(单词翻译:单击)
Someone of the worthy burghers now spoke of the dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back, meaning that of 1484.
这时另外有一位开始谈到从前流行过一两年的瘟疫：他指的是1484年的那次瘟疫。
The Councillor imagined it was the cholera that was meant, which people made so much fuss about;
司法官以为它是霍乱引起的，人们都大惊小怪。
and the discourse passed off satisfactorily enough.
所以他们的谈话还勉强可以进行下去。
The war of the buccaneers of 1490 was so recent that it could not fail being alluded to;
1490年的海寇战争离那时还没有多久，因此他们自然也要谈到这个题目。
the English pirates had, they said, most shamefully taken their ships while in the roadstead;
他们说：英国的海盗居然从船坞里把船都抢走了。
and the Councillor, before whose eyes the Herostratic event of 1801 still floated vividly, agreed entirely with the others in abusing the rascally English.
司法官亲身经历过1801年的事件，因此他也理直气壮地提出反英的意见。
With other topics he was not so fortunate;
除此以外，谈话进行得可不太好；
every moment brought about some new confusion, and threatened to become a perfect Babel;
每一分钟总有一次抬杠，威胁要变成一个完美的巴别塔；
for the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and the simplest observations of the Councillor sounded to him too daring and phantastical.
因为这位可敬的单身汉实在太无知了，司法官最简单的话语在他听来不是显得太粗鲁，就是太荒唐。
They looked at one another from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet;
他们互相呆望着，从头到脚打量对方；
and when matters grew to too high a pitch, then the Bachelor talked in Latin, in the hope of being better understood -- but it was of no use after all.
事情一僵的时候，学士就讲起拉丁文来。他以为这样别人就可以懂得他的话了；不过事实上这一点用也没有。
"What's the matter?" asked the Hostess, plucking the Councillor by the sleeve;
"现在您的感觉怎样？"老板娘问，把司法官的袖子拉了一下。
and now his recollection returned, for in the course of the conversation he had entirely forgotten all that had preceded it.
现在他恢复了记忆力：在他刚才谈话的时候，他把先前所发生的事情完全忘记了。
"Merciful God, where am I!" he exclaimed in agony;
"我的天！我是在什么地方？"他痛苦地喊道。
and while he so thought, all his ideas and feelings of overpowering dizziness, against which he struggled with the utmost power of desperation, encompassed him with renewed force.
他一想起这个问题就觉得头昏。他以最大的绝望的力量挣扎着，新的力量包围着他。
