My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt IV)《我的山林》（節選四）

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

By Jean Craighead George

We didn’t get another deer until fall, so with the scraps I made big square pockets for food gathering.One hung in front of me, and the other down my back. They were joined by straps. This device worked beautifully.

[2] Sometime in July I finished my pants. They fit well, and were the bestlooking pants I had ever seen. I was terribly proud of them.

[3] With pockets and good tough pants I was willing to pack home many more new foods to try. Daisies,the bark of a poplar tree that I saw a squirrel eating, and puffballs. They are mushrooms, the only ones I felt were safe to eat, and even at that, I kept waiting to die the first night I ate them. I didn’t, so I enjoyed them from that night on. They are wonderful.Mushrooms are dangerous and I would not suggest that one eat them from the forest. The mushroom expert at the Botanical Gardens told me that. He said even he didn’t eat wild ones.

[4] The inner bark of the poplar tree tasted like wheat kernels, and so I dried as much as I could and powdered it into flour. It was tedious work, and in August when the acorns were ready, I found that they made better flour and were much easier to handle.

[5] I would bake the acorns in the fire, and grind them between stones.This was tedious work, too, but now that I had a home and smoked venison and did not have to hunt food every minute, I could do things like make flour. I would simply add spring water to the flour and bake this on a piece of tin. When done, I had the best pancakes ever. They were flat and hard, like I imagined Indian bread to be. I liked them, and would carry the leftovers in my pockets for lunch.

[6] One fine August day I took Frightful to the meadow. I had been training her to the lure. That is, I now tied her meat on a piece of wood,covered with hide and feathers. I would throw it in the air and she would swoop out of the sky and catch it. She was absolutely free during these maneuvers,and would fly high into the air and hover over me like a leaf. I made sure she was very hungry before I turned her loose. I wanted her back.

[7] After a few tries she never missed the lure. Such marksmanship thrilled me. Bird and lure would drop to the earth, I would run over, grab her jesses,and we would sit on the big boulder in the meadow while she ate. Those were nice evenings.

我們在秋天之前都沒有再抓到一頭鹿，所以我用剩下的小片鹿皮做了兩個方形大口袋來收集食物。一個口袋掛在胸前，另一個搭在背后。兩個口袋用皮條接起來。這個器具好用極了。

[2]七月的某一天我縫完了褲子。很合身，是我見過的最好看的褲子。看著做好的褲子，我自豪極了。

[3]有了大口袋和結實好看的褲子，我就愿意把更多新的食物裝回家來嘗試。其中有雛菊、楊樹皮（我見到松鼠吃來著），還有馬勃菌。馬勃菌就是蘑菇，是我唯一敢吃的蘑菇，即便如此，吃完后的第一天晚上我也一直擔心會死掉。我沒死，所以自此以后我一直享用它。馬勃菌棒極了。蘑菇很危險，我不建議吃森林里的蘑菇。植物園里的蘑菇專家告訴了我這些。他說即便是他也不吃野蘑菇。

[4]楊樹皮的里子嘗起來像小麥顆粒，于是我盡量弄了很多曬干，然后磨成粉末。這活兒很乏味。八月，橡樹籽成熟了，我發現橡樹籽做的面粉更好，也更容易處理。

[5]我把橡樹籽放在火上烘干，然后用石頭碾碎。這活兒也很枯燥，但既然我有了家，也有熏制的鹿肉，就不需要一直搜尋食物，可以做些耗時費力的事情，就像研磨面粉。我只需要往面粉里加入泉水，再用罐頭盒烘干。做好之后，就是我最好的燒餅。燒餅很平很硬，正像我所想象的印第安面包。我喜歡燒餅，會把吃剩的裝在兜里當午飯吃。

[6]八月晴朗的一天，我帶“驚悚”來到草坪上。我一直在訓練她如何應對誘餌。方法是，把給她的肉綁到一塊木頭上，用獸皮和羽毛蓋住，然后扔到空中，“驚悚”會從空中俯沖下來叼住。做這些動作時“驚悚”完全自由，可以飛到高空，像一片樹葉一樣在我頭頂盤旋。我確保放開她之前她都餓著肚子。因為我想讓她回來。

[7]幾次嘗試以后，她就百發百中了。這樣的準確率讓我興奮。鳥兒和誘餌會落到地上，我跑過去，抓住她的腳帶，我們一起坐在草坪的大石頭上，她吃著肉。那些傍晚美好極了。

【背景知識】野外生存，小山姆自己狩獵，自己采摘果實研磨成粉，自己烹飪各種食物，而且訓練一只獵鷹來為自己捕食。山姆的荒野求生歷險看似逍遙自在，十分愜意。這些樸實的敘述引人入勝，特別會讓小男孩們心神向往。

【第一段】一些詞語的翻譯需要具體化，比如scraps（小片鹿皮）、they（兩個口袋）、straps（皮條），這樣句子之間更連貫易懂。而beautifully無法直譯字面意思，與work一起譯為“好用極了”。

【第二段】Sometime被具體化為“某一天”。最后一句添加了“看著做好的褲子”，因為最后一句偏短，如果翻譯為“我因為它們自豪極了”顯得突兀不自然。

【第三段】第二句是省略句，列舉了三種上句提到的新食物，而第二種楊樹皮是看到松鼠吃才敢吃的。后面的句子里有幾個代詞，比如they、ones、them，需要根據情況靈活處理，不宜一律按照字面翻譯。

【第四段】第一句中有兩處省譯。其一是as much as I could譯為“盡量”，意思已經到位，不必多用文字。其二是powdered it into flour，如直譯則為“研成粉末為面粉”，語義重復，因此簡省為“磨成粉末”。

【第五段】短語grind them between stones如果譯為“在石頭之間把它們弄碎”很別扭，所以簡化為“用石頭碾碎”。every minute的譯文引申為“一直”。而短句I could do things like make flour的譯文補出隱含意義“耗時費力的事情”。

【第六段】第二句十分簡潔，譯文添加了“應對”。原文的第三、四句分開，譯文則合成一句，這樣更連貫，也更簡潔。

【第七段】第一、二句中的幾個詞語不宜直譯，比如missed the lure（如果直譯就是：錯過誘餌），以及marksmanship（槍法；射擊術），需要根據上下文適當變通。while she ate的譯文添加了賓語“她吃著肉”。

【小結】這段選文的翻譯當中既使用了增譯，又使用了省譯。增譯是為了譯文連貫易懂，省譯則為了譯文簡潔生動。可見實際的翻譯過程中該增則增，該省則省，一切憑語境而定，總體目標是要得到貼合原文而又自然順暢的譯文。 □