When I left him, after we had buried poor Blanche, Stroeve walked into the house with a heavy heart. —
当我离开他的时候，我们已经把可怜的布兰奇埋了，斯特罗夫带着沉重的心情走进了屋子。 —

Something impelled him to go to the studio, some obscure desire for self-torture, and yet he dreaded the anguish that he foresaw. —
有种不可名状的冲动驱使他去了工作室，一种对自我折磨的模糊欲望，然而他害怕预见到的痛苦。 —

He dragged himself up the stairs; his feet seemed unwilling to carry him; —
他艰难地爬上楼梯；他的脚仿佛不愿意承载他； —

and outside the door he lingered for a long time, trying to summon up courage to go in. —
在门外，他徘徊了很长时间，试图鼓起勇气进去。 —

He felt horribly sick. He had an impulse to run down the stairs after me and beg me to go in with him; —
他感觉极度恶心。他有冲动跑下楼梯追着我，请求我和他一起进去； —

he had a feeling that there was somebody in the studio. —
他感觉工作室里有人。 —

He remembered how often he had waited for a minute or two on the landing to get his breath after the ascent, and how absurdly his impatience to see Blanche had taken it away again. —
他记得他多么常在楼梯平台上等待一两分钟来恢复呼吸，然后急切地因为想见布兰奇而又喘不过气来。 —

To see her was a delight that never staled, and even though he had not been out an hour he was as excited at the prospect as if they had been parted for a month. —
见到她是一种永不褪色的快乐，虽然他出门还不到一个小时，但他对即将见到布兰奇的前景兴奋得像他们分别一个月那样。 —

Suddenly he could not believe that she was dead. —
突然，他不能相信她已经去世了。 —

What had happened could only be a dream, a frightful dream; —
发生的一切只能是一场梦，一场可怕的梦； —

and when he turned the key and opened the door, he would see her bending slightly over the table in the gracious attitude of the woman in Chardin’s Benedicite, which always seemed to him so exquisite. —
当他转动钥匙打开门时，他会看到她略微弯腰站在桌边，以夏尔丹的《祝福》中那种优雅的姿态，那总让他觉得如此美妙。 —

Hurriedly he took the key out of his pocket, opened, and walked in.
他匆忙地从口袋里拿出钥匙，打开门，走了进去。

The apartment had no look of desertion. His wife’s tidiness was one of the traits which had so much pleased him; —
这个房间并没有被抛弃的样子。他妻子的整洁是让他如此欢喜的特质之一； —

his own upbringing had given him a tender sympathy for the delight in orderliness; —
他自己的教育使他对整齐的概念有一种温柔的同情； —

and when he had seen her instinctive desire to put each thing in its appointed place it had given him a little warm feeling in his heart. —
当他看到她本能地想要把每样东西放在其指定的地方时，这让他心里暖暖的。 —

The bedroom looked as though she had just left it: —
卧室看起来就像她刚离开一样； —

the brushes were neatly placed on the toilet-table, one on each side of the comb; —
刷子整齐地放在梳妆台上，梳子的一侧各有一把； —

someone had smoothed down the bed on which she had spent her last night in the studio; —
有人已经整理好那张床，她在画室最后一个晚上睡在那里； —

and her nightdress in a little case lay on the pillow. —
她的睡衣在一个小盒子里放在枕头上； —

It was impossible to believe that she would never come into that room again.
不可能相信她永远不会再进入那个房间了；

But he felt thirsty, and went into the kitchen to get himself some water. Here, too, was order. —
但是他感到口渴，走进厨房给自己倒了些水。这里也是整洁的； —

On a rack were the plates that she had used for dinner on the night of her quarrel with Strickland, and they had been carefully washed. —
架子上放着她在与斯特里克兰吵架那晚用过的盘子，它们已被小心洗过； —

The knives and forks were put away in a drawer. —
刀叉被放在抽屉里； —

Under a cover were the remains of a piece of cheese, and in a tin box was a crust of bread. —
在盖子下是一块她用过的一块奶酪，锡盒里是一块面包皮； —

