机遇之轮之单车艳遇（英文小说汉译实验）

100多年前的英国有位叫H G Wells 的大文豪写下了很多脍炙人口的科幻小说, 比如 ‘世界大战’（The War of the Worlds）, ‘时间机器’（The Time Machine）, ‘隐形人’（The Invisible Man）等等，因此他被尊称为‘科学幻想小说之父’， 他的那些作品都被广泛传播翻译成各国文字包括中文。然而大师刚出道时写的一篇关于骑单车长途旅行的喜剧小说 ’The wheels of chance：a bicycling idyll‘ （小说的名字暂翻译成‘机遇之轮之单车艳遇’）却似乎鲜有人知，至今更是难找到它的中文译本。

这部小说写的是在100多年前的英国，那时侯汽车还没有被发明出来，只有自行车一枝独秀！在这样一个背景下，一个终日在布店里劳作的屌丝英国小青年利用仅有的10天假期骑行英格兰南部途中所发生的故事！据说，小说中的大部分情节都能在大文豪作家青年时期的苦逼生活里找到！

老guo之所以喜欢这部作品，并不仅仅是因为这部小说描写的是在骑行途中所发生的艳遇，而最主要是因为老guo喜欢单车，大文豪同样也喜欢单车并且写下了千古名句：If I see someone who bikes on the street, I would not despair for the future of mankind. 直译成中文就是：如果我见到大街上还有人骑单车，我就不会为人类的未来而感到悲哀！其实就是因为这句话，老guo才真正称为大作家的铁杆粉丝的， 以至于这篇艳遇小说还没读完，便拍案叫绝，产生了将其翻译成中文的冲动！

当然老guo深知文学翻译并非儿戏，光靠冲动是不够的，还需要持续不停地耕耘和付出！所以，从去年那个寒冷的丹麦冬天开始，老guo在当时每天打工打倒手抽筋的苦逼生存条件下，利用一些零星睡前不受打扰的时间，独自做起了翻译这本小说的梦！时隔半年，老guo为了加速自己梦想的实现，决定借用龙域平台将汉语译文陆续登出，期盼这部作品能够更早和更多的汉语读者见面，同时也希望获得众多翻译高人高手的指点！

机遇之轮之单车艳遇（英文小说汉译实验）

本故事的主角

I

THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTER IN THE STORY

如果您（假设您是专做此类事情的性别）－ 如果您于1895年8月14日去光顾应该是坐落在Putney的那家超棒的属于Messrs. Antrobus & Co 这个子虚乌有公司的布料商店，进到店里右转到一个专卖区域，那里白色床单和被罩小山般被一直码放到那悬挂着粉色和蓝色印刷品的栏杆上，您或许正在体验这个刚开始讲述的故事的主角所提供的服务。

IF YOU (presuming you are of the sex that does such things)— if you had gone into the Drapery Emporium—which is really only magnificent for shop—of Messrs. Antrobus & Co.—a perfectly fictitious “Co.,” by the bye—of Putney, on the 14th of August, 1895, had turned to the right-hand side, where the blocks of white linen and piles of blankets rise up to the rail from which the pink and blue prints depend, you might have been served by the central figure of this story that is now beginning.

他会凑上前，点头哈腰毕恭毕敬地打招呼，他会从柜台里张开超长袖口下有点大骨节的双手，同时向前拱着尖尖的下巴向您询问，举止丝毫不流露一丝能被人察觉出来的欣喜，他会问你他能荣幸地为你展示些什么。有些情况下，比如被问到帽子，婴儿床单，手套，丝绸，蕾丝或者窗帘， 他会礼貌地鞠躬，表情略微收敛，身体转个圈请你‘这边走’，然后引领并目送你直到消失在其视线之外。 但在其他和比较快乐的情况下，比如卖粗麻布，被罩，细格布，印花布，亚麻布以及白棉布等例子下，他会央求你坐下来，为表达对客人的尊重，从柜台那边倾斜过来，痉挛般抓住一把椅子，然后开始正式地取货，然后打开为你做展示。在一些较快乐的情况下，您可能，出于一转念或者不太愿意做一个不近人情的家庭主妇，您可能不会对我们故事的主人公的热情毫不感冒的。

He would have come forward, bowing and swaying, he would have extended two hands with largish knuckles and enormous cuffs over the counter, and he would have asked you, protruding a pointed chin and without the slightest anticipation of pleasure in his manner, what he might have the pleasure of showing you. Under certain circumstances—as, for instance, hats, baby linen, gloves, silks, lace, or curtains—he would simply have bowed politely, and with a drooping expression, and making a kind of circular sweep, invited you to “step this way,” and so led you beyond his ken; but under other and happier conditions,— huckaback, blankets, dimity, cretonne, linen, calico, are cases in point,—he would have requested you to take a seat, emphasising the hospitality by leaning over the counter and gripping a chair back in a spasmodic manner, and so proceeded to obtain, unfold, and exhibit his goods for your consideration. Under which happier circumstances you might— if of an observing turn of mind and not too much of a housewife to be inhuman—have given the central figure of this story less cursory attention.

翻译此部小说可能遭遇的两大难点： 1，迄今为止没有找到哪位前辈的翻译可做借鉴，所以这篇翻译只能是黑灯瞎火的走夜路。 2， 如何翻译才能够让这部喜剧小说中的英式幽默被中文读者更好地领会？

(继续翻)

现在如果你打量这哥们，或许你会发现他身上值得打量的东西几乎没有。他穿一件黑色的晨服，玫瑰图案的胸针点缀着他西服的翻领，他系着黑色领带，下身着带花点的灰色裤子(浸在柜台下闪着神秘的光影)。他面色有些苍白，头发很浓密但略显脏兮兮，有点灰的眼睛长在他带尖的鼻子上， 简言之他的五官都很小但无一长歪。他的谈吐，如果留意，你会发现是那种人们常用的空洞套话，非常程式化的死板得脱离了语言环境，那种很久前学会的死记硬背的语言。

Now if you had noticed anything about him, it would have been chiefly to notice how little he was noticeable.。He wore the black morning coat, the black tie, and the speckled grey nether parts (descending into shadow and mystery below the counter) of his craft. He was of a pallid complexion, hair of a kind of dirty fairness, greyish eyes, and a skimpy, immature moustache under his peaked indeterminate nose. His features were all small, but none ill-shaped. A rosette of pins decorated  lappel of his coat. His remarks, you would observe, were entirely what people used to call cliche, formulae not organic to the occasion, but stereotyped ages ago and learnt years since by heart.

“夫人，这个卖得很好”他会说，“我们卖的真是物美价廉，这货一扎才43块”。“当然我们这里还有更好的”。 “没问题， 夫人， 我保证”。他每天重复着类似这些话。 所以， 我说他会把他那些表面上的东西展示给你看。他会在柜台后舞来舞去，把给你看过的物品麻利地重新折起来，把你挑中的放到一边，从某处抽出一装饰有碳叶的小本还有一张箔纸， 用那张布店伙计专有的纤细但发育良好的手开出一张小单据并大喊“ Sayn!”

