It ended badly with Anatole. Natasha tried suicide. Prince Andrew died. Natasha turned pale, thin, subdued. But unlike Brett and Cathy, her breach with convention was mended and, at long last, she married Pierre—a decent, substantial, loving man, the kind of man all our mothers want us to marry.
阿纳托尔的结局很悲惨。娜塔莎想要自杀。安德鲁王子死了。娜塔莎变得脸色苍白、瘦骨嶙峋、沉默寡言。但与布雷特和凯茜不同,她对传统的反抗得到了补救,最后她嫁给了皮埃尔——一位体面、有钱而又忠诚的男人,是那种所有母亲都想让我们与之结婚的男人。
In marriage Natasha grew stouter and "the old fire very rarely kindled in her face now." She became an exemplary mother, an ideal wife. "She felt that her unity with her husband was maintained not by the poetic feelings that had attracted him to her but by something else—indefinite but firm as the bond between her own body and soul."
娜塔莎在婚姻中变得更坚强了,“现在,在她的脸上,很少能看到旧生活的煎熬”。她变成了一名模范母亲、一位理想的妻子。“她觉得,她与丈夫能够维持美满的生活,不是因为自己拥有诗意的情感,能够吸引丈夫,而是因为其他一些东西——一些不确定的、但如同把她的身体和灵魂联系在一起的纽带一样牢固的东西。”
It sounded—if not elemental and doomed—awfully nice.
这听起来——如果不是简单且注定的——就是极美好的一件事。
I identified with Natasha when, the following year, I married and left Greenwich Village. I too was ready for domesticity. And yet... her husband and children became "the subject which wholly engrossed Natasha's attention." She had lost herself—and I didn't want to lose me. What I needed next was a heroine who could reconcile all the warring wants of my nature—for fire and quiet, independence and oneness, ambition and love, and marriage and family.
接下来的那年,我结婚了,离开了格林尼治村,当时我很认同娜塔莎。我为家庭生活做好了准备。接着……她丈夫和孩子们成为了“娜塔莎全身心关注的焦点”。她已经失去了自我,但我不想失去自我。接下来我需要一位女主人公,一位能够协调我天性中一切矛盾需求的女主人公——激情和安静、自主和完整、雄心与爱情、婚姻和家庭。
But such reconciling heroines, in novels and real life, may not yet exist.
但是,无论在小说中,还是现实生活中,这样颇具协调能力的女主人公可能迄今为止还没出生呢。
Nevertheless Natasha and Jane and Jo, Cathy, Nancy and Brett—each spoke to my heart and stirred me powerfully. On my journey to young womanhood I was fortunate to have them as companions. They were, they will always remain, a part of me.
然而,娜塔莎、简、乔、凯茜、南希和布雷特——她们每一个都与我有过心贴心的交流,强烈地鼓舞了我。在我的成长过程中,很幸运有她们的陪伴。她们曾经并永远都是我生命的一部分。