Charles Jackson (1903—1968)
本文作者查尔斯·杰克逊是一个谨慎用心的作家，他在四十岁的时候方才出版他的第一部作品 《失去了的周末》（The Lost Weekend, 1944）。这部描写酒徒心理的小说，至今仍被公认是一部杰出的作品。
杰克逊生于美国纽泽西州，早年曾因患肺病，在疗养院休养六年之久。杰氏著有长篇小说四种，短篇小说若干篇，他不是一个多产的作家。
这篇《大情人》采自他的短篇小说集《众生相》（Earthly Creatures, 1953）。原文有很多处描写精彩的地方，因为篇幅所限，不能备录，这是要向读者道歉的。我们在这里所读到的，只是故事的轮廓。故事的主题是一个梦想的幻灭（disillusionment），题目“大情人”是一个“反语”（irony）。
As Alice Harvey hung up the receiver, her first thought, luckily, was a practical one: Now I've got to really do something about dinner.
● receiver：电话听筒。hung up：挂好。luckily：侥幸。电话里所听到的是什么消息，读者暂时并不知晓。可以猜测得到的是：消息很不平常，引起了那个女人很多思想；很侥幸地，第一个思想只是一个实际问题的考虑（a practical one=a practical thought），并没有牵涉到别的问题，否则的话，她恐怕要顿失常态，连说话的气力都没有的。
● I've got to=I have to：不得不。to really do：副词放在不定式to和do的中间，语法家称为split infinitive，引为大忌。事实上，英美人说话作文时，常这么用，这里只是那个女人心里的思想，更不可以谈严格的语法规则了。dinner：我们可以猜想，电话里所说的大约是有人要来吃晚饭。
She stepped into the tiny kitchen.
"Gladys," she said, "I hate telling you so late, but Ralph just phoned from uptown that he's bringing somebody home. He's a kind of, well, celebrity. Could you run over to Gristede's and get some steak or something?"
● Gladys：女佣之名。
● I hate：没有早通知你，害得你临时张罗，有道歉之意。Ralph：是那个女人的亲人，关系在稍后即有说明。uptown：上城。小说发生于纽约市曼哈顿区（Manhattan）。五十九街（59th St.）以上皆为上城，包括哥伦比亚大学、林肯演奏中心在内。五十八街至二十三街为中城（midtown）；二十二街以下为下城（downtown）。
● well：说到这里，想不到一个适当的字眼，语气在这里停顿一下。celebrity：有名人物。a kind of celebrity：可以说相当有名的人物。
● could：这样说比用can客气，主人对于佣人用这种说法，足以表示说话者的修养，无损说话者的尊严，胜过颐指气使的命令句也。Gristede's：市场，超级市场； 曼哈顿有好多家Gristede Bros Food Markets同Gristede's supermarkets。steak：牛排。此字母音读a长音/ei/。临时来了客人，菜肴还需添购。
Back in the living room, she sat on the sofa and lit a cigarette. Perhaps now I can let myself think about it, she thought.
What does a woman do when faced with the prospect of seeing the man she fell in love with more than twenty years ago, fell in love with but never met?
● lit是light（点燃）的过去式。
● 她的第一个念头只是厨房添菜的问题，现在一个人静静地坐下，想起主要的问题来了。
● What does a woman do：动词用现在式，表示一般情形。
● faced：过去分词，前面省略了she is二字。prospect期待或期待中的事情。这个男人，她二十多年前曾经爱过（爱过，但是没有见过面），现在面临着同他见面的机会了，在这种情形之下做女人的该怎么办呢？
Ralph had phoned that he'd run into Gavin Douglas and could he bring him home to dinner. She had cried, "Who did you say? You can't mean the actor!" and he had replied in that infuriating unimaginative way he had, so like his father: "Why can't I mean the actor?" If the prospect of meeting and knowing Gavin Douglas had arisen when she was eighteen, she would have died. Now, after some twenty years, here he was, about to walk into her living room, the dream made flesh…
● 这一段是补叙电话里的话。但是这并不是小说家在这里补充说明，这里仍旧是那个女人的心理活动——她坐在沙发上的回忆。
● run into：碰到，不期而遇。could he bring him home to dinner：这句话语法有问题，但是为了要模仿打电话的口吻，这样说也未尚不可。（按规矩来说，大约应该如此：and had asked whether he could bring him home to dinner。）
● the actor：天下同名同姓的很多，Gavin Douglas是位名伶，但是现在这位Douglas可能另有其人。
● in that…way：这几个字说明了Ralph的个性，也说明了他父亲（so like his father：多么的像他的父亲!）的个性。他们父子二人都是缺乏想象力的（unimaginative），令人气恼（infuriating）。这几个字又暗示：她对于她丈夫，并不完全满意。母亲听到Gavin Douglas这个名字，情不自禁，大叫出声，可是儿子不觉察到母亲的音调有异，还侃侃地在电话里答辩：“为什么不可以就是舞台名伶Douglas呢？”不能替别人设想，这就是做人缺乏想象力的地方。
● If the prospect…had arisen：这样一个机会假如在她十八岁时候发生的话，她会死掉的。这是一句很标准的假定句子，请注意动词的形式。（prospect并不解释作“机会”，这里为凑中文的方便，勉强译作“机会”。）
● some twenty years：约摸二十年。about to：将要。the dream made flesh：这是一个nominative absolute phrase，made是过去分词，flesh是subjective complement。梦想实现，梦中人将以血肉之躯和她相见了。
She had no idea that anyone she knew would actually know Gavin Douglas, least of all her son. But she didn't need to think twice to know where and how her son had met him.
