HAD not been in Tahiti long before I met Captain Nichols. —
我刚到塔希提不久就遇见了尼科尔斯船长。 —

He came in one morning when I was having breakfast on the terrace of the hotel and introduced himself. —
有一天早晨，我在酒店露台上吃早餐时，他走了进来并介绍了自己。 —

He had heard that I was interested in Charles Strickland, and announced that he was come to have a talk about him. —
他听说我对查尔斯·斯特里克兰德感兴趣，便宣布来和我谈谈。 —

They are as fond of gossip in Tahiti as in an English village, and one or two enquiries I had made for pictures by Strickland had been quickly spread. —
塔希提人和英国乡村的人一样喜欢八卦，我询问几次有关斯特里克兰德的画作，这些消息很快传开了。 —

I asked the stranger if he had breakfasted.
我问陌生人是否吃过早餐。

“Yes; I have my coffee early, ” he answered, “but I don’t mind having a drop of whisky. “
“是的，我很早就喝了咖啡，”他回答，“但我不介意来一杯威士忌。”

I called the Chinese boy.
我叫了那个中国男孩。

“You don’t think it’s too early?” said the Captain.
“你不认为现在太早了吗？”船长问道。

“You and your liver must decide that between you, ” I replied.
“你和你的肝脏得自己决定。”我回答说。

“I’m practically a teetotaller, ” he said, as he poured himself out a good half-tumbler of Canadian Club.
“我几乎是禁酒者，”他说着，斟了半杯加拿大红叶。

When he smiled he showed broken and discoloured teeth. —
微笑时露出断裂和变色的牙齿。 —

He was a very lean man, of no more than average height, with gray hair cut short and a stubbly gray moustache. —
他个子不高，非常瘦削，头发灰色修剪整齐，胡须也是灰色的。 —

He had not shaved for a couple of days. His face was deeply lined, burned brown by long exposure to the sun, and he had a pair of small blue eyes which were astonishingly shifty. —
他已经两天没刮胡子了。他的脸深深皱纹，被阳光长时间暴露而晒成棕褐色，两只小小的蓝色眼睛异常狡诈。 —

They moved quickly, following my smallest gesture, and they gave him the look of a very thorough rogue. —
他们快速移动，跟随着我的微小动作，使他看起来像一个非常彻底的坏蛋。 —

But at the moment he was all heartiness and good-fellowship. —
但此刻他却异常热情友好。 —

He was dressed in a bedraggled suit of khaki, and his hands would have been all the better for a wash.
他穿着一套破旧的卡其服，手看起来能好好洗一下。

“I knew Strickland well, ” he said, as he leaned back in his chair and lit the cigar I had offered him. —
“我很了解斯特里克兰德，”他说着，靠在椅子上，点燃了我递给他的雪茄。 —

“It’s through me he came out to the islands. “
“他是通过我来到这些岛屿的。”

“Where did you meet him?” I asked.
“你在哪里遇到他的？”我问道。

“In Marseilles. “
“在马赛。”

“What were you doing there?”
“你在那里做什么？”

He gave me an ingratiating smile.
他露出讨好的微笑。

“Well, I guess I was on the beach. “
“嗯，我猜我是在海滩上。”

My friend’s appearance suggested that he was now in the same predicament, and I prepared myself to cultivate an agreeable acquaintance. —
我朋友的外表表明他现在也处于同样的困境，我准备和他培养一个愉快的友谊。 —

The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. —
海滩行者的社会总是值得你稍微努力一下去享受。 —

They are easy of approach and affable in conversation. —
他们很容易接近，谈话中也十分和蔼。 —

They seldom put on airs, and the offer of a drink is a sure way to their hearts. —
他们很少摆架子，送上一杯饮料绝对能赢得他们的好感。 —

You need no laborious steps to enter upon familiarity with them, and you can earn not only their confidence, but their gratitude, by turning an attentive ear to their discourse. —
你无需费力便能与他们打成一片，倾听他们的谈话不仅能赢得他们的信任，还能得到他们的感激。 —

They look upon conversation as the great pleasure of life, thereby proving the excellence of their civilisation, and for the most part they are entertaining talkers. —
他们视谈话为人生的一大乐事，从而证明了他们文明的优越性，大多数时候他们都是有趣的谈话者。 —

