-
THE
ever been so fatal, or so
hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the
redness and the horror of blood. There
were sharp pains, and sudden
dizziness,
and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with
dissolution. The
scarlet stains upon
the body and especially upon the face of the
victim,
were the pest ban which shut
him out from the aid and from the
sympathy of his fellow-men. And the
whole seizure, progress and
termination
of the disease, were the incidents of half an
hour.
红死病
< br>蹂躏这个国度已有多时。
从不曾有过如此致命或如此可怕的瘟疫。
鲜血
是其象征，是其标志
--
血之殷红与血之恐怖。有剧烈的疼痛，有突发的头晕，接
着便是毛孔大量出血而来的死亡
。
患者身上，
而尤其是脸上一旦出出现红斑，
< br>那
便是隔离其亲友之救护和同情的禁令。
这种瘟疫从感染
，
发病到死亡的整个过程，
前后也就半个小时。
But the Prince Prospero was happy
and dauntless and sagacious. When
his
dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to
his presence a
thousand hale and light-
hearted friends from among the knights and
dames of his court, and with these
retired to the deep seclusion of one of
his castellated abbeys. This was an
extensive and magnificent structure,
the creation of the prince's own
eccentric yet august taste. A strong and
lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had
gates of iron. The courtiers, having
entered, brought furnaces and massy
hammers and welded the bolts.
They
resolved to leave means neither of ingress or
egress to the sudden
impulses of
despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was
amply
provisioned. With such
precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to
contagion. The external world could
take care of itself. In the meantime it
was folly to grieve, or to think. The
prince had provided all the appliances
of pleasure. There were buffoons, there
were improvisatori, there were
ballet-
dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty,
there was wine.
All these and security
were within. Without was the
但普洛斯佩罗亲王快活
，
无畏而精明。
眼见其疆域内的人口锐减一半，
他便从宫
中召集了一千名健壮而乐观的骑士淑女，
并带
着他们退隐到一座非常偏远的城堡
式宅院。
那是一座宽敞而宏伟
的建筑，
是亲王那与众不同但令人敬畏的情趣之创
造。
宅院四周环绕着一道坚固的高墙。
大门全用钢铁铸就。
< br>亲王的追随者们带来
了熔炉和巨锤，进宅院之后便熔死了所有门闩。他们决心破釜
沉舟，不留退路，
以防因绝望或疯狂而产生的想出去的冲动。
宅
院内的各种必需品非常充裕。
有了
这样的防御措施，
那些绅士淑女们便可以藐视瘟疫的蔓延。
墙外的世界能够自己
照料自己。
在这种时候去忧心忡忡是庸人自扰。
亲王
早就做好了寻欢作乐的一切
安排。宅内有插科打诨的小丑，有即席吟诵的诗人，有表演芭
蕾的舞女，有演奏
音乐的乐师，
而且还有美女和酒浆。
所有的欢乐和平安都在墙内。
墙外则是红死
病的
天下。
It was toward the close
of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and
while the pestilence raged most
furiously abroad, that the Prince
Prospero entertained his thousand
friends at a masked ball of the most
unusual magnificence.
就在这种隔离
生活的第五个月或第六个月将近之时，
也就是墙外的瘟疫最猖獗的
时候，普洛斯佩罗亲王为他的一千名追随者举行了一场异常豪华的假面舞会。
It was a voluptuous scene, that
masquerade. But first let me tell of the
rooms in which it was held. There were
seven -- an imperial suite. In
many
palaces, however, such suites form a long and
straight vista, while
the folding doors
slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so
that
the view of the whole extent is
scarcely impeded. Here the case was very
different; as might have been expected
from the duke's love of the
bizarre.