然后一位略微矮胖臃肿的大堂经理出现并仔细地看了一眼账单，仔细到你可以看到他中分发型的中缝！然后他连笔地在满帐单上签上两个有力的J.M字母。然后问你还有别的吗，恭敬地站在你的一侧——－如果你付现金的话——直到本文主人公拿着找回的零钱回来。再看他一眼, 那个楼面经理会使尽浑身解数极尽恭敬地鞠躬将您送出。那么这场交易就结束了。

“This, madam,” he would say, “is selling very well” “We are doing a very good article at four three a yard.” “We could show you some thing better, of course.” “No trouble, madam, I assure you.” Such were the simple counters of his intercourse. So, I say, he would have presented himself to your superficial observation. He would have danced about behind the counter, have neatly refolded the goods he had shown you, have put on one side those you selected, extracted a little book with a carbon leaf and a tinfoil sheet from a fixture, made you out a little bill in that weak flourishing hand peculiar to drapers, and have bawled “Sayn!”

Then a puffy little shop-walker would have come into view, looked at the bill for a second, very hard (showing you a parting down the middle of his head mean- while), have scribbled a still more flourishing J. M. all over the document, have asked you if there was nothing more, have stood by you—supposing that you were paying cash— until the central figure of this story reappeared with the change. One glance more at him, and the puffy little shop walker would have been bowing you out, with fountains of civilities at work all about you. And so the interview would have terminated.

但真正的文学明显有别于道听途说，其并不只限于满足虚假的外表。 文学就是揭露。现代文学就是对现实的赤裸揭露。 一个真诚作家的责任就是要告诉你你所看不到的一面，即使会冒些尴尬的代价。那么你所看不到的这个年轻人的一面，也是和本故事中一个伟大时刻有关的，也是写这本书不得不交待的一件事情。让我们勇敢地面对这个年轻人双腿的一个很重要的状况。让我们用非感情的深度来审视这件事情。 让我们以科学的严谨的和一个近乎有良心的现实主义者的职业眼光来对待这件事情。让我们将这个年轻人的双腿仅仅当作一张图表，用讲师的精准理性的教鞭来点出这个年轻人腿上那些个令人感兴趣的方面。好，让我们逐一道来。

But real literature, as distinguished from anecdote, does not concern itself with superficial appearances alone. Literature is revelation. Modern literature is indecorous revelation. It is the duty of the earnest author to tell you what you would not have seen—even at the cost of some blushes. And the thing that you would not have seen about this young man, and the thing of the greatest moment to this story, the thing that must be told if the book is to be written, was—let us face it bravely—the Remarkable Condition of this Young Man’s Legs. Let us approach the business with dispassionate explicitness. Let us assume something of the scientific spirit, the hard, almost professorial tone of the conscientious realist. Let us treat this young man’s legs as a mere diagram, and indicate the points of interest with the unemotional precision of a lecturer’s pointer. And so to our revelation.

在这个年轻人的右脚踝骨的内侧处，女士们和先生们，你们会发现一处挫伤和一处擦伤。左脚踝的内侧也有一处挫伤，在外侧有一块很大的黄色的瘀伤。在他的左侧胫骨处有两处瘀伤，一处老伤由黄逐渐变紫，另外一处显然是新伤， 带有红斑-肿胀而且有危险。  螺旋上升到左腿，在小腿的上部， 在膝盖上面，在内测， 一块很大的瘀伤表面， 一种密密麻麻地布满挫伤。右腿整个都布满尤为壮观的瘀伤，然后在膝盖下面特别是在膝盖的里侧。到目前，我们可以继续细节的介绍。在这些发现的鼓舞下，一个调查者可能会乘胜追击地发现我们故事主人公肩部的瘀伤，肘部的，甚至在手指关节上的。他的确全身被撞被砸得体无完肤了。但是这些详细的描述犹如享受大餐一样，而这些展示也满足了我们的目的。即使是在文学上，作家也需要知道适可而止的尺度。

On the internal aspect of the right ankle of this young man you would have observed, ladies and gentlemen, a contusion and an abrasion; on the internal aspect of the left ankle a contusion also; on its external aspect a large yellowish bruise. On his left shin there were two bruises, one a leaden yellow graduating here and there into purple, and another, obviously of more recent date, of a blotchy red—tumid and threatening.  Proceeding up the left leg in a spiral manner, an unnatural hardness and redness would have been discovered on the upper aspect of the calf, and above the knee and on the inner side, an extraordinary expanse of bruised surface, a kind of closely stippled shading of contused points. The right leg would be found to be bruised in a marvellous manner all about and under the knee, and particularly on the interior aspect of the knee. So far we may proceed with our details. Fired by these discoveries, an investigator might perhaps have pursued his inquiries further—to bruises on the shoulders, elbows, and even the finger joints, of the central figure of our story. He had indeed been bumped and battered at an extraordinary number of points. But enough of realistic description is as good as a feast, and we have exhibited enough for our purpose. Even in literature one must know where to draw the line.

现在读者可能会感兴趣为什么一个令人尊敬的商店售货员会将他的双腿还有他的全身搞成一团糟呢？可能有人会猜想他的下肢一直坐在某些复杂的机械里，比如一台打谷机，或是那些庞大干草机里的一台。但摩尔摩丝侦探（现在有点幸福地挂了）却不这么认为。他会立刻辨别出左腿内侧的瘀伤，接着再参照其他擦伤和挫伤的分布，准确地指出这是初学自行车者练习跨上自行车鞍座所带来的血的代价，而且右腿膝盖的毁灭状态足以有利地证明正是由于那个初学者急促频繁，无任何原因的，总是考虑不周的下车动作才造成了这一切。

Now the reader may be inclined to wonder how a respectable young shopman should have got his legs, and indeed himself generally, into such a dreadful condition. One might fancy that he had been sitting with his nether extremities in some complicated machinery, a threshing-machine, say, or one of those hay-making furies.  But Sherlock Holmes (now happily dead) would have fancied nothing of the kind. He would have recognised at once that the bruises on the internal aspect of the left leg, considered in the light of the distribution of the other abrasions and contusions, pointed unmistakably to the violent impact of the Mounting Beginner upon the bicycling saddle, and that the ruinous state of the right knee was equally eloquent of the concussions attendant on that person’s hasty, frequently causeless, and invariably ill-conceived descents.

一个大的胫骨挫伤更能证明这是学徒级别车手必付的代价， 因为在他们每个人身上都发生过意外踩空的令人忍俊不禁的表演。您试着显得较为轻松地推着你的机器在走， 啪！你擦到了胫骨！所以从无知我们走向成熟。那个地方的两个伤痕标记着我们在学习上需要的一些智商，比如人们可能认为该人缺乏肌肉运动，还有那手上的水泡雄辩地证明了骑手的紧张和骑车时的摇摆不定。依此类推，如果不是福尔摩斯在观察那些轻伤后作出的解释，那么骑在这种毛重三四十镑，有着非钻石车架，填充轮胎，磨损严重的后轮的自行车上并非是件很时髦的事情。

One large bruise on the shin is even more characteristic of the ‘prentice cyclist, for upon every one of them waits the jest of the unexpected treadle. You try at least to walk your machine in an easy manner, and whack!—you are rubbing your shin. So out of innocence we ripen. Two bruises on that place mark a certain want of aptitude in learning, such as one might expect in a person unused to muscular exercise. Blisters on the hands are eloquent of the nervous clutch of the wavering rider. And so forth, until Sherlock is presently explaining, by the help of the minor injuries, that the machine ridden is an old-fashioned affair with a fork instead of the diamond frame, a cushioned tire, well worn on the hind wheel, and a gross weight all on of perhaps three-and-forty pounds.

