OK阅读网

彼得·潘作者：[英]詹姆斯·巴里翻译：杨静远
PETER PAN

英文中文双语对照双语交替

首页目录上一章下一章

Chapter 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND	第七章地下的家

One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John and Michael for hollow trees. Hook, you remember, had sneered at the boys for thinking they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, and no two of the boys were quite the same size. Once you fitted, you drew in (let out) your breath at the top, and down you went at exactly the right speed, while to ascend you drew in and let out alternately, and so wriggled up. Of course, when you have mastered the action you are able to do these things without thinking of them, and nothing can be more graceful.	第二天，彼得做的头一件事是给温迪、约翰和迈克尔量身材，好给他们几个找合适的空心树。你也许还记得，胡克曾经嘲笑孩子们每人有一株空心树；其实，糊涂的是他。因为，除非那株树适合你的身材，上下是很困难的；而孩子的身材没有两个是相同的。树要是合适，下去时，你只消吸一口气，就能不快不慢地往下滑；上来时，你只消交替着一呼一吸，就能蠕动着爬上来。当然，你熟悉了这套动作后，就能不假思索地上下自如，姿态真是再优美不过了。
But you simply must fit, and Peter measures you for your tree as carefully as for a suit of clothes: the only difference being that the clothes are made to fit you, while you have to be made to fit the tree. Usually it is done quite easily, as by your wearing too many garments or too few, but if you are bumpy in awkward places or the only available tree is an odd shape, Peter does some things to you, and after that you fit. Once you fit, great care must be taken to go on fitting, and this, as Wendy was to discover to her delight, keeps a whole family in perfect condition.	不过，身材和树洞大小得合适才行，所以彼得量你的身材，就像给你量一身衣裳一样仔细。唯一不同的地方是，衣裳是按照你的身材剪裁的；而树呢，必须用你的身体去适应。通常这是很容易做到的，你可以多穿或少穿衣裳；但是，如果你身上某些不灵便的部位太臃肿，或者那株唯一能找到的树长得奇形怪状，彼得就在你身上想想办法，然后就合适了。一旦合适了，就得格外小心，保持这种合适的状态。后来，温迪高兴地发现，正因为这，全家人才维持着良好的身体状况。
Wendy and Michael fitted their trees at the first try, but John had to be altered a little.	温迪和迈克尔第一次试就合适了，但是，约翰须要更换一两棵树。
After a few days' practice they could go up and down as gaily as buckets in a well. And how ardently they grew to love their home under the ground; especially Wendy. It consisted of one large room, as all houses should do, with a floor in which you could dig (for worms) if you wanted to go fishing, and in this floor grew stout mushrooms of a charming colour, which were used as stools. A Never tree tried hard to grow in the centre of the room, but every morning they sawed the trunk through, level with the floor. By tea-time it was always about two feet high, and then they put a door on top of it, the whole thus becoming a table; as soon as they cleared away, they sawed off the trunk again, and thus there was more room to play. There was an enourmous fireplace which was in almost any part of the room where you cared to light it, and across this Wendy stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she suspended her washing. The bed was tilted against the wall by day, and let down at 6:30, when it filled nearly half the room; and all the boys slept in it, except Michael, lying like sardines in a tin. There was a strict rule against turning round until one gave the signal, when all turned at once. Michael should have used it also, but Wendy would have (desired) a baby, and he was the littlest, and you know what women are, and the short and long of it is that he was hung up in a basket.	