麦琪的礼物 英文版 The Gift of the Magi

麦琪的礼物英文版 The Gift of the Magi

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. 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 dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl 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: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." 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 sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

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 of saying a 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 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 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--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. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

End

一个美元和八十七美分。这是所有。六十美分的硬币。便士保存一个和两个由推杂货店和蔬菜的人肉，直到脸颊刻录的沉默的归责的吝啬，如一次关闭隐含的处理。三倍德拉计算它。一个美元和八十七美分。第二天将是圣诞节。

显然没有别的办法，但在破旧的小沙发上翻倒，嚎叫。德拉了它。其中鼓动人生由呜咽、抽泣和微笑，其中抽泣的道德反思。

虽然家的女主人正在逐渐平息从第一阶段到第二个，看看家。A 提供单位在每周 8 元。它不完全是乞丐说明，但它肯定了乞讨队注意这个词。

在下面的前庭是到那里去不信，信箱和从中没有凡人的手指能哄环电动按钮。Appertaining 以也是一张卡片，轴承的名称"先生詹姆斯·迪林厄姆年轻"。

迪林厄姆"已被甩到微风繁荣期前时其占有正在支付每周 30 元。现在，当收入缩小至 20 元，不过，他们想认真温和和谦逊的 D.承包但每当詹姆斯·迪林厄姆杨先生来了家庭和达到他上面他的单位是"吉姆和大大拥抱的太太詹姆斯·迪林厄姆年轻，已经给你介绍作为德拉。这是都很好。

德拉完她哭了，并参加了以她的双颊，用粉抹布。她站在窗边，呆呆看灰色的猫，走在灰色的后院的灰色的篱笆。明天将是圣诞节，和她只是用来买一件礼物的吉姆 1.87 亿美元。她已被保存每一分钱，她可以为几个月，这一结果。一周不走远了二十美元。费用已经超过她已经计算。他们总是有。只有元买一件礼物吉姆 1.87。她的吉姆。许多欢乐时光她度

过他规划好的东西。一些精细和珍稀英镑——东西只是一点点不久要名副其实的所拥有的吉姆。

房间的窗户之间有一墩杯。也许你见过 pierglass 中平 8 元。一个很薄很敏捷的人可通过观察他以快速的顺序的纵向带的反射，索取的他看起来相当准确的概念。德拉，正在细长，已掌握了艺术。

突然她一块儿从窗口，站在面前的玻璃。她的眼睛灿烂，但她的脸上失去了它的颜色在 20 秒内。迅速她拆掉她的头发，让它掉其完整的长度。

现在，有两种财产的詹姆斯·迪林厄姆果冻，他们都变成了强大的骄傲。一是有了他的父亲和祖父的吉姆的金表。另一次是德拉的头发。女王已在该单位住整个风井，德拉会让她的头发干只是为了贬值女皇陛下珠宝和礼品挂窗外某一天。所罗门王已经看门人，堆积在地下室的所有财宝，吉姆会有拔出他的手表每次他所传递的只是为了看看他在从羡慕他胡子采摘。

所以现在德拉的美丽的头发掉有关她的涟漪和闪光像梯级的棕色的水域。它达到了她的膝盖下面，并为她做本身几乎服装。然后她又又紧张，并且很快。一次她踌躇了一分钟，站在动，一滴眼泪，或两个溅在破旧的红地毯上。

去她旧的棕色夹克；去她旧的棕色帽子。一片混乱的裙子和辉煌的光芒仍在她的眼中，她拍打着出了门，继续下楼到街上。

她停止读取该标志的位置："跨国公司。绍夫罗涅。各类发制品。"德拉了一个飞行跑，并收集自己，气喘吁吁。夫人，大，太白，寒冷，没有看到"索夫罗涅"。

"你会买我的头发吗？"问德拉。

我买了头发，"说夫人。脱下帽子啊，并让我们看到，在看到这种情景。

下皱的棕色的级联。

二十元，说夫人，提升大众一起实行的手。

"给我快，"说德拉。

哦，和接下来的两个小时的玫瑰色的翅膀上绊倒。忘了哈希的隐喻。吉姆的礼物，她被掠商店。

她终于找到了它。它肯定了吉姆和没有其他人。有没有其他像它在任何存储区中，和她打开所有人都翻过来。它是简单的白金 fob 链和贞洁的设计，正确地宣布其值由单独的物质而不是惯有的华而不实的装饰——为所有的好东西应该做的。这也是值得的手表。当她看到它她知道它必须是吉姆的。他就是这样。安静和价值--两者的描述。21 美元他们抢走她，与她急忙赶回家与 87 美分。他的手表上链吉姆或许是正确担心任何公司的时间。这块表是高贵，他有时看着它偷偷的旧皮表带，他用链的位置。

德拉到家时她中毒了一点谨慎和原因。她拿出她的冰壶电熨斗照明的气体，并可在上班修复由添加到爱的慷慨的蹂躏。这一直是巨大的任务，亲爱的朋友——一项艰巨的任务。四十分钟内微小、关闭躺的卷发，使她看上去非常像逃学的小学生满了她的头。她看着她长，镜子的反射仔细，与批判的不同而不同。

