I have said already that but for the hazard of a journey to Tahiti I should doubtless never have written this book. —
我已经说过，如果没有去塔希提岛的旅途的危险，我无疑永远不会写这本书。 —

It is thither that after many wanderings Charles Strickland came, and it is there that he painted the pictures on which his fame most securely rests. —
正是在那里，查尔斯·斯特里克兰经过了许多漂泊后来到了那里，也正是在那里，他绘制了使他名声大噪的画作。 —

I suppose no artist achieves completely the realisation of the dream that obsesses him, and Strickland, harassed incessantly by his struggle with technique, managed, perhaps, less than others to express the vision that he saw with his mind’s eye; —
我想没有艺术家能完全实现他心中执着的梦想，而斯特里克兰，被技术困扰，也许比其他人更难以表达他脑海中所看到的幻象； —

but in Tahiti the circumstances were favourable to him; —
但是在塔希提岛，他的处境对他非常有利； —

he found in his surroundings the accidents necessary for his inspiration to become effective, and his later pictures give at least a suggestion of what he sought. —
他在周围找到了激发灵感所需的偶然因素，他晚期的画作至少给出了他所追求的一种暗示。 —

They offer the imagination something new and strange. —
它们给想象力提供了一些新奇的东西。 —

It is as though in this far country his spirit, that had wandered disembodied, seeking a tenement, at last was able to clothe itself in flesh. —
这个遥远的国家似乎让他的灵魂，曾经游离无主，寻找住所的灵魂，最终得以有了衣冠楚楚。 —

To use the hackneyed phrase, here he found himself.
用老生常谈的说法，他在这里找到了自己。

It would seem that my visit to this remote island should immediately revive my interest in Strickland, but the work I was engaged in occupied my attention to the exclusion of something that was irrelevant, and it was not till I had been there some days that I even remembered his connection with it. —
我的访问这个偏远的岛国似乎应该立即重新激发我对斯特里克兰的兴趣，但我所从事的工作吸引了我的注意力，使我无暇顾及无关紧要的事情，直到我在那里已经待了几天后才记起他与之的联系。 —

After all, I had not seen him for fifteen years, and it was nine since he died. —
毕竟，我已经十五年没见到他了，他去世也有九年了。 —

But I think my arrival at Tahiti would have driven out of my head matters of much more immediate importance to me, and even after a week I found it not easy to order myself soberly. —
但我认为我在塔希提岛的到来本应让我头脑里的更为紧迫的事情烟消云散，即使一个星期后，我也发现很难使自己保持冷静。 —

I remember that on my first morning I awoke early, and when I came on to the terrace of the hotel no one was stirring. —
我记得在我第一个早晨醒来时，天还很早，当我走到旅馆的露台时，没有人在那里。 —

I wandered round to the kitchen, but it was locked, and on a bench outside it a native boy was sleeping. —
我绕到厨房，但那里被锁上了，外面的长椅上有一个本地男孩在睡觉。 —

There seemed no chance of breakfast for some time, so I sauntered down to the water-front. —
要等一段时间才能吃到早餐，所以我漫步到了海滨。 —

The Chinamen were already busy in their shops. —
华人店铺里的人已经忙碌起来了。 —

The sky had still the pallor of dawn, and there was a ghostly silence on the lagoon. —
天空依然带着黎明的苍白，泻湖上弥漫着一种幽灵般的寂静。 —

Ten miles away the island of Murea, like some high fastness of the Holy Grail, guarded its mystery.
十英里之外，如同圣杯的高塞岛，守护着它的神秘。

I did not altogether believe my eyes. The days that had passed since I left Wellington seemed extraordinary and unusual. —
我不完全相信自己的眼睛。自我离开惠灵顿以来的日子似乎非同寻常而不可思议。 —

Wellington is trim and neat and English; —
惠灵顿整洁而英式； —

it reminds you of a seaport town on the South Coast. And for three days afterwards the sea was stormy. —
它让你联想到南海岸的一个海港城镇。此后三天海上风云变幻。 —

Gray clouds chased one another across the sky. —
灰色云彩在天空中追逐。 —

Then the wind dropped, and the sea was calm and blue. The Pacific is more desolate than other seas; —
风停了，海面平静而湛蓝。太平洋比其他海洋更加荒凉； —

its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon it has somehow the feeling of an adventure. —
它的空间似乎更加广阔，即使是最寻常的航行也在某种程度上带着冒险的感觉。 —

