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One A Beginning
第一章 开篇
Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or in his style of writing.
每一位作者的叙事或写作风格迥异。
Those who do not like him, magnify it, shrug up their shoulders, and exclaim -- there he is again!
而对于不喜欢的作者，人们会表现出来，耸耸肩膀并说——他又来了！
I, for my part, know very well how I can bring about this movement and this exclamation.
而我，非常知道我做出什么行为能让人如此表现。
It would happen immediately if I were to begin here, as I intended to do, with: "Rome has its Corso, Naples its Toledo" --
如果我说：“每个地方都有各自的名胜或必游之地”，
"Ah! that Andersen; there he is again!" they would cry;
他们会大喊：“安徒生又来了！”
yet I must, to please my fancy, continue quite quietly, and add: "But Copenhagen has its East Street."
但我必须冷静地继续说下去才能满足我自己，所以我加了一句：“但是在哥本哈根，有属于自己的东街。”
Here, then, we will stay for the present.
那么， 我们现在就待在这里吧。
In one of the houses not far from the new market a party was invited -- a very large party, in order, as is often the case, to get a return invitation from the others.
离皇家新市场不远的一幢房子里，有人开了一个盛大的晚会，因为如果一个人想被回请的话，他自己也得偶尔请请客才成呀。
One half of the company was already seated at the card-table, the other half awaited the result of the stereotype preliminary observation of the lady of the house:
有一半的客人已经坐在桌子旁玩扑克牌，另一半的客人们却在等待女主人布置下一步的消遣：
"Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves."
"唔，我们现在想点什么来玩玩吧！"
They had got just so far, and the conversation began to crystallise, as it could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world supplied.
他们的晚会只发展到这个地步，谈话逐渐开始明朗了，他们尽其所能，谈着世界上星星点点的小事。
Amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages: some praised that period as far more interesting, far more poetical than our own too sober present;
在许多话题中间，他们忽然谈到"中世纪"这个题目上来。一些人称赞那段时期更有趣，认为那个时代比我们这个时代要好得多。
indeed Councillor Knap defended this opinion so warmly, that the hostess declared immediately on his side, and both exerted themselves with unwearied eloquence.
是的，司法官克那卜热烈地赞成这个意见，女主人也马上随声附和，两人都不厌其烦地说个不停。
The Councillor boldly declared the time of King Hans to be the noblest and the most happy period.
司法官大胆地宣布，汉斯国王的时代是最高贵、最幸福的时代。
While the conversation turned on this subject, and was only for a moment interrupted by the arrival of a journal that contained nothing worth reading,
谈话既然走向两个极端，除了有人送来一份内容不值一读的报纸以外，没有什么东西打断它，
we will just step out into the antechamber, where cloaks, mackintoshes, sticks, umbrellas, and shoes, were deposited.
我们暂且到放外套、手杖、雨伞和套鞋的前房去看一下吧。
Here sat two female figures, a young and an old one.
这儿坐着两个女仆人——一个年轻，一个年老。
One might have thought at first they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home;
一开始，人们还以为她们是仆人，是来接她们的女主人回家的；
but on looking nearer, one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants;
但假如你仔细看一下的话，你马上会发现她们并不是普通的佣人；
their forms were too noble for that, their skin too fine, the cut of their dresses too striking.
她们的外表太高贵，皮肤太娇嫩，衣服的式样太引人注目了。
Two fairies were they;
她们是两个仙女；
the younger, it is true, was not Dame Fortune herself, but one of the waiting-maids of her handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that she distributes;
的确，年轻的那位不是命运女神本人，而是替女神传送幸运小礼物的一个女仆；
the other looked extremely gloomy -- it was Care.
年长的那个的外表非常庄严——她是忧虑女神。
She always attends to her own serious business herself, as then she is sure of having it done properly.
无论做什么事情，她总是亲自出马，因为只有这样她才放心。
