介绍:
Some years ago, a temporary inability to sleep (insomnia [ɪn'sɒmnɪə]n.失眠症), referable [ri'fə:rəbl]adj.可归因于to a distressing [dɪ'stresɪŋ]adj.使痛苦的;使烦恼的impression影响, caused me to walk about the streets all night, for a series of several nights. The disorder might have taken a long time to conquer, if it had been faintly微弱地 experimented on in bed; but, it was soon defeated by the brisk活泼的,轻快的 treatment of getting up directly after lying down, and going out, and coming home tired at sunrise.
数年前，我因为心事烦扰而出现了暂时性的失眠，导致我接连几个晚上都整夜漫步街头。如果只是在床上辗转反侧作无谓的抵抗，失眠症状可能要花很长时间才能消除；但是，由于我躺下后随即起床，出门漫步，到日出时分才拖着疲惫的身体回家，这种散心疗法很快便治愈了我的失眠。
In the course of those nights, I finished my education in a fair完全的 amateur ['æmətjʊə]adj.业余的experience of houselessness无家可归的人,流浪者. My principal主要的 object目标 being to get through熬过 the night, the pursuit of it brought me into sympathetic [sɪmpə'θetɪk]adj.同情的relations with people who have no other object every night in the year.
在那几个夜晚，我完成了业余流浪汉体验的教育。我的主要目的是打发夜晚的时光，这一努力使得我与当年每个晚上仅以此为目的之人建立了同病相怜的关系。
The month was March, and the weather damp潮湿的, cloudy, and cold. The sun not rising before half-past five, the night perspective前景 looked sufficiently long at half-past twelve: which was about my time for confronting对抗 it.
那时是三月，气候潮湿、阴云密布、春寒料峭。太阳要到凌晨五点半以后才出来，午夜十二点半正是我对抗失眠的时间，感觉漫漫长夜无以消解。
The restlessness ['restlisnis]n.不安定,躁动 of a great city, and the way in which it tumbles ['tʌmbəl]vi.滚动and tosses [tɔs] vt.使…上下摇动before it can get to sleep, formed one of the first entertainments offered to the contemplation [,kɒntem'pleɪʃən]n.沉思of us houseless people. It lasted about two hours. We lost a great deal of companionship [kəm'pænjənʃɪp]n.友谊,陪伴when the late public-houses酒馆 turned their lamps out, and when the potmen ['pɒtmən]酒馆的侍者thrust推 the last brawling ['brɔ:liŋ]v.吵架（brawl的ing形式）drunkards ['drʌŋkəd]n.酒鬼,醉汉into the street; but stray偶然经过的 vehicles and stray people were left us, after that. If we were very lucky, a policeman‘s rattle喋喋不休的说话 sprang and a fray打架 turned up发生; but, in general, surprisingly little of this diversion分散注意力,消遣 was provided. Except in the Haymarket干草市场(伦敦17-19世纪的著名市场), which is the worst kept治安最差 part of London, and about Kent street in the Borough ['bʌrə]n.区, and along a portion of the line of the Old Kent road, the peace was seldom violently broken. But, it was always the case that London, as if in imitation of individual citizens belonging to it, had expiring散发的 fits发作 and starts启动 of restlessness躁动. After all seemed quiet, if one cab出租马车 rattled by格格作响地驶过, half-a-dozen would surely follow; and Houselessness流浪者 even observed观察到 that intoxicated [ɪn'tɒksɪkeɪtɪd]adj.喝醉的people appeared似乎,仿佛 to be magnetically [mæg'netikli]adv.有磁力地attracted towards each other; so that we knew when we saw one drunken object staggering ['stæɡərɪŋ]v.蹒跚against the shutters百叶窗 of a shop, that another drunken object醉汉 would stagger up before five minutes were out, to fraternise ['frætənaɪz]vt.使…亲如兄弟or fight with it. When we made a divergence f[daɪ'vɜːdʒəns]n.分歧,区分from the regular species ['spiːʃiːz]n.[生物]物种;种类of drunkard, the thin-armed, puff-faced面部浮肿的, leaden-lipped gin-drinker, and encountered遭遇 a rarer specimen样本,标本 of a more decent体面的 appearance, fifty to one but that specimen was dressed in soiled mourning丧服. As the street experience in the night, so the street experience in the day; the common folk老百姓 who come unexpectedly into得到 a little property, come unexpectedly into a deal of liquor.
