张爱玲英文作品部分MYGREATEXPECTATIONS.docx

1、张爱玲英文作品部分MYGREATEXPECTATIONSMY GREAT EXPECTA TIONSBy Eileen ChangTime is like a sharp knife. When it is misused, it can carve hard lines on beautiful faces and wearout blooming youth month by month, year by year but, well used, it can mold a piece of simplestone into a magnificent statue. St. Marys,

2、 in spite of its long history of fifty years, is still a simplepiece of white stone briefly carved. As time marches on, it may be marred by dust, worn out byweather, or broken into separate fragments, and it may be carefully, slowly carved by the knife,inch by inch, into a wonderful statue which wil

3、l be placed among the glorious works ofMichelangelo. This knife is held not only by the principal, the teachers, and the students oftomorrow; but all of our schoolmates have the power of controlling it.If I have a chance to live to be a snowy-haired old lady, I shall, in my peaceful dreams beside th

4、e fireside, seek for the old paths leading through the green plum trees which I have been familiar with in my early days. Of course, at that time, the youthful plum trees must also have grown into their pleasant old age, stretching their powerful arms to shade the crossing paths. The weather-worn ol

5、d bell tower, standing in the golden sunlight, shall give out that slow, solemn blooming that is so familiar to my ears, as the girls, short and tall, pale and rosy, plump and slim,all blooming with the freshness of youth, shall pour into the church like a stream. There they will kneel and pray, whi

6、spering to their spiritual Lord about the little things in their lives; their grief, their tears, their quarrels, their love, and their great ambitions. They shall ask him to help them in reaching their future goals, to be a writer, a musician, an educationalist, or an ideal wife. And I can hear the

7、 old church tower ringing with the echoes of their prayers, whispering in return, Yes, St. Marys Hall may not have the largest dormitories and the best-looking school gardens among all the schools in China, but she certainly possesses the finest and the most hard-working girls, who shall glorify her

8、 with their brilliant futures!What I feel when I hear these words depends upon whether I have done anything or not in theyears in between. If I have failed in playing my part on this stage, I shall feel ashamed and regretful that I have thrown away the privilege of glorifying my mother school. But i

9、f I have gained success in struggling along toward my goal, I will smile with pride and content, for I have taken a part, though a very small part, in carving out, with the knife of time, this wonderful model of school life. (466 words)五四遗事Stale MateBy Eileen ChangTwo men and two girls in a boat sat

10、 facing each other on wicker seats under the flat blue awning. Cups of tea stood on the low table between them. They were eating ling, water chestnuts about the size and shape of a Cupids bow mouth. The shells were dark purplish red and the kernels white. Missu Zhou is very stylish today, one of the

11、 men said. It was also stylish to address girls as Miss.Miss Zhou glared at him through her new spectacles and threw a ling shell at him. Her glasses had round black rims and perfectly flat lenses, as she was not near-sighted. The year was 1924, when eyeglasses were fashionable. Society girls wore t

12、hem. Even street-walkers affected glasses in order to look like girl students.Each of the men sat with his own girl because the little boat balanced better this way than if the two girls sat side by side. The pale green water looked thick and just a little scummy, and yet had a suggestion of lingeri

13、ng fragrance like a basin of water in which a famous courtesan had washed her painted face.The girls were around twenty - young for high school in those days when progressive women ofall ages flocked to the primary schools. Miss Zhou was much admired for her vivacity and boldness as being typical of

14、 the New Woman, while Miss Fans was the beauty of a still life. She sat smiling a little, her face a slim pointed oval, her long hair done in two round glossy black side knobs. She wore little make-up and no ornaments except a gold fountain pen tucked in her light mauve tunic. Her trumpet sleeves en

15、ded flaring just under the elbow.The young men were Luo and Wen. Luo was tall and thin. His pale turquoise long gown hung well on him in a more literal sense than when the phrase was applied to Westerners clothes. He taught in the same school as Wen. They both owned land in their home village and ta

16、ught school in Hangzhou merely as an excuse to live by the West Lake, where every scenic spot was associated with the memory of some poet or reigning beauty.The four had been meeting almost daily for more than a year. They would go out on the lake, have dinner at one of the restaurants along the sho

