He lived formerly in a little house beside the high road outside the village.
他曾经住在村外大路旁的一座小房子里。 —

He had set up in business as a wheelwright, after marrying the daughter of a farmer of the neighborhood, and as they were both industrious, they managed to save up a nice little fortune.
他娶了附近一个农场主的女儿，并开了一个车轮匠的生意，由于他们两个都勤劳，他们设法存下了一笔不错的财富。 —

But they had no children, and this caused them great sorrow.
但是他们没有孩子，这给他们带来了很大的伤心。 —

Finally a son was born, whom they named Jean. They both loved and petted him, enfolding him with their affection, and were unwilling to let him be out of their sight.
最后，一个儿子出生了，他们把他取名叫做让。他们都爱他和宠他，把他裹在他们的爱中，不愿意让他离开他们的视线。

When he was five years old some mountebanks passed through the country and set up their tent in the town hall square.
当他五岁的时候，一些江湖骗子经过这个乡村，他们在市政厅广场上搭起了帐篷。

Jean, who had seen them pass by, made his escape from the house, and after his father had made a long search for him, he found him among the learned goats and trick dogs, uttering shouts of laughter and sitting on the knees of an old clown.
让看到了他们经过，他从房子里逃了出来，他爸爸找了很长时间才找到他，他却在那些会说话的山羊和会耍花招的狗中间，发出笑声，坐在一个老小丑的腿上。

Three days later, just as they were sitting down to dinner, the wheelwright and his wife noticed that their son was not in the house.
三天后，他们正坐下来吃饭的时候，车轮匠和他的妻子注意到他们的儿子不在屋里。 —

They looked for him in the garden, and as they did not find him, his father went out into the road and shouted at the top of his voice, “Jean!”
他们在花园里找他，但没有找到，他的父亲走到路上，用最大的声音喊道：“让!”

Night came on. A brown vapor arose making distant objects look still farther away and giving them a dismal, weird appearance.
夜幕降临。一股棕色的烟气升起，让远处的物体看起来更远，给它们一种阴郁、怪异的外观。 —

Three tall pines, close at hand, seemed to be weeping.
附近有三棵高大的松树，看起来似乎在哭泣。 —

Still there was no reply, but the air appeared to be full of indistinct sighing.
但仍然没有回应，但空气中似乎充满了不清晰的叹息声。 —

The father listened for some time, thinking he heard a sound first in one direction, then in another, and, almost beside himself, he ran, out into the night, calling incessantly “Jean! Jean!”
父亲听了一段时间，认为自己听到声音，先是从一个方向，然后从另一个方向，几乎要发疯了，他跑到黑夜中，不停地呼喊着“让！让！”

He ran along thus until daybreak, filling the, darkness with his shouts, terrifying stray animals, torn by a terrible anguish and fearing that he was losing his mind.
他一直这样奔跑到天亮，用他的呼声填满黑暗，使流浪动物感到恐惧，被可怕的痛苦所撕裂，担心自己失去理智。 —

His wife, seated on the stone step of their home, sobbed until morning.
他的妻子坐在家门口的石阶上，直到天亮一直哭泣。

They did not find their son.
他们没有找到儿子。 —

They both aged rapidly in their inconsolable sorrow.
他们在无法安慰的悲伤中迅速衰老。 —

Finally they sold their house and set out to search together.
最后，他们卖掉了房子，一起出发寻找。

They inquired of the shepherds on the hillsides, of the tradesmen passing by, of the peasants in the villages and of the authorities in the towns.
他们向山上的牧羊人、经过的商人、村子里的农民以及城里的官员打听情况。 —

But their boy had been lost a long time and no one knew anything about him.
但是他们的孩子已经失踪很久了，没有人知道他的下落。 —

He had probably forgotten his own name by this time and also the name of his village, and his parents wept in silence, having lost hope.
他可能已经忘记了自己的名字，也不记得自己的村庄了，他的父母默默地哭泣，已经失去了希望。

Before long their money came to an end, and they worked out by the day in the farms and inns, doing the most menial work, eating what was left from the tables, sleeping on the ground and suffering from cold.
不久后，他们的钱用完了，他们在农场和旅店打零工，做着最琐碎的工作，吃剩下的饭菜，睡在地上，受着寒冷的折磨。 —

Then as they became enfeebled by hard work no one would employ them any longer, and they were forced to beg along the high roads.
随着他们因为艰苦工作而越来越虚弱，再也没有人雇佣他们，他们被迫在大路上乞讨。 —

They accosted passers-by in an entreating voice and with sad, discouraged faces;
他们用乞求的语气和沮丧的面容拦住路人。 —

they begged a morsel of bread from the harvesters who were dining around a tree in the fields at noon, and they ate in silence seated on the edge of a ditch.
他们向在田野上午餐时围坐在树下的收割人乞求一口面包，然后坐在路边的沟沿上默默地吃着。 —

