《长腿叔叔》第三章（下）

Mr. D.-L.-L. Smith,

长腿叔叔史密斯先生：

SIR: You never answer any questions; you never show the slightest interest in anything I do. You are probably the horridest one of all those horrid Trustees, and the reason you are educating me is, not because you care a bit about me, but from a sense of Duty.

先生，您从不回答任何问题，对我的所作所为没有表示出一点点兴趣。您可能是那些理事里最可恶的一个，您让我受教育，完全是出于一种道义和责任，而毫无半点关怀和爱意。

I don't know a single thing about you. I don't even know your name. It is very uninspiring writing to a Thing. I haven't a doubt but that you throw my letters into the waste-basket without reading them. Hereafter I shall write only about work.

我对您一无所知，甚至不知道您的名字；写信给“一个东西”没有丝毫的意义。我丝毫不怀疑您读都不读我的信，就将它们扔进废纸篓。今后，除了学业之外，我再也不写其他任何事情了。

My re-examinations in Latin and geometry came last week. I passed them both and am now free from conditions.

我的几何学跟拉丁文上星期补考都通过了。我一点问题都没有就过关了。

Yours truly, Jerusha Abbott

您最真实的乔若莎•艾伯特

**************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

亲爱的长腿叔叔：

I am a BEAST.

我是个坏孩子。

Please forget about that dreadful letter I sent you last week-- I was feeling terribly lonely and miserable and sore-throaty the night I wrote. I didn't know it, but I was just sickening for tonsillitis and grippe and lots of things mixed. I'm in the infirmary now, and have been here for six days; this is the first time they would let me sit up and have a pen and paper. The head nurse is very bossy. But I've been thinking about it all the time and I shan't get well until you forgive me.

请原谅我上星期寄给您的那封蛮横无礼的信——写信那晚，我感觉到非常孤独，浑身不舒服，喉咙还隐隐作痛。现在我住进了大学病房已经6天了，今天他们第一次让我坐起来，还给我纸笔。护士长凶极了。我总是心神不安，也许得不到您的原谅，我永远都好不起来了。

Here is a picture of the way I look, with a bandage tied around my head in rabbit's ears.

这就是我现在的模样，绷带绕过我的头，绑了个大结，像兔子的耳朵。

Doesn't that arouse your sympathy? I am having sublingual gland swelling. And I've been studying physiology all the year without ever hearing of sublingual glands. How futile a thing is education!

这样您会有点同情吗？我的淋巴结肿了。学了一年的生理课都不知道淋巴结在哪里，教育是多么无用呀。

I can't write any more; I get rather shaky when I sit up too long. Please forgive me for being impertinent and ungrateful. I was badly brought up.

我不能写了，坐久了感觉有点虚弱。请原谅我的粗鲁和忘恩负义。我从小就缺乏教养。

Yours with love, Judy Abbott

您充满爱的茱蒂•艾伯特

**************************

Dearest Daddy-Long-Legs,

最亲爱的长腿叔叔：

Yesterday evening just towards dark, when I was sitting up in bed looking out at the rain and feeling awfully bored with life in a great institution, the nurse appeared with a long white box addressed to me, and filled with the LOVELIEST pink rosebuds. And much nicer still, it contained a card with a very polite message written in a funny little uphill back hand (but one which shows a great deal of character). Thank you, Daddy, a thousand times. Your flowers make the first real, true present I ever received in my life. If you want to know what a baby I am I lay down and cried because I was so happy.

昨天傍晚，我坐在病床上，望着窗外的雨景，有一种强烈的感觉，觉得人生真是无聊烦恼透了。护士送了一个大的白色盒子给我，里面装满了鲜艳的玫瑰花。更令人愉快的是，上面还附有一张措辞优雅的便笺，一笔颇有性格的左斜体，一点点爬升上去。叔叔，谢谢您，一千个谢谢。您的花让我第一次感觉如此真实，在我生命中第一次如此清晰的呈现。我高兴极了，像个孩子似的，躺下来大哭一场。

Now that I am sure you read my letters, I'll make them much more interesting, so they'll be worth keeping in a safe with red tape around them--only please take out that dreadful one and burn it up. I'd hate to think that you ever read it over.

现在我确定您读了我的信了。我以后会写得更有趣些，这样才值得用红缎带扎起来放在保险柜里——不过请找出那封糟糕透顶的信烧掉它。真不愿意您再重新读起它。

Thank you for making a very sick, cross, miserable Freshman cheerful. Probably you have lots of loving family and friends, and you don't know what it feels like to be alone. But I do.

谢谢您使一个生病的，神经兮兮，又悲伤的新生高兴起来。也许您有很多亲爱的家人与朋友，无法明白孤独是什么样的滋味，可我的体会太深刻了。

Goodbye--I'll promise never to be horrid again, because now I know you're a real person; also I'll promise never to bother you with any more questions.

