第36章 幸運的套鞋 The Goloshes of Fortune(第1/32 頁)

《幸運的套鞋》，1838 年

the Goloshes of Fortune, 1838

1. 開端

A bEGINNING

在哥本哈根的一棟房子裡，離國王的新市場不遠，人們正在舉行一個盛大的聚會，主人和他的家人無疑期待著能收到別人的回請。

In a house in copenhagen, not far from the king’s new market, a very large party had assembled, the host and his family expecting, no doubt, to receive invitations in return.

一半的人已經坐在牌桌旁了，另一半人似乎在等待女主人的問題“好吧，我們該怎麼消遣呢？”的結果。

one half of the pany were already seated at the card-tables, the other half seemed to be waiting the result of their hostess’s question, “well, how shall we amuse ourselves?”

接著是談話，過了一會兒，談話開始變得非常有趣。

conversation followed, which, after a while, began to prove very entertaining.

在眾多的話題中，人們談到了中世紀的事件，有些人認為這些事件比我們現在這個時代更有趣。

Among other subjects, it turned upon the events of the middle ages, which some persons maintained were more full of interest than our own times.

顧問克納普熱烈地為這種觀點辯護，以至於女主人立刻站到他那一邊，兩人都反對奧斯特的《古代與現代隨筆》，在那本書裡，作者更偏愛現代。

counsellor Knapp defended this opinion so warmly that the lady of the house immediately went over to his side, and both exclaimed against oersted’s Essays on Ancient and modern times, in which the preference is given to our own.

顧問認為丹麥國王漢斯的時代是最高貴和最幸福的時代。

the counsellor considered the times of the danish king, hans, as the noblest and happiest.

關於這個話題被送來的一份報紙打斷了一會兒，然而報紙上並沒有多少值得一讀的內容，在談話還在繼續的時候，我們去前廳看看吧，在那裡，披風、手杖和套鞋都擺放得井井有條。

the conversation on this topic was only interrupted for a moment by the arri