The Gift of the Magi
麦琪的礼物
《麦琪的礼物》是欧?亨利负盛名的一篇佳作。“麦琪”不是故事中哪个人物的名字，而是指《圣经》故事中从东方来朝见初生耶稣的三贤人。黛拉和吉姆才是故事里真正的主人公。受到减薪的影响，他俩生活清苦，以至于到了圣诞前夜，两人谁都没有足够的钱来给对方买一件像样的礼物。后只好各自卖掉珍贵的东西：黛拉卖掉长发给吉姆的怀表配上表链，而吉姆卖掉了怀表给黛拉的长发买了一套梳子。东方三贤的礼物固然珍贵，但在这两件圣诞礼物面前，也大失光彩。
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents ofit was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time bybulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher untilone's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony thatsuch close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. Onedollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would beChristmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down onthe shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigatesthe moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, andsmiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from thefirst stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnishedflat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but itcertainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancysquad.
一块八毛七。所有的钱就这么多。而且，有六毛钱还是用小硬币凑的。这些硬币是用在杂货店、菜摊儿、肉铺子这些地方费力讨价而省下的一两分积攒的。每次她都因落下个“抠门儿”的坏名声而脸颊发烫。黛拉数了三遍钱。一美元八毛七分。第二天就是圣诞节了。
很明显，什么也做不了，除了一下子坐在又破又旧的小沙发里哭。黛拉就是这个样子。这让她不免想起生活就是由呜咽、抽噎和微笑组成的，而抽噎占了主要部分。
当这个家的女主人心情渐渐平缓下来的时候，让我们瞧瞧这个家吧。一间带家具的公寓，租金是每周八块。这个房间还不是完全破旧简陋到没法描述，不过，它看上去像是那些贫民居住的地方。
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter wouldgo, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax aring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr.James Dillingham Young."
The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a formerperiod of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 perweek. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they werethinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. Butwhenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flatabove he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. JamesDillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is allvery good.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powderrag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray catwalking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would beChristmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim apresent. She had been saving every penny she could for months, withthis result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses hadbeen greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spentplanning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare andsterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of thehonor of being owned by Jim.
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps youhave seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agileperson may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence oflongitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of hislooks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.
楼下门厅里有一个信箱，里面没有一封信。有一个电钮，没有一个活人的手指头愿意触碰一下它。信箱的下方还有一张卡片，上面写着“詹姆士?帝林汉姆?扬先生”。
“帝林汉姆”在以前每周赚三十块钱的富裕时期也曾春风得意。但现在，缩减到二十块钱，所以他们在认真地思考，要把名字缩写成谦逊的“D”，以显得不那么招摇。但是，不论什么时间，詹姆士?帝林汉姆?扬先生一回到家中，走进属于他的那间公寓，他都被詹姆士?帝林汉姆?扬太太紧紧地抱住，听她喊着“吉姆”。詹姆士?帝林汉姆?扬太太就是我们已提到的黛拉。然后这一切又变得美好起来。
黛拉停止了哭泣，往脸上扑了点粉。她站在窗边，没精打采地看见一只灰猫在灰暗的后院里穿过一道灰色的篱笆。明天就是圣诞节了，她只有一块八毛七给吉姆买礼物。好几个月以来，她节省每一分钱，可结果还是这个样子。每周二十块钱，花不了多久就没了。花费远比她预算的要多。他们总是这样。只剩下一块八毛七给吉姆买礼物了。她曾经用许多美妙的时间盘算着给他买件好东西。要买一件精美的、稀有的、有价值的——一件能够配得上他的礼物。
房间两扇窗子之间有一面穿衣镜，你也许见过租金八块钱的公寓。一个身材消瘦、行动敏捷的人，在镜子前来回晃晃，通过一系列狭长的镜像叠加在一起，就能对他的容貌有一个较为精准的印象。黛拉身材苗条，早已掌握了这种技巧。
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass.her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colorwithin twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let itfall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs inwhich they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch thathad been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della'shair. 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 dryjust to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomonbeen the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement,Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just tosee him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shininglike a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and madeitself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up againnervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stoodstill while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With awhirl 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: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of AllKinds." 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 sightat the looks of it."
Down rippled the brown cascade.
突然，她从窗前转过来，站在穿衣镜前。她的双眼烁烁闪亮，而她的脸颊却在二十秒钟内失色。她迅速地放下头发，让它们全部披散下来。
在詹姆士?帝林汉姆?扬家里，有两样引以为豪的东西。一样是吉姆的金表，是他祖父的，又传给了他父亲。另一样是黛拉的头发。假如示巴女王住在风井对面的公寓里，哪一天，黛拉把她的头发甩到窗外吹干，女王的所有珠宝财物都显得不值一文了。假如所罗门王是一位守门人，把他全部金银财宝堆在地下室里，吉姆每次掏出怀表时，都会令他嫉妒得直拽胡须。
现在黛拉美丽的长发垂散下来，头发一直垂至她的膝盖，仿佛一件罩住她的长袍。然后，她又神经质地把头发迅速扎好。有一阵她犹豫了，站在那里一动不动，一两滴眼泪洒落在破旧的红色地毯上。
她穿上棕色的旧外套，戴上她的棕色旧帽子。她转了一下裙摆，眼睛里还闪着泪光就飞奔出门，下楼，来到大街上。
她在一块商店招牌前面停下了脚步，招牌上写着：“索芙朗妮夫人。各种头发制品有售。”
黛拉一步跑进去，整理了一下自己，气喘吁吁。那个夫人，又高又胖，皮肤白得有些过头，面容冷酷，一点儿没有像是叫“索芙朗妮”的模样。
“我的头发您买吗？”黛拉问道。
“我买。”夫人答道，“把帽子摘下来，让我看看你的头发。”
棕色的瀑布飘垂下来。
"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practisedhand.
"Give it to me quick," said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget thehashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim'spresent.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no oneelse. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she hadturned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simpleand chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substancealone and not by meretricious ornamentation---as all good thingsshould do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw itshe knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness andvalue---the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars theytook from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. Withthat chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about thetime in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked atit on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used inplace of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little toprudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted thegas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity addedto love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammothtask.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lyingcurls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. Shelooked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, andcritically.
"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes asecond look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorusgirl. But what could I do—oh! what could I do with a dollar andeighty- seven cents?"
At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the backof the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
“二十块钱。”夫人说着，用一只老练的手提起头发。
哦，在接下来的两个小时里，黛拉仿佛拥有了一双瑰丽的翅膀，轻松愉快地奔忙着。别去理喻这个糟糕的比喻吧。她寻遍了商店，为的是给吉姆买上一件礼物。
终于，她找到了。那一定是为吉姆而不是别人准备的。在别的任何一家商店里，也没有像这样的一件物品了，她已经找遍了所有的商店。那是一条铂金带饰物的怀表链，设计简约朴素，完全是以品质来表明自己的价值，而非那些华而不实的装饰——如同一切好的东西一样。它像吉姆一样安静而有价值