First Mrs. Parker would show you the double parlours. —
首先，帕克太太会给你看双层客厅。 —

You would not dare to interrupt her description of their advantages and of the merits of the gentleman who had occupied them for eight years. —
你不敢打断她对这些房间优点和八年来住在这里的绅士的赞美之词。 —

Then you would manage to stammer forth the confession that you were neither a doctor nor a dentist. —
然后，你设法结结巴巴地承认自己既不是医生也不是牙医。 —

Mrs. Parker’s manner of receiving the admission was such that you could never afterward entertain the same feeling toward your parents, who had neglected to train you up in one of the professions that fitted Mrs. Parker’s parlours.
帕克太太接受你的承认的方式使你对你的父母再也不能产生同样的感觉了，因为他们忽略了让你学习其中一门和帕克太太的客厅相匹配的专业知识。

Next you ascended one flight of stairs and looked at the second- floor-back at $8. —
接着，你上了一层楼，看了一间每月8美元的二楼后部房间。 —

Convinced by her second-floor manner that it was worth the $12 that Mr. Toosenberry always paid for it until he left to take charge of his brother’s orange plantation in Florida near Palm Beach, where Mrs. McIntyre always spent the winters that had the double front room with private bath, you managed to babble that you wanted something still cheaper.
在她对这间二楼房间的态度使你相信它值得每月付12美元，因为图森伯里先生一直付这个价钱，直到他去管理他兄弟在佛罗里达州棕榈滩附近的橙园时。而麦金泰尔太太在那里度过冬天的那个房间是带私人浴室的双面房，你设法结巴地说你想要更便宜的房间。

If you survived Mrs. Parker’s scorn, you were taken to look at Mr. Skidder’s large hall room on the third floor. —
如果你挨过了帕克夫人的鄙视，你就可以去看一下位于三楼的斯基德先生的大厅房。 —

Mr. Skidder’s room was not vacant. —
斯基德先生的房间是非空置的。 —

He wrote plays and smoked cigarettes in it all day long. —
他在里面整天写剧本和抽烟。 —

But every room-hunter was made to visit his room to admire the lambrequins. —
但每个寻找房间的人都必须参观他的房间，赞叹花边装饰。 —

After each visit, Mr. Skidder, from the fright caused by possible eviction, would pay something on his rent.
每次参观后，斯基德先生都会因可能被驱逐的恐惧而支付一些房租。

Then–oh, then–if you still stood on one foot, with your hot hand clutching the three moist dollars in your pocket, and hoarsely proclaimed your hideous and culpable poverty, nevermore would Mrs. Parker be cicerone of yours. —
然后-噢-然后，如果你仍然单脚站立，热乎乎的手中攥着三张潮湿的美元，嘶哑地宣布你可怕和有罪的贫困，再也没有人会让帕克夫人来做你的导游。 —

She would honk loudly the word” Clara,” she would show you her back, and march downstairs. —
她会大声嘟囔着“克拉拉”这个词，展示给你她的背影，然后下楼去了。 —

Then Clara, the coloured maid, would escort you up the carpeted ladder that served for the fourth flight, and show you the Skylight Room. It occupied 7x8 feet of floor space at the middle of the hall. —
然后是克拉拉，那个有色女仆，会陪你上那个用作第四层的铺有地毯的梯子，然后向你展示天窗房间。它占据了走廊中心7x8英尺的地面空间。 —

On each side of it was a dark lumber closet or storeroom.
它的两侧是黑暗的杂物储藏室。

In it was an iron cot, a washstand and a chair. —
屋内有一张铁质的床、一个洗脸台和一把椅子。 —

A shelf was the dresser. —
一个架子充当了梳妆台。 —

Its four bare walls seemed to close in upon you like the sides of a coffin. —
四面光秃秃的墙壁像棺材的边缘一样把你困住了。 —

Your hand crept to your throat, you gasped, you looked up as from a well–and breathed once more. —
你的手不由自主地移到了喉咙处，你喘着气，你抬头看着井口-然后再次呼吸了一口气。 —

Through the glass of the little skylight you saw a square of blue infinity.
透过小天窗的玻璃，你看到了一块蓝色的无限。

