In my opinion, it is impossible to create characters until one has spent a long time in studying men, as it is impossible to speak a language until it has been seriously acquired. —
在我看来，只有在长时间研究人类之后，才能创造出角色，就像只有在严肃地学习了一门语言之后，才能说这门语言一样。 —

Not being old enough to invent, I content myself with narrating, and I beg the reader to assure himself of the truth of a story in which all the characters, with the exception of the heroine, are still alive. —
由于年龄不够，无法创造，因此我满足于叙述，并请读者确信在这个故事中，除了女主角之外，所有的角色都还活着。 —

Eye-witnesses of the greater part of the facts which I have collected are to be found in Paris, and I might call upon them to confirm me if my testimony is not enough. —
巴黎有很多亲眼目睹我所收集的大部分事实的人，如果我的证词还不够，我可以请他们来证实。 —

And, thanks to a particular circumstance, I alone can write these things, for I alone am able to give the final details, without which it would have been impossible to make the story at once interesting and complete.
而且，多亏了一个特殊的情况，只有我能写这些事情，因为只有我能够提供最后的细节，没有这些细节，要使故事既有趣又完整将是不可能的。

This is how these details came to my knowledge. —
这就是这些细节被我了解的方式。 —

On the 12th of March, 1847, I saw in the Rue Lafitte a great yellow placard announcing a sale of furniture and curiosities. —
1847年3月12日，我在拉菲特街看到了一张大黄色招贴，上面宣布了一场家具和古玩的拍卖。 —

The sale was to take place on account of the death of the owner. —
销售是因为业主去世而进行的。 —

The owner’s name was not mentioned, but the sale was to be held at 9, Rue d’Antin, on the 16th, from 12 to 5. —
虽然没有提到业主的名字，但销售将在安坦大街9号于16日上午12点至下午5点举行。 —

The placard further announced that the rooms and furniture could be seen on the 13th and 14th.
广告还宣布，可以在13日和14日参观房间和家具。

I have always been very fond of curiosities, and I made up my mind not to miss the occasion, if not of buying some, at all events of seeing them. —
我一直对古玩非常喜爱，决定无论如何不错过这个机会，至少去看看。 —

Next day I called at 9, Rue d’Antin.
第二天我去了安坦大街9号。

It was early in the day, and yet there were already a number of visitors, both men and women, and the women, though they were dressed in cashmere and velvet, and had their carriages waiting for them at the door, gazed with astonishment and admiration at the luxury which they saw before them.
那天很早，但已经有很多男女游客了，这些女人虽然穿着羊绒和天鹅绒，而且门口还等着她们的马车，但她们惊讶地、羡慕地凝视着眼前奢华的景象。

I was not long in discovering the reason of this astonishment and admiration, for, having begun to examine things a little carefully, I discovered without difficulty that I was in the house of a kept woman. —
我很快发现了这种惊讶和羡慕的原因，因为我开始仔细检查物品，毫不困难地发现我正位于一个被包养的女人的房子里。 —

Now, if there is one thing which women in society would like to see (and there were society women there), it is the home of those women whose carriages splash their own carriages day by day, who, like them, side by side with them, have their boxes at the Opera and at the Italiens, and who parade in Paris the opulent insolence of their beauty, their diamonds, and their scandal.
现在，如果有一件事让社会上的女性（包括那些社会名媛）期望看到的话，那就是那些女性的家，她们的马车每天都溅湿自己的马车，就像她们一样，她们在歌剧院和意大利歌剧院座位相邻，并在巴黎炫耀她们美丽、钻石和丑闻的骄奢。

This one was dead, so the most virtuous of women could enter even her bedroom. —
这个女人已经死了，所以即使是最有品德的女性也可以进入她的卧室。 —

Death had purified the air of this abode of splendid foulness, and if more excuse were needed, they had the excuse that they had merely come to a sale, they knew not whose. —
死亡净化了这个光辉的肮脏之地的空气，如果还需要更多借口，她们可以借口说她们只是来参加一场拍卖会，她们不知道是谁的。 —