During the past summer Ralph had had his first job. He had been assistant stage manager at a summer theater on the Cape, as a kind of apprenticeship for the work that he thought he wanted to take up later. He was eighteen but he was interested in the theater as a business. And that is how he must have met Gavin Douglas; the Cape playhouse was famous for its guest-stars, though these were usually tired or retired actors, stars of the past rather than the present. Odd that Ralph had never mentioned him before; but how could he have known what it would mean to his mother? He was too young to appreciate the name and fame of the great matinée idol of twenty and thirty years ago, the star who had been an idol of hers when she was Ralph's age.
● 她不知道，任何她所认识的人，会真的认识这位名伶；她尤其不能（least of all）相信，她儿子会认识他。
● didn't need to think twice：用不着想两遍，一猜就中。
● the past summer：过去的夏季，可能仍旧是今年。his first job：美国学生暑假期间多有做短工赚钱的。
● assistant stage manager：助理舞台经理。注意前面不用冠词the，冠词最为难用，不容易用规则来概括说明。大抵predicate nominative（主语之补足词）的名词，前面可以不加the，如Wordsworth的名句：
The Child is father of the Man.
此句中的father前面就没有冠词。又，职位前面，常有无需冠词the者，如Queen of England，headmaster of a school等，这里的manager这个字，既然用在动词had been之后，是个主语补足词，又是一个职位的名称（经理），不加the，并不是一种奇怪的用法。但这种用法并不是一定的规则，读者还得于读书时随时留意为要。
● summer theater：美国的夏季是戏剧季节，平常不大演戏的小城小镇，到了夏天就会有剧团租场演出，这种戏院就叫做summer theater（恐怕是为吸引避暑游客而设的）。the Cape：cape原意是海岬。这篇小说的背景大约是美国东北部一带，所指海岬恐怕是麻萨诸塞州的避暑胜地Cape Cod。
● a kind of apprenticeship：一种实习。这位青年希望干戏剧活动（the theater），暑假里先实习起来。
● He was eighteen：十八岁。请参照本段最后一句：when she was Ralph's age。人不就是年龄，可是中间可以用动词was。
● guest-stars：客串明星。tired or retired actors：厌倦舞台生涯或业已退隐的伶人，广东话有个较能传神的说法：过气老倌。（tired和retired两个字连用，很巧妙。）那些小剧院所能请到的大明星，无非是些过时人物。
● Odd：当系It was odd的简略，“这是很奇怪的。”
● what it would mean：这个人的名字有什么意义呢？
● appreciate：欣赏，了解。matinée idol：舞台名伶，尤其是拥有女性观众的男明星。在英美各国看下午上演的matinée“日戏”观众，过去以女性占大多数。故她们的舞台偶像称为matinée idols。
● 文章写到这里，一个是母亲，一个是儿子，已经说得明明白白了。
Idol was not the word. She had fallen in love with him. And it was not too much to say that she had never really fallen out of love. Her love had never been requited or fulfilled, had never even been communicated. Gavin Douglas had been unaware of her very existence—except as a pair of clapping hands among all those other clapping hands that had become routine to him.
● 说他是她的偶像，还不完全对。她不仅是像普通女学生那样崇拜这位大明星而已，她是真“爱”他的。
● it was not too much to say：说这样的话也不算过分，事实的确如此。她于二十年前陷入情网，迄今犹未自拔。
● requited：得到报答。“单恋”是unrequited love。fulfilled：圆满实现。communicated：表达出来。这一句里三个动词用得都很有劲。
● unaware of her very existence：根本不知这天下有她这么一个女人。very是形容词。
● 她虽然盲目痴恋，台上人只知道台下纷纷鼓掌，在掌声雷动之中，有她这么一双手掌，他怎么能分别出来呢？假如他知道有她这么一个人，也无非是知道台下有一双手掌而已。
● other：这个字在逻辑上是说得通的。among=in or into the midst of。在许多“其他”手掌之间，她的那双也在鼓掌。routine：习以为常的事情，“家常便饭”。
She never told her love except to Smith Harvey, the boy she married. She had had to tell someone and it was Smith she told inevitably. Smith was a junior at the University of Rochester when she was a freshman. They had met during her first year and, with no thought of the marriage that was to take place later, had started going together. One Saturday he took her to the matinée at the Lyceum to see the famous Constance Hope and her leading man Gavin Douglas in Romeo and Juliet. She had fallen in love at sight with the handsome actor, and through him (though no two men in the world could have been more unlike) with Smith Harvey.
