书城教材教辅新课标英语学习资源库-沙丘的故事
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第7章 沙丘的故事(7)

Jurgen and his foster parents went past this castle. They had told him its story during the long winter evenings,and now he saw the stately edifice,with its double moat,and trees and bushes,the wall,covered with ferns,rose within the moat,but the lofty limetrees were the most beautiful of all; they grew up to the highest windows,and the air was full of their sweet fragrance. In a northwest corner of the garden stood a great bush full of blossom,like winter snow amid the summers green,it was a juniperjuniper n.[植]刺柏属丛木或树木 bush,the first that Jurgen had ever seen in bloom. He never forgot it,nor the limetrees,the childs soul treasured up these memories of beauty and fragrance to gladden the old man.

雨尔根和他的养父养母走过这座堡寨。在这一带地方,在漫长的冬夜里,人们曾把这个故事讲给他听过。现在他亲眼看到了这座堡寨、它的双道堑壕、树和灌木林。长满了凤尾草的城墙从堑壕里冒出来。不过最好看的还是那些高大的菩提树。它们长到屋顶那样高,在空气中散发出一种清香。花园的西北角有一个开满了花的大灌木林。它像夏绿中的一起冬雪。像这样的一个接骨木树林,雨尔根还是有生以来第一次看到。他永远也忘记不了它和那些菩提树、丹麦的美和香——这些东西在他稚弱的灵魂中为“老年而保存下来”。

From NorreVosborg,where the juniper blossomed,the journey became more pleasant,for they met some other people who were also going to the funeral and were riding in waggons. Our travellers had to sit all together on a little box at the back of the waggon,but even this,they thought,was better than walking. So they continued their journey across the rugged heath. The oxen which drew the waggon stopped every now and then,where a patch of fresh grass appeared amid the heather. The sun shone with considerable heat,and it was wonderful to behold how in the far distance something like smoke seemed to be rising,yet this smoke was clearer than the air,it was transparent,and looked like rays of light rolling and dancing afar afar adv.遥远地 over the heath.

更向前走,到那开满了接骨木树花的北佛斯堡,路就好走得多了。他们碰到许多乘着牛车去参加葬礼的人。他们也坐上牛车。是的,他们得坐在后面的一个钉着铁皮的小车厢里,但这当然要比步行好得多。他们就这样在崎岖不平的荒地上继续前进。拉着这车子的那几条公牛,在石楠植物中间长着青草的地方,不时总要停一下。太阳在温暖地照着,远处升起一股烟雾,在空中翻腾。但是它比空气还要清,而且是透明的,看起来像是在荒地上跳着和滚着的光线。

“That is Lokeman driving his sheep.” said some one. And this was enough to excite Jurgens imagination. He felt as if they were now about to enter fairyland,though everything was still real. How quiet it was! The heath stretched far and wide around them like a beautiful carpet. The heather was in blossom,and the juniperbushes and fresh oak saplings rose like bouquets from the earth. An inviting place for a frolic,if it had not been for the number of poisonous adders of which the travellers spoke,they also mentioned that the place had formerly been infested with wolves,and that the district was still called Wolfsborg for this reason. The old man who was driving the oxen told them that in the lifetime of his father the horses had many a hard battle with the wild beasts that were now exterminated. One morning,when he himself had gone out to bring in the horses,he found one of them standing with its forefeet on a wolf it had killed,but the savage animal had torn and laceratedlacerate v.割裂 the brave horses legs.

“那就是赶着羊群的洛奇。”人们说。这话足够刺激雨尔根的幻想。他觉得他现在正在走向一个神话的国度,虽然一切还是现实的。这儿是多么寂静啊!荒地向四周开展出去,像一张贵重的地毯。石楠开满了花,深绿的杜松和细嫩的小栎树像地上长出来的花束。要不是这里有许多毒蛇,这块地方倒真是叫人想留下来玩耍一番。可是旅客们常常提到这些毒蛇,而且谈到在此为害的狼群——因此这地方仍旧叫做“多狼地带”。赶着牛的老头说,在他父亲活着的时候,马儿常常要跟野兽打恶仗——这些野兽现在已经不存在了。他还说,有一天早晨,他亲眼看见他的马踩着一只被它踢死了的狼,不过这骑马儿腿上的肉也都被咬掉了。

The journey over the heath and the deep sand was only too quickly at an end. They stopped before the house of mourning,where they found plenty of guests within and without. Waggon after waggon stood side by side,while the horses and oxen had been turned out to graze on the scantyscanty adj.缺乏的,不足的,稀疏的,俭省的,不充足的 pasture. Great sandhills like those at home by the North Sea rose behind the house and extended far and wide. How had they come here,so many miles inland? They were as large and high as those on the coast,and the wind had carried them there; there was also a legend attached to them.

在崎岖的荒地和沙子上的旅行,很快就告一结束。他们在停尸所前面停下来:屋里屋外都挤满了客人。车子一辆接着一辆地并排停着,马儿和牛儿到贫瘠的草场上去吃草。像在西海滨的故乡一样,巨大的沙丘耸立在屋子的后面,并且向四周绵延地伸展开去。它们怎样扩展到这块伸进内地几十里路远,又宽又高,像海岸一样空旷的地方呢?是风把它们吹到这儿来的,它们的到来产生了一段历史。

Psalms were sung,and a few of the old people shed tears,with this exception,the guests were cheerful enough,it seemed to Jurgen,and there was plenty to eat and drink. There were eels of the fattest,requiring brandy to bury them,as the eelbreeder said,and certainly they did not forget to carry out his maximmaxim n.格言,座右铭 here.

大家唱着赞美诗。有几个老年人在流着眼泪。除此以外,在雨尔根看来,大家倒是很高兴的。酒菜也很丰盛。鳝鱼是又肥又鲜,吃完以后再喝几口烧酒,像那个养鳝鱼的人说的一样,“把它们埋葬掉”。他的名言在这儿无疑地成了事实。

Jurgen went in and out the house; and on the third day he felt as much at home as he did in the fishermans cottage among the sandhills,where he had passed his early days. Here on the heath were riches unknown to him until now; for flowers,blackberries,and bilberries were to be found in profusionprofusion n.丰富,so large and sweet that when they were crushed beneath the tread of passersby the heather was stained with their red juice. Here was a barrow and yonder another. Then columns of smoke rose into the still air; it was a heath fire,they told him—how brightly it blazed in the dark evening!

雨尔根一会儿待在屋里,一会儿跑到外面去。到了第三天,他就在这儿住熟了;这儿就好像他曾在那里度过童年的、沙丘上那座渔人的屋子一样。这片荒地上有另外一种丰富的东西,这儿长满了石楠花、黑莓和覆盆子。它们是又大又甜;行人的脚一踩着它们,红色的汁液就像雨点似的朝下滴。这儿有一个古坟;那儿也有一个古坟。一根一根的烟柱升向沉静的天空。人们说这是荒地上的野花。它在黑夜里放出美丽的光彩。

The fourth day came,and the funeral festivities were at an end,they were to go back from the landdunes to the sanddunes.

现在是第四天了。入葬的宴会结束了。他们要从这土丘的地带回到沙丘的地带去。

“Ours are better,” said the old fisherman,Jurgens fosterfather; “these have no strength.”

“我们的地方最好,”雨尔根的养父说,“这些土丘没有气魄。”

And they spoke of the way in which the sanddunes had come inland,and it seemed very easy to understand. This is how they explained it,于是他们就谈起沙丘是怎样形成的。事情似乎是非常容易理解。