Old China

I had no repugnance then—why should I now have?—to those little, lawless, azure-tinctured grotesques, that under the notion of men and women, float about, uncircumscribed by any element, in that world before perspective—a china tea-cup.

那时我并不讨厌——现在又何必讨厌呢？——那些小小的、无法无天的、染着天蓝色的怪诞人物，它们顶着男人和女人的名义，不受任何元素的限制，飘浮在那个还没有透视法的世界里——一只瓷茶杯。

Here is a young and courtly Mandarin, handing tea to a lady from a salver—two miles off. See how distance seems to set off respect! And here the same lady, or another—for likeness is identity on tea-cups—is stepping into a little fairy boat, moored on the hither side of this calm garden river, with a dainty mincing foot, which in a right angle of incidence (as angles go in our world) must infallibly land her in the midst of a flowery mead—a furlong off on the other side of the same strange stream!

这里是一位年轻而举止优雅的官老爷，从一只托盘里递茶给一位夫人——隔着两英里远。看距离怎样衬托出恭敬！这里是同一位夫人，或者是另一位——因为在茶杯上，相似就是同一——正迈着纤巧的碎步，跨进一只小小的仙船，船停在这条平静的花园小河的这一边；按照入射的直角（照我们世界里角度的算法），她这一步必定会使她落在一片繁花似锦的草地中央——在这条奇怪的河流的那一边，一弗隆以外！

Farther on—if far or near can be predicated of their world—see horses, trees, pagodas, dancing the hays.

再远一些——如果远和近可以用来说他们的世界的话——瞧，马、树、宝塔，正在跳穿花舞。

Here—a cow and rabbit couchant, and co-extensive—so objects show, seen through the lucid atmosphere of fine Cathay.

这里——一头牛和一只兔子卧着，一样大小——透过美好的契丹那明净的空气看去，事物就显得这样。

I was pointing out to my cousin last evening, over our Hyson (which we are old fashioned enough to drink unmixed still of an afternoon) some of these speciosa miracula upon a set of extraordinary old blue china (a recent purchase) which we were now for the first time using; and could not help remarking, how favourable circumstances had been to us of late years, that we could afford to please the eye sometimes with trifles of this sort—when a passing sentiment seemed to over-shade the brows of my companion. I am quick at detecting these summer clouds in Bridget.

昨天傍晚，我们喝着熙春茶（我们还老派得很，下午喝茶仍旧什么也不掺），我一边指给我的表姐看一套非常特别的青花古瓷（最近才买的，我们这是第一次使用）上的这些奇妙的景象，一边禁不住说，这些年来，境遇对我们是多么有利，我们居然能有余力，时常用这类小玩意儿来悦目——这时，一种转瞬即逝的情绪，似乎给我的伙伴的眉头投上了一层阴影。我很快就能察觉布丽奇特脸上这些夏日的云。

"Do you remember the brown suit, which you made to hang upon you, till all your friends cried shame upon you, it grew so thread-bare—and all because of that folio Beaumont and Fletcher, which you dragged home late at night from Barker's in Covent-garden? Do you remember how we eyed it for weeks before we could make up our minds to the purchase, and had not come to a determination till it was near ten o'clock of the Saturday night, when you set off from Islington, fearing you should be too late—and when the old bookseller with some grumbling opened his shop, and by the twinkling taper (for he was setting bedwards) lighted out the relic from his dusty treasures—and when you lugged it home, wishing it were twice as cumbersome—and when you presented it to me—and when we were exploring the perfectness of it (collating you called it)—and while I was repairing some of the loose leaves with paste, which your impatience would not suffer to be left till day-break—was there no pleasure in being a poor man? or can those neat black clothes which you wear now, and are so careful to keep brushed, since we have become rich and finical, give you half the honest vanity, with which you flaunted it about in that over-worn suit—your old corbeau—for four or five weeks longer than you should have done, to pacify your conscience for the mighty sum of fifteen—or sixteen shillings was it?—a great affair we thought it then—which you had lavished on the old folio. Now you can afford to buy any book that pleases you, but I do not see that you ever bring me home any nice old purchases now.