● 她私下恋慕之情，不得不对人说。她那时有一个男朋友，很自然地（inevitably）她就对他说了。
● junior：三年级学生。University of Rochester：在纽约州的Rochester。
● started going together：开始一同出去玩。他们以后结为夫妇，但是在开始的时候，他们并没有想到婚姻之事。take place：发生或举行。“婚姻发生”是很坏的中文，可是这是合口语习惯的英文的。
● the Lyceum：戏院名。以前上海有家同名的戏院，中文译名为“兰心”，此字原指雅典一处花园，当年亚里斯多德讲学之所。注意：戏院的Theater可以不写出来，但冠词the非加不可。同样的，扬子江的英文名称，可以不说River，但是冠词the非加不可。
● Constance Hope想是比Douglas更有名的女伶，leading man：男主角。
● through him：因为爱舞台上的罗密欧，也连带地爱上了台下的男同学。虽然这两个人绝不相像：天下人之间个性的不同，无有过于他们两个人者。一个是热情奔放的罗密欧，至于另外一个，我们前面已经有了一点认识，他同他的儿子一样，是缺乏想象力的。
She loved her husband and had always loved him, but somehow married love had never quite come up to what she had seen and felt that afternoon across the footlights. What puzzled her was the question that baffled her to this day: What was the nature of that youthful ardor, what did love of that kind really consist of, what was it? Illusion, perhaps; poetry and Shakespeare and the actor's art. But could make-believe—make-believe and nothing more—cause her to experience love, really experience it, so powerfully that it still held after twenty years of a marriage which, at its worst, had never been unhappy? No, she could not believe it had been illusion merely. It was something in the nature of Gavin Douglas, a special ardor he possessed that other men did not, a mysterious and ineffable quality in the artist. What she and Smith had together had lasted and would always last; it was durable and sound. Yet the other was durable, too; how else could she respond to, and even feel again, at this very moment, that powerful emotion that Romeo had given her from the stage?—pure, heart-piercing, like the poetry he spoke…
● 这一段分析夫妻之爱和浪漫的爱之间的不同。但这不是说理文章（小说中最好不要插入说理文章），这里仍旧是在描写女主角的心理，她觉得爱情有两种，夫妻间的恩爱似乎还不能满足她心里的要求。
● somehow：不知怎么的。married love：夫妻之爱。come up to：达到（她所见所感的那种热烈的情形）。footlights：舞台前面的一排照明灯。across the footlights：隔了这么一排的灯；（台下人）所看到的台上。
● that baffled her to this day：这个问题她至今不能索解。
● 这个问题作者用三种方式来表达：那种青春热情（youthful ardor）的性质是什么？那一种的爱到底是什么东西所组成的？它到底是什么东西？
● Illusion：幻觉。
● make-believe：假戏，以假作真的东西。台上所看到的只是演员的艺术，所听到的只是莎士比亚的诗句，这些并不是真人真事——但是这种以假作真的东西竟能使她经验到“爱”吗？
● really experience it, so powerfully (experience it)：这种话重复地说，更可以表示女主角强烈的感情。held（不及物动词）：保持不失。at its worst：二十年的婚姻，当然不能说一无阴翳，但是在最坏的时候，她的婚姻并不是不快乐的。a marriage：冠词a用得很好。先用不定冠词，范围不加限制；然后接着用一个限制性的定语从句（restrictive clause），把性质确定。这一种用法是很常见的。
● No：这一段是心理描写，难免有自问自答的话。戏台上的爱情只是幻觉吗？不是的。it had been illusion：动词时态表示，这是专指“那天下午”所看到的戏。
● It was something中的It，仍是代替love。这种爱是那演员性格（nature）里的某种性质（something）。a special ardor和something是同位语。other men did not=other men did not possess。
● something这个字用处很大。凡是抽象的性质，作者怕一下子说不清楚，都可暂时用这个字来代替，多用抽象的名词和形容词，文章可能成为古板；something是一个容易为读者所接受的字，用了它，文章就较流畅。但是something意义广泛，作者仍旧应该设法用比较确定的字眼把意义说明白。这里作者用了两个同位格的词，加以说明补充：一个是a special ardor，第二个是a mysterious and ineffable（言语难以表达的）quality。
● 代替抽象名词的除something外，更可以用“what”clasue。本段第一句what she had seen and felt就是一个例子。这里What she and Smith had together也是一样。“她和她丈夫所共有”，是什么东西呢？当然是夫妻之间的恩爱。但是作者为了避免多用love之类的抽象名词，用了这样一个名词性从句。读者诸君于习作英文论说文时，如觉得抽象名词运用不易，这里所介绍的补救办法，不妨一试。
● 他们夫妻间的爱情，历久不衰（had lasted）；以后始终如一，也是在意料之中。这无疑是一种持久（durable）健全（sound）的爱。
● respond to：感应。请注意：英文逗点的用法和中文不同。我们写中文时，很少把动词和它的宾语用逗点分开来的。这里respond to的宾语是that powerful emotion，但是二者隔得很远，中间用了三个逗点。
● 舞台上那种浪漫的爱，也是能持久不变的；要不然的话（else），她怎么此刻（at this very moment）对于那种强烈的感情，仍旧能发生感应呢？非但发生感应而已，她心里还能够体会到那种感情。
● 最后几个字形容emotion：纯洁而摧人肝肠的感情，如同他所念的（剧中的）诗句一般。（按：莎士比亚的戏剧中的对白大半均系诗句。）
To this day she had only to pick up the play at any time and read again that passionate but plaintive plea
O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
to remember how, shivering in the half-dark of the theater, she had turned compulsively toward Smith at her side, holding her hand absently, as he thought was expected of him—unaware, and sweet, but not Romeo!—and how she felt at the time such a strange, such a confused and confusing fear that love of that kind was not to be given to her; that, so to speak, art was one thing and life was another….