The extent of their experience is pleasantly balanced by the fertility of their imagination. —
他们的经历之丰富愉快地平衡了他们的想象力的丰饶。 —

It cannot be said that they are without guile, but they have a tolerant respect for the law, when the law is supported by strength. —
不能说他们没有狡诈，但在法律被力量支持时，他们对法律持有宽容的尊重。 —

It is hazardous to play poker with them, but their ingenuity adds a peculiar excitement to the best game in the world. —
与他们玩扑克是危险的，但他们的机智为世界上最好的游戏增添了一种特别的刺激。 —

I came to know Captain Nichols very well before I left Tahiti, and I am the richer for his acquaintance. —
在我离开大溪地之前，我对尼古拉斯船长非常了解，认识他使我受益匪浅。 —

I do not consider that the cigars and whisky he consumed at my expense (he always refused cocktails, since he was practically a teetotaller), and the few dollars, borrowed with a civil air of conferring a favour upon me, that passed from my pocket to his, were in any way equivalent to the entertainment he afforded me. —
我认为他在我花费的雪茄和威士忌（他总是拒绝鸡尾酒，因为他实际上是禁酒主义者）以及从我的口袋里转到他手中的几美元中，以礼貌的方式借来的，都不能等同于他给我带来的娱乐。 —

I remained his debtor. I should be sorry if my conscience, insisting on a rigid attention to the matter in hand, forced me to dismiss him in a couple of lines.
我仍然欠他一个人情。如果我的良心坚持严格关注眼前事务，迫使我用几行话把他解雇，那我会很遗憾。

I do not know why Captain Nichols first left England. —
我不知道尼古拉斯船长当初离开英国的原因。 —

It was a matter upon which he was reticent, and with persons of his kind a direct question is never very discreet. —
这是一个他不愿多谈的话题，对于他这种人，直接提问从来不是很明智的。 —

He hinted at undeserved misfortune, and there is no doubt that he looked upon himself as the victim of injustice. —
他暗示自己遭受了不应有的不幸，毫无疑问，他认为自己是不公正对待的受害者。 —

My fancy played with the various forms of fraud and violence, and I agreed with him sympathetically when he remarked that the authorities in the old country were so damned technical. —
我的想象力漫游在各种形式的欺诈和暴力之间，当他说到老家的当局太过苛刻时，我表示理解。 —

But it was nice to see that any unpleasantness he had endured in his native land had not impaired his ardent patriotism. —
但很高兴看到，他在祖国遭遇的任何不愉快并没有损害他的强烈爱国主义。 —

He frequently declared that England was the finest country in the world, sir, and he felt a lively superiority over Americans, Colonials, Dagos, Dutchmen, and Kanakas.
他经常声明英国是世界上最好的国家，先生，而且他对美国人，殖民地人，西班牙人，荷兰人和卡纳卡人抱有强烈的优越感。

But I do not think he was a happy man. He suffered from dyspepsia, and he might often be seen sucking a tablet of pepsin; —
但我不认为他是一个快乐的人。他患有消化不良，经常可以看见他吸一片胃酶片； —

in the morning his appetite was poor; but this affliction alone would hardly have impaired his spirits. —
早上他的胃口不好；但仅有这一疾病可能不会影响他的精神。 —

He had a greater cause of discontent with life than this. —
他对生活有比这更大的不满。 —

Eight years before he had rashly married a wife. —
八年前，他不明智地娶了一位妻子。 —

There are men whom a merciful Providence has undoubtedly ordained to a single life, but who from wilfulness or through circumstances they could not cope with have flown in the face of its decrees. —
有些男人，仁慈的天意无疑是要让他们终身单身，但是由于任性或无法应对的环境，他们违背了命运的安排。 —

There is no object more deserving of pity than the married bachelor. Of such was Captain Nichols. —
没有比已婚单身汉更值得同情的对象了。尼科尔斯队长就是其中之一。 —

I met his wife. She was a woman of twenty-eight, I should think, though of a type whose age is always doubtful; —
我见过他的妻子。她大概是个二十八岁左右的女人，然而这类类型的年龄总是难以确定； —

for she cannot have looked different when she was twenty, and at forty would look no older. —
因为她20岁时看起来也许并没有什么变化，40岁时也不会显得更老。 —

