复旦研究生英语Unit-Fourdoc资料

复旦研究生英语U n i t-F o u r
The Story of An Hour
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to brea k to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's frien d Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intel ligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "k illed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
马拉德太太有心脏病，要告知她丈夫意外身亡得格外小心才是。

她姐姐约瑟芬来亲口转告，吞吞吐吐，半遮半掩。

马拉德先生的好友理查兹也在场，就坐在马拉德太太身边。

火车事故的消息传来时，他正好在报馆，发现布伦特利马拉德先生的名字就是“遇难者”名单上的第一个。

他只来得及根据接下来的一份电报确认了一下便匆匆赶了过来，惟恐那些不那么细心体贴的人说漏了嘴，冒冒失失地把噩耗告诉马拉德夫人。

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inabilit y to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's a rms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would hav e no one follow her.
马拉德太太听到这一噩耗，并没有像大多数女人那样手足无措，无法接受这个事实。

她一头栽进姐姐的怀里，号啕痛哭。

当悲伤的风暴平息之后，她独自走进房间，不让任何人进来。

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her so ul.
房间的窗户敞开着，对面放了张舒适、宽大的沙发。

身体的疲惫令她精疲力竭，这种疲惫感似乎浸透到她的灵魂深处，让她一下子瘫倒进沙发里。

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddl er was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her f aintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
她看得见房前开阔的广场上大树的树梢，树梢上洋溢着初春的勃勃生机。

空气中散发着春雨的醉人气息，楼下有个小贩吆喝着，远处隐约传来阵阵歌声，屋檐下成群的麻雀唧唧喳喳地闹个不停。

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met a nd piled one above the other in the west facing her window. She sat with her head thrown bac k upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat a nd shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
窗外西边的天际，浮云相聚后重叠在一起，只露出几处依稀可辩的蓝天。

她头靠着沙发坐着，几乎一动不动，喉咙里偶尔抽泣一声，身体会随之微微颤动。

就像个哭着哭着睡着的小孩，睡梦中仍在啜泣。

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder o n one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a susp ension of intelligent thought.
她还年轻，面色白皙，显得从容自若，脸上的皱纹述说着生活的压抑，乃至生命的力量。

可是此刻，她目光呆滞，双眼直勾勾的凝望着远方的一片蓝天。

这种眼神不是沉思的眼神，而像是经过一番理性思考后，随之产生的一种忐忑不安的眼神。

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? S
he did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
有件事正在降临到她身上，她期盼着，又有点惧怕。

那是什么事呢？她不理解。

这件事情太微妙，太难以名状了，可是她能够感觉得到，它正从空中悄然而下，穿过弥漫在空气中的声音、气味和色彩降落到她身上。

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing th at was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--
as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.
此刻，她胸口剧烈起伏，开始意识到这种莫名的事情慢慢逼近，慢慢将她吞噬，她挣扎着用意志力抗拒它--可她的意志力却如同她那白皙纤弱的双手一样绵软乏力。

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terro r that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, a nd the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
就在她稍有懈怠之际，从微微张开的嘴唇间喃喃地蹦出一句话来。

她压低嗓子一遍又一遍地低声呢喃：“自由了，自由了，自由啦！”先前的呆滞和惧怕在她眼睛里荡然无存。

她双眼炯炯有神，脉搏加速，热血沸腾，全身上下感觉温暖、惬意。

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and e xalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
自己是否受制于一种可怕的愉悦体验，她顾不得去多想。

她现在头脑清醒，精神亢奋，早
就将这个问题抛到脑后，根本无暇顾及这种想法。

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in deat h; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she sa w beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her abso lutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
她知道，等她看到亡夫那曾经温柔亲切的双手苍白僵硬的交叠在一起，见到那张曾经对她
怜爱有加，如今僵硬、灰暗、毫无生气的脸庞时，她会再次流泪。

不过她看到在短暂的痛苦哀
伤之后，将迎来一段完全属于自己的人生岁月。

她张开双臂迎接这段岁月的光临。

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and w omen believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-
creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
今后的人生再也不用为别人而活了，只为自己。

再不会有强大的意志迫使她屈从于世人
那种盲目的偏见，执意认为可以把自己的意志强加于人。

在顿悟的那一刻，她认为：无论其初
衷是善是恶，这种行为本身无异于犯罪。

And yet she had loved him--
sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, cou nt for in face of this possession of self-
assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
当然，她偶尔也爱过丈夫，但更多时候对丈夫已经没有感情。

那又有什么关系呢！当她突然感受到自身存在和自主意识的强烈冲动时，爱情这虚无缥缈的神秘玩意，又算得了什么呢！
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
“自由了！身心都彻底自由了！”她不断呢喃自语。

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for
admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door--
you will make yourself ill. What are you doing Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
约瑟芬跪在紧闭的门外，嘴唇贴在锁孔上苦苦哀求妹妹开门。

“露易丝，开开门！求求你啦！把门打开吧！——别把自己给憋坏了。

你在干嘛呢？看在老天的份上你开门啊！”
"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life thro ugh that open window.
“别管我。

我没事。

”恰恰相反，她正在敞开的窗前畅饮着生命的甘露。

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days , and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be lo ng. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feveris h triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasp ed her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
她纵情幻想着今后的岁月，春天的日子，还有夏天的日子，以及所有属于她自己的日日夜夜。

她默默祈祷自己长寿。

然而就在昨天，她一想到自己的漫长人生就不寒而栗。

在姐姐的再三请求之下，她终于起身打开房门。

此时她的眼神透露出胜利的狂喜，她的举止不知不觉竟像胜利女神一般模样。

她紧搂着姐姐的腰，两人一起走下楼去。

理查兹正站在楼梯下等着她俩。

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entere d, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-
sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not even know there h ad been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. But Richards was too late.
这时有人用钥匙在开门，居然就是布伦特利马拉德先生，他风尘仆仆的样子，拿着旅行包和雨伞，若无其事的进了门。

其实他压根就没在火车事故现场，且对事故一无所知。

约瑟芬一下子尖声哭叫起来，理查兹连忙赶过来要把他遮住，好让他太太看不到他，这一切都让他诧异不已。

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-- of joy that kills.
不过，理查兹还是来不及了。

赶来的医生诊断说，马拉德夫人突发心脏病已经无力回天——据说是乐极生悲。