Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men,
孩子們臉色蒼白憔悴,帶著老人般蒼老神情,纖細(xì)羸弱的身材,
deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth,
腳上帶著鐐銬,瘦骨嶙峋甚而畸形變態(tài);有些孩子矮小侏儒,
and others whose long, meager legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together.
有些孩子脛骨極細(xì),幾乎無法撐住佝僂搖晃的軀體。一眼望去,孩子們擁擠成團(tuán),
There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering;
無法看到本該健康正常的面孔。那滿臉愁容的晦暗臉色,頑強(qiáng)掙命的生存痛苦,
there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining.
屬于孩童眼眸里的光亮早已淬息,沒有天真純凈開朗美麗,只有無以言說的悲哀無助。
And yet this scene, painful as it was, had its grotesque features,
眼前痛苦扭曲的景象,卻不乏荒誕無稽的悲戚,
which, in a less interested observer than Nicholas, might have provoked a smile.
孩子們神情看起來比尼克貝還要漠然,但時而還能浮現(xiàn)不經(jīng)意的慘笑。
Mrs. Squeers stood at one of the desks, presiding over an immense basin of brimstone and treacle,
此刻,斯格威爾夫人站在桌邊,正在掌管分發(fā)硫黃粉與糖漿,
of which delicious compound she administered a large installment to each boy in succession,
配好的甜味混合物裝在一個碩大面盆里,孩子們排列成行,每人嘴里被強(qiáng)行灌進(jìn)一大勺。
using for the purpose a common wooden spoon, which might have been originally manufactured for some gigantic top,
斯格威爾夫人手上拿著一柄家常碩大木勺,或許當(dāng)初特別出于劑量考慮,
and which widened every young gentleman's mouth considerably,
那把碩大木勺迫使男孩們竭力張大嘴巴,
they being all obliged, under heavy corporeal penalties, to take in the whole bowl at a gasp.
由于并非情愿,他們便逃不過殘忍的肉體懲罰,喘息間,“啪”得入嘴一大坨。