Ernestine, A Swedish Tale (1788)--- Marque de Sade

(related to "Oxtiern, or The Misfortunes of Libertinage (1800)")

1. Every man has the right to demand redress for something that has been taken from him, or for an offense he has suffered.

2. ... issued from his mother's womb

3. reiterate 重申 his excuses for the rashness

4. ...conceal her true sentiments until th eplot she was preparing was fully hatched.

5. evince 表示

6. blunder 大錯

7. taken the pains to keep it a secret

8. dwell on/upon 老是想著;停留在

9. and poor Herman, abandoned to his fate, will have naught to comfort him but his own tears.

10. hapless 不幸的,運氣不好的

11. Can he ever fear that this heart, which is his alone, could ever betray him?

12. 'tis impossible for there ever to be on the face of the earth a man who loves her as deeply as do I!

13. the baleful 哀傷的,不幸的 hour of departure at last arrived. For two hearts truly in love, what difference is there between this hour and the hour of death? It seems as though, upon leaving the object one loves, one's heart literally breaks; it's as though our organs, as it were enchained to the cherished object whom we are leaving, wither aways and die at this cruel moment.

14. as though we had lost possession of our very faculties, as though the vital force which motivates our life had abandoned us, and what remains is dull and senseless.

15. implicated 牽連;連累

16. premeditated 預謀theft

17. embezzlement 盜用公款

18. effrontery 厚顏無恥;放肆: would i have the effrontery to wait peacefully for the day of reckoning when my shame would be revealed?

19. He burst into tears and charged Heaven with the responsibility for allowing him to live only to be beset使苦惱 by so many misfortunes.

20. vindicate 證明...無辜,為...辯白 oneself : Die without vindicating himself? ... without cleansing himself of suspicions which would greatly distress Ernestine?

Her delicate soul would never sustain such a blow, the sorrow would bring her to her grave....

21. tantamount 同等的,相當於:
---To flee would be tantamount to admitting one's guilt.
---His answer was tantamount to an insult.

22. commended 把...委託(給)[(+to)] himself to the decrees of Heaven (decree: 天意,天命)

23. is't possible for Heaven to invent anyfurther sorrows wherewith to burden my heart even more?

24. whose hear is aflame with love.

25. She would have preferred that he be present to share her pleasures, which were pale and insipid 沒有味道的;清淡的; 無趣的 without him

26. He dressed as impeccably (perfectly) as he knew how

27. We were not born to know happiness, Father. There are certain persons whom Nature creates solely to drift from one misfortune to the next throughout the short span of their days here on earth. Not all of us can hope to experience an equal share of happiness.

28. has no one but you to turn to for help or consolation