A Small TownPut thousands together Less bad, But the cage less gay.
小镇

HOBBESThe small town of Verrieres may be regarded as one of the most attractive in the Franche-Comte. Its white houses with their high pitchedroofs of red tiles are spread over the slope of a hill, the slightest contoursof which are indicated by clumps of sturdy chestnuts. —
一诺岩上的城市文理堂皇,其白色房屋顶部覆盖着红瓦,散布在一个山丘的斜坡上,山丘的轮廓由结实的栗树簇所标示。 —

The Doubs runssome hundreds of feet below its fortifications, built in times past by theSpaniards, and now in ruins.
多布河从其城墙下流过,这些城墙早在西班牙人时代修建,现在已经废弃。

Verrieres is sheltered on the north by a high mountain, a spur of theJura. The jagged peaks of the Verra put on a mantle of snow in the firstcold days of October. —
哪里的北部被侏罗山脉一座高山所遮蔽,一旦十月的初寒降临,她就披上银装。 —

A torrent which comes tearing down from themountain passes through Verrieres before emptying its waters into theDoubs, and supplies power to a great number of sawmills; —
一条从山上沟壑中奔跑而下的激流流过Verrieres,在注入多布河之前为许多锯木厂提供动力; —

this is an extremely simple industry, and procures a certain degree of comfort for themajority of the inhabitants, who are of the peasant rather than of the burgess class. —
这是一种极其简单的行业,为大部分居民,更属于农民而非市民阶层,带来了一定程度的舒适。 —

It is not, however, the sawmills that have made this little townrich. —
然而并不是锯木厂让这个小镇变得富有。 —

It is to the manufacture of printed calicoes, known as Mulhousestuffs, that it owes the general prosperity which, since the fall of Napoleon, has led to the refacing of almost all the houses in Verrieres.
由于Mulhouse织物的印花制造业, 这才是导致自拿破仑倒台以来在Verrieres几乎所有房屋翻新的普遍繁荣所依赖的。

No sooner has one entered the town than one is startled by the din of anoisy machine of terrifying aspect. —
只要进入这个小镇,你就会被一个吵闹的机器的声音惊醒,看起来阴森可怖。 —

A score of weighty hammers, fallingwith a clang which makes the pavement tremble, are raised aloft by awheel which the water of the torrent sets in motion. —
一张大轮子带动的二十多把沉重榔头, 不停地落下发出震动人行道的声响。 —

Each of these hammers turns out, daily, I cannot say how many thousands of nails. —
每一把这样的榔头每天能制造出多少千万个钉子,我无法说清。 —

A bevyof fresh, pretty girls subject to the blows of these enormous hammers, thelittle scraps of iron which are rapidly transformed into nails. —
一群清新漂亮的女孩受这些巨大榔头的打击,迅速将小铁片变成钉子。 —

This work,so rough to the outward eye, is one of the industries that most astonishthe traveller who ventures for the first time among the mountains thatdivide France from Switzerland. —
这项看起来粗糙的工作是最令第一次来到法国和瑞士之间山区的旅行者们惊讶的行业之一。 —

If, on entering Verrieres, the traveller inquires to whom belongs that fine nail factory which deafens everybodywho passes up the main street, he will be told in a drawling accent: ‘Eh!
如果当旅行者进入Verrieres时询问那家让每个经过主街的人都耳朵骚动的精美钉厂属于谁时,他会听到一个延音的口音回答：’啊!那属于市长。

　　It belongs to the Mayor.’
它属于市长。

　　Provided the traveller halts for a few moments in this main street ofVerrieres, which runs from the bank of the Doubs nearly to the summitof the hill, it is a hundred to one that he will see a tall man appear, with abusy, important air.
在这条从杜布河岸一直延伸至山顶的维里耶尔的主要街道上停留片刻的旅行者，很有可能会看到一个高个子的男人，他带着忙碌而重要的神情。

