Ellen O’Hara was thirty-two years old, and, according to the standards of her day, she was a middle-aged woman, one who had borne six children and buried three. —
艾伦·奥哈拉年三十二岁，按当时的标准，她是一个中年妇女，生过六个孩子，葬过三个。 —

She was a tall woman, standing a head higher than her fiery little husband, but she moved with such quiet grace in her swaying hoops that the height attracted no attention to itself. —
她是一个高大的女人，比她火爆的小丈夫高上一头，但她在她的摇摆着的裙圈中以如此安静的优雅动作，以至于身高并没有引起注意。 —

Her neck, rising from the black taffeta sheath of her basque, was creamy-skinned, rounded and slender, and it seemed always tilted slightly backward by the weight of her luxuriant hair in its net at the back of her head. —
她的颈项从黑色塔夫细套衫中升起，皮肤乳白，圆润而纤细，似乎总是被她背头上网的丰盈秀发的重量稍微向后倾斜。 —

From her French mother, whose parents had fled Haiti in the Revolution of 1791, had come her slanting dark eyes, shadowed by inky lashes, and her black hair; —
她的黑眼睛带着深邃的影子，被墨色的睫毛掩盖，是来自她的法国母亲，她的父母在1791年的海地革命中逃离。 —

and from her father, a soldier of Napoleon, she had her long straight nose and her square-cut jaw that was softened by the gentle curving of her cheeks. —
她的长直鼻子和轻度弯曲的面颊，是来自她的拿破仑军队的父亲，该面颊的边缘使其方正的下巴显得柔和。 —

But only from life could Ellen’s face have acquired its look of pride that had no haughtiness, its graciousness, its melancholy and its utter lack of humor.
但只有从生活中，埃伦的脸才能获得这种既自豪又不自傲的神情，它那亲切的优雅、忧郁的气质和完全缺乏幽默感。

She would have been a strikingly beautiful woman had there been any glow in her eyes, any responsive warmth in her smile or any spontaneity in her voice that fell with gentle melody on the ears of her family and her servants. —
如果她的眼睛中有一丝光彩，笑容中有一丝回应的温暖，声音中有一丝自然而然的情感，她就会是一个极其美丽的女人，她的声音轻盈地在家人和仆人的耳边响起。 —

She spoke in the soft slurring voice of the coastal Georgian, liquid of vowels, kind to consonants and with the barest trace of French accent. —
她以乔治亚沿海的柔软发音讲话，元音如流水般流畅，辅音亲切温和，带着些微的法国口音。 —

It was a voice never raised in command to a servant or reproof to a child but a voice that was obeyed instantly at Tara, where her husband’s blustering and roaring were quietly disregarded.
这是一种从不对仆人发号施令或责备孩子的声音，但在塔拉庄园，人们都会立刻听从她的声音，而忽视她丈夫的咆哮和吼叫。

As far back as Scarlett could remember, her mother had always been the same, her voice soft and sweet whether in praising or in reproving, her manner efficient and unruffled despite the daily emergencies of Gerald’s turbulent household, her spirit always calm and her back unbowed, even in the deaths of her three baby sons. —
从斯嘉丽记事起，她母亲一直都一样，不管是赞美还是责备，她的声音总是柔和而甜美，她的举止高效而沉着，尽管杰拉德家庭每天都会发生紧急情况，她的精神总是平静，她的背脊即使在她的三个婴儿死亡的时候也始终挺直不弯。 —

Scarlett had never seen her mother’s back touch the back of any chair on which she sat. —
斯嘉丽从未见过她母亲的背靠在坐椅上。 —

Nor had she ever seen her sit down without a bit of needlework in her hands, except at mealtime, while attending the sick or while working at the bookkeeping of the plantation. —
她从未见过她母亲坐下时没有手里拿着一些缝纫的东西，除了用餐时间、照顾病人或者在田庄的簿记工作时。 —

It was delicate embroidery if company were present, but at other times her hands were occupied with Gerald’s ruffled shirts, the girls’ dresses or garments for the slaves. —
在有客人在场时，她做的是精致的刺绣，但在其他时候，她的双手忙于杰拉德的衬衫、女儿们的衣服或奴隶们的衣物。 —

Scarlett could not imagine her mother’s hands without her gold thimble or her rustling figure unaccompanied by the small negro girl whose sole function in life was to remove basting threads and carry the rosewood sewing box from room to room, as Ellen moved about the house superintending the cooking, the cleaning and the wholesale clothes-making for the plantation.
斯嘉丽无法想象她母亲的手上没有金针或者她那沙沙作响的身姿没有那名小黑女孩的陪同，她在生活中的唯一目的就是拆除缝线并将红木缝纫盒从房间搬到房间，而艾伦则在家里四处忙于监管烹饪、清洁和为庄园制作批量服装。

She had never seen her mother stirred from her austere placidity, nor her personal appointments anything but perfect, no matter what the hour of day or night. —
她从未见过她母亲失去她的严肃平静，也不论白天还是晚上，她的个人仪容总是完美无缺。 —

When Ellen was dressing for a ball or for guests or even to go to Jonesboro for Court Day, it frequently required two hours, two maids and Mammy to turn her out to her own satisfaction; —
当艾伦为舞会、客人或者甚至是为了去琼斯伯勒庭审之日而打扮时，通常需要两个小时、两个女仆和玛米的帮助才能使她满意; —

but her swift toilets in times of emergency were amazing.
但在紧急情况下，她迅速的打扮令人惊叹。

Scarlett, whose room lay across the hall from her mother’s, knew from babyhood the soft sound of scurrying bare black feet on the hardwood floor in the hours of dawn, the urgent tappings on her mother’s door, and the muffled, frightened negro voices that whispered of sickness and birth and death in the long row of whitewashed cabins in the quarters. —
斯嘉丽，她的房间就在她母亲的对面，从婴儿时期起就知道黎明时刻硬木地板上传来的光脚沙沙声，对母亲的门敲打声，以及在拍过白粉的小屋那一长行茅舍中传来的低声恐惧的黑人声音，他们低语着关于疾病、出生和死亡的话题。 —

As a child, she often had crept to the door and, peeping through the tiniest crack, had seen Ellen emerge from the dark room, where Gerald’s snores were rhythmic and untroubled, into the flickering light of an upheld candle, her medicine case under her arm, her hair smoothed neatly place, and no button on her basque unlooped.
她童年时经常会悄悄走到门前，透过最窄的缝隙，看到埃伦从黑暗的房间里出来，格拉德尔的鼾声如韵律般稳定和平静，手举着摇晃的蜡烛，胳膊下夹着药箱，头发整齐地梳理着，外套上没有一个纽扣解开。

It had always been so soothing to Scarlett to hear her mother whisper, firmly but compassionately, as she tiptoed down the hall: —
对斯嘉丽来说，总是如此舒心听到母亲在悄悄走过走廊时坚定而富有同情心地低语： —

“Hush, not so loudly. You will wake Mr. O’Hara. They are not sick enough to die.”
“别这么大声，你会弄醒奥哈拉先生。他们还没病到快死的地步。”

Yes, it was good to creep back into bed and know that Ellen was abroad in the night and everything was right.
是的，再次爬回床上，知道艾伦是在夜晚出国一切安好，真是太好了。

In the mornings, after all-night sessions at births and deaths, when old Dr. Fontaine and young Dr. Fontaine were both out on calls and could not be found to help her, Ellen presided at the breakfast table as usual, her dark eyes circled with weariness but her voice and manner revealing none of the strain. —
早晨，在整夜出生和死亡的手术之后，当老菲利普医生和年轻的菲利普医生都出去工作找不到人替她时，艾伦像往常一样主持早餐，她的深黑眼眶显露出疲倦，但声音和举止却没有显示出任何压力。 —

There was a steely quality under her stately gentleness that awed the whole household, Gerald as well as the girls, though he would have died rather than admit it.
她那高贵温和的举止下有一种坚定的特质，让全家包括杰拉尔德都敬畏不已，虽然他宁愿死也不愿意承认。

Sometimes when Scarlett tiptoed at night to kiss her tall mother’s cheek, she looked up at the mouth with its too short, too tender upper lip, a mouth too easily hurt by the world, and wondered if it had ever curved in silly girlish giggling or whispered secrets through long nights to intimate girl friends. —
有时候，当斯嘉丽蹑手蹑脚地在夜晚走到她高挑母亲的脸颊亲吻时，她抬起头看着那张嘴，那个上嘴唇太短、太娇嫩的嘴巴，一个容易受世界伤害的嘴巴，她想知道它是否曾经在愚蠢的少女笑声中弯曲，或者在长夜里与亲密的女友私语。 —

But no, that wasn’t possible. Mother had always been just as she was, a pillar of strength, a fount of wisdom, the one person who knew the answers to everything.
但是，不，这是不可能的。母亲一直都是她的模样，坚强的支柱，智慧的泉源，唯一一个知道所有答案的人。

But Scarlett was wrong, for, years before, Ellen Robillard of Savannah had giggled as inexplicably as any fifteen-year-old in that charming coastal city and whispered the long nights through with friends, exchanging confidences, telling all secrets but one. —
但是斯嘉丽错了，因为多年前，萨凡纳的埃伦·罗比拉德也像那个迷人的海滨城市里的任何一个十五岁的少女一样，莫名其妙地笑着，与朋友们匿名相对，互相倾诉，分享所有的秘密，除了一个。 —

That was the year when Gerald O’Hara, twenty-eight years older than she, came into her life—the year, too, when youth and her black-eyed cousin, Philippe Robillard, went out of it. —
那一年，杰拉尔德·奥哈拉踏入她的生活，他比她大二十八岁，也是少年和她黑眼睛的表兄菲利普·罗比拉德一同离开的那一年。 —

For when Philippe, with his snapping eyes and his wild ways, left Savannah forever, he took with him the glow that was in Ellen’s heart and left for the bandy-legged little Irishman who married her only a gentle shell.
因为当菲利普带着他那发亮的眼睛和狂野的行为永远离开萨凡纳时，他带走了伊伦心中的光芒，只留给了嫁给她的那个弯腿的爱尔兰小个子一个柔和的外壳。

But that was enough for Gerald, overwhelmed at his unbelievable luck in actually marrying her. —
但对于杰拉尔德来说，这就已足够了，他对能够娶到她感到幸运得几乎难以置信。 —

And if anything was gone from her, he never missed it. —
如果她心中有什么失去了，他从未察觉到。 —

Shrewd man that he was, he knew that it was no less than a miracle that he, an Irishman with nothing of family and wealth to recommend him, should win the daughter of one of the wealthiest and proudest families on the Coast. For Gerald was a self-made man.
他聪明绝顶，深知自己能娶到海岸上最富有、最自豪家族之一的女儿，简直是个奇迹。因为杰拉德是一个靠自己努力创造的人，没有家族的背景和财富作为推荐。

Gerald had come to America from Ireland when he was twenty-one. —
杰拉德二十一岁时从爱尔兰来到美国。 —

He had come hastily, as many a better and worse Irishman before and since, with the clothes he had on his back, two shillings above his passage money and a price on his head that he felt was larger than his misdeed warranted. —
他匆忙离开，和之前和之后许多更好、更差的爱尔兰人一样，只身带着身上的衣物，比船票多出两先令，并且因为一宗超过自身罪行应得的罪名而被通缉。 —

