Now once he was fully convinced of the foolishness and idiocy of the prior, he succeeded quite straight forwardly by calling black white, and white black.
LICHTENBERG
一旦他对修院院长的愚蠢和规矩深信不疑，就几乎经常能够靠了把白的说成是黑的，把黑的说成是白的，而获得成功。
利赫坦贝格
The Russian instructions laid down categorically that one must never contradict in speech the person with whom one corresponded. One must never depart, upon any account, from an attitude of the most ecstatic admiration; the letters were all based upon this supposition.
俄国人指示，切记永远不要在口头上反驳写信的对象。不应以任何借口背离心醉神迷的倾慕者的角色。那些信永远以这种假设为出发点。
One evening, at the Opera, in Madame de Fervaques's box, Julien praised to the skies the ballet in Manon Lescaut.His sole reason for doing so was that he found it insipid.
一天晚上，在歌剧院，在德·费瓦克夫人的包厢里，于连把《曼侬·莱斯戈》捧上了天。他这样说的唯一理由乃是因为他觉得这出戏一钱不值。
The Marechale said that this ballet was greatly inferior to abbe Prevost's novel.
元帅夫人说这出芭蕾舞剧比普列服神甫的小说差得远。
'What!' thought Julien, with surprise and amusement, 'a person of such extreme virtue praise a novel!' Madame de Fervaques used to profess, two or three times weekly, the most utter scorn for the writers, who, by means of those vulgar works, sought to corrupt a younger generation only too prone to the errors of the senses.
“怎么！”于连想，又惊讶，又开心，“一个道德如此高尚的女人竟吹捧一本小说！”德·费瓦克夫人每礼拜总有两三次对作家极尽轻蔑 之能事，说他们企图借助此等平庸的作品腐蚀青年，这些青年，唉！太容易犯肉欲方面的错误了。
'In that immoral and pernicious class, Manon Lescaut,' the Marechale went on, 'occupies, they say, one of the first places. The frailties and well merited sufferings of a thoroughly criminal heart are, they say, described in it with a truth that is almost profound; which did not prevent your Bonaparte from declaring on Saint Helena that it was a novel written for servants.'
“在这种不道德的、危险的体裁中，《曼依·莱斯戈》，”元帅夫人继续说，”据说是属于第一流的。一颗罪恶深重的心的软弱和理应感到的痛苦，据说被描写得很真实，而这种真实亦颇有深度；不过，您的波拿巴仍然在圣赫勒拿岛宣称这是一部写给仆人看的小说。”
This speech restored all its activity to Julien's spirit. 'People have been trying to damage me with the Marechale; they have told her of?? enthusiasm for Napoleon. This intelligence has stung her sufficiently for her to yield to the temptation to let me feel her resentment.' This discovery kept him amused for the rest of the evening and made him amusing.As he was bidding the Marechale good night in the vestibule of the Opera: 'Bear in mind, Sir,' she said to him, 'that people must not love Napoleon when they love me; they may, at the most, accept him as a necessity imposed by Providence. Anyhow, the man had not a soul pliant enough to feel great works of art.'
这句话让于连的精神紧张地活动起来。“有人想在元帅夫人面前毁掉我，有人告诉了她我对拿破仑的热情。这件事她很恼火，忍不住要让我有所感觉。”这个发现让他一个晚上都很开心，人也变得有趣了。他在歌剧院向元帅夫人告别时，她对他说：“记住，先生，一个人如果爱我，就不应该爱波拿巴；我们只能把他当作天意强迫我们接受的一件不可避免的事物。再说，这个人的心灵太僵硬，不能欣赏艺术杰作。”
'When they love me!' Julien repeated to himself; 'either that means nothing at all, or it means everything. There is one of the secrets of language that are hidden from us poor provincials.' And he thought incessantly of Madame de Renal as he copied an immensely long letter intended for the Marechale.
“—个人如果爱我！”于连在心里重复道，“这句话要么毫无意义，要么一切尽在其中。我们可怜的外省人就是掌握不了这种语言的奥秘。”他深深地怀念德·莱纳夫人，一边抄写一封给元帅夫人的很长很长的信。
'How is it,' she asked him the following evening, with an air of indifference which seemed to him unconvincing, 'that you speak to me of London and Richmond in a letter which you wrote last night, it appears,after leaving the Opera?'
“怎么搞的”，第二天她对他说，于连一眼就看出她假装冷淡，“您在咋天晚上，看来是离开歌剧院以后写的一封信里，怎么跟我谈起伦敦和里奇蒙来了？”
Julien was greatly embarrassed; he had copied the letter line for line, without thinking of what he was writing, and apparently had forgotten to substitute for the words London and Richmond, which occurred in the original, Paris and SaintCloud. He began two or three excuses, but found it impossible to finish any of them; he felt himself on the point of giving way to an outburst of helpless laughter. At length, in his search for the right words, he arrived at the following idea: 'Exalted by the discussion of the most sublime, the highest interests of the human soul, my own, in writing to you, must have become distracted.
