故事梗概：
九月的一个夜晚，居住在新英格兰地区白山大峡谷里的一家人迎来了一位陌生人。当晚，这位年轻来客和这家人相处融洽，年轻人于是向这家人谈起了自己的理想和抱负。随后，原本安于平静生活并自得其乐的一家人也分别说出了自己的一些“奇怪”的想法，如父亲希望一家人生活在某个小镇上并有座农场而不是居住在这个危险的峡谷里；最小的孩子还甚至有所预感地提出：“我要咱们全家，还有那位客人，马上出发，到山涧的水潭去喝口水！”（或许那样能够避过后来的山崩？）；当慈祥的老祖母说出自己的想法——“想要你们中的一个人，孩子们——等你们母亲穿戴齐整进了棺材，拿面镜子照照我的脸。谁知道我就不会再瞧上自己一眼，看看一切是不是都弄妥了？”时，它一下子抓住了听者的心，以致他们竟没有意识到一场突如其来的山崩正朝他们袭来。最后，所有人都长眠在了地下，但所有人都留下了各自的遗物，这些东西会使认识这一家子的人为他们洒下泪水。他们的故事广为流传，成为大山里的一个神话，诗人也咏叹着他们的命运…… 
《有抱负的来客》是霍桑的一篇短篇小说，讲述了一次山崩事件的前因后果。小说取材于美国新英格兰地区的一个神奇传说，想象丰富，描写细致，语言精彩。这里节选了小说的前半部分，也是小说中集中描写有抱负的年轻来客的部分。
文字难度：★★★☆
One September night a family had gathered round their hearth. Up the chimney roared the fire, and brightened the room with its broad blaze. The faces of the father and mother had a 1)sober gladness; the children laughed; and the aged grandmother sat knitting in the warmest place. This family was situated in the 2)Notch of the 3)White Hills, where the wind was sharp throughout the year, and pitilessly cold in the winter. They dwelt in a cold spot and a dangerous one; for a mountain towered above their heads, so steep, that the stones would often 4)rumble down its sides and startle them at midnight.
九月的一个夜晚，有一家人围坐在炉火边。炉火熊熊，直冲烟囱，把屋子照得又明又亮。父亲和母亲脸上是一副悠然自得的表情，孩子们喜笑颜开，年老的祖母坐在最暖和的地方织毛线。这家人住在白山的大峡谷里，这里终年狂风呼啸，冬天更是冷得彻骨。一家人住在这又冷又险的地方，头顶危耸一座高山，陡峭险峻，山岩时常顺坡轰隆隆滚落，深更半夜吓他们一大跳。
The eldest daughter had just uttered some simple 5)jest that filled them all with 6)mirth, when the wind came through the Notch and seemed to pause before their cottage—7)rattling the door, with a sound of wailing and 8)lamentation, before it passed into the valley. For a moment it saddened them, though there was nothing unusual in the tones. But the family were glad again when they perceived that the 9)latch was lifted by some traveler, whose footsteps had been unheard amid the dreary blast which 10)heralded his approach, and wailed as he was entering, and went moaning away from the door.
大女儿方才说了个什么小笑话，逗得大家笑得很开心。突然，寒风刮过峡谷，好像停在了他家门前，把门摇得哗啦响，还夹带着哀号与恸哭的声音，然后才刮进山谷。有那么一会儿，大家显得愁容满面，虽然这风声并没什么异样。不过一家人很快又高兴起来，因为发现门闩被某个赶路人拔开了，他的脚步声方才被凄厉的寒风吞没，所以没被听见。风儿预报他的到来，哀号着送他进来，又呻吟着从门口退去。
Though they dwelt in such a 11)solitude, these people held daily converse with the world. The romantic pass of the Notch is a great 12)artery, through which the life-blood of internal commerce is continually throbbing. The 13)way-farer, with no companion but his 14)staff, paused here to exchange a word. It was one of those primitive 15)taverns where the traveler pays only for food and lodging, but meets with a homely kindness beyond all price. When the footsteps were heard, therefore, between the outer door and the inner one, the whole family rose up, grandmother, children, and all, as if about to welcome someone who belonged to them, and whose fate was linked with theirs.
这家人虽住得偏僻，却天天与世界有交往。峡谷内传奇的关隘就是一条大动脉，通过它，峡谷地区内在商业的鲜活血液不断。徒步旅行者除了手里的拐杖别无同伴，他们会在这里驻足，与这家人讲上几句话。这家就是一间原始的小旅店，旅客只需付一点食宿钱，就能享受无价的家庭温暖。所以，每逢听到里屋与外屋之间响起脚步声，全家人都会站起身来。老祖母、孩子们，全家一起，仿佛是迎接一位亲人，而这个人与他们命运相连。
The door was opened by a young man. His face at first wore the melancholy expression, almost 16)despondency, of one who travels a wild and 17)bleak road, at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up when he saw the kindly warmth of his reception. He felt his heart spring forward to meet them all, from the old woman, who wiped a chair with her apron, to the little child that held out its arms to him.
进门的是位年轻人。乍看上去，他一脸忧伤，甚至是沮丧。大约黄昏时踽踽独行，尝够了荒凉。但一见这家人诚心诚意的欢迎他，顿时喜形于色，感到心儿欢跃，要与所有的人相识相知，从用自己围裙为他擦椅子的老太太，到那伸手欢迎他的孩子。
“Ah, this fire is the right thing!” cried he,“especially when there is such a pleasant circle round it. I am quite 18)benumbed; for the Notch is just like the pipe of a great pair of 19)bellows; it has blown a terrible blast in my face all the way from 20)Bartlett. It is no matter; for, when I saw this good fire, and all your cheerful faces, I felt as if you had kindled it on purpose for me, and were waiting my arrival. So I shall sit down among you, and make myself at home.”
