I had never heard Strickland speak so much at one time. He spoke with a passion of indignation. But neither here nor elsewhere do I pretend to give his exact words; his vocabulary was small, and he had no gift for framing sentences, so that one had to piece his meaning together out of interjections, the expression of his face, gestures and hackneyed phrases.
思特里克兰德从来没有对我一次讲这么多话。他说话的时候带着一肚子的怒气。但是不论是这里或是在其他地方,我都不想把我写下来的假充为他的原话。思特里克兰德的词汇量很少,也没有组织句子的能力,所以一定得把他的惊叹词、他的面部表情、他的手势同一些平凡陈腐的词句串联起来才能弄清楚他的意思。
"You should have lived at a time when women were chattels and men the masters of slaves," I said.
“你应该生活在妇女是奴隶、男人是奴隶主的时代。”我说。
"It just happens that I am a completely normal man."
“偏偏我生来是一个完全正常的男人。”
I could not help laughing at this remark, made in all seriousness; but he went on, walking up and down the room like a caged beast, intent on expressing what he felt, but found such difficulty in putting coherently.
他一本正经地说了这么一句话,不由得又使我笑起来。他却毫不在意地只顾说下去,一边在屋子里走来走去。但是尽管他全神贯注地努力想把自己感觉到的表达出来,却总是辞不达意。
"When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her. She has a small mind, and she resents the abstract which she is unable to grasp. She is occupied with material things, and she is jealous of the ideal. The soul of man wanders through the uttermost regions of the universe, and she seeks to imprison it in the circle of her account-book. Do you remember my wife? I saw Blanche little by little trying all her tricks. With infinite patience she prepared to snare me and bind me. She wanted to bring me down to her level; she cared nothing for me, she only wanted me to be hers. She was willing to do everything in the world for me except the one thing I wanted: to leave me alone."
“要是一个女人爱上了你,除非连你的灵魂也叫她占有了,她是不会感到满足的。因为女人是软弱的,所以她们具有非常强烈的统治欲,不把你完全控制在手就不甘心。女人的心胸狭窄,对那些她理解不了的抽象东西非常反感。她们满脑子想的都是物质的东西,所以对于精神和理想非常妒忌。男人的灵魂在宇宙的最遥远的地方邀游,女人却想把它禁锢在家庭收支的账簿里。你还记得我的妻子吗?我发觉勃朗什一点一点地施展起我妻子的那些小把戏来。她以无限的耐心准备把我网罗住,捆住我的手脚。她要把我拉到她那个水平上;她对我这个人一点也不关心,唯一想的是叫我依附于她。为了我,世界上任何事情她都愿意做,只有一件事除外:不来打搅我。”