于连很尴尬。他逐行地抄，没有想写的是什么，看来是忘了用巴黎和圣克鲁替换原信中的伦敦和里奇蒙。他开始了两个或三个句子，但怎么也结束不了，他觉得马上要发疯般大笑起来。最后，他搜索枯肠，好不容易来了个主意，说：“讨论人类灵魂的最崇高、最重大的利益，令我非常激动。写着写着，我的灵魂可能一时走神了。”
'I am creating an impression,' he said to himself, 'therefore I can spare myself the tedium of the rest of the evening.' He left the Hotel de Fervaques in hot haste. That evening, as he looked over the original text of the letter which he had copied the night before, he very soon came to the fatal passage where the young Russian spoke of London and Richmond.Julien was quite surprised to find this letter almost tender.
“我给她留下了印象，”他心想，“今晚可不必再受烦闷的罪了。”他一溜小跑，出了德·费瓦克府。回去后，他重读头天夜里抄的原信，很快找到俄国人谈伦敦和里奇激的那个要命的地方。于连发现这封信算得上柔情缱绻，颇感惊奇。
It was the contrast between the apparent frivolity of his talk and the sublime and almost apocalyptic profundity of his letters that had marked him out. The length of his sentences was especially pleasing to the Marechale; this was not the cursory style brought into fashion by Voltaire, that most immoral of men! Although our hero did everything in the world to banish any suggestion of common sense from his conversation,it had still an antimonarchical and impious colour which did not escape the notice of Madame de Fervaques. Surrounded by persons who were eminently moral, but who often had not one idea in an evening, this lady was profoundly impressed by everything that bore a semblance of novelty; but, at the same time, she felt that she owed it to herself to be shocked by it. She called this defect, 'retaining the imprint of the frivolity of the age'.
他的话表面上很轻浮，而他的信却具有崇高的、近乎启示录那样的深刻，这种对比使他不同凡响。长句子尤其令元帅夫人喜欢，“这不是伏尔奉那个如此不道德的人使之风行的那种一蹦一跳的风格！”尽管我们的主人公竭力把一切合乎常情常理的东西从谈话中消除出去，他的谈话仍有一种反王政、不信神的色彩，没有逃过德·费瓦克夫人的眼睛。这位夫人身边尽是极有道德的人，然而他们不是每天晚上都有新思想，所以，凡是有几分像新事物的东西都能给她留下强烈的印象；不过同时她又认为自己理应对这些东西感到愤慨。她把这种缺点称作“打上了这个轻浮时代的印记”……
But such drawing-rooms are worth visiting only when one has a favour to ask. All the boredom of this life without interests which Julien was leading is doubtless shared by the reader. These are the barren moorlands on our journey.
但是这样的客厅，除非有事相求，否则不值一顾。于连的这种生活真是无趣，他所感到的厌倦想必读者亦有同感。此乃我们旅途中的一片荒原。
Throughout the time usurped in Julien's life by the Fervaques episode, Mademoiselle de La Mole had to make a constant effort not to think of him. Her heart was exposed to violent combats: sometimes she flattered herself that she was despising this gloomy young man; but, in spite of her efforts, his conversation captivated her. What astonished her most of all was his complete insincerity; he never uttered a word to the Marechale which was not a lie, or at least a shocking travesty of his point of view, which Mathilde knew so perfectly upon almost every subject. This Machiavellism impressed her. 'What profundity!' she said to herself;'how different from the emphatic blockheads or the common rascals, like M. Tanbeau, who speak the same language!'
在于连的生活中被费瓦克插曲占去的这段时间里，德·拉莫尔小姐一直需要克制自己，不去想他。她的灵魂中进行着激烈的搏斗，有时候，她庆幸能够蔑视这位如此愁苦的年轻人了；然而，她又身不由己地被他的谈话俘获了。尤其使她感到惊奇的，竟是他那十足的虚假。他对元帅夫人说的句句是谎言，或者至少是他的思想方式的一种丑恶的伪装，因为他在几乎所有问题上的看法，玛蒂尔德都一清二楚。这种马基雅维里主义令她感到震惊。“多么深刻啊！”她对自己说，“跟持有相同论调的唐博先生那样的夸夸其谈的傻瓜或者平庸粗俗的骗子相比，又是多么不同啊！”
Nevertheless, Julien passed some fearful days. It was to perform the most arduous of his duties that he appeared each evening in the Marechale's drawing-room. His efforts to play a part ended by sapping all his spiritual strength. Often, at night, as he crossed the vast courtyard of the Hotel de Fervaques, it was only by force of character and reason that he succeeded in keeping himself from sinking into despair.
