I lived at the Hotel de la Fleur, and Mrs. Johnson, the proprietress, had a sad story to tell of lost opportunity. —
我住在花之旅馆，老板太太约翰逊女士有一个失去机会的悲伤故事。 —

After Strickland’s death certain of his effects were sold by auction in the market-place at Papeete, and she went to it herself because there was among the truck an American stove she wanted. —
在斯特里克兰去世后，他的一些物品在帕皮提市场通过拍卖出售，她亲自前去，因为其中有一台她想要的美国炉子。 —

She paid twenty-seven francs for it.
她花了27法郎购买了它。

“There were a dozen pictures, ” she told me, “but they were unframed, and nobody wanted them. —
“有十二幅画，”她告诉我，“但它们没有装裱，没有人想要它们。 —

Some of them sold for as much as ten francs, but mostly they went for five or six. —
有些以高至十法郎卖出，但大多数以五六法郎成交。 —

Just think, if I had bought them I should be a rich woman now. “
想象一下，如果我买下它们，我现在会是一个富有的女人了。”

But Tiare Johnson would never under any circumstances have been rich. She could not keep money. —
但希阿瑞·约翰逊永远不会以任何情况成为富人。她不能保住钱财。 —

The daughter of a native and an English sea-captain settled in Tahiti, when I knew her she was a woman of fifty, who looked older, and of enormous proportions. —
她是一个塔希提土著和一个定居在塔希提的英国海员的女儿，当我认识她时，她已经五十岁了，看起来更老，体型庞大。 —

Tall and extremely stout, she would have been of imposing presence if the great good-nature of her face had not made it impossible for her to express anything but kindliness. —
高大而极为肥胖，如果她脸上的极好善良没有使她表达除了善意以外的任何东西，她本会拥有令人印象深刻的风采。 —

Her arms were like legs of mutton, her breasts like giant cabbages; —
她的胳膊像羊腿，胸部像巨大的卷心菜； —

her face, broad and fleshy, gave you an impression of almost indecent nakedness, and vast chin succeeded to vast chin. —
她宽阔肥厚的脸庞给人一种几乎猥亵的裸露感，巨大的下巴接连着巨大的下巴。 —

I do not know how many of them there were. —
我不知道有多少个下巴。 —

They fell away voluminously into the capaciousness of her bosom. —
它们在她丰满的胸部的宽容中松垂下来。 —

She was dressed usually in a pink Mother Hubbard, and she wore all day long a large straw hat. —
她通常穿着粉色的母亲哈巴服，整天戴着一顶大草帽。 —

But when she let down her hair, which she did now and then, for she was vain of it, you saw that it was long and dark and curly; —
但偶尔她放下她的长发，因为她对此很自负，你会看到它又长又黑又卷曲。 —

and her eyes had remained young and vivacious. Her laughter was the most catching I ever heard; —
她的眼睛依然年轻而充满活力。她的笑声是我听过最迷人的； —

it would begin, a low peal in her throat, and would grow louder and louder till her whole vast body shook. —
它开始时，从她喉咙里发出低沉的笑声，然后越来越响，直到她整个宽阔的身体都在颤抖。 —

She loved three things – a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man. —
她喜欢三样东西 – 开玩笑、一杯葡萄酒和一位英俊男子。 —

To have known her is a privilege.
能够认识她是一种特权。

She was the best cook on the island, and she adored good food. —
岛上最好的厨师，她热爱美食。 —

From morning till night you saw her sitting on a low chair in the kitchen, surrounded by a Chinese cook and two or three native girls, giving her orders, chatting sociably with all and sundry, and tasting the savoury messes she devised. —
从早到晚，你总是看到她坐在厨房的低凳上，周围是一位中国厨师和两三个本地姑娘，她给他们下指示，和所有人聊天，并尝一尝她设计的美味菜肴。 —

When she wished to do honour to a friend she cooked the dinner with her own hands. —
当她想要款待朋友时，她亲手做晚餐。 —

Hospitality was a passion with her, and there was no one on the island who need go without a dinner when there was anything to eat at the Hotel de la Fleur. She never turned her customers out of her house because they did not pay their bills. —
她热衷于款待客人，岛上没有人因为无法付账而被赶出花之旅馆。 —

She always hoped they would pay when they could. —
她总希望他们有能力时会支付。 —

There was one man there who had fallen on adversity, and to him she had given board and lodging for several months. —
那里有一个陷入困境的人，她给他提供了几个月的食宿。 —

When the Chinese laundryman refused to wash for him without payment she had sent his things to be washed with hers. —
当中国洗衣工拒绝为他洗衣服而不付款时，她把他的衣物与自己的一起送去洗。 —

She could not allow the poor fellow to go about in a dirty shirt, she said, and since he was a man, and men must smoke, she gave him a franc a day for cigarettes. —
她说，不能让可怜的人穿脏衬衫，因为他是男人，男人得抽烟，所以她每天给他一法郎买香烟。 —

