By Jean Craighead George 文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

On the Far Side of the Mountain (Excerpt III) 《遠方山林》（節(jié)選三）

By Jean Craighead George 文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

“Alice, my sister who is two years younger than I am, is going to live on the mountain with me—for better or worse.

[2] “The way I look at it, she’s here by default. Mom; Dad; my four brothers,John, Jim, Hank, and Jake; and my four sisters, Alice, Mary, Joan, and Nina climbed up my mountain three weeks ago and announced they were here to stay. Dad was going to plow the abandoned fields, sow seeds, and reap the grain. The boys said they would help build the house from the planks and twoby-fours Dad had brought up here for that purpose. Mom and the girls were eager to grow a garden and keep a cow.

[3] “Well, the house never got built.Mrs. Fielder, whom I always call Mrs.Strawberry because she and I gathered wild strawberries the spring I arrived on the mountain, was kind to my family.She offered them rooms in her large old farmhouse until they got started. She’s alone and said they would be company for her.

“艾麗斯，是比我小兩歲的妹妹，無論如何，將和我一起住在山上。

[2]“在我看來，她到這里是順理成章的。媽媽，爸爸，我的四個弟弟：約翰、吉姆、漢克和杰克；還有我的四個妹妹：艾麗斯、瑪麗、瓊和妮娜——三周以前，他們一起爬上我的大山，宣布要待在這里。爸爸要耕種廢棄的荒地，播種后再收獲糧食。男孩們說，他們要幫忙用爸爸帶來的寬四英寸厚二英寸的木材和其他木板來建造房屋。媽媽和妹妹們急于要開墾一個花園并養(yǎng)一頭奶牛。

[3]“嗯，房子根本沒有蓋。菲爾德夫人對我們家太好了。我一直把她叫作草莓夫人，因為我剛來大山的那個春天她和我一起摘草莓來著。她讓我的家人住在她大農(nóng)場的房子里，直到工程動工才離開。她一個人住，說我的家人正好給她作伴。

[4] “Hardly had my father borrowed Mrs. Strawberry’s horse, Slats, and the plow, and taken them up one side of my meadow and down again, than he knew why his grandfather had abandoned this land. He was not plowing soil. He was plowing rocks. Mrs. Strawberry put it this way. “If you want to grow stones,Mr. Gribley, this is the place for you.Here in these mountains, stones are our best crop.’

[5] “Next Dad tried to put in a garden.After hours of digging to find soil in my meadow, he gave up. As a last resort he called in a soil conservation officer and conferred with him.

[6] “‘The land’s good for trees and wildlife,’ he told Dad, ‘a(chǎn)nd maybe a few wild plants that like poor soil—and that’s about all.’

[7] “June seventeenth he and Mother climbed the long, hard mountain trail to my home. One look at their faces told me then had not come for sumac tea.”

[8] I chuckle as I remember Dad asking me where Alice was—she spent most of her time up here with me—and I told him she was at the spring fiddling with a gadget she had been working on for days.

[4]“爸爸剛剛跟草莓夫人借了馬兒‘施萊茨’和犁頭，把它們弄到我草坪的一邊，上下耕了一趟，就知道他的祖父為什么會放棄這片地了。他耕的不是土地。他耕的是石頭。草莓夫人這樣評論來著：‘格里布雷先生，如果您想種石頭，這個地方正合適。在這片山里，石頭是我們最好的收成?！?/p>

[5]“接下來爸爸想開墾一個花園。他花了好幾個小時在我的草坪里挖呀挖，尋找土壤，最后放棄了。他的最后一招是叫來一位土壤保持專家，向人家咨詢。

[6]“‘這片山地適合樹木和野生動植物，’專家告訴爸爸，‘也許還適合一些喜歡貧瘠土壤的野生植物——就是這樣?！?/p>

[7]“6月17日那天，爸爸和媽媽走過那條長長的崎嶇山路來到我的住處。一看他們的表情我就知道他們不是來喝漆樹茶的?！?/p>

[8]一想起爸爸問我艾麗斯在哪里我就偷笑——她大部分時間都在山上跟我在一起——我告訴爸爸，她正在泉水邊鼓搗一個物件兒，她已經(jīng)做了好幾天了。

[9] “Children,” Dad said when Alice came down from the spring, “pack up your things. We’re going to leave. It’s impossible to farm this mountain. Men more skilled than I have tried and failed.If they couldn’t do it, it’s insane for me to think I can. I’m going back to what I am good at—working on the docks near the sea.”

