OCTOBER 20.
10月20日。

We arrived here yesterday. The ambassador is indisposed, and will not go out for some days.
我们昨天到达这里。大使身体不适，将不会外出几天。 —

If he were less peevish and morose, all would be well.
如果他不那么易怒和忧郁，就一切都好了。 —

I see but too plainly that Heaven has destined me to severe trials;
我太清楚地看到天空已经注定了严峻的考验给我；但是勇气！ —

but courage! a light heart may bear anything.
轻松的心态可以承受任何事情。 —

A light heart!
一个轻松的心态！ —

I smile to find such a word proceeding from my pen.
我笑了，因为这样一个词从我的笔端流露出来。 —

A little more lightheartedness would render me the happiest being under the sun.
更多的轻快会使我成为太阳下最幸福的人。 —

But must I despair of my talents and faculties, whilst others of far inferior abilities parade before me with the utmost self-satisfaction?
但是我必须对自己的才能和能力绝望吗？而其他能力远逊于我的人却满怀自满地走在我面前？ —

Gracious Providence, to whom I owe all my powers, why didst thou not withhold some of those blessings I possess, and substitute in their place a feeling of self-confidence and contentment?
亲切的上天，我要感谢你赐予我所有的才能，为什么你没有保留一些我拥有的祝福，并以自信和满足感取而代之呢？

But patience! all will yet be well;
但是要有耐心！一切都会好起来的； —

for I assure you, my dear friend, you were right:
因为我向你保证，亲爱的朋友，你是对的。 —

since I have been obliged to associate continually with other people, and observe what they do, and how they employ themselves, I have become far better satisfied with myself.
自从我被迫不断与他人交往、观察他们的所作所为以及他们如何利用自己的时间后，我对自己变得更加满意。 —

For we are so constituted by nature, that we are ever prone to compare ourselves with others;
因为我们的天性使然，我们总是很容易拿自己与他人相比； —

and our happiness or misery depends very much on the objects and persons around us.
而我们的幸福或者不幸很大程度上取决于我们周围的事物和人。 —

On this account, nothing is more dangerous than solitude:
正因如此，孤独是最危险的： —

there our imagination, always disposed to rise, taking a new flight on the wings of fancy, pictures to us a chain of beings of whom we seem the most inferior.
在那里，我们的想象力总是倾向于升腾，乘着幻想的翅膀为我们描绘了一系列我们看起来最低下的存在。 —

All things appear greater than they really are, and all seem superior to us.
所有事物似乎都比它们实际上更大，而且似乎比我们优秀。 —

This operation of the mind is quite natural:
这种思维过程完全是自然的： —

we so continually feel our own imperfections, and fancy we perceive in others the qualities we do not possess, attributing to them also all that we enjoy ourselves, that by this process we form the idea of a perfect, happy man, – a man, however, who only exists in our own imagination.
我们不断感受到自己的不完美，并且幻想我们在别人身上看到了我们所没有的品质，也将所有自己拥有的东西归因于他人，通过这个过程，我们形成了一个完美、幸福的人的理念——然而，这个人只存在于我们自己的想象中。 —

But when, in spite of weakness and disappointments, we set to work in earnest, and persevere steadily, we often find, that, though obliged continually to tack, we make more way than others who have the assistance of wind and tide;
然而，尽管虚弱和失望困扰着我们，我们努力工作并坚持不懈，通常发现，尽管不断需要改变方向，我们的进步却超过了其他借助风和潮流的人; —

and, in truth, there can be no greater satisfaction than to keep pace with others or outstrip them in the race.
实际上，没有什么比在比赛中与他人保持同步或超越他们更令人满足的了。

NOVEMBER 26.
11月26日。

I begin to find my situation here more tolerable, considering all circumstances.
考虑到所有情况，我开始觉得我在这里的处境更可忍受了。 —

I find a great advantage in being much occupied;
我发现很忙碌有很大的优势; —

and the number of persons I meet, and their different pursuits, create a varied entertainment for me.
我遇到的人和他们不同的追求给我带来了各种各样的娱乐。 —

I have formed the acquaintance of the Count C– and I esteem him more and more every day.
我结识了C伯爵并且每天对他的评价越来越高。 —

He is a man of strong understanding and great discernment;
他是一个有着很强的理解力和极高洞察力的人; —

but, though he sees farther than other people, he is not on that account cold in his manner, but capable of inspiring and returning the warmest affection.
尽管他看得比别人更远，但他的态度并不因此冷漠，而是能够激发和回报最热烈的情感。 —

He appeared interested in me on one occasion, when I had to transact some business with him.
他在有一次我需要与他进行一些业务交流时，表现出对我感兴趣。 —

