LESSON 82

JUPITER AND TEN

朱庇特和十个

James T. Fields, 1817-1881, was born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For many years he was partner in the well-known firm of Ticknor & Fields (Later Fields, Osgood & Co.), the leading publishers of standard American literature. For eight years, he was chief editor of the “Atlantic Monthly;” and, after he left that position, he often enriched its pages by the productions of his pen. During his latter years Mr. Fields gained some reputation as a lecturer. His literary abilities were of no mean order: but he did not do so much in producing literature himself, as in aiding others in its production.

Mrs. Chub was rich and portly,

Mrs. Chub was very grand,

Mrs. Chub was always reckoned

A lady in the land.

You shall see her marble mansion

In a very stately square,—

Mr. C. knows what it cost him,

But that’s neither here nor there.

Mrs. Chub was so sagacious,

Such a patron of the arts,

And she gave such foreign orders

That she won all foreign hearts.

Mrs. Chub was always talking,

When she went away from home,

Of a most prodigious painting

Which had just arrived from Rome.

“Such a treasure,” she insisted,

“One might never see again!”

“What’s the subject?” we inquired.

“It is Jupiter and Ten!”

“Ten what?” we blandly asked her

For the knowledge we did lack,

“Ah! that I can not tell you,

But the name is on the back.

“There it stands in printed letters,—

Come to-morrow, gentlemen,—

Come and see our splendid painting,

Our fine Jupiter and Ten!”

When Mrs. Chub departed,

Our brains began to rack,—

She could not be mistaken

For the name was on the back.

So we begged a great Professor

To lay aside his pen,

And give some information

Touching “Jupiter and Ten.”

And we pondered well the subject,

And our Lempriere we turned,

To find out who the Ten were;

But we could not, though we burned.

But when we saw the picture,—

O Mrs. Chub! Oh, fie! O!

We perused the printed label,

And ’t was JUPITER AND IO!

【中文阅读】

查伯太太有钱又富态，

查伯太太非常显摆，

人们始终以为查伯太太，

是有地产的阔太。

你能看到她富丽堂皇的住宅，

非常庄严的仪态，

C先生晓得要花多少钱，

可是既不是这儿也不是那儿。

查伯太太好精明，

摇身成为艺术赞助人，

她向外国人的出售艺术品

赢得所有外国人的心。

查伯太太一离开家，

谈的都是最惊人的绘画，

就这样到了罗马。

“这样一笔宝藏。”她一再说，

“也许永远不会再见到！”

“什么主题？”我们打听道。

“朱庇特和十个！”

“十个什么？”我们茫然地问道。

因为我们确实不了解

“啊，这可不能告诉你们，

名字就在背面。”

“那个印刷体字母——

明天来吧，绅士们——

来欣赏我们的大作

我们的朱庇特和十个！”

查伯太太离开后，

我们开始绞尽脑汁——

他不会弄错吧，

因为名字就在背面啊。

于是我们求一位大教授，

放下他的钢笔

向我们透露一些

有关“朱庇特和十个”的信息。

我们苦思冥想，

我们求助于老相识兰皮埃尔，

希望得到第十个是谁的答案；

可是我们没有如愿以偿，尽管我们非常想知道。

但是当我们看到那幅画——

啊，查伯太太！啊，呸！恶心！

我们瞥了一眼上面的标签，

原来上面写着“朱庇特和爱莪！”（爱莪，希腊神话中主神宙斯的情人，后为宙斯之妻赫拉施法变为母牛——译注）