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"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (full novel), Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits - Part 2

Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits - Part 2

The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain.

For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball—better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest—laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement.

The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose.

But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was!

In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. “Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch?” asked Scrooge.

“There is. My own.”

“Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?” asked Scrooge.

“To any kindly given. To a poor one most.”

“Why to a poor one most?” asked Scrooge.

“Because it needs it most.”

“Spirit,” said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, “I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment.” “I!” cried the Spirit.

“You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,” said Scrooge. “Wouldn't you?” “I!” cried the Spirit.

“You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?” said Scrooge. “And it comes to the same thing.”

“I seek!” exclaimed the Spirit.

“Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,” said Scrooge.

“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”

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Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits - Part 2 스테이브 3. 세 가지 정신 중 두 번째 - 2부

The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water. ||facing||||||||||||||||||||||dirtier|||||||deposit|||oughed||||owed into deep furrows by the passage of heavy carts.||||||||||||||||||||||||branched||||intricate|channels||||||||||| Les façades des maisons semblaient assez noires, et les fenêtres plus noires, contrastant avec la couche de neige blanche et lisse sur les toits, et avec la neige plus sale sur le sol ; dont le dernier dépôt avait été creusé dans de profonds sillons par les lourdes roues des charrettes et des chariots ; des sillons qui se sont croisés et recroisés des centaines de fois où bifurquaient les grandes rues ; et creusaient des canaux complexes, difficiles à tracer dans la boue jaune épaisse et l'eau glacée. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts' content. |||||||||||||dingy||||||||||||||sooty|atoms|||||||||||||||||||||||Britain Le ciel était maussade, et les rues les plus courtes étaient encombrées d'une brume terne, mi-dégelée, mi-gelée, dont les particules les plus lourdes descendaient en une pluie d'atomes de suie, comme si toutes les cheminées de Grande-Bretagne avaient, d'un commun accord, pris feu. , et flambaient au contenu de leur cher cœur. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. ||||||||||||||||||||||clearest||||||||||||| Il n'y avait rien de très gai dans le climat ou dans la ville, et pourtant il y avait un air de gaieté à l'extérieur que l'air d'été le plus clair et le soleil d'été le plus brillant auraient pu s'efforcer de diffuser en vain.

For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball—better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest—laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. |||||||||||||||||||||||parapets||||||||||||||||wordy|jest||heartily|||||||||||| Car, les gens qui pelletaient sur les toits étaient joviaux et pleins de joie; s'interpellant depuis les parapets, et échangeant de temps à autre une boule de neige facétieuse – un missile plus naturel que bien des plaisanteries verbeuses – en riant de bon cœur si ça allait bien et non moins si ça tournait mal. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. |||||||||fruiterers||radiant|||glory Les boutiques des volaillers étaient encore entrouvertes, et les fruitiers rayonnaient de gloire. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence. |||||pot-bellied|||||||waistcoats|||||lolling|||||tumbling|||||||apoplectic|opulence Il y avait de grands paniers ronds et ventrus de marrons, en forme de gilets de vieux gentilshommes joyeux, se prélassant aux portes et dégringolant dans la rue dans leur opulence apoplectique. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. ||||||girthed|||shining||||||||||||||||wanton|slyness|||||||||glancing|demurely||||| Il y avait des oignons espagnols rouges, à la face brune et à la ceinture large, brillant dans la graisse de leur croissance comme des moines espagnols, et faisant un clin d'œil de leurs étagères avec une ruse aveugle aux filles alors qu'elles passaient, et jetaient un coup d'œil modeste au gui accroché . There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner. ||pears|||clustered||||||||||||||||||conspicuous|||||||free||they||||||filberts|||||||fragrance||||||||shufflings||||||||||squat||The word "swarthy" does not appear in the provided sentence.||||||||||||||compactness|||||urgently|entreating||beseeching||||||||||| Il y avait des poires et des pommes, groupées haut en pyramides fleuries ; il y avait des grappes de raisins, faites, par la bienveillance des boutiquiers, pendre à des crochets voyants, pour que les gens pûssent arroser gratis en passant ; il y avait des tas d'avelines, moussues et brunes, rappelant, dans leur parfum, d'anciennes promenades dans les bois, et d'agréables brassages jusqu'aux chevilles à travers des feuilles fanées ; il y avait Norfolk Biffins, trapu et basané, mettant en valeur le jaune des oranges et des citrons, et, dans la grande compacité de leurs personnes juteuses, implorant et suppliant instamment d'être ramenés à la maison dans des sacs en papier et mangés après le dîner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement. Les poissons d'or et d'argent, disposés parmi ces fruits de choix dans un bol, bien que membres d'une race au sang terne et stagnant, semblaient savoir qu'il se passait quelque chose ; et, à un poisson, haletant tour et tour de leur petit monde dans une excitation lente et sans passion.