“你还记得那套棕色的衣服吗？你一直穿着它，直到你所有的朋友都说你丢人，它都磨得露出线来了——全都是因为那部对开本的博蒙特和弗莱彻，那是你深夜从考文特花园的巴克书店拖回家来的。你还记得吗，我们盯着它看了好几个星期，才下定决心买它，直到星期六晚上将近十点钟，才拿定主意，你从伊斯灵顿出发，生怕去得太晚——那位老书商嘟嘟囔囔地打开了店门，借着一支摇曳的小蜡烛（因为他正要上床去睡）从他那些落满灰尘的宝贝中把这件珍品照了出来——你把它拖回家，恨不得它再重一倍——你把它送给我——我们一起查看它是不是完整无缺（你管这叫‘校勘’）——我用浆糊修补一些松脱的书页，你性急，不肯让它们留到天亮再弄——难道做一个穷人就没有乐趣吗？自从我们变得富有而讲究以后，你现在穿的那些整洁的黑衣服，你那么小心地刷得干干净净的，能给你那时一半的诚实的虚荣吗？那时你穿着那套磨旧了的衣服——你那件老‘乌鸦’——到处炫耀，比你应当穿的时间多穿了四五个星期，为的是安抚你的良心，因为你在那部旧对开本上挥霍了一大笔钱，十五个——还是十六个先令来着？——那时我们觉得这是一件大事。现在你买得起任何一本你喜欢的书了，可是我看不出你现在还给我带回家什么好的旧东西。

"When you come home with twenty apologies for laying out a less number of shillings upon that print after Lionardo, which we christened the 'Lady Blanch;' when you looked at the purchase, and thought of the money—and thought of the money, and looked again at the picture—was there no pleasure in being a poor man? Now, you have nothing to do but to walk into Colnaghi's, and buy a wilderness of Lionardos. Yet do you?

“你带着二十个道歉回家，因为你在那幅仿列奥纳多的版画上花了比这还少的先令——我们给它起名叫‘布兰奇夫人’——你看看买来的东西，想想那笔钱——想想那笔钱，又再看看那幅画——难道做一个穷人就没有乐趣吗？现在，你只要走进科尔纳吉的店里，就能买下一大片列奥纳多。可你买吗？

"Then, do you remember our pleasant walks to Enfield, and Potter's Bar, and Waltham, when we had a holyday—holydays, and all other fun, are gone, now we are rich—and the little hand-basket, in which I used to deposit our day's fare of savory cold lamb and salad—and how you would pry about at noon-tide for some decent house, where we might go in, and produce our store—only paying for the ale that you must call for—and speculate upon the looks of the landlady, and whether she was likely to allow us a table-cloth—and wish for such another honest hostess, as Izaak Walton has described many a one on the pleasant banks of the Lea, when he went a fishing—and sometimes they would prove obliging enough, and sometimes they would look grudgingly upon us—but we had cheerful looks still for one another, and would eat our plain food savorily, scarcely grudging Piscator his Trout Hall? Now, when we go out a day's pleasuring, which is seldom moreover, we ride part of the way—and go into a fine inn, and order the best of dinners, never debating the expense—which, after all, never has half the relish of those chance country snaps, when we were at the mercy of uncertain usage, and a precarious welcome.

“还有，你还记得我们到恩菲尔德、波特斯巴、沃尔瑟姆去的那些愉快的散步吗？那时我们有一个假日——假日，还有其他一切乐趣，现在我们富了，都没有了——还有那只小提篮，我常常把我们一天的伙食放在里面，香喷喷的冷羊肉和色拉——中午时你总要四处张望，找一家像样的人家，好让我们进去，把我们的存粮拿出来——只要付你必须叫的那份麦酒钱就行——你还要揣摩老板娘的脸色，猜她会不会给我们一块桌布——还希望能遇到又一个像艾萨克·沃尔顿描写过的那种老实的女店主，他去钓鱼的时候，在利河愉快的岸边遇到过好多位——有时她们会相当客气，有时她们会不情愿地看着我们——但是我们彼此仍然笑脸相对，津津有味地吃着我们简单的饭食，几乎都不羡慕那位钓鱼人的鳟鱼馆了。现在，我们出去游玩一天的时候——而且这种时候也很少了——我们有一段路要坐车——走进一家漂亮的客店，点最好的饭菜，从来不讨论花多少钱——可是说到底，这种饭从来没有那些在乡下偶然吃到的便饭一半的滋味，那时我们全凭不确定的待遇和靠不住的欢迎。

