《理智与情感》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable a manner as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding acquaintance. The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life, had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In the society of his nephew and niece, and their children, the old Gentleman’s days were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which proceeded not merely from interest, but from goodness of heart, gave him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive; and the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence.

达什伍德家族在苏塞克斯郡定居已久。他们的产业很大，宅邸位于产业中心的诺兰庄园，多少代人以来，他们在此地安居乐业，颇受周围邻里敬重。这份产业的已故主人是个单身汉，活到很大年纪，生前多年一直由妹妹陪伴并替他管家。但妹妹比他早十年去世，这使他的家庭发生了很大变化。为了填补这一损失，他邀请侄子亨利·达什伍德先生一家住进宅中。亨利·达什伍德是诺兰产业的合法继承人，也是他打算遗赠产业的对象。有侄儿侄媳和他们的孩子们相伴，老先生的日子过得很舒心。他对他们的依恋与日俱增。亨利·达什伍德夫妇对他心意的体贴照料，不仅出于利害考虑，更出于心地善良，这给了他老年人所能得到的一切实实在在的安慰。孩子们的活泼欢快，也为他的生活增添了乐趣。

By a former marriage, Mr. Henry Dashwood had one son: by his present lady, three daughters. The son, a steady respectable young man, was amply provided for by the fortune of his mother, which had been large, and half of which devolved on him on his coming of age. By his own marriage, likewise, which happened soon afterwards, he added to his wealth. To him therefore the succession to the Norland estate was not so really important as to his sisters; for their fortune, independent of what might arise to them from their father’s inheriting that property, could be but small. Their mother had nothing, and their father only seven thousand pounds in his own disposal; for the remaining moiety of his first wife’s fortune was also secured to her child, and he had only a life-interest in it.

亨利·达什伍德先生与前妻生有一个儿子，与现在的妻子生了三个女儿。儿子是个稳重体面的年轻人，母亲留下的财产已使他得到丰厚供养。那笔财产数目可观，一半在他成年时归他所有。他不久后结婚，又增添了一笔财富。因此，诺兰产业的继承权对他并不像对他的姐妹们那样真正重要。因为她们的财产，且不说父亲继承那份产业后可能给她们带来什么，本身只能是很微薄的。她们的母亲一无所有，父亲能自行支配的也只有七千镑，因为前妻财产的另一半也已确定归她的孩子所有，他对此只享有终身收益权。

The old gentleman died: his will was read, and like almost every other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure. He was neither so unjust, nor so ungrateful, as to leave his estate from his nephew; but he left it to him on such terms as destroyed half the value of the bequest. Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son: but to his son, and his son’s son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him, and who most needed a provision by any charge on the estate, or by any sale of its valuable woods. The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child, who, in occasional visits with his father and mother at Norland, had so far gained on the affections of his uncle, by such attractions as are by no means unusual in children of two or three years old —an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise —as to outweigh all the value of all the attention which, for years, he had received from his niece and her daughters. He meant not to be unkind, however, and, as a mark of his affection for the three girls, he left them a thousand pounds apiece.

老先生去世了。遗嘱宣读后，几乎和大多数遗嘱一样，带来的失望与带来的欣慰一样多。他既没有不义到把产业留给外人，也没有忘恩到把侄子排除在外，但他把产业留给侄子时附加了种种条件，使这份遗赠的价值减少了一半。达什伍德先生盼望得到这份产业，更多是为了妻子和女儿，而不是为了自己和儿子。但产业却以这样一种方式确定归儿子和儿子的儿子，一个四岁的孩子所有，使他本人无权通过让产业承担费用，或出售产业中值钱的林木，来供养他最亲爱、也最需要供养的人。全部产业都被限定归这个孩子受益。这孩子偶尔随父母来诺兰做客时，凭两三岁孩子绝非罕见的种种可爱之处，口齿不清，执意随心所欲，许多狡猾的小把戏，还有吵闹不休，竟赢得了叔公的欢心，其分量超过了侄女及其女儿们多年来对他的一切殷勤照料。不过，他并非存心刻薄，为了表示对三个姑娘的疼爱，他留给她们每人一千镑。