[翻译大赛NO.3]小银的梦

LITTLE SILVER'S DREAM
小银的梦

LITTLE SILVER was a girl who did not care for strange stories of animals, so much as for those of wonder-creatures in the form of human beings. Even of these, however, she did not like to dream, and when the foolish old nurse would tell her ghost stories at night, she was terribly afraid they would appear to her in her sleep.
小银是个小姑娘。你可以给她讲讲稀奇古怪的动物故事，或是侃侃那些长得跟人一样的奇妙生物，她统统没意见。可是要说梦见它们，她可就不乐意了。如果老保姆晚上忽然来了兴致，给她讲了些鬼怪故事，临睡前小银就会战战兢兢的，生怕那些鬼怪在她睡着时突然冒出来。
To avoid this, the old nurse told her to draw pictures of a tapir on the sheet of white paper which was wrapped around her tiny pillow. These small pillows, you must know, are used by every Japanese girl in order to keep her well-dressed hair from being mussed or rumpled. The nurse told her what many old folks believe,—that if you have a picture of a tapir under the bed, or on the paper pillow-case, you will not have unpleasant dreams, as the tapir is said to eat them. So strongly do some people believe this that they sleep under quilts figured with the device of this long-snouted beast. If in spite of this precaution one should have a bad dream, he must cry out on awaking, "Tapir, come eat, tapir, come eat!" Then the tapir will swallow the dream, and no evil results will happen to the dreamer.
为此，老保姆给小银出了个点子：在她小枕头包着的白纸上画一只貘。这种小枕头是专为日本小女孩保持临睡前的发型准备的，有了它，一觉醒来就不会发现自己头发乱糟糟的了。老保姆说，老一辈的人都相信，如果在床铺下或是在纸枕套上搁一张画有貘的图画，噩梦就不会来造访了，因为据说貘可以把噩梦吃掉。有些人对此深信不疑，连睡觉时盖的被子都绘有这种长鼻子瑞兽。可是如果做了这种防备，噩梦还是照来不误，那么做梦的人一醒来就必须大喊：“貘貘，开饭啦！貘貘，开饭啦！”如此一来，貘就会现身把噩梦吞掉，不让它纠缠做梦的人。
Little Silver listened with open mouth to this account of the tapir, and then making the picture and wrapping it around her pillow, she fell asleep. I suspect that the red rice of which she had eaten so heartily at supper time, until her waist strings tightened, had something to do with her travels in dreamland.
听说貘有这种本事，小银的嘴巴张得老大老大。她顺从地开始画貘，然后把画包在她的小枕头上，一会儿她就睡着了，而且开始做梦了。她做的这个梦呢，跟她晚餐时大口大口地吃了那么多红米，直到腰带都绷紧了有点关系。
She thought she had gone down to Osaka, and there got on a junk and sailed far away to the southwest, through the Inland Sea. That night the waters seemed full of white ghosts of men and women. Some of them were walking on, and in, the water. Some were running about. Here and there groups appeared to be talking together. Once in a while the junk would run against one of them; and when Little Silver looked to see if he were hurt or knocked over, she could see nothing until the junk passed by, when the ghost would appear standing in the same place, as though the ship had gone through empty air.
她梦见自己一路到了大阪，在那里坐上一只帆船，悠悠然地穿过内海，朝西南方驶去。那天晚上，海面上满是男男女女的白色鬼魂。有些在海上钻进钻出，有些在来回奔走。还有三三两两的人凑在一起谈论着什么。帆船时不时就会撞着一个鬼魂。小银想看看他们有没伤着或是摔倒，可是什么也看不到。直到船驶开了，她发现那些鬼魂居然还站在同一个地方，好似船先前是从虚渺的空气中穿过一样。
Occasionally a ghost would come up to the side of the ship, and in a squeaky voice ask for a dipper. While she would be wondering what a ghost wanted to do with a dipper, a sailor would quietly open a locker, take out a dipper having no bottom, and give one every time he was asked for them. Little Silver noticed a large bundle of these dippers ready. The ghosts would then begin to bail up water out of the sea to empty it in the boat. All night they followed the junk, holding on with one hand to the gunwhale, while they vainly dipped up water with the other, trying to swamp the boat. If dippers with bottoms in them had been given them, the sailors said, the boat would have been sunk. When daylight appeared the shadowy host of people vanished.