She had done her marketing from day to day, buying only what was strictly needful, so that nothing was left over from one day to the next. —
她每天按需求购物，不会有多余的食物留到第二天； —

Stroeve knew from the enquiries made by the police that Strickland had walked out of the house immediately after dinner, and the fact that Blanche had washed up the things as usual gave him a little thrill of horror. —
斯特鲁夫通过警方的询问知道，斯特里克兰在晚饭后立刻离开房子，而布兰奇像往常一样把东西洗净让他感到一丝恐惧。 —

Her methodicalness made her suicide more deliberate. Her self-possession was frightening. —
布兰奇的有条理让她的自杀更加有预谋。她的镇定让人害怕； —

A sudden pang seized him, and his knees felt so weak that he almost fell. —
突然间他感到一阵剧痛，膝盖发软，几乎跌倒； —

He went back into the bedroom and threw himself on the bed. —
他回到卧室，扑倒在床上； —

He cried out her name.
他呼唤她的名字。

“Blanche. Blanche. “
“布兰奇。布兰奇。”

The thought of her suffering was intolerable. —
她受苦的想法令人无法忍受。 —

He had a sudden vision of her standing in the kitchen – it was hardly larger than a cupboard – washing the plates and glasses, the forks and spoons, giving the knives a rapid polish on the knife-board; —
他突然看到她站在厨房里 – 那里几乎只有一个存储柜大 – 洗盘子和玻璃杯，叉子和勺子，然后在刀板上迅速擦拭刀子； —

and then putting everything away, giving the sink a scrub, and hanging the dish-cloth up to dry – it was there still, a gray torn rag; —
然后把一切都收拾好，给水槽擦干净，把抹布挂起来晾干 – 那块灰色破旧的抹布还在那里； —

then looking round to see that everything was clean and nice. —
然后环顾四周，确保一切都干净整洁。 —

He saw her roll down her sleeves and remove her apron – the apron hung on a peg behind the door – and take the bottle of oxalic acid and go with it into the bedroom.
他看见她卷起袖子，解下围裙 – 围裙挂在门后的挂钩上 – 拿起瓶子去卧室。

The agony of it drove him up from the bed and out of the room. He went into the studio. —
这种痛苦逼得他从床上跳起来，走出了房间。他走进工作室。 —

It was dark, for the curtains had been drawn over the great window, and he pulled them quickly back; but a sob broke from him as with a rapid glance he took in the place where he had been so happy. —
这里很黑，因为大窗帘被拉上了，他迅速把它们扯开；但是一阵失声的啜泣从他嘴里发出，当他匆匆扫视着这个曾经令他如此幸福的地方。 —

Nothing was changed here, either. Strickland was indifferent to his surroundings, and he had lived in the other’s studio without thinking of altering a thing. —
这里也没有任何改变。史特里克兰对周围的环境毫不在意，他住在别人的工作室里，从没想过改变任何一样东西。 —

It was deliberately artistic. It represented Stroeve’s idea of the proper environment for an artist. There were bits of old brocade on the walls, and the piano was covered with a piece of silk, beautiful and tarnished; —
这里完全是有意识的艺术氛围。它代表了斯特罗夫对艺术家适宜生活环境的理念。墙上挂着一些古老的织锦，钢琴上盖着一块美丽而斑驳的丝绸； —

in one corner was a copy of the Venus of Milo, and in another of the Venus of the Medici. —
一个角落里是一座米洛的维纳斯的复制品，另一个角落里是梅迪奇的维纳斯的复制品。 —

Here and there was an Italian cabinet surmounted with Delft, and here and there a bas-relief. —
这里和那里是一些上面放着德尔夫特瓷器的意大利橱柜，还有一些浮雕。 —

In a handsome gold frame was a copy of Velasquez’ Innocent X. , that Stroeve had made in Rome, and placed so as to make the most of their decorative effect were a number of Stroeve’s pictures, all in splendid frames. —
一个华丽的金色画框里是一个斯特罗夫在罗马制作的凡尔赛的《无辜的十六世》的复制品，为了凸显装饰效果，斯特罗夫的几幅画都被放在了豪华的画框里。 —