They had read the placards, they wished to see what the placards had announced, and to make their choice beforehand. —
她们已经看过广告牌，希望看看广告牌上宣布的东西，并提前做出选择。 —

What could be more natural? Yet, all the same, in the midst of all these beautiful things, they could not help looking about for some traces of this courtesan’s life, of which they had heard, no doubt, strange enough stories.
还有什么比这更自然的呢？然而，尽管如此，在所有这些漂亮的东西中，她们忍不住还是四处搜寻这个妓女生活的痕迹，她们一定听说过一些奇怪的故事。

Unfortunately the mystery had vanished with the goddess, and, for all their endeavours, they discovered only what was on sale since the owner’s decease, and nothing of what had been on sale during her lifetime. —
不幸的是，随着女神的消失，那个神秘消失了，尽管他们努力，他们只发现了主人去世时出售的物品，没有发现她在世期间出售的任何东西。 —

For the rest, there were plenty of things worth buying. The furniture was superb; —
至于其他的，有很多值得购买的东西。家具非常出色； —

there were rosewood and buhl cabinets and tables, Sevres and Chinese vases, Saxe statuettes, satin, velvet, lace; —
有红木和布尔柜子和桌子，Sevres和中国花瓶，薩克斯小雕塑，缎子，天鹅绒，花边； —

there was nothing lacking.
没有什么缺乏。

I sauntered through the rooms, following the inquisitive ladies of distinction. —
我漫步穿过房间，跟随着好奇的贵妇人们。 —

They entered a room with Persian hangings, and I was just going to enter in turn, when they came out again almost immediately, smiling, and as if ashamed of their own curiosity. —
她们走进了一间带有波斯挂毯的房间，我正准备依次进入，但她们几乎立刻就出来了，微笑着，似乎对自己的好奇感感到羞愧。 —

I was all the more eager to see the room. —
这让我更加渴望看到那个房间。 —

It was the dressing-room, laid out with all the articles of toilet, in which the dead woman’s extravagance seemed to be seen at its height.
那是一个打扮的房间，摆放着所有的化妆品，死去的女人花费奢侈似乎达到了顶峰。

On a large table against the wall, a table three feet in width and six in length, glittered all the treasures of Aucoc and Odiot. It was a magnificent collection, and there was not one of those thousand little things so necessary to the toilet of a woman of the kind which was not in gold or silver. —
在靠墙的大桌子上，一张宽3英尺，长6英尺的桌子上闪烁着奥科克和奥迪奥等品牌的珍宝。这是一个华丽的收藏品，桌上的每一个与女人的梳妆台上不可或缺的小物件都是由金或银制成的。 —

Such a collection could only have been got together little by little, and the same lover had certainly not begun and ended it.
这样的收藏品肯定是逐渐积累起来的，而且肯定不是同一个情人开始并结束的。

Not being shocked at the sight of a kept woman’s dressing-room, I amused myself with examining every detail, and I discovered that these magnificently chiselled objects bore different initials and different coronets. —
对于一个被养的女人的化妆室，我并没有感到震惊，而是自己玩着仔细观察每一个细节，我发现这些精美雕刻的物品上有不同的首字母和不同的冠冕。 —

I looked at one after another, each recalling a separate shame, and I said that God had been merciful to the poor child, in not having left her to pay the ordinary penalty, but rather to die in the midst of her beauty and luxury, before the coming of old age, the courtesan’s first death.
我一个接一个地看着它们，每一个都勾起了一段独特的耻辱，我说上帝对这个可怜的孩子很宽容，没有让她付出寻常的代价，而是让她在美丽和奢华之中死去，不用经历老去，这就是妓女的第一次死亡。

Is there anything sadder in the world than the old age of vice, especially in woman? —
世上还有比女人的晚年境遇更加悲哀的吗？ —

She preserves no dignity, she inspires no interest. —
她毫无尊严可言，也不引起任何兴趣。 —

The everlasting repentance, not of the evil ways followed, but of the plans that have miscarried, the money that has been spent in vain, is as saddening a thing as one can well meet with. —
永恒的忏悔，并非对于曾经沉溺于邪恶的道路，而是对于计划失败和白白浪费的金钱，这是一件令人沮丧的事情。 —