“Two dollars, suh,” Clara would say in her half-contemptuous, half- Tuskegeenial tones.
“两美元，先生，”克拉拉以一种既蔑视又和蔼可亲的语气说道。

One day Miss Leeson came hunting for a room. —
有一天，莉森小姐来找房间。 —

She carried a typewriter made to be lugged around by a much larger lady. —
她提着一个本应该由个大个子女士携带的打字机。 —

She was a very little girl, with eyes and hair that had kept on growing after she had stopped and that always looked as if they were saying: —
她是一个非常小的女孩，眼睛和头发长得超过了她自己，看起来总是在说： —

“Goodness me ! Why didn’t you keep up with us?”
“天哪！你为什么没跟上我们的脚步？”

Mrs. Parker showed her the double parlours. “In this closet,” she said, “one could keep a skeleton or anaesthetic or coal “
帕克夫人带她参观了双人客厅。“在这个壁橱里，”她说，“可以放一个骷髅，一个麻醉剂或者煤。”

“But I am neither a doctor nor a dentist,” said Miss Leeson, with a shiver.
“但是我既不是医生也不是牙医，”莉森小姐颤抖地说道。

Mrs. Parker gave her the incredulous, pitying, sneering, icy stare that she kept for those who failed to qualify as doctors or dentists, and led the way to the second floor back.
帕克夫人用那种只给那些没有资格成为医生或牙医的人的怀疑、怜悯、嘲笑和冷漠的目光看着他们，然后领着他们上了二楼的后面。

“Eight dollars?” said Miss Leeson. “Dear me! —
“八块钱？”莉森小姐说道，”天哪！ —

I’m not Hetty if I do look green. —
我看起来不是爱玛一样傻吗？” —

I’m just a poor little working girl. —
“我只是一个可怜的打工女孩。 —

Show me something higher and lower.”
给我看点更高级和低级的东西吧。”

Mr. Skidder jumped and strewed the floor with cigarette stubs at the rap on his door.
斯基德先生听到门上的敲击声，吓得跳了起来，把地板上撒了一地的烟蒂。

“Excuse me, Mr. Skidder,” said Mrs. Parker, with her demon’s smile at his pale looks. —
“不好意思，斯基德先生，”帕克夫人说道，她的那个可怕的笑容浮现在他苍白的脸上。 —

“I didn’t know you were in. —
“我不知道你在家。 —

I asked the lady to have a look at your lambrequins.”
我让这位女士来看看你的窗帘装饰。”

“They’re too lovely for anything,” said Miss Leeson, smiling in exactly the way the angels do.
“它们太美妙了，无以言表，”莉森小姐说着，笑容恰如天使一般。

After they had gone Mr. Skidder got very busy erasing the tall, black-haired heroine from his latest (unproduced) play and inserting a small, roguish one with heavy, bright hair and vivacious features.
在他们离开后，斯基德先生忙着把最新一部（未制作）剧本中的高挑黑发女主角删除，改为一个有浓密明亮头发和活泼特征的小顽皮女孩。

“Anna Held’ll jump at it,” said Mr. Skidder to himself, putting his feet up against the lambrequins and disappearing in a cloud of smoke like an aerial cuttlefish.
“安娜·海尔德会接受的，” 斯基德先生对自己说道，把脚放在窗帘上，烟雾中他就像一只空中乌贼一样消失了。

Presently the tocsin call of “Clara!” sounded to the world the state of Miss Leeson’s purse. —
“克拉拉！” 钟声将蕾森小姐的钱包状况展示给了全世界。 —

A dark goblin seized her, mounted a Stygian stairway, thrust her into a vault with a glimmer of light in its top and muttered the menacing and cabalistic words “Two dollars!”
一个黑暗的小妖怪抓住她，爬上了一个冥河般的楼梯，把她推进一个顶部有一丝光亮的地下室，嘟囔着威胁性的和神秘的字眼——“两美元！”

“I’ll take it!” sighed Miss Leeson, sinking down upon the squeaky iron bed.
“我接受！” 蕾森小姐叹了口气，倒在发出吱吱声的铁床上。

