内容简介:

《呼啸山庄》是英国女作家勃朗特姐妹之一艾米莉·勃朗特的作品。小说描写吉卜赛弃儿希斯克利夫被山庄老主人收养后,因受辱和恋爱不遂,外出致富,回来后对与其女友凯瑟琳结婚的地主林顿及其子女进行报复的故事。全篇充满强烈的反压迫、争幸福的斗争精神,又始终笼罩着离奇、紧张的浪漫气氛。它开始曾被人看做是 年青女作家脱离现实的天真幻想,但结合其所描写地区激烈的阶级斗争和英国的社会现象,它不久便被评论界高度肯定,并受到读者的热烈欢迎。根据这部小说改编 的影视作品至今久演不衰。

作者简介:

艾米莉·勃朗特(1818-1848),19世纪英国小说家、诗人,英国文学史上著名的“勃朗特三姐妹”之一。这位女作家在世界上仅仅度过了三十年便默默 无闻地离开了人间,然而她唯一的一部小说《呼啸山庄》却奠定了她在英国文学史以及世界文学史上的地位。此外,她还创作了193首诗,被认为是英国一位天才 型的女作家。

她生性独立、豁达、纯真、刚毅、热情而又内向,颇有男儿气概,酷爱自己生长其间的荒原,平素在离群索居中,除去手足情谊,最喜与大自然为友,从她的诗和一 生行为,都可见她天人合一宇宙观与人生观的表现,有人因此而将她视为神秘主义者。其实人与自然的关系,从来就是人类文明史上重要的命题,艾米莉不过是步历 代哲人、隐者、科学家、艺术家后尘,通过生活和创作,身体力行地探寻人与自然的关系。

Chapter Five. Part 4

Now, Mr. Earnshaw did not understand jokes from his children: he had always been strict and grave with them; and Catherine, on her part, had no idea why her father should be crosser and less patient in his ailing condition than he was in his prime. His peevish reproofs wakened in her a naughty delight to provoke him: she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once, and she defying us with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words; turning Joseph's religious curses into ridicule, baiting me, and doing just what her father hated most - showing how her pretended insolence, which he thought real, had more power over Heathcliff than his kindness: how the boy would do HER bidding in anything, and HIS only when it suited his own inclination. After behaving as badly as possible all day, she sometimes came fondling to make it up at night. 'Nay, Cathy,' the old man would say, 'I cannot love thee, thou're worse than thy brother. Go, say thy prayers, child, and ask God's pardon. I doubt thy mother and I must rue that we ever reared thee!' That made her cry, at first; and then being repulsed continually hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to say she was sorry for her faults, and beg to be forgiven.

【译文】

现在,恩肖先生已经无法理解儿女们的玩笑,而且他对他们总是非常严厉,也没有什么好脸色。而凯瑟琳也无法理解父亲生病之后变得越来越乖戾,越来越缺乏耐心,他年轻时的状态已经荡然无存。每当她淘气的逗他时,他都会愤愤的骂她。她最高兴的时候莫过于我们所有的人一起指责她,而她回之以调皮的漂亮眼神和早有准备的辩解;她把约瑟夫的教会诅咒当成是笑话,激怒我,还有就是做她父亲最讨厌的事情——让他看见她假装的傲慢(他不知道是假装的)比他的仁慈对他(希斯克 利夫)更有影响力:对于她,希斯克利夫总是有求必应,而对于他,希斯克利夫则只自己高兴做的。一天到头坏够了,有时候晚上她会主动言和的。“不,凯西,” 老人家说,“我是不能爱你的。你比你哥哥还要差劲儿。去祷告吧,孩子,请求神的宽恕。我想我何你妈妈是不是养错你了。”起初,她会为这些话哭,后来被拒绝,慢慢的让她更加倔强。如果我让她为犯下的错误道歉,请求原谅,她则会大笑。

【单词、短语笔记】

peevish:易怒的,暴躁的,撒娇的。adj.

easily irritated or annoyed

【例】She reported him to be an ailing, peevish creature.
她报告说他是一个多病的任性的东西。

A peevish child is unhappy and makes others unhappy.
一个脾气暴躁的孩子自己不高兴也使别人不高兴。

provoke 激起,引起;驱使,煽动;挑衅,激怒 v.

evoke or provoke to appear or occur;annoy continually or chronically

【例】Don't provoke the animals in the cage.
不要激怒笼中的动物。

【例】Such a questionable assertion is sure to provoke criticism.
这种有问题的主张肯定会招致非议。

【例】His rudeness provoked me to strike him.
他的粗鲁惹得我揍了他。

对比:revoke 撤回,取消,废除 vt.

cancel officially; fail to follow suit when able and required to do so

【例】His driving licence was revoked after the crash.
他撞车后驾驶执照被吊销了。

We hereby revoke the agreement of May8, 2004.
我方特此宣告于2004年5月8日签订的合同无效。

insolence 傲慢;无礼 n.

the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties

【例】His overbearing insolence angered everyone.
他的傲慢无礼激起了大家的愤怒。

【例】His insolence is more than I can stand.
我受不了他的无礼。

说到傲慢,我想到了经典电影《傲慢与偏见》,不管是95版还是05版,我都已经看过了,感觉各有千秋。里面都有很多关于傲慢的词语,比如arrogance,vain(单独作形容词时)等。让我们来回忆一下05版电影中Elizabeth说的几句话:And those are the words of a gentleman! From the first moment I met you, your arrogace and coneit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.这几句是双方长达三分半钟的斗嘴的最高潮,巧妙的印证了电影的宣传语:Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can't be without. 有时候你最不愿意与之交往的人恰恰就是你的真名天子。

inclination 倾向;意愿;趋势 n.

an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others;

【例】I have little inclination to listen to you all evening.
我可不愿意一晚上都听你说话。

make up 弥补;和解;编造;整理;化妆;拼凑成

这里的意思是弥补。

do or give something to somebody in return;

【例】I tried to make up for my loss.
我力图补偿我的损失。

The boy made up a story, it is not true.
这个故事不是真的,是那个男孩编造出来的。