詹姆斯·乔伊斯(1882～1941)，20世纪世界最重要的作家之一，现实主义和象征主义相结合是他文学成就的最大特征。他是一位注重心理分析的小说家，其作品大量运用了“意识流”的手法。他在语言应用与文体风格上的创新对20世纪的文学有极其深刻的影响，被公认为西方现代文学大师，一位具有真正创造性的天才。代表作有《都柏林人》、《尤利西斯》等．本篇是《都柏林人》中的第三篇短篇小说．
里士满北街静悄悄的。只有当基督教兄弟学校的男孩们放假时，这条死胡同的沉寂才被打破。有一幢无人居住的两层楼房，远离广场上的其他房子，矗立在胡同口。而其他房子则一副端庄的样子，严肃地彼此凝视着。
原来租住在我们家的一个牧师，在客厅后面死去了。由于屋子封闭太久，房间里空气潮湿，且弥漫着一股霉气，厨房后面那个废弃的房间里堆满了废报纸。我在其中发现了几本卷了边、发了潮的平装书：沃尔特·司各特的《修道院院长》、《虔诚的教友》，还有《维多契回忆录》。我最喜欢最后一本，因为它的书页是黄色的。房后那座荒芜的花园，中央长着一棵苹果树，还有几棵恣意生长的灌木。在其中一棵下，我找到了牧师留下的锈迹斑斑的自行车打气筒。他曾是位心地善良的牧师，他在遗嘱里，把所有的钱都捐给了慈善机构，只把房里的家具留给了妹妹。
North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The Other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.
The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes, under one of which I found the late tenants rusty bicycle-pump. He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister.
When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street.
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