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Amaroq was pacing restlessly along the crest of the frost heave as if something were about to happen.His eyes shot to Silver,then to the gray wolf Miyax had named Nails.These glances seemed to be summons,for Silver and Nails glided to him,spanked the ground with their forepaws,and bit him gently under the chin.He wagged his tail furiously and took Silver’s slender nose in his mouth.She crouched before him,licked his cheek,and lovingly bit his lower jaw.Amaroq’s tail flashed high as her mouthing charged him with vitality.He nosed her affectionately.Unlike the fox who met his mate only in the breeding season,Amaroq lived with his mate all year.

巨狼阿馬羅克在凍土堆頂上不安地踱來踱去，好像有什么事情要發(fā)生。他的目光射向銀白，然后又朝米婭克斯叫作指甲的灰狼掃過去。這些瞥視似乎就是召喚，銀白和指甲溜了過來，用前爪拍打地面，然后又輕輕地在巨狼下巴處咬一下。巨狼暴怒地?fù)u搖尾巴，一口咬住銀白纖細(xì)的鼻子。銀白在他面前趴下，舔舔他的臉頰，充滿愛意地咬一下他的下巴。巨狼的尾巴高高翹起來，似乎銀白的親咬讓他精神振奮。巨狼也充滿愛意地用鼻子拱拱銀白。狐貍只在交配季節(jié)跟配偶見面，巨狼卻一整年都與配偶在一起。

[2]Next,Nails took Amaroq’s jaw in his mouth and the leader bit the top of his nose.A third adult,a small male,came slinking up.He got down on his belly before Amaroq,rolled trembling to his back,and wiggled.

[2]接下來，指甲也把巨狼的下巴含在嘴里，頭狼咬了一下他的鼻尖。第三頭成年狼，體型較小，是頭公狼，溜了過來。他在巨狼跟前趴下，又顫抖著翻過身肚子朝上，扭動著身子。

[3]“Hello,Jello,” Miyax whispered,for he reminded her of the quivering gussak dessert her mother-in-law made.

[3]“你好，果凍?！泵讒I克斯小聲說。因?yàn)檫@頭狼讓她想起了婆婆做的那種總是抖動的白人甜食。

[4]She had seen the wolves mouth Amaroq’s chin twice before and so she concluded that it was a ceremony,a sort of “Hail to the Chief.” He must indeed be their leader for he was clearly the wealthy wolf;that is,wealthy as she had known the meaning of the word on Nunivak Island.There the old Eskimo hunters she had known in her childhood thought the riches of life were intelligence,fearlessness,and love.A man with these gifts was rich and was a great spirit who was admired in the same way that the gussaks admired a man with money and goods.

[4]米婭克斯之前也兩次看到過群狼咬一咬巨狼的下巴，因此她斷定這是一種儀式，是“向頭狼致敬”。巨狼肯定是他們的頭領(lǐng)，因?yàn)轱@然他很富有；這里的富有指努尼瓦克島上所理解的富有。在努尼瓦克島上，她從小就認(rèn)識的愛斯基摩老獵人們所理解的人生財(cái)富就是智慧、無畏和愛。擁有這些天賦的人被看作富有，是受人仰慕的精神領(lǐng)袖，就像錢物富足的白人被人羨慕一樣。

[5]The three adults paid tribute to Amaroq until he was almost smothered with love;then he bayed a wild note that sounded like the wind on the frozen sea.With that the others sat around him,the puppies scattered between them.Jello hunched forward and Silver shot a fierce glance at him.Intimidated,Jello pulled his ears together and back.He drew himself down until he looked smaller than ever.

[5]三頭成年狼輪番向巨狼獻(xiàn)殷勤，直到他難以消受為止。然后他一聲長嘯，狂野無比，像是狂風(fēng)掠過冰封的海面。其他的狼圍攏著巨狼而坐，狼崽兒也夾雜其中。果凍弓著腰往前蹭，銀白用兇狠的眼光掃了一眼。果凍知趣地耷拉著耳朵又退了回去。他俯下身子，看上去越發(fā)瘦小。

[6]Amaroq wailed again,stretching his neck until his head was high above the others.They gazed at him affectionately and it was plain to see that he was their great spirit,a royal leader who held his group together with love and wisdom.

