There were eight Japanese gentlemen having a fish dinner at Bentley’s. They spoke to each other rarely in their incomprehensible tongue, but always with a courteous smile and often with a small bow[1]. All but one of them wore glasses. Sometimes the pretty girl who sat in the window beyond[2] gave them a passing[3 ]glance, but her own problem seemed too serious for her to pay[4 ]real attention to anyone in the world except herself and her companion.

She had thin[5 ]blond hair and her face was pretty and petite[6 ]in a Regency[7] way, oval like a miniature[8]，though she had a harsh way of speaking — perhaps the accent of the school, Roedean or Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which she had not long ago left. She wore a man’s signet-ring[9] on her engagement finger, and as I sat down at my table, with the Japanese gentlemen between us[10], she said, “ So you see we could marry next week,"

“Yes?”

Her companion appeared a little distraught. He refilled their glasses with Chablis and said, “Of course，but Mother..." I missed some of the conversation then, because the eldest Japanese gentleman leant across the table, with a smile and a little bow, and uttered a whole paragraph like the mutter from an aviary, while everyone bent towards him and smiled and listened, and I couldn’t help attending to him myself.

背景介绍：

本篇节选自英国作家格雷厄姆格林（Graham Greene ) (1904-1991) 的The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen。题目的翻译向来是见仁见智， 有的倾向直译，有的倾向意译。过去考虑中国读者的接受能力，多 采用意译；而现在随着国门的打开，译文更强调符合原文，介绍外 国文化，因而趋于直译。此处的“看不（invisible) ”并非指日本 绅士有什么超人的魔法，只是对于专心自己事务、对其他一切一概 不加留意的女主人公而言，他们如同不存在一般。作者旨在通过这 个“视而不见”的插曲刻画女主人公的性格特征并使故事带上了幽 默感。由此可见，《视若无睹》（意译）比《看不见的日本绅士》 (直译）似乎更能起到提纲挈领的作用。