A Wet Sunday in a Country Inn
乡村客栈一个阴雨的星期天
Washington Irving
华盛顿·欧文
A wet Sunday in a country inn! Whoever has had the luck to experience one can alone judge of my situation. The rain pattered against the casements; the bells tolled for church with a melancholy sound. I went to the windows in quest of something to amuse the eye; but it seemed as if I had been placed completely out of the reach of ail amusement. The windows of my bed-room looked out among tiled roofs and stacks of chimneys, while those of my sitting-room commanded a full view of the stable yard. I know of nothing more calculated to make a man sick of this world than a stable yard on a rainy day. The place was littered with wet straw that had been kicked about by travellers and stable-boys. In one corner was a stagnant pool of water, surrounding an island of muck; there were several half-drowned fowls crowded together under a cart, among which was a miserable, crest-fallen cock, drenched out of ail life and spirit; his drooping tail matted, as it were, into a single feather, along which the water trickled from his hack; near the cart was a half- dozing cow, chewing her cud, and standing patiently to be rained on, with wreaths of vapour rising from her reeking hide; a wall-eyed horse, tired of the loneliness of the stable, was poking his spectral head out of a window, with the rain dripping on it from the eaves; an unhappy cur, chained to a dog-house hard by, uttered something every now and then between a bark and a yelp; a drab of a kitchen wench tramped backwards and forwards through the yard in pat- tens, looking as sulky as the weather itself; everything, iq short, was comfortless and forlorn, excepting a crew of hardened ducks, assembled like boon companions round a puddle and making a riotous noise over their liquor.
乡村客栈一个阴雨的星期天！凡有幸度过这样一天的人，都能体会我现在的处境。雨点子噼噼啪啪地打在窗子上，教堂里传来沉重的钟声，召唤人们去做礼拜.我走到窗前，想找一些赏心悦目的东西，但看来我已完全被摒于一切欢乐之外.从卧室的窗口望出去，是一片砖瓦的屋顶和林立的烟囱，而从起居室的窗口往下看，则能望见整个马厩院子。我觉得再电没有比雨天的马厩院子更令人厌舸的了。遍地是淋湿了的稻草，被旅客和小马倌们踢得凌乱不堪。在院子的一角，一潭污水围着孤岛似的粪堆，几只几平被雨水淋透的鸡簇拥在一辆马车底下，其中一只可怜的公鸡，倒垂着鸡冠，被淋得没精打彩，毫无生气，它那耷拉着的尾巴粘结在一起，仿佛只成了一根羽毛，雨水顺着它从背脊往下直淌，高马车不远处。有一头睡跟惺忪的奶牛，嘴里嚼着反刍的食物，默默地站在那里，任凭雨水打在身上，湿淋琳的背上日出缭绕的水气；一匹眼珠小而眼白特大的马厌倦了马厩里的寂寞，把它那幽灵似的脑袋从窗口探了出来，屋檐上的雨水漓沥滴沥地落在它头上；一只不幸的杂种狗被链条拴在近旁的狗窝里，时时发出似吠似嗥的声音；一个邋遢厨娘拖着木屐，迈着沉重的步子在院子里进进出出，她那郁郁不乐的神色，就象阴沉的天气一样；总之，除了一群饱经风雨的鸭子，象饮酒作乐的朋友那样聚集在污水潭的四周呷呷嬉水而外，这儿的一切都令人感到凄凉的沮丧。
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