🔊 In this enclosure of the Petit-Picpus there were three perfectly distinct buildings--the Great Convent, inhabited by the nuns, the Boarding-school, where the scholars were lodged; and lastly, what was called the Little Convent. It was a building with a garden, in which lived all sorts of aged nuns of various orders, the relics of cloisters destroyed in the Revolution; a reunion of all the black, gray, and white medleys of all communities and all possible varieties; what might be called, if such a coupling of words is permissible, a sort of harlequin convent.

在这片小比克布斯的围墙内,有三栋截然不同的建筑--大修院,由修女们居住；寄宿学校,供学生住宿；最后还有所谓的小修院。那是一栋带花园的房子,住着来自各个修会、各种年龄的老修女,她们是在大革命中被摧毁的修道院的遗存；是所有黑色、灰色、白色混杂的修会以及各种可能类型的集合；如果允许这样措辞的话,可以称之为一种丑角般的女修道院。

🔊

enclosure /ɪnˈkləʊʒə/

n. 围地,围场；四周有篱笆或围墙的场地➕

🔊

convent /ˈkɒnvənt/

n. 女修道院；修女会➕

🔊 When the Empire was established, all these poor old dispersed and exiled women had been accorded permission to come and take shelter under the wings of the Bernardines-Benedictines. The government paid them a small pension, the ladies of the Petit-Picpus received them cordially. It was a singular pell-mell. Each followed her own rule. Sometimes the pupils of the boarding-school were allowed, as a great recreation, to pay them a visit; the result is, that all those young memories have retained among other souvenirs that of Mother Sainte-Bazile, Mother Sainte-Scolastique, and Mother Jacob.

当帝国建立时,所有这些可怜的、流离失所、被流放的老妇人都被允许来寻求庇护,安顿在伯尔纳修会-本笃会的庇护下。政府给她们发放微薄的养老金,小比克布斯的女士们热情地接纳了她们。那是一种奇特的混杂。每个人都遵循自己的戒律。有时,寄宿学校的学生们被允许作为一种特大的娱乐活动去拜访她们；结果,所有那些年轻记忆里,除了别的回忆,还保留了圣巴西尔嬷嬷、圣斯科拉斯蒂克嬷嬷和雅各布嬷嬷的印象。

🔊

pell-mell /ˌpel ˈmel/

adv. 混乱地,杂乱地➕

🔊

dispersed /dɪˈspɜːst/

adj. 分散的,被驱散的➕

🔊 One of these refugees found herself almost at home. She was a nun of Sainte-Aure, the only one of her order who had survived. The ancient convent of the ladies of Sainte-Aure occupied, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, this very house of the Petit-Picpus, which belonged later to the Benedictines of Martin Verga. This holy woman, too poor to wear the magnificent habit of her order, which was a white robe with a scarlet scapulary, had piously put it on a little manikin, which she exhibited with complacency and which she bequeathed to the house at her death. In 1824, only one nun of this order remained; today, there remains only a doll.

其中一位避居者在这里几乎像在家一样。她是圣奥雷修会的修女,也是该修会唯一幸存的人。古老的圣奥雷女士们的女修道院在18世纪初曾经占据过这栋属于小比克布斯的房子,后来它归了马丁·维尔加的本笃会。这位圣洁的妇人因为太穷,穿不起自己修会那件白色长袍配猩红披肩的华丽服装,于是虔诚地把它穿在一个小假人身上,满意地展示,并在去世时把它遗赠给了这所房子。到1824年,这个修会只剩下一名修女；如今,只剩下一个娃娃了。

🔊

refugees /ˌrefjuˈdʒiːz/

n. (pl.). 难民,避难者➕

🔊

bequeathed /bɪˈkwiːðd/

v. (past tense). 遗赠,把……遗留给➕

🔊 In addition to these worthy mothers, some old society women had obtained permission of the prioress, like Madame Albertine, to retire into the Little Convent. Among the number were Madame Beaufort d'Hautpoul and Marquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except by the formidable noise which she made when she blew her nose. The pupils called her Madame Vacarmini (hubbub).

除了这些值得尊敬的母亲们,一些年长的社交界女性也获准退隐到小修院,像阿尔贝蒂娜夫人那样,得到院长嬷嬷的许可。其中有博福尔·多普尔夫人和迪弗雷纳侯爵夫人。还有一位,在修道院里,大家只知道她擤鼻涕时发出的可怕声音。学生们称她为瓦卡尔米尼夫人（意为喧闹）。

🔊

formidable /ˈfɔːmɪdəbl/

adj. 可怕的,令人畏惧的；艰巨的➕

🔊

hubbub /ˈhʌbʌb/

n. 喧闹,嘈杂声➕

🔊 About 1820 or 1821, Madame de Genlis, who was at that time editing a little periodical publication called L'Intrépide, asked to be allowed to enter the convent of the Petit-Picpus as a lady resident. The Duc d'Orleans recommended her. Uproar in the hive; the vocal-mothers were all in a flutter; Madame de Genlis had made romances. But she declared that she was the first to detest them, and then, she had reached her fierce stage of devotion. With the aid of God, and of the Prince, she entered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as a reason, that there was no shade in the garden. The nuns were delighted. Although very old, she still played the harp, and did it very well.

