文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

《我的山林》（節(jié)選二）

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

When I wrote that last winter, I was scared and thought maybe I’d never get out of my tree. I had been scared for two days—ever since the fi rst blizzard hit the Catskill Mountains.When I came up to the sunlight, which I did by simply poking my head into the soft snow and standing up, I laughed at my dark fears.

[2] Everything was white, clean,shining, and beautiful. The sky was blue, blue, blue. The hemlock grove was laced with snow, the meadow was smooth and white, and the gorge was sparkling with ice. It was so beautiful and peaceful that I laughed out loud.I guess I laughed because my first snowstorm was over and it had not been so terrible after all.

[3] Then I shouted, “I did it!” My voice never got very far. It was hushed by the tons of snow.

[4] I looked for signs from The Baron Weasel. His footsteps were all over the boulder, also slides where he had played. He must have been up for hours,enjoying the new snow.

[5] Inspired by his fun, I poked my head into my tree and whistled.Frightful, my trained falcon, flew to my fist, and we jumped and slid down the mountain, making big holes and trenches as we went. It was good to be whistling and carefree again, because I was sure scared by the coming of that storm.

[6] I had been working since May,learning how to make a fire with flint and steel, finding what plants I could eat, how to trap animals and catch fish—all this so that when the curtain of blizzard struck the Catskills, I could crawl inside my tree and be comfortably warm and have plenty to eat.

[7] During the summer and fall I had thought about the coming of winter. However, on that third day of December when the sky blackened,the temperature dropped, and the first fl akes swirled around me. I must admit I wanted to run back to New York.Even the first night that I spent out in the woods, when I couldn’t get the fi re started, was not as frightening as the snowstorm that gathered behind the gorge and mushroomed up over my mountain.

[8] I was smoking three trout. It was nine o’clock in the morning. I was busy keeping the flames low so they would not leap up and burn the fish.As I worked, it occurred to me that it was awfully dark for that hour of the morning. Frightful was leashed to her tree stub. She seemed restless and pulled at her tethers. Then I realized that the forest was dead quiet. Even the woodpeckers that had been tapping around me all morning were silent. The squirrels were nowhere to be seen. The juncos and chickadees and nuthatches were gone. I looked to see what The Baron Weasel was doing. He was not around. I looked up.

去年冬天，我寫日記的時候，感到非?？只?，心想也許再也不能走出樹屋了。有兩天時間我都驚恐不安，自從第一次暴風(fēng)雪襲擊卡茨基爾山之后就是如此?？墒钱?dāng)我來到陽光下，從大雪覆蓋的樹屋門口探出頭并站起身來，忍不住笑了，為自己的惶惶不可終日而笑。

[2]一切都潔白無瑕，一塵不染，閃閃發(fā)亮，美不勝收。天空碧藍(lán)碧藍(lán)碧藍(lán)的。鐵杉樹叢披上了白雪制作的蕾絲花邊，草坪銀裝素裹平滑如鏡，峽谷里因為冰雪而銀光閃閃。四周如此美麗和靜謐，我忍不住大笑起來。我想，我之所以大笑，是因為我經(jīng)歷的第一場暴風(fēng)雪已經(jīng)結(jié)束，而且它根本不是那么可怕。

[3]那時我大喊：“我成功了！”但我的聲音傳不遠(yuǎn)。厚厚的大雪吸收了我的聲音。

[4]我四處尋找“黃鼠狼男爵”的蹤影。大石頭上到處都是他的腳印，他滑行過的地方也留下了痕跡。他一定起床好幾個小時了，在這場初雪中玩了個夠。

[5]既然黃鼠狼喜歡玩雪，我們也可以，我把頭伸到樹屋里面，吹了聲口哨。訓(xùn)練有素的獵鷹“驚悚”飛到我的拳頭上，我們一起蹦蹦跳跳，沿著山坡滑行，在身后留下巨大的雪坑和雪溝。能再次吹起口哨無憂無慮真是太好了，因為暴風(fēng)雪來臨把我嚇得夠嗆。

[6]從五月份開始，我就在為過冬做準(zhǔn)備，學(xué)習(xí)如何用燧石和鋼片生火，尋找能吃的植物，學(xué)習(xí)如何設(shè)陷阱抓動物和釣魚 —— 所有這一切都是為了在暴風(fēng)雪肆虐卡茨基爾山之際，我能夠爬進(jìn)樹屋，保持溫暖舒適，并有足夠的食物。