The apartments were so irregularly disposed that
the vision
embraced but little more
than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at
every twenty or thirty yards, and at
each turn a novel effect. To the right
and left, in the middle of each wall, a
tall and narrow Gothic window
looked
out upon a closed corridor which pursued the
windings of the
suite. These windows
were of stained glass whose color varied in
accordance with the prevailing hue of
the decorations of the chamber
into
which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was
hung, for
example, in blue -- and
vividly blue were its windows. The second
chamber was purple in its ornaments and
tapestries, and here the panes
were
purple. The third was green throughout, and so
were the casements.
The fourth was
furnished and lighted with orange -- the fifth
with white
-- the sixth with violet.
The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in
black velvet tapestries that hung all
over the ceiling and down the walls,
falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of
the same material and hue. But in
this
chamber only, the color of the windows failed to
correspond with
the decorations. The
panes here were scarlet -- a deep blood color. Now
in no one of the seven apartments was
there any lamp or candelabrum,
amid the
profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered
to and fro or
depended from the roof.
There was no light of any kind emanating from
lamp or candle within the suite of
chambers. But in the corridors that
followed the suite, there stood,
opposite to each window, a heavy tripod,
bearing a brazier of fire that
protected its rays through the tinted glass
and so glaringly illumined the room.
And thus were produced a
multitude of
gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the
western or
black chamber the effect of
the fire-light that streamed upon the dark
hangings through the blood-tinted
panes, was ghastly in the extreme,
and
produced so wild a look upon the countenances of
those who
entered, that there were few
of the company bold enough to set foot
within its precincts at all.
那假面舞会的场面真可谓骄奢淫逸。
不过先容我讲讲举行舞会的场所。
那一共是
七个房间
--
一组富
丽堂皇的套房。
但在一半宫殿里这样的套房只须把各间的双扇
门
推开到墙边便能形成一条笔直的长廊，
整个套房也就几乎一览无遗。
可这组套
房的情况却迥然不同，
正如从亲王追奇逐异的嗜好
中就可以料到一样。
这七个房
间的布局极不规则，
所以一眼只能看到一个房间。
套房中每隔二三十米便是一个
< br>转角，
每拐过一个转角都有一种新的效果。
每个房间左右
两边墙上的正中都有一
扇又高又窄的窗户，
窗户面对一条封闭的
回廊，
回廊绕这组套房蜿蜒迂回。
这些
窗户都镶有染色玻璃，
其色彩随各房间装饰物的主色调之不同而变化。
< br>譬如说最
东边的那个房间悬挂的饰物均为蓝色，
那它的窗
户则晶蓝如碧。
第二个房间的饰
物壁毯皆为紫色，
其窗格玻璃就紫如青莲。
第三个房间整一片绿色，
它
有的便是
两扇绿窗。
第四个房间的家具装饰和映入的光线都是橘
色。
第五个是白色。
第六
个是紫罗兰色
。第七个房间四壁从天花板到墙根都被黑丝绒帷幔遮得严严实实，
帷幔的褶边沉甸甸地垂
在同样是黑丝绒的地毯上。
但只有这个房间窗户的颜色与
饰物的
色调不配。
它窗玻璃的颜色是殷殷猩红
--
红得好像浓浓的鲜血。
在散布于
或悬垂于这七个房间的大量
贵重装饰品中，
却没有一盏灯或一个烛台。
这组套房
中没有任何日光，
灯光或者烛光。
但在环绕这组套
房的回廊里，
每一扇窗户跟前
都立着一个三角支架，
从而产生出绚丽斑斓，
光怪陆离的效果。
但是在西
间或黑
色房间里，
火光透过红色玻璃照射在黑色帷幔上的效果却
可怕到了极点，
凡进入
该房间的人无不吓得魂飞魄散，以致宅院
中几乎无人有足够的胆量进入那个房
间。
It was in this apartment, also, that
there stood against the western wall, a
gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum
swung to and fro with a dull, heavy,
monotonous clang; and when the minute-
hand made the circuit of the
face, and
the hour was to be stricken, there came from the
brazen lungs
of the clock a sound which
was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly
musical, but of so peculiar a note and
emphasis that, at each lapse of an
hour, the musicians of the orchestra
were constrained to pause,
momentarily,
in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and
thus the
waltzers perforce ceased their
evolutions; and there was a brief
disconcert of the whole gay company;
and, while the chimes of the clock
yet
rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale,
and the more aged
and sedate passed
their hands over their brows as if in confused
reverie
or meditation. But when the
echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at
once pervaded the assembly; the
musicians looked at each other and
smiled as if at their own nervousness
and folly, and made whispering
vows,
each to the other, that the next chiming of the
clock should
produce in them no similar
emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty
minutes, (which embrace three thousand
and six hundred seconds of the
Time
that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the
clock, and then
were the same
disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as
before.
