中英-the black cat

我很早就结了婚，幸喜妻子 跟我意气相投，她

看到我偏爱饲养家禽，只要有机会物色到中意的

玩物总不放过。我们养了小鸟、金鱼、良种狗、

小兔子，一只小猴和一只猫。

This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal,

entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In

speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little

tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient

popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in

disguise.

Not that she was ever serious upon this point -- and I

mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it

happens, just now, to be remembered.

Pluto -- this was the cat's name -- was my favorite pet and

playmate. I alone

fed him, and he attended me wherever I went

about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent

him from following me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during

which my general temperament and character -- through the

instrumentality

of the Fiend Intemperance -- had (I blush to

confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the worse. I grew,

day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the

feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language

to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My

pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I

not only neglected, but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still

retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as

I made no scruple of

maltreat

ing the rabbits, the monkey, or even

the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my

way. But my disease grew upon me -- for what disease is like

Alcohol ! -- and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old,

and consequently somewhat peevish -- even Pluto began to

experience the effects of my ill temper.

One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of

my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my

presence.

I seized him

; when, in his fright at my violence, he

inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of

a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My

original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and

a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every

fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen- knife,

opened it, grasped the

poor beast

by the throat, and deliberately

cut one of its eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder,

while I pen the damnable atrocity.

这只猫个头特大，非常好看，浑身 乌黑，而

且伶俐绝顶。我妻子生来就好迷信，她一说

到这猫的灵 性，往往就要扯上古老传说，认

为凡是黑猫都是巫婆变化的。我倒不是说我

妻子对这点极为认真，我这里提到这事只是

顺便想到而已。

< br>

这猫名叫普路托，原是我心爱的东西和玩

伴。我亲自喂养它，我在屋里走到哪儿 ，它

跟到哪儿。连我上街去，它都要跟，想尽法

儿也赶它不掉。

我和猫的交情就这样维持了好几年 。在这

几年工夫中，说来不好意思，由于我喝酒上

了瘾，脾气习 性都彻底变坏了。我一天比一

天喜怒无常，动不动就使性子，不顾人家受

得了受不了。我竟任性恶言秽语的辱骂起妻

子来了。最后，还对她拳打脚踢。我 饲养的

那些小动物当然也感到我脾气的变坏。我不

仅不照顾它们 ，反而虐待它们。那些兔子，

那只小猴，甚至那只狗，出于亲热，或是碰

巧跑到我跟前来，我总是肆无忌惮的糟蹋它

们。只有对待普路托，我还有所怜惜 ，未忍

下手。不料我的病情日益严重——你想世上

哪有比酗酒更 厉害的病啊——这时普路托

老了，脾气也倔了，于是我索性把普路托也

< br>当做出气筒了。

有一天晚上

，

我在城里一个常去的酒吧喝得

酩酊大醉而归，我以为这猫躲着我，就一把

抓住它，它看见我凶相毕露吓坏了，不由在

我手上轻轻咬了一口，留下牙印。 我顿时象

恶魔附身，怒不可遏。我一时忘乎所以。原

来那个善良 的灵魂一下子飞出了我的躯壳，

酒性大发，变得赛过凶神恶煞，浑身不知哪

来的一股狠劲。我从背心口袋里掏出一把小

刀，打开刀子，攥住那可怜畜生的 喉咙，居

心不良地把它眼珠剜了出来！写到这幕该死

的暴行，我 不禁面红耳赤，不寒而栗。

When reason returned with the morning -- when I had slept

off the fumes of the night's debauch -- I experienced a sentiment

睡了一夜，宿醉方醒。到第二天早上起来，神

half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been

guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the

soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon

drowned in wine all memory of the deed.

In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the

lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no

longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the house as

usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my

approach. I had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first

grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had

once so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation.

And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the

spirit of PERVERSENESS

. Of this spirit philosophy takes no

account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that

perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart

-- one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which

give direction to the character of

Man.

Who has not, a hundred

times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no

other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not

a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to

violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be

such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final

overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex

itself -- to offer violence to its own nature -- to do wrong for the

wrong's sake only -- that urged me to continue and finally to

consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending

brute

. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its

neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -- hung it with the tears

streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my

heart; -- hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and

because I felt it had given me no reason of offence; -- hung it

because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin -- a

deadly sin that would so

jeopardize

my immortal soul as to place

it -- if such a thing were possible -- even beyond the reach of the

infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.

智恢复过来了，对自己犯县这个罪孽才悔惧莫

及。但这至多不过是一种淡薄而模糊的感觉而

已。我的灵魂还是毫无触动。我狂 饮滥喝起来，

一旦沉湎醉乡，自己所作所为早已统统忘光。

这时那猫伤势渐渐好转，眼珠剜掉的那只眼窠

果真十分可怕，看来它再也不感到痛了。它 照常

在屋里走动，只是一见我走近，就不出所料地吓

得拼命逃走 。我毕竟天良未泯，因此最初看见过

去如此热爱我的畜生竟这样嫌恶我，不免感到伤

心。但是这股伤心之感一下子就变为恼怒了。到

后来，那股邪念又上 升了，终于害得我一发不可

收拾。关于这种邪念，哲学上并没有重视。不过

我深信不疑，这种邪念是人心本能的一股冲动，

是一种微乎其微的原始功能， 或者说是情绪，人

类性格就由它来决定。谁没有在无意中多次干下

坏事或蠢事呢？而且这样干时无缘无故，心里明

知干不得而偏要干。哪怕我们明知这样 干犯法，

我们不是还会无视自己看到的后果，有股拼命想

去以身 试法的邪念吗？唉，就是这股邪念终于断

送了我的一生。正是出于内心这股深奥难测的渴

望，渴望自找烦恼，违背本性，为作恶而作恶，

我竟然对那只无 辜的畜生继续下起毒手来，最后

害它送了命。有一天早晨，我心狠手辣，用跟套

索勒住猫脖子，把它吊在树枝上，眼泪汪汪，心

里痛悔不已，就此把猫吊 死了。我出此下策，就

因为我知道这猫爱过我，就因为我觉得这猫没冒

< br>犯过我，就因为我知道这样干是在犯罪——犯下

该下地狱的大罪，罪大之极，足以 害得我那永生

的灵魂永世不得超生，如若有此可能，就连慈悲

为 怀，可敬可畏的上帝都无法赦免我的罪过。

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I

was aroused from sleep by the cry of

fire.

