Jerome K. Jerome

Three Men in a Boat

三人同舟

杰罗姆·K. 杰罗姆（英）  著

外研社编译组  译

外语教学与研究出版社

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH PRESS

北京 Beijing

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目 录

- Chapter I.  第一章

- Chapter II.  第二章

- Chapter III.  第三章

- Chapter IV.  第四章

- Chapter v.  第五章

- Chapter VI.  第六章

- Chapter VII.  第七章

- Chapter VIII.  第八章

- Chapter IX.  第九章

- Chapter X.  第十章

- Chapter XI.  第十一章

- Chapter XII.  第十二章

- Chapter XIII.  第十三章

- Chapter XIV.  第十四章

- Chapter XV.  第十五章

- Chapter XVI.  第十六章

- Chapter XVII.  第十七章

- Chapter XVIII.  第十八章

- Chapter XIX.  第十九章

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CHAPTER I.

第一章

THREE INVALIDS.—SUFFERINGS OF GEORGE AND HARRIS.—A VICTIM TO ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN FATAL MALADIES.—USEFUL PRESCRIPTIONS.—CURE FOR LIVER COMPLAINT IN CHILDREN.—WE AGREE THAT WE ARE OVERWORKED, AND NEED REST.—A WEEK ON THE ROLLING DEEP?—GEORGE SUGGESTS THE RIVER.—MONTMORENCY LODGES AN OBJECTION.—ORIGINAL MOTION CARRIED BY MAJORITY OF THREE TO ONE.

三个病号——乔治与哈里斯的病痛——107种病症折磨的对象——有效的处方单——如何治疗儿童肝病——我们都过度劳累，需要休息——在海上颠簸一周？——乔治建议乘舟游河——蒙特莫伦西提出反对——三比一通过原提案

There were four of us—George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were—bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course.

我们有四个人：乔治、威廉.塞缪尔.哈里斯、我，再加上蒙特莫伦西。当时大家正在我房间里坐着抽烟谈天，聊我们有多糟糕，当然，我指的是从医学角度来说的糟糕。

We were all feeling seedy, and we were getting quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. With me, it was my liver that was out of order. I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill circular, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all.

我们几个都感到身上不舒服，并为此而神经紧张。哈里斯说他有时候感到一阵阵异乎寻常的眩晕，晕得都不知道自己正在干什么；而乔治说他也有时候阵阵发晕，也晕得几乎不知道自己正在做什么。而我，则是肝出了毛病。我之所以知道我是肝出了毛病，是因为我刚读了一份肝病专利药的宣传单，上面写有肝病的各种详细症状以供自测。我可是全部符合，一条不落。

It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease there in dealt with in its most virulent form. The diagnosis seems in every case to correspond exactly with all the sensations that I have ever felt.

这事很不寻常，没有哪次读过专利药广告后，我能不被迫得出结论，认为自己患有该药意欲攻克的疾病，而且还是最恶性的。每次的自测症状似乎都和我的所有感觉完全吻合。

I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment of which I had a touch—hay fever, I fancy it was. I got down the book, and read all I came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves, and began to indolently study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first distemper I plunged into—some fearful, devastating scourge, I know—and, before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms", it was borne in upon me that I had fairly got it.

记得有次我去大英博物馆，想查一下我稍有所染的小恙（据我猜测是花粉热）怎么治疗。我找到相关的书，把应该读的部分读完了，接着不知不觉中,又漫不经心地翻过几页，不紧不慢地想看看还有些别的什么病。现在已记不得当时撞上的是种什么失调症（但我知道一定是种可怕的、毁灭性的疫病）,“先兆性症状”还没读到一半，我就确信自己是中招了。

I sat for a while, frozen with horror; and then, in the listlessness of despair, I again turned over the pages. I came to typhoid fever—read the symptoms—discovered that I had typhoid fever, must have had it for months without knowing it—wondered what else I had got; turned up St. Vitus's Dance—found, as I expected, that I had that too,—began to get interested in my case, and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started alphabetically—read up ague, and learnt that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight. Bright's disease, I was relieved to find, I had only in a modified form, and, so far as that was concerned, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I plodded conscientiously through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I could conclude I had not got was housemaid's knee. I felt rather hurt about this at first; it seemed somehow to be a sort of slight. Why hadn't I got housemaid's knee? Why this invidious reservation? After a while, however, less grasping feelings prevailed. I reflected that I had every other known malady in the pharmacology, and I grew less selfish, and determined to do without housemaid's knee.

我呆坐了一会儿，满心恐惧，接着在绝望的无精打采中，我又翻了几页书。下面介绍的是伤寒症，看了症状，我发现自己患上这病都好几个月了还一直蒙在鼓里。因为很想知道我究竟还得了些别的什么病，就翻到圣维斯特舞蹈病一看，果然这个病我也有。这下我来了兴致，决心把属于自己的病全都找出来，于是翻到第一页，按字母顺序从ague（疟疾）开始筛——疟疾（我正受着它的煎熬，大概再过两个星期就要进入急性期）、肾小球肾炎（很高兴我得的是慢性的，也就是说只考虑这一种病的话，我还可以活很多年）、霍乱（这我也有，而且并发症相当严重）、白喉（我可能生下来就有白喉）。我卖力地仔细读完整本书中的所有病，发现唯一可以认定自己没有得的病是通常女佣才会得的膝盖囊肿。最初我感到很受伤害，似乎遭了蔑视一般：为何我没有膝盖囊肿？为何这般小气不让我得？

Gout, in its most malignant stage, it would appear, had seized me without my being aware of it; and zymosis I had evidently been suffering with from boyhood. There were no more diseases after zymosis, so I concluded there was nothing else the matter with me.

然而过了一阵后，更为淡泊的心绪占了上风。 我想既然除此以外药理学上的所有病我都已收入囊中，也不应该那么自私，没有膝盖囊肿我也就忍了。痛风，以其最恶性的形态，不知不觉中已经攫住了我；发酵病，很明显，从儿童时期起就伴我左右。发酵病是病理学书上列举的最后一种病，所以这时我可以下结论：我再没有其他病了。

I sat and pondered. I thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view, what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to "walk the hospitals", if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and, after that, take their diploma.

我坐在那冥思。我想，从医学角度看，我是多么有趣的病例啊，医学课上有了我简直就是如获至宝！有了我，学生们再不用“跑医院”当实习医生，因为我本人就是一座医院。他们只需要绕着我转，然后就拿文凭好了�

Then I wondered how long I had to live. I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse I could not at fist feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating. I have since been induced to come to the opinion that it must have been there all the time, and must have been beating, but I can not account for it. I patted myself allover my front, from what I call my waist up to my head, and I went a bit round each side, and a little way up the back. But I could not feel or hear anything. I tried to look at my tongue. I stuck it out as far as ever it would go, and I shut one eye, and tried to examine it with the other. I could only see the tip, and the only thing that I could gain from that was to feel more certain than before that I had scarlet fever.

接着我想知道自己还能活多久。我试图给自己一个诊断。我摸摸自己的脉搏，开始居然完全摸不到脉。接着，突然就开始跳了。我掏出手表来读数：1分钟147下。我试图摸摸自己的心跳不跳，却根本就摸不着——我的心脏已经停止了跳动。经过百般劝说后，我只得相信它一定还呆在它该在的地方，也一定在跳动着，但我无从证实这一点。我轻轻拍打身体的正面，从我称之为腰的部位开始，一路往上拍打到头部。接着拍拍身体两侧，再从腰的后部往上拍打了一小段背部。但我并没有感觉到或听到任何异样。我试图看看自己的舌头，于是将舌头伸至极限，然后闭上一只眼睛，努力用另一只眼睛观察舌头有没有问题。我只能看到舌尖，但这番折腾的唯一结果是，我比以前更确信自己患有猩红热。

I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.

走进阅览室的时候我是一个快乐健康的人，爬出来的 时候我已是衰弱垂死了。

I went to my medical man. He is an old chum of mine, and feels my pulse, and looks at my tongue, and talks about the weather, all for nothing, when I fancy I'm ill; so I thought I would do him a good turn by going to him now. "What a doctor wants," I said, "is practice. He shall have me. He will get more practice out of me than out of seventeen hundred of your ordinary, common place patients, with only one or two diseases each." So I went straight up and saw him, and he said: "Well, what's the matter with you?"

我去找我的医生。他是我的老友，每当我臆想自己有病的时候，他会为我摸摸脉，看看舌苔，陪我聊聊天气，并且分文不收。所以我想我应该回送他个人情，现在就把自己送上门去。我心想：“医生想要的，无非就是练手。我就归他啦。他从我身上得到的锻炼，比从1,700个普通平庸的病人身上得到的总和还多，因为那些人每人也就得一两种病。”于是我直接跑去见他，他说：“怎么，你哪里不对劲吗？”

I said: "I will not take up your time, dear boy, with telling you what is the matter with me. Life is brief, and you might pass away before I had finished. But I will tell you what is NOT the matter with me. I have not got housemaid's knee. Why I have not got housemaid's knee, I can not tell you; but the fact remains that I have not got it. Everything else, however, I HAVE got."

我说：“老伙计，实在是不舍得占用你太多时间来听我 描述我得了什么病。人生苦短，可能到你去世我还说不完 呢。不过我可以告诉你我唯一没得什么病，那就是膝盖囊 肿。为什么没有得，我也不知道，但事实就是我没得。而 其他所有病，我通通都有。”

And I told him how I came to discover it all.

接着我告诉他自己是如何发现这一真相的。

Then he opened me and looked down me, and clutched hold of my wrist, and then he hit me over the chest when I wasn't expecting it—a cowardly thing to do, I call it—and immediately after wards butted me with the side of his head. After that, he sat down and wrote out a prescription, and folded it up and gave it me, and I put it in my pocket and went out.

然后他把我的衣服解开看着，抓住我的手腕，再趁我不注意突然一拳打在我胸口（要我说，这可真是懦夫的行为），接着又歪着头猛地撞我一下。这之后，他坐下来写了张处方单，折好了递给我。我把它放进口袋就离开了。

I did not open it. I took it to the nearest chemist's, and handed it in. The man read it, and then handed it back.

我没有展开处方，而是直接拿到最近的药店递了上去。 那人看了看，又还给了我。

He said he didn't keep it.

他说他没有处方上的药。

I said: "You are a chemist?"

我问：“你是个药剂师没错吧？”

He said: "I am a chemist. If I was a cooperative stores and family hotel combined, I might be able to oblige you. Being only a chemist hampers me."

他说：“我是啊。如果我这里是百货商店和家庭旅馆二合一，也许可以帮你。但我只是一个药剂师，所以爱莫能助了。”

I read the prescription. It ran: “1 lb. beefsteak, with 1 pt. bitter beer every 6 hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don't stuff up your head with things you don't understand."

我摊开处方单，上面这样写道：“每6个小时1磅牛排和1品脱苦味啤酒；每天早上步行10英里；每晚11点整上床睡觉。另外，不要将你所不了解的东西往脑子里塞。”

I followed the directions, with the happy result—speaking for myself—that my life was preserved, and is still going on.

我谨遵上述指示，（至少在我看来）收效显著——不仅保住了性命，而且我还将继续活下去。

In the present instance, going back to the liver-pill circular, I had the symptoms, beyond all mistake, the chief among them being "a general disinclination to work of any kind."

转头说说前文提到的肝药宣传单，毋庸置疑那上面的全部症状我都有，而首要的一条症状是“普遍厌烦所有工作”。

What I suffer in that way no tongue can tell. From my earliest infancy I have been a martyr to it. As a boy, the disease hardly ever left me for a day. They did not know, then, that it was my liver. Medical science was in a far less advanced state than now, and they used to put it down to laziness.

我受到这一症状的严重困扰，实在是一言难尽。从婴儿时期起我就是它的受害者。在儿童时期，这病几乎没有一天远离过我。那时候没人知道我不爱动弹是因为肝病。当时医学远没有现在发达，人们习惯把它归结为懒惰使然。

"Why, you skulking little devil, you," they would say, "get up and do something for your living, can't you?"—not knowing, of course, that I was ill.

他们总说：“快，你这个溜墙角的小懒鬼！赶快起来，活着就得做事啊！听到了没？”当然，他们不知道我是病了。

And they didn't give me pills; they gave me clumps on the side of the head. And, strange as it may appear, those clumps on the head often cured me—for the time being. I have known one clump on the head have more effect upon my liver, and make me feel more anxious to go straight away then and there, and do what was wanted to be done, without further loss of time, than a whole box of pills does now.

他们不给我吃药，而是给我吃响栗子。更奇怪的是，这些敲在头上的响栗子常常能治好我，虽然只是暂时性的。我现在吃整盒的药，也没有当初吃一个响栗子的作用明显，后者能让我心急如焚，当时就动身，立刻去做需要做的事情，一分钟也不浪费。

You know, it often is so—those simple, old-fashioned remedies are sometimes more efficacious than all the dispensary stuff.

哎，事实往往如此，响栗子这种简单原始的民间治疗法比什么药都来得有效。

We sat there for half-an-hour, describing to each other our maladies. I explained to George and William Harris how I felt when I got up in the morning, and William Harris told us how he felt when he went to bed; and George stood on the hearth-rug, and gave us a clever and powerful piece of acting, illustrative of how he felt in the night.

我们在那里坐了半个小时，轮流介绍自己的病症。我说早上起床时特不舒服，威廉说他躺下睡觉那阵感到快死了，乔治则坐在壁炉旁的地毯上，惟妙惟肖地演示自己夜间的感受。

George FANCIES he is ill; but there's never anything really the matter with him, you know.

乔治猜测自己有病，其实最多就是患个疑心病。

At this point, Mrs. Poppets knocked at the door to know if we were ready for supper. We smiled sadly at one another, and said we supposed we had better try to swallow a bit. Harris said a little something in one's stomach often kept the disease in check; and Mrs. Poppets brought the tray in, and we drew up to the table, and toyed with a little steak and onions, and some rhubarb tart.

这时，波贝太太来敲门，问我们是否愿意吃晚饭了。我们苦笑着互相望望，最后回答说也许应该勉强吃点才好。哈里斯说胃里装点食物通常可以防止疾病发作。波贝夫人端进餐盘，我们围坐到餐桌旁，拨弄着小块的洋葱牛排和一些大黄小馅饼。

I must have been very weak at the time; because I know, after the first half-hour or so, I seemed to take no interest whatever in my food—an unusual thing for me—and I didn't want any cheese.

我当时一定特别虚弱，因为大概才过半个小时，我就似乎对食物失去了所有兴致（这对我来说是很少见的），甚至连奶酪也不想吃。

This duty done, we refilled our glasses, lit our pipes, and resumed the discussion upon our state of health. What it was that was actually the matter with us, we none of us could be sure of; but the unanimous opinion was that it—whatever it was—had been brought on by overwork.

勉强吃了些饭，我们再次斟满酒杯，并点燃烟斗，继续刚才关于健康状况的讨论。我们谁也说不出我们是什么毛病，但大家一致认定我们的毛病（管它是什么）是因工作过度造成的。

"What we want is rest," said Harris.

哈里斯说：“我们需要的是休息。”

"Rest and a complete change," said George. "The overstrain upon our brains has produced a general depression through out the system. Change of scene, and absence of the necessity for thought, will restore the mental equilibrium."

乔治说：“休息并彻底换个环境。过度劳累作用于大脑， 会产生全身性抑郁。看些不同的风光，远离烦心事，可以 恢复心理平衡。”

George has a cousin, who is usually described in the charge-sheet as a medical student, so that he naturally has a some what family-physicianary way of putting things.

乔治有个侄子正在学医，至少他的交通违章罚单上是如此描述的。所以乔治在表达看法时自然有一种家庭医生的口吻。

I agreed with George, and suggested that we should seek out some retired and old-world spot, far from the madding crowd, and dream away a sunny week among its drowsy lanes—some half-forgotten nook, hidden away by the fairies, out of reach of the noisy world—some quaint-perched eyrie on the cliffs of Time, from whence the surging waves of the nineteenth century would sound far-off and faint.

我赞同乔治的观点，建议我们去一个偏僻古老的地方，远离喧闹的人群，在让人昏昏欲睡的街道上懒洋洋地晒一个星期太阳；或者去一个几近被遗忘的僻静处，享受世外桃源般的安宁，不为吵闹的世界所烦扰；或者去坐落于时间悬崖上的某个古雅的房舍，在那里19世纪的滚滚波涛听起来一定遥远而微弱。

Harris said he thought it would be humpy. He said he knew the sort of place I meant; where everybody went to bed at eight o'clock, and you couldn't get a REFEREE for love or money, and had to walk ten miles to get your baccy.

哈里斯说他觉得这主意不怎么样。他明白我指的是什么地方，在那种地方，人人晚上8点就上床睡觉，你在那儿找不到爱和钱的中介人，买烟草都得走上10英里。

"No," said Harris, "if you want rest and change, you can't beat a sea trip."

所以他说：“不，如果你想休息、想换环境，航海是上上之选。”

I objected to the sea trip strongly. A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.

我坚决反对去航海。如果有几个月可以消磨的话，兴许它是个好提议，但若换成一个星期的话，就太糟糕了。

You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe, and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn't come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday, you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and umbrella in your hand, you standby the gunwale, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.

星期一，你胸中澎湃着好好玩一次的激情，挥手作别岸上的兄弟们，点上你最大号的烟斗，在甲板上大摇大摆地巡视，自以为是库克船长、弗朗西斯.德雷克和哥伦布三位合而为一。星期二，你开始后悔。星期三、四、五，你痛不欲生。星期六，你开始能够吞下点清炖牛肉汤，去甲板上坐坐，当好心人问你感觉如何时，你会答以一个苍白而甜蜜的微笑。星期天，你开始四处走动，能够进食固体食物。星期一早上，你拿着行李和雨伞立在船舷边，等待登岸，这时你才刚开始彻底喜欢上航海的滋味。

I remember my brother-in-law going for a short sea trip once, for the benefit of his health. He took a return berth from London to Liverpool; and when he got to Liverpool, the only thing he was anxious about was to sell that return ticket.

记得我舅子曾经体验过短期航海，目的是疗养身体。他买了伦敦和利物浦之间的往返船票，但到达利物浦后，他唯一着急要做的事就是把那张返程票给卖掉。

It was offered round the town at a tremendous reduction, so I am told; and was eventually sold for eighteenpence to a bilious-looking youth who had just been advised by his medical men to go to the sea-side, and take exercise.

据说船票以跳楼价四处兜售，最后以18便士卖给了一位疑似患肝病的青年。他的医生刚建议他去海边散散心并多多运动。

"Sea-side!" said my brother-in-law, pressing the ticket affectionately into his hand; "why, you'll have enough to last you a lifetime; and as for exercise! why, you'll get more exercise, sitting down on that ship, than you would turning somersaults on dry land."

“海边！”我的舅子热切地将票塞进青年手中，“嗬，此行必令你终生难忘！而说到运动！那更好了，在那船上就是坐着，运动量也大过在岸上翻筋斗！”

He himself—my brother-in-law—came back by train. He said the North-Western Railway was healthy enough for him.

他自己（我说我舅子）是坐火车回来的。他认为西北铁路对他来说已经足够养生了。

Another fellow I knew went for a week's voyage round the coast, and, before they started, the steward came to him to ask whether he would pay for each meal as he had it, or arrange beforehand for the whole series.

我还知道另外一个伙计坐船绕海岸航行一个星期的故事。开船前，乘务员问他愿意每餐用餐结束后单独付款呢，还是愿意预定整个旅途的系列套餐。

The steward recommended the latter course, as it would come so much cheaper. He said they would do him for the whole week at two pounds five. He said for breakfast there would be fish, followed by a grill. Lunch was at one, and consisted of four courses. Dinner at six—soup, fish, entree, joint, poultry, salad, sweets, cheese, and dessert. And alight meat supper at ten.

乘务员推荐后一种方案，因为要便宜很多，整个星期只需花上两个半英镑。早饭有鱼,随后是烤肉，1点钟的午饭有4道菜，6点钟的正餐包括开胃汤、鱼、小菜、带骨大块肉、鸡肉、沙拉、糖果、奶酪和甜点。10点钟的宵夜还提供低脂肉类。

My friend thought he would close on the two-pound-five job (he is a hearty eater), and did so.

我的朋友（一个美食主义者）想了想，决定接受两个半英镑的选项。

Lunch came just as they were off Sheerness. He didn't feel so hungry as he thought he should, and so contented himself with a bit of boiled beef, and some strawberries and cream. He pondered a good deal during the afternoon, and at one time it seemed to him that he had been eating nothing but boiled beef for weeks, and at other times it seemed that he must have been living on strawberries and cream for years.

他们刚离开希尔内思港，午餐就登场了。这位朋友没有如自己预想的那么饿，所以只吃了一点煮牛肉和一些鲜奶油草莓。他下午沉思了好一阵子，时而感到已经连续吃了好几个星期的煮牛肉，时而感到已经连续吃了好几年的鲜奶油草莓。

Neither the beef nor the strawberries and cream seemed happy, either—seemed discontented like.

脑海中，牛肉和鲜奶油草莓看上去也都不高兴，两者都露出闷闷不乐的苦脸。

At six, they came and told him dinner was ready. The announcement aroused no enthusiasm within him, but he felt that there was some of that two-pound-five to be worked off, and he held on to ropes and things and went down. A pleasant odour of onions and hot ham, mingled with fried fish and greens, greeted him at the bottom of the ladder; and then the steward came up with an oily smile, and said: "What can I get you, sir?"

6点的时候，他们通知他正餐已经备好。他觉得兴味索然，但想到得消化掉这两个半英镑中的一部分，还是抓着绳索东倒西歪地下楼去了餐厅。在楼梯最下面几级迎接他的，是一阵洋葱和热火腿的香风，还夹杂着炸鱼和蔬菜的味道。这时乘务员堆着油腻的微笑走来问道：“先生，请问您想要什么？”

"Get me out of this," was the feeble reply.

“我想要离开这里。”一个微弱的声音回答道。

And they ran him up quick, and propped him up, over to leeward, and left him.

他们迅速地冲过来把他架走，扔到背风面，留他一人，再不理睬。

For the next four days he lived a simple and blameless life on thin captain's biscuits (I mean that the biscuits were thin, not the captain) and soda-water; but, towards Saturday, he got uppish, and went in for weak tea and dry toast, and on Monday he was gorging himself on chicken broth. He left the ship on Tuesday, and as it steamed away from the landing-stage he gazed after it regretfully.

此后4天，他的生活简朴得无可指摘，靠薄船长饼干（“薄”修饰饼干而非船长）和苏打水生存。但是到了星期六，他情况好转，去餐厅享用了淡茶和干吐司。星期一他已经在豪饮鸡汤了。星期二是他离船上岸的日子，当船喷着白烟驶离码头，他充满遗憾地目送它远去。

"There she goes," he said, "there she goes, with two pounds' worth of food on board that belongs to me, and that I haven't had."

他喃喃地说：“她走了，她走了，带走了属于我的两英镑的食物，我还没有来得及吃呢。

He said that if they had given him another day he thought he could have put it straight.

他说如果能在船上哪怕再多待一天，他就有信心吃回老本。

So I set my face against the sea trip. Not, as I explained, upon my own account. I was never queer. But I was afraid for George. George said he should be all right, and would rather like it, but he would advise Harris and me not to think of it, as he felt sure we should both be ill. Harris said that, to himself, it was always a mystery how people managed to get sick at sea—said he thought people must do it on purpose, from affectation—said he had often wished to be, but had never been able.

所以我坚决反对航海的提议。我解释说，这不是为我自己，我可从不晕船，这是为了乔治着想。乔治说他没有问题，他很赞成这个主意，但建议我和哈里斯千万别动这个念头，因为他很肯定我们两个都会晕船。哈里斯说，对他来说，人们在海上是如何成功晕船的永远是个谜——他觉得人们晕船另有目的，是在装模作样——他常常希望能跻身晕船一族，无奈尚未成功。

Then he told us anecdotes of how he had gone across the Channel when it was so rough that the passengers had to be tied into their berths, and he and the captain were the only two living souls on board who were not ill. Sometimes it was he and the second mate who were not ill; but it was generally he and one other man. If not he and another man, then it was he by himself.

接着他开始讲述自己在滔天波浪中横渡英吉利海峡的故事：风浪很大，乘客们必须被绑在铺位上，船上不晕船的人只有两个，有时是他和船长，有时是他和二副，总之是他加上另一人的组合。如果只有一个人不晕船，那便是他自己了。

It is a curious fact, but nobody ever is sea-sick—on land. At sea, you come across plenty of people very bad indeed, whole boat-loads of them; but I never met a man yet, on land, who had ever known at all what it was to be sea-sick. Where the thousands upon thousands of bad sailors that swarm in every ship hide themselves when they are on land is a mystery.

有这么一个奇怪的现象：在陆地上，所有人都从不晕船。在海上你能够遇到很多晕船的人，一整船一整船的数也数不清。但是在陆地上，我从来没有遇到过哪怕一个尝过晕船滋味的人。成千上万的晕船者们上岸后都藏到什么地方去了，实在是个谜。

If most men were like a fellow I saw on the Yarmouth boat one day, I could account for the seeming enigma easily enough. It was just off South end Pier, I recollect, and he was leaning out through one of the port-holes in a very dangerous position. I went up to him to try and save him.

不过，如果大多数人都和那天我在去雅茅斯的船上遇到的那个伙计一样，我就能轻易地解开这个看似费解的谜。记得那是刚离开绍森德码头的当儿，这伙计用一种相当危险的姿势靠在舷窗上，半个身子已经探了出去。我走上前去试图救他。

"Hi! come further in," I said, shaking him by the shoulder. "You'll be overboard."

“嘿，进来点，”我摇着他的肩膀说，“你这样会翻下船的。”

"Oh my! I wish I was," was the only answer I could get; and there I had to leave him.

“天知道我多么想下去。”这是我得到的唯一一句答复。 无可奈何中我只得走开了。

Three weeks afterwards, I met him in the coffee-room of a Bath hotel, talking about his voyages, and explaining, with enthusiasm, how he loved the sea.

3个星期后，我在一家温泉旅社的咖啡室和他重逢时，他正吹嘘着自己的旅行经历，并且热烈地抒发他对航海的热爱。

"Good sailor!" he replied in answer to a mild young man's envious query; "well, I did feel a little queer ONCE, I confess. It was off Cape Horn. The vessel was wrecked the next morning."

“我是不晕船的！”他如此回答一位温和的年轻人带着忌妒的提问，“当然，我承认有那么一次感到有点不舒服。那是离开好望角的时候，第二天早上船就出事了。”

I said: "Weren't you a little shaky by Southend Pier one day, and wanted to be thrown overboard?"

我说：“那天离开绍森德码头时你不是稳不住了想要跳船么？”

"Southend Pier!" he replied, with a puzzled expression.

“绍森德码头？”他一脸困惑。

"Yes; going down to Yarmouth, last Friday three weeks."

“是的，3个星期前的星期五，去雅茅斯的船上。”

"Oh, ah—yes," he answered, brightening up; "I remember now. I did have a headache that afternoon. It was the pickles, you know. They were the most disgraceful pickles I ever tasted in a respectable boat. Did YOU have any?"

“噢，嗯——是啊，”他茅塞顿开，“我记起来了。那天下午我确实挺难受的。要知道都怪泡菜，那真是我在一艘体面轮船上吃过的最不堪的泡菜。你一点都没吃么？”

For myself, I have discovered an excellent preventive against seasickness, in balancing myself. You stand in the centre of the deck, and, as the ship heaves and pitches, you move your body about, so as to keep it always straight. When the front of the ship rises, you lean forward, till the deck almost touches your nose; and when its back end gets up, you lean backwards. This is all very well for an hour or two; but you can't balance yourself for a week.

就我个人来说，我发现保持平衡是一个很好的预防晕船的办法。站在甲板正中，当船升起又落下时，你转动身体，以保证身体是直的。当船头升起时，往前倾，直到甲板几乎撞到你的鼻子；当船尾升起时，往后倾。但这样坚持一两个小时还行，一个星期是不可能的。

George said: "Let's go up the river."

乔治说：“让我们去河上泛舟吧。”

He said we should have fresh air, exercise and quiet; the constant change of scene would occupy our minds (including what there was of Harris's); and the hard work would give us a good appetite, and make us sleep well.

他说，我们可以享受到新鲜空气、运动和安静；不断变换的景色可以填满我们的大脑（如果说哈里斯的那点也能称作脑子的话）；辛苦的体力劳动可以给我们好胃口和好睡眠。

Harris said he didn't think George ought to do anything that would have a tendency to make him sleepier than he always was, as it might be dangerous.

哈里斯说他认为乔治不应该做任何有可能改善睡眠的事情，因为那将是危险的，他一直都太能睡了。

He said he didn't very well understand how George was going to sleep any more than he did now, seeing that there were only twenty-four hours in each day, summer and winter alike; but thought that if he DID sleep any more, he might just as well be dead, and so save his board and lodging.

他说无法理解乔治如何将比现在睡得更多，要知道无论春夏秋冬，一天总也超不出24小时。但他也设想了万一乔治真能睡得更久，那样还不如死了省出房钱和饭费。

Harris said, however, that the river would suit him to a "T." I don't know what a "T" is (except a sixpenny one, which includes bread-and butter and cake ADLIB., and is cheap at the price, if you haven't had any dinner). It seems to suit everybody, however, which is greatly to its credit.

然而哈里斯说，他中意乘舟游河的主意，犹如中意T一样。我不知道T是什么东西（除了一种6便士的T，也就是茶，喝这种茶附送无限量自取的黄油面包和蛋糕，对没吃饭的人来说，这个价钱相当公道）。这东西好像每个人都中意，盛名远扬。

It suited me to a "T" too, and Harris and I both said it was a good idea of George's; and we said it in a tone that seemed to somehow imply that we were surprised that George should have come out so sensible.

它也让我中意得犹如T一样。哈里斯和我都说乔治提的是个好主意，我们的语气似乎在暗示我们很惊讶乔治也能有这样的才智。

The only one who was not struck with the suggestion was Montmorency. He never did care for the river, did Montmorency.

这个建议唯一没法打动的是蒙特莫伦西，它从不喜欢河流，不像与它同名的那位著名将军。

"It's all very well for you fellows," he says; "you like it, but I don't. There's nothing for me to do. Scenery is not in my line, and I don't smoke. If I see a rat, you won't stop; and if I go to sleep, you get fooling about with the boat, and slop me overboard. If you ask me, I call the whole thing bally foolishness."

“对你们倒是好得很，”它说，“你们喜欢这主意，可我不喜欢。我没有什么可做的。我既不爱看风景，也不爱抽烟。我看见一只老鼠，你们不停下；如果我想睡觉，你们又在船上闹腾，把我晃下船去。要问我的看法，我得说这是一个彻头彻尾的蠢主意。”

We were three to one, however, and the motion was carried.

可是我们是3比1，于是这提议顺利地通过了表决。

CHAPTER II.

第二章

PLANS DISCUSSED.—PLEASURES OF "CAMPING-OUT," ONFINE NIGHTS.—DITTO, WET NIGHTS.—COMPROMISEDECIDED ON.—MONTMORENCY, FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF.—FEARS LEST HE IS TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD, FEARSSUBSEQUENTLY DISMISSED AS GROUNDLESS.—MEETINGADJOURNS.

计划行程——星光下露营的幸福——雨天露营的“幸福”——决定采取折衷的办法——蒙特莫伦西给人的第一印象——担心他对人间来说太过美好，其实是不必要的担心——暂时休会

WE pulled out the maps, and discussed plans.

我们掏出地图开始计划行程。

We arranged to start on the following Saturday from Kingston. Harris and I would go down in the morning, and take the boat up to Chertsey, and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two), would meet us there.

下一个星期六从金斯顿出发。早上我和哈里斯先坐船去彻特西，乔治下午才能动身（他每天上午10点到下午4点会固定在一家银行睡觉，但每星期六下午两点会被叫醒并被扔出门外），直接到那里和我们会合。

Should we "camp out" or sleep at inns?

晚上我们应该睡帐篷还是住旅店呢？

George and I were for camping out. We said it would be so wild and free, so patriarchal like.

我和乔治支持睡帐篷，因为那样自由自在、威风神气。

Slowly the golden memory of the dead sun fades from the hearts of the cold, sad clouds. Silent, like sorrowing children, the birds have ceased their song, and only the moorhen's plaintive cry and the harsh croak of the corncrake stirs the awed hush around the couch of waters, where the dying day breathes out her last.

属于夕阳的金色记忆在云儿寒冷悲伤的心中渐渐消逝。鸟儿止住鸣唱，静默得如同悲伤的孩子。只有水鸡凄惨的鸣叫和秧鸡嘶哑的嗓音，不时搅动水边寂静凝重的空气。在这里，白天奄奄一息快要死去。

From the dim woods on either bank, Night's ghostly army, the grey shadows, creep out with noiseless tread to chase away the lingering rear—guard of the light, and pass, with noiseless, unseen feet, above the waving river-grass, and through the sighing rushes; and Night, upon her somber throne, folds her black wings above the darkening world, and, from her phantom palace, lit by the pale stars, reigns in stillness.

从河的两侧阴暗的树林中，灰影悄无声息地爬出，它们是夜神的魔军，驱赶走仍逗留的光线后卫。它们的脚步无形又无声，踏过摇曳的河草，穿越叹息着的灯心草丛。夜神坐在阴暗的王位上，收起遮天蔽日的黑色羽翼，世界被包裹在间，几颗苍白的星星幽幽照着她的幽灵宫殿，万物沉寂，臣服于她的统治。

Then we run our little boat into some quiet nook, and the tent is pitched, and the frugal supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round in musical undertone; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child's song that it has sung so many thousand years—will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows harsh and old—a song that we, who have learnt to love its changing face, who have so often nestled on its yielding bosom, think, somehow, we understand, though we could not tell you in mere words the story that we listen to.

我们将小船驶入一个僻静角落，支好帐篷，煮一顿简单的晚饭。饭后点燃大烟斗，欢乐地聊天，像唱歌般的声音飘向夜空的彼岸。在谈话的间隙，能听到河水绕着船儿嬉戏，闲话年代久远的奇妙传说和秘密，低唱古老的童谣。它已将这首歌谣唱了千万年，以后还要唱上千万年，直到声音沙哑苍老的那天。也许因为我们懂得去爱这条河变幻的容颜，并且常常依偎在它温柔的怀抱中，我们觉得自己听得懂这歌谣，尽管无法用语言描述我们听到的故事。

burnt-out pipes, and say "Good-night”, and, lulled by the lapping water and the rustling trees, we fall asleep beneath the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again—young and sweet as she used to be ere the centuries of fret and care had furrowed her fair face, ere her children's sins and follies had made old her loving heart—sweet as she was in those bygone days when, a new-made mother, she nursed us, her children, upon her own deep breast—ere the wiles of painted civilization had lured us away from her fond arms, and the poisoned sneers of artificiality had made us ashamed of the simple life we led with her, and the simple, stately home where mankind was born so many thousands years ago.

我们坐在河边，看月亮（它也爱这条河）俯身给河水一个姐妹式的吻，又将它揽到银色的臂弯中紧紧抱着。我们注视着河水，看它带着千百年不变的热情（只见它时而放声高歌、时而轻声呢喃）奔向它的国王——大海，直到我们的谈话慢慢静下，烟斗悄然熄灭；直到连我们这样普通平凡的年轻汉子也莫名其妙地在胸中生出万千思绪，半是忧伤，半是甜蜜，但我们懒得开口，也不愿开口；直到我们笑着站起身，弹掉烟斗上残余的灰烬，互道晚安，然后在潺潺河水和哗哗树叶合唱的催眠曲中、在眼睛一眨也不眨的硕大星星下，进入梦乡。在梦中，世界回到她的年轻时代，彼时她的容颜姣好，未经岁月磨蚀，找不到烦恼忧虑的印痕；彼时她的孩子们还未因犯下罪过、做下蠢事而让她漾着爱的心变得衰老憔悴。在那些远去的日子里，她是多么甜美：甫为人母，用自己的乳汁哺育我们——她的孩子们。彼时矫揉造作的文明还未将我们骗离她柔情的怀抱，“人造世界”那恶毒的嗤笑还未使得我们耻于与她共度简单的生活，或耻于人类自诞生起已经居住了几百万年的朴实而宏伟的家园。

Harris said: "How about when it rained?"

哈里斯问：“下雨的话怎么办？”

You can never rouse Harris. There is no poetry about Harris—no wild yearning for the unattainable. Harris never "weeps, he knows not why". If Harris's eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester over his chop.

你永远无法激发哈里斯的文学气质。他天生与诗情画意无缘，不会去“强烈渴望彼岸之花”。哈里斯“从不哭泣，并自感费解”。如果他双目噙泪，我敢打赌那是因为刚吃了生洋葱，要不就是往排骨上放了过多伍斯特辣酱。

If you were to stand at night by the sea-shore with Harris, and say: "Hark! do you not hear? Is it but the mermaids singing deep below the waving waters; or sad spirits, chanting dirges for white corpses, held by seaweed?" Harris would take you by the arm, and say: "I know what it is, old man; you've got a chill. Now, you come along with me. I know a place round the corner here, where you can get a drop of the finest Scotch whisky you ever tasted—put you right in less than no time.”

如果某个夜晚，你与哈里斯并肩站在海边，你说：“听！听到了吧？这难道不是美人鱼们在波浪深处宁静的深海里歌唱的声音？又抑或是悲伤的幽灵们在为海藻束缚的苍白尸体唱着安魂曲？”哈里斯会抓着你的胳膊说：“老伙计，我知道是什么——是你着凉了。来，跟我走。我知道附近拐角处有家酒吧，那里有世界上最好的苏格兰威士忌，喝上一小杯，立马元神归位。”

Harris always does know a place round the corner where you can get something brilliant in the drinking line. I believe that if you met Harris up in Paradise (supposing such a thing likely), he would immediately greet you with: "So glad you've come, old fellow; I've found a nice place round the corner here, where you can get some really first-class nectar.”

哈里斯永远知道在附近的哪个地方你能享受到酿酒业引以为豪的作品。我相信，如果在天堂遇到他（假设这个地方可能存在），他会立刻这样招呼你：“老伙计，真高兴你也来了；我知道转角有个好地儿，在那儿能喝到真正一流的神酒。”

In the present instance, however, as regarded the camping out, his practical view of the matter came as a very timely hint. Camping out in rainy weather is not pleasant.

不过，就眼下这件事来说，他的务实眼光确实也带来及时的启发：在雨中露营绝非乐事。

It is evening. You are wet through, and there is a good two inches of water in the boat, and all the things are damp. You find a place on the banks that is not quite so puddly as other places you have seen, and you land and lug out the tent, and two of you proceed to fix it.

设想这样一个夜晚，你浑身湿透，船上积水超过两英寸，一切都潮乎乎的。你在岸上找到一块水坑相对较少的平地，泊好船，拉出帐篷，你俩开始支帐篷。

It is soaked and heavy, and it fl ops about, and tumbles down on you, and clings round your head and makes you mad. The rain is pouring steadily down all the time. It is difficult enough to fix a tent in dry weather: in wet, the task becomes her culean. Instead of helping you, it seems to you that the other man is simply playing the fool. Just as you get your side beautifully fixed, he gives it a hoist from his end, and spoils it all.

帐篷吸饱雨水，重若石鼎。它往四面八方倒，砸到你身上，缠住你脑袋，让你气急败坏。大雨哗哗地下，毫无减小的迹象。在晴天支帐篷已经很难，在雨天这个任务更是无比艰巨。你发现，自己的搭档根本帮不上忙，他看起来简直就是在装傻。你刚把这头弄满意，他在那头一抬手——得，全得重来。

"Here! what are you up to?" you call out.

你大喊：“你干嘛呢！”

"What are YOU up to?" he retorts; "leggo, can't you?"

他反击：“我还说你干嘛呢！你能不能放手啊？”

"Don't pull it; you've got it all wrong, you stupid ass!" you shout.

你吼道：“别拉！你全搞错了，你这个笨蛋！”

"No, I haven't," he yells back; "let go your side!"

“哪儿啊，我可没错！”他吼回来，“快把你那头放了！”

"I tell you you've got it all wrong!" you roar, wishing that you could get at him; and you give your ropes a lug that pulls all his pegs out.

“你完全搞错了！”你怒吼，恨不得冲过去揍他。接着你猛地一拉绳子，他那边的钉子全给拔了出来。

"Ah, the bally idiot!" you hear him mutter to himself; and then comes a savage haul, and away goes your side. You lay down the mallet and start to go round and tell him what you think about the whole business, and, at the same time, he starts round in the same direction to come and explain his views to you. And you follow each other round and round, swearing at one another, until the tent tumbles down in a heap, and leaves you looking at each other across its ruins, when you both indignantly exclaim, in the same breath: "There you are! What did I tell you?"

“啊，这个白痴！”你听到他嘟囔了一句。接着绳子那头的蛮力一，你这边的钉子也全线阵亡。你放下木槌绕着圈往他那边去，想要告诉他你认为这件事该怎么做；而与此同时，他也从相同的方向绕过来，想要把他的想法解释给你听，于是你俩互相追着转了一圈又一圈，跑得气喘吁吁，骂得声嘶力竭，直到帐篷最终倒塌，你们在废墟上面面相觑，这时俩人异口同声地怒吼：“看吧！我说的没错吧？”

Meanwhile the third man, who has been baling out the boat, and who has spilled the water down his sleeve, and has been cursing away to himself steadily for the last ten minutes, wants to know what the thundering blazes you're playing at, and why the blarmed tent isn't up yet.

与此同时第3个人在将船遮起来，雨水顺着他的袖子往下淌，10分钟来他一直在不停地咒骂着。帐篷倒塌的巨响，让他很想知道是你们在耍什么杂技，而且为什么该死的帐篷到现在还没立起来。

At last, somehow or other, it does get up, and you land the things. It is hopeless attempting to make a wood fire, so you light the methylated spirit stove, and crowd round that.

最后，帐篷好歹是撑起来了，你们把东西搬上岸来。生柴火是无望的，所以你们点燃酒精灶，围着它挤成一圈。

Rainwater is the chief article of diet at supper. The bread is two-thirds rainwater, the beefsteak-pie is exceedingly rich in it, and the jam, and the butter, and the salt, and the coffee have all combined with it to make soup.

雨水成为晚餐的主要食材。面包有三分之二是雨水，牛排馅饼中雨水多得溢了出来，果酱、黄油、盐和咖啡通通被雨水冲成了汤。

After supper, you find your tobacco is damp, and you cannot smoke. Luckily you have a bottle of the stuff that cheers and inebriates, if taken in proper quantity, and this restores to you sufficient interest in life to induce you to go to bed.

晚餐后，你们发现烟草已湿得没法抽。所幸还备有一瓶让人快乐和陶醉的玩意儿，如果喝得适量，可以让你找回对生活足够的兴趣，至少足以让你愿意上床睡觉去。

There you dream that an elephant has suddenly sat down on your chest, and that the volcano has exploded and thrown you down to the bottom of the sea—the elephant still sleeping peacefully on your bosom. You wake up and grasp the idea that something terrible really has happened. Your first impression is that the end of the world has come; and then you think that this cannot be, and that it is thieves and murderers, or else fire, and this opinion you express in the usual method. No help comes, however, and all you know is that thousands of people are kicking you, and you are being smothered.

在你的梦中，一头大象突然坐到你的胸口上，接着火山喷发把你摔入深深的海底——整个过程中大象一直安稳地睡在你的胸前。你睁眼醒来，意识到可怕的事情在真实世界里也发生了。你的第一反应是以为世界末日业已降临；接着你觉得不现实，转而怀疑来了小偷强盗或是发生了火灾，所以你用人类常用的方法表达这一观点——你大呼救命。然而没有谁来救你，你只知道成千上万的人在踢你，而且你就快要窒息了。

Somebody else seems in trouble, too. You can hear his faint cries coming from underneath your bed. Determining, at all events, to sell your life dearly, you struggle frantically, hitting out right and left with arms and legs, and yelling lustily the while, and at last something gives way, and you find your head in the fresh air. Two feet off, you dimly observe a half-dressed ruffian, waiting to kill you, and you are preparing for a life-and-death struggle with him, when it begins to dawn upon you that it's Jim.

难民看来不止你一个。你听到他的微弱喊声从你的床下传出。你决心不到最后关头决不轻言牺牲，你开始疯狂挣扎，手脚并用、左右出击，同时大叫大嚷。终于，什么东西松了，你发现自己的头露了出来，呼吸到了新鲜空气。这时你模模糊糊地看到两英尺外有个半裸的暴徒在等待时机杀死你。你已经准备与他殊死搏斗，这时脑中慢慢有个概念凝聚成形——他是吉姆。

"Oh, it's you, is it?" he says, recognising you at the same moment.

这时他也认出了你：“是你么？是么？”

"Yes," you answer, rubbing your eyes; "what's happened?"

“是啊，”你揉着眼睛回答，“发生什么事啦？”

"Bally tent's blown down, I think," he says.

“我想是该死的帐篷被吹翻啦。”他回答。

"Where's Bill?"

“比尔在哪儿？”

Then you both raise up your voices and shout for "Bill!" and the ground beneath you heaves and rocks, and the muffled voice that you heard before replies from out the ruin: "Get off my head, can't you?"

于是你们放开嗓门大叫“比尔！”，脚下开始鼓动起来，早先听到的那个闷闷的声音从废墟下传来：“别踩着我的头了，行吗？”

And Bill struggles out, a muddy, trampled wreck, and in an unnecessarily aggressive mood—he being under the evident belief that the whole thing has been done on purpose.

比尔挣扎着爬出废墟，他满身泥泞，看得出已遭百般践踏，惨不忍睹；同时情绪激动，浑身充满挑衅——显然他认为整件事是故意的。

In the morning you are all three speechless, owing to having caught severe colds in the night; you also feel very quarrelsome, and you swear at each other in hoarse whispers during the whole of breakfast time.

早上起床后，你们三人默默无语，因为夜里得了重感冒。同时你们又很想吵架，整个早餐进程中，无时无刻不在哑着嗓子对骂。

We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights; and hotel it, and inn it, and pub. it, like respectable folks, when it was wet, or when we felt inclined for a change.

于是我们决定：天晴就露营，下雨或者想要换个心情的时候，就像体面人一样去住酒店、住旅馆、住客栈。

Montmorency hailed this compromise with much approval. He does not revel in romantic solitude. Give him something noisy; and if a trifle low, so much the jollier. To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason with held from mankind, in the shape of a small fox-terrier. There is a sort of Ohwhat-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-somethingto-make-it-better-and-nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring the tears into the eyes of pious old ladies and gentlemen.

蒙特莫伦西很赞成这折衷的办法。他欣赏不了浪漫的孤独，需要吵闹的东西才能快活，如果稍微低俗一点则更好。注视蒙特莫伦西你会觉得它是上帝派到人间的天使，不知为何没有投胎做人，而是进入了猎狐犬的小小躯壳。它的表情似乎在说“世界多么邪恶啊，我真希望可以做点什么让它更美好更高尚”，成功地让无数虔诚的老太太老绅士们感动得热泪盈眶。

When first he came to live at my expense, I never thought I should be able to get him to stop long. I used to sit down and look at him, as he sat on the rug and looked up at me, and think: "Oh, that dog will never live. He will be snatched up to the bright skies in a chariot, that is what will happen to him."

当它刚来到我家、正式成为我的经济负担的那阵，我从没想过能让它长作停留。我常常坐下来注视它，它也坐在小地毯上抬头凝望我，我就想：“那狗不属于这人间。早晚会有一架战车从蓝天飞下，把它劫回天国。这件事迟早要发生。”

But, when I had paid for about a dozen chickens that he had killed; and had dragged him, growling and kicking, by the scruff of his neck, out of a hundred and fourteen street fights; and had had a dead cat brought round for my inspection by an irate female, who called me a murderer; and had been summoned by the man next door but one for having a ferocious dog at large, that had kept him pinned up in his own tool-shed, afraid to venture his nose outside the door for over two hours on a cold night; and had learned that the gardener, unknown to myself, had won thirty shillings by backing him to kill rats against time, then I began to think that maybe they'd let him remain on earth for a bit longer, after all.

但是后来如何呢？它杀死十几只鸡，我被迫事后买单；我把它从百余场街头斗殴中拖出来，揪着它的后颈毛，任它张牙舞爪地扑腾；一位愤怒的女士请我过目小猫的尸体，控诉我为凶手；隔壁的隔壁家的男士唤我过去，指责我放纵恶狗逍遥在外，让它在某个寒夜被困在自家工具房中长达两个小时，甚至连从门缝往外张望的勇气都没有；我还听说某位陌生园丁通过与别人打赌这只狗在固定时间内能杀死多少只老鼠而赢了30先令。在这些事件之后，我开始相信也许老天还会让它在世界上逗留更长的时间。

To hang about a stable, and collect a gang of the most disreputable dogs to be found in the town, and lead them out to march round the slums to fight other disreputable dogs, is Montmorency's idea of "life"; and so, as I before observed, he gave to the suggestion of inns, and pubs., and hotels his most emphatic approbation.

蒙特莫伦西喜欢在马厩附近厮混，聚拢镇上最声名狼藉的狗，带领它们在贫民区周围游行，寻找同样声名狼藉的一群狗打架——这就是它的“生活”理念。所以如前文所述，它对住宾馆、旅店或客栈的计划很赞赏。

Having thus settled the sleeping arrangements to the satisfaction of all four of us, the only thing left to discuss was what we should take with us; and this we had begun to argue, when Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have as mile, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.

在我们四个都通过上述过夜方案后，剩下需要讨论的就是应该带些什么。由此我们引发了第一场争论，哈里斯说他已经唇枪舌战了一晚上，建议不如出去散散心——他知道广场旁有个地方，可以喝到纯正的爱尔兰酒。

George said he felt thirsty (I never knew George when he didn't); and, as I had a presentiment that a little whisky, warm, with a slice of lemon, would do my complaint good, the debate was, by common assent, adjourned to the following night; and the assembly put on its hats and went out.

乔治说他正好口渴（他没有任何时候不是口渴的）；而我有种预感，如果来点温热的威士忌，再加上一片柠檬，可以治疗我的疾病，所以我们一致同意就此休会，明晚再战。与会者们带上帽子出发了。

CHAPTER III.

第三章

ARRANGEMENTS SETTLED.—HARRIS'S METHOD OFDOING WORK.—HOW THE ELDERLY, FAMILY-MANPUTS UP A PICTURE.—GEORGE MAKES A SENSIBLEREMARK.—DELIGHTS OF EARLY MORNING BATHING.—PROVISIONS FOR GETTING UPSET.

方案出炉——哈里斯的工作方式——“一家之主”是如何挂好一幅画的——乔治的高质量发言——晨泳的乐趣——以备翻船所需的储备

So, on the following evening, we again assembled, to discuss and arrange our plans. Harris said: "Now, the first thing to settle is what to take with us. Now, you get a bit of paper and write down, J., and you get the grocery catalogue, George, and somebody give me a bit of pencil, and then I'll make out a list."

第二天晚上，我们又聚到一起。哈里斯说：“眼下当务之急是决定要带些什么东西。现在，J.，你去拿几张纸来；乔治，你去拿杂货店货物单来；谁再去拿一截铅笔来，让我来写张清单。”

That's Harris all over—so ready to take the burden of everything himself, and put it on the backs of other people.

这就是典型的哈里斯作风——急不可待地把所有活儿都揽到自己怀里，再一件件地放到别人的肩膀上去。

He always reminds me of my poor Uncle Podger. You never saw such a commotion up and down a house, in all your life, as when my Uncle Podger undertook to do a job. A picture would have come home from the frame-maker's, and be standing in the dining-room, waiting to be put up; and Aunt Podger would ask what was to be done with it, and Uncle Podger would say: "Oh, you leave that to me. Don't you, any of you, worry yourselves about that. I'll do all that."

他总让我想起可怜的波杰老叔。他要做件什么事的话，房子都得给弄个底朝天。裱画店送回一幅画，放在饭厅等待悬挂，波杰姨妈会问应该怎么处理，波杰老叔会说：“噢，你大可以交给我。你们任何人都不用操心。我会全权办理。”

And then he would take off his coat, and begin. He would send the girl out for sixpen'orth of nails, and then one of the boys after her to tell her what size to get; and, from that, he would gradually work down, and start the whole house.

然后他会脱掉大衣，开始大显身手。他会叫女佣出去买6便士的钉子，再派1个男孩追上去告诉她需要多大型号的，接着他会逐步发动全屋的人，供他役使。

"Now you go and get me my hammer, Will," he would shout; "and you bring me the rule, Tom; and I shall want the step-ladder, and I had better have a kitchen-chair, too; and, Jim! you run round to Mr. Goggles, and tell him, 'Pa's kind regards, and hopes his leg's better; and will he lend him his spirit-level?' And don't you go, Maria, because I shall want somebody to hold me the light; and when the girl comes back, she must go out again for a bit of picture-cord; and Tom!—where's Tom?—Tom, you come here; I shall want you to hand me up the picture.”

“威尔，你去拿我那把锤头来。汤姆，去拿尺子来。我得要那架人字梯，还有1个厨房椅。吉姆！快跑去戈果斯先生家，就说‘爸爸向他问好，希望他的腿早日康复，请问能 否借水平仪一用？’玛丽亚，你别走开，得有人给我照明。 等女仆回来，还得让她再出去买点挂画用的绳子。汤姆！汤 姆在哪里？你过来等着，待会儿要你把画给我递上来。”

And then he would lift up the picture, and drop it, and it would come out of the frame, and he would try to save the glass, and cut himself; and then he would spring round the room, looking for his handkerchief. He could not find his handkerchief, because it was in the pocket of the coat he had taken off, and he did not know where he had put the coat, and all the house had to leave off looking for his tools, and start looking for his coat; while he would dance round and hinder them.

接着他会举起画又放下，画从镜框里滑出，他试着抢救玻璃，却把自己划伤，于是满屋子乱跳寻找手绢。当然他没法找到，是因为手绢放在脱下的外套口袋里，而他不记得外套放在了什么地方。所以全屋人必须停止为他找工具，转而帮他找衣服，而此时他满屋乱窜，一会儿挡了这个人，一会儿撞到那个人。

"Doesn't anybody in the whole house know where my coat is? I never came across such a set in all my life—upon my word I didn't. Six of you!—and you can't find a coat that I put down not five minutes ago! Well, of all the—”

“全家人就没有一个知道我的外套在哪里吗？我从来没有遇到过这么傻的一群人——这一点我可以发誓!你们可有6个人！居然没法找到一件脱下还不到5分钟的外套！哎呀，在所有的——”

Then he'd get up, and find that he had been sitting on it, and would call out: "Oh, you can give it up! I've found it myself now. Might just as well ask the cat to find anything as expect you people to find it."

这时他站起来，发现自己刚才一直坐在那件外套上，又大声宣布：“噢，你们可以省省劲儿了！我自己找到它了。求你们这些人找东西，还不如去求猫咪呢。”

And, when half an hour had been spent in tying up his finger, and anew glass had been got, and the tools, and the ladder, and the chair, and the candle had been brought, he would have another go, the whole family, including the girl and the charwoman, standing round in a semi-circle, ready to help. Two people would have to hold the chair, and a third would help him up on it, and hold him there, and a fourth would hand him a nail, and a fifth would pass him up the hammer, and he would take hold of the nail, and drop it.

接下来的半个小时是他包扎手指的时间。新的玻璃送来了，工具、人字梯、厨房椅、蜡烛通通到位了，他又开始再一次的尝试。全家人（包括女佣和钟点女工）围成半圆，随时等待召唤。两个人必须扶着椅子；第3个人把他扶上去，此后一刻不得松手；第4个人递给他1颗钉子；第5个人递给他锤子。他接过钉子，手一松便掉到地上。

"There!" he would say, in an injured tone, "now the nail's gone."

“看吧！”他会用受伤的语气说，“钉子没了。”

And we would all have to go down on our knees and grovel for it, while he would stand on the chair, and grunt, and want to know if he was to be kept there all the evening.

我们只好全体跪下，趴在地上找钉子。他站在椅子上抱怨不休，问我们是不是要让他在高处站上一整夜。

The nail would be found at last, but by that time he would have lost the hammer. "Where's the hammer? What did I do with the hammer? Great heavens! Seven of you, gaping round there, and you don't know what I did with the hammer!"

当然，最后钉子总是能找到的，但他又找不到锤子了。“锤子在哪里？我把锤子放哪了？天啊！你们7个人，张着嘴傻站在那里，居然都不知道我把锤子放哪了！”

We would find the hammer for him, and then he would have lost sight of the mark he had made on the wall, where the nail was to go in, and each of us had to get up on the chair, beside him, and see if we could find it; and we would each discover it in a different place, and he would call us all fools, one after another, and tell us to get down. And he would take the rule, and re-measure, and find that he wanted half thirty-one and three-eighths inches from the corner, and would try to do it in his head, and go mad.

我们终于为他找到锤子，这时他又找不到画在墙上的标记了，也就不知道该往哪里钉钉子。我们只好挨个爬上椅子站到他身旁，尝试寻找那个标记，但每个人指点的位置都不相同，他就挨个骂我们是笨蛋，命我们撤下。他拿起尺子重新测量，发现他要找的那一点与墙角的距离应该是三十一又八分之三英寸的二分之一，于是开始心算，算着算着就发脾气了。

And we would all try to do it in our heads, and all arrive at different results, and sneer at one another. And in the general row, the original number would be forgotten, and Uncle Podger would have to measure it again.

我们全都在脑袋里打起算盘，但是没有任何两个人的答案是相同的，大家不由得互相取笑。在一片笑骂声中，被除数是多少也被忘掉，波杰老叔只得从头开始测量。

He would use a bit of string this time, and at the critical moment, when the old fool was leaning over the chair at an angle of forty-five, and trying to reach a point three inches beyond what was possible for him to reach, the string would slip, and down he would slide on to the piano, a really fine musical effect being produced by the suddenness with which his head and body struck all the notes at the same time.

这次他没用尺子，改用绳子比划。在关键时刻（这老傻子探出椅子，身体呈45度角前倾，妄图去摸超出他臂长范围3英寸的一个点），绳子脱手，脚下一滑，人也倒下，脑袋和身体重重压在钢琴键盘上，所有琴键同时被压住，奏出的音乐好是荡气回肠。

And Aunt Maria would say that she would not allow the children to stand round and hear such language.

玛丽亚姨妈说，孩子们不得继续围观，老叔的语言已经少儿不宜了。

At last, Uncle Podger would get the spot fixed again, and put the point of the nail on it with his left hand, and take the hammer in his right hand. And, with the first blow, he would smash his thumb, and drop the hammer, with a yell, on somebody's toes.

最后，波杰老叔画好新的记号，左手将钉子固定在那一点上，右手举起锤子——第1锤砸下去，就砸坏了大拇指，丢掉锤子，又听得一声惨叫，因为砸到了某人的脚趾头。

Aunt Maria would mildly observe that, next time Uncle Podger was going to hammer a nail into the wall, she hoped he'd let her know in time, so that she could make arrangements to go and spend a week with her mother while it was being done.

玛丽亚姨妈温和地说，下次波杰老叔要往墙上钉钉子的话，最好提前告诉她，让她有时间备好行装，在整个施工期间都住回娘家去。

"Oh! You women, you make such a fuss over everything," Uncle Podger would reply, picking himself up. "Why, I LIKE doing a little job of this sort."

“哎！你们这些女人，总爱挑剔，”波杰老叔一边说一边爬起身，“呵呵，我就喜欢干这种小活。”

And then he would have another try, and, at the second blow, the nail would go clean through the plaster, and half the hammer after it, and Uncle Podger be precipitated against the wall with force nearly sufficient to flatten his nose.

于是他开始新一轮的尝试，第2锤敲响了：整个钉子全部没入石膏墙，锤子也陷进去一半，而他本人更是大力冲向墙壁，冲击力之大，几乎把他的鼻子给撞平了。

Then we had to find the rule and the string again, and a new hole was made; and, about midnight, the picture would be up—very crooked and insecure, the wall for yards round looking as if it had been smoothed down with a rake, and everybody dead beat and wretched—except Uncle Podger.

我们只好再次寻找尺子和绳子，因为需要定位新的孔眼。午夜时分画终于挂好了——歪歪扭扭，摇摇欲坠，周围好几码的墙面就像被耙子耙过一般。每个人都疲惫不堪、累得半死——当然，波杰老叔除外。

"There you are," he would say, stepping heavily off the chair on to the charwoman's corns, and surveying the mess he had made with evident pride. "Why, some people would have had a man in to do a little thing like that!"

“竣工！”他从椅子上面重重跳下，正好踩着了钟点女工 脚上的鸡眼。他得意洋洋地审视墙上的一片狼藉，谦虚道：“哎，有些人家还要专门请工人来做这种小事！”

Harris will be just that sort of man when he grows up, I know, and I told him so. I said I could not permit him to take so much labour upon himself. I said: "No; you get the paper, and the pencil, and the catalogue, and George write down, and I'll do the work."

哈里斯长大以后会成为另一个波杰老叔，关于这点我可以打包票，而且我坦白地告诉了他。我说我不能坐视他将这么多的活揽到身上，我说：“不，你只需要去拿纸，还有笔，还有商品目录，乔治负责写，而我呢，让我来承担真正的工作吧。”

"The first list we made out had to be discarded. It was clear that the upper reaches of the Thames would not allow of the navigation of a boat sufficiently large to take the things we had set down as indispensable; so we tore the list up, and looked at one another!

我们列出的第1份清单被忍痛抛弃。很显然，即使有一艘船能够装下我们列出的全部所谓必需品，泰晤士河的上游也承载不起这艘船。所以，我们撕碎了清单，大眼瞪着小眼，相顾无言。

George said: "You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without."

片刻后，乔治说：“我们的思路是错的。我们不应当问自己‘可以带什么’，而应当问‘必须带什么’。”

George comes out really quite sensible at times. You'd be surprised. I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.

有时候乔治的话相当有道理，让你没法不吃惊。我得说这是句至理名言，不仅适用于现在的行李清单这件事，还可以抽象到更高层面，适用于人生长河上的泛舟之旅。不知有多少人，在他们的人生旅途中，冒着超载沉船的危险，拼命往船里塞进五花八门的愚蠢的东西，以为它们对旅途的快乐和舒适来说必不可少，实际上那些不过是没用的垃圾。

How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care two pence for them, and that they do not care three ha'pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with—oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all!—the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal's iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!

他们的可怜小船严重超载，连桅杆都快被这些东西给淹没了：好衣服、大房子、没用的奴仆、一大群体面的朋友（这些朋友为他们舍不得花上哪怕两个便士，他们也不认为这些朋友会比三个半便士更重要）、昂贵的休闲项目（其实没人真心喜欢）、繁文缛节、时尚潮流、伪装、卖弄，还有最沉重无聊的垃圾——邻里间的攀比，还有那些让人腻味的奢侈品、让人厌烦的“乐子”以及空洞的表演，就如同古时犯人戴的铁头箍，一戴上就让人脑袋出血，晕得不知所以！

It is lumber, man—all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumber some and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment's freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment's rest for dreamy laziness—no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o'er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre—waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget me-nots.

朋友，这些是垃圾啊，通通都是垃圾啊！将它们扔下船去。有了它们，船是如此沉重，累得划船的你几乎要晕倒在桨边。有了它们，船沉重笨拙，驾驭起来险象环生，你没有一刻能够摆脱焦虑和担忧，永远偷不到哪怕片刻的清闲，没时间看风的影子轻轻掠过浅滩，看碎金般的阳光在涟漪间跳舞，看岸边的大树如何顾影自怜，看树林被染成墨绿和金色；也没有时间留意乳白色的百合花、忧郁地摇着头的灯心草，或是莎草、兰花和蓝色的毋忘我。

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

朋友，快扔掉你的垃圾！让你的生命之舟轻松前行，只打包带上你需要的东西——一个平凡温馨的家、一两个真正的朋友、几个你爱且爱你的人、一只猫、一只狗、一两只烟斗、足够的食物和衣服、多备些酒（要知道，渴望是件很危险的事）。

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to work. Time to drink in life's sunshine—time to listen to the Aeolian music that the wind of God draws from the human heart—strings around us—time to—

这样你会发现船前行得更顺利，并且不那么容易翻船，就算翻船也不要紧，朴实的货物经得起水浸。在工作之余，你有时间思考，有时间沐浴着人生的阳光举杯畅饮，有时间倾听身边的风之曲，那是上帝拨动人的心弦产生的音乐，有时间——

I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot. Well, we left the list to George, and he began it. "We won't take a tent", suggested George; "we will have a boat with a cover. It is ever so much simpler, and more comfortable."

请您原谅，真的，我太忘我了。于是我们把单子交给乔治，他欣然接手。“我们不用带帐篷，”乔治建议道，“用有顶棚的船好了，更方便，更舒服。”

It seemed a good thought, and we adopted it. I do not know whether you have ever seen the thing I mean. You f ix iron hoops up over the boat, and stretch a huge canvas over them, and fasten it down all round, from stem to stern, and it converts the boat into a sort of little house, and it is beautifully cosy, though a trifle stuffy; but there, everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.

这个主意不错，我们决定采用。不知道你是否明白我指的是什么样的船——在船顶装上铁圈，盖上巨大的帆布，从船头到船尾严严实实地系好，于是一艘船就改装成了一座小屋，相当舒适，不过稍微有点闷。但是你看，任何事都有它的缺点，例如丈母娘死了虽是好事，但你也得要付丧葬费不是？

George said that in that case we must take a rug each, a lamp, some soap, a brush and comb (between us), a toothbrush (each), a basin, some toothpowder, some shaving tackle (sounds like a French exercise, doesn't it?),and a couple of big-towels for bathing. I notice that people always make gigantic arrangements for bathing when they are going anywhere near the water, but that they don't bathe much when they are there.

乔治说，顶篷的事就这么定了，日常用品呢，我们得带上3条毯子、1盏灯、几块肥皂、1把兼作刷子的梳子（公用）、1把牙刷（各用各的）、1个脸盆、1些牙粉、一套剃须用具（听起来有点像在做法语练习吧？）和几条游泳用 的大毛巾。我发现，如果人们去的地方靠近水，出发前一 定会雄心勃勃计划如何游泳，但是等他们到了目的地后， 反而不怎么下水了。

It is the same when you go to the sea-side. I always determine—when thinking over the matter in London—that I'll get up early every morning, and go and have a dip before breakfast, and I religiously pack up a pair of drawers and a bath towel. I always get red bathing drawers. I rather fancy myself in red drawers. They suit my complexion so. But when I get to the sea I don't feel somehow that I want that early morning bathe nearly so much as I did when I was in town.

去海边也是一样。我总是下定决心（想这事儿时，我人在伦敦）到了海边后每天早起，以便早饭前去游个小泳。于是虔诚地在行李箱中装入一条泳裤和一条浴巾。我总会带上红色的泳裤，我总是觉得自己穿红色泳裤时特别迷人——红色是那么地适合我的脸色！但是到了海边后我会发现，对晨泳的憧憬已经遗失在半路上了。

On the contrary, I feel more that I want to stop in bed till the last moment, and then come down and have my breakfast. Once or twice virtue has triumphed, and I have got out at six and half-dressed myself, and have taken my drawers and towel, and stumbled dismally off. But I haven't enjoyed it. They seem to keep a specially cutting east wind, waiting for me, when I go to bathe in the early morning; and they pick out all the three-cornered stones, and put them on the top, and they sharpen up the rocks and cover the points over with a bit of sand so that I can't see them, and they take the sea and put it two miles out, so that I have to huddle myself up in my arms and hop, shivering, through six inches of water. And when I do get to the sea, it is rough and quite insulting.

相反我更愿意在被窝里镇守到最后一刻，否则决不下楼吃早饭。倒也有那么一两次，道德居然战胜了情感：我6点就起床，半裸着身子，抓起泳裤和浴巾，跌跌撞撞地出发了。但是我并没有享受到乐趣。得知我要在清早游泳，他们特意为我准备了寒冷刺骨的东风，并选出所有三棱的石头铺满沙滩，让最锋利的角朝上，而且不忘把棱角削得更尖，然后撒上一些细沙掩盖起来，让我看不出来。他们还把海带到两英里以外，为的是折磨我，让我两手环抱着自己瑟瑟发抖的身体，深一脚浅一脚地跋涉在水深仅6英寸的浅水区，渴望着大海的怀抱，却似乎永远也到达不了。而当我终于投入大海中，它却掀起巨浪，十分无礼。

One huge wave catches me up and chucks me in a sitting posture, as hard as ever it can, down on to a rock which has been put there for me. And, before I've said "Oh! Ugh!" and found out what has gone, the wave comes back and carries me out to mid-ocean. I begin to strike out frantically for the shore, and wonder if I shall ever see home and friends again, and wish I'd been kinder to my little sister when a boy (when I was a boy, I mean). Just when I have given up all hope, a wave retires and leaves me sprawling like a star-fish on the sand, and I get up and look back and find that I've been swimming for my life in two feet of water. I hop back and dress, and crawl home, where I have to pretend I liked it.

一个巨浪将我卷起，我以坐姿被抛了出去，海浪用全力将我抛到了一个专为我设置的岩石上。我还没来得及大叫一声“噢！”或者“啊！”，还没弄清楚刚刚抛下我的是什么，浪头已经回来，将我带到海洋深处。我开始拼命地往岸边游，怀疑自己已经没有机会再见到亲人和朋友，后悔童年时对我的小妹妹不够好（我是说童年的时候）。正在绝望之际，一波浪潮退去，留我如搁浅的海星般展平四肢趴在沙滩上。站起来往后一看，发现刚才自以为快溺死的地方实际水深才两英尺。我跳起来穿好衣服，爬回家里，一到家还得表现出刚游了个畅快泳的清爽模样。

In the present instance, we all talked as if we were going to have a long swim every morning.

这一回，我们谈话的口气听着就像是准备每天早晨畅游一番那样。

George said it was so pleasant to wake up in the boat in the fresh morning, and plunge into the limpid river. Harris said there was nothing like a swim before breakfast to give you an appetite. He said ital ways gave him an appetite. George said that if it was going to make Harris eat more than Harris ordinarily ate, then he should protest against Harris having a bath at all.

乔治说，沐浴着清新的晨光在船上醒来，一头扎进清澈透明的河水中，该是何等乐事啊。哈里斯说，早餐前游个泳，胃口准好，反正对他来说是屡试不爽。乔治说，要是晨泳真能让哈里斯吃得比平时还多的话，他就不得不反对哈里斯参与这项运动了。

He said there would be quite enough hard work in towing sufficient food for Harris up against stream, as it was.

他说，为了带足哈里斯需要的食物（按照平常食量计算），我们逆水行舟已经相当困难了，绝对不能再加载了。

I urged upon George, however, how much pleasanter it would be to have Harris clean and fresh about the boat, even if we did have to take a few more hundredweight of provisions; and he got to see it in my light, and withdrew his opposition to Harris's bath.

但我力劝乔治，我说你想想看，如果哈里斯洗得干干净净，船里会舒服多少倍。即使需要多带上几英担的食物又算得了什么！他从新的角度一想，便欣然撤销了对哈里斯的游泳禁令。

Agreed, finally, that we should take three bath towels, so as not to keep each other waiting.

最后，全体一致同意带上三条浴巾，避免出现焦急等候的场景。

For clothes, George said two suits of flannel would be sufficient, as we could wash them ourselves, in the river, when they got dirty. We asked him if he had ever tried washing flannels in the river, and he replied: "No, not exactly himself like; but he knew some fellows who had, and it was easy enough;" and Harris and I were weak enough to fancy he knew what he was talking about, and that three respectable young men, without position or influence, and with no experience in washing, could really clean their own shirts and trousers in the river Thames with a bit of soap.

至于衣服，乔治说带上两套法兰绒外套足矣，因为穿脏后一弯腰就可以用河水清洗。我们问他有没有在河里洗过衣服，他答道：“不，倒不是我亲手洗过。但是我知道一些人洗过，而且绝对不难。”我和哈里斯当时鬼迷心窍，以为他知道自己在说些什么，而且我们竟然没有发现他的话有多么不现实：3个体面的男青年，一没地位，二没权势，三没任何洗衣经验，真的有可能在泰晤士河边用半截肥皂洗干净自己的衣服裤子吗？

We were to learn in the days to come, when it was too late, that George was a miserable impostor, who could evidently have known nothing whatever about the matter. If you had seen these clothes after—but, as the shilling shockers say, we anticipate.

很多天以后（那时候后悔为时已晚），我们才发现乔治是一个可悲的骗子，当时根本就是在打肿脸充胖子不懂装懂。如果你能看一眼被我们洗后的衣服——停！我现在暂时不说，用那些每本卖一个先令的悬疑小说的话来讲，就是“让我们一起来猜测吧”。

George impressed upon us to take a change of under-things and plenty of socks, in case we got upset and wanted a change; also plenty of handkerchiefs, as they would do to wipe things, and a pair of leather boots as well as our boating shoes, as we should want them if we got upset.

乔治叫我们带上一套贴身衣裤和很多双袜子，以备翻船后所需；带上足够多的手帕，用来擦干东西；除了船鞋外，还要带一双皮靴，同样是为了翻船准备的。

CHAPTER IV.

第四章

THE FOOD QUESTION.—OBJECTIONS TO PARAFFINEOIL AS AN ATMOSPHERE.—ADVANTAGES OF CHEESEAS A TRAVELLING COMPANION.—A MARRIED WOMANDESERTS HER HOME.—FURTHER PROVISION FORGETTING UPSET.—I PACK.—CUSSEDNESS OF TOOTHBRUSHES.—GEORGE AND HARRIS PACK.—AWFULBEHAVIOUR OF MONTMORENCY.—WE RETIRE TO REST.

食物议题——煤油真能漏——与奶酪一起乘车的好处——一位夫人弃家住宾馆的故事——更多为翻船作出的准备——我打包——牙刷的执拗——乔治和哈里斯打包——蒙特莫伦西的可恶——上床睡觉

Then we discussed the food question. George said: "Begin with breakfast." (George is so practical.) "Now for breakfast we shall want a frying-pan”—(Harris said it was indigestible; but we merely urged him not to be an ass, and George went on)—“a tea-pot and a kettle, and a methylated spirit stove.”

接下来，我们进入食物的议题。乔治说：“从早饭开始讨 论（乔治这人很实际），我们需要1只煎锅（哈里斯说煎锅消化不了，但我们叫他别傻了，然后乔治继续往下说）、1只茶壶、1只烧水壶，再加1个酒精灶。”

"No oil," said George, with a significant look; and Harris and I agreed.

他用意味深长的神情强调道：“不能是煤油灶。”我和哈里斯表示非常支持。

We had taken up an oil-stove once, but "never again." It had been like living in an oil-shop that week. It oozed. I never saw such a thing as paraffine oil is to ooze. We kept it in the nose of the boat, and, from there, it oozed down to the rudder, impregnating the whole boat and everything in it on its way, and it oozed over the river, and saturated the scenery and spoilt the atmosphere. Sometimes a westerly oily wind blew, and at other times an easterly oily wind, and sometimes it blew a northerly oily wind, and maybe a southerly oily wind; but whether it came from the Arctic snows, or was raised in the waste of the desert sands, it came alike to us laden with the fragrance of paraffine oil.

