1、Translation: LigeiaChristina Young12-04-2014Edgar Allan Poe Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He was the first well-known American writer

2、 to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. http:/ Ligeia is an early short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. The story follows an unnamed narrator and his wife Ligeia, a beautiful and intelligent raven-haired

3、 woman. She falls ill, composes The Conqueror Worm, and quotes lines attributed to Joseph Glanvill (which suggest that life is sustainable only through willpower) shortly before dying. After her death, the narrator marries the Lady Rowena. Rowena becomes ill and she dies as well. The distraught narr

4、ator stays with her body overnight and watches as Rowena slowly comes back from the dead though she has transformed into Ligeia. I CANNOT, for my soul, remember how, when, or even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. Long years have since elapsed, and my memory is feeble

5、through much suffering. Or, perhaps, I cannot now bring these points to mind, because, in truth, the character of my beloved, her rare learning, her singular yet placid cast of beauty, and the thrilling and enthralling eloquence of her low musical language, made their way into my heart by paces so s

6、teadily and stealthily progressive that they have been unnoticed and unknown. 我怎么也想不起來當初我是怎樣，在何時，甚至具體在什么地方與麗姬婭小姐相識的。打那之后許多年過去了，由于太多的痛苦，我的記憶力衰退。或許，我現在之所以想不起上述幾點，實際上是因為我所愛之人的性格、她罕見的學識、她非凡但卻嫻靜的美色，以及她那些低吟淺唱、撥動心弦、令人人迷的話語都曾是以那么平穩而隱秘的方式一點一滴地滲入我的心田，以致于我從來就不曾察覺和知曉。 In stature she was tall, somewhat slender,

7、and, in her latter days, even emaciated. I would in vain attempt to portray the majesty, the quiet ease, of her demeanor, or the incomprehensible lightness and elasticity of her footfall. She came and departed as a shadow. I was never made aware of her entrance into my closed study save by the dear

8、music of her low sweet voice, as she placed her marble hand upon my shoulder. In beauty of face no maiden ever equalled her. 當她下到下一層樓時,她的腳步聲不久就消失了。 Presently her footfall die out as she descend to the lower floor. 她身段頎長，略顯纖弱，在她彌留之時，竟至形消骨立。要描繪出她的端莊、她的安詳、她的風姿，或是她輕盈裊娜的步態，那我的任何努力都將是徒勞。她來去就像一個影子。我從來就覺察不到

9、她進入我房門關閉的書房，除非她把纖纖玉手輕輕摁在我肩上，用低低的、甜甜的嗓音說出音樂般的話語。說到她美麗的臉龐，普天下沒一個少女能與之相比。 Without Ligeia I was but as a child groping benighted. Her presence, her readings alone, rendered vividly luminous the many mysteries of the transcendentalism in which we were immersed. Wanting the radiant lustre of her eyes, let

10、ters, lambent and golden, grew duller than Saturnian lead. And now those eyes shone less and less frequently upon the pages over which I pored.benighted1. intellectually or morally ignorant; unenlightened. this benighted country; benighted ages of barbarism and superstition;2. overtaken by darkness

11、or night.But I cut short his appeal, and repulsed him so determinately, so decidedly, and with such a mixture of scornful indignation, tempered with cool, dispassionate sorrow and pity for his benighted mind, that he withdrew, astonished, mortified, and discomforted; and, a few days after, I heard t

12、hat he had departed for London.The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte, Anne 他一連好幾個小時呆在圖書館里仔細翻閱那些發霉味的文獻資料。 He had spent several hours in the library poring over those musty documents. 要仔細研讀這幾卷文件還需要好幾個月的時間。 It will take several more months to pore through the volumns of documents 沒有了麗姬婭，我不過是一個在黑暗中摸索的孩子

13、。單是她的相伴，單是她的講解，就曾使我倆潛心研究的先驗論中的許多奧秘豁然開朗。沒有了她眼睛燦爛的光芒，輕靈絕妙的文字變得比鉛還呆板凝重。而當時那雙眼睛越來越難得照射到我所讀的書頁上。 For long hours, detaining my hand, would she pour out before me the overflowing of a heart whose more than passionate devotion amounted to idolatry. How had I deserved to be so blessed by such confessions? -

14、how had I deserved to be so cursed with the removal of my beloved in the hour of her making them, But upon this subject I cannot bear to dilate. Let me say only, that in Ligeias more than womanly abandonment to a love, alas! all unmerited, all unworthily bestowed, I at length recognized the principl

15、e of her longing with so wildly earnest a desire for the life which was now fleeing so rapidly away.dilate1. To become wider or larger; expand.the pupil of the eye dilates in the dark. 2. To speak or write at great length on a subject; expatiate.I am sure you do not wish me to dilate further on this matter. If you do not see my point,