晚安。我保证以后决不再胡闹了，因为我现在知道您是一个活生生的真人，而且我也保证以后不再拿问题来烦您了。

Do you still hate girls?

您还讨厌女孩子吗？

Yours for ever, Judy

您永远的茱蒂

**************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

亲爱的长腿叔叔：

Did you ever see this campus? (That is merely a rhetorical question. Don't let it annoy you.) It is a heavenly spot in May. All the shrubs are in blossom and the trees are the loveliest young green-- even the old pines look fresh and new. The grass is dotted with yellow dandelions and hundreds of girls in blue and white and pink dresses. Everybody is joyous and carefree, for vacation's coming, and with that to look forward to, examinations don't count.

您曾看到过我们的学校吗？（这只是一句客套话，请别在意。）5月时节，这里的景致美妙极了。灌木丛中花团烂漫，树枝上泛起一片青绿色——连最苍老的松树也焕然一新。草皮上点缀着黄色蒲公英，还有几百个穿着蓝的白的和粉红衣裳的女孩们。每个人都欢欣快乐，无忧无虑。因为假期即将来临，还有伴随而来令人期待的一切，考试的忧虑也就抛在九霄云外了。

Isn't that a happy frame of mind to be in? And oh, Daddy! I'm the happiest of all! Because I'm not in the asylum any more; and I'm not anybody's nursemaid or typewriter or bookkeeper (I should have been, you know, except for you).

真令人心旷神怡，而我，叔叔，是里面最快乐的一个！因为我再也不是在约翰•格利尔孤儿院了，不再是谁的保姆、打字员，或会计（可您知道，如果没有您，我只能是其中的一个）。

I'm sorry now for all my past badnesses.

对过去我所做的一切坏事，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I was ever impertinent to Mrs. Lippett.

我曾经可恶地对李皮太太，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever slapped Freddie Perkins.

我曾经打弗莱迪•平顿，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever filled the sugar bowl with salt.

我曾经把盐倒到糖罐里，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever made faces behind the Trustees' backs.

我曾经在理事们的背后扮鬼脸，我很抱歉。

I'm going to be good and sweet and kind to everybody because I'm so happy. And this summer I'm going to write and write and write and begin to be a great author. Isn't that an exalted stand to take? Oh, I'm developing a beautiful character! It droops a bit under cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the sun shines.

我以后要听话、温柔、又善良地对待大家，因为我太快乐了。而这个夏天我要开始写作，开始成为一个伟大的作家。这还算不得一个崇高的目标吗？我在培养一种美好的气质！尽管寒冷和冰霜会使它低落下去，但灿烂的阳光又会使它迅速高涨起来。

That's the way with everybody. I don't agree with the theory that adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop moral strength. The happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness. I have no faith in misanthropes. (Fine word! Just learned it.) You are not a misanthrope are you, Daddy?

这是每个人的必由之路。我不相信所谓逆境、忧伤或失意会造就道德力量的理论。幸福的人才会热情洋溢。我也不相信厌世者（好字眼，刚刚学的）。长腿叔叔，您不是一个厌世者吧！

I started to tell you about the campus. I wish you'd come for a little visit and let me walk you about and say:

我一开始就告诉您学校风景。我希望您能来稍微参观一下，我可以陪您到处走走，告诉您：

'That is the library. This is the gas plant, Daddy dear. The Gothic building on your left is the gymnasium, and the Tudor Romanesque beside it is the new infirmary.'

“亲爱的叔叔，那是图书馆，这是煤气厂。您左手边的哥特式建筑物是体育馆，而它旁边都铎式建筑是新的医院。”

Oh, I'm fine at showing people about. I've done it all my life at the asylum, and I've been doing it all day here. I have honestly.

哦！我很会带人参观喔。过去在约翰•格利尔孤儿院，我常常带人参观。今天还领人走了一整天。真的，不骗您。

And a Man, too!

而且是一位男士！

That's a great experience. I never talked to a man before (except occasional Trustees, and they don't count). Pardon, Daddy, I don't mean to hurt your feelings when I abuse Trustees. I don't consider that you really belong among them. You just tumbled on to the Board by chance. The Trustee, as such, is fat and pompous and benevolent. He pats one on the head and wears a gold watch chain.

真是一个不同寻常的经历。我从未跟男人说过话（除了个别理事，但他们不算），对不起，叔叔，当我那样谈理事们的时候，并不是故意要冒犯您。我并没有把您看着是他们中的一员。所谓理事，应当是肥胖、傲慢、一副慈善模样，喜欢摸人脑袋，还挂了一个金怀表。

That looks like a June bug, but is meant to be a portrait of any Trustee except you.