练了几天以后，他们就能像井里的水桶一样上下自如了。他们渐渐地都热烈地爱上了这个地下的家，特别是温迪。这个家像所有的家一样，有一间大厅；大厅的地面，要是你想钓鱼，就可以挖一个坑；地上还长着五颜六色的蘑菇，可以当凳子坐。有一棵永无树死气白赖要在房中央长出来，可是，每天早晨，孩子们把它齐地面锯掉。到吃茶点的时候，它已经长到两英尺高，他们在树干上支上一块门板，正好当作一张大桌子；茶点一吃完，他们又把树干锯掉，于是，屋子里又有宽敞的地方来做游戏了。屋里有一个极大的壁炉，几乎占满了整个屋子的各个部分，你愿意在哪儿生火都行。温迪在炉前拴上许多用植物纤维搓成的绳子，她把洗净的衣裳晾在上面。床铺白天就靠墙斜立着，到六点半钟时才放下来，这时候，床铺几乎占去了半间屋子。除迈克尔外，所有的孩子都睡在这张床上，一个挨一个躺着，像罐头里的沙丁鱼一样。翻身有严重的规定，由一个人发号令，大家一齐翻身。迈克尔本也可以睡在床上，但是温迪要有一个男婴，他最小，女人的心意你们是知道的；末了，迈克尔就给放在一只篮子里，挂了起来。
It was rough and simple, and not unlike what baby bears would have made of an underground house in the same circumstances. But there was one recess in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private apartment of Tinker Bell. It could be shut off from the rest of the house by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious (particular), always kept drawn when dressing or undressing. No woman, however large, could have had a more exquisite boudoir (dressing room) and bed-chamber combined. The couch, as she always called it, was a genuine Queen Mab, with club legs; and she varied the bedspreads according to what fruit- blossom was in season. Her mirror was a Puss-in-Boots, of which there are now only three, unchipped, known to fairy dealers; the washstand was Pie-crust and reversible, the chest of drawers an authentic Charming the Sixth, and the carpet and rugs the best (the early) period of Margery and Robin. There was a chandelier from Tiddlywinks for the look of the thing, but of course she lit the residence herself. Tink was very contemptuous of the rest of the house, as indeed was perhaps inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, looked rather conceited, having the appearance of a nose permanently turned up.	这个家是很简陋的，和小熊在地下安的家也差不离。只是墙上有一个小壁龛，不过一个鸟笼那么大，那是叮叮铃的闺房。一幅小小的围幔可以把她同外面隔开。叮叮铃是很拘谨的，不论穿衣或是脱衣，她都要把围幔拉上。随便哪个女人，不管她多么大，都没有享受过这样一间精致的卧室与起居室合一的闺房。她的床——她总是管它叫卧榻，真正是麦布女王式的，有三叶草形的床脚（英国传说司梦的小仙后。英国诗人雪莱曾以此为题，写了一首哲理长诗《麦布女王》。--译注）。床罩随着不同季节的果树花更换。她的镜子是穿长筒靴的猫用的那种镜子，在仙子商贩的货架上，如今只剩下三面还没有打碎的（”穿长筒靴的猫”，出自《格林童话》，是一只帮助主人得到幸福的猫。--译注）。洗脸盆是馅饼壳式的，可以翻过来；抽屉柜是货真价实的迷人六世时代的，地毯是马杰里和罗宾极盛时代(早期)的产品。一盏用亮片装饰的大吊灯，只不过挂在那儿摆摆样子；当然，她用自己的光就可以照亮她的住处。叮叮铃很瞧不起家中的其余部分，这也是难免的；她的住处尽管漂亮，却显得有点自命不凡，看上去，像一只老是向上翘着的鼻子。
I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter's whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge (cram down the food) just to feel stodgy (stuffed with food), which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe was so real to him that during a meal of it you could see him getting rounder. Of course it was trying, but you simply had to follow his lead, and if you could prove to him that you were getting loose for your tree he let you stodge.	我估摸，这一切对温迪来说，一定都很迷人，这些喧闹的孩子真把她忙得够呛。真的，除了有时候在晚上带一只袜子上来补，整整一个礼拜，她都没有到地面上来。就说做饭吧，她的鼻子就老是离不开那口锅。他们的主食是烤面包果，甜薯，椰子，烤小猪，马米树果，塔帕卷儿，还有香蕉，就着盛在葫芦里的普普汁吃下去。不过，到底是真吃了饭，还是假装吃饭，我们也说不好，那全凭彼得的高兴了。他也能吃，能真吃，如果这是游戏的一部分；可是，他不能为了填饱肚皮去吃，而别的孩子多半都喜欢这样做。其次，他还喜欢谈吃。对于彼得，假装就等于是真的，他假装吃饭的时候，你就能看到他真的胖起来了。当然，对于别的孩子，假装吃饱是件苦事；不过，你必须照他的样子做。假如你能向他证明，树窟窿对你来说变得太松了，他就会让你饱餐一顿。