I knew an aged woman who had once been “gay, ” whose only link with the past was a daughter almost as beautiful as she herself had been. —
我认识一个年老的女人，曾经风华绝代，但她与过去唯一的联系就是一个几乎和她自己一样美丽的女儿。 —

This poor creature to whom her mother had never said, “You are my child, ” except to bid her nourish her old age as she herself had nourished her youth, was called Louise, and, being obedient to her mother, she abandoned herself without volition, without passion, without pleasure, as she would have worked at any other profession that might have been taught her.
这个可怜的女孩从未被母亲称为“你是我的孩子”，除了教她养育自己的老年，就像她曾经养育自己的青春一样，她叫做路易丝。顺从母亲的要求，她毫无意志地、没有激情地、没有快感地放纵自己，就像学习任何其他的职业一样。

The constant sight of dissipation, precocious dissipation, in addition to her constant sickly state, had extinguished in her mind all the knowledge of good and evil that God had perhaps given her, but that no one had ever thought of developing. —
她常年病弱，而且频繁目睹到过早堕落的景象，这些已经使她的心灵丧失了或许上帝所赐予的善恶知识，而没有任何人想去发展它。 —

I shall always remember her, as she passed along the boulevards almost every day at the same hour, accompanied by her mother as assiduously as a real mother might have accompanied her daughter. —
我将永远记得她，她几乎每天都在同一个时间沿着林荫大道走过，被她的母亲如同真正的母亲一样细心陪伴着。 —

I was very young then, and ready to accept for myself the easy morality of the age. —
那时的我还很年轻，乐意接受那个时代的轻易道德观念。 —

I remember, however, the contempt and disgust which awoke in me at the sight of this scandalous chaperoning. —
然而，当我看到这可耻的陪伴时，心中充满了鄙夷和厌恶。 —

Her face, too, was inexpressibly virginal in its expression of innocence and of melancholy suffering. —
她的脸上也表达着无比纯洁和忧郁的苦楚。 —

She was like a figure of Resignation.
她就像一个坚韧不拔的形象。

One day the girl’s face was transfigured. —
有一天，这个女孩的脸上发生了蜕变。 —

In the midst of all the debauches mapped out by her mother, it seemed to her as if God had left over for her one happiness. —
在她母亲安排的所有放荡之中，似乎上帝留给了她一份幸福。 —

And why indeed should God, who had made her without strength, have left her without consolation, under the sorrowful burden of her life? —
为什么神，创造了她但不给她力量，还要让她在生活的重负下没有安慰呢？ —

One day, then, she realized that she was to have a child, and all that remained to her of chastity leaped for joy. —
于是有一天，她意识到自己将要有一个孩子，她所有的纯洁感到了喜悦。 —

The soul has strange refuges. Louise ran to tell the good news to her mother. —
灵魂有着奇怪的寄托。Louise跑去告诉她的母亲这个好消息。 —

It is a shameful thing to speak of, but we are not telling tales of pleasant sins; —
这是一件可耻的事情，但我们不是在谈论愉快的罪行； —

we are telling of true facts, which it would be better, no doubt, to pass over in silence, if we did not believe that it is needful from time to time to reveal the martyrdom of those who are condemned without hearing, scorned without judging; —
我们讲述的是真实的事实，如果不是我们相信，有时候有必要揭示那些在没有听证的情况下被判处的痛苦，被蔑视而没有审判的人的殉道。 —

shameful it is, but this mother answered the daughter that they had already scarce enough for two, and would certainly not have enough for three; —
的确，这是可耻的，但这位母亲回答女儿他们已经勉强够两个人用了，肯定不会够三个人的； —

that such children are useless, and a lying-in is so much time lost.
她说这样的孩子是无用的，坐月子就是浪费时间。