“啊，这炉火来得正好！”他嚷道，“特别是周围还有这么一圈快活的人。我可冻僵了，峡谷就像一对大风箱的导管，从巴特莱特到这儿，一路对着我的脸猛吹。不过没关系，一见这炉好火，一见你们快活的面孔，就觉得你们是特地为我生这炉火的，在等着我来呐。所以我要跟你们坐在一块儿，就像到了自己家一样！”
Let us now suppose the stranger to have finished his supper of bear’s meat; and, by his natural 21)felicity of manner, to have placed himself on a 22)footing of kindness with the whole family, so that they talked as freely together as if he belonged to their mountain brood. He was of a proud, yet gentle spirit—23)haughty and reserved among the rich and great; but ever ready to 24)stoop his head to the lowly cottage door, and be like a brother or a son at the poor man’s fireside. In the household of the Notch he found warmth and simplicity of feeling, and a poetry of native growth, which they had gathered when they little thought of it from the mountain peaks and 25)chasms, and at the very 26)threshold of their romantic and dangerous 27)abode. He had traveled far and alone; his whole life, indeed, had been a solitary path; for, with the lofty caution of his nature, he had kept himself apart from those who might otherwise have been his companions. The family, too, though so kind and hospitable, had that consciousness of unity among themselves, and separation from the world at large, which, in every domestic circle, should still keep a holy place where no stranger may intrude. But this evening a prophetic sympathy impelled the 28)refined and educated youth to pour out his heart before the simple mountaineers, and constrained them to answer him with the same free confidence. And thus it should have been. Is not the 29)kindred of a common fate a closer tie than that of birth?
现在，让咱们设想，陌生人已吃完了熊肉晚餐，以他生就的得体举止，与这家人相处融洽，使他们把他当作自己人，与他自在交谈。他是个骄傲却又温柔的人——与有钱有势者打交道，他显得傲慢含蓄，但却总乐意低头俯就矮小的茅屋门，像兄弟或儿子那样坐在穷人的炉火边。从峡谷的这户人家，他发现了温暖朴实的感情，发现了一种土生土长的诗意。这些东西是他们不知不觉间从大山的峰峦与裂缝中获取的，从他们传奇而危险的住所门前得到的。他独自旅行到过许多地方。的确，他的整个生命就像一条孤独的小路。他生性高傲谨慎，总是远离那些本可能成为同伴的人。而这家人也一样，虽说既善良又好客，却具有团结一心，与整个世界相脱离的意识。这种意识，在每一个家庭圈子里都会保持一种任何外人都无法侵入的神圣地位。但是，这天夜里，一种似曾相识志同道合的感觉促使这位温文尔雅而又富于教养的年青人，向这些纯朴的山里人敞开了心扉，也促使他们对他报以相同的坦诚信赖。事情本该如此，难道同呼吸共命运的纽带不比血缘关系更密切么？
The secret of the young man’s character was a high and abstracted ambition. He could have borne to live an 30)undistinguished life, but not to be forgotten in the grave. Yearning desire had been transformed to hope; and hope, long cherished, had become like certainty, that, 31)obscurely as he journeyed now, a glory was to beam on all his pathway—though not, perhaps, while he was 32)treading it. But when 33)posterity should gaze back into the gloom of what was now the present, they would trace the brightness of his footsteps, brightening as 34)meaner glories faded, and confess that a gifted one had passed from his cradle to his tomb with none to recognize him.
这位年轻人骨子里有一种崇高而抽象的抱负——生前他愿忍受默默无闻，死后却不愿被人遗忘。这种强烈的愿望化为希望，而长久珍藏的希望又化为确信无疑的信念。所以，现在他只是一位无名旅人，将来荣耀却会照耀着他所走过的全部道路——尽管他艰难跋涉之时也许还不能如此，但是当子孙后代回顾已化作一片朦胧的“现在”时，会找寻他足迹的光辉，而那些较为平庸的荣耀褪色之后，这光辉将愈发辉煌。他们会承认一位天才曾走完了毕生的道路，尽管当时不为人知。
“35)As yet,” cried the stranger—his cheek glowing and his eyes flashing with enthusiasm—“as yet, I have done nothing. Were I to vanish from the earth tomorrow, none would know so much of me as you: that a nameless youth came up at nightfall from the valley of the 36)Saco, and opened his heart to you in the evening, and passed through the Notch by sunrise, and was seen no more. Not a soul would ask, ‘Who was he? 37)Whither did the wanderer go?’ But I cannot die till I have achieved my destiny. Then, let Death come! I shall have built my monument!”
“迄今为止，”陌生人大声道——热情洋溢，面颊通红，两眼放光——“迄今为止，我还一事无成。要是明天我从地球上消失，没有人会比你们对我了解得更多。一个素不相识的年轻人，天黑时从索科山谷来到这里，晚上向你们敞开了他的心扉，日出时又穿过诺奇峡谷走了，从此杳无踪影。没有一个人会问：‘他是谁？这流浪汉要去哪里？’可是不完成我的使命我就不能死。等到使命完成，就让死神降临吧！我已为自己竖起了一块纪念碑！”
There was a continual flow of natural emotion, gushing forth amid abstracted 38)reverie, which enabled the family to understand this young man’s sentiments, though so 39)foreign from their own.
他一面沉浸于自己的奇思怪想，一面滔滔不绝地倾吐激情，使这家人都能理解他的想法，尽管这一切与他们自己的思想格格不入。
