As we walked along I reflected on a circumstance which all that I had lately heard about Strickland forced on my attention. —
当我们漫步时，我想起了最近听到的所有关于斯特里克兰德的情况，这些都引起了我的注意。 —

Here, on this remote island, he seemed to have aroused none of the detestation with which he was regarded at home, but compassion rather; —
在这个偏远的岛屿上，他似乎没有引起家乡对他的厌恶，而是怜悯； —

and his vagaries were accepted with tolerance. —
他的古怪行为被人们以宽容的态度接受。 —

To these people, native and European, he was a queer fish, but they were used to queer fish, and they took him for granted; —
对于这些人来说，无论是本地人还是欧洲人，他都是个怪人，但他们习惯了奇怪的人，也就习惯了他； —

the world was full of odd persons, who did odd things; —
世界充满了怪人，这些人做着奇怪的事； —

and perhaps they knew that a man is not what he wants to be, but what he must be. —
也许他们知道一个人不是他想成为的那样，而是他必须成为的那样。 —

In England and France he was the square peg in the round hole, but here the holes were any sort of shape, and no sort of peg was quite amiss. —
在英国和法国，他是一个方的木钉，但在这里，孔是各种形状，而木钉也无所谓形状。 —

I do not think he was any gentler here, less selfish or less brutal, but the circumstances were more favourable. —
我不认为他在这里更温和，更无私或更残酷，但情况更有利于他。 —

If he had spent his life amid these surroundings he might have passed for no worse a man than another. —
如果他在这样的环境中度过了他的一生，也许他会被认为是一个比别人好不了多少的人。 —

He received here what he neither expected nor wanted among his own people – sympathy.
他在这里得到了他在家乡既不期望也不想要的东西 – 同情。

I tried to tell Captain Brunot something of the astonishment with which this filled me, and for a little while he did not answer.
我试图告诉布鲁诺船长这种愕然之情充满了我，有一小段时间他没有回答。

“It is not strange that I, at all events, should have had sympathy for him, ” he said at last, “for, though perhaps neither of us knew it, we were both aiming at the same thing. “
“至少对我来说，我会为他感到同情并不奇怪，” 最后他说。

“What on earth can it be that two people so dissimilar as you and Strickland could aim at?” I asked, smiling.
“两个如你和斯特里克兰德这般不同的人会以什么为目标呢？” 我笑着问。

“Beauty. “
“美。”

“A large order, ” I murmured.
“一个很大的目标，” 我轻声说道。

“Do you know how men can be so obsessed by love that they are deaf and blind to everything else in the world? —
“你知道男人可以因爱而如此执迷，以至于对世界上的一切都视而不见听而不闻吗？” —

They are as little their own masters as the slaves chained to the benches of a galley. —
“他们像被锁在战舰桅杆下的奴隶一样，其实并不自主。” —

The passion that held Strickland in bondage was no less tyrannical than love. “
“困扰斯特里克兰的激情同样专制，却不是爱。”

“How strange that you should say that!” I answered. —
“你说这话真是太奇怪了！”我回答道。 —

“For long ago I had the idea that he was possessed of a devil. “
“很久以前，我就有这个想法，他好像被恶魔抓住了。”

“And the passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. —
“而束缚着斯特里克兰的激情是一种创造美的激情。它不让他平静。 —

It urged him hither and thither. He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless. —
“它驱使着他东奔西跑。他永远是个朝圣者，被一种神圣的乡愁所困扰，他内心的恶魔是无情的。” —

There are men whose desire for truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world. —
“有些人渴望真理如此之甚，以至于为了达到它们，他们愿摧毁自己世界的根基。 —

Of such was Strickland, only beauty with him took the place of truth. —
“斯特里克兰就是这样的人，只不过对他而言，美代替了真理。 —

I could only feel for him a profound compassion. “
“我只能对他怀有深深的怜悯。”

“That is strange also. A man whom he had deeply wronged told me that he felt a great pity for him. —
“这也很奇怪。一个曾被他深深伤害的人告诉我，他很同情斯特里克兰。” —

” I was silent for a moment. “I wonder if there you have found the explanation of a character which has always seemed to me inexplicable. —
“我沉默了片刻。“我想知道是否你找到了解释一个我一直觉得莫名其妙的人物的答案。 —

How did you hit on it?”
“你是怎么猜到的？”

He turned to me with a smile.
他笑着转向我。

“Did I not tell you that I, too, in my way was an artist? —
“难道我没有告诉过你，我也算是一个艺术家？ —

I realised in myself the same desire as animated him. —
我意识到了自己和他一样被激发的欲望。 —

But whereas his medium was paint, mine has been life. “
但是，他使用的媒介是油漆，而我的是生命。”

Then Captain Brunot told me a story which I must repeat, since, if only by way of contrast, it adds something to my impression of Strickland. —
那时博诺船长告诉了我一个故事，我必须重复一遍，因为即使是对比，它也对我对斯特里克兰德的印象有所补充。 —

It has also to my mind a beauty of its own.
对我来说，它本身也具有一种美。

Captain Brunot was a Breton, and had been in the French Navy. He left it on his marriage, and settled down on a small property he had near Quimper to live for the rest of his days in peace; —
博诺船长是一名布列塔尼人，曾在法国海军服役。他在结婚时离开了海军，在凯帕尔附近的一块小地产定居下来，准备在那里平静地度过余生； —

but the failure of an attorney left him suddenly penniless, and neither he nor his wife was willing to live in penury where they had enjoyed consideration. —
但是一位律师的失败使他突然一贫如洗，他和他的妻子都不愿意在他们曾受尊重的地方生活贫困。 —

