John Cheever (1912—1982)
本文原題「The Country Husband」是一篇很長的短篇小說，和前面的「Bachelor of Arts」一樣，原載《1955年美國短篇小說佳作選》。
作者約翰·契弗是美國久享盛名的短篇小說作家，長篇小說也寫了好幾部。他是麻薩諸塞州人，曾在紐約Barnard College任教。
本文主要是描寫一個「鄉村丈夫」的各種人生問題以及夫婦之間的關係。這裡所選的幾段，是全文的開頭，讀者拿它當作普通敘事文讀可也。
The airplane from Minneapolis in which Francis Weed was travelling East ran into heavy weather. The sky had been a hazy blue, with the clouds below the plane lying so close together that nothing could be seen of the earth. Then mist began to form outside the windows, and they flew into a white cloud of such density that it reflected the exhaust fires. The color of the cloud darkened to gray, and the plane began to rock.
● Minneapolis：美國中西部明尼蘇達州的一個大城。East：美國的東部，這裡用作副詞，等於eastward。heavy weather：陰沉沉的天氣，惡劣氣候。
● The sky had been：注意動詞時態。過去完成式表示此事已成「過去」。hazy：氣象報告裡的「曇」。
● mist：比haze更進一層。hazy不過表示天氣不夠清明，視野不夠遠。mist是「霧氣」。they flew中的they泛無所指（語法家是不贊成這種用法的），大約是代表這群旅客。
● density：密度。exhaust fires：飛機後面排氣管exhaust pipe裡所噴出來的火。這種火旅客平常是看不見的，但是現在白雲厚密，排氣不甚舒暢，把火光反射回來，旅客也可以看見雲中的隱隱紅光了。exhaust在這裡是名詞，解作「排泄」，轉作形容詞用。
● rock：搖擺。
Francis had been in heavy weather before, but had never been shaken up so much. The man in the seat beside him pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a drink. Francis smiled at his neighbor, but the man looked away; he wasn\'t sharing his painkiller with anyone.
● flask：酒瓶。sharing：與人共享。painkiller：本解作「止痛劑」。這裡是酒或解憂劑。
The plane had begun to drop and flounder wildly. A child was crying. The air in the cabin was overheated and stale, and Francis\' left foot went to sleep. He read a little from a paper book that he had bought at the airport, but the violence of the storm pided his attention.
● drop：往下落。flounder：顛簸。cabin：艙房。stale：混濁。went to sleep：麻木。
● A child was crying：短句子，但有此一句增加了緊張的氣氛，文章就特別有神。
● a paper book：紙面小書。airport：機場。pided his attention：分散他的注意力。
It was black outside the ports. The exhaust fires blazed and shed sparks in the dark, and, inside, the shaded lights, the stuffiness, and the window curtains gave the cabin an atmosphere of intense and misplaced domesticity. Then the lights flickered and went out. \"You know what I\'ve always wanted to do?\" the man beside Francis said suddenly. \"I\'ve always wanted to buy a farm in New Hampshire and raise beef cattle.\"
● ports：窗洞。port或porthole本來是船上的窗洞，這裡借作飛機上的窗洞。
● blazed：發強烈的火光。shed sparks：發火花。shed是過去式。shaded lights：暗淡的燈光。shaded可能解作有「燈罩的」，但飛機上的燈據我所知，並無燈罩。stuffiness：悶氣。domesticity：家庭風光。飛機上本來是地方寬暢，空氣散漫，現在在昏暗的燈光之下，窗幔都拉上（文中未明言，但如未經拉滿，這裡不必特別提出window curtains二字），空氣混濁，不像在空中旅行，反而有一種強烈（intense）的家庭氣氛（atmosphere），可惜這種氣氛是放錯地方了（misplaced）。
● lights：電燈。flickered：閃動一下。went out：熄滅。
● the man beside Francis：就是喝酒的那個人。New Hampshire：美國東北部州名。raise：飼養。beef cattle：供食用之牛，與「供取乳之牛」（dairy cattle）不同。
● 燈光忽滅，危機將臨，機上人士自必緊張萬分，可是作者於百忙中偏來此閒筆。一個取瓶獨飲之人，忽然講起他生平志願，乃是退隱農場，畜牧為生。如今飛機安危莫卜，萬一因失事喪生，則平生志願，無從實現，豈非抱憾終身？借這兩句淡淡的話，作者明白表示：機上乘客已經意識到他們面臨生死關頭了。
The stewardess announced that they were going to make an emergency landing. All but the child saw in their minds the spreading wings of the Angel of Death. The pilot could be heard singing faintly, \"I\'ve got sixpence, jolly, jolly sixpence. I\'ve got sixpence to last me all my life.…\" There was no other sound.