那样看起来像一只金甲虫，可这是除您以外的其他所有理事的画像。

However--to resume:

不过——言归正传：

I have been walking and talking and having tea with a man. And with a very superior man--with Mr. Jervis Pendleton of the House of Julia; her uncle, in short (in long, perhaps I ought to say; he's as tall as you.) Being in town on business, he decided to run out to the college and call on his niece. He's her father's youngest brother, but she doesn't know him very intimately. It seems he glanced at her when she was a baby, decided he didn't like her, and has never noticed her since.

我同一名男土散步、聊天、喝茶。他是一个很了不起的人物——茱莉亚家族的杰维•平莱顿先生。简单地说，是她叔叔（详细说来，我应该告诉您，他的身材和您一样高）。他到城里办事，顺便来学校里看看侄女。他是茱莉亚爸爸最小的弟弟，但茱莉亚和他并不亲密。好像在她的童年时代，他看了她一眼，没有太多的好感，就再也不关注她了。

Anyway, there he was, sitting in the reception room very proper with his hat and stick and gloves beside him; and Julia and Sallie with seventh-hour recitations that they couldn't cut. So Julia dashed into my room and begged me to walk him about the campus and then deliver him to her when the seventh hour was over. I said I would, obligingly but unenthusiastically, because I don't care much for Pendletons.

无论如何，他来了，端坐在接待室里，帽子、手杖、手套放在一边。莎莉和茱莉亚第7节是朗读课，不能缺席。所以茱莉亚冲进我的房间，求我陪他到处走走，等她上完第7堂课再领他去找她。出于礼貌，我勉强答应了，因为我对平莱顿家族没有多大的好感。

But he turned out to be a sweet lamb. He's a real human being-- not a Pendleton at all. We had a beautiful time; I've longed for an uncle ever since. Do you mind pretending you're my uncle? I believe they're superior to grandmothers.

不过他是一个温文尔雅、情感丰富的人——一点也不像平莱顿家族的人。我们度过了一段美好的时光，从那时起我就渴望有个叔叔。您来作我的叔叔好吗？我觉得叔叔比祖母还好。

Mr. Pendleton reminded me a little of you, Daddy, as you were twenty years ago. You see I know you intimately, even if we haven't ever met!

平莱顿先生让我想起您，叔叔，像20年前的您。您瞧，我对您多么熟悉，尽管我们还没有见面。

He's tall and thinnish with a dark face all over lines, and the funniest underneath smile that never quite comes through but just wrinkles up the corners of his mouth. And he has a way of making you feel right off as though you'd known him a long time. He's very companionable.

他高高瘦瘦，脸色黝黑，轮廓很深，虽然没有开怀大笑，只把嘴角一咧，就能让您觉得很舒服。尽管认识不久，却一见如故。

We walked all over the campus from the quadrangle to the athletic grounds; then he said he felt weak and must have some tea. He proposed that we go to College Inn--it's just off the campus by the pine walk. I said we ought to go back for Julia and Sallie, but he said he didn't like to have his nieces drink too much tea; it made them nervous. So we just ran away and had tea and muffins and marmalade and ice-cream and cake at a nice little table out on the balcony. The inn was quite conveniently empty, this being the end of the month and allowances low.

我们走遍了中央广场到游乐场的每个角落。他说他走累了，要喝杯茶，提议我们去学院小吃店。小吃店不远，就在校门外的小路旁。我说该喊茱莉亚和莎莉一起去。他说他不愿自己的侄女喝茶太多，这会使她变得神经质。所以我们就径直去了，坐在走廊上一张雅致小桌子旁用茶、蛋糕、冰淇淋和饼干。因为是月底了，大家的零用钱也都快花光了，店里正好没人。

We had the jolliest time! But he had to run for his train the minute he got back and he barely saw Julia at all. She was furious with me for taking him off; it seems he's an unusually rich and desirable uncle. It relieved my mind to find he was rich, for the tea and things cost sixty cents apiece.

我们玩得很开心！可一回到学校，他就得去赶火车，只匆匆见了茱莉亚一面。茱莉亚对于我把他带出去很恼火。看来他是一位非比寻常的富有又值得人家羡慕的叔叔。知道了他很富有，让我感觉好过一些，因为茶和点心很贵，每样要6角钱呢。

This morning (it's Monday now) three boxes of chocolates came by express for Julia and Sallie and me. What do you think of that? To be getting candy from a man!

今天早上（今天是星期一）快递送来3盒巧克力，给茱莉亚、莎莉和我。您觉得如何？一个男人送来巧克力！

I begin to feel like a girl instead of a foundling.

我开始感到自己像个女孩子，而不是个孤儿。

I wish you'd come and have tea some day and let me see if I like you. But wouldn't it be dreadful if I didn't? However, I know I should.

我希望您哪天来吃茶点，让我看看喜不喜欢您。可是如果我不喜欢，那岂不太糟糕了？不过，我相信自己应该要喜欢您的。

Bien! I make you my compliments.

好了，向您致意！

'Jamais je ne t'oublierai.'

我永远不会忘记您

Judy

茱蒂