At the sight of him every hat is quickly raised. —
看到他，每顶帽子都会迅速脱下。 —

His hair is turning grey,and he is dressed in grey. —
他的头发正在变灰，他穿着灰色的衣服。 —

He is a Companion of several Orders, has ahigh forehead, an aquiline nose, and on the whole his face is not wantingin a certain regularity: —
他是几个勋章的同伴，有着高高的额头，鹰钩鼻，总的来说他的脸庞并不缺乏某种程度的规整： —

indeed, the first impression formed of it may bethat it combines with the dignity of a village mayor that sort of charmwhich may still be found in a man of forty-eight or fifty. —
事实上，最初对他的印象可能是，他的脸上融合了一个四十八或五十岁男人身上仍然存在的某种魅力，与一个乡村市长的尊严相结合。 —

But soon the visitor from Paris is annoyed by a certain air of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency mingled with a suggestion of limitations and want of originality.
但很快从巴黎来的访客会被某种自满和自足的气质所烦扰，其中夹杂着一种局限性和缺乏独创性的提示。

　　One feels, finally, that this man’s talent is confined to securing the exactpayment of whatever is owed to him and to postponing payment till thelast possible moment when he is the debtor.
最后，人们会感觉到这个人的才能仅限于确保对他所欠之物的精确支付，并在他作为债务人时将支付推迟到最后可能的时刻。

　　Such is the Mayor of Verrieres, M. de Renal. Crossing the street with asolemn step, he enters the town hall and passes from the visitor’s sight.
这就是维里耶尔的市长，雷纳尔先生。他一步沉稳地穿过大街，走进市政厅，从游客的视线中消失。

But, a hundred yards higher up, if the visitor continues his stroll, he willnotice a house of quite imposing appearance, and, through the gaps inan iron railing belonging to the house, some splendid gardens. —
然而，往上走一百码，如果游客继续散步，他会注意到一个相当气派的房子，通过属于这所房子的铁栅栏间隙，可以看到一些辉煌的花园。 —

Beyond,there is a line of horizon formed by the hills of Burgundy, which seem tohave been created on purpose to delight the eye. —
再远处，由勃艮第山丘形成的地平线让眼睛愉悦。 —

This view makes thevisitor forget the pestilential atmosphere of small financial interestswhich was beginning to stifle him.
这个景色让游客忘记了即将让他窒息的小财务利益的有害氛围。

He is told that this house belongs to M. de Renal. It is to the profitsthat he has made from his great nail factory that the Mayor of Verrieresis indebted for this fine freestone house which he has just finished building. —
据说这座房子属于雷纳尔先生。正是他从他的大钉厂赚取的利润让维里耶尔市长能够建造这座风景如画的灰石房子。 —

His family, they say, is Spanish, old, and was or claims to have beenestablished in the country long before Louis XIV conquered it.
据说他的家族是西班牙血统，历史悠久，或者声称在路易十四征服这片土地之前就已在这里立足。

Since 1815 he has blushed at his connection with industry: 1815 madehim Mayor of Verrieres. —
自1815年以来，他对与工业的联系感到羞愧：1815年让他成为维里耶尔市长。 —

The retaining walls that support the various sections of this splendid garden, which, in a succession of terraces, runsdown to the Doubs, are also a reward of M. de Renal’s ability as a dealerin iron.
支撑着这个细致花园各个部分的挡土墙，也是雷纳尔先生作为铁商人的能力的一种回报，使花园在一系列梯田上，沿着杜布河延伸下去。

You must not for a moment expect to find in France those picturesquegardens which enclose the manufacturing towns of Germany; —
你绝对不能指望在法国找到那些像德国制造城镇中那样围绕着风景如画的花园； —

Leipsic, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, and the rest. —
莱比锡、法兰克福、纽伦堡等等。 —

In the Franche-Comte, the morewalls a man builds, the more he makes his property bristle with stonespiled one above another, the greater title he acquires to the
在弗朗什孔泰，一个人修建的墙越多，使他的财产上方的石头越多，他就获得了更多的尊重。

respect of hisneighbours. M. de Renal’s gardens, honeycombed with walls, are stillfurther admired because he bought, for their weight in gold, certainminute scraps of ground which they cover. —
M. de Renal的花园，密布墙壁，更受人称赞，因为他用金子的重量购买了它们覆盖的某些微小地块。 —

