-
No Signposts in the Sea
一、
In the dining-saloon I sit
at a table with three other men, Laura sits some
way off with a
married couple and their
daughter. I can observe her without her knowing
and this gives me pleasure,
for it is
as in a moving picture that
I can note
the grace of her
gestures,
①
whether she raises
a glass
of wine to her lips
or
②
turns with a
remark to one of her neighbors or takes a
cigarette from her
casewith those
slender fingers
（
loose
sentense
松散句）
.
I
have never had much of an eye for noticing
the clothes of women, but
I
get the impression Laura is always in grey and
white by day, looking
cool when other
people are flushed and shinyin the tropical heat;
in the evening,
she wears soft rich
colors
（
metonymy
借代
）
, dark red, olive
green, midnight blue, always of the most supple
flowing
texture. I ventured to say
something of the kind to her, when she laughed at
my clumsy compliment
and said. I had
better take to writing fashion articles instead of
political leaders.
PS
：
①
soft
：
ADJ Something that is soft is very gentle and has no force. For example, a soft sound or
voice is quiet and not harsh. A soft
light or colour is pleasant to look at
because
it is not bright.
(
声音、光线
或色彩
)
柔和的；
②
rich:Rich smells are strong
and very pleasant. Rich colours and sounds are
deep
and very pleasant.
浓郁的
(
气味
);
浓厚的
(
色彩
)
因
此
soft
和
rich
这里的修辞手法是：
oxymoron n.
（修词中的）矛盾修饰法
1.
【
have an eye fo
r
】有
..
鉴赏能力
< br>
2.
【
venture
to do
】：冒犯，自谦
You
have a eye for beauty/color
具有审美的眼光
Have an
only eye for
：觊觎
3.
【
clumsy
】：不恰当的
4.
【
take to
sb.
】
develop a liking
for
开始喜欢上
在餐厅里我同另外三个男人围坐在一张桌子旁，
而劳拉同一对夫妇及他们的女儿一块儿坐在离
我不远的地方。
我可以观察她而不让她发觉，
这使我觉得开心，
因为我
可以像看电影一样地欣
赏她优雅的动作，
不论是举杯送到唇边，
还是扭头与邻座交谈，
抑或是用她那纤细的手指从烟
盒中夹取香烟的动作。
我向来不太会欣赏也不大注意女人的衣着，
但我却有这样的印象：
劳拉
白天总穿着灰色和白
色的衣服，
因而当别人被热带的高温烘烤得红光满面时，
她看上
去却给人
一种清爽的感觉。到了晚间，她又总是穿着深红、橄榄绿、深蓝等色调柔和富丽
、质料柔软光
滑的衣服。
当我不揣冒昧地将这话对她讲时，
她对我这种不恰当的恭维报以开心的大笑，
还说
我最好不再写什么政坛人物的述评文章而改行专写时装评论算了。
二、
The tall
Colonel whose name is Dalrymple seems a nice chap
. He and I and Laura and a
Chinese
woman
improbablycalledMmeMerveille
have
made
up
a
Bridge-four
and
thusbeguile
ourselves for an
hour or so
after dinner while others
dance on deck. The Colonel,
who is
not
too
offensively an Empire-builder,
sometimes tries to talk to me about public
affairs; he says he used to
read
me
（
metonymy
借代
）
, and is rather charmingly deferential
, prefacing his remarks by 'Of course
it's
not
for
me
to
suggest
to
you…
and
then
proceeding
to
tell
me
exactly
how
he
thinks
some
topical
item
of
our
dome,
the
or
foreign
policy
should
be
handled.
He
is
by
no
means
stupid
or
ill-
informed; a little opinionated perhaps, and just
about as far to the Right as anybody could go, but
I
like him, and try not to tease him by
putting forward views which would only bring a
puzzled look to
his face. Besides, I do
not want to become involved in
discussion.
I observe with amusement
how
totally the concerns of the world,
which once absorbed me to the exclusion of all
else except an
occasional relaxation
with poetry or music, have lost interest for me
eve to the extent of a bored
distaste.