He perceived, at the first word, that we understood each other, and that he could converse with me in a different tone from what he used with others.
他一开口就意识到我们彼此理解，并且可以不同于对其他人的态度与我交谈。 —

I cannot sufficiently esteem his frank and open kindness to me.
我无法足够珍视他对我的坦率和友善。 —

It is the greatest and most genuine of pleasures to observe a great mind in sympathy with our own.
观察到一位伟大心灵与我们自己产生共鸣，是最伟大、最真实的快乐。

DECEMBER 24.
12月24日。

As I anticipated, the ambassador occasions me infinite annoyance.
正如我所预料的那样，大使给我带来了无尽的困扰。 —

He is the most punctilious blockhead under heaven.
他是天底下最拘谨的傻瓜。 —

He does everything step by step, with the trifling minuteness of an old woman;
他做每件事都一步一步地，像一个苛求细节的老太太一样。 —

and he is a man whom it is impossible to please, because he is never pleased with himself.
而且他是一个不可能取悦的人，因为他从来对自己都不满意。 —

I like to do business regularly and cheerfully, and, when it is finished, to leave it.
我喜欢以规律而愉快的方式办理业务，当一切完成后，就离开。 —

But he constantly returns my papers to me, saying, “They will do,” but recommending me to look over them again, as “one may always improve by using a better word or a more appropriate particle.” I then lose all patience, and wish myself at the devil’s.
但他不停地把我的论文还给我，说：“这样就可以了，”但建议我再看一遍，因为“通过使用更好的词语或更合适的词组，总是可以进一步改进。”然后我完全失去了耐心，希望自己在魔鬼那里。 —

Not a conjunction, not an adverb, must be omitted:
不可以省略一个连词，一个副词： —

he has a deadly antipathy to all those transpositions of which I am so fond;
他对我如此喜欢的所有置换都有一种死亡的厌恶； —

and, if the music of our periods is not tuned to the established, official key, he cannot comprehend our meaning.
如果我们句子的音乐没有调节到已经确立的官方键上，他就无法理解我们的意思。 —

It is deplorable to be connected with such a fellow.
和这样的家伙有关联真是可悲。

My acquaintance with the Count C– is the only compensation for such an evil.
和C伯爵的相识是对这种邪恶的唯一补偿。 —

He told me frankly, the other day, that he was much displeased with the difficulties and delays of the ambassador;
他坦率地告诉我，不久前他对大使处的困难和延误感到非常不满； —

that people like him are obstacles, both to themselves and to others.
像他这样的人既是自己的障碍，也是他人的障碍。 —

“But,” added he, “one must submit, like a traveller who has to ascend a mountain:
“但是，”他补充说，“必须要屈服，就像一个爬山的旅行者一样： —

if the mountain was not there, the road would be both shorter and pleasanter;
如果没有那座山，这条路将会既更短又更愉快； —

but there it is, and he must get over it.” The old man perceives the count’s partiality for me:
可是山就在那里，他必须过过去。老人察觉到伯爵对我有偏爱：这使他很烦恼， —

this annoys him, and, he seizes every opportunity to depreciate the count in my hearing.
他抓住每一个机会来贬低伯爵，在我面前说话。 —

I naturally defend him, and that only makes matters worse.
我自然而然地保护他，但这只会让事情变得更糟。 —

Yesterday he made me indignant, for he also alluded to me.
昨天他让我感到愤怒，因为他还暗指了我。 —

“The count,” he said, “is a man of the world, and a good man of business: his style is good, and he writes with facility;
“伯爵，”他说，” 是个世故并且在商务上很出色的人；他的风格很好，写作很得心应手； —

but, like other geniuses, he has no solid learning.” He looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask if I felt the blow.
但是，像其他天才一样，他没有扎实的学识。” 他用一种表情看着我，仿佛在问我是否感到受伤。 —

But it did not produce the desired effect:
但这并没有产生预期的效果： —

I despise a man who can think and act in such a manner.
我看不起一个能以这种方式思考和行事的人。 —

However, I made a stand, and answered with not a little warmth.
然而，我坚持立场并且愤然回答道。 —

The count, I said, was a man entitled to respect, alike for his character and his acquirements.
我说伯爵是一个值得尊重的人，无论是他的品格还是他的学识。 —

I had never met a person whose mind was stored with more useful and extensive knowledge, – who had, in fact, mastered such an infinite variety of subjects, and who yet retained all his activity for the details of ordinary business.
我从未遇到一个内心装满如此丰富而又有用的知识的人，他实际上掌握了如此多样化的主题，而且仍然在日常事务的细节上保持着活跃。 —

This was altogether beyond his comprehension;
这完全超出了他的理解范围； —

and I took my leave, lest my anger should be too highly excited by some new absurdity of his.
我告别了他，以免我的愤怒被他的一些新荒谬之处激怒得太高。

