The Gift of the Magi
賢士的禮物

by O. Henry  作者 ：O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
1 美元 87 美分。就這樣。其中 60 美分是幾美分。便士通過推土機推平雜貨店、蔬菜商和屠夫，一次節省一兩個，直到一個人的臉頰被這種接近的交易所暗示的無聲的吝嗇歸咎所灼傷。Della 數了三遍。1 美元 87 美分。而第二天就是耶誕節了。

There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
顯然，除了撲倒在破舊的小沙發上嚎叫之外，別無他法。所以 Della 做到了。這引發了道德反思，即生活是由抽泣、抽泣和微笑組成的，其中抽泣佔主導地位。

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad.
當家的女主人從第一階段逐漸消退到第二階段時，看看這個家。帶傢俱的公寓，每周 8 美元。它並不完全是乞丐式的描述，但它肯定有那個詞是關於尋找乞丐小隊的。

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."
在下面的門廳裡有一個信箱，任何信件都不會進去，還有一個電動按鈕，凡人的手指都無法從中哄騙出戒指。與此相關的還有一張名片，上面寫著「詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·楊先生」。。

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.
“Dillingham”在以前的繁榮時期被吹向微風，當時它的擁有者每周領取 30 美元的報酬。現在，當收入縮水到 20 美元時，“Dillingham”的字母看起來模糊不清，彷彿他們正在認真考慮收縮到一個謙虛而謙遜的 D。但是，每當 James Dillingham Young 先生回到家，到達他樓上的公寓時，他都被稱為“Jim”，並被 James Dillingham Young 夫人熱情地擁抱，她已經向您介紹了 Della。這一切都很好。

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.
黛拉哭了，用抹粉抹布照看她的臉頰。她站在窗邊，呆呆地望著一隻灰貓，它在灰色的後院裡走著灰色的柵欄。明天就是耶誕節，她只有 1.87 美元可以給吉姆買禮物。幾個月來，她一直在節省每一分錢，結果就是這個。每周 20 美元也行不通。費用比她計算的要多。他們總是如此。只需 1.87 美元即可為 Jim 購買禮物。她的 Jim.她花了很多快樂的時光為他計劃一些好東西。一些精美、稀有、純正的東西——一點點接近配得上 Jim 擁有的榮譽。

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 Bat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.
房間的窗戶之間有一塊橋墩玻璃。也許你見過 8 美元 Bat 的碼頭玻璃。一個非常瘦弱和非常敏捷的人，通過觀察他在快速的縱向條帶序列中的倒影，可以對他的外表有一個相當準確的概念。黛拉身材苗條，卻掌握了這門手藝。

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
突然，她從窗戶裡轉了出來，站在玻璃前。她的眼睛閃閃發光，但她的臉在二十秒內就失去了顏色。她迅速地拉下她的頭髮，讓它垂到全長。

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.
現在，詹姆斯·迪林漢姆·楊斯 （James Dillingham Youngs） 有兩件財產，他們都為此感到非常自豪。一個是吉姆的金表，這是他父親和他祖父的。另一個是黛拉的頭髮。如果示巴女王住在通風井對面的公寓里，德拉總有一天會讓她的頭髮掛在窗外晾乾，只是為了貶低女王陛下的珠寶和禮物。如果所羅門王是看門人，他所有的寶藏都堆在地下室里，吉姆每次經過都會掏出他的手錶，只是為了看到他嫉妒地拔鬍子。

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.
所以現在黛拉美麗的頭髮垂在她周圍，像一股棕色的瀑布一樣蕩漾著光芒。它一直到她的膝蓋以下，幾乎成了她的衣服。然後她又緊張又迅速地完成了一次。有一次，她躊躇了一分鐘，一兩滴眼淚濺在破舊的紅地毯上。

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she cluttered out of the door and down the stairs to the street.
她那件舊棕色的夾克走了;她戴著一頂舊棕色的帽子。她掀起了一陣裙子，眼睛里還閃著燦爛的光芒，淩亂地走出了門，走下樓梯，走到了街上。

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One Eight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."
她停下來的地方，標牌上寫著：“索夫羅尼夫人。各種美髮產品。一八上黛拉跑了起來，喘著粗氣。夫人，高大，太白，冰冷，看起來一點也不像“索夫羅尼”。

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.
“你願意買我的頭髮嗎？”

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."
“我買頭髮，”太太說。“把你的帽子摘下來，讓我們看看它的樣子。”

Down rippled the brown cascade.
羽絨在棕色的瀑布上蕩漾。

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
“二十塊錢，”夫人說，用一隻熟練的手舉起了彌撒。

"Give it to me quick" said Della.
“快給我，”黛拉說。

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.
哦，接下來的兩個小時在玫瑰色的翅膀上絆倒了。忘掉那個散列的比喻吧。她正在搜刮商店，尋找吉姆的禮物。

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 78 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.
她終於找到了。它肯定是為 Jim 而不是其他人製作的。任何一家商店都沒有其他類似的產品，她把它們都翻了個底朝天。這是一條設計簡單而純潔的鉑金鏈，僅通過實質而不是單純的裝飾來正確地宣告它的價值——就像所有美好的事物都應該做的那樣。它甚至配得上 The Watch。她一看到它，就知道那一定是吉姆的。就像他一樣。安靜和價值 -- 適用於兩者的描述。他們從她那裡拿了 21 美元，她帶著 78 美分匆匆忙忙地回家了。戴著那條鏈子，Jim 可能會對任何公司的時間感到適當的焦慮。儘管這隻手錶很巨集偉，但他有時會偷偷地看它，因為他用舊皮帶代替了鏈條。

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task dear friends--a mammoth task.
當黛拉回到家時，她的陶醉稍微讓位於謹慎和理智。她拿出捲髮棒，點燃煤氣，開始修復因慷慨和愛而造成的破壞。親愛的朋友們，這始終是一項艱巨的任務——一項艱巨的任務。

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
不到四十分鐘，她的頭上就長滿了細小的、緊緊地躺著的捲髮，使她看起來非常像一個逃學的小學生。她長時間、仔細、批判地看著鏡子里的自己。

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?"
“如果吉姆不殺我，”她對自己說，“在他多看我一眼之前，他會說我看起來像個康尼島合唱團的女孩。可是我該怎麼辦呢——哦！我能用一美元八十七美分做什麼呢？

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
7 點鐘，咖啡做好了，煎鍋放在爐子後面，熱乎乎的，準備煮排骨。

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please, God, make him think I am still pretty."
吉姆從來沒有遲到過。黛拉將手中的鑰匙鏈折了一倍，坐在桌子的角落裡，靠近他經常進的門。然後她聽到他在第一層樓梯上的腳步聲，她有那麼一瞬間臉色發白。她習慣於對最簡單的日常事物默默祈禱，現在她低聲說：“上帝啊，求求你讓他覺得我還是很漂亮的。

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was with out gloves.

Jim stepped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet, even after the hardest mental labour.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise-shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men-who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

         

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