Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots,

你走进那山形顶的大鲸客店后,就会发现已是置身在一个装有老式壁板的，矮阔而迂曲的进口处了。

reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft.

顿时使人想起古代那种装奴隶罪人的划船的舷墙来。

On one side hung a very large oil painting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced, that in the unequal crosslights by which you viewed it,

在一边墙上,挂有一幅非常大的油画,它给熏得这么黑漆胡涂,不易辨认,所以,如果在那种不均匀的交叉光线里看去,

it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it, and careful inquiry of the neighbors, that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose.

只有对它细心研究,不断加以周密考察,再仔细地请教邻人后,才能多少理解它的含义。

Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched.

这么数不清的.一团团的大小阴影,一开始,简直使人认为那是在新英格兰的逐巫案时候某个抱负不凡的青年艺术家,力图勾勒出令人心荡神移的纷乱景象。

But by dint of much and earnest contemplation, and oft repeated ponderings, and especially by throwing open the little window towards the back of the entry, you at last come to the conclusion that:

不过,经过多番认真凝视,不断反复沉思默想,尤其是把进口处后面那扇小窗打开后,总算可以获得这样的结论:

such an idea, however wild, might not be altogether unwarranted.

这样一种主意,不管多么荒唐,倒也不尽毫无理由.