说到这里，在之前我有幸介绍给你的那位认真店员的这些修饰过的数字背后，一幅场景浮现在我们面前： 漆黑的路上两个黑衣人在和一台机器互相争斗。这条路，更具体是从Roehampton到Putney hill 之间， 伴随着这幅画面我们听到的声音是脚跟搅拌碎石子的声音， 喘气和呻吟声，还有大叫“把住，哥们，把住！”一阵摇摆不定的飞行，连人带机器如同火箭翻跟头般的摔下，然后崩溃！然后你在黄昏的昏暗下可辨别出我们故事的主角，他坐在路旁揉着腿上新受伤的地方，还有他的朋友同情地（但绝不是沮丧地）在修理着他那已经错位的车把。

因此，即使在一个店员身上也充满着男子汉的气概，驱使他尽管面对忠告或者各种局限也要去冒险挑战，去追求那种只有不畏艰难险阻和战胜伤痛才能带来的真正快乐。我们对他的观察表明在一个布店店员的外表下是一个活生生的人。就这一点我们还会在后面谈到。

The revelation is made. Behind the decorous figure of the attentive shopman that I had the honour of showing you at first, rises a vision of a nightly struggle, of two dark figures and a machine in a dark road,—the road, to be explicit, from Roehampton to Putney Hill,—and with this vision is the sound of a heel spurning the gravel, a gasping and grunting, a shouting of “Steer, man, steer!” a wavering unsteady flight, a spasmodic turning of the missile edifice of man and machine, and a collapse. Then you descry dimly through the dusk the central figure of this story sitting by the roadside and rubbing his leg at some new place, and his friend, sympathetic (but by no means depressed), repairing the displacement of the handle-bar.

Thus even in a shop assistant does the warmth of manhood assert itself, and drive him against all the conditions of his calling, against the counsels of prudence and the restrictions of his means, to seek the wholesome delights of exertion and danger and pain. And our first examination of the draper reveals beneath his draperies—the man! To which initial fact (among others) we shall come again in the end.

自我评价一下，感觉这第一稿翻译得着实有些笨拙和粗糙！可能还会有个别严重的错误出现！

比如如下内容有可能会翻译得不准确

依此类推，如果不是福尔摩斯在观察那些轻伤后作出的解释，那么骑在这种毛重三四十镑，有着非钻石车架，填充轮胎，磨损严重的后轮的自行车上并非是件很时髦的事情。

And so forth, until Sherlock is presently explaining, by the help of the minor injuries, that the machine ridden is an old-fashioned affair with a fork instead of the diamond frame, a cushioned tire, well worn on the hind wheel, and a gross weight all on of perhaps three-and-forty pounds.

其他错误希望也能在对翻译感兴趣并有时间的同学们的火眼金睛下暴露出来！

（继续翻）

将他们从幻想中拉回到现实的是那个有些臃肿的大堂经理，他手里拿着一张纸。这时那个学徒就超级勤快起来。经理看了一眼手中的货品。“呼波杰乌尔”, 他说，“那个xxx销得如何”？

呼波杰乌尔从已经成功克服下车不熟练的幻想中回到现实。 “他们销售的非常好， 但那些大单走得稍微有点慢。“

大堂经理在柜台前直起身体“什么时候打算度假呢？”他问。

呼波杰乌尔捻着他那稀疏的胡须。 “先生，当然是越快越好了”

“下周如何”？

Jerking them back to the present comes the puffy little shop-walker, with a paper in his hand. The apprentice becomes extremely active. The shopwalker eyes the goods in hand. “Hoopdriver,” he says, “how’s that line of g-sez-x ging- hams ?”
“
Hoopdriver returns from an imaginary triumph over the uncertainties of dismounting. “They’re going fairly well, sir. But the larger checks seem hanging.”

The shop-walker brings up parallel to the counter. “Any particular time when you want your holidays?” he asks.

Hoopdriver pulls at his skimpy moustache. “No—Don’t want them too late, sir, of course.”

“How about this day week?”

呼波杰乌尔手里抓着棉布单的一角直愣愣地出神 。 他的表情充分暴露了他矛盾的内心。一个星期能学会骑车吗？这是个问题。如果学不会，布雷戈斯就会顶替他度假，那他就必须等到9月，到那时天气好坏就很难预料了。他原本属于那种比较开朗向上的性格。所有卖布的都必须是这样，否则他们就不会对他们手头所售卖的商品的物美，宜洗涤和不褪色等优点有信心。最后呼波杰乌尔先生结束了停顿下定决心地说“这个假期安排非常适合我” 。

Hoopdriver becomes rigidly meditative, gripping the corners of the gingham folds in his hands. His face is eloquent of conflicting considerations. Can he learn it in a week? That’s the question. Otherwise Briggs will get next week, and he will have to wait until September—when the weather is of- ten uncertain. He is naturally of a sanguine disposition. All drapers have to be, or else they could never have the faith they show in the beauty, washability, and unfading excellence of the goods they sell you. The decision comes at last. “That’ll do me very well,” said Mr. Hoopdriver, terminating the pause.

木已成舟。

大堂经理记了一下然后就去了这个布店第二重要部门服装部的布雷戈斯那里。呼波杰乌尔就这样时而在抖着布匹时而陷入深思，其舌头舔着正烂掉的智齿里的洞。

The die is cast.

The shop-walker makes a note of it and goes on to Briggs in the “dresses,” the next in the strict scale of precedence of the Drapery Emporium. Mr. Hoopdriver in alternating spasms anon straightens his gingham and anon becomes meditative, with his tongue in the hollow of his decaying wisdom tooth.

III

那天晚上，旅行度假明显地成了餐桌上的主要话题。 普里查德先生提到苏格兰，伊萨卡小姐则大声呼喊威尔士的小村碧土科德。嘉德森先生对诺福科布劳兹那个地方表达了想要去占有的欲望 。“我？当然是骑车？”轮到呼波杰乌尔回答提问。“你不会天天骑着那个糟糕透了的破玩意吧”？服装部的郝伊小姐问道。 “是的” 。呼波杰乌尔非常镇定，用手捻着他那几根稀疏的胡须。 “我要沿南部海岸骑单车旅游”。

At supper that night, holiday talk held undisputed sway. Mr. Pritchard spoke of “Scotland,” Miss Isaacs clamoured of Bettws-y-Coed, Mr. Judson displayed a proprietary interest in the Norfolk Broads. “I?” said Hoopdriver when the question came to him. “Why, cycling, of course.” “You’re never going to ride that dreadful machine of yours, day after day?” said Miss Howe of the Costume Department. “I am,” said Hoopdriver as calmly as possible, pulling at the insufficient moustache. “I’m going for a Cycling Tour.