我们曾经带上过煤油灶，但“决不会有下次”了。带上煤油灶泛舟的那一周，感觉就像生活在煤油铺里。煤油灶漏油了。我没见过有什么液体能比煤油漏得更欢。我们把灶放到船头，煤油一直渗流到船尾，浸渍了整个船身和船上所有的东西，它还渗透进河流，浸渍了两岸风景，污染了河上的大气。有时候空中吹着油腻的西风，有时候吹着油腻的东风，或是油腻的北风，再不然就是油腻的南风。无论风从哪一个方向吹来，曾翻卷过北极的雪花也好，曾舞动过大漠的狂沙也好，吹到我们面前的风通通只有一个味道——煤油的味道。

And that oil oozed up and ruined the sunset; and as for the moonbeams, they positively reeked of paraffine.

煤油渗进太阳，破坏了夕阳美景；煤油渗进月亮，让月光明显散发出煤油的臭味。

We tried to get away from it at Marlow. We left the boat by the bridge, and took a walk through the town to escape it, but it followed us. The whole town was full of oil. We passed through the church-yard, and it seemed as if the people had been buried in oil. The High Street stunk of oil; we wondered how people could live in it. And we walked miles upon miles out Birmingham way; but it was no use, the country was steeped in oil.

我们尝试在马洛甩掉它。我们把船停在桥边，到城中散步，目的是逃离这股气味，奈何它阴魂不散，如影随形。整个城区都染上了煤油味。我们从教堂墓地穿过时，怀疑那些地下长眠的人是不是都泡在煤油里。大街上煤油味浓得让人头晕，我们都奇怪人们在这里是怎么生存的。离开伯明翰大道后，我们又走了好远好远，但一切仍是徒劳，看来整个乡村也都泡在了煤油里。

At the end of that trip we met together at midnight in a lonely field, under a blasted oak, and took an awful oath (we had been swearing for a whole week about the thing in an ordinary, middle-class way, but this was a swell affair)—an awful oath never to take paraffine oil with us in a boat again—except, of course, in case of sickness.

旅行结束时，我们半夜聚在空旷的野地，在一棵枯萎的橡树下发下毒誓（虽然我们已经用中产阶级的常用表达方式诅咒发誓了整整一周，但都赶不上这次正式）：再也不带煤油上船，当然，生病的情况除外。

Therefore, in the present instance, we confined ourselves to methylated spirit. Even that is bad enough. You get methylated pie and methylated cake. But methylated spirit is more wholesome when taken into the system in large quantities than paraffine oil.

所以，这次我们只能选择酒精灶。其实酒精灶也不是个好东西。做出来的是酒精馅饼和酒精蛋糕。但是如果非得要大量摄入的话，酒精怎么说也比煤油健康。

For other breakfast things, George suggested eggs and bacon, which were easy to cook, cold meat, tea, bread and butter, and jam. For lunch, he said, we could have biscuits, cold meat, bread and butter, and jam—but NO CHEESE. Cheese, like oil, makes too much of itself. It wants the whole boat to itself. It goes through the hamper, and gives a cheesy flavour to everything else there. You can't tell whether you are eating apple-pie or German sausage, or strawberries and cream. It all seems cheese. There is too much odour about cheese.

至于其他早餐食物，乔治推荐便于烹饪的鸡蛋和熏肉，以及冷肉、茶、黄油面包和果酱。他说，午餐可以吃饼干、冷肉、黄油面包和果酱，但是别带奶酪——奶酪就像煤油一样，气味威力无穷，想要占据全船。它轻而易举就能穿透食物篮，将所有东西变成奶酪味。如果单凭味觉判断，你不会知道自己正在吃的到底是苹果馅饼，德国火腿，还是奶油草莓，因为它们都是一个味道——奶酪的味道。有什么办法啊，谁让奶酪的气味独步天下呢！

I remember a friend of mine, buying a couple of cheeses at Liverpool. Splendid cheeses they were, ripe and mellow, and with a two hundred horse-power scent about them that might have been warranted to carry three miles, and knock a man over at two hundred yards. I was in Liverpool at the time, and my friend said that if I didn't mind he would get me to take them back with me to London, as he should not be coming up for a day or two himself, and he did not think the cheeses ought to be kept much longer.

记得一个朋友在利物浦买了一些干奶酪。它们很不错，浓香醇厚，功率高达两百马力，至少可以飘香3英里，并 在两百码内击倒任何一名成年男子。当时我恰好在利物浦，这位朋友说如果我不介意，他想拜托我把这些奶酪带回伦敦，因为他可能要推迟一两天才能回去，而他认为奶酪不能放得太久了。

"Oh, with pleasure, dear boy," I replied, "with pleasure."

我回答说：“亲爱的，我非常乐意效劳，非常乐意。”

I called for the cheeses, and took them away in a cab. It was a ramshackle affair, dragged along by a knock-kneed, broken-winded somnambulist, which his owner, in a moment of enthusiasm, during conversation, referred to as a horse. I put the cheeses on the top, and we started off at a shamble that would have done credit to the swiftest steam-roller ever built, and all went merry as a funeral bell, until we turned the corner. There, the wind carried a whiff from the cheeses full on to our steed. It woke him up, and, with a snort of terror, he dashed off at three miles an hour. The wind still blew in his direction, and before we reached the end of the street he was laying himself out at the rate of nearly four miles an hour, leaving the cripples and stout old ladies simply nowhere.

我取来奶酪，带上出租马车。这架马车已经濒临散架，拉车的是个膝盖外翻、气喘吁吁的梦游者。后来交谈时我听他主人一时激动称呼他为“马”。我把奶酪放在车顶，马车蹒跚地前进了，其速度能让人们对史上最快的压路机加以称赞。如果就这么进展下去，一切会如同丧钟般让人愉快。然而我们转过拐角时，意外发生了：由于转弯，风向一变，一缕夹着奶酪气息的风结实地扑到我们这匹战马的脸上，惊醒了他。随着一声受惊的响鼻，他开始以3英里的时速飞奔起来。香风继续往他的方向吹着，不到这条 街的尽头，他已经拼命跑出了近乎每小时4英里的成绩， 将瘸子们和矮胖的老太太们远远抛在了后面。

It took two porters as well as the driver to hold him in at the station; and I do not think they would have done it, even then, had not one of the men had the presence of mind to put a handkerchief over his nose, and to light a bit of brown paper.

到达车站后，车主请了两名搬运工帮忙，3个人齐心合力才降伏了这匹战马。我认为，如果不是其中一人沉着冷静，用一张手帕罩住马鼻，并点燃一张牛皮纸的话，他们这么多人也没法把马稳住。

I took my ticket, and marched proudly up the platform, with my cheeses, the people falling back respectfully on either side. The train was crowded, and I had to get into a carriage where there were already seven other people. One crusty old gentleman objected, but I got in, not with standing; and, putting my cheeses upon the rack, squeezed down with a pleasant smile, and said it was a warm day.

我买来车票，举着奶酪昂首阔步地走上站台，人们充满敬意，纷纷后退，为我让出一条路来。火车很拥挤，我只得爬上一节已经坐有7个人的车厢，也顾不上其中一位老绅士（看来他脾气可不好）的反对了。我将奶酪放在架上， 脸上堆出讨好的微笑，好不容易挤进座位席，同时客套了 一句“今天真暖和呀”。

A few moments passed, and then the old gentleman began to fidget. "Very close in here," he said.

不一会儿，老绅士坐不住了：“大家挨得太近了。”

"Quite oppressive," said the man next him.

“是挺压抑的。”他身边的男人回答道。

And then they both began sniffing, and, at the third sniff, they caught it right on the chest, and rose up without another word and went out. And then a stout lady got up, and said it was disgraceful that a respectable married woman should be harried about in this way, and gathered up a bag and eight parcels and went. The remaining four passengers sat on for a while, until a solemn-looking man in the corner, who, from his dress and general appearance, seemed to belong to the undertaker class, said it put him in mind of dead baby; and the other three passengers tried to get out of the door at the same time, and hurt themselves.

接着两人都开始吸鼻子，吸到第3下的时候，发现味道正是我的箱子散发出来的，一言不发地站起来就走了。接着一位身材结实的女士站起身来开了口，说让一位体面的已 婚女士受到如此的折磨是相当失礼的行为，然后收拾起她的1个旅行袋和8个包裹，绝尘而去。剩下还有4位乘客，大家就这么干坐了一阵。接着角落里那个看上去很阴沉的男子——从服饰和气质看很可能从事的是丧葬行业的工作——说这个气味让他想起了婴儿的尸体。话音刚落，另外3位乘客几乎同时夺门而逃，互相碰得鼻青脸肿。

I smiled at the black gentleman, and said I thought we were going to have the carriage to ourselves; and he laughed pleasantly, and said that some people made such a fuss over a little thing. But even he grew strangely depressed after we had started, and so, when we reached Crewe, I asked him to come and have a drink. He accepted, and we forced our way into the buffet, where we yelled, and stamped, and waved our umbrellas for a quarter of an hour; and then a young lady came, and asked us if we wanted anything.

我微笑着对这位黑衣绅士说，看来这一整节车厢成为我们两人的专用包厢了。他温和地微笑着回答说，有些人就是喜欢小题大做。但是在出发后，连他也莫名其妙地忧郁起来。所以到克鲁后，我邀请他去喝酒，他欣然从命。我们“气”势汹汹地冲进一家自助餐店，没人愿意出来迎接，我们又是大吼又是跺脚，还举起雨伞挥舞，15分钟后才终于出来一位年轻女招待，问我们需要些什么。

"What's yours?" I said, turning to my friend. "I'll have half-a-crown's worth of brandy, neat, if you please, miss," he responded.

“你要什么？”我转身问这位朋友。他回答道：“30便士的白兰地。小姐，如果可以的话，请别掺水

And he went off quietly after he had drunk it and got into another carriage, which I thought mean.

喝光白兰地后，他安静地离开餐店，默默地走进了另外一节车厢。我认为这举动太不厚道了。

From Crewe I had the compartment to myself, though the train was crowded. As we drew up at the different stations, the people, seeing my empty carriage, would rush for it. "Here y' are, Maria; come along, plenty of room." "All right, Tom; we'll get in here," they would shout. And they would run along, carrying heavy bags, and fight round the door to get in first. And one would open the door and mount the steps, and stagger back into the arms of the man behind him; and they would all come and have a sniff, and then droop off and squeeze into other carriages, or pay the difference and go first.

从克鲁开始，整节车厢成了我一个人的专用包厢，而其他车厢全部爆满。每当火车靠站时，站台上的人们看到这节空车厢，自然会争相涌来。“玛丽亚，快来这边，很空呢。”“好咧，汤姆，我们就进这节吧。”通常他们会这 么兴高采烈地一呼一答，然后拎着沉重的大包小包开始追 着火车跑，车还没停稳就开始你推我攘、争先恐后地要抢 先上车。然而车门打开后，跨上车的第1名总会往后一倒，掉入第2名的怀中。后面排队的人依次上来闻一闻，再依次退下。有的人选择转战其他车厢，有的人甚至补上差价坐上等舱去了。

From Euston, I took the cheeses down to my friend's house. When his wife came into the room she smelt round for an instant. Then she said: "What is it? Tell me the worst."

从伦敦的尤斯顿车站出来，我直接护送奶酪去它的主人家。朋友的妻子刚走进客厅，鼻翼就开始翕动，满屋子转了一圈，然后问道：“是什么？直接告诉我最坏的答案吧，我有心理准备了。”

I said: "It's cheeses. Tom bought them in Liverpool, and asked me to bring them up with me."

我说：“是奶酪。汤姆在利物浦买的，托我捎回来。”

And I added that I hoped she understood that it had nothing to do with me; and she said that she was sure of that, but that she would speak to Tom about it when he came back.

我又补充说，希望她能够明白我和这件事一点关系都没有。她说她很明白这一点，但是等汤姆回来了还要详细地问问他。

My friend was detained in Liverpool longer than he expected; and, three days later, as he hadn't returned home, his wife called on me. She said: "What did Tom say about those cheeses?"

我朋友在利物浦逗留的时间比预想的更长，3天之后还没到家。他的妻子就来找我，对我说：“关于那些奶酪，汤姆怎么说的？”

I replied that he had directed they were to be kept in a moist place, and that nobody was to touch them.

我回答说他指示应该把它们放在潮湿的地方，不要让任何人碰。

She said: "Nobody's likely to touch them. Had he smelt them?" I thought he had, and added that he seemed greatly attached to them. "You think he would be upset," she queried, "if I gave a man a sovereign to take them away and bury them?"

她说：“不会有人去碰的。他闻过它们么？”我说他应该闻过吧。我还补充说汤姆似乎对它们很有感情。“你觉得他会不会生气，”她郑重地问道：“如果我授权别人将它们带去埋了，你觉得他会怎样？

I answered that I thought he would never smile again. An idea struck her. She said: "Do you mind keeping them for him? Let me send them round to you."

我说我认为他这辈子都不会再笑了。她突然有了一个主意：“你能帮他照看它们么？这就给你送过来。”

"Madam," I replied, "for myself I like the smell of cheese, and the journey the other day with them from Liverpool I shall ever look back upon as a happy ending to a pleasant holiday. But, in this world, we must consider others. The lady under whose roof I have the honour of residing is a widow, and, for all I know, possibly an orphan too. She has a strong, I may say an eloquent, objection to being what she terms 'put upon.' The presence of your husband's cheeses in her house she would, I instinctively feel, regard as a 'put upon'; and it shall never be said that I put upon the widow and the orphan."

“夫人，”我回答说，“就我本人而言，我喜欢奶酪的气 味。从利物浦回来的旅途有它们陪伴，为我愉快的假期画 上一个美满的句号，我这辈子都不会忘记。但是，人活在世，还得为他人着想。我有幸能够与之同在一屋檐下的房东是一位寡妇，而且据我所知同时还可能是一位孤儿。她强烈地（或者我应该用“雄辩地”这个词）抗议任何人‘欺负她’。我本能地认为，您先生的奶酪出现在她家中，将符合她对‘欺负她’的定义。我可不愿意被人戳脊梁骨，说我欺负寡妇和孤儿。”

"Very well, then," said my friend's wife, rising, "all I have to say is, that I shall take the children and go to an hotel until those cheeses are eaten. I decline to live any longer in the same house with them."

“那好吧，”朋友的妻子站起来说，“没别的可说了，我这就带孩子们去旅馆住，等奶酪全吃完了再回来。我拒绝继续与它们生活在同一座房屋里。”

She kept her word, leaving the place in charge of the char woman, who, when asked if she could stand the smell, replied, "What smell?" and who, when taken close to the cheeses and told to sniff hard, said she could detect a faint odour of melons. It was argued from this that little injury could result to the woman from the atmosphere, and she was left.

她说到做到，将房间留给按日雇佣的女佣照看。这位女佣在被问到能否忍受那股气味时居然反问“什么气味？”，于是她被带到奶酪跟前去深呼吸，据说她只闻到了一股淡淡的香瓜味。所以人们断定，房屋中的空气几乎不会伤害她的健康，所以将一切都托付给了她。

The hotel bill came to fifteen guineas; and my friend, after reckoning everything up, found that the cheeses had cost him eight-and-sixpence a pound. He said he dearly loved a bit of cheese, but it was beyond his means; so he determined to get rid of them. He threw them into the canal; but had to fish them out again, as the bargemen complained. They said it made them feel quite faint. And, after that, he took them one dark night and left them in the parish mortuary. But the coroner discovered them, and made a fearful fuss.

朋友的妻眷住酒店共花费15个金币，再算上其他相关花费，最后这位朋友算出平均1磅奶酪价值8先令6便士。他说自己非常喜欢奶酪，但自己的经济实力负担不起，只好决定扔掉它们。起初他把它们扔进运河里，不久被迫又将其打捞起来，因为驳船工人们怨声载道，声称被熏得头晕眼花。吸取失败的经验，他在一个月黑风高的晚上，把奶酪悄悄地扔在教区停尸间。但是，验尸官发现奶酪后大闹一场。

He said it was a plot to deprive him of his living by waking up the corpses.

他认为这是个阴谋，要害他失掉谋生的营生，因为奶酪味把尸体都要熏活了。

My friend got rid of them, at last, by taking them down to a sea-side town, and burying them on the beach. It gained the place quite are putation. Visitors said they had never noticed before how strong the air was, and weak-chested and consumptive people used to throng there for years afterwards.

我的朋友最后是这样与这批奶酪永别的：他把它们带到一个海滨小镇，将它埋在沙滩里。此举竟让小镇一夜成名。游客们都说：“以前怎么不觉得这里的海风这么有味道呢？”肺病或结核病患者们每年从四面八方慕名而来，此后许多年间，这里一直是旅游和疗养胜地。

Fond as I am of cheese, therefore, I hold that George was right in declining to take any.

所以，尽管我喜欢吃奶酪，但也不得不承认乔治很英明，确实不能带上奶酪

"We shan't want any tea," said George (Harris's face fell at this); "but we'll have a good round, square, slap-up meal at seven—dinner, tea, and supper combined.”

“我们就不喝下午茶了，”乔治说（哈里斯一听，脸立刻 拉得老长），“但是，晚上7点的时候，我们要吃全套的豪华大餐——相当于午饭、下午茶和晚饭加起来一块儿吃。”

Harris grew more cheerful. George suggested meat and fruit pies, cold meat, tomatoes, fruit, and green stuff. For drink, we took some wonderful sticky concoction of Harris's, which you mixed with water and called lemonade, plenty of tea, and a bottle of whisky, in case, as George said, we got upset.

哈里斯这才高兴起来。乔治建议带上肉加水果馅饼、冷肉、西红柿、水果以及绿叶蔬菜。至于饮料，我们带上按照哈里斯的神奇配方调制的一种黏稠混合物（加入水就可以叫它“柠檬汁”）、很多茶叶、一瓶威士忌，就像乔治说的那样，以备我们在翻船后压压惊。

It seemed to me that George harped too much on the getting-upset idea. It seemed to me the wrong spirit to go about the trip in.

我觉得乔治总是在念叨“翻船”，这不该是出发时应有的想法。

But I'm glad we took the whisky.

不过我倒是很高兴威士忌能够入选。

We didn't take beer or wine. They are a mistake up the river. They make you feel sleepy and heavy. A glass in the evening when you are doing a mouch round the town and looking at the girls is all right enough; but don't drink when the sun is blazing down on your head, and you've got hard work to do.

我们否决掉了啤酒和葡萄酒。在河上，它们不应该出现，其罪过在于会让你昏沉欲睡。晚上上岸逛街看美女时，喝上一杯倒也无伤大雅。但当太阳还悬在头顶、艰苦的工作还没完成的时候，对杯中之物实在应该敬而远之。

We made a list of the things to be taken, and a pretty lengthy one it was, before we parted that evening. The next day, which was Friday, we got them all together, and met in the evening to pack. We got a big Gladstone for the clothes, and a couple of hampers for the victual sand the cooking utensils. We moved the table up against the window, piled everything in a heap in the middle of the floor, and sat round and looked at it.

在晚上分别之前，我们完成了行李清单，最后还是列了 好长一串。第二天是星期五，我们把所有东西堆到一起，晚上集合，着手打包。我们计划用一个很大的手提旅行袋装衣物，用几只食物篮装食物和餐具。我们把桌子抬到窗边，把行李一股脑堆在房屋正中，围着这座小山坐成一圈。

I said I'd pack.

我说我来装吧。

I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing is one of those many things that I feel I know more about than any other person living. (It surprises me myself, sometimes, how many of these subjects there are.) I impressed the fact upon George and Harris, and told them that they had better leave the whole matter entirely to me. They fell into the suggestion with a readiness that had something uncanny about it. George put on a pipe and spread himself over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked his legs on the table and lit a cigar.

我对自己整理行李的技术相当自信。我认为我在很多方面胜过同一时代的其他人，整理行李就是其中一项。（有时候我自己都很讶异，竟在如此多方面优于他人。）我让乔治和哈里斯相信这一事实，建议他们把这任务全权交给我。我话还没说完，他们立刻欣然同意，这就让我心生狐疑了。乔治装好烟斗，把身体在安乐椅上放平；哈里斯把腿跷到桌上，点燃了一支雪茄。

This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant, of course, was, that I should boss the job, and that Harris and George should potter about under my directions, I pushing them aside every now and then with, "Oh, you—!" "Here, let me do it." "There you are, simple enough!"—really teaching them, as you might say. Their taking it in the way they did irritated me. There is nothing does irritate me more than seeing other people sitting about doing nothing when I'm working.

我的预想全不是这样。我的意思当然是说我愿意领导这项工作，而哈里斯和乔治就是我的搬运工，应该遵从我的指示，听我使唤。我会不时将他们推到一旁——“哟，你看看你！”“来，我做给你看。”“看吧，简单吧！”换言之，我不惜亲手示范来栽培他们。现在他们故意曲解我的话，着实激怒了我。世界上最让我生气的事，莫过于在我工作的时候，别人坐在旁边跷着二郎腿啥也不干。

I lived with a man once who used to make me mad that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me doing things by the hour together, following me round the room with his eyes, wherever I went. He said it did him real good to look on at me, messing about. He said it made him feel that life was not an idle dream to be gaped and yawned through, but a noble task, full of duty and stern work. He said he often wondered now how he could have gone on before he met me, never having anybody to look at while they worked.

以前有个和我同住的家伙就爱用这种方式激怒我：他能横躺在沙发上看我干活看上一个乃至数个钟头。我在房间里劳动时，无论走到哪儿，他的目光就落到哪儿。他说看我瞎忙活对他有很大帮助，能让他认识到，人生不是打呵欠伸懒腰时看到的空洞一梦，而是高尚的事业，充满各种责任和紧张的工作。他说他经常纳闷在遇到我之前的日子是怎么熬过来的，要知道那时没有任何人工作给他看啊。

Now, I'm not like that. I can't sit still and see another man slaving and working. I want to get up and superintend, and walk round with my hands in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my energetic nature. I can't help it.

我和他不一样。别人当牛做马地苦干时，我无法坐视不管。我会站起来做监工，两手插在裤兜里转悠巡视，指点迷津，分派任务。没办法，谁让我天生精力过人呢。

However, I did not say anything, but started the packing. It seemed a longer job than I had thought it was going to be; but I got the bag finished at last, and I sat on it and strapped it.

但这次我什么都没说，埋头开始整理。花的时间比预想的要长，但旅行袋终于装好了，我坐在上面把它捆好。

"Ain't you going to put the boots in?" said Harris.

“你不打算把靴子放进去吗？”这时哈里斯开了口。

And I looked round, and found I had forgotten them. That's just like Harris. He couldn't have said a word until I'd got the bag shut and strapped, of course. And George laughed—one of those irritating, senseless, chuckle-headed, crack-jawed laughs of his. They do make me so wild.

我左右一看，靴子果然忘记了放进去。这就是典型的哈里斯式忠告：在我把包合拢扎好之前，他绝对不会说一个字。乔治笑起来，用的是典型的乔治式笑容——惹人生气、毫无道理、呆头傻脑、下巴脱臼。他俩总是能把我气疯掉。

I opened the bag and packed the boots in; and then, just as I was going to close it, a horrible idea occurred to me. Had I packed my tooth-brush? I don't know how it is, but I never do know whether I've packed my tooth-brush.

我打开旅行袋，将靴子装进去。正要合上时，一个可怕的念头攫住了我：牙刷装进去了吗？不知道为什么，每次整理完行李的时候，我总会怀疑是否没装牙刷。

My tooth-brush is a thing that haunts me when I'm travelling, and makes my life a misery. I dream that I haven't packed it, and wake up in a cold perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it. And, in the morning, I pack it before I have used it, and have to unpack again to get it, and it is always the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for it at the last moment and carry it to the rail way station, wrapped up in my pocket-handkerchief.

出门在外的日子里，牙刷是我的冤家，整得我好惨。我常常梦见忘了带牙刷，惊醒后已是满身冷汗，赶忙摸下床去找。早晨还没刷牙就打包了，刷牙时又得解开行李把它找出来，它还总是藏在旅行袋的最深处，非得让你大动干戈，把包翻个底朝天。再次装包时准会忘了它，然后不得不在出发前最后一分钟十万火急地冲回楼上去拿，最后 用手帕一裹装进兜里就直接带去火车站。

Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now, and, of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the things up into much the same state that they must have been before the world was created, and when chaos reigned. Of course, I found George's and Harris's eighteen times over, but I couldn't find my own. I put the things back one by one, and held everything up and shook it. Then I found it inside a boot. I repacked once more.

所以这次我照例把包里其他杂物一件件挖出来，果不其然，挖空袋后也找不到它。我把所有行李乱翻一通，搞得乱七八糟，让它们恢复了天地尚未成形、混沌主宰宇宙 时的状态。不用说，我把乔治的牙刷和哈里斯的牙刷找出 来18次了，唯独找不到自己那把。我把行李一件件放回旅行袋，逐一举起来摇晃，终于在一只靴子里面找到了它。这下安心地重新打包。

When I had finished, George asked if the soap was in. I said I didn't care a hang whether the soap was in or whether it wasn't; and I slammed the bag to and strapped it, and found that I had packed my tobacco-pouch in it, and had to re-open it. It got shut up finally at 10.5p.m., and then there remained the hampers to do. Harris said that we should be wanting to start in less than twelve hours' time, and thought that he and George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat down, and they had a go.

等我搞定一切后，乔治又开了金口：肥皂带上没？我说我管那破玩意儿带没带，把大包用力合上，三下五除二地绑扎好，奈何发现我的烟叶袋被装了进去，只好再次解开绳索开始搜寻。终于，晚上10∶05，旅行袋打包工程胜利竣工，剩下要装的只有食物篮了。哈里斯说距离出发不到12个小时了，最好让他和乔治来完成下一步工作。我表示同意，坐下来静候他俩的表演。

They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently intending to show me how to do it. I made no comment; I only waited. When George is hanged, Harris will be the worst packer in this world; and I looked at the piles of plates and cups, and kettles, and bottles and jars, and pies, and stoves, and cakes, and tomatoes, &c., and felt that the thing would soon become exciting.

一开始他们心情轻松愉快，一副要示范给我看的模样。我一言不发，沉着地等待着。我了解他们的实力：如果乔治被绞死，哈里斯将无可争议地成为世界上最差劲的行李打包人。看着堆成一座座小山的杯子、盘子、茶壶、瓶子、罐子、馅饼、灶、蛋糕、西红柿，五花八门，难以枚举，我深知好戏就要上演。

It did. They started with breaking a cup. That was the first thing they did. They did that just to show you what they could do, and to get you interested.

我没有等多久。他们先是打碎了一只杯子。这只是第一出，向你小露一手，只是为了调动起你的兴趣。

Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it, and they had to pick out the tomato with a teaspoon.

接着，哈里斯不懂得孰轻孰重，用草莓酱罐头压碎了一个番茄，他们只好用茶匙将碎番茄连肉带汁地舀出来。

And then it was George's turn, and he trod on the butter. I didn't say anything, but I came over and sat on the edge of the table and watched them. It irritated them more than anything I could have said. I felt that. It made them nervous and excited, and they stepped on things, and put things behind them, and then couldn't find them when they wanted them; and they packed the pies at the bottom, and put heavy things on top, and smashed the pies in.

换乔治来显身手：他一脚踩到了黄油上。我什么都没说，只是走过来,坐在桌沿上看着他们。这比我能说的任何一句话都更让他们愤怒。我感觉到了。这使他们变得紧张不安，开始踩到不该踩的东西，或者把东西放在身后，需要的时候半天找不到，他们还把馅饼装在食物篮最下层，再将重物放上去，将馅饼压成了稀泥。

They upset salt over everything, and as for the butter! I never saw two men do more with one-and-two pence worth of butter in my whole life than they did. After George had got it off his slipper, they tried to put it in the kettle. It wouldn't go in, and what was in wouldn't come out. They did scrape it out at last, and put it down on a chair, and Harris sat on it, and it stuck to him, and they went looking for it all over the room.

他们把盐洒得到处都是，而黄油——哈哈，从没见过两个大男人围着一先令二便士的黄油这样团团转的！乔治把它从拖鞋底刮下来，和哈里斯一起尝试把它装进水壶。黄油没法全放进去，进去的部分又出不来了。好不容易把它刮了出来，放在椅子上。哈里斯一屁股坐上去，粘到裤子上，两人就开始满屋子一通乱找。

"I'll take my oath I put it down on that chair," said George, staring at the empty seat.

“我发誓把它放在那椅子上了。”乔治盯着空空的椅子说道。

"I saw you do it myself, not a minute ago," said Harris.

“我也亲眼看到你放呢，一分钟都还没有就飞了？”哈里斯同样不解。

Then they started round the room again looking for it; and then they met again in the centre, and stared at one another.

接着他们绕着房间又开始第二轮搜寻，最后在房间中央两军会师，仍然是大眼瞪小眼。

"Most extraordinary thing I ever heard of," said George.

乔治说：“这号事儿，连听都没听说过！”

"So mysterious!" said Harris.

哈里斯说：“太神奇了！”

Then George got round at the back of Harris and saw it.

乔治绕到哈里斯身后，终于发现了黄油。

"Why, here it is all the time," he exclaimed, indignantly.

“哎呀，它一直在这里！”他愤怒地喊道。

"Where?" cried Harris, spinning round.

“哪里？”哈里斯一边大吼，一边要转身看个究竟。

"Stand still, can't you!" roared George, flying after him.

“你别动行不行呀！”乔治飞快地跟在他屁股后转圈。

And they got it off, and packed it in the teapot.

他们将它取下，最后装进茶壶完事。

Montmorency was in it all, of course. Montmorency's ambition in life, is to get in the way and be sworn at. If he can squirm in anywhere where he particularly is not wanted, and be a perfect nuisance, and make people mad, and have things thrown at his head, then he feels his day has not been wasted.

蒙特莫伦西当然要来掺一脚。它的毕生追求可以这样来 概括：挡人之道，乞人之骂。如果它能够钻进任何特别不欢迎它的地方，阻碍别人的正事，让人们气得发疯，让不明物体向它脑袋飞来，那么它就觉得这一天没有白活。

To get somebody to stumble over him, and curse him steadily for an hour, is his highest aim and object; and, when he has succeeded in accomplishing this, his conceit becomes quite unbearable.

它的最高理想和目标是把人绊上一跤，赢得一个小时的不间断咒骂，如果成功完成这个目标，它会自我膨胀， 模样儿更加令人讨厌。

He came and sat down on things, just when they were wanted to be packed; and he laboured under the fixed belief that, whenever Harris or George reached out their hand for anything, it was his cold, damp nose that they wanted. He put his leg into the jam, and he worried the teaspoons, and he pretended that the lemons were rats, and got into the hamper and killed three of them before Harris could land him with the frying-pan.

它走过来坐到某些东西上，时机总是选得很妙，正好在那些东西要被打包的时刻。它不辞辛苦地转来转去，坚信只要哈里斯或乔治伸出手，就一定会摸到它那冰冷潮湿的鼻头。它把腿伸进果酱瓶，把茶匙拨得哗哗响，还把柠檬想象成老鼠，爬进食物篮消灭了3“条”柠檬，直到被哈里斯的煎锅击中才罢休。

Harris said I encouraged him. I didn't encourage him. A dog like that don't want any encouragement. It's the natural, original sin that is born in him that makes him do things like that.

哈里斯指责我鼓励了蒙特莫伦西。实在是冤枉——它那样的狗还需要人鼓励么？它生下来就带着份原罪，注定要做那些事情。

The packing was done at 12.50; and Harris sat on the big hamper, and said he hoped nothing would be found broken. George said that if anything was broken it was broken, which reflection seemed to comfort him. He also said he was ready for bed.

到12∶50，终于整理完毕。哈里斯一屁股坐到巨大的食物篮上，说希望什么东西也没有被压碎。乔治说，就算碎了也无力回天了，一句话就安慰了哈里斯。他还说想要睡觉了。

We were all ready for bed. Harris was to sleep with us that night, and we went upstairs.

经一提醒，我们都觉得很困，巴不得倒头就睡。哈里斯决定留下过夜，我们就一齐走上楼去。

We tossed for beds, and Harris had to sleep with me. He said: "Do you prefer the inside or the outside, J.?"

我们抛硬币分配床位，结果是我和哈里斯同睡一张床。 他说：“J.，你喜欢睡哪一侧，里面还是外面？”

I said I generally preferred to sleep inside a bed.

我说我一般都睡在里面一侧。

Harris said it was old.

哈里斯说我跟不上时代。

George said: "What time shall I wake you fellows?"

乔治问：“我应该几点钟叫你们起来呢？”

Harris said: "Seven."

哈里斯说：“7点。”

I said: "No—six," because I wanted to write some letters.

我说：“不，6点。”因为我得起来写几封信。

Harris and I had a bit of a row over it, but at last split the difference, and said half-past six.

哈里斯和我一顿小吵，由于胜负难分，决定各退一步， 最后定为6点半起床。

"Wake us at 6.30, George," we said.

我说：“6点半叫醒我们哟，乔治。”

George made no answer, and we found, on going over, that he had been asleep for some time; so we placed the bath where he could tumble into it on getting out in the morning, and went to bed ourselves.

乔治没有回答，我们走过去一看，他已经睡着好一阵子了。于是我们把澡盆放在他床前，这样他明天一起床就 会绊倒跌进去，然后我们才回头睡下了。

CHAPTER v.

第五章

MRS. P. AROUSES US.—GEORGE, THE SLUGGARD.—THE"WEATHER FORECAST" SWINDLE.—OUR LUGGAGE.—DEPRAVITY OF THE SMALL BOY.—THE PEOPLEGATHER ROUND US.—WE DRIVE OFF IN GREAT STYLE, AND ARRIVE AT WATERLOO.—INNOCENCE OF SOUTHWESTERN OFFICIALS CONCERNING SUCH WORLDLYTHINGS AS TRAINS.—WE ARE AFLOAT, AFLOAT IN ANOPEN BOAT.

波贝太太叫醒我们——乔治是懒鬼——“天气预报”骗局——我们的行李——道德败坏的小工——被人群围观——我们风光地坐上出租马车，到达滑铁卢车站——西南地方官员对列车的无知——登船启航

It was Mrs. Poppets that woke me up next morning.

第二天早上叫醒我们的是波贝太太。

She said: "Do you know that it's nearly nine o'clock, sir?"

她说：“您知道现在快9点了么，先生？”

"Nine o' what?" I cried, starting up.

“9什么？”我大吃一惊，立起身来。

"Nine o'clock," she replied, through the keyhole. "I thought you was a—oversleeping yourselves.”

“9点钟，”她的声音从锁孔里飘进来，“我担心你睡,嗯,你们睡过头了。”

I woke Harris, and told him. He said: "I thought you wanted to get up at six?"

我叫醒哈里斯，告诉他睡过头了。他说：“你昨天不是说想6点起床吗？”

"So I did," I answered; "why didn't you wake me?"

“没错，”我说，“你怎么不叫醒我？”

"How could I wake you, when you didn't wake me?" he retorted. "Now we shan't get on the water till after twelve. I wonder you take the trouble to get up at all."

“如果你没有叫醒我，我又怎么可能醒着来叫你呢？”他还很有道理，“现在我们赶到河边少说也得12点了。得，干脆别起来算了。”

"Um," I replied, "lucky for you that I do. If I hadn't woke you, you'd have lain there for the whole fortnight."

“哼，”我回答说，“我起来是你的幸运。如果我不叫醒你，你会在那里躺两个星期的。”

We snarled at one another in this strain for the next few minutes, when we were interrupted by a defiant snore from George.

接下来的几分钟里我们冲着对方咆哮，谁也不甘示弱，直到被乔治一声傲慢的鼾声打断。

It reminded us, for the first time since our being called, of his existence.

它提醒我们（这也是我们在被叫醒后首次意识到），还有这么一个人存在。

There he lay—the man who had wanted to know what time he should wake us—on his back, with his mouth wide open, and his knees stuck up.

他躺在那里——这个之前问我们想要几点起床的人——仰面朝天，大张着嘴，支起膝盖，睡得不知今夕是何夕。

I don't know why it should be, I am sure; but the sight of another man asleep in bed when I am up, maddens me. It seems to me so shocking to see the precious hours of a man's life—the priceless moments that will never come back to him again—being wasted in mere brutish sleep.

我不知道为什么会这样，真的，反正如果我起床了，看到别人还继续睡，就会让我抓狂。看到他把生命最宝贵的时间——千金不换、一去不返的时间——浪费在猪一般的睡眠里，我感到震惊和痛心疾首！

There was George, throwing away in hideous sloth the inestimable gift of time; his valuable life, every second of which he would have to account for hereafter, passing away from him, unused. He might have been up stuffing himself with eggs and bacon, irritating the dog, or flirting with the slavey, instead of sprawling there, sunk in soul-clogging oblivion.

看吧，乔治在那里，在可怕的懒惰中挥霍着无价的时间财富；宝贵时光从他身边白白地流走了，他日后可有得后悔了。他本可以起床，把时间用来狂吃鸡蛋、狂吃熏肉、逗狗或调戏女佣，总好过摆成“大”字躺在那里，任灵魂沉入虚无的世界。

It was a terrible thought. Harris and I appeared to be struck by it at the same instant. We determined to save him, and, in this noble resolve, our own dispute was forgotten. We flew across and slung the clothes off him, and Harris landed him one with a slipper, and I shouted in his ear, and he awoke.

想到这里我不寒而栗。从哈里斯的眼睛里我读出了同样的担忧。一定要从虚无中救出朋友——怀着同样高尚的决心，我和哈里斯之间的恩怨已经烟消云散了。我们飞奔过去扯下搭在他身上的衣服，哈里斯瞄准他成功发射了一只拖鞋，我对着他耳朵大喊大叫，终于他醒了。

"Wasermarrer?" he observed, sitting up.

“什，什么事啊？”他坐起来，迷迷糊糊地说。

"Get up, you fat-headed chunk!" roared Harris. "It's quarter to ten."

“起床，你这只胖头猪！”哈里斯吼道，“差1刻就10点了。”

"What!" he shrieked, jumping out of bed into the bath; "Who the thunder put this thing here?"

“什么！”他尖叫着一跃而起，正好掉进澡盆中，“哪个欠扁的把这东西放在这儿的？”

We told him he must have been a fool not to see the bath.

我们说，没有看见澡盆是他自己笨。

We finished dressing, and, when it came to the extras, we remembered that we had packed the tooth-brushes and the brush and comb (that tooth-brush of mine will be the death of me, I know), and we had to go down stairs, and fish them out of the bag. And when we had done that George wanted the shaving tackle. We told him that he would have to go without shaving that morning, as we weren't going to unpack that bag again for him, nor for anyone like him.

我们穿好衣服，正欲进入洗漱程序，才想起牙刷和刷子（兼梳子）已经装进包里了（就知道那支牙刷会要我的命），只好下楼从行李中把它们翻出来。等我们合上包后，乔治又说要刮胡刀。我们告诉他，就忍一早上吧，别刮了，我们不会为他重新把包解开，也不会为其他任何像他一样的人把包解开。

He said: "Don't be absurd. How can I go into the City like this?"

他说：“别开玩笑了。我这个样子怎么能够进城呢？”

It was certainly rather rough on the City, but what cared we for human suffering? As Harris said, in his common, vulgar way, the City would have to lump it.

这样做确实对伦敦城很残忍，但是其他人受不受得了关我们什么事？哈里斯爱说糙话，就如他所说，那么伦敦就只能好歹也得忍了。

We went downstairs to breakfast. Montmorency had invited two other dogs to come and see him off, and they were whiling away the time by fighting on the doorstep. We calmed them with an umbrella, and sat down to chops and cold beef.

我们下楼吃早餐。蒙特莫伦西已邀请来两只狗为他送行，他们在门口打架消磨时间，我们用一把雨伞喝住了他们，然后坐下来享用排骨和冷牛肉。

Harris said: "The great thing is to make a good breakfast," and he started with a couple of chops, saying that he would take these while they were hot, as the beef could wait.

哈里斯说：“最幸福的莫过于可以做顿不错的早餐。”他先吃排骨，说排骨必须趁热吃，牛肉就无所谓。

George got hold of the paper, and read us out the boating fatalities, and the weather forecast, which latter prophesied "rain, cold, wet to fine"(whatever more than usually ghastly thing in weather that may be),"occasional local thunder—storms, east wind, with general depression over the Midland Counties (London and Channel). Bar. falling.”

乔治抓起报纸读起来，专捡划船失事遇难的报道和天气预报念给我们听。天气预报预言：“有雨、寒冷、阴转晴”（听起来似乎比平时更可怕，天晓得是个什么鬼天气呢），“局部地区有雷阵雨，东风，中部地区（伦敦和海峡沿岸）普遍有低气压。晴雨表读数下降。”

I do think that, of all the silly, irritating tomfoolishness by which we are plagued, this "weather-forecast" fraud is about the most aggravating. It "forecasts" precisely what happened yesterday or the day before, and precisely the opposite of what is going to happen to-day.

我实在觉得，在我们必须忍受的所有弱智可恨的愚蠢行为中，号称“天气预报”的骗局最为可恶。被“预报”的总是昨天甚至前天的天气，恰恰与今天的天气背道而驰。

I remember a holiday of mine being completely ruined one late autumn by our paying attention to the weather report of the local newspaper. "Heavy showers, with thunderstorms, may be expected to-day," it would say on Monday, and so we would give up our picnic, and stop in doors all day, waiting for the rain.—And people would pass the house, going off in wagonettes and coaches as jolly and merry as could be, the sun shining out, and not a cloud to be seen.

记得某年晚秋，我们好端端的假日全被毁了，都怪我们轻信当地报纸上的天气预报。星期一，它说“今日有雷雨大风”，我们乖乖放弃野炊计划，整日蜗居家中等待大雨降临。人们坐上各式马车，走马灯似地从屋前经过，一个个脸上容光焕发，兴高采烈。我们抬头一看，碧空如洗，万里无云。

"Ah!" we said, as we stood looking out at them through the window, "won't they come home soaked!"

“哼！”我们站在窗边望着他们，“回来的时候可不得跟落汤鸡似的！”

And we chuckled to think how wet they were going to get, and came back and stirred the fire, and got our books, and arranged our specimens of seaweed and cockle shells. By twelve o'clock, with the sun pouring into the room, the heat became quite oppressive, and we wondered when those heavy showers and occasional thunderstorms were going to begin.

我们想象着他们浑身湿透的模样，不由咯咯笑出声来，转身回到壁炉边，拨弄一下火堆，将我们的海藻和贝壳标本排列整齐。12点，太阳照进屋中，越来越热，我们不由得怀疑大雨和雷电到底什么时候开始。

"Ah! they'll come in the afternoon, you'll find," we said to each other. "Oh, WON'T those people get wet. What a lark!"

“啊！他们下午回来的时候等着瞧，”我们互相安慰，“哼，可不得把他们淋成落汤鸡！多好玩啊！”

At one o'clock, the landlady would come in to ask if we weren't going out, as it seemed such a lovely day.

1点钟，房东太太过来问我们干嘛不出门啊，外面天气这么好。

"No, no," we replied, with a knowing chuckle, "not we. WE don't mean to get wet—no, no.”

“不，不，不，”我们会心地一笑，“我们才不会呢。我们可不想淋雨。不，不，不。”

And when the afternoon was nearly gone, and still there was no sign of rain, we tried to cheer ourselves up with the idea that it would comedown all at once, just as the people had started for home, and were out of the reach of any shelter, and that they would thus get more drenched than ever. But not a drop ever fell, and it finished a grand day, and a lovely night after it.

下午快要结束了，还没有任何下雨的迹象，我们自我安慰：肯定是要突然变天，大雨倾盆，人们刚踏上归途，正好前不着村后不着店，左右都没有个避雨的去处，这下湿得才好看呢。然而我们失望了：那天一滴雨都没下，连晚上都十分清朗。

The next morning we would read that it was going to be a "warm, fine to set-fair day; much heat;" and we would dress ourselves in flimsy things, and go out, and, half-an-hour after we had started, it would commence to rain hard, and a bitterly cold wind would spring up, and both would keep on steadily for the whole day, and we would come home with colds and rheumatism all over us, and go to bed.

第二天早晨我们又读天气预报，它说“今日持续晴朗、天气暖和、气温上升”，于是我们换上轻薄衣物出门了。上路半个小时后，大雨哗啦啦地下了起来，刺骨寒风也刮了起来，一天都没有停。等我们赶回家，又是重感冒，又是全身风湿痛，开门就径直奔床上去卧倒了。

The weather is a thing that is beyond me altogether. I never can understand it. The barometer is useless: it is as misleading as the newspaper forecast.

天气真是超出我理解范畴的事物。我实在搞不懂它。晴雨表一点没用，和报纸上的天气预报一样，就爱把人当猴耍。

There was one hanging up in a hotel at Oxford at which I was staying last spring, and, when I got there, it was pointing to "set fair." It was simply pouring with rain outside, and had been all day; and I couldn't quite make matters out. I tapped the barometer, and it jumped up and pointed to "very dry." The Boots stopped as he was passing, and said he expected it meant to-morrow. I fancied that maybe it was thinking of the week before last, but Boots said, No, he thought not.

去年春天我在牛津住的旅店里就挂着这么一只晴雨表。我入住那天看到它的指针指着“持续晴朗”，而外面分明下着倾盆大雨，并且已经持续了一整天，这让我很不解。我轻轻敲了敲它，指针惊得一窜，指向“非常干燥”。一位擦鞋童打旁边经过，停下来发表他的意见：这表啊，其实在预言明天的天气呢。我说，不会吧，这应该是两周前的天气吧。但他说：不，他可不这样认为。

I tapped it again the next morning, and it went up still higher, and the rain came down faster than ever. On Wednesday I went and hit it again, and the pointer went round towards "set fair," "very dry," and "much heat," until it was stopped by the peg, and couldn't go any further. It tried its best, but the instrument was built so that it couldn't prophesy fine weather any harder than it did without breaking it self. It evidently wanted to go on, and prognosticate drought, and water famine, and sunstroke, and simooms, and such things, but the peg prevented it, and it had to be content with pointing to the mere commonplace "very dry."

第二天早上我又敲了敲它，指针窜得更高，而外面雨也下得更急了。星期三我又去敲它一下，指针往“持续晴朗”、“非常干燥”和“高温”的方向继续前进，直到撞到一截小桩上才停下。它已经尽力了，是这个仪器的构造限制了它。看得出它想预言更好的天气，然而代价是要粉身碎骨。看得出它还想继续往前走，去指示旱灾、水荒、烈日、干热风，甚至其他可怕的灾难，但是它被挡了下来，只能指向更为平庸的“非常干燥”

Meanwhile, the rain came down in a steady torrent, and the lower part of the town was under water, owing to the river having over flowed.

与此同时，大雨继续像瀑布般下着，城市较低的地方都被淹没了，因为河水已经泛滥了。

Boots said it was evident that we were going to have a prolonged spell of grand weather SOME TIME, and read out a poem which was printed over the top of the oracle, about "Long foretold, long last; Short notice, soon past."

擦鞋童说肯定将会有一段很长的持续晴好天气，在未来等着我们，他还背诵了《神谕》卷首印着的诗句：“缓来者久驻；急现者易逝。”

The fine weather never came that summer. I expect that machine must have been referring to the following spring.

夏天过完了，好天气却始终没有出现。于是我猜测，那绝顶聪明的仪器其实在预言着来年春天的明媚。

Then there are those new style of barometers, the long straight ones. I never can make head or tail of those. There is one side for 10 a.m. yesterday, and one side for 10 a.m. to-day; but you can't always get there as early as ten, you know. It rises or falls for rain and fine, with much or less wind, and one end is "Nly" and the other "Ely" (what's Ely got to do with it?), and if you tap it, it doesn't tell you anything. And you've got to correct it to sea-level, and reduce it to Fahrenheit, and even then I don't know the answer.

现在新型的晴雨表又长又直，而且根本就不是我能够看懂的。它有两面可以读数，据说一面是昨天上午10点的，一面是今天上午10点的，但我哪里赶得及每天早上10点钟前就赶到这玩意儿面前呢？它的读数会根据天晴下雨以及风强风弱的变化而变化，一头写着“Nly（北方）”，另一头写着“Ely（伊利）”（你说说，这和伊利镇有什么关系呢？）。对这种晴雨表，敲打是没有效果的，你得要好生动脑筋，先换算成海平面标准，再换算成华氏度。可就算这么做了，我还是什么都读不出来。

But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it before hand. The prophet we like is the old man who, on the particularly gloomy looking morning of some day when we particularly want it to be fine, looks round the horizon with a particularly knowing eye, and says: "Oh no, sir, I think it will clear up all right. It will break all right enough, sir."

但是谁又真的愿意预知天气呢？坏天气本身已经够糟糕了，知道得越早痛苦得越早。我们钟爱的先知是这种老人：在一个乌云密布的早晨（我们特别需要那天是个晴天），我们询问一位老人家——您说说，这天会放晴么？他抬起那双充满智慧的眼睛望望天空，然后说：“没问题，先生，我认为待会儿就能晴起来。这点乌云遮不住太阳的，您就等着吧。”

"Ah, he knows", we say, as we wish him good-morning, and start off; "wonderful how these old fellows can tell!"

我们向他道声早安，启程上路。我们对他感激不尽：“看，人家就是知道！对这些老年人，不服都不行！”

And we feel an affection for that man which is not at all lessened by the circumstances of its NOT clearing up, but continuing to rain steadily all day.

尽管后来太阳没有守约，让雨下了一整天，但我们对老人家的好感没有丝毫减少。

"Ah, well," we feel, "he did his best."

“呀，不管怎么说，”我们心想，“人家已经尽力了。”

For the man that prophesies us bad weather, on the contrary, we entertain only bitter and revengeful thoughts.

相反，对胆敢预测坏天气的老头，我们只有满腔仇恨。

"Going to clear up, d'ye think?" we shout, cheerily, as we pass.

我们在经过时会高兴地对他喊：“怎么样，会晴起来吧？”

"Well, no, sir; I'm afraid it's settled down for the day," he replies, shaking his head.

“哎呀，没戏，先生。恐怕这雨得下一整天。”他一个劲儿地摇头。

"Stupid old fool!" we mutter, "what's HE know about it?" And, if his portent proves correct, we come back feeling still more angry against him, and with a vague notion that, somehow or other, he has had something to do with it.

“老傻瓜！”我们低声嘟囔，“他能知道什么？”而如果他的不祥预言被证实，我们只会越想越生气，第六感告诉我们，之所以天没有放晴，是因为他在背后做了手脚。

It was too bright and sunny on this especial morning for George's blood- curdling readings about "Bar. falling," "atmospheric disturbance, passing in an oblique line over Southern Europe," and "pressure increasing," to very much upset us; and so, finding that he could not make us wretched, and was only wasting his time, he sneaked the cigarette that I had carefully rolled up for myself, and went.

那天早晨天空蔚蓝、阳光灿烂，所以当乔治朗读那些让人毛骨悚然的句子（比如“晴雨表读数下降”、“不稳定气流斜穿进入并覆盖欧洲东部”和“气压升高”）的时候，我们都没太往心里去。乔治发现我们并不惊慌，自己纯粹是在浪费时间，也就住了嘴，偷偷拿走我辛辛苦苦为自己卷好的纸烟，拍拍屁股溜了。

Then Harris and I, having finished up the few things left on the table, carted out our luggage on to the doorstep, and waited for a cab.

剩下哈里斯和我清理干净桌上剩下的一些东西，把行李运到门口，等候出租马车。

There seemed a good deal of luggage, when we put it all together. There was the Gladstone and the small hand-bag, and the two hampers, and a large roll of rugs, and some four or five overcoats and macintoshes, and a few umbrellas, and then there was a melon by itself in a bag, because it was too bulky to go in anywhere, and a couple of pounds of grapes in another bag, and a Japanese paper umbrella, and a frying pan, which, being too long to pack, we had wrapped round with brown paper.

把行李聚拢到一块才发现还挺多：一个大旅行手提包、一个小手提包、两个食物篮、一大卷毛毯、四五件外套和雨衣、几把雨伞、甜瓜太大，哪儿也装不下，就自己占了一个包、一个装着几磅葡萄的包袱、一柄日式纸伞、一只煎锅（因为柄太长，只得用牛皮纸包起来）。

It did look a lot, and Harris and I began to feel rather ashamed of it, though why we should be, I can't see. No cab came by, but the street boys did, and got interested in the show, apparently, and stopped.

乍一看还真是挺大一堆，我和哈里斯不由得害臊起来，虽然我也看不出为什么。半天没等来一辆出租马车，倒是等来一群街头顽童。他们对我们的“街头秀”很感兴趣，纷纷停下来观看。

Biggs's boy was the first to come round. Biggs is our greengrocer, and his chief talent lies in securing the services of the most abandoned and unprincipled errand-boys that civilisation has as yet produced. If anything more than usually villainous in the boy-line crops up in our neighbourhood, we know that it is Biggs's latest. I was told that, at the time of the Great Coram Street murder, it was promptly concluded by our street that Biggs's boy (for that period) was at the bottom of it, and had he not been able, in reply to the severe cross-examination to which he was subjected by No. 19, when he called there for orders the morning after the crime (assisted by No. 21, who happened to be on the step at the time), to prove a complete ALIBI, it would have gone hard with him. I didn't know Biggs's boy at that time, but, from what I have seen of them since, I should not have attached much importance to that ALIBI myself.

比格斯家的男孩是我们的第一位观众。比格斯在附近开蔬菜店，他最大的才能是寻找到史上最品德败坏、无法无天的男孩并且聘用他做小工。如果我们邻里出现异常邪恶的新星，不用猜就知道是比格斯家新来的男孩。我听说，在克拉姆街特大谋杀案发生后，我们街的所有人立刻得出结论：一定是比格斯家男孩（当时那位）干的！案发第二天早晨，这小子在给19号街坊送货时被人家仔细地盘问了一遍，（当时21号街坊碰巧也在台阶上，一起盘问他），然而他提供了无瑕疵的不在场证明，若非如此，他可有的好受。那个时候我还不认识什么比格斯家男孩，但后来接触了这么些，我敢肯 定，那条不在场证明绝对有诈。

Biggs's boy, as I have said, came round the corner. He was evidently in a great hurry when he first dawned upon the vision, but, on catching sight of Harris and me, and Montmorency, and the things, he eased up and stared. Harris and I frowned at him. This might have wounded a more sensitive nature, but Biggs's boys are not, as a rule, touchy. He came to a dead stop, a yard from our step, and, leaning up against the railings, and selecting a straw to chew, fixed us with his eye. He evidently meant to see this thing out.

刚才讲到，比格斯家男孩转过街角，向我们的方向走来了。刚出现在视野中时，他明显脚步匆匆，但一看到哈里斯、我、蒙特莫伦西，还有那堆东西，他猛地放慢速度，死盯住我们，连眼珠子都不转了。我和哈里斯对着他皱眉头。要是换个敏感些的人，肯定会被我们的目光戳伤，但是比格斯家的男孩们从来就不是敏感之人。他在距离我们家门口台阶一码的地方完全停下，身子往后一倾靠到围栏上，叼起根稻草，一边咀嚼一边饶有兴致地观看我们。他显然是跟我们耗上了。

In another moment, the grocer's boy passed on the opposite side of the street. Biggs's boy hailed him: "Hi! ground floor o' 42's a-moving.”

不一会儿，杂货铺家的男孩出现在马路对面。比格斯家男孩向他吆喝：“嘿！过来看啊！42号楼1层正搬家呢。”

The grocer's boy came across, and took up a position on the other side of the step. Then the young gentleman from the boot-shop stopped, and joined Biggs's boy; while the empty-can superintendent from "The Blue Posts"1 took up an independent position on the curb.

杂货铺家男孩走过来，占领了台阶另一侧的某个位置。接着鞋铺家的“年轻绅士”也加入进来，而“蓝色邮政”的空罐监测员在马路边单独挑了个地儿坐下。

"They ain't a—going to starve, are they?" said the gentleman from the boot-shop.

“他们可省得饿死，是吧？”鞋店绅士首先发问。

"Ah! you'd want to take a thing or two with YOU," retorted "The Blue Posts", "if you was a—going to cross the Atlantic in a small boat.”

“蓝色邮政”表示反对，“如果想乘小船横渡大西洋，你总得带上一两件东西吧。”

"They ain't a—going to cross the Atlantic," struck in Biggs's boy; "they're a—going to find Stanley2.”

“他们不是去大西洋，”比格斯家男孩突然插话，“他们是去找斯坦利。”

By this time, quite a small crowd had collected, and people were asking each other what was the matter. One party (the young and giddy portion of the crowd) held that it was a wedding, and pointed out Harris as the bridegroom; while the elder and more thoughtful among the populace inclined to the idea that it was a funeral, and that I was probably the corpse's brother.

到这时候，观众已经聚拢了一小群了，相互打听着这到底是场什么热闹。有一派（年轻浮躁的那些人）认为这是场婚礼，指出哈里斯是新郎；另一派人更年长、更有思想，他们倾向于认为这是场葬礼，指出我多半是死者的兄弟。

At last, an empty cab turned up (it is a street where, as a rule, and when they are not wanted, empty cabs pass at the rate of three a minute, and hang about, and get in your way), and packing ourselves and our belongings into it, and shooting out a couple of Montmorency's friends, who had evidently sworn never to forsake him, we drove away amidst the cheers of the crowd, Biggs's boy shying a carrot after us for luck.

最后，空的出租马车终于出现了（在这条街上，当你不需要的时候，基本上每3分钟开过1辆空马车，甚至在附近晃悠，唯恐挡不了你的道），我们把行李塞进马车，自己也挤上去，顺手丢出两只蒙特莫伦西的生死之交（他们肯定曾发誓永生不离不弃），然后在人群的欢呼声中出发了。比格斯家男孩还朝着车屁股砸了一根胡萝卜表示祝福。

We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, with whom he discussed the question, had heard a rumour that it would go from number one. The station-master, on the other hand, was convinced it would start from the local.

我们到达滑铁卢车站时已经11点，急忙打听11点5分离站的那列火车应该从哪里登车。不出所料，没人知道。在滑铁卢车站，从来就没人知道快开的那列车应该从哪里登车，或者已经开出的车将去哪里，或者其他任何相关信息。我们的搬运工认为它会从2号站台离站，他问了另一位搬运工，那人却说他听说那列车会从1号站台出发。但是车站站长一口咬定这车将从本地站台出发。

To put an end to the matter, we went upstairs, and asked the traffic superintendent, and he told us that he had just met a man, who said he had seen it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they rather thought that train was the Southampton express, or else the Windsor loop. But they were sure it wasn't the Kingston train, though why they were sure it wasn't they couldn't say.

为了结束这场争论，我们上楼去问交通监管员，他说刚有人说在3号站台看到过这列车。我们赶到3号站台，但那里的负责人说他们那里停的可能是南安普敦特快，也可能是温莎环线，但肯定不是去金斯顿的车。我们问他们为什么这么肯定，他们却也说不出个所以然。

Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high-level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown3 into his hand, and begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston.

我们的搬运工说，那就一定是高层站台的那列，他认识那车。所以我们去高层站台，正好遇到火车司机，问他是否去金斯顿。他说他当然也说不准，但可以权当作是吧。反正，如果他开的这列不是11点5分去金斯顿的车，就是9点32分去弗吉尼亚沃特的，再不然就是10点去怀特岛或至少那个方向的，反正开到那儿就知道是什么地方了。我们塞了半克朗硬币到他手里，请他务必确定这车就是11点5分去金斯顿的。

"Nobody will ever know, on this line," we said, "what you are, or where you're going. You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston."

“在这条线上，没有一个人知道你这列是什么车，或者要去哪儿。你知道路的吧，往金斯顿开，放心吧，保准神不知鬼不觉。”

"Well, I don't know, gents," replied the noble fellow, "but I suppose SOME train's got to go to Kingston; and I'll do it. Gimme the half-crown.”

“嗯，我也不太确定，先生们，”这位高尚的朋友回答，“但我是这么想的：既然必须得有一列车去金斯顿，我不去谁去呢？这半克郎我就收下了。”

Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway.

就这样，我们沿着伦敦暨西南铁路到了金斯顿。

We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it.

后来才知道，我们坐上的那列车是邮政专列，人们在滑铁卢车站花了好几个小时寻找它，谁也不知道它发生了什么事。

Our boat was waiting for us at Kingston just below bridge, and to it we wended our way, and round it we stored our luggage, and into it we stepped.

我们的船早已备好，泊在金斯顿的一座桥下。我们赶忙奔过去，先把这小山般的行李堆上去，然后才踏上甲板。

"Are you all right, sir?" said the man. "Right it is," we answered; and with Harris at the sculls and I at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow, out we shot on to the waters which, for a fortnight, were to be our home.

船行的人问：“先生们，你们准备好了吗？”“一切就绪！”我们回答。哈里斯握着船桨，我扯着舵绳，蒙特莫伦西闷闷不乐、疑虑重重地趴在船头——就这样，我们驶向了我们未来两周的家：泰晤士河。

1 这里指的是拾垃圾者，是一种诙谐的说法。2 斯坦利，非洲大陆探险家、冒险家和新闻记者。1871年，历时8个月后，斯坦利在中非找到了5年不通音讯的苏格兰冒险家利文斯顿，并与其一同在中非探险。3 相当于两个半先令。

CHAPTER VI.

第六章

KINGSTON.—INSTRUCTIVE REMARKS ON EARLYENGLISH HISTORY.—INSTRUCTIVE OBSERVATIONS ONCARVED OAK AND LIFE IN GENERAL.—SAD CASE OFSTIVVINGS, JUNIOR.—MUSINGS ON ANTIQUITY.—IFORGET THAT I AM STEERING.—INTERESTING RESULT.—HAMPTON COURT MAZE.—HARRIS AS A GUIDE.

金斯顿——对英国早期历史的深刻评论——雕花橡木引发的人生思考——可怜的小斯蒂文斯——关于古董的思考——我忘记了正在掌舵——有趣的结果——汉普顿宫的迷宫——哈里斯做领路人的经历

It was a glorious morning, late spring or early summer, as you care to take it, when the dainty sheen of grass and leaf is blushing to a deeper green; and the year seems like a fair young maid, trembling with strange, wakening pulses on the brink of womanhood.

这天早晨非常美好。时值春末夏初，草叶和树叶的柔嫩光泽已渗出更深的绿意。如果把一年比作女人的一生，那现在正是她从美丽少女变为成熟女人的时刻，有种莫名的东西在苏醒，连空气都随着她激动的脉搏在微微颤动。

The quaint back streets of Kingston, where they came down to the water's edge, looked quite picturesque in the f lashing sunlight, the glinting river with its drifting barges, the wooded towpath, the trim-kept villas on the other side, Harris, in a red and orange blazer, grunting away at the sculls, the distant glimpses of the grey old palace of the Tudors, all made a sunny picture, so bright but calm, so full of life, and yet so peaceful, that, early in the day though it was, I felt myself being dreamily lulled off into a musing fit.

金斯顿伸到河边的几条小巷古雅别致，在灿烂的阳光中像画儿一样好看；河面波光粼粼，漂着几只驳船；纤道上绿荫掩映；纤道对岸，别墅群整齐精神；哈里斯穿着红黄相间的运动衫，吭哧吭哧地划船；远处隐隐浮现出都铎王朝宫殿旧址的灰色宫墙——这一切构成阳光灿烂的美丽画面，明亮却又恬静，充满活力却又与世无争。尽管还是上午，这梦一般的美景将我陶醉得迷迷糊糊，神思渐渐游离陷入冥想。

I mused on Kingston, or "Kyningestun," as it was once called in the days when Saxon "kinges" were crowned there. Great Caesar crossed the river there, and the Roman legions camped upon its sloping uplands. Caesar, like, in later years, Elizabeth, seems to have stopped everywhere: only he was more respectable than good Queen Bess; he didn't put up at the public-houses.

我开始想金斯顿这个名字，当撒克逊人的国王在此加冕的时代，这里曾被叫做“英格斯顿”。伟大的恺撒王在此横渡泰晤士河；罗马军队曾在它高高的山坡上露营。恺撒和后来的伊丽莎白女王一样，足迹几乎遍布天涯海角，唯一的不同之处在于他比可爱的女王更自重——他不会在乡间小店过夜。

She was nuts on public-houses, was England's Virgin Queen. There's scarcely a pub. of any attractions within ten miles of London that she does not seem to have looked in at, or stopped at, or slept at, some time or other. I wonder now, supposing Harris, say, turned over a new leaf, and became a great and good man, and got to be Prime Minister, and died, if they would put up signs over the public-houses that he had patronised: "Harris had a glass of bitter in this house;" "Harris had two of Scotch cold here in the summer of '88;" “Harris was chucked from here in December, 1886.”

这位英格兰的王后，终身未嫁，却对小酒店有着狂热的喜爱。以伦敦为中心、以10英里为半径的范围内，几乎没有哪家小酒店（稍微有点吸引力的）能少得了她的踪迹。总会有那么个时候，她会往里探个脑袋、顺便坐一小会儿甚至小住一宿。我不由得联想到哈里斯，如果他突然改过自新，奋发图强，成了个伟大的人物，比如说首相什么的，那么在他死后，人们会不会在他爱去的酒吧门口贴上“哈里斯曾在本店喝过一杯苦啤酒”或者“1888年夏哈里斯曾在此享用两杯冰镇苏格兰威士忌”或者“1886年12月哈里斯被本店老板轰赶出去”之类的标语呢？

No, there would be too many of them! It would be the houses that he had never entered that would become famous. "Only house in South London that Harris never had a drink in!" The people would flock to it to see what could have been the matter with it.

不，那样就太泛滥了！真正会出名的是那些哈里斯从来没有踏足的酒店。“南部伦敦唯一一家哈里斯从未光顾的酒店！”人们会成群结队地前来探个究竟。

How poor weak-minded King Edwy must have hated Kyningestun! The coronation feast had been too much for him. Maybe boar's head stuffed with sugar-plums did not agree with him (it wouldn't with me, I know), and he had had enough of sack and mead; so he slipped from the noisy revel to steal a quiet moonlight hour with his beloved Elgiva.

懦弱的英王爱德华想必恨透了金斯顿。那晚的加冕盛宴肯定让他感到难以消受。可能是填满蜜糖果脯的猪头不合他的肠胃（反正我是不爱吃），也可能怪他喝了太多葡萄酒和蜂蜜酒。总之他悄悄离开狂欢的喧闹人群，想要与亲爱的艾尔吉娃在月下共度宁谧的二人时光。

Perhaps, from the casement, standing hand-in-hand, they were watching the calm moonlight on the river, while from the distant halls the boisterous revelry floated in broken bursts of faint-heard din and tumult.

据我猜测，当时二人依偎在窗边，执手共赏平镜般的河面上月亮的倒影，从遥远的宴会大厅传出杯盘相撞的叮当声和高谈阔论的喧哗声，声音在风中波动，所以时近时远、若有若无。

Then brutal Odo and St. Dunstan force their rude way into the quiet room, and hurl coarse insults at the sweet-faced Queen, and drag poor Edwy back to the loud clam our of the drunken brawl.

两位粗暴的访客——奥多和圣邓斯坦——不请自来，猛地撞进安静的小屋，对年轻甜美的皇后恶语侮辱，将可怜的爱德华拉回醉酒之徒们的争吵中去了。

Years later, to the crash of battle-music, Saxon kings and Saxon revelry were buried side by side, and Kingston's greatness passed away for a time, to rise once more when Hampton Court became the palace of the Tudors and the Stuarts, and the royal barges strained at their moorings on the river's bank, and bright-cloaked gallants swaggered down the water-steps to cry: "What Ferry, ho! Gadzooks, gramercy."

多少年后，历经战火，撒克逊的国王和撒克逊的狂欢酒会并排着进入坟墓。金斯顿一度光华黯淡，当汉普顿宫成为都铎王朝和斯图亚特王朝的王宫时，才再次迎来辉煌。王室成员的驳船停靠在河边，穿着艳丽斗篷的时髦男士们大摇大摆地拾阶而下，大声喊着：“这么多渡船！嗬！我的天，谢谢！”

Many of the old houses, round about, speak very plainly of those days when Kingston was a royal borough, and nobles and courtiers lived there, near their King, and the long road to the palace gates was gay all day with clanking steel and prancing palfreys, and rustling silks and velvets, and fair faces. The large and spacious houses, with their oriel, latticed windows, their huge fireplaces, and their gabled roofs, breathe of the days of hose and doublet, of pearl-embroidered stomachers, and complicated oaths. They were upraised in the days "when men knew how to build." The hard red bricks have only grown more firmly set with time, and their oak stairs do not creak and grunt when you try to go down them quietly.

从附近的很多古老房屋可以明显看出当时金斯顿作为王室居住的自治区，相当繁华。贵族和朝丞们也居住于此，伴随他们的君王。通往王宫正门的大路上终日熙来攘往，响着剑的哐当声和小马驹轻快的马蹄声，丝绸和天鹅绒摩擦得沙沙作响，美丽的面容交相辉映。高大宽敞的房屋有凸出壁外的格子窗、巨大的壁炉和人字屋顶，都让人不禁回想起那属于长统袜、紧身上衣、镶嵌着珍珠的三角胸衣和复杂的盟誓的年代。修建这些房屋的时候，“人们尚还懂得建筑的艺术”。那些红色硬砖随着时间推移只会变得越来越牢固，那些橡木楼梯也不会在你踮着脚尖下楼时发出吱吱呀呀的呻吟。

Speaking of oak staircases reminds me that there is a magnificent carved oak staircase in one of the houses in Kingston. It is a shop now, in the market-place, but it was evidently once the mansion of some great personage. A friend of mine, who lives at Kingston, went in thereto buy a hat one day, and, in a thoughtless moment, put his hand in his pocket and paid for it then and there.

谈到橡木楼梯，我就想起金斯顿一户人家的一座相当高级的雕花橡木楼梯。现在它已经成了集市街上的店铺，但可以肯定曾是某位名流的宅邸。某天，我一位家住金斯顿的友人去那里买帽子，一不留神，居然当场把手伸进口袋掏出钱付了款。

The shopman (he knows my friend) was naturally a little staggered at first; but, quickly recovering himself, and feeling that something ought to be done to encourage this sort of thing, asked our hero if he would like to see some fine old carved oak. My friend said he would, and the shopman, thereupon, took him through the shop, and up the staircase of the house. The balusters were a superb piece of workmanship, and the wall all the way up was oak-panelled, with carving that would have done credit to a palace.

店主（他和我朋友是熟人）一开始当然有点吃惊，但很快镇定下来，觉得应该做点什么来鼓励这种行为，于是问我朋友想不想看点漂亮的雕花橡木。我朋友说倒也不错，于是店主领着他走进店铺深处，那里有一座橡木楼梯。楼梯的护栏雕工精美，两侧贴的墙板竟也全是雕花橡木，美轮美奂，气派非凡，用来装饰皇宫也不为过。

From the stairs, they went into the drawing-room, which was a large, bright room, decorated with a somewhat startling though cheerful paper of a blue ground. There was nothing, however, remarkable about the apartment, and my friend wondered why he had been brought there. The proprietor went up to the paper, and tapped it. It gave forth a wooden sound.

他们爬上楼梯，来到客厅。房间宽敞明亮，四面贴着让人愉悦但稍嫌突兀的蓝底墙纸。这间房没有什么特殊之处，我朋友不禁疑惑店主为什么要带他进来。店主走到墙纸面前，轻轻敲了敲，听上去像是木板。

"Oak," he explained. "All carved oak, right up to the ceiling, just the same as you saw on the staircase."

“这可是橡木，”他解释说，“清一色的雕花橡木，下至地板，上至天花板，就和你上楼时看到的那些一样。”

"But, great Caesar! man," expostulated my friend; "you don't mean to say you have covered over carved oak with blue wall-paper?”

“我的天啊！我说，兄弟，”我朋友不由得要抗议，“如果 我没有听错的话，你说你用蓝色墙纸把雕花橡木给盖起来了？”

"Yes," was the reply: "it was expensive work. Had to match-board it all over first, of course. But the room looks cheerful now. It was awful gloomy before.”

“没错，”他回答说，“着实花了我不少钱。因为首先得 用同样大小的平滑木板把凹凸的雕花木板遮盖起来。但也 算值了，你看，现在房间色彩多明快啊。以前别提多沉闷了。”

I can't say I altogether blame the man (which is doubtless a great relief to his mind). From his point of view, which would be that of the average house holder, desiring to take life as lightly as possible, and not that of the old-curiosity-shop maniac, there is reason on his side. Carved oak is very pleasant to look at, and to have a little of, but it is no doubt somewhat depressing to live in, for those whose fancy does not lie that way. It would be like living in a church.

我没法说完全是店主本人的错（他要是知道肯定得长舒一口气）。先不考虑古董收集狂们的观点，单纯从他的角度（他不过是一个普通的房主，只希望高高兴兴地过小日子）来看，其实也挺有道理的。雕花橡木确实让人赏心悦目，但只适合偶尔欣赏，真要天天被它们围住，若非嗜其如命的人，免不了变得郁郁寡欢，因为感觉就好像住在教堂里一样。

No, what was sad in his case was that he, who didn't care for carved oak, should have his drawing-room panelled with it, while people who do care for it have to pay enormous prices to get it. It seems to be the rule of this world. Each person has what he doesn't want, and other people have what he does want.

不，这还不是我想说的重点。其实我想说，整件事中最悲哀的一点，在于他这样一位不懂得欣赏的人，却住在铺满雕花橡木的客厅里；而喜爱雕花橡木的人，又必须要花大价钱去四处求购。这似乎就是这个世界的规则：每个人得到的都是他不想要的，而他想要的总是被分配给其他人。

Married men have wives, and don't seem to want them; and young single fellows cry out that they can't get them. Poor people who can hardly keep themselves have eight hearty children. Rich old couples, with no one to leave their money to, die childless.

已婚男人有了老婆不珍惜；年轻的单身汉成天抱怨娶不到老婆。自己都养不活的穷人，得要喂养8个好胃口的孩子；腰缠万贯的老夫妇却膝下无子女，死后连个继承人都没有。

Then there are girls with lovers. The girls that have lovers never want them. They say they would rather be without them, that they bother them, and why don't they go and make love to Miss Smith and Miss Brown, who are plain and elderly, and haven't got any lovers? They themselves don't want lovers. They never mean to marry.

有情人的女孩们更是如此。她们根本就不稀罕情人。她们说“没有他们就好了”、“他们太烦了”或者“他们怎么不去追求史密斯小姐或布朗小姐呢？她们相貌平平，年纪也不小了，不正缺人爱么？”而她们自己不需要情人。她们永远不打算结婚。

It does not do to dwell on these things; it makes one so sad.

这种事不能多想，一想就情绪低沉。

There was a boy at our school, we used to call him Sandford and Merton. His real name was Stivvings. He was the most extraordinary lad I ever came across. I believe he really liked study. He used to get into awful rows for sitting up in bed and reading Greek; and as for French irregular verbs there was simply no keeping him away from them. He was full of weird and unnatural notions about being a credit to his parents and an honour to the school; and he yearned to winprizes, and grow up and be a clever man, and had all those sorts of weak-minded ideas. I never knew such a strange creature, yet harmless, mind you, as the babe unborn.