During his sea faring days he had cruised the South Seas, and he determined now to seek his fortune there. —
在他漂泊的日子里，他曾巡航南海，现在他决定在那里寻找他的财富。 —

He spent some months in Papeete to make his plans and gain experience; —
他花了几个月时间在帕皮提制定计划并积累经验； —

then, on money borrowed from a friend in France, he bought an island in the Paumotus. —
然后，凭借从法国一友人借来的钱，他在帕莫图斯群岛购买了一座岛屿。 —

It was a ring of land round a deep lagoon, uninhabited, and covered only with scrub and wild guava. —
那是一个环绕着一个深潜泻湖的土地环，无人居住，只长满了灌木和野番瓜。 —

With the intrepid woman who was his wife, and a few natives, he landed there, and set about building a house, and clearing the scrub so that he could plant cocoa-nuts. —
他和那位勇敢的妻子以及一些土著登岛，开始建房子，清除灌木以便种植椰子。 —

That was twenty years before, and now what had been a barren island was a garden.
那是二十年前，一个贫瘠的岛屿变成了花园。

“It was hard and anxious work at first, and we worked strenuously, both of us. —
“起初是艰苦而焦虑的工作，我们都很努力地工作。 —

Every day I was up at dawn, clearing, planting, working on my house, and at night when I threw myself on my bed it was to sleep like a log till morning. —
每天清晨我都会起床，清理、种植、建设我的房子，到了晚上躺在床上，就会睡得跟砍了一样直到早上。 —

My wife worked as hard as I did. Then children were born to us, first a son and then a daughter. —
我妻子和我一样辛勤地劳作。然后我们有了孩子，先是一个儿子，然后是一个女儿。 —

My wife and I have taught them all they know. —
我和我的妻子教给他们所有的知识。 —

We had a piano sent out from France, and she has taught them to play and to speak English, and I have taught them Latin and mathematics, and we read history together. —
我们从法国订购了一架钢琴，她教他们弹钢琴和说英语，我教他们拉丁语和数学，我们一起读历史。 —

They can sail a boat. They can swim as well as the natives. —
他们会开船。他们游泳的技术和当地人一样好。 —

There is nothing about the land of which they are ignorant. —
关于这片土地，他们一无所不知。 —

Our trees have prospered, and there is shell on my reef. —
我们的树茂盛生长，我的珊瑚礁上也长满了贝壳。 —

I have come to Tahiti now to buy a schooner. —
我现在来塔希提是为了购买一艘帆船。 —

I can get enough shell to make it worth while to fish for it, and, who knows? I may find pearls. —
我可以搜集到足够的贝壳，让捕捞变得值得，也许，我会找到珍珠。 —

I have made something where there was nothing. I too have made beauty. —
我在无中生有，我也创造了美。 —

Ah, you do not know what it is to look at those tall, healthy trees and think that every one I planted myself. “
啊，你不知道看着那些高大健康的树木，想到每一棵都是我亲手栽种的。

“Let me ask you the question that you asked Strickland. —
“让我问你你问史翠克兰的问题。 —

Do you never regret France and your old home in Brittany?”
你从不后悔法国和你在布列塔尼的老家吗？”

“Some day, when my daughter is married and my son has a wife and is able to take my place on the island, we shall go back and finish our days in the old house in which I was born. “
“等有一天，当我女儿结婚了，我儿子有了妻子并能接替我在岛上的位置，我们将回去，在我出生的那座老房子里度过余生。

“You will look back on a happy life, ” I said.
“你将回顾幸福的一生，”我说。

” Evidemment, it is not exciting on my island, and we are very far from the world – imagine, it takes me four days to come to Tahiti – but we are happy there. —
“当然，生活在我的岛上并不刺激，我们离世界很遥远–想象一下，我需要四天才能到达塔希提–但我们在那里很快乐。 —

It is given to few men to attempt a work and to achieve it. Our life is simple and innocent. —
对于少数人来说，尝试一个目标并实现它是一种幸运。我们的生活简朴纯洁。 —

We are untouched by ambition, and what pride we have is due only to our contemplation of the work of our hands. —
我们不受野心的影响，我们的骄傲只是因为我们手中的作品。 —

Malice cannot touch us, nor envy attack. —
恶意无法触及我们，嫉妒也无法攻击。 —

Ah, mon cher monsieur, they talk of the blessedness of labour, and it is a meaningless phrase, but to me it has the most intense significance. —
啊，我亲爱的先生，他们谈论劳动的幸福，这只是一个毫无意义的短语，但对我来说意义非凡。 —

I am a happy man. “
我是一个快乐的人。

“I am sure you deserve to be, ” I smiled.
“我相信你是值得的，”我微笑着说。

“I wish I could think so. I do not know how I have deserved to have a wife who was the perfect friend and helpmate, the perfect mistress and the perfect mother. “
“我希望我也能这么认为。我不知道我是怎么配得上一个完美的朋友和助手、完美的情人和母亲的妻子的。”

I reflected for a while on the life that the Captain suggested to my imagination.
我在海军上尉想象中所描绘的生活上考虑了一会儿。

“It is obvious that to lead such an existence and make so great a success of it, you must both have needed a strong will and a determined character. “
“很明显，要过这样的生活并取得如此大的成功，你们必须既要有坚强的意志，又要有坚定的性格。”

“Perhaps; but without one other factor we could have achieved nothing. “
“也许；但如果没有另一个因素，我们就无法取得任何成就。”

“And what was that?”
“那是什么?”

He stopped, somewhat dramatically, and stretched out his arm.
他停下来，显得有些戏剧化，伸出手臂。

“Belief in God. Without that we should have been lost. “
“信仰上帝。没有这一点，我们就会迷失方向。”

Then we arrived at the house of Dr. Coutras.
然后我们到达了库特拉斯博士的房子。