Wendy's favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on their knees.	他们全都上床睡觉以后，才是温迪缝缝补补的好时光。据她说，只有到这时候，她才能喘一口气。她把这时间用来给他们做新衣，在膝盖的地方做成双层，因为他们全都在膝盖那儿磨损得厉害。
When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, "Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!"	温迪坐下来守着一篮子的袜子，每双袜子后跟都有一个洞。这时候，她不由得举起两臂，唉声叹声地说：“唉呀呀，我有时真觉得老姑娘是可羡慕的。”
Her face beamed when she exclaimed this.	她一边叹息，一边脸上却喜气洋洋地发着光。
You remember about her pet wolf. Well, it very soon discovered that she had come to the island and it found her out, and they just ran into each other's arms. After that it followed her about everywhere.	你们还记得她的那只小爱狼吧。嗯，它很快就发现温迪来到了岛上，并且找到了她，他们彼此搂抱起来。此后，它就到处跟着她。
As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had left behind her? This is a difficult question, because it is quite impossible to say how time does wear on in the Neverland, where it is calculated by moons and suns, and there are ever so many more of them than on the mainland. But I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they would always keep the window open for her to fly back by, and this gave her complete ease of mind. What did disturb her at times was that John remembered his parents vaguely only, as people he had once known, while Michael was quite willing to believe that she was really his mother. These things scared her a little, and nobly anxious to do her duty, she tried to fix the old life in their minds by setting them examination papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school. The other boys thought this awfully interesting, and insisted on joining, and they made slates for themselves, and sat round the table, writing and thinking hard about the questions she had written on another slate and passed round. They were the most ordinary questions -- "What was the colour of Mother's eyes? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was Mother blonde or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible." "(A) Write an essay of not less than 40 words on How I spent my last Holidays, or The Carakters of Father and Mother compared. Only one of these to be attempted." Or "(1) Describe Mother's laugh; (2) Describe Father's laugh; (3) Describe Mother's Party Dress; (4) Describe the Kennel and its Inmate."	时光一天天过去，温迪难道不想念远离的亲爱的父母吗？这个问题很难回答，因为在永无乡到底过了多少时光，谁也说不清，时光是按月亮和太阳计算的；而岛上的太阳和月亮，比在内陆多得多。不过，我估摸温迪不会十分挂念她的父母，她有绝对的信心，他们一定会随时打开窗子，等着她飞回去，因此，她觉得很安心。她感到有点不安的是，约翰只是模模糊糊地记得父母，就像他们是他曾经认识的什么人；迈克尔呢，他倒很情愿相信，温迪真的是他的母亲。对这事她有点害怕了，于是她英勇地负起了责任。她用考试的方法，尽可能仿照她过去在学校里考试的情况，想在他们心里唤起对旧日的回忆。别的孩子觉得这有趣极了，硬是要参加考试。他们自备了石板，围坐在桌旁。温迪用另一块石板写下问题，给他们传看。他们看了问题，都用心想，用心写。这些问题都很平常：——“母亲的眼睛是什么颜色？母亲和父亲谁高？母亲的头发是浅色还是深色？可能的话，三题都答。” ——“写一篇不少于四十个字的文章，题目是：我怎样度过上次的假期，或比较父亲和母亲的性格。两题任答一题。”——“1．描写母亲的笑；2．描写父亲的笑；3．描写母亲的宴会礼服；4．描写狗舍和舍内的狗。”