大城市的忙碌躁动以及它沉寂前的翻腾动荡，是我们这些流浪汉能够享受的刚入夜的一大消遣。这种状况要持续两个小时。夜深后，酒馆打烊熄灯，侍者将最后一批吵闹喧哗的醉汉撵到大街上，于是我们失去了许多同伴；随后，剩下的就只有偶尔经过的车辆和零零散散的行人。如果我们运气够好，还能听到警察喋喋不休地说着什么，或者看到突然发现的一起打架事件；但是，总体而言，这种余兴节目出乎意料地少有。除了在海马克（伦敦秩序最乱的街区）、博罗区的肯特街周围，还有老肯特街的一个路段以外，夜晚的宁静几乎没有被粗暴地打破。但是，伦敦总是这样，好像总在模仿个别市民，有时合乎时宜，有时躁动不安。一切似乎归于平静之后，如果有一辆出租马车咯噔咯噔地驶过，必定还会有五六辆马车跟在后面；流浪汉甚至会看到，喝醉酒的人就像磁石般相互吸引；于是我们知道，只要看到一名醉汉踉踉跄跄地走出一家商店的卷帘门，五分钟后就会有另一名醉汉摇摇晃晃地走来，他们要么称兄道弟，要么打上一架。除了常见的几种醉汉以外，如胳膊细瘦的、脸部肿胀的、嘴唇呈铅色的杜松子酒鬼，若是遇到更为罕见的着装更体面的醉汉，十有八九他是穿着沾满泥土的丧服。夜里在街上的经历其实与白天在街上的经历一样；普通老百姓若是意外地获得了一点儿财产，难免会突然想喝上一杯。
At length these flickering ['flɪkərɪŋ]adj.闪烁的,忽隐忽现的,摇曳的sparks would die away渐渐熄灭, worn out耗尽—the last veritable ['verɪtəbəl]adj.真正的sparks of waking life醒着的人 trailed拖着尾巴消失 from some late pieman卖馅饼的人 or hot-potato man—and London would sink to rest. And then the yearning向往,渴望 of the houseless mind would be for any sign of company陪伴, any lighted place, any movement, anything suggestive of暗示,联想 any one being up—nay不, even so much as甚至于只要 awake, for the houseless eye looked out for lights in windows.
最终，这点微弱的朝气也会消失殆尽——卖馅饼或热马铃薯到深夜的小贩是最后一批真正醒着的人，他们拖着疲惫的脚步回家后——伦敦就会陷入沉睡的状态。这时候，流浪汉心里最渴望的是同伴，一个亮着灯的地方，一丝儿动静，任何有人仍在熬夜的迹象——不，甚至只要醒着就行，因为流浪汉会用眼睛四处寻找窗户里的灯光。
Walking the streets under the pattering滴答响 rain, Houselessness would walk and walk and walk, seeing nothing but the interminable [in'tə:minəbl]adj.冗长的;无止尽的tangle缠结 of streets, save除…之外 at a corner, here and there, two policemen in conversation, or the sergeant ['sɑːdʒənt]n.警官 or inspector巡视官 looking after his men. Now and then in the night—but rarely—Houselessness would become aware of a furtive鬼鬼祟祟的 head peering窥视 out of a doorway门口 a few yards before him, and, coming up with the head, would find a man standing bolt upright笔直笔直(bolt螺栓,螺钉) to keep within the doorway‘s shadow, and evidently intent upon下决心 no particular service to society. Under a kind of fascination魅力,入迷, and in a ghostly幽灵般的 silence suitable to the time, Houselessness and this gentleman would eye注视,打量 one another from head to foot, and so, without exchange of speech, part分开, mutually suspicious多疑的. Drip, drip, drip, from ledge窗台 and coping屋顶, splash飞溅的水 from pipes管子 and water-spouts喷水孔, and by-and-by不久 the houseless shadow would fall upon the stones that pave the way通往 to Waterloo bridge滑铁卢桥; it being in the houseless mind to have a halfpenny worth of excuse for saying “Good-night” to the toll-keeper收费人, and catching a glimpse [ɡlimps]n.