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Sunday7

第二天的午饭是非常美味的馅饼，小龙虾和羊肉片。我们正吃饭时，厨子尼卡诺来问客人们晚上想吃些什么。他是一个中等身材，胖脸，小眼睛的人，齐胡子根刮了脸，这使得看起来他的胡子仿佛不是刮掉的，而是被连根拔掉的。阿列恒告诉我们美丽的帕拉吉爱上了这个厨子，因为他喝酒且性格粗暴，帕拉吉不想嫁给她，但是愿意与他婚外同居。厨子是个很虔诚的人，他的宗教信仰不允许他“过着有罪的生活”。他坚持帕拉吉嫁给他，此外其它的事都答应她，可是他喝醉时经常大骂帕拉吉，甚至打她。无论何时厨子喝醉了酒，帕拉吉就习惯于躲到楼上哭泣，每当这个时候阿列恒和仆人们就待在屋里准备万一需要保护帕拉吉。

At lunch next day there were very nice pies, crayfish, and mutton cutlets; and while we were eating, Nikanor, the cook, came up to ask what the visitors would like for dinner. He was a man of medium height, with a puffy face and little eyes; he was close-shaven, and it looked as though his moustaches had not been shaved, but had been pulled out by the roots. Alehin told us that the beautiful Pelagea was in love with this cook. As he drank and was of a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but was willing to live with him without. He was very devout, and his religious convictions would not allow him to “live in sin”; he insisted on her marrying him, and would consent to nothing else, and when he was drunk he used to abuse her and even beat her. Whenever he got drunk she used to hide upstairs and sob, and on such occasions Alehin and the servants stayed in the house to be ready to defend her in case of necessity.

我们开始谈论爱情。

“爱情是如何产生的呢？”阿列恒说，“为什么帕拉吉在身心上不像爱自己一样地爱别人，她为什么会爱上尼卡诺，那个丑陋的猪嘴——我们所有人都叫尼卡诺‘猪嘴’——个人的幸福跟爱情的结果有多大关系——所有这些问题我们都不明所以；个人能获得的见解只是他从中希望获得的罢了。迄今为止，说到爱唯一无可置疑的事实就是：‘爱是一个大大的谜。’关于爱所说和所写下的一切都不是结论，而只是这个仍然没有答案的问题的陈述罢了。这个解释似乎只适合一份份单独的爱情，而不适用于其它众多的例子。在我看来，最好的做法就是单独解说每一份爱情，而不要企图归纳爱情。就像医生们说的，我们应该个别对待每一个例子。”

“完全正确。”伯京同意。