The air you breathe is an elixir which prepares you for the unexpected. —
你呼吸的空气仿佛是为你准备的一剂长生不老药，让你为意想不到的事情做好准备。 —

Nor is it vouchsafed to man in the flesh to know aught that more nearly suggests the approach to the golden realms of fancy than the approach to Tahiti. —
任何凡人都无法预知，靠近黄金梦境几乎最近似的途径，比起逼近塔希提。 —

Murea, the sister isle, comes into view in rocky splendour, rising from the desert sea mysteriously, like the unsubstantial fabric of a magic wand. —
姆雷亚，那位姐妹岛，以岩石壮丽的身姿出现在无底之海上，神秘地升腾，犹如魔杖的虚幻结构。 —

With its jagged outline it is like a Monseratt of the Pacific, and you may imagine that there Polynesian knights guard with strange rites mysteries unholy for men to know. —
岛屿的嶙峋轮廓就像太平洋上的蒙特塞拉特，你可以想象那里的波利尼西亚骑士以奇异的仪式守护着不该为人知的神秘。 —

The beauty of the island is unveiled as diminishing distance shows you in distincter shape its lovely peaks, but it keeps its secret as you sail by, and, darkly inviolable, seems to fold itself together in a stony, inaccessible grimness. —
随着航行距离的缩小，美丽的岛屿逐渐展现，但它依然保留着秘密，当你驶过时，它似乎将自己紧紧折叠在一种石头、无法接近的冷峻中。 —

It would not surprise you if, as you came near seeking for an opening in the reef, it vanished suddenly from your view, and nothing met your gaze but the blue loneliness of the Pacific.
如果在寻找珊瑚礁的入口时，它突然从视野中消失，只剩下太平洋的蓝色孤寂，那也许并不会让你感到惊讶。

Tahiti is a lofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divine silent valleys; —
塔希提是一座高耸的绿岛，深邃的翠绿中隐藏着你能够感知到的寂静山谷。 —

there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur and plash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life from immemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways. —
他们阴沉的深处展现出神秘之处，那里有凉爽的小溪轻声细语，让人感受到生命自古以来一直按照古老的方式在那些阴影斑驳的地方延续。 —

Even here is something sad and terrible. —
就连这里也有一种悲伤和可怕的氛围。 —

But the impression is fleeting, and serves only to give a greater acuteness to the enjoyment of the moment. —
但这种印象很快消逝，只是让此刻的享受更加敏锐。 —

It is like the sadness which you may see in the jester’s eyes when a merry company is laughing at his sallies; —
就像你可以在小丑的眼中看到的悲伤，当一个快乐的团体在嘲笑他的俏皮话时； —

his lips smile and his jokes are gayer because in the communion of laughter he finds himself more intolerably alone. —
他的嘴角微微上扬，他的笑话更加欢乐，因为在欢笑的交流中，他发现自己更加孤立无援。 —

For Tahiti is smiling and friendly; it is like a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm and beauty; —
在大溪地，一切都充满笑意和亲切；就像一个美丽的女人慷慨地展示她的魅力和美丽； —

and nothing can be more conciliatory than the entrance into the harbour at Papeete. —
进入帕皮提港口更是充满着亲和力。 —

The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. —
系泊在码头的雪利船整洁而利落，沿着海湾的小镇洁白而和谐，火焰树花在蓝天的映衬下鲜红夺目，如同激情的呐喊。 —

They are sensual with an unashamed violence that leaves you breathless. —
它们带着无愧的激情，让你屏住呼吸。 —

And the crowd that throngs the wharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; —
而当轮船靠岸时，涌向码头的人群热闹而风趣； —

it is a noisy, cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. —
这是一个喧哗、快乐、比手势的人群。这是一片褐色面孔的海洋。 —

You have an impression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky. —
你会看到五光十色的移动物体在炽烈蓝天下交织。 —

Everything is done with a great deal of bustle, the unloading of the baggage, the examination of the customs; —
一切都显得忙碌无比，行李的卸载，海关的检查； —

and everyone seems to smile at you. It is very hot. —
每个人似乎都在向你微笑。天气很炎热。 —

The colour dazzles you.
色彩让你眼花缭乱。