● plaintive：悲伤的，悲诉的。plea：恳求。这里连用三个p开首的字，后两个又都是pl开首的，这在韵律学里称为“头韵”（alliteration）。这里要描写一种强烈的感情，句法和普通口语式的散文不同，音调起伏，已经接近莎翁的无韵诗了。
● O, wilt thou…原句是《罗密欧与朱丽叶》第二幕第二场，这就是最有名的“后花园私订终身”那一场。朱丽叶在恳求罗密欧：“你就这样不让我满足地离开我吗？”
● She had only to pick up the play…to remember：她只要检出莎翁原剧，重读到这个地方，心里就会记起两件事情。这两件事情是用how连结的两个名词性从句。
第一，在光线黯淡的戏院里面，她身体颤抖，不由自主地（compulsively）靠向（恐怕是心理上的靠向）她身旁的男同学。男同学心不在焉地握住她的手（他知道她所求于他者为此），他情意缠绵（sweet），但是他不是罗密欧！
第二，她在那时候有一种恐惧之感（奇怪的恐惧之感），它本身是混乱不清的（confused），同时却使她心思更为昏乱（confusing），她觉得像戏台上的那种爱情是没有人会给她的。
● 最后一个“that”clasue仍是说明fear。她觉得可以这么说（so to speak）。艺术是一回事，人生是另一回事。
The door opened and Smith came in. He crossed to the sofa, bent down and kissed her. Then he stood up and gazed at her in a curious way. "What's eating you?" he said.
"Me? Why nothing. Why?"
"You look all…" He shrugged.
"All what"
"…Peculiar."
"Smith. Listen to me. Sit down. Who do you suppose is coming to dinner tonight?"
"Alice, what the hell's the matter with you?"
"Gavin Douglas, Ralph called up. He's bringing him home for dinner."
"Who did you say?"
"Gavin Douglas. The actor. Romeo."
"My God…."
"Why do you say that?"
He laughed. "I'm saying it for you."
"Well, you can stop it right now. This isn't a bit funny!"
"The dream made flesh…."
In spite of herself, she smiled. It was exactly she had thought, to the very words. "But what am I going to do?" she all but cried. "What under heaven am I going to do?…"
● 刚才是回忆，是情感的起伏，现在又回复到现实生活来了，文字也几乎换了一种。
● eating：用文言来说，当是“啮蚀”；译成白话，该是“伤你的脑筋”。
● what the hell's the matter=what is the matter。the hell为咒骂之词，但咒骂之意可强可弱，视语气而定，这里咒骂之意当然很弱。
● Ralph called up. He's bringing：注意时态的用法。虽然是家常谈话，也一点不可马虎。
● to the very words：字都用得一样的。她听说那伶人要来吃饭时，曾经想到过the dream made flesh（见前面本文）。现在她丈夫也有同感，把她的思想一字不易地说出来。
● all but cried：几乎要哭。
● under heaven：用以加强what，别无他意。
Her attention was drawn to a car just driving up below. The apartment was on the third floor, and she stood close to the window behind the curtains, and looked down.
It was a Ford convertible. Her son Ralph got out, from the other side stepped a hatless youngish man in a reversible overcoat. It couldn't be Gavin Douglas; it was certainly not Romeo. He rounded the rear of the car and disappeared with Ralph into the small foyer.
● attention was drawn：注意力被吸引。driving up：开到门口。
● the apartment：他们所住的那套客寓房间。
● convertible：篷车。这一切都是从她眼睛里看到的。
● from the other side：她的儿子从一边下车，另外一个人从另一边下车。youngish：年纪不算大。reversible overcoat：正反可穿的晴雨两用大衣（反穿就是雨衣）。
● It couldn't be：这样一个人怎么可能是她心目中的大情人呢？
● rounded the rear：从车子后面绕过来。foyer：公寓房子进口的小门厅。他们两人走进来了（disappeared）。
She heard them in the living room, heard Smith being hearty and cordial. A minute later her bedroom door opened and Ralph came in.
"Thank God you didn't dress up," he said.
"And why would I dress up?" she replied airily. "It isn't a dinner party, after all."
"Come on out. Dad's making drinks…."
When she came into the living room, Gavin Douglas sprang up from the chair.
"I'm Ralph's mother," she said. "How do you do…."
● living room：上了楼进了房了。being hearty and cordial：正在热诚招待。verb to be通常并没有动作的意思，但是being这个现在分词也表示一点动作。例如：
I am being a fool.（我正在说傻话，或做傻事。）
cordial其实和hearty同一意义，都解作“恳切”，不过cordial的字源是拉丁文的“心”，hearty的字源是盎格鲁萨克逊文的“心”；cordial比较近于文言，意义亦较弱。
● dress up：穿上礼服。西俗妇人参加正式宴会（dinner party），当穿晚礼服（evening dress）。
● airily：轻快地。
● making drinks：调酒。美国人晚餐之前如家有客人，通常要为他们准备饮料的。最普通的为威士忌加冰块或苏打水，或加马铁尼（Martini）等的鸡尾酒。
Was it truly Gavin Douglas? Why, he looked no more like an actor than—why, than her husband did; and scarcely older. With inexpressible relief she noted that he was still handsome, very masculine-looking, and he might have been—anybody; anybody, that is, with a certain background and breeding. He was of medium height; his complexion was ruddy and healthy; his eyes were blue as a robin's egg. His voice was resonant and deep but not thrilling—not as it had been in the theater; his diction was no better than it should be. But what amazed her most of all was his dress. He looked just like Smith on a weekend in Connecticut.