● stewardess：女侍應生，空中小姐。
● the child：想必就是剛才哭的那個孩子。小孩不知道死之將臨。the Angel of Death：中國人好稱「死神」，西洋人信基督教者，只相信一神，「死」並不是神。又angel可善可惡，魔鬼即fallen angel也。中國人一講到安琪兒，即有美麗溫柔的聯想，但基督教神學中，angel的含意甚廣。善學英文者，非但把每一個字的意義要弄清楚，而且把每一個字可能引起的聯想，都要把握得住。spreading wings：安琪兒據說是有翅膀的。pilot：駕駛員。could be heard：被動語態，旅客們可以模模糊糊地聽見他在唱小調。這支歌的名字待考。jolly（俗語）：非常之好的。to last me all my life：夠我用一輩子。
● There was no other sound：飛機即將緊急著陸，機上寂無聲息，唯有駕駛員唱歌之聲。這也是用「閒筆」來反襯緊張之法。作者當然可以描寫機上各人緊張之狀，但這樣費墨多，而效果恐未必能及這裡淡淡的幾筆也。
The loud groaning of the hydraulic valves swallowed up the pilot\'s song, and there was a shrieking high in the air, like automobile brakes, and the plane hit flat on its belly in a cornfield and shook them so violently that an old man up forward howled, \"Me kidneys! Me kidneys!\"
● hydraulic valves：用液體控制的活門。groaning：本來解作「呻吟之聲」，這裡應該是「沉重的轟隆之聲」。swallowed up：吞沒。shrieking：尖聲怪叫。high in the air：在高空中。automobile brakes：汽車的制動機（剎車）。cornfield：玉蜀黍田。up forward：坐在很遠的前排。
● Me kidneys!：Me想是My之誤，說話的老人可能犯了語法錯誤。他大叫：「我的腰子（快要震碎了）！」
The stewardess flung open the door, and someone opened an emergency door at the back, letting in the sweet noise of their continuing mortality—the idle splash and smell of a heavy rain. Anxious for their lives, they filed out of the doors and scattered over the cornfield in all directions, praying that the thread would hold. It did. Nothing happened. When it was clear that the plane would not burn or explode, the crew and the stewardess gathered the passengers together and led them to the shelter of a barn. They were not far from Philadelphia, and in a little while a string of taxis took them into the city.
● flung open the door：把門用勁推開。emergency door：緊急時應用之門，太平門。
● mortality：這個字在這裡應譯作「生命」。原意是「早晚必死的」。西洋哲學裡最有名的三段論法是：「凡人必死，蘇格拉底是人，蘇格拉底必死。」「必死」成了人的一種特性了。continuing mortality：「必然要死」的性質還是繼續存在著，那就是說人還沒有死，人還活著。
● letting in：讓（聲音）傳進來。noise：就是橫線後面的雨聲。sweet：聽見外面雨聲，知道自己沒有死，這是使人覺得安慰的。
● splash：水花四濺之聲。idle：雨「懶洋洋地」下著？smell：splash和前面的noise是同位語。但是乘客在飛機上已經氣悶了好久，一旦機門打開，他們一定也會嗅得到雨的氣息。這個字放在這裡雖然在語法上說不大通（因為smell並不和noise同位），但是仍舊是好的描寫。
● filed out：魚貫而出。the thread：英文有Their life hangs by a thread這樣的成語（「生命繫於一線」）。hold在這裡是不及物動詞，解作「維繫不斷」。旅客從飛機裡出來，在玉蜀黍田里四散逃命，一面禱告上蒼，不要再出亂子。
● It did=the thread did hold。
● it was clear中的it代替後面的「that」clause。explode：爆炸。the crew：飛機（或船舶）上工作人員的總稱（集合名詞）。shelter：隱蔽。barn：在美國是「草料房和馬棚」合用的一座大房屋。
● Philadelphia：美國東部大城，有名的「費城」。a string of taxis：一隊出租汽車（想必是航空公司去叫來的）。