Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

单词提示

1.misery 苦难

2.bishop 主教

3.candlestick 蜡烛台

原文

Chapter 1: Jean Valjean

It is the year 1796, and the people of France are hungry; not the rich people, of course, they have food, they have warm clothes, they have beautiful houses; no, it is the poor people of France.

Jean Valjean is one of these poor people.

He is a young man, big, strong, and a good worker, but he has no work.

He cannot find work, and he is hungry.

He lives with his sister in the village of Bree, her husband is dead and she has seven children.

It is a cold, hard winter and there is no food in the house, no bread.

Nothing and seven children.

Jean Valjean is a good man; he is not a thief.

But how can a man just sit there when his sister's children cry all night because they are hungry?

What can a man do?

He leaves his house at night and goes down the village night.

He puts his hand through the window of the bakery.

“Crash!”,he takes a loaf of bread and he runs.

He runs fast, but other people run faster.

France is not kind to poor people.

France send Jean Valjean to prison for five years.

After four years, he escapes.

They find him and bring him back.

They give him six more years.

Once again, he escapes, and two days later they find him and they give him another eight years,19 years in prison for a loaf of bread.

In 1815, when he leaves prison, Jean Valjean is a different man.

Prison changes people.

Years of misery, years of back breaking work,years of cruel prison guards, these things change a man once.

There was love in Jean Valjean's heart, now there is only hate.

One evening in October in the year 1815,there was a knock on the door of the Bishop of Denya's house.

“Come in”, said the bishop.

The bishop was a kind man.

Everyone in the town of Denya knew that poor people, hungry people, miserable people, they all came to the door of the bishop's house.

The bishop's sister looked at the man at the door that night, and she was afraid.

“Look at him,” she whispered to the bishop, “he is a big man and a dangerous one. He carries a yellow card, so he was once a prisoner, a bad man.”

But the bishop did not listen.

“Come in, my friend,” he said to the man at the door, “come in, you must eat dinner with us and sleep in a warm bed tonight.”

The man stared at the bishop.

“My name is Jean Valjean,” he said, “I was a prisoner in Toulon for 19 years. Here is my yellow card, see, people everywhere shut their doors in my face, but not you, why not?”

“Because my friend, in the eyes of God, you are my brother,”said the bishop smiling, “So come in and sit by our fire.”

The bishop turned to his sister, “Now sister, our friend Jean Valjean needs a good dinner. Bring out the silver dinner plates. It's a special night tonight.”

“Not the silver plates,” whispered the bishop's sister.

Her eyes went quickly to Jean Valjean, then back to the bishop's face.

“Yes, the silver plates,” said the bishop, “and the silver candlesticks, too. The church has these beautiful things, but they are for our visitors, and our visitor tonight must have only the best.”

And so, Jean Valjean sat down with the bishop and his sister, and ate from silver plates.

He ate hungrily. It was his first good meal for weeks.

“You're a good man,” he said to the bishop, “perhaps the only good man in France.”

But Valjean could not take his eyes away from the silver plates.

After the meal, the bishop's sister put the silver plates away, and Valjean's eyes watched.

He saw the place, and he remembered it in the night, in his warm bed in the bishop's house.

He thought about the plates, they were big,heavy, so much silver in them.

“I can sell those plates,” he thought, “for just one of them. I can eat well for months.”

19 years in prison is a long time, and 19 hard years change a man.

By morning, Valjean was a long way from the bishop's house.

But how do you carry big silver plates? How do you hide them?

People in Denya began to whisper.

“Did you see him? That big man carrying six silver plates? Where did he get them from? Those plates came from the church. A man like that doesn't have silver plates, no, and he carries a yellow card, did you see? So he was a prisoner once, he's a thief, he stole those plates.”

The police heard the whispers, they went after Jean Valjean, found him and took him back to the bishop's house in the afternoon.

But there, they had a surprise.

“My dear friend,” the bishop, said to Jean Valjean, “I am so pleased to see you. You forgot the candlesticks, I gave you the silver plates and the candlestick, you remember, but you forgot to take the candlesticks when you left.”

“But this man is a thief.” said one of the policemen.

“No, no, of course not,” said the bishop smiling, “I gave the silver to Monsieur Valjean.”

“You mean he can go? He is free?” said the policeman.

“Of course,” the bishop said.

All this time Jean Valjean stared at the bishop, and said not one word.

The policeman went away, and the Bishop of Denya went into his house and came out again with the two silver candlesticks.

They were tall and heavy and beautiful.

The bishop put the candlesticks into Jean Valjean's hands.

“Jean Valjean, my brother,” he said, “you must leave your bad life behind you. This is God's silver, and I am giving it to you. With it, you can begin a new good life. I am buying your soul for God.”

Jean Valjean left the town of Denya with his silver plates and his silver candlesticks.

Suddenly he was a rich man, but he did not understand why.

“What's happening to me,” he thought, “everything is changing. How can I hate people when this bishop is so good to me? What shall I do, how shall I live?”

Prisoner Valjean did not understand anything.

He sat down by the road with his head in his hands and cried.

He cried for the first time in 19 years.

How long did he sit there crying? What didhe do next and where did he go?

Nobody knows, but when the sun came up on anew day, he was a changed man.

