百万英镑 (马克.吐温)t

2021年1月25日发(作者：英语论文翻译)
百万英镑

英文版

The Million Pound Note
When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker's
clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the details of
stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to
depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these
were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I
was content with the prospect.
My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays,
and I was accustomed to put it in on a little sail-boat on the
bay. One day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea.
Just at nightfall, when hope was about gone, I was picked up
by a small brig which was bound for London. It was a long
and stormy voyage, and they made me work my passage
without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped ashore in
London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only
a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me
twenty-four hours. During the next twenty- four I went
without food and shelter.
About ten o'clock on the following morning, seedy and
hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when a
child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a
luscious big pear
—
minus one bite
—
into the gutter. I stopped,
of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy
treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomach craved it, my
whole being begged for it. But every time I made a move to
get it some passing eye detected my purpose, and of course I
straightened up then, and looked indifferent, and pretended
that I hadn't been thinking about the pear at all. This same
thing kept happening and happening, and I couldn't get the
pear. I was just getting desperate enough to brave all the
shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised,
and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying:

I was admitted by a gorgeous flunkey, and shown into a
sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were
sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down.
They had just finished their breakfast, and the sight of the
remains of it almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep
my wits together in the presence of that food, but as I was
not asked to sample it, I had to bear my trouble as best I
could.
Now, something had been happening there a little before,
which I did not know anything about until a good many days
afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. Those two old
brothers had been having a pretty hot argument a couple of
days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet,
which is the English way of settling everything.
You will remember that the Bank of England once issued
two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special
purpose connected with some public transaction with a
foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these
had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults
of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to
get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest
and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in
London without a friend, and with no money but that
million- pound bank-note, and no way to account for his
being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to
death; Brother B said he wouldn't. Brother A said he couldn't
offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be
arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B
said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man
would live thirty days, anyway, on that million, and keep out
of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to
the Bank and bought that note. Just like an Englishman, you
see; pluck to the backbone. Then he dictated a letter, which
one of his clerks wrote out in a beautiful round hand, and
then the two brothers sat at the window a whole day
watching for the right man to give it to.
I would have picked up the pear now and eaten it before all
the world, but it was gone; so I had lost that by this unlucky
business, and the thought of it did not soften my feeling
towards those men. As soon as I was out of sight of that
house I opened my envelope, and saw that it contained
money! My opinion of those people changed, I can tell you!
I lost not a moment, but shoved note and money into my vest
pocket, and broke for the nearest cheap eating house. Well,
how I did eat! When at last I couldn't hold any more, I took
out my money and unfolded it, took one glimpse and nearly
fainted. Five millions of dollars! Why, it made my head
swim.
I must have sat there stunned and blinking at the note as
much as a minute before I came rightly to myself again. The
first thing I noticed, then, was the landlord. His eye was on
the note, and he was petrified. He was worshiping, with all
his body and soul, but he looked as if he couldn't stir hand or
foot. I took my cue in a moment, and did the only rational
thing there was to do. I reached the note towards him, and
said, carelessly:

Then he was restored to his normal condition, and made a
thousand apologies for not being able to break the bill, and I
couldn't get him to touch it. He wanted to look at it, and keep
on looking at it; he couldn't seem to get enough of it to
quench the thirst of his eye, but he shrank from touching it
as if it had been something too sacred for poor common clay
to handle. I said:

change it; I haven't anything else.
But he said that wasn't any matter; he was quite willing to let
the trifle stand over till another time. I said I might not be in
his neighborhood again for a good while; but he said it was
of no consequence, he could wait, and, moreover, I could
have anything I wanted, any time I chose, and let the account
run as long as I pleased. He said he hoped he wasn't afraid to
trust as rich a gentleman as I was, merely because I was of a
merry disposition, and chose to play larks on the public in
the matter of dress. By this time another customer was
entering, and the landlord hinted to me to put the monster
out of sight; then he bowed me all the way to the door, and I
started straight for that house and those brothers, to correct
the mistake which had been made before the police should
hunt me up, and help me do it. I was pretty nervous; in fact,
pretty badly frightened, though, of course, I was no way in
fault; but I knew men well enough to know that when they
find they've given a tramp a million-pound bill when they
thought it was a one-pounder, they are in a frantic rage
against him instead of quarreling with their own
near-sightedness, as they ought. As I approached the house
my excitement began to abate, for all was quiet there, which
made me feel pretty sure the blunder was not discovered yet.
I rang. The same servant appeared. I asked for those
gentlemen.

tribe.







—
by what route?

百万英镑

中文版

百万英镑

(
马克
.
吐温
)
二十七岁那年，我正给旧金山的一个矿业 经济人打工，
把证券交易所的门槛摸得清清楚楚。我是只身混世界，
除了自己的聪明才智和一身 清白，就再也没什么可依靠
的了；不过，这反倒让我脚踏实地，不做那没影儿的发
财梦，死心塌 地奔自己的前程。



每到星期六下午股市收了盘，时间就全都是我自己< br>的了，我喜欢弄条小船到海湾里去消磨这些时光。有一
天我驶得远了点儿，漂到了茫茫大海上。正 当夜幕降临，
眼看就要没了盼头的时候，一艘开往伦敦的双桅帆船搭
救了我。漫漫的旅途风狂雨 暴，他们让我以工代票，干
普通水手的活儿。到伦敦上岸的时候，我鹑衣百结，兜
里只剩了一块 钱。连吃带住，我用这一块钱顶了二十四
个小时。再往后的二十四个小时里，我就饥肠辘辘，无
处栖身了。



第二天上午大约十点钟光景，我破衣烂衫，饿着肚
子正沿波特兰大道往前蹭。这时候，一个保姆领着孩子
路过，那孩子把手上刚咬了一口的大个儿甜梨扔进 了下
水道。不用说，我停了下来，满含欲望的眼光罩住了那