the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant—a combined gardener and cook—had seen in at least ten years. (Para. 1)
save: prep. formal except for. e.g.: She answered all the questions save one. Translation: 埃米莉·格里尔森小姐去世时，全镇的人都去送葬了。男人们去是出于尊敬，因为一个纪念碑倒下了。女人们则是出于好奇，想看看埃米莉小姐的房子里面到底是什么样子，因为除了一个作花匠兼厨师的老男仆之外，起码有10年没别人踏进过她家的大门了。
5. What is the function of Paragraph 2?
This paragraph provides details about the setting of the story—the place being the Southern town of Jefferson and the time being after the South was defeated in the American Civil War. From the descriptions of the appearance of Miss Emily‘s house, we learn something about her family and her character, and from the visible changes on the streets over the years we get to know something about the historical and social changes that were taking place.
6. It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. (Para. 2) frame house: a house made of wood
the heavily lightsome style of the seventies: This house was built in the 1870s, after the end of the American Civil War. Compared with the solemn houses with columns in the Greek revival style built before the war (such as those we see in the movie Gone with the Wind), this Gothic revival style was fancy and frivolous.
select: adj. formal choice, excellent, outstanding; only lived in, visited or used by a small number of wealthy people
Note: The detailed description of the house reveals the identity of the Griersons as one of the richest families in the town.
7. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores. (Para. 2) garage: a business establishment where motor vehicles are stored, repaired, serviced, etc.
august: (accent on the second syllable) inspiring awe and reverence; imposing and magnificent; worthy of respect because of age and dignity, of high position, etc.
coquettish: like a girl or woman who, merely from vanity, tries to get men‘s attention and admiration
cotton wagon: a wagon carrying cotton driven to town to wait for cotton gins to separate the cotton fibers from the seeds
an eyesore among eyesores: 丑中之丑 An eyesore is something that is very ugly, especially a building surrounded by other things that are not ugly.
Note: In former times, the street housed only the best families. Then great changes took place: garages and cotton gins were built and erased the aristocratic atmosphere of the neighborhood. While the street became modern and commercial, only Miss Emily‘s house remained untouched. Although her house was rundown, it retained the air of a stubborn and frivolous girl. The cotton wagons and gasoline pumps were ugly, but this house, which was old, disintegrating, pretentious,
and completely out of place, was even less pleasant to look at. Here, the author personifies the buildings on the street, especially Miss Emily‘s house by using words like ―lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay.‖ This detail shows that the house and its owner share the same characteristics.
8. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. (Para. 2) cedar-bemused: transferred epithet
to bemuse: to plunge in thought; to preoccupy, usually in the passive voice. When ―we‖ visit the cemetery, we would be plunged in thought, meditating, thinking about the dead, the war, and history. Cedars are long-lived pine trees often planted in cemeteries.
Translation: 不过，现在埃米莉小姐也加入到那些名门望族代表的行列中了。他们在令人沉思的雪松陪伴下长眠于公墓，他们的墓碑周围埋葬着一排排南北战争中在杰斐逊战场上阵亡的南军和北军的无名士兵。
9. Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town… (Para. 3)
Miss Emily had lived a long life and had become a tradition because she represented the aristocracy of the Old South that had lost out in the Civil War. She was a care because she was old, unmarried, and without family, and the people in the town felt they must take care of her. They felt that taking care of her was their duty and obligation. And this obligation passed from generation to generation as long as she lived.
