The Princess was a woman of about forty-five, small and delicate, with a shrivelled skin and disagreeable, greyish-green eyes, the expression of which contradicted the unnaturally suave look of the rest of her face. Underneath her velvet bonnet, adorned with an ostrich feather, was visible some reddish hair, while against the unhealthy colour of her skin her eyebrows and eyelashes looked even lighter and redder that they would other wise have done.
Yet, for all that, her animated movements, small hands, and peculiarly dry features communicated something aristocratic and energetic to her general appearance.
She talked a great deal, and, to judge from her eloquence, belonged to that class of persons who always speak as though some one were contradicting them, even though no one else may be saying a word. First she would raise her voice, then lower it and then take on a fresh access of vivacity as she looked at the persons present, but not participating in the conversation, with an air of endeavouring to draw them into it.
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虽然公爵夫人吻了外祖母的手,不住声地管她叫 ma bonnetante ① ,但是我发现外祖母对她并不满意。外祖母在听她讲为什么米哈伊洛公爵无论如何不能亲自前来给外祖母祝寿,虽然他满心想来的时候,似乎很特别地扬着眉毛;在用俄语回答公爵夫人的法国话时,她特别拉长了声调说:
①ma bonne tame:法语“我亲爱的姑母”。
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Although the Princess kissed Grandmamma’s hand and repeatedly called her "my good Aunt," I could see that Grandmamma did not care much about her, for she kept raising her eyebrows in a peculiar way while listening to the Princess’s excuses why Prince Michael had been prevented from calling, and congratulating Grandmamma "as he would like so-much to have done." At length, however, she answered the Princess’s French with Russian, and with a sharp accentuation of certain words.
"I am much obliged to you for your kindness," she said. "As for Prince Michael’s absence, pray do not mention it. He has so much else to do. Besides, what pleasure could he find in coming to see an old woman like me?"
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不容公爵夫人反驳她的话,她就又接着说:“你们的孩子们好吗,我的亲爱的?”
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Then, without allowing the Princess time to reply, she went on: "How are your children my dear?"
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“很好,感谢上帝,ma tante;他们长大了,正在读书,可是非常淘气……特别是艾金,最大的那个。他变成那么一个调皮鬼,简直难以管教;可是他很聪明,un garcon,qui Promet ① 。您可以想像, mon cousin ② ,”她接下去说,只对着我爸爸一个人,因为外祖母对公爵夫人的孩子们丝毫不感兴趣,只想夸耀一下自己的外孙,她小心翼翼地从匣子底下拿出我的诗,打开来。“您想想看mon cous in,他前些天干了什么把戏呀……”
①un qarcon gui promet:法语“是个前程远大的孩子。”
②mon cousin:法语“表哥”。
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"Well, thank God, Aunt, they grow and do their lessons and play-- particularly my eldest one, Etienne, who is so wild that it is almost impossible to keep him in order. Still, he is a clever and promising boy. Would you believe it, cousin" this last to Papa, since Grandmamma altogether uninterested in the Princess’s children, had turned to us, taken my verses out from beneath the presentation box, and unfolded them again), "would you believe it, but one day not long ago--"
and leaning over towards Papa, the Princess related something or other with great vivacity. Then, her tale concluded, she laughed, and, with a questioning look at Papa, went on:
"What a boy, cousin! He ought to have been whipped, but the trick was so spirited and amusing that I let him off."
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于是公爵夫人把眼光盯在外祖母身上,一言不发,继续微笑着。
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Then the Princess looked at Grandmamma and laughed again.
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“难道你打自己的孩子吗,我亲爱的?”外祖母问,意味深长地扬起眉毛,特别着重打这个字。
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"Ah! So you WHIP your children, do you" said Grandmamma, with a significant lift of her eyebrows, and laying a peculiar stress on the word "WHIP."
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“啊,ma bonne tante,”公爵夫人很快地扫了爸爸、眼,就用和善的声调回答说,“我知道您对这事怎么看法,但是在这点上我同您的看法不同。尽管对这问题我曾经在左思右想,。看过好多书,也向人家请教过,但是我的经验使我得出结论,用恐吓来管教孩子是必要的。如果要孩子有出息,就要吓唬他……不是吗,mo ncousin?ie voucdemande un peu ,还有比树条更让孩子害怕的东西吗?”
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"Alas, my good Aunt," replied the Princess in a sort of tolerant tone and with another glance at Papa, "I know your views on the subject, but must beg to be allowed to differ with them. However much I have thought over and read and talked about the matter, I have always been forced to come to the conclusion that children must be ruled through FEAR. To make something of a child, you must make it FEAR something. Is it not so, cousin? And what, pray, do children fear so much as a rod?"
