《长腿叔叔》第二章（上）

Part 2  The Letters of Miss Jerusha Abbott to Mr. Daddy-Long-Legs Smith
第二章 乔若莎•艾伯特小姐给长腿史密斯先生的信

Dear Kind-Trustee-Who-Sends-Orphans-to-College,
亲爱的送孤儿上大学的好心理事：

Here I am! I travelled yesterday for four hours in a train. It's a funny sensation, isn't it? I never rode in one before.
我终于到了！昨天搭了4个钟头的火车。心中充满了新奇感，不是吗？我还从来没有坐过火车呢。

College is the biggest, most bewildering place--I get lost whenever I leave my room. I will write you a description later when I'm feeling less muddled; also I will tell you about my lessons. Classes don't begin until Monday morning, and this is Saturday night. But I wanted to write a letter first just to get acquainted.
校园真是好大，是很容易把人搞糊涂的地方——我只要一离开房间就会迷路。等我对周围环境熟悉了一些再对您描绘我的校园，并汇报我的功课。现在是星期六晚上，要到下星期一早上才开课。不过我还是想先写封信让我们彼此认识一下。

It seems queer to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. It seems queer for me to be writing letters at all--I've never written more than three or four in my life, so please overlook it if these are not a model kind.
写信给陌生人是件挺奇怪的事。对我来说，写信本来就够奇怪的……我这辈子到现在就写过3封信，要是写得不规范，请您多多原谅。

Before leaving yesterday morning, Mrs. Lippett and I had a very serious talk. She told me how to behave all the rest of my life, and especially how to behave towards the kind gentleman who is doing so much for me. I must take care to be Very Respectful.
不过昨天早上出发前，李皮太太和我作了一次严肃的谈话。她告诫我今后一辈子如何为人处世，尤其对有恩于我的好心先生更要注意自己的言行。我一定记得对您要非常的“尊敬”。

But how can one be very respectful to a person who wishes to be called John Smith? Why couldn't you have picked out a name with a little personality? I might as well write letters to Dear Hitching-Post or Dear Clothes-Prop.
不过，对一个叫约翰•史密斯的人，怎么尊敬得起来呢？您为什么不挑个有点个性的名字呢？我好比在给亲爱的拴马桩或衣服架写信。

I have been thinking about you a great deal this summer; having somebody take an interest in me after all these years makes me feel as though I had found a sort of family. It seems as though I belonged to somebody now, and it's a very comfortable sensation. I must say, however, that when I think about you, my imagination has very little to work upon. There are just three things that I know:
整个夏天我想了很多关于您的事。这么多年来突然有人关心我，让我觉得好像找到家一样，觉得有了归属感，这是一种令人陶醉的感觉。但不论如何，我必须承认，当我想到您的时候，我的脑子总是空荡荡的。我只知道三件事：

I. You are tall.
一、您长得很高。

II. You are rich.
二、您很有钱。

III. You hate girls.
三、您讨厌女孩子。

I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that's rather insulting to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that's insulting to you, as though money were the only important thing about you. Besides, being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won't stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs. I hope you won't mind. It's just a private pet name we won't tell Mrs. Lippett.
我想我可以称您为“亲爱的恨女人先生”，不过这有伤我的自尊。或许我可以称您为“亲爱的有钱人”，不过这样又侮辱您的人格，好像您惟一值得提的就是钱。此外，“富有”是一种很肤浅的特征。您也许不会一辈子都有钱，有很多聪明人也都在华尔街惨遭滑铁卢。不过您的身高是改变不了的，所以我决定称您为亲爱的长腿叔叔。希望您别介意。这只是个私底下的称呼，不必要告诉李皮太太。

The ten o'clock bell is going to ring in two minutes. Our day is divided into sections by bells. We eat and sleep and study by bells. It's very enlivening; I feel like a fire horse all of the time. There it goes！Lights out. Good night.
再有两分钟，10点的钟声就要响了。我们的一天被钟声分成好几段。我们吃饭、睡觉和上课都照着钟声来。这让我生气十足，我随时都像匹野马。该熄灯了。晚安。

