恋爱中的女人-5000词床头灯英语学习读本(49)(英汉对照) 节选

land
One afternoon, as Ursula wandered along the course of a
bright little stream near Willey Water, she came upon Birkin, fixing
a small boat. The moment he saw her, he dropped his tools and
came forward, saying: "How do you do? Help me get the boat in
the water, will you?" he asked.
With combined efforts they turned over the heavy boat and set
it in the water. In a moment he was with her again, and she
stepped into the wet boat. They landed under a willow tree. Ursula
looked at him closely. She had not see,n him since Breadalby. He
was very thin and hollow, with a ghastly look in his face.
"You have been iii, haven't you?" she asked, rather re-
pulsed.
"Yes," he replied coldly.
"Has it made you frightened?" she asked.
"What of" he asked, turning his eyes to look at her.
"It is frightening to be very iii, isn't it?" she said.
"It isn't pleasant," he said. "Whether one is really afraid of
death, or not, I have never decided. In one mood, not a bit, in an-
other, very much. I don't know what really to do."
"Why should you always be doing?" she retorted. "I think it
is much better to do nothing but just be oneself, like a blossoming
flower. And why is it," she asked at length, "that there is no
flowering, no dignity of human life now?"
"The whole idea is dead. Humanity itself is dryrotten, really.
第七章
小岛
一天下午，厄秀拉沿着威利湖附近的一条明丽的
小溪漫步时偶遇伯金，当时他正在修一条小船。他一
看到她就放下手中的工具，走上前来招呼道： 。你好
啊!帮我把这船弄到水里去，好吗?”他问道。

两个人合力把那条沉重的船翻了过来，推入水
中。片刻之后，他和她又在一起了。她踏进湿漉漉的
小船中。船停泊在一棵柳树下。厄秀拉细细打量着
他，自布莱德比一别之后，她再也没见过他。他很干
瘪消瘦。面色惨白。
“你生了场病。是吗?”她有些反感地问。
“是的。他冷冷地回答。
"这场病让你害怕了吗?”她说。
“怕什么?”他边问边转过来望着她。
“生病很可怕，不是吗?。她说。
“生病当然不舒服。”他说，“至于人是否真怕
死，我还说不准。心情不好时，一点也不怕；心情好
时，又非常怕。我也弄不清。”
“为什么你总要做事情呢?”她反驳道。。我觉得
*好还是什么也不干，顺其自然，就像花儿开放一
样。”她*后又问道， “为什么现在人们的生命之花
不再开放，尊严消失殆尽了呢?”
“整个意识已经死了。人类本身已经枯萎腐烂，
Human lives have no significance any longer their insides are
full of bitter, corrupt ash."
"But there are good people," protested Ursula.
"Good enough for the life of today. But mankind is a dead
tree."
"And if it is so, why is it?" she asked, hostile. They were
rousing each other to a fine passion of opposition.
"Why, why are people all balls of bitter dust? Because they
won't fall off the tree when they're ripe. They hang on to their old
positions when the position is over-past, till they become mined
with little worms and dry-rot."
"But even if everybodv is wrong -- where are you right?"
she cried, "where are you any better?"
"I? I'm not fight," he cried back. "At least my only right-
ness lies in the fact that I know it. I detest what I am. I hate myself
as a human being. Humanity is a huge lie, and a huge lie is less
than a small truth. Humanity is less, far less than the individual,
because the individual may sometimes be capable of troth, and hu-
manity is a tree of lies."
"But," said Ursula sadly, "that doesn't alter the fact that
love is the greatest, does it? What they do doesn't alter the troth of
what they say, does it?"