My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt V)

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt V)

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

One week the weather gave a little to the sun, and snow melted and limbs dumped their loads and popped up into the air. I thought I’d try to make an igloo. I was cutting big blocks of snow and putting them in a circle.Frightful was dozing with her face in the sun, and the tree sparrows were raiding the hemlock cones. I worked and hummed, and did not notice the grey sheet of cloud that was sneaking up the mountain from the northwest. It covered the sun suddenly. I realized the air was damp enough to wring. I could stay as warm as a bug if I didn’t get wet, so I looked at the drab mess in the sky, whistled for Frightful, and started back to the tree. We holed up just as Barometer was yanking his way home,and it was none too soon. It drizzled, it misted, it sprinkled, and fi nally it froze.The deer-hide door grew stiff with ice as darkness came, and it rattled like a piece of tin when the wind hit it.

[2]I made a fire, the tree room warmed, and I puttered around with a concoction I call possum sop. A meal of frozen possum stewed with lichens,snakeweed, and lousewort. It is a different sort of dish. Of course what I really like about it are the names of all the plants with the name possum. I fooled for an hour or so brewing this dish, adding this and that, when I heard the mouse in his tunnel. I realized he was making an awful fuss, and decided it was because he was trying to gnaw through ice to get in. I decided to help him. Frightful was on her post, and I wanted to see the mouse’s face when he found he was in a den with a falcon.I pushed the deerskin door. It wouldn’t budge. I kicked it. It gave a little,cracking like china, and I realized that I was going to be iced in if I didn’t keep that door open.

[3]I finally got it open. There must have been an inch and a half of ice on it. The mouse, needless to say, was gone. I ate my supper and reminded myself to awaken and open the door off and on during the night. I put more wood on the fi re, as it was damp in spite of the flames, and went to bed in my underwear and suit.

[4]I awoke twice and kicked open the door. Then I fell into a sound sleep that lasted hours beyond my usual rising time. I overslept, I discovered, because I was in a block of ice, and none of the morning sounds of the forest penetrated my glass house to awaken me. The fi rst thing I did was try to open the door; I chipped and kicked and managed to get my head out to see what had happened.I was sealed in. Now, I have seen ice storms, and I know they can be shiny and glassy and treacherous, but this was something else. There were sheets of ice binding the aspens to earth and cementing the tops of the hemlocks in arches. It was inches thick! Frightful winged out of the door and flew to a limb, where she tried to perch. She slipped, dropped to the ground, and skidded on her wings and undercoverts to a low spot where she fi nally stopped,lost her balance, and spread her wings.She finally flapped into the air and hovered there until she could locate a decent perch. She found one close against the bole of the hemlock. It was ice free.

有一周時(shí)間，陽(yáng)光多一些，雪化了，樹(shù)枝卸下了重負(fù)，向空中伸展。我想可以嘗試做個(gè)雪屋。我切割出大雪塊，然后把它們圍成一圈。“驚悚”在陽(yáng)光下打著瞌睡，樹(shù)麻雀都在啄食鐵杉樹(shù)的果實(shí)。我一邊干活兒一邊哼著小曲，沒(méi)有注意到大片烏云正悄悄地翻越西北方的大山直撲過(guò)來(lái)。突然之間，烏云就遮蓋了太陽(yáng)。我也意識(shí)到空氣潮濕得能擰出水來(lái)。只要不淋濕，我就可以像小蟲(chóng)子一樣暖暖和和的。我看了看空中密布的彤云，打了個(gè)口哨招呼“驚悚”，然后回樹(shù)屋去。我們剛剛窩起來(lái)，就看到“溫度計(jì)”五十雀飛掠回家，時(shí)間趕得正巧。先是小雨，然后大霧彌漫，接下來(lái)是雪霰，最后大地一片冰封。天黑的時(shí)候，鹿皮門(mén)因?yàn)榻Y(jié)冰而變得僵硬，大風(fēng)刮過(guò)，鹿皮門(mén)就像鐵皮一樣叮當(dāng)作響。

[2]我生起火，樹(shù)屋里暖和了，我忙忙叨叨想做一頓負(fù)鼠羹。這是我起的名字，就是冰凍的負(fù)鼠肉，加上地衣、蛇草和馬先蒿燉制而成。這是與眾不同的美食。當(dāng)然了，我真正喜歡的是這些植物和負(fù)鼠的名字放在一起。我胡亂搗鼓了一個(gè)小時(shí)燉湯，加點(diǎn)兒這，加點(diǎn)兒那，這時(shí)突然聽(tīng)到了地道中有老鼠。我意識(shí)到他在拼命地挖洞，因?yàn)橄胍Т┍鶋K進(jìn)屋來(lái)。我決定幫幫他。“驚悚”就待在她的架子上，我很想看看當(dāng)老鼠發(fā)現(xiàn)來(lái)到一個(gè)有獵鷹的巢穴會(huì)是什么表情。我推了推鹿皮門(mén)。門(mén)一動(dòng)不動(dòng)。我用腳踢。門(mén)晃了晃，像瓷器一般發(fā)出噼噼啪啪的響聲，我才知道如果我不讓門(mén)開(kāi)著的話，很可能會(huì)被封凍在樹(shù)屋里。