大约在1820年或1821年,当时正在编辑一份名为《无畏者》的小型期刊的让利斯夫人,请求获准以女寄宿者的身份进入小比克布斯的修道院。奥尔良公爵为她推荐。蜂巢里一片哗然；唱诗班嬷嬷们全都骚动起来；因为让利斯夫人创作过小说。但她宣称自己是第一个厌恶小说的人,而且她已经进入了虔诚的狂热阶段。靠着上帝和亲王的帮助,她进来了。但过了六到八个月她就离开了,理由是花园里没有荫蔽。修女们都很高兴。尽管年纪很大,她仍会弹竖琴,而且弹得很好。

🔊

periodical /ˌpɪəriˈɒdɪkl/

adj. 期刊的,定期的；也可作名词:期刊➕

🔊

detest /dɪˈtest/

v. 憎恨,厌恶➕

🔊 When she went away she left her mark in her cell. Madame de Genlis was superstitious and a Latinist. These two words furnish a tolerably good profile of her. A few years ago, there were still to be seen, pasted in the inside of a little cupboard in her cell in which she locked up her silverware and her jewels, these five lines in Latin, written with her own hand in red ink on yellow paper, and which, in her opinion, possessed the property of frightening away robbers:--

离开时,她在自己的单间里留下了痕迹。让利斯夫人迷信而且精通拉丁文。这两个词就勾勒出她的大致轮廓。几年前,在她用来锁银器和珠宝的小壁橱内侧,还能看到用红墨水写在黄纸上、由她亲手写的五行拉丁文诗句；在她看来,这些诗具有吓退盗贼的功效:--

🔊

superstitious /ˌsuːpəˈstɪʃəs/

adj. 迷信的➕

🔊

frightening /ˈfraɪtnɪŋ/

adj. 令人恐惧的,吓人的➕

🔊 Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: Dismas et Gesmas, media est divina potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix, infima, Gesmas; Nos et res nostras conservet summa potestas. Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.

Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: 狄司马和格司马, media est divina potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix, infima, Gesmas; Nos et res nostras conservet summa potestas. Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.

🔊 These verses in sixth century Latin raise the question whether the two thieves of Calvary were named, as is commonly believed, Dismas and Gestas, or Dismas and Gesmas. This orthography might have confounded the pretensions put forward in the last century by the Vicomte de Gestas, of a descent from the wicked thief. However, the useful virtue attached to these verses forms an article of faith in the order of the Hospitallers.

这些六世纪的拉丁文诗引出了问题:各各他的两个强盗,究竟像通常认为的那样名叫狄司马和格斯塔斯,还是狄司马和格斯马斯？这种拼写或许搅乱了上个世纪格斯塔斯子爵自称是那个恶贼后裔的主张。不过,这些诗所附的有益效力,在医院骑士团的修会中构成了一条信仰条款。

🔊

orthography /ɔːˈθɒɡrəfi/

n. 正字法,拼写法➕

🔊

pretensions /prɪˈtenʃənz/

n. (pl.). 自称,标榜；虚饰➕

🔊 The church of the house, constructed in such a manner as to separate the Great Convent from the Boarding-school like a veritable intrenchment, was, of course, common to the Boarding-school, the Great Convent, and the Little Convent. The public was even admitted by a sort of lazaretto entrance on the street. But all was so arranged, that none of the inhabitants of the cloister could see a face from the outside world. Suppose a church whose choir is grasped in a gigantic hand, and folded in such a manner as to form, not, as in ordinary churches, a prolongation behind the altar, but a sort of hall, or obscure cellar, to the right of the officiating priest; suppose this hall to be shut off by a curtain seven feet in height, of which we have already spoken; in the shadow of that curtain, pile up on wooden stalls the nuns in the choir on the left, the schoolgirls on the right, the lay-sisters and the novices at the bottom, and you will have some idea of the nuns of the Petit-Picpus assisting at divine service. That cavern, which was called the choir, communicated with the cloister by a lobby. The church was lighted from the garden. When the nuns were present at services where their rule enjoined silence, the public was warned of their presence only by the folding seats of the stalls noisily rising and falling.

教堂的建造方式,使得大修院和寄宿学校像被一道真正的防御工事分隔开。当然,教堂是寄宿学校、大修院和小修院共用的。公众甚至可以从街边一个类似麻风病入口的地方进入。但一切都安排得如此巧妙,以至于修道院里的任何居民都看不到外界的面孔。假设有一座教堂,它的唱诗席被一只巨手抓住,折叠成这样一种形状:不像普通教堂那样在祭坛后面伸展开,而是在主祭神父右手边形成一个类似大厅或阴暗地窖的地方；假设这个大厅被一道七英尺高的帘子隔开--我们之前已经提到过这道帘子--在那道帘子的阴影里,在木制座位上排列着,左边是唱诗台的修女,右边是女学生,在俗修女和初学生在底部,那么你就能对小比克布斯的修女们如何参与礼拜仪式有个概念。那个被称为唱诗台的洞窟,通过一条走廊与修道院相连。教堂的光线来自花园。当修女们在场参加那些要求她们保持沉默的仪式时,公众只能通过念经台折叠座椅砰砰升起和落下的声音才知道她们在场。

🔊

veritable /ˈverɪtəbl/

adj. 名副其实的,真正的➕

🔊

enjoined /ɪnˈdʒɔɪnd/

v. (past tense). 命令,嘱咐；禁止➕

Book VI. Le Petit-Picpus – Chapter six: The Little Convent (第六章:小比克布斯)

🔒 使用该功能需要授权码