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说着她用疑问的眼光瞅了瞅我们,老实说,不知怎地,我当时心里很不舒眼。
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As she spoke she seemed, to look inquiringly at Woloda and myself, and I confess that I did not feel altogether comfortable.
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“随便怎么说,一个十二岁的小子,甚至十四岁的小子,总还是个孩子;至于姑娘们,那就是另外一回事了。”
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"Whatever you may say," she went on, "a boy of twelve, or even of fourteen, is still a child and should be whipped as such; but with girls, perhaps, it is another matter."
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“幸亏我不是她的儿子。”我暗自思索。
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"How lucky it is that I am not her son!" I thought to myself.
"Oh, very well," said Grandmamma, folding up my verses and replacing them beneath the box (as though, after that exposition of views, the Princess was unworthy of the honour of listening to such a production). "Very well, my dear," she repeated "But please tell me how, in return, you can look for any delicate sensibility from your children?"
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外祖母认为这个论证是不容反驳的,为了结束这场谈话,她就补充说
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Evidently Grandmamma thought this argument unanswerable, for she cut the subject short by adding:
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“不过,在这件事上,各有各的看法。”
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"However, it is a point on which people must follow their own opinions."
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公爵夫人没有回答,只是宽容地笑了笑,好像以此表示,她原谅她十分尊敬的人所抱的这种怪诞的成见。
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The Princess did not choose to reply, but smiled condescendingly, and as though out of indulgence to the strange prejudices of a person whom she only PRETENDED to revere.
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“嗅,让我同你们的年青人认识认识吧。”她说,带着温和可亲的微笑望着我们。
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"Oh, by the way, pray introduce me to your young people," she went on presently as she threw us another gracious smile.
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我们站起来,凝视着公爵夫人的脸,不知怎么来行这个见面礼。
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Thereupon we rose and stood looking at the Princess, without in the least knowing what we ought to do to show that we were being introduced.
"Well, I hope you will love your old aunt," she said to Woloda, kissing his hair, "even though we are not near relatives. But I value friendship far more than I do degrees of relationship," she added to Grandmamma, who nevertheless, remained hostile, and replied:
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“唉,我的亲爱的,难道如今还把这样的亲戚放在眼里吗?”
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"Eh, my dear? Is that what they think of relationships nowadays?"
"Here is my man of the world," put in Papa, indicating Woloda;"and here is my poet," he added as I kissed the small, dry hand of the Princess, with a vivid picture in my mind of that same hand holding a rod and applying it vigorously.
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“哪一个?”公爵夫人问,拉住我的胳臂。
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"WHICH one is the poet?" asked the Princess.
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“这个小的,头上竖着一撮毛的。”爸爸喜笑颜开地回答说。
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"This little one," replied Papa, smiling; "the one with the tuft of hair on his top-knot."
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“我那撮毛跟他有什么关系……难道没有别的话讲吗?”我想道,于是向角落走去。
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"Why need he bother about my tuft?" I thought to myself as I retired into a corner. "Is there nothing else for him to talk about?"
I had strange ideas on manly beauty. I considered Karl Ivanitch one of the handsomest men in the world, and myself so ugly that I had no need to deceive myself on that point. Therefore any remark on the subject of my exterior offended me extremely.
I well remember how, one day after luncheon (I was then six years of age), the talk fell upon my personal appearance, and how Mamma tried to find good features in my face, and said that I had clever eyes and a charming smile; how, nevertheless, when Papa had examined me, and proved the contrary, she was obliged to confess that I was ugly; and how, when the meal was over and I went to pay her my respects, she said as she patted my cheek;
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“记住,尼古连卡,没有人会因为你的相貌爱你;因此你要努力做个聪明的好孩子。”
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"You know, Nicolinka, nobody will ever love you for your face alone, so you must try all the more to be a good and clever boy."
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这些话不仅使我确信我不是一个美男子,而且也使我相信我一定会做个聪明的好孩子。
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Although these words of hers confirmed in me my conviction that I was not handsome, they also confirmed in me an ambition to be just such a boy as she had indicated.
Yet I had my moments of despair at my ugliness, for I thought that no human being with such a large nose, such thick lips, and such small grey eyes as mine could ever hope to attain happiness on this earth. I used to ask God to perform a miracle by changing me into a beauty, and would have given all that I possessed, or ever hoped to possess, to have a handsome face,