The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! presque fermé, avec peut-être deux volets baissés, ou un ; mais à travers ces lacunes de tels aperçus ! It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. ||||||||||||||||||twine|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||raisins|||||||||||||||||||||||||candied|||||||||||||||||faint||subsequently|bilious Ce n'était pas seulement que les écailles descendant sur le comptoir faisaient un joyeux bruit, ou que la ficelle et le rouleau se séparèrent si vivement, ou que les bidons s'agitaient de haut en bas comme des tours de jonglage, ou même que les parfums mélangés de thé et de café étaient si reconnaissants au nez, ou même que les raisins secs étaient si abondants et rares, les amandes si extrêmement blanches, les bâtons de cannelle si longs et droits, les autres épices si délicieuses, les fruits confits si cuits et tachetés de sucre fondu comme pour que les spectateurs les plus froids se sentent faibles et par la suite bilieux. Nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose. |||||figs||moist||pulpy|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||fetch||||||||||||||||||||||frank|||||polished||||||||||||||||||inspection||||daws|||||| Ce n'était pas non plus que les figues étaient moelleuses et pulpeuses, ou que les prunes françaises rougissaient d'une modeste acidité de leurs boîtes richement décorées, ou que tout était bon à manger et dans sa robe de Noël ; mais les clients étaient tous si pressés et si impatients dans la promesse pleine d'espoir du jour, qu'ils se sont précipités les uns contre les autres à la porte, écrasant sauvagement leurs paniers d'osier, et ont laissé leurs achats sur le comptoir, et sont revenus en courant les chercher , et commis des centaines d'erreurs similaires, dans la meilleure humeur possible ; tandis que l'épicier et ses gens étaient si francs et si frais que les cœurs polis avec lesquels ils attachaient leurs tabliers derrière auraient pu être les leurs, portés à l'extérieur pour l'inspection générale et pour picorer les aubes de Noël s'ils le voulaient.

But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. |||steeples||||||||chapel|||||flocking|||||||||||gayest| Mais bientôt les clochers appelèrent les braves gens, à l'église et à la chapelle, et ils s'en allèrent, affluant dans les rues dans leurs plus beaux habits et avec leurs visages les plus gais. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers' shops. ||||||||scores||bye|streets||||||||||||| Et en même temps sortaient des dizaines de ruelles, de ruelles et de détours sans nom, des gens innombrables, portant leurs dîners chez les boulangers. The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. |||||revellers||||||||||||||||||||||||||bearers|||incense|||||| La vue de ces pauvres fêtards sembla intéresser beaucoup l'Esprit, car il se tenait avec Scrooge à côté de lui dans l'embrasure d'un boulanger, et enlevant les couvertures au passage de leurs porteurs, il aspergeait leurs dîners d'encens avec sa torche. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was restored directly. |||||||||||||||||||some|||||jostled||||shed|||||||||||||||| Et c'était une sorte de torche très rare, car une ou deux fois quand il y avait des paroles fâchées entre quelques porteurs qui s'étaient bousculés, il en versait quelques gouttes d'eau dessus, et leur bonne humeur se rétablissait aussitôt. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was!

In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. ||||||||||||||||||shadowing||||||||||||||blotch||||||||||||||||| Avec le temps, les cloches cessèrent et les boulangers furent enfermés ; et pourtant il y avait une ombre sympathique de tous ces dîners et du progrès de leur cuisson, dans la tache d'humidité décongelée au-dessus de chaque four de boulanger ; où le pavé fumait comme si ses pierres cuisaient aussi. “Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch?” asked Scrooge. |||peculiar|||||||||| « Y a-t-il une saveur particulière dans ce que vous saupoudrez de votre torche ? » demanda Scrooge.

“There is. "Il y a. My own.” Le mien."

“Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?” asked Scrooge. « Est-ce que cela s'appliquerait à n'importe quel type de dîner ce jour-là ? » demanda Scrooge.

“To any kindly given. « À tout don gentiment. To a poor one most.” À un pauvre plus.

“Why to a poor one most?” asked Scrooge.

“Because it needs it most.”

“Spirit,” said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, “I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment.” |||||||||||||||||||||||cramp|||||innocent| « Esprit », a déclaré Scrooge, après un moment de réflexion, « je me demande, de tous les êtres des nombreux mondes qui nous entourent, devriez désirer restreindre les opportunités de plaisir innocent de ces personnes. » “I!” cried the Spirit. "JE!" cria l'Esprit.

“You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,” said Scrooge. "Vous les priveriez de leurs moyens de dîner tous les sept jours, souvent le seul jour où on peut dire qu'ils dînent", a déclaré Scrooge. “Wouldn't you?” “I!” cried the Spirit.

“You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?” said Scrooge. « Vous cherchez à fermer ces lieux le Septième Jour ? » dit Scrooge. “And it comes to the same thing.”

“I seek!” exclaimed the Spirit.

“Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,” said Scrooge. ||||||name|||||||||| Cela a été fait en votre nom, ou du moins en celui de votre famille », a déclaré Scrooge.

“There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. |||||||||||||||||||||deeds||passion||ill||hatred|envy|bigotry|||||||||||||||kith|||||||| Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”