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On the Far Side of the Mountain (Excerpt I)

ByJean Craighead George

This June morning is hot and humid with a haze so dense I can barely see the huge hemlock tree in which I live. I like the haze. It has erased all but the great tree trunks, making my mountaintop home as simple as it was when I first came here more than two years ago.

[2] I lean back in the lounging chair I constructed from bent saplings held together with rope made from the inner bark of the basswood tree, and enjoy the primitive forest.

[3] A wind rises as the sun warms the earth. The haze moves off, and I see my pond, my millhouse, and the root cellar. The fi rst year I lived here I had only a tree, a bed, and a fireplace.But one idea led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had built myself a habitat. Things just kept evolving.Take this lounging chair, for instance.One day I replaced the old stump I sat on with a three-legged stool, and then I replaced the three-legged stool with this comfortable chair.

六月的這天早晨，天氣炎熱潮濕，霧氣很濃，我連自己住的巨大鐵杉樹都看不大清。我喜歡霧氣。它遮蓋了一切，只剩下巨大的樹干，讓我的山頂住所變得十分簡(jiǎn)樸，正如兩年前我剛來的時(shí)候一樣。

[2]我靠在安樂椅上，欣賞這一片原始森林。安樂椅是我自己做的，是把小樹壓彎，然后用椴樹皮內(nèi)層的韌皮做的繩索綁到一起。

[3]太陽照暖了大地，一陣風(fēng)吹過。霧氣飄到旁邊，我看清了我的池塘、磨坊，還有樹根做的地窖。剛剛來住的第一年，我只有一棵樹、一張床和一個(gè)壁爐。但造一個(gè)物件兒再造一個(gè)物件兒，到現(xiàn)在，我已經(jīng)給自己建造了一處住所。事物總是在改善。拿這把安樂椅為例。有一天我用一個(gè)三條腿的凳子替換了我坐的老樹墩，后來又用這把舒適的椅子替代了那個(gè)三條腿的凳子。

[4] The people changed, too. At first I was alone. Then my family arrived and—except for my lively sister,Alice—departed. I don’t know where Alice is this morning. She was going to go strawberry picking, but the haze is too dense for that. Maybe she’s sitting on the porch of her tree house talking to herself just as I am. A haze mutes not only the birds and beasts, but people,too.

[5] As a hot dry wind clears the air, I can see Frightful, my peregrine falcon, sitting in front of the six-foot-indiameter hemlock tree that I hollowed out for a home. Unlike the chairs and people, Frightful has not changed. She still holds her body straight up and down and her head high in the manner of the peregrine falcon. Her tawny breast is decorated with black marks;her back is gray blue; her head black.When she fl ies, she is still a crossbow in the sky, and she still “waits on” above my head until I kick up a pheasant or a rabbit. Then she stoops, speeding toward her prey at two hundred miles an hour, the fastest animal on earth. She almost never misses.

[4]人也在變。最初我孤單一人。然后我的家人到來，又離開，只有活潑的妹妹艾麗斯留了下來。今天早上，我不知道艾麗斯在哪兒。她本來是要去采摘草莓，但霧氣太濃摘不了。也許她正坐在她樹屋的門廊上自言自語呢，像我一樣。霧氣不僅讓鳥獸安靜，人也安靜了。

[5]一陣干燥的熱風(fēng)吹過，霧氣消散，我看到了我的游隼“驚悚”，她就停留在我的樹屋前。那是一棵直徑六英尺的鐵杉樹，我掏空了當(dāng)作樹屋?！绑@悚”不像椅子和人，她沒有變化。她的身體還是那樣直上直下移動(dòng)，頭高高抬起，正是游隼的姿態(tài)。她的黃褐色胸口上點(diǎn)綴著黑色斑點(diǎn)；后背藍(lán)灰色；頭黑色。飛翔時(shí)，她依然是天空中的十字弓，依然會(huì)“懸停”在我的頭頂，等待我驚起一只野雞或者兔子。然后她會(huì)俯沖而下，以每小時(shí)兩百英里的速度撲向獵物。她是地球上最快的動(dòng)物，幾乎從不失手。

【背景知識(shí)】《遠(yuǎn)方山林》是《我的山林》的續(xù)篇，描寫山姆和妹妹艾麗斯繼續(xù)在山林生存的故事。這一次，他們的故事背景不限于自己祖先的領(lǐng)地，而是跋涉到遠(yuǎn)方，為了游隼和其他野生鳥類的自由而行動(dòng)，和偷獵者作斗爭(zhēng)。故事曲折生動(dòng)，引人入勝。

【第一段】單詞haze經(jīng)常被用來形容霧霾，但這里指山中的霧氣或者山嵐，不是污染物smog。短語can barely see意為“幾乎看不見”，譯文調(diào)整了語序，譯為“看不大清”。動(dòng)詞erase（抹掉）如果直譯顯得不恰當(dāng)（抹掉/擦掉了一切），換為“遮蓋”。形容詞simple不太好譯，需要上下文才能弄清楚——這里指大霧遮住了很多人造物品，只剩下天然的東西，所以住所顯得“簡(jiǎn)樸”。

【第二段】句中核心詞chair的定語從句太長(zhǎng)，因此譯文把第二分句提前，定語從句提出，單獨(dú)成句放在后邊。

【第三段】短語one idea led to another也可以譯為“一個(gè)想法引出另一個(gè)想法”，但在上下文中意思不很清楚，因此譯文明晰化為“造一個(gè)物件兒再造一個(gè)物件兒”；接下來的the next thing I knew（接下來我知道的）也不宜直譯，譯文簡(jiǎn)化為“到現(xiàn)在”。動(dòng)詞evolve意思是“進(jìn)化、發(fā)展”，這里選擇更明確的“改善”。

【第四段】第三句中的插入語照搬到中文里會(huì)打斷語流，所以將其挪到句尾。最后一句沒有選擇使動(dòng)句“使人們安靜”，因?yàn)樯韵觿e扭。

【第五段】第一句最后的定語從句提取出來，獨(dú)立成句，這樣中文更自然一些。游隼待著不動(dòng)的時(shí)候，身子也會(huì)直上直下地動(dòng)，這一點(diǎn)只需在網(wǎng)上搜索視頻就能驗(yàn)證。下文的“十字弓”是暗喻，譯文加以保留，應(yīng)該不會(huì)造成閱讀障礙。

【小結(jié)】這一選段里有幾處定語從句需要調(diào)整語序才能更加符合中文習(xí)慣。除此之外，原文有好多短句，言簡(jiǎn)意賅，言近旨遠(yuǎn)，譯者需要盡力傳譯原文簡(jiǎn)約傳神的風(fēng)格。

《遠(yuǎn)方山林》（節(jié)選一）

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治譯析/吳文安