威尼斯商人

飘泊

鮑西婭        請您不要太急，停一兩天再賭運气吧；因為要是您選得不對，咱們就不能再在一塊儿，所以請您暫時緩一下吧。我心里仿佛有一种什么感覺——可是那不是愛情——告訴我我不愿失去您；您一定也知道，嫌憎是不會向人說這种話的。一個女孩儿家本來不該信口說話，可是唯恐您不能懂得我的意思，我真想留您在這儿住上一兩個月，然后再讓您為我冒險一試。我可以教您怎樣選才不會有錯；可是這樣我就要違犯了誓言，那是斷斷不可的；然而那樣您也許會選錯；要是您選錯了，您一定會使我起了一個有罪的愿望，懊悔我不該為了不敢背誓而忍心讓您失望。頂可惱的是您這一雙眼睛，它們已經瞧透了我的心，把我分成兩半：半個我是您的，還有那半個我也是您的——不，我的意思是說那半個我是我的，可是既然是我的，也就是您的，所以整個儿的我都是您的。唉！都是這些無聊的世俗禮法，使人們不能享受他們合法的權利；所以我雖然是您的，卻又不是您的。要是結果真是這樣，造孽的是那命運，不是我。我說得太嚕蘇了，可是我的目的是要盡量拖延時間，不放您馬上就去選擇。
巴薩尼奧        讓我選吧；我現在這樣提心吊膽，才像給人拷問一樣受罪呢。

飘泊

PORTIA

    Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
    What treason there is mingled with your love.

BASSANIO

    None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
    Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
    There may as well be amity and life
    'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.

飘泊

鮑西婭        給人拷問，巴薩尼奧！那么您給我招認出來，在您的愛情之中，隱藏著什么奸謀？
巴薩尼奧        沒有什么奸謀，我只是有點怀疑憂懼，但恐我的痴心化為徒勞；奸謀跟我的愛情正像冰炭一樣，是無法相容的

飘泊

PORTIA

    Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
    Where men enforced do speak anything.

BASSANIO

    Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.

飘泊

鮑西婭        嗯，可是我怕你是因為受不住拷問的痛苦，才說這樣的話。一個人給綁上了刑床，還不是要他怎樣講就怎樣講？
巴薩尼奧        您要是答應赦我一死，我愿意招認真情。

飘泊

PORTIA

    Well then, confess and live.

BASSANIO

    'Confess' and 'love'
    Had been the very sum of my confession:
    O happy torment, when my torturer
    Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
    But let me to my fortune and the caskets.

飘泊

鮑西婭        好，赦您一死，您招認吧。
巴薩尼奧        “愛”便是我所能招認的一切。多謝我的刑官，您教給我怎樣免罪的答話了！可是讓我去瞧瞧那几個匣子，試試我的運气吧。

飘泊

PORTIA

    Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:
    If you do love me, you will find me out.
    Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
    Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
    Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
    Fading in music: that the comparison
    May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
    And watery death-bed for him. He may win;
    And what is music then? Then music is
    Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
    To a new-crowned monarch: such it is
    As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
    That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
    And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
    With no less presence, but with much more love,
    Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
    The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
    To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice
    The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
    With bleared visages, come forth to view
    The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
    Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay
    I view the fight than thou that makest the fray.

    Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself
    SONG.
    Tell me where is fancy bred,
    Or in the heart, or in the head?
    How begot, how nourished?
    Reply, reply.
    It is engender'd in the eyes,
    With gazing fed; and fancy dies
    In the cradle where it lies.
    Let us all ring fancy's knell
    I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.

ALL

    Ding, dong, bell.

飘泊

鮑西婭        那么去吧！在那三個匣子中間，有一個里面鎖著我的小像；您要是真的愛我，您會把我找出來的。尼莉莎，你跟其余的人都站開些。在他選擇的時候，把音樂奏起來，要是他失敗了，好讓他像天鵝一樣在音樂聲中死去；把這譬喻說得更确當一些，我的眼睛就是他葬身的清流。也許他會胜利的；那么那音樂又像什么呢？那時候音樂就像忠心的臣子俯伏迎迓新加冕的君王的時候所吹奏的號角，又像是黎明時分送進正在做著好夢的新郎的耳中，催他起來舉行婚禮的甜柔的琴韻。現在他去了，他的沉毅的姿態，就像年輕的赫剌克勒斯奮身前去，在特洛亞人的呼叫聲中，把他們祭獻給海怪的處女拯救出來一樣７，可是他心里卻藏著更多的愛情，我站在這儿做犧牲，她們站在旁邊，就像淚眼模糊的特洛亞婦女們，出來看這場爭斗的結果。去吧，赫剌克勒斯！我的生命懸在你手里，但愿你安然生還；我這觀戰的人心中比你上場作戰的人還要惊恐万倍！
　        　　　巴薩尼奧獨白時，樂隊奏樂唱歌。
　　歌
告訴我愛情生長在何方？
還是在腦海？還是在心房？
它怎樣發生？它怎樣成長？
回答我，回答我。
愛情的火在眼睛里點亮，
凝視是愛情生活的滋養，
它的搖籃便是它的墳堂。
讓我們把愛的喪鐘鳴響，
　　　　丁當！丁當！
　　　　丁當！丁當！（眾和）

飘泊

BASSANIO

    So may the outward shows be least themselves:
    The world is still deceived with ornament.
    In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
    But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
    Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
    What damned error, but some sober brow
    Will bless it and approve it with a text,
    Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
    There is no vice so simple but assumes
    Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
    How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
    As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
    The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
    Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
    And these assume but valour's excrement
    To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
    And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
    Which therein works a miracle in nature,
    Making them lightest that wear most of it:
    So are those crisped snaky golden locks
    Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
    Upon supposed fairness, often known
    To be the dowry of a second head,
    The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
    Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
    To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
    Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
    The seeming truth which cunning times put on
    To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
    Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
    Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
    'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
    Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
    Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
    And here choose I; joy be the consequence!