The Notebook的前两句，如何理解，怎样翻译？

mxh3698

Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?
The sun has come up and I am sitting by a window that is foggy with the breath of a life gone by. I’m a sight this morning: two shirts, heavy pants, a scarf wrapped twice around my neck and tucked into a thick sweater knitted by my daughter thirty birthdays ago.

* O$ n) _7 m; Z6 c- T7 F/ n

lewpad

我就是来看看。

武汉加油

0 @! j, ]" V& a: A. t0 _* g
, R! Z8 |6 n, Ngone by 是文学中的常见用法，作后置定语修饰（前置形式就是by-gone, 例如: a monument erected to commemorate the by-gone centeries of tyrannical slavery),
* }# R4 W4 [2 o! W( B类似的还有 of yore, of the past, 这类短语重点不在于表达时间上的过去，而是着重流露出一种 wistful 的情感

  o5 {. D+ h  o$ E例如：
She would sit there by the only window in the room for entire afternoons, contemplating the distance while smiling pensively, as if thinking of the years gone by when she was celebrating newly wedded life with her handsome beau.
9 d7 N) h4 ^# P! ]
7 h: v: S, K( w  T" A; U- y5 aa sight 就是 an embarrassment; something that makes a spectable of yourself;
0 w. I! N4 J% [! [8 p8 Y" r例如：
6 \3 r3 U$ {2 B! {5 @' x' z: i" XI think I must have been quite a sight when I showed up with a blood-red MAKE-AMERICA-GREAT-AGAIN T shirt on at a party where all invitees dislike Trump and his gang of cohorts and cronies.

4 V( j: k9 h9 u  x( \
  D6 ?$ N' w, g' s! J2 A原文 a sight就是说自己今天的穿着看上去肯定很怪。
5 D8 l! d% }# L至于这个a window that is foggy 是什么意思，可以是玻璃上人呼气产生的水汽，也可能是窗外有大雾从而玻璃上看着有朦胧感。
所以 a window that is foggy with the breath of a life gone by 整体是什么意思，需要在了解全文的基调后才能判断。因为此处涉及主人公当时的处境或者是心境。
' {0 a" P) ]5 t, I6 T8 `

武汉加油

需要从下文去体会

mxh3698

武汉加油 发表于 2020-8-3 13:45
需要从下文去体会

These are the beginning sentences of the novel and you have all the context you need here. You don't mean to suggest that you have to read the book from cover to cover in order to understand the underlined parts here ?

dictlife

a life 指代不是很明确，需要更多的信息。比如，a life 是不是指叙述者本人，他/她是独自一人坐在窗边，还是有人/宠物正和他/她坐在一起？叙述者或者另一个人/动物紧靠着窗边坐着吗，还是距离窗面有一定距离，这关系到他/她/它呼出的气能不能在窗上形成雾气。或者可能刚刚叙述者还没有坐到窗边，而是有另一个人/动物坐在那里（例如可能是叙述者的老伴儿/老相识/老猫老狗），但是现在对方已经离开了窗边，叙述者这时候占据了他/她/它的位置，the breath 会不会是刚才那个人/动物留下的？如果后文继续在说叙述者自己的事，那么 the breath 应该就是他/她自己呼出的；如果后文转而开始讲述别的故事，那么 the breath of a life gone by 可能会有其他的解读。
8 H3 |7 e/ n; S4 K- [, _* i
于是，我去找了 The Notebook 小说的开头几段，发现似乎并没有人/动物和叙述者待在一起，那么 a life gone by 指的应该就是叙述者本人了。