Chapter 14

IT is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be black ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may be retributive and well deserved; but, that it is a miserable thing, I can testify.
Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister's temper. But, Joe had sanctified it, and I had believed in it. I had believed in the best parlour as a most elegant saloon; I had believed in the front door, as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence. Within a single year, all this was changed. Now, it was all coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.

How much of my ungracious condition of mind may have been my own fault, how much Miss Havisham's, how much my sister's, is now of no moment to me or to any one. The change was made in me; the thing was done. Well or ill done, excusably or inexcusably, it was done.

Once, it had seemed to me that when I should at last roll up my shirt-sleeves and go into the forge, Joe's 'prentice, I should be distinguished and happy. Now the reality was in my hold, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small coal, and that I had a weight upon my daily remembrance to which the anvil was a feather. There have been occasions in my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out from anything save dull endurance any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe.

I remember that at a later period of my `time,' I used to stand about the churchyard on Sunday evenings when night was falling, comparing my own perspective with the windy marsh view, and making out some likeness between them by thinking how flat and low both were, and how on both there came an unknown way and a dark mist and then the sea. I was quite as dejected on the first working-day of my apprenticeship as in that after-time; but I am glad to know that I never breathed a murmur to Joe while my indentures lasted. It is about the only thing I am glad to know of myself in that connection.

For, though it includes what I proceed to add, all the merit of what I proceed to add was Joe's. It was not because I was faithful, but because Joe was faithful, that I never ran away and went for a soldier or a sailor. It was not because I had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, but because Joe had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, that I worked with tolerable zeal against the grain. It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable honest-hearted duty-doing man flies out into the world; but it is very possible to know how it has touched one's self in going by, and I know right well, that any good that intermixed itself with my apprenticeship came of plain contented Joe, and not of restlessly aspiring discontented me.

What I wanted, who can say? How can I say, when I never knew? What I dreaded was, that in some unlucky hour I, being at my grimiest and commonest, should lift up my eyes and see Estella looking in at one of the wooden windows of the forge. I was haunted by the fear that she would, sooner or later, find me out, with a black face and hands, doing the coarsest part of my work, and would exult over me and despise me. Often after dark, when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, and we were singing Old Clem, and when the thought how we used to sing it at Miss Havisham's would seem to show me Estella's face in the fire, with her pretty hair fluttering in the wind and her eyes scorning me, - often at such a time I would look towards those panels of black night in the wall which the wooden windows then were, and would fancy that I saw her just drawing her face away, and would believe that she had come at last.

After that, when we went in to supper, the place and the meal would have a more homely look than ever, and I would feel more ashamed of home than ever, in my own ungracious breast.

 

对于自己的家感到羞愧是一件最为不幸的事情。可以说这是一种昧良心的忘恩负义，惩罚是报应，是理所应得的，但不管怎样，我敢保证，这是一件很不幸的事情。

对我说来，家永远不是一个快乐所在，这全因我姐姐的脾气所致。由于乔使家神圣化，所以我对于家还有信任感。过去，我曾经把那间最好的客厅当成最为精致的沙龙；我曾经把我们家的前门当作国庙神秘的大门，只要大门庄严开启，就会有烤禽等祭和献进；我曾经把那个灶间当作一处高雅的所在，虽然它不是那么富丽堂皇；我曾经把那铁匠铺当成锻炼人和走向独立成长之路的所在。然而，不过在一年之间，一切都已变化。现在，一切是那么粗糙、那么平常，我决不希望郝维仙小姐和埃斯苔娜看到这种境况。

我内心的这种冷漠情绪究竟有多少是由于我自己的错误而造成，有多少是来自郝维仙小姐的感染，有多少是因为我姐姐的脾气，无论对我还是对别人都已无关重要，因为事已如此。在我内心产生了这一变化，无论好或者坏，无论可原宥或者不可原宥，事已铸成，再也无可挽回。

过去，我一直很自信，只要等到那一天，我卷起衬衫袖口走进铁匠铺，当上乔的学徒，我一定十分神气，十分幸福。可如今，昔日的愿望已成现实，我满身的煤屑、灰尘，肮脏不堪；每日只要一追及往事，便感十分沉重，即使打铁的铁砧与之相比，也如羽毛一样轻。在我后来的生活历程中有过一些时候，仿佛有一片厚密的帷幕从天而降，把我的兴趣和罗曼蒂克的幻想扫得荡然无存，除掉灰暗沉闷的生活外，其他什么也没有。我想，除我之外，大部分人也会有过这类体验。可是，正当我踏上铺在我面前的一片人生道路，刚刚成为乔的学徒时，那从上面落下来的帷幕竟是如此沉重，如此空虚无聊，是其他任何时候的帷幕所难以相比的。

我不会忘记在我生活的那段时期，我时常于星期天的黄昏时分仁立在乡村的教堂墓地。当夜幕徐徐降临，我把个人的前景和那多风的沼泽地相比，两者倒有些相似之处，都是那么平庸单调，那么低贱微小，那么前途难以知晓，都只有一片迷茫的暗雾和汪洋的大海。刚刚开始学徒生涯时，我便显得垂头丧气、郁郁寡欢。不过，我所感到欣慰的是，我在学徒期间，对乔从来没有发过半句怨言。这也是我在整个学徒时期所感到的唯一欣慰之事。

之所以产生这样的效果是有其原因的，千因万因，一切的功劳都该属于乔。决不是由于我忠于职守，而是因为乔忠于职守，所以我才没有离家出走，参军作战，或者去当水手。我决没有勤劳这一健康的美德观念，应当说是乔的美德观念影响了我，所以我才在工作时具有说得过去的热情，没有任性。当然，我们很难了解一位温顺厚道、心地坦然、坚持职守的人究竟对这大千世界会带来多大的影响，但我们确能了解自己在和这种人相处时所受到的感染。由此，我非常清楚地明白，在我的学徒期间，如果说有些什么值得称道之事，都是和乔平凡朴素知足常乐的性格分不开的，而不是由于我自己的美德，因为我是一种见异思迁、野心过大和难以满足的人。

谁能够说得出我内心所想的是什么？连我自己也说不出，因为我不知道自己的理想。我所担心的是，在某个倒霉的时刻，我正干着最肮脏和最粗俗的活儿时，突然举目一望就发现埃斯苔娜从铁匠铺的木窗外向里面张望。时刻有一种可怕的念头袭击着我的脑海，即她或迟或早会发现我，看见我这张污黑的面孔和这双污黑的手，正干着最粗笨的活儿，于是对我就会表现得更加耀武扬威，把我看得更低三下四。天黑之后，我给乔拉着风箱，我们会一起唱《老克莱门之歌》。每逢这时，我就会想起在郝维仙小姐家中经常唱此歌的情景，于是埃斯苔娜的面孔便在炉火中浮现出来，她的一头秀发在风中飘荡着，双眼轻蔑地望着我。时常在这时候，我会情不自禁地望着木窗那边窗框勾勒出的一方方夜幕，幻想着仿佛看见她刚刚缩回面庞，并且相信她的面孔还会出现。

每逢下工后进屋就餐时，我就会感到这地方、这吃的东西愈来愈粗俗差劲。在我郁郁不欢的心中，愈来愈感到这个家使我羞愧难当。