● 这是她第一次正式见到在台下的大情人。他的模样可真不像个演员。本段首二句是模仿口语的，这位主妇虽不开口，但心里自问自答却如同说话一般。第二句的两个why就是说话时才用得到的感叹词。why作感叹词用，据《简明牛津字典》解释，至少有五种意义（详情请查该字典）。此处第一个why用以表示一种“使人惊讶的发现或认识”（surprised discovery or recognition），相当于中文的“啊”（原来如此！）。第二个why用以表示“停顿而加以思索”（pause for reflection），相当于中文的“嗯”（让我想想看）。她丈夫既不类伶人，客人看来也不像，两人年龄似乎也相仿。
● relief：心头觉得说不出的安慰。她只怕她心目中的大情人已经白发苍苍，老态龙钟，破坏了她的美丽的梦想。
● might have been：后面跟一破折号，表示她想到这里，又停顿了一下。anybody：照那人的样子看来，她决看不出他的身份；他可能是任何人，但先说任何人，又嫌太泛，她又替自己做注解，那就是说（that is），任何有某种生活背景（background）和高尚教养的人。
● robin's egg：知更雀的蛋。知更雀在美国东北部是很常见的一种鸟，它的蛋有一种特殊的蓝色，作者拿来和那人的眼睛颜色相比，是很好的譬喻。
● resonant：响亮的，余音袅袅的。deep：深沉的。thrilling：动人的。
● diction：所用的字，措辞。（dictionary就是从这个字衍化来的）。no better than it should be：恰到分寸，并不见得特别出色。
● on a weekend：美国男子大约有几套服装。上写字间是一套，正式宴会是一套，度周末假期又是一套。她丈夫周末去康州（离纽约非常近的一个州）时所穿的衣服并没有什么出奇之处，现在来客所穿的也不过这么一套，并无大明星派头。
"It's delightful meeting Rafe's parents," he said. "I can scarcely believe it. Neither of you seem old enough to have produced such a strapping young man."
Rafe? Had she heard correctly? But of course! It was the British pronunciation.
"Are you English, Mr. Douglas?"
"Heavens no. I was born and brought up in the tiny town of Two Buttes, Colorado. My father had a small mine. I used to say that after I left, they changed the name to One Butte, but I've long since gotten over such lousy jokes—I hope."
● 第一句主语It代替动名词meeting Rafe's parents。
● Neither of you后面的动词用复数式seem，不用单数式seems，这是合乎语法的。strapping：高大的。这一句话是在恭维他们夫妻二人长得年轻，看不出老。
● Rafe：儿子的名字是Ralph，这个字在美国的读音，读者不难从字面上猜测得之。可是英国人把它读成Rafe（读a长音），听来很特别。
● Heavens no：Heavens恐怕是Good heavens！之略。good heavens没有中文“天呀！”那么严重，语气相当于北平话的“是英国人才怪哪”。
● mine：矿。
● Butte：美国西部用语，解作“山岗”。他的家乡就是科罗拉多的双岗镇了。接着他还讲一个笑话，他说他离开家乡之后，家乡人士就把镇名改为单岗镇。注者猜他的幽默所在，恐怕他是把butte（u长音/ju:/）当作butt（u短音/^/）来渎。butt者，是大众嘲笑作弄的对象；中国人笑人为“土包子”，这里也许可以勉强应用。（土做的包子，有没有山岗的意义？）镇名改成单岗镇了，因为少了一个土包子。这种幽默很难翻译，何况注者不敢自信已经捉住文中幽默的要点。这两句主要表示的是：此人有他的幽默感，而且不惜拿自己来挖苦的。
● gotten：照有些语法书规定，get的过去分词是got，不是gotten，但是美国人常有用gotten的。《英汉四用字典》说：英国人用got，美国人用gotten，想必有它的根据。gotten over：有超越或克服之意。“我已经有很久（long since）不说这种低级笑话了。”lousy：这是一个应用很广的American slang字眼。相当于北平话的“陋”或“糟”，上海话的“蹩脚”。
● 这个人的说话，既然按英国音读Rafe，又用美国人的gotten和lousy。我们可以说他所表现的有两方面，一是他的艺术家与众不同的一方面，一是他平易近人善于“做人”的一方面。
"Really a mining town?" she said. "How did you happen to go on the stage, Mr. Douglas?"
"After all, one has to do something. And one night in Pueblo, when I was sixteen, I saw a road company of Way Down East. After that there was no holding me. My father kicked like a steer but it was no use. Green as I was, the stage was for me, from then on."
"When you were sixteen? It doesn't seem possible…."
"Why not?"
● to go on the stage：从事舞台生活。
● After all：说来说去，人总得要做事（我就挑选了戏剧）。
● Pueblo：科罗拉多州的城市名。
● road company：走江湖跑码头的戏班。Way Down East：美国本世纪初很有名的戏，为Lottie Blair Parker（1858—1937）所作。该戏拍成无声电影后在中国映出，片名为《赖婚》。
● there was no holding me：there is的后面跟一个动名词，解作“从此以后，没有办法管得住我了”。我就想投身戏剧界了。
● steer：小公牛。kicked：举脚乱踢；发脾气。Green：嫩，没有经验。
"You seemed hardly sixteen when my husband and I saw you in Romeo and Juliet."
"Oh, did you see that? Imagine!"
"I've never forgotten it, Mr. Douglas."
"Well, I was twice sixteen during my Romeo period," he said, and smiled charmingly. "Do you know how old I am now? Fifty-three, no less."
…Twice sixteen, she was thinking. That youth—that slim young lover? A Romeo of thirty-two? Incredible it seemed; it was possible, perhaps, but not probable.
She got up. "I—think it's time for dinner," she said. "Mr. Douglas, won't you bring your drink in to the table?"
