圣贤的礼物
The Gift of The Magi
夫妻之间的真情就是最好的圣诞礼物!
Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest flat. They each have one possession in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather.
On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20, and eventually finds a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Happy to have found the perfect gift at last, she runs home and begins to prepare dinner.
When Jim comes home, he looks at Della with a strange expression. Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives Della her present—an assortment of expensive combs for her hair. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for his watch, which Jim has sold to get the money to buy her combs. Although Jim and Della are now left with gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each other, and how priceless their love really is.
一对年轻的夫妻为了给对方买一份圣诞礼物都费尽心思,最后妻子卖掉秀发为丈夫买了一根表链,而同时丈夫却卖掉手表为妻子买了一支发梳。他们两人的礼物都没有派上用场,但是这种夫妻间的深情却让人万分感动。典型的“欧·亨利式结尾”!一个绝妙的讽刺!
The Gift of the Magi is a short story written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story, the plot and its "twist ending" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of situational irony.
因为那儿放着的是梳子——一组梳子,包括两鬓和后面用的。那可是德拉已经在百老汇的橱窗里膜拜了很久的梳子。这些美丽的梳子是纯玳瑁做的,边缘镶着宝石——其色彩正适合于戴在她那消失了的秀发上。她知道这套梳子很贵,所以她心里只是羡慕着,渴望着,从未想到过要据为己有。而现在,它们是她的了,但那用来佩戴这梦寐以求的饰物的长发已经荡然无存了。
For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped 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.
作者有着丰富的社会经历,他目睹了美国社会各个阶层的生活状况,尤其是小人物的落魄。他别出心裁,擅长表达小人物的内心世界和情感。欧·亨利笔下的小人物,大多心地善良却又命运悲惨。他在描写小人物的生活时,语言幽默诙谐,使得小人物的辛酸生活不至于太过无望。他笔下的小人物都非常善良,这是难能可贵的,他们即使生活艰辛,也能够对他人表现出关爱。
欧·亨利是20世纪初美国杰出的短篇小说大师,有“美国的莫泊桑”之称。他的作品因富于生活情趣被誉为“美国生活的幽默百科全书”。
O. Henry's stories are gems of their kind; mellow, humorous, ironic, ingenious and shot through with that eminently salable quality known as 'human interest.'" —Bennet Cerf and Van Cartmell
- 圣贤的礼物
- The Gift of The Magi
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