然而，于连却有些可怕的日子。为了履行最艰难的职责，他每天都得在元帅夫人的客厅里露面。他为了扮演一个角色而付出的努力终于使他的心灵疲惫不堪。夜里，他穿过德·费瓦克府的巨大的院子时，常常是靠着性格的、理智的力量才免于陷入绝望。
'I conquered despair at the Seminary,' he said to himself: 'and yet what an appalling prospect I had before me then! I stood to make my fortune or to fail; in either case, I saw myself obliged to spend my whole life in the intimate society of all that is most contemptible and disgusting under heaven. The following spring, when only eleven short months had passed, I was perhaps the happiest of all the young men of my age.'
“我在神学院里战胜了绝望，”他对自己说，“而那时我的前景是多么可怕啊！我或是飞黄腾达，或是横遭厄运，无论是哪种情况，我都必须和天底下最可鄙、最可厌的人朝夕相处，度过我的一生。第二年春天，短短的十一个月以后，我成了也许是我那个年纪的年轻人中最幸福的一个。”
But often enough all these fine arguments proved futile when faced with the frightful reality. Every day he saw Mathilde at luncheon and at dinner. From the frequent letters which M. de La Mole dictated to him, he knew her to be on the eve of marrying M. de Croisenois. Already that amiable young man was calling twice daily at the Hotel de La Mole: the jealous eye of an abandoned lover did not miss a single one of his actions.
但是，这些严密的推理碰上可怕的现实，往往不起作用。他每天都在吃午饭和吃晚饭的时候看见玛蒂尔德。从德·拉莫尔先生口授的许多信稿中，他知道她就要跟德·克鲁瓦泽努瓦先生结为夫妇了。这个可爱的年轻人已经每天两次来德·拉莫尔府上了；一个遭到冷落的情人的嫉妒的眼睛没有放过他的一举一动。
When he thought he had noticed that Mademoiselle de La Mole was treating her suitor kindly, on returning to his room, Julien could not help casting a loving glance at his pistols.
当于连以为看出德·拉莫尔小姐善待她的未婚夫时，回到房里以后，他就情不自禁地深情地望着他的手枪。
'Ah, how much wiser I should be,' he said to himself, 'to remove the marks from my linen, and retire to some lonely forest, twenty leagues from Paris, there to end this accursed existence! A stranger to the countryside, my death would remain unknown for a fortnight, and who would think of me after a fortnight had passed?'
“啊！”他对自己说，“把内衣的标志去掉，到个距巴黎二十里远的什么僻静的森林里，结束我这可憎的一生，不是更明智吗！当地没有 人认识我，我的死半个月内不会有人知道，而半个月后谁会想到我呢！”
This reasoning was extremely sound. But next day, a glimpse of Mathilde's arm, seen between her sleeve and her glove, was enough to plunge our young philosopher in cruel memories, which, at the same time, made him cling to life. 'Very well!' he would then say to himself, 'I shall follow out this Russian policy to the end. How is it going to end?
这番推理很明智。然而第二天，隐约看见玛蒂尔德的胳膊，只消袖口和手套之间那一段就足以把我们这位年轻的哲人投进残酷的回忆中去，而正是这回忆使他还留恋人生。“好吧！”他这时就对自己说，“我要把俄国人的策略坚持到底。那会怎样结束呢？”
'As for the Marechale, certainly, after I have copied these fiftythree letters, I shall write no more.
“至于元帅夫人，抄完这五十三封信，我当然不会再写别的信了。
'As for Mathilde, these six weeks of such painful playacting, will either fail altogether to appease her anger, or will win me a moment of reconciliation. Great God! I should die of joy!' And he was unable to pursue the idea farther.
“至于玛蒂尔德，如此艰难地演了六个礼拜的戏，或是她的愤怒丝毫无改，或是我得到片刻的和解。伟大的天主啊！那我会高兴死了！” 他想不下去了。
When, after a long spell of meditation, he succeeded in recovering the use of his reason: 'Then,' he said to himself, 'I should obtain a day's happiness, after which would begin again her severities, founded, alas, upon the scant power that I have to please her, and I should be left without any further resource, I should be ruined, lost for ever…
大梦之后，他又能推理了，就对自己说：“那么，我会得到一天的幸福，然后她的冷酷重新开始，唉！就是因为我不能讨得她的欢心；那我就什么办法也没有了，我毁了，永远地完了……
'What guarantee can she give me, with her character? Alas, my scant merit is responsible for everything. I must be wanting in elegance in my manners, my way of speaking must be heavy and monotonous. Great God! Why am I myself?'
“她有那样的性格，能给我什么保证呢？唉！我一无长处，这就回答了一切。我举止不高雅，我谈吐笨拙而单调。伟大的天主啊！为什么我是我呢？”