The Story of an Hour一小时的故事

公主号：MT英语（ID:mtkouyu）
专辑;【英文原版童话故事】
作者：Kate Chopin

本期主播：Joe
文本整理：Belinda & Leeven

主播简介：

Joe，文名周培森，精通四门语言（英、中、法、西）的英国才子。毕业于世界百强名校利物浦大学，研读英美文学专业。喜欢旅行、雷鬼音乐和运动。才华与颜值与八块腹肌并存。

作者简介：

Kate Chopin (February 8, 1850 – August 22, 1904) was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly of a Louisiana Creole background. Kate Chopin went beyond Maupassant's technique and style and gave her writing a flavor of its own. She had an ability to perceive life and put it down on paper creatively. She put much concentration and emphasis on women's lives and their continual struggles to create an identity of their own within the boundaries of the patriarchy. Through her stories, Kate Chopin wrote her own autobiography and documented her surroundings; she lived in a time when her surroundings included the abolitionist movements and the emergence of feminism. Her ideas and descriptions were not true word for word, yet there was an element of nonfiction lingering throughout each story.

电台文本：

"The Story of An Hour"

《一小时的故事》

Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

因为知道玛拉德太太正受着心脏问题的困扰，所以人们努力做到尽可能婉转地报告她丈夫的死讯。

It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

是她姐姐约瑟芬用断断续续的句子和半遮半掩的暗示告诉了她。她丈夫的朋友里察德也在那里，在她身旁。当人们收到那些铁路事故的消息时，他正在报馆里，而布兰特玛拉德的名字就列在“死亡”名单的第一个。紧接其后的电报，使他在最短的时间里确认了消息的真实性，他急忙赶来，力图赶在那些不够小心委婉的朋友带来这坏消息之前。

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

她没有象别的女人那样，带着麻木接受的神情听这个消息。她立刻就哭了出来，近似绝望地扑到她姐姐的怀里。当那悲痛的暴风雨慢慢退却后，她独自去了自己的房间，不让任何人跟着她。

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

窗户对面，有一把舒服宽大的扶手椅。她疲惫不堪地把身子陷在椅子里，这疲倦占据了她的身体，似乎也侵入了她的灵魂。

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

她看到屋外的开放广场上，充满新春气息的树梢在轻微颤动。空气中弥漫着雨的美妙气息。一个小贩在下面的街上叫卖着他的货物。远处传来飘渺的歌声，而无数的麻雀在房檐上叽叽喳喳地叫着。

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

在她窗户对面的西方，云彩飘到一起，堆叠起来，而蓝色的天空就这一块那一块地从云朵中露了出来。她坐在那里，头向后枕在椅子的垫子上，几乎一动不动，除了有时喉咙里的一声抽泣使她全身摇动外，就像一个哭得睡着了的孩子在梦中还继续抽泣。

She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

她很年轻，有着一张姣好平静的脸，脸上的线条表现出克制，甚至还有一种力量。但是现在她的眼睛里只有一种呆滞的凝视，目光定在了远方的一块蓝天上。这不是深思的眼神，而只是思维的停顿。

There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

有种东西正向她靠近，而她在恐惧地等待着。那是什么？她不知道；那东西太微妙太虚无飘渺，无法说明。但是她感觉到了，它正在空中蔓延，穿过弥漫于空气中的声音、香气和颜色向她靠近。

Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

现在她的胸膛纷乱地起伏着，她开始认出这正向她逼近，要控制她的东西了。她挣扎着想靠自己的意志把它击退——可这意志却和她洁白纤弱的双手一样无力。

When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under hte breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

她放弃了反抗，一句细细的低语从她微微分开的嘴唇间溢了出来，她低声地一遍遍地说着：“自由，自由，自由！”曾经空洞的目光和恐惧的眼神已经逐渐退去，她现在的眼神敏锐明亮。她的脉搏快速地跳动着，流动的血液使她的全身都得到了温暖和放松。

She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

她没有去想此刻拥有的感觉是否是巨大的喜悦。一种清晰兴奋的感觉，使她根本无暇顾及此事。

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

她知道，当她看到丈夫那双和善温柔的手变得僵硬，看到那张永远带着爱意面对她的脸变得毫无表情的时候，她会再次哭泣的，但是悲痛之外，她看到了即将到来的绝对属于她自己的未来，而她伸展开双臂欢迎它们的到来。

There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

在未来岁月里，没有人为她而活，她也将为自己生活。将不会再有别人强大的意愿压倒她的意愿，虽然人们盲目固执地想信他们有权利把自己的意愿强加在一个同等的生命上。在这短暂的觉醒时刻，这种强加于人的做法无论是善意还是恶意的，在她看来都无异于犯罪。

And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

然而她确实爱过他——有的时候，更多的时候她不爱他。这有什么关系！她突然间发现表达自我的自信才是她生命存在最有力的推动力。在这种自信面前，爱情，那未解的谜团，又算得了什么！

"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

“自由！身体和灵魂的自由！”她不停地低语着。

Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

约瑟芬跪在关着的门外，嘴唇对着钥匙孔，一直在求她开门。“路易丝，开门！我求你了，开开门吧——你会让自己生病的。你在干什么，路易丝？看在上帝的份上，开门吧。”

"Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

“走开。我不会让自己生病的。”不，她正在通过那扇敞开的窗户痛饮生命的长生不老药呢。

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

她的想像在那些即将到来的日子里纵情狂欢，春天，夏天，各种各样只属于她自己的日子。她飞快地轻声向上帝祈祷着让生命变长。而就在昨天，当她想到生命会很长时还感到不寒而栗。

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

最后，她终于在姐姐的一再请求下站起身来开了门。她的眼中带着兴奋的胜利的表情，她丝毫没有意识到自己表现得就像一位胜利女神。她紧紧搂着姐姐的腰，他们一起走下楼去。里察德正站在楼下等着他们。

Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

有人在用弹簧锁钥匙打开前门。进来的人是布兰特里玛拉德，有一点风尘仆仆，镇定地提着他的衣袋和雨伞。他离那事故现场很远很远，根本就不知道发生了事故。他惊谔地站在那儿，听见约瑟芬尖厉的叫声，看见里察德飞快地移动着，想把他挡住不让他妻子看见他。但是里察德还是太晚了。

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease---of the joy that kills.

医生来了，他们说她死于心脏病——那致人于死地的快乐。