Next day a midwife, of whom all we will say is that she was a friend of the mother, visited Louise, who remained in bed for a few days, and then got up paler and feebler than before.
第二天，一个助产士来看望路易丝，我们只说她是母亲的朋友，她留在床上休息了几天，然后起来时比以前更苍白无力。

Three months afterward a man took pity on her and tried to heal her, morally and physically; —
三个月后，一个男人同情她，试图在道义和身体上治愈她； —

but the last shock had been too violent, and Louise died of it. —
但是最后的打击太过剧烈，路易丝因此去世了。 —

The mother still lives; how? God knows.
母亲仍然活着；上帝知道是怎么回事。

This story returned to my mind while I looked at the silver toilet things, and a certain space of time must have elapsed during these reflections, for no one was left in the room but myself and an attendant, who, standing near the door, was carefully watching me to see that I did not pocket anything.
当我看着那些银制的洗漱用具时，这个故事回到了我的脑海中。在这些思考过程中，一段时间一定过去了，因为只有我和一个侍者留在房间里了。他站在门口，小心地观察着我是否把什么东西放进了口袋。

I went up to the man, to whom I was causing so much anxiety. —
我走到这个令人担心的人面前。 —

“Sir,” I said, “can you tell me the name of the person who formerly lived here?”
“先生，”我说，“你能告诉我曾经住在这里的人的名字吗？”

“Mademoiselle Marguerite Gautier.”
“玛格丽特·戈提埃小姐。”

I knew her by name and by sight.
我以前通过名字和外貌就认识她。

“What!” I said to the attendant; “Marguerite Gautier is dead?”
“什么！”我对侍者说，“玛格丽特·戈提埃已经去世了？”

“Yes, sir.”
“是的，先生。”

“When did she die?”
“她是什么时候去世的？”

“Three weeks ago, I believe.”
“我想是三周前。”

“And why are the rooms on view?”
“为什么要展示这些房间呢？”

“The creditors believe that it will send up the prices. —
“债权人认为这会抬高价格。 —

People can see beforehand the effect of the things; —
人们可以提前看到这些东西的效果； —

you see that induces them to buy.”
你知道这会促使他们购买。”

“She was in debt, then?”
“那么她债务缠身？”

“To any extent, sir.”
“是的，先生。”

“But the sale will cover it?”
“拍卖会可以解决债务吗？”

“And more too.”
“而且还会有余额。”

“Who will get what remains over?”
“剩下的将由谁得到？”

“Her family.”
“她的家人。”

“She had a family?”
“她有家人吗？”

“It seems so.”
“似乎是的。”

“Thanks.”
“谢谢。”

The attendant, reassured as to my intentions, touched his hat, and I went out.
看到我打算离开，服务员确认了我的意图，轻轻拍了拍帽子，然后我走出了去。

“Poor girl!” I said to myself as I returned home; —
“可怜的女孩！”我心里暗想着，回到了家。 —

“she must have had a sad death, for, in her world, one has friends only when one is perfectly well. —
“她一定经历了悲惨的死亡，因为在她的世界里，只有当一个人完全健康时才有朋友。” —

” And in spite of myself I began to feel melancholy over the fate of Marguerite Gautier.
”不由自主地，我开始为玛格丽特·戈蒂耶的命运感到忧伤。

It will seem absurd to many people, but I have an unbounded sympathy for women of this kind, and I do not think it necessary to apologize for such sympathy.
对于这种女人，我有着无限的同情心，我认为不需要为这种同情心道歉。

One day, as I was going to the Prefecture for a passport, I saw in one of the neighbouring streets a poor girl who was being marched along by two policemen. —
有一天，我去注册办事处办护照时，在附近的一条街上看到两名警察在带领着一名可怜的女孩。 —

I do not know what was the matter. All I know is that she was weeping bitterly as she kissed an infant only a few months old, from whom her arrest was to separate her. —
我不知道发生了什么事情。我只知道她在痛哭，亲吻着一个只有几个月大的婴儿，而她的被捕将把她与孩子分开。 —

Since that day I have never dared to despise a woman at first sight.
自从那天起，我再也不敢对一个女人抱有轻视的第一印象了。