Every day Miss Leeson went out to work. —
蕾森小姐每天出去工作。 —

At night she brought home papers with handwriting on them and made copies with her typewriter. —
晚上她会带回一些有手写字迹的文件，并用打字机复制。 —

Sometimes she had no work at night, and then she would sit on the steps of the high stoop with the other roomers. —
有时晚上她没有工作，那时她会和其他房客一起坐在高台阶上的台阶上。 —

Miss Leeson was not intended for a sky-light room when the plans were drawn for her creation. —
蕾森小姐在创造她时并不是被设计为顶层房间。 —

She was gay-hearted and full of tender, whimsical fancies. —
她心地善良，充满幻想的想法。有一次， —

Once she let Mr. Skidder read to her three acts of his great (unpublished) comedy, “It’s No Kid; or, The Heir of the Subway.”
她让斯基德先生读了他的伟大（未发表）喜剧《这不是小孩，或者地铁的继承人》的三幕。

There was rejoicing among the gentlemen roomers whenever Miss Leeson had time to sit on the steps for an hour or two. —
每当莉森小姐有时间坐在楼梯上一两个小时时，男房客们都会欢欣鼓舞。 —

But Miss Longnecker, the tall blonde who taught in a public school and said, “Well, really!” to everything you said, sat on the top step and sniffed. —
但是长发金发的隆尼克小姐，在公立学校教书，对你说的每一句话都说：“嗯，真的吗！”，坐在最顶上的台阶上，嗤之以鼻。 —

And Miss Dorn, who shot at the moving ducks at Coney every Sunday and worked in a department store, sat on the bottom step and sniffed. —
而多恩小姐，每个星期日都在Coney射击移动的鸭子，并在百货商店工作，坐在最下面的台阶上，也嗤之以鼻。 —

Miss Leeson sat on the middle step and the men would quickly group around her.
莉森小姐坐在中间的台阶上，男人们会迅速围绕着她。

Especially Mr. Skidder, who had cast her in his mind for the star part in a private, romantic (unspoken) drama in real life. —
特别是斯基德先生，他在心中把她选为现实生活中一部私人的、浪漫的（无声的）戏剧的主演。 —

And especially Mr. Hoover, who was forty-five, fat, flush and foolish. —
特别是胖胖的、四十五岁、富裕而愚蠢的胡佛先生。 —

And especially very young Mr. Evans, who set up a hollow cough to induce her to ask him to leave off cigarettes. —
特别是非常年轻的埃文斯先生，他故意咳嗽，以便她请求他戒烟。 —

The men voted her “the funniest and jolliest ever,” but the sniffs on the top step and the lower step were implacable.
男人们把她评为“有史以来最有趣和开朗”，但那上台阶和下台阶的嗅探却是不可动摇的。

* * * * * *

I pray you let the drama halt while Chorus stalks to the footlights and drops an epicedian tear upon the fatness of Mr. Hoover. —
我祈求你让戏剧停止，让Chorus走到舞台前的灯光处，为胖子胡佛满面的笑容滴下一滴魔鬼之泪。 —

Tune the pipes to the tragedy of tallow, the bane of bulk, the calamity of corpulence. —
调整音筒，奏出牛脂的悲剧，臃肿的祸根，肥胖的灾厄。 —

Tried out, Falstaff might have rendered more romance to the ton than would have Romeo’s rickety ribs to the ounce. —
如果经过试验，瓦尔斯塔夫可能会给吨位带来比罗密欧那颤巍巍的肋骨更多的浪漫。 —

A lover may sigh, but he must not puff. —
情人可以叹息，但他不能呼哧呼哧喘气。 —

To the train of Momus are the fat men remanded. —
肥胖的男人们被送入摩撒斯的队列里， —

In vain beats the faithfullest heart above a 52-inch belt. —
再忠心的心脏在52英寸腰围之上也是徒劳。 —

Avaunt, Hoover! Hoover, forty-five, flush and foolish, might carry off Helen herself; —
快走，胡佛！45岁的胡佛，红光满面又愚蠢，或许能迷惑走她自己的海伦。 —