There was no Orangeman this side of hell worth a hundred pounds to the British government or to the devil himself; —
除了地狱里的一个，再也没有一个为英国政府或恶魔值一百英镑的橙人。 —

but if the government felt so strongly about the death of an English absentee landlord’s rent agent, it was time for Gerald O’Hara to be leaving and leaving suddenly. —
但是如果政府对一名英国非居民地主的租金代理人之死如此重视，那么杰拉德·奥哈拉是时候离开，而且要突然离开了。 —

True, he had called the rent agent “a bastard of an Orangeman,” but that, according to Gerald’s way of looking at it, did not give the man any right to insult him by whistling the opening bars of “The Boyne Water.”
是的，他曾称房东为“混蛋奥兰治人”，但从杰拉尔德的角度来看，这并不能让那个人以吹奏《博因河水》的开头作为侮辱他的理由。

The Battle of the Boyne had been fought more than a hundred years before, but, to the O’Haras and their neighbors, it might have been yesterday when their hopes and their dreams, as well as their lands and wealth, went off in the same cloud of dust that enveloped a frightened and fleeing Stuart prince, leaving William of Orange and his hated troops with their orange cockades to cut down the Irish adherents of the Stuarts.
博因河战役已经发生了一百多年，但对于奥哈拉家族和他们的邻居来说，就像昨天一样，他们的希望、梦想以及土地和财富都随着一个受惊和逃亡的斯图亚特王子离去时悬浮在同一片尘土中，留下了奥兰治的威廉和他那些令人憎恶的橙色领结所带领的军队去残杀那些支持斯图亚特王朝的爱尔兰人。

For this and other reasons, Gerald’s family was not inclined to view the fatal outcome of this quarrel as anything very serious, except for the fact that it was charged with serious consequences. —
基于这个原因和其他原因，杰拉尔德的家族并不倾向于将这场争吵的致命结果视为非常严重的事情，除了它带来严重后果的这一事实。 —

For years, the O’Haras had been in bad odor with the English constabulary on account of suspected activities against the government, and Gerald was not the first O’Hara to take his foot in his hand and quit Ireland between dawn and morning. —
多年来，由于被怀疑从事针对政府的活动，奥哈拉一家在英国警方中名声狼藉，并且杰拉尔德不是第一个一大早就离开爱尔兰的奥哈拉人。 —

His two oldest brothers, James and Andrew, he hardly remembered, save as close-lipped youths who came and went at odd hours of the night on mysterious errands or disappeared for weeks at a time, to their mother’s gnawing anxiety. —
他两个最大的兄弟詹姆斯和安德鲁，他几乎记不得了，只记得他们是固守秘密的青年，经常在夜晚的奇怪时刻进进出出或者消失数周，让他们母亲焦虑不安。 —

They had come to America years before, after the discovery of a small arsenal of rifles buried under the O’Hara pigsty. —
几年前在奥哈拉猪圈下发现了一批小型步枪，他们随后来到了美国。 —

Now they were successful merchants in Savannah, “though the dear God alone knows where that may be,” as their mother always interpolated when mentioning the two oldest of her male brood, and it was to them that young Gerald was sent.
现在他们在沙瓦纳是成功的商人，“虽然只有亲爱的上帝知道那是哪儿”，她母亲总是在提到她的两个最大的男性子女时插话说，年轻的杰拉尔德就被送去见他们。

He left home with his mother’s hasty kiss on his cheek and her fervent Catholic blessing in his ears, and his father’s parting admonition, “Remember who ye are and don’t be taking nothing off no man.” —
他带着母亲匆忙的吻在脸颊上和她虔诚的天主教祝福在耳边离开家，父亲告诫他：“记住你是谁，不要向任何人示弱。” —

His five tall brothers gave him good-by with admiring but slightly patronizing smiles, for Gerald was the baby and the little one of a brawny family.
他五个高大的兄弟用佩服但略带傲慢的微笑与他告别，因为杰拉尔德是一个强壮家族中最小的弟弟。

His five brothers and their father stood six feet and over and broad in proportion, but little Gerald, at twenty-one, knew that five feet four and a half inches was as much as the Lord in His wisdom was going to allow him. —
他的五个兄弟和父亲个个身高超过六英尺，身材魁梧，但二十一岁的杰拉尔德清楚，上帝的智慧只赐予他五英尺四英寸半的身高。 —

It was like Gerald that he never wasted regrets on his lack of height and never found it an obstacle to his acquisition of anything he wanted. —
于是杰拉尔德从不为自己的身高遗憾，也从不认为它是他获得任何他想要的东西的障碍。 —

Rather, it was Gerald’s compact smallness that made him what he was, for he had learned early that little people must be hardy to survive among large ones. —
相反，正是杰拉尔德紧凑矮小的身材造就了他的个性，因为他早就明白，在大人物中间生存下来，小个子必须要有坚韧的品质。 —

And Gerald was hardy.
而杰拉尔德就是个坚韧的人。

His tall brothers were a grim, quiet lot, in whom the family tradition of past glories, lost forever, rankled in unspoken hate and crackled out in bitter humor. —
他的高个子兄弟们是一群悲观而沉默的人，家族荣耀的传统已经永远失去，这种不说出口的仇恨在他们心中积累，并以痛苦的幽默方式表达出来。 —

Had Gerald been brawny, he would have gone the way of the other O’Haras and moved quietly and darkly among the rebels against the government. —
如果杰拉德强壮，他可能会和其他奥哈拉一样静静地、黑暗地站在反政府的叛乱者中间。 —

But Gerald was “loud-mouthed and bullheaded,” as his mother fondly phrased it, hair trigger of temper, quick with his fists and possessed of a chip on his shoulder so large as to be almost visible to the naked eye. —
但杰拉德是个“嘴巴大、顽固不化”的人，正如他的母亲幸福地形容他的，他的脾气容易暴躁，他挥拳头很快，肩上有一个巨大的包袱，几乎可以用肉眼看见。 —

He swaggered among the tall O’Haras like a strutting bantam in a barnyard of giant Cochin roosters, and they loved him, baited him affectionately to hear him roar and hammered on him with their large fists no more than was necessary to keep a baby brother in his proper place.
他在高个子的奥哈拉兄弟中间昂首阔步地走动，就像鸡舍里一只高傲的斑马一样，他们喜欢他，喜欢逗他发怒，用他们的大拳头敲打他，只是为了把他这个弟弟按在他应该待的地方。

If the educational equipment which Gerald brought to America was scant, he did not even know it. —
如果杰拉德在美国学到的知识装备很少，他甚至不知道。 —

Nor would he have cared if he had been told. —
即使有人告诉他，他也不会在乎。 —

His mother had taught him to read and to write a clear hand. He was adept at ciphering. —
他的母亲教会了他读书写字，他擅长解密。 —

And there his book knowledge stopped. The only Latin he knew was the responses of the Mass and the only history the manifold wrongs of Ireland. —
他的书本知识就此止步。他唯一懂的拉丁语只有弥撒的回应词，他所了解的历史只有爱尔兰的种种冤屈。 —

He knew no poetry save that of Moore and no music except the songs of Ireland that had come down through the years. —
他不懂除了穆尔的诗歌以外的任何诗歌，也不懂除了源自多年的爱尔兰歌曲以外的任何音乐。 —

While he entertained the liveliest respect for those who had more book learning than he, he never felt his own lack. —
虽然他非常尊重那些比他知识更多的人，但他从未感到自己的不足。 —

And what need had he of these things in a new country where the most ignorant of bogtrotters had made great fortunes? —
在这个新国家里，最无知的沼泽穷鬼已经发了大财，他还有什么需要这些东西的呢？ —

in this country which asked only that a man be strong and unafraid of work?
在这个国家里，只要一个人强壮并且不怕努力就可以了。

Nor did James and Andrew, who took him into their store in Savannah, regret his lack of education. —
詹姆斯和安德鲁，并不为他缺乏教育而感到遗憾，他们把他带进了他们在萨凡纳的商店。 —

His clear hand, his accurate figures and his shrewd ability in bargaining won their respect, where a knowledge of literature and a fine appreciation of music, had young Gerald possessed them, would have moved them to snorts of contempt. —
他清晰的手法、准确的数字和精明的讨价还价能力赢得了他们的尊重，如果年轻的杰拉德拥有文学知识和对音乐的美感，这些可能会引起他们的嘲笑。 —

America, in the early years of the century, had been kind to the Irish. James and Andrew, who had begun by hauling goods in covered wagons from Savannah to Georgia’s inland towns, had prospered into a store of their own, and Gerald prospered with them.
在世纪初的美国，对爱尔兰人很友好。詹姆斯和安德鲁从萨凡纳到佐治亚内陆城镇拉货，后来发展成了一家自己的商店，而杰拉德与他们一起繁荣。

He liked the South, and he soon became, in his own opinion, a Southerner. —
他喜欢南方，很快就变成了他自己眼中的南方人。 —

There was much about the South—and Southerners—that he would never comprehend: —
南方和南方人有很多他永远不会理解的东西： —

but, with the wholeheartedness that was his nature, he adopted its ideas and customs, as he understood them, for his own—poker and horse racing, red-hot politics and the code duello, States’ Rights and damnation to all Yankees, slavery and King Cotton, contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women. —
但是，他以他的本性全心全意地接受了南方的思想和习俗，尽管他理解有限——扑克和赛马、激烈的政治斗争和决斗准则、州权和对所有北方人的唾弃、奴隶制和棉花之王、对白人垃圾的蔑视和对妇女的过度礼貌。 —

He even learned to chew tobacco. There was no need for him to acquire a good head for whisky, he had been born with one.
他甚至学会了咀嚼烟草。他并不需要去培养对威士忌的嗜好，因为他天生就能拿捏得宜。

But Gerald remained Gerald. His habits of living and his ideas changed, but his manners he would not change, even had he been able to change them. —
但杰拉尔德始终保持着自己。他的生活习惯和思想或许改变了，但他的举止方式他无论如何都不会改变，即使他能够改变。 —

He admired the drawling elegance of the wealthy rice and cotton planters, who rode into Savannah from their moss-hung kingdoms, mounted on thoroughbred horses and followed by the carriages of their equally elegant ladies and the wagons of their slaves. —
他钦佩富有的稻米和棉花种植者那种慢吞吞的优雅，他们骑着纯种马从长满藓苔的领地骑入萨凡纳，并带着同样优雅的女士们的马车和奴隶的车辆。 —

But Gerald could never attain elegance. Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears, but his own brisk brogue clung to his tongue. —
但杰拉尔德永远无法达到如此优雅。他们迷离慵懒的声音在他的耳中愉快地回响着，但他自己爽朗的爱尔兰腔仍然贴在他的舌头上。 —

He liked the casual grace with which they conducted affairs of importance, risking a fortune, a plantation or a slave on the turn of a card and writing off their losses with careless good humor and no more ado than when they scattered pennies to pickaninnies. —
他喜欢见证他们处理重要事务的随性优雅，为一张牌赌上一笔财富、一片庄园或一个奴隶，然后以漫不经心的幽默和不费唇舌的方式赔掉损失，就像给小黑孩撒零花钱一样。 —

But Gerald had known poverty, and he could never learn to lose money with good humor or good grace. —
但杰拉尔德曾经经历过贫困，他无法学会以好心情和优雅的方式失去金钱。 —

They were a pleasant race, these coastal Georgians, with their soft-voiced, quick rages and their charming inconsistencies, and Gerald liked them. —
这些海滨佐治亚人是一群令人愉快的人，他们的声音柔和，脾气急躁，习性迷人，杰拉尔德喜欢他们。 —

