雙語小說連載:《董貝父子》第14章 Part 13

In those days immediately before the holidays, in short, when the other young gentlemen were labouring for dear life through a general resumption of the studies of the whole half—year, Paul was such a privileged pupil as had never been seen in that house before. He could hardly believe it himself; but his liberty lasted from hour to hour, and from day to day; and little Dombey was caressed by everyone. Doctor Blimber was so particular about him, that he requested Johnson to retire from the dinner—table one day, for having thoughtlessly spoken to him as 'poor little Dombey;' which Paul thought rather hard and severe, though he had flushed at the moment, and wondered why Johnson should pity him. It was the more questionable justice, Paul thought, in the Doctor, from his having certainly overheard that great authority give his assent on the previous evening, to the proposition(stated by Mrs Blimber) that poor dear little Dombey was more old—fashioned than ever. And now it was that Paul began to think it must surely be old—fashioned to be very thin, and light, and easily tired, and soon disposed to lie down anywhere and rest; for he couldn't help feeling that these were more and more his habits every day.

總之，在那些最接近假期的日子裏，當其他年輕的先生們正拼命地複習整整半年來的功課的時候，保羅是在那座房屋中前所未有的享受特權的學生；他本人也難以相信這一點；可是他的自由一個小時又一個小時、一天又一天地持續着；小董貝被每一個人愛撫着。布林伯博士對他特別照顧，有一天約翰遜缺乏考慮地向保羅說了一聲“可憐的小董貝”，博士就請他離開餐桌；保羅雖然當時曾經臉紅了一陣，奇怪約翰遜爲什麼會憐憫他，但覺得處分有些嚴厲與苛刻。前一天晚上他清清楚楚地偷聽到這位偉大的權威人物曾同意布林伯夫人提出這種看法：可憐的、親愛的小董貝比過去更老氣了，所以他認爲博士對約翰遜的處理是否公正就更有問題了。現在保羅開始想，如果很消瘦，虛弱，容易疲倦，很快就想在任何地方躺下休息，那一定是老氣無疑了；因爲他不由自主地感到，這些愈來愈成爲他每天的習慣了。

At last the party—day arrived; and Doctor Blimber said at breakfast, 'Gentlemen, we will resume our studies on the twenty—fifth of next month.' Mr Toots immediately threw off his allegiance, and put on his ring: and mentioning the Doctor in casual conversation shortly afterwards, spoke of him as 'Blimber'! This act of freedom inspired the older pupils with admiration and envy; but the younger spirits were appalled, and seemed to marvel that no beam fell down and crushed him.

舉行晚會的日子終於來臨了；布林伯博士在早餐時說道，“先生們，我們將在下個月的二十五日重新開始學習。”圖茨先生立刻扔掉了恭敬順從的枷鎖，戴上了戒指，在不久以後隨隨便便的談話中提到博士的時候，竟居然把他叫做“布林伯”！這種自由放任的行動在年齡較大的學生中間引起了欽佩與羨慕，但卻把年齡較小的學生嚇得毛骨悚然，他們似乎感到奇怪，梁木居然沒有掉下來把他壓得粉身碎骨。

Not the least allusion was made to the ceremonies of the evening, either at breakfast or at dinner; but there was a bustle in the house all day, and in the course of his perambulations, Paul made acquaintance with various strange benches and candlesticks, and met a harp in a green greatcoat standing on the landing outside the drawing—room door. There was something queer, too, about Mrs Blimber's head at dinner—time, as if she had screwed her hair up too tight; and though Miss Blimber showed a graceful bunch of plaited hair on each temple, she seemed to have her own little curls in paper underneath, and in a play—bill too; for Paul read 'Theatre Royal' over one of her sparkling spectacles, and 'Brighton' over the other.

在早餐或午餐時，絲毫也沒有提到晚間的儀式；但屋子裏整天都在忙亂着，保羅在漫步的過程中，看到了各種奇怪的長凳和燭臺，還看到豎立在客廳門外梯臺上的罩着綠色大外套的豎琴。午餐時布林伯夫人的頭也有些變得奇怪，彷彿她把頭髮卷得太緊了；布林伯小姐雖然每個鬢角各有一根雅緻的辮子，可是她自己的短短的捲髮似乎下面也用紙卷扎，而且還用劇場節目單卷扎；因爲保羅在她的閃閃發亮的眼鏡一邊的上方看到“皇家劇院”幾個字，在另一邊的上方看到“布賴頓”幾個字。

There was a grand array of white waistcoats and cravats in the young gentlemen's bedrooms as evening approached; and such a smell of singed hair, that Doctor Blimber sent up the footman with his compliments, and wished to know if the house was on fire. But it was only the hairdresser curling the young gentlemen, and over—heating his tongs in the ardour of business.

