英语听力 学英语,练听力,上听力课堂! 注册 登录
> 在线听力 > 有声读物 > 世界名著 > 译林版·马丁·伊登 >  第10篇

双语《马丁·伊登》 第十章

所属教程:译林版·马丁·伊登

浏览:

2022年06月22日

手机版
扫描二维码方便学习和分享

CHAPTER X

He stopped to dinner that evening, and, much to Ruth’s satisfaction, made a favorable impression on her father. They talked about the sea as a career, a subject which Martin had at his finger-ends, and Mr. Morse remarked afterward that he seemed a very clear-headed young man. In his avoidance of slang and his search after right words, Martin was compelled to talk slowly, which enabled him to find the best thoughts that were in him. He was more at ease than that first night at dinner, nearly a year before, and his shyness and modesty even commended him to Mrs. Morse, who was pleased at his manifest improvement.

“He is the first man that ever drew passing notice from Ruth,” she told her husband. “She has been so singularly backward where men are concerned that I have been worried greatly.”

Mr. Morse looked at his wife curiously.

“You mean to use this young sailor to wake her up?” he questioned.

“I mean that she is not to die an old maid if I can help it,” was the answer. “If this young Eden can arouse her interest in mankind in general, it will be a good thing.”

“A very good thing,” he commented. “But suppose,—and we must suppose, sometimes, my dear,—suppose he arouses her interest too particularly in him?”

“Impossible,” Mrs. Morse laughed. “She is three years older than he, and, besides, it is impossible. Nothing will ever come of it. Trust that to me.”

And so Martin’s role was arranged for him, while he, led on by Arthur and Norman, was meditating an extravagance. They were going out for a ride into the hills Sunday morning on their wheels, which did not interest Martin until he learned that Ruth, too, rode a wheel and was going along. He did not ride, nor own a wheel, but if Ruth rode, it was up to him to begin, was his decision; and when he said good night, he stopped in at a bicycle shop on his way home and spent forty dollars for a wheel. It was more than a month’s hard-earned wages, and it reduced his stock of money amazingly; but when he added the hundred dollars he was to receive from the Examiner to the four hundred and twenty dollars that was the least The Youth’s Companion could pay him, he felt that he had reduced the perplexity the unwonted amount of money had caused him. Nor did he mind, in the course of learning to ride the wheel home, the fact that he ruined his suit of clothes. He caught the tailor by telephone that night from Mr. Higginbotham’s store and ordered another suit. Then he carried the wheel up the narrow stairway that clung like a fire-escape to the rear wall of the building, and when he had moved his bed out from the wall, found there was just space enough in the small room for himself and the wheel.

Sunday he had intended to devote to studying for the high school examination, but the pearl-diving article lured him away, and he spent the day in the white-hot fever of recreating the beauty and romance that burned in him.The fact that the Examiner of that morning had failed to publish his treasure-hunting article did not dash his spirits. He was at too great a height for that, and having been deaf to a twice-repeated summons, he went without the heavy Sunday dinner with which Mr. Higginbotham invariably graced his table. To Mr. Higginbotham such a dinner was advertisement of his worldly achievement and prosperity, and he honored it by delivering platitudinous sermonettes upon American institutions and the opportunity said institutions gave to any hard-working man to rise—the rise, in his case, which he pointed out unfailingly, being from a grocer’s clerk to the ownership of Higginbotham’s Cash Store.

Martin Eden looked with a sigh at his unfinished “Pearl-diving” on Monday morning, and took the car down to Oakland to the high school. And when, days later, he applied for the results of his examinations, he learned that he had failed in everything save grammar.

“Your grammar is excellent,” Professor Hilton informed him, staring at him through heavy spectacles; “but you know nothing, positively nothing, in the other branches, and your United States history is abominable—there is no other word for it, abominable. I should advise you—”

Professor Hilton paused and glared at him, unsympathetic and unimaginative as one of his own test-tubes. He was professor of physics in the high school, possessor of a large family, a meagre salary, and a select fund of parrot-learned knowledge.

