双语小说连载:《董贝父子》第8章 Part 1

Beneath the watching and attentive eyes of Time - so far another Major - Paul's slumbers gradually changed. More and more light broke in upon them; distincter and distincter dreams disturbed them; an accumulating crowd of objects and impressions swarmed about his rest; and so he passed from babyhood to childhood, and became a talking, walking, wondering Dombey.
    在时间（在一定的意义上说，它是另一个少校）的机警与注意的眼光下，保罗的睡眠逐渐地改变着。愈来愈多的亮光妨碍了它们；愈来愈清楚的梦扰乱了它们；愈益增多的事物与印象群集在他的周围，使他不得安息；他就这样从婴儿时代进入了幼年时代，成为一位会说话，会走路，会疑虑的董贝。
    On the downfall and banishment of Richards, the nursery may be said to have been put into commission: as a Public Department is sometimes, when no individual Atlas can be found to support it The Commissioners were, of course, Mrs Chick and Miss Tox: who devoted themselves to their duties with such astonishing ardour that Major Bagstock had every day some new reminder of his being forsaken, while Mr Chick, bereft of domestic supervision, cast himself upon the gay world, dined at clubs and coffee-houses, smelt of smoke on three different occasions, went to the play by himself, and in short, loosened (as Mrs Chick once told him) every social bond, and moral obligation.
    在理查兹犯了罪过、被驱逐出去之后，育儿室可以说已经移交给一个特设委员会来管理了，正像有的公共机构如果找不到一个阿特拉斯①能顶得起它的重担的话，有时就会发生这种情形一样。委员会的委员自然是奇克夫人与托克斯小姐。她们怀着十分惊人的热忱致力于所担负的职责，因此白格斯托克少校每天都能看到一些新的迹象提醒他，他已被抛弃了；奇克先生则由于失去了家庭的监督，就委身于消遣玩乐的世界；他在俱乐部和咖啡馆用餐；一天之内在三次不同的场合与他相遇，都能从他身上闻到烟味；他独自一人出去看戏；总而言之，正如奇克夫人对他说的那样，他已摆脱一切社会义务与道义责任的束缚了。
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①阿特拉斯（Atlas）：希腊神话中双肩能掮天的巨神。
    Yet, in spite of his early promise, all this vigilance and care could not make little Paul a thriving boy. Naturally delicate, perhaps, he pined and wasted after the dismissal of his nurse, and, for a long time, seemed but to wait his opportunity of gliding through their hands, and seeking his lost mother. This dangerous ground in his steeple-chase towards manhood passed, he still found it very rough riding, and was grievously beset by all the obstacles in his course. Every tooth was a break-neck fence, and every pimple in the measles a stone wall to him. He was down in every fit of the hooping-cough, and rolled upon and crushed by a whole field of small diseases, that came trooping on each other's heels to prevent his getting up again. Some bird of prey got into his throat instead of the thrush; and the very chickens turning ferocious - if they have anything to do with that infant malady to which they lend their name - worried him like tiger-cats.
    虽然小保罗从一出生起就大有希望，可是所有这些警惕与护理却没有能使他成长为一个体格健壮的孩子。也许生来体质就娇弱，在辞退了奶妈之后他就消瘦、虚弱下去，而且似乎长久在等待机会，从她们的手中溜走，前去寻找他失去的母亲。在他通向成年的障碍赛马中，这个危险的地段虽然已经跳过了，但他依旧觉得道路崎岖不平，乘骑十分艰辛，路程中的所有障碍都使他苦恼不堪。对他来说，每长一颗牙齿都是一道极危险的篱笆，出麻疹中的每一个疹疱都是一道石墙。每一阵百日咳都使他摔倒在地；成群结队、接踵而来的各种小病碾压着他，使他再也不能起来。某种猛禽而不是画眉鸟钻进了他的喉咙①。如果鸡雏与那个以它们的名称来命名的儿童疾病有关的话，②那么连它们也变得很凶猛，就像豹猫一样使他惶惶不安。
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    ①英文thrush这个词有两个意义，一是画眉鸟，一是鹅口疮。这里指保罗患了鹅口疮，喉咙中像有猛禽在啄咬一样难受。
②指鸡痘（chicken－pox），即水痘。
    The chill of Paul's christening had struck home, perhaps to some sensitive part of his nature, which could not recover itself in the cold shade of his father; but he was an unfortunate child from that day. Mrs Wickam often said she never see a dear so put upon.
    给保罗施洗礼时的寒冷也许重重地打击了他机体中某处敏感的部位，在他父亲的阴森的冷气的笼罩下，它不能痊愈，可是从那天开始，他就成了一个不幸的孩子了。威肯姆大嫂时常说，她从没有见过哪一位小乖乖这样受罪的。