My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt VI)《我的山林》（節選六）

文/瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 譯析/吳文安

By Jean Craighead George

我的生活時時刻刻受天氣影響。擺脫不了天氣時，你關注天氣的方式就讓人吃驚。我觀察每一朵掠過的云彩，體察每一陣刮過的風。我知道暴風雪的脾氣，從何而來，還有形狀和顏色。太陽出來時，我帶著“驚悚”到草坪上，然后坐著劈啪作響的龜殼雪橇滑下山去。她倒是對此毫不在乎。

[2]風勢突變、空氣濕漉漉要下雪時，我會待在樹屋里，因為有個下午我曾經在暴風雪中迷路，不得不躲在一塊大巖石底下，直到能看清路徑才回家。那天風力強勁，我無法迎風而行，就爬到大石底下；有好幾個小時，我都在盤算，如果暴風雪繼續，我還能不能從大雪底下挖洞爬出來。幸運的是，我只挖了一英尺雪就爬出來了。但那次經歷教會我，空氣預示下雪的時候要待在家里。不是說我害怕被暴風雪困在離家很遠的地方，因為在任何地方我都能找到食物和藏身處，并且生一堆火。其實我就像一只孵蛋的鳥兒一樣，迷戀上了我的鐵杉樹屋。如果壞天氣和暴風雨把我困在外面，我就有迫切的愿望回到樹屋，就像黃鼠狼“男爵”要回到他的窩，就像鹿群要回到它們的樹叢一樣。在野外我們都有自己小小的“領地”。我們都努力回到那兒去。

I lived close to the weather. It is surprising how you watch it when you live in it. Not a cloud passed unnoticed, not a wind blew untested. I knew the moods of the storms, where they came from, their shapes and colors.When the sun shone, I took Frightful to the meadow and we slid down the mountain on my snapping-turtle-shell sled. She really didn’t care much for this.

[2] When the winds changed and the air smelled like snow, I would stay in my tree, because I had gotten lost in a blizzard one afternoon and had had to hole up in a rock ledge until I could see where I was going. That day the winds were so strong I could not push against them, so I crawled under the ledge; for hours I wondered if I would be able to dig out when the storm blew on.Fortunately I only had to push through about a foot of snow. However, that taught me to stay home when the air said “snow.” Not that I was afraid of

[3]晚上，我通常和住在附近小樹上的五十雀一起回家。如果我敲敲樹他出來了，我就知道自己回來晚了。有時候天氣冰冷難耐，我會聽到他在草坪邊的大樹高處，快速地飛來飛去，抖動翅膀，然后會看到他早早飛回家睡覺。我把他看作非常棒的溫度計，如果他早早回到樹上，我也早回樹屋。如果你沒有報紙或收音機告訴你天氣預報，那就觀察鳥兒和動物吧。它們會告訴你什么時候暴風雪將來臨。我把五十雀叫作“溫度計”，他窩起來，我也窩起來，點亮燈盞，坐在火爐邊，拿起葦哨削一削，或者學一些新的曲調。我正處在冬天最冷的時候，也密切關注著冬天的行蹤。所謂“安靜的冬夜”根本不存在。不僅有很多動物在冰天雪地里跑來跑去，各種樹木也會嚎叫，樹枝會斷裂落下，寒風吹到溝壑中會尖叫不止，直到最后平息。being caught far from home in a storm,for I could find food and shelter and make a fi re anywhere, but I had become as attached to my hemlock house as a brooding bird to her nest. Caught out in the storms and weather, I had an urgent desire to return to my tree, even as The Baron Weasel returned to his den, and the deer to their copse. We all had our little “patch” in the wilderness. We all fought to return there.

[3] I usually came home at night with nuthatch that roosted in a nearby sapling. I knew I was late if I tapped the tree and he came out. Sometimes when the weather was icy and miserable, I would hear him high in the tree near the edge of the meadow, yanking and yanking and flicking his tail, and then I would see him wing to bed early. I considered him a pretty good barometer, and if he went to his tree early, I went to mine early too. When you don’t have a newspaper or radio to give you weather bulletins, watch the birds and animals. They can tell when a storm is coming. I called the nuthatch“Barometer,” and when he holed up, I holed up, lit my light, and sat by my fire whittling or learning new tunes on my reed whistle. I was now really into the teeth of winter, and quite fascinated by its activity. There is no such thing as a“still winter night.” Not only are many animals running around in the creaking cold, but the trees cry out and limbs snap and fall, and the wind gets caught in a ravine and screams until it dies.

【背景知識】最嚴酷的冬日里，少年山姆艱難又堅強地生活著。從大自然中，從空氣濕度、動物甚至植物那里，他學會了識別惡劣天氣來臨的預兆。他有痛心的教訓，然后才知道要順其自然，適者生存。作者憑借對北美山林寒冬的細微觀察和描述，向我們展現了寒冬山林的各種事物，驚心動魄而又妙趣橫生。

【第一段】這些句子文學性極強，幾乎都不能直譯。像第一句，如果直譯則為“我住得離天氣很近”，這在中文里完全講不通。譯者只能根據上下文把作者要表達的原意明晰化——“我的生活時時刻刻受天氣影響”。接下來的when you live in it也不能譯為“當你住在天氣里”，只能意譯為“你擺脫不了天氣”。第三句的雙重否定句也都轉譯為肯定句。

【第二段】這里有些詞語的翻譯需要斟酌，比如winds、smell like、dig out、push against、push through等，要根據上下文適當翻譯。由“not that …but”引導的長句也不太好處理，其譯文切分為兩句，第二句開頭添加“其實”來連接上下文。后面一句有兩個類比，譯文使用了“像……一樣”來串聯句子。

【第三段】這一段大多是有趣的描寫，譯文應該體現原文的童趣。詞語teeth指the most violent part，此處指最嚴酷的冬天。而still winter night來源于Louis F. Benson（1855—1930）的圣歌“The Winter Night Was Dark and Still”：

The winter night was dark and still,

The village lay asleep;

In meadows underneath the hill

The shepherds watched their sheep;

The shepherds watched their sheep, good Lord,

But angels watched o’er Thee,

While Mary held Thee to her heart,

And they sang jubilee.

只有真切了解寒冬山林的人才能知道冬日里的各種“動靜”，“安靜的冬夜”不過是想象而已。

【小結】這幾個選段同樣頗具文學性，翻譯難度不小。翻譯時需要適度擺脫原文，用看得懂的中文來再現原文。原文的童趣童語中隱含著對大自然的熱愛，譯者也要仔細辨別并在譯文里有所體現。 □