Observe with what precision I obey rules--due to my training in the John Grier Home.
瞧！我多守规矩——全亏约翰•格利尔孤儿院的训练。

Yours most respectfully, Jerusha Abbott
尊敬您的乔若莎•艾伯特

************************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
亲爱的长腿叔叔：

I love college and I love you for sending me--I'm very, very happy, and so excited every moment of the time that I can scarcely sleep. You can't imagine how different it is from the John Grier Home. I never dreamed there was such a place in the world. I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and who can't come here; I am sure the college you attended when you were a boy couldn't have been so nice.
我喜欢大学，也喜欢送我来这的您——我真的非常非常快乐，时时刻刻都兴奋得快睡不着了。您无法想像这里跟约翰•格利尔孤儿院是多么得不同。我从不知道世上还有这样的好地方。我深深地为那些不是女孩，不能来上大学的人感到难过。我相信您以前读的大学一定没有这么好。

My room is up in a tower that used to be the contagious ward before they built the new infirmary. There are three other girls on the same floor of the tower--a Senior who wears spectacles and is always asking us please to be a little more quiet, and two Freshmen named Sallie McBride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton. Sallie has red hair and a turn-up nose and is quite friendly; Julia comes from one of the first families in New York and hasn't noticed me yet. They room together and the Senior and I have singles. Usually Freshmen can't get singles; they are very scarce, but I got one without even asking. I suppose the registrar didn't think it would be right to ask a properly brought-up girl to room with a foundling. You see there are advantages!
我的房间在新医务室盖好前，被用来当做传染病房的大楼里。这层楼还有另外3个女孩子——一个戴眼镜的高年级女生，老是要人家安静一点，还有两个新生，莎莉•麦克白与茱莉亚•平莱顿。莎莉有一头红发和一个翘鼻子，人很和气。茱莉亚出身纽约名门，还没注意到我。她们俩同屋，那高年级女生跟我住单人房。单间很少，新生一般不能住，我甚至没提要求就得到了一间。我猜是注册处的人觉得让有教养的女孩跟孤儿住在一起不太妥当。您瞧，还有优越性呢!

My room is on the north-west corner with two windows and a view. After you've lived in a ward for eighteen years with twenty room-mates, it is restful to be alone. This is the first chance I've ever had to get acquainted with Jerusha Abbott. I think I'm going to like her.
我的房间在西北角，有两扇窗，窗外景色宜人。在跟20个人在一个宿舍住了18年，如今独处一室，感到很轻松。我想这是让我认识乔若莎•艾伯特的良机。我想我会喜欢她的。

Do you think you are?
您呢?

They are organizing the Freshman basket-ball team and there's just a chance that I shall get in it. I'm little of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough. While the others are hopping about in the air, I can dodge under their feet and grab the ball. It's loads of fun practising--out in the athletic field in the afternoon with the trees all red and yellow and the air full of the smell of burning leaves, and everybody laughing and shouting. These are the happiest girls I ever saw--and I am the happiest of all!
她们正在招募新生篮球队，我要去争取这个机会。没错，我是长得很瘦小，不过我反应很敏捷，身体强壮，当其他人跳到半空中时，我可以从她们的脚底下抢到球。练球很有意思。下午，操场前满树红叶、黄叶，空气中充满了燃烧落叶的气味，大家又叫又笑的。这是我所见到的最快乐的女孩们了，而我是其中最快乐的一个。

I meant to write a long letter and tell you all the things I'm learning (Mrs. Lippett said you wanted to know), but 7th hour has just rung, and in ten minutes I'm due at the athletic field in gymnasium clothes. Don't you hope I'll get in the team?
本来打算写封长信跟您谈谈我的功课(李皮太太说过您想知道的)。不过第7堂课刚结束，再过10分种我就要换好运动服在空地上集合了。您希望我会入选吧？

