文学翻译赏析
4
The men, my dear, seemed to me generally very ugly. The very few exceptions are bad copies of us. Heaven knows what evil genius has inspired their costume; it is amazingly inelegant compared with those of former generations. It has no distinction, no beauty of color or romance; it appeals neither to the senses, nor the mind, nor the eye, and it must be very uncomfortable. It is meager and stunted. And yet Frenchmen are said to be fickle!
亲爱的，我觉得这里的男人都非常丑陋。就是极少数例外的也只是我们的拙劣模仿品。天知道是哪位邪恶的天才发明了他们的服装：和前几代人相比，他们的着装真是十分俗气。它们真是毫无特点，既无色彩上的美感又缺乏浪漫；既不是为感官，也不是为精神，更不是为视觉设计的，它还又窄又短，这样的衣服穿着一定很不舒适。然而，可还有人说法国人是多变的呢！
The men are hideous anyway, whatever they put on their heads. I have seen nothing but worn, hard faces, with no calm nor peace in the expression; the harsh lines and furrows speak of foiled ambition and smarting vanity. A fine forehead is rarely seen.
不管怎样，男人们不管在头上戴什么都面目丑陋。我所看到的人都是面露倦容，神情严肃，脸上没有一丝宁静或安详；他们脸上粗粝的线条和一道道皱纹说明他们的野心挫败，和剧烈的空虚。神情自若前额光洁的实在少见。
18
How plain it is that you have never realized the force of the word “indissoluble” as applied to the contract binding man and woman! I have no wish to controvert what has been laid down by philosophers or legislators—they are quite capable of doing this for themselves—but, dear one, in making marriage irrevocable and imposing on it a relentless formula, which admits of no exceptions, they have rendered each union a thing as distinct as one individual is from another. Each has its own inner laws which differ from those of others. But if place alters the conditions of marriage, much more does character. The wife of a man born to be a leader need only resign herself to his guidance; whereas the wife of a fool, conscious of superior power, is bound to take the reins in her own hand if she would avert calamity.
很明显，你从来没有意识到“不解之缘”一词在一对夫妻身上的效力！我不曾想过我能反驳那些哲学家或立法者们制定出来的婚姻条款，毕竟他们完全能为自己制定这些条条框框。但亲爱的，谁也不会否认，他们使每对夫妻有了明明白白的保障，使得婚姻坚而不灭并且强行为它施加了一个法律制约。可每个人心中都有自己独一无二的准则。但如果地位身份改变了婚姻状况，那么婚姻中的角色问题则会使其改变更多。天生领导者之妻只需归顺于其夫的领导，而无能狂徒之妻却需紧抓命运之绳以避生活之难。
You speak of vice; and it is possible that, after all, reason and reflection produce a result not dissimilar from what we call by that name. For what does a woman mean by it but perversion of feeling through calculation? Passion is vicious when it reasons, admirable only when it springs
from the heart and spends itself in sublime impulses that set at naught all selfish considerations. Sooner or later, dear one, you too will say, “Yes! Dissimulation is the necessary armor of a woman, if by dissimulation be meant courage to bear in silence, prudence to foresee the future.”
你谈到邪恶；或许，在经过理性的推断和审慎的思考之后，我们对于邪恶两字的理解并未改变。在深思熟虑后，我们还是曲解了邪恶之意，那么对于女性来说它又意味什么？伴着理性的激情是邪恶的；只有源自内心，动机高尚的激情才令人钦佩。亲爱的，你迟早也会说：“如果伪装意味着敢于默默承受（生活之不公），意味着能够谨慎预见变幻的未来，那么女人的确需要用伪装来进行自我保护。”
Every married woman learns to her cost the existence of certain social laws, which, in many respects, conflict with the laws of nature. The natural law and the code are in hostility, and we are the battle ground.
任何一位已婚妇女都要付出沉痛的代价才能掌握社会法则，而这种法则在许多方面都是和自然界的规则相冲突。自然界的规律和人类的法则敌对，互不相容，而我们人类就是两者发生冲突的战场。
Would you give the name of vice to the prudence of the wife who guards her family from destruction through its own acts? One calculation or a thousand, what matter, if the decision no longer rests with the heart? And when at last that day comes, you will understand that we are answerable only to God and to ourselves for the means we employ to keep happiness alight in the heart of our homes.
如果谨慎的妻子因不愿看到家庭破裂而私自采取行动，你也把这称为道德败坏吗？一次思索也好，千般考虑也罢，感情就全完了。当那天到来，你会领悟到，只有靠上帝和我们自己才能让生活一直过得幸福。
Far better is the calculation which succeeds in this than the reckless passion which introduces trouble, heart-burnings, and dissension. I have reflected painfully on the duties of a wife and mother of a family. Yes, sweet one, it is only by a sublime hypocrisy that we can attain the noblest ideal of a perfect woman. You tax me with insincerity because I dole out to Louis, from day to day, the measure of his intimacy with me; but is it not too close an intimacy which provokes rupture? My aim is to give him, in the very interest of his happiness, many occupations, which will all serve as distractions to his love; and this is not the reasoning of passion. If affection be inexhaustible, it is not so with love: the task, therefore, of a woman—truly no light one—is to spread it out thriftily over a lifetime.
如果不想要那充斥着麻烦，嫉妒和争吵的激情，最好还是先做好准备。我痛苦地反省着自己作为一名妻子以及一名母亲应有的责任。是的，亲爱的，要想做一名理想中完美的女人就要善用虚伪。你总指责我虚伪地与路易斯亲密，但是这份亲密不是经常会导致关系破裂吗？为了给予他幸福，我会给他空间，让他不会
总是想着我，这并不是出于对激情的理解而是理智的考虑。如果感情是永无止境的，那么爱情则并非如此，所以，对于女人来说，如果是爱情，那么她会将这份爱散布到全部生活中。
19
The man who loves us is our property; we can make a fool or a genius of him as we please; only, between ourselves, the former happens more commonly. You will make yours a genius, and you won’t tell the secret—there are two heroic actions, if you will! Ah! If there were no future life, how nicely you would be sold, for this is martyrdom into which you are plunging of your own accord. You want to make him ambitious and to keep him in love! Child that you are, surely the last alone is sufficient.
那些爱我们的男人就像是我们的财产；我们可以任性地将其玩弄至愚笨，亦可培养成天才；只是我们之间，前者更为常见。如果你愿意的话，你将会做出两个英勇的行为：让爱你的男人成为天才，而且不会透露这个秘密。如果你们没有未来，你会迷失自我，因为这是你打破协议的殉葬。你想让他拥有雄心，却又想拴住他心！这一想法实在太天真，到最后你只能孤独落寞。