No. Always no. Five months of ceaseless interrogationinterrogation n.审问， 问号 and the inevitable negative. So much time spent by day in questioning managers， agents， schools and choruses； by night among the audiences of theatres from allstar casts down to music halls so low that he dreaded to find what he most hoped for. He who had loved her best had tried to find her. He was sure that since her disappearancedisappearance n.不见， 消失 from home this great， watergirt city held her somewhere， but it was like a monstrousmonstrous adj.巨大的， 畸形的， 怪异的， 恐怖的，凶暴的 adj.<口>难以置信的， 荒谬的 quicksand， shifting its particles constantly， with no foundation， its upper granulesgranule n.小粒， 颗粒， 细粒 of today buried tomorrow in ooze and slime.
不。总是不。五个月不间断地打听询问，千篇一律的否定回答。已经花了好多时间，白天去找剧院经理、代理人、剧校和合唱团打听；晚上则夹在观众之中去寻找，名角儿会演的剧院去找过，下流污秽的音乐厅也去找过，甚至还害怕在那类地方找到他最想找的人。他对她独怀真情，一心要找到她。他确信，自她从家里失踪以来，这座水流环绕的大城市一定把她蒙在了某个角落。但这座城市就像一大团流沙，沙粒的位置变化不定，没有基础，今天还浮在上层的细粒到了明天就被淤泥和黏土覆盖在下面。
The furnished room received its latest guest with a first glow of pseudohospitality， a hectic， haggard， perfunctoryperfunctory adj.马马虎虎的 welcome like the specious smile of a demirep. The sophisticalsophistical adj.诡辩的， 强词夺理的 comfort came in reflected gleams from the decayed furniture， the ragged brocade upholstery of a couch and two chairs， a footwide cheap pier glass between the two windows， from one or two gilt picture frames and a brass bedstead in a corner.
客房以假惺惺的热情迎接新至的客人，像个暗娼脸上堆起的假笑，红中透病、形容枯槁、马马虎虎。破旧的家具、破烂绸套的沙发、两把椅子、窗户间一码宽的廉价穿衣镜、一两个烫金像框、角落里的铜床架——所有这一切折射出一种似是而非的舒适之感。
The guest reclined， inert， upon a chair， while the room， confused in speech as though it were an apartment in Babel， tried to discoursediscourse n.演讲， 论述， 论文， 讲道， 谈话， 谈论 vi.谈论， 演说 to him of its divers tenantry.
房客懒洋洋地半躺在一把椅子上，客房则如巴比伦通天塔的一个套间，尽管稀里糊涂扯不清楚，仍然竭力把曾在这里留宿过的房客分门别类，向他细细讲来。
A polychromatic rug like some brilliantflowered rectangularrectangular adj.矩形的， 成直角的， tropical islet lay surrounded by a billowy sea of soiled matting. Upon the gaypapered wall were those pictures that pursuepursue vt.追赶， 追踪， 追击， 继续， 从事 the homeless one from house to house—The Huguenot Lovers， The First Quarrel， The Wedding Breakfast， Psyche at the Fountain. The mantels chastely severe outline was ingloriously veiled behind some pert draperydrapery n.(供装饰用的)织物， 帏帐， 布料 drawn rakishly askew like the sashes of the Amazonian ballet. Upon it was some desolate flotsam cast aside by the rooms marooned when a lucky sail had borne them to a fresh port—a trifling vase or two， pictures of actresses， a medicine bottle， some stray cards out of a deck. One by one， as the characters of a cryptograph become explicit， the little signs left by the furnished rooms procession of guests developed a significance.