But there was a brisk and restless vitality about the young Irishman, fresh from a country where winds blew wet and chill, where misty swamps held no fevers, that set him apart from these indolent gentlefolk of semi-tropical weather and malarial marshes.
然而，这位来自风声阵阵、湿冷的国家，湿地没有疾病的年轻爱尔兰人，有着活力和不安的生命力，这使他不同于这些半热带气候和疟疾肆虐的慵懒绅士们。

From them he learned what he found useful, and the rest he dismissed. —
他从他们那里学到了有用的东西，其他的他抛弃了。 —

He found poker the most useful of all Southern customs, poker and a steady head for whisky; —
他发现德州扑克是南方最有用的一种习俗，德州扑克和对威士忌头脑冷静的把握。 —

and it was his natural aptitude for cards and amber liquor that brought to Gerald two of his three most prized possessions, his valet and his plantation. —
正是他对纸牌和琥珀色酒的天赋才给杰拉尔德带来了他最为珍贵的三个财产之一，他的贴身男仆和庄园。 —

The other was his wife, and he could only attribute her to the mysterious kindness of God.
另一个是他的妻子，他只能将她归功于上帝神秘的恩慈。

The valet, Pork by name, shining black, dignified and trained in all the arts of sartorial elegance, was the result of an all-night poker game with a planter from St. Simons Island, whose courage in a bluff equaled Gerald’s but whose head for New Orleans rum did not. —
下车员波克是因为一个彻夜的扑克游戏而得以的，在新奥尔良的朗姆酒方面，他的胆量不亚于杰拉德，但欠缺头脑。 —

Though Pork’s former owner later offered to buy him back at twice his value, Gerald obstinately refused, for the possession of his first slave, and that slave the “best damn valet on the Coast,” was the first step upward toward his heart’s desire, Gerald wanted to be a slave owner and a landed gentleman.
尽管波克的前主人后来以原价的两倍想买他回去，但杰拉德执拗地拒绝了。对于拥有他的第一个奴隶以及那个在海岸上“最好的风度翩翩的下车员”，这是通往他内心渴望的地位的第一步。杰拉德想成为一个奴隶主和一个有地产的绅士。

His mind was made up that he was not going to spend all of his days, like James and Andrew, in bargaining, or all his nights, by candlelight, over long columns of figures. —
他已决心不会像詹姆斯和安德鲁那样，把一生都花在讨价还价上，也不会在夜晚烛光下，在长长的数字列上度过。 —

He felt keenly, as his brothers did not, the social stigma attached to those “in trade.” —
他和他的兄弟们不同，对“从事商业”的社会耻辱有着强烈的感受。 —

Gerald wanted to be a planter. With the deep hunger of an Irishman who has been a tenant on the lands his people once had owned and hunted, he wanted to see his own acres stretching green before his eyes. —
杰拉德想成为一名种植者。作为一个之前曾是自己人所拥有和狩猎土地的爱尔兰租户，他渴望看到自己的土地在眼前茂盛地延伸。 —

With a ruthless singleness of purpose, he desired his own house, his own plantation, his own horse, his own slaves. —
他带着无情的目标，渴望拥有自己的房子、庄园、马匹和奴隶。 —

And here in this new country, safe from the twin perils of the land he had left—taxation that ate up crops and barns and the ever-present threat of sudden confiscation—he intended to have them. —
在这个新的国家，远离他离开的土地所带来的双重危险——吃光庄稼和谷仓的税收和迫在眉睫的没收威胁，他打算拥有这一切。 —

But having that ambition and bringing it to realization were two different matters, he discovered as time went by. —
但是，随着时间的流逝，他发现拥有这个雄心和实现它是两回事。 —

Coastal Georgia was too firmly held by an entrenched aristocracy for him ever to hope to win the place he intended to have.
在沿海佐治亚，权势极端牢固的贵族阶级使他无望实现自己的愿望。

Then the hand of Fate and a hand of poker combined to give him the plantation which he afterwards called Tara, and at the same time moved him out of the Coast into the upland country of north Georgia.
然后，命运之手和一局扑克牌的手合力给了他随后被他称为泰拉的庄园，同时将他迁移到了佐治亚州北部的高地地区。

It was in a saloon in Savannah, on a hot night in spring, when the chance conversation of a stranger sitting near by made Gerald prick up his ears. —
在春天的一个炎热夜晚，乔治突然注意到了坐在附近的一个陌生人的对话机会。 —

The stranger, a native of Savannah, had just returned after twelve years in the inland country. —
这个陌生人是个萨凡纳的本地人，在内陆地区待了12年后才返回。 —

He had been one of the winners in the land lottery conducted by the State to divide up the vast area in middle Georgia, ceded by the Indians the year before Gerald came to America. —
他曾是州政府举办的土地抽签中的赢家，分得了前一年杰拉尔德来到美国时印第安人割让出来的乔治亚州中部的大片土地。 —

He had gone up there and established a plantation; —
他曾在那里建立了一个庄园; —

but, now the house had burned down, he was tired of the “accursed place” and would be most happy to get it off his hands.
但是，现在这座房子已经烧毁，他对这个“该死的地方”感到厌倦了，非常乐意将其转让。

Gerald, his mind never free of the thought of owning a plantation of his own, arranged an introduction, and his interest grew as the stranger told how the northern section of the state was filling up with newcomers from the Carolinas and Virginia. —
乔治一直心心念念地想拥有自己的庄园，于是安排了一个介绍，对陌生人的兴趣也随之增加，因为他听到了陌生人讲述北部地区正变得越来越拥挤，新移民们来自卡罗莱纳和弗吉尼亚。 —

Gerald had lived in Savannah long enough to acquire a viewpoint of the Coast—that all of the rest of the state was backwoods, with an Indian lurking in every thicket. —
格拉德已经在萨凡纳定居了足够长的时间，形成了一种对整个州的看法——州内的其余地区都算不上近代，每个角落都可能隐藏着美洲印第安人。 —

In transacting business for O’Hara Brothers, he had visited Augusta, a hundred miles up the Savannah River, and he had traveled inland far enough to visit the old towns westward from that city. —
他曾前往奥哈拉兄弟做生意，在河流上行驶一百英里到达奥古斯塔，并向内陆旅行足够远以参观该城市以西的古老城镇。 —

He knew that section to be as well settled as the Coast, but from the stranger’s description, his plantation was more than two hundred and fifty miles inland from Savannah to the north and west, and not many miles south of the Chattahoochee River. Gerald knew that northward beyond that stream the land was still held by the Cherokees, so it was with amazement that he heard the stranger jeer at suggestions of trouble with the Indians and narrate how thriving towns were growing up and plantations prospering in the new country.
他对那个地区的了解与沿海地区一样深入，但根据陌生人的描述，他的种植园距萨凡纳以北和西方的内陆地带已超过两百五十英里，南方不远处就是查塔胡切河。格拉德了解在那条河以北的地区仍然被切罗基人所占有，因此他吃惊地听到陌生人嘲笑对印第安人问题的担忧，并叙述了新国家里正在兴起的繁荣城镇和繁盛种植园的情况。

An hour later when the conversation began to lag, Gerald, with a guile that belied the wide innocence of his bright blue eyes, proposed a game. —
一个小时后，当谈话开始变得枯燥无味时，杰拉尔德用那双明亮的蓝眼睛狡黠的眼神提出了一个游戏。 —

As the night wore on and the drinks went round, there came a time when all the others in the game laid down their hands and Gerald and the stranger were battling alone. —
随着夜晚的深入和饮料的交替，当所有其他玩家放下手牌时，杰拉尔德和那个陌生人独自进行了一场激战。 —

The stranger shoved in all his chips and followed with the deed to his plantation. —
陌生人一股脑押进了全部筹码，并用自己庄园的契约接着押了进去。 —

Gerald shoved in all his chips and laid on top of them his wallet. —
杰拉尔德把他的所有筹码都压了进去，并在上面放了他的钱包。 —

If the money it contained happened to belong to the firm of O’Hara Brothers, Gerald’s conscience was not sufficiently troubled to confess it before Mass the following morning. —
如果这些钱正好属于O’Hara兄弟公司，杰拉尔德的良心不会为此感到不安，在隔天的弥撒前也不会坦白。 —

He knew what he wanted, and when Gerald wanted something he gained it by taking the most direct route. —
他知道自己想要什么，而当杰拉尔德想要某样东西时，他会通过最直接的途径得到它。 —

Moreover, such was his faith in his destiny and four deuces that he never for a moment wondered just how the money would be paid back should a higher hand be laid down across the table.
此外，他对自己的命运和四张二不抱任何怀疑，他从未想过，如果有更高的牌被摊在桌子上，钱将如何支付回来。

“It’s no bargain you’re getting and I am glad not to have to pay more taxes on the place,” sighed the possessor of an “ace full,” as he called for pen and ink. —
“这房子不值得买，我很高兴不用为此付更多的税，”有人拿出笔墨叹息道。 —

“The big house burned a year ago and the fields are growing up in brush and seedling pine. But it’s yours.”
“大房子一年前烧毁了，田地里都长满了灌木和幼苗松树，但现在是你的了。”

“Never mix cards and whisky unless you were weaned on Irish poteen,” Gerald told Pork gravely the same evening, as Pork assisted him to bed. —
“除非你从小就喝着爱尔兰的破汤，不然千万别把纸牌和威士忌混在一起，”杰拉尔德当天晚上严肃地告诉波克，波克正帮他上床睡觉。 —

And the valet, who had begun to attempt a brogue out of admiration for his new master, made requisite answer in a combination of Geechee and County Meath that would have puzzled anyone except those two alone.
那个仆人为了钦佩他的新主人开始用当地的“吉齐”和“米斯郡”口音回答，除了两人谁也听不懂。

The muddy Flint River, running silently between walls of pine and water oak covered with tangled vines, wrapped about Gerald’s new land like a curving arm and embraced it on two sides. —
泥泞的弗林特河在两片松树和生满藤蔓的水橡树之间无声地流淌，像一只弯曲的胳膊紧紧环绕着杰拉尔德的新土地并与其拥抱在一起。 —

To Gerald, standing on the small knoll where the house had been, this tall barrier of green was as visible and pleasing an evidence of ownership as though it were a fence that he himself had built to mark his own. —
对于站在房子曾经存在的小丘上的杰拉尔德来说，这片绿色的高大屏障就像是他亲自建造的篱笆一样清晰可见，令人愉悦，也是他拥有这片土地的明确证明。 —

He stood on the blackened foundation stones of the burned building, looked down the long avenue of trees leading toward the road and swore lustily, with a joy too deep for thankful prayer. —
他站在已经被烧毁的房屋的黑色基石上，望着通往道路的漫长树林大道，大声咒骂，狂喜中蕴含着无法言喻的谢神之意。 —

These twin lines of somber trees were his, his the abandoned lawn, waist high in weeds under white-starred young magnolia trees. —
这两排阴沉的树就是他的，废弃的草地上到处是齐腰高的杂草，点缀着年轻的白花酢浆草树，这一切都属于他。 —

The uncultivated fields, studded with tiny pines and underbrush, that stretched their rolling red-clay surface away into the distance on four sides belonged to Gerald O’Hara—were all his because he had an unbefuddled Irish head and the courage to stake everything on a hand of cards.
这些未开垦的田地四面延伸，布满了小矮松和灌木，红色的黏土地面起伏不平，全部属于杰拉尔德·奥哈拉——因为他拥有着聪明的爱尔兰头脑和勇气，不惜一切以一局牌决定自己的命运。

