AT that moment we were interrupted by the appearance of Madame Coutras, who had been paying visits. —
就在那时，库特拉斯夫人出现打断了我们的谈话，她一直在拜访。 —

She came in, like a ship in full sail, an imposing creature, tall and stout, with an ample bust and an obesity girthed in alarmingly by straight-fronted corsets. —
她进来时宛如一只展开了全部风帆的船舶，一个威严的女性，高大而丰满，胸围宽松，肥胖被笔直的束腰胸衣勒得令人担忧。 —

She had a bold hooked nose and three chins. She held herself upright. —
她有一个大而尖的鼻子，三下巴。她笔挺地站着。 —

She had not yielded for an instant to the enervating charm of the tropics, but contrariwise was more active, more worldly, more decided than anyone in a temperate clime would have thought it possible to be. —
她没有一刻屈服于热带地区的迷人魅力，相反地比起在温带地区的任何人更加活跃、更加看世俗、更加坚定。 —

She was evidently a copious talker, and now poured forth a breathless stream of anecdote and comment. —
她明显是一个健谈的人，现在流露出一个居高临下的轶事和评论。 —

She made the conversation we had just had seem far away and unreal.
她打破了我们刚才的对话，使其显得遥远而不真实。

Presently Dr. Coutras turned to me.
库特拉斯医生转向了我。

“I still have in my bureau the picture that Strickland gave me, ” he said. —
“我还在我的办公桌里有斯特里克兰给我的画，”他说道。 —

“Would you like to see it?”
“你想看看吗？”

“Willingly. “
“愿意。”

We got up, and he led me on to the verandah which surrounded his house. —
我们站起来，他带我走到围绕着他房子的阳台上。 —

We paused to look at the gay flowers that rioted in his garden.
我们停下来欣赏他花园中盛开的花朵。

“For a long time I could not get out of my head the recollection of the extraordinary decoration with which Strickland had covered the walls of his house, ” he said reflectively.
“有很长一段时间我无法忘记斯特里克兰在他房子墙上涂饰的那些奇特图案，”他沉思着说。

I had been thinking of it, too. It seemed to me that here Strickland had finally put the whole expression of himself. —
我也一直在思考着。我觉得在这里，斯特里克兰最终表达出了自己的全部意境。 —

Working silently, knowing that it was his last chance, I fancied that here he must have said all that he knew of life and all that he divined. —
无声地工作，知道这是他最后的机会，我想象着在这里他必须说出他所有对生活的了解和所有他所洞悉的东西。 —

And I fancied that perhaps here he had at last found peace. —
我想也许在这里他终于找到了平静。 —

The demon which possessed him was exorcised at last, and with the completion of the work, for which all his life had been a painful preparation, rest descended on his remote and tortured soul. —
最终附身于他的恶魔被驱逐出去了，而且随着他一生痛苦准备的工作完成，宁静降临在他遥远而受折磨的灵魂上。 —

He was willing to die, for he had fulfilled his purpose.
他愿意去死，因为他完成了他的使命。

“What was the subject?” I asked.
“主题是什么？”我问。

“I scarcely know. It was strange and fantastic. —
“我几乎不知道。它是奇怪而离奇的。 —

It was a vision of the beginnings of the world, the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve – que sais-je? —
那是一个世界开始的幻影，伊甸园，亚当和夏娃–我能知道？ —

– it was a hymn to the beauty of the human form, male and female, and the praise of Nature, sublime, indifferent, lovely, and cruel. —
–那是对人类形态之美的赞歌，男性和女性的，以及大自然的赞美，壮丽、漠然、可爱和残酷。 —

It gave you an awful sense of the infinity of space and of the endlessness of time. —
它给你一种无限空间和无尽时间的可怕感觉。 —

Because he painted the trees I see about me every day, the cocoa-nuts, the banyans, the flamboyants, the alligator-pears, I have seen them ever since differently, as though there were in them a spirit and a mystery which I am ever on the point of seizing and which forever escapes me. —
因为他描绘了我每天看到的树木，椰子树、榕树、火焰树、鳄梨树，自从那以后我看到它们就有所不同，仿佛其中有一个精神和一个谜团，我总是快要抓住它们，但又永远逃脱。 —

