The prayers went on. The noise that his aunt was making became intolerable to him. It was as if she were being drowned. She had lost all the dignity he knew her to have. He got up from the floor and went into her sitting-room.
祷告仍在继续。他的叔祖母所发出的声音让他开始无法忍受。那声音仿佛她溺水了一样。她已全然丧失了他所熟悉的为人的体面。他站起身来去了她的客厅。
He was trembling with anger or sorrow, he didn't know which. He sat in the brightness of her big sitting-room at the oval table and waited for something to happen. On the table was a cut-glass vase of irises, dying because she had been in bed for over a week. He sat staring at them for a long time until he heard the sounds of women weeping from the next room.
他全身发抖,不知是因为生气还是悲伤。他坐在她大客厅里的椭圆桌子的光亮处,等待着某件事情的发生。桌上摆着一个雕花玻璃花瓶,里面的鸢尾花枯蒌了,因为她已经一个多星期卧床不起了。他坐在那儿盯着它们看了好久,直到他听到隔壁房间传来女人们的哭声。