“Yes, sir,” Martin said humbly, wishing somehow that the man at the desk in the library was in Professor Hilton’s place just then.

“And I should advise you to go back to the grammar school for at least two years. Good day.”

Martin was not deeply affected by his failure, though he was surprised at Ruth’s shocked expression when he told her Professor Hilton’s advice. Her disappointment was so evident that he was sorry he had failed, but chiefly so for her sake.

“You see I was right,” she said. “You know far more than any of the students entering high school, and yet you can’t pass the examinations. It is because what education you have is fragmentary, sketchy. You need the discipline of study, such as only skilled teachers can give you. You must be thoroughly grounded. Professor Hilton is right, and if I were you, I’d go to night school. A year and a half of it might enable you to catch up that additional six months. Besides, that would leave you your days in which to write, or, if you could not make your living by your pen, you would have your days in which to work in some position.”

But if my days are taken up with work and my nights with school, when am I going to see you?—was Martin’s first thought, though he refrained from uttering it. Instead, he said:—

“It seems so babyish for me to be going to night school. But I wouldn’t mind that if I thought it would pay. But I don’t think it will pay. I can do the work quicker than they can teach me. It would be a loss of time—” he thought of her and his desire to have her—“and I can’t afford the time. I haven’t the time to spare, in fact.”

“There is so much that is necessary.” She looked at him gently, and he fell that he was a brute to oppose her. “Physics and chemistry—you can’t do them without laboratory study; and you’ll find algebra and geometry almost hopeless without instruction. You need the skilled teachers, the specialists in the art of imparting knowledge.”

He was silent for a minute, casting about for the least vainglorious way in which to express himself.

“Please don’t think I’m bragging,” he began. “I don’t intend it that way at all. But I have a feeling that I am what I may call a natural student. I can study by myself. I take to it kindly, like a duck to water. You see yourself what I did with grammar. And I’ve learned much of other things—you would never dream how much. And I’m only getting started. Wait till I get—” He hesitated and assured himself of the pronunciation before he said “momentum. I’m getting my first real feel of things now. I’m beginning to size up the situation—”

“Please don’t say ‘size up,’” she interrupted.

“To get a line on things,” he hastily amended.

“That doesn’t mean anything in correct English,” she objected.

He floundered for a fresh start.

“What I’m driving at is that I’m beginning to get the lay of the land.”

Out of pity she forebore, and he went on.

“Knowledge seems to me like a chart-room. Whenever I go into the library, I am impressed that way. The part played by teachers is to teach the student the contents of the chart-room in a systematic way. The teachers are guides to the chart-room, that’s all. It’s not something that they have in their own heads. They don’t make it up, don’t create it. It’s all in the chart-room and they know their way about in it, and it’s their business to show the place to strangers who might else get lost. Now I don’t get lost easily. I have the bump of location. I usually know where I’m at—What’s wrong now?”

“Don’t say ‘where I’m at.’”

“That’s right,” he said gratefully, “where I am. But where am I at—I mean, where am I? Oh, yes, in the chart-room. Well, some people—”

“Persons,” she corrected.

“Some persons need guides, most persons do; but I think I can get along without them. I’ve spent a lot of time in the chart-room now, and I’m on the edge of knowing my way about, what charts I want to refer to, what coasts I want to explore. And from the way I line it up, I’ll explore a whole lot more quickly by myself. The speed of a fleet, you know, is the speed of the slowest ship, and the speed of the teachers is affected the same way. They can’t go any faster than the ruck of their scholars, and I can set a faster pace for myself than they set for a whole schoolroom.”

“‘He travels the fastest who travels alone,’” she quoted at him.

