《汤姆·索亚历险记》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

“What’s gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!”

「那孩子到底跑哪儿去了，我真是纳闷。汤姆！」

No answer.

没有回答。

The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for “style,” not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:

老太太把眼镜往下拉了拉，从镜框上面往屋里四下张望。接着又把眼镜往上推了推，从镜框下面往外看。像找孩子这样的小事，她很少或者从来不透过镜片去看。这副眼镜是她的体面眼镜，是她心头的骄傲，是为「派头」配的，不是为实用配的。她就是透过一对炉盖看，也照样看得清。她一时显得有点困惑，随后开口说道，语气并不凶狠，但声音还是大得能让家具听见：

“Well, I lay if I get hold of you I’ll—”

「哼，我敢说，要是我抓住你，我就……」

She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.

她没有把话说完，因为这时她已经弯下腰，用扫帚往床底下乱捅，所以需要换气来给这一下下的捅打点标点。她什么也没捅出来，只捅出了一只猫。

“I never did see the beat of that boy!”

「我从来没见过这么难缠的孩子！」

She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and “jimpson” weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:

她走到敞开的门口，站在那儿，朝外面那片由番茄藤和「吉姆森」杂草构成的园子张望。没有汤姆。于是她提高嗓门，调到一个估计能传得很远的音高，喊道：

“Y-o-u-u TOM!”

「你……汤……姆！」

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.

她身后传来一点轻微的响动，她转过身，正好抓住一个小男孩的圆外套后摆，止住了他的逃跑。

“There! I might ’a’ thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?”

「好啊！我早该想到那个壁橱。你在里面干什么来着？」

“Nothing.”

「没干什么。」

“Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?”

「没干什么！看看你的手。再看看你的嘴。那是什么东西？」

“I don’t know, aunt.”

「我不知道，姨妈。」

“Well, I know. It’s jam—that’s what it is. Forty times I’ve said if you didn’t let that jam alone I’d skin you. Hand me that switch.”

「哼，我可知道。是果酱，就是果酱。我说过四十回了，你要是再碰那果酱，我就剥了你的皮。把鞭子递给我。」

The switch hovered in the air—the peril was desperate—

鞭子在半空中晃着，危险万分。

“My! Look behind you, aunt!”

「哎呀！姨妈，看你后面！」

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.

老太太猛地转过身，一把把裙子撩开，免得遭殃。那孩子立刻逃走了，爬上高高的木板围墙，一翻过去就不见了。

His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh.

波莉姨妈惊讶地站了一会儿，随后轻轻笑了起来。

“Hang the boy, can’t I never learn anything? Ain’t he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can’t learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what’s coming? He ’pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it’s all down again and I can’t hit him a lick. I ain’t doing my duty by that boy, and that’s the Lord’s truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says. I’m a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He’s full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he’s my own dead sister’s boy, poor thing, and I ain’t got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon it’s so. He’ll play hookey this evening,[*] and I’ll just be obleeged to make him work, tomorrow, to punish him. It’s mighty hard to make him work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more than he hates anything else, and I’ve got to do some of my duty by him, or I’ll be the ruination of the child.”

「这该死的孩子，我怎么就一点也学不会呢？他这样捉弄我，难道还不够多，我到现在还不该防着他吗？可是老傻瓜才是最大的傻瓜。俗话说，老狗学不会新把戏。可是我的天，他捉弄人的法子两天里从来没有一样的，叫人怎么知道下一招是什么？他好像知道，他能惹我生气到什么地步才收手，也知道只要他能把我拖住一分钟，或者把我逗笑，那就全完了，我一下也打不着他。我对那孩子没尽到责任，老天知道，这是千真万确的。圣经上说，不忍用杖打儿子的，是恨恶他。我知道，我这是在为我和他两个人积攒罪过和痛苦。他满身都是魔鬼，可是老天爷啊！他是我那死去的亲妹妹的孩子，可怜的小东西，我不知怎么就是狠不下心来揍他。每次我放过他，我的良心就疼得厉害，每次我打他，我这颗老心又几乎要碎了。唉，唉，圣经上说，人为妇人所生，日子短少，多有患难，我想这话说得不错。他今晚准要逃学，明天我就非得让他干活来惩罚他不可。星期六所有孩子都放假，偏要他干活，这可真够难的，可是他最恨干活，比恨什么都厉害，我总得对他尽点责任，不然我就把这孩子毁了。」

[*] Southwestern for “afternoon”

〔＊〕西南部方言，意为「下午」。