The name of Monaco is properly the Italian name of this principality, although it is widely used nowadays in French, the French terms Mourgues and Monéghe having fallen into desuetude3.
However the Italians call Monaco, not only the principality which bears that name but also the capital of Bavaria which the French call Munich. The messenger accordingly gave the baron tickets for Monaco-Munich instead of Monaco-principality. Before the baron and the baroness had noticed their error they were already at the Swiss frontier, and after having recovered from their astonishment4, they decided5 to finish the voyage to Munich in order to see at close hand all that the anti-artistic spirit of modern Germany could conceive of ugliness in architecture, sculpture, painting and the decorative6 arts...
* * *
The cold winds of March made the couple shiver in this stone-box Athens.
"Beer," the baron des Ygrées had said, "is excellent for women who are enceinte."
And so he led his wife to the royal brewery7 of Pschorr, to the Augustinerbr?u, to the Münchnerkindl and other great breweries8. They penetrated9 to the Nockerberg where there is a great garden. They drank there, as long as it held out, the famous March beer, Salvator, and it didn't last very long, for the Munich people are great drunkards.
* * *
When the baron and his wife entered the garden they found it thronged10 with a mob of drinkers, who were already under-the-weather and sang head to head and danced dizzily, breaking all the empty steins.
Peddlers sold roast fowl11, grilled12 herrings, pretzels, rolls, sausages, sweets, souvenirs, post-cards. And there was also Hans Irlbeck, the King of Drinkers. Since Perkeo, the midget drunkard of the great cask of Heidelberg, no such boozer had ever been seen. At the time of the March beer, and in May, Bock-time, Hans Irlbeck drank his forty quarts of beer a day. Ordinarily he did not have occasion to drink more than twenty-five.
Just as the gracious Ygrées pair passed by, Hans placed his colossal13 buttocks on a bench which, bearing already the weight of some twenty huge men and women, cracked disconsolately14. The drinkers fell, their legs in the air. Some bare thighs15 could be seen because Munich ladies never wear their stockings above their knees. Bursts of laughter everywhere. Hans Irlbeck who had also been floored, but had not let go of his stein, spilled its contents over the belly16 of a girl who had rolled near him, and the beer bubbling under her resembled that which she did when she got to her feet after swallowing a quart at one gulp17 in order to recover her composure.
But the proprietor18 of the garden cried:
"Donnerkeil! damned swine ... a bench broken."
And he started off with his towel under his arm, calling loudly for the waiters:
"Franz! Jacob! Ludwig! Martin!" while the patrons called for the proprietor:
"Ober! Ober!"
However the Oberkellner and the waiters did not come back. The drinkers crowded about the counters and took their steins themselves, but the kegs were no longer emptied, and no more were heard the sonorous19 blows of another cask being put under the hammer. The singing ceased, the drinkers, angered, proffered20 oaths at the brewers and at the March beer itself. Some profited by the lull21 to vomit22 with violent efforts, their eyes almost popping out of their heads; their neighbors encouraged them with imperturbable23 seriousness. Hans Irlbeck who had picked himself up, not without difficulty, grumbled24 with a great snort:
"There is no more beer in Munich!"
And he repeated, with the accent of his native city:
"Minchen! Minchen! Minchen!"
After raising his eyes toward heaven, he fell upon a vendor25 of fowls26, and having ordered him to roast a goose for him, began to formulate27 his desires:
"No more beer in Munich... if there were only some white radishes!"
And he repeated many times the Munich expression:
"Raadi, raadi, raadi..."
Suddenly he stopped. The crowd of drinkers, beside themselves, gave a cry of exultation28. The four waiters had just appeared at the door of the brewery. With dignity they were carrying a sort of canopy29 under which the Oberkellner marched proud and erect30, like a negro king dethroned. Behind him came fresh kegs of beer which were put under the hammer at the sound of the bell, while shouts of laughter rang out, and cries and songs rose above this teeming31 butte, hard and agitated32 as the Adam's apple of Gambrinus himself, when, burlesqued33 in the costume of a monk34, a white radish in one hand, he tossed off with the other the jug35 which rejoiced his gullet.
And the unborn child found himself right shaken by the laughter of Macarée who, greatly amused by the spectacle of this colossal gluttony, drank and drank in company with her spouse36.
But then, the vivacity37 of the mother exerted a happy influence on the character of the offspring who acquired therefrom much common sense, before his birth, and some of the real common sense, of course, which great poets are made of.
点击收听单词发音
1 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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2 baroness | |
n.男爵夫人,女男爵 | |
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3 desuetude | |
n.废止,不用 | |
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4 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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5 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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6 decorative | |
adj.装饰的,可作装饰的 | |
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7 brewery | |
n.啤酒厂 | |
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8 breweries | |
酿造厂,啤酒厂( brewery的名词复数 ) | |
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9 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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10 thronged | |
v.成群,挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 fowl | |
n.家禽,鸡,禽肉 | |
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12 grilled | |
adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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13 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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14 disconsolately | |
adv.悲伤地,愁闷地;哭丧着脸 | |
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15 thighs | |
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿 | |
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16 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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17 gulp | |
vt.吞咽,大口地吸(气);vi.哽住;n.吞咽 | |
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18 proprietor | |
n.所有人;业主;经营者 | |
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19 sonorous | |
adj.响亮的,回响的;adv.圆润低沉地;感人地;n.感人,堂皇 | |
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20 proffered | |
v.提供,贡献,提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21 lull | |
v.使安静,使入睡,缓和,哄骗;n.暂停,间歇 | |
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22 vomit | |
v.呕吐,作呕;n.呕吐物,吐出物 | |
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23 imperturbable | |
adj.镇静的 | |
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24 grumbled | |
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声 | |
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25 vendor | |
n.卖主;小贩 | |
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26 fowls | |
鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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27 formulate | |
v.用公式表示;规划;设计;系统地阐述 | |
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28 exultation | |
n.狂喜,得意 | |
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29 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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30 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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31 teeming | |
adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 );到处都是;(指水、雨等)暴降;倾注 | |
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32 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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33 burlesqued | |
v.(嘲弄地)模仿,(通过模仿)取笑( burlesque的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
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35 jug | |
n.(有柄,小口,可盛水等的)大壶,罐,盂 | |
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36 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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37 vivacity | |
n.快活,活泼,精神充沛 | |
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