But I’d travel faster with you just the same, was what he wanted to blurt out, as he caught a vision of a world without end of sunlit spaces and starry voids through which he drifted with her, his arm around her, her pale gold hair blowing about his face. In the same instant he was aware of the pitiful inadequacy of speech. God! If he could so frame words that she could see what he then saw! And he felt the stir in him, like a throe of yearning pain, of the desire to paint these visions that flashed unsummoned on the mirror of his mind. Ah, that was it! He caught at the hem of the secret. It was the very thing that the great writers and master-poets did. That was why they were giants. They knew how to express what they thought, and felt, and saw. Dogs asleep in the sun often whined and barked, but they were unable to tell what they saw that made them whine and bark. He had often wondered what it was. And that was all he was, a dog asleep in the sun. He saw noble and beautiful visions, but he could only whine and bark at Ruth. But he would cease sleeping in the sun. He would stand up, with open eyes, and he would struggle and toil and learn until, with eyes unblinded and tongue untied, he could share with her his visioned wealth. Other men had discovered the trick of expression, of making words obedient servitors, and of making combinations of words mean more than the sum of their separate meanings. He was stirred profoundly by the passing glimpse at the secret, and he was again caught up in the vision of sunlit spaces and starry voids—until it came to him that it was very quiet, and he saw Ruth regarding him with an amused expression and a smile in her eyes.

“I have had a great visioning,” he said, and at the sound of his words in his own ears his heart gave a leap. Where had those words come from? They had adequately expressed the pause his vision had put in the conversation. It was a miracle. Never had he so loftily framed a lofty thought. But never had he attempted to frame lofty thoughts in words. That was it. That explained it. He had never tried. But Swinburne had, and Tennyson, and Kipling, and all the other poets. His mind flashed on to his “Pearl-diving.” He had never dared the big things, the spirit of the beauty that was a fire in him. That article would be a different thing when he was done with it. He was appalled by the vastness of the beauty that rightfully belonged in it, and again his mind flashed and dared, and he demanded of himself why he could not chant that beauty in noble verse as the great poets did. And there was all the mysterious delight and spiritual wonder of his love for Ruth. Why could he not chant that, too, as the poets did? They had sung of love. So would he. By God!—

And in his frightened ears he heard his exclamation echoing. Carried away, he had breathed it aloud. The blood surged into his face, wave upon wave, mastering the bronze of it till the blush of shame flaunted itself from collar-rim to the roots of his hair.

“I—I—beg your pardon,” he stammered. “I was thinking.”

“It sounded as if you were praying,” she said bravely, but she felt herself inside to be withering and shrinking. It was the first time she had heard an oath from the lips of a man she knew, and she was shocked, not merely as a matter of principle and training, but shocked in spirit by this rough blast of life in the garden of her sheltered maidenhood.

But she forgave, and with surprise at the ease of her forgiveness. Somehow it was not so difficult to forgive him anything. He had not had a chance to be as other men, and he was trying so hard, and succeeding, too. It never entered her head that there could be any other reason for her being kindly disposed toward him. She was tenderly disposed toward him, but she did not know it. She had no way of knowing it. The placid poise of twentyfour years without a single love affair did not fit her with a keen perception of her own feelings, and she who had never warmed to actual love was unaware that she was warming now.

第十章

他当天晚上留下来吃饭,而且给露丝的父亲留下了良好的印象,这叫她十分满意。他们谈起了航海业——一个马丁十分熟悉的话题,摩斯先生事后说他看上去像是个头脑清晰的年轻人。为了避免使用俚语、寻找合适的字眼,马丁说话时只得慢条斯理,这一来使他能够发掘内心最优秀的思想。他比近一年前头一次来吃饭时自如了一些,他的腼腆和谦恭的态度甚至博得了摩斯夫人的欢心,后者为他显著的进步感到高兴。

“他是第一个能让露丝多瞧几眼的男人。”她对丈夫说,“她对男人老是无动于衷,真叫我为她担心。”

摩斯先生诧异地望了望妻子。

“你的意思是想利用这个年轻的水手把她唤醒?”他问。

“我的意思是,只要有办法补救,就不能让她老死闺中。”夫人答道,“如果这位年轻的伊登可以引起她对人们的普遍兴趣,倒真是件好事。”

“而且是件非常好的事情。”他评价道,“可是,假设——有的时候我们必须假设,亲爱的——假设他引起了她的特别兴趣呢?”