[3]我終于打開(kāi)了門(mén)。門(mén)上的冰一定有一英寸半厚。而那只老鼠，正如所料，已經(jīng)消失不見(jiàn)。我吃了晚飯，提醒自己夜里一定要起身把門(mén)開(kāi)關(guān)幾次。我往火爐上又放了些木柴，不過(guò)火爐也驅(qū)散不了屋里的潮氣。我于是穿著內(nèi)衣和外套上床睡覺(jué)了。

[4]夜里我醒了兩次把門(mén)踢開(kāi)。然后呼呼大睡幾個(gè)小時(shí)，到了平時(shí)該起床的時(shí)候也沒(méi)醒。我睡過(guò)頭了，后來(lái)發(fā)現(xiàn)這是因?yàn)槲宜谝粋€(gè)大冰塊里，森林里清晨的各種聲音都不能穿透冰層將我吵醒。起來(lái)的第一件事是試著開(kāi)門(mén)；我鏟冰、踢門(mén)，努力把頭伸出去看看外面什么樣。我被冰雪密封起來(lái)了。那時(shí)為止，我已經(jīng)見(jiàn)過(guò)凍雨，知道凍雨光閃閃亮晶晶的，兇險(xiǎn)無(wú)比，但這次有所不同。巨大的冰塊把大齒楊壓彎到地上，把鐵杉的樹(shù)梢凍結(jié)到一塊兒垂下來(lái)。冰塊有幾英寸厚！“驚悚”扇動(dòng)翅膀飛出門(mén)，飛到一個(gè)樹(shù)枝上，想站在上面。樹(shù)枝太滑，“驚悚”掉到地上，拍打著翅膀滑行，直到一個(gè)低洼的地方才停下，但“驚悚”已經(jīng)失去平衡，翅膀展開(kāi)趴在地上。她好不容易才拍打翅膀飛到空中，盤(pán)旋了半天，終于找到一個(gè)合適的落腳點(diǎn)。落腳點(diǎn)是緊挨鐵杉樹(shù)干的一個(gè)地方。那里沒(méi)有冰。

【背景知識(shí)】北美山區(qū)的冬天十分寒冷，小山姆終于體驗(yàn)到了凍雨的殘酷。這一段文字娓娓道來(lái)，將大雪封山冰天雪地的場(chǎng)景一一刻畫(huà)眼前。雖然是虛構(gòu)作品，但作者敏于觀察，精于描寫(xiě)，讓讀者身臨其境。

【第一段】這里有很多文字不宜直譯，比如gave a little to the sun（向太陽(yáng)讓步）、limbs（大樹(shù)枝，有比喻意義）、with her face in the sun（臉曬著太陽(yáng)）、raiding（攻擊）、damp enough to wring（濕得擰出水）、drab mess（黑暗的一團(tuán)）等，譯文都做了相應(yīng)的變通處理。句子as Barometer was yanking his way home需要上下文知識(shí)才能懂。前文提到有一只五十雀住在附近的樹(shù)上，對(duì)天氣十分敏感，山姆觀察其行為就可以判斷天氣的好壞。此處五十雀飛回家中也說(shuō)明天氣要變差。倒數(shù)第二句是一個(gè)排比句：It drizzled, it misted, it sprinkled, and fi nally it froze. 譯文也力求再現(xiàn)原文句式。

【第二段】說(shuō)實(shí)話，這里的語(yǔ)言雖然還在模仿少年口氣，其實(shí)是作者現(xiàn)身親自操刀了，所以文字口語(yǔ)化強(qiáng)，幽默風(fēng)趣，比如putter around、concoction、fool for an hour等。譯文也盡量口語(yǔ)化，傳達(dá)幽默的風(fēng)格。原文的crack（爆裂聲）很形象，因此譯文添加了象聲詞“噼噼啪啪”。

【第三段】短語(yǔ)needless to say（無(wú)須言說(shuō)）改譯為“正如所料”，變換了陳述角度。最后一句的譯文中用“不過(guò)”“于是”銜接上下文，添加“驅(qū)散不了”，使得邏輯關(guān)系明晰化。

【第四段】文中的glass house強(qiáng)調(diào)晶瑩剔透的冰屋，實(shí)為隱喻，但不宜直譯為“玻璃房”，在中文里這樣會(huì)顯得突兀，不容易理解。譯文使用“冰層”使得理解更順暢。詞語(yǔ)ice storm在陸谷孫《英漢大詞典》的釋義為“冰暴”，并不準(zhǔn)確，查閱韋氏英文詞典，找到其釋義為“a storm in which falling rain freezes on contact”，即“凍雨”的意思。接下來(lái)對(duì)獵鷹“驚悚”的動(dòng)作描寫(xiě)很精細(xì)，詞語(yǔ)翻譯比較有難度。

【小結(jié)】這幾段選文文學(xué)性很強(qiáng)，需要譯者首先辨別原文的文學(xué)特色，然后再用中文復(fù)現(xiàn)原文的語(yǔ)言特點(diǎn)和描寫(xiě)效果。這里原文的口語(yǔ)化、簡(jiǎn)練、生動(dòng)、地道、形象、比喻等特色需要譯者好好琢磨才能獲得較為理想的譯文。 □

《我的山林》（節(jié)選五）

ByJean Craighead George