■麦琪的礼物（2）
The Gift of the Magi（Ⅱ）
◎O. Henry/欧·亨利
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two-and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut
美丽语录
吉姆从不晚归。德拉手里握着那根表链，静坐在紧靠进门位置的桌子一角。然后，她听见他的脚步声从楼下渐渐传来，有一瞬间她的脸色都发白了。德拉总是习惯祈祷一些最简单的日常琐事，此时，她在心里默默许愿：“保佑我啊上帝，让吉姆觉得我依然美丽。”
门开了，吉姆走进来，又关上了门。他显得十分瘦削，面色严肃。可怜的人啊，他才22岁——就得肩负起整个家庭！他需要买件新大衣，他连手套都没有。
吉姆在门口停下了脚步，像猎狗闻到了鹌鹑气味似的一动也不动。他的双眼锁定在德拉身上，专注的神情让德拉难以捉摸，这让她不寒而栗。那种眼神不是愤怒，也不是讶异，又不是伤心，更不是厌恶，而是一种让她始料未及的神态。他就这么，以这种特别的神情一直凝视着德拉。
德拉从桌子上扭了下来，朝他走去。
“吉姆，亲爱的，”她喊道，“别这样盯着我。我把头发剪掉卖了，因为我无法安度一个不送你礼物的圣诞节。它会再长起来的——你不介
off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again-you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice-what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della.“Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Della.“It’s sold, I tell you-sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year-what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you
意的，对吗？我真的不得不这么做。我的头发长得可快了。说‘圣诞快乐’吧！吉姆，让我们开心点儿。你不知道这是一件多么棒——多么美丽别致的礼物！”
“你把头发剪了？”吉姆问着，问得有些费力，似乎他的大脑在经历高速运转之后都无法接受这个板上钉钉的事实。
“剪掉卖了，”德拉说，“无论怎样，你不还是一样爱我吗？少了头发，我还是我，不是吗？”
吉姆好奇地环视了一眼房间。
“你是说你的头发没了？”他白痴似地问了一句。
“你就别找了，”德拉说，“告诉你吧，已经卖了——卖了就没有了。孩子，这是圣诞前夜。对我好一些，因为这都是为了你呀。也许我的头发数得清，”她的语气突然变得异常温柔，“但谁也数不清我对你的爱。我可以把肉排放锅上了吗，吉姆？”
吉姆如梦初醒，一把抱住德拉。此刻，让我们花上10秒钟，从另一个角度，以一种细致入微的眼光去审视那些看似微不足道的细节吧。一周8美元和一年百万美元——有什么差别呢？数学大师或知识分子都只能给出错误的答案。麦琪带来了珍贵的礼物，但那不在其中。这句生涩的断言将在后文有所阐释。
吉姆从大衣口袋里掏出一个袋子，然后把它扔在桌子上。
“可别误会我了，德尔，”他说，“我不认为世间能有什么东西会让我对我女孩儿的爱意降低分毫，无论剪发还是修面还是洗头。只是，一旦打开这个袋子，你就能看见你之所以让我失态的原因了。”
白皙的手指在绳子上轻快地舞动，袋子随之打开。紧接而来的是喜
had me going a while at first.”
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! A quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
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.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”
The magi, as you know, were wise men-wonderfully wise men—
悦的尖叫，但在一瞬之后，噢！却又突然变成歇斯底里的眼泪和痛苦，这楚楚可怜的样儿急需公寓的一家之主倾尽所有前来安慰。
桌上摆放着一套梳子——一整套梳子，包括梳鬓角的，梳后脑的，一应俱全。这曾是很久以前，当德拉经过百老汇的一个橱窗时就一见钟情的物品。这精致的发梳，显而易见是用纯度最高的玳瑁打造的，梳沿上面镶嵌着宝石——色调与她已经卖掉的秀发相得益彰。她知道，这套梳子价格不菲，因此她仅仅只是渴求，从未想过拥有。而在此刻，这都是她的了，遗憾的是，那最能匹配这精致礼物的美丽秀发已经难觅芳踪。
她仍然把发梳搂在了胸口，过了好久才扬起沾满泪水的眼睛，微笑着说：“我的头发长得挺快的，吉姆！”
随后，德拉像一只被烫到的小猫那样一跃而起，叫道：“喔！喔！”
吉姆还没有看过他的美丽礼物呢。她摊开的手掌迫不及待地伸向他，那块贵金属似乎正闪现着她热忱的心情和快乐的神态。
“它超棒的对吗，吉姆？我寻遍全城才找到它。你现在必须每天看100次时间。把表给我，我要看看它挂上去是什么样子。”
相反，吉姆一头倒在了沙发，双手背在脑袋下面，露出微笑。
“德尔，”他说，“让我们把圣诞礼物先扔一边吧。对于目前的生活而言，它们太过精致。我用卖金表的钱为你买了发梳。此刻，我建议你可以下肉排了。”
你们知道，麦琪是智者——充满智慧的贤人——他们给生在马槽里的耶稣带来了礼物。他们创造了赠送圣诞礼物的艺术。毫无疑问，智者
who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
的礼物定是最合适的礼物，若是礼物重复，兴许还能享受交换的优待。我在这里蹩脚地讲述一对住在公寓里的傻孩子的平淡故事，他们极不理智地为对方献祭了家里最珍贵的宝物。然而，容我对眼下的聪明人说最后一句话，在所有互赠礼物的人中，这俩人最为明智。他们无处不明智。他们就是麦琪。