以前我们学校有这么个男孩，大家习惯叫他“桑福德与默顿”，尽管他的真名叫史蒂文斯。他是我认识的最特别的孩子。我相信他真心热爱学习。他常常为了坐在床上大声朗读希腊语而与同寝室的人大吵大闹，读起法语不规则动词表来简直没完没了。他脑子里满是为父母争光、为学校添彩这类不自然的古怪观念，还渴望赢得奖赏，长大后要做个聪明的人，反正这类软弱想法多得惊人。我从来没有遇到过这样奇怪的人，但是请注意，他又是那么温顺无害，就像还没出生的婴儿。

Well, that boy used to get ill about twice a week, so that he couldn't go to school. There never was such a boy to get ill as that Sandford and Merton. If there was any known disease going within ten miles of him, he had it, and had it badly. He would take bronchitis in the dog-days, and have hay-fever at Christmas. After a six weeks' period of drought, he would be stricken down with rheumatic fever; and he would go out in a November fog and come home with a sunstroke.

那孩子一星期总会病上两次，可以不用去学校。从来没有一个男孩能有史蒂文斯这么擅长生病。在他周围10英里内有谁生了什么病，那他一定会被传染，而且病得还不轻。他能在三伏天患上支气管炎、在圣诞节患上花粉症、在旱灾肆虐了6个星期后患上风湿热、在11月的大雾天气里出门后就中暑了。

They put him under laughing-gas one year, poor lad, and drew all his teeth, and gave him a false set, because he suffered so terribly with toothache; and then it turned to neuralgia and ear-ache. He was never without a cold, except once for nine weeks while he had scarlet fever; and he always had chilblains. During the great cholera scare of 1871, our neighbourhood was singularly free from it. There was only one reputed case in the whole parish: that case was young Stivvings.

有一年，他们用笑气麻醉了这个可怜的小子，拔掉他所有的牙，安上全套的假牙，因为他的牙痛实在太厉害。哪知道牙痛就转为神经痛，进而发展成耳膜痛。他每时每刻都患感冒，但是也有例外，那就是每9个星期1次患猩红热的那几天。他无论春夏秋冬都长着冻疮。1871年霍乱大恐慌那阵子，我们是唯一幸免的教区，全区就一个病例（可出名了）：我们的小史蒂文斯。

He had to stop in bed when he was ill, and eat chicken and custards and hot-house grapes; and he would lie there and sob, because they wouldn't let him do Latin exercises, and took his German grammar away from him.

他生病了只能卧床，吃鸡肉、奶油冻和温室葡萄，他会躺在那里抽泣，因为他们禁止他做拉丁习题，并且拿走了他的德语语法书。

And we other boys, who would have sacrificed ten terms of our school life for the sake of being ill for a day, and had no desire whatever to give our parents any excuse for being stuck-up about us, couldn't catch so much as a stiff neck. We fooled about in draughts, and it did us good, and freshened us up; and we took things to make us sick, and they made us fat, and gave us an appetite. Nothing we could think of seemed to make us ill until the holidays began. Then, on the breaking-up day, we caught colds, and whooping cough, and all kinds of disorders, which lasted till the term recommenced; when, in spite of everything we could manoeuvre to the contrary, we would get suddenly well again, and be better than ever.

包括我在内的其他男孩子，都巴不得用10个学期的学校生活换取1天的病，我们可不愿意让父母有任何借口因为我们而出风头，然而，我们连落枕扭伤脖子这种小病都得不了。我们在大风中瞎转悠，却被吹得更健康更清醒；我们吃让我们生病的东西，但越吃越胖，胃口也越吃越好。放假之前，我们绞尽脑汁也没法生病。但放假当天，我们立刻得上感冒、咳喘病以及五花八门的失调症，新学期不开始病就好不了。新学期一开始，一切都与我们所作的努力相反，我们突然痊愈了，一个个变得比生病前还生龙活虎。

Such is life; and we are but as grass that is cut down, and put into the oven and baked.

这就是人生：人如野草，命运如刀！我们只能等着被割下来、等着被放到烤箱里去、等着被烤。

To go back to the carved-oak question, they must have had very fair notions of the artistic and the beautiful, our great-great-grandfathers. Why, all our art treasures of to-day are only the dug-up common places of three or four hundred years ago. I wonder if there is real intrinsic beauty in the old soup-plates, beer-mugs, and candle-snuffers that we prize so now, or if it is only the halo of age glowing around them that gives them their charms in our eyes. The "old blue" that we hang about our walls as ornaments were the common every-day household utensils of a few centuries ago; and the pink shepherds and the yellow shepherdesses that we hand round now for all our friends to gush over, and pretend they understand, were the unvalued mantel-ornaments that the mother of the eighteenth century would have given the baby to suck when he cried.

下面继续谈论关于雕花橡木的话题。我们的祖先们一定很有艺术眼光和审美水平。因为你看吧，现在我们珍视的艺术宝藏都是从土里挖出来的，制造于三四百年前，在其所属的年代不过是稀松平常的物件。我怀疑这些我们如此珍视的汤盘、啤酒杯、烛花剪究竟有没有真正的内在美，也许只是年月的光环在它们身上洒下的光辉增添了它们的魅力，欺骗了我们的眼睛。我们挂在墙上作装饰的“老蓝”不过是几个世纪前家家都有的日常器皿；现在我们递给所有朋友以供他们充行家发表长篇评价的粉红色牧羊人和黄色牧羊女瓷器，在18世纪时不过是不值钱的壁炉装饰品，如果小孩哭喊，母亲会毫不犹豫地递给他吮 着玩。

Will it be the same in the future? Will the prized treasures of to-day always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our will ow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house?

将来也会是这样吗？世间追捧的珍宝是否永远是古代的便宜货？到公元两千零几年的时候，我们现在这些柳叶式样的餐盘会不会成排摆在有钱人家的壁炉架上？看我们的白色茶杯，杯沿滚金，内壁烫着漂亮的金色花朵图案（花的品种不详），仆人莎拉.简一不留神就会打碎几个，将来这些碎片会不会被小心翼翼地拼贴完整，摆在壁架上，由女主人亲自拂拭？

That china dog that ornaments the bedroom of my furnished lodgings. It is a white dog. Its eyes blue. Its nose is a delicate red, with spots. Its head is painfully erect, its expression is amiability carried to verge of imbecility. I do not admire it myself. Considered as a work of art, I may say it irritates me. Thoughtless friends jeer at it, and even my landlady herself has no admiration for it, and excuses its presence by the circumstance that her aunt gave it to her.

在我租住的卧室里（带家具出租），有一只瓷狗。它全身白色，眼睛蓝色，鼻子粉红带斑点，脖子僵直，表情和蔼得近乎痴呆。对它，我欣赏不来。如果把它称作艺术品，我有点接受不了。没心没肺的朋友们会嘲笑它，连房东太太本人都对它没好感，其存在之所以被容忍，只因为是她姨妈送的礼物。

But in 200 years' time it is more than probable that that dog will be dug up from somewhere or other, minus its legs, and with its tail broken, and will be sold for old china, and put in a glass cabinet. And people will pass it round, and admire it. They will be struck by the wonderful depth of the colour on the nose, and speculate as to how beautiful the bit of the tail that is lost no doubt was.

但是，在两百年后，那只瓷狗很有可能会从某处出土，重见天日，也许缺了几条腿、断了尾巴，照样被当作古瓷器卖到古董店，尊奉在玻璃盒子里。人们把它用双手捧着传看，赞叹不已。他们会注意到小狗鼻头的颜色很有深度和层次，还会纷纷猜测失踪的尾巴尖无疑曾是那么地美。

We, in this age, do not see the beauty of that dog. We are too familiar with it. It is like the sunset and the stars: we are not awed by their loveliness because they are common to our eyes. So it is with that china dog. In 2288 people will gush over it. The making of such dog swill have become a lost art. Our descendants will wonder how we did it, and say how clever we were. We shall be referred to lovingly as "those grand old artists that flourished in the nineteenth century, and produced those china dogs."

在这个世纪的我们，还没水平欣赏那只瓷狗的美。我们对它太熟悉了。打个比方，日落和星辰很美，我们不为所动，那是因为每天都会看到。关于那只瓷狗也是同理。到2288年，人们会滔滔不绝地赞美它。届时瓷狗的制作工艺已是失传的艺术。我们的后代会惊叹我们居然能制造出这样的瓷狗，多么有智慧啊。我们将被充满敬意地称为“那些活跃于19世纪的伟大艺术家，创造了这些瓷狗”。

The "sampler" that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as "tapestry of the Victorian era," and be almost priceless. The blue and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the "Presents from Ramsgate", and "Souvenirs of Margate",1 that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.

现在普通女孩在学校缝纫课上的练习作业，在未来的世界，将被称为“维多利亚女王时代的织锦”并变得价值连城。现在路边小旅馆那些蓝白相间的杯子，在未来的世界，就算已经支离破碎残缺不全，也会被古董贩四处搜求，然后用同等重量的黄金的价格卖给有钱人作葡萄酒杯。日本游客将买断所有逃过岁月毁灭之手的“拉姆斯盖特的小礼物”和“马尔盖特的旅游纪念品”，将其当作英国古董带回日本江户。

At this point Harris threw away the sculls, got up and left his seat, and sat on his back, and stuck his legs in the air. Montmorency howled, and turned a somersault, and the top hamper jumped up, and all the things came out.

突然，哈里斯扔掉桨，站起身，离开座位，找个地方半躺下来，把二郎腿跷得老高。蒙特莫伦西汪汪乱叫，腾空翻了个筋斗，震得放在上层的食物篮一跳，里面的东西全掉了下来。

I was somewhat surprised, but I did not lose my temper. I said, pleasantly enough:

我有点吃惊，但按捺住了火气，相当温和地问：

"Hulloa! what's that for?"

“喂！怎么回事？”

"What's that for? Why—”

“怎么回事？怎——”

No, on second thoughts, I will not repeat what Harris said. I may have been to blame, I admit it; but nothing excuses violence of language and coarseness of expression, especially in a man who has been carefully brought up, as I know Harris has been. I was thinking of other things, and forgot, as any one might easily understand, that I was steering, and the consequence was that we had got mixed up a good deal with the tow-path. It was difficult to say, for the moment, which was us and which was the Middlesex bank of the river; but we found out after awhile, and separated ourselves.

算了，想一想，我这里就不复述哈里斯的话了。我承认，后来知道自己确实做错了。但是，语言暴力和表达粗俗是不可原谅的，对于哈里斯这样有良好教养的人出现这种情况更不可原谅。事情是这样的：我的神思一会儿穿越到古代，一会儿穿越到未来，不由得忘记了（很容易理解吧）自己在掌舵，于是让我们的船和纤道亲密接触了。一时间，我们竟分不清哪一部分是我们的船，哪一部分属于米德尔塞克斯郡的河岸。但过了一阵终于划清两者的界线，与河岸说了拜拜。

Harris, however, said he had done enough for a bit, and proposed that I should take a turn; so, as we were in, I got out and took the towline, and ran the boat on past Hampton Court. What a dear old wall that is that runs along by the river there! I never pass it without feeling better for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; what a charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and the moss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this pot, to see what is going on upon the busy river, and the sober old ivy clustering a little farther down! There are fifty shades and tints and hues in every ten yards of that old wall. If I could only draw, and knew how to paint, I could make a lovely sketch of that old wall, I'm sure. I've often thought I should like to live at Hampton Court. It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about.

然而，哈里斯说他划够了，要求换岗。正好我们靠在岸边，我就拽着缆绳上岸去，拖着船经过了汉普顿王宫。我爱那段沿河绵延的老墙！每次看到它，我的心情就会变得很好。它真是座成熟、明快、甜美的老墙！青苔攀在墙面，苔藓伏在墙角，一条嫩绿的枝丫羞怯地从墙头探出脑袋张望河上的繁忙景象，下面盘着冷静的老长春藤——这幅画面多么动人啊！老墙上每10码就有约50块光影斑斓的色块。如果我善于素描和水彩，绝对要为它画一幅漂亮的速写。我常常想，如果我住在汉普顿王宫，那该多好啊！它看上去是那么地平和静谧，附近也是那么地适合闲游漫步（当然，散步必须在清晨，那时参观者还未蜂拥而至）。

But, there, I don't suppose I should really care for it when it came to actual practice. It would be so ghastly dull and depressing in the evening, when your lamp cast uncanny shadows on the panelled walls, and the echo of distant feet rang through the cold stone corridors, and now drew nearer, and now died away, and all was death-like silence, save the beating of one's own heart.

其实我也知道，要真住那儿，我可吃不消。夜晚来临，它会变得极其阴森恐怖，你的灯笼在木板墙上投下鬼魅般的影子，远处的脚步声在冷冰冰的石头走廊里回响，“咚、咚、咚”，越来越近了，终于又慢慢远去了，留下死一般的寂静和你砰砰的心跳。

We are creatures of the sun, we men and women. We love light and life. That is why we crowd into the towns and cities, and the country grows more and more deserted every year. In the sunlight—in the daytime, when Nature is alive and busy all around us, we like the open hill-side sand the deep woods well enough: but in the night, when our Mother Earth has gone to sleep, and left us waking, oh! the world seems so lone some, and we get frightened, like children in a silent house. Then we sit and sob, and long for the gas-lit streets, and the sound of human voices, and the answering throb of human life. We feel so helpless and so little in the great stillness, when the dark trees rustle in the night wind. There are so many ghosts about, and their silent sighs make us feel so sad. Let us gather together in the great cities, and light huge bonfires of a million gas-jets, and shout and sing together, and feel brave.

人类无论男女老幼，都是太阳的孩子，我们热爱光明，热爱生命。所以我们会涌向集镇和城市，让乡村一年更比一年荒芜。在白天，包围着我们的大自然生机勃勃，热闹繁忙，空旷的山坡和幽深的森林在我们眼里是那么地可爱。可一旦夜幕降临，大地母亲进入梦乡，留我们醒着，噢！夜的世界悲惨凄清，我们恐惧得一如寂静空屋里的孩童。我们坐着抽泣起来，渴望着有明亮煤油灯照耀的街道，渴望听到人声，听到人类生活的脉搏声。然而夜风吹过，只听得树木的黑影在沙沙作响，更觉四面是无边无际的静默，我们感到多么地无助和渺小。周围有数不清的鬼魂在静静地叹息，让我们感到深深的哀伤。所以让我们聚在大城市里吧，用100万盏煤气灯做成巨大的篝火，绕着它欢呼和歌唱，那么勇气会重新回到我们心中。

Harris asked me if I'd ever been in the maze at Hampton Court. He said he went in once to show somebody else the way. He had studied it up in a map, and it was so simple that it seemed foolish—hardly worth the two pence charged for admission. Harris said he thought that map must have been got up as a practical joke, because it wasn't a bit like the real thing, and only misleading. It was a country cousin that Harris took in. He said: "We'll just go in here, so that you can say you've been, but it's very simple. It's absurd to call it a maze. You keep on taking the first turning to the right. We'll just walk round for ten minutes, and then go and get some lunch."

哈里斯问我是否去过汉普顿王宫的迷宫，他曾经进去给人带路。他在地图上研究后，觉得这迷宫简单到了愚蠢的程度，根本不值那两便士的门票。后来据他说，那张迷宫地图一定是恶作剧，因为与实际布局完全不符，纯粹误导人。哈里斯之所以进去，是为了陪他的乡下表弟。他说：“我们进去一下，这样以后你可以说你去过那。但它太简单了，这样的地方都能叫迷宫也太荒唐了。你只用记住一条：转弯处通通往右拐。我们现在进去，10分钟后就能出来，到时候去找地方吃午饭。”

They met some people soon after they had got inside, who said they had been there for three-quarters of an hour, and had had about enough of it. Harris told them they could follow him, if they liked; he was just going in, and then should turn round and come out again. They said it was very kind of him, and fell behind, and followed.

进去不久，他们就遇到别的一些人，据说已经在迷宫里困了45分钟，基本上走不动了。哈里斯告诉他们，如果愿意，可以跟他走，他正要往里走，并且转几个弯就要出去。于是他们称赞哈里斯是个大好人，跟在了他后面。

They picked up various other people who wanted to get it over, as they went along, until they had absorbed all the persons in the maze. People who had given up all hopes of ever getting either in or out, or of ever seeing their home and friends again, plucked up courage at the sight of Harris and his party, and joined the procession, blessing him. Harris said he should judge there must have been twenty people, following him, in all; and one woman with a baby, who had been there all the morning, insisted on taking his arm, for fear of losing him.

他们一路上又遇到形形色色的人，都希望跟着哈里斯“逃出生天”，后来迷宫里所有的人都加入了他们的队伍。这些人原本已经放弃了走到出口或回到入口的所有幻想，放弃了再次见家人和朋友的全部希望，但看到哈里斯的队伍时，他们重新鼓起了勇气，一边跟着他前进，一边为他祈福。哈里斯说据他目测，当时跟在身后的不下20人，其中一位抱着小孩的妇女（她在迷宫里已经耗了整整一个上午），坚持要挽着哈里斯的手臂，生怕让他给走丢了。

Harris kept on turning to the right, but it seemed a long way, and his cousin said he supposed it was a very big maze.

哈里斯一见路口就往右转，却总也走不到出口。他的表弟说，这个迷宫可能特别大吧。

"Oh, one of the largest in Europe," said Harris.

“嗯，欧洲最大的迷宫之一。”哈里斯说。

"Yes, it must be," replied the cousin, "because we've walked a good two miles already."

“对，肯定是，”表弟回答，“因为我们已经走了足足两英里了。”

Harris began to think it rather strange himself, but he held on until, at last, they passed the half of a penny bun on the ground that Harris's cousin swore he had noticed there seven minutes ago. Harris said: "Oh, impossible!" but the woman with the baby said, "Not at all," as she herself had taken it from the child, and thrown it down there, just before she met Harris. She also added that she wished she never had met Harris, and expressed an opinion that he was an impostor. That made Harris mad, and he produced his map, and explained his theory.

哈里斯开始感到不对劲，但他继续前进、继续右转、继续前进，直到他们看到地上躺着个半便士的小面包，哈里斯的表弟发誓说7分钟以前见过它。哈里斯说：“噢！绝对不可能！”但是抱着孩子的妇女表示这事“千真万确”，因为这是她亲自从孩子手里抓过来扔到路边的，当时还没有遇到哈里斯呢。她接着说，希望从来就不曾遇到过哈里斯，并称他是骗子。这让哈里斯很生气，他拿出地图，将他的理论解释给大家听。

"The map may be all right enough," said one of the party, "if you know whereabouts in it we are now."

“有地图当然很好，”一位游客说，“但你得先知道我们现在在哪里。”

Harris didn't know, and suggested that the best thing to do would be to go back to the entrance, and begin again. For the beginning again part of it there was not much enthusiasm; but with regard to the advisability of going back to the entrance there was complete unanimity, and so they turned, and trailed after Harris again, in the opposite direction. About ten minutes more passed, and then they found themselves in the centre.

哈里斯答不上来。他说现在最好的办法是回到入口，从头开始。“从头开始”没有激起群众的热情，但是“回到入口”的提议得到了一致的拥护，所以他们转过身来，仍由哈里斯带领着，往相反的方向进军。大概又过了十多分钟，他们发现来到了迷宫正中。

Harris thought at first of pretending that that was what he had been aiming at; but the crowd looked dangerous, and he decided to treat it as an accident.

哈里斯原打算假装计划就是要来到迷宫正中，但是眼看群情激愤，只好承认这是个意外。

Anyhow, they had got something to start from then. They did know where they were, and the map was once more consulted, and the thing seemed simpler than ever, and off they started for the third time.

无论如何，至少现在他们有了起点。既然明确了方位，地图就被摸出来详细研究，霎时柳暗花明，他们第3次启程。

And three minutes later they were back in the centre again.

3分钟后，这群迷途的羔羊再次回到迷宫正中。

After that, they simply couldn't get anywhere else. Whatever way they turned brought them back to the middle. It became so regular at length, that some of the people stopped there, and waited for the others to take a walk round, and come back to them. Harris drew out his map again, after a while, but the sight of it only infuriated the mob, and they told him to go and curl his hair with it. Harris said that he couldn't help feeling that, to a certain extent, he had become unpopular.

此后，他们简直哪里也去不了。无论选择哪个方向，总会回到迷宫正中。最后有一部分人干脆停在原地休息，等其他人去转一圈后回来相聚。过了一阵，哈里斯又拿出地图，但是它的出现点燃了民愤，大伙索性叫哈里斯用它来卷头发算了。哈里斯说他不由得感到，在一定程度上，自己成为了不受欢迎的人物。

They all got crazy at last, and sang out for the keeper, and the man came and climbed up the ladder outside, and shouted out directions to them. But all their heads were, by this time, in such a confused whirl that they were incapable of grasping anything, and so the man told them to stop where they were, and he would come to them. They huddled together, and waited; and he climbed down, and came in.

最后大家都崩溃了，齐声大叫管理员。管理员闻声而现，爬上迷宫外的梯子，高声为他们指点迷津。但大家的脑袋里面已经全是浆糊，一点信息都吸收不了。管理员只好让他们原地立定，要亲自进来领人。他们挤作一堆，开始等待。管理员爬下楼梯，走进迷宫。

He was a young keeper, as luck would have it, and new to the business; and when he got in, he couldn't find them, and he wandered about, trying to get to them, and then HE got lost. They caught sight of him, every now and then, rushing about the other side of the hedge, and he would see them, and rush to get to them, and they would wait there for about five minutes, and then he would reappear again in exactly the same spot, and ask them where they had been.

不巧的是，这是一位年轻的管理员，刚工作不久。他走进迷宫后，半天找不到那堆人，转来转去，终于自己也迷了路。他们时不时会看到他出现在围墙的另一头，接着他也会看到他们，然后兴奋地向他们的方向冲来。5分钟之后，他会再次出现在先前出现过的地方，问他们刚刚去了哪、干嘛躲着他。

They had to wait till one of the old keepers came back from his dinner before they got out.

他们就这样等啊等啊，直到老管理员吃晚饭回来，才把所有人弄了出来。

Harris said he thought it was a very fine maze, so far as he was a judge; and we agreed that we would try to get George to go into it, on our way back.

哈里斯说，他认为那是一个十足的迷宫。我们决定，返程时争取骗乔治进去走走。

1拉姆斯盖特和马尔盖特都是著名的海边小镇，此处意在说明它们不过是普通旅游纪念品。

CHAPTER VII.

第七章

THE RIVER IN ITS SUNDAY GARB.—DRESS ON THERIVER.—A CHANCE FOR THE MEN.—ABSENCE OF TASTEIN HARRIS.—GEORGE'S BLAZER.—A DAY WITH THEFASHION.—PLATE YOUNG LADY.—MRS. THOMAS'S TOMB.—THE MAN WHO LOVES NOT GRAVES AND COFFINS ANDSKULLS.—HARRIS MAD.—HIS VIEWS ON GEORGE ANDBANKS AND LEMONADE.—HE PERFORMS TRICKS.

泰晤士河的礼拜日盛装——人们的河上装束——男人也爱美——哈里斯没品位——乔治的运动衫——与时髦小姐泛舟同游——托马斯太太的坟——对坟墓、棺材、头骨都不感兴趣的男人——哈里斯开骂——他对乔治、河岸和柠檬汁的看法——他表演倒立特技

It was while passing through Moulsey Lock that Harris told me about his maze experience. It took us some time to pass through, as we were the only boat, and it is a big lock. I don't think I ever remember to have seen Moulsey Lock, before, with only one boat in it. It is, I suppose, Boulter's not even excepted, the busiest lock on the river.

哈里斯讲述他的迷宫经历时，我们正经过穆斯里水闸。花了好一会儿才通过，因为我们是唯一的船，而那是一个很大的水闸。在我的记忆里，穆斯里水闸从未有过只通行一艘船的情况。就算把布尔特水闸算在内，它也是泰晤士河上最繁忙的水闸。

I have stood and watched it, sometimes, when you could not see any water at all, but only a brilliant tangle of bright blazers, and gay caps, and saucy hats, and many-coloured parasols, and silken rugs, and cloaks, and streaming ribbons, and dainty whites; when looking down into the lock from the quay, you might fancy it was a huge box in to which flowers of every hue and shade had been thrown pell-mell, and lay piled up in a rainbow heap, that covered every corner.

我曾站起来观察它，有时候根本看不到水面，只觉得眼花缭乱：鲜亮的运动衣、喜气洋洋的男帽、俏皮的女帽、五彩的阳伞、丝绸的毯子和斗篷、飘逸的缎带、精美的白衬衣；当从码头上俯瞰水闸时，它就像一个巨型的盒子，里面纷乱地洒满五颜六色的花朵，一层层叠成彩虹样的一堆，覆盖住盒底的每个角落。

On a fine Sunday it presents this appearance nearly all day long, while, up the stream, and down the stream, lie, waiting their turn, outside the gates, long lines of still more boats; and boats are drawing near and passing away, so that the sunny river, from the Palace up to Hampton Church, is dotted and decked with yellow, and blue, and orange, and white, and red, and pink. All the inhabitants of Hampton and Moulsey dress themselves up in boating costume, and come and mouch round the lock with their dogs, and flirt, and smoke, and watch the boats; and, altogether, what with the caps and jackets of the men, the pretty coloured dresses of the women, the excited dogs, the moving boats, the white sails, the pleasant landscape, and the sparkling water, it is one of the gayest sights I know of near this dull old London town.

在晴朗的礼拜日，几乎从早到晚，水闸都这么热闹好看，在它的上游和下游，等待的船排起了长队。看得更远一点，向这边驶来的船络绎不绝，往那边驶去的船渐行渐远；从汉普顿王宫到汉普顿教堂的这一段河面，船舶星罗棋布，黄蓝橙白红粉，在灿烂阳光下缤纷夺目。汉普顿和穆斯里的居民都穿上划船时的衣服，来到水闸边漫步，吸着烟，牵着狗，一面逗乐调笑，一面观望河上的船只。男人们的衣帽、女人们的鲜艳裙裾、激动兴奋的狗儿、浮动的船、白色的帆和岸上的美丽风景以及波光粼粼的河水辉映成趣，无愧为伦敦这座沉闷的老城周围最令人愉快的景致之一。

The river affords a good opportunity for dress. For once in a way, we men are able to show our taste in colours, and I think we come out very natty, if you ask me. I always like a little red in my things—red and black. You know my hair is a sort of golden brown, rather a pretty shade I've been told, and a dark red matches it beautifully; and then I always think a light-blue necktie goes so well with it, and a pair of those Russian-leather shoes and a red silk handkerchief round the waist—a handkerchief looks so much better than a belt.

游河是炫耀着装的好机会。作为男士，终于得到了舞台来展示我们对色彩的品位，如果你问我，我得说我们穿得很神气。我总喜欢让身上带点红色——红与黑。要知道我的头发属于金棕色系，大家告诉我这颜色美极了，深沉的红色和它可以搭配得完美无瑕。我总觉得这颜色配浅蓝色的领带一定棒极了，鞋子得要是俄国皮革制的，腰部得系上红色丝巾——丝巾比皮带好看得多。

Harris always keeps to shades or mixtures of orange or yellow, but I don't think he is at all wise in this. His complexion is too dark for yellows. Yellows don't suit him: there can be no question about it. I want him to take to blue as a background, with white or cream for relief; but, there! the less taste a person has in dress, the more obstinate he always seems to be. It is a great pity, because he will never be a success as it is, while there are one or two colours in which he might not really look so bad, with his hat on.

哈里斯执著于橙色、黄色或两者的混合色。但我认为他大错特错。他的肤色太暗沉了，不适合穿黄色。什么样的黄色都不行，这是毫无疑问的。我想让他用蓝色作打底，搭配一些白色或者奶油色，以缓解蓝色的沉闷。然而，哎！一个人对服饰的品位越差，往往也就越固执。实在太可惜了，他永远无法得到真正意义的成功，其实也许他穿上某一两种颜色的衣服，再戴上他的帽子，看起来也不会太糟糕。

George has bought some new things for this trip, and I'm rather vexed about them. The blazer is loud. I should not like George to know that I thought so, but there really is no other word for it. He brought it home and showed it to us on Thursday evening. We asked him what colour he called it, and he said he didn't know. He didn't think there was a name for the colour. The man had told him it was an Oriental design. George put it on, and asked us what we thought of it. Harris said that, as an object to hang over a flower-bed in early spring to frighten the birds away, he should respect it; but that, considered as an article of dress for any human being, except a Margate nigger, it made him ill. George got quite huffy; but, as Harris said, if he didn't want his opinion, why did he ask for it?

乔治为这次旅行特地添置了一些新行头，我看了特生气：那件运动衣相当“扎眼”。也许我不应该如此直白，但实在找不出别的形容词。星期四晚上，他把衣服买回家来就显摆给我们看。我们问他那颜色叫什么，他说他也不知道，也许那颜色没有名字。卖家告诉他那是充满东方神韵的设计。乔治把运动衫换上，问我们他看起来怎么样。哈里斯说，如果用来在早春时节挂在花坛上方吓鸟雀，就还值一个好评；但是作为人类（除马尔盖特的黑人外）的衣物，就让他感到不得劲儿。乔治气得直喘粗气，但是就像哈里斯说的，如果你不喜欢听我的意见，又何苦问我？

What troubles Harris and myself, with regard to it, is that we are afraid it will attract attention to the boat.

这件运动衫最让我和哈里斯揪心的地方在于：它可能会让我们的小船引人注目。

Girls, also, don't look half bad in a boat, if prettily dressed. Nothing is more fetching, to my thinking, than a tasteful boating costume. But a "boating costume", it would be as well if all ladies would understand, ought to be a costume that can be worn in a boat, and not merely under a glass-case. It utterly spoils an excursion if you have folk in the boat who are thinking all the time a good deal more of their dress than of the trip. It was my misfortune once to go for a water picnic with two ladies of this kind. We did have a lively time!

女孩们如果穿上漂亮的衣服，坐在船上同样出彩。在我看来，品位高雅的船服，魅力无可匹敌。但是“船服”（如果所有女士能够理解这个词就好了）应该是可以在船上穿着的，不仅是放在玻璃箱里面展览的。如果同游者一门心思全系在他们的衣饰上，对旅行本身提不起兴致，那么出游的乐趣就全毁了。我曾不幸与这么两位女士去泛舟野餐，共享了一段“难忘的时光”！

They were both beautifully got up—all lace and silky stuff, and flowers, and ribbons, and dainty shoes, and light gloves. But they were dressed for a photographic studio, not for a river picnic. They were the "boating costumes" of a French fashion-plate. It was ridiculous, fooling about in them anywhere near real earth, air, and water.

那天她俩打扮得花枝招展：一身的蕾丝、丝绒、花朵、缎带，还穿着精致的小鞋，戴着浅色的手套。这打扮或许适合摄影棚，但哪里适合泛舟野餐呢？这是法国时尚杂志上的“船服”，要是穿着它们靠近真实的土地、新鲜空气或水，只能说太可笑了。

The first thing was that they thought the boat was not clean. We dusted all the seats for them, and then assured them that it was, but they didn't believe us. One of them rubbed the cushion with the forefinger of her glove, and showed the result to the other, and they both sighed, and sat down, with the air of early Christian martyrs trying to make themselves comfortable up against the stake. You are liable to occasionally splash a little when sculling, and it appeared that a drop of water ruined those costumes. The mark never came out, and a stain was left on the dress for ever.

首先，她们认为船不干净。我们为她们把所有座位擦拭一遍，向她们保证现在船儿已经一尘不染，但她们根本不相信。其中一位用戴着手套的食指在坐垫上擦了擦，举起来给另一位女士看，两人叹了口气坐下，神色大义凛然。你可以想象一下早期基督教殉难者们被绑在火柱上却尽力寻找舒服姿势的模样，她们就给人那种感觉。划桨总避免不了偶尔溅起一些小水珠，不要小看它们，一粒水珠就能够毁掉女士们的一整套礼服。那污渍肯定洗不掉，一溅上去就成永世的污点了。

I was stroke. I did my best. I feathered some two feet high, and I paused at the end of each stroke to let the blades drip before returning them, and I picked out a smooth bit of water to drop them into again each time. (Bow said, after a while, that he did not feel himself a sufficiently accomplished oarsman to pull with me, but that he would sit still, if I would allow him, and study my stroke. He said it interested him.)But, notwithstanding all this, and try as I would, I could not help an occasional flicker of water from going over those dresses.

我负责划浆。我已经尽力了。我让桨叶平稳出水，一直平举到两英尺高。每划一桨，都让桨在空中停留一段时间，把水滴干再返回到她们那边，并且尽量选择在比较平静的水面把桨再投入水中。（过了一会儿，划头桨那位先生自感功力太浅，不够与我搭档，请求退下前线，静静坐着专门欣赏我的桨法，因为他对此“很感兴趣”。）但尽管我已经如此鞠躬尽瘁，还是不可避免地让一两丝水线如电光幻影般飞向那两堆绣丛。

The girls did not complain, but they huddled up close together, and set their lips firm, and every time a drop touched them, they visibly shrank and shuddered. It was a noble sight to see them suffering thus in silence, but it unnerved me altogether. I am too sensitive. I got wild and fitful in my rowing, and splashed more and more, the harder I tried not to.

两位女士没有抱怨，却依偎得更紧了，嘴唇紧闭，每当有一滴水珠触碰到她们，就明显地退缩并颤抖。她们沉默着承受这一切，看上去很高尚，但也让我彻底恐慌了。也许怪我太敏感。总之我失了阵脚乱了章法，越是小心越是溅起更大的水花来。

I gave it up at last; I said I'd row bow. Bow thought the arrangement would be better too, and we changed places. The ladies gave an involuntary sigh of relief when they saw me go, and quite brightened up for a moment. Poor girls! they had better have put up with me. The man they had got now was a jolly, light-hearted, thick-headed sort of a chap, with about as much sensitiveness in him as there might be in a Newfoundland puppy. You might look daggers at him for an hour and he would not notice it, and it would not trouble him if he did. He seta good, rollicking, dashing stroke that sent the spray playing all over the boat like a fountain, and made the whole crowd sit up straight in no time. When he spread more than pint of water over one of those dresses, he would give a pleasant little laugh, and say: "I beg your pardon, I'm sure"; and offer them his handkerchief to wipe it off with.

我终于放弃了，说我去划船头。头桨手也觉得这样更好，我们对调了位置。女士们看到我离去，不由得长舒了口气，着实高兴了一阵子。可怜的女孩们！要知道忍他还不如忍我呢。那个头桨手是吊儿郎当，呆头呆脑的家伙，敏感度低得就像一只纽芬兰小狗。就算视线如同匕首一样狠狠瞪他一个小时，他也不会觉察，如果觉察了也不会往心里去。他那欢快又结实的一桨俯冲下去，惊起滔天水花，仿佛喷泉出现在了小船上空。整船人立马坐直了身子。当他已经在某位女士的衣裙上洒了有一品脱的水后，他会轻声一笑，说：“刚才真是对不住你们了。”然后递上他的手帕，让她们自己擦干净。

"Oh, it's of no consequence," the poor girls would murmur in reply, and covertly draw rugs and coats over themselves, and try and protect themselves with their lace parasols.

“噢，没关系。”可怜的女孩们嘟哝着回答，暗地里悄悄卷起毯子和外套把自己包裹起来，还尝试着用蕾丝阳伞来挡“雨”。

At lunch they had a very bad time of it. People wanted them to sit on the grass, and the grass was dusty; and the tree-trunks, against which they were invited to lean, did not appear to have been brushed for weeks; so they spread their handkerchiefs on the ground and sat on those, bolt upright. Somebody, in walking about with a plate of beefsteak pie, tripped up over a root, and sent the pie flying. None of it went over them, fortunately, but the accident suggested a fresh danger to them, and agitated them; and, whenever anybody moved about, after that, with anything in his hand that could fall and make a mess, they watched that person with growing anxiety until he sat down again.

午饭时分，她们就更可怜了。人们请她们坐到草地上，但草地很脏；请她们靠在树干上，但树干明显已有几个星期没被擦洗过。所以她们在空地上铺上自己的手绢，坐在上面，小腰板挺得笔直。有人端着一盘牛排馅饼，绊到了树根，盘子脱手而出，馅饼飞到空中。所幸没有一块落到两位女士身上。但是这场意外暗示着一种新的危险，让她们担心得坐立不安。自此以后，每当有人拿着什么可能掉下来弄脏衣服的东西走动时，她们会越来越担心，紧张地盯着他直到他坐下。

"Now then, you girls," said our friend Bow to them, cheerily, after it was all over, "come along, you've got to wash up!"

“接下来，女孩们，”当野餐终于结束时，这位朋友高兴地对她们说，“快过来，你们可得洗一洗！”

They didn't understand him at first. When they grasped the idea, they said they feared they did not know how to wash up.

她们一开始没听懂，当反应过来后，回答说不知道该怎么洗。

"Oh, I'll soon show you," he cried; "it's rare fun! You lie down on your—I mean you lean over the bank, you know, and sloush the things about in the water.”

“嗨，我洗给你们看，”他很兴奋，“特别好玩！你躺在你的——我的意思是说，你伏在岸边，懂了吗，把东西垂到水里，左右晃动。”

The elder sister said that she was afraid that they hadn't got on dresses suited to the work.

更年长的那位女孩说担心她们穿着这样的衣服，不方便做这项工作。

"Oh, they'll be all right," said he light-heartedly; "tuck em up."

“噢，没关系，”他轻松地说，“把衣服卷起来就好。”

And he made them do it, too. He told them that that sort of thing was half the fun of a picnic. They said it was very interesting.

而且他还真的让她们照做了。他对她们说这占了野炊乐趣的一半。她们回答说，是的，是很有趣。

Now I come to think it over, was that young man as dense-headed as we thought? or was he—no, impossible! there was such a simple, child like expression about him!

现在回头想想：这个年轻人真如同我们想象的那样蠢么？或者——噢，不可能！你看他脸上那单纯的、孩子般的表情！

Harris wanted to get out at Hampton Church, to go and see Mrs. Thomas's tomb.

哈里斯想要在经过汉普顿教堂时上岸，去造访托马斯太太的坟墓。

"Who is Mrs. Thomas?" I asked.

“谁是托马斯太太？”我问。

"How should I know?" replied Harris. "She's a lady that's got a funny tomb, and I want to see it."

“我哪里知道呢？”哈里斯回答，“只是她的坟墓很有趣， 我想去参观参观。”

I objected. I don't know whether it is that I am built wrong, but I never did seem to hanker after tombstones myself. I know that the proper thing to do, when you get to a village or town, is to rush off to the churchyard, and enjoy the graves; but it is a recreation that I always deny myself. I take no interest in creeping round dim and chilly churches behind wheezy old men, and reading epitaphs. Not even the sight of a bit of cracked brass let into a stone affords me what I call real happiness.

他想，我可不想。我不知道是否因为天生不健全，但我从来不会主动想参观墓碑之类。我知道，到达任何一个村庄或市镇，正确的做法是立刻冲往教堂墓地去尽情欣赏，但我总是拒绝这项娱乐。跟在一群喘着粗气的老男人身后，绕着寒冷阴森的墓地潜行，读着碑文，这勾不起我丝毫的兴趣。即使是石头里面镶着黄铜碎片的景象，在我看来也不是什么值得开心的事。

I shock respectable sextons by the imperturbability I am able to assume before exciting inscriptions, and by my lack of enthusiasm for the local family history, while my ill-concealed anxiety to get outside wounds their feelings.

我站在激动人心的墓碑文前却面沉似水，对当地家族史也丝毫不感兴趣，这震惊了无数体面的教堂司事。我难以掩饰想离开的急躁心情，这深深地伤害了他们的自尊心。

One golden morning of a sunny day, I leant against the low stone wall that guarded a little village church, and I smoked, and drank in deep, calm gladness from the sweet, restful scene—the grey old church with its clustering ivy and its quaint carved wooden porch, the white lane winding down the hill between tall rows of elms, the thatched-roof cottages peeping above their trim-kept hedges, the silver river in the hollow, the wooded hills beyond!

记得某个阳光灿烂的早晨，我倚在一家乡村小教堂边低矮的石墙上，深怀平静的欣喜，尽情呼吸着、品味着周围甜美而宁谧的景色：老教堂的灰墙上爬满青色藤蔓，雕木门廊古朴雅致，白色小路顺着山势逶迤而下，路的两旁生长着一排排高大的榆树，农舍的茅草屋顶从干净齐整的篱笆上探出头来，银色河流在山谷中流淌，远处的群山树木葱翠！

It was a lovely landscape. It was idyllic, poetical, and it inspired me. I felt good and noble. I felt I didn't want to be sinful and wicked anymore. I would come and live here, and never do any more wrong, and lead a blameless, beautiful life, and have silver hair when I got old, and all that sort of thing.

这景致多么可爱啊，充满着田园诗意，赋予我如泉涌的灵感。我感到自己伟大而崇高，我决定不再做有罪的、邪恶的人。我将把家搬到这里，停止做坏事，开始过完美无瑕的生活，当我老去时会满头银发。在我脑海里，出现许多类似这样的美好念头。

In that moment I forgave all my friends and relations for their wickedness and cussedness, and I blessed them. They did not know that I blessed them. They went their abandoned way all unconscious of what I, far away in that peaceful village, was doing for them; but I did it, and I wished that I could let them know that I had done it, because I wanted to make them happy. I was going on thinking away all these grand, tender thoughts, when my reverie was broken in upon by a shrill piping voice crying out: "All right, sur, I'm a-coming, I'm a-coming. It's all right, sur; don't you be in a hurry."

那个瞬间，我原谅了所有朋友和亲戚的邪恶和固执，我愿主赐福给他们。他们不知道我在为他们祈祷。他们继续过着堕落的生活，根本不会知道在一个遥远僻静的小山村里，我正为他们做着什么，但我还是做了。很遗憾他们不知道，我希望他们能够知道，因为这会让他们高兴。正当我沉浸在这些高尚文雅的思绪中时，一个尖利的嗓音打断了我的冥想，它叫道：“好咧！先生，我来啦，我这就来啦！没关系，先生，您别着急！”

I looked up, and saw an old bald-headed man hobbling across the churchyard towards me, carrying a huge bunch of keys in his hand that shook and jingled at every step.

我抬头望去，只见一个年长的秃顶男人一脚深一脚浅地穿过坟场向我奔来，手里拿着一大串钥匙，随着他的步伐被颠簸得叮当作响。

I motioned him away with silent dignity, but he still advanced, screeching out the while: "I'm a-coming, sur, I'm a-coming. I'm a little lame. I ain't as spry as I used to be. This way, sur."

我静静地充满尊严地对他做了个请勿骚扰的手势。但 是他继续往这边赶，一路尖叫道：“我来了，先生，我来了。我有点瘸，没有以前利索啦。来这边，先生。”

"Go away, you miserable old man," I said.

“走开，你这可怜的老东西。”我说。

"I've come as soon as I could, sur," he replied. "My miss is never see you till just this minute. You follow me, sur."

“我跑起来最快只能这样，先生，”他回答，“我的太 太前一分钟才看到您。请跟我来，先生。”

"Go away," I repeated; "leave me before I get over the wall, and slay you."

“走开，”我回答，“再不走开，我就翻过墙来杀死你。”

He seemed surprised.

他似乎吃了一惊。

"Don't you want to see the tombs?" he said.

“您不想看那些坟墓？”他问。

"No," I answered, "I don't. I want to stop here, leaning up against this gritty old wall. Go away, and don't disturb me. I am chock full of beautiful and noble thoughts, and I want to stop like it, because it feels nice and good. Don't you come fooling about, making me mad, chivying away all my better feelings with this silly tombstone nonsense of yours. Go away, and get somebody to bury you cheap, and I'll pay half the expense."

“不，”我说，“我不想。我只想待在这儿，倚靠在这面粗糙的老墙上养神。你走开，不要来烦我。我满心都是美好高尚的想法，我想继续保住它们，因为做圣人的感觉太好了。你别来附近晃悠，惹我发火，用你那些墓碑之类的破玩意儿赶走我的好情绪。滚开，找个人廉价地把你埋了，我愿意付一半的钱。”

He was bewildered for a moment. He rubbed his eyes, and looked hard at me. I seemed human enough on the outside: he couldn't make it out.

他一时间缓不过神来，揉了揉眼睛，仔细盯着我看，但我的外表明明就是人而非鬼，他被弄糊涂了。

He said: "Yuise a stranger in these parts? You don't live here?"

他说：“你、你、你不是本地人啊？你不住这片儿吧？”

"No," I said, "I don't. YOU wouldn't if I did."

“不，”我说，“我不住附近。要是我住在这儿，你就不在了。”

"Well then," he said, "you want to see the tombs—graves—folks been buried, you know—coffins!”

“那么，”他说，“你一定想参观墓碑——墓地——被埋在地下的人们，你知道我说什么吧——棺材！”

"You are an untruther," I replied, getting roused; "I do not want to see tombs—not your tombs. Why should I? We have graves of our own, our family has. Why my uncle Podger has a tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery, that is the pride of all that country-side; and my grandfather's vault at Bow is capable of accommodating eight visitors, while my great-aunt Susan has a brick grave in Finchley Churchyard, with a headstone with a coffee-pot sort of thing in bas-relief upon it, and a six-inch best white stone coping all the way round, that cost pounds. When I want graves, it is to those places that I go and revel. I do not want other folk's. When you yourself are buried, I will come and see yours. That is all I can do for you."

“你是个骗子，”我被激怒了，“我不想看坟，至少不想看你们那些坟。我怎么可能想看？我的家族有的是坟。我的波杰叔叔在肯瑟尔绿色公墓的坟是那整个区的骄傲；我祖父在波乌的地下坟墓可以同时容纳8位访客；我伯祖母苏珊在芬奇利坟场有座砖砌的坟，墓石上有咖啡壶状的浅浮雕，坟周围全是6英寸厚的上等白色压顶石，知道多名贵么？如果我想看坟，大可以到我们家的坟地里陶醉去。我不想看其他什么人的坟。等你入土了，倒是可以去看看你的坟，我只能为你做到这一点了。”

He burst into tears. He said that one of the tombs had a bit of stone upon the top of it that had been said by some to be probably part of the remains of the figure of a man, and that another had some words, carved upon it, that nobody had ever been able to decipher.

他老泪纵横。他说他那些坟可好了：有一座的墓碑顶部嵌着块东西，据说很可能是某具遗体的一部分；另一座的墓碑上刻着一些奇怪的文字，至今没有任何人可以解读。

I still remained obdurate, and, in broken-hearted tones, he said: "Well, won't you come and see the memorial window?"

我还是不为所动，从声音听得出他心都碎了，他说：“那 么，你不想来看看纪念窗么？”

I would not even see that, so he fired his last shot. He drew near, and whispered hoarsely: "I've got a couple of skulls down in the crypt," he said; "come and see those. Oh, do come and see the skulls! You are a young man out for a holiday, and you want to enjoy yourself. Come and see the skulls!"

我连纪念窗都不想看，所以他使出最后一招，靠过来用刺耳的声音对我耳语道：“我在教堂的地下坟穴里珍藏了几个头骨，来看看，噢，一定得来看看这些骷髅头！像你这样出来度假的小伙子，当然想寻点乐子。来看看骷髅头吧！”

Then I turned and fled, and as I sped I heard him calling to me: "Oh, come and see the skulls; come back and see the skulls!"

我转身开始逃跑，耳边的呼呼风声中还夹杂着他的呼唤：“噢，来看看骷髅头！快回来看骷髅头！”

Harris, however, revels in tombs, and graves, and epitaphs, and monumental inscriptions, and the thought of not seeing Mrs. Thomas's grave made him crazy. He said he had looked forward to seeing Mrs. Thomas's grave from the first moment that the trip was proposed—said he wouldn't have joined if it hadn't been for the idea of seeing Mrs. Thomas's tomb.

相反，哈里斯对坟、公墓、墓碑文和纪念题词充满了爱，不能参观托马斯夫人坟墓的念头让他怒火中烧。他说从泛舟的提议诞生起，他就已经开始期待到达托马斯夫人坟墓的时刻，他还说若不是想看看这坟墓，他根本就不会参加这趟旅行。

I reminded him of George, and how we had to get the boat up to Shepperton by five o'clock to meet him, and then he went for George. Why was George to fool about all day, and leave us to lug this lumbering old top-heavy barge up and down the river by ourselves to meet him? Why couldn't George come and do some work? Why couldn't he have got the day off, and come down with us? Bank be blowed! What good was he at the bank?

我提醒他别忘了乔治，我们得在5点赶到谢珀顿与乔治会合。哈里斯于是迁怒于乔治：为什么乔治一整天闲着，让我们把头重脚轻的老驳船拉到下游去见他？为什么乔治不能来干点活儿？为什么他不能请一天假，然后和我们一起出发？把银行炸掉算了！你说他在银行究竟干了什么实事？

"I never see him doing any work there," continued Harris, "when ever I go in. He sits behind a bit of glass all day, trying to look as if he was doing something. What's the good of a man behind a bit of glass? I have to work for my living. Why can't he work. What use is he there, and what's the good of their banks? They take your money, and then, when you draw a cheque, they send it back smeared all over with 'No effects', 'Refer to drawer'. What's the good of that? That's the sort of trick they served me twice last week. I'm not going to stand it much longer. I shall withdraw my account. If he was here, we could go and see that tomb. I don't believe he's at the bank at all. He's larking about somewhere, that's what he's doing, leaving us to do all the work. I'm going to get out, and have a drink."

“每次我走进银行的时候，”哈里斯意犹未尽，“从来看不到他干活。他整天坐在一小块玻璃背后，装作在干点什么。可是一个大男人坐在一小块玻璃后面能干得了什么呢？我可是为了生计在脚踏实地地工作啊。为什么他就不能学学我呢？他坐那里有什么用？他们那破银行有什么用？他们明明拿走了你的钱，但是如果你开出支票，他们会把它送回来，上面盖满‘无效’和‘请询问出票人’的字样。那是什么意思？上周他们就给我耍了两次这样的把戏。我再也无法忍受了。我要撤出我的存款。如果他在这里的话，我们就能去看那坟墓。我不认为他现在真的在银行里，说不准在哪儿鬼混呢。没错，他就是在鬼混，把苦差事全留给我们。我要下船，我要去喝一杯。”

I pointed out to him that we were miles away from a pub; and then he went on about the river, and what was the good of the river, and was everyone who came on the river to die of thirst?

我向他指出一个不争的事实：我们离最近的酒馆也有几英里远。他又把矛头指向了河流——河上到底有什么好？大家都到河上来是为了想渴死么？

It is always best to let Harris have his head when he gets like this. Then he pumps himself out, and is quiet afterwards.

每当哈里斯变成这个样子的时候，最好让他想到什么就尽情地说，他慢慢话语枯竭了就会安静下来。

I reminded him that there was concentrated lemonade in the hamper, and a gallon-jar of water in the nose of the boat, and that the two only wanted mixing to make a cool and refreshing beverage.

我提醒他，在食物篮里有浓缩柠檬汁，在船头有一加仑的饮用水，兑一下就变成清凉解渴的饮品。

Then he flew off about lemonade, and "such-like Sunday-school slops”, as he termed them, ginger-beer, raspberry syrup, etc., etc. He said they all produced dyspepsia, and ruined body and soul alike, and were the cause of half the crime in England.

于是乎他开始大骂柠檬汁，连姜汁啤酒、覆盆子糖浆等“诸如此类的主日学校的粪水”也被联席审判。他说这些饮料会导致消化不良，它们毁灭身体的同时腐化灵魂，是全英格兰一半以上犯罪事件的罪魁祸首。

He said he must drink something, however, and climbed upon the seat, and leant over to get the bottle. It was right at the bottom of the hamper, and seemed difficult to find, and he had to lean over further and further, and, in trying to steer at the same time, from a topsy-turvy point of view, he pulled the wrong line, and sent the boat into the bank, and the shock upset him, and he dived down right into the hamper, and stood there on his head, holding on to the sides of the boat like grim death, his legs sticking up into the air. He dared not move for fear of going over, and had to stay there till I could get hold of his legs, and haul him back, and that made him madder than ever.

他说，无论如何，总得喝点东西救命吧，于是踩在座椅上，弯腰去找柠檬汁瓶。瓶子恰好在食物篮的最下层，很难找到，他只好拼命弯腰，还想同时掌舵，由于脑袋朝下，看到的景象上下颠倒，所以拉错了舵绳，船向河岸驶去。这突如其来的变故吓得他腿肚一软，便一头扎进食物篮里，双手死命地抓住船舷，双脚笔直地指向蓝天，整个人倒立在那。他不敢乱动，生怕掉下船去，只好保持倒立姿势，直到我抓着他的腿把他拉出来为止，这更是气得他脑袋都要爆炸了。

CHAPTER VIII.

第八章

BLACKMAILING.—THE PROPER COURSE TO PURSUE.—SELFISH BOORISHNESS OF RIVER.—SIDE LANDOWNER.—"NOTICE" BOARDS.—UNCHRISTIANLIKE FEELINGSOF HARRIS.—HOW HARRIS SINGS A COMIC SONG.—A HIGH-CLASS PARTY.—SHAMEFUL CONDUCT OFTWO ABANDONED YOUNG MEN.—SOME USELESSINFORMATION.—GEORGE BUYS A BANJO.

敲诈——正确对策——河畔领地主人的自私蛮横——告示板——哈里斯泯灭人性了——哈里斯演唱滑稽歌曲——高尚人士的聚会——两位无耻青年的卑鄙行为——一些闲话——乔治买了班卓琴

We stopped under the willows by Kempton Park, and lunched. It is a pretty little spot there: a pleasant grass plateau, running along by the water's edge, and overhung by willows. We had just commenced the third course—the bread and jam—when a gentleman in shirt-sleeves and a short pipe came along, and wanted to know if we knew that we were trespassing. We said we hadn't given the matter sufficient consideration as yet to enable us to arrive at a definite conclusion on that point, but that, if he assured us on his word as a gentleman that we WERE trespassing, we would, without further hesitation, believe it.

我们停泊在坎普顿公园，在杨柳树下享用午餐。这地方着实舒坦，可爱的草地沿着河边蔓延，杨柳枝条就如同挂在我们头顶的门帘。我们刚开始吃第三道菜（果酱面包）时，一位身着衬衫短裤的绅士走来，询问我们是否知晓自己正“非法入侵私人领地”。我们回答说，由于暂未对该问题给予充分考虑，无法就此得出肯定结论，但如果他以绅士的名义保证我们的确属于非法入侵，我们愿意毫无保留地相信他。

He gave us the required assurance, and we thanked him, but he still hung about, and seemed to be dissatisfied, so we asked him if there was anything further that we could do for him; and Harris, who is of a chummy disposition, offered him a bit of bread and jam.

他向我们作了保证，我们表达了感谢，但他赖着不走，看上去并不满意。我们问他，还能为他做点什么。哈里斯天性好客，居然问他要不要来一片果酱面包。

I fancy he must have belonged to some society sworn to abstain from bread and jam; for he declined it quite gruffly, as if he were vexed at being tempted with it, and he added that it was his duty to turn us off.

我猜他一定属于某个发誓戒食果酱面包的社团，因为他相当粗暴地拒绝了哈里斯，似乎因受到如此引诱而恼火。他还加上一句，说撵走我们是他的职责。

Harris said that if it was a duty it ought to be done, and asked the man what was his idea with regard to the best means for accomplishing it.

哈里斯说，如果这是一项职责，就应该被履行，于是问他履行这一职责的最佳手段是什么。

Harris is what you would call a well-made man of about number one size, and looks hard and bony, and the man measured him up and down, and said he would go and consult his master, and then comeback and chuck us both into the river.

哈里斯块头很大，看上去精瘦硬朗，那人把他上下打量一番后，说他想先回去请示主人的意思，再回来把我俩给丢进河里。

Of course, we never saw him any more, and, of course, all he really wanted was a shilling. There are a certain number of riverside roughs who make quite an income, during the summer, by slouching about the banks and blackmailing weak-minded noodles in this way. They represent themselves as sent by the proprietor. The proper course to pursue is to offer your name and address, and leave the owner, if he really has anything to do with the matter, to summon you, and prove what damage you have done to his land by sitting down on a bit of it. But the majority of people are so intensely lazy and timid, that they prefer to encourage the imposition by giving in to it rather than put an end to it by the exertion of a little firmness.

不用说，他这一去再不返。显然，他真正想要的不过是一个先令。在夏天，总有这么一些河边混混，他们巡游河岸，捡软柿子捏，遇到傻乎乎的游客就勒索，积累起来也有份不小的收入。他们自称是领地主人派来的，这时游客的最佳对策是报上自家姓名住址，请他转告所谓的主人，如果他真有什么所有权，让他尽管传唤你，并且拿出证据，证明你一屁股坐上去给他的领地带来了什么损害。但是，绝大多数游客都太懒太害羞，宁可妥协并纵容这种“苛捐杂税”，也不愿意拿出一点骨气来制止它。

Where it is really the owners that are to blame, they ought to be shown up. The selfishness of the riparian proprietor grows with every year. If these men had their way they would close the river Thames altogether. They actually do this along the minor tributary streams and in the backwaters. They drive posts into the bed of the stream, and draw chains across from bank to bank, and nail huge notice-boards on every tree. The sight of those notice-boards rouses every evil instinct in my nature. I feel I want to tear each one down, and hammer it over the head of the man who put it up, until I have killed him, and then I would bury him, and put the board up over the grave as a tombstone.

就算领地主人的确在幕后指使，也应该让他露露面。这些河岸土地所有者的自私指数在逐年递增。任由他们随心所欲的话，整条泰晤士河都会被他们关起来。实际上，在某些小支流和回水地段，他们还真就这么做了。他们把木桩钉进河床，在两岸间拉上铁链，在每棵树上钉入巨大的告示板。这些告示板唤醒了我体内沉睡的所有邪恶基因。我迫切地想要扯掉它们，钉在它们主人的脑袋上，直到把他钉死为止。然后我会把他埋了，再插上一块告示板当墓碑。

I mentioned these feelings of mine to Harris, and he said he had them worse than that. He said he not only felt he wanted to kill the man who caused the board to be put up, but that he should like to slaughter the whole of his family and all his friends and relations, and then burn down his house. This seemed to me to be going too far, and I said so to Harris; but he answered: "Not a bit of it. Serve em all jolly well right, and I'd go and sing comic songs on the ruins."

我把这种想法告诉了哈里斯，他说他的想法更恶毒。他不仅要杀死树起告示牌的人，还要杀光他全家、杀光他所有亲戚朋友、烧掉他的房子。我告诉他我觉得这太过分了，他回答说：“一点也不过分。他们活该！我还要在火烧过的废墟上唱滑稽歌曲呢。”

You have never heard Harris sing a comic song, or you would understand the service I had rendered to mankind. It is one of Harris's fixed ideas that he CAN sing a comic song; the fixed idea, on the contrary, among those of Harris's friends who have heard him try, is that he CAN'T and never will be able to, and that he ought not to be allowed to try.

听了这番话我很担忧，哈里斯怎么能如此嗜血成性？任何时候也不应该让正义的本能堕落为纯粹的报复心。我花了很长时间来劝说哈里斯，劝他用基督徒的视角来看这件事，总算让他保证，至少会放过那些亲戚朋友，也不会在废墟上高唱滑稽歌曲了。

When Harris is at a party, and is asked to sing, he replies: "Well, I can only sing a COMIC song, you know"; and he says it in a tone that implies that his singing of THAT, however, is a thing that you ought to hear once, and then die.

每当哈里斯在聚会上被邀请唱歌时，他很谦虚，“哎，我只能唱滑稽歌曲，知道吧。”他的语气暗示着，尽管只 是滑稽歌曲，也是不容错失的表演，听了可谓此生无憾。

"Oh, that IS nice," says the hostess. "Do sing one, Mr. Harris"; and Harris gets up, and makes for the piano, with the beaming cheeriness of a generous-minded man who is just about to give somebody something.

“是吗，那可真是太好了，”女主人会说，“唱一首吧， 哈里斯先生。”于是哈里斯起立，走到钢琴前，脸上洋溢 着幸福的微笑，活脱脱像一位慷慨的先生将要施与别人什 么好东西了。

"Now, silence, please, everybody" says the hostess, turning round; "Mr. Harris is going to sing a comic song!"

“现在，请各位安静，”女主人转过身说道，“哈里斯先生将为大家演唱一首滑稽歌曲！”

"Oh, how jolly!" they murmur; and they hurry in from the conservatory, and come up from the stairs, and go and fetch each other from all over the house, and crowd into the drawing-room, and sit round, all smirking in anticipation.

“噢，好开心啊！”观众喃喃地交头接耳。他们走出暖 房、爬上楼梯，你叫我，我叫你，直到全屋人都聚到客厅，坐成一圈。每一张脸上都洋溢着傻笑，充满了期待。

Then Harris begins.

然后哈里斯就开唱了。

Well, you don't look for much of a voice in a comic song. You don't expect correct phrasing or vocalization. You don't mind if a man does find out, when in the middle of a note, that he is too high, and comes down with a jerk. You don't bother about time. You don't mind a man being two bars in front of the accompaniment, and easing up in the middle of a line to argue it out with the pianist, and then starting the verse afresh. But you do expect the words.

其实，对滑稽歌曲，我们既不要求歌声嘹亮，也不拘泥于节奏和发声法。甚至如果唱到一半时发现唱高了，突然降下一个音阶，也没什么大不了。我们可以不管节奏和间，不在乎你是否比伴奏快了两个小节，你还可以在某句歌词刚唱到一半的时候突然停下来与钢琴手讲理，然后整段都重新来过。但是我们至少期望你能唱出歌词啊。

You don't expect a man to never remember more than the first three lines of the first verse, and to keep on repeating these until it is time to begin the chorus. You don't expect a man to break off in the middle of a line, and snigger, and say, it's very funny, but he's blest if he can think of the rest of it, and then try and make it up for himself, and, afterwards, suddenly recollect it, when he has got to an entirely different part of the song, and break off, without a word of warning, to go back and let you have it then and there. You don't—well, I will just give you an idea of Harris's comic singing, and then you can judge of it for yourself.

哪料到世界上有人永远只记得主歌第1段的前3句，他一直重复这3句，直到副歌开始。哪料到有人能够在一句歌词的中途突然停下，扑哧一笑，说句“真逗啊”。但如果他能够记得剩下的歌词，努力唱好后半段，我们祝福他；然而，正唱另一段的时候，他突然想起刚才漏掉的歌词，二话不说立刻停下，转头去把“欠奉”的内容补偿给你，相当有诚意。哎，一言难尽啊，干脆让你看看哈里斯怎么唱的，然后自行判断吧。

HARRIS (standing up in front of piano and addressing the expectant mob): I'm afraid it's a very old thing, you know. I expect you all know it, you know. But it's the only thing I know. It's the Judge's song out of PINAFORE—no, I don't mean PINAFORE—I mean—you know what I mean—the other thing, you know. You must all join in the chorus, you know.

哈里斯（站在钢琴前，对充满期待的观众们说）：“恐 怕这是一首很老的曲子，知道吧。我想你们都听过，知道吧。但这是我唯一会唱的曲子。它是《背心裙》里法官唱的一段，噢，不，不是《背心裙》，我是说，你们知道我要说什么，是别的那出，知道吧。你们一定得和我一块儿唱副歌，知道吧。”

Murmurs of delight and anxiety to join in the chorus. Brilliant performance of prelude to the Judge's song in "Trial by Jury" by nervous Pianist. Moment arrives for Harris to join in. Harris takes no notice of it. Nervous pianist commences prelude over again, and Harris, commencing singing at the same time, dashes off the first two lines of the First Lord's song out of "Pinafore." Nervous pianist tries to push on with prelude, gives it up, and tries to follow Harris with accompaniment to Judge's song out "Trial by Jury," finds that doesn't answer, and tries to recollect what he is doing, and where he is, feels his mind giving way, and stops short.

〔一阵快乐的骚动，大家都急切地想要加入副歌大合唱。《审判庭》中法官唱段的前奏在紧张的钢琴师手指间优美地流淌出来。等到该哈里斯唱的时候，他却毫不知情。紧张的钢琴师只好从头开始，这时哈里斯却开口了，脱口而出的是《背心裙》里首席大臣的前两句唱词。紧张的钢琴师想继续把前奏弹下去，试了试只好放弃，然后又试着用《审判庭》的伴奏来配合哈里斯，奈何两者完全不协调。他逐渐开始怀疑自己在做什么、身处何处，越想越不明白，突然停下了伴奏。〕

HARRIS (with kindly encouragement): It's all right. You're doing it very well, indeed—go on.

哈里斯（和蔼地鼓励道）：“没关系，说真的，你已经 做得很好了，继续吧。”

NERVOUS PIANIST: I'm afraid there's a mistake somewhere. What are you singing?

紧张的钢琴师：“恐怕哪里不对劲吧。你到底在唱什么？”

HARRIS ( promptly): Why the Judge's song out of Trial by Jury. Don't you know it?

哈里斯（立刻说）：“当然是《审判庭》里法官的段子啊。怎么啦，你不知道这首曲子么？”

SOME FRIEND OF HARRIS'S (from the back of the room): No, you're not, you chuckle-head, you're singing the Admiral's song from Pinafore.

