《汉娜·斯塔布斯的奇异变形》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

“Signor Ricardo, Prof. of the Italian Language!” That was the legend that was engraved on the small brass plate that surmounted the bell that admitted visitors to Mrs. Battleby’s lodging-house in Soho. Signor Ricardo was everything that was estimable in Mrs. Battleby’s eyes, only he was, as she observed to her next-door neighbour, Mrs. Blamey, “a Mystery”. He was a tall, attenuated man, who stooped slightly in the shoulders—had dark-grey eyes, keen as those of a hawk, and shaded by bushy eyebrows—a perfect aquiline nose—and a grave, almost solemn mouth, which seldom smiled, and ended in a pointed beard, like that of Vandyke. He was very poor, being an Italian refugee, whose estates had been confiscated for some political error, but he was eminently a gentleman of the ancienne noblesse, and preserved the dignity of his birth, even whilst pursuing an occupation which is considered to place a man beyond the pale of Society.

「里卡多先生，意大利语教授！」这是刻在黄铜小牌子上的字样，牌子钉在门铃上方，那门铃是苏荷区巴特尔比太太公寓的访客按的。在巴特尔比太太眼里，里卡多先生样样都令人敬重，只是正如她对隔壁邻居布莱米太太所说，他是个「谜」。他身材高瘦，肩膀微微佝偻，深灰色的眼睛锐利如鹰，藏在浓密的眉毛下，鼻梁是完美的鹰钩鼻，嘴严肃近乎庄重，难得一笑，下巴留着一撮尖胡须，像凡·戴克画中人物。他非常穷，是个意大利流亡者，因政治上的过失产业被没收，但他确是旧贵族出身的绅士，即便从事一种被视为有失体面的职业，也仍保持着出身的尊严。

“He’s as good a lodger as ever I had,” said Mrs. Battleby, on the occasion referred to, “as reglar as a clock, both in his ’abits and his payments—every Saturday mornin’ he dislocates my little bill, though I believe he’s sometimes sorely put-to to find the money, and every evenin’ he’s ’ome by eight o’clock and has his bit of supper and puts his light out by ten, but arter that—well! he’s a Mystery!”

「他是我有过的最好的房客，」巴特尔比太太说起这事时道，「无论习惯还是付账，都准得像钟。每星期六早上他结清我那张小账单，虽说我相信他有时凑钱凑得艰难。每天晚上他八点前回来，吃点晚饭，十点前熄灯。可那之后，唉！他就是个谜！」

“Lor! Mrs. Battleby, ma’am, you don’t go to think he’s murdered anybody, do yer?”

「哎呀！巴特尔比太太，您不会以为他杀了人吧？」

“Murdered anybody!” repeated the other, with withering contempt, “why, he’s the aimabeloust gentleman you ever come acrost. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, the Sig-nor” (Mrs. Battleby pronounced the word Signor, with a decided accentuation on the letter g), “not to save his own life! And got no temper in him. Never ’eard a ’arsh word, nor a hoath pass his lips. If you’d only seen him onst, you’d never arsk if he was a murderer, Mrs. Blamey!”

「杀了人！」对方重复道，带着鄙夷的轻蔑，「哎，他是您能遇到的最和气的绅士。他连只苍蝇都不忍伤害，这位西尼奥尔，」巴特尔比太太把Signor这个词念得重重落在g音上，「连救自己的命都不会！而且他没脾气。从没听过他嘴里吐出一句狠话或脏话。您只要见过他一面，就绝不会问他是不是杀人犯，布莱米太太！」

“Then ’ow is he a Mystery, which it’s a word I never could abear.”

「那他怎么是个谜呢，这词儿我向来受不了。」

“Well! it’s this way. When the Sig-nor come to me, now three years ago, he hired three rooms at the top of the ’ouse. I had better rooms I could have let him ’ave, on the floor below, but no! nothing would suit him but my top rooms, hattics as I call ’em, and I had to turn Mary Ann—that gal as went off with the postman—out of her bedroom in order to accommodate him, and he’s lived there ever since. One is his bedroom and the other his parlour, as you may suppose, but would you believe it, Mrs. Blamey, as I’ve never seen the inside of my own third room, ever since the Sig-nor has been with me!”

「唉！是这么回事。三年前西尼奥尔来我这儿，租了房子顶层的三个房间。楼下有更好的房间我能租给他，可他不干！什么都看不上，偏要我的顶层房间，我管那叫阁楼。我只得把玛丽·安，就是跟邮差跑了的那个丫头，从她卧室里赶出来给他腾地方，他从此就住在那儿。一间是卧室，另一间是起居室，这您想得到。可您信不信，布莱米太太，自打西尼奥尔住进来，我从来没进过我自己那第三间屋子！」

“My! what do he do with it?”

「天哪！他拿那屋子干什么用？」

“ ’Ow can I tell? I tell you he’s a Mystery! The first day I went up to clean his floor, I found the door locked, and when I arsked for the key, the Sig-nor he says to me, ‘Excuge me,’ he says, for he’s the politest of gentlemen, ‘but I will see after that room myself.’ ‘Lor! Sir,’ I says, ‘but if it’s books or papers, I’ll be as careful as careful,’ I says, ‘but you can’t never struggle with the dust yourself.’ But he was as firm as a rock, and that there door has never been unclosed to my knowledge since.”

「我哪知道？我跟您说，他是个谜！头一天我上楼去擦地板，发现门锁着。我跟他要钥匙，西尼奥尔对我说：『请原谅，』他说，他可是最讲礼貌的绅士，『那间屋子我自己照看。』『哎呀！先生，』我说，『要是书或文件，我会万分小心，』我说，『可您总不能自己跟灰尘较劲吧。』可他坚如磐石，据我所知，那扇门从此再没打开过。」

“Mrs. Battleby, ma’am, you gives me the cold creeps all down my back! Suppose he should be Jack the Ripper, and congeals the corpusses in your third room. Stranger things ’ave ’appened before now! I think it be’oves you as an ’ouseholder to break open the door!”

「巴特尔比太太，您说得我脊梁骨直发凉！万一他是开膛手杰克，把尸首冻在您那第三间屋里呢。比这更怪的事都发生过！我看您作为房东，该把门撬开！」