Chapter 5

CHAPTER V Anne's History "Do you know," said Anne confidentially, "I've made up my mind to enjoy this drive. It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. Of course, you must make it up FIRMLY. I am not going to think about going back to the asylum while we're having our drive. I'm just going to think about the drive. Oh, look, there's one little early wild rose out! Isn't it lovely? Don't you think it must be glad to be a rose? Wouldn't it be nice if roses could talk? I'm sure they could tell us such lovely things. And isn't pink the most bewitching color in the world? I love it, but I can't wear it. Redheaded people can't wear pink, not even in imagination. Did you ever know of anybody whose hair was red when she was young, but got to be another color when she grew up?"

第五章 安妮的故事 "你知道吗，"安妮悄悄说道，"我已经打定主意，要好好享受这趟车程。 根据我的经验，只要你下定决心想要开心，几乎总能过得开心的。 当然啦，决心一定要下得牢牢的。 我们赶路的时候，我才不要想回孤儿院的事。 我只想着这趟车程就好啦。 哦，你看，那儿开了一朵早早绽放的野蔷薇！ 它是不是特别可爱？ 你说它生为一朵玫瑰，肯定很开心对不对？ 要是玫瑰能说话该多好呀？ 我肯定它们能给我们讲好多好多美好的故事。 粉色难道不是世界上最迷人的颜色吗？ 我超爱粉色，可我不能穿粉色。 红头发的人不能穿粉色，连在想象里都不行。 你有没有听过谁年轻时头发是红的，长大之后就变成别的颜色了？

"No, I don't know as I ever did," said Marilla mercilessly, "and I shouldn't think it likely to happen in your case either." Anne sighed. "Well, that is another hope gone. `My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes." That's a sentence I read in a book once, and I say it over to comfort myself whenever I'm disappointed in anything." "I don't see where the comforting comes in myself," said Marilla. "Why, because it sounds so nice and romantic, just as if I were a heroine in a book, you know. I am so fond of romantic things, and a graveyard full of buried hopes is about as romantic a thing as one can imagine isn't it? I'm rather glad I have one. Are we going across the Lake of Shining Waters today?" "We're not going over Barry's pond, if that's what you mean by your Lake of Shining Waters. We're going by the shore road." "Shore road sounds nice," said Anne dreamily. "Is it as nice as it sounds? Just when you said `shore road" I saw it in a picture in my mind, as

"不，我没听过，"玛丽拉毫不留情地说，"而且我觉得你的头发也不可能变颜色。" 安妮叹了一口气。 "唉，又一个希望泡汤了。 ‘我的人生就是一座埋葬希望的完美墓地。’ 这句话是我以前在一本书里看到的，每次我遇到失望的事，就念一遍来安慰自己。" "我可不觉得这能有什么安慰作用，"玛丽拉说。 "怎么会没有呀，这句话读起来又优美又浪漫，就好像我是书里的女主角一样，你懂吧。 我可喜欢浪漫的东西了，一座埋满希望的墓地，这简直是最浪漫的事了对不对？ 我还挺高兴我拥有这么一座墓地呢。 我们今天要经过闪光之湖吗？" "我们不走巴里池塘，如果你说的闪光之湖就是那里的话。 我们走海滨大道。" "海滨大道听着就好棒，"安妮出神地说。 "它真的像听上去那么美好吗？ 你刚说出‘海滨大道’的时候，我立刻就在脑海里看到它的样子，就

quick as that! And White Sands is a pretty name, too; but I don't like it as well as Avonlea. Avonlea is a lovely name. It just sounds like music. How far is it to White Sands?" "It's five miles; and as you're evidently bent on talking you might as well talk to some purpose by telling me what you know about yourself." "Oh, what I KNOW about myself isn't really worth telling," said Anne eagerly. "If you'll only let me tell you what I IMAGINE about myself you'll think it ever so much more interesting." "No, I don't want any of your imaginings. Just you stick to bald facts. Begin at the beginning. Where were you born and how old are you?" "I was eleven last March," said Anne, resigning herself to bald facts with a little sigh. "And I was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. My father's name was Walter Shirley, and he was a teacher in the Bolingbroke High School. My mother's name was Bertha Shirley. Aren't Walter and Bertha lovely names? I'm so glad my parents had nice names. It would be a real disgrace to have a father named-well, say Jedediah, wouldn't it?"

这么快！ 而且白沙滩也是个好听的名字，不过我还是更喜欢阿冯利这个名字。 阿冯利这个名字太好听了。 它听起来就像音乐一样。 到白沙滩还有多远呀？" "还有五英里； 既然你这么爱说话，那不如说点有用的，给我讲讲你自己的情况。" "噢，我知道的关于我自己的事其实没什么好说的，"安妮急切地说。 "如果你允许我讲讲我想象中的自己，你一定会觉得有意思多了。" "不，我不要听你的想象。 就说干巴巴的事实就行。 从开头开始讲。 你在哪里出生，今年多大了？" "我去年三月就满十一岁了，"安妮轻轻叹了口气，顺从地说起了事实， "我出生在新斯科舍省的博林布鲁克。 我爸爸叫沃尔特·雪莉，他曾是博林布鲁克高中的老师。 我妈妈叫伯莎·雪莉。 沃尔特和伯莎这两个名字是不是很好听？ 我真高兴我的父母名字这么好听。 要是爸爸叫……比如说叫耶底底亚，那真的太丢人了对不对？"

"I guess it doesn't matter what a person's name is as long as he behaves himself," said Marilla, feeling herself called upon to inculcate a good and useful moral. "Well, I don't know." Anne looked thoughtful. "I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage. I suppose my father could have been a good man even if he had been called Jedediah; but I'm sure it would have been a cross. Well, my mother was a teacher in the High school, too, but when she married father she gave up teaching, of course. A husband was enough responsibility. Mrs. Thomas said that they were a pair of babies and as poor as church mice. They went to live in a weeny-teeny little yellow house in Bolingbroke. I've never seen that house, but I've imagined it thousands of times. I think it must have had honeysuckle over the parlor window and lilacs in the front yard and lilies of the valley just inside the gate. Yes, and muslin curtains in all the windows. Muslin curtains give a house such an air.

