2021/4/24

WM的阅读记录。

SILVIA DORIA

西尔维娅·多里亚

Beyond the blue hills, within riding distance, there is a country of parks and beeches, with views of the faded, far-off sea. I remember in one of my rides coming on the place which was the scene of the pretty, old-fashioned story of Silvia Doria. Through the gates, with fine gate-posts, on which heraldic beasts, fierce and fastidious, were upholding coroneted shields, I could see, at the end of the avenue, the fagade of the House, with its stone pilasters, and its balustrade on the steep roof.

越过青色群山，骑马能够到达一个满是花园和山毛榉的国度，那里能看到遥远的海消失在天际。我记得一次骑马到那里，看到西尔维娅·多里亚那个美丽古老的故事里的景色。大门两边立着华美的门柱，上面的纹章图像绘着举着贵族盾牌的野兽，凶猛、难以取悦。透过大门我能看到，在大道的尽头，有一幢房子正对着我，房子有石头壁柱，陡峭的屋顶上有栏杆。

More than one hundred years ago, in that Park, with its Italianized house, and level gardens adorned with statues and garden temples, there lived, they say, an old Lord with his two handsome sons. The old Lord had never ceased mourning for his Lady, though she had died a good many years before; there were no neighbours he visited, and few strangers came inside the great Park walls. One day in Spring, however, just when the apple trees had burst into blossom, the gilded gates were thrown open, and a London chariot with prancing horses drove up the Avenue. And in the chariot, smiling and gay, and indeed very beautiful in her dress of yellow silk, and her great Spanish hat with drooping feathers, sat Silvia Doria, come on a visit to her cousin, the old Lord.

这座公园中坐落着一幢意大利风格的房子，还有平整的花园，里面点缀着许多雕像和庭圈式寺庙。据说一百多年前，那里住着一位老勋爵和他的两个英俊的儿子。老勋爵的妻子早已过世，但他一直伤心不已；他从不拜访邻居，也极少有陌生人走进这座华美花园的围墙之内。然而，春季里的一天，在苹果花怒放的时节，那扇镀金的大门被推开了，腾跃的大马拉着一辆伦敦的马车沿着大道驶来。马车里坐着一位女子，正愉快地微笑着，她身穿黄色丝绸裙，头戴一顶宽大的西班牙帽，上面垂下几根羽毛，美丽非凡。这就是西尔维娅·多里亚，她来拜访他的表哥———老勋爵。

It was her father who had sent her--that he might be more free, some said, to pursue his own wicked courses,--while others declared that he intended her to marry the old Lord's eldest son.

是她父亲派她来的——有人说这样他就能更自由地进行他那些卑鄙的勾当——也有人说他想让女儿嫁给老勋爵的大儿子。

However this might be, Silvia Doria came like the Spring, like the sunligh, into the lonely place. Even the old Lord felt himself curiously happy when he heard her voice singing about the house; as for Henry and Francis, it was heaven for them just to walk by her side down the garden alleys.

不管他的企图是什么，西尔维娅像春天一样，似阳光一般，来到这个孤独的地方。就连老勋爵，只要一听到她悦耳的声音在房子里响起，也感到莫名的快乐；至于亨利和弗朗西斯，只要与她并肩走在花园小径上，就犹如身在天堂了。

And Silvia Doria, though hitherto she had been but cold toward the London gallants who had courted her, found, little by little, that her heart was not untouched.

虽然迄今为止，西尔维娅一直对伦敦那些向她大献殷勤的追求者不理不睬；但是在这里，她发现自己的心渐渐地不再无动于衷。

But, in spite of her father, and her own girlish love of gold and rank, it  was not for Henry that she cared, not for the old Lord, but for Francis, the younger son. Did Francis know of this? They were secretly lovers, the old scandal reported; and the scandal, it may be, had reached her father's ears.

尽管她的父亲热衷于追名逐利，她自己也对金钱和地位有种少女虚荣的喜爱，她的心上人却不是亨利，也不是老勋爵，而是小儿子弗朗西斯。弗朗西斯知道她的心意吗？丑闻传开了，他们是秘密的爱人。这个丑闻可能传到了她父亲的耳朵里。

For one day a coach with foaming horses, and the wicked face of an old man at its window, galloped up the avenue; and soon afterwards, when the coach drove away, Silvia Doria was sitting by the old man's side, sobbing bitterly.

And after she had gone, a long time, many of the eighteenth-century years went by without change. And then Henry, the elder son, was killed in hunting; and the old Lord dying a few years later, the tides and the great house and all the land and gold came to Francis, the younger son. But after his father's death he was but seldom there; having, as it seemed, no love for the place, and living for the most part abroad and alone, for he never married.

有一天一辆马车沿大道疾驰而来，车前的马匹口吐白沫，窗口露出一张邪恶的老脸；不久马车驶走了，而车厢里那个老头的旁边，坐着西尔维娅，她痛苦地抽泣着。在她离开很久以后，18 世纪里的许多岁月逐渐逝去，但是一切都没有变化。后来，大儿子亨利在打猎时丧生了，几年后老勋爵也死了，小儿子弗朗西斯继承了爵位、这所大房子还有所有的土地和财产。但是他父亲死后，弗朗西斯就很少呆在那幢房子里，好像对那个地方完全没有感情。他大多数时间住在国外，独自一人，一直没有结婚。

And again, many years went by. The trees grew taller and darker aboutthe house; the yew hedges, unclipped now, hung their branches over the shadowy paths; ivy almost smothered the statues; and the plaster fell away in great patches from the discoloured garden temples.

又过去了许多年，房子周围的树木愈发高大，郁郁葱葱；无人修剪的紫杉树篱的枝叶已经遮住了小路；常春藤几乎要把那些雕像闷死，大片大片的石膏从花园里那些褪色的寺庙墙壁上剥落。

But at last one day a chariot drove up to the gates; a footman pulled at the crazy bell, telling the gate-keeper that his mistress wished to visit the Park. So the gates creaked open, the chariot glittered up the avenue to the deserted place; and a lady stepped out, went into the garden, and walked among its moss-grown paths and statues. As the chariot drove out again,*Tell your Lord," the lady said, smiling, to the lodge-keeper,

“that Silvia Doria came back.”

但是最终有一天，一辆马车驶到大门前，一个男仆摇动着那摇摇欲坠的门铃，告诉看门人他的女主人想要看看这个花园。大门吱吱嘎嘎地开了，马车沿着大道驶向那被废弃了的地方，大道上顿时闪耀出金色的光芒。一位女士下了车，走进花园，走过长满苔藓的小径和雕像。当马车驶离时，这位女士微笑着对看门人说：

“告诉勋爵，西尔维娅·多里亚回来过。”

记录日期｜2021/4/24