Silent, slow, and solemn; bowing over still further his chronically broken back, he toiled away, as if toil were life itself, and the heavy beating of his hammer the heavy beating of his heart. And so it was.—Most miserable!

他不声不响，慢条斯理而一本正经；弓着他那长期佝偻的背，不停地干下去，好象劳作就是生命，他的锤子的沉重的敲击，就是他的心的沉重的跳动。这真是极其可怜！

A peculiar walk in this old man, a certain slight but painful appearing yawing in his gait, had at an early period of the voyage excited the curiosity of the mariners. And to the importunity of their persisted questionings he had finally given in; and so it came to pass that every one now knew the shameful story of his wretched fate.

这个老头儿走起路来有一种特殊的步法，一种稍微有点显得很苦痛的偏斜的走相，在这次航程开始的时候，就引起了水手们的好奇心。由于大家再三再四的追根究底，他终于不得不说了出来；因此，现在大家都知道他那可怜的命运有过一段丢脸的经过。

Belated, and not innocently, one bitter winter's midnight, on the road running between two country towns, the blacksmith half-stupidly felt the deadly numbness stealing over him, and sought refuge in a leaning, dilapidated barn. The issue was, the loss of the extremities of both feet. Out of this revelation, part by part, at last came out the four acts of the gladness, and the one long, and as yet uncatastrophied fifth act of the grief of his life's drama.

一个严冬的午夜，这个赶晚了路而并不是不知情的铁匠，走在一条左右各有一个乡镇的路上，他有点迟钝地觉得身上突然非常麻痹，于是摸到一个倾斜的破谷仓里去歇一歇。原因是双脚再也撑不住了。终于，打从这个意外中，逐渐产生了四幕喜剧，和一个长长而尚未收场的、表现他一生的悲剧的第五幕。

He was an old man, who, at the age of nearly sixty, had postponedly encountered that thing in sorrow's technicals called ruin. He had been an artisan of famed excellence, and with plenty to do; owned a house and garden; embraced a youthful, daughter-like, loving wife, and three blithe, ruddy children; every Sunday went to a cheerful-looking church, planted in a grove.

他是个老头儿，年纪将近六十岁，还迟迟没有遭遇到那种叫做家破人亡的悲伤的专门名词的事儿。他本来是一个以技艺高强著称的手艺人，活儿做不完；自己有一座带园子的房子；还有一个年轻的象女儿一般的爱妻，三个活泼壮健的小孩；每个礼拜日都上那个四周布满丛林。外表舒适的教堂去做礼拜。