The Cats of Roxville Station (Excerpt XII)《羅克斯維爾火車站的貓》（節(jié)選十二）

瓊·克雷格黑德·喬治 吳文安

June filled the field and air with young mice， rats， birds， and voles. The cats of Roxville Station lived well. Elizabeth， however， was not a good hunter. She was teaching her three kittens to depend upon the kindness of the Bent Lady for food. Mike was learning that cats are individuals—some good hunters， some poor， and others， like Rachet， are bold.

One morning when Mike was waiting at the station for Rachet， he saw Ice Bucket fighting for a higher rank. The dirty white cat was old enough to test her rank. She walked up to and hissed at Flea Market， the third-ranking cat. Ice Bucket raised her fur to make herself look bigger than she was. Flea Market hissed and tilted her head. Ice Bucket arched her back and spit. They batted paws， claws unsheathed. Flea Market ran under the station platform. With those innocent-looking gestures， Ice Bucket was now third-ranking cat and said so by holding her tail almost as high as Queenella’s. Rachet， who was second-ranking cat， saw Ice Bucket’s new rank by the height of her tail. Ranks were changing， as they do among house cats and people.

By the time school was almost out， Rachet had dared to come within two feet of Mike before she ran. Then one sunny morning she almost touched him， her ears and tail up to say she felt comfortable in his presence.

“Meow，” she suddenly said.

It was the “Meow” cats give only to humans. Surprised at herself， she arched her back and sped off. But Mike had heard friendliness in her “Meow” and smiled.

“I am her person，” he said.

Rachet ran all the way back to her briar bush and was settling down， with mixed feelings about Mike， when the ground moved beneath her. She lifted her paw as all around her large insects dug out of the soil. She sniffed them. Big-eyed but blind， they climbed up a stem of the briar bush and stopped. Slowly they split their nymphal coats. When they stepped out of these shells， they were not drab nymphs anymore but colorful adult cicadas.

They had been in the ground for seventeen years eating roots – seventeen years！ Rachet was not interested in eating them， but Lysol， the striped skunk， was. She gobbled as many as she could and carried others back to her young， who were denned in the old groundhog burrow. She would begin their hunting lessons with cicadas.

For weeks hundred of thousands of cicadas emerged. Rachet stepped around them， batted them， and played with them; Lysol ate furiously. Lysol’s youngsters learned that the red-eyed insects， with their translucent wings and lazy flight， were delicious and easy to catch， but this was hardly a lesson they would benefit from. No wild skunk lived for seventeen years.

The cicadas would sing， mate， and lay eggs. The adults would then die， but their eggs would hatch and live underground for seventeen more years.

六月到來，田野里到處都是出生不久的小家鼠、大家鼠、田鼠，空中滿是鳥兒。羅克斯維爾火車站的貓咪們生活很滋潤。但是伊麗莎白不擅長捕獵。她在教自己的三個(gè)小貓依賴駝背夫人的善心來獲取食物。邁克了解到貓咪們各不相同——有些善于捕獵，有些不擅長捕獵，而其他的貓咪，像拉齊特，則勇敢無畏。

一天上午，邁克在車站等拉齊特，這時(shí)看到了冰桶為提高排名而戰(zhàn)的一幕。這只臟兮兮的白貓已經(jīng)長大，可以為自己的排名一搏。她走上前去，朝著跳蚤市場嘶嘶叫。跳蚤市場在貓群里排在第三位。冰桶炸開毛，讓自己看上去比原來大很多。跳蚤市場嘶嘶叫著，歪了歪腦袋。冰桶弓起背嗚嗚地低叫。她們露出爪尖對打起來。跳蚤市場跑到了火車站站臺(tái)底下。看似不痛不癢地過了這幾招后，冰桶現(xiàn)在是排名第三的貓咪了，宣示的方式就是把尾巴高舉，跟女王艾拉的一樣高。拉齊特排名第二，看到冰桶高舉的尾巴，知道了她的新排名。排名總是在變動(dòng)，就像家貓之間和人之間一樣。

臨近期末的時(shí)候，拉齊特已經(jīng)敢接近邁克到離他兩英尺的地方才跑開。一天早上陽光燦爛，拉齊特幾乎觸碰到邁克，她的耳朵和尾巴都豎了起來，似乎是說，在邁克面前她覺得自在。

“喵。”拉齊特突然叫出聲來。

這種“喵”叫，是貓咪只對人類發(fā)出的聲音。這叫聲讓拉齊特自己都吃了一驚，她弓起背，逃走了。不過邁克從這一聲“喵”叫中聽到了友善，于是笑了。

“我是她的人類朋友了。”邁克說。

拉齊特一路跑回自己的荊棘叢，平靜下來，心里對邁克的感覺很復(fù)雜。突然，腳下的土地動(dòng)了起來。她抬起爪子，這時(shí)周圍有很多大昆蟲從土里鉆了出來。她聞了聞這些蟲子。蟲子眼睛很大卻看不見，爬上一根荊棘便停了下來。他們開始慢慢掙脫蛹?xì)ぁＲ坏┧麄儚倪@些殼里爬出來，就不再是土褐色的幼蟲，而是色彩艷麗的知了成蟲。

