So with the house empty and the doors locked and the mattresses rolledround, those stray airs, advance guards of great armies, blustered in,brushed bare boards, nibbled and fanned, met nothing in bedroom ordrawing-room that wholly resisted them but only hangings that flapped,wood that creaked, the bare legs of tables, saucepans and china alreadyfurred, tarnished, cracked. —
因此，随着房屋空无一人，门锁紧闭，床垫卷起，那些流浪的空气，伟大军队的先锋，呼呼而入，拂过裸露的地板，啃噬着，吹拂着，卧室和客厅里遇到的一切都无法完全抵抗它们，只有摇摆的帷幔，吱吱作响的木头，光着的桌子腿，已经长满灰尘，晦暗，开裂的锅碗瓢盆。 —

What people had shed and left—a pair ofshoes, a shooting cap, some faded skirts and coats in wardrobes—thosealone kept the human shape and in the emptiness indicated how oncethey were filled and animated; —
人们褪下并留下的——一双鞋，一顶狩猎帽，衣柜里的一些褪色的裙子和外套——这些孤立的物品保持着人的形状，在空无一物的空间里显示出它们曾经如何被填满、活跃； —

how once hands were busy with hooksand buttons; how once the looking-glass had held a face; —
曾经有手忙于纽扣和纽扣扣眼；曾经有镜子托着一张脸； —

had held aworld hollowed out in which a figure turned, a hand flashed, the dooropened, in came children rushing and tumbling; —
曾经有一个空间被凿空，一个人影转动，一只手瞬间闪过，门打开，孩子们奔跑跌倒； —

and went out again.
然后又走了。

Now, day after day, light turned, like a flower reflected in water, itssharp image on the wall opposite. —
如今，日复一日，光影，像水中倒影的花朵，将自己清晰的形象投影在对面的墙面上。 —

Only the shadows of the trees, flourishingin the wind, made obeisance on the wall, and for a momentdarkened the pool in which light reflected itself; —
只有风中繁茂的树影，在墙上作揖，暂时使映照自己的光在池塘里的树影变暗； —

or birds, flying, made asoft spot flutter slowly across the bedroom floor.
或飞翔的鸟儿，在卧室地板上慢慢地飘过一处柔软的斑点。

So loveliness reigned and stillness, and together made the shape ofloveliness itself, a form from which life had parted; —
如此恩爱与宁静，一起铸造出了恩爱本身的形态，一个被生命抛弃的形态； —

solitary like a pool atevening, far distant, seen from a train window, vanishing so quickly thatthe pool, pale in the evening, is scarcely robbed of its solitude, thoughonce seen. —
孤寂如晚上的池塘，在火车窗外遥远出现，消失得如此迅速以至于那池塘，黄昏中苍白，几乎未被围困，尽管一旦被看到。 —

Loveliness and stillness clasped hands in the bedroom, andamong the shrouded jugs and sheeted chairs even the prying of thewind, and the soft nose of the clammy sea airs, rubbing, snuffling, iterating,and reiterating their questions—”Will you fade? —
恩爱与宁静在卧室里手牵手，即使在被掩盖的水壶和被遮住的椅子中，即使风的窥探和潮湿的海风的柔软鼻子，摩擦着，嗅探着，反复追问着“你会褪色吗？你会消亡吗？”——几乎未能扰乱那宁静，无动于衷，纯真的空气，仿佛他们所提出的问题几乎无需回答：我们依旧存在。 —

Will you perish?“—scarcely disturbed the peace, the indifference, the air of pure integrity,as if the question they asked scarcely needed that they should answer:
似乎没有什么能够打破那形象，腐蚀那纯真，或打扰那无边无际的安静的外表；

we remain.
我们依旧存在。

Nothing it seemed could break that image, corrupt that innocence, ordisturb the swaying mantle of silence which, week after week, in theempty room, wove into itself the falling cries of birds, ships hooting, the
似乎没有什么能够打破那形象，腐蚀那纯真，或打扰那无边无际的安静的外表；

drone and hum of the fields, a dog’s bark, a man’s shout, and foldedthem round the house in silence. —
似乎没有什么能够打破那形象，腐蚀那纯真，或打扰那无边无际的安静的外表； —

Once only a board sprang on the landing; —
曾经只有一个板子突然弹起并停在了楼梯平台上； —

once in the middle of the night with a roar, with a rupture, as aftercenturies of quiescence, a rock rends itself from the mountain andhurtles crashing into the valley, one fold of the shawl loosened andswung to and fro. —
在一个黑夜的中途，伴随着一声轰鸣，突然一块岩石从山上裂开，如同经过数个世纪的沉寂后，砰然坠入山谷；一条披肩的一角松动摆动起来。 —

Then again peace descended; and the shadowwavered; —
然后再次平静降临；阴影摇曳不定； —

light bent to its own image in adoration on the bedroom wall; —
光影崇拜着卧室墙上自己的倒影； —

and Mrs McNab, tearing the veil of silence with hands that had stood inthe wash-tub, grinding it with boots that had crunched the shingle, cameas directed to open all windows, and dust the bedrooms.
麦克那夫人，用那双曾在洗衣盆里浸泡过的手撕裂了沉寂的面纱，用那双曾在石滩上踩踏过的靴子踩碎它，照指示打开所有窗户，扫尘卧室。