Weeks had two little rooms at the back of Frau Erlin’s house, and one of them, arranged as a parlour, was comfortable enough for him to invite people to sit in. After supper, urged perhaps by the impish humour which was the despair of his friends in Cambridge, Mass., he often asked Philip and Hayward to come in for a chat. He received them with elaborate courtesy and insisted on their sitting in the only two comfortable chairs in the room. Though he did not drink himself, with a politeness of which Philip recognised the irony, he put a couple of bottles of beer at Hayward’s elbow, and he insisted on lighting matches whenever in the heat of argument Hayward’s pipe went out.
At the beginning of their acquaintance Hayward, as a member of so celebrated a university, had adopted a patronising attitude towards Weeks, who was a graduate of Harvard; and when by chance the conversation turned upon the Greek tragedians, a subject upon which Hayward felt he spoke with authority, he had assumed the air that it was his part to give information rather than to exchange ideas. Weeks had listened politely, with smiling modesty , till Hayward finished; then he asked one or two insidious questions, so innocent in appearance that Hayward, not seeing into what a quandary they led him, answered blandly ; Weeks made a courteous objection, then a correction of fact, after that a quotation from some little known Latin commentator , then a reference to a German authority; and the fact was disclosed that he was a scholar.
With smiling ease, apologetically, Weeks tore to pieces all that Hayward had said; with elaborate civility he displayed the superficiality of his attainments . He mocked him with gentle irony. Philip could not help seeing that Hayward looked a perfect fool, and Hayward had not the sense to hold his tongue; in his irritation , his self-assurance undaunted, he attempted to argue: he made wild statements and Weeks amicably corrected them; he reasoned falsely and Weeks proved that he was absurd: Weeks confessed that he had taught Greek Literature at Harvard. Hayward gave a laugh of scorn.
‘And do you find it more poetic when you don’t quite know what it means? I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.’
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最后,海沃德喝完啤酒,离开维克斯的屋子,全身燥热,头发蓬松,他忿忿然一挥手,对菲利普说:
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At last, having finished the beer, Hayward left Weeks’ room hot and dishevelled; with an angry gesture he said to Philip:
‘Of course the man’s a pedant . He has no real feeling for beauty. Accuracy is the virtue of clerks. It’s the spirit of the Greeks that we aim at. Weeks is like that fellow who went to hear Rubenstein and complained that he played false notes. False notes! What did they matter when he played divinely?’
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这段议论给了菲利普很深的印象,殊不知世间有多少无能之辈正是借这种无知妄说聊以自慰呢!
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Philip, not knowing how many incompetent people have found solace in these false notes, was much impressed.
Hayward could never resist the opportunity which Weeks offered him of regaining ground lost on a previous occasion, and Weeks was able with the greatest ease to draw him into a discussion. Though he could not help seeing how small his attainments were beside the American’s, his British pertinacity , his wounded vanity (perhaps they are the same thing), would not allow him to give up the struggle. Hayward seemed to take a delight in displaying his ignorance, self-satisfaction, and wrongheadedness.
Whenever Hayward said something which was illogical, Weeks in a few words would show the falseness of his reasoning, pause for a moment to enjoy his triumph, and then hurry on to another subject as though Christian charity impelled him to spare the vanquished foe . Philip tried sometimes to put in something to help his friend, and Weeks gently crushed him, but so kindly , differently from the way in which he answered Hayward, that even Philip, outrageously sensitive, could not feel hurt. Now and then, losing his calm as he felt himself more and more foolish, Hayward became abusive, and only the American’s smiling politeness prevented the argument from degenerating into a quarrel. On these occasions when Hayward left Weeks’ room he muttered angrily:
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"该死的美国佬!"
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‘Damned Yankee!’
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这样一切就解决了。对于某个似乎无法辩驳的论点,这句咒语就是最妙不过的回答。
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That settled it. It was a perfect answer to an argument which had seemed unanswerable.
Though they began by discussing all manner of subjects in Weeks’ little room eventually the conversation always turned to religion: the theological student took a professional interest in it, and Hayward welcomed a subject in which hard facts need not disconcert him; when feeling is the gauge you can snap your angers at logic , and when your logic is weak that is very agreeable.
Hayward found it difficult to explain his beliefs to Philip without a great flow of words; but it was clear (and this fell in with Philip’s idea of the natural order of things), that he had been brought up in the church by law established. Though he had now given up all idea of becoming a Roman Catholic, he still looked upon that communion with sympathy. He had much to say in its praise, and he compared favourably its gorgeous ceremonies with the simple services of the Church of England. He gave Philip Newman’s Apologia to read, and Philip, finding it very dull, nevertheless read it to the end.