Hoover, forty-five, flush, foolish and fat is meat for perdition. —
45岁的胡佛，红光满面又愚蠢又胖，是灭亡的食物。 —

There was never a chance for you, Hoover.
对于你来说从来就没有机会，胡佛。

As Mrs. Parker’s roomers sat thus one summer’s evening, Miss Leeson looked up into the firmament and cried with her little gay laugh:
当帕克太太的房客们一个夏夜这样坐着时，莉森小姐抬头看着天空，发出了她的快乐笑声说：

“Why, there’s Billy Jackson! —
“嘿，那不是比利·杰克逊吗！ —

I can see him from down here, too.”
我也能从这里看到他。”

All looked up–some at the windows of skyscrapers, some casting about for an airship, Jackson-guided.
大家都抬头看着——一些人凝视摩天大楼的窗户，一些人四处寻找着被杰克逊引导的飞艇。

“It’s that star,” explained Miss Leeson, pointing with a tiny finger. —
“那是那颗星星，”李森小姐解释道，用小小的手指指着。 —

“Not the big one that twinkles–the steady blue one near it. —
“不是那颗闪烁的大星星——而是它旁边那颗稳定的蓝色星星。 —

I can see it every night through my skylight. —
每晚我都能透过我的天窗看到它。 —

I named it Billy Jackson.”
我给它取名叫比利·杰克逊。”

“Well, really!” said Miss Longnecker. —
“哦，真的！”朗内克小姐说道。 —

“I didn’t know you were an astronomer, Miss Leeson.”
“我不知道你是一位天文学家，李森小姐。”

“Oh, yes,” said the small star gazer, “I know as much as any of them about the style of sleeves they’re going to wear next fall in Mars.”
“噢，是的，”这位小星星观察者说道，“我对火星秋季下一季的袖子风格了解得和他们中的任何人一样多。”

“Well, really!” said Miss Longnecker. —
“哦，真的！”朗内克小姐说道。 —

“The star you refer to is Gamma, of the constellation Cassiopeia. —
“你所提到的那颗星星是仙后座的伽马星。 —

It is nearly of the second magnitude, and its meridian passage is–”
它几乎是二等星，它的子午圈通过时间是——”

“Oh,” said the very young Mr. Evans, “I think Billy Jackson is a much better name for it.”
“哦，”还年轻的埃文斯先生说道，“我觉得比利·杰克逊这个名字更好。”

“Same here,” said Mr. Hoover, loudly breathing defiance to Miss Longnecker. —
“我也是这么想的，”胡弗先生大声反驳朗内克小姐。 —

“I think Miss Leeson has just as much right to name stars as any of those old astrologers had.”
“我认为利森小姐和那些老占星家一样有权给星星命名。”

“Well, really!” said Miss Longnecker.
“哦，真的！”朗涅克小姐说道。

“I wonder whether it’s a shooting star,” remarked Miss Dorn. “I hit nine ducks and a rabbit out of ten in the gallery at Coney Sunday.”
“不知道这是不是一颗流星，”多恩小姐说，“上周日我在科尼港的射击馆里，十发中打中了九只鸭子和一只兔子。”

“He doesn’t show up very well from down here,” said Miss Leeson. “You ought to see him from my room. —
“从这底下看，他看起来不太显眼，”利森小姐说，“你应该从我的房间里看他。” —

You know you can see stars even in the daytime from the bottom of a well. —
“你知道在井底下甚至在白天也能看见星星。” —

At night my room is like the shaft of a coal mine, and it makes Billy Jackson look like the big diamond pin that Night fastens her kimono with.”
“晚上我的房间就像一口煤矿的深井，它使得比利·杰克逊看起来像夜晚用来别上她和服的大钻石胸针。”

There came a time after that when Miss Leeson brought no formidable papers home to copy. —
之后的某个时候，利森小姐不再把繁重的文件带回家复印了。 —

And when she went out in the morning, instead of working, she went from office to office and let her heart melt away in the drip of cold refusals transmitted through insolent office boys. —
当她早上出门时，她没有开始工作，而是去了一个又一个办公室，让她的心在那些傲慢的办公室男孩们传递的冷淡拒绝中融化。 —