The colours were the colours familiar to me, and yet they were different. —
颜色是我熟悉的颜色，但它们又是不同的。 —

They had a significance which was all their own. And those nude men and women. —
它们有着自己独特的意义。还有那些裸体的男人和女人。 —

They were of the earth, and yet apart from it. —
他们来自大地，但又超脱于大地。 —

They seemed to possess something of the clay of which they were created, and at the same time something divine. —
他们似乎拥有一些粘土，用它们被创造出来，同时又有一些神圣的东西。 —

You saw man in the nakedness of his primeval instincts, and you were afraid, for you saw yourself. “
你看到人类原始本能的裸露，你会感到害怕，因为你看到了自己。”

Dr. Coutras shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
库特拉斯博士耸了耸肩，微笑着。

“You will laugh at me. I am a materialist, and I am a gross, fat man – Falstaff, eh? —
“你会笑我的。我是一个唯物主义者，我是一个肥胖的男人–法尔斯塔夫，嗯？” —

– the lyrical mode does not become me. I make myself ridiculous. —
– 抒情的方式不适合我。我让自己看起来可笑。 —

But I have never seen painting which made so deep an impression upon me. —
但我从未见过让我如此深刻的印象的绘画。 —

Tenez, I had just the same feeling as when I went to the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There too I was awed by the greatness of the man who had painted that ceiling. —
看，我产生了和我在罗马梵蒂冈西斯廷教堂时相同的感觉。那里也让我为那位绘画天花板的伟大人物的伟大所震撼。 —

It was genius, and it was stupendous and overwhelming. I felt small and insignificant. —
那是天才，那是巨大且压倒性的。我感到渺小和微不足道。 —

But you are prepared for the greatness of Michael Angelo. —
但你已经为米开朗基罗的伟大做好准备。 —

Nothing had prepared me for the immense surprise of these pictures in a native hut, far away from civilisation, in a fold of the mountain above Taravao. —
没有任何事情能让我预料到这些画作在塔拉瓦奥山上一个土著小屋内的巨大惊喜。 —

And Michael Angelo is sane and healthy. Those great works of his have the calm of the sublime; —
米开朗基罗是理智和健康的。他的伟大作品带有崇高的平静； —

but here, notwithstanding beauty, was something troubling. I do not know what it was. —
但在这里，尽管美丽，还是有什么让人困扰。我不知道那是什么。 —

It made me uneasy. It gave me the impression you get when you are sitting next door to a room that you know is empty, but in which, you know not why, you have a dreadful consciousness that notwithstanding there is someone. —
它让我感到不安。它给了我坐在隔壁房间旁边时的感觉，你知道那个房间是空的，但不知为什么，你有一种可怕的意识，你觉得那里可能会有人。 —

You scold yourself; you know it is only your nerves – and yet, and yet… —
你责备自己；你知道只是你的神经–但是，但是… —

In a little while it is impossible to resist the terror that seizes you, and you are helpless in the clutch of an unseen horror. —
一会儿之后，无法抵抗突如其来的恐惧，你在看不见的恐怖中无助。 —

Yes; I confess I was not altogether sorry when I heard that those strange masterpieces had been destroyed. “
是的；我坦白，当我听说那些奇怪的杰作被毁灭时，我并不完全难过。”

“Destroyed?” I cried.
“被毁灭？”我大叫。

” Mais oui; did you not know?”
“是啊；你不知道吗？”

“How should I know? It is true I had never heard of this work; —
“我怎么会知道呢？事实上，我以前从未听说过这件作品； —

but I thought perhaps it had fallen into the hands of a private owner. —
但我想也许它已经落入了私人手中。 —

Even now there is no certain list of Strickland’s paintings. “
甚至现在也没有确切的斯特里克兰的画作清单。”

“When he grew blind he would sit hour after hour in those two rooms that he had painted, looking at his works with sightless eyes, and seeing, perhaps, more than he had ever seen in his life before. —
“当他失明后，他会坐在他那两间他画过的房间里，用眼睛看着他的作品，虽然是盲目的眼睛，但也许看到比他以前一生中看到的更多。 —

