tion. There was nothing inside the porcelain; but she was not even as bright as that. The mental life! Suddenly she hated it with a rushing fury, the swindle!

她的身体暗沉无光，失去应有的魅力，沦落成毫无活力的物质。这让她陷入苦闷绝望的深渊。希望究竟在何方？她不再青春洋溢，27岁便老态尽显，肉体并无半点光泽与亮度。即使回避和否认，也无法改变衰老的事实，没错，就算矢口否认也无济于事。追求时尚的贵妇们总通过悉心护理，把自己的娇躯保养得明艳照人，堪比娇美的瓷器。虽然瓷器内里空空如也，但她就连这点外表的光鲜都没有。精神生活！霎时间，她对精神生活恨得咬牙切齿，那彻头彻尾的空中楼阁！

She looked in the other mirror's reflection at her back, her waist, her loins. She was getting thinner, but to her it was not becoming. The crumple of her waist at the back, as she bent back to look, was a little weary; and it used to be so gay-looking. And the longish slope of her haunches and her buttocks had lost its gleam and its sense of richness. Gone! Only the German boy had loved it, and he was ten years dead, very nearly. How time went by! Ten years dead, and she was only twenty-seven. The healthy boy with his fresh, clumsy sensuality that she had then been so scornful of! Where would she find it now? It was gone out of men. They had their pathetic, two-seconds spasms like Michaelis; but no healthy human sensuality, that warms the blood and freshens the whole being.

她从另一面镜子中，审视着自己的脊背、腰肢以及臀部。她日渐消瘦，但瘦削的体型却与她格格不入。她扭回身，注意到腰部的折皱，顿觉灰心丧气，以往这腰肢是多么地艳丽动人。而修长的臀部曲线失去曾经的光彩，也不再圆润丰腴。不复存在！只有那位德国小伙曾为之倾倒，而再过不久，就是他十周年的忌辰。时光荏苒！昔日情郎故去已有十载，而她如今也仅有27岁。欢好之时，那健康壮硕的少年总显得青涩稚嫩，笨手笨脚，为此她曾经嗤之以鼻。可现在，去哪里找如此如意的情侣呢？男子汉早已绝迹。只剩下米凯利斯这种挺不过两秒的可怜虫，再也找不着精力旺盛的完整性爱，体验不到让血液沸腾、让身心振奋的美好感觉。

Still she thought the most beautiful part of her was the long-sloping fall of the haunches from the socket of the back, and the slumberous, round stillness of the buttocks. Like hillocks of sand, the Arabs say, soft and downward-slipping with a long slope. Here the life still lingered hoping. But here too she was thinner, and going unripe, astringent.

不过，她仍觉得自己身体最美丽的部分是绵延起伏的臀部曲线，以腰眼处为起点，还有那饱满沉静的臀丘。正如阿拉伯人所说，就像沙堆般柔和舒缓地下降。生命唯一的希望仍存于此处。但就连这里也变得纤瘦，褪去成熟圆顺的美感。

But the front of her body made her miserable. It was already beginning to slacken, with a slack sort