Gerald closed his eyes and, in the stillness of the unworked acres, he felt that he had come home. —
杰拉尔德闭上眼睛，在这片未经耕作的土地静谧中，他感到自己已经回到了家。 —

Here under his feet would rise a house of whitewashed brick. —
在他的脚下，会建起一座用白灰砖砌成的房子。 —

Across the road would be new rail fences, inclosing fat cattle and blooded horses, and the red earth that rolled down the hillside to the rich river bottom land would gleam white as eiderdown in the sun—cotton, acres and acres of cotton! —
在马路对面是新的铁栅栏，圈养着肥美的牛和优良的马，山坡上滚落下来的红土在阳光下闪着白色，宛如花絮一样醉人——棉花，成千上万亩的棉花！ —

The fortunes of the O’Haras would rise again.
奥哈拉家族的财富将再次兴盛起来。

With his own small stake, what he could borrow from his unenthusiastic brothers and a neat sum from mortgaging the land, Gerald bought his first field hands and came to Tara to live in bachelor solitude in the four-room overseer’s house, till such a time as the white walls of Tara should rise.
凭着自己的一点积蓄，从不太情愿的兄弟那儿借了一些钱，再通过抵押土地筹集了一大笔资金，杰拉德买了些炒地工人，并搬到塔拉住进了四间房的监工宅，等到塔拉的洁白墙壁竖起来的那一天。

He cleared the fields and planted cotton and borrowed more money from James and Andrew to buy more slaves. —
他清理田地，种下棉花，并从詹姆斯和安德鲁那里借了更多的钱来买更多的奴隶。 —

The O’Haras were a clannish tribe, clinging to one another in prosperity as well as in adversity, not for any overweening family affection but because they had learned through grim years that to survive a family must present an unbroken front to the world. —
奥哈拉家族是一个亲密团结的部落，无论在昌盛还是逆境中都黏在一起，不是出于过多的家庭情感，而是因为他们经历了艰难的岁月，他们明白一个家庭要生存下去就必须对外界形成一个坚如磐石的统一战线。 —

They lent Gerald the money and, in the years that followed, the money came back to them with interest. —
他们借给杰拉尔德钱，在接下来的几年里，钱连同利息还了回来。 —

Gradually the plantation widened out, as Gerald bought more acres lying near him, and in time the white house became a reality instead of a dream.
随着杰拉尔德购买了更多靠近他的土地，庄园逐渐扩大，不再是一个梦想而是现实。

It was built by slave labor, a clumsy sprawling building that crowned the rise of ground overlooking the green incline of pasture land running down to the river; —
它是由奴隶劳动建造的，是一个笨拙而散乱的建筑，坐落在一片覆盖整个山坡的绿色牧场上，俯瞰着河流。 —

and it pleased Gerald greatly, for, even when new, it wore a look of mellowed years. —
它非常让杰拉尔德满意，因为即使是新的，它也散发着岁月的韵味。 —

The old oaks, which had seen Indians pass under their limbs, hugged the house closely with their great trunks and towered their branches over the roof in dense shade. —
老橡树曾经见证了印第安人经过它们的枝干下，紧紧地围绕着房子，密密地在屋顶上伸展出茂密的树枝，形成茂密的阴影。 —

The lawn, reclaimed from weeds, grew thick with clover and Bermuda grass, and Gerald saw to it that it was well kept. —
草坪从杂草中恢复，长满了三叶草和百慕大草，杰拉尔德确保保持得很好。 —

From the avenue of cedars to the row of white cabins in the slave quarters, there was an air of solidness, of stability and permanence about Tara, and whenever Gerald galloped around the bend in the road and saw his own roof rising through green branches, his heart swelled with pride as though each sight of it were the first sight.
从雪松大道到奴隶屋的一排白色小屋，塔拉散发着坚实、稳定和永恒的气息，每当杰拉尔德在弯道上狂奔时，透过绿色的树枝看到自己的房顶，他的心中充满了骄傲，仿佛每一次看到它都是第一次。

He had done it all, little, hard-headed, blustering Gerald.
这一切都是他做出来的，脾气倔强、咄咄逼人的杰拉尔德。

Gerald was on excellent terms with all his neighbors in the County, except the MacIntoshes whose land adjoined his on the left and the Slatterys whose meager three acres stretched on his right along the swamp bottoms between the river and John Wilkes’ plantation.
杰拉尔德与县内的邻居们关系良好，除了麦金托什家族，他们的土地与他左边相连，还有斯拉特里家族，他们仅有的三英亩土地位于河流和约翰·威尔克斯种植园之间的沼泽地底部。

The MacIntoshes were Scotch-Irish and Orangemen and, had they possessed all the saintly qualities of the Catholic calendar, this ancestry would have damned them forever in Gerald’s eyes. —
麦金托什家族是苏格兰爱尔兰裔的奥兰治人，即使他们拥有天主教日历上所有的圣徒品质，这一血统也会在杰拉尔德心中使他们永远受到谴责。 —

True, they had lived in Georgia for seventy years and, before that, had spent a generation in the Carolinas; —
当然，他们已经在佐治亚州生活了七十年，而在此之前他们在卡罗莱纳州度过了一代人的时间。 —

but the first of the family who set foot on American shores had come from Ulster, and that was enough for Gerald.
但是这个家族的第一个踏上美国土地的人来自阿尔斯特，这对杰拉尔德来说已经足够了。

They were a close-mouthed and stiff-necked family, who kept strictly to themselves and intermarried with their Carolina relatives, and Gerald was not alone in disliking them, for the County people were neighborly and sociable and none too tolerant of anyone lacking in those same qualities. —
他们是一个沉默寡言、固执的家族，严格地与他们在卡罗来纳的亲戚结婚，杰拉尔德不是唯一一个不喜欢他们的人，因为该县的人亲邻友好，喜欢社交，对那些缺乏这些品质的人并不太容忍。 —

Rumors of Abolitionist sympathies did not enhance the popularity of the MacIntoshes. —
有废奴主义者的传言并没有增加麦金托什家族的受欢迎程度。 —

Old Angus had never manumitted a single slave and had committed the unpardonable social breach of selling some of his negroes to passing slave traders en route to the cane fields of Louisiana, but the rumors persisted.
老安古斯从未释放过一名奴隶，还犯了不可饶恕的社会错误，将一些黑奴卖给经过路过的奴隶贩子，他们要去路易斯安那州的甘蔗田地，但是这些传言依然存在。

“He’s an Abolitionist, no doubt,” observed Gerald to John Wilkes. —
“他无疑是一个废奴主义者，”杰拉尔德对约翰·威尔克斯说道。 —

“But, in an Orangeman, when a principle comes up against Scotch tightness, the principle fares ill.”
“但是对于一个兰里人来说，当一个原则与苏格兰的坚定对立时，原则就会遭遇不幸。”

The Slatterys were another affair. Being poor white, they were not even accorded the grudging respect that Angus MacIntosh’s dour independence wrung from neighboring families. —
斯拉特里一家是另一种生活方式。作为贫穷的白人，他们甚至没有得到安格斯·麦金托什坚定不移独立所换来的一点点尊重。 —

Old Slattery, who clung persistently to his few acres, in spite of repeated offers from Gerald and John Wilkes, was shiftless and whining. —
老斯拉特里固执地守住他的几英亩地，无论杰拉德和约翰·威尔克斯多次发出收购邀约，他总是闲散而抱怨不断。 —

His wife was a snarly-haired woman, sickly and washed-out of appearance, the mother of a brood of sullen and rabbity-looking children— a brood which was increased regularly every year. —
他的妻子是一位头发打结的女人，容貌憔悴不堪，生育了一群忧郁而胆小的孩子-每年定时增加一群。 —

Tom Slattery owned no slaves, and he and his two oldest boys spasmodically worked their few acres of cotton, while the wife and younger children tended what was supposed to be a vegetable garden. —
汤姆·斯拉特里不拥有奴隶，他和他的两个大儿子断断续续地种着他们几英亩的棉花，而妻子和年幼的孩子们则负责所谓的菜园。 —

But, somehow, the cotton always failed, and the garden, due to Mrs. Slattery’s constant childbearing, seldom furnished enough to feed her flock.
但是，不知何故，棉花总是失败，而菜园由于斯拉特里太太不断生育的缘故，很少能提供足够的食物养活她的孩子们。

The sight of Tom Slattery dawdling on his neighbors’ porches, begging cotton seed for planting or a side of bacon to “tide him over,” was a familiar one. —
看到汤姆·斯拉特利在邻居的门廊上闲逛，乞求种植棉花的棉籽或一块培根来“度日”，是一幕熟悉的景象。 —

Slattery hated his neighbors with what little energy he possessed, sensing their contempt beneath their courtesy, and especially did he hate “rich folks’ uppity niggers.” —
斯拉特利憎恨他的邻居们，他只有少许的能量，但能感受到他们的礼貌下的蔑视，他尤其憎恨“富人的高傲黑人”。 —

The house negroes of the County considered themselves superior to white trash, and their unconcealed scorn stung him, while their more secure position in life stirred his envy. —
县里的家奴认为自己高人一等，他们公然的轻蔑刺痛了他，而他们在生活中更稳固的地位激起了他的嫉妒。 —

By contrast with his own miserable existence, they were well-fed, well-clothed and looked after in sickness and old age. —
与他自己悲惨的生活形成鲜明对比的是，他们吃得好，穿得好，在生病和年老时还有人照顾。 —

They were proud of the good names of their owners and, for the most part, proud to belong to people who were quality, while he was despised by all.
他们为主人的好名声感到自豪，大多数情况下，他们很自豪地属于高质量的人，而他却被所有人鄙视。

Tom Slattery could have sold his farm for three times its value to any of the planters in the County. They would have considered it money well spent to rid the community of an eyesore, but he was well satisfied to remain and to subsist miserably on the proceeds of a bale of cotton a year and the charity of his neighbors.
汤姆·斯拉特里本可以把他的农场卖给县里的任何一个种植园主，价格是现在的三倍，他们会认为这是花得值的钱，因为这样可以摆脱这个社区的眼中钉。但他很满足于留下来，靠一年一捆棉花和邻居们的施舍过着悲惨的生活。

With all the rest of the County, Gerald was on terms of amity and some intimacy. —
与县里的其他人一样，杰拉尔德与邻居们保持友好和一定的亲密关系。 —

The Wilkeses, the Calverts, the Tarletons, the Fontaines, all smiled when the small figure on the big white horse galloped up their driveways, smiled and signaled for tall glasses in which a pony of Bourbon had been poured over a teaspoon of sugar and a sprig of crushed mint. —
威尔克斯家、卡尔佛特家、泰尔顿家、方丹家等人，当那个小个子骑着大白马奔过他们家的车道时，都面带微笑，然后示意拿来盛有一小匙糖和碾碎了的薄荷叶的高脚杯，杯中已经倒入了一点波旁威士忌。 —

Gerald was likable, and the neighbors learned in time what the children, negroes and dogs discovered at first sight, that a kind heart, a ready and sympathetic ear and an open pocketbook lurked just behind his bawling voice and his truculent manner.
杰拉尔德很讨人喜欢，邻居们渐渐地了解到，孩子们、黑人和狗只要一眼看见他，就会发觉他那喊叫声和咄咄逼人的态度之后，其实对人很和善，心地善良，愿意倾听和同情他人，而且钱包总是敞开着。