An innkeeper to whom they told their story said to them one day:
一天，他们向一个旅店老板讲述了他们的故事。

“I know some one who had lost their daughter, and they found her in Paris.”
“我认识一个人，他们失去了女儿，后来在巴黎找到了她。”

They at once set out for Paris.
他们立刻动身去巴黎。

When they entered the great city they were bewildered by its size and by the crowds that they saw.
当他们进入这座大城市时，他们被它的规模和人群所困惑。 —

But they knew that Jean must be in the midst of all these people, though they did not know how to set about looking for him.
但他们知道让必定在这些人群中间，尽管他们不知道如何开始寻找他。 —

Then they feared that they might not recognize him, for he was only five years old when they last saw him.
然后他们担心自己可能无法认出他，因为他们上次见他时只有五岁。

They visited every place, went through all the streets, stopping whenever they saw a group of people, hoping for some providential meeting, some extraordinary luck, some compassionate fate.
他们参观了每一个地方，走过了所有的街道，每当看到一群人时都停下来，希望有一些天意的相遇，一些非凡的好运，一些仁慈的命运。

They frequently walked at haphazard straight ahead, leaning one against the other, looking so sad and poverty-stricken that people would give them alms without their asking.
他们经常随意地向前走，相互依靠，看起来如此悲伤和贫困，以至于人们会在他们不求之下给他们施舍。

They spent every Sunday at the doors of the churches, watching the crowds entering and leaving, trying to distinguish among the faces one that might be familiar.
他们每个星期天都在教堂的门口等候，观察进进出出的人群，试图辨认出一个熟悉的面孔。 —

Several times they thought they recognized him, but always found they had made a mistake.
几次他们以为认出了他，但总是发现他们弄错了。

In the vestibule of one of the churches which they visited the most frequently there was an old dispenser of holy Water who had become their friend.
在他们经常光顾的一座教堂的门厅里，有一位分发圣水的老人，他们已经成了朋友。 —

He also had a very sad history, and their sympathy for him had established a bond of close friendship between them.
他也有一个非常悲伤的过去，他们对他的同情使他们之间建立了亲密的友谊。 —

It ended by them all three living together in a poor lodging on the top floor of a large house situated at some distance, quite on the outskirts of the city, and the wheelwright would sometimes take his new friend’s place at the church when the latter was ill.
最后他们三个人一起住在一间贫瘠的顶层小屋里，这所房子位于城市郊区的一处相当远的地方，而木匠有时会在朋友生病时替他去教堂。

Winter came, a very severe winter.
寒冬来临，这是一个非常严寒的冬天。 —

The poor holy water sprinkler died and the parish priest appointed the wheelwright, whose misfortunes had come to his knowledge, to replace him.
可怜的洒圣水者去世了，教区神父任命那个他了解到不幸遭遇的木匠来接替他的职务。 —

He went every morning and sat in the same place, on the same chair, wearing away the old stone pillar by continually leaning against it.
每天早上，他都会去同一个地方，坐在同一把椅子上，不断地倚靠着老石柱，将其磨损。 —

He would gaze steadily at every man who entered the church and looked forward to Sunday with as much impatience as a schoolboy, for on that day the church was filled with people from morning till night.
他会目不转睛地注视每个进入教堂的人，对星期天的到来充满了与学童一样的迫切期望，因为在那一天，教堂从早到晚都挤满了人。

He became very old, growing weaker each day from the dampness of the church, and his hope oozed away gradually.
湿气渐渐让他变得年迈，每天都变得虚弱，他的希望也逐渐消失。

He now knew by sight all the people who came to the services; he knew their hours, their manners, could distinguish their step on the stone pavement.
他现在可以凭借眼力认出所有参加礼拜的人；他知道他们的时间，他们的举止，可以辨别出他们在石地板上的脚步声。

His interests had become so contracted that the entrance of a stranger in the church was for him a great event.
他的兴趣变得如此狭窄，以至于一个陌生人进入教堂对他来说是一个重大事件。有一天， —

One day two ladies came in;
两个女士进来了； —

one was old, the other young—a mother and daughter probably.
一个是老年人，另一个是年轻人—可能是母女。 —

Behind them came a man who was following them.
他们后面跟着一个男人。 —

He bowed to them as they came out, and after offering them some holy water, he took the arm of the elder lady.
他们出来时，他向她们鞠躬，并向她们提供了一些圣水，然后挽起了老年女士的胳膊。

“That must be the fiance of the younger one, ” thought the wheelwright.
“那一定是年轻人的未婚夫，”轮匠暗想道。 —

And until evening he kept trying to recall where he had formerly seen a young man who resembled this one.
直到傍晚他一直试图回忆起在哪里见过一个和这个年轻人相似的年轻人。 —

But the one he was thinking of must be an old man by this time, for it seemed as if he had known him down home in his youth.
但他想的那个人现在一定已经变成了一个老人了，因为在他年轻时似乎认识他在老家。