● Imagine：请想想看！怪不怪？
● during my Romeo period：我演罗密欧那个时期。
● That youth—that slim young lover：这是舞台上所看见的罗密欧，演员本人则是已经三十二岁了。
● Incredible：令人难信。not probable：不近情理。
● bring your drink in：把酒一块儿带来。
"So you saw our Romeo and Juliet," he said. "Fancy that. You must have been kids."
"We weren't. We were both in college at the time."
'About Rafe's age. I should imagine," he said. "Wouldn't you call him a kid?"
● Fancy that：同上文的Imagine一样，是一种自言自语。
● must have been：“从现在的立场，猜度过去的事情”所用的动词形式。
● kids：小孩子。
● I should imagine和Wouldn't you两个虚拟式动词，都是比较客气而不武断的说法。
● call him a kid：大学生还算是小孩子，其人显然有点倚老卖老。
"…We played Romeo and Juliet thirty consecutive weeks at the Morosco," he was saying, "and then took it on the road for another whole season. You can imagine the bang it gave me when we played Pueblo, Colorado. After the American tour, there was a three months' run at the Haymarket in London. I'm telling you, I was never so sick of anything in my life as I was of Romeo when we finally quit. Bored stiff."
"Bored? But you couldn't have been! I can't believe it, Mr. Douglas?"
● he was saying：只听他在那里滔滔不绝地说。
● thirty consecutive weeks：连续演三十个星期（莎翁名剧重演，卖座如此持久不衰，在纽约百老汇也很难得）。Morosco：百老汇的戏院名。上文说Alice和Smith是在“兰心”戏院看的戏，“兰心”戏院想是在纽约州Rochester，那时候戏班已经出发巡回表演了。
● took it on the road：各处巡回公演。road有一个特别意义，专指戏班跑码头而言。请参照上文road company。
● bang：美俚，突然而来的或强烈的欢欣、兴奋。他自己是十六岁的时候，看见了戏班子在那里演出，而决心献身戏剧的，现在自己的戏班也在那里演出了，当然兴奋异常。played：play作及物动词用，这种用法比较特别。根据The American College Dictionary，此字的解释是：（戏班）在（某地）公演，（to give performance in, as a theatrical company does），该字典并举了一个例子：
to play the larger cities（在大城市公演）
这里We played Pueblo, Colorado用地名做played的宾语，意义亦不难了解了。
● run：连续演出。the Haymarket：伦敦剧院名；该戏院有悠久的历史，1705年落成，首任经理为William Congreve，在英国文学史上是有它的地位的。
● sick of：厌倦。as I was of=as I was sick of。so sick连后面的as。quit：这个字是quit的过去形式（用quitted亦可）。各处巡回演出之后，他对于罗密欧这个角色厌烦到了极点了。
● Bored stiff：恐怕是I was bored stiff的省略。stiff当是subjective complement，形容主语。bored：厌烦（到使人要命的程度）。
"Sorry to disillusion you, Mrs. Harvey, but I was thoroughly bored by that time. Forcing myself, putting it on, faking. But then, art is nothing if it's not make-believe. You build a performance out of artifice and tricks, and then you bring into play whatever skills you have, to make it true, convincing, or if you will, realistic." He laughed, that pleasant, hearty laugh. "The world of art is different from the actual, the facts. As for the artist himself—or the actor or writer or whatever—well, the less said about him, perhaps, the better."
● disillusion you：使你的迷梦幻灭。
● Forcing等三个字是现在分词呢？还是动名词？句子没有做完，很难下判断。假如是现在分词，那么这三个字可以说是形容上一句的主语I的。假如是动名词，那么这三个字前面大约省了What I had been doing was…这几个字。Forcing myself：强迫自己（做戏背台词）。putting it on：装做像煞有介事。（putting on是假装，it大约是指演戏那一套，所指较泛）。faking：伪造伪装。所作所为，无非如此，怎不叫人厌倦呢？
● make-believe：上文已有解释。“可是艺术就是以假作真，假如艺术不是如此，艺术根本就一无所有了。”
● artifice：人工，技巧。tricks：手法。演戏就是利用种种技巧手法（从种种技巧手法里面，建立你的演技）。bring into play是个成语，解作“发挥作用”。play在这里并不作“戏”解。artifice和tricks是演戏的基本条件，此外演员各人有不同的演技才能，你就把你所有的技能全拿出来，使你的表情（it=your performance）宛然像真的一般使人见了信服；或者你喜欢用这种字眼（or if you will），我们可以说你的表情可以更“现实化”（realistic）。（这里的“你”，当然是泛指，并不是指听话的人。）
● 这许多话无非要表示，演戏虽然是作假，但是“假”里面还有道理。
● He laughed后面跟一个逗点，这表示that pleasant, hearty laugh并不是laughed的宾语，（没有那个逗点，laugh就成了laughed的宾语）。现在这样标点法，that pleasant, hearty laugh该是一个补充说明（parenthetical）的短语，说明laughed的。
● the less said：关于艺术家本人，愈少讲起他愈好。艺术家的贡献是他的艺术，我们只须注意他的艺术，不必注意他的本人。
All but breathless, thrilled to her fingertips, Alice Harvey was only able to ask: "Why do you say that?"
"Well, I don't mean to hold the floor too much, but the artist is both scoundrel and angel." He's gifted and cursed, happy and in despair, parasitic and productive, neurotic and brilliant, antisocial and socially aware to the very heart of him—and always intensely interesting, because there's a little of the artist in us all. Biddy used to say "Give me the man of talent to act with, but the mediocrity to live with—every time."
