Silent, slow, and solemn; bowing over still further his chronically broken back, he toiled away, as if toil were life itself, and the heavy beating of his hammer the heavy beating of his heart. And so it was.—Most miserable!
他不聲不響,慢條斯理而一本正經;弓著他那長期佝僂的背,不停地干下去,好象勞作就是生命,他的錘子的沉重的敲擊,就是他的心的沉重的跳動。這真是極其可憐!
A peculiar walk in this old man, a certain slight but painful appearing yawing in his gait, had at an early period of the voyage excited the curiosity of the mariners. And to the importunity of their persisted questionings he had finally given in; and so it came to pass that every one now knew the shameful story of his wretched fate.
這個老頭兒走起路來有一種特殊的步法,一種稍微有點顯得很苦痛的偏斜的走相,在這次航程開始的時候,就引起了水手們的好奇心。由于大家再三再四的追根究底,他終于不得不說了出來;因此,現在大家都知道他那可憐的命運有過一段丟臉的經過。
Belated, and not innocently, one bitter winter's midnight, on the road running between two country towns, the blacksmith half-stupidly felt the deadly numbness stealing over him, and sought refuge in a leaning, dilapidated barn. The issue was, the loss of the extremities of both feet. Out of this revelation, part by part, at last came out the four acts of the gladness, and the one long, and as yet uncatastrophied fifth act of the grief of his life's drama.
一個嚴冬的午夜,這個趕晚了路而并不是不知情的鐵匠,走在一條左右各有一個鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)的路上,他有點遲鈍地覺得身上突然非常麻痹,于是摸到一個傾斜的破谷倉里去歇一歇。原因是雙腳再也撐不住了。終于,打從這個意外中,逐漸產生了四幕喜劇,和一個長長而尚未收場的、表現他一生的悲劇的第五幕。
He was an old man, who, at the age of nearly sixty, had postponedly encountered that thing in sorrow's technicals called ruin. He had been an artisan of famed excellence, and with plenty to do; owned a house and garden; embraced a youthful, daughter-like, loving wife, and three blithe, ruddy children; every Sunday went to a cheerful-looking church, planted in a grove.
他是個老頭兒,年紀將近六十歲,還遲遲沒有遭遇到那種叫做家破人亡的悲傷的專門名詞的事兒。他本來是一個以技藝高強著稱的手藝人,活兒做不完;自己有一座帶園子的房子;還有一個年輕的象女兒一般的愛妻,三個活潑壯健的小孩;每個禮拜日都上那個四周布滿叢林。外表舒適的教堂去做禮拜。