[7]夏天和秋天的時候，我想到過冬天降臨。然而，十二月的第三天天色就變暗了，氣溫驟降，初雪的大片雪花就在身邊飛舞。我得承認(rèn)我當(dāng)時想跑回紐約去。即便是初到樹林中的第一夜，連火都生不了，我也沒有這么害怕過。可是當(dāng)積雪云從山谷后面集聚，越過大山滾滾而來，我不由得心生懼意。

[8]我當(dāng)時正在熏著三條鱒魚。那是早上九點鐘。我正忙著讓火焰低一些，不要跳起來燒到魚。我一邊忙活，突然意識到早上那個時間不該如此黑暗?！绑@悚”被拴在樹樁上。她似乎惶恐不安，總在拽她的腳繩。那時我覺察到森林里一片死寂。甚至一早上都在周圍敲敲打打的啄木鳥們也安靜下來。松鼠蹤跡全無。燈芯草雀、山雀和五十雀也了無蹤影。我想找找，看“黃鼠狼男爵”在干什么。他不在附近。我朝上看。

【背景知識】深山老林的第一個冬天里，山姆因經(jīng)驗不足而恐慌。他為衣食而憂，為大雪封山而愁。第一場暴風(fēng)雪之前的烏云幾乎就把他嚇回紐約城。但大雪之后，卻是美妙的景致和愉快的心情，這出乎他意料。

【第一段】第二句和第三句的句式處理值得思考，可以調(diào)換語序，也可以按照原句順序順譯。為了保持原文的信息結(jié)構(gòu)，譯文保留了原文句序。最后一句中的poked my head into the soft snow如果照原文翻譯意思不清楚，于是譯文補足信息，讓讀者明白是山姆從樹屋的門口探頭出來，而門上是厚厚的大雪。單詞dark意思是“黑暗的、無望的”，而dark fear的譯文稍作演繹，為“惶惶不可終日”。

【第二段】整段句子比較短，特別容易理解，語言看似平實，實則意境優(yōu)美，翻譯難度不小。比如短句“The sky was blue, blue, blue.”中重復(fù)blue一詞，屬于刻意的修辭，譯文應(yīng)該再現(xiàn)原文的形式。此處譯文略飾文采，只為傳譯原文優(yōu)美的情景。

【第三段】最后一句中的hush一詞頗費思量，意思為“使得……寂靜”，中文選詞卻困難，最后勉強選了“吸收”二字。

【第四段】第二句是個省略句，隱含了footsteps were also all over slides，容易出錯。而enjoying the new snow的譯文稍作增譯，為“在這場初雪中玩了個夠”。

【第五段】第一句極為簡單，意義卻曲折而豐富。山姆看到黃鼠狼能在雪里玩，想到自己和獵鷹應(yīng)該也可以玩，于是吹口哨把獵鷹喚出來。為了聯(lián)系上下文，譯文補出短句“我們也可以”。詞語big holes and trenches都指雪地上留下的痕跡，因此補出“雪坑和雪溝”。

【第六段】該段全文為一句話，句子較長，注意保持譯文的連貫性即可。

【第七段】山姆想到過冬天，卻未料到冬天驟至的方式。當(dāng)烏云滾滾遮天蔽日而來，少年山姆嚇慌了，甚至想跑回紐約去。這比他初到深山老林的第一晚都可怕。第四句中間有一個插入的時間狀語從句，造成語義中斷，因此譯文前面使用“害怕”，后面使用“懼意”，力圖貫穿上下文。

【第八段】這里原文用詞十分細(xì)膩，比如it occurred to me、realized、awfully dark for等，譯文也需要精心措辭。

【小結(jié)】一般說來，原文如果詞語艱深語義晦澀，則翻譯難度大。這一選文語言平實、淺顯易懂、句式普通，然而翻譯起來卻左右掣肘頗費周章。第二段就是典型的例子。此時譯者面臨多重選擇，會在樸素和雅致之間搖擺不定。無論如何，譯者的選擇決定譯文的風(fēng)格，同時也反映譯者的文學(xué)鑒賞視角和品味。 □

My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt II)

ByJean Craighead George