And you are to blame for all this, you who persuaded me to bend my neck to this yoke by preaching a life of activity to me.
这一切都是你的错，是你劝说我屈服于这种活动的生活方式。 —

If the man who plants vegetables, and carries his corn to town on market-days, is not more usefully employed than I am, then let me work ten years longer at the galleys to which I am now chained.
如果种植蔬菜并在市场日将谷物运到城里的人比我更有用处，那么让我在目前这些环境下多干十年吧。

Oh, the brilliant wretchedness, the weariness, that one is doomed to witness among the silly people whom we meet in society here!
哦，那些我们在这里社交场合遇到的愚蠢人的明智的不幸和疲倦啊！ —

The ambition of rank! How they watch, how they toil, to gain precedence! What poor and contemptible passions are displayed in their utter nakedness!
地位的野心！他们如何注视，如何努力争取优先权！他们所展示的是多么可怜和可鄙的激情！ —

We have a woman here, for example, who never ceases to entertain the company with accounts of her family and her estates.
我们这里有个女人，她总是以她的家族和财产为公司提供娱乐。 —

Any stranger would consider her a silly being, whose head was turned by her pretensions to rank and property;
任何陌生人都会认为她是一个愚蠢的人，她的头脑被她对地位和财产的假装所迷惑。 —

but she is in reality even more ridiculous, the daughter of a mere magistrate’s clerk from this neighbourhood.
但实际上，她更可笑，是这个附近一个衙役的女儿。 —

I cannot understand how human beings can so debase themselves.
我无法理解人们为何如此贬低自己。

Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves;
每天我都越来越觉得，用自己来评判他人是多么愚蠢； —

and I have so much trouble with myseif, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.
而且我自己也有很多麻烦，内心经常处于不安之中，如果他人只是给我同样的自由，我就满足了。

What provokes me most is the unhappy extent to which distinctions of rank are carried.
最让我恼火的是地位的差距被带到了如此不幸的程度。 —

I know perfectly well how necessary are inequalities of condition, and I am sensible of the advantages I myself derive therefrom;
我非常清楚条件的不平等是多么必要，我也意识到我自己从中得到的好处； —

but I would not have these institutions prove a barrier to the small chance of happiness which I may enjoy on this earth.
但我不希望这些机构成为我在这个世界上享受到的微小幸福的障碍。

I have lately become acquainted with a Miss B–, a very agreeable girl, who has retained her natural manners in the midst of artificial life.
我最近结识了一位叫B小姐的非常可爱的女孩，在人工生活中仍然保持着她的自然举止。 —

Our first conversation pleased us both equally; and, at taking leave, I requested permission to visit her.
我们的第一次对话都让我们感到非常愉快；在离开时，我请求能够拜访她。 —

She consented in so obliging a manner, that I waited with impatience for the arrival of the happy moment.
她以非常乐意的方式同意了，我迫不及待地等待着这个幸福时刻的到来。 —

She is not a native of this place, but resides here with her aunt.
她并不是这个地方的本地人，而是和她的姑姑一起居住在这里。 —

The countenance of the old lady is not prepossessing.
那个老太太的面容并不讨人喜欢。 —

I paid her much attention, addressing the greater part of my conversation to her;
我对她非常关注，把大部分的对话都对她说； —

and, in less than half an hour, I discovered what her niece subsequently acknowledged to me, that her aged aunt, having but a small fortune, and a still smaller share of understanding, enjoys no satisfaction except in the pedigree of her ancestors, no protection save in her noble birth, and no enjoyment but in looking from her castle over the heads of the humble citizens.
我在不到半小时的时间里发现了她的侄女后来向我承认的一件事，即她年迈的姑姑除了祖先的血统以外，没有任何满足感，没有任何保护，只有从她的城堡俯瞰这些平民的乐趣。 —

She was, no doubt, handsome in her youth, and in her early years probably trifled away her time in rendering many a poor youth the sport of her caprice:
她年轻时无疑是个漂亮的女孩，在她的早年也许轻浮地浪费了时间，供众多贫穷的青年为她的眼前一亮而徒劳。 —

in her riper years she has submitted to the yoke of a veteran officer, who, in return for her person and her small independence, has spent with her what we may designate her age of brass.
到了她的中年，她嫁给了一名退伍军官，换取的是她的人和微薄的财产。过了相当长的时间，我们可能称之为她的铜器时代。 —

He is dead; and she is now a widow, and deserted.
他去世了；现在她是一个寡妇，被遗弃了。 —

She spends her iron age alone, and would not be approached, except for the loveliness of her niece.
她度过了她孤独的铁器时代，如果没有她侄女的美丽，她是不愿接近任何人的。