哈里斯的某位朋友（站在人群后排说）：“不，你这傻蛋，你唱的是《背心裙》里海军上将的歌。”

��

SOME FRIEND OF HARRIS'S (from the back of the room): No, you're not, you chuckle-head, you're singing the Admiral's song from Pinafore. Long argument between Harris and Harris's friend as to what Harris is really singing. Friend finally suggests that it doesn't matter what Harris is singing so long as Harris gets on and sings it, and Harris, with an evident sense of injustice rankling inside him, requests pianist to begin again. Pianist, thereupon, starts prelude to the Admiral's song, and Harris, seizing what he considers to be a favourable opening in the music, begins. HARRIS: When I was young and called to the Bar. General roar of laughter, taken by Harris as a compliment. pianist, thinking of his wife and family, gives up the unequal contest and retires; his place being taken by a stronger-nerved man. THE NEW PIANIST (cheerily): Now then, old man, you start off, and I'll follow. We won't bother about any prelude. HARRIS (upon whom the explanation of matters has slowly dawned—laughing): By Jove! I beg your pardon. Of course—I've been mixing up the two songs. It was Jenkins who confused me, you know. Now then. Singing; his voice appearing to come from the cellar, and suggesting the first low warnings of an approaching earthquake. When I was young I served a term. As office-boy to an attorney's firm.' (Aside to pianist): It is too low, old man; we'll have that over again, if you don't mind. Sings first two lines over again, in a high falsetto this time. great surprise on the part of the audience. nervous old lady near the fire begins to cry, and has to be led out. HARRIS (continuing):I swept the windows and I swept the door, And I— No—no, I cleaned the windows of the big front door. And I polished up the floor—no, dash it—I beg your pardon—funny thing, I can't think of that line. And I—and I—Oh, well, we'll get on to the chorus, and chance it (sings):And I diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—de, Till now I am the ruler of the Queen's navee. Now then, chorus—it is the last two lines repeated, you know. GENERAL CHORUS: And he diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—diddle—dee'd, Till now he is the ruler of the Queen's navee. And Harris never sees what an ass he is making of himself, and how he is annoying a lot of people who never did him any harm. He honestly imagines that he has given them a treat, and says he will sing another comic song after supper. Speaking of comic songs and parties, reminds me of a rather curious incident at which I once assisted; which, as it throws much light upon the inner mental working of human nature in general, ought, I think, to be recorded in these pages. We were a fashionable and highly cultured party. We had on our best clothes, and we talked pretty, and were very happy—all except two young fellows, students, just returned from Germany, common place young men, who seemed restless and uncomfortable, as if they found the proceedings slow. The truth was, we were too clever for them. Our brilliant but polished conversation, and our high-class tastes, were beyond them. They were out of place, among us. They never ought to have been there at all. Everybody agreed upon that, later on. We played MORCEAUX from the old German masters. We discussed philosophy and ethics. We flirted with graceful dignity. We were even humorous—in a high-class way. Somebody recited a French poem after supper, and we said it was beautiful; and then a lady sang a sentimental ballad in Spanish, and it made one or two of us weep—it was so pathetic. And then those two young men got up, and asked us if we had ever heard Herr Slossenn Boschen (who had just arrived, and was then down in the supper-room) sing his great German comic song. None of us had heard it, that we could remember. The young men said it was the funniest song that had ever been written, and that, if we liked, they would get Herr Slossenn Boschen, whom they knew very well, to sing it. They said it was so funny that, when Herr Slossenn Boschen had sung it once before the German Emperor, he (the German Emperor) had had to be carried off to bed. They said nobody could sing it like Herr Slossenn Boschen; he was so intensely serious all through it that you might fancy he was reciting a tragedy, and that, of course, made it all the funnier. They said he never once suggested by his tone or manner that he was singing anything funny—that would spoil it. It was his air of seriousness, almost of pathos, that made it so irresistibly amusing. We said we yearned to hear it, that we wanted a good laugh; and they went downstairs, and fetched Herr Slossenn Boschen. He appeared to be quite pleased to sing it, for he came up at once, and sat down to the piano without another word. "Oh, it will amuse you. You will laugh," whispered the two young men, as they passed through the room, and took up an unobtrusive position behind the Professor's back. Herr Slossenn Boschen accompanied himself. The prelude did not suggest a comic song exactly. It was a weird, soulful air. It quite made one's flesh creep; but we murmured to one another that it was the German method, and prepared to enjoy it. I don't understand German myself. I learned it at school, but forgot every word of it two years after I had left, and have felt much better ever since. Still, I did not want the people there to guess my ignorance; so I hit upon what I thought to be rather a good idea. I kept my eye on the two young students, and followed them. When they tittered, I tittered; when they roared, I roared; and I also threw in a little snigger all by myself now and then, as if I had seen a bit of humour that had escaped the others. I considered this particularly artful on my part. I noticed, as the song progressed, that a good many other people seemed to have their eye fixed on the two young men, as well as myself. These other people also tittered when the young men tittered, and roared when the young men roared; and, as the two young men tittered and roared and exploded with laughter pretty continuously all through the song, it went exceedingly well. And yet that German Professor did not seem happy. At first, when we began to laugh, the expression of his face was one of intense surprise, as if laughter were the very last thing he had expected to be greeted with. We thought this very funny: we said his earnest manner was half the humour. The slightest hint on his part that he knew how funny he was would have completely ruined it all. As we continued to laugh, his surprise gave way to an air of annoyance and indignation, and he scowled fiercely round upon us all (except upon the two young men who, being behind him, he could not see). That sent us into convulsions. We told each other that it would be the death of us, this thing. The words alone, we said, were enough to send us into fits, but added to his mock seriousness—oh, it was too much! In the last verse, he surpassed himself. He glowered round upon us with a look of such concentrated ferocity that, but for our being forewarned as to the German method of comic singing, we should have been nervous; and he threw such a wailing note of agony into the weird music that, if we had not known it was a funny song, we might have wept. He finished amid a perfect shriek of laughter. We said it was the funniest thing we had ever heard in all our lives. We said how strange it was that, in the face of things like these, there should be a popular notion that the Germans hadn't any sense of humour. And we asked the Professor why he didn't translate the song into English, so that the common people could understand it, and hear what a real comic song was like. Then Herr Slossenn Boschen got up, and went on awful. He swore at us in German (which I should judge to be a singularly effective language for that purpose), and he danced, and shook his fists, and called us all the English he knew. He said he had never been so insulted in all his life. It appeared that the song was not a comic song at all. It was about a young girl who lived in the Hartz Mountains, and who had given up her life to save her lover's soul; and he died, and met her spirit in the air; and then, in the last verse, he jilted her spirit, and went on with another spirit—I'm not quite sure of the details, but it was something very sad, I know. Herr Boschen said he had sung it once before the German Emperor, and he (the German Emperor) had sobbed like a little child. He (Herr Boschen) said it was generally acknowledged to be one of the most tragic and pathetic songs in the German language. It was a trying situation for us—very trying. There seemed to be no answer. We looked around for the two young men who had done this thing, but they had left the house in an unostentatious manner immediately after the end of the song. That was the end of that party. I never saw a party break up so quietly, and with so little fuss. We never said good-night even to one another. We came downstairs one at a time, walking softly, and keeping the shady side. We asked the servant for our hats and coats in whispers, and opened the door for ourselves, and slipped out, and got round the corner quickly, avoiding each other as much as possible. I have never taken much interest in German songs since then. We reached Sunbury Lock at half-past three. The river is sweetly pretty just there before you come to the gates, and the backwater is charming; but don't attempt to row up it. I tried to do so once. I was sculling, and asked the fellows who were steering if they thought it could be done, and they said, oh, yes, they thought so, if I pulled hard. We were just under the little foot-bridge that crosses it between the two weirs, when they said this, and I bent down over the sculls, and set myself up, and pulled. I pulled splendidly. I got well into a steady rhythmical swing. I put my arms, and my legs, and my back into it. I set myself a good, quick, dashing stroke, and worked in really grand style. My two friends said it was a pleasure to watch me. At the end of five minutes, I thought we ought to be pretty near the weir, and I looked up. We were under the bridge, in exactly the same spot that we were when I began, and there were those two idiots, injuring themselves by violent laughing. I had been grinding away like mad to keep that boat stuck still under that bridge. I let other people pull up backwaters against strong streams now. We sculled up to Walton, a rather large place for a riverside town. As with all riverside places, only the tiniest corner of it comes down to the water, so that from the boat you might fancy it was a village of some half-dozen houses, all told. Windsor and Abingdon are the only towns between London and Oxford that you can really see anything of from the stream. All the others hide round corners, and merely peep at the river down one street: my thanks to them for being so considerate, and leaving the river-banks to woods and fields and water-works. Even Reading, though it does its best to spoil and sully and make hideous as much of the river as it can reach, is good-natured enough to keep its ugly face a good deal out of sight. Caesar, of course, had a little place at Walton—a camp, or an entrenchment, or something of that sort. Caesar was a regular up-riverman. Also Queen Elizabeth, she was there, too. You can never getaway from that woman, go where you will. Cromwell and Bradshaw (not the guide man, but the King Charles's head man) likewise sojourned here. They must have been quite a pleasant little party, altogether. There is an iron "scold's bridle" in Walton Church. They used these things in ancient days for curbing women's tongues. They have given up the attempt now. I suppose iron was getting scarce, and nothing else would be strong enough. There are also tombs of note in the church, and I was afraid I should never get Harris past them; but he didn't seem to think of them, and we went on. Above the bridge the river winds tremendously. This make sit look picturesque; but it irritates you from a towing or sculling point of view, and causes argument between the man who is pulling and the man who is steering. You pass Oatlands Park on the right bank here. It is a famous old place. Henry VIII. stole it from some one or the other, I forget whom now, and lived in it. There is a grotto in the park which you can see for a fee, and which is supposed to be very wonderful; but I cannot see much in it myself. The late Duchess of York, who lived at Oatlands, was very fond of dogs, and kept an immense number. She had a special graveyard made, in which to bury them when they died, and there they lie, about fifty of them, with a tombstone over each, and an epitaph inscribed thereon. Well, I dare say they deserve it quite as much as the average Christian does. At "Corway Stakes"—the first bend above Walton Bridge—was fought a battle between Caesar and Cassivelaunus. Cassivelaunus had prepared the river for Caesar, by planting it full of stakes (and had, no doubt, put up a notice-board). But Caesar crossed in spite of this. You couldn't choke Caesar off that river. He is the sort of man we want round the backwaters now. Halliford and Shepperton are both pretty little spots where they touch the river; but there is nothing remarkable about either of them. There is a tomb in Shepperton churchyard, however, with a poem on it, and I was nervous lest Harris should want to get out and fool round it. I saw him fix a longing eye on the landing-stage as we drew near it, so I managed, by an adroit movement, to jerk his cap into the water, and in the excitement of recovering that, and his indignation at my clumsiness, he forgot all about his beloved graves. At Weybridge, the Wey (a pretty little stream, navigable for small boat sup to Guildford, and one which I have always been making up my mind to explore, and never have), the Bourne, and the Basingstoke Canal all enter the Thames together. The lock is just opposite the town, and the first thing that we saw, when we came in view of it, was George's blazer on one of the lock gates, closer inspection showing that George was inside it. Montmorency set up a furious barking, I shrieked, Harris roared; George waved his hat, and yelled back. The lock-keeper rushed out with a drag, under the impression that somebody had fallen into the lock, and appeared annoyed at finding that no one had. George had rather a curious oilskin-covered parcel in his hand. It was round and flat at one end, with a long straight handle sticking out of it. "What's that?" said Harris—“a frying-pan?” "No," said George, with a strange, wild look glittering in his eyes; "they are all the rage this season; everybody has got them up the river. It's a banjo." "I never knew you played the banjo!" cried Harris and I, in one breath. "Not exactly," replied George: "but it's very easy, they tell me; and I've got the instruction book!" 〔哈里斯和朋友开始了漫长的论战，议题是哈里斯唱的究竟是什么歌。这位朋友最终表示，唱的是什么不要紧，只要哈里斯继续把它唱完，别的没什么可争执的。哈里斯——看得出他正强忍着委屈——示意钢琴师再次开始。这次，钢琴师从海军上将唱词的前奏入手，哈里斯逮住一个在他看来最适合切入的时机，展开了歌喉。〕哈里斯：“当我年轻的时候，去酒吧。”〔房间里爆发出一阵哄笑，但哈里斯以为是喝彩。钢琴师为了自己的妻子和家庭的名誉，决定放弃这个实力悬殊的竞赛。一位神经更加坚强的人接替了他的位置。〕新钢琴师（高兴地说）：“现在，老伙计，你唱，我跟着。不用操心前奏的事儿了。”哈里斯（慢慢地弄清了状况，笑着说）：“噢，天啊！ 不好意思，我承认刚才是把两首歌搞混了。你知道的，都 怪詹金斯，他把我弄糊涂了。开始吧！”〔哈里斯开始唱。他的声音仿佛来自地窖，就像预示着地震将至的第一声低沉的警告。〕“当我年轻的时候，在一家律师事务所当小杂役。”（转头对钢琴师说）：“太低了，老兄；我们得要从头来过，如果你不介意的话。”〔重唱前两句，这次是高亢的假声。观众们大惊。壁炉边那位紧张的老太太哭了起来，只好被领了出去。〕哈里斯（继续）：“我擦窗户，我擦门，我还——”“不，不，我擦大前门的窗户，我给地板打上蜡油—— 不，糟了——不好意思——真奇怪，我记不得歌词啦。 我——我——哎，这样，我们试试看，直接开始唱副歌吧（开始唱）：我滴答－滴答－滴答－滴答－滴答－滴，现在终于成为了女王陛下的海军统帅。进入副歌——副歌简单说来就是最后两句歌词的重复，知道吧。”副歌大合唱：“然后他滴答－滴答－滴答－滴答－滴－ 滴，现在终于成为了女王陛下的海军统帅。”哈里斯永远不会知道他在丢丑，也不会知道他触怒了多少本与他无冤无仇的人。他真心觉得自己给了大家美的享受，还说晚饭后将再献上一曲。提到滑稽歌曲和聚会，我不由得想起一件很有趣的事，当时我也参与其中。它能够为研究人类的内心活动提供帮 助，所以我认为值得借本章的篇幅将它记录下来。作为事件人物的我们，是一群时髦并且相当有教养的绅士淑女。我们身着锦衣华服，口吐妙语连珠，谈笑间眉飞色舞。但是有两个年轻人除外：他们是刚从德国留学回来的普通学生，看得出他们局促不安，似乎在盼着聚会赶快结束。实际上，我们这么聪明，他们根本望尘莫及。我们睿智且显得有教养的谈话，我们高级的品位，远远超出他们的阶层。他们在我们中间是那么格格不入。后来我们一致认为，他们根本就不应该来。我们演奏德国名家的作品片断，讨论哲学和道德。我们优雅地调情。我们甚至很幽默——很高雅的那种幽默。在晚餐时，有人背诵了一首法国诗歌，我们说它很美；一位夫人唱了一首动人的西班牙叙事曲，让一两位观众流 下了热泪，它真是个悲伤的故事。这时，两位年轻人站起来，问我们是否听过斯洛森.博 欣先生（他刚到，此时正在晚餐室里）演唱著名的德国滑 稽歌曲。我们都回答说，不记得听过。两位年轻人说，那是有史以来最好笑的歌曲，如果我们愿意，他们这就去请那位先生过来，他们和他交情很好。他们说这是首超级逗乐的曲子，以至于这位先生为德国君 王演唱过后，他（德国君王）要被抬上床去歇息。他们说世界上没有人的表演能够及得上博欣先生，他在演唱全程中严肃地板着脸，听不懂的人很可能以为他唱的是一出悲剧。当然，这反倒让它更加逗乐。他们说，从他的音调和姿态丝毫看不出内容是好笑的，否则就毁了其乐趣。他的一本正经（或者甚至可以说一腔哀愁）让他的演绎异常滑稽，使人招架不住。我们说非常想听听，以恣情一乐；他们当真下楼去找来这位斯洛森.博欣教授。他看上去很乐意，因为他即刻就上楼来，客套话也免了，直接坐到钢琴边。“噢，它肯定能逗乐你们，请尽情开怀吧，”两位年轻人一边悄声说着，一边穿过房间，在教授身后选了不起眼 的座位坐下。教授自弹自唱。听前奏不像滑稽歌曲，有种奇怪的、惆怅的感觉。但是我们压低声音互相提示，这就是德国人的习惯，然后深吸一口气打算好好欣赏。我本人不懂德语，上学时倒是学过，离开学校两年后就 忘掉了每一个单词，从那以后感觉整个人都舒坦了许多。但话虽如此，我还是不能让别人看出我的无知，所以我绞尽脑汁，想出一个绝妙的主意。我死盯着那两位青年，依葫芦画瓢，他们哧哧笑，我也哧哧笑；他们哈哈笑，我也哈哈笑；我还不时于安静处抛出一两声窃笑，表示我发现了别人未能参透的笑料——我自认这招相当高明。我发现，随着歌曲故事情节的进展，越来越多的人像我那样把眼神粘在两位青年身上。他们像虔诚的学生——你轻笑则我解颐，你大笑则我绝倒。两位青年听得很专心，从头到尾笑声不断，有时哧哧笑，有时哈哈笑，有时还拍桌子打板凳，总之不难学，所以一切进行得非常顺利。然而那位德国教授看起来并不开心。我们刚开始笑的时候，他的表情显出强烈的震撼，仿佛我们的反应是他万万没有料到的。我们觉得这样太有趣了。我们都说，他严肃的表情占了幽默的一大半。他要是流露出半点自知搞笑的表情，那就功亏一篑了。随着我们继续笑个不停，他从惊讶不已变为恼羞成怒。他用喷怒的目光180度扫射台下观众（所以唯一幸免的是坐在他身后的那两位青年，他看不到他们在笑）。这简直乐得我们前俯后仰。我们一边笑，一边喘着气说“可要了命了”。我们说，单是听歌词就能让人一阵阵笑个不停了，但加上那种抵死不认账的严肃劲儿——噢，真绝了！演唱最后一段时，他的演绎达到了出神入化的境界。他对每一个人怒目圆睁、龇牙咧嘴。若不是事先知道这是德国人演绎喜剧的特殊方法，我们估计得吓破胆。他发出凄厉的哀号，曲调奇怪，声音饱蘸着痛苦，若不是事先知 道这是首滑稽歌曲，我们很可能会怅然泪下。歌曲结束时，人们报以一阵狂笑。我们都说这是一辈子听过的最可笑的作品。我们说，德国明明就有这样的杰作，为什么人们会说日尔曼民族没有幽默细胞呢？我们问教授为什么不把歌词翻译成英文呢。应该让普通百姓也来听听什么叫做真正的滑稽歌曲。这时教授站起来，他失控了：他用德语对我们破口大骂（他让我觉得德语在骂人方面特别奏效），暴跳如雷，挥舞着拳头，对我们使用上了他所知道的所有骂人的英语 单词。他说他这辈子从未受过如此的羞辱。原来这首歌根本就不是一首滑稽歌曲。故事的主人公是一位住在哈兹山的年轻姑娘，为拯救恋人的灵魂而献出了生命；恋人死后在天国与她重逢，但在最后一段主歌中，他抛弃了她的幽灵，与另一位幽灵双宿双飞去了。我没法确定所有细节，但可以肯定这是一首相当哀伤的歌曲。教授说他曾为德国君王演唱此歌，让皇帝哭得像个小孩。他（博欣教授）还说这首歌被公认为最悲情、最催人泪下的德语歌曲之一。我们陷入了非常困窘的境地，太尴尬了。没有一个人能够接上话来。我们四下寻找那两位始作俑者，但歌曲结束时他们早已悄无声息地离开了房间。聚会就此结束。我参加过的聚会从没有哪个结束得如此安静，毫不拖泥带水。我们甚至没有互道晚安。下楼梯时，每次只走一个人，脚步都很轻。大家都坚持走阴影下的那侧。到达大门口，压低嗓音向仆人要来衣帽，为自己打开门，闪身出去，迅速地转过街角，尽量不和其他任何人正面相遇。从那以后我对德国歌曲再没了半点兴趣。三点半，我们到达森伯里水闸。快到闸门的地方景色迷人，回水区的河面更是漂亮。但听我告诫，千万别妄想 在那里逆水而行。我尝试过一次。当时轮到我划桨，于是问掌舵的家伙们认为我能逆水划过回水区么。他们说，行啊，只要我用力划，怎么会不行。他们说这话时，我们的船正处在两座 拦河坝中央的小桥下。我弯下腰，握紧船桨，调整好姿势，深呼吸一口，开始奋力划起来。我表现得很出色，出手有力，节奏均匀。我把手臂、大腿和背上每一块肌肉都绷紧起来，划出的每一桨都沉稳、敏捷、冲劲十足。我的姿态美极了。同船的两位朋友说，欣赏当时的我划船，简直是一种享受。5分钟后，我心想离拦河坝应该很近了，抬头一望，我们仍然在小桥下，也就是出发时的位置，而那两个傻子正捧着肚皮大笑，就快要背过气去。我划得这么卖力，只不过让船没有倒退而已！现在我可得了经验了，遇到这种回水区的时候，就怂恿别人上阵。我们划着船到了沃尔顿，作为河畔市镇来说，沃尔顿算是个大镇。与其他河畔市镇一样，它只伸出小小的一角到河边，所以从船里看过去，就像是个总共只有五六间房的小村庄。从伦敦到牛津这一路，只有温莎和阿宾顿在河边露了一小块脸。其他市镇都躲在转角背后，仅仅有一条街是通向河岸的——我要感谢它们如此体贴，把河岸留给 森林、田野和水车。就连雷丁——尽管它极尽能事地毁坏、污染和丑化泰晤士河——在这方面也脾气够好，把它那张丑脸基本上藏了起来。当然，恺撒曾在沃尔顿有一处小小的居所——帐篷或战壕之类的东西。恺撒是个定期泛舟的男人。而伊丽莎白女王当然也去过沃尔顿。你永远没法躲得掉这个女人，不信你可以走着瞧。克伦威尔和布拉德肖（不是那个引路人，而是查尔斯一世的护卫队长）都曾在此小住。幻想一下这 几个人聚到一起的场景，可有好戏看啊！在沃尔顿教堂有个铁制的“恶妇的马勒”。古时候他 们用这种类似套马头的马勒一般的玩意拴住女人的舌头。 现在这种做法已经失传。我想，大概是因为铁越来越稀有，其他材料又不够坚硬吧。在沃尔顿教堂墓地，照样有很多著名的坟墓，我特别担心经过那里的时候，哈里斯又不肯离去。幸好他似乎没有想起这一茬，于是我们顺利地继续前进了。过了桥后河流变得非常曲折，相应地，风景也变得如画般美丽。但是就划桨或拉纤来说，这样的地方让人满肚子火气，所以划桨人和掌舵人之间的骂战也频频发生。右岸会经过奥特兰公园，一个有名的老地方，亨利八世从某人（是谁我不记得了）手里夺过来，自己住了进去。公园里有个岩洞，交钱可以进去参观。本以为很棒，但是我没有看出什么名堂来。已故的约克女公爵住在奥特兰，她爱狗如命，和一大群爱犬生活在一起，还专门开辟了特殊的墓地埋葬其爱犬。现在长眠在墓地里的狗差不多有50 只，每只都有自己的墓碑，上面都刻有墓志铭。呵呵，我想说它们和普通的基督徒一样，配得上享受这样的待遇。在沃尔顿桥上游的第一个转角，能看到“考威木桩”。恺撒和卡西瓦拉奴斯曾于此处大战一场。卡西瓦拉奴斯在河上下了一番功夫，种满了木桩（当然也没忘挂出一块告示板）。但是恺撒照样过了河。你可不能指望用一条河挡住恺撒。要知道，他是在回水区逆流而行时我们需要的那 种强大的男人！哈里福德和谢珀顿都是泰晤士河边挺不错的两个地方，但它们都没有什么特别之处。但是在谢珀顿的教堂坟地，某块墓碑上刻有一首诗，这让我很担心，生怕哈里斯会想要下船去瞻仰瞻仰。当我们靠近那里，我发现他死死地盯着码头，眼里还闪烁着渴望的光芒。所以我故意耍了个手腕，机灵地一动，使他的帽子飞到河里。在帽子失而复得的兴奋以及对我的笨拙的强烈谴责中，他全然忘记了 心仪的坟墓。到了韦布里奇，只见韦河（一条可爱的小河，如果是小船，可以沿着它航行至基尔福德，我一直计划要沿着它 探险，但至今未能成行）、伯恩河和贝辛斯托克运河都在此流入泰晤士河。水闸就在小镇对面。在我们视野中率先出现的，是其中一道水闸门上的一件鲜亮的运动衫，再定睛一看，套在里面的正是乔治。蒙特莫伦西发出一阵狂吠，我尖叫，哈里斯咆哮；乔治挥舞帽子，也放开嗓门回应我们。水闸管理员拖着打捞专用的大网飞奔出来，看来他以为有人掉进水闸了，当发现没有人溺水时，这位伙计明显很生气。乔治手里拿着一个相当奇怪的油布包，一端又圆又扁，另一端是又长又直的柄。“那是什么？”哈里斯问，“煎锅？”“不，”乔治回答时眼睛里闪动着陌生的、迷乱的小火星，“这可是当下最流行的东西，在河上，那可是人手一 把啊。它叫做：班－卓－琴！”“你什么时候会弹班卓琴的！”我和哈里斯异口同声地 惊呼。“也不算是会，”乔治答道，“但别人告诉我，弹起来很简单，而且我带上了学习指南呢！”

CHAPTER IX.

第九章

GEORGE IS INTRODUCED TO WORK.—HEATHENISHINSTINCTS OF TOW-LINES.—UNGRATEFUL CONDUCTOF A DOUBLE-SCULLING SKIFF.—TOWERS AND TOWED.—A USE DI SCOVERED FOR LOVERS.—STRANGEDISAPPEARANCE OF AN ELDERLY LADY.—MUCH HASTE, LESS SPEED.—BEING TOWED BY GIRLS: EXCITINGSENSATION.—THE MISSING LOCK OR THE HAUNTEDRIVER.—MUSIC.—SAVED!

我们要乔治干活——纤绳的异教徒本性——双桨小船的忘恩负义之举——拉纤的人和船上的人——搭上情侣的顺风车——老太太的离奇失踪——欲速则不达——坐女孩们拉纤的船非常刺激——河上闹鬼、水闸失踪——音乐——得救！

We made George work, now we had got him. He did not want to work, of course; that goes without saying. He had had a hard time in the City, so he explained. Harris, who is callous in his nature, and not prone to pity, said: "Ah! and now you are going to have a hard time on the river for a change; change is good for everyone. Out you get!"

现在有了乔治，我们就得让他干活。当然，他可不愿意干活，这自不必说。他解释说自己在城里劳苦了一整天，现在已经很累了。哈里斯天生心肠硬，轻易不舍得怜悯谁，他说：“行啊！那你现在就换成在河上劳苦。改变工作内容有利身心健康。快去！”

He could not in conscience—not even George's conscience—object, though he did suggest that, perhaps, it would be better for him to stop in the boat, and get tea ready, while Harris and I towed, because getting tea was such a worrying work, and Harris and I looked tired. The only reply we made to this, however, was to pass him over the towline, and he took it, and stepped out.

他凭良心（即使是乔治的良心）讲，找不出话来反驳，尽管他还是挣扎了一小下，暗示可能自己更适合呆在船上煮茶，把拉纤的机会让给我和哈里斯。理由是煮茶很让人焦虑，而我和哈里斯看上去已经满脸倦容，不应该再劳烦我们。我们懒得回答，直接把纤绳递给他。乔治只好接过来上了岸。

There is something very strange and unaccountable about a tow-line. You roll it up with as much patience and care as you would take to fold up a new pair of trousers, and five minutes afterwards, when you pick it up, it is one ghastly, soul-revolting tangle.

纤绳是很奇怪的、让人捉摸不透的东西。你把它收起来的时候，就像折叠新裤子一样，充满耐心，呵护备至。5分钟后去取它出来，这家伙已经成为一团气死人不偿命的可怕乱麻。

I do not wish to be insulting, but I firmly believe that if you took an average tow-line, and stretched it out straight across the middle of a field, and then turned your back on it for thirty seconds, that, when you looked round again, you would find that it had got itself altogether in a heap in the middle of the field, and had twisted itself up, and tied itself into knots, and lost its two ends, and become all loops; and it would take you a good half-hour, sitting down there on the grass and swearing all the while, to disentangle it again.

我不是在刻意攻击，我真心相信，如果拿出一条普通的纤绳，在地上拉直放好，转背只需30秒，它已经在院中央缩成了一堆。想必它自己翻滚扭转，给自己打上疙瘩，藏好两端的头，成为无数的圈；你得花上大半个小时，坐在草地上，一边骂娘一边解疙瘩。

That is my opinion of tow-lines in general. Of course, there may be honourable exceptions; I do not say that there are not. There may be tow-lines that are a credit to their profession-conscientious, respectable tow-lines—tow-lines that do not imagine they are crochet-work, and try to knit themselves up into antimacassars the instant they are left to themselves. I say there MAY be such tow-lines; I sincerely hope there are. But I have not met with them.

这是我对纤绳的整体印象。当然，不排除有一些纤绳是高尚的；我可没说一定没例外。也许有些有道德的、值得尊敬的纤绳，它们很争气，不会幻想自己是纺织品、当人们一转背就把自己织成沙发罩子。我说的是也许存在，我真诚地希望有，但是我本人至今没遇到过。

This tow-line I had taken in myself just before we had got to the lock. I would not let Harris touch it, because he is careless. I had looped it round slowly and cautiously, and tied it up in the middle, and folded it in two, and laid it down gently at the bottom of the boat. Harris had lifted it up scientifically, and had put it into George's hand. George had taken it firmly, and held it away from him, and had begun to unravel it as if he were taking the swaddling clothes off a new-born infant; and, before he had unwound a dozen yards, the thing was more like a badly-made door-mat than anything else.

这条纤绳是我在到达水闸前亲自拿上船的，可没敢让粗心的哈里斯碰它。我慢慢地、小心地把它一圈一圈卷好，从中间扎稳，轻轻放在船舱底部。哈里斯用很科学的方法捧起它，放到乔治手心里。乔治接过来，稳稳当当地拿下船，用给初生婴儿脱襁褓那样的小心劲儿开始将其解开。还没等他解出12码来，剩下那团东西已经活脱脱像是做工欠佳的门前棕垫了。

It is always the same, and the same sort of thing always goes on in connection with it. The man on the bank, who is trying to disentangle it, thinks all the fault lies with the man who rolled it up; and when a man up the river thinks a thing, he says it. "What have you been trying to do with it, make a fishing-net of it? You've made a nice mess you have; why couldn't you wind it up properly, you silly dummy?" he grunts from time to time as he struggles wildly with it, and lays it out fl at on the tow-path, and runs round and round it, trying to find the end.

纤绳总是上演这样的戏码，而引发的争斗也都千篇一律。在岸上的那个人费力地解着死结，认为都怪收拾纤绳的那个人。在河上，人们通常想到什么就说什么，所以他脱口而出：“你到底对它做了什么？想把它弄成渔网？你真是搞得一团糟，就不能好好地收拾么，你这呆头蠢货！”口中时不时地冒出几句抱怨，手中一刻也不闲着，与纤绳殊死搏斗。后来干脆将它平放在纤道上，绕着它转圈，想要找出绳的两端来。

On the other hand, the man who wound it up thinks the whole cause of the muddle rests with the man who is trying to unwind it. "It was all right when you took it!" he exclaims indignantly. "Why don't you think what you are doing? You go about things in such a slap-dash style. You'd get a scaffolding pole entangled you would!"

另一方面，收拾纤绳的人认为这一团糟的局面全都是岸上那人一手造成的。“你拿走的时候还是好好的！”他愤怒地吼道，“你怎么不想想自己做了什么？你做事情总是这么毛毛躁躁的。估计连手脚架的杆子也能被你打上结！”

And they feel so angry with one another that they would like to hang each other with the thing.

他俩怒不可遏，吵得不可开交，都恨不得用那条东西把对方绞死。

Ten minutes go by, and the first man gives a yell and goes mad, and dances on the rope, and tries to pull it straight by seizing hold of the first piece that comes to his hand and hauling at it. Of course, this only gets it into a tighter tangle than ever. Then the second man climbs out of the boat and comes to help him, and they get in each other's way, and hinder one another. They both get hold of the same bit of line, and pull at it in opposite directions, and wonder where it is caught. In the end, they do get it clear, and then turn round and find that the boat has drifted off, and is making straight for the weir.

10分钟后，第一个人发出一声哀号发疯了。他踩着纤绳蹦啊蹦，一把抓起紧挨手边的那截绳子，使劲地拽，梦想着一举解套。不用说，结果只会越套越牢。第二个人爬下船过来帮忙，但结果他俩互相阻挠、互帮倒忙。他们会抓住同一段绳子，死命朝着相反方向拉，还搞不懂到底是哪里绊住了，怎么会拉不动。最后当他们终于解开所有疙瘩后，转头一看，小船已经随风而去，更糟糕的是，漂行的方向直指可怕的拦河坝。

This really happened once to my own knowledge. It was up by Boveney, one rather windy morning. We were pulling down stream, and, as we came round the bend, we noticed a couple of men on the bank. They were looking at each other with as bewildered and helplessly miserable expression as I have ever witnessed on any human countenance before or since, and they held a long tow-line between them. It was clear that something had happened, so we eased up and asked them what was the matter.

我亲眼目睹过这样一场闹剧。地点是布文奈，时间是一个刮大风的清晨。我们顺流而下，拐过转角，看到岸上立着两个人。他们相互对视，表情极其慌乱无助。我从未曾（后来也再没有）在人脸上看到过这样的表情。两人之间拖着一段纤绳。这背后肯定有故事，所以我们放慢速度，问他们出了啥事。

"Why, our boat's gone off!" they replied in an indignant tone. "We just got out to disentangle the tow-line, and when we looked round, it was gone!”

“噢，我们的船漂走了！”他们愤怒地回答，“我们下船来解这条纤绳，转头一看，船没了！”

And they seemed hurt at what they evidently regarded as a mean and ungrateful act on the part of the boat.

从他们受伤的表情明显可以看出，他们认为船这样做，实在是卑鄙、下流、忘恩负义。

We found the truant for them half a mile further down, held by some rushes, and we brought it back to them. I bet they did not give that boat another chance for a week.

继续前进了半英里，我们找到了那条逃跑的船，搁浅在灯心草草丛中。我们把船给他们拖了回去。我敢打包票，接下来至少一个星期内，他们都没有给那船再次出逃的机会。

I shall never forget the picture of those two men walking up and down the bank with a tow-line, looking for their boat.

我永远忘不了那幅画面——两个大男人牵着一条纤绳，沿着河岸踟躇徘徊，寻找一条失踪的船。

One sees a good many funny incidents up the river in connection with towing. One of the most common is the sight of a couple of towers, walking briskly along, deep in an animated discussion, while the man in the boat, a hundred yards behind them, is vainly shrieking to them to stop, and making frantic signs of distress with a scull. Something has gone wrong; the rudder has come off, or the boat-hook has slipped overboard, or his hat has dropped into the water and is floating rapidly down stream.

在河上，与拉纤有关的奇闻怪事屡见不鲜。最寻常的场景如下：两名“纤夫”在前面轻快地走着，正辩论得面红耳赤，后面一百码左右，留在船上的那个人在徒劳地尖叫，求他们停下，还举着船桨在空中打手势呼救。一定是出了什么问题：可能船舵脱落了，可能船钩掉河里了，也可能他的帽子掉进河里、被湍急的水流冲走了。

He calls to them to stop, quite gently and politely at first.

刚开始请他们停下来的时候，他保持着温文尔雅的风度。

"Hi! stop a minute, will you?" he shouts cheerily. "I've dropped my hat over-board.”

“嘿！你们可不可以停下来一分钟啊？”他快乐地喊道，“我的帽子掉下船了。”

Then: "Hi! Tom—Dick! can't you hear?" not quite so affably this time.

接着就不那么和蔼了：“嘿！汤姆，狄克！你们听见了吗？”

Then: "Hi! Confound YOU, you dunder-headed idiots! Hi! stop! Oh you—!”

然后变成：“嘿！天杀的！你们这两头猪！嘿！停下！你、你们——!"

After that he springs up, and dances about, and roars himself red in the face, and curses everything he knows. And the small boys on the bank stop and jeer at him, and pitch stones at him as he is pulled along past them, at the rate of four miles an hour, and can't get out.

接着他坐不住了，上蹿下跳，仰天咆哮，脸都憋成了猪肝色。一开骂就再也停不下来，想到什么就骂什么。岸上的小孩们围观他、嘲笑他，还向他扔石子。他随着船以每小时4英里的速度前进，又下不去船。

Much of this sort of trouble would be saved if those who are to wing would keep remembering that they are towing, and give a pretty frequent look round to see how their man is getting on. It is best to let one person tow. When two are doing it, they get chattering, and forget, and the boat itself, offering, as it does, but little resistance, is of no real service in reminding them of the fact.

其实这种闹剧大多可以轻易避免，只需要满足一点，即拉纤的人时刻记住自己正在拉纤，时不时回头看看船上的朋友怎么样。拉纤这活儿最好是一个人干，两个人在一起总会聊天，一投入就忘了自己在干什么。船提供的那点阻力，还不足以把他们拉回现实世界。

As an example of how utterly oblivious a pair of towers can be to their work, George told us, later on in the evening, when we were discussing the subject after supper, of a very curious instance.

为了说明两个人同时拉纤能把自己的工作遗忘得多么彻底，那天晚饭后闲聊的时候，乔治讲了这么一个稀奇的故事。

He and three other men, so he said, were sculling a very heavily laden boat up from Maidenhead one evening, and a little above Cookham lock they noticed a fellow and a girl, walking along the towpath, both deep in an apparently interesting and absorbing conversation. They were carrying a boat-hook between them, and, attached to the boathook was a tow-line, which trailed behind them, its end in the water. No boat was near, no boat was in sight. There must have been a boat attached to that tow-line at some time or other, that was certain; but what had become of it, what ghastly fate had overtaken it, and those who had been left in it, was buried in mystery. Whatever the accident may have been, however, it had in no way disturbed the young lady and gentleman, who were towing. They had the boat-hook and they had the line, and that seemed to be all that they thought necessary to their work.

一天傍晚，乔治和另外3个人划着一条满载的船离开了梅登黑德。在库克汉姆水闸上游一点的地方，他们看到一对男女在纤道上边走边聊，看上去聊天的内容相当有趣，双方都很投入。他们抬着一个船钩，船钩上系着一条纤绳，拖在他们身后，绳的另一端浸在水里。但是，附近没有船，视线所及之处都没有船。不用怀疑，一定曾经有一条船连在这条纤绳上。可它去了哪里、它和留在船上的人们遭遇到了什么样的残酷命运，恐怕永远是一个谜。无论发生了什么样的意外，总之没能惊动拉纤的那对年轻男女。他们抬着船钩，上面拴着纤绳，这似乎就够了，这就是他们工作内容的全部。

George was about to call out and wake them up, but, at that moment, a bright idea f lashed across him, and he didn't. He got the hitcher instead, and reached over, and drew in the end of the tow-line; and they made a loop in it, and put it over their mast, and then they tidied up the sculls, and went and sat down in the stern, and lit their pipes.

乔治刚想把他们从梦中喊醒，突然脑子里灵光一现，想出一个绝妙的主意，于是闭上了张到一半的嘴。他把船悄悄划过去，将自家船的船钩挂到那条纤绳后面，打上结，挂到船桅上。于是他们收拾好船桨，靠着船舷坐下，悠然地点上了烟斗。

And that young man and young woman towed those four hulking chaps and a heavy boat up to Marlow.

就这样，那对年轻男女把四位彪形大汉和一条满舱的船生生拖到了马洛。

George said he never saw so much thoughtful sadness concentrated into one glance before, as when, at the lock, that young couple grasped the idea that, for the last two miles, they had been towing the wrong boat. George fancied that, if it had not been for the restraining influence of the sweet woman at his side, the young man might have given way to violent language.

乔治说，到了水闸，当两位年轻人发现这两英里都拖错了船的时候，他们的眼神里千言万语也道不尽的悲伤，是他这辈子从来没有见过的。乔治猜测道，如果不是身边那位可爱的女士在无形中束缚了他，那位小伙子很可能会忍不住口出污言秽语。

The maiden was the first to recover from her surprise, and, when she did, she clasped her hands, and said, wildly: "Oh, Henry, then WHERE is auntie?"

当时，那位年轻小姐率先从震惊中清醒过来，她双手合十，慌张地问：“啊！亨利，那姨妈到哪里去了？”

"Did they ever recover the old lady?" asked Harris. George replied he did not know.

哈里斯问：“那么他们最后找到那位老人家了吗？”乔治说他也不知道。

Another example of the dangerous want of sympathy between tower and towed was witnessed by George and myself once up near Walton. It was where the tow-path shelves gently down into the water, and we were camping on the opposite bank, noticing things in general. By-and-by a small boat came in sight, towed through the water at a tremendous pace by a powerful barge horse, on which sat a very small boy. Scattered about the boat, in dreamy and reposeful attitudes, lay five fellows, the man who was steering having a particularly restful appearance.

关于拉纤者和船上留守者之间缺乏默契的危险的另外一个例子，是我和乔治在沃尔顿水库附近见证的。那里的纤道坡度缓慢地没入水中，我们在对岸支起帐篷，开始悠闲地观察四周的动静。不一会儿，一条小船进入视野。拖船的是一匹强壮的驳船马，正以很快的速度前进，马上坐着一个小男孩。船上四散躺卧着五个家伙，脸上都是迷迷糊糊的梦游表情，尤其是掌舵的那位——你几乎分不清他是醒着还是睡着。

"I should like to see him pull the wrong line," murmured George, as they passed. And at that precise moment the man did it, and the boat rushed up the bank with a noise like the ripping up of forty thousand linen sheets. Two men, a hamper, and three oars immediately left the boat on the larboard side, and reclined on the bank, and one and a half moments afterwards, two other men disembarked from the starboard, and sat down among boat-hooks and sails and carpet-bags and bottles. The last man went on twenty yards further, and then got out on his head.

他们经过的时候，乔治喃喃地说：“我可真希望他拉错舵绳。”话刚出口就灵验了——船撞在堤岸上，有撕碎4万张亚麻席发出的那么大噪音。两个人、1只食物篮、3只桨从左船舷飞出，铺散在岸上。过了一个半拍后，另外两个人从右船舷飞出，着陆在船钩、船帆、旅行袋和玻璃瓶之中。还有一个人跟着船继续前行了20码，最后飞出来，以头朝下的姿势优美着陆。

This seemed to sort of lighten the boat, and it went on much easier, the small boy shouting at the top of his voice, and urging his steed into a gallop. The fellows sat up and stared at one another. It was some seconds before they realised what had happened to them, but, when they did, they began to shout lustily for the boy to stop. He, however, was too much occupied with the horse to hear them, and we watched them, flying after him, until the distance hid them from view.

似乎因为船减轻了重量，更加容易前进了，小孩这下春风得意，全力吆喝着马全速前进。原本躺在船上的人们一不留神已经坐在岸上，他们大眼瞪小眼，愣了足有几秒钟，才弄清楚发生了怎么一回事，赶忙大喊大叫，要小孩快停下来。然而这小孩一心扑在马身上，什么也听不见。我们看着他们在马蹄后狂追，慢慢地从我们的视野里消失了。

I cannot say I was sorry at their mishap. Indeed, I only wish that all the young fools who have their boats towed in this fashion—and plenty do—could meet with similar misfortunes. Besides the risk they run themselves, they become a danger and an annoyance to every other boat they pass. Going at the pace they do, it is impossible for them to get out of anybody else's way, or for anybody else to get out of theirs. Their line gets hitched across your mast, and overturns you, or it catches somebody in the boat, and either throws them into the water, or cuts their face open. The best plan is to stand your ground, and be prepared to keep them off with the butt-end of a mast.

说实话，我并不为他们的不幸感到遗憾。其实我希望所有用这种方式拉船的傻小子们（这样的人相当多）通通遭遇这种厄运。这些人不仅自己担了风险，还给路过的所有船带来危险和阻碍。以那么快的速度前进，他们来不及避开别人，别人也来不及躲开他们。他们的纤绳会缠到你的桅杆上把你的船掀翻，或者缠到船上乘客，把他们抛进水中，或者在他们的脸上划出道血口子。遇到这些人，最好的对策是敌动我不动，自己先稳住，作好一切准备，当他们靠过来的时候，用桅杆屁股把他们支开。

Of all experiences in connection with towing, the most exciting is being towed by girls. It is a sensation that nobody ought to miss. It takes three girls to tow always; two hold the rope, and the other one runs round and round, and giggles. They generally begin by getting themselves tied up. They get the line round their legs, and have to sit down on the path and undo each other, and then they twist it round their necks, and are nearly strangled. They fix it straight, however, at last, and start off at a run, pulling the boat along at quite a dangerous pace. At the end of a hundred yards they are naturally breathless, and suddenly stop, and all sit down on the grass and laugh, and your boat drifts out to mid-stream and turns round, before you know what has happened, or can get hold of a scull. Then they stand up, and are surprised.

在所有与拉纤有关的经历中，最激动人心的莫过于坐女孩们拉纤的船。这种滋味蚀骨销魂，错过了你的人生就不完整了。女孩子拉纤的话，一定得要3个人；其中两个人负责抬纤绳，第3个人负责绕着她们转圈并洒下一路银铃般的笑声。一般说来，她们最先出的状况是不小心用纤绳把自己缠了起来。她们的腿被缠住，只好坐在纤道边互相解开，接着脖子又被缠上，还差点窒息而死。然而，最终她们还是能够挣脱束缚，奔跑起来，浑然不知用这种速度拉纤是很危险的。跑了100码后，自然已经上气不接下气，就突然止步，坐到草地上笑成一团。你不知道发生了什么事，还没来得及握起船桨自救，船已经被冲到河中心，开始转圈。她们站起来，满脸惊讶。

"Oh, look!" they say; "he's gone right out into the middle."

“快瞧！”她们说，“他到河中心了。”

They pull on pretty steadily for a bit, after this, and then it all at once occurs to one of them that she will pin up her frock, and they ease up for the purpose, and the boat runs aground.

此后她们总算用比较均匀的速度拉了一段，接着其中一位突然想整理自己的连衣裙，把下摆卷起来。于是她们再次放慢脚步。这下船搁浅了。

You jump up, and push it off, and you shout to them not to stop.

你跳到河里，把船推离浅滩，对她们大喊“别停下”。

"Yes. What's the matter?" they shout back.

“啊？什么事？”她们也大喊。

"Don't stop," you roar.

“别停下！”你咆哮道。

"Don't what?"

“别什么？”

"Don't stop—go on—go on!”

“别停下！往前走，往前！”

"Go back, Emily, and see what it is they want," says one; and Emily comes back, and asks what it is.

“艾米丽，你回船上去问问他们想说什么，”其中一位建议道。于是艾米丽回来传话。

"What do you want?" she says; "anything happened?"

“你们想要什么？”她问，“出什么事了？”

"No," you reply, "it's all right; only go on, you know—don't stop."

“没事，”你回答，“一切正常，只是让你们往前，知道吗,别停下。”

"Why not?"

“为什么不能停下？”

"Why, we can't steer, if you keep stopping. You must keep some way on the boat."

“如果你们走走停停，我们就没法掌握方向。得要让船有路”

"Keep some what?"

“有什么？”

"Some way—you must keep the boat moving.”

“有路——也就是说，让船有前进的余地。”

"Oh, all right, I'll tell em. Are we doing it all right?"

“噢，好的，我转告她们。到现在为止我们做得还好吧？”

"Oh, yes, very nicely, indeed, only don't stop."

“啊，对，很好，真的很好，不过千万别停下。”

"It doesn't seem difficult at all. I thought it was so hard."

“看来一点都不难嘛。我原来以为拉纤是很难的。”

"Oh, no, it's simple enough. You want to keep on steady at it, that's all."

“啊，不难，很简单。只要保持稳定的速度，就这么一条得记住。”

"I see. Give me out my red shawl, it's under the cushion."

“知道啦。把我的红色披肩递给我，就在靠垫下面。”

You find the shawl, and hand it out, and by this time another one has come back and thinks she will have hers too, and they take Mary's on chance, and Mary does not want it, so they bring it back and have a pocket-comb instead. It is about twenty minutes before they get off again, and, at the next corner, they see a cow, and you have to leave the boat to chivy the cow out of their way.

你找出披肩递上去，这时候另外一位女孩也回来要她的披肩，最后俩人还带走了玛丽的披肩，担心玛丽呆会儿也想要她的，然而玛丽不想要，所以她们把那披肩送回来，换了一把便携小梳子。她们再次出发，已经是20分钟以后了。纤道拐了个弯，前方出现一头母牛，你只得下船去为女孩们赶牛。

There is never a dull moment in the boat while girls are towing it.

所以只要女孩们拉纤，在船上绝对不会无聊憋闷。

George got the line right after a while, and towed us steadily on to Penton Hook. There we discussed the important question of camping. We had decided to sleep on board that night, and we had either to lay up just about there, or go on past Staines. It seemed early to think about shutting up then, however, with the sun still in the heavens, and we settled to push straight on for Runnymead, three and a half miles further, a quiet wooded part of the river, and where there is good shelter.

言归正传，乔治搞定纤绳后，稳稳当当地把我们拖过了蓬特恩。我们开始讨论宿营这一重大问题，最后决定当晚就在船上过夜，在原地泊着或者划过斯泰恩斯去都行。当时太阳还悬在空中，就此歇桨似乎为时过早，所以我们决定继续前行，目的地是3.5英里外的罗尼米德，那里安静宜人，绿树成阴，是泊船的上选之地。

We all wished, however, afterward that we had stopped at Penton Hook. Three or four miles up stream is a trifle, early in the morning, but it is a weary pull at the end of a long day. You take no interest in the scenery during these last few miles. You do not chat and laugh. Every half-mile you cover seems like two. You can hardly believe you are only where you are, and you are convinced that the map must be wrong; and, when you have trudged along for what seems to you at least ten miles, and still the lock is not in sight, you begin to seriously fear that somebody must have sneaked it, and run off with it.

然而，后来我们都希望当时停在了蓬特恩湾。如果是上午，划三四英里是小菜一碟，但是在漫长的一天的末尾，可就是酷刑了。在这最后几英里，你们根本没有心情看风景，没有力气谈笑。每划半英里，感觉就像划了两英里。你几乎不敢相信船在它实际的位置，坚信地图出了错。当你认为已经前进了超过10英里时，水闸还不见影子。你开始严肃地思考是否有人偷偷把水闸揣在兜里跑掉了。

I remember being terribly upset once up the river (in a figurative sense, I mean). I was out with a young lady—cousin on my mother's side—and we were pulling down to Goring. It was rather late, and we were anxious to get in—at least SHE was anxious to get in. It was half-past six when we reached Benson's lock, and dusk was drawing on, and she began to get excited then. She said she must be in to supper. I said it was a thing I felt I wanted to be in at, too; and I drew out a map I had with me to see exactly how far it was. I saw it was just a mile and a half to the next lock—Wallingford—and five on from there to Cleeve.

记得有次我在河上被弄得极端沮丧（当然有点夸张）。我和一位年轻的女士（我母亲那边的表妹）同路划船去戈灵。那天时间很晚了，我们急于靠岸——至少她很着急。我们到达本森水闸时已经六点半了，暮色开始吞噬万物，表妹激动起来。她说一定要在晚饭前赶回去。我说我也正有此意。我拿出随身带的地图，想看看到底还有多远。我们还有1.5英里就到达下一个水闸——沃灵福德，过了沃灵福德还有5英里就到克利夫。

"Oh, it's all right!" I said. "We'll be through the next lock before seven, and then there is only one more;" and I settled down and pulled steadily away.

“噢，没问题！”我说，“7点前就能通过下一个水闸，接着再过一个水闸就行了。”我说完坐下，一板一眼地划起来。

We passed the bridge, and soon after that I asked if she saw the lock. She said no, she did not see any lock; and I said, "Oh!" and pulled on. Another five minutes went by, and then I asked her to look again.

我们过了那座桥后不久，我就问她有没有看到水闸。她说没有，根本就没有什么水闸。我说“噢！”，然后继续划。又过了5分钟，我让她再看看。

"No," she said; "I can't see any signs of a lock."

“没有，”她说，“我没有看到，哪怕一个影子也没有。”

"You—you are sure you know a lock, when you do see one?" I asked hesitatingly, not wishing to offend her.

“你，嗯，你确定如果看到水闸你可以认出它吗？”我战战兢兢地提出这个问题——我并不想冒犯她。

The question did offend her, however, and she suggested that I had better look for myself; so I laid down the sculls, and took a view. The river stretched out straight before us in the twilight for about a mile; not a ghost of a lock was to be seen.

但是这个问题的确冒犯了她。她建议我亲自看看，所以我放下船桨，来到船头极目远眺，在冥冥薄暮中可以看到前方一英里的河面，但要说水闸的话，却连个鬼影都看不见。

"You don't think we have lost our way, do you?" asked my companion.

“你不觉得我们迷路了吗？”表妹问我。

I did not see how that was possible; though, as I suggested, we might have somehow got into the weir stream, and be making for the falls.

我不觉得有这种可能。但我表示，我们可能稀里糊涂地卷入了拦河坝的水流，前进的方向有可能是瀑布深渊。

This idea did not comfort her in the least, and she began to cry. She said we should both be drowned, and that it was a judgment on her for coming out with me.

这一观点没能安慰她，反而让她哭起来。她说我们都会被淹死，这是神因为她跟我出来对她的惩罚。

It seemed an excessive punishment, I thought; but my cousin thought not, and hoped it would all soon be over.

我想这个惩罚也太过分了吧，但表妹不这么认为，她只是希望能够死得痛快点，少受点罪。

I tried to reassure her, and to make light of the whole affair. I said that the fact evidently was that I was not rowing as fast as I fancied I was, but that we should soon reach the lock now; and I pulled on for another mile.

我试图让她镇定下来，不要把事情想象得那么严重。我说其实是我划得没有自己想的那么快，但也用不了很久了，水闸就在前方呢，就快到了。这么说着我又划了一英里。

Then I began to get nervous myself. I looked again at the map. There was Wallingford lock, clearly marked, a mile and a half below Benson's. It was a good, reliable map; and, besides, I recollected the lock myself. I had been through it twice. Where were we? What had happened to us? I began to think it must be all a dream, and that I was really asleep in bed, and should wake up in a minute, and be told it was past ten.

过了会儿我也开始不安起来。我再次摊开地图，上面清清楚楚显示沃灵福德水闸就在本森水闸后一英里半的地方。这是一张可靠的地图，而且我自己也记得这水闸，我曾两次经过它。我们到底在哪里？发生了什么事？我开始觉得这一定是个梦，现实中的我正躺在床上，也许再过一分钟就会有人把我叫醒，告诉我已经是早上10点多了。

I asked my cousin if she thought it could be a dream, and she replied that she was just about to ask me the same question; and then we both wondered if we were both asleep, and if so, who was the real one that was dreaming, and who was the one that was only a dream; it got quite interesting.

我问表妹这是不是一个梦，她说，她正想问我同样的问题。我们开始好奇这么个问题：如果俩人都睡着了，那么谁是做梦的那个人，谁只是梦里的虚幻人物呢？真是越想越有趣。

I still went on pulling, however, and still no lock came in sight, and the river grew more and more gloomy and mysterious under the gathering shadows of night, and things seemed to be getting weird and uncanny. I thought of hobgoblins and banshees, and will-o'-the-wisps, and those wicked girls who sit up all night on rocks, and lure people into whirl-pools and things; and I wished I had been a better man, and knew more hymns; and in the middle of these reflections I heard the blessed strains of "He's got em on", played badly on a concertina, and knew that we were saved.

我继续往前划，而水闸始终没有出现。夜的阴影越来越浓重，河面变得阴森诡秘，万物都开始显得古怪离奇。我想到了小妖怪、报丧女妖、幻影鬼界和那些整夜坐在岩石上、将人们引向漩涡和厄运的邪恶女孩；我开始希望自己曾是个更好的人，记得住更多赞美诗；正在这样思绪万千的时候，突然听到飘来《他全都有》这首曲子。它来自某架六角手风琴，而且还弹得很差劲，但我知道我们得救了。

I do not admire the tones of a concertina, as a rule; but, oh! How beautiful the music seemed to us both then—far, far more beautiful than the voice of Orpheus or the lute of Apollo, or anything of that sort could have sounded. Heavenly melody, in our then state of mind, would only have still further harrowed us. A soul-moving harmony, correctly performed, we should have taken as a spirit-warning, and have given up all hope. But about the strains of "He's got em on", jerked spasmodically, and with involuntary variations, out of a wheezy accordion, there was something singularly human and reassuring.

我向来不喜欢听六角手风琴，但是——啊！——那天的音乐在我们耳中是那么动听，远远胜过奥菲士的歌喉、阿波罗的诗琴或其他任何天籁。在那种精神状态下，像是天堂传来的音乐只会让我们更为恐慌。一曲不走调的动情协奏曲，会让我们以为听到了神灵的警示，放弃所有的希望。然而《他全都有》这么首粗俗的曲子，时断时续如同抽筋，还不时弹错，从破风箱般的手风琴里传出，就充满人性的温情，特别让人安心。

The sweet sounds drew nearer, and soon the boat from which they were worked lay alongside us.

甜美的音乐逐渐近了，不一会儿，奏乐的那艘船就和我们的船并肩靠在了一起。

It contained a party of provincial érrys and érriets, out for a moonlight sail. (There was not any moon, but that was not their fault.) I never saw more attractive, lovable people in all my life. I hailed them, and asked if they could tell me the way to Wallingford lock; and I explained that I had been looking for it for the last two hours.

船里是一群乡下姑娘和乡下小伙，正出来泛舟赏月（天上没有月亮，但这不是他们的错）。我这辈子从未遇到过如此有魅力、如此可爱的一群人。我向他们问好，请教如何去沃灵福德水闸，我说我们找这个水闸已经找了两个小时。

"Wallingford lock!" they answered. "Lor' love you, sir, that's been done away with for over a year. There ain't no Wallingford lock now, sir. You're close to Cleeve now. Blow me tight if ere ain't a gentleman been looking for Wallingford lock, Bill!"

“沃灵福德水闸！”他们回答，“先生，愿上帝的爱与您同在！它被拆掉一年多了。先生，现在可没有什么沃灵福德水闸。现在已经接近克利夫啦。比尔，如果没有一位先生在问我沃灵福德水闸怎么走，你就一耳光扇醒我！”

I had never thought of that. I wanted to fall upon all their necks and bless them; but the stream was running too strong just there to allow of this, so I had to content myself with mere cold-sounding words of gratitude.

我根本没料到是这么一回事。我想要拥抱他们，祈祷天主赐福给他们，但是水流太急促，不允许我跳到他们船上去，所以我只能用话语来表达感激之情。但是听上去冷冰冰的话语怎么能够表达尽我的心意呢？

We thanked them over and over again, and we said it was a lovely night, and we wished them a pleasant trip, and, I think, I invited the mall to come and spend a week with me, and my cousin said her mother would be so pleased to see them. And we sang the soldiers' chorus out of FAUST, and got home in time for supper, after all.

我们不厌其烦地再三感谢他们，我们说这真是一个美妙的夜晚，祝愿他们旅途愉快。我记得，我似乎还邀请他们集体去我家玩上一个星期，我的表妹也说她的母亲会很高兴见到他们。我俩齐唱歌剧《浮士德》里士兵们的合唱曲，抒发内心的喜悦。最后那天总算赶在晚饭时间回到了家中。

CHAPTER X.

第十章

OUR FIRST NIGHT.—UNDER CANVAS.—AN APPEALFOR HELP.—CONTRARINESS OF TEA-KETTLES, HOWTO OVER COME.—SUPPER.—HOW TO FEEL VIRTUOUS.—WANTED! A COMFORTABLY-APPOINTED, WELLDRAINEDDESERT ISLAND, NEIGHBOURHOOD OF SOUTHPACIFIC OCEAN PREFERRED.—FUNNY THING THATHAPPENED TO GEORGE'S FATHER.—A RESTLESS NIGHT.

我们在河上的第一夜——在帆布篷下——高呼救命——茶壶的逆反心理以及我们的对策——晚餐——如何感到高尚宽容——寻找一个布置舒适、排水容易的荒岛，而且最好在南太平洋附近——乔治父亲的有趣经历——难以安眠的夜晚

HARRIS and I began to think that Bell Weir lock must have been done away with after the same manner. George had towed us up to Staines, and we had taken the boat from there, and it seemed that we were dragging fifty tons after us, and were walking forty miles. It was half-past seven when we were through, and we all got in, and sculled up close to the left bank, looking out for a spot to haul up in.

我和哈里斯开始觉得贝尔威尔水闸一定也不复存在了。乔治一直把我们拉到斯泰恩斯，然后就由我们来接手，那就像拉着50吨重的东西走了40英里一般。7点半，我们才到达了目的地，我们回到船上，把船划向左岸，寻找地点停靠。

We had originally intended to go on to Magna Charta Island, a sweetly pretty part of the river, where it winds through a soft, green valley, and to camp in one of the many picturesque inlets to be found round that tiny shore. But, somehow, we did not feel that we yearned for the picturesque nearly so much now as we had earlier in the day. A bit of water between a coal barge and a gas works would have quite satisfied us for that night. We did not want scenery. We wanted to have our supper and go to bed. However, we did pull up to the point—"Picnic Point", it is called—and dropped into a very pleasant nook under a great elm-tree, to the spreading roots of which we fastened the boat.

我们原本计划继续划到大宪章岛，那里是河上一处优美的地方，河水流经柔美的绿色山谷，小小的岸边上分布着不少景色如画的水湾，我们本就打算选择其中一个水湾露营。然而不知为何，我们完全不似早上那般渴望如画美景了。就算是运煤的驳船和煤气厂之间的一洼水，也足够让我们过一夜的了。我们不想看风景，只想吃了晚饭就睡觉。然而，我们好歹抵达了目的地——俗称的“野餐角”，我们在一棵巨大榆树下找了个非常舒适的角落放下东西，将船拴在四下伸出的树根上。

Then we thought we were going to have supper (we had dispensed with tea, so as to save time), but George said no; that we had better get the canvas up first, before it got quite dark, and while we could see what we were doing. Then, he said, all our work would be done, and we could sit down to eat with an easy mind.

接着我们打算吃晚饭（为了节约时间我们没有喝下午茶），但是乔治表示反对。他说最好趁天还没全黑把帐篷支好，光线好干活方便。他说，最好等一切就绪之后，再坐下来舒舒心心地吃。

That canvas wanted more putting up than I think any of us had bargained for. It looked so simple in the abstract. You took five iron arches, like gigantic croquet hoops, and fitted them up over the boat, and then stretched the canvas over them, and fastened it down: it would take quite ten minutes, we thought.

支帐篷这件事需要的工作量绝对超过了我们中任何一个人的想象。在理论层次上看，它多么简单：只需要把5只拱形铁条插在船上，然后在上面罩上帐篷布并且扎紧就完事了。所以我们预计撑死也就是10分钟的活。

That was an under-estimate.

我们低估了它。

We took up the hoops, and began to drop them into the sockets placed for them. You would not imagine this to be dangerous work; but, looking back now, the wonder to me is that any of us are alive to tell the tale. They were not hoops, they were demons. First they would not fit into their sockets at all, and we had to jump on them, and kick them, and hammer at them with the boat-hook; and, when they were in, it turned out that they were the wrong hoops for those particular sockets, and they had to come out again.

第一步，我们举起铁条往船上预制的插孔里面插。你也许认为这不是危险的工作，但我现在回想起来，不由得惊讶我们居然死里逃生，如今能够活着讲述这个故事。它们根本就不是铁条，而是魔鬼。首先，它们的大小形状完全不适合那些插孔，我们必须跳到铁条上面去，抬起腿来踢，并且用船钩锤打，才终于把它们插进去。这时又发现原来根本就插错了地方，得要抽出来重新插过。

But they would not come out, until two of us had gone and struggled with them for five minutes, when they would jump up suddenly, and try and throw us into the water and drown us. They had hinges in the middle, and, when we were not looking, they nipped us with these hinges in delicate parts of the body; and, while we were wrestling with one side of the hoop, and endeavouring to persuade it to do its duty, the other side would come behind us in a cowardly manner, and hit us over the head.

但是它们死都不出来，我们两个人与它们搏斗了5分钟，突然，它们一跳而起，把我们都甩到了河里，存心想淹死我们。它们中间有铰链，每当我们移开视线，它们就用这些铰链夹我们身体那些柔弱的部位。当我们和这一侧的铁条摔跤、力劝它就范时，另一侧的铁条会悄悄地从背后发动偷袭，冲我们后脑勺就是一棍子。

We got them fixed at last, and then all that was to be done was to arrange the covering over them. George unrolled it, and fastened one end over the nose of the boat. Harris stood in the middle to take it from George and roll it on to me, and I kept by the stern to receive it. It was a long time coming down to me. George did his part all right, but it was new work to Harris, and he bungled it.

我们最后终于把它们插好了，接下来只需要把盖布盖好就行。乔治打开盖布卷，把一端固定在船头；哈里斯站在船的中部接应，继续展开布卷，预备传给我；我站在船尾，等着展开剩下的部分。我等了好久，还没有等来。乔治开头开得很顺利，但哈里斯没有经验，把中间那部分工作给搞砸了。

How he managed it I do not know, he could not explain himself; but by some mysterious process or other he succeeded, after ten minutes of superhuman effort, in getting himself completely rolled up in it. He was so firmly wrapped round and tucked in and folded over, that he could not get out. He, of course, made frantic struggles for freedom—the birthright of every Englishman,—and, in doing so (I learned this afterwards), knocked over George; and then George, swearing at Harris, began to struggle too, and got himself entangled and rolled up.

我不知道他是如何成功做到这一点的，而他本人也无法解释。总之，他按照某种神秘的步骤，经过10分钟超人般的努力，成功地把自己裹进了布卷。他被包得很严实，牢牢地裹在里面，又叠了几叠，简直插翅难飞。于是他疯狂反抗，奋力争取自由（这是每一位英国公民与生俱来的人权），在奋斗中（我后来听说），他撞倒了乔治。乔治一面对他破口大骂，一面也踏上了自己的抗争之路，结果也被卷了进去，死死地缠住了。

I knew nothing about all this at the time. I did not understand the business at all myself. I had been told to stand where I was, and wait till the canvas came to me, and Montmorency and I stood there and waited, both as good as gold. We could see the canvas being violently jerked and tossed about, pretty considerably; but we supposed this was part of the method, and did not interfere.

我当时还不知道这些。我完全不了解这一行当。只知道他们让我站在船尾等着，布卷自然会过来。所以我和蒙特莫伦西站在那里耐心等待，十分乖巧。我们看着布卷猛烈运动，左右翻滚，还以为这是必经的流程，也就不便干涉。

We also heard much smothered language coming from underneath it, and we guessed that they were finding the job rather troublesome, and concluded that we would wait until things had got a little simpler before we joined in.

我们还听到一些闷声闷气的声音从布卷里面传出来，心想也许他们发现这工作挺麻烦，于是决定等着复杂的部分结束后，再伸手帮忙。

We waited some time, but matters seemed to get only more and more involved, until, at last, George's head came wriggling out over the side of the boat, and spoke up.

我们等了又等，问题似乎越变越复杂，最后，乔治的脑袋终于从船舷边蠕动着冒出来，大声喊着。

It said: "Give us a hand here, can't you, you cuckoo; standing there like a stuffed mummy, when you see we are both being suffocated, you dummy!"

它说：“你这头蠢驴，就不能过来帮把手啊？干嘛站在那里，像个塞满香料的木乃伊？没看我俩快被憋死了么，你到底有脑子没有？”

I never could withstand an appeal for help, so I went and undid them; not before it was time, either, for Harris was nearly black in the face.

我这人从来不会见死不救，所以走过去给他们“松了绑”，不过也不算太及时，因为哈里斯的脸已经基本是黑紫色的了。

It took us half an hour's hard labour, after that, before it was properly up, and then we cleared the decks, and got out supper. We put the kettle on to boil, up in the nose of the boat, and went down to the stern and pretended to take no notice of it, but set to work to get the other things out.

接下来，我们下了半个小时苦功夫，才终于铺好帐篷顶，然后清理甲板，摆上晚餐。我们把水壶放在船头的灶上，然后立刻走到船尾开始张罗别的事情，假装完全不把它放 在心上。

That is the only way to get a kettle to boil up the river. If it sees that you are waiting for it and are anxious, it will never even sing. You have to go away and begin your meal, as if you were not going to have any tea at all. You must not even look round at it. Then you will soon hear it sputtering away, mad to be made into tea.

这是在河上用水壶煮开水的唯一方法。如果它知道你在等它而且等得焦急的话，它会永远保持沉默。你得要走得远远的，开始用餐，假装根本不打算喝茶，连眼角都别看它。那么很快你就能够听到它噗噗噗地喷气，狂热地想要沏茶了。

It is a good plan, too, if you are in a great hurry, to talk very loudly to each other about how you don't need any tea, and are not going to have any. You get near the kettle, so that it can overhear you, and then you shout out, "I don't want any tea; do you, George?" to which George shouts back, "Oh, no, I don't like tea; we'll have lemonade instead—tea's so indigestible." Upon which the kettle boils over, and puts the stove out.

如果你相当着急，我还有一个好办法，那就是高声说话，说你们不想喝茶，一滴都不喝。你们得在水壶附近说，这样它才能偷听到。走近了你就大喊：“我不要喝茶。乔治，你呢？”乔治也大声回答道：“不，我不想喝茶，我们不如喝点柠檬汁吧，茶喝了不利于消化的。”话音未落，水壶已经赶着把水烧开了，水甚至漫出来扑灭了灶火。

We adopted this harmless bit of trickery, and the result was that, by the time everything else was ready, the tea was waiting. Then we lit the lantern, and squatted down to supper. We wanted that supper.

我们这次也使用了这个没有什么恶意的小把戏，结果当所有食物准备就绪的时候，茶水也泡好了。这时我们点上灯笼，蹲下来开始享用晚餐。

For five-and-thirty minutes not a sound was heard throughout the length and breadth of that boat, save the clank of cutlery and crockery, and the steady grinding of four sets of molars. At the end of five-and thirty minutes, Harris said, "Ah!" and took his left leg out from under him and put his right one there instead.

整整35分钟内，在船里的东西南北四个方向，没有一处能听到任何别的声响，只有刀叉和餐盘的叮当碰撞声，以及四副牙持续不断的咀嚼声。第35分钟的时候，哈里斯叹了一声：“啊！”然后他把左腿从身下抽出来换了右腿。

Five minutes afterwards, George said, "Ah!" too, and threw his plate out on the bank; and, three minutes later than that, Montmorency gave the first sign of contentment he had exhibited since we had started, and rolled over on his side, and spread his legs out; and then I said, "Ah!" and bent my head back, and bumped it against one of the hoops, but I did not mind it. I did not even swear.

5分钟后，乔治也说了一声“啊！”，然后把餐盘扔到岸上；又过了3分钟，蒙特莫伦西发出自我们启程后的第一个满意信号——他侧身躺倒，打了个滚，然后摊开四肢；接着我也说“啊！”，然后忘情地一仰头，却正好撞在身后的铁条上，但是我毫不介意，甚至没有说脏话。

How good one feels when one is full—how satisfied with ourselves and with the world! People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained. One feels so forgiving and generous after a substantial and well-digested meal—so noble-minded, so kindly-hearted.

吃饱肚子的时候，感觉是多么棒啊——对自己满意，对世界也满意！据尝试过的人说，拥有一颗无罪的、诚实的心，能让你感到幸福满足。但是拥有一个充实的胃，功效毫不逊色，而且更便宜、更容易获得。一顿充足、易消化的大餐后，你感到无比慈悲慷慨，无比高尚善良。

It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon, it says, "Work!" After beefsteak and porter, it says, "Sleep!" After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don't let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!”

这真是很神奇的一件事：我们的精神世界被消化器官所统治。如果胃不愿意，我们就无法工作，无法思考。它指挥着我们的情感和渴望。吃了鸡蛋和熏肉，胃说：“工作！”吃了牛排和黑啤酒，胃说：“睡觉！”喝了一杯茶（每杯两茶匙，别放着超过3分钟），胃对大脑说：“现在苏醒吧，展现你的力量——你要雄辩，你要深沉，你要细腻；用你清亮的双眼观察自然和生活；展开思想颤栗着的白色翅膀，飞到天上去吧，让神灵般高贵的思想，俯瞰脚下纷乱动荡的世界，沿着灿烂星辰铺就的漫漫天路，飞向通往永生的大门！”

After hot muffins, it says, "Be dull and soulless, like a beast of the field—a brainless animal, with listless eye, unlit by any ray of fancy, or of hope, or fear, or love, or life." And after brandy, taken in sufficient quantity, it says, "Now, come, fool, grin and tumble, that your fellow-men may laugh—drivel in folly, and splutter in senseless sounds, and show what a helpless ninny is poor man whose wit and will are drowned, like kittens, side by side, in half an inch of alcohol.”

吃了热气腾腾的小松饼，胃说：“变得沉闷吧，放弃灵魂吧，像田地里的牲口——那些无脑的动物，呆滞的眼神里找不到一丝幻想、希望、恐惧、爱或是生活的光芒。”喝了白兰地（足够的份量），胃说：“现在，来吧，傻子，咧开嘴笑吧，摔跟头吧，让朋友们来取笑你吧——要喋喋不休地说胡话，发出语无伦次的噪音，让大家看看可怜的人喝了点酒后会变成怎样一个无助的笨蛋——他的智慧和意志如同两只小猫咪，被双双溺死在了半英寸深的酒精里。”

We are but the veriest, sorriest slaves of our stomach. Reach not after morality and righteousness, my friends; watch vigilantly your stomach, and diet it with care and judgment. Then virtue and contentment will come and reign within your heart, unsought by any effort of your own; and you will be a good citizen, a loving husband, and a tender father—a noble, pious man.

我们不过是胃的奴隶，而且是彻底的奴隶，相当可怜。亲爱的朋友，别去费力追求道德和正义了，你只需要仔细看好你的胃，仔细合理地安排好每日的饮食，那么正义感和满足感自然会来统治你的内心，不费一丝力气；你就会成为好公民、充满爱心的丈夫、温柔的父亲——总之，你会成为一位高尚虔诚的人。

Before our supper, Harris and George and I were quarrelsome and snappy and ill-tempered; after our supper, we sat and beamed on one another, and we beamed upon the dog, too. We loved each other, we loved everybody. Harris, in moving about, trod on George's corn. Had this happened before supper, George would have expressed wishes and desires concerning Harris's fate in this world and the next that would have made a thoughtful man shudder.

晚饭前，哈里斯、乔治和我都火气冲天、恶声恶气、特想吵架；晚饭后，我们坐在那里休息，互相望着微笑，甚至对狗微笑。我们相亲相爱，我们爱世界上的每一个人。哈里斯走动时，踩到了乔治的鸡眼。如果发生在晚饭前，乔治肯定会表达一些关于哈里斯今生和来世的命运的希望和意愿，足以让任何一个有思想有感情的人不寒而栗。

As it was, he said: "Steady, old man; 'ware wheat."

可是，眼下他只是说：“注意走稳啊，老兄——小心地上有眼。”

And Harris, instead of merely observing, in his most unpleasant tones, that a fellow could hardly help treading on some bit of George's foot, if he had to move about at all within ten yards of where George was sitting, suggesting that George never ought to come into an ordinary sized boat with feet that length, and advising him to hang them over the side, as he would have done before supper, now said: "Oh, I'm so sorry, old chap; I hope I haven't hurt you."

哈里斯也没有用阴阳怪气的腔调直率地指出，任何人出现在乔治的方圆十码内，就没法不踩到乔治的脚，意思是乔治明知自己脚长，就不应该往一条正常尺寸的船上挤，他还建议乔治把脚晾到船舷外面去。这事如果发生在晚饭前，他一定会这么说。但现在的他说：“噢，对不起，亲爱的伙计，希望我没有伤到你。”

And George said, "Not at all"; that it was his fault; and Harris said no, it was his.

乔治说“没关系”，是他的错；哈里斯说“不”，是他的错。

It was quite pretty to hear them.

听这样的对话让人心情很不错。

We lit our pipes, and sat, looking out on the quiet night, and talked.

我们点燃烟斗坐下来，望着安静的夜空，闲聊起来。

George said why could not we be always like this—away from the world, with its sin and temptation, leading sober, peaceful lives, and doing good. I said it was the sort of thing I had often longed for myself; and we discussed the possibility of our going away, we four, to some handy, well-fitted desert island, and living there in the woods.

乔治说我们为什么不可以这样：离开凡俗世界和其中的罪恶与诱惑，过有节制的、平和的人生，做善事。我说一直以来都希望能够过上那样的生活；于是我们开始讨论隐居的可能性——我们四个去一个来去方便的、舒舒服服的无人岛，到那里的丛林中去生活。

Harris said that the danger about desert islands, as far as he had heard, was that they were so damp; but George said no, not if properly drained.

哈里斯说无人岛最可怕的地方在于它们相当潮湿（至少他听说是这样的），但是乔治说，那没关系，只要排水做得好就行。

And then we got on to drains, and that put George in mind of a very funny thing that happened to his father once. He said his father was travelling with another fellow through Wales, and, one night, they stopped at a little inn, where there were some other fellows, and they joined the other fellows, and spent the evening with them.

我们又聊起排水，这让乔治想起了他父亲经历的一件趣事。他说，他父亲和另外某个家伙在威尔士旅行，某天晚上他们投宿到一家小旅店，旅店里还有些别的游客，于是他们加入到这些人中，和他们共度了夜晚的时光。

They had a very jolly evening, and sat up late, and, by the time they came to go to bed, they (this was when George's father was a very young man) were slightly jolly, too. They (George's father and George's father's friend) were to sleep in the same room, but in different beds. They took the candle, and went up. The candle lurched up against the wall when they got into the room, and went out, and they had to undress and grope into bed in the dark. This they did; but, instead of getting into separate beds, as they thought they were doing, they both climbed into the same one without knowing it—one getting in with his head at the top, and the other crawling in from the opposite side of the compass, and lying with his feet on the pillow.

那天晚上他们玩得非常尽兴，所以很晚才去睡觉。直到上床时分，两人还残留着兴奋（那时候乔治的父亲还很年轻）。他们（乔治的父亲和乔治父亲的朋友）共享一个房间，但睡在不同的床上。他们举着蜡烛上了楼。进入房间时，蜡烛突然倒向墙壁，熄灭了。他们只能摸黑脱掉衣服，摸索着往床上爬。于是乎，本应爬向各自床位的两人（他们自以为这样做了），不知不觉中爬上了同一张床——一个人爬上床后头冲着上首，另一个人按着指南针上与前者正相反的方向爬上床，脚搁在了枕头上。

There was silence for a moment, and then George's father said: "Joe!" "What's the matter, Tom?" replied Joe's voice from the other end of the bed.

一时间房里没了声响，然后乔治父亲开了口：“乔！”“汤姆，啥事？”乔的声音在床的另一头响起。

"Why, there's a man in my bed," said George's father, "here's his feet on my pillow."

“嗨，我床上有个人，”乔治父亲说，“他的脚放在我枕头上呢

"Well, it's an extraordinary thing, Tom," answered the other; "but I'm blest if there isn't a man in my bed, too!"

“呀，太怪了，汤姆，”对方回答说，“如果说我床上不也有个人，那我就是撞鬼了！”

"What are you going to do?" asked George's father.

“你打算怎么办？”乔治父亲问。

"Well, I'm going to chuck him out," replied Joe.

“嗯，我打算把他扔下床去。”乔回答。

"So am I," said George's father, valiantly.

“我也是，”乔治父亲勇敢地说。

There was a brief struggle, followed by two heavy bumps on the floor, and then a rather doleful voice said: "I say, Tom!"

接着屋内一阵短暂的搏斗，结尾是两记重物落地的闷响。接着一个很沮丧的声音说：“喂，汤姆！”

"Yes!" "How have you got on?"

“什么？”“你那边怎么样？”

"Well, to tell you the truth, my man's chucked me out."

“哎，说实话，那人把我扔了下来。”

"So's mine! I say, I don't think much of this inn, do you?"

“我也是！要我说，这家旅店可真不咋的，你说呢？”

"What was the name of that inn?" said Harris.

“那家旅店的名字是什么？”哈里斯问。

"The 'Pig and Whistle'," said George. "Why?"

“猪和口哨，”乔治说，“怎么啦？”

"Ah, no, then it isn't the same," replied Harris.

“噢，没什么，看来不是一家店，”哈里斯回答。

"What do you mean?" queried George. "Why it's so curious," murmured Harris, "but precisely that very same thing happened to MY father once at a country inn. I've often heard him tell the tale. I thought it might have been the same inn."

“干吗这样说？”乔治问。“嗨，可怪了，”哈里斯喃喃道，“可我的父亲在一家 乡村旅店遇到过一模一样的事情。我经常听他讲这个故事。 我还以为是同一家店呢。”

We turned in at ten that night, and I thought I should sleep well, being tired; but I didn't. As a rule, I undress and put my head on the pillow, and then somebody bangs at the door, and says it is half-past eight; but, to-night, everything seemed against me; the novelty of it all, the hardness of the boat, the cramped position (I was lying with my feet under one seat, and my head on another), the sound of the lapping water round the boat, and the wind among the branches, kept me restless and disturbed.

晚上10点，我们躺下睡觉。我以为我会睡得很香，因为白天累坏了，但事实并非如此。通常我一脱衣服，脑袋刚碰上枕头，就有人来敲门，告诉我已经早上8点半啦。但是今晚上，各种因素都来阻挠我：出游第一天的新奇感、船板坚硬、蜷曲姿势的难受劲（我把腿放在一个座位下面，脑袋放在另一个座位上面）、河水拍打小船的声音、风刮过树枝 的声音，它们都让我翻来覆去、不得安宁。

I did get to sleep for a few hours, and then some part of the boat which seemed to have grown up in the night—for it certainly was not there when we started, and it had disappeared by the morning—kept digging into my spine. I slept through it for a while, dreaming that I had swallowed a sovereign, and that they were cutting a hole in my back with a gimlet, so as to try and get it out. I thought it very unkind of them, and I told them I would owe them the money, and they should have it at the end of the month. But they would not hear of that, and said it would be much better if they had it then, because otherwise the interest would accumulate so. I got quite cross with them after a bit, and told them what I thought of them, and then they gave the gimlet such an excruciating wrench that I woke up.

我勉强睡着了几个小时。船上好像在晚上长出块东西——因为我们刚出发的时候绝对没有这块东西，第二天早上又消失得无影无踪了，它总是抵在我脊梁上往里钻。我忍痛继续逗留梦乡，梦见我吞下一英镑金币，人们要用钢锥在我背上钻洞把金币弄出来。我认为这样很不人道，我说，这钱现在就算是我欠了他们的，到月底一定会还上。但是他们不听我的，说最好立刻就拿到手，否则到那时还得算利息。这么争论了一阵后，我实在忍无可忍了，把我对他们的看法一五一十地说了出来，他们端着钢锥狠命一拧，我就痛醒了。

The boat seemed stuffy, and my head ached; so I thought I would step out into the cool night-air. I slipped on what clothes I could Find about—some of my own, and some of George's and Harris's—and crept under the canvas on to the bank.

船里很闷，我的头很痛，觉得最好出去呼吸一下清冽的空气。我很快地套上几件能够抓到的衣物——有些是我的，有些是乔治的，还有些是哈里斯的——钻出帆布帐篷，爬到岸上。

It was a glorious night. The moon had sunk, and left the quiet earth alone with the stars. It seemed as if, in the silence and the hush, while we her children slept, they were talking with her, their sister—conversing of mighty mysteries in voices too vast and deep for childish human ears to catch the sound.

这是一个美妙的夜晚。月亮已经西沉，只留静默的大地独对满天繁星。仿佛在万籁俱寂中，她的人类孩子们都已入睡，只有她的星辰妹妹们和她对话，谈那些高深的奥秘——声音辽远深沉，远非幼稚的人类用耳朵能够听见的。

They awe us, these strange stars, so cold, so clear. We are as children whose small feet have strayed into some dim-lit temple of the god they have been taught to worship but know not; and, standing where the echoing dome spans the long vista of the shadowy light, glance up, half hoping, half afraid to see some awful vision hovering there.

