乡下老鼠和城里老鼠

http://www.dreamkidland.cn/leadbbs/read.php?tid=43055
是跟这个帖的翻译任务。请多指教～

THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE1
乡下老鼠和城里老鼠

Once a little mouse who lived in the country invited a little Mouse from the city to visit him. When the little City Mouse
    从前有一只住在乡下的老鼠，邀请另外一只住在城里的老鼠到她家玩。当城里老鼠
________________________________________

-20-

sat down to dinner he was surprised to find that the Country Mouse had nothing to eat except barley and grain.
   ``Really,'' he said, ``you do not live well at all; you should see how I live! I have all sorts of fine things to eat every day. You must come to visit me and see how nice it is to live in the city.''
   The little Country Mouse was glad to do this, and after a while he went to the city to visit his friend.
   The very first place that the City Mouse took the Country Mouse to see was the kitchen cupboard of the house where he lived. There, on the lowest shelf, behind some stone jars, stood a big paper bag of brown sugar. The little City Mouse gnawed a hole in the bag and invited his friend to nibble for himself.
   The two little mice nibbled and nibbled, and the Country Mouse thought he had never tasted anything so delicious in his life. He was just thinking how lucky the City Mouse was, when suddenly the door opened with a bang, and in came the cook to get some flour.
   ``Run!'' whispered the City Mouse.
    坐下来用餐时，他惊讶地发现，乡下老鼠家除了麦粒，没啥好吃的。
    “真的，”他说，“我觉得你过得很不舒服；你应该来看看我是怎么生活的！我每天都有各种各样的美味可以吃。你一定要来我家，体会一下住在城里的好处。”
    乡下老鼠很高兴接受了邀请，不久他就动身去城里回访他的朋友。
    城里老鼠带着乡下老鼠参观他的住所。第一个点就是厨房的食品柜。在最低的搁板上，他们在一些石头罐子后面找到了一大纸袋的砂糖。城里老鼠示范着如何在袋子上轻咬个洞、吃到里面的砂糖。
    两只小老鼠一起在砂糖袋子边时，乡下老鼠边吃边感慨自己怎么就从来没吃过这样的美食。正当他羡慕城里老鼠真是幸运的时候，厨房门“梆”地一声突然开了，是厨师进来拿面粉。
    “跑！”城里老鼠压低声音叫喊。
________________________________________

-21-

And they ran as fast as they could to the little hole where they had come in. The little Country Mouse was shaking all over when they got safely away, but the little City Mouse said, ``That is nothing; she will soon go away and then we can go back.''
   After the cook had gone away and shut the door they stole softly back, and this time the City Mouse had something new to show: he took the little Country Mouse into a corner on the top shelf, where a big jar of dried prunes stood open. After much tugging and pulling they got a large dried prune out of the jar on to the shelf and began to nibble at it. This was even better than the brown sugar. The little Country Mouse liked the taste so much that he could hardly nibble fast enough. But all at once, in the midst of their eating, there came a scratching at the door and a sharp, loud miaouw!
   ``What is that?'' said the Country Mouse. The City Mouse just whispered, ``Sh!'' and ran as fast as he could to the hole. The Country Mouse ran after, you may be sure, as fast as he could. As soon as they were out of danger the City Mouse
他们飞奔回刚才进来的洞口。已经安全脱身了，但乡下小老鼠还是吓得瑟瑟发抖，城里老鼠见此不以为然地说，“这没什么；她很快就会离开的，到时我们再回去。”
    等到厨师拿完面粉关门离开，他们俩又轻轻地溜过去，这次，城里老鼠带他来到另外一个地方：他们来到橱柜的顶层，角落里有一大罐的干梅子。他们从这敞开的罐子里扒拉了一会儿，很快干梅就撒满了搁板，这俩“人”坐下来开始吃。干梅的味道比砂糖更好，乡下老鼠越吃越快。突然，一阵刮挠门的响声传来，紧接着是尖利的“喵呜！”声。
    “那是什么？”乡下老鼠问。城里老鼠“嘘”地示意他不要说话，并且飞快跑回洞口。乡下老鼠也紧跟其后。一脱险，城里老鼠
________________________________________