For instance that sawmillwhose curious position on the bank of the Doubs struck you as youentered Verrieres, and on which you noticed the name Sorel, inscribed inhuge letters on a board which overtops the roof, occupied, six years ago,the ground on which at this moment they are building the wall of thefourth terrace of M. de Renal’s gardens.
比如说那家锯板厂，你进入维里耶尔时被其在杜布河岸的奇特位置吸引，你注意到屋顶上面有一个巨大的看板，上面写着Sorel的名字，在六年前，它占据了他们现在正在建造第四个露台墙壁的地面。

For all his pride, the Mayor was obliged to make many overtures toold Sorel, a dour and obstinate peasant; —
尽管自尊心很强，市长不得不向老索瑞尔伸出许多橄榄枝； —

he was obliged to pay him infine golden louis before he would consent to remove his mill elsewhere.
在他不得不支付他一枚黄金路易之前，老索瑞尔才同意将他的锯板厂迁移到其他地方。

　　As for the public lade which supplied power to the saw, M. de Renal,thanks to the influence he wielded in Paris, obtained leave to divert it.
至于为锯木机提供动力的公共水道，得益于他在巴黎的影响力，德朗尼尔获准改道。

　　This favour was conferred upon him after the 182- elections.
这个恩惠是在182-年的选举之后赐予他的。

　　He gave Sorel four acres in exchange for one, five hundred yardslower down by the bank of the Doubs. And, albeit this site was a greatdeal more advantageous for his trade in planks of firwood, Pere Sorel, asthey have begun to call him now that he is rich, contrived to screw out ofthe impatience and landowning mania which animated his neighbour asum of 6,000 francs.
他用四英亩土地换来了索雷尔手中位于多布河岸下游五百码处的一英亩土地。尽管这块地对他生产杉木板更为有利，但现在人们开始称他为稷尔老爷，他从邻居身上利用出了6000法郎。

It is true that this arrangement was adversely criticised by the localwiseacres. —
当地的智者对这种安排发表了负面的评论。 —

On one occasion, it was a Sunday, four years later, M. de Renal, as he walked home from church in his mayoral attire, saw at a distance old Sorel, supported by his three sons, watching him with a smile.
有一次，四年后的一个星期天，德朗尼尔穿着镇长服从教堂走路回家，远远看到老索雷尔和他的三个儿子笑眯眯地注视着他。

That smile cast a destroying ray of light into the Mayor’s soul; —
那个微笑在镇长的心灵中投下了一束毁灭的光芒； —

ever sincethen he has been thinking that he might have brought about the exchange at less cost to himself.
自那时起，他一直在想，也许他本可以以更少的代价达成这次土地交换。

　　To win popular esteem at Verrieres, the essential thing is not to adopt(while still building plenty of walls) any plan of construction broughtfrom Italy by those masons who in spring pass through the gorges of theJura on their way to Paris. Such an innovation would earn the rash builder an undying reputation fot wrong-headedness, and he would be lostforever among the sober and moderate folk who create reputations in theFranche-Comte.
在维里耶，赢得民众尊重的关键并不是采用（一边仍然建造大量墙壁）那些在春天经过苏塞河峡谷去巴黎的石匠带来的意大利建筑计划。这样的革新将使胆大妄为的建筑商在弗朗什孔泰省永远背负着一个偏执的声誉，他将永远迷失在在这个创造名声的地方，那里是节制而温和的人。

As a matter of fact, these sober folk wield there the most irritatingform of despotism; —
事实上，这些节制的人在那里行使着最令人恼火的专制主义； —

it is owing to that vile word that residence in small towns is intolerable to anyone who has lived in that great republic whichwe call Paris. The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion! —
正是由于那个可耻的词，居住在法国的小城镇对于那些曾在我们称之为巴黎的大共和国居住过的人来说是无法忍受的。公众舆论的暴虐（这舆论多么愚昧！ —

) is asfatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States ofAmerica.
）在法国的小城镇和美利坚合众国一样使人恼火。