"如果吉姆不会杀了我，"她说到自己，"他第二次看了看我之前, 他会说我看上去像康尼岛合唱的女孩。但我能怎么办——哦！怎样用美元和美分八十七？"

7 点钟，咖啡已经煮平底锅，背面的热和准备煎肉排的炉子。

吉姆从不迟到。德拉她的手里加倍 fob 链，然后坐在他始终输入的那扇门附近的桌子角上。然后她听到他的脚步在楼梯上走下来首次飞行，和她一会儿就变白。她说的最简单的生活用品，有点默祷的习惯，现在她低声说：请神，使他觉得我还是很漂亮。

门开了，吉姆走进来，并关闭它。他看上去瘦，非常严重。可怜的家伙，他是只有 22 个——和可负担的家庭！他需要一件新的大衣，他没有手套。

吉姆停止内门，为不动产作为二传手在鹌鹑的香味。他的眼睛盯着德拉，并有的表达式中，她看不到，他们害怕她。它不是愤怒，也不惊讶的是，也不反对，也不恐惧，不任何感情，她已在准备。他只被盯着她固定与这种特殊的表达他的脸上。

德拉把桌子间，走到他身边。

"吉姆，亲爱的"她哭了，"别看我这种方式。我有我的头发，切断和出售，因为我不能有过圣诞节不送你一件礼物。它会变出再次——你不会介意，好吗？刚做这件事。我的头发长得太快。说 '圣诞快乐！吉姆，并让我们感到高兴。你不知道什么好--我有你的什么漂亮、好礼品。"

"你切断了你的头发？"问吉姆，吃力，因为如果他不到在该专利的事实，但即使是最严重的智力劳动。

德拉说：把它砍下来卖了。"你不喜欢我一样，不管怎么说吗？我是我没有我的头发，不是我呢？"

吉姆好奇地打量了房间。

你说你的头发是走了吗？他说，与空气几乎的白痴。

你用不着看，说德拉。"它被卖的我告诉你——卖，都没有了。在圣诞前夜，孩子。因为它去你会给我，好。也许我的头上的头发被编号，"她跟突发严重的甜蜜，但没人能过数我对你的爱。要我给排骨，吉姆吗？"

他恍惚的吉姆似乎快吵醒。他 enfolded 他德拉。10 秒钟让我们视，审慎审议一些无关紧要的对象在另一个方向。八块钱一周或一百万年——的区别是什么？一位数学家或智慧会给你错误的答案。麦琪带来宝贵的礼物，但这不是他们当中。这种黑暗的说法会稍后会亮起。

吉姆从他的大衣口袋里掏出一包，并把它扔到桌子上。

不要让任何错误，戴尔，他说，有关我。我不认为有什么发型或刮或洗发水，能让我像我的女孩少一点的方式。但如果你会解开这个软件包，您可能会看到你为什么让我去他起初的一段时间。

白色的手指和灵活撕烂了的字符串和纸。然后狂喜的尖叫声的喜悦；及然后，唉！快速的女性变化，歇斯底里的眼泪和哭叫声，天文台须立即就业的单位的耶和华安慰的一切权力。

因为梳——的梳子、侧面和德拉曾拜长在百老汇的窗口中的那一组躺在那里。美丽的梳子，纯龟壳，用链子轮辋—只穿消失秀发在阴凉处。他们是昂贵的梳子，她知道，和她的心了只渴望并不拥有最不希望他们渴望。现在，他们是她的但应该有装饰令人垂涎的修饰的芬芳不见了。

但她把他们搂在怀里，她终于能够查找暗淡的眼睛，一笑，说："我的头发这么快，增长吉姆！"

然后德拉跳起来好像有点被烫的小猫，喊道："哦，哦！"

吉姆还没有看到他漂亮的礼物。她伸出它向他急切地对她开放的棕榈。单调的贵重金属似乎闪存用反射的她明亮和热情洋溢的精神。

"不是花花公子，吉姆吗？我寻思着在城里找到它。你得看看一天上百次现在的时间。给我你的手表。我想查看其外观上。"

服从，而不是吉姆在沙发上跌，他把手放在他的后脑勺，笑了。

"戴尔，"他说，"让我们把我们的圣诞礼物和他们保持一段时间。他们使用目前只是太好看了。我将这笔钱去买你的梳子錶卖了。现在假设你穿上的印章。

麦琪，如你所知，是聪明的人——精彩智者——带来的礼物给宝贝在马槽里。他们发明了圣诞送礼的艺术。有智慧，他们的礼物无疑是明智的可能轴承交流的情况下重复的特权。与在这里我有跛行你平静年谱一单位内的两个傻孩子，最智为彼此地牺牲了他们的

房子最大的财富。但在最后一句，智慧的这些天让它说的是送的礼物，这两个是最明智。所有给予和接受礼物的人，如他们的聪明。到处都聪明。麦琪是他们。

结束