“不可能,”摩斯夫人大笑着说,“她比他大三岁,另外,这没一点可能性。不会出什么事的,请相信我好啦。”

马丁的角色就这样定了下来,而他本人此时正受到阿瑟和诺曼的怂恿,考虑着要干一件奢侈的事情。他们打算星期天上午骑自行车进山玩。马丁对这个计划原来并不太经意,后来听说露丝也会骑车子,而且要跟着去,这才产生了兴趣。他既不会骑车子也没有车子,可是,露丝既然会骑,那么他就应该学会——这便是他的决定;辞别了摩斯一家,回去的路上他拐进自行车店,花四十块钱买了一辆。这笔花销比他一个月辛辛苦苦挣的工钱还要多,大大减少了他的积蓄;然而,《考察家报》将付给他一百块钱的稿酬,而《少年之友》的稿费不少于四百二十块钱,这两笔钱加起来一算,他就觉得额外的开支所引起的苦恼消退了几分。回家时,他一路学骑车子,把衣服都挂破了,他也毫不在乎。当夜他就从希金波森先生的店里打电话给裁缝,重新定做了一套衣服。接着,他扛着自行车攀上像太平梯杆紧贴着后墙的窄楼梯;待到把床从墙根挪开,他发现自己的房间小得刚能容下他本人和那辆自行车。

他本来打算星期天复习功课,准备参加高中考试,可是那篇关于潜水采珠的文章在诱惑着他,于是他整整一天都似发高烧一般挥毫描绘在他心里翻腾的美感以及浪漫的情调。这天早晨,《考察家报》没有刊登他的“寻宝记”,但他并未因此而泄气。他已经攀上了高峰,是不会轻易认输的。别人唤了他两次,他都没听见,于是便错过了丰盛的星期日晚餐——希金波森先生每个星期都要用这样的晚餐为他的饭桌增光添彩。在希金波森先生看来,这样的一顿晚餐反映出他的成就和富裕;为了表示庆祝,他针对美国制度发表了一通陈腐的言论,说这样的制度为每个勤奋的人都提供了飞黄腾达的机会,他没有忘记指出他本人就是由食品店的伙计干起,最后当上了希金波森零售店的老板。

星期一上午,马丁·伊登望着那篇尚未完稿的“潜水采珠”,叹了口气,然后就搭电车到奥克兰的那家高中去了。数天之后,他去问考试结果,方知自己除了语法课,别的课程全部不及格。

“你的语法学得很好,”希尔顿老师透过厚厚的眼镜片注视着他,告诉他说,“但对别的课程就不熟悉了,简直是一无所知;你的美国史糟糕透顶——没有别的词可以形容,只能说糟糕透顶。我建议你——”希尔顿老师打住了话头,用眼睛紧盯着他,既冷漠无情又缺乏想象力,活似他自己的试管。他在高中教物理,家里人口众多,薪金却少得可怜,满脑子装的都是机械地学来的知识。

“是,先生。”马丁毕恭毕敬地说。不知怎么,他真希望希尔顿老师的位子上坐的是图书馆桌旁的那个馆员。

“我劝你回到初中去,至少再学两年。再见吧。”

这次名落孙山并没给马丁造成多大影响,但他把希尔顿老师的话讲给露丝听时,对方却显出震惊的表情,这倒叫他感到意外。她的失望表现得如此明显,真让他为自己的失败觉得惋惜,然而他的惋惜主要是为了她的缘故。

