月亮和六便士 第三十九章(5)

 I really felt something of the emotion that had caught him. I was strangely impressed. 激动着施特略夫的那种感情我确实体会到了；他说的这些话奇怪地把我打动了。

It was as though I were suddenly transported into a world in which the values were changed. 我好象突然被带进一个全部事物的价值都改变了的世界里。

I stood by, at a loss, like a stranger in a land where the reactions of man to familiar things are all different from those he has known. 我茫然不知所措地站在一旁，好象一个到了异乡的陌生人，在那里，一个人对于他所熟悉的事物的各种反应都与过去的不同了。

Stroeve tried to talk to me about the picture, but he was incoherent, and I had to guess at what he meant. 施特略夫尽量想把他见到的这幅画描述给我听，但是他说得前言不搭后语，许多意思都只能由我猜测。

Strickland had burst the bonds that hitherto had held him. 思特里克兰德已经把那一直束缚着的桎梏打碎了。

He had found, not himself, as the phrase goes, but a new soul with unsuspected powers. 他并没有象俗话所说的“寻找到自己”，而是寻找到一个新的灵魂，一个具有意料不到的巨大力量的灵魂。

It was not only the bold simplification of the drawing which showed so rich and so singular a personality; 这幅画之所以能显示出这样强烈、这样独特的个性，并不只是因为它那极为大胆的简单的线条，

it was not only the painting, though the flesh was painted with a passionate¹ sensuality which had in it something miraculous²; 不只是因为它的处理方法（尽管那肉体被画得带有一种强烈的、几乎可以说是奇妙的欲情），

it was not only the solidity, so that you felt extraordinarily³ the weight of the body; 也不只是因为它给人的实体感，使你几乎奇异地感觉到那肉体的重量，

there was also a spirituality, troubling and new, which led the imagination along unsuspected ways, and suggested dim empty spaces, 而且还因为它有一种纯精神的性质，一种使你感到不安、感到新奇的精神，把你的幻想引向前所未经的路途，把你带到一个朦胧空虚的境界，

lit only by the eternal stars, where the soul, all naked, adventured fearful to the discovery of new mysteries. 那里为探索新奇的神秘只有永恒的星辰在照耀，你感到自己的灵魂一无牵挂，正经历着各种恐怖和冒险。

If I am rhetorical it is because Stroeve was rhetorical. 如果我在这里有些舞文弄墨，使用了不少形象比喻，这是因为施特略夫当时就是这么表达他自己的。

(Do we not know that man in moments of emotion expresses himself naturally in the terms of a novelette?) （估量大家都知道，一旦感情激动起来，一个人会很自然地玩弄起文学词藻来的。）

Stroeve was trying to express a feeling which he had never known before, and he did not know how to put it into common terms. 施特略夫企图表达的是一种他过去从来没经历过的感觉，如果用一般的言语，他简直不知道该如何说出口来。

He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable⁴. 他像是一个神秘主义者费力地宣讲一个无法言传的道理。

But one fact he made clear to me; 但是有一件事我还是清楚的：

people talk of beauty lightly, and having no feeling for words, they use that one carelessly, so that it loses its force; 人们动不动就谈美，实际上对这个词并不理解；这个词已经使用得太滥，失去了原有的力量；

and the thing it stands for, sharing its name with a hundred trivial objects, is deprived of dignity. 因为成千上万的琐屑事物都分享了“美”的称号，这个词已经被剥夺掉它的崇高的含义了。

They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it. 一件衣服，一只狗，一篇布道词，什么东西人们都用“美”来形容，当他们面对面地遇到真正的美时，反而认不出它来了。

The false emphasis with which they try to deck their worthless thoughts blunts their susceptibilities. 他们用以遮饰自己毫无价值的思想的虚假夸大使他们的感受力变得迟钝不堪。

Like the charlatan⁵ who counterfeits⁶ a spiritual force he has sometimes felt, they lose the power they have abused. 正如一个假内行有时也会感觉到自己是在无中生有地伪造某件器物的精神价值一样，人们已经失掉了他们用之过滥的赏识能力。

But Stroeve, the unconquerable buffoon⁷, had a love and an understanding of beauty which were as honest and sincere as was his own sincere and honest soul. 但是施特略夫，这位本性无法改变的小丑，对于美却有着真挚的爱和理解，正像他的灵魂也是诚实、真挚的一样。

It meant to him what God means to the believer, and when he saw it he was afraid. 对他说来，美就像虔诚教徒心目中的上帝一样；一旦他见到真正美的事物，他变得恐惧万分。

1 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

2 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

3 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

4 ineffable   

adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的

参考例句：

• The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.日落的美是难以形容的。
• She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction,as if her cup of happiness were now full.她发出了一声说不出多么满意的叹息，仿佛她的幸福之杯已经斟满了。

5 charlatan   

n.骗子；江湖医生；假内行

参考例句：

• The charlatan boasted that he could charm off any disease.这个江湖骗子吹牛说他能用符咒治好各种疾病。
• He was sure that he was dealing with a charlatan.他真以为自己遇上了江湖骗子。

6 counterfeits   

v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Objects and people looked like counterfeits of themselves. 各种人和事好象都给自己披上了伪装。 来自辞典例句
• We have seen many counterfeits, but we are born believers in great men. 我们见过许多骗子，但是我们天生信赖伟人。 来自辞典例句

7 buffoon   

n.演出时的丑角

参考例句：

• They pictured their manager as a buffoon.他们把经理描绘成一个小丑。
• That politician acted like a buffoon during that debate.这个政客在那场辩论中真是丑态百出。