but the threat is always that it will be more like the aquamarine.

其矛盾则在于他同时担心小说会更像蓝宝石一样
And I want to suggest to you that the aquamarine

我想提一下这里蓝宝石最作者个人来说
has an even darker personal significance to him.

有着比文中更可怕的负面影响力
When his family fled Russia, the only things of value that

当作者一家逃往俄罗斯时
they brought with them were some of his mother's jewels.

身上唯一值钱的东西就是他母亲的珠宝
These jewels were hidden in a canister of talcum powder,

藏在一个装爽身粉的小罐子里
later buried in the yard under a tree in Europe

之后在欧洲的时侯这个小罐子被埋在院子里的树下
as they moved from place to place in their exile,

当他们在颠沛流离中不停地变换住处时
and they were gradually sold off one by one to fund their life.

这些珠宝被一点点地卖掉以维持生计
Those jewels, I would suggest to you, carried with them the sense that

那些珠宝提一下让他们想起
they were the ossified remains of a radiant Russian life,

他们是曾经俄罗斯光鲜亮丽生活腐朽的残存
and so the image of the jewel is a kind of dead childhood,

因此珠宝的意象代表了死亡般的童年