The curtains of my bed

were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great

difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself, made our escape

from the

conflagration

. The destruction was complete. My entire

worldly

wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned myself

thenceforward to despair.

I am above the weakness

of seeking to establish a sequence

of cause and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity. But I

am detailing a chain of facts -- and wish not to leave even a

possible link imperfect. On the day succeeding the fire, I visited

the ruins. The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This

exception was found in a compartment wall, not very thick, which

stood about the middle of the house, and against which had

rested the head of my bed. The plastering had here, in great

measure, resisted the action of the fire -- a fact which I attributed

to its having been recently spread. About this wall a dense crowd

were collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a

particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention. The

words

my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if graven in bas relief upon

the white surface,

the figure of a gigantic cat.

The impression was

given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about

the animal's neck.

When I first beheld this apparition -- for I could scarcely

regard it as less --

my wonder and my terror were extreme

. But at

length reflection came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had

been hung in a garden adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of

fire,

this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd -- by

some one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree

and thrown, through an open window, into my chamber. This had

probably been done with the view of arousing me from sleep. The

falling of other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty

into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which,

with the flames, and the

ammonia

from the carcass, had then

accomplished the portraiture as I saw it.

就在我干下这个伤天害理的勾当的 当天晚上，

我在睡梦中忽听得喊叫失火，马上惊醒。床上

的帐子 已经着了火。整栋屋子都烧着了。我们

夫妇和一个佣人好不容易才在这场火灾中逃出

性命。这场火灾烧得真彻底。我的一切财物统

统化为乌有，从此以后 ，我索性万念俱灰了。

我倒也不至于那么懦弱，会在自己所犯罪孽

的来龙去脉详细说一说，但愿 别把任何环节拉

下。失火的第二天，我去凭吊这堆废墟。墙壁

都 倒坍了，只有一道还没塌下来。一看原来是

一堵墙壁，厚倒不大吼，正巧在屋子中间，我

的床头就靠近这堵墙。墙上的灰泥大大挡住了

火势，我把这件事 看成是新近粉刷的缘故。墙

根前密密麻麻聚集了一堆人，看来有不少人非

常仔细和专心的在查看这堵墙，只听得大家连

声喊着“奇怪”，以及诸如此类的 话，我不由

感到好奇，就走近一看，但见白壁上赫然有个

浅浮雕 ，原来是只偌大的猫。这猫刻得惟妙惟

肖，一丝不差，猫脖子还有一根绞索。

我一看到这个怪物 ，简直以为自己活见鬼了，

不由惊恐万分。但是转念一想终于放了心。我

记得，这猫明明吊在宅边花园里。火警一起，

花园里就挤满了人，准是哪一个把 猫从树上放

下来，从开着的窗口扔进我的卧室。他这样做

可能是 打算唤醒我。另外几堵墙倒下来，正巧

把受我残害而送命的猫压在新刷的泥灰壁上，

壁间的石灰加上烈火和尸骸发出的氨气，三者

起了某种作用，墙上才 会出现我刚看到的浮雕

像。

Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if not

altogether to my conscience, for the startling fact just detailed, it

did not the less fail to make a deep impression upon my fancy.

For months I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat; and,

during this period, there came back into my spirit a

half- sentiment

that seemed, but was not, remorse.

I went so far as

to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the

vile haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of

the same species, and of somewhat similar appearance, with

which to supply its place.

One night as I sat, half stupified, in a den of more than infamy,

my attention was suddenly drawn to some black object, reposing

upon the head of one of the immense hogsheads of Gin, or of

Rum, which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment. I had

been looking steadily at the top of this hogshead for some

minutes, and what now caused me surprise was the fact that I had

not sooner perceived the object thereupon. I approached it, and

touched it with my hand.

It was a black cat -- a very large one --

fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect

but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body;

but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white,

covering nearly the whole region of the breast.

Upon my touching

him

, he immediately arose, purred loudly,

rubbed against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice.

This, then, was the very creature of which I was in search. I at once

offered to purchase it of the landlord; but this person made no

claim to it -- knew nothing of it --

had never seen it before.

I continued my caresses, and, when I prepared to go home,

the animal

evinced a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it

to do so; occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded.

When it reached the house it domesticated itself at once,

and

became immediately a great favorite with my wife.

对于刚刚细细道来的这一令人惊心动魄的事

实，即使良心上不能 自圆其说，于理说来倒也

稀松平常，但是在我心灵中，总留下一个深刻

< br>的印象。有好几个月我摆脱不了那猫幻象的纠

缠。这时节，我心里有滋生一股说是 悔恨又不

是悔恨的模糊情绪。我甚至后悔害死这猫，因

此就在经 常出入的下等场所中，到处物色一只

外貌多少相似的黑猫开做填补。

有一天晚上，我醉醺醺的坐在一个下等酒寮