“瞧,我的看法是对的吧,”她说,“你比那些考进高中的学生知识渊博得多,却未能通过考试,全因为你学的东西太零乱、太肤浅。你需要的是严格的教育,而这些只有懂行的老师可以提供给你。你必须具备扎实的基础。希尔顿老师的话是对的,我要是你,我会到夜校里进修。在那儿学一年半能赶得上学两年的水平。另外,白天你还可以搞写作;假如你无法靠写文章维持生计,那么白天就找个工作干。”如果我白天工作,晚上上课,那么,什么时候来看望你呢?——这是马丁闪过的第一个念头,但他忍了忍没说出来。只听他这样说道:

“我到夜校上课,似乎显得太孩子气了。要是真的划得来,那我倒不在乎,可我觉得这样做划不来。我自己学比他们教的要快。上夜校是浪费时间——”他想到了她以及自己对她的欲望——“我可浪费不起时间,说实话,我匀不出时间来。”

“有许多课程都是必须学的。”她说着,向他投来柔情的目光,让他觉得自己和她作对简直太残忍了,“拿物理和化学来讲——不做实验是学不成的;你还会发现,没人辅导,简直没指望能学得好代数和几何。你需要的是懂行的教师以及善于传授知识的专家。”

他一时没言声,挖空心思地寻找最谦虚的词句表达自己的意思。

“请别以为我在吹牛,”他启口说道,“我没有一点吹牛的意思。但我有一个感觉,我可以称得上一个天生的学者。我可以自学,因为我喜欢学习就像鸭子喜欢水一样。你自己也看得到我学习语法所取得的成绩,我还学了许多其他的知识——多得让你想也想不到。我还只是刚开了个头,等到我——”他犹豫了一下,弄准了发音后才继续说道,“待我攒足了力量吧。我现在总算第一次对事物产生了真正的感受,刚刚开始掌握(size up)情况——”

“别用‘size up’这个词。”她插话说。

“那就是估摸(get a line on)形势。”他急忙更正道。

“地道的英语里根本没这一说。”她仍不同意。

他慌乱地想重新再来一句。

“我的意思是说,我现在刚刚开始触摸到(get the lay of)情况。”

出于怜悯,她没再插嘴,由着他说了下去:

“知识对我就像一间海图室。一走进图书馆,我就有这种印象。教师扮演的角色是系统地向学生讲解海图室里的东西。其实,教师只是海图室的向导,他们自己的大脑不生产知识,既不杜撰也不创造。知识全在海图室里,他们不过熟悉入室的路径罢了。他们的任务是为外行引路,否则那些外行就会迷失方向。我可不会轻易迷路,因为我有辨别方位的能力。我一般都清楚自己在何处(where I’m at)——这次又错了吗?”

“别说‘where I’m at’。”

“对,”他感激地说,“是where I am。可是,where am I at——我是说where am I呢?噢,明白啦,该说在海图室里。至于有些人(people)——”

“应用persons。”她纠正道。

“有些人(persons)需要向导,大多数人都是如此;可我觉得自己没有向导也能前行。我在海图室里已待久了,快能摸清里面的路径了,到时候我就可以知道查阅什么样的海图以及踏勘什么样的海岸。依我看来,我自己朝前走反而快得多。要知道,一个舰队的速度是其中最慢的船只的速度,而教师的速度也会受到类似的影响。他们授课的速度绝对不能超过落后的学生。这样,我的速度就可以高于他们为全班学生规定的速度。”