● All but：差不多，几乎（作副词用）。breathless：透不过气来。她并没有真的透不过气来的，但是除此以外，一切透不过气来的现象都有了。又例：all but drowned（几乎淹死）。
● thrilled：激动。前面那个伶人的一段话，在她是闻所未闻，她听见了全身颤动，一直到手指尖都有一种异样的感觉。她开不出口，只能问这么一句话。
● floor：国会里发表议论的地方。take the floor：发言，参加讨论。hold the floor：老是一个人在讲，不让别人发言。scoundrel：坏人。注意：scoundrel和angel连用，因此前面没有冠词a。在两个或两个以上的noun连用时，通常不用a或an，例如：We are brother and sister.
● 艺术家（the artist中的冠词the并不表示某一个艺术家，而是表示这一类的人）是有矛盾的性格的，说他可恨（scoundrel）固然可以，说他可爱（angel）也可以。
● gifted和cursed二字都是从过去分词转化而成的形容词。假如问：By whom is he gifted and cursed? 我看是by God。gifted：天赋独厚的。cursed：受诅咒的，上帝规定艺术家不得过好日子。
● 艺术家是幸福的人，也是没有希望的人；他是社会的寄生虫，同时也是有创造天才的人；他神经失常，可是又是才华出众；他离群索居，不喜社交，可是心底里决丢不掉社会。socially aware：有“社会意识”；明白个人对于社会的责任等等。
● interesting：艺术家总是可以引起人家很大的兴趣，因为我们谁都有一点儿“艺术家的气质”（a little of the artist）。
● Biddy那句话可以这么译：“同我一起演戏的，我希望是一个天才；和我共同生活的，我希望是个庸人。”艺术家或天才固然有趣，但是平常是很难处的。mediocrity=a person of but moderate ability：才艺平庸之人。
"Biddy? Was she your wife?"
"Good heavens no! Biddy was the glamorous, the beauteous Constance Hope. Juliet herself."
"But—why Biddy? Was that really her nickname?"
"It's what I called her. You see, Biddy was fifteen years older than I. Forty-seven when we played Shakespeare."
● 这位伶人脱口而出地说起了Biddy这个名字。这是个昵称，又像是个女人的名字，无怪听的人以为是他太太的名字了。
● glamorous：美得迷人的。glamorous原义是“有魔力的”，有些出版较早的字典，恐怕还只列这样一个解释。近年来这个字似乎专指“惑阳城，迷下蔡”的那种“妖艳”，和“魔法，妖法”已经脱离关系了。beauteous用作“美”解，则古人诗中常见，是一个比较有书卷气的字眼。总之，glamorous（作这个解释）是个通俗的新字，beauteous是个古雅的老字，这位伶人是这两种字都喜欢用。
Alice Harvey shook her head in bewilderment, and then, in spite of herself, she laughed; but only because it was also fantastic, beyond belief. "About that business of make-believe," she managed to say, "do you really, Mr. Douglas, do you actually expect me to take you seriously when—" She flushed, trying to find an illustration for what she meant. "Well, for instance, the thrilling scene where Juliet comes on alone and launches that long speech that ends with something like
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,…
I mean, do you actually mean to sit there and tell us, Mr. Douglas, that—that Constance Hope wasn't moved when she spoke those lines? Wasn't carried away?"
● 舞台上的朱丽叶，事实上已经是四十七岁的中年妇人了，难怪我们这位女主人摇摇她的头，不知所措了。
● in spite of herself：不能控制自己。
● 四十七岁的妇人能演十四岁的朱丽叶，而且演得非常之好，看戏的人大受感动，现在想想，未免好笑。但是另外还有一点可笑之处（because…also）：虽然这位伶人不会骗人，但事情毕竟荒唐（fantastic），令人难以置信。
● make-believe：演戏本来是以假作真的。she managed to say：好容易才想出这句话来说。她虽然想了这句话来说，但是话说得还是断断续续。这句话很长，句法转了好几次：
● do you actually是重复do you really。to take you seriously相信你不是在开玩笑。when以后，句子做不下去了，她就换一种说法。flushed：脸红。an illustration：用以说明的例子。
● thrilling scene：动人的一场戏。原剧第三幕第二场，朱丽叶一个人出场，开始（launches）大段独白。这段话是朱丽叶的祷告，她求太阳快些下去，夜快些来。“把罗密欧赏赐给我！他死后，你再把他带到天上去，分散成为点点繁星……”
● Well, for instance…这句话没有说完，她又换了一句。I mean：这两个字是很有用的成语，自己觉得话说不清楚，不得不反复说明时，这两个字就用得着。
● sit there：坐在那里（餐厅的那张椅子上）。
● 朱丽叶那一段话很动人的，岂有演员自己反不受感动之理？carried away：出神，着迷。
"I'll tell you how carried away she was," he said. "Naturally I remember that scene well—God, I hear it in my sleep, to this day, Capulet's orchard, just before intermission. Biddy hadn't been in the previous scene, but I was. When I came off-stage, I always found her standing there in the wings waiting, smoking a cigarette—against all the rules, of course, but that was Biddy, a law unto herself. When she heard the cue, she handed me the cigarette and went on. It was a long scene, with the Nurse. Biddy kept on hoping, but in vain. She always had to light a new one, and cursed the Nurse for being so slow with her lines that she wasted a whole cigarette."