这些奇异的星辰冰冷而明亮，让我们心生敬畏。我们就像一些孩子，小脚丫无意中踏入了一座幽暗的神殿，虽然知道神殿里供奉着的神祇是必须敬拜的，却又都不认识。我们站立在响着回声的穹顶下，宏大的穹顶在迷蒙的光线中扩展开来，抬头仰望，半期待半恐惧那里会浮现出可怕的幻影。

And yet it seems so full of comfort and of strength, the night. In its great presence, our small sorrows creep away, ashamed. The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays her hand upon our fevered head, and turns our little tear-stained faces up to hers, and smiles; and, though she does not speak, we know what she would say, and lay our hot flushed cheek against her bosom, and the pain is gone.

然而，夜晚让人安心、给人力量。在非凡的气度面前，我们的小小悲哀无地自容。白天里有那么多的焦虑和烦恼，我们心中满是邪恶与妒嫉，世界对我们又是那么地严厉无情。而夜晚如同慈爱的母亲，温柔地将手放在我们发烧的额头上，扳起我们布满泪痕的小脸，冲着我们微笑；尽管她缄默不语，我们也知道她想要说些什么，把滚烫通红的脸颊贴在她胸前，所有疼痛便烟消云散了。

Sometimes, our pain is very deep and real, and we stand before her very silent, because there is no language for our pain, only a moan. Night's heart is full of pity for us: she cannot ease our aching; she takes our hand in hers, and the little world grows very small and very faraway beneath us, and, borne on her dark wings, we pass for a moment into a mightier Presence than her own, and in the wondrous light of that great Presence, all human life lies like a book before us, and we know that Pain and Sorrow are but the angels of God.

有时候，我们的疼痛极其深沉和真实，我们站在她面前，疼得说不出话来，任何语言都无法形容我们的痛苦，张开嘴只能发出呻吟。夜神满心慈悲，但她也不能减轻我们的疼痛，她握紧我们的手，小小的世界在我们脚下变得更加渺小而遥远，我们依附在它黑色的羽翼上，暂时来到一个更加强大的神灵面前，在其奇异的光辉中，所有人的生活如同一部书摆在我们面前，我们懂得了疼痛和哀伤不过是上帝的两个小天使。

Only those who have worn the crown of suffering can look upon that wondrous light; and they, when they return, may not speak of it, or tell the mystery they know.

只有头戴名为“磨难”的冠冕的人，才能看到那美妙的光辉。而他们返回人间后，却对它只字不提，也不会告诉别人他们所参悟的秘密。

Once upon a time, through a strange country, there rode some goodly knights, and their path lay by a deep wood, where tangled briars grew very thick and strong, and tore the flesh of them that lost their way therein. And the leaves of the trees that grew in the wood were very dark and thick, so that no ray of light came through the branches to lighten the gloom and sadness.

很久很久以前，有几位英俊的骑士在一个陌生的国度里旅行。他们路过一片幽深的森林，其间荆棘丛生，纠缠盘结，能够将迷路者划得头破血流。森林中的树木枝叶繁茂、遮天蔽日，没有一丝光线能够透过树枝到达地面，照亮林中那幽暗可怖的景象。

And, as they passed by that dark wood, one knight of those that rode, missing his comrades, wandered far away, and returned to them no more; and they, sorely grieving, rode on without him, mourning him as one dead.

这几位骑士途经这黑暗的森林时，其中一位迷了路，脱离了他的伙伴，越走越远，再也没有回来。其余人因为失去了同伴而深感悲痛，强忍悲伤继续前行，像哀悼逝者一样哀悼他。

Now, when they reached the fair castle towards which they had been journeying, they stayed there many days, and made merry; and one night, as they sat in cheerful ease around the logs that burned in the great hall, and drank a loving measure, there came the comrade they had lost, and greeted them. His clothes were ragged, like a beggar's, and many sad wounds were on his sweet flesh, but upon his face there shone a great radiance of deep joy.

之后，他们到达了目的地——一座美丽的城堡，在那里住了不少日子，过得很开心。一天晚上，他们轻松愉快地围坐在大厅的柴火堆边开怀畅饮，这时他们走失的同伴出现了，向他们问好。他就像乞丐那样衣衫褴褛，娇嫩的皮肉上满是让人痛心的伤口，但他的脸上却有一种因深深的喜悦而发出的耀眼光辉。

And they questioned him, asking him what had befallen him: and he told them how in the dark wood he had lost his way, and had wandered many days and nights, till, torn and bleeding, he had lain him down to die.

他们问他到底发生了什么，于是他告诉他们，他在黑暗的森林中迷失了方向，漫无目的地走了无数昼夜，直到某一天，终于躺在地上，遍体鳞伤，鲜血淋淋，等待死亡降临。

Then, when he was nigh unto death, lo! through the savage gloom there came to him a stately maiden, and took him by the hand and led him on through devious paths, unknown to any man, until upon the darkness of the wood there dawned a light such as the light of day was unto but as a little lamp unto the sun; and, in that wondrous light, our way-worn knight saw as in a dream a vision, and so glorious, so fair the vision seemed, that of his bleeding wounds he thought no more, but stood as one entranced, whose joy is deep as is the sea, whereof no man can tell the depth.

就在他垂死的时候，啊，看！从荒蛮阴深的森林中，走 来一位典雅的少女，她牵着他的手，领他穿过无数条人迹 罕至的曲折小径，一直来到森林的尽头，这时出现一道光芒，划破林中的黑暗，夺目耀眼，白天的光线与这光芒相比，就如同一盏小灯对比灿烂阳光；在这奇妙的光辉中，我们这位旅途劳苦的骑士看到梦一般的幻象，这幻象如此美好如此壮丽，使得让他忘记了遍身流血的伤口，像被施了法术般立在原地，内心涌起的快乐像海洋一般地深邃，没有人能够说出那快乐到底有多深。

And the vision faded, and the knight, kneeling upon the ground, thanked the good saint who into that sad wood had strayed his steps, so he had seen the vision that lay there hid.

幻象渐渐隐灭后，骑士跪在地上，感谢善良的圣人让他在阴郁的森林中迷失了方向，因为多亏这迷途，他才有机会看到这藏在森林深处的幻象。

And the name of the dark forest was Sorrow; but of the vision that the good knight saw therein we may not speak nor tell.

那座黑森林的名字就叫做悲伤；而那位勇敢的骑士看到的幻象的名字，我们或许就不得而知了。

CHAPTER XI.

第十一章

HOW GEORGE, ONCE UPON A TIME, GOT UP EARLYIN THE MORNING.—GEORGE , HARRI S , ANDMONTMORENCY DO NOT LIKE THE LOOK OF THE COLDWATER.—HEROISM AND DETERMINATION ON THE PARTOF J.—GEORGE AND HIS SHIRT: STORY WITH A MORAL.—HARRIS AS COOK.—HISTORICAL RETROSPECT, SPECIALLY INSERTED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS.

乔治的早起经历——乔治、哈里斯和蒙特莫伦西讨厌冰冷的河水——J的勇敢和决心——乔治和他的上衣：道德者的故事——哈里斯做饭——历史回顾（专为学校教学插录于此）

I WOKE at six the next morning; and found George awake too. We both turned round, and tried to go to sleep again, but we could not. Had there been any particular reason why we should not have gone to sleep again, but have got up and dressed then and there, we should have dropped off while we were looking at our watches, and have slept till ten. As there was no earthly necessity for our getting up under another two hours at the very least, and our getting up at that time was an utter absurdity, it was only in keeping with the natural cussedness of things in general that we should both feel that lying down for five minutes more would be death to us.

第二天早上我6点醒来，发现乔治也醒了。我们两个都翻个身，想继续睡，却怎么都睡不着。如果这时候有一个特殊原因使得我们必须立刻起床、立刻穿衣的话，我敢保证，我们看表的同时就会倒下去继续呼呼大睡，不到10点醒不来。但当时根本没有这样的理由能让我们至少再睡两个小时，而那个点钟起床是十分荒唐的，因此我们纯粹是顺应了一般事物固有的乖僻性才感到再躺5分钟就得死。

George said that the same kind of thing, only worse, had happened to him some eighteen months ago, when he was lodging by himself in the house of a certain Mrs. Gippings. He said his watch went wrong one evening, and stopped at a quarter-past eight. He did not know this at the time because, for some reason or other, he forgot to wind it up when he went to bed (an unusual occurrence with him), and hung it up over his pillow without ever looking at the thing.

乔治说大约18个月前，类似的事情也曾在他身上发生过，只不过情况更糟一些。那时候他独自租住在吉宾斯 太太家里。有一天晚上，他的表出了毛病，指针停在8点 15分，不动了。他对此一无所知，因为睡觉前鬼使神差地忘了上发条（这对他来说是很少见的）。他把它挂到枕头前，也没有多看它一眼。

It was in the winter when this happened, very near the shortest day, and a week of fog into the bargain, so the fact that it was still very dark when George woke in the morning was no guide to him as to the time. He reached up, and hauled down his watch. It was a quarter-past eight.

这件事发生在隆冬，临近白昼最短的冬至，加之浓雾已经持续了一个多星期，所以那天早上当乔治醒来时，天还很黑，因此他无从知道现在的确切时间。他伸手扯下怀表一看，上面显示八点一刻。

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!" exclaimed George; "and here have I got to be in the City by nine. Why didn't somebody call me? Oh, this is a shame!" And he flung the watch down, and sprang out of bed, and had a cold bath, and washed himself, and dressed himself, and shaved himself in cold water because there was not time to wait for the hot, and then rushed and had another look at the watch.

“天使啊，上帝啊，救救我！”乔治大叫，“我得要在 9点前赶到城里。为什么没有人叫我？哎，多可恶啊！” 他把表往床上一甩，跳下床，洗了个冷水澡，穿好衣服， 用冷水刮了脸（没有时间等热水了），就冲出门去，同时 再看了一眼表。

Whether the shaking it had received in being thrown down on the bed had started it, or how it was, George could not say, but certain it was that from a quarter-past eight it had begun to go, and now pointed to twenty minutes to nine.

不知道是因为他把表抛到床上时惊动了发条，还是别的什么原因，乔治也说不清楚，总之可以肯定的是，从8点15分的地方开始，指针又开始走动了，现在指示8点40分。

George snatched it up, and rushed downstairs. In the sitting-room, all was dark and silent: there was no fire, no breakfast. George said it was a wicked shame of Mrs. G., and he made up his mind to tell her what he thought of her when he came home in the evening. Then he dashed on his great-coat and hat, and, seizing his umbrella, made for the front door. The door was not even unbolted. George anathematized Mrs. G. for a lazy old woman, and thought it was very strange that people could not get up at a decent, respectable time, unlocked and unbolted the door, and ran out.

乔治抓起它冲下楼去。起居室里一片漆黑，鸦雀无声， 没有炉火，也没有早饭。乔治心想这吉宾斯太太真是可恨，并决定今晚回来就向她说明一下自己对她的想法。接着他飞快地穿上外套，戴上帽子，抓起雨伞，冲向大门。大门居然还没有拔去门闩。乔治诅咒吉宾斯夫人这个懒惰的老婆子，感慨为什么人们总不能在适当的时间起床，同时他打开锁，拔去门闩，奔了出去。

He ran hard for a quarter of a mile, and at the end of that distance it began to be borne in upon him as a strange and curious thing that there were so few people about, and that there were no shops open. It was certainly a very dark and foggy morning, but still it seemed an unusual course to stop all business on that account. HE had to go to business; why should other people stop in bed merely because it was dark and foggy!

他狂奔了四分之一英里后，他开始产生一种陌生的、奇怪的感觉——为什么街上几乎没有人，也没有一家店铺开门呢？这诚然是一个相当昏暗的早上，雾也很浓，但借此就不做生意这种做法实在是有些不正常。他乔治都得要去上班，其他人凭什么仅仅因为天黑有雾就能懒在被窝里！

At length he reached Holborn. Not a shutter was down! Not a bus was about! There were three men in sight, one of whom was a policeman; a market-cart full of cabbages, and a dilapidated-looking cab. George pulled out his watch and looked at it; it was five minutes to nine! He stood still and counted his pulse. He stooped down and felt his legs. Then, with his watch still in his hand, he went up to the policeman, and asked him if he knew what the time was.

最后他终于到达了霍尔本。没有一家店铺取下了窗板！看不到一辆公车！大街上一共只能看到三个人——一个警察、一辆装满白菜的赶集马车、一辆破旧的出租马车。乔治掏出怀表一看：差5分9点！他原地立定，数了数自己的脉搏，又弯下腰掐了掐大腿。然后他握着怀表，走到那位警察跟前，问他是否知道现在几点了。

"What's the time?" said the man, eyeing George up and down with evident suspicion; "why, if you listen you will hear it strike."

“几点了？”警察上下打量乔治，眼里满是怀疑，“切， 你竖起耳朵听，不就听到敲钟了。”

George listened, and a neighbouring clock immediately obliged. "But it's only gone three!" said George in an injured tone, when it had finished.

乔治仔细听着，附近的钟楼马上很给面子地响了。“可它只打了3下啊！”钟声停罢，乔治带着受伤的语气说。

"Well, and how many did you want it to go?" replied the constable. "Why, nine," said George, showing his watch.

“嗯，那你想要它敲几下呢？”警察回答。“啊？9下！”乔治一面说，一面举起怀表给对方看。

"Do you know where you live?" said the guardian of public order, severely.

“你知道你住哪里吗？”这位公共秩序的捍卫者正色道。

George thought, and gave the address.

乔治想了一想，报上地址。

"Oh! That's where it is, is it?" replied the man. "Well, you take my advice and go there quietly, and take that watch of yours with you; and don't let's have any more of it."

“噢，是那里吗？”那人回答道，“那么，现在你听我的，安安静静地回去。把这只表揣好了，别再让我看到它。”

And George went home again, musing as he walked along, and let himself in.

于是乔治又回到了家中，一路都在沉思。然后自己开门进去了。

At first, when he got in, he determined to undress and go to bed again; but when he thought of the redressing and re-washing, and the having of another bath, he determined he would not, but would sit up and go to sleep in the easy-chair.

刚进屋时，他本想脱了衣服继续睡，但是一想到还得重新穿衣服，重新洗漱，特别是重新洗澡，就决定还是不睡了，干脆在安乐椅上半躺着睡会儿。

But he could not get to sleep; he never felt more wakeful in his life; so he lit the lamp and got out the chess-board, and played himself a game of chess. But even that did not enliven him: it seemed slow some how; so he gave chess up and tried to read. He did not seem able to take any sort of interest in reading either, so he put on his coat again and went out for a walk.

然而他睡不着，这辈子都没有这么清醒过。于是他点燃灯，翻出棋盘，和自己下了一盘象棋。但是连这也没法让他提起兴致，时间莫名奇妙地过得很慢。他只好放弃了象棋，开始读书，但书也激不起他的兴趣，所以他又披上大衣，想出门去街上走走。

It was horribly lonesome and dismal, and all the policemen he met regarded him with undisguised suspicion, and turned their lanterns on him and followed him about, and this had such an effect upon him at last that he began to feel as if he really had done something, and he got to slinking down the by-streets and hiding in dark doorways when he heard the regulation flip-flop approaching.

街道孤冷凄清，他遇上的所有警察都仔细端详他，毫不掩饰对他的怀疑。他们提起灯笼照他，跟在他身后。这让他开始感到自己似乎真的犯了什么罪，一听到警察啪嗒啪嗒的脚步声就往小路和黑暗的门洞里钻。

Of course, this conduct made the force only more distrustful of him than ever, and they would come and rout him out and ask him what he was doing there; and when he answered "Nothing", he had merely come out for a stroll (it was then four o'clock in the morning), they looked as though they did not believe him, and two plain-clothes constables came home with him to see if he really did live where he had said he did. They saw him go in with his key, and then they took up a position opposite and watched the house.

当然，他的这种行为只会让警察们更怀疑他，他们走到跟前把他赶出来，盘问他在干嘛。他回答“没干嘛”，只是出来散步（这时是早上4点）。他们看上去并不相信他，两位便衣警察尾随他回家，以确认他确实住在所说的地址。他们亲眼看着他掏出钥匙开门进屋后，在街对面选了个位置，留下继续监视。

He thought he would light the f ire when he got inside, and make himself some breakfast, just to pass away the time; but he did not seem able to handle anything from a scuttleful of coals to a teaspoon without dropping it or falling over it, and making such a noise that he was in mortal fear that it would wake Mrs. G. up, and that she would think it was burglars and open the window and call "Police!" and then these two detectives would rush in and handcuff him, and march him off to the police-court.

进屋后，他想生火做点早饭，借此打发时间。然而，无论是一煤斗的煤块，还是一个汤匙，全都不服他管，不是掉到地上，就是把他绊倒，弄出很大噪音，他很害怕会吵醒吉宾斯夫人，这样她就会以为来了强盗，很可能会打开窗户大呼“警察！”这时候对面蹲点的两位神探就会冲进来，给他戴上手铐，押到治安法庭去。

He was in a morbidly nervous state by this time, and he pictured the trial, and his trying to explain the circumstances to the jury, and nobody believing him, and his being sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude, and his mother dying of a broken heart. So he gave up trying to get breakfast, and wrapped himself up in his overcoat and sat in the easy-chair till Mrs. G came down at half-past seven.

想到这里，他感到异常地紧张，眼前浮现出法庭上的景象，看到自己努力向陪审团辩解，却没有人相信他，最 后被判处20年刑役，而母亲为此过度伤心而去世。于是，他放弃了吃早饭的念头，裹紧外套，坐在安乐椅上安静地等待，直到7点半的时候吉宾斯夫人下楼为止。

He said he had never got up too early since that morning; it had been such a warning to him.

他说那天早上之后他再也没有太早起过床——那对他来说确实是一个警告。

We had been sitting huddled up in our rugs while George had been telling me this true story, and on his finishing it I set to work to wakeup Harris with a scull. The third prod did it: and he turned over on the other side, and said he would be down in a minute, and that he would have his lace-up boots. We soon let him know where he was, however, by the aid of the hitcher, and he sat up suddenly, sending Mont morency, who had been sleeping the sleep of the just, right on the middle of his chest, sprawling across the boat.

乔治告诉我这一亲身经历时，我们正裹着毯子挤坐成一团。待他讲完故事后，我开始以船桨为工具叫哈里斯起床。捅到第三下终于起了作用：他翻了一个身，说他马上就下床，还说他今天打算穿那双系带长统靴。然而，我们用船钩一捅他，就立刻让他明白了自己身在何处，他一个打挺坐起身，将原本趴在他胸口做着英雄好梦的蒙特莫伦西四脚朝天地从船这头甩到了那头。

Then we pulled up the canvas, and all four of us poked our heads out over the off-side, and looked down at the water and shivered. The idea, overnight, had been that we should get up early in the morning, fling off our rugs and shawls, and, throwing back the canvas, spring into the river with a joyous shout, and revel in a long delicious swim. Somehow, now the morning had come, the notion seemed less tempting. The water looked damp and chilly; the wind felt cold.

我们卷起了帆布，四个脑袋伸出右侧船舷俯瞰河水，同时打了个冷战。在前一晚上的计划中，我们决定起个大早，飞快地掀去毯子、扒下睡衣、甩开顶篷、欢呼一声、跳进河里，享受一个长长的美妙的晨泳。不知为何，现在早晨终于到了，这个计划却不再诱人——河水看上去潮湿、寒冷；风吹在皮肤上，冷得厉害。

"Well, who's going to be first in?" said Harris at last.

“怎么样，谁第一个下？”哈里斯终于开口了。

There was no rush for precedence. George settled the matter so far a she was concerned by retiring into the boat and pulling on his socks. Montmorency gave vent to an involuntary howl, as if merely thinking of the thing had given him the horrors; and Harris said it would be so difficult to get into the boat again, and went back and sorted out his trousers.

没有人积极争当带头人。乔治的对策是躲回到船舱里去穿起了袜子。蒙特莫伦西不由自主地发出一声长号，似乎单是想想就吓破了胆子。而哈里斯说，下了水要再爬回船里会很困难，于是回头开始找裤子。

I did not altogether like to give in, though I did not relish the plunge. There might be snags about, or weeds, I thought. I meant to compromise matters by going down to the edge and just throwing the water over myself; so I took a towel and crept out on the bank and wormed my way along on to the branch of a tree that dipped down into the water.

我并不完全想要放弃，不过我也不喜欢这一跳，因为 我担心水下可能有暗礁或是水草。所以我采取折衷的办法，打算走到岸边去舀些水浇在身上。所以我拿着一条毛巾爬到岸上，攀着一条伸入河水的树枝，蠕动着往前爬。

It was bitterly cold. The wind cut like a knife. I thought I would not throw the water over myself after all. I would go back into the boat and dress; and I turned to do so; and, as I turned, the silly branch gave way, and I and the towel went in together with a tremendous splash, and I was out mid-stream with a gallon of Thames water inside me before I knew what had happened.

真的很冷。风像刀子一样割在皮肤上。我心想，还是别往身上浇水了，转身打算回船穿衣服去。可就在转身的一刹那，愚蠢的树枝断了，我和毛巾双双落入水中，溅起巨大的水花，我还没有反应过来就已经落到了河中央，肚子里灌了一加仑的泰晤士河水。

"By Jove! old J.'s gone in," I heard Harris say, as I came blowing to the surface. "I didn't think he'd have the pluck to do it. Did you?"

“老天！老J.跳了，”我浮上水面喘口气儿时听到哈里斯的声音，“我真没想到他居然有这胆色。你呢？”

"Is it all right?" sung out George.

“没事吧？”乔治喊得跟唱歌似的。

"Lovely," I spluttered back. "You are duffers not to come in. I wouldn't have missed this for worlds. Why won't you try it? It only wants a little determination."

“棒极了，”我一边回答一边往外吐水，“傻子才不下 来呢。我是无论如何不会错过这等好事的。你们怎么就不 试一试呢？只需要那么一点点决心。”

But I could not persuade them.

但是他们不为所动。

Rather an amusing thing happened while dressing that morning. I was very cold when I got back into the boat, and, in my hurry to get my shirt on, I accidentally jerked it into the water. It made me awfully wild, especially as George burst out laughing. I could not see anything to laugh at, and I told George so, and he only laughed the more. I never saw a man laugh so much. I quite lost my temper with him at last, and I pointed out to him what a drivelling maniac of an imbecile idiot he was; but he only roared the louder. And then, just as I was landing the shirt, I noticed that it was not my shirt at all, but George's, which I had mistaken for mine; whereupon the humour of the thing struck me for the first time, and I began to laugh. And the more I looked from George's wet shirt to George, roaring with laughter, the more I was amused, and I laughed so much that I had to let the shirt fall back into the water again.

那天早上我穿衣服的时候，发生了一件很有趣的事情。我回到船上的时候，感到特别的冷，手忙脚乱地抄起衬衫 想披上时，却一不小心把它甩进了河里。这让我很生气， 乔治在旁放声大笑，更是火上浇油。我不觉得这有什么好 笑，但当我这样告诉他后，他却笑得更开心了。我从来没 有看到过哪个人可以笑得这么高兴。最后我终于冲他发火 了，我告诉他他就是个愚蠢低能、满口胡言的疯子。但是 他却笑得更大声了。后来，我在捞衬衣的时候，突然发现 那根本就不是我的衬衣——是乔治的，原来，我刚才忙乱 中误把乔治的衬衣当作自己的了。这下我才发现这事的笑 点，我也开始笑起来。我看一眼水里的衬衣，再看一眼暴 笑着的乔治，越看越觉得滑稽——我笑得太起劲了，以至 将衬衣又掉回到了水中。

"Ar'n't you—you—going to get it out?" said George, between his shrieks.

“你，哈哈，你，哈，不打算把它捞回来吗？”乔治从 一阵又一阵的尖笑缝隙中挤出这个问题。

I could not answer him at all for a while, I was laughing so, but, at last, between my peals I managed to jerk out: "It isn't my shirt—it's YOURS!"

我一时没法回答他，因为我也笑得不行了，最后终于勉强从笑声中挤出来：“那不是我的衬衣，是你的！”

I never saw a man's face change from lively to severe so suddenly in all my life before.

我这辈子都没看过谁表情变化如此之快，他的脸瞬间由春风得意凝固成了冷酷严肃。

"What!" he yelled, springing up. "You silly cuckoo! Why can't you be more careful what you're doing? Why the deuce don't you go and dress on the bank? You're not fit to be in a boat, you're not. Gimme the hitcher."

“什么！”他跳起来吼道，“你这头蠢猪！做事怎么就不能小心点？你干嘛不滚上岸去穿衣服？你不配出现在船 上，你不配！快给我船篙。”

I tried to make him see the fun of the thing, but he could not. George is very dense at seeing a joke sometimes.

我试图让他看到这件事情的滑稽所在，但他怎么也看不到。有时候，乔治对笑话的理解能力特别差劲，迟钝无比。

Harris proposed that we should have scrambled eggs for breakfast. He said he would cook them. It seemed, from his account, that he was very good at doing scrambled eggs. He often did them at picnics and when out on yachts. He was quite famous for them. People who had once tasted his scrambled eggs, so we gathered from his conversation, never cared for any other food afterwards, but pined away and died when they could not get them.

哈里斯建议我们早饭吃炒鸡蛋，他愿意掌厨。从他的讲述看来，炒鸡蛋是他的拿手好菜，他经常在野炊和乘游艇出行的时候做这道菜。他因炒鸡蛋而远近闻名。如果谁吃过一次他炒的鸡蛋，保管再不喜欢吃任何别的东西，因为吃不到它便会整日悲苦，终将死去（这是我们根据他的谈话推测的）。

It made our mouths water to hear him talk about the things, and we handed him out the stove and the frying-pan and all the eggs that had not smashed and gone over everything in the hamper, and begged him to begin.

听他这么说，我们的口水直流。于是我们把炉子、煎锅和所有鸡蛋（除去摔碎了流得满食物篮都是的那些）塞给他，求他快动手。

He had some trouble in breaking the eggs—or rather not so much trouble in breaking them exactly as in getting them into the frying-pan when broken, and keeping them off his trousers, and preventing them from running up his sleeve; but he fixed some half-a-dozen into the pan at last, and then squatted down by the side of the stove and chivied them about with a fork.

他打鸡蛋时遇到了麻烦——准确地说，麻烦的不是打鸡蛋，而是如何把打出来的鸡蛋准确地放进锅里，并且阻 止它们往裤子上粘、往袖子里流。然而最后他终于想方设 法将半打鸡蛋放进锅里，然后蹲在灶边，用一把叉子追逐 它们。

It seemed harassing work, so far as George and I could judge. Whenever he went near the pan he burned himself, and then he would drop everything and dance round the stove, flicking his fingers about and cursing the things. Indeed, every time George and I looked round at him he was sure to be performing this feat. We thought at first that it was a necessary part of the culinary arrangements.

据我和乔治观察，这工作相当熬人。哈里斯一接近煎锅就会被烫到，然后他就会丢下所有东西，绕着炉子跳着转圈，同时轻弹着被烫伤的手指，咒骂个不停。实际上，我和乔治每次看他，他肯定都在表演着这个技艺。起初我们还以为这是烹饪的一个必要环节。

We did not know what scrambled eggs were, and we fancied that it must be some Red Indian or Sandwich Islands sort of dish that required dances and incantations for its proper cooking. Montmorency went and put his nose over it once, and the fat spluttered up and scalded him, and then he began dancing and cursing. Altogether it was one of the most interesting and exciting operations I have ever witnessed. George and I were both quite sorry when it was over.

我们不知道炒鸡蛋是怎么回事，但猜想它大概和印第安土著或桑威奇群岛居民的菜肴一样，烹饪时需要跳来跳去、口念咒语。蒙特莫伦西曾把鼻子凑过去一次，被溅起来的油烫伤后，它也跳起舞来，嗷嗷直叫。总之，这是我见过的最有趣、最激动人心的艺术表演之一。当它结束时，我和乔治都感到意犹未尽。

The result was not altogether the success that Harris had anticipated. There seemed so little to show for the business. Six eggs had gone into the frying-pan, and all that came out was a teaspoonful of burnt and unappetizing looking mess.

结果并不像哈里斯想的那么圆满。忙活了这么半天，却只创造出很迷你的作品。进去的时候是6个鸡蛋，而出来的时候，只有一茶匙烧焦的、倒人胃口的糊糊。

Harris said it was the fault of the frying-pan, and thought it would have gone better if we had had a fish-kettle and a gas-stove; and we decided not to attempt the dish again until we had those aids to housekeeping by us.

哈里斯说都怪煎锅不好使，要是有熬鱼锅和煤气炉，那结果肯定会好很多了；我们决定在获得上述烹饪设备之前，再也不要尝试这道菜了。

The sun had got more powerful by the time we had finished breakfast, and the wind had dropped, and it was as lovely a morning as one could desire. Little was in sight to remind us of the nineteenth century; and, as we looked out upon the river in the morning sunlight, we could almost fancy that the centuries between us and that ever-to-be-famous June morning of 1215 had been drawn aside, and that we, English yeomen's sons in homespun cloth, with dirk at belt, were waiting there to witness the writing of that stupendous page of history, the meaning where of was to be translated to the common people some four hundred and odd years later by one Oliver Cromwell, who had deeply studied it.

吃过早餐之后，太阳更暖了些，风停了，人们所期待的美丽的早晨，应该莫过于此。视野中没有什么在提醒我们这是19世纪，我们看着沐浴在清晨阳光中的河流，几乎觉得我们所生活的现在与1215年6月那个著名的早晨之间的岁月突然消失了——我们这些英格兰自耕农的子孙，身上穿着自家缝制的布衣裳，腰上别着短剑，等着见证历史上伟大的一页如何被撰写。这一页历史的意义，直到四百多年后，才有一位名叫奥利弗.克伦威尔的人对其进行了深入研究并将它告知世人

It is a fine summer morning—sunny, soft, and still. But through the air there runs a thrill of coming stir. King John has slept at Duncroft Hall, and all the day before the little town of Staines has echoed to the clang of armed men, and the clatter of great horses over its rough stones, and the shouts of captains, and the grim oaths and surly jests of bearded bowmen, billmen, pikemen, and strange-speaking foreign spearmen.

那是一个美好的夏日之晨，阳光明媚，微风轻拂，万物静谧。但是空气中有一种莫名的骚动，似乎等待着什么大事发生。约翰王在邓克罗芙特宫里过夜。整个白天，在斯泰恩斯小镇上回响着战士们刀剑的铿锵声、高头大马踏在粗糙石子路上的踢踏声、军官的叫嚷声，以及来自大胡子弓箭手、钩镰枪手、长矛手和操着奇怪口音的外国长枪手们所发出的残暴的咒骂和粗鲁的打趣的声音。

Gay-cloaked companies of knights and squires have ridden in, all travel-stained and dusty. And all the evening long the timid townsmen's doors have had to be quick opened to let in rough groups of soldiers, for whom there must be found both board and lodging, and the best of both, or woe betide the house and all within; for the sword is judge and jury, plaintiff and executioner, in these tempestuous times, and pays for what it takes by sparing those from whom it takes it, if it pleases it to do so.

穿着艳丽斗篷的骑士和随从们骑着马过来，一路风尘仆仆，灰尘满面。整个晚上，胆小的镇里人看到这群暴徒 来，随时准备立刻打开门，提供食宿，而且是最好的食宿，否则灾难会降临在房屋主人以及房屋里的一切东西上，因为在乱世，剑是法官、是陪审团、同时还是原告和行刑的刽子手。它可以想拿什么就拿什么，所付的钱款就是饶恕主人的性命，前提是还得要它乐意。

Round the camp-f ire in the market-place gather still more of the Barons' troops, and eat and drink deep, and bellow forth roistering drinking songs, and gamble and quarrel as the evening grows and deepens into night. The firelight sheds quaint shadows on their piled-up arms and on their uncouth forms. The children of the town steal round to watch them, wondering; and brawny country wenches, laughing, draw near to bandy ale-house jest and jibe with the swaggering troopers, so unlike the village swains, who, now despised, stand apart behind, with vacant grins upon their broad, peering faces. And out from the fields around, glitter the faint lights of more distant camps, as here some great lord's followers lie mustered, and there false John's French mercenaries hover like crouching wolves without the town.

在市场的篝火边聚集了更多的男爵们的军队，士兵们豪放地大吃大喝、大声唱着行酒令。他们还赌钱、吵架，好不热闹，直到帐篷外暮色渐浓，夜已深沉。篝火的火光在他们面前堆积的武器和他们粗犷的身体上投射出奇怪的影子。镇上的孩子们藏在四面八方，偷偷地向他们张望，充满了好奇。肌肉结实的乡下姑娘们也笑着围过来，与那些爱吹牛的军人们互相讲些酒馆里打趣用的笑话，调侃对方。乡下小伙子们受到了冷落，远远站在背后，宽大的脸上咧着嘴木然地笑着，偷偷地看着他们。田野的四周隐约可见远处营地篝火的微弱光线，这里集结着来自某位大勋爵的随从们，那里来自假约翰王的法国雇佣兵，如同身处野外的蹲伏着的狼群四处游荡。

And so, with sentinel in each dark street, and twinkling watch-fires on each height around, the night has worn away, and over this fair valley of old Thame has broken the morning of the great day that is to close so big with the fate of ages yet unborn.

每一条黑暗街道上都安排着哨兵，每一个高岗上都闪烁着篝火。长夜慢慢走到尽头，在老泰晤士河河畔这个风景优美的山谷里，伟大的一天迎来了曙光——这一天将对未来无数世代产生深远的影响。

Ever since grey dawn, in the lower of the two islands, just above where we are standing, there has been great clamour, and the sound of many workmen. The great pavilion brought there yester eve is being raised, and carpenters are busy nailing tiers of seats, while prentices from London town are there with many-coloured stuffs and silks and cloth of gold and silver.

自灰蒙蒙的黎明起，从两座岛屿中低一些的那一座（正 好在我们站立的地方上面一点），传来很响的叮当敲打声，那是众多工匠在劳作。人们正忙着竖起前一夜运来的大帐篷：木工们用钉子固定好一排排的座椅，从伦敦来的学徒们手捧五彩缤纷的丝绒绸缎以及镶着金丝银线的布匹。

And now, lo! down upon the road that winds along the river's bank from Staines there come towards us, laughing and talking together in deep guttural bass, a half-a-score of stalwart halbert-men—Barons'men, these—and halt at a hundred yards or so above us, on the other bank, and lean upon their arms, and wait.

现在，你看！沿着从斯泰恩斯来的河流，河岸逶迤的小路上，走来了10个强壮的战士，他们手持战戟，用浑厚的低音谈笑着——都是男爵的士兵。他们在河对岸离我们100码的地方停住，将身体倚靠在武器上，开始等待。

And so, from hour to hour, march up along the road ever fresh group sand bands of armed men, their casques and breastplates flashing back the long low lines of morning sunlight, until, as far as eye can reach, the way seems thick with glittering steel and prancing steeds. And shouting horsemen are galloping from group to group, and little banners are fluttering lazily in the warm breeze, and every now and then there is a deeper stir as the ranks make way on either side, and some great Baronon his war-horse, with his guard of squires around him, passes along to take his station at the head of his serfs and vassals.

一个又一个小时过去了，从路的那边走来越来越多的新兵，他们的盔甲反射出清晨那种斜长的阳光，直到整个视野内只见路上密布着闪亮的兵器和腾跃的战马。高喊着的骑兵从一支队伍驰向另外一支队伍，小小的旗帜在暖风中懒洋洋地飘动，不时传来人群分向两边让路时低沉的骚动声——某位男爵大人骑着战马，在护卫簇拥中，来到他 的奴隶和家臣前面属于他的位置。

And up the slope of Cooper's Hill, just opposite, are gathered the wondering rustics and curious townsfolk, who have run from Staines, and none are quite sure what the bustle is about, but each one has a different version of the great event that they have come to see; and some say that much good to all the people will come from this day's work; but the old men shake their heads, for they have heard such tales before.

对面库珀山的山坡上聚着好奇的乡下人和从斯泰恩斯前来的城里人，其中没有一个能肯定地说出为什么来了这么多士兵，但每个人都对他们千里迢迢来看的这个大场面有一个自己的解释。有人说这天的忙活会给全民带来福泽，但是老人们摇头说他们以前也上过类似的当。

And all the river down to Staines is dotted with small craft and boat sand tiny coracles—which last are growing out of favour now, and are used only by the poorer folk. Over the rapids, where in after years trim Bell Weir lock will stand, they have been forced or dragged by their sturdy rowers, and now are crowding up as near as they dare come to the great covered barges, which lie in readiness to bear King John to where the fateful Charter waits his signing.

直到斯泰恩斯一带，这片河面上星星点点地摆满了小艇、小船和小圆舟（小圆舟现已失宠，只有穷人们还在使用）。它们被健壮的船夫们拖着或者拉着，战胜湍流（后来那里建起漂亮的贝尔堰），壮着胆子尽量接近一艘有蓬的大驳船。这艘驳船停在岸边静候约翰王，将要送他去签署决定英国命运的大宪章。

It is noon, and we and all the people have been waiting patient for many an hour, and the rumour has run round that slippery John has again escaped from the Barons' grasp, and has stolen away from Duncroft Hall with his mercenaries at his heels, and will soon be doing other work than signing charters for his people's liberty.

到正午时分，我们和那些围观的群众都已经耐心地等了好几个小时，这时传来一条小道消息，据说狡猾的约翰再次逃出了男爵们的掌心，偷偷地从邓克罗芙特宫出逃了，贴身雇佣兵紧随其后，他很快就要为他的人民的自由做一些别的工作，但总之不是签署宪章。

Not so! This time the grip upon him has been one of iron, and he has slid and wriggled in vain. Far down the road a little cloud of dust has risen, and draws nearer and grows larger, and the pattering of many hoofs grows louder, and in and out between the scattered groups of drawn-up men, there pushes on its way a brilliant cavalcade of gay-dressed lords and knights. And front and rear, and either flank, there ride the yeomen of the Barons, and in the midst King John.

谣传！这次握住他的可是铁腕，任他想要偷跑或是扭动反抗都无济于事。路的尽头升起一片沙尘，渐渐逼近，越来越多，群马的踢踏声也越来越响：一队衣着艳丽的勋爵和骑士穿过分散的士兵队列，往这边走来。前后左右的都是男爵们的手下，围在中间的正是约翰王。

He rides to where the barges lie in readiness, and the great Barons step forth from their ranks to meet him. He greets them with a smile and laugh, and pleasant honeyed words, as though it were some feast in his honour to which he had been invited. But as he rises to dismount, he casts one hurried glance from his own French mercenaries drawn up in the rear to the grim ranks of the Barons' men that hem him in.

他骑马到达驳船静候的地方，男爵们纷纷出列迎接他。他对他们微笑回礼，说了些客套话，仿佛是被邀参加为他举行的宴会。但当他准备下马的时候，转头对自己的法国雇佣兵队伍投去匆匆一瞥——他们掉在后面，被隔离在男爵的人形成的严密包围圈以外。

Is it too late? One fierce blow at the unsuspecting horseman at his side, one cry to his French troops, one desperate charge upon the unready lines before him, and these rebellious Barons might rue the day they dared to thwart his plans! A bolder hand might have turned the game even at that point. Had it been a Richard there! the cup of liberty might have been dashed from England's lips, and the taste of freedom held back for a hundred years.

已经太晚了么？只要他猛地给旁边毫无戒备的骑士一击，大叫一声让自己的法国雇佣兵上来支援，狠命冲向前面没有缓过神来的队伍——这些造反的男爵竟敢破坏他的计划，这下就让他们悔恨去吧！如果换成个更胆大的主儿，可能在此时还可以翻盘——比如如果当时是理查的话，那盛满自由美酒的酒杯可能就要在英格兰的嘴边被打翻，她尝到自由滋味的日子可能会推迟100年。

But the heart of King John sinks before the stern faces of the English fighting men, and the arm of King John drops back on to his rein, and he dismounts and takes his seat in the foremost barge. And the Barons follow in, with each mailed hand upon the sword-hilt, and the word is given to let go.

但是当约翰王看到英国战士们脸上的冷峻表情时，他的心沉了下来，抬起的手臂重又垂下来握住缰绳，下马后乖乖地坐上了最前面的一艘驳船。男爵们尾随其后，每一位都将戴着铠甲手套的手放在剑柄上。一声令下，船开动了。

Slowly the heavy, bright-decked barges leave the shore of Runningmede. Slowly against the swift current they work their ponderous way, till, with a low grumble, they grate against the bank of the little island that from this day will bear the name of Magna Charta Island. And King John has stepped upon the shore, and we wait in breathless silence till a great shout cleaves the air, and the great cornerstone in England's temple of liberty has, now we know, been firmly laid.

几条装饰华丽的沉重驳船缓缓地离开了兰尼米德的河岸。它们迎着湍急的水流缓慢而笨重地前进，终于随着一声低沉的闷响,船只摩擦到了一座小岛的河岸边，这座岛屿从此被命名为大宪章岛。于是约翰国王款步上岸，我们屏住呼吸，直等到一阵震耳欲聋的欢呼声划破天空——于是我们知道，英格兰自由殿堂的伟大基石已稳稳地埋好了。

CHAPTER XII.

第十二章

HENRY VIII. AND ANNE BOLEYN.—DISADVANTAGESOF LIVING IN SAME HOUSE WITH PAIR OF LOVERS.—ATRYING TIME FOR THE ENGLISH NATION.—A NIGHTSEARCH FOR THE PICTURESQUE.—HOMELESS ANDHOUSELESS.—HARRIS PREPARES TO DIE.—AN ANGELCOMES ALONG.—EFFECT OF SUDDEN JOY ON HARRIS.—A LITTLE SUPPER.—LUNCH.—HIGH PRICE FORMUSTARD.—A FEARFUL BATTLE.—MAIDENHEAD.—SAILING.—THREE FISHERS.—WE ARE CURSED.

亨利八世和安妮.博林——与情侣同住一个屋檐下的坏处——英格兰百姓受到的考验——深夜寻找“漂亮”旅店——借宿无门——哈里斯作好死去的准备——天使降临——哈里斯狂喜的后果——晚餐——午餐——芥末的昂贵价格——被罐头打败——梅登黑德——扬帆经历——三位垂钓者——我们被诅咒

I WAS sitting on the bank, conjuring up this scene to myself, when George remarked that when I was quite rested, perhaps I would not mind helping to wash up; and, thus recalled from the days of the glorious past to the prosaic present, with all its misery and sin, I slid down into the boat and cleaned out the frying-pan with a stick of wood and a tuft of grass, polishing it up finally with George's wet shirt.

正当我坐在岸边回望这些历史画面时，乔治说我休息够了，也许不介意帮他洗洗盘子，他的话一下子把我从光辉的过去拉到了苍白的充满了痛苦和罪孽的现实中。我滑回船中，用一根木棍和一丛乱草清洗煎锅，最后用乔治的那件湿衬衣把它擦得亮亮的。

We went over to Magna Charta Island, and had a look at the stone which stands in the cottage there and on which the great Charter is said to have been signed; though, as to whether it really was signed there, or, as some say, on the other bank at Runningmede, I decline to commit myself. As far as my own personal opinion goes, however, I am inclined to give weight to the popular island theory. Certainly, had I been one of the Barons, at the time, I should have strongly urged upon my comrades the advisability of our getting such a slippery customer as King John onto the island, where there was less chance of surprises and tricks.

我们来到大宪章岛，看了看那座农舍中的著名石头，据说大宪章就是在那上面签署的，然而究竟是不是确实在那里签署的，还是像有人说的是在兰尼米德的另一岸签署的，我不表态，但就我个人的想法而言，我倾向于支持广受欢迎的岛屿论。当然，如果我是男爵之一的话，一定会向其他男爵们力推这座岛屿，将约翰王这样狡猾的家伙带到这里，才能减少他制造意 外和耍滑头的机会。

There are the ruins of an old priory in the grounds of Ankerwyke House, which is close to Picnic Point, and it was round about the grounds of this old priory that Henry VIII. is said to have waited for and met Anne Boleyn. He also used to meet her at Hever Castle in Kent, and also somewhere near St. Albans. It must have been difficult for the people of England in those days to have found a spot where these thoughtless young folk were NOT spooning.

著名的安格凯克宅邸附近有一座古修道院的遗迹，离“野餐角”也不远。据传在该修道院的园地里，亨利八世曾与安妮.博林幽会。他们还曾在肯特的郝弗利城堡，以及圣阿尔班一带幽会。那时的英格兰人民恐怕很难找出一个地方是这对轻率的情侣没有在那幽会过的。

Have you ever been in a house where there are a couple courting? It is most trying. You think you will go and sit in the drawing-room, and you march off there. As you open the door, you hear a noise as if somebody had suddenly recollected something, and, when you get in, Emily is over by the window, full of interest in the opposite side of the road, and your friend, John Edward, is at the other end of the room with his whole soul held in thrall by photographs of other people's relatives.

你有过与一对正在谈情说爱的男女共处一室的经历么？那是特别考验人的。你想去客厅坐坐，走到那里，推开门的瞬间，你听见一些声音——那是当人猛然想起什么事情的时候会发出的声音。待你迈步进去，看到艾米丽站在窗口，兴致勃勃地看马路对面的景色，而你的朋友约翰.爱德华站在房间的另一端，全神贯注地欣赏别人家亲戚的照片。

"Oh!" you say, pausing at the door, "I didn't know anybody was here." "Oh! didn't you?" says Emily, coldly, in a tone which implies that she does not believe you.

“噢！”你僵在门口，说道：“我不知道这里有人。”“噢，是吗？”艾米丽冷冷地说，那语气表示她似乎并不相信你。

You hang about for a bit, then you say: "It's very dark. Why don't you light the gas?"

你稍微停留了一会儿，说：“屋里真黑，你们为什么没点亮煤气灯？”

John Edward says, "Oh!" he hadn't noticed it; and Emily says that papa does not like the gas lit in the afternoon.

约翰说，“噢！”他没有注意到这点；艾米丽说爸爸不喜欢在下午点煤气灯。

You tell them one or two items of news, and give them your views and opinions on the Irish question; but this does not appear to interest them. All they remark on any subject is, "Oh!" "Is it?" "Did he?" "Yes," and "You don't say so!" And, after ten minutes of such style of conversation, you edge up to the door, and slip out, and are surprised to find that the door immediately closes behind you, and shuts itself, without your having touched it.

你和他们聊了一两条新闻，谈了谈你对爱尔兰问题的看法，但是似乎没法引起他们的兴趣。他们对这些问题的回答只是“噢！”“是吗？”“他那样做了？”“对！”和“不会吧！”这样的谈话进行了10分钟，你就挪到了门边，溜了出去，此时你会很惊讶地发现，门立刻在你身后自动合上，并且自动锁上了，而你甚至碰都没碰它一下。

Half an hour later, you think you will try a pipe in the conservatory. The only chair in the place is occupied by Emily; and John Edward, if the language of clothes can be relied upon, has evidently been sitting on the floor. They do not speak, but they give you a look that says all that can be said in a civilised community; and you back out promptly and shut the door behind you.

半小时后，你觉得想要到暖房去抽抽烟。暖房里唯一的那张椅子艾米丽正占着，而约翰.爱德华——如果衣服的语言可以相信的话——显然刚才坐在地板上。他们不说话，只看了你一眼，那眼神包含了整个文明社会所有能表达的内容。你赶快撤退，顺手把门给带上了。

You are afraid to poke your nose into any room in the house now; so, after walking up and down the stairs for a while, you go and sit in your own bedroom. This becomes uninteresting, however, after a time, and so you put on your hat and stroll out into the garden. You walk down the path, and as you pass the summer-house you glance in, and there are those two young idiots, huddled up into one corner of it; and they see you, and are evidently under the idea that, for some wicked purpose of your own, you are following them about.

现在你再也不敢贸然闯入任何一个房间，所以沿着楼梯上下走了几个回合，然后回到自己卧室去干坐着。然而过了会儿，你倍感无聊，所以戴上帽子，踱到花园里去散步。你沿着小路走着，路过一个凉亭，你往里面一瞥，那对年轻的傻瓜正在角落里拥抱呢喃呢。他们也发现了你，看得出他们认为你是出于某种邪恶的目的在跟踪他们。

"Why don't they have a special room for this sort of thing, and make people keep to it?" you mutter; and you rush back to the hall and get your umbrella and go out.

“为什么就没有专门用来卿卿我我的房间让情人们能一直呆在里面呢？”你嘟囔着冲回房间，抓起雨伞干脆出门去了。

It must have been much like this when that foolish boy Henry VIII. was courting his little Anne. People in Buckinghamshire would have come upon them unexpectedly when they were mooning round Windsor and Wraysbury, and have exclaimed, "Oh! you here!" and Henry would have blushed and said, "Yes; he'd just come over to see a man"; and Anne would have said, "Oh, I'm so glad to see you! Isn't it funny? I've just met Mr. Henry VIII. in the lane, and he's going the same way I am."

当亨利八世那愣头小子追求他的小安妮的时候，情况应该大致相同吧。白金汉郡的百姓意外地撞见在温莎和雷斯伯里瞎逛的两位小青年，于是高喊：“噢，你们在这里！”亨利满脸通红，急忙解释说他是专程来看望某位朋友，而安妮会说：“噢，真高兴见到您！您说可巧吧，我刚在路上撞见亨利八世先生了，他刚好和我去同一个方向。”

Then those people would have gone away and said to themselves: "Oh! we'd better get out of here while this billing and cooing is on. We'll go down to Kent."

这些人与他们道别后，会自言自语：“他们在这儿细语缠绵的时候，我们最好别呆在这儿。我们去肯特吧。”

And they would go to Kent, and the first thing they would see in Kent, when they got there, would be Henry and Anne fooling round Hever Castle.

他们到了肯特，看到的第一个画面，就是亨利和安妮在希佛堡附近你侬我侬。

"Oh, drat this!" they would have said. "Here, let's go away. I can't stand any more of it. Let's go to St. Albans—nice quiet place, St. Albans.”

“呀，活见鬼！”他们会说，“好吧，我们走！我再也看不下去了。我们去圣阿尔班吧，那是个安静的好地方。”

And when they reached St. Albans, there would be that wretched couple, kissing under the Abbey walls. Then these folks would go and be pirates until the marriage was over.

当他们赶到圣阿尔班，在修道院墙脚下接吻的不正是那可恶的一对儿吗？所以这些人只好去当海盗，直到这段婚姻结束才敢回来。

From Picnic Point to Old Windsor Lock is a delightful bit of the river. A shady road, dotted here and there with dainty little cottages, runs by the bank up to the "Bells of Ouseley", a picturesque inn, as most up-river inns are, and a place where a very good glass of ale may be drunk—so Harris says; and on a matter of this kind you can take Harris's word. Old Windsor is a famous spot in its way. Edward the Confessor had a palace here, and here the great Earl Godwin was proved guilty by the justice of that age of having encompassed the death of the King's brother. Earl Godwin broke a piece of bread and held it in his hand.

从“野餐角”到老温莎水闸，是河上一段风光宜人的区域。沿着河岸有一条树林荫翳的小路，路边零星地点缀着几间别致的小农舍，路的尽头是“乌斯洛的钟”——一家漂亮的旅店（泰晤士河上游的旅店大都很漂亮），那里有上乘的淡啤酒（这是哈里斯的意见，而在这种问题上，你完全可以相信他）。老温莎是这条路上的一个著名景点。忏悔者爱德华在这里有座行宫。伟大的戈德温伯爵曾在此被当时的司法部门判决与国王兄弟的死有关。伯爵撕下一块面包握在手中，说：“如果我有罪，就让我吃下这块面包时被噎死！”

"If I am guilty," said the Earl, "may this bread choke me when I eat it!" Then he put the bread into his mouth and swallowed it, and it choked him, and he died.

说完他把面包放进嘴里，往下吞咽，果然卡在喉管里，生生把他噎死了。

After you pass Old Windsor, the river is somewhat uninteresting, and does not become itself again until you are nearing Boveney. George and I towed up past the Home Park, which stretches along the right bank from Albert to Victoria Bridge; and as we were passing Datchet, George asked me if I remembered our first trip up the river, and when we landed at Datchet at ten o'clock at night, and wanted to go to bed.

经过老温莎，风景就乏味起来，直到临近布文奈，才恢复了一点姿色。我和乔治拉着船走过了霍姆公园。它紧邻河的右岸，从艾伯特一直延伸到维克多利亚大桥。当我们经过达切特时，乔治问我是否还记得我们第一次泛舟时的事：那天晚上10点我们到达达切特时，大家就都想要睡觉了。

I answered that I did remember it. It will be some time before I forget it.

我回答说，当然记得，恐怕还得经过好些年月才忘得了。

It was the Saturday before the August Bank Holiday. We were tired and hungry, we same three, and when we got to Datchet we took out the hamper, the two bags, and the rugs and coats, and such like things, and started off to look for diggings. We passed a very pretty little hotel, with clematis and creeper over the porch; but there was no honey suckle about it, and, for some reason or other, I had got my mind fixed on honeysuckle, and I said: "Oh, don't let's go in there! Let's go on a bit further, and see if there isn't one with honeysuckle over it."

那天是8月银行假日前的一个星期六，记得当时我们三个都又累又饿。到了达切特，我们拿出食物篮、两个包、毯子还有外套等行李，开始找地方落脚。我们经过一个相当漂亮的小旅店，门廊上缠绕着铁线莲和爬山虎，但是没有金银花，当时不知为何，我一心要看金银花，所以我说：“嗨，我们别去这家！再走几步，找找有没有门口爬着金银花的！”

So we went on till we came to another hotel. That was a very nice hotel, too, and it had honey-suckle on it, round at the side; but Harris did not like the look of a man who was leaning against the front door. He said he didn't look a nice man at all, and he wore ugly boots: so we went on further. We went a goodish way without coming across any more hotels, and then we met a man, and asked him to direct us to a few.

所以我们继续往前走，来到另一家旅店。那家也挺不错，并且房屋四周都有金银花，但是哈里斯看不惯斜靠在正门口的那个人。他说这人根本不像是个好人，而且穿的靴子很难看。所以我们继续往前走。走了好长一段路，再没看到别的旅店。之后我们碰到一个人，就问他可否介绍几家旅店并且给指个路。

He said: "Why, you are coming away from them. You must turn right round and go back, and then you will come to the Stag."

他说：“咦？你们已经走过了啊。你们现在必须沿原路返回，就能走到牡鹿旅店。”

We said: "Oh, we had been there, and didn't like it—no honey suckle over it.”

我们说：“噢，我们去过那儿，不喜欢它，它门口没有金银花呢。”

"Well, then," he said, "there's the Manor House, just opposite. Have you tried that?"

“好吧，”他说，“他家对面就是庄园旅店，你们看过那家了吗？”

Harris replied that we did not want to go there—didn't like the looks of a man who was stopping there—Harris did not like the colour of his hair, didn't like his boots, either.

哈里斯回答说我们也不喜欢那里——门口站着的那个人长得不敢恭维——哈里斯不喜欢那人头发的颜色，也不喜欢他的靴子。

"Well, I don't know what you'll do, I'm sure," said our informant; "because they are the only two inns in the place."

“那我就不知道你们该怎么办了，真的，”我们的指路人说，“因为这里就这么两家旅店。”

"No other inns!" exclaimed Harris.

“没别的旅店了！”哈里斯惊呼。

"None," replied the man.

“没了，”那人回答。

"What on earth are we to do?" cried Harris.

哈里斯叫道：“那我们可得如何是好哇！”

Then George spoke up. He said Harris and I could get a hotel built for us, if we liked, and have some people made to put in. For his part, he was going back to the Stag.

这时乔治开了口，他说我和哈里斯如果愿意，可以为自己量身盖一家旅店，然后造几个人放进去。而他自己还是准备回头去牡鹿旅店了。

The greatest minds never realise their ideals in any matter; and Harris and I sighed over the hollowness of all earthly desires, and followed George.

最伟大的思想家们从来没有在任何问题上实现过他们的理想。我和哈里斯慨叹尘世间所有欲望之虚空，然后转身追随乔治而去。

We took our traps into the Stag, and laid them down in the hall.

我们拖着行李走进牡鹿旅店，把它们放在门厅里。

The landlord came up and said: "Good evening, gentlemen."

店主走来招呼：“晚上好，先生们。”

"Oh, good evening," said George; "we want three beds, please."

“呵呵，晚上好，”乔治说，“我们需要3张床，谢谢。”

"Very sorry, sir," said the landlord; "but I'm afraid we can't manage it."

“先生，真不好意思，”店主说，“我们恐怕没有办法满足您的需求。”

"Oh, well, never mind," said George, "two will do. Two of us can sleep in one bed, can't we?" he continued, turning to Harris and me.

“噢，那没关系，”乔治说，“两张也行。我们两个人可以挤着睡一张床的，对吧？”他一边说，一边转头看我和哈里斯。

Harris said, "Oh, yes", he thought George and I could sleep in one bed very easily.

哈里斯说：“嗯，没错”，他认为我和乔治可以很舒服地分享一张床。

"Very sorry, sir," again repeated the landlord; "but we really haven't got a bed vacant in the whole house. In fact, we are putting two, and even three gentlemen in one bed, as it is."

“太抱歉了，”店主又说，“但是我们整个店里哪怕一张空床也没了。实际上，现在已经让两位甚至3位先生挤一张床了。”

This staggered us for a bit.

这回答让我们措手不及。

But Harris, who is an old traveller, rose to the occasion, and, laughing cheerily, said: "Oh, well, we can't help it. We must rough it. You must give us a shake-down in the billiard-room.”

但哈里斯不愧为旅行老手，不一会儿就振作起来，轻松地笑着说：“噢，那我们也没有办法啦，看来真得要凑合一下了。请一定在台球室给我们安排个临时床铺。”

"Very sorry, sir. Three gentlemen sleeping on the billiard-table already, and two in the coffee-room. Can't possibly take you in to-night.”

“太对不起了，先生。已经有3位先生睡在台球桌上，两位睡在咖啡室里了。今晚上无论如何也收不下您3位了。”

We picked up our things, and went over to the Manor House. It was a pretty little place. I said I thought I should like it better than the other house; and Harris said, "Oh, yes," it would be all right, and we needn't look at the man with the red hair; besides, the poor fellow couldn't help having red hair.

我们拾起行李，来到对面的庄园旅店。那个旅店地方不大，但很不错。我说我觉得我应该更喜欢这家，哈里斯答说“噢，就是啊”，啥毛病都没有，我们完全可以转过脑袋不看门口红头发那位，况且话说回来，长红色头发也不是他能控制的。

Harris spoke quite kindly and sensibly about it.

哈里斯的话充满了人情味，句句在理。

The people at the Manor House did not wait to hear us talk. The landlady met us on the doorstep with the greeting that we were the fourteenth party she had turned away within the last hour and a half. As for our meek suggestions of stables, billiard-room, or coal-cellars, she laughed them all to scorn; all these nooks had been snatched up long ago.

庄园旅店的人没给我们开口的机会。老板娘在门阶那儿截住我们，打招呼的内容就是我们已经是在之前的一个半小时中她打发走的第14拨人了。当我们谦卑地表示愿意住马厩、台球室或者煤窑时，她不屑地笑笑，店里所有这些角落都已经在很久以前就被抢占一空了。

Did she know of any place in the whole village where we could get shelter for the night?

我们只好问她是否知道整个村庄里，我们能到哪里去借宿一夜。

"Well, if we didn't mind roughing it—she did not recommend it, mind—but there was a little beer shop half a mile down the Etonroad—”

“嗯，如果你们不介意住得简陋些（注意，她并不推荐），沿着伊顿路走半英里有家小啤酒店——”

We waited to hear no more; we caught up the hamper and the bags, and the coats and rugs, and parcels, and ran. The distance seemed more like a mile than half a mile, but we reached the place at last, and rushed, panting, into the bar.

我们来不及听她说完，就抄起食物篮和旅行袋，夹起衣服、毯子和包裹，跑了出去。与其说半英里，我们更像是走了一英里，但是最后总算到达了目的地，上气不接下气地冲入酒吧。

The people at the beer shop were rude. They merely laughed at us. There were only three beds in the whole house, and they had seven single gentlemen and two married couples sleeping there already. A kind-hearted bargeman, however, who happened to be in the taproom, thought we might try the grocer's, next door to the Stag, and we went back.

啤酒店的人非常粗鲁，只是嘲笑了我们。整间店里就3张床，已经有7位单身绅士和两对夫妇睡在上面。然而，酒吧间里正好坐着位好心的船夫，他建议我们试试牡鹿旅店隔壁的杂货店，于是我们又往回走。

The grocer's was full. An old woman we met in the shop then kindly took us along with her for a quarter of a mile, to a lady friend of hers, who occasionally let rooms to gentlemen.

杂货店也住满了。在那里我们遇到一位善良的老妇人，她领着我们走了四分之一英里，去找她的一位会偶尔出租房间给绅士的女性朋友。

This old woman walked very slowly, and we were twenty minutes getting to her lady friend's. She enlivened the journey by describing tous, as we trailed along, the various pains she had in her back.

这位老妇人走路很慢，我们走了足足20分钟，才到她的朋友家。一路上我们拖着脚步缓慢前进的时候，她为了活跃气氛，还向我们描述了她的种种背痛症状。

Her lady friend's rooms were let. From there we were recommended to No. 27. No. 27 was full, and sent us to No. 32, and 32 was full.

她朋友家的房间全部客满，于是我们被推荐给27号的住户，27号也客满，又把我们推荐给32号，32号也客满。

Then we went back into the high road, and Harris sat down on the hamper and said he would go no further. He said it seemed a quiet spot, and he would like to die there. He requested George and me to kiss his mother for him, and to tell all his relations that he forgave them and died happy.

于是我们又回到大路上，哈里斯坐在食物篮上，说他再不往前走了。他说这里似乎是个安静的地方，就在这里死了算了。他请求我和乔治代他吻别他的母亲，告诉他的亲人们，他临死时原谅了他们并且是含笑离去的。

At that moment an angel came by in the disguise of a small boy (and I cannot think of any more effective disguise an angel could have assumed), with a can of beer in one hand, and in the other something at the end of a string, which he let down on to every f lat stone he came across, and then pulled up again, this producing a peculiarly unattractive sound, suggestive of suffering.

就在那时天使化身为一个小男孩来到了我们身边（我想不出天使还能有什么更有效的化身）。他一手拿着一罐啤酒，另一手拉着一条绳子，上面拴着一个什么东西，每遇到一块扁平的石头，他就让那个东西着陆在上面，然后再拉起来，制造出相当不动听的声音，暗示着苦难。

We asked this heavenly messenger (as we discovered him after wards to be) if he knew of any lonely house, whose occupants were few and feeble (old ladies or paralysed gentlemen preferred), who could be easily frightened into giving up their beds for the night to three desperate men; or, if not this, could he recommend us to an empty pigstye, or a disused limekiln, or anything of that sort. He did not know of any such place—at least, not one handy; but he said that, if we liked to come with him, his mother had a room to spare, and could put us up for the night.

我们问这位来自天堂的使者（我们后来才发现他是），是否知道哪里的房子比较偏僻，住的人又少又虚弱（最好是老太太或者残疾的先生），我们只需稍微吓唬一下，他们就能很容易地把自己的床让给3位不顾一切的男士；如果没有这样的房子，可不可以给我们推荐一个空猪圈、废弃的石灰窑或其他类似的地方。这样的地方他一处也不知道，至少没有一处是近便的。但是他说，如果我们愿意跟他走，他妈妈有个房间可以安排我们睡一晚上。

We fell upon his neck there in the moonlight and blessed him, and it would have made a very beautiful picture if the boy himself had not been so over-powered by our emotion as to be unable to sustain himself under it, and sunk to the ground, letting us all down on top of him. Harris was so overcome with joy that he fainted, and had to seize the boy's beer-can and half empty it before he could recover consciousness, and then he started off at a run, and left George and me to bring on the luggage.

在月光之中，我们扑过去拥抱他、为他祈福，这本应该是一幅美丽的画面，可是男孩无法肩负我们的感激之情，一时支持不住，摔倒在地，我们也随之压在了他身上。哈里斯因为狂喜而昏了过去，只好抓起男孩的啤酒罐，喝了一半后才恢复了神志。他一醒过来，马上撒腿就跑，留下我和乔治拿行李。

It was a little four-roomed cottage where the boy lived, and his mother—good soul!—gave us hot bacon for supper, and we ate it all—five pounds—and a jam tart afterwards, and two pots of tea, and then we went to bed. There were two beds in the room; one was a 2ft.6in. truckle bed, and George and I slept in that, and kept in by tying ourselves together with a sheet; and the other was the little boy's bed, and Harris had that all to himself, and we found him, in the morning, with two feet of bare leg sticking out at the bottom, and George and I used it to hang the towels on while we bathed.

男孩住在一家有4个房间的小农舍。他的母亲（善良的灵魂啊！）为我们端出热腾腾的熏肉作为晚餐，我们全都吃掉了（足足5磅），又吃了果酱馅饼，喝了两壶茶，然后就去睡觉。房间里有两张床，一张是2英尺6英寸长的活动矮床，由我和乔治共享，我们用床单把自己捆绑起来，才不至于掉下床去。另一张是小男孩的床，由哈里斯独享，第二天早晨我们发现他的两条光腿从床尾伸出来，足有两英尺长，正好供我们在洗澡的时候挂澡巾。

We were not so uppish about what sort of hotel we would have, next time we went to Datchet.

因此当我们再次到达切特的时候，对旅店就再也不那么挑剔了。

To return to our present trip: nothing exciting happened, and we tugged steadily on to a little below Monkey Island, where we drew up and lunched. We tackled the cold beef for lunch, and then we found that we had forgotten to bring any mustard. I don't think I ever in my life, before or since, felt I wanted mustard as badly as I felt I wanted it then. I don't care for mustard as a rule, and it is very seldom that I take it at all, but I would have given worlds for it then.

言归正传，继续讲眼下这次旅途：没有什么让人激动的事情发生，我们稳稳地将船拉到猴子岛下游一点，靠岸吃午餐。我们准备吃些冷牛肉，这时才发现忘了带芥末。我这一辈子里，之前还是以后从来没有像那次一样对芥末那么渴望。平时我对芥末不怎么感兴趣，基本上就不吃，但当时我却觉得情愿用全部的世界来交换它。

I don't know how many worlds there may be in the universe, but anyone who had brought me a spoonful of mustard at that precise moment could have had them all. I grow reckless like that when I want a thing and can't get it.

我不知道宇宙中究竟有多少个世界，我只知道，在那个时刻，如果有人愿意给我一勺芥末，我就把它们全部送给他。当我想要一样东西却不能得到的时候，我总会变得不顾一切。

Harris said he would have given worlds for mustard too. It would have been a good thing for anybody who had come up to that spot with a can of mustard then; he would have been set up in worlds for the rest of his life.

哈里斯说他也愿意用好几个世界去换芥末。无论是谁，如果他带着一罐芥末出现在彼时彼地的话，那可真是件好事：他的余生就能靠这好多个世界而衣食无忧了。

But there! I daresay both Harris and I would have tried to back out of the bargain after we had got the mustard. One makes these extravagant offers in moments of excitement, but, of course, when one comes to think of it, one sees how absurdly out of proportion they are with the value of the required article. I heard a man, going up a mountain in Switzerland, once say he would give worlds for a glass of beer, and, when he came to a little shanty where they kept it, he kicked up a most fearful row because they charged him five francs for a bottle of Bass. He said it was a scandalous imposition, and he wrote to The Times about it.

但是！我敢说，我和哈里斯在得到芥末后一定会对这个交易打退堂鼓。因为人在激动的时候容易作出这些夸张的许诺，但是仔细一想，就会发现他们所求事物的价值和这些许诺相比是多么地不成比例。我听说一位男子在瑞士爬山时，曾扬言他愿意用所有的世界来交换一杯啤酒，然而当他来到一个有啤酒的小棚屋时，却因为店家一瓶巴斯啤酒就向他收取5法郎而大吵大嚷，他说这是可耻的欺诈，后来还向《泰晤士报》写信控诉这件事。

It cast a gloom over the boat, there being no mustard. We ate our beef in silence. Existence seemed hollow and uninteresting. We thought of the happy days of childhood, and sighed. We brightened up a bit, however, over the apple-tart, and, when George drew out a tin of pineapple from the bottom of the hamper, and rolled it into the middle of the boat, we felt that life was worth living after all.

芥末的缺失将小船笼罩在阴郁的气氛之中。我们默默无声地吃牛肉。生存显得空洞而无聊。我们想起童年的美好生活，不禁长吁短叹。然而，吃苹果馅饼时，我们感到心情好了不少；而当乔治从食物篮底部摸出一个菠萝罐头时，我们发现原来生活还是有意义的。

We are very fond of pine-apple, all three of us. We looked at the picture on the tin; we thought of the juice. We smiled at one another, and Harris got a spoon ready.

我们非常喜欢吃菠萝，我们3人都是。我们看看罐头上的图片，想象着里面的汁水，然后相视而笑，而哈里斯已经拿起了一把勺子。

Then we looked for the knife to open the tin with. We turned out everything in the hamper. We turned out the bags. We pulled up the boards at the bottom of the boat. We took everything out on to the bank and shook it. There was no tin-opener to be found.

我们开始寻找开罐头的小刀，把食物篮上下翻了个遍，然后打开所有包，拉开船底的木板，我们还把所有东西拿到岸上，逐个晃动检查，仍然找不到开罐头的工具。

Then Harris tried to open the tin with a pocket-knife, and broke the knife and cut himself badly; and George tried a pair of scissors, and the scissors flew up, and nearly put his eye out. While they were dressing their wounds, I tried to make a hole in the thing with the spiky end of the hitcher, and the hitcher slipped and jerked me out between the boat and the bank into two feet of muddy water, and the tin rolled over, uninjured, and broke a teacup.

于是哈里斯试着用袖珍小刀来开罐头，把刀折了不说，自己也被伤得不轻；乔治拿出剪刀来试试运气，结果剪刀飞起来，差点扎飞他的眼珠。在他俩包扎伤口的当儿，我打算用船篙一端的尖锐部分在罐头上凿出一个洞来，但是船篙打了滑，把我甩进了船和岸之间两英尺深的污泥里，罐头也滚了出去，碰碎了一个茶杯，自己却毫发无伤。

Then we all got mad. We took that tin out on the bank, and Harris went up into a field and got a big sharp stone, and I went back into the boat and brought out the mast, and George held the tin and Harris held the sharp end of his stone against the top of it, and I took the mast and poised it high up in the air, and gathered up all my strength and brought it down.

我们都生气了。于是我们把罐头拿到岸上，哈里斯去田地里拾了块锋利的大石头，我回船上拿出桅杆，乔治拿稳罐头，哈里斯将石头锋利的尖端稳稳对准罐头的顶盖，我拿起桅杆，将它高高举起，然后使足了浑身的力气狠狠地砸了下去。

It was George's straw hat that saved his life that day. He keeps that hat now (what is left of it), and, of a winter's evening, when the pipes are lit and the boys are telling stretchers about the dangers they have passd through, George brings it down and shows it round, and the stirring tale is told anew, with fresh exaggerations every time.

那天是乔治的草帽救了他的性命。现在他还保存着这顶草帽（其残存的部分）。在冬夜，男孩儿们点上烟管，吹嘘各自所经历的危险时刻，乔治便拿出那顶帽子展示一圈，这个惊心动魄的故事再次被提起，每讲一次，故事都会增添许多新的夸张的细节。

Harris got off with merely a flesh wound.

哈里斯仅仅受了点皮肉伤。

After that, I took the tin off myself, and hammered at it with the mast till I was worn out and sick at heart, whereupon Harris took it in hand.

这之后我将这罐头接过来，用桅杆一直敲它，直到筋疲力尽、几欲呕吐，于是由哈里斯接着来。

We beat it out f lat; we beat it back square; we battered it into every form known to geometry—but we could not make a hole in it. Then George went at it, and knocked it into a shape, so strange, so weird, so unearthly in its wild hideousness, that he got frightened and threw away the mast. Then we all three sat round it on the grass and looked at it.

我们把它锤成扁的，又锤回方的，锤出了几何学上出现过的所有形状，但就是没法在它身上锤出一个洞来。接着乔治继续对付它。他把它锤成一个相当奇怪的形状，那荒诞可怖的样子很是古怪异常，吓得他一把扔掉了桅杆。于是我们3人在草地上席地坐下，把它放在中间，一起盯着它瞧。

There was one great dent across the top that had the appearance of a mocking grin, and it drove us furious, so that Harris rushed at the thing, and caught it up, and flung it far into the middle of the river, and as it sank we hurled our curses at it, and we got into the boat and rowed away from the spot, and never paused till we reached Maidenhead.

那罐头顶上有块很大的凹陷，好像咧着嘴在嘲笑我们，这大大地激怒了我们，于是哈里斯冲了过去，抓住它，把它远远地掷向了河中央。当它下沉的时候，我们一齐诅咒它。之后我们回到船里，奋力划桨，离开了那里，一路上 没敢歇息一口气直划到了梅登黑德。

Maidenhead itself is too snobby to be pleasant. It is the haunt of the river swell and his overdressed female companion. It is the town of showy hotels, patronised chiefly by dudes and ballet girls. It is the witch's kitchen from which go forth those demons of the rivers team-launches. The London Gournal duke always has his "little place" at Maidenhead; and the heroine of the three-volume novel always dines there when she goes out on the spree with somebody else's husband.

就梅登黑德本身来说，相当势利，让人不悦。河上的那些衣着时髦的头面人物和他们那些花枝招展的女伴们最爱在此活动。这里遍布华而不实的宾馆，专门招待花花公子和芭蕾舞女。这里是女巫的厨房，会游出无数条河魔——汽艇。《伦敦周刊》上的公爵在梅登黑德总有个“私密之地”；那些三卷式通俗小说的女主角和有妇之夫偷情时总要到那里大快朵颐一番。

We went through Maidenhead quickly, and then eased up, and took leisurely that grand reach beyond Boulter's and Cook ham locks. Clieveden Woods still wore their dainty dress of spring, and rose up, from the water's edge, in one long harmony of blended shades of fairy green. In its unbroken loveliness this is, perhaps, the sweetest stretch of all the river, and lingeringly we slowly drew our little boat away from its deep peace.

我们迅速划过梅登黑德，才放慢了速度，悠闲地划过了从布特勒水闸到库克汉姆水闸的一段广阔的流域。克利夫登的树林还未褪去优美的春装，沿着河岸形成一道深浅相间的绿带，美丽而和谐。这份美丽没有遭到任何阻断，毫无瑕疵，堪称泰晤士河上最甜美的一段风光。我们慢慢地划着小船，恋恋不舍地离开了它安宁平和的怀抱。

We pulled up in the backwater, just below Cookham, and had tea; and, when we were through the lock, it was evening. A stiffish breeze had sprung up—in our favour, for a wonder; for, as a rule on the river, the wind is always dead against you whatever way you go. It is against you in the morning, when you start for a day's trip, and you pull a long distance, thinking how easy it will be to come back with the sail. Then, after tea, the wind veers round, and you have to pull hard in its teeth all the way home.

