名著精讀《飄》第三章 第4節

Gerald had come to America from Ireland when he was twenty-one. He had come hastily, as many a better and worse Irishman before and since, with the clothes he had on his back, two shillings above his passage money and a price on his head that he felt was larger than his misdeed warranted. There was no Orangeman this side of hell worth a hundred pounds to the British government or to the devil himself; but if the government felt so strongly about the death of an English absentee landlord’s rent agent, it was time for Gerald O’Hara to be leaving and leaving suddenly. True, he had called the rent agent “a bastard of an Orangeman,” but that, according to Gerald’s way of looking at it, did not give the man any right to insult him by whistling the opening bars of “The Boyne Water.”

２１歲那年傑拉爾德來到美國。他是匆匆而來像以前或以後許多好好壞壞的愛爾蘭人那樣，因爲他只帶着身上穿的衣服和買船票剩下的兩個先令，以及懸賞捉拿他的那個身價，而且他覺得這個身價比他的罪行所應得的還高了一些。世界上還沒有一個奧蘭治派分子值得英國政府或魔鬼本身出一百鎊的；但是如果政府對於一個英國的不在地主地租代理人的死會那麼認真，那麼傑拉爾德·奧哈拉的突然出走便是適時的了。的確，他曾經稱呼過地租代理人爲"奧蘭治派野崽子"不過，按照傑拉爾德對此事的看法，這並不使那個人就有權哼着《博因河之歌》那開頭幾句來侮辱他。

The Battle of the Boyne had been fought more than a hundred years before, but, to the O’Haras and their neighbors, it might have been yesterday when their hopes and their dreams, as well as their lands and wealth, went off in the same cloud of dust that enveloped a frightened and fleeing Stuart prince, leaving William of Orange and his hated troops with their orange cockades to cut down the Irish adherents of the Stuarts.

博因河戰役是一百多年以前的事了，但是在奧哈拉家族和他們的鄰里看來，就像昨天發生的事，那時他們的希望和夢想，他們的土地和錢財，都在那團卷着一位驚惶逃路的斯圖爾特王子的魔霧中消失了，只留下奧蘭治王室的威廉和他那帶着奧蘭治帽徽的軍隊來屠殺斯圖爾特王朝的愛爾蘭依附者了。
　
For this and other reasons, Gerald’s family was not inclined to view the fatal outcome of this quarrel as anything very serious, except for the fact that it was charged with serious consequences. For years, the O’Haras had been in bad odor with the English constabulary on account of suspected activities against the government, and Gerald was not the first O’Hara to take his foot in his hand and quit Ireland between dawn and morning. His two oldest brothers, James and Andrew, he hardly remembered, save as close-lipped youths who came and went at odd hours of the night on mysterious errands or disappeared for weeks at a time, to their mother’s gnawing anxiety. They had come to America years before, after the discovery of a small arsenal of rifles buried under the O’Hara pigsty. Now they were successful merchants in Savannah, “though the dear God alone knows where that may be,” as their mother always interpolated when mentioning the two oldest of her male brood, and it was to them that young Gerald was sent.

由於這個以及別的原因，傑拉爾德的家庭並不想把這場爭吵的毀滅結果看得十分嚴重，只把它看作是一樁有嚴重影響的事而已。多年來，奧哈拉家與英國警察部門的關係很不好，原因是被懷疑參與了反政府活動，而傑拉爾德並不是奧哈拉家族中頭一個暗中離開愛爾蘭的人。他幾乎想不其他的兩個哥哥詹姆斯和安德魯，只記得兩個悶聲不響的年輕人，他們時常在深夜來來去去，幹一些神祕的鉤當，或者一走就是好幾個星期，使母親焦急萬分。他們是許多年前人們在奧哈拉家豬圈裏發現在一批理藏的來福槍之到美國的。現在他們已在薩凡納作生意發了家，"雖然只有上帝才知道那地方究竟在哪裏"----他們母親提起這兩個大兒子時老是這樣說，年輕的傑拉爾德就是給送到兩位哥哥這裏來的。

ling n. 先令（貨幣單位）

Have they pay you five shilling?
他們付給你五先令了嗎？

ntee[.æbsn'ti:] n. 不在者，缺席者，缺勤者

The custodian of a minor child's estate; the custodian of an absentee landlord's property.
年幼孩子財產的監護人; 地主外出時其地產的看管人

ade n. 帽章

rent n. 信徒，追隨者，擁護者 adj. 附着的，粘連的

The movement is gaining more and more adherents.
支持這個運動的人越來越多了。

tabulary adj. 治安隊的，治安管轄區的 n. 治安隊，軍事警察，治安官管轄區

e-lipped adj. 閉口不言，沉默的，寡言的

nd n. 差使，差事

I'll go there to do an errand.
我將去那裏辦件事。

nal n. 兵工廠，軍械庫，儲藏

There is an arsenal in this city.
這座城市有一個軍工廠。

ty['pigstai] n. 豬圈，骯髒地方

He laid big stones at his house and began to build a pigsty.
他把大石塊堆在房子前開始壘豬圈。

rpolate vt. 加入(額外的事), 竄改，插話

If I may interpolate a comment, before you continue your speech ...
很抱歉打斷你的演講，請讓我插句話 ...

1. He had come hastily, as many a better and worse Irishman before and since, with the clothes he had on his back, two shillings above his passage money and a price on his head that he felt was larger than his misdeed warranted.

【難句解析】before and since是相對於He had come hastily的時間來說的；最後一句的that指的是two shillings above his passage money and a price on his head；

【句子翻譯】21歲那年傑拉爾德來到美國。他是匆匆而來像以前或以後許多好好壞壞的愛爾蘭人那樣，因爲他只帶着身上穿的衣服和買船票剩下的兩個先令，以及懸賞捉拿他的那個身價，而且他覺得這

個身價比他的罪行所應得的還高了一些。

this and other reasons, Gerald’s family was not inclined to view the fatal outcome of this quarrel as anything very serious, except for the fact that it was charged with serious consequences.

【難句解析】be inclined to “傾向於...”；view ...“將...看做...”；be charged with“充滿，承擔，被指控”；

【句子翻譯】由於這個以及別的原因，傑拉爾德的家庭並不想把這場爭吵的毀滅結果看得十分嚴重，只把它看作是一樁有嚴重影響的事而已。