This went on.
这种情况一直持续着。

There came an evening when she wearily climbed Mrs. Parker’s stoop at the hour when she always returned from her dinner at the restaurant. —
有一个晚上她疲惫地爬上了帕克夫人家的台阶，那时正是她从餐馆回家的时候。 —

But she had had no dinner.
但她没有吃过晚饭。

As she stepped into the hall Mr. Hoover met her and seized his chance. —
当她踏进大厅时，胡佛先生遇见了她并抓住了机会。 —

He asked her to marry him, and his fatness hovered above her like an avalanche. —
他向她求婚，他的肥胖像山崩一样压在她头上。 —

She dodged, and caught the balustrade. —
她一闪身，抓住了楼梯扶手。 —

He tried for her hand, and she raised it and smote him weakly in the face. —
他试图握住她的手，她举起手，虚弱地打了他一巴掌。 —

Step by step she went up, dragging herself by the railing. —
她一步步地往上走，靠着栏杆拖着自己。 —

She passed Mr. Skidder’s door as he was red-inking a stage direction for Myrtle Delorme (Miss Leeson) in his (unaccepted) comedy, to “pirouette across stage from L to the side of the Count.” Up the carpeted ladder she crawled at last and opened the door of the skylight room.
她走过斯基德先生的门口，他正在为他未被接受的喜剧给玛蒂儿德朗姆（莉儿姐）注释“从左边到伯爵身旁转身”的舞台指示。她最终爬上了铺着地毯的阶梯，打开了天窗房间的门。

She was too weak to light the lamp or to undress. —
她太虚弱了，无法点燃灯或脱衣服。 —

She fell upon the iron cot, her fragile body scarcely hollowing the worn springs. —
她倒在铁床上，她纤弱的身体几乎没把磨损的弹簧压下去。 —

And in that Erebus of the skylight room, she slowly raised her heavy eyelids, and smiled.
在那个地狱般的天窗房间里，她慢慢地抬起沉重的眼皮，微笑了起来。

For Billy Jackson was shining down on her, calm and bright and constant through the skylight. —
对于比利·杰克逊而言，她似乎在她身上照射着明亮的光芒，通过天窗的安祥和恒久。 —

There was no world about her. —
周围没有世界存在。 —

She was sunk in a pit of blackness, with but that small square of pallid light framing the star that she had so whimsically and oh, so ineffectually named. —
她陷入了黑暗之中，只有那个小小的苍白光芒的方框，围绕着她任性而又如此无效地命名的星星。 —

Miss Longnecker must be right; it was Gamma, of the constellation Cassiopeia, and not Billy Jackson. —
龙内克小姐一定是对的；它是仙后座的伽玛星，而不是比利·杰克逊。 —

And yet she could not let it be Gamma.
然而她不能接受它就是伽玛星。

As she lay on her back she tried twice to raise her arm. —
当她躺在那里的时候，她试图两次举起手臂。 —

The third time she got two thin fingers to her lips and blew a kiss out of the black pit to Billy Jackson. —
第三次她只成功将两根细指放到嘴唇上，向比利·杰克逊吹了一个在黑暗深渊中发出的吻。 —

Her arm fell back limply.
她的手臂无力地松下来。

“Good-bye, Billy,” she murmured faintly. —
“再见，比利，”她微弱地低声说道。 —

“You’re millions of miles away and you won’t even twinkle once. —
“你离我有百万英里远了，你甚至不会闪烁一下。 —

But you kept where I could see you most of the time up there when there wasn’t anything else but darkness to look at, didn’t you? —
但是你一直保持在我能看到的位置上，当没有别的东西可以看的时候，那里只有黑暗，对吧？ —

… Millions of miles… . Good-bye, Billy Jackson.”
… 百万英里… 再见，比利·杰克逊。”

Clara, the coloured maid, found the door locked at 10 the next day, and they forced it open. —
第二天早上10点，有色彩的女仆克拉拉发现门被锁上了，他们强行打开。 —

Vinegar, and the slapping of wrists and burnt feathers proving of no avail, some one ran to ‘phone for an ambulance.
不管是用醋，还是扇打手腕和烧焦的羽毛都没有用，有人跑去打电话叫救护车。

