《简·爱》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.

那一天是没有散步的可能了。不错，早晨我们已经在无叶的丛林中漫游过一点钟了；但是午饭后（里德太太在没有客人的时候总是早早吃饭），寒冷的冬风带来这样阴沉的云，这样透骨的雨，再要到户外去活动是绝对不可能了。

I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

我倒觉得高兴：我从来不喜欢远出散步，特别是在寒冷的下午：在阴湿的黄昏回家，手指和脚趾冻得发痛，保姆贝茜的责骂使人心灰意冷，又意识到自己体格不如伊丽莎、约翰和乔治亚娜·里德，更叫人垂头丧气。

The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, “She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.”

刚才提到的伊丽莎、约翰和乔治亚娜这时都在客厅里围着他们的妈妈：她斜倚在炉边的沙发上，心爱的儿女绕膝（这时他们既没争吵也没哭闹），看上去十分快活。她却免了我加入这个圈子，说：「她不得不把我打发得远远的，感到很遗憾；不过，除非她从贝茜那里听到，并且亲自观察，发现我确实在认真努力养成一种比较合群、比较孩子气的性情，一种比较讨人喜欢、比较活泼的态度，总之，一种比较轻松、比较坦率、比较自然的样子，否则她真不能让我享受只有满足、快乐的小孩子才能享受的特权。」

“What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.

「贝茜说我都干了些什么？」我问。

“Jane, I don’t like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.”

「简，我不喜欢吹毛求疵或者寻根究底的人；再说，小孩子这样盘问长辈，实在叫人讨厌。坐到什么地方去；不会好好说话，就闭上嘴。」

A breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It contained a bookcase: I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.

客厅隔壁是一间早餐室，我悄悄溜了进去。里面有一个书柜：我不久就拿到一本书，特意挑了一本有很多插图的书。我爬上窗座，缩起双脚，像土耳其人那样盘腿坐下，把红色的波纹呢窗帘几乎拉拢，这样我就加倍隐蔽地藏了起来。

Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.

右边，红色的窗帘褶裥挡住了我的视线；左边，明亮的玻璃窗保护着我，却没有把我与阴沉的十一月天气隔开。我翻着书页，不时细看这冬日午后的景色。远处，只见一片白茫茫的雾霭和云层；近处，是一片湿漉漉的草坪和风雨摧残的灌木，连绵不断的雨被一阵持久而凄厉的狂风驱赶着，疯狂地横扫过去。

I returned to my book—Bewick’s History of British Birds: the letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of “the solitary rocks and promontories” by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape—

我又回到书上，那是比尤伊克的《英国鸟类史》：一般说来，我不太在意书里的文字；不过，有几页引言，我虽然是个孩子，却也不能完全当作空白。那几页讲的是海鸟的栖息地；讲的是「只有它们才居住的孤寂的岩石和海岬」；讲的是挪威的海岸，从南端的林德斯内斯，又叫纳兹，直到北角，沿途岛屿星罗棋布……

“Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.”

「北方的大海在巨大的漩涡中沸腾，围绕着最遥远的图勒的赤裸、忧郁的岛屿；大西洋的波涛倾泻在风暴的赫布里底群岛之间。」