双语阅读 | 欧·亨利《欧亨利短篇小说精选》2

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01作家简介

欧·亨利（O.Henry，1862年9月11日—1910年6月5日），又译奥·亨利，原名威廉·西德尼·波特（William Sydney Porter），生于北卡罗莱纳州，美国短篇小说家、美国现代短篇小说创始人，其主要作品有《麦琪的礼物》《警察与赞美诗》《最后一片叶子》《二十年后》等。

02创作特点

欧·亨利的小说通俗易懂，其中无论发生了什么，发生在何处，也无论主人公是何等人物，他的故事写的都是世态人情，并且易有浓郁的美国风味。一般说来，驱使人们行动的欲望和动机是相当复杂的，但是欧·亨利人物的思想相对来说却都比较简单，动机也比较单一，矛盾冲突的中心似乎都是贫与富。这一方面大概因为美国是个平民社会，不存在天生高人一等的贵族阶级，既然金钱面前人人平等，贫富就成了社会的主要矛盾。另一方面，此时正值美国内战后的“镀金时代”，拜金主义盛行，坑蒙拐骗样样齐全，贪污泛滥成灾，似乎只要人能赚到钱便是成功，并不问问钱的来历是否清白合法，金钱的占有程度便成了人们关注的中心，欧·亨利笔下的芸芸众生就是生活在这样一个金钱主宰的世界中，他们的处境动机，他们的喜怒哀乐，大都与金钱的占有有关，所以欧·亨利描绘的世态人情，无论是善是恶，都有某种美国式的单纯。

原文&译文

《带家具的房间》Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side. Homeless, they have ahundred homes. They flit from furnished room to furnished room, transients forever — transients in abode, transients in heart and mind. They sing "Home,Sweet Home" in ragtime; they carry their ~lares et penates~ in a bandbox; their vine is entwined about a picture hat; a rubber plant is their fig tree.下西区有一片红砖楼，住在楼里的一大帮房客像时间一样永不停步，来去匆匆。他们处处无家，处处为家，从这间带家具的房间搬到那间带家具的房间，永远只是过客——不但住所无定，而且心绪、思想无定。他们把《家，幸福的家》这支歌唱得乱七八糟；他们的家神是搁在纸盒里提来提去的；他们没有葡萄藤，只是帽子上绕着装饰带，也没有无花果树，只有盆景。
Hence the houses of this district, having had a thousand dwellers, should have a thousand tales to tell, mostly dull ones, no doubt; but it would be strange ifthere could not be found a ghost or two in the wake of all these vagrant guests.所以这一带房子里住过的房客上千，有得说的事也该上千。当然，大多数索然无味。不过，如果说这帮匆匆过客连一两件奇闻也没有，那又不可思议。
One evening after dark a young man prowled among these crumbling red mansions, ringing their bells. At the twelfth he rested his lean hand-baggageupon the step and wiped the dust from his hatband and forehead. The bell sounded faint and far away in some remote, hollow depths.一天天黑以后，一位年轻人在这片破败的红砖房中转着，按着门铃。来到第十二栋后，他把寒酸的手提包放在台阶上，掸去帽带上的灰，又揩揩额头。铃声很轻，是在隔得远远的、空荡荡的纵深处响。
To the door of this, the twelfth house whose bell he had rung, came a housekeeper who made him think of an unwholesome, surfeitedworm that had eaten itsnut to a hollow shell and now sought to fill the vacancy with edible lodgers.这一家（就是他按了铃的第十二家）的女房东来开了门，他一见不由想起了一条害虫，蛀光了果仁，已经吃饱了撑着，可还巴望有什么可吃的进到空果壳里来。
He asked if there was a room to let.他问有没有空房间。
"Come in," said the housekeeper. Her voice came from her throat; her throat seemed lined with fur. "I have the third floor back, vacant since a week back.Should you wish to look at it?"“进来吧，”女房东说。她的声音是从喉管里发出的，而且喉管上似乎长了层苔，“三楼有一间，还刚空了一星期，你去看看吧。”
The young man followed her up the stairs. A faint light from no particular source mitigated the shadows of the halls. They trod noiselessly upon a staircarpet that its own loom would have forsworn. It seemed to have become vegetable; to have degenerated in that rank, sunless air to lush lichen or spreadingmoss that grew in patches to the staircase and was viscid under the foot like organic matter. At each turn of the stairs were vacant niches in the wall. Perhapsplants had once been set within them. If so they had died in that foul and tainted air. It may be that statues of the saints had stood there, but it was not difficultto conceive that imps and devils had dragged them forth in the darkness and down to the unholy depths of some furnished pit below.年轻人跟她上了楼。不知从什么地方发出的微光照着黑乎乎的过道。两人的脚踩在楼梯的地毯上没一点声音，恐怕原来织出这块地毯的织机也认不出这块地毯了。它已面目全非，在有股臭味、不见阳光的空气中腐烂，变成青苔地衣似的东西，在楼梯上一块块扎了根，踩上去还粘脚，像是踩着了什么黏性强的有机物。在楼梯每个拐弯处的墙上都有壁龛，只是空着。也许壁龛里原摆过什么花草，然而禁不住又脏又臭的空气熏。还有一种可能是摆过什么神像，但不难想象，大小魔鬼趁屋子里黑，把它们拖进了罪恶的深渊，让它们呆在堆放家具的地窖里了。
（张经浩 译）

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