“好吧， 我真的希望苍天有眼给你几天好天气” 郝伊小姐说。 “别遇上倒霉的破天气”。
“别忘了将一些擦伤药放你包里，”穿高领子那个年轻的学徒说。 （他曾在普特尼山上亲眼目睹了一幕摔车惨剧）
“那玩意儿你留着用” 呼波杰乌尔先生说，眼神挑衅地瞪着那个年轻学徒，突然嘴里又轻蔑地冒出一个字“果酱瓶子”
“骑在那上面我现在感到很安全” 他告诉郝伊小姐 。换其他时候呼波杰乌尔有可能会憎恨那个学徒的嘲讽，但现在他一门心思都用在那个旅行而无暇计较其他有关个人尊严的细枝末节。 他匆匆吃完晚饭，好有充足的一个小时到罗汉亩路去练习并赶在关门前回来。

Along the South Coast.”
“Well, all I hope, Mr. Hoopdriver, is that you’ll get fine weather,” said Miss Howe. “And not come any nasty crop- pers.” “And done forget some tinscher of arnica in yer bag,” said the junior apprentice in the very high collar. (He had witnessed one of the lessons at the top of Putney Hill.)  “You stow it,” said Mr. Hoopdriver, looking hard and threateningly at the junior apprentice, and suddenly adding in a tone of bitter contempt,— “ Jampot.”

“I’m getting fairly safe upon it now,” he told Miss Howe. At other times Hoopdriver might have further resented the satirical efforts of the apprentice, but his mind was too full of the projected Tour to admit any petty delicacies of dignity. He left the supper table early, so that he might put in a good hour at the desperate gymnastics up the Roehampton Road before it would be time to come back for locking up.

夜晚煤气关掉后他坐在床边一边用一种叫做山金车的草药来擦他膝盖上新挂得一块很大的彩，一边研究英格兰南部地图。和他共处一室的制衣部的布雷戈斯在床上坐起并在黑暗里点颗烟。虽然布雷戈斯一辈子都没碰过自行车， 但他感到呼波杰乌尔在骑行方面太嫩所以就将他脑袋里的一些想法好心地作为建议道出来。

When the gas was turned off for the night he was sitting on the edge of his bed, rubbing arnica into his knee—a new and very place—and studying a Road Map of the South of England. Briggs of the “dresses,” who shared the room with him, was big sitting up in bed and trying to smoke in the dark. Briggs had never been on a cycle in his life, but he felt Hoopdriver’s inexperience and offered such advice as occurred to him.

“一定要将机器彻底地用油润滑一遍，” 布雷戈斯说， “随身带一到两块柠檬， 第一天不要骑得太猛，然后一定要坐直。控好车， 一遇情况就响铃。 如你照我说的做，那你就一路平安。 呼波杰乌尔, 照我说的做。” 然后他沉默一分钟，含着烟枪的嘴里可能会利用间隙嘟囔一句脏话，然后再迸出一套全新的建议。

“Have the machine thoroughly well oiled,” said Briggs, “carry one or two lemons with you, don’t tear yourself to death the first day, and sit upright. Never lose control of the machine, and always sound the bell on every possible opportunity. You mind those things, and nothing very much can’t happen to you, Hoopdriver—you take my word.” He would lapse into silence for a minute, save perhaps for a curse or so at his pipe, and then break out with an entirely different set of tips.

“无论怎样， 也别碰上狗！呼波杰乌尔,如果遇上狗那将是最糟糕的事情之一！不要急转，那天有个人就因为急转挂掉了！不要超速， 不要在人行道上骑， 靠一边骑，如果看见电车线，立刻在角落里拐弯，然后快速骑进下一个县－－永远要记住在天黑前亮起车灯。 如果你注意一些类似的小细节，呼波杰乌尔, 你会一路平安的，信我的没错！

“Avoid running over dogs, Hoopdriver, whatever you do. It’s one of the worst things you can do to run over a dog. Never let the machine buckle—there was a man killed only the other day through his wheel buckling—don’t scorch, don’t ride on the foot-path, keep your own side of the road, and if you see a tram- line, go round the corner at once, and hurry off into the next county—and always light up before dark. You mind just a few little things like that, Hoopdriver, and nothing much can’t happen to you—you take my word.”

“言之有理!” 呼波杰乌尔说“你老人家，晚安.”
“晚安”布雷戈斯说。美美享受吸食烟枪带来片刻的沉寂。驾着他的战车驶进入了他的梦乡，正当快要到达时，他被重新抛回到现实的感知世界之中。有点东西——那是什么？
“千万别润滑车把转向！会要命的！”一个声音从那忽明忽灭的光亮中传来。每天用黑铅粉清洗车链条。如果你注意这些细小方面——”

“仁慈的上帝啊！” 呼波杰乌尔说，然后用床单堵住了他的耳朵。

“Right you are!” said Hoopdriver. “Good-night, old man.”
“Good-night,” said Briggs, and there was silence for a space, save for the succulent respiration of the pipe. Hoopdriver rode off into Dreamland on his machine, and was scarcely there before he was pitched back into the world of sense again.—Something—what was it ? “Never oil the steering. It’s fatal,” a voice that came from round a fitful glow of light, was saying. “And clean the chain daily with black-lead. You mind just a few little things like that—”
“Lord love us!” said Hoopdriver, and pulled the bedclothes over his ears.

(继续翻)

呼先生骑行启动
IV

THE RIDING FORTH OF MR. HOOPDRIVER
IV

只有那些终年每周七天里辛苦劳作六个整天，仅在夏天攒下短短两周或10天假期的人才体会得到第一个假日早晨的美妙感觉。所有枯燥无聊的日常事务突然都从你的心头卸了下来，曾束缚你的锁链在你的脚下绷开。顷刻间你成了你的主宰，一整个假日里每个小时的主宰。你可以随心情地选择要去的地方， 不必尊称这个先生或者那个夫人，西服翻领上无需别别针，脱掉你黑色晨服，随心所欲地穿自己喜欢的颜色，做个自由的人。

ONLY THOSE who toil six long days out of the seven, and all the year round, save for one brief glorious fortnight or ten days in the summer time, know the exquisite sensations of the First Holiday Morning. All the dreary, uninteresting routine drops from you suddenly, your chains fall about your feet. All at once you are Lord of yourself, Lord of every hour in the long, vacant day; you may go where you please, call none Sir or Madame, have a lappel free of pins, doff your black morning coat, and wear the colour of your heart, and be a Man.

你厌恶睡觉和吃喝，觉得那是对美妙时光的一种践踏。至少在这幸福的10天内，不必再穿着旧的便服在早餐前起床去除尘和准备在一个毫无生气阴森森的封闭店里上工。你不会再听到那些自以为是的类似 "呼波杰夫尔，向前冲"的喊叫,不需要再匆匆将饭倒进肚子里，也不再需要伺候那些有些神经质的老妇人。

You grudge sleep, you grudge eating, and drinking even, their intrusion on those exquisite moments. There will be no more rising before breakfast in casual old clothing, to go dusting and getting ready in a cheerless, shutterdarkened, wrappered-up shop, no more imperious cries of, “Forward, Hoopdriver,” no more hasty meals, and weary attendance on fitful old women, for ten blessed days.

因为你将你的全部命运握在自己手上，所以第一个假日早晨你感觉是最美好的. 但接下来的每个晚上，一阵阵痛楚的害怕失去的不祥之感就会袭来，挥之不去。 返回工作，在另外12个月内被重新圈回笼中的阴影在阳光下显得越来越浓重。 但是，10天假日里的第一个清晨是没有过去，无需顾忌的， 似乎这个早晨会成为永恒。

The first morning is by far the most glorious, for you hold your whole fortune in your hands. Thereafter, every night, comes a pang, a spectre, that will not be exorcised—the premonition of the return. The shadow of going back, of being put in the cage again for another twelve months, lies blacker and blacker across the sunlight. But on the first morning of the ten the holiday has no past, and ten days seems as good as infinity.