Ata told me that he never complained of his fate, he never lost courage. —
阿塔告诉我，他从不抱怨自己的命运，他从不失去勇气。 —

To the end his mind remained serene and undisturbed. —
在最后，他的心态仍然宁静而镇定。 —

But he made her promise that when she had buried him – did I tell you that I dug his grave with my own hands, for none of the natives would approach the infected house, and we buried him, she and I, sewn up in three pareos joined together, under the mango-tree – he made her promise that she would set fire to the house and not leave it till it was burned to the ground and not a stick remained. “
但他让她承诺，当她埋葬他时——我告诉过你吗，我亲手挖了他的坟墓，因为没有一个土著会接近那个被感染的房子，我们把他埋了，她和我，用三块连在一起的披肩缝在一起，埋在芒果树下——他让她承诺会放火烧掉房子，直到它被烧毁，没有一根树木留下来。”

I did not speak for a while, for I was thinking. Then I said:
我沉默了一会儿，因为我在思考。然后我说：

“He remained the same to the end, then. “
“他最终仍然如此。”

“Do you understand? I must tell you that I thought it my duty to dissuade her. “
“你明白了吗？我必须告诉你，我觉得我有责任劝阻她。”

“Even after what you have just said?”
“甚至在你刚刚说过的之后？”

“Yes; for I knew that here was a work of genius, and I did not think we had the right to deprive the world of it. —
“是的；因为我知道这里有一个天才的作品，我认为我们没有权利剥夺世界的权利。 —

But Ata would not listen to me. She had promised. —
但阿塔不肯听我的劝告。 —

I would not stay to witness the barbarous deed, and it was only afterwards that I heard what she had done. —
我不愿意留下来见证这残忍的行为，后来我才听说她做了什么。 —

She poured paraffin on the dry floors and on the pandanus-mats, and then she set fire. —
她在干燥的地板和潘丹纳斯垫上倒了煤油，然后点火。” —

In a little while nothing remained but smouldering embers, and a great masterpiece existed no longer.
过了一会儿，只剩下半消失的余烬，一个伟大的杰作再也不复存在。

“I think Strickland knew it was a masterpiece. He had achieved what he wanted. —
“我认为斯特里克兰知道这是一件杰作。他达到了他想要的。 —

His life was complete. He had made a world and saw that it was good. —
他的生命变得完整。他创造了一个世界，看到它是好的。 —

Then, in pride and contempt, he destroyed, it. “
然后，出于骄傲和蔑视，他将它毁灭了。”

“But I must show you my picture, ” said Dr. Coutras, moving on.
“但我必须让你看看我的画，” Coutras医生说着，走了过去。

“What happened to Ata and the child?”
“阿塔和孩子发生了什么事？”

They went to the Marquesas. She had relations there. —
他们去了马克萨斯群岛。她在那里有亲戚。 —

I have heard that the boy works on one of Cameron’s schooners. —
我听说那个男孩在卡梅隆的一艘帆船上工作。 —

They say he is very like his father in appearance. “
他们说他在外貌上很像他的父亲。”

At the door that led from the verandah to the doctor’s consulting-room, he paused and smiled.
在通往阳台的门口，他停下来微笑了一下。

“It is a fruit-piece. You would think it not a very suitable picture for a doctor’s consulting-room, but my wife will not have it in the drawing-room. —
“这是一个水果画。你可能认为这不是一个非常适合放在医生诊室里的画，但是我的妻子不让我放在客厅里。 —

She says it is frankly obscene. “
她说这幅画坦率地淫秽。”

“A fruit-piece!” I exclaimed in surprise.
“一个水果画！”我吃惊地说。

We entered the room, and my eyes fell at once on the picture. I looked at it for a long time.
我们走进了房间，我的眼睛立刻看到了那幅画。我看了很长时间。

It was a pile of mangoes, bananas, oranges, and I know not what. —
那是一堆芒果、香蕉、橙子，我也不知道的什么水果。 —

and at first sight it was an innocent picture enough. —
一开始这幅画看起来很无害。 —

It would have been passed in an exhibition of the Post- Impressionists by a careless person as an excellent but not very remarkable example of the school; —
它可能会被一个粗心的人当作后印象派展览中优秀但不是非常显著的代表作而错过； —

but perhaps afterwards it would come back to his recollection, and he would wonder why. —
但也许之后它会再次出现在他的记忆中，他会想知道为什么。 —

