《野性的呼唤》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

“Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom’s chain; Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain.”

「往昔的渴望在游荡中跃动，不耐习俗的锁链；野性的血脉再度从冬眠中苏醒。」

Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.

巴克不读报纸，否则他就会知道麻烦正在酝酿，不仅是为他自己，也为每一只潮水边的狗，那些肌肉强壮、长着温暖长毛的狗，从普吉特海湾到圣迭戈。因为人们在北极的黑暗中摸索，发现了一种黄色金属，又因为轮船和运输公司大肆鼓吹这一发现，成千上万的人正涌向北方。这些人需要狗，而他们想要的狗是沉重的狗，有强壮的肌肉可供劳作，有毛茸茸的皮毛保护它们免受霜冻。

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller’s place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants’ cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller’s boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

巴克住在阳光亲吻的圣克拉拉谷的一所大房子里。那地方叫米勒法官的宅院。它远离道路，半隐在树木之间，透过树木可以瞥见宽阔凉爽的游廊，环绕着房子的四边。通往房子的碎石车道蜿蜒穿过宽阔伸展的草坪，在高大杨树交错的枝条下延伸。后面的东西比前面更加宽敞。那里有巨大的马厩，十几个马夫和男孩在那里发号施令，一排排藤蔓覆盖的仆人小屋，无尽而整齐的外屋，长长的葡萄架，绿色的牧场，果园和浆果地。然后还有自流井的抽水设备，以及大水泥槽，米勒法官的孩子们在那里晨浴，并在炎热的下午保持凉爽。

And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,—strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

而在这片广阔的土地上，巴克统治着。他在这里出生，在这里度过了他四年的生活。诚然，还有别的狗。在如此广阔的地方不可能没有别的狗，但它们不算数。它们来来去去，住在狗群众多的狗舍里，或者像日本哈巴狗图茨，或墨西哥无毛狗伊莎贝尔那样，隐没在房子的深处，这些奇怪的生物很少把鼻子伸出户外，也很少脚踏地面。另一方面，还有狐狸梗犬，至少二十只，它们对着从窗户里向外看它们的图茨和伊莎贝尔发出可怕的吠叫，而图茨和伊莎贝尔则被一群拿着扫帚和拖把的女仆保护着。

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king,—king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.

但巴克既不是看家狗，也不是狗舍狗。整个领域都是他的。他跳进游泳池，或与法官的儿子们去打猎；他陪伴法官的女儿莫莉和爱丽丝，在漫长的黄昏或清晨漫步；在冬夜，他躺在法官脚边，图书馆炉火熊熊；他背着法官的孙子们，或在草地上让他们打滚，并在他们狂野冒险的脚步中守护他们，直到马厩院子的喷泉，甚至更远，到围场和浆果地。在梗犬中，他专横地踱步，对图茨和伊莎贝尔完全不理不睬，因为他是王，是米勒法官地盘上所有爬行、蠕动、飞翔之物的王，包括人类。