我们在库克汉姆下游方向的静水湾停下船，开始享用下午茶。当我们通过水闸时，夜幕已经降临。强风骤起，而且很奇怪，风向居然顺着我们前进的方向。要知道，在河上泛舟，通常无论你去哪个方向，风总会从正面来迎接你。早上出发时，它和你作对，你划了好长一段距离后，想到回程时顺风扬帆会多么畅快啊。但是，下午茶后，风向突变，你又得在砭人肌肤的寒风中奋力地划回来。

When you forget to take the sail at all, then the wind is consistently in your favour both ways. But there! this world is only a probation, and man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

如果你压根就忘了带上帆，那么风在去时和返程时就都一直顺着你。你瞧！人间就是地狱的缓刑监狱，人生来就是要受苦受难，因为地狱的火星会不断地飘飞上来。

This evening, however, they had evidently made a mistake, and had put the wind round at our back instead of in our face. We kept very quiet about it, and got the sail up quickly before they found it out, and then we spread ourselves about the boat in thoughtful attitudes, and the sail bellied out, and strained, and grumbled at the mast, and the boat flew.

然而这天傍晚，它们肯定犯了个错误，把这股风放在了我们背后，而不是对面。我们一声也不敢吭，在它们发现之前赶紧把帆挂上，然后四脚朝天地在船上躺下作沉思状。帆鼓足了风，紧绷绷地展开，拉得桅杆嗡嗡作响，船飞也似地向前奔驰。

I steered.

我在掌舵。

There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet—except in dreams. The wings of the rushing wind seem to be bearing you onward, you know not where. You are no longer the slow, plodding, puny thing of clay, creeping tortuously upon the ground; you are a part of Nature! Your heart is throbbing against hers! Her glorious arms are round you, raising you up against her heart! Your spirit is at one with hers; your limbs grow light! The voices of the air are singing to you. The earth seems far away and little; and the clouds, so close above your head, are brothers, and you stretch your arms to them.

就我所知，没有什么比扬帆远航更刺激的事情。它是人类目前所能达到的最接近飞行的体验（当然，在梦里飞除外）。疾风的翅膀带你前进，你不知自己身在何处。你不再是那个笨重、缓慢而弱小的泥人，痛苦地爬行在地面之上；你成为了大自然的一部分！你的心脏和大自然的心脏紧贴着一起跳动！她用光芒万丈的臂膀环绕着你，将你举起贴在她的心口！你的精神和她的精神合二为一，四肢也变得轻飘飘的！风神为你歌唱，地球被远远地抛在了脚下，看上去那么地渺小；近在咫尺的云朵是你的兄弟，你向它们伸展双臂。

We had the river to ourselves, except that, far in the distance, we could see a fishing-punt, moored in mid-stream, on which three fishermen sat; and we skimmed over the water, and passed the wooded banks, and no one spoke.

我们独享整条河，除了远处隐约可见的一艘平底渔船。 它泊在河心，上面坐着3位垂钓者；我们的船在水面滑翔， 飞速穿过两岸的树林，我们继续保持沉默。

I was steering.

我在掌舵。

As we drew nearer, we could see that the three men fishing seemed old and solemn-looking men. They sat on three chairs in the punt, and watched intently their lines. And the red sunset threw a mystic light upon the waters, and tinged with fire the towering woods, and made a golden glory of the piled-up clouds. It was an hour of deep enchantment, of ecstatic hope and longing. The little sail stood out against the purple sky, the gloaming lay around us, wrapping the world in rainbow shadows; and, behind us, crept the night.

当我们靠近那艘平底船时，发现那3位垂钓者年事已高，而且表情严肃。他们各自坐了一把椅子，目不转睛地盯着鱼线。红色的落日在河面洒下神秘的光辉，染得两岸高耸的树林如同在燃烧，层叠的云朵折射出金光万丈。这一时刻的魔幻景色让人内心充满喜悦，胸中升起狂喜的希望和憧憬。小小的船帆映衬着紫色的天空，轮廓鲜明，黄昏在我们四周用彩虹色的光影包裹住整个世界；而在我们背后，黑夜匐匍着靠近。

We seemed like knights of some old legend, sailing across some mystic lake into the unknown realm of twilight, unto the great land of the sunset.

我们如同古老传说中的骑士，驶过神秘的湖泊，进入黄昏的未知疆域，走向夕阳的伟大国度。

We did not go into the realm of twilight; we went slap into that punt, where those three old men were fishing. We did not know what had happened at first, because the sail shut out the view, but from the nature of the language that rose up upon the evening air, we gathered that we had come into the neighbourhood of human beings, and that they were vexed and discontented.

我们没有能够进入黄昏的疆域，却“砰”地撞上了那艘有3位老人在钓鱼的平底船。由于船帆遮挡了视线，一时间我们不知道发生了什么。但是根据晚风中传来的话语的性质，我们可以推测出我们进入了人类的领地，并让他们极其愤怒和不满。

Harris let the sail down, and then we saw what had happened. We had knocked those three old gentlemen off their chairs into a general heap at the bottom of the boat, and they were now slowly and painfully sorting themselves out from each other, and picking fish off themselves; and as they worked, they cursed us—not with a common cursory curse, but with long, carefully-thought-out, comprehendsive curses, that embraced the whole of our career, and went away into the distant future, and included all our relations, and covered everything connected with us—good, substantial curses.

哈里斯放下船帆，我们这才明白发生了什么事。3位老先生已从他们的椅子上飞出，一个叠一个地堆在了船底！他们缓慢而痛苦地各自分离开来，又把身上跳腾的鱼抓下来。辛苦地做着这些事情的同时，他们一直不忘咒骂我们——不是稀松平常、敷衍了事的简单咒骂，是经过了深思熟虑的长篇大论，涵盖我们的整个事业生涯，展望我们遥远的未来，提及我们所有的亲人，涉及一切与我们相关的事物——的确是一顿有真材实料的咒骂。

Harris told them they ought to be grateful for a little excitement, sitting there fishing all day, and he also said that he was shocked and grieved to hear men their age give way to temper so.

哈里斯告诉他们，应该感谢我们为他们枯坐钓鱼的无聊一天增添了一些刺激。他还说，看到他们这样年纪的老人如此情绪失控，感到非常震惊和心痛。

But it did not do any good.

但是这番话没有起任何作用。

George said he would steer, after that. He said a mind like mine ought not to be expected to give itself away in steering boats—better let a mere commonplace human being see after that boat, before we jolly well all got drowned; and he took the lines, and brought us up to Marlow.

离开老人们后，乔治自荐掌舵。他说不该期望我的大脑能屈就于掌舵这种简单工作，还是在我们被集体淹死之前，让他这样的凡夫俗子来掌舵吧。于是他接过舵绳，把船一直驶到了马洛。

And at Marlow we left the boat by the bridge, and went and put up for the night at the "Crown".

在马洛我们把船泊在桥下，上岸去皇冠旅店歇息过夜。

CHAPTER XIII.

第十三章

MARLOW.—BISHAM ABBEY.—THE MEDMENHAMMONKS.—MONTMORENCY THINKS HE WILL MURDERAN OLD TOM CAT.—BUT EVENTUALLY DECIDESTHAT HE WILL LET IT LIVE.—SHAMEFUL CONDUCTOF A FOX TERRIER AT THE CIVIL SERVICE STORES.—OUR DEPARTURE FROM MARLOW.—AN IMPOSINGPROCESSION.—THE STEAM LAUNCH, USEFUL RECEIPTSFOR ANNOYING AND HINDERING IT.—WE DECLINE TODRINK THE RIVER.—A PEACEFUL DOG.—STRANGEDISAPPEARANCE OF HARRIS AND A PIE.

马洛——比沙姆修道院——梅德门海姆寺的修道士——蒙特莫伦西认为他会谋杀一只老公猫——但是最后决定放它一马——一只猎狐犬在便民商店里的卑鄙行径——我们离开马洛——一队壮丽的人马——汽艇，打扰妨碍它们的小贴士——我们拒绝喝河水——一条安静的狗——哈里斯和一个馅饼的离奇失踪

MARLOW is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of. It is a bustling, lively little town; not very picturesque on the whole, it is true, but there are many quaint nooks and corners to be found in it, nevertheless—standing arches in the shattered bridge of Time, over which our fancy travels back to the days when Marlow Manor owned Saxon Algar for its lord, ere conquering William seized it to give to Queen Matilda, ere it passed to the Earls of Warwick or to worldly-wise Lord Paget, the councillor of four successive sovereigns.

马洛是我所知道的河上最令人愉悦的枢纽地带之一。它是个熙熙攘攘、生气勃勃的小镇，总体上确实算不上风光如画，但也颇有几处雅致的角落，例如破旧的时光桥上残立的拱门，引人回想过去的时光，当时马洛庄园的主人是撒克逊人阿尔格，后来庄园被征服者威廉夺下献给玛狄尔达皇后，接着又被传给沃里克伯爵，或者可以说传给了老于世故的派吉特伯爵——他可是连续为四代帝王出谋划策的大臣。

There is lovely country round about it, too, if, after boating, you are fond of a walk, while the river itself is at its best here. Down to Cookham, past the Quarry Woods and the meadows, is a lovely reach. Dear old Quarry Woods! with your narrow, climbing paths, and little winding glades, how scented to this hour you seem with memories of sunny summer days! How haunted are your shadowy vistas with the ghosts of laughing faces! how from your whispering leaves there softly fall the voices of long ago!

马洛郊区的景色也很不错，划完船后可以去散散步，这一段的河流本身也是最漂亮的。到库克汉姆会经过阔瑞森林和草地，这是很令人愉悦的一段流域。动人的老阔瑞森林！你那些狭窄陡峭的小径和屈曲蜿蜒的林间小空地，总是带着至今为止无数个过往的明媚夏日的芬芳记忆！你那影影绰绰的景色里，总有无数张幽灵微笑的脸出没其中。你那婆娑轻语的树叶间，总幽幽地传来远古的声音！

whose stone walls have rung to the shouts of the Knights Templars, and which, at one time, was the home of Anne of Cleves and at another of Queen Elizabeth, is passed on the right bank just half a mile above Marlow Bridge. Bisham Abbey is rich in melodramatic properties. It contains a tapestry bed-chamber, and a secret room hid high up in the thick walls. The ghost of the Lady Holy, who beat her little boy to death, still walks there at night, trying to wash its ghostly hands clean in a ghostly basin.

从马洛到桑宁的那段更加美丽。在马洛桥右岸上游英里的地方矗立着宏伟而古老的老比沙姆修道院，那里的石墙内曾经回荡着圣殿骑士的呼喊；它曾是克利夫斯的安娜的家，也曾是伊丽莎白女王的家。比沙姆修道院的装潢充满了戏剧化的特性：其中有间装饰着挂毯的卧室，此外还有间高高地藏在厚墙里的密室。每当深夜来临，曾打死小儿子的圣德夫人的鬼魂仍会在那里到处游走，试图在一个鬼盆中洗净她那双罪恶的鬼手。

Warwick, the king-maker, rests there, careless now about such trivial things as earthly kings and earthly kingdoms; and Salisbury, who did good service at Poitiers. Just before you come to the abbey, and right on the river's bank, is Bisham Church, and, perhaps, if any tombs are worth inspecting, they are the tombs and monuments in Bisham Church. It was while floating in his boat under the Bisham beeches that Shelley, who was then living at Marlow (you can see his house now, in West street), composed The Revolt of Islam.

国王拥立者沃里克长眠于此，估计他如今再也不关心俗世的国王或者王国这种无足轻重的东西了。曾在普瓦捷立下赫赫战功的索尔兹伯里同样安葬在这里。去修道院的路上，你会在河岸旁看到比沙姆教堂。如果说有什么坟墓是值得瞻仰的，那一定是比沙姆教堂的坟墓和墓碑。雪莱当年住在马洛时(如今你可以在西街看到他的故居)，正是泛舟飘荡在比沙姆岸边的山毛榉树下，写下了著名长诗《伊斯兰的反叛》。

By Hurley Weir, a little higher up, I have often thought that I could stay a month without having sufficient time to drink in all the beauty of the scene. The village of Hurley, five minutes' walk from the lock, is as old a little spot as there is on the river, dating, as it does, to quote the quaint phraseology of those dim days, "from the times of King Sebert and King Offa". Just past the weir (going up) is Danes' Field, where the invading Danes once encamped, during their march to Gloucestershire; and a little further still, nestling by a sweet corner of the stream, is what is left of Medmenham Abbey.

再往上游前进不久就到了赫尔利堰坝，我总会想，即使在这里住上一个月，也没有充足的时间领略它的美丽。从水闸步行5分钟，就到了赫尔利村庄，它是河上最古老的地方，它是如此的古老，可以引用那些灰暗日子的离奇古话来说，“始于西勃脱王和奥发王的时代”。堰坝上游一点是“丹麦人之地”，丹麦人入侵后，在出征格洛斯特郡的路上，曾在此扎营。再往上游一点，藏在河流的一个美丽的拐角处的，是梅德门海姆寺的遗址。

The famous Medmenham monks, or "Hell Fire Club", as they were commonly called, and of whom the notorious Wilkes was a member, were a fraternity whose motto was "Do as you please", and that invitation still stands over the ruined doorway of the abbey. Many years before this bogus abbey, with its congregation of irreverent jesters, was founded, there stood upon this same spot a monastery of a sterner kind, whose monks were of a somewhat different type to the revellers that were to follow them, five hundred years afterwards.

著名的梅德门海姆寺的修道士们，组成了俗称的“地狱之火俱乐部”，成员包括臭名昭著的威尔克斯，这个男性信徒组织的座右铭是“随心所欲”，至今这个号召还刻在修道院被岁月摧残后的门廊上。在这个由亵渎神祇的小丑们建立的伪修道院出现之前，在同一个地点曾有一个更为严肃的修道院，那时的修道士们可完全不同于500年后追随他们脚步的那些纵乐者们。

The Cistercian monks, whose abbey stood there in the thirteenth century, wore no clothes but rough tunics and cowls, and ate no flesh, nor fish, nor eggs. They lay upon straw, and they rose at midnight to mass. They spent the day in labour, reading, and prayer; and over all their lives there fell a silence as of death, for no one spoke.

那就是西多会修道士们，他们的修道院13世纪时在那里，他们只穿粗布短袍、戴头巾，戒食肉类，甚至不吃鱼和鸡蛋。他们睡在稻草上，半夜起床做弥撒，白天劳动、阅读和祷告；他们一辈子似乎都被笼罩在死一般的寂静中，因为谁也不开口说话。

A grim fraternity, passing grim lives in that sweet spot, that God had made so bright! Strange that Nature's voices all around them—the soft singing of the waters, the whisperings of the river grass, the music of the rushing wind—should not have taught them a truer meaning of life than this. They listened there, through the long days, in silence, waiting for a voice from heaven; and all day long and through the solemn night it spoke to them in myriad tones, and they heard it not.

在一个受到上帝的眷顾、风光无比明媚而美好的地方，这个纪律严明的组织竟过着如此严酷的生活！为什么他们周围自然的声音——河水的轻吟、水草的耳语、风神的乐曲——都未能使他们知晓比这更真实的生活的意义呢？他们在漫长的岁月中，一言不发地聆听着，等待来自天堂的声音；无论在白天，还是在肃穆的夜晚，天堂的声音用各种音调对他们讲话，他们却充耳不闻。

From Medmenham to sweet Hambledon Lock the river is full of peaceful beauty, but, after it passes Greenlands, the rather uninteresting looking river residence of my newsagent—a quiet unassuming old gentleman, who may often be met with about these regions, during the summer months, sculling himself along in easy vigorous style, or chatting genially to some old lock-keeper, as he passes through—until well the other side of Henley, it is somewhat bare and dull.

从梅德门海姆寺到可爱的汉布尔登水闸，河畔景色有种宁静的优美，但是经过格陵兰之后是挺沉闷的一段，我的报纸经销商就居于此间。他是位寡言而谦逊的老绅士，夏季的那几个月你经常可以在这一带遇到他，要么就优哉游哉地划船，精力充沛；要么在路经水闸时和某位年老的水闸管理员亲切地交谈。直到亨利的另一岸为止，这一带的风景荒凉无趣。

We got up tolerably early on the Monday morning at Marlow, and went for a bathe before breakfast; and, coming back, Montmorency made an awful ass of himself. The only subject on which Montmorency and I have any serious difference of opinion is cats. I like cats; Montmorency does not.

在马洛，我们星期一早上尽可能地早起了，在吃早饭前去洗了个澡，回来的路上，蒙特莫伦西出了个大洋相。我和蒙特莫伦西唯一存在严重分歧的一件事就是猫：我喜欢猫，而它不喜欢。

When I meet a cat, I say, "Poor Pussy!" and stop down and tickle the side of its head; and the cat sticks up its tail in a rigid, cast-iron manner, arches its back, and wipes its nose up against my trousers; and all is gentleness and peace. When Montmorency meets a cat, the whole street knows about it; and there is enough bad language wasted in ten seconds to last an ordinarily respectable man all his life, with care.

当我看到猫时，我会说：“可怜的小家伙！”然后蹲下来挠挠它的脑袋，而猫会竖起铸铁一般僵直的尾巴，弓起背，用鼻子在我的裤腿上磨蹭；整个过程都是温柔而和平的。当蒙特莫伦西看到一只猫，整个街道都会立刻知道这件事；10秒钟的时间内，被滥用的粗口之多，足够一位普通的人格高尚的绅士使用一辈子了——节省着用的话。

I do not blame the dog (contenting myself, as a rule, with merely clouting his head or throwing stones at him), because I take it that it is his nature. Fox-terriers are born with about four times as much original sin in them as other dogs are, and it will take years and years of patient effort on the part of us Christians to bring about any appreciable reformation in the rowdiness of the fox-terrier nature.

我不怪这条狗（我一般满足于狠狠地拍它脑袋或者扔它石头），因为我认为它那是天性使然。猎狐犬生来所带的原罪是别的犬种的四倍，而我们基督徒则需要付出很多年的耐心努力，才能对猎狐犬粗暴的本性作出一定可观的改造。

I remember being in the lobby of the Haymarket Stores one day, and all round about me were dogs, waiting for the return of their owners, who were shopping inside. There were a mastiff, and one or two collies, and a St. Bernard, a few retrievers and New found lands, a boar-hound, a French poodle, with plenty of hair round its head, but mangy about the middle; a bull-dog, a few Lowther Arcade sort of animals, about the size of rats, and a couple of Yorkshire tykes.

我记得有一次，在海玛凯特百货商店的大厅里聚满了等候主人从商店里购物归来的狗。其中有一只大驯犬、一两只牧羊犬、一只圣伯纳犬、几只寻猎犬、几只纽芬兰犬、一只野猪猎狗、一只法国贵宾犬（它头顶多毛但背部的中间有一块疥癣）、一条斗牛犬，还有一些像劳瑟.亚凯特产的、跟老鼠差不多大小的动物和几只约克郡杂种狗。

There they sat, patient, good, and thoughtful. A solemn peacefulness seemed to reign in that lobby. An air of calmness and resignation—of gentle sadness pervaded the room.

它们耐心而听话地坐在那里，沉思着。大厅里弥漫着庄严和平的气氛。有种冷静而顺从的氛围——带着点温柔和哀伤——感染了整个大厅。

Then a sweet young lady entered, leading a meek-looking little fox-terrier, and left him, chained up there, between the bull-dog and the poodle. He sat and looked about him for a minute. Then he cast up his eyes to the ceiling, and seemed, judging from his expression, to bethinking of his mother. Then he yawned. Then he looked round at the other dogs, all silent, grave, and dignified.

这时一位长相甜美的年轻女士走进大厅，牵来一条看上去温顺谦恭的小猎狐犬，然后把它拴在斗牛犬和贵宾犬中间。小猎狐犬坐下后用了一分钟环视四周，最后目光定格在天花板上。从表情上看，它似乎正在想念自己的母亲。接着它打了个哈欠，再次环视四周的狗——都是沉默安详、庄重并且高贵的样子。

He looked at the bull-dog, sleeping dreamlessly on his right. He looked at the poodle, erect and haughty, on his left. Then, without a word of warning, without the shadow of a provocation, he bit that poodle's near fore-leg, and a yelp of agony rang through the quiet shades of that lobby.

它看看右边，斗牛犬在睡着无梦的好觉；它看看左边，贵宾犬挺着腰身，神情傲慢。突然，没有一句警告、没有任何挑逗的预兆，它一口咬住贵宾犬靠近它那侧的前腿。一声疼痛的哀号划破了笼罩着大厅的沉默之云。

The result of his first experiment seemed highly satisfactory to him, and he determined to go on and make things lively all round. He sprang over the poodle and vigorously attacked a collie, and the collie woke up, and immediately commenced a fierce and noisy contest with the poodle. Then Foxey came back to his own place, and caught the bull-dog by the ear, and tried to throw him away; and the bulldog, a curiously impartial animal, went for everything he could reach, including the hall-porter, which gave that dear little terrier the opportunity to enjoy an uninterrupted fight of his own with an equally willing Yorkshire tyke.

看来它对第一次试验的成果感到相当满意，所以决定继续它的计划，让周围都活跃起来。它跳过中间的贵宾犬，狠狠攻击了一只牧羊犬。牧羊犬醒了过来，立刻向贵宾犬发动了猛烈而嘈杂的反击战。接着小猎狐犬回到自己的地盘，咬住斗牛犬的耳朵想把它甩飞。斗牛犬这种动物公平得不可思议，它开始袭击它能够扑到的所有事物，连大厅里的行李搬运工也不放过。这下，我们可爱的小猎狐犬可以不受打扰了，于是借此机会和一条同样好斗的约克郡杂种狗开始单挑对决。

Anyone who knows canine nature need hardly, be told that, by this time, all the other dogs in the place were fighting as if their hearths and homes depended on the fray. The big dogs fought each other indiscriminately; and the little dogs fought among themselves, and filled up their spare time by biting the legs of the big dogs.

不用说，所有熟知狗性的人都应该知道，此时厅里的狗全部加入了战斗，仿佛它们的家庭的命运都由这场战斗来决定。大狗不分青红皂白地攻击其他大狗，小狗则在小狗群中战斗，空闲时，小狗也会悄悄地对准大狗的后腿来那么一嘴。

The whole lobby was a perfect pandemonium, and the din was terrific. A crowd assembled outside in the Haymarket, and asked if it was a vestry meeting; or, if not, who was being murdered, and why? Men came with poles and ropes, and tried to separate the dogs, and the police were sent for.

整个大厅里一片混乱，鬼哭狼嚎。海玛凯特百货商店门外聚集了一群人，纷纷询问里面是在举行教区集会呢，还是有人被谋杀了呢，以及为什么被杀。男人们拿着长杆和绳索赶来，想要把狗群分开，还有人把警察找来了。

And in the midst of the riot that sweet young lady returned, and snatched up that sweet little dog of hers (he had laid the tyke up for a month, and had on the expression, now, of a new-born lamb) into her arms, and kissed him, and asked him if he was killed, and what those great nasty brutes of dogs had been doing to him; and he nestled up against her, and gazed up into her face with a look that seemed to say: "Oh, I'm so glad you've come to take me away from this disgraceful scene!"

正当暴乱进行到高潮时，那位甜美的年轻女士回到大厅中，蹲下来两臂一圈，捧起她那条同样甜美的小狗（他早就放倒了那只杂种狗，现在的表情如同新生的羊羔），怀抱着亲吻它，问它是否险些丧命，问它那些下流残暴的大狗对它做了些什么；它依偎着她，仰头凝视她，那表情似乎在说：“噢，你回来把我从这可耻的一切中救走，真是太让我高兴了！”

She said that the people at the Stores had no right to allow great savage things like those other dogs to be put with respectable people's dogs, and that she had a great mind to summon somebody.

她说厅里其他狗那么残暴那么凶猛，商店的人没有权利同意让这些家伙被寄放在体面人家的狗身旁。她还说自己非常想要状告某些人。

Such is the nature of fox-terriers; and, therefore, I do not blame Montmorency for his tendency to row with cats; but he wished he had not given way to it that morning.

这就是猎狐犬的天性。正因为如此，就算蒙特莫伦西喜欢和猫打架，我也不责怪它。但是它自己却后悔那天早上没压抑住这个天性。

We were, as I have said, returning from a dip, and half-way up the High Street a cat darted out from one of the houses in front of us, and began to trot across the road. Montmorency gave a cry of joy—the cry of a stern warrior who sees his enemy given over to his hands—the sort of cry Cromwell might have uttered when the Scots came down the hill—and flew after his prey.

前面我已经提到过，我们洗完澡正往回走，大街走了一半的时候，在我们面前一只猫从对面的房屋里冲了出来，开始小跑着横穿马路。蒙特莫伦西发出一声欢呼——如同严肃的勇士看到敌人被交付到自己手中时的呼喊，如同克伦威尔看到苏格兰士兵从山坡顶向他冲来时的呼声——并且向他的猎物冲去。

His victim was a large black Tom. I never saw a larger cat, nor a more disreputable-looking cat. It had lost half its tail, one of its ears, and a fairly appreciable proportion of its nose. It was a long, sinewy-looking animal. It had a calm, contented air about it.

受害者是一只黑色的大公猫。我从没见过那么大的猫，也从没见过那么不堪入目的猫。它失去了半条尾巴、一只耳朵和相当大部分的鼻子，大到可以很明显地被看出来。它的躯干很长，看上去很结实，有一种平静而满足的神态。

Montmorency went for that poor cat at the rate of twenty miles an hour; but the cat did not hurry up—did not seem to have grasped the idea that its life was in danger. It trotted quietly on until its would-be assassin was within a yard of it, and then it turned round and sat down in the middle of the road, and looked at Montmorency with a gentle, inquiring expression, that said: "Yes! You want me?"

蒙特莫伦西以20英里的时速冲向那只可怜的猫，但是那猫并没有匆忙地加速，似乎没有明白它的生命正处于危险中这个事实。它安静地小跑着继续往前，直到它的蓄意暗杀者离它不到一码远了，这才转身，在马路中央坐下，用一种带着点儿温柔的询问的眼神看着蒙特莫伦西，似乎在说：“噢！你找我吗？”

Montmorency does not lack pluck; but there was something about the look of that cat that might have chilled the heart of the boldest dog. He stopped abruptly, and looked back at Tom.

蒙特莫伦西可不是孬种，但当时那只猫的表情中，有种或许能够让哪怕是最勇敢的狗都心惊胆战的东西。他猛地停住了，与这只公猫炯炯对视。

Neither spoke; but the conversation that one could imagine was clearly as follows:

双方都没有说话，但如果想象他们的对话，肯定是下 面这样：

THE CAT: "Can I do anything for you?"

猫：“我能帮你做点什么吗？”

MONTMORENCY: "No—no, thanks.”

蒙特莫伦西：“不——不，谢谢。”

THE CAT: "Don't you mind speaking, if you really want anything, you know."

猫：“如果你真的有什么事，不妨告诉我，真的。”

MONTMORENCY (BACKING DOWN THE HIGH STREET): "Oh, no—not at all—certainly—don't you trouble. I—I am afraid I've made a mistake. I thought I knew you. Sorry I disturbed you."

蒙特莫伦西（在大街上开始往后退）：“哦，不——没、没事——真没事，您别麻烦了。我——恐怕我认错人了。我以为您是我的一位熟人。不好意思打扰了。”

THE CAT: "Not at all—quite a pleasure. Sure you don't want anything, now?"

猫：“没关系，乐意效劳。你确定没有什么我能帮到你的事情么？”

MONTMORENCY (STILL BACKING): "Not at all, thanks—not at all—very kind of you. Good morning.”

蒙特莫伦西（继续后退）：“什么事也没有，谢谢——什么事都没，您真善良。再见！”

THE CAT: "Good—morning.”

猫：“再见。”

Then the cat rose, and continued his trot; and Montmorency, fitting what he calls his tail carefully into its groove, came back to us, and took up an unimportant position in the rear.

接着猫站起来，继续小跑着前进了。蒙特莫伦西把被他自己称作尾巴的东西仔仔细细地夹进屁股沟里，回到我们的队伍中，在后面找了个不起眼的位置跟着。

To this day, if you say the word "Cats!" to Montmorency, he will visibly shrink and look up piteously at you, as if to say: "Please don't."

直到今天，如果你对蒙特莫伦西说起“猫”这个字，它的身体会明显收缩，还会可怜巴巴地望着你，就像在说：“求你别说啦。”

We did our marketing after breakfast, and revictualled the boat for three days. George said we ought to take vegetables—that it was unhealthy not to eat vegetables. He said they were easy enough to cook, and that he would see to that; so we got ten pounds of potatoes, a bushel of peas, and a few cabbages. We got a beefsteak pie, a couple of gooseberry tarts, and a leg of mutton from the hotel; and fruit, and cakes, and bread and butter, and jam, and bacon and eggs, and other things we foraged round about the town for.

我们在早饭后去了市场，给船上补充了3天的食物。乔治说我们应该买点蔬菜，长期不吃蔬菜不利于健康。他说蔬菜并不难做，交给他就行，于是我们买了10磅土豆、一蒲式耳豌豆和一些卷心菜。我们从酒店买了一个牛排馅饼、一些醋栗烘饼和一只羊腿；此外我们还买了水果、蛋糕、面包、黄油、果酱、熏肉和鸡蛋，还翻遍全城搜罗了其他一些东西。

Our departure from Marlow I regard as one of our greatest successes. It was dignified and impressive, without being ostentatious. We had insisted at all the shops we had been to that the things should be sent with us then and there. None of your "Yes, sir, I will send them off at once; the boy will be down there before you are, sir!" and then fooling about on the landing-stage, and going back to the shop twice to have a row about them, for us. We waited while the basket was packed, and took the boy with us.

我认为从马洛启程是我们的一次成功之举：有威严、让人难忘，却绝不虚华。在每一家店铺我们都坚持当场就拿到货物同我们一道送回去。你们别跟我们说什么“好的，先生，我们立刻就发货，我们的送货员会在您回去前就把货送到您的船上！”然后我们就得在栈桥上到处闲逛等着，至少需要回店里去跟他们吵上两架。我们在店里等着他们把篮子装好，让送货员立刻提了和我们一同上路。

We went to a good many shops, adopting this principle at each one; and the consequence was that, by the time we had finished, we had as fine a collection of boys with baskets following us around as heart could desire; and our final march down the middle of the High Street, to the river, must have been as imposing a spectacle as Marlow had seen for many a long day.

我们去了很多家店铺，每一家都采取这一原则，所以我们购物完毕后的结果就是，我们背后那些提着篮子的男孩们已经排成了长队跟随着我们，让我们很是欣慰；最后当我们从镇里大街的中部，开始向着河前进时，声势已经相当浩大，恐怕马洛的人们很少能看到这样的排场。

The order of the procession was as follows:

队伍的排列顺序如下：

Montmorency, carrying a stick. Two disreputable-looking curs, friends of Montmorency's. George, carrying coats and rugs, and smoking a short pipe. Harris, trying to walk with easy grace, while carrying a bulged-out Gladstone bag in one hand and a bottle of lime-juice in the other. Greengrocer's boy and baker's boy, with baskets. Boots from the hotel, carrying hamper. Confectioner's boy, with basket. Grocer's boy, with basket. Long-haired dog. Cheesemonger's boy, with basket. Oddman carrying a bag. Bosom companion of odd man, with his hands in his pockets, smoking a short clay. Fruiterer's boy, with basket. Myself, carrying three hats and a pair of boots, and trying to look as if I didn't know it. Six small boys, and four stray dogs.

蒙特莫伦西，叼着一条木棍。两只不体面的杂种狗，它们是蒙特莫伦西的朋友。乔治，拿着衣服和毯子，抽着短烟斗。哈里斯，尽量走得优雅从容，但一手提着装得鼓鼓的旅行提包，另一手拿着一瓶酸橙汁。后面是蔬菜店和面包房的送货男孩，他们都提着篮子。酒店的行李运送工人，提着食物篮。糖果店的男孩，提着篮子。杂货店的男孩，提着篮子。长毛狗。干酪店的男孩，提着篮子。打杂工，提着篮子。打杂工的知己好友，双手插在口袋里，抽着陶制短烟斗。水果店的男孩，提着篮子。我，拿着3顶帽子和1双靴子，还假装不知道拿着这么多东西。后面跟着6个小孩和4只流浪狗。

When we got down to the landing-stage, the boatman said: 'Let me see, sir; was yours a steam-launch or a house-boat?”

来到栈桥，船夫说：“让我猜猜，先生。你们这是汽艇还是游艇？”

On our informing him it was a double-sculling skiff, he seemed surprised.

我们告诉他是条双桨式小船，似乎让他吃了一惊。

We had a good deal of trouble with steam launches that morning. It was just before the Henley week, and they were going up in large numbers; some by themselves, some towing houseboats. I do hate steam launches: I suppose every rowing man does. I never see a steam launch but I feel I should like to lure it to a lonely part of the river, and there, in the silence and the solitude, strangle it.

那天早上汽艇让我们大吃苦头。那时正好是亨利赛舟节的前一天，相当多汽艇要去上游，一些只有自己，还有一些后面还拖着游艇。我相当讨厌汽艇：我认为所有划船的人都讨厌汽艇。每当看到汽艇，我就想把它引诱到河上一处僻静地方，悄悄地把它勒死。

There is a blatant bumptiousness about a steam launch that has the knack of rousing every evil instinct in my nature, and I yearn for the good old days, when you could go about and tell people what you thought of them with a hatchet and a bow and arrows. The expression on the face of the man who, with his hands in his pockets, stands by the stern, smoking a cigar, is sufficient to excuse a breach of the peace by itself; and the lordly whistle for you to get out of the way would, I am confident, ensure a verdict of "justifiable homicide" from any jury of river men.

汽艇毫不掩饰它们的盲目自大，总能唤醒我天性中的所有邪恶本能。我怀念逝去的美好时光，那时候人们可以到处闯荡，并用斧头和弓箭告诉所有你看不惯的人你对他们的看法。你看，那个立在汽艇船舷边叼着雪茄、双手插袋的男人！他的表情本身就构成其他人破坏和平的充足理由。我相信，再加上催你赶快让路的傲气凌人的汽笛声，足够让任何划桨人士组成的陪审团判决我是“正当杀人”。

They used to HAVE to whistle for us to get out of their way. If I may do so, without appearing boastful, I think I can honestly say that our one small boat, during that week, caused more annoyance and delay and aggravation to the steam launches that we came across than all the other craft on the river put together.

他们曾经不得不鸣笛提醒我们让路。如果我可以这样说，又不让人觉得夸张的话，我想很诚实地说，我们的那只小船在那一周中，为我们遇到的汽艇造成的阻碍、延误和痛苦比河上其他所有船只加起来都要多。

"Steam launch, coming!" one of us would cry out, on sighting the enemy in the distance; and, in an instant, everything was got ready to receive her. I would take the lines, and Harris and George would sit down beside me, all of us with our backs to the launch, and the boat would drift out quietly into mid-stream.

“汽艇来啦！”我们中有一个发现远处的敌情后会大叫，眨眼间所有迎接它的准备都已作好。我负责掌控舵绳，哈里斯和乔治负责坐在我旁边，大家都背对着汽艇，小船悄无声息地漂向河中心。

On would come the launch, whistling, and on we would go, drifting. At about a hundred yards off, she would start whistling like mad, and the people would come and lean over the side, and roar at us; but we never heard them! Harris would be telling us an anecdote about his mother, and George and I would not have missed a word of it for worlds.

汽艇继续接近，拉响汽笛；我们继续漂流，闭目塞听。在距离我们大概100码时，汽艇开始疯狂地鸣笛，艇上的人都把身子探出船舷，对我们大声喊叫，但是我们根本什么都听不见！哈里斯在给我们讲关于他母亲的趣闻，我和乔治听得专心致志，不愿意漏听一个字。

Then that launch would give one final shriek of a whistle that would nearly burst the boiler, and she would reverse her engines, and blow off steam, and swing round and get aground; everyone on board of it would rush to the bow and yell at us, and the people on the bank would stand and shout to us, and all the other passing boats would stop and join in, till the whole river for miles up and down was in a state of frantic commotion. And then Harris would break off in the most interesting part of his narrative, and look up with mild surprise, and say to George: "Why, George, bless me, if here isn't a steam launch!"

之后汽艇会鸣响最后一声汽笛，可谓声嘶力竭，就差那么一点便可以震爆锅炉。接着她倒退，呼呼地喷着白汽，然后转弯，搁浅了。汽艇上所有人都会冲到船头对着我们咆哮，岸上的人们会站起来对我们大叫，所有路过的船也都停下来加入他们的呼唤行动，直到几英里内的整个河面成为沸腾的一片。这时，哈里斯的故事在最精彩的部分戛然而止。他有点吃惊地抬起头，对乔治说：“喂，乔治，天啊，那是一艘汽艇么？”

And George would answer: "Well, do you know, I THOUGHT I heard something!"

乔治会回答说：“嗨，你知道吗，我觉得听到了什么！”

Upon which we would get nervous and confused, and not know how to get the boat out of the way, and the people in the launch would crowd round and instruct us:

这时候我们的脸上会浮现出紧张茫然的表情，不知道如何驾驶小船给汽艇让出路来。这时汽艇上的人会挤到一块，给我们指导：

"Pull your right—you, you idiot! back with your left. No, not YOU—the other one—leave the lines alone, can't you—now, both together. NOT THAT way. Oh, you—!”

“右手拉——你傻子么！那是左手！不，不是你，我说另一个呢！您别碰绳子行么？现在两边一起。不是那样。你、你——！

Then they would lower a boat and come to our assistance; and, after quarter of an hour's effort, would get us clean out of their way, so that they could go on; and we would thank them so much, and ask them to give us a tow. But they never would.

然后他们会放下小艇，划过来，亲自上我们船来帮忙，15分钟的奋斗后，终于把我们弄出了他们的航道，得以继续前进了。我们表示非常感谢，顺便表示希望他们拖我们一程，但这些汽艇会拒绝我们，从来没有一次例外。

Another good way we discovered of irritating the aristocratic type of steam launch, was to mistake them for a beanfeast, and ask them if they were Messrs. Cubit's lot or the Bermondsey Good Templars, and could they lend us a saucepan.

我们还发现了另一个激怒贵族汽艇的办法，那就是故意把这些贵族误认作得到主人奖赏而出游的仆人。我们会问他们是库比特先生家的仆人还是伯蒙德西戒酒公会的人，并询问能否借炖锅一用。

Old ladies, not accustomed to the river, are always intensely nervous of steam launches. I remember going up once from Staines to Windsor—a stretch of water peculiarly rich in these mechanical monstrosities—with a party containing three ladies of this description. It was very exciting. At the first glimpse of every steam launch that came in view, they insisted on landing and sitting down on the bank until it was out of sight again. They said they were very sorry, but that they owed it to their families not to be fool-hardy.

不习惯河上生活的老太太们对汽艇相当害怕。我记得有一次和3位这样的太太乘船从斯泰恩斯去温莎——这段河上汽艇这种机械怪物频繁出没。那次好玩极了。一旦汽艇出现在视野中，她们就会坚持要求靠岸，坐到岸上，直到看着汽艇消失后，才愿意回到船里。她们说非常抱歉，但随即又表示，考虑到家人，她们不能鲁莽。

We found ourselves short of water at Hambledon Lock; so we took our jar and went up to the lock-keeper's house to beg for some.

到汉博登水闸时，我们发现储水不足了，就提着水罐到水闸管理员的小屋去讨水。

George was our spokesman. He put on a winning smile, and said: "Oh, please could you spare us a little water?"

乔治是我们的发言人。他堆上满脸媚笑说：“能给我们一点水么？

"Certainly," replied the old gentleman; "take as much as you want, and leave the rest."

“没问题。”那位老绅士回答，“想要多少就取多少吧，我用剩下的就好了。”

"Thank you so much," murmured George, looking about him.

“太感谢了。”乔治一边嚅嗫着说一边环顾四周.

"Where—where do you keep it?”

“那、那么，您把它存在哪里了呢？”

"It's always in the same place my boy," was the stolid reply: "just behind you."

“一直都没有变过地方，我的孩子，”一个平稳的声音回答道，“就在你背后。”

"I don't see it," said George, turning round.

乔治转身看看，然后说：“我看不到啊。”

"Why, bless us, where's your eyes?" was the man's comment, as he twisted George round and pointed up and down the stream. "There's enough of it to see, ain't there?"

“你怎么啦，帮帮忙，你的眼睛长哪儿啦？”对方这样评价道，一边把乔治拉转身，对着河上下一指，“那么多水，看到了吗？”

"Oh!" exclaimed George, grasping the idea; "but we can't drink the river, you know!"

“噢！”乔治大叫一声，明白过来，“但是，要知道，我们可喝不下这河水啊！”

George told him that his appearance, after the course, did not seem A sufficiently good advertisement for the brand; and that he would prefer it out of a pump.

“你们当然喝不下这河啦，但是喝一小部分还是可以的。”老人回答，“过去15年来，我可一直都喝这水。”乔治对他说，他的外表作为这水的广告太缺乏说服力，所以他还是更喜欢水泵抽出来的水。

We got some from a cottage a little higher up. I daresay THAT was only river water, if we had known. But we did not know, so it was all right. What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over. We tried river water once, later on in the season, but it was not a success. We were coming down stream, and had pulled up to have tea in a backwater near Windsor. Our jar was empty, and it was a case of going without our tea or taking water from the river. Harris was for chancing it. He said it must be all right if we boiled the water. He said that the various germs of poison present in the water would be killed by the boiling. So we filled our kettle with Thames backwater, and boiled it; and very careful we were to see that it did boil.

我们往上游又走了一段，从一个农舍要来了一些水。据我猜测，那些也是河水。但是我们不知道真相，所以就没有问题。如果我们的眼睛没有不适，那么胃也不会不适。那个季节的晚些时候，我们喝过一次河水，结果是失败的。我们往下游行驶的途中，在温莎附近的回水区停下喝茶。水罐空空如也，当时如果不使用河水，就只有放弃喝茶。哈里斯建议冒险一试。他说只要把水煮开了，应该没有什么问题。他说把水烧开能够杀死水中各种有毒细菌。所以我们用泰晤士河水装满水罐，放到灶上，并且仔细确认它确实沸腾了。

We had made the tea, and were just settling down comfortably to drink it, when George, with his cup half-way to his lips, paused and exclaimed: "What's that?"

我们冲好茶，舒舒服服地坐下享用，这时已将茶杯举到嘴边的乔治，手突然僵住不动了，说：“那是什么？”

"What's what?" asked Harris and I.

“什么是什么？”我和哈里斯异口同声问道。

"Why that!" said George, looking westward.

“那个！”乔治望着西边回答。

Harris and I followed his gaze, and saw, coming down towards us on the sluggish current, a dog. It was one of the quietest and peacefullest dogs I have ever seen. I never met a dog who seemed more contented—more easy in its mind. It was floating dreamily on its back, with its four legs stuck up straight into the air. It was what I should call a full-bodied dog, with a well-developed chest. On he came, serene, dignified, and calm, until he was abreast of our boat, and there, among the rushes, he eased up, and settled down cosily for the evening.

我和哈里斯顺着他的视线望去，只见顺着缓缓的水流漂来一只狗——我这辈子看到过的最安静、最友好的狗。没有哪只狗能比它更满足、更放松。它仰躺着梦幻般地漂流，四条腿笔直地指向天空。我应该管它叫肢体饱满、胸膛结实的狗。它越来越近了，表情安宁威严、不慌不忙，一直漂到和我们船平行的地方，在水草丛中减缓速度，舒服地安顿下来准备过夜。

George said he didn't want any tea, and emptied his cup into the water. Harris did not feel thirsty, either, and followed suit. I had drunk half mine, but I wished I had not.

乔治说他不想喝茶了，于是把杯里的茶倒进了河里。哈里斯说他也不觉得口渴，学乔治的模样做了。这时我已经喝了半杯，但我真希望我没这么做。

I asked George if he thought I was likely to have typhoid. He said: "Oh, no"; he thought I had a very good chance indeed of escaping it. Anyhow, I should know in about a fortnight, whether I had or had not.

我问乔治是否觉得我会得伤寒症。他说不会，他认为我尚有很大的逃生机率。无论如何，两周之内就能见分晓。

We went up the backwater to War grave. It is a short cut, leading out of the right-hand bank about half a mile above Marsh Lock, and is well worth taking, being a pretty, shady little piece of stream, besides saving nearly half a mile of distance. Of course, its entrance is studded with posts and chains, and surrounded with notice boards, menacing all kinds of torture, imprisonment, and death to everyone who dares set scull upon its waters—I wonder some of these riparian boors don't claim the air of the river and threaten everyone with forty shillings fine who breathe sit—but the posts and chains a little skill will easily avoid; and as for the boards, you might, if you have five minutes to spare, and there is nobody about, take one or two of them down and throw them into the river. Half-way up the backwater, we got out and lunched; and it was during this lunch that George and I received rather a trying shock. Harris received a shock, too; but I do not think Harris's shock could have been anything like so bad as the shock that George and I had over the business. You see, it was in this way: we were sitting in a meadow, about ten yards from the water's edge, and we had just settled down comfortably to feed. Harris had the beefsteak pie between his knees, and was carving it, and George and I were waiting with our plates ready. "Have you got a spoon there?" says Harris; "I want a spoon to help the gravy with." The hamper was close behind us, and George and I both turned round to reach one out. We were not five seconds getting it. When we looked round again, Harris and the pie were gone! It was a wide, open field. There was not a tree or a bit of hedge for hundreds of yards. He could not have tumbled into the river, because we were on the water side of him, and he would have had to climb over us to do it. George and I gazed all about. Then we gazed at each other. "Has he been snatched up to heaven?" I queried. "They'd hardly have taken the pie too," said George. There seemed weight in this objection, and we discarded the heavenly theory. "I suppose the truth of the matter is," suggested George, descending to the commonplace and practicable, "that there has been an earthquake." And then he added, with a touch of sadness in his voice: "I wish he hadn't been carving that pie." With a sigh, we turned our eyes once more towards the spot where Harris and the pie had last been seen on earth; and there, as our blood froze in our veins and our hair stood up on end, we saw Harris's head—and nothing but his head—sticking bolt upright among the tall grass, the face very red, and bearing upon it an expression of great indignation! George was the first to recover. "Speak!" he cried, "and tell us whether you are alive or dead—and where is the rest of you?” "Oh, don't be a stupid ass!" said Harris's head. "I believe you did it on purpose." "Did what?" exclaimed George and I. "Why, put me to sit here—darn silly trick! Here, catch hold of the pie.” And out of the middle of the earth, as it seemed to us, rose the pie—very much mixed up and damaged; and, after it, scrambled Harris—tumbled, grubby, and wet. He had been sitting, without knowing it, on the very verge of a small gully, the long grass hiding it from view; and in leaning a little back he had shot over, pie and all. He said he had never felt so surprised in all his life, as when he first felt himself going, without being able to conjecture in the slightest what had happened. He thought at first that the end of the world had come. Harris believes to this day that George and I planned it all beforehand. Thus does unjust suspicion follow even the most blameless; for, as the poet says, "Who shall escape calumny?" Who, indeed!

我们经过回水区去上游的沃格雷夫，这是条近路，而且很值得一行：在马什水闸上面大概半英里，往右拐有一条小河，不仅绿树成阴、风光优美，而且可以节省半英里的路程。小河的入口自然布满了木桩和铁链，还竖着很多告示板，警告所有人，如果胆敢将船桨伸到界内，将遭受各种各样的酷刑、囚禁乃至死刑——我还在想这些河岸霸王怎么不声明河上的空气也归他所有，处罚所有呼吸着的人每人缴纳40先令的罚金——然而，稍微用点技巧，木桩和铁链很容易越过；至于告示板嘛，如果你有5分钟的时间，确定四周没人的时候，大可以卸下一两个，丢进河里。在这回水河上行驶到一半时，我们上岸吃午饭。就在这顿午饭的过程中，我和乔治受到了相当大的惊吓。哈里斯也受到了惊吓，但是我不认为其程度赶得上我和乔治受到的惊吓的十分之一。事情是这样的：我们坐在草地上，距离河岸大约有10码，正各自摆了个舒服的姿势等着开饭。哈里斯把牛排馅饼摊在膝盖上，正切得起劲，我和乔治端着空盘子在一旁等待。“你有汤匙么？”哈里斯问，“我要用汤匙盛肉汁。”食物篮就在我们身后，所以我和乔治同时转身去找汤匙。我们不到5秒钟就找到了汤匙，然而，我们再回头看的时候，却不见了哈里斯和馅饼！我们当时身处旷野，方圆几百码内没有一棵树或任何别的障碍物。哈里斯也不可能翻进河里去了，因为我们坐在靠近河的那一侧，他必须爬过我们才能翻进河去。我和乔治环顾四野，最后目光定格在对方脸上。“他被抓上天堂了？”我问。“他们不大可能把馅饼一块儿带走吧。”乔治说。这个反驳很有说服力，让我们放弃了“升天论”。“我想事实上是，”乔治退而追求更常见、更可行的解释，“地震了。”接着他又补充道（声音中带着些伤感）：“我真希望他当时没有在切那个牛排馅饼。”我俩叹口气，再次把目光投向哈里斯和馅饼最后一次出现在地球上的地点；这时我们的血液瞬时凝固在血管中，头发一根根倒竖起来，我们看到了哈里斯的头——没有别的，仅仅是头——从茂盛的草丛中笔直地升起，满脸通红，表情极端愤怒！乔治率先回过神来。“说话！”他叫道，“说你现在是死是活？你的身子到哪里去了？”“哼！别装傻！”哈里斯的头说，“你们绝对是故意的。”“我们怎么了？”我和乔治大声问。“怎么了？骗我坐到这里，多阴险啊！来，接住这个馅饼。”从土地中升起了一个馅饼（至少我们看上去是这样）——乱七八糟、凌乱不堪，接着哈里斯也爬了上来——衣冠不整、满身污垢，并且湿得跟落汤鸡似的。原来，他正好坐在一条小土沟的边缘，这土沟被很高的草丛遮盖起来，所以哈里斯没法看到它。他稍微往后一仰，就连人带馅饼掉了下去。他说一辈子从没有这么被惊吓过，当他刚发现自己在下沉的时候，根本猜不出是怎么回事，第一个念头就是世界末日到来了。直到今天哈里斯仍然认为是我和乔治事先策划了这一切。即使是最无辜的人也逃脱不了遭受不公正的怀疑的命运。正如诗云：“谁能逃脱中伤的毒舌呢？”就是啊，谁能呢！

CHAPTER XIV.

第十四章

WARGRAVE.—WAXWORKS.—SONNING.—OUR STEW.—MONTMORENCY IS SARCASTIC.—FIGHT BETWEENMONTMORENCY AND THE TEA-KETTLE.—GEORGE'SBANJO STUDIES.—MEET WITH DISCOURAGEMENT.—DI FFICULTI ES IN THE WAY OF THE MUSICA LAMATEUR.—LEARNING TO PLAY THE BAGPIPES.—HARRIS FEELS SAD AFTER SUPPER.—GEORGE AND IGO FOR A WALK.—RETURN HUNGRY AND WET.—THEREIS A STRANGENESS ABOUT HARRIS.—HARRIS ANDTHE SWANS, A REMARKABLE STORY.—HARRIS HAS ATROUBLED NIGHT.

沃格雷夫——蜡像——桑宁——爱尔兰炖肉——蒙特莫伦西的挖苦——蒙特莫伦西和水壶的搏斗——乔治学习班卓琴——受挫——乐器业余爱好者的磨难——学习风笛——晚餐后哈里斯很悲伤——乔治和我去散步——回来后全身湿透，饥肠辘辘——哈里斯有点奇怪——哈里斯和天鹅们的神奇故事——哈里斯不平静的一夜

WE caught a breeze, after lunch, which took us gently up past Wargrave and Ship lake. Mellowed in the drowsy sunlight of a summer's afternoon, Wargrave, nestling where the river bends, makes a sweet old picture as you pass it, and one that lingers long upon the retina of memory.

午饭后，在夏日午后催眠的阳光中，和风吹拂，送我们过了沃格雷夫和什普莱克。沃格雷夫，依偎在河流的臂弯里，醇美得如同一幅老画，注定长久停留在记忆的视网膜上。

The "George and Dragon" at Wargrave boasts a sign, painted on the one side by Leslie, R.A., and on the other by Hodgson of that ilk. Leslieh as depicted the fight; Hodgson has imagined the scene, "After the Fight"—George, the work done, enjoying his pint of beer.

在沃格雷夫的乔治和龙旅店有个标志，一侧由R.A.莱斯利创作，另一侧则来自不见得更高明的霍奇森创作。莱 斯利负责描绘恶战场面，霍奇森则想象了“恶战之后”的 场景——我们的乔治干完了活，正享受着一品脱啤酒。

Day, the author of Sandford and Merton, lived and—more credit to the place still—was killed at Wargrave. In the church is a memorial to Mrs.Sarah Hill, who bequeathed 1 pound annually, to be divided at Easter, between two boys and two girls who "have never been undutiful to their parents; who have never been known to swear or to tell untruths, to steal, or to break windows." Fancy giving up all that for five shillings a year! It is not worth it.

《桑福德与默顿》的作者托马斯.戴伊曾在此居住—— 更为这个地方增彩的是——他也在沃格雷夫被害。教堂内 有莎拉.希尔夫人的纪念窗，她的遗嘱中说，每年会从遗 产中捐出1英镑，由两名男孩和两名女孩在复活节时分享，他们必须“从未对父母不孝；从未被发现说脏话或撒谎、偷窃、打碎窗户玻璃”。设想一下为了每年5个先令就放弃上述所有权利！太不值了。

It is rumoured in the town that once, many years ago, a boy appeared who really never had done these things—or at all events, which was all that was required or could be expected, had never been known to do them—and thus won the crown of glory. He was exhibited for three weeks afterwards in the Town Hall, under a glass case.

镇里曾有这么个谣传，说很多年前，有个男孩真的做 到了上述这些——或者不管怎么说，没被发现做这些坏事，这就是遗嘱的全部要求和我们所能期盼的了，所以他赢得了这项荣誉的王冠。随后他被放在玻璃箱子里，在市镇大厅展览了3个星期。

What has become of the money since no one knows. They say it is always handed over to the nearest wax-works show.

没人知道后来钱去了哪里。他们说这1英镑总是被捐给离他们最近的蜡人像展馆。

Shiplake is a pretty village, but it cannot be seen from the river, being upon the hill. Tennyson was married in Shiplake Church.

什普莱克是个可爱的村子，但从船里看不到，因为它藏在山上。丁尼生曾在什普莱克教堂举行婚礼。

The river up to Sonning winds in and out through many islands, and is very placid, hushed, and lonely. Few folk, except at twilight, a pair or two of rustic lovers, walk along its banks. érry and Lord Fitznoodle have been left behind at Henley, and dismal, dirty Reading is not yet reached. It is a part of the river in which to dream of bygone days, and vanished forms and faces, and things that might have been, but are not, confound them.

上至桑宁的河水曲曲折折地穿梭于众多岛屿间，显得苍白、安静、寂寞。岸上少有行人，只在黎明或黄昏时分，偶有一两对乡村情侣沿岸漫步。阿里和菲兹路德爵士的遗迹被抛在了身后的亨利，而阴沉肮脏的雷丁又还没到。这段河很适合用来回想过去的时光，追忆那些消逝了的人和事，以及那些本来可能发生却没有发生的事——去它们的！

We got out at Sonning, and went for a walk round the village. It is the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river. It is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar. Every house is smothered in roses, and now, in early June, they were bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour. If you stop at Sonning, put up at the "Bull", behind the church. It is a veritable picture of an old country inn, with green, square courtyard in front, where, on seats beneath the trees, the old men group of an evening to drink their ale and gossip over village politics; with low, quaint rooms and latticed windows, and awkward stairs and winding passages.

我们在桑宁上岸，绕着村庄散步。它是整条河上最具童话色彩的角落。与其说它是方砖灰泥建的，不如说它更像是临时设的戏剧背景。每栋房屋都被玫瑰花淹没，现在是六月初，玫瑰盛开，犹如一片片光彩夺目的云朵。如果你在桑宁留宿，请去教堂背后的公牛旅店。那才叫正宗的老牌乡村旅馆，门前有绿意盎然的方形庭院，晚上老年人坐在院子里树下的小凳子上，啜着淡色啤酒，闲聊“乡村政治”。旅馆的房屋低矮精致，有古典的格子窗、古怪的楼梯和曲折的走廊。

We roamed about sweet Sonning for an hour or so, and then, it being too late to push on past Reading, we decided to go back to one of the Shiplake islands, and put up there for the night. It was still early when we got settled, and George said that, as we had plenty of time, it would be a splendid opportunity to try a good, slap-up supper. He said he would show us what could be done up the river in the way of cooking, and suggested that, with the vegetables and the remains of the cold beef and general odds and ends, we should make an Irish stew.

我们在可爱的桑宁闲逛了一个小时左右，这时候要赶到雷丁已经太晚了，所以决定回什普莱克的其中一个岛屿过夜。我们安顿下来时天色尚早，乔治说我们有充足的时间，是享受全套奢华晚餐的绝佳机会。他说他愿意向我们展示河上烹饪的“集大成之作”，建议把蔬菜、冷牛肉以及各种剩余的零星食材做成一锅爱尔兰炖肉。

It seemed a fascinating idea. George gathered wood and made a fire, and Harris and I started to peel the potatoes. I should never have thought that peeling potatoes was such an undertaking. The job turned out to be the biggest thing of its kind that I had ever been in. We began cheerfully, one might almost say skittishly, but our light-heartedness was gone by the time the first potato was finished. The more we peeled, the more peel there seemed to be left on; by the time we had got all the peel off and all the eyes out, there was no potato left—at least none worth speaking of. George came and had a look at it—it was about the size of a pea-nut. He said: "Oh, that won't do! You're wasting them. You must scrape them."

这个主意很有吸引力。乔治收集木材生火，我和哈里斯开始削土豆。我从没想过原来削土豆是如此艰巨的工程，我发现它简直就是同类工程中的翘楚。我们高兴地开始动工，甚至可以说有点心不在焉，但削完第一个后，我们的轻松心情已烟消云散。我们削的越多，土豆上留下没削的皮就越多。当我们把所有需要削的都削了，把上面的坑眼都挖了，土豆也随之而去了——至少说剩下的东西已经不足以称为“一个”土豆了。乔治过来监工，看到的是可怜巴巴一个花生大小的东西。他说：“哎哟，这个不及格！你们太浪费了，你们还是刮吧。”

So we scraped them, and that was harder work than peeling. They are such an extraordinary shape, potatoes—all bumps and warts and hollows. We worked steadily for five-and-twenty minutes, and did four potatoes. Then we struck. We said we should require the rest of the evening for scraping ourselves.

于是我们换成刮，这似乎比削更困难。这些土豆通通长得奇形怪状，满身是肿块、疣和窟窿。我们兢兢业业地工作了25分钟，整理出4个土豆，然后就罢工了。我们说晚上剩下的时间得用来整理我们自己。

I never saw such a thing as potato-scraping for making a fellow in a mess. It seemed difficult to believe that the potato-scrapings in which Harris and I stood, half smothered, could have come off four potatoes. It shows you what can be done with economy and care.

我从未见过比刮土豆更让人一团混乱的工作。你很难相信，我和哈里斯半身都埋在下面的那堆土豆皮，仅仅来自4个土豆。这提示我们，只要勤俭节约，没有做不到的事。

George said it was absurd to have only four potatoes in an Irish stew, so we washed half-a-dozen or so more, and put them in without peeling. We also put in a cabbage and about half a peck1 of peas. George stirred it all up, and then he said that there seemed to be a lot of room to spare, so we overhauled both the hampers, and picked out all the odds and ends and the remnants, and added them to the stew. There were half a pork pie and a bit of cold boiled bacon left, and we put them in. Then George found half a tin of potted salmon, and he emptied that into the pot.

乔治说在爱尔兰炖肉里面只放4个土豆太说不过去，所以我们又洗出六七个土豆，没刮就丢下锅去。我们还放进去一窝卷心菜和大概半配克的豌豆。乔治把它们搅匀，说还有很多空间呢，于是我们对两只食物篮都进行了大扫荡，搜出所有零零碎碎的剩菜剩料，加进炖肉汤里。我们找到半个猪肉馅饼、一点剩下的凉了的煮熏肉，通通丢进锅里。接着乔治发现一听鲑鱼罐头，也一股脑地倒进去。

He said that was the advantage of Irish stew: you got rid of such a lot of things. I fished out a couple of eggs that had got cracked, and put those in. George said they would thicken the gravy.

乔治说爱尔兰炖肉的优点在于：你可以解决掉这么多的剩余食材。我捞出了好几只碎了壳的鸡蛋，加入汤里，乔治说它们会让肉汁的口感更加浓郁。

I forget the other ingredients, but I know nothing was wasted; and I remember that, towards the end, Montmorency, who had evinced great interest in the proceedings throughout, strolled away with an earnest and thoughtful air, reappearing, a few minutes afterwards, with a dead water-rat in his mouth, which he evidently wished to present as his contribution to the dinner; whether in a sarcastic spirit, or with a genuine desire to assist, I cannot say.

我记不清还放了哪些食材，只记得反正所有东西都没浪费。我还记得，蒙特莫伦西全程关注整个烹饪活动，对它表现出极大兴趣。在“下锅典礼”就快结束的时候，它带着急切而又若有所思的表情离开了，几分钟后再次出现时，嘴里叼着一只死了的水老鼠。他的意思再明显不过了，他想要为晚餐作出一点贡献；不过到底是为了挖苦我们，还是真的想要帮忙，我可说不好。

We had a discussion as to whether the rat should go in or not. Harris said that he thought it would be all right, mixed up with the other things, and that every little helped; but George stood up for precedent. He said he had never heard of water-rats in Irish stew, and he would rather be on the safe side, and not try experiments.

关于是否把老鼠投进汤里，我们展开了一场辩论。哈里斯说他认为投进去不会有什么问题，和那么多东西煮在一块，每样都给整道菜添点儿味儿；但乔治坚决反对，他 说从来没有听说过在爱尔兰炖肉里面加入水老鼠的先例， 为了保险起见，他不支持尝试这种试验。

Harris said: "If you never try a new thing, how can you tell what it's like? It's men such as you that hamper the world's progress. Think of the man who first tried German sausage!"

哈里斯说：“如果你从来不尝试新的东西，怎么知道它 到底好不好呢？正是你这种人阻挡了世界的进步。想想第 一次尝试吃德国香肠的人吧！”

It was a great success, that Irish stew. I don't think I ever enjoyed a meal more. There was something so fresh and piquant about it. One's palate gets so tired of the old hackneyed things: here was a dish with a new flavour, with a taste like nothing else on earth.

那天晚上的爱尔兰炖肉取得了极大的成功。我认为它算得上我吃过的最美味的一餐。它给人一种新鲜而刺激的感觉。我们的味觉早已厌倦了一成不变的传统食物，但这道菜是全新的口味，举世无双。

And it was nourishing, too. As George said, there was good stuff init. The peas and potatoes might have been a bit softer, but we all had good teeth, so that did not matter much; and as for the gravy, it was a poem—a little too rich, perhaps, for a weak stomach, but nutritious.

而且这汤很有营养。用乔治的话说，这里面有“好东西”。豌豆和土豆可能还有待煮得更软些，但是我们都有很好的牙口，所以不构成问题。说到肉汤的汤汁，美好得就像一首诗——可能对肠胃不适者来说太浓厚了，但是绝对有营养价值。

We finished up with tea and cherry tart. Montmorency had a fight with the kettle during tea-time, and came off a poor second.

我们以茶和樱桃馅饼结束了晚餐。蒙特莫伦西在喝茶时与水壶进行了一场搏斗，最后屈居第二。

Throughout the trip, he had manifested great curiosity concerning the kettle. He would sit and watch it, as it boiled, with a puzzled expression, and would try and rouse it every now and then by growling at it. When it began to splutter and steam, he regarded it as a challenge, and would want to fight it, only, at that precise moment, some one would always dash up and bear off his prey before he could get at it.

从我们启程的第一天起，它就表现出对水壶的极大好奇。当我们煮开水时，它会蹲坐在一旁观看，脸上表情迷茫，还会不时对它咆哮。当水壶开始叭叭作响，吐出蒸汽时，它就认为是挑衅，于是就作好迎战的准备，但正在此时， 我们总是在它捕到它的猎物之前，抢先一步带走了水壶。

To-day he determined he would be beforehand. At the first sound the kettle made, he rose, growling, and advanced towards it in a threatening attitude. It was only a little kettle, but it was full of pluck, and it up and spit at him.

今天它决定要提早出手。水壶刚响第一声，它就咆哮着站起来，以示威的姿态步步逼近。那只是个小小的水壶，但却有包天的大胆，居然跳起脚来吐了它一口唾沫。

"Ah! would ye!" growled Montmorency, showing his teeth; "I'll teach ye to cheek a hard-working, respectable dog; ye miserable, long-nosed, dirty-looking scoundrel, ye. Come on!”

“呸！好大的胆子！”蒙特莫伦西露出犬牙吼道，“我 要给你小子上一课，冒犯一条勤劳工作、有头有脸的狗 会是什么下场！你这可悲的、鼻子老长、脏兮兮的流氓！ 来吧！

And he rushed at that poor little kettle, and seized it by the spout. Then, across the evening stillness, broke a blood-curdling yelp, and Montmorency left the boat, and did a constitutional three times round the island at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour, stopping every now and then to bury his nose in a bit of cool mud.

就这样它冲向可怜的小水壶，咬住了壶嘴。之后，一声让人毛骨悚然的狗吠声划破了夜的寂静，蒙特莫伦西冲出小船，围着岛屿进行强身健体的跑步锻炼，它跑了3圈，平均时速高达35英里，但不时会突然停下，把鼻子埋进凉爽的烂泥里。

From that day Montmorency regarded the kettle with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and hate. Whenever he saw it he would growl and back at a rapid rate, with his tail shut down, and the moment it was put upon the stove he would promptly climb out of the boat, and sit on the bank, till the whole tea business was over.

从那天起，蒙特莫伦西看水壶的眼神中混杂着恐惧、怀疑和仇恨。每当它看到水壶，就立刻咆哮着迅速往后退，尾巴死死地夹在股间。而每当水壶被放在炉灶上时，它立 刻爬出船，坐到岸上，直到我们用茶完毕。

George got out his banjo after supper, and wanted to play it, but Harris objected: he said he had got a headache, and did not feel strong enough to stand it. George thought the music might do him good—said music often soothed the nerves and took away a headache; and he twanged two or three notes, just to show Harris what it was like.

晚饭后，乔治拿出他的班卓琴，打算弹首曲子，但是哈里斯提出反对意见，他说头痛，可能没法承受乔治的音乐的折磨。乔治认为音乐应该对对付头痛有帮助，因为音乐常常可以舒缓神经，驱散疼痛。他还拨了几个音符，让哈里斯听听怎么样。

Harris said he would rather have the headache.

哈里斯说他宁可继续头痛。

George has never learned to play the banjo to this day. He has had too much all-round discouragement to meet. He tried on two or three evenings, while we were up the river, to get a little practice, but it was never a success. Harris's language used to be enough to unnerve any man; added to which, Montmorency would sit and howl steadily, right through the performance. It was not giving the man a fair chance.

直到今天，乔治也没能学会班卓琴，因为他遭到了太多次全方位的打击。在河上的时候，曾有两三个晚上他想要练习一下，但都没能成功。哈里斯的毒舌向来足以逼疯一个成年男子；而雪上加霜的是，整个演奏过程中，蒙特莫伦西会坐在旁边不间断地长号，让可怜的人得不到公平的机会。

"What's he want to howl like that for when I'm playing?" George would exclaim indignantly, while taking aim at him with a boot.

“为什么我一表演他就长号，他到底想要怎么样？”乔 治会愤怒地大喊，同时操起一只靴子瞄准狗的方向扔过去。

"What do you want to play like that for when he is howling?" Harris would retort, catching the boot. "You let him alone. He can't help howling. He's got a musical ear, and your playing MAKES him howl."

“为什么他一长号你就弹琴，你到底想要怎么样？”哈 里斯会反驳他，同时接住那只靴子说：“你就放他一马吧。他那是情之所至，不能自已。他的音乐细胞太发达了，你的演奏让他忍不住悲歌一曲。”

So George determined to postpone study of the banjo until he reached home. But he did not get much opportunity even there. Mrs. P. used to come up and say she was very sorry—for herself, she liked to hear him—but the lady upstairs was in a very delicate state, and the doctor was afraid it might injure the child.

于是乔治决定将学习班卓琴的计划推迟到回家之后。哪知道回去后照样没得到什么机会。房东太太总是上楼来表示她很抱歉，虽然她本人很喜欢他的演奏，但楼上那位太太身体很虚弱，医生说他的演奏有可能会对她肚子里的孩子产生不良影响。

Then George tried taking it out with him late at night, and Practicing round the square. But the inhabitants complained to the police about it, and a watch was set for him one night, and he was captured. The evidence against him was very clear, and he was bound over to keep the peace for six months.

于是乔治尝试在晚上带着班卓琴到广场附近去练习，却被附近的住户向警方投诉。一天晚上，警方在那里设岗埋伏，逮捕了乔治。由于罪证确凿，他被责令具结保证6个月内不得破坏社会安宁。

He seemed to lose heart in the business after that. He did make one or two feeble efforts to take up the work again when the six months had elapsed, but there was always the same coldness—the same want of sympathy on the part of the world to fight against; and, after awhile, he despaired altogether, and advertised the instrument for sale at a great sacrifice—"owner having no further use for same"—and took to learning card tricks instead.

此后他似乎完全丧失了信心。6个月后，他倒也做过一两次小小的努力，想要重振旗鼓，但是四处碰壁，世界一如既往地缺乏同情心，他必须孤身一人与整个世界抗争。所以不久后，他彻底绝望了，将乐器“吐血”甩卖——“因琴主不再使用，现予出售”——并且转而学习纸牌戏法去了。

It must be disheartening work learning a musical instrument. You would think that Society, for its own sake, would do all it could to assist a man to acquire the art of playing a musical instrument. But it doesn't!

学习演奏乐器想必是相当让人沮丧的事情。你可能认为社会考虑到自身利益，会尽其可能地协助人们掌握一种乐器的演奏艺术，但事实并非如此！

I knew a young fellow once, who was studying to play the bagpipes, and you would be surprised at the amount of opposition he had to contend with. Why, not even from the members of his own family did he receive what you could call active encouragement. His father was dead against the business from the beginning, and spoke quite unfeelingly on the subject.

我曾经认识这么一个青年，他当时在学习风笛，他所遭遇到的阻力足以让你惊讶。连从自己的家人那里，也没能得到可以称作“积极鼓励”的反应。他的父亲从一开始就表示坚决反对，说话也很无情。

My friend used to get up early in the morning to practise, but he had to give that plan up, because of his sister. She was somewhat religiously inclined, and she said it seemed such an awful thing to begin the day like that.

这位朋友起初总是在清早起床练习，但是不得不为了妹妹终止了这一计划。她信教，觉得听着这样的乐声起床，全天都会不幸。

So he sat up at night instead, and played after the family had gone to bed, but that did not do, as it got the house such a bad name. People, going home late, would stop outside to listen, and then put it about all over the town, the next morning, that a fearful murder had been committed at Mr. Jefferson's the night before; and would describe how they had heard the victim's shrieks and the brutal oaths and curses of the murderer, followed by the prayer for mercy, and the last dying gurgle of the corpse.

所以他换成晚上练习，当全家人都上床后再开始苦练。但这也行不通，因为这给整个家庭带来不好的名声。晚归的人们在经过时会驻足聆听，第二天早上就在镇上散布：昨晚杰斐逊家发生了可怕的谋杀案。并且还描述出他们听到受害者的尖叫和杀人犯的野蛮咒骂，然后前者如何苦苦哀求，以及生命在离开肉体时发出的最后的咯咯声。

So they let him practise in the day-time, in the back-kitchen with all the doors shut; but his more successful passages could generally be heard in the sitting-room, in spite of these precautions, and would affect his mother almost to tears.

所以家人让他在白天练习，关在厨房里间，将所有门窗紧闭。但是无论如何小心，一些比较成功的音符还是能够飘到起居室，让他的母亲几乎要落下泪来。

She said it put her in mind of her poor father (he had been swallowed by a shark, poor man, while bathing off the coast of New Guinea—where the connection came in, she could not explain).

她说这声音让她想起自己可怜的父亲（一位不幸的人，在新几内亚的海滨游泳时被鲨鱼吞食，但是她也解释不清 怎么这风笛声就让她联想起了父亲）。

Then they knocked up a little place for him at the bottom of the garden, about quarter of a mile from the house, and made him take the machine down there when he wanted to work it; and some times a visitor would come to the house who knew nothing of the matter, and they would forget to tell him all about it, and caution him, and he would go out for a stroll round the garden and suddenly get within earshot of those bagpipes, without being prepared for it, or knowing what it was. If he were a man of strong mind, it only gave him fits; but a person of mere average intellect it usually sent mad.

于是家人为他在花园尽头开辟了一个专门的练习区，离正房有大概四分之一英里，告诉他如果想练了，可以把乐器带到那里去练。有时候，不知就里的客人来访，他们又忘了告诫他。于是他去了花园散步，突然进入风笛声的传播范围内，没有任何心理准备，不可能猜到那声音到底是什么发出的。如果他是个意志坚强的人，最多被弄得心烦意乱，但如果是个普通心智的人，多半就会疯掉了。

There is, it must be confessed, something very sad about the early efforts of an amateur in bagpipes. I have felt that myself when listening to my young friend. They appear to be a trying instrument to perform upon. You have to get enough breath for the whole tune before you start—at least, so I gathered from watching Jefferson.

必须承认，对风笛业余爱好者来说，早期的努力是非常悲哀的。我亲自听这位年轻的朋友演奏时就感到了悲哀，心想这真是个难搞定的乐器。你至少要在开始演奏前吸足空气——这是我从观看杰斐逊的演奏得出的结论。

He would begin magnificently with a wild, full, come-to-the-battle sort of a note, that quite roused you. But he would get more and more piano as he went on, and the last verse generally collapsed in the middle with a splutter and a hiss.

一开始他的每个音符都热忱饱满如冲锋号，让你听得坐立不安。但随着曲子的进行他的气息会越来越弱，最后一个段落进行到一半时，就会在断断续续的咝咝声中不幸夭折。

You want to be in good health to play the bagpipes.

要想吹奏风笛，身体得相当好才行。

Young Jefferson only learnt to play one tune on those bagpipes; but I never heard any complaints about the insufficiency of his repertoire—none whatever. This tune was "The Camp bells are Coming, Hooray—Hooray!" so he said, though his father always held that it was "The Blue Bells of Scotland". Nobody seemed quite sure what it was exactly, but they all agreed that it sounded Scotch.

年轻的杰斐逊只学会了用风笛吹一支曲子，但我从未听过有谁抱怨他曲库的单调——从来没有。据他说，这支 曲子叫做《坎贝尔弟兄来了，万岁，万岁！》，但他父亲认为它是《苏格兰的蓝钟》。没人可以确定它到底是什么曲子，但每个人都同意这首曲子听上去很像是苏格兰的。

Strangers were allowed three guesses, and most of them guessed a different tune each time.