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"看这本书,是为了欣赏它的风格,而不在乎它的内容,"海沃德点拨说。
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‘Read it for its style, not for its matter,’ said Hayward.
He talked enthusiastically of the music at the Oratory , and said charming things about the connection between incense and the devotional spirit. Weeks listened to him with his frigid smile.
Hayward hinted that he had gone through much trouble with his soul. For a year he had swum in a sea of darkness. He passed his fingers through his fair, waving hair and told them that he would not for five hundred pounds endure again those agonies of mind. Fortunately he had reached calm waters at last.
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"那么,你究竞信仰什么呢?"菲利普问,他永远也不满足于含糊其词的说法。
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‘But what do you believe?’ asked Philip, who was never satisfied with vague statements.
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"我相信--全、佳、美。"
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‘I believe in the Whole, the Good, and the Beautiful.’
‘I hate the rigid definition: it’s so ugly, so obvious. If you like I will say that I believe in the church of the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Gladstone.’
‘Oh wise young man!’ retorted Hayward, with a smile which made Philip blush, for he felt that in putting into plain words what the other had expressed in a paraphrase , he had been guilty of vulgarity. ‘I belong to the Church of England. But I love the gold and the silk which clothe the priest of Rome, and his celibacy , and the confessional, and purgatory : and in the darkness of an Italian cathedral, incense-laden and mysterious, I believe with all my heart in the miracle of the Mass. In Venice I have seen a fisherwoman come in, barefoot, throw down her basket of fish by her side, fall on her knees, and pray to the Madonna; and that I felt was the real faith, and I prayed and believed with her. But I believe also in Aphrodite and Apollo and the Great God Pan.’
He had a charming voice, and he chose his words as he spoke; he uttered them almost rhythmically . He would have gone on, but Weeks opened a second bottle of beer.
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"让我再给您斟点。"
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‘Let me give you something to drink.’
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海沃德转身朝菲利普,现出那副颇使这位青年动心的略带几分屈尊俯就的姿态。
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Hayward turned to Philip with the slightly condescending gesture which so impressed the youth.
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"现在你满意了吧?"他问。
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‘Now are you satisfied?’ he asked.
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如堕五里雾中的菲利普,表示自己满意了。
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Philip, somewhat bewildered, confessed that he was.
‘I’m disappointed that you didn’t add a little Buddhism,’ said Weeks. ‘And I confess I have a sort of sympathy for Mahomet; I regret that you should have left him out in the cold.’
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海沃德开怀大笑。那天晚上他心情舒畅,那些铿锵悦耳的妙语仍在自己耳边回响。他将杯子里的啤酒一口干了。
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Hayward laughed, for he was in a good humour with himself that evening, and the ring of his sentences still sounded pleasant in his ears. He emptied his glass.
‘I didn’t expect you to understand me,’ he answered. ‘With your cold American intelligence you can only adopt the critical attitude. Emerson and all that sort of thing. But what is criticism? Criticism is purely destructive; anyone can destroy, but not everyone can build up. You are a pedant, my dear fellow. The important thing is to construct: I am constructive ; I am a poet.’
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维克斯注视着海沃德,目光中似乎既带着严肃的神色,同时又露出明朗的笑意。
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Weeks looked at him with eyes which seemed at the same time to be quite grave and yet to be smiling brightly.
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"我想,要是你不见怪的话,我得说,你有点醉了。"
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‘I think, if you don’t mind my saying so, you’re a little drunk.’
‘Nothing to speak of,’ answered Hayward cheerfully. ‘And not enough for me to be unable to overwhelm you in argument. But come, I have unbosomed my soul; now tell us what your religion is.’
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维克斯把头一侧,看上去活像只停歇在栖木上的麻雀。
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Weeks put his head on one side so that he looked like a sparrow on a perch .
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"这问题我一直琢磨了好多年。我想我是个唯一神教派教徒。"
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‘I’ve been trying to find that out for years. I think I’m a Unitarian.’
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"那就是个非国教派教徒罗,"菲利普说。
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‘But that’s a dissenter ,’ said Philip.
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他想象不出他们俩为什么同时哑然失笑:海沃德纵声狂笑,而维克斯则滑稽地溟抿嘴格格傻笑。
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He could not imagine why they both burst into laughter, Hayward uproariously, and Weeks with a funny chuckle .
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"在英国,非国教派教徒都算不上是绅士,对吗?"维克斯问。
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"嗯,如果您要我直言相告,我得说是的,"菲利普颇为生气地回答说。
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他讨厌他们笑他,可他们偏偏又笑了起来。
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"那就请您告诉我,何谓绅士?"
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‘And will you tell me what a gentleman is?’ asked Weeks.