Stroeve had always been very proud of his taste. —
史特罗夫一直为自己的品味感到骄傲。 —

He had never lost his appreciation for the romantic atmosphere of a studio, and though now the sight of it was like a stab in his heart, without thinking what he was at, he changed slightly the position of a Louis XV. table which was one of his treasures. —
他从未失去对工作室浪漫氛围的欣赏，尽管现在看到这一切像一把刀子刺入他的心，他并没有想清楚自己在做什么，他稍微移动了一下他的珍贵的路易十五的桌子的位置。 —

Suddenly he caught sight of a canvas with its face to the wall. —
突然，他看见一幅畫背靠牆壁。 —

It was a much larger one than he himself was in the habit of using, and he wondered what it did there. —
這幅畫比他平常使用的要大得多，他好奇它在那裡做什麼。 —

He went over to it and leaned it towards him so that he could see the painting. It was a nude. —
他走過去，將畫靠近自己，使自己可以看到畫作。那是一幅裸體畫。 —

His heart began to beat quickly, for he guessed at once that it was one of Strickland’s pictures. —
他的心開始急速跳動，因為他立刻猜到這是史特里克蘭的畫作。 —

He flung it back against the wall angrily – what did he mean by leaving it there? —
他生氣地將畫往牆上掼去 – 他到底想幹什麼留著這幅畫？ —

– but his movement caused it to fall, face downwards, on the ground. —
– 但他的動作讓畫作掉到地上，面朝下。 —

No mater whose the picture, he could not leave it there in the dust, and he raised it; —
無論這幅畫屬於誰，他都無法讓它留在塵土中，於是他將它抬了起來； —

but then curiosity got the better of him. —
但是好奇心卻戰勝了他。 —

He thought he would like to have a proper look at it, so he brought it along and set it on the easel. —
他想好好看看它，於是他將畫帶回來，放在畫架上。 —

Then he stood back in order to see it at his ease.
然後他退後一步，以方便自己觀看。

He gave a gasp. It was the picture of a woman lying on a sofa, with one arm beneath her head and the other along her body; —
他吃了一驚。那是一位女人躺在沙發上的畫像，一隻手枕著頭，另一隻手沿著身體； —

one knee was raised, and the other leg was stretched out. The pose was classic. —
一條膝蓋抬起，另一條腿伸直。姿勢是經典的。 —

Stroeve’s head swam. It was Blanche. Grief and jealousy and rage seized him, and he cried out hoarsely; —
斯托魯夫感到頭昏目眩。那是布蘭奇。悲傷、嫉妒和憤怒籠罩著他，他沙啞地大叫； —

he was inarticulate; he clenched his fists and raised them threateningly at an invisible enemy. —
他說不出話來；他握緊拳頭，向看不見的敵人舉起威脅性地。 —

He screamed at the top of his voice. He was beside himself. He could not bear it. —
他憤怒地高聲尖叫。他失去了理智。他無法忍受。 —

That was too much. He looked round wildly for some instrument; —
这太过分了。他四处张望，寻找某种工具; —

he wanted to hack the picture to pieces; it should not exist another minute. —
他想把这幅画片砍成碎片；它不应该再存在一分钟。 —

He could see nothing that would serve his purpose; he rummaged about his painting things; —
他找不到任何可以发挥作用的东西；他在他的绘画用具中翻找着; —

somehow he could not find a thing; he was frantic. —
不知怎的，他什么都找不到；他疯狂了。 —

At last he came upon what he sought, a large scraper, and he pounced on it with a cry of triumph. —
最后他找到了他所需要的东西，一个大刮刀，他得意洋洋地抓住了它。 —

He seized it as though it were a dagger, and ran to the picture.
他把它抓起来，就像拿着一把匕首，然后跑向画作。

As Stroeve told me this he became as excited as when the incident occurred, and he took hold of a dinner-knife on the table between us, and brandished it. —
当Stroeve告诉我这件事时，他变得像当时事件发生时那样激动起来，他在我们之间的餐桌上拿起一把晚餐刀，摆弄着。 —