陌生人一般会被允许猜3次，大多数人每次猜的答案都不相同。

Harris was disagreeable after supper—I think it must have been the stew that had upset him: he is not used to high living—so George and I left him in the boat, and settled to go for a mouch round Henley. He said he should have a glass of whisky and a pipe, and fix things up for the night. We were to shout when we returned, and he would row over from the island and fetch us.

哈里斯晚饭后感到不适，我想是因为那炖肉汤——他不习惯高档奢侈的生活。所以我和乔治决定留他在船里，两人去亨利附近闲逛。他说打算喝杯威士忌，抽袋烟，再把帐篷和铺位弄好。我们回来的时候吆喝一声，他就会从小岛那边把船划过来接我们。

"Don't go to sleep, old man," we said as we started.

“可别睡着了啊，老伙计。”我们临走时嘱咐他。

"Not much fear of that while this stew's on," he grunted, as he pulled back to the island.

“我胃里的肉汤还没消化呢，你们大可放心。”他嘟哝 着开始往岛屿划去。

Henley was getting ready for the regatta, and was full of bustle. We met a goodish number of men we knew about the town, and in their pleasant company the time slipped by somewhat quickly; so that it was nearly eleven o'clock before we set off on our four-mile walk home—as we had learned to call our little craft by this time.

亨利马上就要开赛舟会了，人山人海，相当热闹。我们在镇上遇到好多熟人，大家聊得很愉快，时间很快地过去了，所以当我们踏上回家（此时我们已把小船叫做家了）的4英里路程时，已经快11点了。

It was a dismal night, coldish, with a thin rain falling; and as we trudged through the dark, silent fields, talking low to each other, and wondering if we were going right or not, we thought of the cosy boat, with the bright light streaming through the tight-drawn canvas; of Harris and Montmorency, and the whisky, and wished that we were there.

那是个凄凉的夜晚，冷飕飕的，空中飞着雨丝。我们在黑暗寂静的道路上跋涉，压低着嗓子交谈，怀疑到底是否走对了方向。我们想念舒服的船，想念从严严实实的顶篷缝隙漏出的明亮光线，想念哈里斯和蒙特莫伦西，想念威士忌——多希望我们此刻就在船上。

We conjured up the picture of ourselves inside, tired and a little hungry; of the gloomy river and the shapeless trees; and, like a giant glow-worm underneath them, our dear old boat, so snug and warm and cheerful. We could see ourselves at supper there, pecking away at cold meat, and passing each other chunks of bread; we could hear the cheery clatter of our knives, the laughing voices, filling all the space, and over flowing through the opening out into the night. And we hurried on to realize the vision.

我们的脑内浮现出一幅画面：我们已经回到船上，满身倦意，微感肚饥；黑暗的河水，辨不出轮廓的树木；树下如同巨大萤火虫般躺着的我们亲爱的老船，如此舒适温暖、让人快乐。我们看到自己在船上享用晚餐，啃啄着冷盘肉，递给对方面包块。我们能够听到刀盘的快乐碰撞声，混合着我们的谈笑声，填满整条船，溢出来，穿越茫茫旷野，飞向遥远的天际。我们不由得加快脚步，以求尽早让这些画面成为现实。

We struck the tow-path at length, and that made us happy; because prior to this we had not been sure whether we were walking to wards the river or away from it, and when you are tired and want to go to Bed uncertainties like that worry you. We passed Skiplake as the clock was striking the quarter to twelve; and then George said, thoughtfully: "You don't happen to remember which of the islands it was, do you?"

最后我们终于走上了纤路，不由得欢欣鼓舞。因为在此之前，我们不敢确定到底是在接近河流还是在远离它。当你很疲倦、想尽早上床歇息的时候，这样的不确定感总会缠上你。还有1刻钟到12点的时候，我们经过了什普莱克，这时乔治若有所思地说：“你不会也恰好不记得船停在哪座岛了吧，记得吗？”

"No," I replied, beginning to grow thoughtful too, "I don't. How many are there?"

“是的，”我也变得凝重起来，“我不记得。一共有多少座？”

"Only four," answered George. "It will be all right, if he's awake."

“只有4座，”乔治回答，“没关系，如果他没睡，就不成问题。”

"And if not?" I queried; but we dismissed that train of thought.

“但如果睡了呢？”我追问。但是我们决定不再追究这 个问题。

We shouted when we came opposite the first island, but there was no response; so we went to the second, and tried there, and obtained the same result.

来到第1座岛屿对面的时候，我们大声呼唤，没有得到 任何回答；所以去第2座对面尝试，仍然收获到一片静默。

"Oh! I remember now," said George; "it was the third one."

“噢！我记起来了，”乔治说，“是第三座。”

And we ran on hopefully to the third one, and hallooed.

于是我们满怀希望地跑到第3座岛对面，跳着脚吆喝。

No answer!

没有回应！

The case was becoming serious. It was now past midnight. The hotels at Skiplake and Henley would be crammed; and we could not go round, knocking up cottagers and householders in the middle of the night, to know if they let apartments! George suggested walking back to Henley and assaulting a policeman, and so getting a night's lodging in the station-house. But then there was the thought, "Suppose he only hits us back and refuses to lock us up!"

形势看来很严峻。当时已经过了午夜12点。什普莱克和亨利的旅馆都已经爆满，我们又没法挨家挨户地敲门问 人家是否有空房出租——这是半夜啊！乔治提议走回亨利，袭击警察以求在派出所借宿一晚，但有这么一个问题：“如果他只是打我们一顿，不关押我们，那又如何是好！”

We could not pass the whole night fighting policemen. Besides, we did not want to overdo the thing and get six months.

我们不想把整个晚上用来与警察对打，而且也担心用力过度可能招致6个月的牢狱之灾。

We despairingly tried what seemed in the darkness to be the fourth island, but met with no better success. The rain was coming down fast now, and evidently meant to last. We were wet to the skin, and cold and miserable. We began to wonder whether there were only four islands or more, or whether we were near the islands at all, or whether we were anywhere within a mile of where we ought to be, or in the wrong part of the river altogether; everything looked so strange and different in the darkness. We began to understand the sufferings of the Babes in the Wood.

我们绝望地对着看上去像是第4座岛屿的黑影一通叫嚷，却没能得到更大的成功。雨越下越大，而且明显还将持续一整夜。我们全身湿透了，冷得哆嗦，可怜极了。我们开始怀疑是否只有4座岛屿，或是更多；怀疑我们到底是到了岛屿的附近，还是在离我们该去的地方一英里内的任何地方，或者根本就走错了方向，到了河的另一段；黑暗中什么陌生都显得诡异。我们开始理解“森林中的婴孩” 曾感受的痛苦。

Just when we had given up all hope—yes, I know that is always the time that things do happen in novels and tales; but I can't help it. I resolved, when I began to write this book, that I would be strictly truthful in all things; and so I will be, even if I have to employ hackneyed phrases for the purpose.

正在我们彻底放弃希望的时候——是的，我知道，在小说和传说里，总是在这种时刻会发生奇迹，奈何我别无选择，因为当我开始写这本书时，曾下定决心严格记录事实的本来面目，所以我一定要忠实于生活，尽管这忠实意味着必须使用一个陈旧的套话。

It WAS just when we had given up all hope, and I must therefore say so. Just when we had given up all hope, then, I suddenly caught sight, a little way below us, of a strange, weird sort of glimmer flickering among the trees on the opposite bank. For an instant I thought of ghosts; it was such a shadowy, mysterious light. The next moment it f lashed across me that it was our boat, and I sent up such a yell across the water that made the night seem to shake in its bed.

正是在我们彻底放弃希望的时候，我必须这么写。话说正在我们彻底放弃希望的时候，我突然看到在离我们不远处的下游方向有一点亮光，隐在对岸树丛中闪闪烁烁，透着说不出的陌生和古怪。一瞬间我想到了鬼火，因为它是那么影影绰绰、神秘莫测。但紧接着我的脑中灵光一现：那是我们的船！我发出一声欢呼，声音在河上回荡，震得夜晚都颤了一颤。

We waited breathless for a minute, and then—oh! divinest music of the darkness!—we heard the answering bark of Montmorency. We shouted back loud enough to wake the Seven Sleepers—I never could understand myself why it should take more noise to wake seven sleepers than one—and, after what seemed an hour, but what was really, I suppose, about five minutes, we saw the lighted boat creeping slowly over the blackness, and heard Harris's sleepy voice asking where we were.

我们屏住呼吸等待了一分钟，这时——噢！黑暗中的仙乐！——我们听到蒙特莫伦西回应的吠声。我们齐声大 叫，音量足以吵醒“长眠七圣”（尽管我一直不明白为什么吵醒7个人需要比吵醒1个人更大的音量），在貌似1 个小时，但实际上我想也就是5分钟后，我们看到发着光的船穿过茫茫的黑夜，慢慢向我们驶来，听到哈里斯用睡 意蒙眬的声音询问我们的方位。

There was an unaccountable strangeness about Harris. It was something more than mere ordinary tiredness. He pulled the boat against a part of the bank from which it was quite impossible for us to get into it, and immediately went to sleep. It took us an immense amount of screaming and roaring to wake him up again and put some sense into him; but we succeeded at last, and got safely on board.

哈里斯有种说不出来的古怪，绝不仅仅是普通的疲倦。他刚将船划到岸边的某一段（但从那里我们是无法上船的），就一头栽下去继续睡。我们拼命地尖叫、嘶吼才再 次唤醒他，往他的脑子里灌入一点知觉。然而我们终究成 功了，安全地上船。

Harris had a sad expression on him, so we noticed, when we got into the boat. He gave you the idea of a man who had been through trouble. We asked him if anything had happened, and he said: "Swans!"

我们上船时注意到，哈里斯面容中透着某种悲哀的神色。让人觉得这个人刚刚经历了一场磨难。我们问他发生了什么，他说：“天鹅啊！”

It seemed we had moored close to a swan's nest, and, soon after George and I had gone, the female swan came back, and kicked up a row about it. Harris had chivied her off, and she had gone away, and fetched up her old man. Harris said he had had quite a fight with these two swans; but courage and skill had prevailed in the end, and he had defeated them.

事情好像是这样的：我们把船泊在了天鹅巢的旁边，我和乔治一走，母天鹅回家了，并因此大吵大闹。哈里斯把它赶走，它离开了，并把它的老公带了回来。哈里斯说他孤身一人与两只天鹅奋战一场，最终凭借勇气和智慧获得胜利。

Half-an-hour afterwards they returned with eighteen other swans! It must have been a fearful battle, so far as we could understand Harris's account of it. The swans had tried to drag him and Montmorency out of the boat and drown them; and he had defended himself like a hero for four hours, and had killed the lot, and they had all paddled away to die.

半小时后，它们又回来了，这次带了18只天鹅！据我们能够听懂的一部分片断看来，哈里斯经历了一场浴血奋战。天鹅们试图将他和蒙特莫伦西拉下船淹死，他英雄般地捍卫自己，鏖战4个小时后，杀死了所有天鹅，它们纷纷游开，到没有人能看到的地方去死掉了。

"How many swans did you say there were?" asked George.

“你刚才说几只天鹅来着？”乔治突然问。

"Thirty-two," replied Harris, sleepily.

“32只，”哈里斯睡意蒙眬地回答。

"You said eighteen just now," said George.

“你刚才说18只，”乔治又说。

"No, I didn't," grunted Harris; "I said twelve. Think I can't count?"

“不，不可能，”哈里斯嘟囔道，“我当时说的是12只， 你以为我不会数数么？”

What were the real facts about these swans we never found out. We questioned Harris on the subject in the morning, and he said, "What swans?" and seemed to think that George and I had been dreaming.

直到如今我们也没有弄清关于天鹅之战的真实版本，因为第二天我们又问哈里斯时，他说：“什么天鹅？”，好像认为我和乔治一定是做了什么梦了。

Oh, how delightful it was to be safe in the boat, after our trials and fears! We ate a hearty supper, George and I, and we should have had some toddy after it, if we could have found the whisky, but we could not. We examined Harris as to what he had done with it; but he did not seem to know what we meant by "whisky", or what we were talking about at all. Montmorency looked as if he knew something, but said nothing.

噢，在品尝所有苦难和恐惧后，发现能够安全地呆在船上是多么幸福的事情！我们吃了一顿丰盛的晚餐，饭后打算翻出威士忌来，弄点热酒喝，但是我们找不到。我们审问哈里斯对威士忌做了什么，他似乎不明白“威士忌”这个词是什么意思，也不明白我们到底在问什么。蒙特莫伦西看上去似乎知道些内幕，但他什么也没有说。

I slept well that night, and should have slept better if it had not been for Harris. I have a vague recollection of having been woke up at least a dozen times during the night by Harris wandering about the boat with the lantern, looking for his clothes. He seemed to be worrying about his clothes all night.

那天晚上我睡得很好，但若不是哈里斯，我可以睡得更好。隐隐约约记得哈里斯提着灯笼在船上转悠，把我弄醒了至少十二三次。他似乎一整夜都在愁着衣服的问题。

Twice he routed up George and myself to see if we were lying on his trousers. George got quite wild the second time.

他把我和乔治推开两次，看我们身下有没有他的裤子。第二次的时候，乔治终于发飙了。

"What the thunder do you want your trousers for, in the middle of the night?" he asked indignantly. "Why don't you lie down, and go to sleep?"

“大半夜的你找裤子干什么使啊？”他愤怒地问，“你 就不能躺下来睡会儿啊？”

I found him in trouble, the next time I awoke, because he could not find his socks; and my last hazy remembrance is of being rolled over on my side, and of hearing Harris muttering something about its being an extraordinary thing where his umbrella could have got to.

我再次醒来的时候，发现他在为袜子而辛勤搜索着。我最后一次模糊的记忆是他把我推到一侧，嘴里嘟囔着真是神了，他的雨伞能跑到哪去。1半配克相当于1加仑。

CHAPTER XV.

第十五章

HOUSEHOLD DUTIES.—LOVE OF WORK.—THE OLD RIVERHAND, WHAT HE DOES AND WHAT HE TELLS YOU HE HASDONE.—SCEPTICISM OF THE NEW GENERATION.—EARLYBOATING RECOLLECTIONS.—RAFTING.—GEORGEDOES THE THING IN STYLE.—THE OLD BOATMAN, HISMETHOD.—SO CALM, SO FULL OF PEACE.—THE BEGINNER.—PUNTING.—A SAD ACCIDENT.—PLEASURES OFFRIENDSHIP.—SAILING, MY FIRST EXPERIENCE.—POSSIBLEREASON WHY WE WERE NOT DROWNED.

家务活——对书籍的热爱——河上老手，他所做的和他说他所做的——新一代人的怀疑主义——早期划船的回忆——木筏——乔治干得漂亮——老船夫划船的风范——如此镇静、如此平和——新手——撑篙——可悲的事故——友谊的乐趣——我的第一次航海经历——我们没被溺死的可能原因

WE woke late the next morning, and, at Harris's earnest desire, partook of a plain breakfast, with "non dainties". Then we cleaned up, and put everything straight (a continual labour, which was beginning to afford me a pretty clear insight into a question that had often posed me—namely, how a woman with the work of only one house on her hands manages to pass away her time), and, at about ten, set out on what we had determined should be a good day's journey.

第二天早上我们起得很晚，应哈里斯的恳切要求，我们分享了一顿朴素的早餐，没有“山珍海味”。然后我们收拾干净，把船上的大小杂物整理归位（这是一项漫长的工作，开始让我看清一个长期困扰我的疑问，那就是：为什么只需要照看一个房屋，主妇们还能整天忙个不停。）大概10点钟，我们开始了新的征程，决心要好好划他一天。

We agreed that we would pull this morning, as a change from towing; and Harris thought the best arrangement would be that George and I should scull, and he steer. I did not chime in with this idea at all; I said I thought Harris would have been showing a more proper spirit if he had suggested that he and George should work, and let me rest a bit. It seemed to me that I was doing more than my fair share of the work on this trip, and I was beginning to feel strongly on the subject.

我们一致决定今天上午换成划桨，因为对拉纤已经腻味了。哈里斯认为最好的方案是我和乔治负责划桨，他负责掌舵。我对此不敢苟同，我说如果他识大体的话，应当自荐和乔治负责划桨，让我也稍微休息休息。我觉得在这次旅行中，自己做了超出分内的工作，现在这种感觉越来越强烈了。

It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work1, mind you; I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.

在我看来，自己总是做着超额的工作。请注意，我并不讨厌书籍，相反的，我喜欢书籍，它让我着迷。我可以坐在那里，盯着它看几个小时。我喜欢把它放在身边，一想到将会摆脱它，我的心都要碎了。

You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me; my study is so full of it now, that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out awing soon.

你给我多少书，我都不嫌多；收集书已经成为我的癖好；我的书房里现在已经堆满了书，已经挪不出一英寸的空间来堆放更多的书了。这逼得我很快将再开辟出一间耳房来。

And I am careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn't a finger-mark on it. I take a great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do.

我对书也相当仔细。有一些书我已经保存了很多很多年，但书上连个手指印都没有。我为这些书感到相当自豪，时不时取下它们拂去尘土，没有人比我更懂得保养自己的书。

But, though I crave for work, I still like to be fair. I do not ask for more than my proper share.

尽管我对工作有种狂热的爱，但仍然希望做到公平正直，不会去索取自己不应得的部分。

But I get it without asking for it—at least, so it appears to me—and this worries me.

然而，尽管我不去索取，它们却总是不请自来（至少在我看来如此），这让我很忧虑。

George says he does not think I need trouble myself on the subject. He thinks it is only my over-scrupulous nature that makes me fear I am having more than my due; and that, as a matter of fact, I don't have half as much as I ought. But I expect he only says this to comfort me.

乔治说我不应当为这件事而自寻烦恼。他认为是我过分谨慎的天性让我以为自己做过了头，实际上我连自己分内的事的一半都没做完呢。但我希望他这么说只是为了安慰我。

In a boat, I have always noticed that it is the fixed idea of each member of the crew that he is doing everything. Harris's notion was, that it was he alone who had been working, and that both George and I had been imposing upon him. George, on the other hand, ridiculed the idea of Harris's having done anything more than eat and sleep, and had a cast-iron opinion that it was he—George himself—who had done all the labour worth speaking of.

我发现这么个定律：在任何一艘船上，每个人都认为他包办了一切。哈里斯的观点是：他是唯一那个干活的人，而我和乔治在占他的便宜。而另一方面，乔治嘲笑哈里斯除了吃就是睡，他坚信是他乔治完成了这条船上一切有价值的劳动。

He said he had never been out with such a couple of lazily skulks as Harris and I.

他说第一次遇到像我和哈里斯这么懒的一对船友。

That amused Harris.

这把哈里斯逗乐了。

"Fancy old George talking about work!" he laughed; "why, about half an-hour of it would kill him. Have you ever seen George work?" he added, turning to me.

“乔治说他能干活！”他笑道，“行行好哟，半小时就能 把他累死。你什么时候看到过乔治干活？”他接着转头问我。

I agreed with Harris that I never had—most certainly not since we had started on this trip.

我同意哈里斯的观点，我从来没有看到过——尤其可以肯定的是，在本次旅行中压根没有看到过——哈里斯干活。

"Well, I don't see how YOU can know much about it, one way or the other," George retorted on Harris; "for I'm blest if you haven't been asleep half the time. Have you ever seen Harris fully awake, except at meal-time?" asked George, addressing me.

“嗬，在我看来你当然看不到我在干活了，”乔治反驳哈里斯，“因为我可以用人头担保你有一半的时间在睡觉。除了吃饭的时候，你见过哈里斯真正清醒的样子么？”乔 治转头问我。

Truth compelled me to support George. Harris had been very little good in the boat, so far as helping was concerned, from the beginning.

真相让我不得不支持乔治的说法。从一开始起，如果说到帮忙，哈里斯的贡献约等于零。

"Well, hang it all, I've done more than old J., anyhow," rejoined Harris.

“算了，让一切见鬼去吧，至少我做得比老J.多。”哈里斯这样反驳道。

"Well, you couldn't very well have done less," added George.

“哼，你也不能干得比那再少了。”乔治补充道。

"I suppose J. thinks he is the passenger," continued Harris.

“我想J可能把自己定位为乘客吧。”哈里斯如此附和。

And that was their gratitude to me for having brought them and their wretched old boat all the way up from Kingston, and for having superintended and managed everything for them, and taken care of them, and slaved for them. It is the way of the world.

这就是他们对我的报答？我明明把他们和他们的破船从金斯顿一路拽到这里，为他们监管所有大小事宜，关心照顾他们，简直是为他们做牛做马。这就是生活啊！

We settled the present difficulty by arranging that Harris and George should scull up past Reading, and that I should tow the boat on from there. Pulling a heavy boat against a strong stream has few attractions for me now. There was a time, long ago, when I used to clamour for the hard work: now I like to give the youngsters a chance.

我们最后达成一致：由哈里斯和乔治划到雷丁，然后由我来拉纤。拉着沉重的船迎战激流对现在的我来说，已经基本丧失了所有吸引力。在很久以前，曾经有段时间，我争着吵着要干重活，但现在我愿意把机会让给年轻人。

I notice that most of the old river hands are similarly retiring, when ever there is any stiff pulling to be done. You can always tell the old river hand by the way in which he stretches himself out upon the cushion sat the bottom of the boat, and encourages the rowers by telling them anecdotes about the marvellous feats he performed last season.

我发现，绝大多数划船老手面临激流勇进的机会时，都表现出同样的低调。你很容易就能认出他们，因为他们总平躺在船底软垫上，讲述自己去年在河上的英雄故事，用以激励正在划船的那些人。

"Call what you're doing hard work!" he drawls, between his contented whiffs, addressing the two perspiring novices, who have been grinding away steadily up stream for the last hour and a half; "why, Jim Biffles and Jack and I, last season, pulled up from Marlow to Goring in one afternoon—never stopped once. Do you remember that, Jack?”

“你们现在这点活儿算什么！”他懒洋洋地说道，不时满足地吐出几个烟圈。这番话的对象是两个汗流浃背的划船新手，这时他们已经不间断地逆着水流划了一个半小时了。他接着说：“吉姆.比弗斯、杰克和我，我们3个，去年，从马洛划到戈灵，就用了一个下午，中间就没停下来歇息过。杰克，你还记得吧？”

Jack, who has made himself a bed up in the prow of all the rugs and coats he can collect, and who has been lying there asleep for the last two hours, partially wakes up on being thus appealed to, and recollects all about the matter, and also remembers that there was an unusually strong stream against them all the way—likewise a stiff wind.

杰克收集了他能找到的所有的小毯子和大衣，在船首做成一个铺位，现在已经躺在那里睡了两个小时。这时被点名，于是半睁开蒙眬的睡眼，记起了那件事的所有细节，并补充说当时他们一路上遇到一股相当强劲的逆行水流，还有一股强风。

"About thirty-four miles, I suppose, it must have been," adds the first speaker, reaching down another cushion to put under his head.

“大概时速34英里吧，我想一定得有这个数。”开始讲话的那个老手一边说，一边探手又抓起一个软垫枕在身下。

"No—no; don't exaggerate, Tom," murmurs Jack, reprovingly; "thirty-three at the outside.”

“不，不，不，汤姆你别夸张。”杰克喃喃地责备他，“顶 多也就33。”

And Jack and Tom, quite exhausted by this conversational effort, drop off to sleep once more. And the two simple-minded youngsters at the sculls feel quite proud of being allowed to row such wonderful oarsmen as Jack and Tom, and strain away harder than ever.

杰克和汤姆被这番对话耗去不少体力，于是双双再次倒头睡去。而两位头脑简单的青年桨手，胸中涌起一种能够与像杰克和汤姆这样杰出的划船能手同船出游的巨大自豪感，于是划得更加卖力。

When I was a young man, I used to listen to these tales from my elders, and take them in, and swallow them, and digest every word of them, and then come up for more; but the new generation do not seem to have the simple faith of the old times. We—George, Harris, and myself—took a "raw'un" up with us once last season, and we plied him with the customary stretchers about the wonderful things we had done all the way up.

当我年轻的时候，常常从前辈那里听到这样的传奇，我会一字不漏地全部吞进肚子里，慢慢消化后，还渴望听到更多。但是现在的新一代已经失去了过去岁月里那种纯朴的信仰。我们——乔治、哈里斯、我——去年带了个“菜鸟”上船，我们在划向上游的过程中，按照惯例不停给他填充关于我们的英雄故事。

We gave him all the regular ones—the time-honoured lies that have done duty up the river with every boating-man for years past—and added seven entirely original ones that we had invented for ourselves, including a really quite likely story, founded, to a certain extent, on an all but true episode, which had actually happened in a modified degree some years ago to friends of ours—a story that a mere child could have believed without injuring itself, much.

我们不仅给他讲了那些传统的段子——都是经过时间检验的谎言，多少年来曾效力于每一位泰晤士河上的泛舟人士——还附赠了7个我们独立创作的全新段子，其中包括一个相当逼真的故事，在一定程度上可以说是根据一个纯属虚构的事件改编的，据说它曾于多年前发生在我们的朋友身上，只是程度有所缓和——小朋友可以相信这个故事，并且不会因此受伤害（至少不会严重受伤）。

And that young man mocked at them all, and wanted us to repeat the feats then and there, and to bet us ten to one that we didn't.

我们的小伙子对所有故事嗤之以鼻，而且要求我们就在当时当地重演故事中的壮举，他说愿意以10比1，赌我们根本没那么做过。

We got to chatting about our rowing experiences this morning, and to recounting stories of our first efforts in the art of oarsmanship. My own earliest boating recollection is of five of us contributing three pence each and taking out a curiously constructed craft on the Regent's Park lake, drying ourselves subsequently, in the park-keeper's lodge.

这天早上，我们又开始聊起了过去的泛舟经历，回忆自己是如何与划船艺术结缘的。记得我第一次划船那次，我们共有5个人，每人出3便士凑够钱租来一条造型奇怪的木筏，地点是在摄政公园湖，此后我们在公园管理员的小木屋里把自己晾干了。

After that, having acquired a taste for the water, I did a good deal of rafting in various suburban brickfields—an exercise providing more interest and excitement than might be imagined, especially when you are in the middle of the pond and the proprietor of the materials of which the raft is constructed suddenly appears on the bank, with a big stick in his hand.

自那次首尝河水的滋味以后，我在郊区的很多砖砌的池塘里划过木筏——它能够提供的趣味远远超出你的想象，其中尤为刺激的情况是：你还在水池中央，而制作木筏的原料的主人出现在岸上，手里拿着一条大木棍。

Your first sensation on seeing this gentleman is that, somehow or other, you don't feel equal to company and conversation, and that, if you could do so without appearing rude, you would rather avoid meeting him; and your object is, therefore, to get off on the opposite side of the pond to which he is, and to go home quietly and quickly, pretending not to see him. He, on the contrary is yearning to take you by the hand, and talk to you.

看到这位先生时你的第一反应是：虽不知道为什么，反正自己配不上和他结交也没有资格和他聊天。如果能够不表现得无礼的话，你情愿避开与他的正面相遇。所以你的目标是在他的对面一侧上岸，然后安静迅速地回家，装作没有看到他。但他却和你相反，急切地想要抓着你的手和你好好谈谈。

It appears that he knows your father, and is intimately acquainted with yourself, but this does not draw you towards him. He says he'll teach you to take his boards and make a raft of them; but, seeing that you know how to do this pretty well already, the offer, though doubtless kindly meant, seems a superfluous one on his part, and you are reluctant to put him to any trouble by accepting it.

看来他认识你的父亲，并且和你本人也有着相当亲密的关系，但是这并不能吸引你靠近他。他说他要教你如何用他的木板做成木筏。但显然你已经十分了解怎么去做了，因此虽然这个提议明显出自好心，却难免属于多此一举，所以你不愿意接受这个好意，以免给他带去不必要的麻烦。

His anxiety to meet you, however, is proof against all your coolness, and the energetic manner in which he dodges up and down the pond so as to be on the spot to greet you when you land is really quite flattering.

然而，尽管你冷若冰霜，他想要和你相会的热情却并未消减。只见他沿着池塘左突右窜，力争在你登岸的地点迎接你，实在让你受宠若惊。

If he be of a stout and short-winded build, you can easily avoid his advances; but, when he is of the youthful and long-legged type, a meeting is inevitable. The interview is, however, extremely brief, most of the conversation being on his part, your remarks being mostly of an exclamatory and mono-syllabic order, and as soon as you can tear yourself away you do so.

如果他是那种一跑步就气喘吁吁的矮胖子，倒可以轻易地躲过他的逼近，但如果他是那种手长腿长的小伙子，就免不了一场邂逅。然而你们的谈话相当简短，大多数时间里都是他说你听，你的评论基本上是一个单音节感叹词。你总是在能够挣脱钳制的第一时间逃之夭夭。

I devoted some three months to rafting, and, being then as proficient as there was any need to be at that branch of the art, I determined to go in for rowing proper, and joined one of the Lea boating clubs.

我将3个月左右的时间献给划木筏，在划船艺术的这一分支领域中，练出了足够专业的水平，决心正式进军划船的主流领域，加入了一家利河泛舟爱好者俱乐部。

Being out in a boat on the river Lea2, especially on Saturday afternoons, soon makes you smart at handling a craft, and spry at escaping being run down by roughs or swamped by barges; and it also affords plenty of opportunity for acquiring the most prompt and graceful method of lying down flat at the bottom of the boat so as to avoid being chucked out into the river by passing tow-lines.

在利河上泛舟，尤其是星期六的时候，能够让你在最短时间内掌握精湛的船艺，而且学会敏捷地避开恶霸船或者驳船，逃脱被撞沉的厄运。你还能获得相当多的机会，学习如何最迅速而又最优雅地在船底躺平，避免被途经的纤绳挂住，抛到河里去。

But it does not give you style. It was not till I came to the Thames that I got style. My style of rowing is very much admired now. People say it is so quaint.

但是利河不能让你获得优雅的风范。直到出征泰晤士河后，我才修炼出了划船的“型”和“款”。现在我的划船风格广受好评，人人都夸它“很独特”。

George never went near the water until he was sixteen. Then he and eight other gentlemen of about the same age went down in a body to Kew one Saturday, with the idea of hiring a boat there, and pulling to Richmond and back; one of their number, a shock-headed-youth, named Joskins, who had once or twice taken out a boat on the Serpentine, told them it was jolly fun, boating!

乔治在16岁前还不知道河为何物。那年他与年纪相仿的8位绅士结伴在一个星期六来到基尤，计划在那里租条船划到里士满，再返回起点。成员中有位头发蓬乱的名叫乔斯金的小子，据说曾在斯彭泰恩人造湖上划过一两次船，他告诉他们划船很好玩——棒极了！

The tide was running out pretty rapidly when they reached the landing stage, and there was a stiff breeze blowing across the river, but this did not trouble them at all, and they proceeded to select their boat.

当他们来到栈桥的时候，河水波浪起伏、流速很快，河面的风也很大，但是他们完全没有在意，继续选船。

There was an eight-oared racing outrigger drawn up on the stage; that was the one that took their fancy. They said they'd have that one, please. The boatman was away, and only his boy was in charge. The boy tried to damp their ardour for the outrigger, and showed them two or three very comfortable-looking boats of the family-party build, but those would not do at all; the outrigger was the boat they thought they would look best in.

栈桥边停靠着一艘有舷外撑架的八桨赛艇，让他们一见倾心。他们说就要这艘。船老板出门了，只有伙计在家，他竭力想要扑灭他们的激情，带他们看了两三条看上去非常舒服的适合家庭出游的小船，但是他们根本看不上眼，因为他们觉得只有那条赛艇才能让他们看上去最威风。

So the boy launched it, and they took off their coats and prepared to take their seats. The boy suggested that George, who, even in those days, was always the heavy man of any party, should be number four. George said he should be happy to be number four, and promptly stepped into bow's place, and sat down with his back to the stern. They got him into his proper position at last, and then the others followed.

所以伙计只好把赛艇准备好，他们纷纷脱下大衣，准备就坐。伙计建议乔治（在那时就已经是人群中最胖的那个了）坐到第4号座位上。乔治欣然接受第4号座位，并迅速奔到船头的位置，背对着船尾坐了下来。最后大家终于把他安顿在正确的座位上，接着一一就坐。

A particularly nervous boy was appointed cox, and the steering principle explained to him by Joskins. Joskins himself took stroke. He told the others that it was simple enough; all they had to do was to follow him.

一位相当紧张的男孩被分配到舵手的岗位，乔斯金向他口授了掌舵的原则，他自己则操起船桨，告诉大家只要一板一眼地跟他学，划船其实很简单。

They said they were ready, and the boy on the landing stage took a boat-hook and shoved him off.

他们说准备好了，栈桥上的伙计用船钩把他们的船推入河中。

What then followed George is unable to describe in detail. He has a confused recollection of having, immediately on starting, received a violent blow in the small of the back from the butt-end of number five's scull, at the same time that his own seat seemed to disappear from under him by magic, and leave him sitting on the boards. He also noticed, as a curious circumstance, that number two was at the same instant lying on his back at the bottom of the boat, with his legs in the air, apparently in a fit.

接下来的事情乔治不能讲得很清晰。他只模糊记得一些东西：刚一出发，腰背部就遭到5号桨手的桨尾猛烈一击，而坐凳突然从屁股下面魔术般地消失了，让他生生坐在了甲板上。他同时还注意到另一个奇异的现象——2号桨手仰卧在船底，四脚朝天，怒火冲天。

They passed under Kew Bridge, broadside, at the rate of eight miles an hour, Joskins being the only one who was rowing. George, on recovering his seat, tried to help him, but, on dipping his oar into the water, it immediately, to his intense surprise, disappeared under the boat, and nearly took him with it.

他们的船侧身过了基尤桥，时速为8英里，只有乔斯金一个人在划桨。乔治找回坐凳后，打算帮助乔斯金，但是船桨一沾水就立刻消失在船下，吓了他一大跳不说，还差点把他也拖了下去。

And then "cox" threw both rudder lines over-board, and burst into tears.

这时“舵手”把两条舵绳扔下船去，呜呜地哭起来。

How they got back George never knew, but it took them just forty minutes. A dense crowd watched the entertainment from Kew Bridge with much interest, and everybody shouted out to them different directions. Three times they managed to get the boat back through the arch, and three times they were carried under it again, and every time "cox" looked up and saw the bridge above him he broke out into renewed sobs.

他们是怎么回到岸上的，乔治永远也无从知晓，但他记得只花了40分钟。在基尤桥上聚拢了一大群人，饶有兴致地观看他们这场“娱乐演出”。每个人都把他们往不同的方向指挥。他们3次成功地将船划过桥拱，又3次被带回桥下，每当“舵手”抬头看到桥拱重现头顶，便又开始新一轮的哭泣。

George said he little thought that afternoon that he should ever come to really like boating.

乔治说那天下午他根本没有料到这辈子还会喜欢上 划船。

Harris is more accustomed to sea rowing than to river work, and says that, as an exercise, he prefers it. I don't. I remember taking a small boat out at East bourne last summer: I used to do a good deal of sea rowing years ago, and I thought I should be all right; but I found I had forgotten the art entirely. When one scull was deep down underneath the water, the other would be flourishing wildly about in the air. To get a grip of the water with both at the same time I had to stand up. The parade was crowded with nobility and gentry, and I had to pull past them in this ridiculous fashion. I landed half-way down the beach, and secured the services of an old boatman to take me back.

比起河上泛舟，哈里斯更习惯于航海。他还说若作为一项锻炼，他更喜欢航海。但我不。我还记得去年夏天去伊斯特本的海上划船的噩梦。因为多年前我也有过不少海上行舟的经历，这次还以为自己没有问题，哪想我已经完全忘记了这门技艺。这边船桨深深地没入水中，那边船桨就会蹦上空中去舞蹈。我不得不站起来，才让两只船桨乖乖地在水上同进同出。那天海上有不少达官贵人，我却只能以这种滑稽的划船姿势与他们擦肩而过。在半路我被搁浅到海滩上，多亏一位老船夫帮助才得救。

I like to watch an old boatman rowing, especially one who has been hired by the hour. There is something so beautifully calm and restful about his method. It is so free from that fretful haste, that vehement striving, that is every day becoming more and more the bane of nineteenth-century life. He is not for ever straining himself to pass all the other boats. If another boat overtakes him and passes him it does not annoy him; as a matter of fact, they all do overtake him and pass him—all those that are going his way. This would trouble and irritate some people; the sublime equanimity of the hired boatman under the ordeal affords us a beautiful lesson against ambition and uppishness.

我很喜欢看老船夫划船，特别是用按钟点计费的方式雇来的老船夫。他的举止透出一种安闲优雅，绝对远离焦躁不安、狂热奋争，这些正越来越成为19世纪人类生活的罪恶之源。他不会总是勉强自己去超过其他船。当有船超过他的时候，他也不会恼怒，实际上，所有同方向的船都会追上他、超过他。这种事情发生在某些人身上，会使他们十分恼怒，而老船夫们惊人的镇定自若却教会我们深刻的一课，野心和盛气毫无益处。

Plain practical rowing of the get-the-boat-along order is not a very difficult art to acquire, but it takes a good deal of practice before a man feels comfortable, when rowing past girls. It is the "time" that worries a youngster. "It's jolly funny," he says, as for the twentieth time within five minutes he disentangles his sculls from yours; "I can get on all right when I'm by myself!"

简单的“把船划向前就行”的划船技术并不很难学，但是如果男士想要在船经过年轻女士时保持从容不迫，倒是需要不少锤炼。正是“协调性”让小伙子们焦虑烦恼。“太奇怪了，”他一边把桨从你的桨里面抽出来（这是5分钟内第20次了），一边说，“我一个人的时候啥事都没有！”

To see two novices try to keep time with one another is very amusing. Bow finds it impossible to keep pace with stroke, because stroke rows in such an extraordinary fashion. Stroke is intensely indignant at this, and explains that what he has been endeavouring to do for the last ten minutes is to adapt his method to bow's limited capacity. Bow, in turn, then becomes insulted, and requests stroke not to trouble his head about him (bow), but to devote his mind to setting a sensible stroke.

看两个新手尝试彼此协调是很好玩的。船首那位发现没有办法和尾桨手保持节奏一致，因为尾桨手划船的方式太奇特了。尾桨手对此深感愤怒，解释说他之所以在过去10分钟里“划成那样”，纯粹是为了配合和弥补前者的“能力不足”。这下轮到船首感到受辱了，他请船尾不用担心他（船首），并要求把他那点脑力用到学会抓稳自己的桨上。

"Or, shall I take stroke?" he adds, with the evident idea that that would at once put the whole matter right.

“或者，要不我们换位置？”他补充道，那语气像是在说如此一来必定柳暗花明。

They splash along for another hundred yards with still moderate success, and then the whole secret of their trouble bursts upon stroke like a flash of inspiration.

他们又水花四溅地前行了100码，收效甚微。这时，船尾脑中灵光一现，参透了他们失败的秘密。

"I tell you what it is: you've got my sculls," he cries, turning to bow; "pass yours over."

“让我来告诉你是为什么吧：你用的是我的船桨！”他转身对船首大叫，“把它递给我。”

"Well, do you know, I've been wondering how it was I couldn't get on with these," answers bow, quite brightening up, and most willingly assisting in the exchange. "NOW we shall be all right."

“哈哈，你看看，我就奇怪怎么船桨老不好使呢！”船尾声音中透着喜气，积极地协助换桨仪式顺利完成，“现在，我们肯定没问题啦。”

But they are not—not even then. Stroke has to stretch his arms nearly out of their sockets to reach his sculls now; while bow's pair, at each recovery, hit him a violent blow in the chest. So they change back again, and come to the conclusion that the man has given them the wrong set altogether; and over their mutual abuse of this man they become quite friendly and sympathetic.

但是他们仍有问题——即使是换了桨。船尾得伸长手臂去够他的船桨，胳膊都几乎要脱臼了；而船首的一对桨每划一次便狠狠地打在他的胸脯上。因此他们又换回了船桨，然后双双得出结论：当初船行伙计给他们的就是一副不配套的桨。在对船行伙计的共同指责中，两人增进了友谊，感到了心灵相通。

George said he had often longed to take to punting for a change. Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.

乔治说他常常希望换换口味，试试撑篙。撑篙可不像看起来那么简单。和划船一样，你很快就能适应并能控制船筏，但是必须经过长期的练习，才能够表现得从容优雅，才不会弄得袖子上都是水。

One young man I knew had a very sad accident happen to him the first time he went punting. He had been getting on so well that he had grown quite cheeky over the business, and was walking up and down the punt, working his pole with a careless grace that was quite fascinating to watch. Up he would march to the head of the punt, plan this pole, and then run along right to the other end, just like an old punter. Oh! it was grand.

一位与我相熟的年轻人在首次撑篙时遭遇过这么个可怕的事故。他上手很快，于是开始得意忘形，在平底船上来回走动，船篙在手上也耍得特别随性，看起来很是潇洒。先走到船头，插下船篙，然后一直要跑到船尾去，跟个撑篙老手一样。噢！真是风光极了。

And it would all have gone on being grand if he had not unfortunately, while looking round to enjoy the scenery, taken just one step more than there was any necessity for, and walked off the punt altogether. The pole was firmly fixed in the mud, and he was left clinging to it while the punt drifted away. It was an undignified position for him. A rude boy on the bank immediately yelled out to a lagging chum to "hurry up and see a real monkey on a stick."

他本可以风光到底的，然而，他环视周围的美妙风景时，不禁往前多迈了那么毫无必要的一步——整个人走出了平底船。船篙扎实地插在河底淤泥中，他整个人攀在船篙上，目送平底船飘然远去。这可不是个体面的姿势。岸上一个小毛孩立刻对身后的好友大喊“快来看啊！这里竹竿上有只真正的猴子！”

I could not go to his assistance, because, as ill-luck would have it, we had not taken the proper precaution to bring out a spare pole with us. I could only sit and look at him. His expression as the pole slowly sank with him I shall never forget; there was so much thought in it.

我实在爱莫能助，因为天意弄人，我们缺乏必要的准备，没有带上一只备用船篙，所以我只能坐下看好戏。我永远也不会忘记，当他连人带篙缓缓往下沉没的时候，脸上是怎样的表情——它包含着万千的思绪。

I watched him gently let down into the water, and saw him scramble out, sad and wet. I could not help laughing, he looked such a ridiculous figure. I continued to chuckle to myself about it for some time, and then it was suddenly forced in upon me that really I had got very little to laugh at when I came to think of it. Here was I, alone in a punt, without a pole, drifting helplessly down mid-stream—possibly towards a weir.

我看着他慢慢地沉入水中，湿答答地爬上岸，一脸愁容。如此模样实在古怪，逗得我纵情大笑。几分钟后我还咯咯咯笑得意犹未尽，却突然意识到我实在是没啥值得开心的。此刻我一个人在平底船上，没有船篙，除了随波逐流外毫无办法，沿着河心向下漂去，前方说不定是个拦河坝呢！

I began to feel very indignant with my friend for having stepped overboard and gone off in that way. He might, at all events, have left me the pole.

我开始感到非常生气——这位朋友怎么可以就那样弃船离去呢？不管怎样，他至少应该把船篙给我留下啊。

I drifted on for about a quarter of a mile, and then I came in sight of a fishing-punt moored in mid-stream, in which sat two old fishermen. They saw me bearing down upon them, and they called out to me to keep out of their way.

我大概随船漂了四分之一英里，这时看见一条捕鱼的平底船停泊在河心，上面坐着两位老船夫。他们看到我渐渐靠近他们，就吆喝着要我别撞上去。

"I can't," I shouted back.

“我没办法！”我呼喊着回答道。

"But you don't try," they answered.

“但是你都没试一试啊，”他们说。

I explained the matter to them when I got nearer, and they caught me and lent me a pole. The weir was just fifty yards below. I am glad they happened to be there.

靠得更近一点后，我向他们解释了目前的状况，他们勾住我的船，借给我一根船篙。当时距离拦河坝只有50码了——谢天谢地他们在那儿！

The first time I went punting was in company with three other fellows; they were going to show me how to do it. We could not all start together, so I said I would go down first and get out the punt, and then I could potter about and practice a bit until they came.

我第一次尝试撑篙时，同伴有另外3个人，他们表示愿意做我的老师。我们当时没法一起开始，所以我说我先去，可以把船撑出来，在附近先荡着，稍微锻炼一下等他们来。

I could not get a punt out that afternoon, they were all engaged; so I had nothing else to do but to sit down on the bank, watching the river, and waiting for my friends.

那天下午我没能租到平底船，全都租出去了。所以我只好坐在岸边，看看河上风光，打发时间，等朋友们出现。

I had not been sitting there long before my attention became attracted to a man in a punt who, I noticed with some surprise, wore a jacket and cap exactly like mine. He was evidently a novice at punting, and his performance was most interesting. You never knew what was going to happen when he put the pole in; he evidently did not know himself. Sometimes he shot up stream and sometimes he shot down stream, and at other times he simply spun round and came up the other side of the pole. And with every result he seemed equally surprised and annoyed.

我没坐多久，注意力就被一个撑篙的人吸引住了：他的夹克和帽子居然和我一模一样，太让我惊讶了。这人显然是个撑篙新手，看他忙活实在好玩极了。当他把船篙插下去时，你永远猜不到将会发生什么；连他自己也明显对此一无所知。有时候会向上游冲去，有时候会向下游冲去，其他时候他不过绕着船篙转了180度到了船篙的另一侧而已。无论是上述哪一种结果，他的表情都是同样的惊讶和愤慨。

The people about the river began to get quite absorbed in him after a while, and to make bets with one another as to what would be the outcome of his next push.

一段时间后，附近的人都对他产生了浓厚的兴趣，大家纷纷下注，赌他下一次下篙后会是什么结果。

In the course of time my friends arrived on the opposite bank, and they stopped and watched him too. His back was towards them, and they only saw his jacket and cap. From this they immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was I, their beloved companion, who was making an exhibition of himself, and their delight knew no bounds. They commenced to chaff him unmercifully.

这个时候，我的朋友们终于出现在对岸，他们也停下来看这个人。他背对着他们，所以他们只能看到他的夹克和帽子。这两件事物的组合让他们迅速得出结论：“表演者”就是我——他们喜爱的朋友。看“我”如此出洋相，他们的快乐膨胀得无边无际，开始无情地打趣起“我”来。

I did not grasp their mistake at first, and I thought, "How rude of them to go on like that, with a perfect stranger, too!" But before I could callout and reprove them, the explanation of the matter occurred to me, and I withdrew behind a tree.

我一开始没有明白他们认错了人，不由心想：“他们太 粗鲁了，更别提对方还是个完全陌生的人！”但是正当我 打算喝斥他们的时候，突然意识到事情的真相，所以我退 身藏到了一棵树的背后。

Oh, how they enjoyed themselves, ridiculing that young man! For five good minutes they stood there, shouting ribaldry at him, deriding him, mocking him, jeering at him. They peppered him with stale jokes, they even made a few new ones and threw at him. They hurled at him all the private family jokes belonging to our set, and which must have been perfectly unintelligible to him. And then, unable to stand their brutal jibes any longer, he turned round on them, and they saw his face!

看，他们挖苦那位小青年时笑得多开心啊！他们站在那里足足有5分钟，不停地向他嚷嚷些不堪入耳的下流笑话、嘲笑他、模仿他、揶揄他。他们用各种老套的笑话，甚至还加入一些新的段子向他密集地开炮。他们还把所有与我们私人家庭有关的笑话也一股脑地向他砸去，当然他肯定无法领会其中的妙趣。终于，这位受害者再也无法忍受他们野蛮的取笑，转身迎战——于是他们看到了他的脸！

I was glad to notice that they had sufficient decency left in them to look very foolish. They explained to him that they had thought he was someone they knew. They said they hoped he would not deem them capable of so insulting any one except a personal friend of their own.

我欣慰地看到他们还算有良心，露出了傻愣的表情。他们解释说还以为是他们认识的人，并希望他不要认为他们对谁都能这么羞辱，他们只是对哥们才这样。

Of course their having mistaken him for a friend excused it. I remember Harris telling me once of a bathing experience he had at Boulogne. He was swimming about there near the beach, when he felt himself suddenly seized by the neck from behind, and forcibly plunged under water. He struggled violently, but whoever had got hold of him seemed to be a perfect Hercules in strength, and all his efforts to escape were unavailing. He had given up kicking, and was trying to turn his thoughts upon solemn things, when his captor released him.

当然，他们把他误认为朋友为这事求得了谅解。我记得哈里斯告诉过我他在布洛涅河的一次游泳经历。当时他正在海滩附近游泳，突然感到脖子被一条手臂从后面圈住，整个人被摁进水里。他奋力挣扎，但是背后那人（甭管是谁）一定是大力士投胎转世，他怎么扑腾都是徒劳。慢慢地他放弃了反抗，并开始试图思索一些严肃的问题，这时背后的人突然放开了他。

He regained his feet, and looked round for his would-be murderer. The assassin was standing close by him, laughing heartily, but the moment he caught sight of Harris's face, as it emerged from the water, he started back and seemed quite concerned.

他站起身，转头想要看清那位图谋杀人者的真面目。那谋杀者原本站在旁边没心没肺地笑着，但就在哈里斯的脸浮出水面的一刹那，他惊得退了一步，看起来十分关切。

"I really beg your pardon," he stammered confusedly, "but I took you for a friend of mine!"

“太对不起了，”他结结巴巴地说，似乎还没能接受现实，“我把您当成一个朋友了！”

Harris thought it was lucky for him the man had not mistaken him for a relation, or he would probably have been drowned outright.

哈里斯认为自己还算走运，幸好没被当成对方的亲戚，否则很可能被彻底淹死了。

Sailing is a thing that wants knowledge and practice too—though, as a boy, I did not think so. I had an idea it came natural to a body, like rounders and touch. I knew another boy who held this view likewise, and so, one windy day, we thought we would try the sport. We were stopping down at Yarmouth, and we decided we would go for a trip up the Yare. We hired a sailing boat at the yard by the bridge, and started off. "It's rather a rough day," said the man to us, as we put off: "better take in a reef and luff sharp when you get round the bend."

驾驶帆船也是需要知识和练习的，可年轻时我不懂这个道理。我以为它是与生俱来的本领，和玩棒球和踢球一样。我认识一个对此有相同观点的男孩，所以在某个刮大风的日子里，我们相约尝试这项运动。当时我们在雅茅斯，决定沿着耶尔河逆流而上。在桥边的小码头租来一条船，出发了。“这风可不小哇，”出租船的老板在我们出发时说，“最好把帆叠起一角，拐弯后一定要让船头抢风行驶。”

We said we would make a point of it, and left him with a cheery "Good-morning," wondering to ourselves how you "luffed", and where we were to get a "reef" from, and what we were to do with it when we had got it.

我们说“我们会注意的”，然后用一句愉快的“祝您有个不错的早上”告别了他。其实我们心中在犯嘀咕：要怎么样“叠起一角”，什么是“抢风行驶”，况且抢到风后要怎么处理它呢？

We rowed until we were out of sight of the town, and then, with a wide stretch of water in front of us, and the wind blowing a perfect hurricane across it, we felt that the time had come to commence operations.

我们一直划到小镇消失在视野中，这时面前出现一大片开阔水域，波浪滔天，几如飓风来袭，我们感到行动的时刻到来了。

Hector—I think that was his name—went on pulling while I unrolled the sail. It seemed a complicated job, but I accomplished it at length, and then came the question, which was the top end?

赫克托（我记得是这个名字）继续划桨，我去把船帆展开。这个活很复杂，但我终于不辱使命完成了任务。现在的问题是：挂的时候哪一头应该朝上呢？

By a sort of natural instinct, we, of course, eventually decided that the bottom was the top, and set to work to fix it upside-down. But it was a long time before we could get it up, either that way or any other way. The impression on the mind of the sail seemed to be that we were playing at funerals, and that I was the corpse and itself was the winding-sheet.

也许是本能作祟，我们不出意料地把底部当成了头部，开始着手把帆给倒挂起来。但是我们花了好长时间才把它挂好。我们试了这头试那头，每次都让人沮丧。船帆大概觉得我们在和它玩过家家的游戏，情景设定是葬礼，我饰演尸体，而它饰演裹尸布。

When it found that this was not the idea, it hit me over the head with the boom, and refused to do anything.

终于，它发现这是个误会，于是用帆杠砸了我脑袋一下，便拒绝动弹了。

"Wet it," said Hector; "drop it over and get it wet."

“打湿它，”赫克托说，“把它放到水里打湿。”

He said people in ships always wetted the sails before they put them up. So I wetted it; but that only made matters worse than they were before. A dry sail clinging to your legs and wrapping itself round your head is not pleasant, but, when the sail is sopping wet, it becomes quite vexing. We did get the thing up at last, the two of us together. We fixed it, not exactly upside down—more sideways like—and we tied it up to the mast with the painter, which we cut off for the purpose.

他说人们在升帆前总要打湿它，于是我照做了，结果雪上加霜：干燥的帆缠在腿上脸上已经不是件舒服的事情，当打湿以后，更让人恼火。我们终于把那东西升上去了，通过两人的全力合作才取得了胜利。虽然算不得端端正正的“底朝天”，有点歪斜，但总算是拴在了桅杆上，用的是我们专为此而割下来的靠岸用的系艇索。

That the boat did not upset I simply state as a fact. Why it did not upset I am unable to offer any reason. I have often thought about the matter since, but I have never succeeded in arriving at any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon.

船没有翻——我这是在陈述事实。为什么没有翻，对现在的我来说仍然是个不解之谜。从那天以来，我常常思考这个问题，但是一直无法对这个现象作出让人满意的解释。

Possibly the result may have been brought about by the natural obstinacy of all things in this world. The boat may possibly have come to the conclusion, judging from a cursory view of our behaviour, that we had come out for a morning's suicide, and had there upon determined to disappoint us. That is the only suggestion I can offer.

也许可以把它归因为自然万物的共同劣根性：可能那艘船通过对我们的粗略观察，得出结论，认为我们那天早上出海是为了自杀，所以决定让我们失望。没错，这就是我能够想到的唯一解释。

By clinging like grim death to the gunwale, we just managed to keep inside the boat, but it was exhausting work. Hector said that pirates and other seafaring people generally lashed the rudder to something or other, and hauled in the main top-jib, during severe squalls, and thought we ought to try to do something of the kind; but I was for letting her have her head to the wind.

我们用尽吃奶的力气抓紧船舷上缘，终于没有被甩出船舱，当然这是很痛苦的一桩活。赫克托说，在风暴中，海盗们或其他海上老手们通常会把船舵系在什么东西上，把主要的最大的船头三角帆收起，所以他认为我们也应该这么做。但是我还是偏向于让她继续随风招展吧。

As my advice was by far the easiest to follow, we ended by adopting it, and contrived to embrace the gunwale and give her her head.

我的建议是至今所有建议中最容易执行的，所以我们最后采用了它。把精力继续集中在抓牢船舷上，由着她自由发挥去吧。

The boat travelled up stream for about a mile at a pace I have never sailed at since, and don't want to again. Then, at a bend, she heeled over till half her sail was under water. Then she righted herself by a miracle and flew for a long low bank of soft mud.

船向上游飞驰了大约一英里，此后我再也没有重复过这样的速度，而且我也不希望再次感受这种刺激。在一个拐弯处，船身严重倾侧，半面船帆都浸入水下，继而又奇迹般地站了起来，窜向一大片软泥铺成的浅滩。

That mud-bank saved us. The boat ploughed its way into the middle of it and then stuck. Finding that we were once more able to move according to our ideas, instead of being pitched and thrown about like peas in a bladder, we crept forward, and cut down the sail.

这片软泥是我们的救命恩人。船跌跌撞撞地冲进浅滩中央，搁浅了。我们发现终于可以自由控制自己的行动，不用被扔来扔去，像筛子里的豌豆那么摇晃了。我们赶快爬过去切断了绑住帆的绳索。

We had had enough sailing. We did not want to overdo the thing and get a surfeit of it. We had had a sail—a good all-round exciting, interesting sail—and now we thought we would have a row, just for a change like.

我们觉得扬帆已经够长时间了，不想做得太多，那样会厌倦的。我们已经航过海了——有过一次非常兴奋刺激而又有趣的航海经历，现在不如开始划船，算是换换胃口。

We took the sculls and tried to push the boat off the mud, and, in doing so, we broke one of the sculls. After that we proceeded with great caution, but they were a wretched old pair, and the second one cracked almost easier than the first, and left us helpless.

我们抓起船桨，努力把船从淤泥中拔出来。但努力的过程中，一只船桨断了。之后我们更加小心，但是可怜那副船桨年久失修，第二只比第一只还坏得快，留下了无助的我们。

The mud stretched out for about a hundred yards in front of us, and behind us was the water. The only thing to be done was to sit and wait until someone came by.

往前望是100码的淤泥，往后望是茫茫大海。唯一的出路就是原地坐下，等待有人经过。

It was not the sort of day to attract people out on the river, and it was three hours before a soul came in sight. It was an old fisherman who, with immense difficulty, at last rescued us, and we were towed back in an ignominious fashion to the boat-yard.

那天不是出海的好日子，所以直到3个小时后，才有船经过。船上那位老水手费了九牛二虎之力终于拯救了我们，但我们被拖回船坞时的狼狈惨状实在不堪回首。

What between tipping the man who had brought us home, and paying for the broken sculls, and for having been out four hours and a half, it cost us a pretty considerable number of weeks' pocket-money, that sail. But we learned experience, and they say that is always cheap at any price.

酬谢救命恩公、赔偿夭折的船桨、支付四个半小时的租金——这趟出航让我们好几个月的零花钱付诸流水。但是我们得到了经验。俗话说得好，经验再贵也不算贵。1 英文中work既指工作，又可以指著作、书籍2 利河是泰晤士河的支流。

CHAPTER XVI.

第十六章

READING.—WE ARE TOWED BY STEAM LAUNCH.—IRRITATING BEHAVIOUR OF SMALL BOATS.—HOWTHEY GET IN THE WAY OF STEAM LAUNCHES.—GEORGEAND HARRIS AGAIN SHIRK THEIR WORK.—RATHER AHACKNEYED STORY.—STREATLEY AND GORING.

雷丁——汽艇做我们的“纤夫”——小船让人生气——它们如何阻碍汽艇——乔治和哈里斯又逃避工作——一个老掉牙的故事——斯特雷特利和戈灵

WE came in sight of Reading about eleven. The river is dirty and dismal here. One does not linger in the neighbourhood of Reading. The town itself is a famous old place, dating from the dim days of King Ethelred, when the Danes anchored their warships in the Kennet, and started from Reading to ravage all the land of Wessex; and here Ethelred and his brother Alfred fought and defeated them, Ethelred doing the praying and Alfred the fighting.

11点左右雷丁进入了视野。这段河肮脏阴沉，让人不愿久留。雷丁本身是有名的古镇，建于埃塞尔雷德当权的阴暗时期，当时丹麦人在肯尼特驻扎军舰，以雷丁为切入口，意图吞下整个韦塞克斯地区，但在此被埃塞尔雷德和他的弟弟阿尔弗烈德击败——前者负责祈祷，后者负责打仗。

In later years, Reading seems to have been regarded as a handy place to run down to, when matters were becoming unpleasant in London. Parliament generally rushed off to Reading whenever there was a plague on at Westminster; and, in 1625, the Law followed suit, and all the courts were held at Reading. It must have been worth while having a mere ordinary plague now and then in London to get rid of both the lawyers and the Parliament.

在随后的年月里，雷丁似乎成为逃难的好去处，每当伦敦告急时，大家就往雷丁跑。每当威斯敏斯特流行瘟疫，国会基本都逃向雷丁。1625年，法院也效仿国会，把所有的案件都移到雷丁审理。如果伦敦能时不时暴发一场瘟疫，赶走所有律师和议员，倒是挺合算的。

During the Parliamentary struggle, Reading was besieged by the Earl of Essex, and, a quarter of a century later, the Prince of Orange routed King James's troops there.

在国会的斗争中，雷丁曾被艾塞克斯公爵的军队包围。四分之一个世纪之后，奥兰治王子在此击溃詹姆斯国王的军队。

Henry I. lies buried at Reading, in the Benedictine abbey founded by him there, the ruins of which may still be seen; and, in this same abbey, great John of Gaunt was married to the Lady Blanche.

亨利一世葬在雷丁本笃会修道院，这一修道院由他本人修建，如今废墟仍在。兰开斯特公爵和布兰什夫人曾在此举行婚礼。

At Reading lock we came up with a steam launch, belonging to some friends of mine, and they towed us up to within about a mile of Streatley. It is very delightful being towed up by a launch. I prefer it myself to rowing. The run would have been more delightful still, if it had not been for a lot of wretched small boats that were continually getting in the way of our launch, and, to avoid running down which, we had to be continually easing and stopping. It is really most annoying, the manner in which these rowing boats get in the way of one's launch up the river; something ought to be done to stop it.

在雷丁水闸，我们遇到我几个朋友的汽艇，把我们拖到离斯特雷特利不到一英里的地方。被汽艇拖一程，感觉棒极了，对我来说比划船还好。这旅程本来可以更快乐，奈何那些可恶的小船总是挡我们的道。我们为了躲避它们，时不时就要减速和停下来。真是讨厌极了。不管就没有王法了！

And they are so confoundedly impertinent, too, over it. You can whistle till you nearly burst your boiler before they will trouble themselves to hurry. I would have one or two of them run down now and then, if I had my way, just to teach them all a lesson.

它们对此还非常傲慢无礼。你的汽笛响得快震爆锅炉了，它们还不知道加速。如果照我的脾气来的话，真希望时不时地撞翻一两条，给它们点颜色看看。

The river becomes very lovely from a little above Reading. The railway rather spoils it near Tilehurst, but from Mapledurham up to Streatley it is glorious. A little above Mapledurham lock you pass Hardwick House, where Charles I. played bowls. The neighbourhood of Pangbourne, where the quaint little Swan Inn stands, must be as familiar to the HABITUES of the Art Exhibitions as it is to its own inhabitants.

过了雷丁后，景色开始越变越好。蒂尔赫斯特附近的铁轨很煞风景，但是从马帕尔杜汉到斯特雷特利的一段，漂亮极了。过了马帕尔杜汉水闸后不久，你会经过哈德威克庄园，查尔斯一世曾在那里打过保龄球。潘本附近有古雅的天鹅旅馆，艺术展览的常客们一定对它熟悉得不亚于它的住户。

My friends' launch cast us loose just below the grotto, and then Harris wanted to make out that it was my turn to pull. This seemed to me most unreasonable. It had been arranged in the morning that I should bring the boat up to three miles above Reading. Well, here we were, ten miles above Reading! Surely it was now their turn again.

我朋友们的汽艇把我们拖到了快到岩洞的地方，接着哈里斯就想要我划船。在我看来，没有比这更不合理的事情。早上我们说好由我负责把船带到雷丁上游3英里的地方，现在你看看，我们已经在雷丁上游10英里了！明显应该又轮到他们了。

I could not get either George or Harris to see the matter in its proper light, however; so, to save argument, I took the sculls. I had not been pulling for more than a minute or so, when George noticed something black floating on the water, and we drew up to it. George leant over, as we neared it, and laid hold of it. And then he drew back with a cry, and a blanched face.

但是，我没法让乔治和哈里斯用正常的思维方式看这个问题。所以，为了节省口舌，我拿起了船桨。划了刚有一分钟左右，乔治发现河上漂着一个黑色的东西，我们靠拢过去。等到近了，乔治弯腰抓住了它。接着他大叫一声跌回船里，脸色惨白。

It was the dead body of a woman. It lay very lightly on the water, and the face was sweet and calm. It was not a beautiful face; it was too prematurely aged-looking, too thin and drawn, to be that; but it was a gentle, lovable face, in spite of its stamp of pinch and poverty, and upon it was that look of restful peace that comes to the faces of the sick sometimes when at last the pain has left them.

那是一具女人的尸体。它轻轻漂在水面，表情安详，面容算不得美丽，过于未老先衰、瘦削憔悴。但这是一张温柔可爱的脸，尽管有着苦难和贫穷的印记，在它上面有种病人在病痛终于结束时可能会流露出的宁静平和。

Fortunately for us—we having no desire to be kept hanging about coroners' courts—some men on the bank had seen the body too, and now took charge of it from us.

我们很走运——我们可不想被验尸官庭审纠缠——岸上有些人也看到了尸体，现在把它接手过去了。

We found out the woman's story afterwards. Of course it was the old, old vulgar tragedy. She had loved and been deceived—or had deceived herself. Anyhow, she had sinned—some of us do now and then—and her family and friends, naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her.

我们后来知道了这个女人的故事。当然是很庸俗的、老掉牙的悲剧。她被爱人欺骗（或者也可以说被她自己欺骗），不小心犯下了原罪（我们中的一些人时不时会犯下的），她的家人和朋友自然感到震惊愤怒，对她避而不见。

Left to fight the world alone, with the millstone of her shame around her neck, she had sunk ever lower and lower. For a while she had kept both herself and the child on the twelve shillings a week that twelve hours' drudgery a day procured her, paying six shillings out of it for the child, and keeping her own body and soul together on the remainder.

她独自一人同世界抗争，羞辱像磨盘一样沉重地压在她的颈项上。有段时间，她每天做12个小时的苦工，每周能领到12先令用以维生其中6个先令用在孩子身上，剩下的钱用来维系她自己的身体和灵魂。

Six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together very unitedly. They want to get away from each other when there is only such a very slight bond as that between them; and one day, I suppose, the pain and the dull monotony of it all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual, and the mocking spectre had frightened her. She had made one last appeal to friends, but, against the chill wall of their respectability, the voice of the erring outcast fell unheeded; and then she had gone to see her child—had held it in her arms and kissed it, in a weary, dull sort of way, and without betraying any particular emotion of any kind, and had left it, after putting into its hand a penny box of chocolate she had bought it, and afterwards, with her last few shillings, had taken a ticket and come down to Goring.

每星期只剩下6个先令，这点钱无法很牢靠地拴住身体和灵魂，而当纽带如此纤细时，两者就会想要离开对方。我猜想，某天整个生活的痛苦和枯燥在她眼中愈发地清晰，像幽灵一样讥笑着她，这让她惊慌失措。她最后一次向朋友们求助，但是迎接她的只有礼貌的冷遇之墙，没有人愿意倾听这位失足的被驱逐者的话语。所以她回到孩子身边，疲倦而毫无感情地把它抱在怀里亲吻，接着在孩子手里塞进刚买的一盒廉价巧克力，离开了它。然后她用剩下的几个先令，买了一张车票来到了 戈灵。

It seemed that the bitterest thoughts of her life must have centred about the wooded reaches and the bright green meadows around Goring; but women strangely hug the knife that stabs them, and, perhaps, amidst the gall, there may have mingled also sunny memories of sweetest hours, spent upon those shadowed deeps over which the great trees bend their branches down so low.

看来她的人生中最痛苦的回忆围绕着戈灵的林地和鲜绿的草地，但是女人是很奇怪的生物，她们愿意拥抱刺伤她们的刀刃，也许在痛楚中仍然夹杂着最美好的日子里那些明亮的回忆，忆起大树低垂的枝条如何漏下斑驳的阳光，洒在深深的草丛里。

She had wandered about the woods by the river's brink all day, and then, when evening fell and the grey twilight spread its dusky robe upon the waters, she stretched her arms out to the silent river that had known her sorrow and her joy. And the old river had taken her into its gentle arms, and had laid her weary head upon its bosom, and had hushed away the pain.

她整天在河畔树林里游荡，直到夜幕降临，灰色的黄昏将铺满灰尘的长袍笼罩在河面，她向静静的河水张开两臂，它知道她的快乐和悲伤。古老的河流温柔地拥抱了她，让她把疲惫的头靠在它的胸口，治愈了她的伤痛。

Thus had she sinned in all things—sinned in living and in dying. God help her! and all other sinners, if any more there be.

就这样，她成为了完美的罪人——有罪地生，有罪地死。愿上帝宽恕她！也宽恕所有其他罪人（如果还有的话）。

Goring on the left bank and Streatley on the right are both or either charming places to stay at for a few days. The reaches down to Pangbourne woo one for a sunny sail or for a moonlight row, and the country round about is full of beauty. We had intended to push on to Wallingford that day, but the sweet smiling face of the river here lured us to linger for a while; and so we left our boat at the bridge, and went up into Streatley, and lunched at the "Bull", much to Montmorency's satisfaction.

左岸的戈灵和右岸的斯特雷特利都很棒，适合在两处或者选其中一处呆上几天。直到下游的潘伯恩，这段河充满魅力，让人想在阳光下扬帆或在月光下划桨，两岸景色也很优美。我们那天原定赶到沃灵福德，但这里河水的甜美笑颜邀请我们驻足停留，所以我们将船泊在桥下，走进斯特雷特利镇，在公牛餐馆享用午饭，相当合蒙特莫伦西的意。

They say that the hills on each ride of the stream here once joined and formed a barrier across what is now the Thames, and that then the river ended there above Goring in one vast lake. I am not in a position neither to contradict or affirm this statement. I simply offer it.

他们说这里的群山曾经连成一片，形成屏障，截断如今成为泰晤士河的水流，所以在戈灵上游形成了一个巨大的湖泊。我没有资格推翻或者肯定这一说法。我只是转述它。

It is an ancient place, Streatley, dating back, like most river-side towns and villages, to British and Saxon times. Goring is not nearly so pretty a little spot to stop at as Streatley, if you have your choice; but it is passing fair enough in its way, and is nearer the railway in case you want to slip off without paying your hotel bill.

斯特雷特利是个古老的地方，和大多数河畔市镇和村庄一样，历史可以追溯到不列颠和撒克逊时代。如果一定要你选，戈灵远远没有斯特雷特利看起来美丽，但也足够漂亮，算说得过去了，况且离铁路很近，如果你不想付旅馆费，溜起来更为方便。

CHAPTER XVII.

第十七章

WASHING DAY.—FISH AND FISHERS.—ON THE ART OF ANGLING.—A CONSCIENTIOUS FLY-FISHER.—A FISHY1 STORY.

洗衣服——鱼和钓鱼人——垂钓艺术——一位有良心的垂钓者——一条鱼的故事

WE stayed two days at Streatley, and got our clothes washed. We had tried washing them ourselves, in the river, under George's superintendence, and it had been a failure. Indeed, it had been more than a failure, because we were worse off after we had washed our clothes than we were before. Before we had washed them, they had been very, very dirty, it is true; but they were just wearable. AFTER we had washed them—well, the river between Reading and Henley was much cleaner, after we had washed our clothes in it, than it was before. All the dirt contained in the river between Reading and Henley, we collected, during that wash, and worked it into our clothes.

我们在斯特雷特利住了两天，把我们的衣服洗了。我们曾在乔治的监督指导下在河里洗过一次，但是结果很失败。实际上，不仅“无功”，而且“有过”，因为洗后的衣服比洗之前还要糟糕。洗之前，它们很脏，我承认这一点，但是总还能够穿。洗之后——嗯，这么一洗，雷丁到亨利的河水倒是更干净了，河里所有泥污都被我们搜集起来，揉进了衣服里面。

The washerwoman at Streatley said she felt she owed it to herself to charge us just three times the usual prices for that wash. She said it had not been like washing, it had been more in the nature of excavating.

斯特雷特利的洗衣妇收了我们3倍于平常的价格，她说否则对不起她自己。她说那简直就不是洗衣服，而更像是在挖煤。

We paid the bill without a murmur.

我们二话不说就掏了钱。

The neighbourhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing centre. There is some excellent fishing to be had here. The river abounds in pike, roach, dace, gudgeon, and eels, just here; and you can sit and fish for them all day.

斯特雷特利和戈灵的附近有个大型钓鱼中心，在这里钓鱼很有意思，河里有很多梭子鱼、拟鲤、鲦鱼、白杨鱼和鳗鱼，就在这块儿；你可以坐下来钓这些鱼钓上一整天。

Some people do. They never catch them. I never knew anybody catch anything, up the Thames, except minnows2 and dead cats, but that has nothing to do, of course, with fishing! The local fisherman's guide doesn't say a word about catching anything. All it says is the place is "a good station for fishing"; and, from what I have seen of the district, I am quite prepared to bear out this statement.

有些人真的会钓上一整天，但他们一条都钓不起来。我从没见过有谁能在泰晤士河上捕获任何东西，米诺鱼和死猫除外，但显然那跟钓鱼无关！当地的渔民指南手册上没有一句是关于捕获鱼的，它只说这个地方是“钓鱼的天堂”，从我对这一区的观察来说，这一评价确实不假。

There is no spot in the world where you can get more fishing, or where you can fish for a longer period. Some fishermen come here and fish for a day, and others stop and fish for a month. You can hang on and fish for a year, if you want to: it will be all the same.

世界上没有哪个地方能让你享受到更多的“垂钓之乐”，或说让你钓得更长久。有些钓鱼者来这里钓上一天，还有些甚至住下来钓上一个月。如果你愿意，钓上一年也不是问题：反正结果都一样。

The Angler's Guide to the Thames says that "jack and perch are also to be had about here", but there the Angler's Guide is wrong. Jack and perch may BE about there. Indeed, I know for a fact that they are. You can SEE them there in shoals, when you are out for a walk along the banks; they come and stand half out of the water with their mouths open for biscuits. And, if you go for a bathe, they crowd round, and get in your way, and irritate you. But they are not to be "had" by a bit of worm on the end of a hook, nor anything like it—not they!

《泰晤士河垂钓指南》说“这附近还可以钓到鲑鱼和鲈鱼”，但是这里它说错了。那附近可能确实有鲑鱼和鲈鱼。实际上，我可以确定绝对有。你沿着河岸散步时可以看到它们成群地在浅滩上倘佯，甚至朝你游过来，半个身子露出水面，张开嘴巴向你讨要饼干。另外，如果你去游泳，它们聚集起来，挡住你的道路，让你十分恼火。但是它们绝对不可能被“钓到”，不可能用渔钩上的一截蚯蚓，或者任何类似的东西骗到它们，它们可不傻！

I am not a good fisherman myself. I devoted a considerable amount of attention to the subject at one time, and was getting on, as I thought, fairly well; but the old hands told me that I should never be any real good at it, and advised me to give it up. They said that I was an extremely neat thrower, and that I seemed to have plenty of gumption for the thing, and quite enough constitutional laziness. But they were sure I should never make anything of a fisherman. I had not got sufficient imagination.

我自己不是个钓鱼高手。我曾经对这门艺术投入相当多的精力，而且自我感觉进步得很顺利，但是老手们说我成不了气候，建议我趁早放弃。他们说我特别善于甩渔竿，而且看上去有足够的进取心，以及足够的懒散本性。但是他们斩钉截铁地说我不可能成为好的渔夫——我缺乏足够的想象力。

They said that as a poet, or a shilling shocker, or a reporter, or anything of that kind, I might be satisfactory, but that, to gain any position as a Thames angler, would require more play of fancy, more power of invention than I appeared to possess.

他们说，如果作为诗人、专写耸人听闻的廉价小说的作家、记者或者从事其他类似的行业，我的想象力足够用了。但是要想成为泰晤士河上的垂钓好手，需要更多的联想能力和创新能力，而这是我所不具备的。

Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing; but this is a mistake. Mere bald fabrication is useless; the veriest tyro can manage that. It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of scrupulous—almost of pedantic—veracity, that the experienced angler is seen.