Translation: 埃米莉小姐在世时，一直是传统的化身，是履行责任和给予关照的对象，这是全镇人沿袭下来的一种义务……
10. … dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor—he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron—remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity. (Para. 3)
Colonel Sartoris: He was the son of the Old Colonel who organized a regiment to fight in the Civil War. For more information about Colonel Sartoris, see Note 4 to the text. Mixing up the two Sartorises would lead to confusions in time when the plot is concerned. to father: to bring into being; to found, originate, or invent
edict: an official public proclamation or order issued by authority; decree
no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron: 黑人妇女上街时必须系上围裙. By the time the mayor issued this edict, the Civil War had been over for almost 30 years. By law, Negroes were free. In reality, they were still discriminated against and strictly segregated from white people. In towns like Jefferson in the Deep South, Negro women were primarily house servants in rich white people‘s homes. As servants, they wore aprons at work, so an apron was the sign of a house servant. Colonel Sartoris‘ edict obviously involved racial discrimination, revealing his reactionary attitude towards issues of race.
dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity: 从她父亲去世时开始直到永远.
The two things Colonel Sartoris did—promulgating the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron and remitting Miss Emily‘s taxes—were not directly related. But they are mentioned in juxtaposition to show the difference in treatment Colonel Sartoris
accorded white upper class women as opposed to Negro women.
11. Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. (Para. 3)
―Not that‖ is used to say that what follows is not true. Miss Emily would not have accepted charity, which she would have found humiliating. When her father died, Miss Emily was quite poor, but being a proud woman from an august family, she would not accept charity. Colonel Sartoris, born into another aristocratic family in Jefferson, had elaborate ideas about how white upper class women should be treated. With the decline of the South after the war, the fortunes of these rich white families also declined. Colonel Sartoris knew that the wives and daughters of failing plantation owners enjoyed very high but also outdated status. Nonetheless, he felt that they should be looked up to, respected and taken care of. He knew exactly what Miss Emily needed and how she felt, and thus he invented a tale to justify the edict so that he could give her financial assistance that would not appear to be charity.
12. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could have invented it (Para. 3) Colonel Sartoris was the son of the real Colonel, John Sartoris, who fought in the Civil War. From Faulkner‘s novel Sartoris we learn that the Young Colonel inherited his father‘s plantation as well as his military title. He was the mayor of Jefferson. After his death in 1919, his family declined. As a member of the last Southern aristocratic generation, he tried to cling to past glory, and had very traditional ideas about deferring to white women of the elite class.
13. When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction. (Para. 4)
Note: This sentence indicates that by now Mayor Sartoris had died and many years had passed. Occasionally the narrator points out the exact year of a certain event, but usually he makes only vague time references to keep readers guessing and sorting out an approximate chronology. Faulkner is implying that, most of the time, the townsfolk who make up the ―we‖ are not very precise about dates.
with its more modern ideas: The author makes frequent contrasts between the present and the past. The Griersons, Colonel Sartoris, Old Judge Stevens, etc., represent the past, and the new generation, the new mayors and aldermen, represent the present.
14. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. (Para. 4)
Here, the author does not say which year, but later, in Paragraph 14, we learn that the visit was made almost ten years after Colonel Sartoris‘ death.
15. They wrote her a formal letter, asking her to call at the sheriff’s office at her convenience. (Para. 4)
Note: First they sent a notice. As they got no reply, they wrote a formal letter in a very polite tone, asking her to come to the sheriff‘s office when it was convenient for her.
sheriff: In the U.S., a sheriff is the chief law-enforcement officer of a county, charged in general with keeping the peace and executing court orders.
16. A week later the mayor wrote her himself, offering to call or to send his car for her…
(Para. 4)
This shows the special status Miss Emily held and the kind of care she received.
17. …and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink… (Para. 4):
Note: Miss Emily ignored the tax notice and the formal letter from the aldermen. She only replied to the letter from the mayor. This points to the fact that she was arrogant and thought of herself as too important to deal with ordinary people.
in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink: 字体纤细，书法流畅，墨水已褪色了. One of the class markers of cultivated femininity in Miss Emily‘s generation was elegant, wispy handwriting.
18. A deputation waited upon her… (Para. 5)
deputation: a group of people who are sent to talk to someone in authority, as representatives of a larger group
to wait upon: to call on or visit (especially a superior) in order to pay one‘s respects, ask a favor, etc.