They were just everyday questions like these, and when you could not answer them you were told to make a cross; and it was really dreadful what a number of crosses even John made. Of course the only boy who replied to every question was Slightly, and no one could have been more hopeful of coming out first, but his answers were perfectly ridiculous, and he really came out last: a melancholy thing.	每天出的题目大概就是这些，要是你答不上来，你就画一个×。甚至连约翰的×，数量都够惊人的。每个题目都作了回答的，自然只有斯莱特利，谁也没有他更能做到第一个交卷；不过，他的答案是非常可笑的，他实际上总是最后一个交卷，多么可悲呀。
Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could neither write nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that sort of thing.	彼得没有参加考试。一来除了温迪，所有的母亲他都瞧不起，二来他是岛上唯一不会读写的孩子，连最短的字也不会。他不屑于做这类事。
By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. What was the colour of Mother's eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been forgetting, too.	顺便提一下，所有的问题都是用过去时态写的。母亲的眼睛曾是什么颜色，等等。你瞧，温迪自己也有点忘了。
Adventures, of course, as we shall see, were of daily occurrence; but about this time Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly. To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do. He boasted that he had gone walking for the good of his health. For several suns these were the most novel of all adventures to him; and John and Michael had to pretend to be delighted also; otherwise he would have treated them severely.	下面我们会看到，冒险的事自然是天天都有；眼下，彼得在温迪的帮助下，发明了一种新的游戏，他玩得简直入了迷。他后来突然又不感兴趣了。你知道，他对游戏素来是这样的。这个游戏就是，假装不去冒险，只做约翰和迈克尔一向都做的事：坐在小凳子上，向空中抛球玩，彼此推揉，出去散步，连一只灰熊都没有杀死就回来了。看彼得老老实实坐在小凳子上的那副样子，才真叫有意思呢；他忍不住要摆出一本正经的神情。坐着不动，在他看来是件滑稽可笑的事。他夸口说，为了有益健康，他出去散步了一会儿。一连几天，这就是他做的最新奇的事；约翰和迈克尔不得不装作很高兴的样子，要不然，他就会对他们不客气。
He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great deal about it, and yet you could not find the body. Sometimes he came home with his head bandaged, and then Wendy cooed over him and bathed it in lukewarm water, while he told a dazzling tale. But she was never quite sure, you know. There were, however, many adventures which she knew to be true because she was in them herself, and there were still more that were at least partly true, for the other boys were in them and said they were wholly true. To describe them all would require a book as large as an English-Latin, Latin- English Dictionary, and the most we can do is to give one as a specimen of an average hour on the island. The difficulty is which one to choose. Should we take the brush with the redskins at Slightly Gulch? It was a sanguinary (cheerful) affair, and especially interesting as showing one of Peter's peculiarities, which was that in the middle of a fight he would suddenly change sides. At the Gulch, when victory was still in the balance, sometimes leaning this way and sometimes that, he called out, "I'm redskin to-day; what are you, Tootles?" And Tootles answered, "Redskin; what are you, Nibs?" and Nibs said, "Redskin; what are you Twin?" and so on; and they were all redskins; and of course this would have ended the fight had not the real redskins fascinated by Peter's methods, agreed to be lost boys for that once, and so at it they all went again, more fiercly than ever.	彼得常独自出门。他回来时，你摸不清他到底做过什么冒险事没有。