偶尔有鬼魂靠近小船，扯着粗哑的嗓音索要长柄勺。小银心里很纳闷：鬼魂要勺子干嘛呢？一个船员倒是镇静自若地打开一个箱子，从里面取出一把没有底的勺子，谁向他要，他就给谁一把。小银注意到船上准备了大把大把的这种勺子。拿到勺子后，鬼魂们就开始往海里舀水，然后倒进船舱里。一整晚，他们都跟随着小帆船，一只手扶着船舷，另一只手徒劳地舀水，试图将船淹没。海员们说，如果给他们的勺子是有底的，船早就沉没了。天色一亮，那些鬼影就马上消失了。
In the morning they passed an island, the shores of which were high rocks of red coral. A great earthen jar stood on the beach, and around it lay long-handled ladles holding a half-gallon or more, and piles of very large shallow red-lacquered wine cups, which seemed as big as the full moon. After the sun had risen some time, there came down from over the hills a troop of the most curious looking people. Many were short, little wizen-faced folks, who looked very old; or rather, they seemed old before they ought to be. Some were very aged and crooked, with hickory-nut faces, and hair of a reddish gray tint. All the others had long scarlet locks hanging loose over their heads, and streaming down their backs. Their faces were flushed as if by hard drinking, and their pimpled noses resembled huge red barnacles. No sooner did they arrive at the great earthen jar than they ranged themselves round it. The old ones dipped out ladles full, and drank of the wine till they reeled. The younger ones poured the liquor into cups and drank. Even the little infants guzzled quantities of the yellow sak? from the shallow cups.
晨光沐浴下，他们经过了一座小岛。小岛的岸边堆满了高高的红珊瑚礁。一口巨大的瓮立在沙滩上，旁边放着一把盛了半加仑酒的长柄勺，还有无数个红色的浅酒杯，个个都有满月那么大。太阳升起一会后，从山上走下来一列长相怪异的人，其中有很多个儿小小、脸皱巴巴的人。他们面容苍老，不过实际上可能没那么大年纪。有些年逾古稀，佝偻着腰，一张干瘦的脸像核桃壳一样，灰白的头发略带点红色。剩下来的人都留着长长的深红色卷发，稀稀疏疏地挂在脑门上，垂到后背。他们一脸酡红，好像喝醉了，长满粉刺的鼻子就跟大藤壶一样。一走到那口装清酒的大瓮旁边，他们就围着它各自站好。老头们把长柄勺盛得满满的，一饮而尽，直到整个人走起路来踉踉跄跄的。年轻点的把酒倒进杯子里喝，就连小孩们也从浅水杯里狂饮那种黄色的清酒。
Then began the dance, and wild and furious it grew. The leather-faced old sots tossed their long reddish-gray locks in the air, and pirouetted round the big sak?jar. The younger ones of all ages clapped their hands, knotted their hand-kerchiefs over their foreheads, waved their dippers or cups or fans, and practiced all kinds of antics, while their scarlet hair streamed in the wind or was blown in their eyes. The dance over, they threw down their cups and dippers, rested a few minutes and then took another heavy drink all around.
接着他们开始跳起舞来，舞姿越来越狂野和剧烈。皱巴脸的老醉鬼甩动着他们微红的银发，踮着脚尖绕着装满清酒的大瓮转圈。年轻点的拍着手掌，把手帕系在前额上，挥动手中的勺子、酒杯或扇子，做了各种滑稽的动作。他们深红色的头发不是在风中舞动，就是吹拂在眼睛上。舞蹈结束后，他们纷纷扔下酒杯和勺子，稍微休息了会儿，又开始新一轮的狂饮。
"Now to work!" shouted an old fellow whose face was redder than his half-bleached hair, and who having only two teeth looked just like an imp. As for his wife, her teeth had long ago fallen out and the skin of her face seemed to have added a pucker for every year since a half century had rolled over her head.
“现在开始干活啦！”一个老头儿喊道。他的脸比他那发白的头发红一点，嘴巴里只有两颗牙齿了，看起来就像一个小恶魔。他的老伴呢，牙齿很久以前就掉光光了，似乎每老一岁，岁月就会在她脸上多刻上一道皱纹，毕竟也是年过半百了呀。
Then Little Silver looked and saw them scatter. Some gathered shells and burned them to make lime. Others carried water and made mortar, which they thickened by a pulp made of paper, and a glue made by boiling fish skin. Some dived under the sea for red coral, which they hauled up by means of straw ropes, in great sprigs as thick as the branches of a tree. They quickly ran up a scaffold, and while some of the scarlet-headed plasterers smeared the walls, others below passed up the tempered mortar on long shell shovels, to the hand mortar-boards. Even at work they had casks and cups of sak?at hand, while children played in the empty kegs and licked the gummy sugar left in some of them.