翻译

第一章：冉阿让

那是1796年，法国人民正饱受饥饿之苦；当然，富人不在其列，他们有充足的食物、温暖的衣物和漂亮的房子；挨饿的，是法国的穷苦百姓。
冉阿让就是这些穷人中的一员。
他是个年轻人，身材高大，体格强壮，也是个勤快的好工人，但他就是找不到工作。
他找不到活儿干，只能忍饥挨饿。
他和姐姐住在布里村，姐夫已经去世，留下姐姐独自抚养七个孩子。
那是一个寒冷而严酷的冬天，家里已经揭不开锅，连一点面包都没有了。
家里空空如也，却还有七张嗷嗷待哺的嘴。
冉阿让是个好人，他本不是贼。
可是，当姐姐的孩子们因为饥饿整夜整夜地啼哭时，一个男人怎么能干坐着无动于衷呢？
他又能做些什么呢？
他在夜里离开家，摸黑走进村庄。
他把手伸进面包房的窗户。
“哐当！”他抓起一条面包，拔腿就跑。
他跑得很快，但别人追得更快。
法国对穷人并不仁慈。
法国把冉阿让送进监狱，判了五年。
四年后，他越狱了。
他们抓回了他，又给他加了六年刑期。
他再次越狱，两天后又被抓了回来，这次又加了八年。仅仅为了一条面包，他在监狱里整整熬了十九年。
1815年，当他走出监狱时，冉阿让已经变成了另一个人。
监狱是会改变人的。
多年的苦难、多年的苦役、多年残酷狱卒的折磨，这些经历彻底改变了一人。
冉阿让的心里曾经有过爱，如今却只剩下仇恨。
1815年10月的一个傍晚，迪涅主教的宅邸响起了敲门声。
“请进。”主教说道。
主教是个仁慈的人。
迪涅镇上的每个人都知道，穷人、饿着肚子的人、走投无路的人，都会来到主教家门前求助。
那天晚上，主教的姐姐看着门外的男人，心里十分害怕。
“你看看他，”她低声对主教说，“他是个大块头，看着很危险。他带着黄护照，说明他曾经是个囚犯，是个坏人。”
但主教没有听她的。
“请进吧，我的朋友，”他对门外的男人说，“请进来，你必须和我们一起吃顿晚饭，今晚还要睡在温暖的床上。”
男人死死盯着主教。
“我叫冉阿让，”他说，“我在土伦的监狱里蹲了十九年。这是我的黄护照，你看，走到哪里人们都对我闭门不见，但你却没有，为什么？”
“因为我的朋友，在上帝眼里，你就是我的兄弟，”主教微笑着说，“所以请进来，在炉火旁坐下吧。”
主教转过头对姐姐说：“姐姐，我们的朋友冉阿让需要一顿丰盛的晚餐。把那些银餐盘拿出来吧。今晚是个特别的夜晚。”
“别拿银餐盘。”主教的姐姐低声说。
她的目光迅速瞥向冉阿让，又马上转回主教的脸上。
“就要拿银餐盘，”主教说，“还有银烛台也要拿出来。教堂拥有这些精美的器物，但它们本就是为客人们准备的，而我们今晚的客人，理应享受最好的待遇。”
于是，冉阿让和主教以及他的姐姐坐在一起，用银餐盘吃着饭。
他狼吞虎咽地吃着。这是他几周来吃的第一顿饱饭。
“你是个好人，”他对主教说，“也许是法国唯一的好人。”
但冉阿让的目光始终无法从那些银餐盘上移开。
饭后，主教的姐姐把银餐盘收了起来，冉阿让的眼睛一直盯着。
他看清了存放的位置，并在当晚、在主教家温暖的床上，将这一切牢牢记在心里。
他想着那些盘子，它们又大又沉，里面全是实打实的银子。
“我可以把那些盘子卖掉，”他想，“哪怕只卖一个，也够我舒舒服服吃上好几个月了。”
十九年的牢狱之灾太漫长了，十九年的苦难足以改变一个人。
到了第二天清晨，冉阿让已经离开主教的宅邸，走出了很远。
可是，那么大的银餐盘怎么带走？又该怎么藏匿呢？
迪涅镇上的人们开始窃窃私语。
“你看见他了吗？那个大块头带着六个银餐盘？他从哪儿弄来的？那些盘子是教堂的。像他这种人不可能有银餐盘，不可能，而且他带着黄护照，你看见了吗？所以他以前是个囚犯，他是个贼，那些盘子是他偷的。”
警察听到了这些议论，他们追上冉阿让，在下午将他押回了主教的家。
但在那里，他们却迎来了一个意想不到的转折。
“我亲爱的朋友，”主教对冉阿让说，“见到你回来我太高兴了。你把烛台落下了。我给了你银餐盘和烛台，你记得的，但你走的时候忘了把烛台带走。”
“可这个人是个贼啊。”一名警察说道。
“不，不，当然不是，”主教微笑着说，“那些银器是我送给冉阿让先生的。”
“您的意思是，他可以走了？他自由了？”警察问。
“当然。”主教说。
在这整个过程中，冉阿让一直呆呆地盯着主教，一句话也没说。
警察离开后，迪涅主教走进屋里，拿着那两只银烛台走了出来。
它们又高又沉，十分精美。
主教把烛台放进冉阿让的手里。
“冉阿让，我的兄弟，”他说，“你必须把过去的罪恶生活抛在脑后。这是属于上帝的银器，现在我把它送给你。有了它，你可以开始一段崭新而向善的人生。我是在替上帝买下你的灵魂。”
冉阿让带着银餐盘和银烛台离开了迪涅镇。
突然间，他成了一个富人，但他自己都不明白为什么。
“我到底怎么了，”他想，“一切都在改变。当这位主教对我如此仁慈时，我怎么能继续去恨别人呢？我该怎么办，我又该怎样活下去？”
作为囚犯的冉阿让，对这一切感到茫然不解。
他坐在路边，双手捂着脸，哭了起来。
这是十九年来，他第一次流泪。
他在那里坐了多久？接下来他又做了什么，去了哪里？
没有人知道。但当新的一天太阳升起时，他已脱胎换骨，变成了一个全新的人。