早晨天气很不错，接下来几天也肯定会阳光明媚的。深蓝色的天空上到处悬垂着耀眼的朵朵白云，就像天上的农夫在将昨夜的层层白云码放好准备用马车运走一样。里奇蒙德路上画眉还有蒲特尼西施路上的云雀都在欢快地歌唱着。空气中弥漫着露水的清新味道，昨夜的细雨打在树叶和草地上的露珠还在闪着亮光。呼先生在甘丝夫人的关照下早早吃了早餐。他双轮向上骑行在普特尼山，心里美得哼唱起来。半山腰上，一只看似正发情的黑猫正急匆匆地穿过马路消失在自己的门洞下。所有那些座落在光影斑驳的树丛后的高大的红砖别墅上的窗帘还没有撩起， 你就是出价一百英镑来让我们的呼先生也如同那些别墅里的人一样酣睡，那他也不会答应的！

And it was fine, full of a promise of glorious days, a deep blue sky with dazzling piles of white cloud here and there, as though celestial haymakers had been piling the swathes of last night’s clouds into cocks for a coming cartage。 There were thrushes in the Richmond Road, and a lark on Putney Heath. The freshness of dew was in the air; dew or the relics of an overnight shower glittered on the leaves and grass. Hoopdriver had breakfasted early by Mrs. Gunn’s complaisance. He wheeled his machine up Putney Hill, and his heart sang within him. Halfway up, a dissipated-looking black cat rushed home across flile road and vanished under a gate. All the big red-brick houses behind the variegated shrubs and trees had their blinds down still, and he would not have changed places with a soul in any one of them for a hundred pounds.

他穿着一套新的棕色的骑行服－一件花30块买来的漂亮的诺夫克夹克－还有他那双可怜的遍体鳞伤的腿，正好用厚厚的格子图案连腿袜子来温暖抚慰， 脚穿薄，腿穿厚！一件叠得整齐的美国布料放在车座后里面包着雨具，车铃车把车轴和有些掉色的车灯在朝阳下发出耀眼的光芒。在山顶，呼先生在经历了一次摔在草地上不成功的上车后，他终于攀上了车，然后稳健地划出一道漂亮的弧线，开始了他的伟大的英格兰南岸骑行之旅。

He had on his new brown cycling suit—a handsome Norfolk jacket thing for 30/—and his legs—those martyr legs— were more than consoled by thick chequered stockings, “thin in the foot, thick in the leg,” for all they had endured. A neat packet of American cloth behind the saddle contained his change of raiment, and the bell and the handle-bar and the hubs and lamp, albeit a trifle freckled by wear, glittered blindingly in the rising sunlight. And at the top of the hill, after only one unsuccessful attempt, which, somehow, terminated on the green, Hoopdriver mounted, and with a stately and cautious restraint in his pace, and a dignified curvature of path, began his great Cycling Tour along the Southern Coast.

只有一个词组才能恰当描述他目前的骑行线--也就是奢靡的曲线。 他骑得不快而且不走直线。 可能一个苛刻的批评者会说他骑得很糟糕——但他骑得慷慨，奢华，霸占着整个路面甚至蚕食到了人行道上。这种兴奋感丝毫没有减弱。 到目前他还从来没有超过或被别的什么超过，尽管天还早路上还通畅。他怀疑他的方向盘控制， 现在他试图通过抓到车轮子以上任何东西来试着下车。树的影子长且呈蓝色地投在路上，早晨的阳光有点像瑚舶色的火焰。在西山顶的岔路上，牛群车在那停靠着。 他转向金斯顿方向然后准备着爬上这个小坡。一个早起的穿着棉绒夹克的看地人看到他吃力地蹬车感到惊讶。 当他正奋力时，马车的车头在山顶出现了。看见马车，呼先生被过去的努力驱使正千方百计下车。他抓紧车闸，车子突然抱死了。 在下车时他还一直在想着他用右腿作了什么。 他握住把然后放开车闸，站在左脚镫子上然后在空中摇摆着他的右脚。然后——闲话少叙， 他发现这个车子在向右面倒去。

There is only one phrase to describe his course at this stage, and that is—voluptuous curves. He did not ride fast, he did not ride straight, an exacting critic might say he did not ride well—but he rode generously, opulently, using the whole road and even nibbling at the footpath. The excitement never flagged. So far he had never passed or been passed by anything, but as yet the day was young and the road was clear. He doubted his steering so much that, for the present, he had resolved to dismount at the approach of anything else upon wheels. The shadows of the trees lay very long and blue across the road, the morning sunlight was like amber fire. At the cross-roads at the top of West Hill, where the cattle trough stands, he turned towards Kingston and set himself to scale the little bit of ascent. An early heath-keeper, in his velveteen jacket, marvelled at his efforts. And while he yet struggled, the head of a carter rose over the brow. At the sight of him，Mr. Hoopdriver, according to his previous determination, resolved to dismount. He tightened the brake, and the machine stopped dead. He was trying to think what he did with his right leg whilst getting off. He gripped the handles and released the brake, standing on the left pedal and waving his right foot in the air. Then—these things take so long in the telling—he found the machine was falling over to the right.

他的大脑在思考这对策，重心引力似乎也变得很忙。车子摔在地上，跪在车子上面他还在纳闷，他隐约地感觉到大腿膝盖下部又严重地受伤了。这一切都发生在当看地人和他并行的时候。马车上的看地人站起来以便能把事故现场看得清楚。

While he was deciding upon a plan of action, gravitation appears to have been busy. He was still irresolute when he found the machine on the ground, himself kneeling upon it, and a vague feeling in his mind that again Providence had dealt harshly with his shin. This happened when he was just level with the heath－keeper. The man in the approaching cart stood up to see the ruins better.

"那可不是下车的正确方法" 看地人说。

呼先生拾起车子，矫正了扭歪的车把。他含糊地嘟囔了一句。他不得不拧开那个狗东西。

沉默片刻后那个看地人重复着说 “那可不是下车的正确方法”

“ 我知道“ 呼先生说，他紧张地意欲不惜一切地掩盖大腿上的新标记。他打开车座后的包拿出了一把锤子。

“如果你知道那个下法不对，那你应做什么“ 看地人说，语气里透着善意的指责。

呼先生拿出锤子走到了车把前。他显然有些恼火了。“别管闲事” 他说，手里摸着锤子。异常的冲动搞得他的双手可怕地抖了起来。

看地人沉思了一下，然后将身后手里的棍子扭了一下。他接着说 “你摔坏了车把，是吗？”

“That ain’t the way to get off,” said the heathkeeper.

Mr. Hoopdriver picked up the machine. The handle was twisted askew again He said something under his breath. He would have to unscrew the beastly thing.

“That ain’t the way to get off,” repeated the heathkeeper, after a silence.

“I know that,” said Mr. Hoopdriver, testily, determined to overlook the new specimen on his shin at any cost. He unbuckled the wallet behind the saddle, to get out a screw hammer.

