Angel Clare rises out of the past not altogether as a distinct figure, but as an appreciative voice, a long regard of fixed, abstracted eyes, and a mobility of mouth somewhat too small and delicately lined for a man's, though with an unexpectedly firm close of the lower lip now and then; enough to do away with any inference of indecision. Nevertheless, something nebulous, preoccupied, vague, in his bearing and regard, marked him as one who probably had no very definite aim or concern about his material future. Yet as a lad people had said of him that he was one who might do anything if he tried.
从往日的回忆中显现出来的安棋尔·克莱尔先生,并不完全是一个清晰的形象,而是一种富有欣赏力的声音,一种凝视和出神眼睛的长久注视,一种生动的嘴唇,那嘴唇有时候对一个男人来说太小,线条太纤细,虽然他的下唇有时叫人意想不到地闭得紧紧的,但是这已足够叫人打消对他不够果断的推论。尽管如此,在他的神态和目光里,隐藏着某种混乱、模糊和心不在焉的东西,叫人一看就知道他这个人也许对未来的物质生活,既没有明确的目标,也不怎么关心。可是当他还是一个少年的时候,人们就说过,他是那种想做什么就能把什么做好的人。

He was the youngest son of his father, a poor parson at the other end of the county, and had arrived at Talbothays Dairy as a six months' pupil, after going the round of some other farms, his object being to acquire a practical skill in the various processes of farming, with a view either to the Colonies, or the tenure of a home-farm, as circumstances might decide.
他是他父亲的小儿子,他父亲是住在本郡另一头的穷牧师。他来到泰波塞斯奶牛场,是要当六个月的学徒,他已经去过附近其它的一些农场,目的是要学习管理农场过程中的各种实际技术,以便将来根据情况决定是到殖民地去,还是留在国内的农场里工作。

His entry into the ranks of the agriculturists and breeders was a step in the young man's career which had been anticipated neither by himself nor by others.
他进入农夫和牧人的行列,这只是这个年轻人事业中的第一步,也是他自己或者其他的人都不曾预料到的。

Mr Clare the elder, whose first wife had died and left him a daughter, married a second late in life. This lady had somewhat unexpectedly brought him three sons, so that between Angel, the youngest, and his father the vicar there seemed to be almost a missing generation. Of these boys the aforesaid Angel, the child of his old age, was the only son who had not taken a University degree, though he was the single one of them whose early promise might have done full justice to an academical training.
老克莱尔先生的前妻给他生了一个女儿以后,就不幸死了,到了晚年,他又娶了第二个妻子。多少有些出人意料,后妻给他生了三个儿子,因此在最小的儿子安琪尔和老牧师父亲之间,好像差不多缺少了一辈人。在二个儿子中间,前面说到的安琪尔是牧师老来得到的儿子,也只有这个儿子没有大学学位,尽管从早年的天资看,只有他才真正配接受大学的学术训练。

Some two or three years before Angel's appearance at the Marlott dance, on a day when he had left school and was pursuing his studies at home, a parcel came to the vicarage from the local bookseller's, directed to the Reverend James Clare. The vicar having opened it and found it to contain a book, read a few pages; whereupon he jumped up from his seat and went straight to the shop with the book under his arm.
从安琪尔在马洛特村的舞会上跳舞算起,在两三年前,有一天他放学回家后正在学习功课,这时候本地的书店给牧师家送来一个包裹,交到了詹姆士·克莱尔牧师手里。牧师打开包裹一看,里面是一本书,就翻开读了几页;读后他再也坐不住了,就从座位上跳起来,挟著书直奔书店而去。

'Why has this been sent to my house?' he asked peremptorily, holding up the volume.
“为什么要把这本书送到我家里?”他拿着书,不容分说地问。