评论
打印
"No, sir."
"不喜欢，先生。"
"No? oh, shocking! I have a little boy, younger than you, who knows six Psalms by heart.
"不喜欢？哎呀，真让人吃惊！有个小男孩，比你年纪还小，却能背六首赞美诗。
And when you ask him which he would rather have, a gingerbread-nut to eat or a verse of a Psalm to learn,
你要是问他，愿意吃姜饼呢，不是背一首赞美诗，
he says: 'Oh! the verse of a Psalm! angels sing Psalms.' says he, 'I wish to be a little angel here below;'
他会就‘啊，背赞美诗！因为天使也唱。’还说‘我真希望当一个人间的小天使，’
He then gets two nuts in recompense for his infant piety."
随后他得到了两块姜饼，作为他小小年纪就那么虔诚的报偿。"
"Psalms are not interesting," I remarked.
"赞美诗很乏味，"我说。
"That proves you have a wicked heart, and you must pray to God to change it-to give you a new and clean one:
"这说明你心很坏，你应当祈求上帝给你换一颗新的纯洁的心。
to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
把那颗石头般的心取走，赐给你一颗血肉之心。"
I was about to propound a question, touching the manner in which that operation of changing my heart was to be performed,
我正要问他换心的手术怎样做时，
when Mrs. Reed interposed, telling me to sit down.
里德太太插嘴了，吩咐我坐下来。
She then proceeded to carry on the conversation herself.
随后她接着话题谈了下去。
"Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I wrote to you three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish.
"布罗克赫斯特先生，我相信三个星期以前我给你的信中曾经提到，这个小姑娘缺乏我所期望的人品与气质。
Should you admit her into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her,
如果你准许她进罗沃德学校，我乐意恭请校长和教师们对她严加看管，
and, above all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit.
尤其要提防她身上最大的毛病，一种爱说谎的习性。
I mention this in your hearing, Jane, that you may not attempt to impose on Mr. Brocklehurst."
我当着你的面说这件事，简，目的是让你不好再瞒骗布罗克赫斯特先生。"
Well might I dread, well might I dislike Mrs. Reed, for it was her nature to wound me cruelly.
我满有理由害怕里德太太，讨厌她，因为她生性就爱刻毒地伤害我。
Never was I happy in her presence.
在她面前我从来不会愉快。
However carefully I obeyed, however strenuously I strove to please her, my efforts were still repulsed and repaid by such sentences as the above.
不管我怎样陪着小心顺从好，千方百计讨她喜心，我的努力仍然受到鄙夷，并被报之以上述这类言词。
Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to the heart.
她当着陌生人的面，竟如此指控我，实在伤透了我的心。
I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter.
我依稀感到，她抹去了我对新生活所怀的希望，这种生活是她特意为我安排的。