"我觉得一个人叫什么名字不重要，只要行为端正就好，"玛丽拉说，她觉得自己得教给安妮一个有益的道理。 "嗯，我不这么认为。" 安妮露出若有所思的神情。 "我之前在一本书里看到说，玫瑰不管叫什么名字都一样香，但我从来都不信这句话。 我才不信如果玫瑰叫蓟或者臭菘，还能一样招人喜欢。 我觉得就算我爸爸叫耶底底亚，他也会是个好人； 但我肯定那会让人心里不痛快。 我妈妈原来也是高中老师，不过她嫁给我爸爸之后就不当老师了，这很正常。 照顾丈夫就已经够忙活了。 托马斯太太说，他们两个年轻得像一对宝宝，还穷得叮当响。 他们住在博林布鲁克一栋小小的黄色房子里。 我从来没见过那栋房子，但我已经想象过几千次了。 我觉得客厅的窗户一定爬满了忍冬，前院种着紫丁香，大门内侧长着铃兰。 对了，所有窗户都挂着细棉布窗帘。 细棉布窗帘会给房子添上一种特别的氛围呀。

I was born in that house. Mrs. Thomas said I was the homeliest baby she ever saw, I was so scrawny and tiny and nothing but eyes, but that mother thought I was perfectly beautiful. I should think a mother would be a better judge than a poor woman who came in to scrub, wouldn't you? I'm glad she was satisfied with me anyhow, I would feel so sad if I thought I was a disappointment to her-because she didn't live very long after that, you see. She died of fever when I was just three months old. I do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother. I think it would be so sweet to say `mother," don't you? And father died four days afterwards from fever too. That left me an orphan and folks were at their wits" end, so Mrs. Thomas said, what to do with me. You see, nobody wanted me even then. It seems to be my fate. Father and mother had both come from places far away and it was well known they hadn't any relatives living. Finally Mrs. Thomas said she'd take me, though she was poor and had a drunken husband. She brought me up by hand. Do you know if there

我就出生在那栋房子里。 托马斯太太说，她从没见过比我更丑的宝宝，我瘦巴巴小小的，全身上下就只有一双大眼睛，可妈妈却觉得我完美极了。 我觉得当妈妈的肯定比来打扫的可怜女人更懂我，你说对不对呀？ 不管怎么说，我很高兴她满意我，如果我让她失望的话，我会特别难过——你知道，生下我没多久她就去世了。 我才三个月大的时候，她就得热病死了。 我真希望她能活得久一点，让我记得喊她一声妈妈。 我想，能喊一声"妈妈"一定特别甜，你说是不是呀？ 四天之后，爸爸也得热病去世了。 托马斯太太说，这下我成了孤儿，大家都完全不知道该拿我怎么办。 你看，那时候就没人想要我。 这好像就是我的命。 我的爸爸妈妈都来自很远的地方，大家都清楚他们已经没有活着的亲戚了。 最后托马斯太太说她愿意收养我，尽管她自己很穷，还有个爱喝酒的丈夫。 是她亲手把我拉扯大的。 你知不知道会不会

is anything in being brought up by hand that ought to make people who are brought up that way better than other people? Because whenever I was naughty Mrs. Thomas would ask me how I could be such a bad girl when she had brought me up by hand-reproachful-like. "Mr. and Mrs. Thomas moved away from Bolingbroke to Marysville, and I lived with them until I was eight years old. I helped look after the Thomas children-there were four of them younger than me-and I can tell you they took a lot of looking after. Then Mr. Thomas was killed falling under a train and his mother offered to take Mrs. Thomas and the children, but she didn't want me. Mrs. Thomas was at HER wits" end, so she said, what to do with me. Then Mrs. Hammond from up the river came down and said she'd take me, seeing I was handy with children, and I went up the river to live with her in a little clearing among the stumps. It was a very lonesome place. I'm sure I could never have lived there if I hadn't had an imagination. Mr. Hammond worked a little sawmill up there, and Mrs. Hammond had eight children. She had twins three times. I like babies

有这种说法：亲手带大的孩子，就该比别的孩子更优秀呀？ 因为每次我淘气，托马斯太太就会责备我，问我她亲手把我拉扯大，我怎么能做这么坏的女孩。 托马斯夫妇搬离博林布鲁克，去了玛丽斯维尔，我一直和他们住到八岁。 我帮忙照看托马斯家的孩子们——他们四个都比我小，跟你说，照顾他们可太费精力了。 后来托马斯先生被火车轧死了，他母亲愿意接走托马斯太太和孩子们，可托马斯太太不想带我走。 这下托马斯太太也完全不知道该拿我怎么办了。 后来河上游的哈蒙德太太说愿意收养我，因为我带孩子很顺手，我就去河上游，跟她住在树桩丛中的一小块空地上。 那地方实在太冷清了。 我敢说，如果我没有想象力，根本没法在那儿住下去。 哈蒙德先生在那儿开了一家小锯木厂，哈蒙德太太一共有八个孩子。 她还生了三对双胞胎。 其实我还挺喜欢小宝宝的