“If you know it ain’t the way to get off—whaddyer do it for?” said the heath-keeper, in a tone of friendly controversy. Mr. Hoopdriver got out his screw hammer and went to the handle. He was annoyed.

“That’s my business, I suppose,” he said, fumbling with the screw. The unusual exertion had made his hands shake frightfully.


The heath-keeper became meditative, and twisted his stick in his hands behind his back. “You’ve broken yer ‘andle, ain’t yer?” he said presently.

这时锤子从螺母里掉了出来。呼先生嘴迸出了一个非常肮脏和低俗的字。“They’re trying things, them bicycles,” 看地人说话语气中带着怜悯。“Very trying.”呼先生恼怒地转了一下螺丝然后突然站起来——他用膝盖夹住前轮。“但愿”， 他说，声音里带着火气. “我希望你不要再用盯着我”。 他开始将锤子重新放回袋子里，神情里带有下达最后通牒的意味。

Just then the screw hammer slipped off the nut. Mr. Hoopdriver used a nasty, low word. “They’re trying things, them bicycles,” said the heath- keeper, charitably. “Very trying.” Mr. Hoopdriver gave the nut a vicious turn and suddenly stood up—he was holding the front wheel between his knees. “I wish,” said he, with a catch in his voice, “I wish you’d leave off staring at me.” Then with the air of one who has delivered an ultimatum, he began replacing the screw hammer in the wallet.


看地人站在那里纹丝不动。 可能他竖起了眉毛，当然比刚才盯得更狠了。“你现在可不太友好啊” 他慢慢地说，呼先生在等只要马车一启动他就抓住车把准备上车。忿怒的气氛慢慢地聚集。

“如果不想和别人说话为什么不在你家自己的院子里骑车呢？“，对问题的核心看得越来越清楚的看地人挖苦地问，”难道过路的连句话都不能对你说，你这个好激动的伙计？难道心地善良的我不能和你说句话？难道你突然别木头打了吗？“

呼先生面无表情，双眼凝视着无限的远方。这有点像伦敦特拉法广场的狮子受到了侮辱。 但是看地人感到他的荣誉受到了威胁。

难道你就不想和我说句话？当马车远远停在他们旁边，看地人说。

“‘他是个a bloomin’ dook, ‘他是. ‘他从来不和地球上任何一个人说话。 ‘他’ 在赶赴温莎城堡, ‘他是; 那就是为什么他傲慢的撅着他的屁股！ 很傲气! 为什么, ‘他’的傲气太多了, ‘他不得不到处泄泄，如果不泄泄他会被憋爆的！

The heath-keeper never moved. Possibly he raised his eyebrows, and certainly he stared harder than he did before. “You’re pretty unsociable,” he said slowly, as Mr. Hoopdriver seized the handles and stood ready to mount as soon as the cart had passed.
  The indignation gathered slowly but surely. “Why don’t you ride on a private road of your own if no one ain’t to speak to you?” asked the heath-keeper, perceiving more and more clearly the bearing of the matter. “Can’t no one make a passin’ remark to you, Touchy? Ain’t I good enough to speak to you? Been struck wooden all of a sudden?”

Mr. Hoopdriver stared into the Immensity of the Future. He was rigid with emotion. It was like abusing the Lions in Trafalgar Square. But the heathkeeper felt his honour was at stake.

“Don’t you make no remarks to ‘IM,” said the keeper as the carter came up broadside to them.

“‘E’s a bloomin’ dook, ‘e is. ‘E don’t converse with no one under a earl. ‘E’s off to Windsor, ‘e is; that’s why ‘e’s stickin’ his be’ind out so haughty. Pride! Why, ‘e’s got so much of it, ‘e has to carry some of it in that there bundle there, for fear ‘e’d bust if ‘e didn’t ease hisself a bit—‘e—”

但呼波杰夫尔似乎什么也没听到。他在路上有力地跳跃着，以一种近乎抽搐的方式来重新登上车。他一次踩空了脚凳令看地人高兴得心花怒放。 “nar! Nar!”， 看地人喊着。又过了片刻，呼先生站起来， 在车子的漂亮扭动下，那个看地人终于被抛在耳后了。呼先生真想回头刺激一下那个敌人，但那会导致车子扭曲和不稳。他能想像到那个被惹火的看地人对着马车在倾述。他努力地对着身后渐渐远去的目标发出最大的轻蔑。

But Mr. Hoopdriver heard no more. He was hopping vigorously along the road, in a spasmodic attempt to remount. He missed the treadle once and swore viciously, to the keeper’s immense delight. “Nar! Nar!” said the heath- keeper.  In another moment Mr. Hoopdriver was up, and after one terrific lurch of the machine, the heathkeeper dropped out of earshot. Mr. Hoopdriver would have liked to look back at his enemy, but he usually twisted round and upset if he tried that. He had to imagine the indignant heath-keeper telling the carter all about it. He tried to infuse as much disdain as possible into his retreating aspect.

他现在沿着新湖边弯弯曲曲路的下坡骑行，然后又慢慢上升到坠入金斯顿山谷的小山山腰。这里值得描述的是骑自行车的心理学，他现在骑行的笔直和轻松，这可能因为刚才遭遇看地人所引发的情绪将他的大脑从前所未有的恐惧摔车的阴影中摆脱出来。骑好自行车很像是一场恋爱， 主要是要有自信。相信你能做得到你就能做好；如果怀疑，你就会遭遇失败。

现在您或许会想像他在接下来的骑行中心中对看地人的态度不是要复仇就是后悔，－复仇是因为他自己坏脾气的加重或后悔针对自己的坏脾气的不理智爆发。实际上这两种假设都不对。 一种突如其来的很强烈的感激之情占据了他。享受假日的幸福感又因为眼前突现的美景重新占据了他的身心。在山顶他将脚放到脚镫上，略微直线地用力杀闸地享受着那超棒的下坡。眼中充满着一种喜悦，这喜悦甚至超过了疾速穿越那浓烈甜蜜的清晨空气的喜悦。他伸出大拇指高兴地按着车铃。“‘他是个 a bloomin’ Dook—他就是 !’” 呼波杰夫尔对着自己用温柔的声音说, 当他疾速奔驰下山 , “‘He’s a bloomin’ Dook!”’ 他张开嘴暗自笑着.

He drove on his sinuous way down the dip by the new mere (lake)and up the little rise to the crest of the hill that drops into Kingston Vale; and so remarkable is the psychology of cycling, that he rode all the straighter and easier because the emotions the heath keeper had aroused relieved his mind of the constant expectation of collapse that had previously un- nerved him. To ride a bicycle properly is very like a love affair—chiefly it is a matter of faith. Believe you do it, and the thing is done; doubt, and, for the life of you, you cannot.

Now you may perhaps imagine that as he rode on, his feelings towards the heath-keeper were either vindictive or remorseful,—vindictive for the aggravation or remorseful for his own injudicious display of ill temper.  As a matter of fact, they were nothing of the sort. A sudden, a wonderful gratitude, possessed him. The Glory of the Holidays had resumed its sway with a sudden accession of splendour.