His arrival was always amid a bedlam of hounds barking and small black children shouting as they raced to meet him, quarreling for the privilege of holding his horse and squirming and grinning under his good-natured insults. —
他的到来总是伴随着狗吠声和黑人小孩的喧闹，在他们向他奔跑的时候，争夺着牵着他的马并扭动着身体笑嘻嘻地接受他的友好侮辱。 —

The white children clamored to sit on his knee and be trotted, while he denounced to their elders the infamy of Yankee politicians; —
白人孩子们争相坐在他的膝上，让他对他们的长辈们谴责北方政客的罪行； —

the daughters of his friends took him into their confidence about their love affairs, and the youths of the neighborhood, fearful of confessing debts of honor upon the carpets of their fathers, found him a friend in need.
他朋友的女儿们信任地向他倾诉她们的恋爱经历，而该地区的年轻人，害怕在父亲的地毯上坦白无措地承认债务，却找到了一个及时的朋友。

“So, you’ve been owning this for a month, you young rascal!” he would shout. —
“这样，你这个小混蛋，你已经拥有这个一个月了！”他会大喊大叫。 —

“And, in God’s name, why haven’t you been asking me for the money before this?”
“而且，出于上帝的名义，为什么你到现在才向我要钱？”

His rough manner of speech was too well known to give offense, and it only made the young men grin sheepishly and reply: —
他粗鲁的说话方式太过出名，没有惹恼任何人，只让年轻人羞怯地笑着回答： —

“Well, sir, I hated to trouble you, and my father—”
“嗯，先生，我不愿意麻烦您，而且我爸爸……”

“Your father’s a good man, and no denying it, but strict, and so take this and let’s be hearing no more of it.”
“你父亲是个好人，无可否认，但他很严厉，所以拿这个吧，别再提了。”

The planters’ ladies were the last to capitulate. —
种植园主们的太太们是最后屈服的。 —

But, when Mrs. Wilkes, “a great lady and with a rare gift for silence,” as Gerald characterized her, told her husband one evening, after Gerald’s horse had pounded down the driveway. —
但是，当威尔克斯太太，“一位伟大的女士，擅长保持沉默的稀有天赋，”正如杰拉尔德所描述的那样，在一天晚上告诉她的丈夫，杰拉尔德的马儿沿着车道奔过的时候。 —

“He has a rough tongue, but he is a gentleman,” Gerald had definitely arrived.
“他说话粗鲁，但他是个绅士，”杰拉尔德确定地说。

He did not know that he had taken nearly ten years to arrive, for it never occurred to him that his neighbors had eyed him askance at first. —
他不知道自己已经花了近十年的时间才做到这一点，因为他从未想过他的邻居起初对他持怀疑态度。 —

In his own mind, there had never been any doubt that he belonged, from the moment he first set foot on Tara.
在他自己心中，毫无疑问，他从第一次踏上塔拉的那一刻起就属于这里。

When Gerald was forty-three, so thickset of body and florid of face that he looked like a hunting squire out of a sporting print, it came to him that Tara, dear though it was, and the County folk, with their open hearts and open houses, were not enough. He wanted a wife.
当杰拉尔德43岁的时候，他浑身发胖、面色红润，看起来像一位打猎朝圣的绅士，他意识到，尽管塔拉和有着敞开心扉和敞开房屋的郡中人对他来说很珍贵，但这还不够。他想要一个妻子。

Tara cried out for a mistress. The fat cook, a yard negro elevated by necessity to the kitchen, never had the meals on time, and the chambermaid, formerly a field hand, let dust accumulate on the furniture and never seemed to have clean linen on hand, so that the arrival of guests was always the occasion of much stirring and to-do. —
塔拉为一位家庭主妇而哭泣。那个胖厨师，一个被迫进入厨房的场中黑奴，从来不按时上餐，那个女仆，曾经是一个田地工人，任由家具积满灰尘，似乎永远没有干净的亚麻在手边，所以客人到来总是引起了很大的动静。 —

Pork, the only trained house negro on the place, had general supervision over the other servants, but even he had grown slack and careless after several years of exposure to Gerald’s happy-go-lucky mode of living. —
猪肉是全场唯一一个受过训练的仆人，他对其他仆人负责一般的监管，但即使是在杰拉尔德放任随意的生活方式下，他也变得懒散和粗心。 —

As valet, he kept Gerald’s bedroom in order, and, as butler, he served the meals with dignity and style, but otherwise he pretty well let matters follow their own course.
作为管家，他会整理好杰拉尔德的卧室，作为男仆，他会庄重而优雅地上餐，但除此之外，他基本上让事情顺其自然。

With unerring African instinct, the negroes had all discovered that Gerald had a loud bark and no bite at all, and they took shameless advantage of him. —
凭借着准确的非洲本能，黑人们都发现杰拉尔德形同虚设，只会咆哮而不咬人，所以他们无耻地趁机占了他的便宜。 —

The air was always thick with threats of selling slaves south and of direful whippings, but there never had been a slave sold from Tara and only one whipping, and that administered for not grooming down Gerald’s pet horse after a long day’s hunting.
空气中总是充斥着出售奴隶到南方的威胁以及可怕的鞭笞，但是塔拉从未出售过奴隶，只有一次鞭笞，那是因为没有给杰拉尔德的宠物马好好梳理毛发，而当天他们进行了漫长的打猎活动。

Gerald’s sharp blue eyes noticed how efficiently his neighbors’ houses were run and with what ease the smooth-haired wives in rustling skirts managed their servants. —
杰拉尔德敏锐的蓝眼睛注意到了邻居们家中高效运作的模样，顺滑的妻子们穿着沙沙作响的裙子优雅地管理着仆人。 —

He had no knowledge of the dawn-till-midnight activities of these women, chained to supervision of cooking, nursing, sewing and laundering. —
他对这些妇女黎明到午夜的忙碌一无所知，她们为监督烹饪、看护、缝纫和洗涤而被束缚着。 —

He only saw the outward results, and those results impressed him.
他只看得到表象的成果，而这些成果让他印象深刻。

The urgent need of a wife became clear to him one morning when he was dressing to ride to town for Court Day. Pork brought forth his favorite ruffled shirt, so inexpertly mended by the chambermaid as to be unwearable by anyone except his valet.
有一天早晨，当他正准备出门去城里去参加法庭日时，他突然迫切地感到需要一个妻子。瑞猪取出他最喜欢的、被女仆拙劣地缝补过以至于除了照看他的贴身管家，没人愿意穿的褶边衬衫。

“Mist’ Gerald,” said Pork, gratefully rolling up the shirt as Gerald fumed, “whut you needs is a wife, and a wife whut has got plen’y of house niggers.”
“杰拉德先生，”波克感激地把衬衣卷起来说道，”你需要的是一个妻子，一个有很多仆人的妻子。”

Gerald upbraided Pork for his impertinence, but he knew that he was right. —
杰拉德责备波克的无礼，但他知道他是对的。 —

He wanted a wife and he wanted children and, if he did not acquire them soon, it would be too late. —
他想要一个妻子，他想要孩子，如果他不尽快拥有它们，就会太迟了。 —

But he was not going to marry just anyone, as Mr. Calvert had done, taking to wife the Yankee governess of his motherless children. —
但他不会像卡尔维特先生那样随便娶任何人，卡尔维特先生娶了他没有母亲的孩子们的美国家庭教师作妻子。 —

His wife must be a lady and a lady of blood, with as many airs and graces as Mrs. Wilkes and the ability to manage Tara as well as Mrs. Wilkes ordered her own domain.
他的妻子必须是一个高贵的女士，一个有着和威尔克斯夫人一样多的风度和优雅，能够像威尔克斯夫人一样管理塔拉庄园的人。

But there were two difficulties in the way of marriage into the County families. —
但婚入乡绅家族有两个困难。 —

The first was the scarcity of girls of marriageable age. —
第一个困难是适婚年龄女孩的匮乏。 —

The second, and more serious one, was that Gerald was a “new man,” despite his nearly ten years’ residence, and a foreigner. —
第二个，更严重的困难是杰拉德是个”新人”，尽管他已经居住了将近十年，并且是个外地人。 —

No one knew anything about his family. While the society of up-country Georgia was not so impregnable as that of the Coast aristocrats, no family wanted a daughter to wed a man about whose grandfather nothing was known.
没有人对他的家庭了解多少。尽管佐治亚州内陆的社会并不像海岸上的贵族那样封闭不可侵犯，但没有一个家庭愿意让女儿嫁给一个关于祖父毫无所知的男人。

Gerald knew that despite the genuine liking of the County men with whom he hunted, drank and talked politics there was hardly one whose daughter he could marry. —
杰拉尔德知道，尽管他和乡村男人们打猎、喝酒和谈论政治关系良好，但几乎没有一个人的女儿他可以娶。 —

And he did not intend to have it gossiped about over supper tables that this, that or the other father had regretfully refused to let Gerald O’Hara pay court to his daughter. —
他不打算让人们在晚餐桌上议论这样一个事情：这位或者那位父亲曾经遗憾地拒绝让杰拉尔德·奥哈拉追求他的女儿。 —

This knowledge did not make Gerald feel inferior to his neighbors. —
这种认识并没有让杰拉尔德觉得自己比邻居们低人一等。 —

Nothing could ever make Gerald feel that he was inferior in any way to anyone. —
任何事情都不能让杰拉尔德觉得自己在任何方面比任何人逊色。 —

It was merely a quaint custom of the County that daughters only married into families who had lived in the South much longer than twenty-two years, had owned land and slaves and been addicted only to the fashionable vices during that time.
这只是县城的一个奇怪的风俗，女儿只能嫁给在南方生活了超过二十二年的家族，拥有土地和奴隶，并且只沉溺于时尚的恶习。

“Pack up. We’re going to Savannah,” he told Pork. “And if I hear you say ‘Whist!’ or ‘Faith!’ —
“收拾一下，我们要去撒凡纳，” 他告诉波克说。 “如果我听到你说‘嘘’或‘天哪’的话，” —

but once, it’s selling you I’ll be doing, for they are words I seldom say meself.”
“但是，这次是我要为你做媒，因为这些词我自己很少说。”

James and Andrew might have some advice to offer on this subject of marriage, and there might be daughters among their old friends who would both meet his requirements and find him acceptable as a husband. —
詹姆斯和安德鲁可能会对婚姻这个话题提供一些建议，他们老朋友中可能有女儿符合他的要求，并且认可他作为丈夫。 —

James and Andrew listened to his story patiently but they gave him little encouragement. —
詹姆斯和安德鲁耐心地听他的故事，但他们给予他很少鼓励。 —

They had no Savannah relatives to whom they might look for assistance, for they had been married when they came to America. —
他们没有撒凡纳的亲戚可以寻求帮助，因为他们来美国时已经结婚了。 —

And the daughters of their old friends had long since married and were raising small children of their own.
他们的老朋友的女儿们早已结婚，并且正在抚养自己的小孩。

“You’re not a rich man and you haven’t a great family,” said James.
“你不是富有的人，也没有一个伟大的家族，”詹姆斯说。

“I’ve made me money and I can make a great family. And I won’t be marrying just anyone.”
“我已经挣了一大笔钱，也能建立一个伟大的家族。而且我不会和任何人结婚。”