（难句）
Doubtless some instinct
impels me gluttonously to cram these the last
weeks of my
life with the gentler
things I never had time for, releasing some
suppressed inclination which in fact
was always latent. Or maybe Laura's
unwitting influence has called it out.
1.
【
improbably
】难以置信的
2.
【
Bridge
】大写：桥牌
3.
【
beguile
】消磨时间
v. ~ the time
4.
【
the
Right
】大写：右翼
5.
【
gluttonously
】贪婪的
6.
【
laten
t
】
adj.
潜在的；潜伏的；隐藏的
6.
【
called sth
out
】唤起
那个名叫达里波的高个子上校看样
子是个好相处的人。
他和我同劳拉及一个竟被人称呼为麦
尔维尔
夫人的中国妇女凑成一桌桥牌，
四人搭档。
这样，
晚饭后，
当其他的人在甲板上跳舞时，
我们便用打牌
来消遣个把小时。
上校是英国殖民地的军官，
还不太讨人厌，<
/p>
他经常找我谈论一
些国家大事，他说他曾读过我的书，说起话来带
有恭维的口吻，听起来相当顺耳。他一开口总
是先来上一句
“<
/p>
当然，
我没有资格建议您
……”
接下来他就会明确地谈他该如何处置关于某项国
内或外交事务的意见。<
/p>
这无疑是自己受某种本能的驱使，
要贪婪地用一些过去无暇享受的
赏心
乐事来填补自己生命中的最后几周，
释放那些在过去虽受到
压抑但一直潜伏在自己心中的欲望。
也许是劳拉的无意的影响唤起了我心中的欲望。
三、
Dismissive as Pharisee
（
allusion
典故）
, I regarded as moonlings all those whose life was lived
on a less practical
plane.
（难句）
Protests about
damage to 'natural beauty' froze me with contempt,
for I believed in progress and could
spare no regrets for a lake dammed into hydraulic
use for the
benefit of an industrial
city in the Midlands. And so it was for all
things.
A hard materialism was my
creed, accepted as a law of
progress;
any ascription of
disinterested motives aroused not only my
suspicion but my scorn.
1.
【
Ph
arisee
】
['f?risi:]
法利赛人
;
犹太人中的一
2.
【
Dismissive
】
< br>adj.
表示轻视的；
不屑一顾的；
部分，在《圣经》的《新约》中，他们是严守
犹太教律法的人；伪善者；
3.
【
mo
onlings
】月球居民
4.
【
hydraulic
】
< br>[ha
?
'dr
??l?
k]adj.
水力的；
5.
【
spare no
regrets
】如果
spare no efforts
表示
6.
【
asc
ription
】归因于
不费力；那么
spare no
regrets
表示不遗憾；
7.
【
disinterested
】公正无私的
8.
【
old
maid
】老处女
过去，我像法利赛人一样自以为是，轻视别人。只要别人的生活不像我这么讲求实际，我
就把他们看作月球居民。
对于人们因
“
大自然的美
”
遭到破坏而提出的抗议我嗤之以鼻，
因为我
相信文明的进步的合理性。
对于为了
利用水力使内地某个工业城市受益而在某个湖泊上筑起拦
湖大坝这种事情我根本不觉得遗
憾。
对一切事物我都是这种态度。
我信仰绝对的实用主义，
并
将其看作是人类进步的自然法则。
任何人
若标榜自己的行为出于无私的动机，
那不仅会引起我
的怀疑，而
且会引起我的轻蔑。
。
四、
And now see how I stand,
as sentimental and sensitive as any old maid doing
water-colour s
of
sunsets!
I
once
flattered
myself
that
I
was
an
adult
man;
I
now
perceive
that
I
am
gloriously
andadolescently silly(oxymoron
矛盾修辞法
)
.