地上铺了一张杂色地毯，像一个艳花盛开的长方形热带小岛，四周是肮脏的垫子形成的波涛翻滚的大海。用灰白纸裱过的墙上，贴着紧随无家可归者四处漂流的图片——“胡格诺情人”，“第一次争吵”，“婚礼早餐”，“泉边美女”。壁炉炉额的样式典雅而庄重，外面却歪歪斜斜扯起条花哨的布帘，像舞剧里亚马逊女人用的腰带。炉额上残留着一些零碎物品，都是些困居客房的人在幸运的风帆把他们载到新码头时抛弃不要的东西——一两个廉价花瓶，女演员的画片，药瓶儿，残缺不全的扑克纸牌。渐渐地，密码的笔形变得清晰可辨，前前后后居住过这间客房的人留下的细小痕迹所具有的意义也变得完整有形。
The threadbarethreadbare adj.穿破旧衣服的， 俗套的 space in the rug in front of the dresser told that lovely woman had marched in the throng. Tiny finger prints on the wall spoke of little prisoners trying to feel their way to sun and air. A splattered stain， raying like the shadow of a bursting bomb， witnessed where a hurled glass or bottle had splintered with its contents against the wall. Across the pier glass had been scrawledscrawl vt.乱涂， 潦草地写 vi.乱写 n.潦草的笔迹 with a diamond in staggering letters the name “Marie.” It seemed that the succession of dwellers in the furnished room had turned in fury—perhaps tempted beyond forbearance by its garish coldness—and wreaked upon it their passions. The furniture was chipped and bruised； the couch， distorted by bursting springs， seemed a horrible monster that had been slain during the stress of some grotesquegrotesque adj.奇形怪状的， 奇异 n.奇形怪状的人(或物、图案等)， 奇异风格 convulsion. Some more potent upheaval had cloven a great slice from the marble mantel. Each plank in the floor owned its particular cant and shriek as from a separate and individual agony. It seemed incredible that all this malice and injury had been wrought upon the room by those who had called it for a time their home； and yet it may have been the cheated home instinct surviving blindly， the resentful rage at false household gods that had kindled their wrath. A hut that is our own we can sweep and adorn and cherish.
梳妆台前那片地毯已经磨得只剩麻纱，意味着成群的漂亮女人曾在上面迈步。墙上的小指纹表明小囚犯曾在此努力摸索通向阳光和空气之路。一团溅开的污迹，形如炸弹爆炸后的影子，是杯子或瓶子连同所盛之物一起被砸在墙上的见证。穿衣镜镜面上用玻璃钻刀歪歪扭扭地刻着名字“玛丽”。看来，客房留宿人——也许是受到客房那俗艳的冷漠之驱使吧——曾先先后后在狂怒中辗转反侧，并把一腔愤懑倾泻在这个房间上。家具有凿痕和磨损；长沙发因凸起的弹簧而变形，看上去像一头在痛苦中扭曲的痉挛中被宰杀的可怖怪物。另外某次威力更大的动荡砍去了大理石壁炉额的一大块。地板的每一块拼木各自构成一个斜面，并且好像由于互不干连、各自独有的哀怨而发出尖叫。令人难以置信的是，那些把所有这一切恶意和伤害施加于这个房间的人居然就是曾一度把它称之为他们的家的人；然而，也许正是这屡遭欺骗、仍然盲目保持的恋家本性以及对虚假的护家神的愤恨点燃了他们胸中的冲天怒火。一间茅草房——只要属于我们自己——我们都会打扫、装点和珍惜。
The young tenanttenant n.承租人， 房客， 租客 v.出租 in the chair allowed these thoughts to file， softshod， through his mind， while there drifted into the room furnished sounds and furnished scents. He heard in one room a tittering and incontinent， slack laughter； in others the monologuemonologue n.独白， 独角戏 of a scold， the rattling of dice， a lullaby， and one crying dully； above him a banjo tinkled with spirit. Doors banged somewhere； the elevated trains roared intermittently； a cat yowled miserably upon a back fence. And he breathed the breath of the house—a dank savour rather than a smell —a cold， musty effluvium as from underground vaults mingled with the reeking exhalationsexhalation n.呼出， 呼气， 蒸发， 发散物 of linoleum and mildewed and rotten woodwork.
椅子上的年轻人任这些思绪缭绕心间，与此同时，楼中飘来有血有肉、活灵活现的声音和气味。他听见一个房间传来吃吃的窃笑和淫荡放纵的大笑；别的房间传来独自咒骂声，骰子的格格声，催眠曲和呜呜抽泣；楼上有人在兴致勃勃地弹班卓琴。不知什么地方的门砰砰嘭嘭地关上；架空电车不时隆隆驶过；后面篱墙上有只猫在哀叫。他呼吸到这座房子的气息。这不是什么气味儿，而是一种潮味儿，如同从地窖里的油布和朽木混在一起蒸发出的霉臭。