Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Chapter 11 (excerpt)
The chamber looked such a bright little place to me as the sun shone in between the gay blue chintz window curtains,showing papered walls and a carpeted floor,so unlike the bare planks and stained plaster of Lowood,that my spirits rose at the view. Externals have e great effect.on the young:I thought that fairer era of life was beginning for me, ---one that was to have its flowers and pleasures,as well as its thorns and toils. My faculties, roused by the change of scene,the new field offered to hope, seemed all astir. I cannot precisely define what they expected ,but it was something pleasant:not perhaps that day or that month,but at an indefinite future period.
简・爱
李霁野 译
选自第十一章
太阳从鲜艳的蓝印花布的窗幔间照射进来时,显出纸糊的墙和铺地毯的地板,和罗沃德的光板同褪色的粉墙很是不同，使得这房子在我看来是一个很愉快的小地方:一看它我的精神就振作起来了。外表对于年轻的人很有影响:我想一个更美好的生活时代为我开始了一一 一个既有荆棘和劳苦,也有鲜花和欢乐的时代。我的才智被这种情景变迁,这种令人怀希望的新地方所刺激，似乎全活动起来了。我的才智究竟希望得到什么东西,我无法准确说明，不过是一种令人愉快的东西:并不就在那一天或那一月,却在一个不明确的未来的时期。
I rose; I dressed myself with care; obliged to be plain---for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity --- I was still by nature solicitous to be neat. It was not my habit to be disregardful of appearance, or careless of the impression I made:on the contrary ,I ever wished to look as well as I could,and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit. I sometimes regretted that I was not handsomer; I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks,a straight nose,and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall,stately,and finely developed in figure;I felt it a misfortune that I was so little,so pale,and had features so irregular and so marked. And why had I these aspirations and these regrets? It would be difficult to say:I could not then distinctly say it to myself ;yet I had a reason,and a logical,
natural reason too. However, when I had brushed my hair very smooth,and put on my black frock---which,Quaker like as it was,at least had the merit of fitting to a nicety --- and adjusted my clean white tucker,I thought I should do respectably enough to appear before Mrs. Fairfax;and that my new pupil would not at least recoil from me with antipathy. Having opened my chamber window,and seen that I left all things straight and neat on the toilet table,I ventured forth.
我起来了;我细心替自己穿着；虽然不得不朴素——因为我没有一件衣服不是做得非常简朴的——我却天生的满心想要整洁。不修边幅或不留心给人的印象如何,并不是我的习惯；反之，我总愿尽力显得好看一点,愿尽力在我不美的限度之内讨人喜欢。我有时惋惜我没有更漂亮-些;我有时愿意有玫瑰的面颊,直梁的鼻子和一张樱桃小口;我渴望发展得端庄美好的高身材;我觉得我这样小,这样苍白,这样五官引人注目的不端正,是一种不幸。为什么我有这些愿塑和惋惜呢?要说明是困难的:那时候我连对自己也说不明白;然而我也有一个理由,而且是一个合平逻辑的,自然的理由。不论怎样,当我把头发梳得很平，穿上我的黑衣裙——这虽然象教友派一样朴素，至少有一种非常合身的好处一一并戴好乾净的白颈饰的时候，我想我总可以满体面地到费尔法克斯太太前露面，我的新学生至少也不会厌恶地避开我了吧。我打开房里的窗子。看梳妆台上一切都放得整齐干净了,我就大胆走出去了。
Traversing the long and matted gallery,I descended the slippery steps of oak; then I gained the hall; I halted there a minute;I looked at some pictures on the walls(one I remember represented a grim man in a cuirass,and one a lady with powdered hair and a pearl necklace),at a bronze lamp pendent from the ceiling,at a great clock whose case was of oak curiousty carved, and ebon black with time and rubbing. Everything appeared very stately and imposing to me; but then I was so little accustomed to grandeur. The hall-door, which was half of glass,stood open; I stepped over the threshold. It was a fine Autumn morning ; the early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields:advancing on to the lawn, I looked up and surveyed the front of the mansion. It was three stories high, of proportions not vast, though considerable; a gentleman's manor-house, not a nobleman's seat; battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. Its grey front stood out well from the back-ground of a rookery, whose cawing tenants were now on the wing; they flew over the lawn and grounds to alight in a great meadow, from which these were separated by a sunk fence, and where an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, knotty, and broad as oaks,at once explained the etymology of the mansion's designation. Farther off were hilis: not so lofty as those round Lowood,nor so craggy,nor so like barriers of separation from the living world; but yet quiet and lonely hills enough,and seeming to embrace Thornfield with a seclusion I had not expected to find existent so near the stirring locality of Millcote. A little hamlet, whose roofs were blent with trees,straggled up the side of one of these hills;the church of the district stood nearer Thornfield; its old towertop looked over a knoll between the house and gates.
我穿过了铺席的长走廊，下了那光滑的橡木楼梯;于是我到了过厅,在那里站了会，我看着墙上的画（我记得有一张画着穿护身甲的严肃男子，一张画着戴宝石项链,敷发粉的贵妇），看着从天花板悬下的黄铜灯，看着一座大钟,钟架是雕得古怪的橡木,和因为时间与磨擦而发了黑的乌木做成的。一切东西在我看来都庄严堂皇;不过那时候我对富丽堂皇的东西是见识很少的。一半装玻璃的过厅门是开着的,我走出门限。是天气晴朗的秋晨;朝阳在变褐色的树丛和仍然发青的臼地上恬静地照耀着;我向前走到草坪上面,向上细看看这宅子的前边。这宅子有三层高,占地面积不算庞大，不过也可观了；是一所绅士住宅,并不是一个贵族府第;绕在顶上的雉垛使得它富有画意。宅子的灰色前沿从鸟鸦巢的背景中显出来,巢中住的呱呱叫着的乌鸦正在飞翔;它们飞过草坪和园地要在一个大草场上落下,草场那里有一段塌了的篱笆和这边隔开,并有一排结实有节粗得象橡树一样的老荆棘,这即刻就说明这宅子命名的来源了。再向前去就是小山；没有绕着罗沃德的山那样高,也没有那样险峻，也并不是那样的隔离人生的屏障;然而这山已经是够安静孤寂的了,而且用来包围着桑恩费尔得的那一种世外气象，我也没有料想到会在这样靠近米尔科特的热闹地方找到。房顶和树掺杂着的小村落,散布在山的一边;这地方的教堂更靠近桑恩费尔得；教堂的旧塔顶,俯瞰着房屋与大门之间的土阜。
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