A new Cl
ovis
（
allusion
典故）<
/p>
, loving what I have
despised,
and
suffering
from
calf-love
into
the
bargain,
I
want
my
fill
of
beauty
before
I
go
（
E
uphemism
委婉）
（难句）
.<
/p>
Geographically I did not care and
scarcely know where I am. There are
no
signposts in the sea.
1.
【
flatter myself
as
】自诩为
…
2.
【
adolescently
】幼稚的，孩子气的
3.
【
Clovis
】克洛维（法国国王）
4.
【
calf
love
】早恋
5.
【
into the barga
in
】
在契约
(
或合同
)
规定之外，
另外还，此外，加之，而且
可是看看
现在的我吧，竟然像一个老处女正用水彩画着西下的残阳，十分地多愁善感
!
我
曾自诩为老成持重，现在却意识到自己傻得的天真可爱。
就像那个改弦易辙的克洛维一样，
我竟然对自己过去
所鄙视的一切开始热爱起来，
并且还
要遭受少年初恋的痛苦。<
/p>
我想在离开人世之前尽情享受一切美好的东西。
我不知道也不想知
道
自己身处何方。茫茫大海无路标。
五、
The young moon
lies on her back tonight
（
per
sonification
拟人）
as is her
habit in the tropics,
and as, I think,
is suitable
if
not
（让步，虽然）
seemly
for a virgin.
Not a star but might not
shoot
down and accept the invitation to
become her lover.
（难句）
When
all my fellow-passengers have
finally
dispersed to bed, I creep up again to the deserted
deck and slip into the swimming pool and
float,
no
longer
what
people
believe
me
to
be,
a
middle-aged
journalist
taking
a
holiday
on
an
ocean-going liner, but a
liberated being, bathed in mythological water s, a
n
Endymion
（
allusio
n
）
young and strong, with a
god for his father and a vision of the world
inspired from Olympus. All
weight
is
lifted
from
my
limbs;
1
am
one
with
the
night;
I
understand
the
meaning
of
pantheism .How my friends would laugh
if they knew I had come to this! To have discarded
, as I
believe, all usual frailties ,
to have become incapable of envy, ambition, malice
, the desire to score
off my neighbour,
to enjoy this purification even as
I
enjoy the clean voluptuousness of the warm
breeze
（移就
transferred
epithet
）
on my
skin a
nd th
e cool support of
the water
（移就
transferred
epithet
）
.
Thus,
I
imagine,
must
the
pious
feel
cleansed
on
leaving
the
confessional
after
the
solemnity of absolution
.
（难句）
1.
【
on her
back
】仰卧
2.
【
seemly
】得体的；
3.
【
if
not
】如果不是这样的话；否则
4
.
【
tropics
】热带；
5.
【
disper
seto
】分散到
6.
【
creep
up
】登上
7.
【
ocean-
going
】
adj.
远洋航行的，远洋的
8.
【
liner
】
n.
班轮，班机；
9.
< br>【
Endymion
】
[en'
dimi
?
n]
n.
恩底弥翁（希
10.
【
Olympus
】
[<
/p>
?
u'limp
?
s] n.
天堂，天国；奥
腊神话中月之女神所爱的英俊牧
童）
林匹斯山（诸神的住所）
11.
【
a vision of
】具有
…
的慧眼
12.
【
pantheism
】
['p?nθi??
z(
?
)m]
泛神论
13.
【
frailty
】<
/p>
n.
虚弱；弱点；意志薄弱
14.
【
score
off
】驳倒；打败
15.
【
voluptuousness
】
[v
?
'l
?
pt
???
sn
?
s]n.
性感；
16.
【
be one
with
】与……融为一体
淫乐；感官享受
17.
【
absolution
】
n.
赦免；免罪
18.