At the crest of the hill he put his feet upon the footrests, and now riding moderately straight, went, with a palpitating brake, down that excellent descent. A new delight was in his eyes, quite over and above the pleasure of rushing through the keen, sweet, morning air.  
He reached out his thumb and twanged his bell out of sheer happiness.
“‘He’s a bloomin’ Dook—he is!’” said Mr. Hoopdriver to himself, in a soft undertone, as he went soaring down the hill, and again, “‘He’s a bloomin’ Dook!”’ He opened his mouth in a silent laugh.

“It was having a decent cut did it. His social superiority had been so evident that even a man like that noticed it. 暂别曼彻斯特那家店10天！ 一个逃出曼彻斯特的人, 那个布店营业员呼波杰夫尔,那个人手已经从这个世界消失了，代之而来的是一位先生， 一个志得意满享受人生同时手中握有一个5英镑纸币，2个1镑金币 和一些银币的快乐的人. At any rate as good as a Dook, if not precisely in the peerage. 如果准确地说虽非朋党起码也和Dook一样好。想到他的资金，他的右手下意识地离开了车把摸了一下他胸前的口袋，然后车子疾速地向着墓地俯冲下去。Whirroo! 差点撞上那半块砖！哪个淘气的坏家伙将这个放在了路上。Some blooming ‘Arry or other! 真应该起诉那些个歹徒，其他人就不敢再造次了！那一定是钱包的扣子在敲打挡泥板。轮子发出的嗡嗡声真令人兴奋啊！

At any rate as good as a Dook, if not precisely in the peerage. Involuntarily at the thought of his funds Hoopdriver’s right hand left the handle and sought his breast pocket, to be immediately recalled by a violent swoop of the machine towards the cemetery. Whirroo! Just missed that half-brick! Mischievous brutes there were in the world to put such a thing in the road. Some blooming ‘Arry or other! Ought to prosecute a few of these roughs, and the rest would know better. That must be the buckle of the wallet was rattling on the mud-guard. How cheerfully the wheels buzzed!

尽管这个墓地异常静谧但整个维尔镇在苏醒， 一扇扇窗子在咣当咯吱的声中被打开。一条白毛狗从一个房子里窜出冲他吠叫。在金斯顿 山山脚他下了车略微有点上气不接下气地推行。走到半路，一辆早起的送牛奶车隆隆地经过他，两个脏家伙扛着大捆的东西跑下来。呼波杰夫尔确定他俩是窃贼，正扛着脏物奔向回家的路上。登上金斯顿山顶他开始意识到了一种异样，在他的膝盖处稍有些紧的感觉； 但他也意识到在快到山顶时他骑得比以往更直了。直骑的快乐覆盖了这些初始的疲倦。一个骑在马背上的人出现了，呼波杰夫尔在狂喜和自信的鼓舞下超越了他。

The cemetery was very silent and peaceful, but the Vale was waking, and windows rattled and squeaked up, and a white dog came out of one of the houses and yelped at him. He got off, rather breathless, at the foot of Kingston Hill, and pushed up. Halfway up, an early milk chariot rattled by him; two dirty men with bundles came hurrying down. Hoopdriver felt sure they were burglars, carrying home the swag. It was up Kingston Hill that he first noticed a peculiar feeling, a slight tightness at his knees; but he noticed, too, at the top that he rode straighter than he did before. The pleasure of riding straight blotted out these first intimations of fatigue. A man on horseback appeared; Hoopdriver, in a tumult of soul at his own temerity, passed him.

在进入金斯顿的下坡山路上，他车口袋里的锤子叮叮当当地撞着袋子里面的油罐。他成功地超过了一辆水果车还有吃力前行的一辆满载的运砖车。 在金斯顿, 呼波杰夫尔怀着最激动的心情，看见了一家布店的窗户上遮挡阳光的卷帘半开着，里面有两个打哈气的年轻人穿着落满灰的黑夹克，脖子上围着脏脏的暖暖的白色床单，打扫整理着货架箱子和包装等， 正准备着开门迎客。即使昨天呼波杰夫尔还在做同样的事情。 但现在他在众人眼里已经不再是一个blooming dook了。他穿过右边的角落，狠命地按动车铃, 向着萨比顿的方向前进。

自由和冒险万岁！骑行途中不时的会有那些房子里带有睡意的人们对着他亮出吃惊的眼神， 在他的右面持续一英里左右的泰晤士河河水滚动着，在阳光下闪着粼粼波光。这是人生最美妙的享受！尽管这美妙的感觉还会不时被膝盖和小腿隐隐作痛的感觉所打断。

Then down the hill into Kingston, with the screw hammer, behind in the wallet, rattling against the oil can. He passed, without misadventure, a fruiterer’s van and a sluggish cartload of bricks.  And in Kingston Hoopdriver, with the most exquisite sensations, saw the shutters half removed from a draper’s shop, and two yawning youths, in dusty old black jackets and with dirty white comforters about their necks, clearing up the planks and boxes and wrappers in the window, preparatory to dressing it out. Even so had Hoopdriver been on the previous day. But now, was he not a bloomin’ Dook, palpably in the sight of common men? Then round the corner to the right—bell banged furiously—and so along the road to Surbiton.

Whoop for Freedom and Adventure! Every now and then a house with an expression of sleepy surprise would open its eye as he passed, and to the right of him for a mile or so the weltering Thames flashed and glittered. Talk of your joie de vivre. Albeit with a certain cramping sensation about the knees and calves slowly forcing itself upon his attention.

这些是不是书里的？

很厉害，，，，，，亲力亲为搞翻译

nakiyo 发表于 2013-9-28 23:35
很厉害，，，，，，亲力亲为搞翻译

谢谢美女版主鼓励，那个oldfish也在威胁！最近实在是因为5斗米，连修自行车的时间都挤得没有了！另外也恳请hg wells文豪大人在天之灵原谅，因为本人才疏学浅，在邂逅美少女这章里遇到了很多直译不通的地方, 所以更新的速度降了下来！ 但似乎在我们华人小说读者群中，还是有人喜欢读你的这篇青涩之作的！所以，我要继续加油了！

邂逅灰衣美少女时的尴尬一幕
V
THE SHAMEFUL EPISODE OF THE YOUNG LADY IN GREY
V

现在大家应该明白呼先生并不是人们心目中的那种耽于追求刺激的纨绔少年。如果他成为圣经里提到的勒谬尔国王 ，他一定会从母亲教诲中得到更多的益处。他尊女性为敬而远之的对象，终年柜台前后忙碌的他始终对异性保持着礼貌性的亲近接触。在与呼先生同辈的年轻男性大都放浪形骸的社会里， 连在周日带店里的那些年轻女士去教堂这件事对他来说都很冒险。

NOW YOU MUST UNDERSTAND that Mr. Hoopdriver was not one of your fast young men. If he had been King Lemuel, he could not have profited more by his mother’s instructions. He regarded the feminine sex as something to bow to and smirk at from a safe distance. Years of the intimate remoteness of a counter leave their mark upon a man. It was an adventure for him to take one of the Young Ladies of the establishment to church on a Sunday. Few modern young men could have merited less the epithet “Dorg.”