In due time it backed up to the door with much gong-clanging, and the capable young medico, in his white linen coat, ready, active, confident, with his smooth face half debonair, half grim, danced up the steps.
过了一段时间，救护车用大量的锣声和警报声停在了门前，一个有能力的年轻医生穿着他的白色亚麻外套，准备，活跃，自信地跳上门台阶。

“Ambulance call to 49,” he said briefly. —
“救护车接到49号的召唤，有什么问题吗？” —

“What’s the trouble?”
他简洁地问道。

“Oh, yes, doctor,” sniffed Mrs. Parker, as though her trouble that there should be trouble in the house was the greater. —
“哦，是的，医生，” 帕克夫人用鼻子嗅着，仿佛她的烦恼是在房子里有问题的更大。 —

“I can’t think what can be the matter with her. —
“我无法想象她到底怎么了。 —

Nothing we could do would bring her to. —
我们做的一切都无法使她苏醒过来。 —

It’s a young woman, a Miss Elsie–yes, a Miss Elsie Leeson. Never before in my house–”
这是一个年轻女人，一个艾尔西·里森小姐，以前在我家从未发生过这样的事情–”

“What room?” cried the doctor in a terrible voice, to which Mrs. Parker was a stranger.
“哪个房间？”医生用可怕的声音喊道，这对帕克夫人来说是陌生的。

“The skylight room. It–
“天窗房间。它–

Evidently the ambulance doctor was familiar with the location of skylight rooms. —
很显然，救护车医生对天窗房间的位置很熟悉。 —

He was gone up the stairs, four at a time. —
他一下子就上了楼梯,每次上四级。 —

Mrs. Parker followed slowly, as her dignity demanded.
帕克夫人按照她的尊严要求慢慢地跟在后面。

On the first landing she met him coming back bearing the astronomer in his arms. —
在第一层楼梯平台上，她遇到了他，他正抱着天文学家回来。 —

He stopped and let loose the practised scalpel of his tongue, not loudly. —
他停下来，放开他的舌头刨根问底，但并不大声。 —

Gradually Mrs. Parker crumpled as a stiff garment that slips down from a nail. —
渐渐地，帕克夫人像从钉子上滑下来的一件僵硬的衣服一样褶皱。 —

Ever afterward there remained crumples in her mind and body. —
此后，她的思维和身体上都留下了褶皱。 —

Sometimes her curious roomers would ask her what the doctor said to her.
有时，好奇的房客会问她医生对她说了什么。

“Let that be,” she would answer. —
“以后别问了，”她会回答说。 —

“If I can get forgiveness for having heard it I will be satisfied.”
“如果我能得到尽职免责，我就满足了。”

The ambulance physician strode with his burden through the pack of hounds that follow the curiosity chase, and even they fell back along the sidewalk abashed, for his face was that of one who bears his own dead.
救护车医生带着他的负担穿过追逐好奇心的狗群，甚至他们也退后了，因为他的脸上带着自己的死亡。

They noticed that he did not lay down upon the bed prepared for it in the ambulance the form that he carried, and all that he said was: —
他们注意到他没有把他抱着的东西放在救护车上为它准备好的床上，他所说的一切都是： —

“Drive like xxxx, Wilson,” to the driver.
“开快点，威尔逊，”他对司机说道。

That is all. Is it a story? —
就是这样。这是一个故事吗？ —

In the next morning’s paper I saw a little news item, and the last sentence of it may help you (as it helped me) to weld the incidents together.
第二天早上的报纸上我看到了一条小新闻，其中最后一句话可能会帮助你（就像它帮助了我一样）将这些事件联系起来。

It recounted the reception into Bellevue Hospital of a young woman who had been removed from No. 49 East – street, suffering from debility induced by starvation. —
它详述了一位年轻女子被从东….街49号带到Bellevue医院，因饥饿导致的虚弱病情。 —

It concluded with these words:
它以这样的话结束：

“Dr. William Jackson, the ambulance physician who attended the case, says the patient will recover.”
“救护车医生威廉·杰克逊博士表示，患者将会康复。”