【
confessional
】告解室、忏悔室<
/p>
今夜的一弯新月仰面斜躺在天空，<
/p>
这是月亮在热带地区常见的姿势。
在我看来，
这种姿势对一
个少女来说虽说有些不雅，
但却还是适宜的。
没有哪一颗星星不愿飞射下来接受邀请做她的情
人。
当船上的其他乘客最后一个个都回舱就寝之后，
我一个人又悄悄爬上空荡荡
的甲板，
滑人
游泳池，在水面上浮游着。
这时我已不再是人们所熟悉的那位在远洋海轮上度假的中年记者
了，
< br>而是一个摆脱了尘世喧嚣、
沐浴在神水忘川中的人，
一个
年轻力壮的天堂牧童恩底弥翁，
神的儿子，月亮女神塞勒涅的情人，在奥林帕皮斯天国启
示下，极目纵观寰宇。
我只觉身体
四肢轻飘飘的没有任何重量，
并且和夜的世界合为一体。
我悟出了泛神论的真正意义。
倘若我
的朋友知道我已成了这个样子，
还不知
要怎样取笑我呢！
在享受着这暖风浴肤，
凉水托体所带
来的清新快感时，
我相信我的心灵也得到了净化，
丢弃了凡人皆有的种种弱点，
变得不会嫉妒，
没有野心，没有
恶意，与世无争。照我想象，那些虔诚的教徒在做完庄严的忏悔仪式离开忏悔
室时，他们
心灵得到净化的感觉一定就像我此时的感觉一样。
六、
Sometimes
Laura and I lean over thetaffrail, and that is
happiness. It may be by daylight,
looking at the sea, rippled with little
white ponies
（
meta
phor
暗喻）
,
or with
no ripples at all but only
the lazy
satin of blue, marbled at the edge where the
passage of our ship has disturbed it may be
at night, when the sky surely seems
blacker than ever at home and the stars more
golden. I recall a
phrase
from
the
diary
of
a
half-
literate
soldier,
‘
The
stars
seemed
little
cuts
in
the
black
cover,
through which a bright beyond was
seen.' Sometimes these untaught scribblers have a
way of putting
things.
七、
The wireless told us today
that there is fog all over England.
1.<
/p>
【
taffrail
】
< br>['t?fre
?
l]n.
船尾栏杆；船尾上部
2.
【
satin
】
['s?
t
?
n]
n.
缎子；缎子衣服
3.
【
The
wireless
】无线电广播
4
。
有时，
劳拉和我一起倚在船尾栏杆上，这对我是一种幸福。倘是在白天，我们凭栏远眺大
海，<
/p>
只见海面上时而翻卷起白色的浪花，
时而平静得宛若一幅微微飘动
起伏着的蓝色缎面，
完
全见不到翻起的浪花，
< br>只有我们的轮船驶过之处才泛起一道道如大理石般的波纹。
若是在夜晚，
我们翘首望天，
这儿的夜空比故乡的更黑，
星光
却显得更加璀璨。
此时此景令我不由想起一个
粗通文墨的士兵在
日记中写的这样一句话：
“
星星看起来就像一个黑锅盖上挖的许
多小窟窿，
透过这些小窟窿可以看见锅盖外面的亮光。
”
有时候那些没念过书的人信笔涂鸦写的东西倒也
有那么两下子。据无线
电广播，今天全英格兰弥漫着大雾。
八、
Sometimes we follow a
coastline,
①
it may
be
precipitous
bluffs of grey
limestone rising
sheer out of the
sea,
②
or a low-
lying arid stretch with miles of white sandy
beach, and no sign of
habitation, very
bleached and barren
（
< br>alliteration
头韵）
. These
coasts remind me of people;
①
either they are forbidding
and unapproachable ,
②
or else they present no mystery and
show all they
have to give at a glance,
you feel the country would continue to be flat and
featureless however far
you penetrated
inland. What I like best are the stern cliffs,
with ranges of mountains soaring behind
them,
full
of
possibilities,
peaks
to
be
scaled
only
by
the
most
daring.
What
plants
of
the
high
altitudes grow
unravished
among their
crags
and valleys? So do I
let my imagination play over
the
recesses of
Laura's
Character, so austere in the foreground but
nurturing what treasures of tenderness,
like delicate flowers, for the
discovery of the venturesome.