同样也是在那个房间里，
靠西墙立着一座巨大
的黑色时钟。
其钟摆伴随着一种沉
闷，
凝重而单调的声音左右摆动。
每当分针在钟面上走慢一圈，
报点
的时刻到来
之时，从巨钟的黄铜壁腔内便发出一种清脆，响亮，悠扬，悦耳但其音质音调
又
非常古怪的声音。
记过每隔一小时，
乐队的乐师们就不得不暂时中止他们的演奏，
侧耳去听那个声音；
于是跳华尔兹的男男女女停止其旋转，狂欢的人群一下子
仓
皇失措；
当钟点声继续鸣响之际，可见轻浮浅薄者一个个脸色
发白，年长者
和稳重者则以手覆额，
彷佛是在出神或者沉思。<
/p>
但待钟声余音寂止，
人群中有顿
时充满轻
松的笑声；
乐师们你看我，我看你，相视而笑，像是在自嘲方
才的紧
张和傻气，他们还彼此低声诅咒发誓，下次钟响时绝不会再这样忘情失态；
可
在六十分钟之后（那包含了似箭光阴的三
千六百秒）
，黑色巨钟又一次鸣响，
于是又出现和前次一样的仓皇失措，神经紧张和沉思冥想。
But, in spite of these things, it was a
gay and magnificent revel. The
tastes
of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for
colors and effects.
He disregarded the
decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and
fiery,
and his conceptions glowed with
barbaric lustre. There are some who
would have thought him mad. His
followers felt that he was not. It was
necessary to hear and see and touch him
to be sure that he was not.
但尽管如此，
整个化妆舞会仍不失为一次靡丽放荡的狂欢。
亲王的情趣别有风味。
他对色彩和效果独具慧眼。
他的构思大胆热烈，
而他的思想却闪耀着野蛮的光辉。
大概会有人认为他疯狂。
他
的追随者却觉得并非如此。
要确信亲王的确没疯，
那
必须听他说话，与他见面，同他接触。
He
had directed, in great part, the moveable
embellishments of the
seven chambers,
upon occasion of this great fete; and it was his
own
guiding taste which had given
character to the masqueraders. Be sure
they were grotesque. There were much
glare and glitter and piquancy
and
phantasm -- much of what has been since seen in
were arabesque figures with unsuited
limbs and appointments. There
were
delirious fancies such as the madman fashions.
There was much of
the beautiful, much
of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of
the
terrible, and not a little of that
which might have excited disgust. To and
fro in the seven chambers there
stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams.
And these -- the dreams -- writhed in
and about, taking hue from the
rooms,
and causing the wild music of the orchestra to
seem as the echo
of their steps. And,
anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands
in
the hall of the velvet. And then,
for a moment, all is still, and all is silent
save the voice of the clock. The dreams
are stiff-frozen as they stand. But
the
echoes of the chime die away -- they have endured
but an instant --
and a light, half-
subdued laughter floats after them as they depart.
And
now again the music swells, and the
dreams live, and writhe to and fro
more
merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted
windows
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
上一篇：公司管理制度(中英文版)
下一篇：外贸单证常用英语词汇200句