-22-

said, ``That was the old Cat; she is the best mouser in town, -- if she once gets you, you are lost.''
   ``This is very terrible,'' said the little Country Mouse; ``let us not go back to the cupboard again.''
   ``No,'' said the City Mouse, ``I will take you to the cellar; there is something especial there.''
   So the City Mouse took his little friend down the cellar stairs and into a big cupboard where there were many shelves. On the shelves were jars of butter, and cheeses in bags and out of bags. Overhead hung bunches of sausages, and there were spicy apples in barrels standing about. It smelled so good that it went to the little Country Mouse's head. He ran along the shelf and nibbled at a cheese here, and a bit of butter there, until he saw an especially rich, very delicious-smelling piece of cheese on a queer little stand in a corner. He was just on the point of putting his teeth into the cheese when the City Mouse saw him.
   ``Stop! stop!'' cried the City Mouse. ``That is a trap!''
介绍说，“一只老猫；她是这镇上最好的捕鼠器，--要是被她抓到，肯定完蛋。”
    “太可怕了，”乡下老鼠说；“我们别再去食品柜了。”
    “不，”城里老鼠说，“这次我要带你去地窖；那里有些特别的东西等着我们呐。”
    城里老鼠引着他的小伙伴，沿着楼梯下了地窖，然后进入一个大食品柜，这下乡下老鼠都看呆了，食品柜有很多层，搁板上都放满了一罐罐的黄油，一袋袋的干奶酪；橱顶挂满了一串串的腊肠，还有一桶桶辣味苹果。这味道一下冲进了乡下老鼠的鼻子，引着他跑进柜子。这次，他不用城里老鼠指引，开始到处品尝，这边的干酪，那边的黄油，转来转去，最后注意到角落里的一小块黄油，因为这味道实在太棒了，只是单独搁在一个奇怪形状的东西上面。就在他咬下去的尖儿上，城里老鼠看到了。
    “停！快停住！”城里老鼠叫起来。“陷阱！”
________________________________________

-28-

The little Country Mouse stopped and said, ``What is a trap?''
   ``That thing is a trap,'' said the little City Mouse. ``The minute you touch the cheese with your teeth something comes down on your head hard, and you're dead.''
   The little Country Mouse looked at the trap, and he looked at the cheese, and he looked at the little City Mouse. ``If you'll excuse me,'' he said, ``I think I will go home. I'd rather have barley and grain to eat and eat it in peace and comfort, than have brown sugar and dried prunes and cheese, -- and be frightened to death all the time!''
   So the little Country Mouse went back to his home, and there he stayed all the rest of his life.

[1] The following story of the two mice, with the similar fables of The Boy who cried Wolf, The Frog King, and The Sun and the Wind, are given here with the hope that they may be of use to the many teachers who find the over-familiar material of the fables difficult to adapt, and who are yet aware of the great usefulness of the stories to young minds. A certain degree of vividness and amplitude must be added to the compact statement of the famous collections, and yet it is not wise to change the style-effect of a fable, wholly. I venture to give these versions, not as perfect models, surely, but as renderings which have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the original point simply and strongly.
    乡下老鼠停下来，纳闷地问，“什么是陷阱？”
    “那东西是个陷阱，”城里老鼠说。“一旦你碰那块黄油，就会有东西重重地敲到你的头，然后你就会死掉。”
    乡下老鼠看看“陷阱”，看看那块黄油，然后他转过来对着城里老鼠，说“请原谅我的失礼，我想回家了。我宁愿吃谷粒，太太平平、舒舒服服地，好过为了吃砂糖腊肠或干酪，却时刻面临威吓甚至死!”
    就这样，乡下老鼠回家了，从此他就一直待在乡下。

[1]这个两只老鼠的故事，和The Boy who cried Wolf（狼来了）, The Frog King（青蛙王子）, 以及The Sun and the Wind（太阳和风）有着类似的寓意，在这里我们希望这几个故事对于老师们有借鉴意义，许多人发觉好故事对孩子们的益处，但发现想改编大家所熟知（或者过分熟知）的寓言材料却很难。我们建议故事的生动性和取材广泛性在浓缩或改编故事描述时必须要考虑到，而且随意地改变寓言的风格并不明智。我在此列举了这些故事，可能不是最佳范例，但肯定是容易被孩子们接受的，我相信这些版本简洁而又有效地保留了原著的风味。