《查理的渡鴉》（節選二）

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

Charlie believed Singing Bird and her story.The Teton Sioux had lived on the prairie for a good ten thousand years and knew more about the animals and plants than all the field guide books in the library.If they said a raven could cure, then it could.Besides, there was something special about ravens, something intelligent and mysterious.He hugged the box close to his chest and jogged down the butte to Cache Creek,crossed it, and, looking back over his shoulder for the ravens, trotted to the country road.

2“Ravens are good,” he heard Singing Bird say.But he also remembered that Granddad’s new neighbor, Mr.Spinder, had the exact opposite opinion.He and his wife lived about a mile down the road from Granddad in the log house by Cache Creek.Only sagebrush and bison lay between the two homes in the valley walled by the granite mountains of the Tetons on the west and Shadow Mountain on the east.

3Mr.Spinder and his wife were a

查理相信歌唱鳥和她的故事。提頓蘇人在大草原上生活了足足有一萬年之久，他們所掌握的這里動植物的知識比圖書館里所有野外指南書籍還要多。如果他們說渡鴉有治病的能力，那就會有。另外，渡鴉本身也有點特殊，有點聰明和神秘。查理把鞋盒緊緊抱在胸口，緩步跑下孤丘，到達卡什溪，涉水過溪，回過頭來看看別的渡鴉，然后跑到鄉村小道上。

2“渡鴉很好。”他曾經聽歌唱鳥說過。但他也記得，爺爺的新鄰居斯賓得先生有恰好相反的看法。斯賓得先生和他的妻子就住在卡什溪旁邊的原木房子里，沿著路離爺爺的家大約一英里遠。兩家在一條山谷里，之間只有山艾和野牛，山谷東西兩邊都是陡峭的花崗巖山脈，西邊是提頓山，東邊是影子山。new kind of resident on Sagebrush Flats.They never used first names,theirs or anyone else’s.They wore fancy chaps with fringed shirts and expensive Stetson hats when they rode their magnificent Appaloosa horses.They drove a big SUV.Their obvious wealth put a distance between them and the other residents and barred familiarity.

3斯賓得先生和他的妻子是山艾公寓的新型居民。他們從來不直呼其名，包括他們自己的名字或者任何別人的名字。他們騎著漂亮的阿巴魯薩馬出門時，都穿著時髦的皮綁腿、帶流蘇的襯衣和昂貴的斯特森闊邊高頂氈帽。他們開一輛很大的運動型多功能車。他們家顯而易見的財富使得他們和其他居民之間產生了距離，而且難以親近。

4Charlie had learned a little bit about the couple when he met Mrs.Spinder in the post office.She told him she and her husband liked their new home in “this quiet valley” and that they were from a large city.Charlie understood why city dwellers might find Sagebrush Flats quiet, although he and his granddad found it excitingly noisy.Their glorious valley resounded with the caterwauls of mountain lions, the piercing cries of eagles, the bugling of elk, and the trilling songs of birds.

4在郵局里碰到斯賓得夫人之前，查理已經對這夫婦倆有所了解。斯賓得夫人告訴查理，她和她的丈夫喜歡“這座寂靜山谷”里的新家，還有他們來自一個大城市。查理能夠理解城里人為什么會發現山艾公寓很寂靜，雖然他和爺爺覺得這里其實是令人激動的喧鬧。他們富饒的山谷里，到處回響著美洲獅的此呼彼應、鷹隼尖厲的鳴啼聲、麋鹿的長嘯嘶鳴以及百鳥歡歌的啁啾聲。

5見面以后，查理就沒有再去想斯賓得一家人。直到有一天早上，查理發現斯賓得先生在灌溉渠大門那里等他。當地的土地所有者們幾乎每天都會在那里見面，然后放水澆地。看到查理穿過灰綠色的山艾走過來，斯賓得先生就下了馬。黃緣蛺蝶在查理身邊轟然飛起。一只叉角羚在查理靠近時飛奔離開。因為雪線上升，叉角羚會跟隨雪線從低地來到提頓山脈山腳下高處的山谷里覓食。

5After that he gave the Spinders little more thought until he found Mr.Spinder waiting for him one morning at the gates of the irrigation ditch where the local landowners met almost daily to release water to their land.Mr.Spinder got off his horse when he saw Charlie arriving through the green-gray sagebrush.Mourning cloak butterflies burst up around him.A pronghorn antelope that had followed the retreating snow up from the lowlands into the high valley at the foot of the Tetons skittered away as Charlie came near.

