Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men,
孩子们脸色苍白憔悴，带着老人般苍老神情，纤细羸弱的身材，
deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth,
脚上带着镣铐，瘦骨嶙峋甚而畸形变态；有些孩子矮小侏儒，
and others whose long, meager legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together.
有些孩子胫骨极细，几乎无法撑住佝偻摇晃的躯体。一眼望去，孩子们拥挤成团，
There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering;
无法看到本该健康正常的面孔。那满脸愁容的晦暗脸色，顽强挣命的生存痛苦，
there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining.
属于孩童眼眸里的光亮早已淬息，没有天真纯净开朗美丽，只有无以言说的悲哀无助。
And yet this scene, painful as it was, had its grotesque features,
眼前痛苦扭曲的景象，却不乏荒诞无稽的悲戚，
which, in a less interested observer than Nicholas, might have provoked a smile.
孩子们神情看起来比尼克贝还要漠然，但时而还能浮现不经意的惨笑。
Mrs. Squeers stood at one of the desks, presiding over an immense basin of brimstone and treacle,
此刻，斯格威尔夫人站在桌边，正在掌管分发硫黄粉与糖浆，
of which delicious compound she administered a large installment to each boy in succession,
配好的甜味混合物装在一个硕大面盆里，孩子们排列成行，每人嘴里被强行灌进一大勺。
using for the purpose a common wooden spoon, which might have been originally manufactured for some gigantic top,
斯格威尔夫人手上拿着一柄家常硕大木勺，或许当初特别出于剂量考虑，
and which widened every young gentleman's mouth considerably,
那把硕大木勺迫使男孩们竭力张大嘴巴，
they being all obliged, under heavy corporeal penalties, to take in the whole bowl at a gasp.
由于并非情愿，他们便逃不过残忍的肉体惩罚，喘息间，“啪”得入嘴一大坨。