“You fly high,” observed Andrew, dryly.
“你志得意满，”安德鲁干巴巴地说道。

But they did their best for Gerald. James and Andrew were old men and they stood well in Savannah. —
但是他们尽了最大的努力照顾杰拉尔德。詹姆斯和安德鲁是老人，他们在萨凡纳过得很好。 —

They had many friends, and for a month they carried Gerald from home to home, to suppers, dances and picnics.
他们有很多朋友，一个月里他们带着杰拉尔德到处串门，参加晚宴、舞会和野餐。

“There’s only one who takes me eye,” Gerald said finally. —
“只有一个人吸引了我的目光，”杰拉尔德最终说道。 —

“And she not even born when I landed here.”
“而且她还没有出生时我就来到这里了。”

“And who is it takes your eye?”
“那是谁吸引了你的目光？”

“Miss Ellen Robillard,” said Gerald, trying to speak casually, for the slightly tilting dark eyes of Ellen Robillard had taken more than his eye. —
“埃伦·罗比拉德小姐，”杰拉尔德试图表现得漫不经心，因为埃伦·罗比拉德那微微倾斜的深眸不仅仅吸引了他的目光。 —

Despite a mystifying listlessness of manner, so strange in a girl of fifteen, she charmed him. —
尽管这个十五岁的女孩在举止上表现出令人困惑的倦怠感，但她仍然迷住了他。 —

Moreover, there was a haunting look of despair about her that went to his heart and made him more gentle with her than he had ever been with any person in all the world.
此外，她身上还有一种绝望的神情，让他心生怜悯，比他对世界上任何人都更温柔。

“And you old enough to be her father!”
“你已经够资格做她父亲了！”

“And me in me prime!” cried Gerald stung.
“而我正值巅峰！”杰拉尔德被刺痛了。

James spoke gently.
詹姆斯温柔地说道。

“Jerry, there’s no girl in Savannah you’d have less chance of marrying. —
“杰瑞，萨凡纳没有一个女孩会给你更少结婚的机会。 —

Her father is a Robillard, and those French are proud as Lucifer. —
她的父亲是罗比亚德家族的人，而这些法国人骄傲得像魔鬼一样。 —

And her mother—God rest her soul—was a very great lady.”
而她的母亲——愿她的灵魂安息——是一位非常出色的女士。

“I care not,” said Gerald heatedly. “Besides, her mother is dead, and old man Robillard likes me.”
“我不在乎，”杰拉尔德生气地说道。”而且，她的母亲已经去世了，老罗比亚德先生喜欢我。”

“As a man, yes, but as a son-in-law, no.”
“作为一个人，是的，但作为女婿，不是。”

“The girl wouldn’t have you anyway,” interposed Andrew. —
安德鲁插话道：”那女孩根本不会嫁给你。” —

“She’s been in love with that wild buck of a cousin of hers, Philippe Robillard, for a year now, despite her family being at her morning and night to give him up.”
“尽管她的家人早晚都在劝她与她那个野蛮的表亲菲利普·罗比亚德断绝关系，她已经爱上他有一年了。”

“He’s been gone to Louisiana this month now,” said Gerald.
“他已经去路易斯安那了一个月了，”杰拉尔德说道。

“And how do you know?”
“你怎么知道？”

“I know,” answered Gerald, who did not care to disclose that Pork had supplied this valuable bit of information, or that Philippe had departed for the West at the express desire of his family. —
“我知道，”杰拉尔德回答道，他不愿透露是 波克提供了这一重要消息，也不愿透露菲利普是受到了家人明确要求去西部的。 —

“And I do not think she’s been so much in love with him that she won’t forget him. —
“我并不认为她对他那么爱得牢不可破，她会忘记他的。 —

Fifteen is too young to know much about love.”
十五岁的年纪对爱情了解不多。”

“They’d rather have that breakneck cousin for her than you.”
“他们宁愿让她嫁给那个冒失的表亲，也不愿嫁给你。”

So, James and Andrew were as startled as anyone when the news came out that the daughter of Pierre Robillard was to marry the little Irishman from up the country. —
当消息传出说皮埃尔·罗比亚的女儿要嫁给从乡下来的那个小爱尔兰人时，詹姆斯和安德鲁和其他人一样感到惊讶。 —

Savannah buzzed behind its doors and speculated about Philippe Robillard, who had gone West, but the gossiping brought no answer. —
萨凡纳的内部议论纷纷，大家对西部的菲利普·罗比亚有所猜测，但是这些八卦传闻并没有得到答案。 —

Why the loveliest of the Robillard daughters should marry a loud-voiced, red-faced little man who came hardly up to her ears remained a mystery to all.
为什么最美丽的罗比亚女儿要嫁给一个声音大、满脸通红、连她的耳朵都不及的小男人，这对所有人来说都是个谜。

Gerald himself never quite knew how it all came about. He only knew that a miracle had happened. —
杰拉尔德自己也不太清楚这一切是怎么发生的。他只知道一个奇迹发生了。 —

And, for once in his life, he was utterly humble when Ellen, very white but very calm, put a light hand on his arm and said: —
这一次，他十分谦卑，当艾伦，一脸苍白但十分冷静，轻轻地把手放在他的胳膊上说： —

“I will marry you, Mr. O’Hara.”
“我愿意嫁给你，奥哈拉先生。”

The thunderstruck Robillards knew the answer in part, but only Ellen and her mammy ever knew the whole story of the night when the girl sobbed till the dawn like a broken-hearted child and rose up in the morning a woman with her mind made up.
惊讶万分的罗比亚一家人知道一部分答案，但只有艾伦和她的保姆知道整个故事 —— 那个晚上，女孩像一颗心碎的孩子一样哭泣到天亮，然后在早晨起身时成为了一个下定决心的女人。

With foreboding, Mammy had brought her young mistress a small package, addressed in a strange hand from New Orleans, a package containing a miniature of Ellen, which she flung to the floor with a cry, four letters in her own handwriting to Philippe Robillard, and a brief letter from a New Orleans priest, announcing the death of her cousin in a barroom brawl.
满怀忧虑，女仆玛米带来了一个小包裹给她的年轻主人，包裹上用陌生的字迹写着“新奥尔良”，里面有艾伦的小型肖像画，她大声地把它扔到地上，还有4封她自己写给菲利普·罗比亚尔的信，以及一封来自新奥尔良一位神父的短信，宣布她的表弟在一场酒馆争斗中丧生。

“They drove him away, Father and Pauline and Eulalie. They drove him away. I hate them. —
“他们把他赶走了，父亲和宝琳和尤拉利。他们把他赶走了。我恨他们。” —

I hate them all. I never want to see them again. I want to get away. —
“我恨他们所有人。我再也不想见到他们了。我想离开。” —

I will go away where I’ll never see them again, or this town, or anyone who reminds me of—of— him.”
“我会离开的，去一个永远不会再见到他们，或者这个城镇的地方，或者任何让我想起…他的人的地方。”

And when the night was nearly spent, Mammy, who had cried herself out over her mistress’ dark head, protested, “But, honey, you kain do dat!”
当夜晚接近尾声时，玛米把她的眼泪融入她黑暗的头上，抗议道：“但是，亲爱的，你不能这样做！”

“I will do it. He is a kind man. I will do it or go into the convent at Charleston.”
“我会的。他是个好人。我要这样做，要么去查尔斯顿的修道院。”

It was the threat of the convent that finally won the assent of bewildered and heartstricken Pierre Robillard. —
最终，茫然而心碎的皮埃尔·罗比亚尔同意了修道院的威胁。 —

He was staunchly Presbyterian, even though his family were Catholic, and the thought of his daughter becoming a nun was even worse than that of her marrying Gerald O’Hara. After all, the man had nothing against him but a lack of family.
他坚定地信奉长老会教派，尽管他的家族都是天主教徒，而他的女儿成为修女的想法甚至比她嫁给杰拉尔德·奥哈拉更糟糕。毕竟，他对这个人唯一的不满就是缺乏家庭。

So, Ellen, no longer Robillard, turned her back on Savannah, never to see it again, and with a middle-aged husband, Mammy, and twenty “house niggers” journeyed toward Tara.
于是，埃伦，不再是罗比拉德，背过身去，永远离开了萨凡纳，带着一个中年丈夫，贝统，和二十个“家奴”向塔拉进发。

The next year, their first child was born and they named her Katie Scarlett, after Gerald’s mother. —
第二年，他们的第一个孩子出生了，他们把她取名叫凯蒂·斯嘉丽，以纪念杰拉尔德的母亲。 —

Gerald was disappointed, for he had wanted a son, but he nevertheless was pleased enough over his small black-haired daughter to serve rum to every slave at Tara and to get roaringly, happily drunk himself.
杰拉尔德对此感到失望，因为他想要一个儿子，但他仍然为他那个黑发娇小的女儿感到高兴，以至于在塔拉给每个奴隶倒酒喝，并且自己也喝得烂醉。

If Ellen had ever regretted her sudden decision to marry him, no one ever knew it, certainly not Gerald, who almost burst with pride whenever he looked at her. —
如果埃伦曾经对自己突然决定嫁给他感到后悔，没有人知道，当然包括杰拉尔德，每当他看着她时，他都几乎要因为他的妻子感到自豪而急于雀跃。 —

She had put Savannah and its memories behind her when she left that gently mannered city by the sea, and, from the moment of her arrival in the County, north Georgia was her home.
当她离开了那个温柔的海滨城市萨凡纳和其中的回忆，她已经将它们抛在了身后，从她抵达北佐治亚县的那一刻起，这里成了她的家。

When she departed from her father’s house forever, she had left a home whose lines were as beautiful and flowing as a woman’s body, as a ship in full sail; —
当她永远离开父亲的家时，她离开了一个线条优美流畅如女性身体、如满帆船的家。 —

a pale pink stucco house built in the French colonial style, set high from the ground in a dainty manner, approached by swirling stairs, banistered with wrought iron as delicate as lace; —
一座淡粉色的灰泥房，采用了法属殖民地的风格建造，高高地矗立在地面上，优雅精致的旋转楼梯通向门前，扶手上镶嵌着如蕾丝般精细的铁艺。 —

a dim, rich house, gracious but aloof.
这是一座昏暗而富有的房子，优雅而疏离。

She had left not only that graceful dwelling but also the entire civilization that was behind the building of it, and she found herself in a world that was as strange and different as if she had crossed a continent.
她不仅离开了那座优美的住所，也离开了建造它的整个文明社会，她发现自己进入了一个与之前完全不同的世界，就好像她穿越了整个大陆。

Here in north Georgia was a rugged section held by a hardy people. —
在北佐治亚，这是一个被坚强民众占据的崎岖地区。 —

High up on the plateau at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, she saw rolling red hills wherever she looked, with huge outcroppings of the underlying granite and gaunt pines towering somberly everywhere. —
在蓝山脚下的高原上，她看到无论何处都有起伏的红色山丘，那里巨大的花岗岩露头随处可见，傲然矗立的松树无处不在，给人一种肃穆的感觉。 —

It all seemed wild and untamed to her coast- bred eyes accustomed to the quiet jungle beauty of the sea islands draped in their gray moss and tangled green, the white stretches of beach hot beneath a semitropic sun, the long flat vistas of sandy land studded with palmetto and palm.
对于她这个长大在海岸的人来说，这一切都显得野性和未被驯服，她习惯了海岛上静谧的丛林之美，那些被灰色苔藓和茂密的绿色覆盖的地方，那些在半热带阳光下灼热的白色海滩，以及遍布树椰和棕榈的宽阔沙地。