Yours always, Jerusha Abbott
您永远的乔若莎•艾伯特

PS.
又及：

Sallie McBride just poked her head in at my door. This is what she said: 'I'm so homesick that I simply can't stand it. Do you feel that way?'
莎莉•麦克白刚才探头进来说：“我想家想得快受不了了，你呢？”

I smiled a little and said no; I thought I could pull through. At least homesickness is one disease that I've escaped! I never heard of anybody being asylum-sick, did you?
我笑了笑说：“才不呢。”我想我能挺得过去。至少思乡病是我绝不会染上的疾病，没听说过有人想孤儿院的，是吗？

*********************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
亲爱的长腿叔叔：

Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo?
您听说过米开朗琪罗吗?

He was a famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages. Everybody in English Literature seemed to know about him, and the whole class laughed because I thought he was an archangel. He sounds like an archangel, doesn't he? The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned. It's very embarrassing at times. But now, when the girls talk about things that I never heard of, I just keep still and look them up in the encyclopedia.
他是中世纪意大利著名画家，上英国文学课的人好像都知道他。我说他是个天使，惹得全班哄堂大笑。可那名字听上去很像天使，您说是吗？糟糕的是在大学里，大家都认为你应该懂得一些你根本没学过的东西。有时真的让人很尴尬，不过现在只要女孩们提到我不懂的事，我就闭口不言，而是回去查查字典。

I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Maeterlinck, and I asked if she was a Freshman. That joke has gone all over college. But anyway, I'm just as bright in class as any of the others--and brighter than some of them!
上学第一天我闹了一个大笑话，有人提到麦特林克，而我就问她是不是个大一新生。这个笑话传遍了整所大学。还好，我在课堂上表现得比谁都不笨，甚至比一些人还要好。

Do you care to know how I've furnished my room? It's a symphony in brown and yellow. The wall was tinted buff, and I've bought yellow denim curtains and cushions and a mahogany desk (second hand for three dollars) and a rattan chair and a brown rug with an ink spot in the middle. I stand the chair over the spot.
您想知道我的房间布置吗？它是一曲棕黄相间的交响乐。淡黄色的墙壁，配上我买来的黄色粗布窗帘和靠垫，一张3美元的旧红木书桌，一把藤椅，一条正中有墨水迹的棕色地毯，我把椅子放在有墨迹的地方。

The windows are up high; you can't look out from an ordinary seat. But I unscrewed the looking-glass from the back of the bureau, upholstered the top and moved it up against the window. It's just the right height for a window seat. You pull out the drawers like steps and walk up. Very comfortable!
窗户很高，坐在椅子上望不到窗外。我把镜台上的镜子拆掉，铺上桌布，随后移到窗前，坐在上面看窗外高矮正合适。我把抽屉开成阶梯式，上来下去，真够舒服的。

Sallie McBride helped me choose the things at the Senior auction. She has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing. You can't imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real five-dollar bill and get some change--when you've never had more than a few cents in your life. I assure you, Daddy dear, I do appreciate that allowance.
这些东西是莎莉•麦可白帮我在高年级学生办的拍卖会上挑的。她从小到大都在家里住，对于家具摆饰颇有经验。如果您这辈子从没拿超过5毛钱，您是很难体会那种购物的乐趣。用一张真的5元钞票去买东西，还能找些零头回来！我向您保证，亲爱的叔叔，我对您给的零用钱真的心存感激。

Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world--and Julia Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It's queer what a mixture the registrar can make in the matter of room-mates. Sallie thinks everything is funny--even flunking--and Julia is bored at everything. She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable. She believes that if you are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to heaven without any further examination. Julia and I were born to be enemies.
莎莉算是全世界最好的人了，而茱莉亚•平莱顿则相反。注册处的人将这么一对安排在一起，可真够古怪的。莎莉觉得每件事，甚至连考试不及格都很有趣。而茱莉亚则不然，事事都让她不开心，对人从未有过亲切的表示。也许她相信，只要是平莱顿家族的，无庸置疑一定可以上天堂的——茱莉亚跟我是天生的冤家。