PS
：①
The
author
compares
the
sheer
steep
cliffs
to
forbidding
and
unapproachablepeople
and
②
the
barren open sandy beach to people who
have nothing to reveal.
这种手法叫做
analogy
类比
1.
【
precipitous
< br>】
[pr
?
's
?
p
?
t
?
s]
2.
【
< br>bluffs
】峭壁
;
陡岸
adj.
险峻的；急躁的，鲁莽的
3.
【
scale
】
V-
T If you scale something such as a
4.
【
crag
】
n.
峭壁；岩石碎块；颈
mountain or a wall, you climb up it or
over it.
攀
登
5.
【
the recesses o
f
】
(
思想、灵魂的
< br>)
深处
6.
【在…上掠过；
对…发挥作用】
在…上掠过；
对…发挥作用
7.
【
austere
】
adj.
严峻的；简朴的；苦行的；
无装饰的
有时，
我们的轮船沿着海岸线航行。
时
而是突拔而起的石灰岩峭壁，
时而是地势低洼连
绵数英里的茫茫
沙滩，渺无人迹，凄惨荒凉。这种海岸景象使我联想到这样一些人，他们或者
是令人望而
生畏，难以接近，或者是无秘可隐，让人一眼就可看穿。看见这些海岸，你会产生
这样的
感觉：不论你向内陆腹地深人多远，那里的土地都将和岸边一样平淡无奇。
我最喜爱的是岸边的那些悬崖峭壁及其背后的那高耸云端、
神秘莫测的峰峦
叠嶂，
那山峰
只有最英勇无畏的人才能够攀登上去。
在崇山峻岭之间人迹未至的石隙和幽谷中生长着的是一
些什么样的高原植物
呢
?
我也这样地让自己的想象力尽情地探索劳拉性格深处的秘密
。她的性
情表面上严肃冷峻，
但她内心里却蕴育着丰富温柔的情
感，
宛如娇嫩的花朵，
等待着勇士去发
现。
九、
My fellow-passengers
apparently do not share my admiration.
十、
‘
Drearee sorter
cowst,' said an Australian.
‘
Makes you long for a bit of
green. '
十一、
Darkness
falls,
and
there
is
nothing
but
the
intermittent
g1eam
of
a
1ighthouse
on
a
solitary promontory .
十二、
We
rounded
just
such
a
cape
towards
sunset,
the
most
easterly
point
of
a
continent,
dramatically high and lonely, a great
purple mountain overhung by a great purple cloud.
The sea had
turned to a
corresponding
dusk of
lavender .
Aloof
on the top,
the yellow 1ight revolved, steady,
warning; I wondered what mortal
controlled it, in what must be one of the
loneliest, most forbidding
spots on
Earth. Haunted too, for many wrecks had piled up
on the reefs in the past, when there was
no beacon to guide them.
1.<
/p>
【
intermittent
】
adj.
间歇的；断断续续
2.
【
solitary
】
ad
j.
孤独的；独居的
的；
3.
【
promontory
】
n.
岬，海角；隆起，隆
4.
【
corresponding
】
adj.
相当的，相应的；
突
5.
【<
/p>
Aloof
】
adj.
冷淡的；远离的；冷漠的
6.
【
forbidding
】
< br>adj.
令人生畏的；严峻的
同船的其他乘客们显然不能以我这样的眼光去欣赏海岸上的景
色。
“这海岸景象真是荒凉，
”
一位澳
大利亚人说。
“它让人渴望见到一点绿色。
”
< br>
夜幕降临，四野茫茫，唯见一处荒凉的岬角的一座灯塔上的航标灯忽明忽暗地闪
烁着。
日落时分，
我们的轮船正好绕
过这样一个海角，
它位于一块大陆的最东端，
是一座孤峰高
耸的紫色大山，山顶上笼罩着大片紫色的云雾。海水也相应地变成了淡紫色。山顶上，黄色的