[10] “Well, I’m not going,” Alice replied nicely but firmly.

The irises in Alice’s eyes look as if they are made of little pieces of blue and white crystal. When she’s excited,each piece sparkles. They flashed until I thought they would splinter and crack when she told Dad she wasn’t going back to the city.

“I love it here!” she said. “I’m going to stay.”

[9]“孩子們，”艾麗斯從泉水回來時爸爸說，“收拾你們的東西，我們要離開了。在這座山上開辟農(nóng)場是不可能的。比我更有技術(shù)的人都嘗試過，也失敗了。如果他們做不到，而我認為我可以，那我就是瘋了。我要回去做我擅長的事兒——到海邊的碼頭上工作?！?/p>

[10]“好的，但我不走?！卑愃够卮?，聲音很客氣但很堅定。

艾麗斯眼睛里的虹膜很好看，仿佛是小塊的藍色和白色水晶所構(gòu)成。她激動的時候，每一塊水晶都閃閃發(fā)光。她跟爸爸說她不愿意回到城市的時候，那些水晶石一直在閃爍，我都以為它們會碎裂。

“我喜歡這里！”她說，“我要留下來。”

【背景知識】為了遷就山姆，也為了堵住批評者的口，山姆父母帶著一家人來加入山姆的生活。不料大山很不友好，不能種地，不能開墾花園，無法養(yǎng)家糊口，山姆父母只好決定離開。但倔強的艾麗斯決定留下來，跟山姆一起享受山野生活。另一段故事就此展開。

【第一段】這里有一個定語從句，翻譯時把定語調(diào)整到核心詞之前比較符合中文習(xí)慣。

【第二段】第一句中的by default不宜譯為“默認”。從上下文來看，因為艾麗斯喜歡山林生活，所以她留下來順理成章。第二句很長，譯文用破折號隔開兩部分，這樣更通順一點。最后一句的grow a garden是移就修辭法，中文不好照搬為“種一個花園”，于是變通為“開墾一個花園”。

【第三段】第二句中的定語從句很長，譯文只能調(diào)整順序，把插入成分置后。最后兩句看似簡單，但也要小心處理，比如短語offered them rooms和she is alone，都不宜直譯。

【第四段】以hardly開頭的句式不太好處理，譯文根據(jù)上下文意思，選取“剛剛……就……”句式。最后草莓夫人的話非常幽默，譯文應(yīng)該把這種風(fēng)趣的文字體現(xiàn)出來。

【第五段】這里要注意敘述文字的語氣，話語中透著幽默和調(diào)侃，反映山姆的思想活動，也反映作者的詼諧氣質(zhì)。

【第六段】該段有幾個詞語存在邏輯交叉，即trees和wildlife，而wildlife既包含動物也包含植物，因此譯為“野生動植物”。

【第七段】第一句的climb不宜譯為“爬過”，因為在中文里“爬過長長的路”有歧義。第二句中的主要結(jié)構(gòu)one look told me（一眼就告訴我）要譯為中文也需添加主語“我知道……”。

【第八段】最后一句中的fiddling with a gadget（其實是制作一個水車）用詞巧妙，很幽默，所以譯文用了“鼓搗一個物件兒”來再現(xiàn)這種效果。

【第九段】倒數(shù)第二句英文很緊湊，中文不好照搬，所以分開來譯，同時調(diào)整了語序：如果他們做不到，而我認為我可以，那我就是瘋了。

【第十段】這一部分原文很精致，很美。翻譯時要注意使用優(yōu)美的語言和簡潔的句式。

【小結(jié)】總體上，這一選段的翻譯難度不大，需要調(diào)整的大多是一些細節(jié)，比如定語從句、強調(diào)句式等。翻譯中容易被忽視的可能是原文的語氣，像幽默的用詞和調(diào)侃的話語等，需要譯者對原文詳加鑒賞和分析后再斟酌落筆。

10 Fascinating Extinct Animals (X)

10. Bubal Hartebeest北非麋羚

The Bubal hartebeest, or Bubal antelope, was a subspecies of African antelope that lived in North Africa.

The animals were hunted to extinction and the last known Bubal hartebeest was killed in Algeria sometime between 1945 and 1954, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.