[6]巨狼阿馬羅克再次長嘯，伸長脖子，頭頸遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高出其他的狼。群狼充滿愛意地盯著他看，很顯然巨狼是他們的精神領(lǐng)袖，是偉大的王者，能夠用愛和智慧把狼群團(tuán)結(jié)在一起。

[7]Any fear Miyax had of the wolves was dispelled by their affection for each other.They were friendly animals and so devoted to Amaroq that she needed only to be accepted by him to be accepted by all.She even knew how to achieve this—bite him under the chin.But how was she going to do that?

[7]米婭克斯原來對狼群心懷懼怕，現(xiàn)在看到他們親密無間的樣子，一切恐懼都煙消云散。他們彼此友好，對頭狼如此忠誠，因此米婭克斯只需被頭狼接受，就能被狼群接受。米婭克斯甚至知道如何做到這一點(diǎn)——就是從下面咬一下頭狼的下巴。但她該怎么去做呢？

【背景知識】米婭克斯密切觀察狼群，發(fā)現(xiàn)了很多秘密：誰是頭狼，他如何領(lǐng)導(dǎo)狼群，狼群又如何討好頭狼。巨狼阿馬羅克備受愛戴，讓群狼心服口服，是高高在上的統(tǒng)治者。由此米婭克斯斷定，只要頭狼接受她，整個(gè)狼群就會接受她。

【第一段】Amaroq或拼寫為Amarok，是因紐特人神話中的巨狼，傳說他會把夜晚獨(dú)自狩獵的人吃掉。北極地區(qū)的其他民族也用這個(gè)詞指代所有的狼。為了表意更清楚，此處既有音譯阿馬羅克，又添加了巨狼作為名稱，這有利于下文的稱呼。這里狼的名稱如何翻譯需要好好掂量，或者音譯，或者意譯。這些名字都是米婭克斯根據(jù)外形或性格起的名字，表意性強(qiáng)，所以譯者選擇了意譯。第一段中，用作動詞的名詞，比如mouth、nose不好翻譯，譯者分別譯為“親咬”和“拱拱”。

【第二段】果凍是很有性格的一只狼，后面還有單獨(dú)的故事，作者在此對他的出場做了詳細(xì)描寫。果凍膽小陰險(xiǎn)，心懷鬼胎，這在slink、tremble等詞語上有所反映。

【第三段】所謂gussak是愛斯基摩人對白人的稱呼。該段也揭示出果凍命名的緣由。

【第四段】短語a great spirit很難翻譯，直譯會是“偉大的精神”，不容易理解。根據(jù)上下文，譯者最后選擇了“精神領(lǐng)袖”一詞。最后一句中有兩個(gè)admire，譯者根據(jù)情況分別譯為“仰慕”和“羨慕”。如果說白人仰慕錢物富足的人，會有少許夸張。

【第五段】smother本意是“窒息，忍住”等，在此很難翻譯，譯文轉(zhuǎn)譯為“難以消受”。原文接下來再次著力描寫果凍的性格（投機(jī)、膽小、猥瑣），為下文的故事做鋪墊。

【第六段】短語great spirit和a royal leader仍然不好翻譯。在此譯者將兩者合并處理，譯為“精神領(lǐng)袖”“偉大的王者”。

【第七段】原文第一句句式簡單，但譯為中文卻需要拆解重組。第二句為so… that…句式，譯文使用“因此”來連接，避免了翻譯腔“如此……以致”。

【小結(jié)】這一部分文學(xué)性強(qiáng)，有不少難點(diǎn)，比如名字的翻譯、名詞當(dāng)作動詞用、特殊詞組、較長的句式等，都需要反復(fù)琢磨才能得到較好的譯文。譯者應(yīng)該在把握全文的基礎(chǔ)上，照顧全篇情節(jié)，反復(fù)推敲字詞、調(diào)整句式，才能解決好各種難題。□