He lifted his arm as though to strike, and then, opening his hand, let it fall with a clatter to the ground. —
他抬起手仿佛要打击，然后，打开手，让它哗啦啦地掉到地上。 —

He looked at me with a tremulous smile. He did not speak.
他颤抖着微笑着看着我。他没有说话。

“Fire away, ” I said.
“快动手，”我说。

“I don’t know what happened to me. I was just going to make a great hole in the picture, I had my arm all ready for the blow, when suddenly I seemed to see it. “
“我不知道发生了什么。我只是要在画作上开个大洞，我已经准备好了要打击，但突然间我似乎看到了它。”

“See what?”
“看到了什么？”

“The picture. It was a work of art. I couldn’t touch it. I was afraid. “
“那幅画。那是一件艺术品。我无法动手。我很害怕。”

Stroeve was silent again, and he stared at me with his mouth open and his round blue eyes starting out of his head.
Stroeve再次沉默了，他盯着我，嘴巴张得大大的，圆圆的蓝眼睛几乎要掉出来。

“It was a great, a wonderful picture. I was seized with awe. —
“那是一幅伟大、美妙的画。我被敬畏所抓住了。” —

I had nearly committed a dreadful crime. —
我差点犯下了一宗可怕的罪行。 —

I moved a little to see it better, and my foot knocked against the scraper. I shuddered. “
我稍微移动了一下以便看得更清楚，我的脚碰到了挂衣钩。我感到一阵恐惧。

I really felt something of the emotion that had caught him. I was strangely impressed. —
我真切地感受到了他所经历的情绪。我感到非常震撼。 —

It was as though I were suddenly transported into a world in which the values were changed. —
就像我突然被传送到一个价值观不同的世界里一样。 —

I stood by, at a loss, like a stranger in a land where the reactions of man to familiar things are all different from those he has known. —
我站在一旁，无所适从，就像是在一个人们对熟悉事物的反应与我过去所知不同的陌生国度。 —

Stroeve tried to talk to me about the picture, but he was incoherent, and I had to guess at what he meant. —
Stroeve试图和我谈论这幅画，但他讲话不清晰，我只能猜他的意思。 —

Strickland had burst the bonds that hitherto had held him. —
Strickland冲破了束缚他的桎梏。 —

He had found, not himself, as the phrase goes, but a new soul with unsuspected powers. —
他发现了一个拥有未知力量的新灵魂，而不是所谓的自己。 —

It was not only the bold simplification of the drawing which showed so rich and so singular a personality; —
这张画展现的不仅仅是大胆简化的线条，显示出如此丰富且独特的个性； —

it was not only the painting, though the flesh was painted with a passionate sensuality which had in it something miraculous; —
也不仅仅是画面，虽然肌肤被描绘出一种充满激情的肉感，其中蕴含着一种奇迹般的东西； —

it was not only the solidity, so that you felt extraordinarily the weight of the body; —
更不仅仅是体积感，让你感到那身躯的重量异常真实； —

there was also a spirituality, troubling and new, which led the imagination along unsuspected ways, and suggested dim empty spaces, lit only by the eternal stars, where the soul, all naked, adventured fearful to the discovery of new mysteries.
还有一种令人不安且新的灵性，引领想象力探索未知的道路，并暗示着昏暗的空间，仅被永恒星辰照亮，灵魂在其中赤裸无遮地勇敢冒险去发现新的奥秘。

If I am rhetorical it is because Stroeve was rhetorical. —
如果我有些夸张，那是因为Stroeve在夸张。 —

(Do we not know that man in moments of emotion expresses himself naturally in the terms of a novelette? —
(我们不是都知道在情感的时刻，人们会用通俗小说的语言表达自己吗？) —

) Stroeve was trying to express a feeling which he had never known before, and he did not know how to put it into common terms. —
Stroeve试图表达一种他从未体验过的感情，但他不知道该用什么普通的词汇来表达。 —