他們已經(jīng)在地下待了十七年，靠吸食植物根莖的汁液生長——十七年啊！拉齊特沒有興趣吃他們，但是萊索，那個(gè)滿身?xiàng)l紋的臭鼬喜歡吃。萊索狼吞虎咽地大吃特吃，還帶回去給小臭鼬吃。小臭鼬都待在原來土撥鼠挖的洞里呢。萊索教授孩子的捕獵課就從吃知了開始。

幾個(gè)星期里，數(shù)十萬只知了冒了出來。拉齊特繞著他們走，拍打他們，跟他們玩耍;萊索則大快朵頤。萊索的幼崽們了解到，這些眼睛紅紅、翅膀半透明、飛起來懶懶的昆蟲美味可口，而且很容易抓到——但是這一課對他們沒多大用處。因?yàn)椋瑳]有一只野生臭鼬能活十七年。

從地下出來的知了唱歌、交配、產(chǎn)卵。成年知了然后會(huì)死掉，不過他們的卵會(huì)孵化，再次在地下生活十七年。

【背景知識】這一選段以講述生態(tài)知識為主。邁克跟拉齊特的關(guān)系有所進(jìn)展，越來越親密和互相信任。文中還插入了貓群為地位爭斗的場面、有關(guān)北美周期蟬17年蟬的描述，以及臭鼬吃蟬的習(xí)性，趣味橫生。

【第一段】第一句是常見的翻譯陷阱之一。按照字面直譯，譯文會(huì)是“六月的田野和空中充滿了小家鼠、大家鼠、鳥兒和田鼠”，這樣在中文里顯得邏輯混亂，不符合一般的行文方式。因此譯文實(shí)施拆分，把前面的“空中”提出，移到后面，分為兩句，“空中滿是鳥兒”單獨(dú)成為一個(gè)分句。該句中的名詞mice、rats、voles在英漢詞典中的釋義極為相似，這里必須加以區(qū)分才行。

【第二段】第一句譯文添加了概括詞“一幕”，否則中文句子顯得不完整。第二句原文中的test（檢驗(yàn);檢測）并沒有直譯（直譯顯得過于科學(xué)化），而是轉(zhuǎn)譯為“一搏”。原文倒數(shù)第三句中的said so不宜直譯，譯文轉(zhuǎn)化為“宣示的方式”。最后一句譯文里添加了“地位”，否則中文句子語義顯得模糊。

【第三段】第一句原文有點(diǎn)兒費(fèi)解，隱含的信息是邁克經(jīng)常來看望拉齊特，慢慢地熟悉和靠近，經(jīng)過一個(gè)學(xué)期的時(shí)間，拉齊特逐漸放松了戒心，開始接受邁克。最后一句中的comfortable字面義是“舒服、舒適”，譯文轉(zhuǎn)譯為“自在”。

【第四段】人們對家養(yǎng)貓咪的“喵”聲習(xí)以為常，其實(shí)野生貓咪并沒有這樣的叫聲，這種叫聲專為人類朋友而發(fā)。最后一句不容易翻譯，如果直譯會(huì)是“我是她的人了”，頗為費(fèi)解，譯文明晰化為“我是她的人類朋友了”。

【第五段】原文第一句中的mixed feelings一般對應(yīng)中文里的“百感交集、感慨萬千”等，在此并不適用，譯文簡化為“對邁克的感覺很復(fù)雜”。后文中的cicada學(xué)名為“蟬”，這個(gè)單音詞放在句子里稍嫌別扭，譯文選擇了“知了”這個(gè)雙聲詞。

【第六段】第一句的譯文中添加了“生長”，最后一句中添加了“教授孩子的”作為定語，都是為了中文句子完整清楚。

【第七段】短句Lysol ate furiously中的furiously有點(diǎn)夸張，如直譯會(huì)是“吃得快速而迅猛”，譯文使用了中文成語“大快朵頤”，意思很接近原文。第三句原文中的修飾語較為復(fù)雜，不宜照搬原文順序，譯文稍作調(diào)整，讓中文句子更順暢。原文的最后一句指明其實(shí)臭鼬媽媽教會(huì)了幼崽吃知了也沒有用，因?yàn)橛揍虃兊炔坏较乱淮问吣晗s大規(guī)模出沒了。

【第八段】第一句的譯文如果直接用“知了會(huì)……”顯得較為突兀，所以譯文添加了定語“從地下出來的”。

【小結(jié)】這一選段中有一個(gè)常見翻譯陷阱，還有一些語序、句式、詞語的調(diào)整轉(zhuǎn)換及個(gè)別詞語的明晰化問題。譯文一一做了處理。可見，文學(xué)翻譯中，原文的詞語、句式、語序、語義等一般都需要適當(dāng)調(diào)整，才能得到較為理想的譯文。