softer, and sweeter in nature.

 

隨著平靜歲月的流逝，維多利亞美麗的容顏開(kāi)始漸褪;他似乎覺(jué)得她年輕時(shí)的成熟思想也開(kāi)始變得不再鋒芒畢露，就像果實(shí)在樹(shù)上掛得過(guò)久。他意識(shí)到自從他第一次見(jiàn)到她，她從來(lái)沒(méi)有改變過(guò);她只是變得更加成熟、溫婉和甜美。　

 

Her advantage rested where advantage never fails to rest, in moral fervour. To be invariably right was her single wifely failing. For his wife, he sighed, with the vague unrest of a husband whose infidelities are imaginary, was a genuinely good woman. She was as far removed from pretence as she was from the posturing virtues that flourish in the credulous world of the drama. The pity of it was that even the least exacting husband should so often desire something more piquant than goodness.

 

　　她優(yōu)于別人的地方在于她的精神熱誠(chéng)，這種優(yōu)勢(shì)牢不可破。作為妻子,她惟一的缺點(diǎn)就是能在任何時(shí)候都不做錯(cuò)事。臆想對(duì)妻子有不忠行為的丈夫總會(huì)有種淡淡的不安，正是帶著這種不安他嘆息道，他的妻子是一個(gè)真正的好女人。她沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)虛飾，也沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)在這個(gè)容易輕信的世界上所流行的那種偽善。但遺憾的是，即使是最不挑剔的丈夫也時(shí)常會(huì)渴望一點(diǎn)更為活潑有趣的東西，而不僅僅是善良。（選自《他們不惜干蠢事》，1929）

 

*la Pompadour:龐巴度夫人(法語(yǔ):Madame de Pompadour)法國(guó)皇帝路易十五的著名情婦、社交名媛(courtesan)。本文代指龐巴度發(fā)型。留這種發(fā)型的男性把前面的頭發(fā)向上梳起,女性則在前額上留一綹卷發(fā)。這種發(fā)型在1960年代的美國(guó)的鄉(xiāng)村歌手和電影演員中大受歡迎,如馬龍·白蘭度和詹姆斯·迪恩就很喜歡這種發(fā)型。

 

作者簡(jiǎn)介：

 

埃倫·格拉斯哥 (1874-1945),美國(guó)女小說(shuō)家。她以現(xiàn)實(shí)主義手法描寫(xiě)家鄉(xiāng)弗吉尼亞州的生活，有計(jì)劃地描繪了1850年以后的弗吉尼亞州的社會(huì)歷史，共寫(xiě)成5部。第一部為《人民之聲》（1900），最成功的一部是《弗吉尼亞》（1913）。1925年發(fā)表描寫(xiě)農(nóng)村的長(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)《不毛之地》，得到評(píng)論界的贊許，但時(shí)已年過(guò)半百。以后發(fā)表帶有諷刺性的三部曲：《浪漫的喜劇演員》（1926）、《他們不惜干蠢事》（1929）和《溫室中的生活》（1932）。最后一部常與《不毛之地》并列為她的最佳作品。一生未婚，但在她去世后發(fā)表的回憶錄《女人的內(nèi)心世界》（1954）中寫(xiě)出她曾與兩個(gè)男人有過(guò)長(zhǎng)期的愛(ài)情。1958年出版《書(shū)信集》。1963年出版《短篇小說(shuō)選》。