一瞥of his fire. A good fire and a good great-coat大衣 and a good woollen neck-shawl围巾,围脖, were comfortable things to see in conjunction结合 with the toll-keeper; also his brisk wakefulness清醒 was excellent company when he rattled the change of halfpence down upon that metal table of his, like a man who defied对抗,藐视 the night, with all its sorrowful伤心的 thoughts, and didn’t care for the coming of dawn. There was need of encouragement on the threshold开端,桥头 of the bridge, for the bridge was dreary ['drɪərɪ]adj.沉闷的. The chopped-up被剁成块的 murdered man, had not been lowered放低 with a rope over the parapet ['pærəpɪt]n.栏杆;扶手when those nights were; he was alive, and slept then quietly enough most likely, and undisturbed [ʌndɪ'stɜːbd]adj.安静的;未被扰乱的by any dream of where he was to come. But the river had an awful look, the buildings on the banks were muffled ['mʌfld]v.裹住in black shrouds夜幕, and the reflected lights seemed to originate deep in the water, as if the spectres鬼魂 of suicides自杀者们 were holding them to show where they went down落下去. The wild moon and clouds were as restless as an evil邪恶的 conscience意识,良心 in a tumbled被翻滚的 bed, and the very正是 shadow of the immensity [ɪ'mensətɪ]n.巨大of London seemed to lie oppressively [ə'presivli]adv.压迫地upon the river.
在淅淅沥沥的雨中，流浪汉仍会在街上一直走，一直走，眼中所见唯有纵横交错的街道。偶尔会在街角看到两名警察在交谈，或者警长或巡视官在训斥下属。在夜里，时不时地——但很罕见——流浪汉会意识到，在离他几码远的前方门口有个脑袋鬼鬼祟祟地探出来，一旦走过去，就会发现有个人直挺挺地站在门边的阴影里，显然他无意为社会提供什么特别的服务。在某种好奇心的驱使下，在符合当下情形的鬼魅般的静默中，流浪汉与这位绅士会从头到脚相互打量一番，然后一言不发地分开，双方都心怀疑虑。嘀嗒、嘀嗒、嘀嗒，雨水从窗台和屋檐往下滴落，或者从管道和排水口飞溅出来。不久，流浪汉的身影就会投落在通往滑铁卢大桥的石板路上；在流浪汉看来，他宁愿花上办个便士，找个借口跟桥梁收费员说声“晚安”，并且瞥一眼他的火炉。一座火光熊熊的火炉、一件温暖厚实的大衣和一条围在脖子上的羊毛围巾，只要看一眼桥梁收费员，就会看到这些令人感觉舒适的物品；另外，当收费员将半个便士的零钱叮叮当当地抛在他那张金属桌子上时，他精神饱满的清醒模样也是极好的陪伴，仿佛在公然蔑视这充满哀思愁情的夜晚，亦不在乎黎明的到来。桥上空无一人，踏上这座桥头其实是需要鼓励的。在那几个夜晚，那个被谋杀分尸的受害人尚未被人用绳子从栏杆上吊下来；当时他还活着，很可能也睡得很安静，没有受到任何噩梦的侵扰。但是，河面看起来很恐怖，两岸的建筑都被笼罩在黑色的夜幕下，倒映在水里的灯光似乎源自于河水的深处，仿佛是自杀者的鬼魂在举着那些灯，标示着他们落水的地点。苍白的月光和杂乱的云朵躁动不安，就像良心不安的人在床上翻来覆去一样，伦敦城庞大的阴影压抑地映在河面上。
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