接着，小银看到他们各自散去。有的捡贝壳，把它们烧成石灰，有的抬水，有的拌砂浆。他们往砂浆里加了纸浆和鱼皮胶，试图把砂浆搅拌得更稠些。有的则是潜到海底，在浓密的珊瑚丛中游动，然后把红珊瑚用草绳吊上来。他们快速地爬上脚手架。一些深红色头发的泥水匠忙着涂墙，底下的人负责用长铲子将拌好的砂浆送到砂浆板上去。即使是在工作，他们也不忘把酒一桶桶一杯杯地往嘴里倒，而娃娃们就在空了的酒桶里玩耍，舔桶里剩下来的那些黏糊糊的糖分解馋。
"What is that house for?" asked Little Silver of the sailors.
“他们建那屋子干嘛用啊？”小银问船员们。
"Oh, that is the storehouse in which the King of the Demons lays up all the treasures of life and health and happiness and property, which men throw away or exchange for the sak?he gives them. This is what they lose by making funnels of themselves."
“哦，那是鬼王用来堆积生命、健康、幸福和财富的宝库。人们经不起清酒的诱惑啊，不惜付出那些代价，或是拿它们跟鬼王做交换。他们一个劲地往嘴里灌酒，那些东西就随之失去了。”
"Oh, yes," said Little Silver to herself, as she remembered how her father had said of a certain neighbor who had lately been drinking hard, "He swills sak?like a Demon."
“啊呀，是那样。”小银自言自语地说，她想起爸爸是怎么形容那个最近一直酗酒的邻居的了，“他像个魔鬼一样大口喝酒”。
She also understood why picnic or "chow-chow" boxes were often decorated with pictures of these imps, with their cups and dippers. For, at these picnics, many men get drunk; so much so indeed, that after a while the master of the feast orders very poor and cheap wine to be served to the guests. He also replaces the delicate wine cups of eggshell porcelain, with big thick teacups or wooden bowls, for the guests when drunk are liable to shatter the others. Besides they do not know the difference.
她也明白了为什么野餐或“什锦酱菜”盒子经常都画着这类小恶魔拿着酒杯和勺子的图案了。这是因为野餐的时候经常有人喝醉，实在是喝太多了，宴会的主人看不下去，过了会儿就会给客人们送上廉价和差劲的酒，也把那些精巧易碎的陶瓷酒杯换成大大的厚茶杯或木碗，免得客人们发酒疯，把杯子都砸碎了。再说了，醉得一塌糊涂的他们也不晓得那有什么分别。
She also now understood why it was commonly said of a Mr. Matsu, who had once been very rich but was now a poor sot, "His property has all gone to the Demons."
小银现在也明白了为什么马特苏先生会从一个腰缠万贯的体面人沦落为一个穷困潦倒的酒鬼，他的财产全都跑到魔鬼那了。
Just then the ship in which she was sailing struck a rock, and the sudden jerk woke up Little Silver, who cried out, "Tapir, come eat; tapir, come eat!"
就在这时，“嘭”的一声响，小银坐的小船撞上了一块岩石，船猛地一震，小银醒了过来，大声叫道：“貘貘，开饭了！貘貘，开饭了！”
No tapir came that she could see, but if he had appeared I fear Little Silver would have been more frightened than she was by her dream of the ghosts; for, the next morning, she laughed to think how they had all their work a-dipping water for nothing. But she never forgot the Demon's treasure-house of lost gold and happiness, whenever she saw any one drinking more than was good for him.
没有貘出现在她眼前，但如果它真的现身的话，小银怕是会比在梦中见到那些鬼魂更恐惧吧，因为第二天清晨，她一想到他们徒劳地往大海里舀水，就忍不住笑了。但她没有忘记鬼王堆放被遗弃的财富和幸福的宝库，每次看到酗酒的人她就会想起来。

——选自Fairy Tales of Old Japan by William E. Griffis