人生是彩色的面紗——The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (Part Two)

Supercilious; a wet blanket

Kitty不喜歡Walter，是因為他孤傲不群，和她格格不入。下面的獨白反映了Kitty 對Walter的厭惡。

“He was dull. Oh, how he’d bored her, bored her! He thought himself so much better than anyone else, it was laughable (adj.可笑的); he had no sense of humour (adj.幽默感); she hated his supercilious air, his coldness, and his self-control…He was repulsive (adj.令人厭惡的) to her…he was a wet blanket at a party…” (Chapter 17)

Supercilious是形容詞，指高傲的，跟arrogant一樣意思。A wet blanket是指令人掃興的東西。“He was a wet blanket at a party.” 是指他在派對上是個令人掃興的傢伙。至於“令人掃興”若用動詞表達，英語可用 to dampen one’s enthusiasm. Damp是形容詞，解著濕，和wet一樣。

愛情的魔力—at the height of her glowing loveliness

相反，當Kitty和Charles一起後，她整個人也變得容光煥發，變得年輕起來。在Chapter 16第一段中作者就用了不少筆墨描寫Kitty的美態，十分精彩。

“Her happiness, sometimes almost more than she could bear, renewed her beauty. Just before she married, beginning to lose her first freshness, she had looked tired and drawn (adj.憔悴的). The uncharitable said that she was going off…She was like a rosebud that is beginning to turn yellow at the edges of the petals, and then suddenly she was a rose in full bloom. Her starry eyes gained a more significant expression , her skin (that feature which had always been her greatest pride and most anxious care) was dazzling; it could be not be compared to the peach and the flower; it was they that demanded comparison with it. She looked eighteen once more. She was at the height of her glowing loveliness. It was impossible not to remark it and her women friends asked her in little friendly asides (n.小聲說的話) if she was going to have a baby. The indifferent who had said she was just a very pretty woman with a long nose admitted that they had misjudged her. She was what Charlie had called her the first time he saw her, a raging beauty.”

由於篇幅較長，為方便讀者了解，現提供譯文如下：

「Kitty覺得太幸福了，有時她甚至感到自己無福消受。這種幸福感使她恢復美貌。結婚之前，她已開始失去最初的青春活力，看起來疲倦憔悴。有些刻薄的人說，這朵鮮花快要凋謝了…她像一朵玫瑰花苞，本來花瓣的邊緣已開始變黃，可是突然間變成了盛開的花朵。她那明眸更加動人；她的皮膚(這是她一向最自豪，也是最精心保養的)使人看了目眩。粉紅色的桃子和盛開的花朵都不能與之比美。她彷彿回到了十八歲，正處於風流年華的頂點。人們是不可能不對此進行評論。她那些女友們善意的小聲問她是否懷有身孕；那些冷漠的人本來說她只是一個長鼻子的漂亮女人，他們不得不承認曾錯看了她。她正是Charlie第一次見她時所說的—一位絕色美人。」

此段值得學習的地方有三。

第一就是the + adjective 可以用來表達某一種人。例如 The uncharitable 是解作那些刻薄的人，即有 the uncharitable people 的意思；The indifferent是解作那些冷漠的人，即有the uncharitable people 的意思。平時我們寫作時也可以用這樣的寫法，例如用 the poor 代替 the people who are poor.

第二就是形容人的美貌是有不同的說法。(參考紫色部分) 首先starry是形容詞，意思是滿佈星星，亦可解作閃閃發光的，明亮的。形容一雙明目可以用 ‘starry eyes’。

其次，dazzling 是指耀眼奪目的，艷麗的。例如一個艷麗的少婦可以稱a dazzling young woman，耀眼的光可以稱a dazzling light。Glowing有色彩奪目的意思，和dazzling相近。

至於raging 本是指狂暴的，盛怒的，劇烈的。例如狂風可以稱raging storm，劇烈的通脹可以稱raging inflation。raging作口語也可解作非凡的，卓越的，例如上文的raging beauty便解作絕色美人。

第三當然就是修辭手法了。作者以一朵玫瑰比如的美態，貼切的很。大家不妨把整段細心閱讀多次，體會當中的神髓。

香港中央圖書館有6 隻sound discs供外借。我聽過第一張，覺得音速適中，感覺不錯。若有興趣試聽的話，可在這裡下載第一章和第十六章的讀音檔案。注意！第十六章的讀音檔案在1:46才開始的。想要借的話，可參考這連結

總括而言，有興趣的可以到公共圖書館借閱此書。附帶一提，此書雖有中文譯本，但只能在HKALL借閱，公共圖書館把此書放在參考書項目，不能外借。