17、re, and go boating again if there was a moon. Somebody would read Shelley aloud and the girls held hands with each other when they felt moved. Always there were four of them, sometimes six but never two. The men were already married - a universal predicament. Practically everybody was married and ha

18、d children before ever hearing of love. Wen and Luo had to be content with discussing the girls interminably between themselves, showing each other the girls carefully worded letters, admiring their calligraphy, analysing their personalities from the handwriting. Love was such a new experiencein Chi

19、na that a little of it went a long way.They sailed into a patch of yellowing lotus leaves, the large green plates crunching noisily against the boat. Then there was silence. The boatman and his little daughter were resting on their oars, letting the boat drift. Now and then the water made a small sw

20、allowing sound as if it had a piece of candy in its mouth.Going home this weekend? Miss Fan asked.I suppose I cant get out of it this time, Luo answered smiling. My mother has been complaining.She smiled. The mention of his mother did not alter the fact that he was going back to his wife. Lately Luo

21、 had been feeling increasingly guilty about going home, while Miss Fan had allowed her resentment to become more manifest before and after each visit.I have made a decision, he said in a low voice, looking at her. Then, when she did not ask him what it was, he said, Missu Fan, will you wait for me?

22、It might take years.She had turned away, her head bent. Her hands played with the lower left corner of her slitted blouse, furling and unfurling it.Actually she did not agree to his getting a divorce until days later. But that evening, when the four of them dined at a restaurant famous for its lake

23、fish, Luo already felt pledged and dedicated. Allthe wine he drank tasted like the last cup before setting out on a long hard journey on a cold night.The restaurant was called the Tower Beyond Towers. It leaned over the lake on three sides.Despite the view and its poetic name it was a nonchalantly u

24、gly place with greasy old furniture. The waiter shouted orders to the kitchen in a singsong chant. When the glass dome was lifted from the plate of live shrimp, some of the shrimp jumped across the table, in and out of the sauce dish, and landed on Miss Fan, trailing soya sauce down the front of her

25、 blouse. Miss Zhou squealed. In the dingy yellow electric light Miss Fan looked flushed and happy and did not seem to mind at all. Luo did not go home until the Saturday after that. The journey took two hours by train and wheelbarrow. His wife looked sheepish as her mother-in-law loudly and ostentat

26、iously excused her from various duties because her husband was home. She was wearing a short blue overall with the red satin binding of a silk tunic showing underneath it. She had not been sure that he would be coming.He spoke to her that night about divorce. She cried all night. It was terrible, al

27、most as if a judge were to sleep in the same bed with a condemned man. Say what he might, he knew he was consigning her to dishonourable widowhood for the rest of her life.Which of the Seven Out Rules have I violated? she kept asking through angry sobs. Ancient scholars had named the seven condition

28、s under which a wife might justifiably be evicted from her husbands house.His mother flew into a rage on being told. She would not hear of it. Luo went back to Hangzhou and stopped coming home altogether. His mother got his uncle to go up to Hangzhou and talk him out of his foolishness. He in turn m

29、anaged to persuade a cousin to go and talk to his family. It took infernally long to negotiate through relatives who were, furthermore, unreliable transmitters of harsh words, being peacemakers at heart, especially where matrimony was concerned. To break up a marriage is a cardinal sin that automati

30、cally takes ten years off a mans given life span.Luo got a lawyer to write his wife an alarmingly worded request for divorce. His wifes family, the Zhangs, boiled over with rage. Did he think his wife was an orphan? Not all the Zhangs were dead. True, they could not revenge themselves on the faithle

31、ss man unless his wife were to hang herself on his lintel. That would place his life and property entirely at their mercy. But it was not for them to recommend such a step to her.The head of the Luo clan was moved to speak. The old man threatened to invite the Family Law out of its niche and beat th

32、e young rascal in the ancestral temple. Family Law was a euphemism for the plank used for flogging.Miss Fan and Luo continued to see each other in the company of Wen and Miss Zhou. Their friends were delighted and exhilarated by the courage of this undertaking - though it did put Wenin a difficult position, even if Miss Zhou was never openly reproachful. It now appeared as though the wistfulness that was part of the beauty of their relationship was not one of those things that couldnt be helped.Luo was only home once in two years. They were