● hear it：这一段戏词，他念念不忘，现在时隔多年，他在睡梦中似乎还听得见。
● Capulet's orchard：Capulet是朱丽叶的姓氏，他们家的果园，是那场戏的背景。intermission：休息时间。
● the previous scene：第三幕第一场，即罗密欧击毙Tybalt的那一场。那场戏中没有朱丽叶的戏。
● off-stage：这是个形容词（这里应该是形容主语I）；解作“在后台”。
● wings：舞台的侧面（此字用复数形式）。against all the rules：翻遍后台管理规则，没有一条是容许演员在那种地方抽烟的。可是这位演员与众不同：她是Biddy，她可以率性行事。unto就是to，这是个古字。（类似的例子：until就是till，但till和until是一样适用的。）a law unto oneself是成语，解作“不可以常理来规定”。例如：A child is often a law unto itself. 小孩常有小孩自己的办法。
● cue：上一场的最后几句话（朱丽叶听见了，就预备出场。此字也可解作同一场另一演员一段对白的最后几个字，演员听见了，就预备接口说话。）
● Nurse：朱丽叶的乳娘是戏里一个重要角色。
● kept on hoping：这句话意义不大清楚，但看后面两句，便知她是希望这场戏早点结束，回去抽那枝香烟！
● to light a new one：重新点一枝香烟。原来那一枝已经烧完了。
● so slow with her lines：乳娘背台词（lines）背得太慢，害得朱丽叶糟塌一枝香烟。
Poor Alice Harvey—her head was swimming. She didn't believe, almost didn't dare listen; and certainly didn't dare to glance at her husband by now, who was probably grinning at her with his own particular brand of fiendish delight. "But if Constance Hope," she faltered, "wasn't affected by the scene, wasn't deeply moved inside, then why…how…why was I moved?"
● her head was swimming：眩晕。
● dare listen二字之间，原文没有to，这种用法很奇怪。照普通用法，用dared not listen时不用to，用didn't dare后面就得用to。本段接着就是didn't dare to glance，用to是不错的。
● 她一向所崇拜的演员，原来把演戏看得如此随便，她怕她丈夫在窃笑。grinning：露齿而笑。brand：种类。她丈夫有一种特别的“恶毒的取笑”，所谓“恶毒”者（fiendish：魔鬼的），就是看见别人窘迫了，他就引以为乐。
● faltered：吞吞吐吐地说。
"My dear Mrs. Harvey," he said, with his gentlest, his most intimate smile. "If Biddy had been moved herself—carried away by the emotion of the scene, swept off her feet, whatever you want to call it—you wouldn't have been moved at all. You'd have sat there cold and impassive, resisting it with your whole being, irritated, in fact, by the spectacle of a woman making a holy show of herself.”
● gentlest：最温柔的。most intimate：最亲切的。
● If Biddy…herself中的herself用以加强主语Biddy。moved是“感动”，说话的人怕这个字意义不够清楚，换了两种说法：“假定她被戏里的情感所支配了，假定她演得忘其所以了……。”swept off one's feet：（成语）感动得忘其所以，兴奋过度。
● whatever you want to call it：不论你用moved也好，用别种说法也好。假如演员自己大受感动，观众就不受感动了。
● impassive：不感痛痒，无动于衷（形容词，形容主语You）。
● resisting it中的it即上一句whatever you want to call it中的it——指Biddy真动了情感去做戏。with your whole being：用你全力来反抗，你就要看不下去了。being：要素，本性，“存在”。your whole being：精神身体统统算进去。
● irritated：仍是形容主语You。“你看见了要生气的”此字连后面的by。in fact是插进去补充说明的。spectacle：奇观，惨相，“好戏”。making a…show of herself：炫耀，表现自己。holy原义是“神圣”，这里是反语。a holy show该是“出丑，出洋相”。一个女人当着大庭广众，真正地大哭大笑起来，别人是忍受不了的。
Shortly after ten, Gavin Douglas rose to leave.
He was at the open door leading to the hall and the stairs, his reversible coat over his arm. He turned back momentarily, then, and Alice Harvey was delighted to see that he was about to make an exit, so to speak. He took her outstretched hand in both of his and gave her a long, searching, and very complimentary look. She waited, pleased.
"Mrs. Harvey," he said, his voice dropping a full octave lower and thrilling her through and through, "all summer long I've wondered where Rafe got those eyes. Now I know…."
● open door：公寓的大门，不是房间的门，所以这里说是“通到门堂（hall）和楼梯的那扇门”。over his arm：挽在臂上。
● then：那时候他本来已经预备跨步外出，现在忽然回转身来。to make an exit：（演员）下场。下场的时候演员常常要念两句“下场诗”。现在当然不在舞台上，但是在女主人心目中，他现在的姿势，可以说（so to speak）是在准备下场，正要说什么精彩的话，或者做什么精彩的表情。
● outstretched：伸出来的。both of his=both of his hands。look前面有三个形容词：long（时间长），searching（仔细——似乎在寻些什么东西），complimentary（带着恭维的意义）。
● pleased：过去分词作形容词用。
● dropping a full octave lower：声音忽然下降了整整一个音阶，即本来唱do re mi的，现在唱低音的do re mi。thrilling：这个字又出现了，这里可以解作“使她心神荡漾，全身的汗毛孔都觉得异样的舒服”。
● where Rafe got those eyes：我一直猜不透令郎怎么会有这样一双美的眼睛，现在我明白了……。