This was a section that knew the chill of winter, as well as the heat of summer, and there was a vigor and energy in the people that was strange to her. —
这个地区既经历过严寒的冬天，也经历过酷暑的夏天，人们充满了活力和精力，这对她来说是陌生的。 —

They were a kindly people, courteous, generous, filled with abounding good nature, but sturdy, virile, easy to anger. —
他们是和蔼可亲的人，彬彬有礼，慷慨大方，充满了无尽的善良，但同时又坚定、有男子气概，容易发怒。 —

The people of the Coast which she had left might pride themselves on taking all their affairs, even their duels and their feuds, with a careless air but these north Georgia people had a streak of violence in them. —
她所离开的海岸地区的人们或许自豪地以漫不经心的态度对待他们的事务，甚至对待决斗和仇杀，而这些北乔治亚人民内心深处有着暴力的因子。 —

On the coast, life had mellowed—here it was young and lusty and new.
在海岸边，生活变得平和——这里年轻、热情、崭新。

All the people Ellen had known in Savannah might have been cast from the same mold, so similar were their view points and traditions, but here was a variety of people. —
埃伦在萨凡纳认识的人们几乎都被塑造成同一种模式，观点和传统都如此相似，而这里的人们却各不相同。 —

North Georgia’s settlers were coming in from many different places, from other parts of Georgia, from the Carolinas and Virginia, from Europe and the North. Some of them, like Gerald, were new people seeking their fortunes. —
北佐治亚的定居者来自不同的地方，包括佐治亚其他地区、卡罗来纳和弗吉尼亚以及欧洲和北方。其中一些人，像杰拉德，是追求财富的新移民。 —

Some, like Ellen, were members of old families who had found life intolerable in their former homes and sought haven in a distant land. —
有些人，像埃伦，是老家族的成员，他们发现在他们之前的家乡生活已经无法忍受，于是寻求遥远的避难所。 —

Many had moved for no reason at all, except that the restless blood of pioneering fathers still quickened in their veins.
许多人搬迁的原因纯粹是出于冒险家先辈的不安定血液仍然在他们的血脉中流动。

These people, drawn from many different places and with many different backgrounds, gave the whole life of the County an informality that was new to Ellen, an informality to which she never quite accustomed herself. —
这些人来自不同的地方，背景各异，给整个县的生活带来了一种新的随意性，而埃伦对这种随意性始终无法适应。 —

She instinctively knew how Coast people would act in any circumstance. —
她本能地知道，无论在任何情况下，沿海地区的人们会如何行动。 —

There was never any telling what north Georgians would do.
从来就无法预料北佐治亚人会做出什么样的举动。

And, quickening all of the affairs of the section, was the high tide of prosperity then rolling over the South. All of the world was crying out for cotton, and the new land of the County, unworn and fertile, produced it abundantly. —
并且，这一切地方的事务都被迅速推动，南方正在经历着繁荣的高潮。全世界都在大声呼喊着棉花，而该县的这片新土地，未被磨损而肥沃，丰产棉花。 —

Cotton was the heartbeat of the section, the planting and the picking were the diastole and systole of the red earth. —
棉花是该地区的脉搏，种植和采摘是那片红土的舒张和收缩。 —

Wealth came out of the curving furrows, and arrogance came too—arrogance built on green bushes and the acres of fleecy white. —
财富源自那弯曲的犁沟，而傲慢也源自于绿色丛林和无边无际的白茸茸田地。 —

If cotton could make them rich in one generation, how much richer they would be in the next!
如果棉花可以令他们在一代人的时间里变得富裕，那么在下一代，他们将会更富有！

This certainty of the morrow gave zest and enthusiasm to life, and the County people enjoyed life with a heartiness that Ellen could never understand. —
对明天的确信使生活充满了热情和激情，县的居民们以一种伊莲永远无法理解的热情享受着生活。 —

They had money enough and slaves enough to give them time to play, and they liked to play. —
他们拥有充足的金钱和奴隶，让他们有时间去玩耍，而且他们喜欢玩耍。 —

They seemed never too busy to drop work for a fish fry, a hunt or a horse race, and scarcely a week went by without its barbecue or ball.
他们似乎从未忙到无法放下工作去吃煎鱼、打猎或参加马赛，几乎每周都会有烧烤或舞会。

Ellen never would, or could, quite become one of them—she had left too much of herself in Savannah—but she respected them and, in time, learned to admire the frankness and forthrightness of these people, who had few reticences and who valued a man for what he was.
艾伦永远不会、也无法完全成为他们中的一员 - 她已经在萨凡纳留下了太多自己的东西 - 但她尊重他们，并且随着时间的推移，她学会了欣赏这些人的坦率和直率，他们很少有保留，并且重视一个人为他自己的品质。

She became the best-loved neighbor in the County. —
她成为了县里最受喜爱的邻居。 —

She was a thrifty and kind mistress, a good mother and a devoted wife. —
她是一个节俭而善良的主人，是个好母亲和忠诚的妻子。 —

The heartbreak and selflessness that she would have dedicated to the Church were devoted instead to the service of her child, her household and the man who had taken her out of Savannah and its memories and had never asked any questions.
她原本愿意奉献给教堂的心碎和无私之情，转而奉献给了她的孩子、家庭和那个带她离开萨凡纳和其中的回忆的人，并且从未问过任何问题。

When Scarlett was a year old, and more healthy and vigorous than a girl baby had any right to be, in Mammy’s opinion, Ellen’s second child, named Susan Elinor, but always called Suellen, was born, and in due time came Carreen, listed in the family Bible as Caroline Irene. Then followed three little boys, each of whom died before he had learned to walk—three little boys who now lay under the twisted cedars in the burying ground a hundred yards from the house, beneath three stones, each bearing the name of “Gerald O’Hara, Jr.”
当斯嘉丽一岁多时，她比任何一个女婴都更健康活力，这是玛米的观点，艾伦的第二个孩子，名叫苏珊·埃莉诺，但经常被称为苏伦，出生了，随后又来了卡琳，家谱上写着卡罗琳·艾琳，然后又接连出生了三个小男孩，每个都在学步之前夭折——现在，这三个小男孩躺在距离房子一百码远的蜿蜒的雪松树下的墓地里，墓石上分别刻着“杰拉尔德·奥哈拉六世”。

From the day when Ellen first came to Tara, the place had been transformed. —
从艾伦第一次来到塔拉的那一天起，这个地方就发生了改变。 —

If she was only fifteen years old, she was nevertheless ready for the responsibilities of the mistress of a plantation. —
即使她只有十五岁，她仍然准备好了作为一个庄园的女主人的责任。 —

Before marriage, young girls must be, above all other things, sweet, gentle, beautiful and ornamental, but, after marriage, they were expected to manage households that numbered a hundred people or more, white and black, and they were trained with that in view.
结婚前，年轻女孩必须是最重要的事情之一，甜美、温柔、美丽和装饰，但是结婚后，人们期望她们管理白人和黑人等多达一百人以上的家务事，并为此进行培训。

Ellen had been given this preparation for marriage which any well- brought-up young lady received, and she also had Mammy, who could galvanize the most shiftless negro into energy. —
埃伦接受了任何一个家教良好的年轻女子婚前准备的教育，并且她还有万能的玛米，可以激发出最懒散的黑奴的活力。 —

She quickly brought order, dignity and grace into Gerald’s household, and she gave Tara a beauty it had never had before.
她迅速为杰拉尔德的家带来了秩序、庄重和优雅，并且她给塔拉带来了前所未有的美丽。

The house had been built according to no architectural plan whatever, with extra rooms added where and when it seemed convenient, but, with Ellen’s care and attention, it gained a charm that made up for its lack of design. —
这座房子完全没有按照任何建筑计划建造，额外的房间随意增加，但在埃伦的照料和关注下，它获得了一种迷人的魅力，弥补了它缺乏设计的不足。 —

The avenue of cedars leading from the main road to the house—that avenue of cedars without which no Georgia planter’s home could be complete—had a cool dark shadiness that gave a brighter tinge, by contrast, to the green of the other trees. —
从主路通往房子的雪松大道，也就是没有它就不完整的乔治亚庄园主的家，有一种凉爽而阴暗的光线，通过对比使其他树的绿色更加明亮。 —

The wistaria tumbling over the verandas showed bright against the whitewashed brick, and it joined with the pink crepe myrtle bushes by the door and the white-blossomed magnolias in the yard to disguise some of the awkward lines of the house.
绕过阳台垂下的紫藤在白粉刷的砖墙上极为鲜艳，与门口的粉色莎莉梅丛和院子里的白花木兰一起掩盖了房子的一些不雅线条。

In spring time and summer, the Bermuda grass and clover on the lawn became emerald, so enticing an emerald that it presented an irresistible temptation to the flocks of turkeys and white geese that were supposed to roam only the regions in the rear of the house. —
在春夏之交，草坪上的百慕大草和三叶草变成了翠绿色，如此诱人的翠绿色对那些只应该在房屋后方漫游的火鸡群和白鹅群来说，成为了一种无法抗拒的诱惑。 —

The elders of the flocks continually led stealthy advances into the front yard, lured on by the green of the grass and the luscious promise of the cape jessamine buds and the zinnia beds. —
它们的族长不断地引领着秘密突袭进入前院，被草地的绿色以及角蔷薇花苞和太阳花花坛的美味所吸引。 —

Against their depredations, a small black sentinel was stationed on the front porch. —
作为对它们的损害的防范，一只小小的黑色哨兵被派驻在前廊上。 —

Armed with a ragged towel, the little negro boy sitting on the steps was part of the picture of Tara—and an unhappy one, for he was forbidden to chunk the fowls and could only flap the towel at them and shoo them.
这个坐在阶梯上的黑皮肤孩子手里拿着一块破旧的毛巾，他是塔拉庄园画面中的一部分，但却是一个不开心的部分，因为他被禁止扔东西吓走鸡，只能挥动毛巾把鸡吓走。

Ellen set dozens of little black boys to this task, the first position of responsibility a male slave had at Tara. After they had passed their tenth year, they were sent to old Daddy the plantation cobbler to learn his trade, or to Amos the wheelwright and carpenter, or Philip the cow man, or Cuffee the mule boy. —
埃伦让许多黑人小男孩做这个任务，这是塔拉庄园男性奴隶的第一个责任位置。当他们过了十岁后，他们被送到农庄的制鞋匠老爹那里学习制鞋的手艺，或者去找车匠木匠阿莫斯、奶牛牧人菲利普，或者是骡车司机卡菲。 —

If they showed no aptitude for any of these trades, they became field hands and, in the opinion of the negroes, they had lost their claim to any social standing at all.
如果他们在这些工种中表现不出天赋，他们就成了田地劳工，在黑人看来，他们就失去了任何社会地位的主张。

Ellen’s life was not easy, nor was it happy, but she did not expect life to be easy, and, if it was not happy, that was woman’s lot. —
埃伦的生活并不轻松，也不幸福，但她并没有期望生活会轻松，如果不幸福，那是女人的命运。 —

It was a man’s world, and she accepted it as such. —
这是男人的世界，她把它当作自己的世界。 —

The man owned the property, and the woman managed it. —
男人拥有财产，而女人管理它。 —

The man took the credit for the management, and the woman praised his cleverness. —
这个男人将管理工作归功于自己，女人赞扬他的聪明才智。 —