6“Hi,” Charlie said to Mr.Spinder.“I’m Charlie Carlisle.My granddad is your nearest neighbor.”

“Howdy,” said Mr.Spinder.

“We’re about a mile down the road from you.” Just then something strange happened.A raven circled overhead and dropped onto a dead limb of a nearby cottonwood tree.The man saw it and walked closer to Charlie.He was nervous, almost frightened.

6“嗨，”查理對斯賓得先生說，“我是查理·卡萊爾。我的爺爺是你最近的鄰居。”

“你好?！彼官e得先生說。

“我們都住在路邊，相隔大約一英里遠?！本驮谶@時，奇怪的事情發生了。有一只渡鴉在頭頂盤旋，并摔落在了附近一棵棉白楊樹的枯枝上。斯賓得看到了這一幕，就走近查理。斯賓得很緊張，幾乎是害怕。

【背景知識】查理掏到了小渡鴉，滿懷希望地回家。他希望小渡鴉能讓爺爺的病好轉。但是小說人物中總會有正反兩派。斯賓得夫婦就是反對渡鴉、想除掉渡鴉的人。查理也開始和這一對剛剛搬來的夫婦交往，面對渡鴉采取了截然不同的態度。

【第一段】歌唱鳥是查理的朋友，印第安人。正是從她那里，查理知道了渡鴉有讓病人好轉的作用。因此查理決定養一只小渡鴉。第一段是查理的心理活動，介紹了他養小渡鴉的原因，還有對渡鴉的態度。第二句較長，good意義有點特殊，是“足足有”的意思。

【第二段】最后一句翻譯起來有點棘手。譯文保留了原文的基本語序。其中的分詞walled不宜直譯，意思是兩側的山脈陡峭，像高墻一樣聳立著。譯文只體現了陡峭的概念，沒有出現“墻”的意象。

【第三段】這一段的翻譯難度頗大。尤其是一些名詞平時少見，必須深入查證才能理解正確。比如fancy chaps、Stetson hats，還有SUV的翻譯方法。按理來說，中文里已經可以直說SUV，但考慮到中文的一致性，譯文使用了“運動型多功能車”的譯名。

【第四段】第四段也很有難度，主要體現在最后一句中。形容詞glorious（輝煌的；光榮的）不宜按照平常的理解翻譯，譯文選取了“富饒的”，以對應后文各種動物的聲音。原文里四類動物的聲音頗有文學色彩，譯文也相應使用了文學性的中文詞匯。

【第五段】第一句比較長，譯文把原文句子切分為三句。譯文的第三句是原文的狀語從句，在譯文里獨立成句。其中的landowners（地主）在譯文里使用了相對中性的“土地所有者”，以避開貶義。最后一句原文的譯文切分為兩句，把原文里的定語從句翻譯為獨立的一句話，并且調整了語序。

【第六段】原文倒數第二句中的the man寓意豐富，有調侃斯賓得這個有錢成年人的意思。但中文里很難傳譯這種微妙的含義，僅僅替換為人名“斯賓得”。最后一句中的代詞也明晰化為“斯賓得”，避免讀者誤認為是查理害怕了。

【小結】這一選段中有一組少見的名詞短語，需要譯者深入細致查證，才能保證理解準確。另外，作者在故事敘述中插入了文學性很強的句子，也需要譯者做相應的處理，以保證譯文也有類似的色彩和效果。 □

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