“独行者最速。”她冲着他引用了一句格言。

他真想脱口喊出:“我和你一道前行,照样可以比别人快。”此时此刻,他看到了一幅阳光普照、晴空万里的幻景,他携带着她游历于天地之间,用胳膊搂着她,而她那淡金色的秀发轻拂着他的脸颊。就在这一瞬间,他意识到自己的语言贫乏得可怜。上帝啊!要是能想出绝词佳句,把他看到的奇景展现给她就好啦!他感到内心一阵激动,那是一种折磨人的强烈愿望——他渴望把那些突如其来闪现在他大脑镜面上的幻景描绘出来。啊,原来如此!他总算接触到了谜底。这就是那些大作家、大诗人成功的诀窍,这就是他们之所以伟大的原因,他们懂得怎样表达自己想到、感受到以及看到的事物。在阳光下昏睡的狗常常哀鸣和狂吠,然而却说不出它们究竟看见了什么,才会哀鸣及狂吠,他经常对这种现象感到纳闷。按说,他自己就和在阳光下昏睡的狗是一样的。他看到了高雅和壮丽的景色,然而却只会冲着露丝哀鸣和狂吠。不过,他再也不想昏睡在阳光之下了。他要站起来,睁开眼睛,不断奋争、苦干和学习,直至变得耳聪目明和伶牙俐齿,那时才能和她一道分享他所看到的美景。有些人发现了表达思想的诀窍,能够把文字变为顺从的奴隶,能够把字字词词联在一起,表达出单独的词字所表达不了的含义。他感到异常振奋,因为他瞥见了这一秘密;他的眼前又出现了那幅阳光普照、晴空万里的幻景——后来,他回到了现实中,觉得周围十分宁静,瞧见露丝眼里含着笑,正兴趣盎然地打量着他。

“我目睹了一幕壮丽的幻景。”他说。听到自己的话音在耳边回响,他感到怦然心跳。这些词是从哪里蹦出来的?它们恰当地形容了他在谈话中穿插的幻景。简直是奇迹!他从未用如此高雅的词句表达过高雅的思想,但那是因为他从未尝试过用语言形容高雅的思想。正是这样,这就清楚了。他从未尝试过,而斯温伯恩、丁尼生、吉卜林以及所有其他的诗人都做过尝试。他的心里仍在翻江倒海,继而想到了他的那篇“潜水采珠”。对于壮观的事物,对于在他心中燃烧的美感,他从来都不敢试笔。待到这篇文章完稿时,就会变成另外一种模样。文章应该表现波澜壮阔的美,想到这里他油然产生了敬畏感。接着,他又一闪念头,继续大胆地遐想。他责问自己:为什么不能像那些大诗人一样,用高雅的诗句歌颂美呢?他对露丝的爱既神秘又欢快,是精神上的奇迹。他为什么就不能像那些诗人,也讴歌这种爱呢?他们歌颂过爱情,而他也要歌颂爱。上帝啊!——

他耳边听到自己的一声呼叫,不由吃了一惊。他刚才精神迷乱,才喊出了声来。热血一阵阵涌上脸来,淹没了脸上的紫铜色,直至这股羞愧的红潮从硬领的边缘漫到头发根。

“我——我——请你原谅,”他口吃地说,“我想问题走了神。”

“听上去你像是在祈祷。”她嘴上虽这么说,但内心感到的却是失望和消沉,她这是第一次听到一个她所认识的男人说诅咒的话。她感到震惊,这不仅仅是原则和教养的问题,也是因为在生活中刮来的这股狂风侵入了她那隐蔽的处女园地,震撼了她的心灵。

不过,她原谅了他,而且为自己就这么轻易原谅人觉得意外。不知为什么,原谅他的任何过失不是件特别困难的事。他没有机会能像其他的人那样,他在竭力改造自己,同时正在走向成功。她怎么也想不到,自己对他如此宽宏大量或许还有别的原因。她对他柔情种种,然而她自己却意识不到,也没法意识到。二十四年的生活平静如水,未发生过一起恋爱事件,所以她对她自己的感情也缺乏敏锐的感觉;她从未对爱燃起过热情,此时也就觉察不到自己已动了情。

用户搜索

疯狂英语 英语语法 新概念英语 走遍美国 四级听力 英语音标 英语入门 发音 美语 四级 新东方 七年级 赖世雄 zero是什么意思厦门市中航城国际社区A区(A02地块)英语学习交流群

  • 频道推荐
  • |
  • 全站推荐
  • 推荐下载
  • 网站推荐