但有时我在想呼先生的这部车的金属外表里面可能藏有很多故事，这部车一定是大有来头的。呼波杰夫尔从住在普特尼的名叫海尔的那个人那里作为二手货买来。海尔说这台车之前已有几个主人。其实‘二手’这个词用在这里是不恰当的，海尔自己甚至有些困惑自己为什么要把如此一件珍贵的古董给卖掉。 他说，尽管车子样式有点过时但车况却非常棒。但是他对这台车的品德却讳莫如深只字不提。

But I have thought at times that his machine may have had something of the blade in its metal. Decidedly it was a machine with a past. Mr. Hoopdriver had bought it second-hand from Hare’s in Putney, and Hare said it had had several owners. Second- hand was scarcely the word for it, and Elare was mildly puzzled that he should be selling such an antiquity. He said it was perfectly sound, if a little old-fashioned, but he was absolutely silent about its moral character.

这台车的第一个主人没准是一个正值大好青春的诗人，或者是一个十足的恶棍。但凡骑过自行车的人都不会不清楚坏习惯的养成一定要付出些代价的。毋庸置疑呼先生面部的痉挛般的狂野表情出现在灰衣美少女露面时刻。这一切皆始于那绝对史无前例的一次‘晃动’－这在呼波杰夫尔的经验世界里是绝无仅有的。 这次晃动“开启”了呼先生的一次最为腐败的翻滚，并在空中划出如画家Beardsley ’s 笔下那著名的羽毛那样的痕迹。突然他意识到戴在头上的帽子有些松了，然后似乎呼吸受阻他差点上不来气！

It may even have begun its career with a poet, say, in his glorious youth. It may have been the bicycle of a Really Bad Man. No one who has ever ridden a cycle of any kind but will witness that the things are unaccountably prone to pick up bad habits—and keep them. It is undeniable that it became convulsed with the most violent emotions directly the Young Lady in Grey appeared. It began an absolutely unprecedented Wabble—unprecedented so far as Hoopdriver’s experience went. It “showed off ”—the most decadent sinuosity. It left a track like one of Beardsley’s feathers. He suddenly realised, too, that his cap was loose on his head and his breath a mere remnant.

那个穿灰衣的年轻女士也骑着一辆自行车。她穿的衣服是那种灰中透着蓝的漂亮颜色，身后的太阳描出她金色的全身轮廓，其他细节都浸在暗影里。呼波杰夫尔模糊地看出来她很年轻苗条，皮肤有点黑，双眼明亮有神。他似乎感到她穿着的风格略有些特殊， 有点法国味道，他对此有所耳闻。她的车把闪着亮光， 一束太阳光投射到车铃上眩目刺眼。 她现在正从富裕的萨比顿别墅方向向着大路这边骑来。几条路斜斜地交汇在一起。 她的骑行速度和呼波杰夫尔的差不多，很明显他们会在前面的交叉路口相遇。

The Young Lady in Grey was also riding a bicycle. She was dressed in a beautiful bluish-gray, and the sun behind her drew her outline in gold and left the rest in shadow. Hoopdriver was dimly aware that she was young, rather slender, dark, and with a bright colour and bright eyes. Strange doubts possessed him as to the nature of her nether costume. He had heard of such things of course. French, perhaps. Her handles glittered; a jet of sunlight splashed off her bell blindingly. She was approaching the high road along an affluent from the villas of Surbiton. The roads converged slantingly. She was travelling at about the same pace as Mr. Hoopdriver. The appearances pointed to a meeting at the fork of the roads.

呼波杰夫尔大脑里满是可怕的思想斗争。对比这个女人的骑行，他的骑行姿势简直毫无优雅可言。是不是应该装作脚踏出问题然后跳下车来？ 即使跳车，跳得如何似乎也是一个未知数！还记得上次在普特尼希思那个鬼地方!  如果不跳车继续骑行那会发生什么？如果像蜗牛那样骑可能有点剥夺他的阳刚之气吧。在一个骑得一点也不快的小女学生屁股后爬行！冲在她前面。。。有点不文明——贪婪。他会给她留有一些余地。他的长年的商场服务经验驱使他本能地鞠躬哈腰和靠一边站。如果他还能把手从车把上拿开，然后默默地举起帽子。哎，这么玩恐怕离葬礼就不远了。

Hoopdriver was seized with a horrible conflict of doubts. By contrast with her he rode disgracefully. Had he not better get off at once and pretend something was wrong with his treadle? Yet even the end of getting off was an uncertainty. That last occasion on Putney Heath! On the other hand, what would happen if he kept on? To go very slow seemed the abnegation of his manhood. To crawl after a mere schoolgirl! Besides, she was not riding very fast. On the other hand, to thrust himself in front of her, consuming the road in his ten- dril-like advance, seemed an incivility—greed. He would leave her such a very little. His business training made him prone to bow and step aside. If only one could take one’s hands off the handles, one might pass with a silent elevation of the hat, of course. But even that was a little suggestive of a funeral.

同时两条路开始交汇了。她在看他。她脸红了，有点瘦但双眼有神。她通红的嘴唇张开着，似乎她一直在很用力地骑，似乎那是一个很淡的微笑。 是的，一切要复归到理智！ 突然，一股要迅速脱离此地的冲动在膨胀着！呼先生玩命地蹬着车来超过她。 他的车咯噔压过了一个罐头盒，然后盒子飞起卡在前轮和挡泥板之间。他来回晃动为了甩掉它！这部车活见鬼了吗? 此时此刻，他突然觉得如果当初下了车那该多聪明啊。 他深深吸了一口气, 试着超越，他似乎要坠落了，他再次本能地从左侧抓直了车把，撞向她的后轮，差一头发丝的距离就撞到她了。

Meanwhile the roads converged. She was looking at him. She was flushed, a little thin, and had very bright eyes. Her red lips fell apart. She may have been riding hard, but it looked uncommonly like a faint smile. And the things were—yes!— Rationals! Suddenly an impulse to bolt from the situation be- came clamorous. Mr. Hoopdriver pedalled convulsively, in- tending to pass her. He jerked against some tin thing on the road, and it flew up between front wheel and mud-guard. He twisted round towards her. Had the machine a devil? At that supreme moment it came across him that he would have done wiser to dismount. He gave a frantic ‘whoop’ and tried to get round, then, as he seemed falling over, he pulled the handles straight again and to the left by an instinctive motion, and shot behind her hind wheel, missing her by a hair’s breadth.

人行道肩在等着他。他试图挽救，却发现他连人带车已经飞上了人行道，直直地冲向码放得整齐的木头堆上。剧烈的冲击迫使他从鞍座上向前滚落被车窘迫地别住了。然后他开始在路边翻滚直到最终屁股坐在石子路上, 他的一只腿还别在车叉和车身之间。他被那坚硬的能够致人昏迷石子路面深深地伤到了。他保持那个姿势躺在那里，心想恐怕是摔断了脖子，甚至诙谐地想他根本就没有出生过。生命的荣耀暗淡地离开了。 他娘的, 这些非女人的女人们！

The pavement kerb awaited him. He tried to recover, and found himself jumped up on the pavement and riding squarely at a neat wooden paling. He struck this with a terrific impact and shot forward off his saddle into a clumsy entanglement. Then he began to tumble over sideways, and completed the entire figure in a sitting position on the gravel, with his feet between the fork and the stay of the machine. The concussion on the gravel shook his entire being. He remained in that position, wishing that he had broken his neck, wishing even more heartily that he had never been born. The glory of life had departed. Bloomin’ Dook, in- deed! These unwomanly women!