有些人有这样的偏见，认为一个好渔夫只需要具备一颗能从容撒谎的心和一张永不发红发烫的脸，但他们错了。仅仅凭空捏造是没用的，刚入门的生手就能够做到。真正做个好渔夫，靠的是面面俱到的细节、概率精准的修饰成分和近乎学究气的谨慎。

Anybody can come in and say, "Oh, I caught fifteen dozen perch yesterday evening"; or "Last Monday I landed a gudgeon, weighing eighteen pounds, and measuring three feet from the tip to the tail". There is no art, no skill, required for that sort of thing. It shows pluck, but that is all.

任何人都可以进门就嚷嚷“噢，我昨晚上逮到了两百条河鲈”或者“这星期一我逮住了1条白杨鱼，18磅重，从头到尾3英尺长”。那种吹牛太露骨，太没技巧。它显示了勇气——有勇无谋的“勇”。

No; your accomplished angler would scorn to tell a lie, that way. His method is a study in itself.

不，有所作为的钓鱼高手不屑于撒谎——撒那样的谎，他的方法本身足以构成一门学问。

He comes in quietly with his hat on, appropriates the most comfortable chair, lights his pipe, and commences to puff in silence. He lets the youngsters brag away for a while, and then, during a momentary lull, he removes the pipe from his mouth, and remarks, as he knocks the ashes out against the bars: "Well, I had a haul on Tuesday evening that it's not much good my telling anybody about."

他带着帽子安静地走进门，占据最舒服的椅子，点燃烟斗，开始静静地吐烟圈。他让愣头青们吹上一会儿牛皮，然后，在一个众人安静的间隙，从嘴里抽出烟斗，一边敲着烟灰一边说：“哎，星期二晚上我逮住个好东西，不过告诉别人也没用。”

"Oh! why's that?" they ask.

“是吗！为什么？”大家问。

"Because I don't expect anybody would believe me if I did," replies the old fellow calmly, and without even a tinge of bitterness in his tone, as he refills his pipe, and requests the landlord to bring him three of Scotch, cold.

“因为说了也没有人信，”这位老伙计平静的声音中，听不出一丝委屈愤怒，他重新装好烟管，向老板要了3杯加冰威士忌。

There is a pause after this, nobody feeling sufficiently sure of himself to contradict the old gentleman. So he has to go on by himself without any encouragement.

这句话之后是个停顿，然而没人接茬，因为没人有信心反驳这位老绅士。所以他只好自说自话地继续说下去。

"No," he continues thoughtfully; "I shouldn't believe it myself if anybody told it to me, but it's a fact, for all that. I had been sitting there all the afternoon and had caught literally nothing—except a few dozen dace and a score of jack; and I was just about giving it up as a bad job when I suddenly felt a rather smart pull at the line. I thought it was another little one, and I went to jerk it up. Hang me, if I could move the rod! It took me half-an-hour—half-an-hour, sir!—to land that fish; and every moment I thought the line was going to snap! I reached him at last, and what do you think it was? A sturgeon! a forty pound sturgeon! taken on a line, sir! Yes, you may well look surprised—I'll have another three of Scotch, landlord, please."

“不，”他似乎在思考什么，“如果别人告诉我这样的事，我自己也不会相信。可无论如何，事实就是事实。那个下午我坐了半天，一丁点东西都没捞到，除了可怜巴巴的几十条鲦鱼和十多条河鲈。我正打算放弃，认倒霉的时候，突然感到渔线猛地一沉。我以为又是什么小鱼，开始往上拉。杀了我也拉不动那根渔竿！我花了半个小时——半个小时啊先生们！——才拉上来那条鱼；好多次我都以为渔竿要断了！我最后终于把它拉上来了，你猜猜是条什么？一条鲟鱼！40磅重的鲟鱼！用渔线拉上来一条鲟鱼啊，先生们！是的，你们可能会很吃惊——老板，请再来3杯威士忌，谢谢。”

And then he goes on to tell of the astonishment of everybody who saw it; and what his wife said, when he got home, and of what Joe Buggles thought about it.

接着他开始描述看到那条鱼后每个人脸上的惊奇之色，以及当他回家后，他老婆说了什么，还有乔.巴格斯对此发表了什么评价。

I asked the landlord of an inn up the river once, if it did not injure him, sometimes, listening to the tales that the fishermen about there told him; and he said: "Oh, no; not now, sir. It did used to knock me over abit at first, but, lor love you! me and the missus we listens to èm all day now. It's what you're used to, you know. It's what you're used to."

我曾经问过一位河畔旅馆的老板，总听附近那些钓鱼人吹牛，会不会有时感到吃不消，他说：“不会，现在不会了，先生。刚开始我确实有点受不了。但是，谢天谢地！我和太太天天都听他们吹牛，听着听着也就习惯了，知道吧，只要习惯了就好了。”

I knew a young man once, he was a most conscientious fellow, and, when he took to fl y-fishing, he determined never to exaggerate his hauls by more than twenty-five percent.

我曾认识一个男青年，他是相当有良知的人，当他开始迷上“飞蝇钓”时，下定决心对战果的夸张不超过25％。

"When I have caught forty fish," said he, "then I will tell people that I have caught fifty, and so on. But I will not lie any more than that, because it is sinful to lie."

“当我钓到40条鱼，”他说，“我就告诉人们我钓了50条，依此类推。但是我的谎言以此为限，因为撒谎是有罪的行为。

But the twenty-five percent. plan did not work well at all. He never was able to use it. The greatest number of fish he ever caught in one day was three, and you can't add twenty-five per cent. to three—at least, not in fish.

但是这个25％的计划完全没能得到很好的执行。他在一天中钓到鱼的数量最多就是3条。你没法在3上加上25％，至少没法用在鱼身上。

So he increased his percentage to thirty-three and a-third; but that, again, was awkward, when he had only caught one or two; so, to simplify matters, he made up his mind to just double the quantity.

所以他把百分比升到百分之三十三又三分之一，但是效果仍然很糟糕，因为有时候他只能钓到一条或者两条。所以，为了简化问题，他决定干脆虚报一倍。

He stuck to this arrangement for a couple of months, and then he grew dissatisfied with it. Nobody believed him when he told them that he only doubled, and he, therefore, gained no credit that way whatever, while his moderation put him at a disadvantage among the other anglers. When he had really caught three small fish, and said he had caught six, it used to make him quite jealous to hear a man, whom he knew for a fact had only caught one, going about telling people he had landed two dozen.

他将这一原则坚守了好几个月，感到越来越无法满足。当他告诉别人他仅仅把成绩放大了一倍时，没人相信他，所以他以此方法并未获得任何成功，而他的保守节制又让他在与其他钓鱼者评比战绩时处于相当不利的地位。当他真正钓到3条小鱼时，会说他钓到了6条，而另一个伙计明明只钓到一条，却到处吹嘘说钓到了24条，这常常让他忌妒得发狂。

So, eventually, he made one final arrangement with himself, which he has religiously held to ever since, and that was to count each fish that he caught as ten, and to assume ten to begin with. For example, if he did not catch any fish at all, then he said he had caught ten fish—you could never catch less than ten fish by his system; that was the foundation of it. Then, if by any chance he really did catch one fish, he called it twenty, while two fish would count thirty, three forty, and so on.

所以，他给自己作了最后的让步，定出新的原则，以后一直虔诚地遵守，那就是以10条为保底，捕到的每条鱼再乘以10。例如，如果捕到0条，他说捕到10条——因此在他的系统中，捕鱼数永远不可能小于10条。如果运气好捕到1条，他就说捕到了20条，两条就等于30条；3条等于40条；依此类推。

It is a simple and easily worked plan, and there has been some talk lately of its being made use of by the angling fraternity in general. Indeed, the Committee of the Thames Angler's Association did recommend its adoption about two years ago, but some of the older members opposed it. They said they would consider the idea if the number were doubled, and each fish counted as twenty.

这个原则简单实用，我最近听说钓鱼联盟已经普遍采用了这一计数方法。事实上，泰晤士河垂钓者联盟协会大约两年前曾推广过它，但是遭到一些老成员反对。他们说如果翻倍还可以接受，也就是说每条鱼乘以20。

If ever you have an evening to spare, up the river, I should advise you to drop into one of the little village inns, and take a seat in the taproom. You will be nearly sure to meet one or two old rod-men, sipping their toddy there, and they will tell you enough fishy stories, in half an hour, to give you indigestion for a month.

如果你晚上有空，我建议你随便找一家小乡村旅馆，去休息室坐坐，你肯定能遇到一两个“老渔竿”在那呷着棕榈酒，他们会告诉你足够的鱼（愚）故事，半小时的量就足够让你一个月消化不良。

George and I—I don't know what had become of Harris; he had gone out and had a shave, early in the afternoon, and had then come back and spent full forty minutes in pipeclaying his shoes, we had not seen him since—George and I, therefore, and the dog, left to ourselves, went for a walk to Wallingford on the second evening, and, coming home, we called in at a little river-side inn, for a rest, and other things.

我和乔治——我不知道哈里斯干嘛去了，他下午早早就上街去刮胡子，回来后用了40分钟整理他的鞋子，之后我们再也没看到他了。所以我和乔治，还有蒙特莫伦西，我们在第二个晚上，一块散步去沃灵福德，回来的路上经过一家河畔小旅馆，就进去休息，顺便喝点东西。

We went into the parlour and sat down. There was an old fellow there, smoking a long clay pipe, and we naturally began chatting.

我们走进营业室坐下。那里有个老家伙在抽陶制长烟斗，我们很自然地开始了聊天。

He told us that it had been a fine day to-day, and we told him that it had been a fine day yesterday, and then we all told each other that we thought it would be a fine day to-morrow; and George said the crops seemed to be coming up nicely.

他告诉我们今天天气不错，我们告诉他昨天天气也不错，接着大家都说看来明天天气会不错。乔治说庄稼长得也不错啊。

After that it came out, somehow or other, that we were strangers in the neighbourhood, and that we were going away the next morning.

然后不知道怎么就让他知道了我们是异乡人，明天就会离开这里。

Then a pause ensued in the conversation, during which our eyes wandered round the room. They finally rested upon a dusty old glass case, fixed very high up above the chimney-piece, and containing at rout. It rather fascinated me, that trout; it was such a monstrous fish. In fact, at first glance, I thought it was a cod.

接着是一个沉默的间隙，我们的眼光在房间里游移。它们最后定格在壁炉架顶端一个布满灰尘的旧玻璃箱上——里面是一条鲑鱼。这条鲑鱼让我很着迷，它是如此之大，实际上，第一眼看到它，我还以为看到了一条鳕鱼。

"Ah!" said the old gentleman, following the direction of my gaze, "fine fellow that, ain't he?" "Quite uncommon," I murmured; and George asked the old man how much he thought it weighed.

“啊！”这位老绅士顺着我们的目光看过去，“那是个不错的家伙，对吧？”“出类拔萃啊，”我嚅嗫着说；乔治问老绅士他觉得这鱼有多重。

"Eighteen pounds six ounces," said our friend, rising and taking down his coat. "Yes," he continued, "it wur sixteen year ago, come the third o'next month, that I landed him. I caught him just below the bridge with a minnow. They told me he wur in the river, and I said I'd have him, and so I did. You don't see many fish that size about here now, I'm thinking. Good-night, gentlemen, good-night.”

“18磅6盎司，”我们的朋友一边说，一边站起来拿起外套。“是的，”他继续说道，“16年前的下个月的3号，我钓到这个宝贝。就在那座桥下，用米诺鱼钓上来的。人们说河里有这么个家伙，我就想着我非得把它钓起来不可。喏，我成功了。就我所知，现在这么大的鱼附近可不多见了。祝您晚上愉快，先生们，再见。”

And out he went, and left us alone.

就这样他走了，留下了我们。

We could not take our eyes off the fish after that. It really was a remarkably fine fish. We were still looking at it, when the local carrier, who had just stopped at the inn, came to the door of the room with a pot of beer in his hand, and he also looked at the fish.

之后我们再也无法把视线从鲑鱼身上移开。它的确是相当棒的一条鱼。我们还在盯着它看的时候，当地的送货员提着一罐啤酒出现在门口，他也把目光投向鲑鱼。

"Good-sized trout, that," said George, turning round to him.

“那是条大鲑鱼呵，”乔治转身对他说。

"Ah! you may well say that, sir," replied the man; and then, after a pull at his beer, he added, "Maybe you wasn't here, sir, when that fish was caught?"

“啊！您说得没错，先生，”来人回答道。他喝了口啤酒，接着说：“这条鱼被钓上来的时候，二位不在这附近吧？”

"No," we told him. We were strangers in the neighbourhood.

“不在，”我们告诉他，我们是异乡人。

"Ah!" said the carrier, "then, of course, how should you? It was nearly five years ago that I caught that trout."

“啊！”送货员说，“那你们自然当时就不在场啦。那是5年前的事啦，我逮到这鲑鱼的时候。”

"Oh! was it you who caught it, then?" said I.

“噢！原来是你逮到的？”我问道。

"Yes, sir," replied the genial old fellow. "I caught him just below the lock-leastways, what was the lock then—one Friday afternoon; and the remarkable thing about it is that I caught him with a fly. I'd gone out pike fishing, bless you, never thinking of a trout, and when I saw that whopper on the end of my line, blest if it didn't quite take me aback. Well, you see, he weighed twenty-six pounds. Good-night, gentlemen, good-night.”

“是的，先生，”这位和蔼的老伙计回答说，“地点是水闸——也许得说当时的水闸——下面一点，时间是星期五下午，而最了不起的一点在于它是用飞蝇钓给钓上来的。我本来想钓点梭子鱼，老天爷，我根本没有动鲑鱼的主意啊。当我看到渔线底端这个大东西的时候，我惊得半天没有喘过气来，不骗你。看吧，它有26磅。祝您晚上愉快，先生们，再见。”

Five minutes afterwards, a third man came in, and described how HE had caught it early one morning, with bleak; and then he left, and a stolid, solemn-looking, middle-aged individual came in, and sat down over by the window.

5分钟后，第3个人走进来，向我们描述他如何在一个阴冷的清晨用空钩钓到了鲑鱼；接着在他离开后，一位看上去很严肃的中年人走进来，坐到窗户边。

None of us spoke for a while; but, at length, George turned to the newcomer, and said: "I beg your pardon, I hope you will forgive the liberty that we—perfect strangers in the neighbourhood—are taking, but my friend here and myself would be so much obliged if you would tell us how you caught that trout up there.”

屋里沉默了好一会儿后，乔治终于转身对新来的客人说：“不好意思打扰一下，我希望您原谅完全是异乡人的我们的莽撞，但是我的这位朋友和我都非常希望您能够告诉我们您是如何逮到那条鲑鱼的。

"Why, who told you I caught that trout!" was the surprised query.

“呵！谁告诉你们是我逮到那条鲑鱼的？”他很吃惊地问。

We said that nobody had told us so, but somehow or other we felt instinctively that it was he who had done it.

我们说是直觉告诉我们的。

"Well, it's a most remarkable thing—most remarkable," answered the stolid stranger, laughing; "because, as a matter of fact, you are quite right. I did catch it. But fancy your guessing it like that. Dear me, it's really a most remarkable thing."

“这太神奇了，太神奇了，”这位严肃的陌生人笑了，“因 为事实上，你们完全正确。正是我钓到的。你们居然给猜中了。天啊，真是太神奇了。”

And then he went on, and told us how it had taken him half an hour to land it, and how it had broken his rod. He said he had weighed it carefully when he reached home, and it had turned the scale at thirty-four pounds.

接着他继续说下去，告诉我们他如何花了半个小时才把那鱼给拽上岸，把他的渔竿都扯断了。他说到家后给它仔细称了重，秤上显示的数字是34磅。

He went in his turn, and when he was gone, the landlord came in to us. We told him the various histories we had heard about his trout, and he was immensely amused, and we all laughed very heartily.

于是轮到他告辞了，当他走后，旅馆老板走到我们跟前，我们告诉他刚听到的他那条鲑鱼的各种版本的上岸记，他被逗得乐坏了，我们都由衷地放声大笑。

"Fancy Jim Bates and Joe Muggles and Mr. Jones and old Billy Maunders all telling you that they had caught it. Ha! ha! ha! Well, that is good," said the honest old fellow, laughing heartily. "Yes, they are the sort to give it ME, to put up in MY parlour, if THEY had caught it, they are! Ha! ha! ha!"

“让我想象一下，吉姆.贝茨、乔.马格斯、琼斯先生和老比利.蒙德告诉你们它是他们钓到的。哈！哈！哈！这玩笑开得，”我们诚实的老伙计纵情大笑，“是呀，他们是傻子，他们钓到这样的鱼，会送给我，让我放在我的营业室，你说这可能吗？哈！哈！哈！”

And then he told us the real history of the fish. It seemed that he had caught it himself, years ago, when he was quite a lad; not by any art or skill, but by that unaccountable luck that appears to always wait upon a boy when he plays the wag from school, and goes out fishing on a sunny afternoon, with a bit of string tied on to the end of a tree.

接着他向我们讲述了这条鱼的真实历史。原来他在数年前亲自钓到它，那时他还是个小男孩呢。靠的不是技术，而是无与伦比的好运。这种好运似乎总是在等待——等待一个男孩在一个阳光充沛的午后，逃课去河边，用一截树枝拴上一小段线，就开始垂钓了。

He said that bringing home that trout had saved him from a whacking, and that even his school-master had said it was worth the rule-of-three and practice put together.

他说当时把这条鲑鱼带回家，大人饶了他一顿板子，连学校校长都说这条鱼比比例运算法则和练习题加起来还 要宝贵。

He was called out of the room at this point, and George and I again turned our gaze upon the fish.

这时有人把老板叫走了，我和乔治再次把凝视的目光献给这鱼。

It really was a most astonishing trout. The more we looked at it, the more we marvelled at it.

它实在是一条让人觉得不可思议的鲑鱼。我们越看越崇拜。

It excited George so much that he climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of it.

它激发乔治爬上椅背，想要看得更为真切。

And then the chair slipped, and George clutched wildly at the trout case to save himself, and down it came with a crash, George and the chair on top of it.

这时椅子突然滑倒，乔治把装鲑鱼的玻璃箱当成救命稻草一把捞住，于是它落下来摔碎了，乔治和椅子倒在它上面。

"You haven't injured the fish, have you?" I cried in alarm, rushing up. "I hope not," said George, rising cautiously and looking about. But he had. That trout lay shattered into a thousand fragments—I say a thousand, but they may have only been nine hundred. I did not count them.

“你没有伤到鱼吧？你没有吧？”我担心地高喊着一个箭步冲过去。“我希望没有，”乔治说，小心地站起来环视四周。是他没做到！那条鲑鱼躺在地上，碎成了1，000块——我说1000块是个修辞手法，也可能只有900块，因为我没一块一块地数过。

We thought it strange and unaccountable that a stuffed trout should break up into little pieces like that.

我们认为鲑鱼标本能够摔成那样的小碎片是很奇怪，很出乎意料的。

And so it would have been strange and unaccountable, if it had been a stuffed trout, but it was not.

如果它真是鲑鱼标本，确实就奇怪了、就出乎意料了，然而它不是。

That trout was plaster-of-Paris.

它是石膏做的。

1 此处为双关语，fishy还有“不可靠”的意思。2 米诺鱼是一种小淡水鱼。

CHAPTER XVIII.

第十八章

LOCKS.—GEORGE AND I ARE PHOTOGRAPHED.—WALLINGFORD.—DORCHESTER.—ABINGDON.—AFAMILY MAN.—A GOOD SPOT FOR DROWNING.—ADIFFICULT BIT OF WATER.—DEMORALIZING EFFECT OFRIVER AIR.

水闸——我和乔治被拍了照片——沃灵福德——多尔切斯特——阿宾顿——一个居家男人——溺死的好地点——艰苦的河段——河上的空气让人道德沦陷

WE left Streatley early the next morning, and pulled up to Culham, and slept under the canvas, in the backwater there.

我们第二天一早就离开斯特雷特利，在卡勒姆的回水区停泊了一宿，支起帆布顶篷睡觉。

The river is not extraordinarily interesting between Streatley and Wallingford. From Cleve you get a stretch of six and a half miles without a lock. I believe this is the longest uninterrupted stretch anywhere above Teddington, and the Oxford Club make use of it for their trial eights.

从斯特雷特利到沃灵福德，风景比较乏味。从克利夫开始有6.5英里没有水闸。我相信这是特丁顿之后，最长一段没有隔断的水域，牛津俱乐部利用它来进行赛艇的预选赛。

But however satisfactory this absence of locks may be to rowing-men, it is to be regretted by the mere pleasure-seeker.

尽管没有水闸让划船选手们欢欣鼓舞，却让泛舟仅仅为了找乐子的人们感到遗憾。

For myself, I am fond of locks. They pleasantly break the monotony of the pull. I like sitting in the boat and slowly rising out of the cool depths up into new reaches and fresh views; or sinking down, as it were, out of the world, and then waiting, while the gloomy gates creak, and then arrow strip of day-light between them widens till the fair smiling river lies full before you, and you push your little boat out from its brief prison on to the welcoming waters once again.

就我而言，我喜欢水闸，它们能打断划桨和拉纤的枯燥。我喜欢坐在船里，慢慢从凉爽的底部升起，进入新的流域，看到新的景色；或者沉下去，如同脱离了原来的世 界，等待灰暗的水闸门吱吱打开，中间露出越来越多的光 亮，直到可爱的河流微笑着躺在你眼前，你轻轻划着小船，离开临时监狱，再次投入河流的怀抱。

They are picturesque little spots, these locks. The stout old lock-keeper, or his cheerful-looking wife, or bright-eyed daughter, are pleasant folk to have a passing chat with. *You meet other boats there, and river gossip is exchanged. The Thames would not be the fairyland it is without its flower-decked locks.

泰晤士河上水闸全都风光如画。无论是结实的老水闸管理员，还是他满面春风的妻子和明眸善睐的女儿，都是非常可心的短暂聊天的对象。你在这里可以和别的船只相遇，大家交流一下河上的八卦。没有了花团锦簇的水闸，泰晤士河就成不了人间仙境。

(* Or rather WERE. The Conservancy of late seems to have constituted itself into a society for the employment of idiots. A good many of the new lock-keepers, especially in the more crowded portions of the river, are excitable, nervous old men, quite unfitted for their post.

(也许我应该加上“曾经”二字。最近泰晤士河管理委员会已经变成傻子委员会了。绝大部分新招的水闸管理员，特别是在比较繁忙的河段，是容易激动、神经紧张的老头，非常不适合他们的岗位。)

Talking of locks reminds me of an accident George and I very nearly had one summer's morning at Hampton Court.)1

说到水闸，不由得让我们想起某个夏天清晨，我和乔治在汉普顿宫遇到的意外。

It was a glorious day, and the lock was crowded; and, as is a common practice up the river, a speculative photographer was taking a picture of us all as we lay upon the rising waters.

那天天气很好，水闸里船舶络绎不绝；作为河上的惯例，当我们漂在高水位时，一位投机的照相师会给所有船舶来张合影。

I did not catch what was going on at first, and was, therefore, extremely surprised at noticing George hurriedly smooth out his trousers, ruffle up his hair, and stick his cap on in a rakish manner at the back of his head, and then, assuming an expression of mingled affability and sadness, sit down in a graceful attitude, and try to hide his feet.

刚开始我没有明白怎么回事，所以注意到乔治的变化时相当吃惊。只见他急急地抚平裤子，揉松头发，把帽子按照俏皮的风格插到后脑勺上，然后装出一种“和蔼中渗出忧伤”的表情，高雅地坐下，还努力藏起他的脚。

My first idea was that he had suddenly caught sight of some girl he knew, and I looked about to see who it was. Everybody in the lock seemed to have been suddenly struck wooden. They were all standing or sitting about in the most quaint and curious attitudes I have ever seen off a Japanese fan. All the girls were smiling. Oh, they did look so sweet! And all the fellows were frowning, and looking stern and noble.

我第一个念头是他突然看到了某个认识的女孩，所以转身去看到底是谁来了，却看到水闸里每个人都好像突然成了木头人。他们站的站、坐的坐，但是姿态十分古怪，我只在日本扇子上看到过类似的姿态。所有女孩都在微笑——噢，她们笑得那么甜美！所有男人都在皱眉，看上去庄重而高贵。

And then, at last, the truth f lashed across me, and I wondered if I should be in time. Ours was the first boat, and it would be unkind of me to spoil the man's picture, I thought.

这时，我脑中灵光一现：原来是照相啊！我还来得及么？我们的船排在最前面，如果我破坏画面的话，会很对不起照相师的。

So I faced round quickly, and took up a position in the prow, where I leant with careless grace upon the hitcher, in an attitude suggestive of agility and strength. I arranged my hair with a curl over the forehead, and threw an air of tender wistfulness into my expression, mingled with a touch of cynicism, which I am told suits me.

所以，我飞快地转过身，在船头选了个位置，闲散而优雅地倚在船钩上，含蓄地展现我的灵敏和力量。我将刘海整理成一个波浪贴在额头上，并且在表情里揉入一抹淡淡的忧郁，又夹杂着几许玩世不恭（大家都说“玩世不恭”这个表情很适合我）。

As we stood, waiting for the eventful moment, I heard someone behind call out: "Hi! look at your nose."

于是我们站着等待重要时刻的来临，突然听见有人大呼：“喂！看看鼻子。”

I could not turn round to see what was the matter, and whose nose it was that was to be looked at. I stole a side-glance at George's nose! It was all right—at all events, there was nothing wrong with it that could be altered. I squinted down at my own, and that seemed all that could be expected also.

我没法转身去看到底发生了什么，到底是要看谁的鼻子。我只是用眼角余光瞄了瞄乔治的鼻子！没有问题——或说至少没有任何非先天而可以改动的问题。我斜眼瞄了瞄自己的鼻子，也没发现什么反常之处。

"Look at your nose, you stupid ass!" came the same voice again, louder. And then another voice cried: "Push your nose out, can't you, you—you two with the dog!”

“看看鼻子，叫你们呢，傻驴子！”那个声音提高了分贝。接着另一个声音叫起来：“把鼻子拔出来，你们听见了 没，说你们呢，带狗的那两位！”

Neither George nor I dared to turn round. The man's hand was on the cap, and the picture might be taken any moment. Was it us they were calling to? What was the matter with our noses? Why were they to be pushed out!

我和乔治都没敢回头。照相师的手指已经放在按钮上，随时可能按下快门。他们叫的是我们吗？我们的鼻子到底 怎么了？为什么必须拔出来？

But now the whole lock started yelling, and a stentorian voice from the back shouted: "Look at your boat, sir; you in the red and black caps. It's your two corpses that will get taken in that photo, if you ain't quick." We looked then, and saw that the nose of our boat had got fixed under the woodwork of the lock, while the in-coming water was rising all around it, and tilting it up. In another moment we should be over. Quick as thought, we each seized an oar, and a vigorous blow against the side of the lock with the butt-ends released the boat, and sent us sprawling on our backs.

但现在整个水闸的人都吼起来了，背后一个洪亮的声音 叫道：“看看你们的船，先生们！带红色帽子和黑色帽子的那两位！再不快点，照下来的只能是你们的尸体了！” 我们这时候终于放弃了造型，仔细一看，原来是我们的 船鼻子！它卡在水闸的门框里，涌进来的水使船周围的水位不断上升，船几乎要被掀翻了，也许再过两秒就会遭灭顶之灾。来不及思考，我们各自抓起一支船桨，用桨屁股抵在水闸上，猛力往前一推，船被释放出来，但我们也仰天倒在船里。

We did not come out well in that photograph, George and I. Of course, as was to be expected, our luck ordained it, that the man should set his wretched machine in motion at the precise moment that we were both lying on our backs with a wild expression of "Where am I? and what is it?" on our faces, and our four feet waving madly in the air.

我们没能帅帅地出现在照片里，两人同样失败。当然，就像料想的那样，命中注定照相师正好在我们仰天倒下的那一刻按下了可恶的快门，当时我们的表情十分夸张，仿佛在说“我在哪里？发生了什么？”，而四只脚在空中跳着踢踏舞。

Our feet were undoubtedly the leading article in that photograph. Indeed, very little else was to be seen. They filled up the foreground entirely. Behind them, you caught glimpses of the other boats, and bits of the surrounding scenery; but everything and everybody else in the lock looked so utterly insignificant and paltry compared with our feet, that all the other people felt quite ashamed of themselves, and refused to subscribe to the picture.

我们的脚绝对是照片中最显眼的物体。实际上，你基本就看不到其余的景物。四只脚把照片的前景都填满了。在它们后面，能够依稀瞥见其余船只和零星的周边景色。但是水闸里的所有景物和其他所有人都显得彻底无关紧要，以至于大家纷纷拒绝购买那张相片。

The owner of one steam launch, who had bespoke six copies, rescinded the order on seeing the negative. He said he would take them if anybody could show him his launch, but nobody could. It was somewhere behind George's right foot.

某汽艇的主人订购了6张照片，看到底片后就取消了订单。他说如果有人能够指出他的汽艇在哪里，就马上掏钱。但是没人能够办到——它被乔治的右脚挡了个严严实实。

There was a good deal of unpleasantness over the business. The photographer thought we ought to take a dozen copies each, seeing that the photo was about nine-tenths us, but we declined. We said we had no objection to being photo'd full-length, but we preferred being taken the right way up.

整件事搞得相当不快。照相师认为我们应当每人购买一打相片，理由是我们占据了相片画面的十分之九。但是我们拒绝了这个提议，我们说我们倒是不介意拍全身照，但是希望能够是头朝上脚朝下的。

Wallingford, six miles above Streatley, is a very ancient town, and has been an active centre for the making of English history. It was a rude, mud-built town in the time of the Britons, who squatted there, until the Roman legions evicted them; and replaced their clay-baked walls by mighty fortifications, the trace of which Time has not yet succeeded in sweeping away, so well those old-world masons knew how to build.

沃灵福德在斯特雷特利上游6英里处，是一个非常古老的城镇，在英格兰发展史上曾是个活跃的中心。在大不列颠人时代，它是一个野蛮的、泥土修建的城镇，直到罗马军队驱赶走了大不列颠人，建起了强大的防御工事，代替以前黏土焙烧的泥墙，如今这些工事还没有被时光之神的无敌扫帚扫去，让我们有机会惊叹古代泥瓦匠的技艺是何等精湛。

But Time, though he halted at Roman walls, soon crumbled Romans to dust; and on the ground, in later years, fought savage Saxons and huge Danes, until the Normans came.

尽管时光之神饶恕了罗马人修建的城墙，却很快地碾碎了罗马人，在后来的年月里，在同样的地点，时光之神又打败了野蛮的撒克逊人和身材高大的丹麦人，直到诺曼人到来。

It was a walled and fortified town up to the time of the Parliamentary War, when it suffered a long and bitter siege from Fairfax. It fell at last, and then the walls were razed.

沃灵福德一直拥有护城墙和防御工事，直到议会战争时，费尔法克斯对它发动了长期而艰苦的包围战，城最终没能守住，城墙被夷为平地。

From Wallingford up to Dorchester the neighbourhood of the river grows more hilly, varied, and picturesque. Dorchester stands half a mile from the river. It can be reached by paddling up the Thame, if you have a small boat; but the best way is to leave the river at Day's Lock, and take a walk across the fields. Dorchester is a delightfully peaceful old place, nestling in stillness and silence and drowsiness.

从沃灵福德到多尔切斯特，河畔小山渐增，地形多姿，风光如画。多尔切斯特离河岸有半英里，如果你乘小船的话，可以沿着支流划到城区，但更好的办法是将船泊在黛 斯码头，步行过去。多尔切斯特是个让人舒心的安宁古镇，沉默不语、睡意浓重地躺在大地怀中。

Dorchester, like Wallingford, was a city in ancient British times; it was then called CaerDoren, "the city on the water". In more recent times the Romans formed a great camp here, the fortifications surrounding which now seem like low, even hills. In Saxon days it was the capital of Wessex. It is very old, and it was very strong and great once. Now it sits aside from the stirring world, and nods and dreams.

多尔切斯特与沃灵福德一样，在古代是重镇，曾被称为“水上之城”。后来罗马人在这里建立了一个重要基地，周围的防御工事现在看上去如同低矮平整的山丘。在撒克逊人时代，它曾是韦塞克斯的都城。这是个很古老的城镇也曾有过强大和辉煌的日子。如今它坐在熙熙攘攘的世界边上，打盹做梦。

Round Clifton Hampden, itself a wonderfully pretty village, old fashioned, peaceful, and dainty with flowers, the river scenery is rich and beautiful. If you stay the night on land at Clifton, you cannot do better than put up at the "Barley Mow". It is, without exception, I should say, the quaintest, most old-world inn up the river. It stands on the right of the bridge, quite away from the village. Its low-pitched gables and thatched roof and latticed windows give it quite a story-book appearance, while inside it is even still more once-upon-a-timeyfied.

克利夫顿汉普登是个非常可爱的村庄——传统、安宁、精致、鲜花簇拥。附近河岸的景色多姿多彩、优美迷人。如果上岸住宿，大麦草堆旅店是最好不过的选择。我可说，它绝对是泰晤士河上最精致、最古雅的旅店。它位于桥的右侧，距村镇有相当一段距离。坡度缓和的山形墙和茅草屋顶以及格子窗为它镀上了小说般的色彩，而旅店内部的装潢甚至更胜一筹，直接让人联想起“在很久很久以前”这句开场白。

It would not be a good place for the heroine of a modern novel to stay at. The heroine of a modern novel is always "divinely tall", and she is ever "drawing herself up to her full height". At the "Barley Mow" she would bump her head against the ceiling each time she did this.

这里不适合现代小说的女主人公，因为她总是“如同女神般高挑”，而且喜欢“挺直腰身”。在大麦草堆旅店，如果她想这么做的话，必然会在头上磕出个大包。

It would also be a bad house for a drunken man to put up at. There are too many surprises in the way of unexpected steps down into this room and up into that; and as for getting upstairs to his bedroom, or ever finding his bed when he got up, either operation would be an utter impossibility to him.

它也不适合喝醉了的汉子。这的楼梯奇异莫测，下几级到了这个房间，上几级则到了那个房间；无论是爬上楼梯去他的房间，还是寻找到他的床，对醉汉来说都是无力迎接的挑战。

We were up early the next morning, as we wanted to be in Oxford by the afternoon. It is surprising how early one can get up, when camping out. One does not yearn for "just another five minutes" nearly so much, lying wrapped up in a rug on the boards of a boat, with a Gladstone bag for a pillow, as one does in a featherbed. We had finished breakfast, and were through Clifton Lock by half-past eight.

我们第二天起得很早，因为计划在下午前赶到牛津。人在外露营的时候，总能起得出奇地早。没有人渴望“再睡5分钟”，因为裹着条毯子躺在船板上，拿着个格莱斯顿包当枕头，实在比不上躺在家里的羽绒褥垫上。总之，我们在八点半的时候，已经过了克利夫顿水闸。

From Clifton to Culham the river banks are f lat, monotonous, and uninteresting, but, after you get through Culhalm Lock—the coldest and deepest lock on the river—the landscape improves.

从克利夫顿到卡勒姆，河岸平坦、单调、无趣。但是一过卡勒姆水闸（河上最冷最深的水闸），景色就慢慢好起来。

At Abingdon, the river passes by the streets. Abingdon is a typical country town of the smaller order—quiet, eminently respectable, clean, and desperately dull. It prides itself on being old, but whether it can compare in this respect with Wallingford and Dorchester seems doubtful. A famous abbey stood here once, and within what is left of its sanctified walls they brew bitter ale nowadays.

在阿宾顿，河岸两边都是街道。阿宾顿是个典型的规模较小的乡下城镇——既安静又干净，极其正派但超级无聊。它自诩古老，但是在这方面是否能与沃灵福德和多尔切斯特媲美，看来值得怀疑。这里曾有一个著名的修道院，奈何如今神圣的殿堂只剩下些断壁颓垣，墙内则是酿制苦味啤酒的酒窑。

In St. Nicholas Church, at Abingdon, there is a monument to John Blackwall and his wife Jane, who both, after leading a happy married life, died on the very same day, August 21, 1625; and in St. Helen's Church, it is recorded that W. Lee, who died in 1637, "had in his lifetime issue from his loins two hundred lacking but three". If you work this out you will find that Mr. W. Lee's family numbered one hundred and ninety-seven. Mr. W. Lee—five times Mayor of Abingdon—was, no doubt, a benefactor to his generation, but I hope there are not many of his kind about in this overcrowded nineteenth century.

在阿宾顿的圣尼古拉斯教堂，有一座约翰.布莱克沃和妻子珍妮的纪念碑。他们婚姻幸福美满，并于1625年８月21日同一天去世，在圣海伦教堂，有记载称1637年去世的W.李“子嗣众多，育有近两百子女，仅差3人”。如果你计算一下，就能发现W.李先生的家庭有197人。他曾任5届阿宾顿市市长，无疑为他的时代作出过很多贡献，但我希望，在已经过于拥挤的19世纪，能够少一点像他这样的人。

From Abingdon to Nuneham Courteney is a lovely stretch. Nuneham Park is well worth a visit. It can be viewed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The house contains a fine collection of pictures and curiosities, and the grounds are very beautiful.

从阿宾顿到纳尼汉姆康特尼是很舒服的一段。纳尼汉姆公园很值得一游，从星期二到星期四对外开放，收藏着名画和古董的珍品，风景也很美丽。

The pool under Sandford lasher, just behind the lock, is a very good place to drown yourself in. The undercurrent is terribly strong, and if you once get down into it you are all right. An obelisk marks the spot where two men have already been drowned, while bathing there; and the steps of the obelisk are generally used as a diving-board by young men now who wish to see if the place really IS dangerous.

刚过水闸后，在桑福德堰下有一个水塘，那是投河寻死的最佳地点。暗流相当强劲，一旦掉下去，必死无疑。一座方尖碑竖立在两位男士因在此游泳而溺亡的地点；现在人们通常把方尖碑的梯级用作跳水的跳板，因为他们想知道这个地方是否真那么危险。

Iffley Lock and Mill, a mile before you reach Oxford, is a favourite subject with the river-loving brethren of the brush. The real article, however, is rather disappointing, after the pictures. Few things, I have noticed, come quite up to the pictures of them, in this world.

到了伊夫莱水闸，还有一英里就到牛津了。这一段是河景画家的最爱。然而，看了画作，再看实物，总让人大失所望。我发现，在这个世界上，实物总是远远逊于它们在画中的模样。

We passed through Iffley Lock at about half-past twelve, and then, having tidied up the boat and made all ready for landing, we set to work on our last mile.

我们在12点半左右通过了伊夫莱水闸，然后给船做了清洁，做好一切靠岸准备，接着我们开始最后一英里的跋涉。

Between Iffley and Oxford is the most difficult bit of the river I know. You want to be born on that bit of water, to understand it. I have been over it a fairish number of times, but I have never been able to get the hang of it. The man who could row a straight course from Oxford to Iffley ought to be able to live comfortably, under one roof, with his wife, his mother-in-law, his elder sister, and the old servant who was in the family when he was a baby.

从伊夫莱到牛津的一英里是据我所知泰晤士河上最艰难的一英里。你必须身临其境，才能理解我的话。我已经通过这段好几次了，但是仍然没有掌握要领。如果一个人可以把船笔直地从牛津划到伊夫莱，他也一定能够游刃有余地与他的妻子、岳母、大姐以及当他还是婴儿时就在他家效劳的老仆人住在同一屋檐下。

First the current drives you on to the right bank, and then on to the left, then it takes you out into the middle, turns you round three times, and carries you up stream again, and always ends by trying to smash you up against a college barge.

水流首先会把你冲向右岸，然后冲向左岸，接着把你冲向河心，让你转上3圈，继而把你再推回上游，最后总是把你狠狠地摔向一条学院驳船。

Of course, as a consequence of this, we got in the way of a good many other boats, during the mile, and they in ours, and, of course, as a consequence of that, a good deal of bad language occurred.

当然，这样的结果就是，我们总会挡住许多条船的道路，而它们也会挡住我们。这些冲突自然是滋生污言秽语的温床。

I don't know why it should be, but everybody is always so exceptionally irritable on the river. Little mishaps, that you would hardly notice on dry land, drive you nearly frantic with rage, when they occur on the water. When Harris or George makes an ass of himself on dry land, I smile indulgently; when they behave in a chuckle-head way on the river, I use the most blood-curdling language to them. When another boat gets in my way, I feel I want to take an oar and kill all the people in it.

我不知道为何如此，但在河上，人人都如同吞了火药。在陆上也许根本不会意识到的小灾祸，在河上会让你气得跳脚。当哈里斯或乔治在陆上犯傻的时候，我会送给他们一个宠溺的微笑，但如果他们在河上呆头呆脑的话，我会动用最恶毒的语言咒骂他们。当其他船挡住我们道路的时候，我会有冲动想要操起船桨，把上面乘客全杀掉。

The mildest tempered people, when on land, become violent and blood-thirsty when in a boat. I did a little boating once with a young lady. She was naturally of the sweetest and gentlest disposition imaginable, but on the river it was quite awful to hear her.

在陆上最温柔的人，在河上也会变得暴戾嗜血。我曾 经和一位年轻女士同舟出游。她天性温和顺从，可以说达 到你所能想象的极限,但是在河上你可不想听到她的语言。

"Oh, drat the man!" she would exclaim, when some unfortunate sculler would get in her way; "why don't he look where he's going?" And, "Oh, bother the silly old thing!" she would say indignantly, when the sail would not go up properly. And she would catch hold of it, and shake it quite brutally.

“噢，我诅咒他！”如果某条不幸的小船挡住了我们的船，她会咆哮，“他怎么就不长眼睛呢？”当船帆拒绝乖乖地升起来时，她会愤怒地说：“拜托，这个老蠢货！”她还会伸手扯它，野蛮地抖动它。

Yet, as I have said, when on shore she was kind-hearted and amiable enough.

然而，正如我先前说过那样，当在岸上时她是相当善良和蔼的。

The air of the river has a demoralising effect upon one's temper, and this it is, I suppose, which causes even barge men to be sometimes rude to one another, and to use language which, no doubt, in their calmer moments they regret.

河上的空气对人的道德有种腐化的影响。据我推测，也许正因如此，连豪华游艇上的绅士都会变得粗野无礼，互相使用一些“河上的语言”——不用说，他们平静下来之后肯定会追悔莫及。1此段为原书作者对*的话的注解。

CHAPTER XIX.

第十九章

OXFORD.—MONTMORENCY'S IDEA OF HEAVEN.—THEHIRED UP-RIVER BOAT, ITS BEAUTIES AND ADVANTAGES.—THE "PRIDE OF THE THAMES".—THE WEATHERCHANGES.—THE RIVER UNDER DIFFERENT ASPECTS.—NOT A CHEERFUL EVENING.—YEARNINGS FOR THEUNATTAINABLE.—THE CHEERY CHAT GOES ROUND.—GEORGE PERFORMS UPON THE BANJO.—A MOURNFULMELODY.—ANOTHER WET DAY.—FLIGHT.—A LITTLESUPPER AND A TOAST.

牛津——蒙特莫伦西的天堂——租来的往上游去的小船，它的美丽和优点——“泰晤士河的骄傲”——变天了——不同天气下的河上景观——郁闷的夜晚——越是得不到，越是想得到——愉快的话题——乔治练习班卓琴——哀乐般的旋律——又是一个下雨天——逃兵——晚餐和祝酒词

WE spent two very pleasant days at Oxford. There are plenty of dogs in the town of Oxford. Montmorency had eleven fights on the first day, and fourteen on the second, and evidently thought he had got to heaven.

我们在牛津度过了惬意的两天，那里有相当多的狗，第1天蒙特莫伦西进行了11场恶斗，第2天14场，它明显感到自己已经到了天堂。

Among folk too constitutionally weak, or too constitutionally lazy, whichever it may be, to relish up-stream work, it is a common practice to get a boat at Oxford, and row down. For the energetic, however, the up-stream journey is certainly to be preferred. It does not seem good to be always going with the current. There is more satisfaction in squaring one's back, and fighting against it, and winning one's way forward in spite of it—at least, so I feel, when Harris and George are sculling and I am steering.

对体质孱弱或天性懒惰的人来说，要享受河上泛舟，通常的办法是从牛津雇船顺流漂下。而对于精力充沛的人来说，逆流而上的旅途更受青睐。总是随波逐流，太没意思。绷紧肌肉，大展身手，勇斗激流——有阻力的前进才有乐趣。至少当哈里斯和乔治负责划桨、我负责掌舵的时候，我是如此认为的。

To those who do contemplate making Oxford their starting-place, I would say, take your own boat—unless, of course, you can take someone else's without any possible danger of being found out. The boats that, as a rule, are let for hire on the Thames above Marlow, are very good boats. They are fairly water-tight; and so long as they are handled with care, they rarely come to pieces, or sink. There are places in them to sit down on, and they are complete with all the necessary arrangements—or nearly all—to enable you to row them and steer them.

对那些把牛津作为启航点的人们，我想说，划起你们自己的船吧——如果能够使用别人的船并且不被发现，当然也是可以的。按照惯例，在马洛以上的泰晤士河边租到的船都是很好的船。它们比较防水，只要小心保养，基本不会碎掉或沉没。船上有可以坐的地方，而且备齐（或者说几乎备齐）了所有必要装置，可供你划桨并且调整航向。

But they are not ornamental. The boat you hire up the river above Marlow is not the sort of boat in which you can fl ash about and give yourself airs. The hired up-river boat very soon puts a stop to any nonsense of that sort on the part of its occupants. That is its chief—one may say, its only recommendation.

但它们外表可不敢恭维。你在马洛以上租到的船，可不是用来兜风炫耀的。这些船可以很快地打消临时主人所有类似的荒唐念头。这就是它最主要的（或说唯一的）优点。

The man in the hired up-river boat is modest and retiring. He likes to keep on the shady side, underneath the trees, and to do most of his travelling early in the morning or late at night, when there are not many people about on the river to look at him.

租了这种船的人谦虚而低调。他习惯待在有阴影的一侧，藏在树阴下；通常在清晨或是半夜赶路，因为那时河上比较冷清，没有观众炯炯的目光。

When the man in the hired up-river boat sees anyone he knows, he gets out on to the bank, and hides behind a tree.

当租了这种船的人碰到熟人时，他会立刻上岸，藏到一棵大树背后。

I was one of a party who hired an up-river boat one summer, for a few days' trip. We had none of us ever seen the hired up-river boat before; and we did not know what it was when we did see it.

某年夏天，我们一群人租了这样的船，打算到河上去玩几天。当时我们全都没有见过“泰晤士河上游的出租船”；亲眼目睹之后也不知其为何物。

We had written for a boat-a double sculling skiff; and when we went down with our bags to the yard, and gave our names, the man said: "Oh, yes; you're the party that wrote for a double sculling skiff. It's all right. Jim, fetch round THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES."

我们预订了一条双桨小船，当我们背着旅行包走到码头并报上姓名后，负责人说：“呀，知道啦，你们订的是双桨小船。没问题。吉姆，去把‘泰晤士河的骄傲’带过来。”

The boy went, and re-appeared five minutes afterwards, struggling with an antediluvian chunk of wood, that looked as though it had been recently dug out of somewhere, and dug out carelessly, so as to have been unnecessarily damaged in the process.

5分钟后，叫吉姆的男孩再次出现，他一磕一绊地拖着一块远古洪荒之前就有的木头。这块木头看上去像刚出土的文物，并且挖掘工人很不负责，让它在出土过程中遭受了不必要的损毁。

My own idea, on first catching sight of the object, was that it was a Roman relic of some sort,—relic of WHAT I do not know, possibly of a coffin.

当我第一眼看到它的时候，我认为这是罗马时代的遗迹，不过不知道具体是什么遗迹，估计是个棺材吧。

The neighbourhood of the upper Thames is rich in Roman relics, and my surmise seemed to me a very probable one; but our serious young man, who is a bit of a geologist, pooh-poohed my Roman relic theory, and said it was clear to the meanest intellect (in which category he seemed to be grieved that he could not conscientiously include mine)that the thing the boy had found was the fossil of a whale; and he pointed out to us various evidences proving that it must have belonged to the preglacial period.

泰晤士河上游有很多罗马时代的遗迹，我认为自己猜得八九不离十，但我们一行人中有位大概是地质学者的年轻人，他听了我的“罗马古迹说”，居然哧哧地嘲笑我，说连三岁小孩也能看出（似乎他对于凭良知不能将我归入这一行列深感痛心）男孩拖着的是块鲸鱼化石。他举出多处证据，以解释何以判断这条鲸鱼曾生活在前冰河世纪时代。

To settle the dispute, we appealed to the boy. We told him not to be afraid, but to speak the plain truth: Was it the fossil of a pre-Adamite whale, or was it an early Roman coffin?

为了分出胜负，我们让男孩来揭开谜底。我们叫他不要害怕，尽管说出真相：这到底是一条比亚当还早出世的鲸鱼呢，还是一口罗马时代早期的棺材？

The boy said it was THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES. We thought this a very humorous answer on the part of the boy at first, and somebody gave him two pence as a reward for his ready wit; but when he persisted in keeping up the joke, as we thought, too long, we got vexed with him.

男孩回答说这是“泰晤士河的骄傲”。我们一开始以为他在开玩笑，有人赞他机敏还给了他两便士的奖赏。但是他并不改口，我们觉得他把小聪明耍得过了头，开始生气起来。

"Come, come, my lad!" said our captain sharply, "don't let us have any nonsense. You take your mother's washing-tub home again, and bring us a boat.”

“行了，小子！”我们的队长厉声说，“别胡说八道了。收起你妈妈的洗衣盆，把我们要的船带来。”

The boat-builder himself came up then, and assured us, on his word, as a practical man, that the thing really was a boat—was, in fact, THE boat, the "double sculling skiff" selected to take us on our trip down the river.

这时船主亲自过来，以他务实的品格向我们保证，这千真万确是一条船，并且还就是为我们挑选的、往下游漂流时将要使用的“双桨小船”。

We grumbled a good deal. We thought he might, at least, have had it whitewashed or tarred—had SOMETHING done to it to distinguish it from a bit of a wreck; but he could not see any fault in it.

我们怨声载道。我们觉得他本可以把船粉饰一下，或是涂上沥青也成——至少可以不让人往古代残骸方面联想啊。但在他的眼中，这条船十全十美。

He even seemed offended at our remarks. He said he had picked us out the best boat in all his stock, and he thought we might have been more grateful.

他甚至不满于我们的评价。他说为我们选的是他的王牌，而我们简直就是不知好歹。

He said it, THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES, had been in use, just as it now stood (or rather as it now hung together), for the last forty years, to his knowledge, and nobody had complained of it before, and he did not see why we should be the first to begin.

他说，这条“泰晤士河的骄傲”已经使用了至少40年，如今仍屹立不倒（或者应该说至今“风吹不碎”）。就他所知，从没有人对它表示过不满，他想不出我们凭什么开这个先例。

We argued no more.

我们对此无话可说。

We fastened the so-called boat together with some pieces of string, got a bit of wall-paper and pasted over the shabbier places, said our prayers, and stepped on board.

我们用几段绳索把所谓的“船”捆好，搞到一些墙纸，贴在最破烂的地方，向神作了一番祷告，然后登上甲板启程了。

They charged us thirty-five shillings for the loan of the remnant for six days; and we could have bought the thing out-and-out for four-and sixpence at any sale of drift-wood round the coast.

租用这块废品6天，我们需要支付35先令。要是去河边买浮木，4先令6便士就能彻底买下这么块东西。

The weather changed on the third day,—Oh! I am talking about our present trip now,—and we started from Oxford upon our homeward journey in the midst of a steady drizzle.

第三天风雨突变——噢！我是在讲现在这趟旅行了——小雨丝毫没有要停下的迹象，我们离开牛津，正式划出返程的第一桨。

The river—with the sunlight f lashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o'er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mil l-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs' white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled in the rushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a far sail, making soft the air with glory—is a golden fairy stream.

阳光下的泰晤士河很美：阳光在细小的波浪上舞蹈，波光粼粼，给两岸灰绿的山毛榉镀上一层金光；在阴暗凉爽的林间小道投下斑驳的影子；追赶浅滩上的倒影；将水轮车洒下的水珠变成一颗颗闪耀的钻石；向百合花们飞吻；随意调戏拦河坝的白色水流；用银色渲染爬满青苔的墙壁和石桥；照亮每一个小镇；让每一条街道、每一块草坪散发芬芳；绊倒在灯心草草丛里；微笑着窥视每一个入口；照得远处的片片船帆鲜艳美丽；让河面和风轻拂、让景色显得辉煌大气——晴天的泰晤士是一条金色的天堂之河。

But the river—chill and weary, with the ceaseless rain-drops falling on its brown and sluggish waters, with a sound as of a woman, weeping low in some dark chamber; while the woods, all dark and silent, shrouded in their mists of vapour, stand like ghosts upon the margin; silent ghosts with eyes reproachful, like the ghosts of evil actions, like the ghosts of friends neglected—is a spirit-haunted water through the land of vain regrets.

但是，让我们看看雨中的它：寒冷疲倦，雨滴不住地打在它浑黄倦怠的水面上，发出如同妇人在暗室中低泣般的声音；森林黑暗寂静，披盖着水蒸气的迷雾，如同鬼魂站立在岸边；这些鬼魂沉默不语、眼神哀怨，可能被谋杀而死，也可能在生前饱受朋友忽视——雨天的泰晤士河穿行在徒劳悔恨的茫茫原野间，是一条怨灵之河。

Sunlight is the life-blood of Nature. Mother Earth looks at us with such dull, soulless eyes, when the sunlight has died away from out of her. It makes us sad to be with her then; she does not seem to know us or to care for us. She is as a widow who has lost the husband she loved, and her children touch her hand, and look up into her eyes, but gain no smile from her.

阳光是大自然的生命血液。当阳光流尽时，大地母亲注视我们的目光变得呆滞，仿佛灵魂也失去了。这种时候和她呆在一起是让人悲伤的。她似乎不认识我们、不关爱我们。她如同失去了挚爱夫君的寡妇，她的孩子们抓住她的手，望进她的眼睛，却得不到回应的笑容。

We rowed on all that day through the rain, and very melancholy work it was. We pretended, at first, that we enjoyed it. We said it was a change, and that we liked to see the river under all its different aspects. We said we could not expect to have it all sunshine, nor should we wish it. We told each other that Nature was beautiful, even in her tears.

在雨中划船一整天，实在是让人抑郁的苦差事。最初我们装作很享受的样子。我们说，这样可以换个口味，恰好得以欣赏雨中泰晤士河的别样风情。最初就没指望着天气能一路晴好，而且我们根本不希望一路晴好。我们互相安慰说大自然是美丽的，哭泣也是梨花带雨，美不胜收。

Indeed, Harris and I were quite enthusiastic about the business, fort he first few hours. And we sang a song about a gipsy's life, and how delightful a gipsy's existence was!—free to storm and sunshine, and to every wind that blew!—and how he enjoyed the rain, and what a lot of good it did him; and how he laughed at people who didn't like it.

实际上，最初的几个小时中，我和哈里斯对这种说法充满激情。我们放声高歌，赞颂吉普赛人的生活，因为吉普赛人的生活是多么快乐啊！——自由自在地享受暴雨和阳光，张开双臂迎接每一阵风！——他喜欢这雨，雨水让他经脉通透、神清气爽；他鄙视那些怕雨的人。

George took the fun more soberly, and stuck to the umbrella.

乔治与我们不同，他更为冷静地对待这一乐趣，一直都呆在伞下。

We hoisted the cover before we had lunch, and kept it up all the afternoon, just leaving a little space in the bow, from which one of us could paddle and keep a look-out. In this way we made nine miles, and pulled up for the night a little below Day's Lock.

午饭前我们撑起了顶篷，整个下午都没有放下来，仅在船首留下一点空间以供划桨和掌舵时瞭望方向。在这样的状态中，我们又往前划了9英里，在戴斯水闸下面一点停泊过夜。

I cannot honestly say that we had a merry evening. The rain poured down with quiet persistency. Everything in the boat was damp and clammy. Supper was not a success. Cold veal pie, when you don't feel hungry, is apt to cloy. I felt I wanted whitebait and a cutlet; Harris babbled of soles and white-sauce, and passed the remains of his pie to Montmorency, who declined it, and, apparently insulted by the offer, went and sat over at the other end of the boat by himself.

凭心而论，那晚可不美好。船外的雨静静地、执著地下着。船里的一切都是冷冷的、湿湿的、粘粘的。晚饭称不上成功。如果你不饿，冷的小牛肉馅饼很快就吃得发腻。我想要吃银鱼和肉排；哈里斯口齿不清地念叨着奶油沙司鳎目鱼，把自己的馅饼递给了蒙特莫伦西；后者不仅拒绝了他，而且明显感到受了冒犯，走到船的另一头去独自蹲着去了

George requested that we would not talk about these things, at all events until he had finished his cold boiled beef without mustard.

乔治要求我们别说这些东西，至少先让他把那份没有芥末的冷牛肉咽下去。

We played penny nap after supper. We played for about an hour and a half, by the end of which time George had won four pence—George always is lucky at cards—and Harris and I had lost exactly two pence each.

晚饭后我们玩了会儿“拿破仑便士”扑克牌游戏，大概玩了一个半小时吧，最后乔治赢了4便士（他玩牌总是有好运），我和哈里斯每人输了两便士。

We thought we would give up gambling then. As Harris said, it breeds an unhealthy excitement when carried too far. George offered to goon and give us our revenge; but Harris and I decided not to battle any further against Fate.

我俩想要就此罢赌，哈里斯说，赌博得太投入，过分激动有害健康。乔治建议继续游戏，他愿意给我们复仇的机会，但我和哈里斯决定不要继续和命运作战了。

After that, we mixed ourselves some toddy, and sat round and talked. George told us about a man he had known, who had come up the river two years ago and who had slept out in a damp boat on just such another night as that was, and it had given him rheumatic fever, and nothing was able to save him, and he had died in great agony ten days afterwards. George said he was quite a young man, and was engaged to be married. He said it was one of the saddest things he had ever known.

打完牌后，我们调了些热酒，坐成一圈开始聊天。乔治给我们讲了他的一个熟人的故事：两年前他来泰晤士河上泛舟，有一天晚上，雨下得和今晚一样，他执意在潮湿的船里睡觉，结果患上风湿热，如何救治都无济于事，10天后在巨大的痛苦中死去了。乔治说那是个相当年轻的小伙子，而且刚订婚不久。他说这是他所知道的最悲惨的事情之一。

And that put Harris in mind of a friend of his, who had been in the Volunteers, and who had slept out under canvas one wet night down at Aldershot, "on just such another night as this", said Harris; and he had woke up in the morning a cripple for life. Harris said he would introduce us both to the man when we got back to town; it would make our hearts bleed to see him.

这件事让哈里斯想起了他参加了志愿者协会的一个朋友。一个下雨的夜晚，他们的船停在奥尔德肖特附近，撑起顶篷，就那么睡了一晚上，按哈里斯的话是“那天晚上雨下得和今晚一样”，第二天早上醒来他成了跛子，后来再也没有好起来。哈里斯说旅行回去后，他要带我们去看望这位朋友，我们看到他一定会心痛不已。

This naturally led to some pleasant chat about sciatica, fevers, chills, lung diseases, and bronchitis; and Harris said how very awkward it would be if one of us were taken seriously ill in the night, seeing how far away we were from a doctor.

这番谈话自然地引出了坐骨神经痛、发烧、风寒、肺病和支气管炎等愉快的话题。哈里斯说，现在我们远离医生，如果半夜突发重病的话，该有多糟糕啊。

There seemed to be a desire for something frolicksome to follow upon this conversation, and in a weak moment I suggested that George should get out his banjo, and see if he could not give us a comic song.

这样的话题持续下去，自然会让人渴望一种嬉闹的气氛，于是我一时大脑缺氧，居然建议乔治搬出他的班卓琴，看能不能为我们奏支滑稽歌曲来听听。

I will say for George that he did not want any pressing. There was no nonsense about having left his music at home, or anything of that sort. He at once fished out his instrument, and commenced to play "Two Lovely Black Eyes."

我得说乔治是不需要怂恿的。类似“我把乐谱忘在家里了”这种废话，他半句都没说，而是立刻找出他的班卓琴，开始弹起了《两只可爱的黑眼睛》。

I had always regarded "Two Lovely Black Eyes" as rather a commonplace tune until that evening. The rich vein of sadness that George extracted from it quite surprised me.

直到那天晚上为止，我曾一直认为这是首很普通的歌曲。没想到乔治竟能从中发掘出源源不绝的悲伤。

The desire that grew upon Harris and myself, as the mournful strains progressed, was to fall upon each other's necks and weep; but by great effort we kept back the rising tears, and listened to the wild yearnful melody in silence.

当如泣如诉的乐曲渐近高潮，我和哈里斯差点相拥而泣，但我们挣扎着压抑住快要决堤的泪水，默默地欣赏这首充满狂热渴望的歌。

When the chorus came we even made a desperate effort to be merry. We re-filled our glasses and joined in; Harris, in a voice trembling with emotion, leading, and George and I following a few words behind:

当合唱部分到来的时候，我们绝望地尝试着振奋精神、快乐起来。我们将酒杯续满，放声唱起来。哈里斯的声音因满含感情而颤抖着，先我们一步领唱，我和乔治比他慢几个词：

"Two lovely black eyes; Oh! what a surprise! Only for telling a man he was wrong, Two—”

“两只可爱的黑眼睛，噢，让人惊奇！只是为了告诉一个男人——他错了！两只——”

There we broke down. The unutterable pathos of George's accompaniment to that "two" we were, in our then state of depression, unable to bear. Harris sobbed like a little child, and the dog howled till I thought his heart or his jaw must surely break.

歌声戛然而止。进行到“两只”的地方，乔治的伴奏中有种语言所无法描述的悲伤，我们本就处在抑郁的精神状态下，所以根本无法承受。哈里斯像小孩一样抽泣起来，蒙特莫伦西一直号叫得无比凄厉，直到我不禁想准是它的心或是它的下巴碎了。

George wanted to go on with another verse. He thought that when he had got a little more into the tune, and could throw more "abandon", as it were, into the rendering, it might not seem so sad. The feeling of the majority, however, was opposed to the experiment.

乔治希望另起一段重新开始。他认为在他把音调稍微找准些后，可以加入一点“随性演绎”，也许听起来就不那么悲伤了。然而我们多数人的意见是反对进行新的尝试。

There being nothing else to do, we went to bed—that is, we undressed ourselves, and tossed about at the bottom of the boat for some three or four hours. After which, we managed to get some fitful slumber until five a.m., when we all got up and had breakfast.

没有别的事情可做，我们就上床睡觉了。其实也就是说，我们脱掉衣服，在船底辗转反侧了三四个小时。到凌晨5点，大家已经起床吃早饭了。

The second day was exactly like the first. The rain continued to pour down, and we sat, wrapped up in our mackintoshes, underneath the canvas, and drifted slowly down.

第二天，一切照旧。仍旧下着瓢泼大雨，我们穿好雨衣坐在顶篷下，任船慢慢往下游漂去。

One of us—I forget which one now, but I rather think it was myself—made a few feeble attempts during the course of the morning to work up the old gipsy foolishness about being children of Nature and enjoying the wet; but it did not go down well at all. That—"I care not for the rain, not I!" was so painfully evident, as expressing the sentiments of each of us, that to sing it seemed unnecessary.

我们中的一个——不记得具体是哪个，但我想很可能是我自己——在早上作了一些小小的挣扎，试图再掀吉普赛热潮，扮作大自然的孩子，在雨中作乐，但这招不灵了。那句“我讨厌雨，讨厌！”中的痛苦如此明显，估计每个人都已经在心中呐喊了1,000遍，以至于大家都觉得没有必要唱出来。

On one point we were all agreed, and that was that, come what might, we would go through with this job to the bitter end. We had come out for a fortnight's enjoyment on the river, and a fortnight's enjoyment on the river we meant to have. If it killed us! well, that would be a sad thing for our friends and relations, but it could not be helped. We felt that to give in to the weather in a climate such as ours would be a most disastrous precedent.

有一个观点得到大家一致赞同，那就是：就算天上下刀子，我们也要坚持到最后。当初说好在河上欢度两个星期，那就要熬足两个星期，死也不放弃！虽然如果我们死了，朋友和家人会伤心难过，但是我们也没办法。我们认为，在气候见鬼的英格兰，泛舟时一旦向天气变化屈服，就等于创造了后患无穷的先例。

"It's only two days more," said Harris, "and we are young and strong. We may get over it all right, after all."

“只剩两天了，”哈里斯说，“我们年轻，身体还挺得住。无论如何，我们一定能够熬过去。”

At about four o'clock we began to discuss our arrangements for the evening. We were a little past Goring then, and we decided to paddle on to Pangbourne, and put up there for the night.

4点左右，我们开始讨论晚上的安排。当时船刚过了戈灵，于是大家计划到潘伯恩过夜。

"Another jolly evening!" murmured George.

乔治喃喃地说：“又是一个快活的晚上！”

We sat and mused on the prospect. We should be in at Pangbourne by five. We should finish dinner at, say, half-past six. After that we could walk about the village in the pouring rain until bed-time; or we could sit in a dimly-lit bar-parlour and read the almanac.

我们坐下来展望这个前景。5点的时候应该能到潘伯恩。六点半左右能结束晚餐。打发就寝前的这段时间，有两种办法：要么冒着瓢泼大雨绕村庄散步；要么找间酒吧，坐在营业室里幽暗的灯光下读年鉴。

"Why, the Alhambra would be almost more lively," said Harris, venturing his head outside the cover for a moment and taking a survey of the sky.

“我说，恐怕阿尔汉布拉大剧院要更好玩吧。”哈里斯一边说，一边把头探出去看了看天色。

"With a little supper at the—* to follow," I added, half unconsciously. (A capital little out-of-the-way restaurant, in the neighbourhood of—,where you can get one of the best-cooked and cheapest little French dinners or suppers that I know of, with an excellent bottle of Beaune, for three-and-six; and which I am not going to be idiot enough to advertise.) 1

“然后去——*小吃一顿，”我不知不觉中加上这么一句。（这是一家略微有点偏僻的餐馆，在——附近，在那里你能吃到口味最好、价格最便宜的法式午餐或晚餐，配上一瓶上等的红葡萄酒，只需要3先令6便士。我用*把餐馆名遮盖起来是因为我可没傻到在这里作广告弄得它人尽皆知呢。）

"Yes, it's almost a pity we've made up our minds to stick to this boat," answered Harris; and then there was silence for a while.

“是的，我们死活不放弃这船的决心几乎可以说是让人惋惜的。”在哈里斯的这句话后，大家陷入了一段时间的沉默。

"If we HADN'T made up our minds to contract our certain deaths in this bally old coffin," observed George, casting a glance of intense malevolence over the boat, "it might be worth while to mention that there's a train leaves Pangbourne, I know, soon after five, which would just land us in town in comfortable time to get a chop, and then go onto the place you mentioned afterwards."

“如果我们当初没有鬼迷心窍签下卖身契、发誓死守这口破棺材的话，”乔治向船投去恶狠狠的一瞥，“那下面这条信息就还有点用处：我知道五点多有趟火车从潘伯恩出发，可以把我们送回伦敦，能赶上吃排骨，接着再去你说的那好地方。”

Nobody spoke. We looked at one another, and each one seemed to see his own mean and guilty thoughts reflected in the faces of the others. In silence, we dragged out and overhauled the Gladstone. We looked up the river and down the river; not a soul was in sight!

没有人接话。我们面面相觑，看到另外两个人的脸如同镜子般反射出自己脑中卑鄙罪恶的念头。大家还是没有说一个字，只是拖出大旅行袋，彻底整理一番。我们望望上游，再望望下游——很好，一个人影都没有！

Twenty minutes later, three figures, followed by a shamed-looking dog, might have been seen creeping stealthily from the boat-house at the "Swan" towards the railway station, dressed in the following neither neat nor gaudy costume:

20分钟后，3个人（后面跟着条做贼心虚的狗）鬼鬼祟祟地爬出“天鹅”船行，向铁路方向摸去。他们的衣着既不素雅也不俗丽，不信你看：

Black leather shoes, dirty; suit of boating flannels, very dirty; brown felt hat, much battered; mackintosh, very wet; umbrella.

黑色皮鞋——脏；法兰绒船服——很脏；棕色毡帽——破破烂烂；雨衣——很湿；雨伞。

We had deceived the boatman at Pangbourne. We had not had the face to tell him that we were running away from the rain. We had left the boat, and all it contained, in his charge, with instructions that it was to be ready for us at nine the next morning. If, we said—IF anything unforeseen should happen, preventing our return, we would write to him.

我们决定欺骗潘伯恩的船夫，因为没脸告诉他我们是被雨淋走的逃兵。我们把船和船上的所有物品交给他保管，叮嘱他第二天早上9点前把船备好。我们还说，如果（注意是“如果”）发生什么意外，我们没法及时回来，一定会给他写信的。

We reached Paddington at seven, and drove direct to the restaurant I have before described, where we partook of a light meal, left Montmorency, together with suggestions for a supper to be ready at half-past ten, and then continued our way to Leicester Square.

我们在7点到达帕丁顿，直接开车到了我所讲的那家餐厅，吃了一顿便饭，将蒙特莫伦西托付给他们照看，并且预订了十点半的晚餐，便向莱斯特广场进发了。

We attracted a good deal of attention at the Alhambra. On our presenting ourselves at the pay box we were gruffly directed to go round to Castle Street, and were informed that we were half-an-hour behind our time.

在阿尔汉布拉大剧院，我们成为视线的焦点。我们来到售票亭，售票员粗暴地要求我们转头去城堡街，并被指责已经迟到半个小时了。

We convinced the man, with some difficulty, that we were NOT "the world-renowned contortionists from the Himalaya Mountains”, and he took our money and let us pass.

我们好不容易才让那人明白过来，我们不是“从喜马拉雅山来的世界著名柔体杂技演员”，他这才收钱放我们进场。

Inside we were a still greater success. Our fine bronzed countenances and picturesque clothes were followed round the place with admiring gaze. We were the cynosure of every eye.

进去之后，我们迎来了更大的成功。凭借如同镀了青铜的脸色和特立独行的服饰，我们赢得了全场的仰慕，无论走到哪里，观众的视线就聚焦到哪里。对每一颗眼球来说，我们就是夜空中指引方向的北极星。

It was a proud moment for us all.

这是我们人生中的光荣时刻。

We adjourned soon after the first ballet, and wended our way back to the restaurant, where supper was already awaiting us.

在第一支芭蕾舞结束后我们立即退场，赶回了已为我们备好晚餐的酒店。

I must confess to enjoying that supper. For about ten days we seemed to have been living, more or less, on nothing but cold meat, cake, and bread and jam. It had been a simple, a nutritious diet; but there had been nothing exciting about it, and the odour of Burgundy, and the smell of French sauces, and the sight of clean napkins and long loaves, knocked as a very welcome visitor at the door of our inner man.

我必须承认很享受那顿晚餐。大概十天以来，我们基本以冷肉、蛋糕和果酱面包维持生命。这样的食谱诚然简单并且营养，但免不了缺乏惊喜。闻到勃艮第葡萄酒的香味、看到摆放着干净餐巾和长条面包的餐桌——这一切就如同一位非常受欢迎的客人，敲响了我们心灵的房门。

We pegged and quaffed away in silence for a while, until the time came when, instead of sitting bolt upright, and grasping the knife and fork firmly, we leant back in our chairs and worked slowly and carelessly—when we stretched out our legs beneath the table, let our napkins fall, unheeded, to the floor, and found time to more critically examine the smoky ceiling than we had hitherto been able to do—when we rested our glasses at arm's length upon the table, and felt good, and thoughtful, and forgiving.

在开始一段时间里，我们默默地奋力咀嚼和痛饮，直到这个时刻来临：我们不再笔直端坐或紧握刀叉，而是放松身体、靠到椅背上，心不在焉地慢慢摆弄起刀叉——我们腿在餐桌下伸直，让餐巾不经意地掉落在地，并且终于抽出时间用更具批判性的眼光打量起烟雾缭绕的天花板来——这时候我们把酒杯放在一手臂远的地方，感到神清气爽、思维活跃、心怀慈悲。

Then Harris, who was sitting next to the window, drew aside the curtain and looked out upon the street.

这时，坐在窗户边的哈里斯拉开窗帘，望向外面的街道。

It glistened darkly in the wet, the dim lamps flickered with each gust, the rain splashed steadily into the puddles and trickled down the water-spouts into the running gutters. A few soaked wayfarers hurried past, crouching beneath their dripping umbrellas, the women holding up their skirts.

雨中的街道在黑暗中闪闪发光，每吹来一阵风，昏暗的街灯都瑟瑟发抖。雨势没有稍减，雨点重重打在水洼里，漫溢出的水流冲出一些决口，顺着小溪般的细小航道汇入“洪流滚滚”的排水沟。几个浑身湿透的行人缩在滴着雨线的伞下匆匆赶路，其中女人们提着长裙，走得更艰难。

"Well," said Harris, reaching his hand out for his glass, "we have had a pleasant trip, and my hearty thanks for it to old Father Thames—but I think we did well to chuck it when we did. Here's to Three Men well out of a Boat!"

“来，”哈里斯伸手去端酒杯，“我们这次泛舟旅行相当愉快，我要衷心地感谢我们的父亲河——泰晤士老爹。但是我也认为，我们选择恰当的时机提前结束旅行，堪称明智之举。这杯是祝贺我们三人安然无恙地回到陆地！”

And Montmorency, standing on his hind legs, before the window, peering out into the night, gave a short bark of decided concurrence with the toast.

蒙特莫伦西正用后腿立着，前腿搭在窗棂上凝望外面的夜色，这时它也发出一声短吠，表示由衷赞同这番祝酒词。

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Table of Contents

Chapter I.  第一章

Chapter II.  第二章

Chapter III.  第三章

Chapter IV.  第四章

Chapter v.  第五章

Chapter VI.  第六章

Chapter VII.  第七章

Chapter VIII.  第八章

Chapter IX.  第九章

Chapter X.  第十章

Chapter XI.  第十一章

Chapter XII.  第十二章

Chapter XIII.  第十三章

Chapter XIV.  第十四章

Chapter XV.  第十五章

Chapter XVI.  第十六章

Chapter XVII.  第十七章

Chapter XVIII.  第十八章

Chapter XIX.  第十九章

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Table of Contents

Chapter I.  第一章

Chapter II.  第二章

Chapter III.  第三章

Chapter IV.  第四章

Chapter v.  第五章

Chapter VI.  第六章

Chapter VII.  第七章

Chapter VIII.  第八章

Chapter IX.  第九章

Chapter X.  第十章

Chapter XI.  第十一章

Chapter XII.  第十二章

Chapter XIII.  第十三章

Chapter XIV.  第十四章

Chapter XV.  第十五章

Chapter XVI.  第十六章

Chapter XVII.  第十七章

Chapter XVIII.  第十八章

Chapter XIX.  第十九章