The same man frequently came again to walk home with the ladies, and this vague, distant, familiar resemblance which he could not place worried the old man so much that he made his wife come with him to see if she could help his impaired memory.
同一个人经常再次与这些女士们一起回家，而这种他无法描绘的、遥远的熟悉感让老人感到很困扰，以至于他让他的妻子和他一起来看看她是否能帮助他受损的记忆。

One evening as it was growing dusk the three strangers entered together.
一个傍晚快黑的时候，这三个陌生人一起进来了。 —

When they had passed the old man said:
当他们经过时，老人说：

“Well, do you know him?”
“那么，你认识他吗？”

His wife anxiously tried to ransack her memory.
他的妻子急切地试图回想起来。 —

Suddenly she said in a low tone:
突然她低声说：

“Yes—yes—but he is darker, taller, stouter and is dressed like a gentleman, but, father, all the same, it is your face when you were young!”
“是的，是的，但他更黑、更高、更胖，而且打扮得像个绅士，但是，父亲，尽管如此，这是你年轻时的面容！”

The old man started violently.
老人突然剧烈动了一下。

It was true. He looked like himself and also like his brother who was dead, and like his father, whom he remembered while he was yet young.
这是真的。他看起来像他自己，也像已故的兄弟，还像他小时候记得的父亲。 —

The old couple were so affected that they could not speak.
这对老夫妇被深深打动得说不出话来。 —

The three persons came out and were about to leave the church.
三个人走出了教堂，准备离开。

The man touched his finger to the holy water sprinkler.
那个人把手指放在圣水喷洒器上。 —

Then the old man, whose hand was trembling so that he was fairly sprinkling the ground with holy water, exclaimed:
然后，那位手抖得连圣水都洒得满地的老人惊呼道：

“Jean!”
“让！”

The young man stopped and looked at him.
年轻人停下来看着他。

He repeated in a lower tone:
他以低声重复道：

“Jean!”
“让！”

The two women looked at them without understanding.
两个女人不理解地看着他们。

He then said for the third time, sobbing as he did so:
然后他第三次哭泣着说道：

“Jean!”
“让！”

The man stooped down, with his face close to the old man’s, and as a memory of his childhood dawned on him he replied:
那个人弯下腰，凑近老人的脸，当他想起童年的记忆时，回答道：

“Papa Pierre, Mamma Jeanne!”
“皮埃尔爸爸，珍妮娜妈妈！”

He had forgotten everything, his father’s surname and the name of his native place, but he always remembered those two words that he had so often repeated:
他已经忘记了一切，忘记了父亲的姓氏和自己的故乡的名字，但他总是记得那两个他一再重复的词语： —

“Papa Pierre, Mamma Jeanne.”
“皮埃尔爸爸，珍妮娜妈妈”。

He sank to the floor, his face on the old man’s knees, and he wept, kissing now his father and then his mother, while they were almost breathless from intense joy.
他跌坐在地上，把脸贴在老人的膝盖上，他哭了起来，先亲吻着父亲，然后又亲吻着母亲，他们几乎因为喜悦而无法呼吸。

The two ladies also wept, understanding as they did that some great happiness had come to pass.
两位女士也哭了，她们明白有些幸福的事情发生了。

Then they all went to the young man’s house and he told them his history.
然后他们都去了年轻人的家，他给他们讲述了自己的经历。 —

The circus people had carried him off.
马戏团的人把他带走了。 —

For three years he traveled with them in various countries.
三年来，他在各个国家和他们一起旅行。 —

Then the troupe disbanded, and one day an old lady in a chateau had paid to have him stay with her because she liked his appearance.
然后马戏团散伙了，有一天，一个住在城堡里的老太太付钱让他留下来，因为她喜欢他的样子。 —

As he was intelligent, he was sent to school, then to college, and the old lady having no children, had left him all her money.
由于他聪明，他被送上学，后来上了大学，而那个老太太没有孩子，把所有钱都留给了他。 —

He, for his part, had tried to find his parents, but as he could remember only the two names, “Papa Pierre, Mamma Jeanne, ” he had been unable to do so.
而他，为了找到自己的父母亲，尽管只记得两个名字，“爸爸皮埃尔，妈妈珍妮”，但他找不到他们。 —

Now he was about to be married, and he introduced his fiancee, who was very good and very pretty.
现在他就要结婚了，他介绍了自己的未婚妻，她非常善良漂亮。

When the two old people had told their story in their turn he kissed them once more.
当两个老人轮流讲完他们的故事后，他再次亲吻了他们。 —

They sat up very late that night, not daring to retire lest the happiness they had so long sought should escape them again while they were asleep.
那晚他们熬夜，不敢去睡，生怕他们如此长久寻找的幸福会在他们睡着时再次逃离。

But misfortune had lost its hold on them and they were happy for the rest of their lives.
但不幸已经放弃了他们，他们余生都过得很幸福。