■麦琪的礼物（1）
The Gift of the Magi（Ⅰ）
◎O. Henry/欧·亨利
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.
There was clearly nothing 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.
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 lookout for the mendicancy squad.
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
美丽语录
1美元87美分。多一分钱都没有了。其中60美分还是一分分的零钱凑起来的。虽然深感在买卖时分毫必争实在丢人现眼，但这些零钱仍是她红着脸从杂货店老板、菜贩和屠夫那儿讨价还价，一分两分地攒下来的。德拉数了三遍。的确是1美元87美分。可明天就是圣诞节了。
除了扑倒在破旧的小沙发上大哭一场，显然再无别的应对之法。德拉的确就是这样。这就使一种精神上的思考就此而生——世俗生活是由哽咽、抽泣和微笑组成的，而抽泣总是处于支配地位。
这位主妇的心情逐渐平复了下来，让我们扫视一下她的家吧。一套每周8美元租金的公寓，自带家具。要说它是乞丐窝有点夸张，可从外观上看，其实也差不远。
楼下的过道里有个永远不会收到信的邮箱，还有一个永远也不会被按响的电铃。那儿还有一张名片，上面写着“詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·杨先生”。
Young”.
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, 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.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow 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 honor of being owned by Jim.
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. 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.
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in
“迪林厄姆”这个名号，是主人在每周30美元的辉煌日子时趁着兴子加上去的。如今，他的收入缩减到了20美元，他们也开始严肃地考虑，是否应该把自己缩写成谦逊而务实的D。但每当詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·杨先生回家走进楼上的房间时，詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·杨太太——就是刚刚为大家介绍的德拉——总会叫他一声“吉姆”，给他一个最热烈的拥抱。一切都非常完好。
德拉慢慢停止了哭泣，又往脸上抹了点粉。她站在窗前，两眼无神地看着一只爬行在昏暗后院里灰白篱笆上的灰白色的猫。明天就是圣诞了，而德拉能用来给吉姆买礼物的钱总共也只有1美元87美分。过去的几个月，她费尽心思用最大的努力一分分地攒积下来，却只有这点点钱。一周区区20美元的收入的确入不敷出，支出总是大于预算。因此，能给她心爱的吉姆买圣诞礼物的钱，也只有这1美元87美分。她无时无刻不在幸福地幻想着要送爱人一件称心的礼物，一件精致、稀有、贵重的礼物——至少是些配得上吉姆的东西才行。
房间的窗户与窗户之间有一面镜子。也许你可以想象到周租8美元公寓里的镜子。哪怕是一个非常瘦小的人，也得不断转动着观察从那狭长的镜子里投射出来的影像，才可能看得清自己的样貌。而苗条瘦弱的德拉也早已习惯这么做了。
突然，她从窗户边回过身来，立在镜子跟前。她两眼目光闪烁，可不到20秒，她的脸却失去了神色。她将头发迅速放下，让它们完全垂落下来。
现在，让我们来看看詹姆斯·迪林厄姆·杨夫妇各自拥有的一件为
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 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.
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.
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 fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the “Sofronie”.
“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“I buy hair,” said Madame.“Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else.
之自豪的物品。吉姆有一块从祖父那儿传下来的金表；而德拉拥有的则是一头美丽无比的秀发。如果示巴女王住在风井对面的房间里，那德拉全然可以把洗完后的秀发抛出窗外晾晒，只为一比女王的金银珠宝；如果所罗门是这里的门房，那每当吉姆从他面前走过时定会从怀里摸出表来，让那把财富塞满地下室的所罗门王嫉妒得扯胡子。
此刻，德拉披散而下的秀发如同涟漪波浪，如棕色瀑布般倾泻而下。她的美发长及膝下，如一袭长袍加身。接着，她又紧张而迅速地把头发扎好。她有过那么一分钟的犹豫，当她呆站原地之时，几滴眼泪落在了破旧的红毯上。
她穿上她的棕色旧外套，戴上棕色旧帽子，眼里残留着晶莹的泪花，裙角一摆，便晃悠着出门、下楼、上街。
她在一块招牌前停了下来，上面写着：“索夫罗尼夫人，各类发制品”。德拉箭步跑去，缓了缓气，定了定神。里面是一位肥胖的女士，肤色惨白冰冷，看上去简直不像“索夫罗尼”。
“您买我的头发吗？”德拉询问道。
“我收购头发，”这位女士说，“把帽子摘掉，让我看看你的头发。”
棕色瀑布倾泻下来。
“20美元。”这位夫人用一只老练的手掂了掂头发，说道。
“快把钱给我吧。”德拉说。
噢，之后的两个小时长出了愉快的翅膀，轻快地掠过。忘了这随口的比喻吧。她正于各家店铺里寻觅着送给吉姆的礼物。
她终于找到了。那一定是为吉姆量身定制的。她把所有店铺都翻遍
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 87 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.
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.
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.
“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?”
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.
了，各个商店都没有这么一件东西。一根简朴的白金表带。上面镌刻着一些简单的花纹。和所有优质物品一样，这是一只低调而华丽的简单表链，和那只金表交相辉映。在第一眼看到它时，她就知道这东西一定要戴在吉姆的手上才能相配。它就像吉姆本人，虽然低调但满腹才华——这一形容对两者都挺适用。她花了21美元将表链买下，然后身揣剩下的87美分急忙赶回了家。有了表链的金表，无论何时何地，吉姆都能骄傲地看时间了。尽管这是一块异常珍贵的表，但之前苦于过于破旧的皮革表链，弄得吉姆有时只敢偷偷地看上一眼。
德拉回到家，稍微平复了一下狂喜的情绪，变得理智平静了些。她翻出烫发钳，打燃煤气炉，试图弥补这为爱失去的发型。这可真是件麻烦事，亲爱的朋友们——一项浩大的工程啊。
不到40分钟，她的头上就已烫出一圈圈小卷发，这让她看起来像一名逃课的小学生。她长久地盯着镜子里的自己，小心而仔细。
“我这个样子，”德拉自言自语地说，“在吉姆看第二眼之前，就算不至于气到把我宰掉，也会嫌弃我像个在康尼岛上负责合唱的小姑娘吧。但是，除此之外我能做什么呢——唉，1美元87美分又有什么用呢？”
7点的时候，她就已经煮好咖啡，煎锅也已经放在热烫的炉火上，准备煎晚餐吃的肉排。