She gave me an impression of extraordinary tightness. —
她给人一种极度紧绷的印象。 —

Her plain face with its narrow lips was tight, her skin was stretched tightly over her bones, her smile was tight, her hair was tight, her clothes were tight, and the white drill she wore had all the effect of black bombazine. —
她普通的脸上带着狭窄的嘴唇很紧绷，皮肤拉紧在骨头上，微笑很紧绷，头发很紧绷，衣服很紧绷，她穿着的白色帆布衣看起来像黑色坎布琴。 —

I could not imagine why Captain Nichols had married her, and having married her why he had not deserted her. —
我无法想象尼科尔斯队长为什么会娶她，而且既然娶了她又为什么没有离开她。 —

Perhaps he had, often, and his melancholy arose from the fact that he could never succeed. —
或许他经常这样做，并且他的忧郁是由于他永远无法成功。 —

However far he went and in howsoever secret a place he hid himself, I felt sure that Mrs. Nichols, inexorable as fate and remorseless as conscience, would presently rejoin him. —
无论他走多远，在多么隐秘的地方躲藏，我确信尼科尔斯夫人，像命运不容疚，如同良心无情之一样，很快会重新找到他。 —

He could as little escape her as the cause can escape the effect.
他逃不过她，就像原因逃不过结果一样。

The rogue, like the artist and perhaps the gentleman, belongs to no class. —
诡辩士，如同艺术家和也许绅士一样，不属于任何阶级。 —

He is not embarrassed by the sans gene of the hobo, nor put out of countenance by the etiquette of the prince. —
他不受流浪汉的不受约束之苦，也不为王子的礼节而困扰。 —

But Mrs. Nichols belonged to the well-defined class, of late become vocal, which is known as the lower-middle. —
但尼科尔斯夫人属于清晰定义的一个类别，近来变得很有声望，被称为下层中产阶级。 —

Her father, in fact, was a policeman. I am certain that he was an efficient one. —
她的父亲事实上是个警察。我确定他是一个效率很高的警察。 —

I do not know what her hold was on the Captain, but I do not think it was love. —
我不知道她对队长有什么约束，但我不认为这是爱。 —

I never heard her speak, but it may be that in private she had a copious conversation. —
我从未听她说过话，但也许她私下里会说话不止。 —

At any rate, Captain Nichols was frightened to death of her. —
总之，尼科尔斯船长对她害怕得要死。 —

Sometimes, sitting with me on the terrace of the hotel, he would become conscious that she was walking in the road outside. —
有时，坐在旅馆的露台上，他会意识到她在外面的路上走动。 —

She did not call him; she gave no sign that she was aware of his existence; —
她没有叫他，也没有给他任何存在的迹象； —

she merely walked up and down composedly. —
她只是平静地来回走动。 —

Then a strange uneasiness would seize the Captain; —
然后奇怪的不安会袭击船长； —

he would look at his watch and sigh.
他看着手表叹息。

“Well, I must be off, ” he said.
“嗯，我必须走了，”他说。

Neither wit nor whisky could detain him then. —
那时既没有智慧也没有威士忌能留住他。 —

Yet he was a man who had faced undaunted hurricane and typhoon, and would not have hesitated to fight a dozen unarmed niggers with nothing but a revolver to help him. —
尽管他是一个直面暴风雨和台风的无畏者，也绝不会犹豫与十几个手无寸铁的黑人搏斗，只靠一把左轮手枪。 —

Sometimes Mrs. Nichols would send her daughter, a pale-faced, sullen child of seven, to the hotel.
有时尼科尔斯夫人会派她的七岁女儿，一个苍白脸色、阴郁不语的孩子来旅馆。

“Mother wants you, ” she said, in a whining tone.
“妈妈要你，”她用一个哭诉的语调说。

“Very well, my dear, ” said Captain Nichols.
“好的，亲爱的，”尼科尔斯船长说。

He rose to his feet at once, and accompanied his daughter along the road. —
他立刻站起身，陪着女儿沿着路走去。 —

I suppose it was a very pretty example of the triumph of spirit over matter, and so my digression has at least the advantage of a moral.
我想这大概是精神战胜物质的典范，所以我的离题至少具有一个道德观点。