I do not think then he could ever entirely forget it.
我觉得他永远无法完全忘记它。

The colours were so strange that words can hardly tell what a troubling emotion they gave. —
那些颜色如此奇怪，几乎无法用言语描述它们所带来的困扰情感。 —

They were sombre blues, opaque like a delicately carved bowl in lapis lazuli, and yet with a quivering lustre that suggested the palpitation of mysterious life; —
它们是阴沉的蓝色，像天然青金石雕刻的碗一样不透明，但是又带着一种颤动的光泽，好像暗示了神秘生命的悸动； —

there were purples, horrible like raw and putrid flesh, and yet with a glowing, sensual passion that called up vague memories of the Roman Empire of Heliogabalus; —
还有紫色，像生的腐烂肉一样可怕，但又有着燃烧的、肉欲的激情，唤起了对赫里奥加巴卢斯罗马帝国的模糊记忆； —

there were reds, shrill like the berries of holly – one thought of Christmas in England, and the snow, the good cheer, and the pleasure of children – and yet by some magic softened till they had the swooning tenderness of a dove’s breast; —
还有红色，尖锐如冬青浆果——人们会联想到英格兰的圣诞节、雪、喜庆和孩子们的快乐——但通过某种魔法软化，如同鸽子胸膛的热情婉转； —

there were deep yellows that died with an unnatural passion into a green as fragrant as the spring and as pure as the sparkling water of a mountain brook. —
还有深黄色，带着一种不自然的激情渐渐变成一种芬芳如春天、纯净如山溪流水的绿色。 —

Who can tell what anguished fancy made these fruits? —
谁能说出这些水果背后的痛苦幻想呢？ —

They belonged to a Polynesian garden of the Hesperides. —
它们属于西方伊甸园的一个波利尼西亚花园。 —

There was something strangely alive in them, as though they were created in a stage of the earth’s dark history when things were not irrevocably fixed to their forms. —
在它们里面有一种奇怪的活力，仿佛是在地球历史的黑暗时期创造的，当时事物还没有固定到它们的形态。 —

They were extravagantly luxurious. They were heavy with tropical odours. —
它们极度奢华。它们饱含热带气味。 —

They seemed to possess a sombre passion of their own. —
它们似乎具有自己阴沉的激情。 —

It was enchanted fruit, to taste which might open the gateway to God knows what secrets of the soul and to mysterious palaces of the imagination. —
这是一种被施了魔法的水果，尝一口可能打开通往灵魂的某种秘密和想象中神秘宫殿的大门。 —

They were sullen with unawaited dangers, and to eat them might turn a man to beast or god. —
他们对未曾预料到的危险感到愁闷，食用它们可能会让一个人变成兽或神。 —

All that was healthy and natural, all that clung to happy relationships and the simple joys of simple men, shrunk from them in dismay; —
所有健康和自然的事物，所有依恋着幸福关系和简单人的简单喜悦的事物，都惊恐地回避它们； —

and yet a fearful attraction was in them, and, like the fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they were terrible with the possibilities of the Unknown.
然而它们却带有一种可怕的吸引力，像是那棵识善恶的知识树上的果实，它们充满着未知的可能性。

At last I turned away. I felt that Strickland had kept his secret to the grave.
最后我转身离开。我感觉到 Strickland 将他的秘密带到了坟墓里。

” Voyons, Rene, mon ami, “ came the loud, cheerful voice of Madame Coutras, “what are you doing all this time? —
” 看这里，伦内，我的朋友，” 康特拉夫人声音大声而愉快，” 你到底在干什么这么长时间？ —

Here are the aperitifs. Ask Monsieur if he will not drink a little glass of Quinquina Dubonnet. “
这是开胃酒。问问先生是否愿意喝一小杯桃仑奈金。

” Volontiers, Madame, “ I said, going out on to the verandah.
” 放心，夫人，” 我走到阳台上说。

The spell was broken.
咒语被打破了。