"You are too proud to see a play anywhere now but in the pit. Do you remember where it was we used to sit, when we saw the battle of Hexham, and the surrender of Calais, and Bannister and Mrs. Bland in the Children in the Wood—when we squeezed out our shillings a-piece to sit three or four times in a season in the one-shilling gallery—where you felt all the time that you ought not to have brought me—and more strongly I felt obligation to you for having brought me—and the pleasure was the better for a little shame—and when the curtain drew up, what cared we for our place in the house, or what mattered it where we were sitting, when our thoughts were with Rosalind in Arden, or with Viola at the Court of Illyria? You used to say, that the gallery was the best place of all for enjoying a play socially—that the relish of such exhibitions must be in proportion to the infrequency of going—that the company we met there, not being in general readers of plays, were obliged to attend the more, and did attend, to what was going on, on the stage—because a word lost would have been a chasm, which it was impossible for them to fill up. With such reflections we consoled our pride then—and I appeal to you, whether, as a woman, I met generally with less attention and accommodation, than I have done since in more expensive situations in the house? The getting in indeed, and the crowding up those inconvenient staircases, was bad enough,—but there was still a law of civility to women recognised to quite as great an extent as we ever found in the other passages—and how a little difficulty overcome heightened the snug seat, and the play, afterwards! Now we can only pay our money, and walk in. You cannot see, you say, in the galleries now. I am sure we saw, and heard too, well enough then—but sight, and all, I think, is gone with our poverty.

“你现在太骄傲了，看戏除了正厅，哪儿都不肯坐。你还记得我们从前坐在哪里吗？那时我们看了《赫克瑟姆之战》和《加来的投降》，还有班尼斯特和布兰德太太演的《林中的孩子》——我们每人挤出一个先令，每季去三四次，坐在一先令的顶层楼座里——你一直觉得你不该带我来——而我更强烈地感到你带我来对我的恩情——这一点小小的羞愧反倒让乐趣更大了——幕布拉起的时候，我们哪里还在乎自己在戏院里的位置，坐在哪里又有什么关系，我们的心思已经同阿登森林里的罗莎琳德在一起，或者同伊利里亚宫廷里的薇奥拉在一起了？你过去常说，顶层楼座是大家一起欣赏一出戏的最好的地方——看这类演出的兴味，必定和去看的次数成反比——我们在那里遇到的那些人，一般都不读剧本，所以不得不更加专心，也确实更加专心地看舞台上正在演的东西——因为漏掉一个词，就会是一个他们无法填补的空缺。那时我们就用这样的想法来安慰我们的自尊——我要问你，作为一个女人，比起后来坐在戏院里更贵的位子上，我那时受到的照顾和方便，一般说来就更少吗？进门的时候，确实，挤上那些不方便的楼梯，是够糟糕的，——但是那里仍然有一条对女人以礼相待的规矩，通行的程度不亚于我们在别的过道上见到的——而一点小小的困难克服之后，那舒适的座位、还有后来的戏，变得多么可贵啊！现在我们只要付了钱，走进去就行了。你说，你现在在顶层楼座里看不见了。我敢说，那时我们看得够清楚，也听得够清楚——但是视力，还有一切，我想，都随着我们的贫穷一起走了。

"I know what you were going to say, that it is mighty pleasant at the end of the year to make all meet—and much ado we used to have every Thirty-first Night of December to account for our exceedings—many a long face did you make over your puzzled accounts, and in contriving to make it out how we had spent so much—or that we had not spent so much—or that it was impossible we should spend so much next year—and still we found our slender capital decreasing—but then, betwixt ways, and projects, and compromises of one sort or another, and talk of curtailing this charge, and doing without that for the future—and the hope that youth brings, and laughing spirits (in which you were never poor till now,) we pocketed up our loss, and in conclusion, with 'lusty brimmers' (as you used to quote it out of hearty cheerful Mr. Cotton, as you called him), we used to welcome in the 'coming guest.' Now we have no reckoning at all at the end of the old year—no flattering promises about the new year doing better for us."

“我知道你要说什么，到年底把账目全都平了，那是非常愉快的——从前每年十二月三十一日夜里，我们总要为我们的超支算账，费好大的劲——你对着你那些弄不清的账目，拉长了多少次脸，想方设法弄明白我们怎么花了那么多——或者我们并没有花那么多——或者明年我们不可能再花那么多——可我们还是发现我们那点微薄的本钱在减少——但是后来，在种种办法、计划和这样那样的妥协之间，在说着以后要削减这一笔开支、不要那一样东西之间——还有青春带来的希望，以及欢笑的心情（在这方面，你直到现在才变穷了），我们就把损失揣进了口袋，最后，用‘满满的大杯’（你常常这样引用热情愉快的科顿先生的话，你是这么叫他的），我们迎来那‘要来的客人’。现在我们到旧年底根本不算账了——也没有什么新年会对我们好些的讨人喜欢的许诺了。”

