第79章 開朗的性情 A Cheerful Temper(第1/8 頁)

《開朗的性情》，1852 年

A cheerful temper, 1852

我從父親那裡繼承到了最好的遺產，那就是 “好脾氣”。

From my father I received the best inheritance, namely a “good temper.”

“我父親是誰呢？” 這和好脾氣沒什麼關係；但我要說，他生性活潑，相貌英俊，圓滾滾且胖乎乎的；無論從外貌還是性格來看，他都和自己的職業完全相悖。

“And who was my father?” that has nothing to do with the good temper; but I will say he was lively, good-looking round, and fat; he was both in appearance and character a plete contradiction to his profession.

“那麼請問，他的職業是什麼，在體面的社會里又處於什麼地位呢？” 嗯，或許吧，如果在一本書的開頭就把這些寫出來印出來，很多人讀到的時候，就會把書放下，然後說：“在我看來這書名可真夠慘的，我不喜歡這類東西。”

“And pray what was his profession and his standing in respectable society?” well, perhaps, if in the beginning of a book these were written and printed, many, when they read it, would lay the book down and say, “It seems to me a very miserable title, I don’t my things of this sort.”

然而我父親既不是皮革匠也不是劊子手；恰恰相反，他的工作讓他能走在城裡最尊貴的人前面，而且這是他理所應當的位置。

And yet my father was not a skin-dresser nor an executioner; on the contrary, his employment placed him at the head of the grandest people of the town, and it was his place by right.

他得走在主教前面，甚至得走在王室成員前面；他總是走在最前面 —— 他是一名靈車車伕！好了，現在真相大白了。

he had to precede the bishop, and even the princes of the blood; he always went first, — he was a hearse driver! there, now, the truth is out.

我得承認，當人們看到我父親高高地坐在那輛死亡之車 —— 靈車的前面，穿著他那件又長又寬的黑色披風，頭上戴著鑲著黑邊的三角帽，然後再看一眼他那張圓滾滾、樂呵呵的臉，圓得像太陽一樣，他們就不會把悲傷或者墳墓之類的事太當回事了。

And I will own, that when people saw my father per