[Novel] 《能言马与男孩》

《能言马与男孩》第1期:沙斯塔出奔(1)

Chapter 1 How Shasta Set out on His Travels
第1章 沙斯塔出奔
THIS is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him.
这是个惊险故事，发生在黄金时代的纳尼亚王国和卡乐门王国，以及两国之间的地方。当年彼得是纳尼亚王国的至尊王，他的弟弟和两个妹妹，都是在他领导下的国王和女王。
In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father. The boy's name was Shasta. On most days Arsheesh went out in his boat to fish in the morning, and in the afternoon he harnessed his donkey to a cart and loaded the cart with fish and went a mile or so southward to the village to sell it. If it had sold well he would come home in a moderately good temper and say nothing to Shasta, but if it had sold badly he would find fault with him and perhaps beat him. There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do, mending and washing the nets, cooking the supper, and cleaning the cottage in which they both lived.
在那些岁月里，在卡乐门王国遥远的南方，大海之滨的一个小港湾里，住着一个穷苦的渔夫叫做阿什伊什，有个孩子跟他一起住在那儿，管他叫爸爸。这孩子的名字叫沙斯塔。在大部分日子里，阿什伊什早晨坐船出去打鱼，下午把他的驴了安上一辆货车，把鱼装在车子里，走上一英里光景的路，到南边的村子里去出售。如果鱼卖得顺利，他回家时脾气就比较温和，对沙斯塔也不噜苏；然而，如果卖鱼的生意不好，他就会找沙斯塔的错儿，或者打他一顿。总是可以找到沙斯塔的错的，因为沙斯塔得干许许多多的活儿：修网洗网啰，做晚饭啰，打扫他们俩合住的房屋啰。
Shasta was not at all interested in anything that lay south of his home because he had once or twice been to the village with Arsheesh and he knew that there was nothing very interesting there. In the village he only met other men who were just like his father - men with long, dirty robes, and wooden shoes turned up at the toe, and turbans on their heads, and beards, talking to one another very slowly about things that sounded dull. But he was very interested in everything that lay to the North because no one ever went that way and he was never allowed to go there himself. When he was sitting out of doors mending the nets, and all alone, he would often look eagerly to the North. One could see nothing but a grassy slope running up to a level ridge and beyond that the sky with perhaps a few birds in it.
沙斯塔对他家南边的任何东西压根儿都不感兴趣，因为他跟阿什伊什到村子里去过一两次，知道那儿没什么有趣的事物。他在村子里只遇见跟他父亲一模一样的人们—穿着肮脏的长袍，脚蹬足尖翘起的木头鞋子，头戴缠头巾，满脸胡子，慢吞吞地讲些听起来单调乏味的话。但他对北边的一切东西都很感兴趣，因为没有人往北边去过，也从来不许他到北边去。他独自一人坐在屋子外补网时，时常充满渴望地朝北方眺望。望出去可只能见到一个青草茂盛的山坡，往上延伸到一个平坦的山脊，山脊外便是天空了，也许空中有几只飞鸟。
Sometimes if Arsheesh was there Shasta would say, "O my Father, what is there beyond that hill?" And then if the fisherman was in a bad temper he would box Shasta's ears and tell him to attend to his work. Or if he was in a peaceable mood he would say, "O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle questions. For one of the poets has said, `Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the ship of folly towards the rock of indigence'."
有时候，如果阿什伊什在他身边、沙斯塔会说：“我的父亲啊，小山外是什么地方?”如果渔夫心情不好，他就要打沙斯塔的耳光，叫他专心干好他的话儿。或者，如果他碰巧心平气和，他就会教诲他道：“我的儿子啊，别让不相干的问题分了你的心。有位诗人说道：心思用在生意上，乃是发财致富的根本；凡是打听与此无关的问题的人，便是正在把愚蠢的船向贫穷的礁石撞去。”
Shasta thought that beyond the hill there must be some delightful secret which his father wished to hide from him. In reality, however, the fisherman talked like this because he didn't know what lay to the North. Neither did he care. He had a very practical mind.
沙斯培认为：小山外必定有些令人愉快的秘密，他的爸爸却希望瞒过他，不让他知道。然而，事实上，渔夫之所以这样说，是因为他自己也不知道北方是什么地方。他并不关心这种问题。他的头脑是十分讲究实际的。
One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver. The spike of a helmet projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of chain mail. By his side hung a curving scimitar, a round shield studded with bosses of brass hung at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance. His face was dark, but this did not surprise Shasta because all the people of Calormen are like that; what did surprise him was the man's beard which was dyed crimson, and curled and gleaming with scented oil. But Arsheesh knew by the gold on the stranger's bare arm that he was a Tarkaan or great lord, and he bowed kneeling before him till his beard touched the earth and made signs to Shasta to kneel also.
有一天，从南方来了一个陌生人，他跟沙斯塔以前见过的任何人都截然不同。他骑一匹强壮的花斑马，鬃毛和尾巴飘扬摇晃，马镫和马笼头都是镶银的。头盔的尖端从他那丝绸缠头巾中间突了出来，他上身穿一件锁子甲。他的身边挂一把弯弯的短刀，背后插一个圆圆的嵌着铜块的盾牌，右手握一柄长矛。他的脸是黧黑的，但沙斯塔对此并不感到奇怪、因为所有卡乐门王国的人都是这个样子的；使他诧异的是：那个人的胡子染得血红，拳曲而闪闪发光，还散发出阵阵油香。但阿什伊什凭着陌生人赤裸胳膊上的金环，认出他是个“泰坎”，或大王爷，他弯腰跪在泰坎的面前，直至胡子碰到了地面，他还作手势叫沙斯塔也跪下来。
The stranger demanded hospitality for the night which of course the fisherman dared not refuse. All the best they had was set before the Tarkaan for supper (and he didn't think much of it) and Shasta, as always happened when the fisherman had company, was given a hunk of bread and turned out of the cottage. On these occasions he usually slept with the donkey in its little thatched stable. But it was much too early to go to sleep yet, and Shasta, who had never learned that it is wrong to listen behind doors, sat down with his ear to a crack in the wooden wall of the cottage to hear what the grown-ups were talking about. And this is what he heard.
陌生人要求招待他住一宿，渔夫当然不敢拒绝。他们把最好的食物都摆在泰坎面前，作为他的晚餐(他可都瞧不上眼)：至于沙斯塔呢，就像以往渔夫有客人时那样，给了他一大块面包就把他打发出屋子去了。遇到这种情况，沙斯塔总是跟驴子一起睡在它小小的茅草棚里。然而，睡觉还太早，沙斯塔坐下来，把耳朵凑在屋于木板墙的一条裂缝上，听大人们正在进行的谈话。沙斯塔从来不懂得，在门外窃听是错误的。下面便是他听到的谈话。