有时，秀才从外面回来，先遇见了她而同她说话，老妇人就疑心有什么特别的东西买给她了，非在当晚，将秀才叫到她自己底房内去，狠狠地训斥一番不可。Sometimes, if the wife caught her husband talking to the young woman on his return home, she would suspect that he had bought her something special. She would call him to her bought her bedroom at night to give him a good scolding. 🎈撞见某人做某事catch sb. doing🎈good意为「相当的，非常的」，表示程度。“你给狐狸迷着了么？”“你应该称一称你自己底老骨头是多少重！”像这样的话，她耳闻到不止一次了。“So you’ve been seduced by the witch!” she would cry. “You should take good care of your old carcase.” These abusive remarks the young woman overheard time and again.🎈平时要下意识积累俗语的中英表达。比如此处「被狐狸迷住」翻译成「be seduced by witch（被施了法，被迷了眼）」就挺恰当，翻译成bitch就骂过头了哈。🎈「你应该称一称你自己底老骨头是多少重」意即「你应该珍惜自己的身子」，故译为You should take good care of your old carcase，其中carcase作「死尸」解，指活人的「身躯」时，是带有轻蔑或嘲笑口气的用语。🎈屡次，常常time and again这样以后，她望见秀才从外面回来而旁边没有她坐着的时候，就非得急忙避开不可。即使她在旁边，有时也该让开一些，After that, whenever she saw the scholar return home, she always tried to avoid him if his wife was not present. But even in the presence of his wife, the young woman considered it necessary to keep herself in the background.🎈让开一些→降低自己的存在感，故译作keep herself in the background（融入背景）。但这种动作，她要做的非常自然，而且不能让旁人看出，否则，她又要向她发怒，说是她有意要在旁人的前面暴露她大娘底丑恶。而且以后，竟将家里的许多杂务都堆积在她底身上，同一个女仆那么样。She had to do all this naturally so that it would not be noticed by outsiders, for otherwise the wife would get angry and blame her for purposely discrediting her in public. As time went on, the scholar’s wife even made the young woman do the work of a maidservant.🎈因……责怪某人blame sb. for …🎈暴露她大娘底丑恶→败坏其名声，故选用discredit一词。有时老妇人底换下来的衣服放着，她也给她拿去洗了，虽然她说：“我底衣服怎么要你洗呢？就是你自己底衣服，也可叫黄妈洗的。” Once the young woman decided to wash the elderly woman’s clothes. “You’re not supposed to wash my clothes,” the scholar’s wife said. “In fact you can have the kitchenmaid washed your own laundry. “🎈纠正：书上译文为have the kitchenmaid wash，现改为have the kitchenmaid washed。🎈do the laundry洗衣服可是接着说：“妹妹呀，你最好到猪栏里去看一看，那两只猪为什么这样喁喁叫的，或者因为没有吃饱罢，黄妈总是不肯给它吃饱的。” Yet the next moment she said, “Sister dear, you’d better go to the pigsty and have a look at the two pigs which have been grunting all the time. They’re probably hungry because the kitchenmaid never gives them enough to eat.” 🎈Sister dear：dear用在称呼或名字的后面表示亲密或诙谐。八个月了，那年冬天，她底胃却起了变化：老是不想吃饭，想吃新鲜的面，番薯等。Eight months had passed and winter came. The young woman became fussy about her food. She had little appetite for regular meals and always felt like eating something different —noodles, potatoes and so on.🎈「胃却起了变化」即「（因怀孕）变得挑食」，故译为became fussy about her food。🎈对……没有食欲 have little appetite for。🎈「想吃新鲜的面，番薯等」意即「想换别的东西吃，如面、番薯等」，故全句译为always felt like eating something different—noodles, potatoes and so on。但番薯或面吃了两餐，又不想吃，又想吃馄饨，多吃又要呕。而且还想吃南瓜和梅子——这是六月里的东西，真稀奇，向哪里去找呢？But she soon got tired of noodles and potatoes, and asked for meat dumplings. When she ate a little too much she got sick. Then she felt a desire for pumpkins and plums —things that could only be had in summer.🎈 厌倦be/become/get tired of🎈馄饨 meat dumplings🎈sick可指①生病的②呕吐的所以表示「晕船」的单词里也有sick，是seasick，很形象。秀才是知道在这个变化中所带来的预告了。他镇日地笑微微，能找到的东西，总忙着给她找来。他亲身给她到街上去买橘子，又托便人买了金柑来，他在廊沿下走来走去，口里念念有词的，不知说什么。The scholar knew what all this meant. He kept smiling all day and gave her whatever was available. He went to town himself to get her tangerines and asked someone to buy her some oranges. He often paced up and down the veranda, muttering to himself.🎈走来走去(尤指由于烦躁、焦虑等) pace up and down🎈引导让步状语从句，「no matter+疑问词」可与「疑问词ever」互换；引导名词性从局势，只能用「疑问词ever」。🎈给某人某物get sb. sth. / get sth. to sb.为某人取得某物 get sb. for sth.他看她和黄妈磨过年的粉，但还没有磨了三升，就向她叫：“歇一歇罢，长工也好磨的，年糕是人人要吃的。” One day, he saw the young woman and the kitchenmaid grinding rice for the New Year Festival. They had hardly started grinding when he said to the young woman, “You’d better have a rest now. We can let the farmhand do it, since everybody is going to eat the rice cakes.” 🎈一……就…… hardly… when…🎈「长工也好磨的，年糕是人人要吃的」→ （长工是一个汉语词汇，读音为cháng gōng，也称「长年」，泛指雇用期较长而且相对固定的各种工人。多为旧社会靠长年出卖劳力谋生，受地主、富农剥削的贫苦农民。长工就是和地主签订了长期契约关系的工人，短工是有自己的家室并且定期回家的。）因为年糕人人都要吃，需求量很大，所以这么大的工作量让长工完成就行。故选用since表示因果关系。有时在夜里，人家谈着话，他却独自拿了一盏灯，在灯下，读起《诗经》来了：关关雎鸠，在河之洲，窈窕淑女，君子好逑—— Sometimes in the evening, when the rest of the household were chatting, he would sit alone near an oil lamp, reading the Book of Songs: “Fair, fair,” cry the ospreys On the island in the river. Lovely is the good lady, Fit bride for our lord. ……🎈此处翻译选自The Book of Songs（by Arthur Waley），往上还有其他的翻译版本，各有千秋。感兴趣的话，自行搜索比较呀~（关关雎鸠，在河之洲，窈窕淑女，君子好逑：关关和鸣的雎鸠，相伴在河中的小洲。那美丽贤淑的女子，是君子的好配偶。）
帕布莉卡