他也许忘得干干净净，所以什么都没有说；可是，等你一出去，你却看到那具被杀的尸体。有时候他又大谈特谈他的冒险；可是，你却找不到那具尸体。有时他回家来，头上裹着绷带；温迪就过去抚慰他，用温水洗他的伤口。这时，他给她讲一段惊人的故事。不过，温迪对彼得的故事，从来不敢全信。有许多冒险故事她知道是真的，因为她自己也参加了；更多的故事，她知道那至少一部分是真的，因为别的孩子参加了，说那全是真的。要把这些冒险故事全都描写一番，那就需要写一本像英语拉丁、拉丁英语词典那么厚的书，我们顶多只能举一个例，看看通常岛上的一小时是怎样过的。难就难在举哪一个例子。我们就来讲讲在斯莱特利谷和印第安人的一场小遭遇战吧。这是一场血流遍地的战事，特别有趣的是，它能表现彼得的一个特点，那就是，在战斗中，他会突然转到敌人方面去。在山谷里，当胜负未决，时而倾向这一方、时而又倾向那一方时，彼得就大喊：”我今天是印第安人。你是什么，图图？”图图说：”印第安人。你是什么，尼布斯？”尼布斯说：”印第安人。你们是什么，孪生子？”等等。于是他们都成了印第安人。那些真正的印第安人觉得彼得的做法很新鲜有趣，当然也就同意这一次变成遗失的孩子，于是战斗重新打响，越发打得勇猛起来。如果不是这样，这场战争就打不下去了。
The extraordinary upshot of this adventure was -- but we have not decided yet that this is the adventure we are to narrate. Perhaps a better one would be the night attack by the redskins on the house under the ground, when several of them stuck in the hollow trees and had to be pulled out like corks. Or we might tell how Peter save Tiger Lily's life in the Mermaids' Lagoon, and so made her his ally.	这次冒险行动的结局是——不过，我们还没有决定这就是我们要讲的一次冒险故事。也许一个更好的故事是印第安人夜袭地下的家。那一回，好几个印第安人钻进树洞，上不得，下不得，像软木塞似的给拔了出来。或者我们也可以讲讲，在人鱼的礁湖里，彼得救了虎莲公主的命，因而和她结盟的故事。
Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark.	或者我们还可以讲讲，海盗们做的那只孩子们吃了就会死去的大蛋糕，海盗们怎样一次又一次把它放在巧妙的地方。可是，温迪每次都从孩子们手中把它夺走；渐渐地，那蛋糕的水分干了，硬得像块石头，可以当作一个飞弹来用。夜里，胡克不小心踩上了它，摔了一跤。
Or suppose we tell of the birds that were Peter's friends, particularly of the Never bird that built in a tree overhanging the lagoon, and how the nest fell into the water, and still the bird sat on her eggs, and Peter gave orders that she was not to be disturbed. That is a pretty story, and the end shows how grateful a bird cam be; but if we tell it we must also tell the whole adventure of the lagoon, which would of course be telling two adventures rather than just one. A shorter adventure, and quite as exciting, was Tinker Bell's attempt, with the help of some street fairies, to have the sleeping Wendy conveyed on a great floating leaf to the mainland. Fortunately the leaf gave way and Wendy woke, thinking it was bath-time, and swam back. Or again, we might choose Peter's defiance of the lions, when he drew a circle round him on the ground with an arrow and dared them to cross it; and though he waited for hours, with the other boys and Wendy looking on breathlessly from trees, not one of them dared to accept his challenge.	要不我们可以讲讲和彼得友好的那些鸟儿，特别是永无鸟。这鸟筑巢在礁湖上面的一棵树上，巢落到了水中，可那鸟却还孵在蛋上。彼得下令不要去惊动它。这故事很美，从它的结局可以看到，鸟是多么感恩图报。可是，要讲这个故事，我们就得讲在礁湖发生的整个冒险事件，那当然就得讲两个故事，而不是一个。另一个故事较短，可是也同样惊险，那就是叮叮铃在一些游仙的帮助下，把睡着的温迪放在一片大树叶上，想让她漂回英国本土。幸好树叶沉下去了，温迪醒过来，以为自己是在洗海水澡，就游了回来。还有，我们也可以选这样一个故事讲讲：彼得向狮子挑战。他用箭在地上围着自己画了一个圈子，挑动狮子走进圈子来；他等了好几个钟头，别的孩子和温迪都屏住呼吸在树上看着，可到头来，没有一只狮子敢接受他的挑战。
Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will be to toss for it.	这些冒险故事，我们选哪一段来讲呢？最好的办法，是掷一枚钱币来决定。
I have tossed, and the lagoon has won. This almost makes one wish that the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won. Of course I could do it again, and make it best out of three; however, perhaps fairest to stick to the lagoon.	我掷过了，礁湖得胜了。我们也许会希望，得胜的是山谷，或蛋糕，或温迪的大树叶。当然，我也可以再掷，三次决定胜负；不过、最公平的办法，或许还是就讲礁湖。