He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable. But one fact he made clear to me; —
他像一个寻求描述无法言喻的人。但有一件事他向我明确表明； —

people talk of beauty lightly, and having no feeling for words, they use that one carelessly, so that it loses its force; —
人们轻率地谈论美，对于词语没有感觉，他们随意使用这个词，使其失去力量； —

and the thing it stands for, sharing its name with a hundred trivial objects, is deprived of dignity. —
他们给一百种琐碎的物品都称之为美，于是美所代表的东西失去了尊严； —

They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; —
他们称一条裙子、一只狗、一篇布道文为美； —

and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it. —
但当他们面对美时，却认不出它； —

The false emphasis with which they try to deck their worthless thoughts blunts their susceptibilities. —
他们试图打扮无价值的思想时用错重点，淡化了自己的感受力； —

Like the charlatan who counterfeits a spiritual force he has sometimes felt, they lose the power they have abused. —
就像那些假冒已经有过的一种精神力量的江湖骗子，他们滥用的力量也会失去； —

But Stroeve, the unconquerable buffoon, had a love and an understanding of beauty which were as honest and sincere as was his own sincere and honest soul. —
但Stroeve，这个不可战胜的小丑，对美有着如同他自己真诚而诚实的灵魂一样真挚的爱和理解； —

It meant to him what God means to the believer, and when he saw it he was afraid.
美对他而言如同信徒对上帝的意义一样，当他看到美时感到害怕；

“What did you say to Strickland when you saw him?”
“当你看到Strickland时，你跟他说了什么？”

“I asked him to come with me to Holland. “
“我邀请他和我一起去荷兰。”

I was dumbfounded. I could only look at Stroeve in stupid amazement.
我目瞪口呆。我只能呆呆地看着Stroeve，惊愕不已；

“We both loved Blanche. There would have been room for him in my mother’s house. —
“我们都爱着Blanche。我母亲家里本来可以留下位置给他的。 —

I think the company of poor, simple people would have done his soul a great good. —
我觉得和那些贫穷、纯朴的人在一起对他的灵魂会有很大的好处。 —

I think he might have learnt from them something that would be very useful to him. “
我认为他可能可以从中学到一些对他非常有用的东西。”

“What did he say?”
“他说了什么？”

“He smiled a little. I suppose he thought me very silly. He said he had other fish to fry. “
“他微笑了一下。我想他觉得我很傻。他说他有其他更重要的事情要处理。”

I could have wished that Strickland had used some other phrase to indicate his refusal.
我本希望斯特里克兰用其他的措辞来表达他的拒绝。

“He gave me the picture of Blanche. “
“他给了我布兰奇的照片。”

I wondered why Strickland had done that. But I made no remark, and for some time we kept silence.
我不知道斯特里克兰为什么这么做。但我没有说话，我们保持了一段时间的沉默。

“What have you done with all your things?” I said at last.
“你把所有东西都怎么处理了？” 我最终开口问。

“I got a Jew in, and he gave me a round sum for the lot. I’m taking my pictures home with me. —
“我找了个犹太人，他给了我一大笔钱。我准备将我的画带回家。” —

Beside them I own nothing in the world now but a box of clothes and a few books. “
除了这些画作，世界上我再无所有，只有一箱衣服和几本书。

“I’m glad you’re going home, ” I said.
“我很高兴你要回家了,” 我说。

I felt that his chance was to put all the past behind him. —
我觉得他的机会就是将过去的一切抛诸脑后。 —

I hoped that the grief which now seemed intolerable would be softened by the lapse of time, and a merciful forgetfulness would help him to take up once more the burden of life. —
我希望他现在难以忍受的悲伤会随着时间的推移而软化，宽容的遗忘会帮助他重新承担生活的重担。 —

He was young still, and in a few years he would look back on all his misery with a sadness in which there would be something not unpleasurable. —
他还很年轻，在几年后他会回首所有的痛苦，心中满是一种不算不快的悲伤。 —

Sooner or later he would marry some honest soul in Holland, and I felt sure he would be happy. —
迟早他会娶一个荷兰的正直灵魂，我相信他会幸福的。 —

I smiled at the thought of the vast number of bad pictures he would paint before he died.
想到他在离世前会画出大量糟糕的画作，我微笑了。

Next day I saw him off for Amsterdam.
第二天我送他去阿姆斯特丹。