She used him with the same affability as those of her clients who paid their bills once a week.
她以同样的和蔼待遇对待他，就像对那些每周结账的客人一样。

Age and obesity had made her inapt for love, but she took a keen interest in the amatory affairs of the young. —
年龄和肥胖使她不适合恋爱，但她对年轻人的爱情事务很感兴趣。 —

She looked upon venery as the natural occupation for men and women, and was ever ready with precept and example from her own wide experience.
她认为性是男人和女人的自然职业，总是愿意用自己广泛的经验给出教诲和例子。

“I was not fifteen when my father found that I had a lover, ” she said. —
“当我父亲发现我有情人时，我还不到十五岁，”她说。 —

“He was third mate on the Tropic Bird. A good-looking boy. “
“他是‘热带鸟’号的三副。一个长相俊美的男孩。”

She sighed a little. They say a woman always remembers her first lover with affection; —
她叹了口气。他们说一个女人总是会怀念她的初恋； —

but perhaps she does not always remember him.
但也许她并不总是记得他。

“My father was a sensible man. “
“我父亲是个明智的人。”

“What did he do?” I asked.
我问：“他做了什么？”

“He thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then he made me marry Captain Johnson. —
“他把我打得半死，然后让我嫁给约翰逊船长。 —

I did not mind. He was older, of course, but he was good-looking too. “
我并不介意。他当然年纪大些，但他也很英俊。”

Tiare – her father had called her by the name of the white, scented flower which, they tell you, if you have once smelt, will always draw you back to Tahiti in the end, however far you may have roamed – Tiare remembered Strickland very well.
蒂阿蕾——她的父亲用那种白色、香气袭人的花的名字称呼她，他们告诉你，一旦你闻到过，最终无论你曾经漫游多远，都会回到塔希提，记得蒂阿蕾很清楚。

“He used to come here sometimes, and I used to see him walking about Papeete. —
“他有时会来这里，我看见他在帕皮提漫步。 —

I was sorry for him, he was so thin, and he never had any money. —
我为他感到难过，他如此瘦弱，从不拥有任何钱。 —

When I heard he was in town, I used to send a boy to find him and make him come to dinner with me. —
当我听说他在城里时，我会派人找他，让他和我共进晚餐。 —

I got him a job once or twice, but he couldn’t stick to anything. —
我曾给他找工作，但他做不长久。 —

After a little while he wanted to get back to the bush, and one morning he would be gone. “
过了一会儿，他就想回丛林，第二天早上就会离开。”

Strickland reached Tahiti about six months after he left Marseilles. —
史特里克兰德离开马赛大约六个月后到达塔希提。 —

He worked his passage on a sailing vessel that was making the trip from Auckland to San Francisco, and he arrived with a box of paints, an easel, and a dozen canvases. —
他在一艘从奥克兰到旧金山的帆船上打工赚取回程费用，带着一盒颜料、一个画架和十二块画布抵达了。 —

He had a few pounds in his pocket, for he had found work in Sydney, and he took a small room in a native house outside the town. —
他口袋里有些钱，因为他在悉尼找到了工作，在城外一个土著屋子里租了间小房间。 —

I think the moment he reached Tahiti he felt himself at home. —
我觉得他一到达塔希提岛就觉得自己回到了家。 —

Tiare told me that he said to her once:
提亚雷告诉我，他曾经对她说过：

“I’d been scrubbing the deck, and all at once a chap said to me: Why, there it is. --- <span><tang1> "我当时正在甲板上擦洗，突然一个人对我说：嘿，那里就是了。` —

’ And I looked up and I saw the outline of the island. —
然后我抬头看见了岛屿的轮廓。 —

I knew right away that there was the place I’d been looking for all my life. —
我立刻意识到那就是我一生寻找的地方。 —

Then we came near, and I seemed to recognise it. —
然后我们靠近了，我似乎认识这里。 —

Sometimes when I walk about it all seems familiar. —
有时候我走在这里，一切似乎都如此熟悉。 —

I could swear I’ve lived here before. “
我真的能发誓我以前在这里生活过。”

“Sometimes it takes them like that, ” said Tiare. “I’ve known men come on shore for a few hours while their ship was taking in cargo, and never go back. —
“有时候他们就是这么被吸引的，” 提亚雷说道。”我知道有些人上岸几个小时，船只在装货，然后就再也不想回去了。 —

And I’ve known men who came here to be in an office for a year, and they cursed the place, and when they went away they took their dying oath they’d hang themselves before they came back again, and in six months you’d see them land once more, and they’d tell you they couldn’t live anywhere else. “
有些人为了在办公室待上一年而来这里，他们诅咒着这个地方，离开时发誓他们宁愿自缢也不再回来，但六个月后你会看到他们再次登陆，告诉你他们无法在别的地方生活下去。”