Note: This brief sentence again shows Miss Emily‘s unique position in the town.
19. …since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier. (Para. 5)
China-painting (瓷器彩绘) was a traditional decorative skill and a common pastime for well-to-do women at that time. Miss Emily gave china-painting lessons at home in order to earn some money. The fact that she ceased giving the lessons indicates that she no longer admitted anyone into her house and that she had become more isolated from the outside world.
20. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. (Para. 5)
Note: Here the author is describing the inside of the house. Words like ―dim‖ and ―shadow‖ create a mysterious atmosphere. No one could see anything very clearly inside her house—or, perhaps, in her character.
Translation: 老男仆把他们引进光线黯淡的门厅，厅里的楼梯通向更加阴暗的楼上。
21. It smelled of dust and disuse—a close, dank smell. (Para. 5) Note: The smell was one of decay. dust and disuse: alliteration
disuse: the state of being or becoming unused; lack of use close: stuffy
dank: disagreeably damp; moist and chilly Translation: 房间里灰尘弥漫，散发着因长久不用而产生的气味——潮湿、发霉、令人窒息。
22. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray. (Para. 5):
when the Negro opened the blinds of one window: This detail shows that normally the blinds of all the windows in the house were closed. This is proof that she wanted to cut herself off from the
outside world.
blinds: a covering that can be pulled down over a window; window shade, window shutters 卷帘 the leather was cracked: This is a sign of poverty and decay.
Translation: 当黑人男仆打开窗户的卷帘时，他们看到家具上的皮子已经破裂。当他们落座时，一屡细细的灰尘在大腿周围慢慢扬起，尘粒在房间里唯一的太阳光束中缓缓地旋转。
23. They rose when she entered—a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. (Para. 6)
with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt: The gold chain was the chain of a watch. The fact that it vanished (disappeared) into her belt means that the watch was hidden under her belt and therefore invisible. In Paragraph 7, the narrator tells us, ―Then they could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain.‖ Pay attention to the symbolic meaning of the watch. If the watch vanished into her belt, that means she did not look at the watch. The watch is a symbol of time. In his novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner also uses watches and clocks as symbols of time. Just as one of the characters in that novel tried to smash a watch to stop time, Miss Emily, by making her watch invisible, tried to ignore the passage of time as well as any changes it might have brought about.
leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head: In Paragraph 5, we see a tarnished gilt easel in her house. Now there are her gold chain and the gold head of an ebony cane. Gilt and gold suggest wealth. To tarnish means to lose luster, to discolor, to grow dull. This word ―tarnish‖ can also mean to besmirch or sully (a reputation, a person‘s honor, etc.). The repeated use of the word underlines the fact that the Grierson family used to be rich and august but now had lost its splendor.
24. Her skeleton was small and spare; perhaps that was why what would have been merely plumpness in another was obesity in her. (Para. 6)
plumpness and obesity: Plumpness means being full and round in form; being chubby. Obesity means being very fat; unhealthily fat. A note on word choice: fat, plump, obese, overweight, large, heavy, chubby, stout, tubby, etc. If you want to be polite, do not say that people are fat. (A little) overweight or just large would be more polite. In American English, you can also say that someone is heavy when you don‘t want to be offensive. Plump is most often used of women and children and means slightly (and pleasantly) fat. Chubby is most often used of babies and children and also means pleasantly fat and healthy-looking. When you describe adults, stout means slightly fat and heavy and tubby means short and fat, especially around the stomach. If someone is extremely fat and unhealthy, he/she is obese. Obese is also the word used by doctors.
Translation:（因为）她的骨架小，换了别人只是有点富态，而到她身上就显得肥胖了。
25. She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. (Para. 6)
bloated: full of liquid or gas and therefore bigger than normal, in a way that is unpleasant 膨胀的；臃肿的
hue: color, a modification of a basic color 色度；色调
Note: In this sentence Miss Emily is being described as a dead person, drowned, bloated and pale.