Bridget is so sparing of her speech on most occasions, that when she gets into a rhetorical vein, I am careful how I interrupt it. I could not help, however, smiling at the phantom of wealth which her dear imagination had conjured up out of a clear income of poor—hundred pounds a year. "It is true we were happier when we were poorer, but we were also younger, my cousin. I am afraid we must put up with the excess, for if we were to shake the superflux into the sea, we should not much mend ourselves. That we had much to struggle with, as we grew up together, we have reason to be most thankful. It strengthened, and knit our compact closer. We could never have been what we have been to each other, if we had always had the sufficiency which you now complain of. The resisting power—those natural dilations of the youthful spirit, which circumstances cannot straiten—with us are long since passed away. Competence to age is supplementary youth; a sorry supplement indeed, but I fear the best that is to be had. We must ride, where we formerly walked: live better, and lie softer—and shall be wise to do so—than we had means to do in those good old days you speak of. Yet could those days return—could you and I once more walk our thirty miles a-day—could Bannister and Mrs. Bland again be young, and you and I be young to see them—could the good old one shilling gallery days return—they are dreams, my cousin, now—but could you and I at this moment, instead of this quiet argument, by our well-carpeted fireside, sitting on this luxurious sofa—be once more struggling up those inconvenient stair-cases, pushed about, and squeezed, and elbowed by the poorest rabble of poor gallery scramblers—could I once more hear those anxious shrieks of yours—and the delicious Thank God, we are safe, which always followed when the topmost stair, conquered, let in the first light of the whole cheerful theatre down beneath us—I know not the fathom line that ever touched a descent so deep as I would be willing to bury more wealth in than Croesus had, or the great Jew R—— is supposed to have, to purchase it. And now do just look at that merry little Chinese waiter holding an umbrella, big enough for a bed-tester, over the head of that pretty insipid half-Madona-ish chit of a lady in that very blue summer-house."

布丽奇特在大多数场合都那么少言寡语，所以当她来了雄辩的兴致时，我总是小心不去打断她。不过，她亲爱的想象从一份每年区区——百镑的净收入里召唤出来的财富的幻影，使我禁不住笑了。“不错，我们穷的时候比较快乐，但那时我们也比较年轻，我的表姐。恐怕我们只好忍受这份多余了，因为即使我们把这些多余的东西抖落到海里，我们也不会因此好多少。我们一起长大的时候，有许多事要奋力对付，这是我们最该感谢的。它使我们更坚强，使我们的盟约结得更紧。如果我们一直都有你现在抱怨的这份充裕，我们就永远不可能成为我们彼此曾经是的那样。那种抵抗的力量——那些青春的精神天然的舒展，是环境所不能束缚的——在我们身上早已过去了。对于老年来说，富足就是补充的青春；确实是一种可怜的补充，可是恐怕已是所能得到的最好的了。从前我们步行的地方，现在我们必须坐车；生活得好些，睡得软些——而且这样做是明智的——比你说的那些美好的旧日子里我们所能做到的要好。然而，如果那些日子能够回来——如果你和我能再一次一天走上三十英里——如果班尼斯特和布兰德太太能再年轻起来，你和我也能年轻起来去看他们——如果那一先令顶层楼座的美好旧日子能够回来——它们现在是梦了，我的表姐——但是，如果你和我此刻，不是在我们铺着漂亮地毯的炉边、坐在这张奢华的沙发上进行这场安静的争论，而能再一次奋力挤上那些不方便的楼梯，被最穷的一群挤顶层楼座的乌合之众推来搡去、挤来挤去、用胳膊肘顶来顶去——如果我能再一次听到你那些焦急的尖叫——还有那句甜美的‘谢天谢地，我们安全了’，每当最高一级楼梯被征服了，放进整个欢乐的戏院在我们下方的第一道光的时候，总是跟着这句话——我不知道有什么测深索曾经触到过那样深的深处，深到能埋下我为了买回这一切而愿意埋下的财富，那比克罗伊斯所有的、或者比那位大名鼎鼎的犹太人 R—— 据说拥有的还要多。现在，你就看看那个快活的小个子中国侍者吧，他举着一把伞，大得可以做床顶的帐幔，罩在那位漂亮的、平淡无味的、有几分像圣母的小丫头似的夫人头上，就在那座蓝得不能再蓝的凉亭里。”