在臨近晚上的時候，在年輕的先生們的臥室裏，展現出一片白色的背心與領帶，十分富麗，同時散發出頭髮末梢被燙了的氣味；由於氣味十分強烈，因此布林伯博士派男僕上樓來，一邊向大家問候，一邊想了解一下房屋是不是着火了。但實際上只是理髮員在給年輕的先生們做捲髮，他在熱情工作中把火鉗子燒得太熱了。

When Paul was dressed — which was very soon done, for he felt unwell and drowsy, and was not able to stand about it very long — he went down into the drawing—room; where he found Doctor Blimber pacing up and down the room full dressed, but with a dignified and unconcerned demeanour, as if he thought it barely possible that one or two people might drop in by and by. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Blimber appeared, looking lovely, Paul thought; and attired in such a number of skirts that it was quite an excursion to walk round her. Miss Blimber came down soon after her Mama; a little squeezed in appearance, but very charming.

保羅穿好衣服——這件事做得很快，因爲他覺得不舒服，昏昏欲睡，而且不能很久站着——以後，走到樓下客廳裏；他在那裏看到布林伯博士穿着禮服，正在房間裏踱着步子，但是他的神態威嚴，漫不經心，彷彿他認爲不久會有一兩個人進來看看，這是完全可能的。不一會兒，布林伯夫人進來了，保羅覺得她看上去美麗可愛；她穿了那麼多的裙子，因此在她周圍走一圈，就有些像是進行一次小小的旅行似的。布林伯小姐在她媽媽之後不久就下來了，她看去衣服穿得有點過於緊窄，但很嬌媚。

Mr Toots and Mr Feeder were the next arrivals. Each of these gentlemen brought his hat in his hand, as if he lived somewhere else; and when they were announced by the butler, Doctor Blimber said, 'Ay, ay, ay! God bless my soul!' and seemed extremely glad to see them. Mr Toots was one blaze of jewellery and buttons; and he felt the circumstance so strongly, that when he had shaken hands with the Doctor, and had bowed to Mrs Blimber and Miss Blimber, he took Paul aside, and said, 'What do you think of this, Dombey?'

接着來到的是圖茨先生和菲德先生。這兩位先生每人手裏都拿着禮帽，彷彿他們是住在其他地方似的；當男管家通報他們來到的時候，布林伯博士說道，“是啊，是啊，是啊！上帝保佑我的靈魂！”並似乎非常高興見到他們。圖茨先生閃耀着珠寶飾物和鈕釦，而且他把這個情況看得很重要；當他跟布林伯博士握過手，並向布林伯夫人和布林伯小姐鞠過躬之後，他把保羅拉到一旁，問道，“您對這有什麼想法，董貝？”

註釋：propositionn. [數] 命題；提議；主題；議題
vt. 向…提議；向…求歡
詞組：
value proposition 價值主張；價值定位；價值命題
make someone a proposition ◎[口語]向某人提出一項辦法(或提議)
unique selling proposition 獨特的銷售主張
例句：
(1) Do you favor her proposition ?
你贊成她的主張嗎？
(2) Not a bad proposition if you ask me.
如果你問我，這是個不錯的提議。
(3) A basic proposition of economics is that talk is cheap.
經濟學的一個基本命題是，言語是廉價的。
(4) There are three problems with this proposition.
關於這個提議，有三個問題需要考慮。
(5) That idea has some merit, but is still a risky proposition.
這種想法部分正確，但仍是一個危險的主張。
(6) It is also a risky proposition.
這同樣是一個冒險的提議。
(7) Career change can sometimes be an expensive proposition.
有時轉行可能是一個昂貴的議題。
(8) But the proposition elicited an immediate if predictable response from another quarter.
然而這一命題立刻引起了別人預料之中的反應。
(9) It is not an attractive proposition.
這可不是什麼有吸引力的主張。
(10) Their proposition clearly is simplicity and good value and very good design.
很明顯，他們的主張那就是簡單、花得值，並且設計美觀。

approachn. 方法；途徑；接近
vt. 接近；着手處理
vi. 靠近
[ 第三人稱單數approaches 過去式approached 過去分詞approached 現在分詞approaching ]
詞組：
new approach 新方案；新做法
an approach to 學習...的入門；學習...的途徑
basic approach 基本方法
approach with 以…方式處理；向…提出建議
design approach 設計方法；設計方式
例句：
(1) So, which approach should you use?
那麼，應該使用哪種方法呢？
(2) This seems, therefore, to be an approach worth exploring.
因此，這似乎是一個值得探索的方法。
(3) How to maintain consistency of approach and delivery?
如何保持方法和交付的一致性？
(4) While I still like this approach, it also has flaws.
儘管我仍然很喜歡這個方法，但它還是有缺陷的。
(5) This approach represents the next level of rigor in modeling.
此方法表現出建模中的下一個精確級別。
(6) I know that not everyone will be able or willing to use this approach.
我知道不是所有的人都能或者都願意去使用這個方法。
(7) All this is very nice, but there are some problems with this approach.
雖然所有的內容都非常簡單，但是這種方法存在一些問題。
(8) In the US, we like to take the "all or nothing" approach to weight loss.
在美國我們喜歡採用“全部都要或什麼都不要”的方法去減肥。
(9) However, we find that there are some issues with such as approach.
不過，我們發現使用這樣的方法存在一些問題。
(10) But for this approach to work, there should be a message correlation mechanism.
但是要使此方法正常工作，應該存在消息相關性機制。