And now I suppose you've been waiting very impatiently to hear what I am learning?
现在您一定急于知道我的功课情况吧？

I. Latin: Second Punic war. Hannibal and his forces pitched camp at Lake Trasimenus last night. They prepared an ambuscade for the Romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning. Romans in retreat.
一、拉丁文：第二次布匿战争。昨晚，汉尼拔和他的部队在特拉西美诺湖安营扎寨。他们在罗马人周围埋下伏兵，凌晨四点打了一仗，罗马人在退却。

II. French: 24 pages of the Three Musketeers and third conjugation, irregular verbs.
二、法文：读了24页《三剑客》，学了第三组不规则动词的变位。

III. Geometry: Finished cylinders; now doing cones.
三、几何学：学完圆柱体，在学圆锥体。

IV. English: Studying exposition. My style improves daily in clearness and brevity.
四、英文：学习表达能力。我的风格日益清晰、简练。

V. Physiology: Reached the digestive system. Bile and the pancreas next time.
五、生理学：进行到消化系统，下节课学胆和胰。

Yours, on the way to being educated, Jerusha Abbott
您的正在受教育的乔若莎•艾伯特

PS. I hope you never touch alcohol, Daddy? It does dreadful things to your liver.
又及：我希望您滴酒不沾，长腿叔叔。酒能伤肝。

********************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
亲爱的长腿叔叔：

I've changed my name.
我改名字了。

I'm still 'Jerusha' in the catalogue, but I'm 'Judy' everywhere else. It's really too bad, isn't it, to have to give yourself the only pet name you ever had? I didn't quite make up the Judy though. That's what Freddy Perkins used to call me before he could talk plainly.
在学校花名册上我仍叫乔若莎，不过在其他场合我就叫茱蒂了。要自己为自己取一个小名实在很悲哀，不是吗？不过茱蒂也不是我凭空捏造的。弗莱迪•珀金斯牙牙学语前，都是这样叫我的。

I wish Mrs. Lippett would use a little more ingenuity about choosing babies' names. She gets the last names out of the telephone book-- you'll find Abbott on the first page--and she picks the Christian names up anywhere; she got Jerusha from a tombstone. I've always hated it; but I rather like Judy. It's such a silly name. It belongs to the kind of girl I'm not--a sweet little blue-eyed thing, petted and spoiled by all the family, who romps her way through life without any cares. Wouldn't it be nice to be like that? Whatever faults I may have, no one can ever accuse me of having been spoiled by my family! But it's great fun to pretend I've been. In the future please always address me as Judy.
我希望李皮太太以后在给小宝宝取名字时能多动一点点脑筋。她从电话簿上取我们的姓氏——您要是翻开第一页就会看到艾伯特了。而名字则都是信手拈来的，乔若莎是她从一块墓碑上看到的。我一直都很讨厌这名字，不过我挺喜欢茱蒂的。这是一个傻呼呼的名字，应该是一个与我完全不同的女孩子，一个有一双蓝眼睛，甜甜的，娇生惯养，什么都不用烦恼地过一辈子的女孩子。那样该有多好啊！不管我犯了什么错，都没人可以说是我的家人把我惯坏的。不过假装一下也挺好玩的。以后就请叫我茱蒂。

Do you want to know something? I have three pairs of kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree, but never real kid gloves with five fingers. I take them out and try them on every little while. It's all I can do not to wear them to classes.
您想知道吗？我有3副羊皮手套了。从前，在挂在圣诞树上的礼物中我得到过羊皮无指手套，但从来没有分开手指的那种真的羊皮手套。我不时拿出来戴在手上，好容易才忍住没有戴到教室去。

(Dinner bell. Goodbye.)
午饭铃响了，再见！

（来源：爱思英语网 编辑：丹妮）