The man roared like a bull when a splinter was in his finger, and the woman muffled the moans of childbirth, lest she disturb him. —
当男人手指被刺入时，他像一只公牛般怒吼，女人则忍住分娩的痛苦，以免打扰他。 —

Men were rough of speech and often drunk. —
男人说话粗鲁，经常酗酒。 —

Women ignored the lapses of speech and put the drunkards to bed without bitter words. —
女人对男人的失言不予理会，不会用刻薄的话语指责醉汉们，而是将他们安顿好让他们入睡。 —

Men were rude and outspoken, women were always kind, gracious and forgiving.
男人粗俗而直言不讳，女人则总是友善、亲切和宽容。

She had been reared in the tradition of great ladies, which had taught her how to carry her burden and still retain her charm, and she intended that her three daughters should be great ladies also. —
她成长于做大家族的传统中，传统教导她如何胜任自己的责任同时保持她的魅力，她希望她的三个女儿也能成为优秀的女性。 —

With her younger daughters, she had success, for Suellen was so anxious to be attractive she lent an attentive and obedient ear to her mother’s teachings, and Carreen was shy and easily led. —
对于她的小女儿，她取得了成功，因为Suellen渴望让自己变得有魅力，她全听从母亲的教诲，而Carreen则羞怯又容易受人影响。 —

But Scarlett, child of Gerald, found the road to ladyhood hard.
但是，作为杰拉尔德的孩子，斯佳丽很难走上成为优秀女性的道路。

To Mammy’s indignation, her preferred playmates were not her demure sisters or the well-brought-up Wilkes girls but the negro children on the plantation and the boys of the neighborhood, and she could climb a tree or throw a rock as well as any of them. —
令曼妮感到愤慨的是，她最喜欢的玩伴不是她那些温文尔雅的姐妹或者乖巧的威尔克斯姑娘，而是种植园上的黑人孩子和附近的男孩，她能够像他们一样爬树或者扔石头。 —

Mammy was greatly perturbed that Ellen’s daughter should display such traits and frequently adjured her to “ack lak a lil lady.” —
曼妮对埃伦的女儿展示出这样的特点感到非常不安，经常要求她“像个小淑女一样行事”。 —

But Ellen took a more tolerant and long-sighted view of the matter. —
但埃伦对这件事持有更加宽容和长远的看法。 —

She knew that from childhood playmates grew beaux in later years, and the first duty of a girl was to get married. —
她知道从童年的玩伴中会长成后来的求爱者，女孩的首要任务就是结婚。 —

She told herself that the child was merely full of life and there was still time in which to teach her the arts and graces of being attractive to men.
她告诉自己孩子只是充满生机，还有时间教她如何让男人们对她感兴趣的艺术和魅力。

To this end, Ellen and Mammy bent their efforts, and as Scarlett grew older she became an apt pupil in this subject, even though she learned little else. —
为了达到这个目标，埃伦和曼妮倾尽全力，随着斯卡蕾特长大，她成为这个课题上的一个聪明学生，尽管她在其他方面学得很少。 —

Despite a succession of governesses and two years at the near-by Fayetteville Female Academy, her education was sketchy, but no girl in the County danced more gracefully than she. —
尽管接连不断的家庭教师和在附近的费耶特维尔女子学院度过了两年，她的教育仍然不够充实，但整个县都没有一个女孩能像她那样优雅地跳舞。 —

She knew how to smile so that her dimples leaped, how to walk pigeon-toed so that her wide hoop skirts swayed entrancingly, how to look up into a man’s face and then drop her eyes and bat the lids rapidly so that she seemed a- tremble with gentle emotion. —
她知道如何微笑，让她的酒窝浮现出来；她知道如何走起鸽步让她宽松的鸡笼裙动人地摇摆；她知道如何仰视着一个男人的脸然后低下眼睑快速眨动，给人一种温柔的情感颤动。 —

Most of all she learned how to conceal from men a sharp intelligence beneath a face as sweet and bland as a baby’s.
最重要的是，她学会了如何在甜美而平淡的面孔下隐藏着敏锐的智慧，不让男人察觉。

Ellen, by soft-voiced admonition, and Mammy, by constant carping, labored to inculcate in her the qualities that would make her truly desirable as a wife.
通过温柔的口头警告，埃伦和女仆马米不断地努力教导她那些使她成为一个真正理想妻子的品质。

“You must be more gentle, dear, more sedate,” Ellen told her daughter. —
“亲爱的，你必须更温柔，更稳重，”埃伦告诉她的女儿。 —

“You must not interrupt gentlemen when they are speaking, even if you do think you know more about matters than they do. —
“即使你认为你对事情的了解超过他们，你也不要打断男士们的说话。 —

Gentlemen do not like forward girls.”
男士们不喜欢放肆的女孩。”

“Young misses whut frowns an pushes out dey chins an’ says ‘Ah will’ and ‘Ah woan’ mos’ gener’ly doan ketch husbands,” prophesied Mammy gloomily. —
“年轻小姐皱眉并撅起下巴，说‘我会’和‘我不会’的，通常不会讨到丈夫的,” Mammy 沮丧地预言道。 —

“Young misses should cas’ down dey eyes an’ say, ‘Well, suh, Ah mout’ an’ ‘Jes’ as you say, suh.‘”
“年轻小姐们应该垂下眼睛，说‘好吧，先生，我可能’和‘正如您所说，先生。’”

Between them, they taught her all that a gentlewoman should know, but she learned only the outward signs of gentility. —
她们两个教给了她一个淑女应该知道的一切，但她只学到了外表的礼仪。 —

The inner grace from which these signs should spring, she never learned nor did she see any reason for learning it. —
这些标志应该来自内心的优雅，她从未学到，也没有看到学习的理由。 —

Appearances were enough, for the appearances of ladyhood won her popularity and that was all she wanted. —
表象已足够了，因为淑女的外表赢得了她的受欢迎，而这正是她想要的。 —

Gerald bragged that she was the belle of five counties, and with some truth, for she had received proposals from nearly all the young men in the neighborhood and many from places as far away as Atlanta and Savannah.
杰拉尔德夸耀她是五个县的美女，并且这话有点实话，因为她几乎收到了附近所有年轻人以及远在亚特兰大和萨凡纳等地的年轻人的求婚。

At sixteen, thanks to Mammy and Ellen, she looked sweet, charming and giddy, but she was, in reality, self-willed, vain and obstinate. —
十六岁时，多亏了 Mammy 和 Ellen，她看起来甜美、迷人而轻浮，但实际上她固执己见，虚荣而顽固。 —

She had the easily stirred passions of her Irish father and nothing except the thinnest veneer of her mother’s unselfish and forbearing nature. —
她继承了父亲易激动的爱尔兰血统，只有母亲那份最薄弱的无私和忍让的性格外衣。 —

Ellen never fully realized that it was only a veneer, for Scarlett always showed her best face to her mother, concealing her escapades, curbing her temper and appearing as sweet-natured as she could in Ellen’s presence, for her mother could shame her to tears with a reproachful glance.
艾琳从未完全意识到这只是一层表面，因为斯嘉丽总是展现给母亲最好的一面，隐藏了她的逃离行为，克制她的脾气，在艾琳面前显得善良可人，因为母亲只需用一眼警惕的目光就能让她羞愧到流泪。

But Mammy was under no illusions about her and was constantly alert for breaks in the veneer. —
但是她的姨妈并没有对她抱有任何幻想，她时刻保持着警惕，察觉未来可能出现的裂痕。 —

Mammy’s eyes were sharper than Ellen’s, and Scarlett could never recall in all her life having fooled Mammy for long.
姨妈的眼睛比艾琳的更锐利，艾琳始终记不起自己曾经长时间蒙骗过姨妈。

It was not that these two loving mentors deplored Scarlett’s high spirits, vivacity and charm. —
这两位充满爱心的导师并不反对斯嘉丽的高尚精神、活力与魅力。 —

These were traits of which Southern women were proud. —
这些品质是南方女性引以为豪的特质。 —

It was Gerald’s headstrong and impetuous nature in her that gave them concern, and they sometimes feared they would not be able to conceal her damaging qualities until she had made a good match. —
他们担心的是杰拉尔德脾气暴躁、鲁莽冲动的性格在斯嘉丽身上的表现，有时他们担心在她找到好的归宿之前无法掩盖她那些有害的品质。 —

But Scarlett intended to marry—and marry Ashley—and she was willing to appear demure, pliable and scatterbrained, if those were the qualities that attracted men. —
但是斯嘉丽打算结婚，而且是嫁给阿什利，如果这就是吸引男人的品质，她愿意看起来温柔、听话和心神恍惚。 —

Just why men should be this way, she did not know. She only knew that such methods worked. —
为什么男人会这样，她不知道。她只知道这样的方式奏效。 —

It never interested her enough to try to think out the reason for it, for she knew nothing of the inner workings of any human being’s mind, not even her own. —
她对此并不感兴趣到想要思考原因，因为她对任何人类思维的内部运作一无所知，甚至包括自己的。 —

She knew only that if she did or said thus-and-so, men would unerringly respond with the complementary thus-and-so. —
她只知道，如果她这样做或这样说，男人们无疑会以相应的方式回应。 —

It was like a mathematical formula and no more difficult, for mathematics was the one subject that had come easy to Scarlett in her schooldays.
这就像一个数学公式，不再困难，因为数学是斯嘉丽在学校时唯一擅长的科目。

If she knew little about men’s minds, she knew even less about the minds of women, for they interested her less. —
如果她对男人的思维了解甚少，她对女人的思维了解更少，因为她对此不感兴趣。 —

She had never had a girl friend, and she never felt any lack on that account. —
她从来没有女性朋友，也从来没有因此感到缺失。 —

To her, all women, including her two sisters, were natural enemies in pursuit of the same prey—man.
对她来说，所有的女人，包括她的两个姐妹，在追求同一个猎物——男人。

All women with the one exception of her mother.
除了她的母亲以外，所有的女人都可以。

Ellen O’Hara was different, and Scarlett regarded her as something holy and apart from all the rest of humankind. —
艾伦·奥哈拉与众不同，斯嘉丽认为她是与其他人类格格不入的一种神圣存在。 —

When Scarlett was a child, she had confused her mother with the Virgin Mary, and now that she was older she saw no reason for changing her opinion. —
斯嘉丽小时候把她的母亲和圣母玛利亚混淆了。现在她长大了，她觉得没有理由改变自己的观点。 —

To her, Ellen represented the utter security that only Heaven or a mother can give. —
对于她来说，艾伦代表了只有天堂或母亲才能给予的绝对安全感。 —

She knew that her mother was the embodiment of justice, truth, loving tenderness and profound wisdom—a great lady.
她知道自己的母亲是正义、真理、爱的温柔和深邃智慧的化身——一位伟大的女士。

Scarlett wanted very much to be like her mother. —
斯嘉丽非常想像她的母亲一样。 —

The only difficulty was that by being just and truthful and tender and unselfish, one missed most of the joys of life, and certainly many beaux. —
唯一的困难是，如果做到公正、真诚、温柔和无私，就会错过生活中的大部分快乐，当然也会错过很多追求者。 —

And life was too short to miss such pleasant things. —
而生活太短暂了，错过这样愉快的事情可惜。 —

Some day when she was married to Ashley and old, some day when she had time for it, she intended to be like Ellen. But, until then…
总有一天当她嫁给阿希礼并年老时，总有一天当她有时间时，她打算像艾伦一样。但在那之前…