《秘密花园》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really want to know how to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.

玛丽·伦诺克斯被送到米塞尔斯威特庄园，去和姑父一起生活时，人人都说她是有史以来长得最不讨人喜欢的孩子。这话不假。她小脸瘦削，身子瘦小，头发稀疏发黄，一副酸溜溜的表情。她头发是黄的，脸也是黄的，因为她出生在印度，总是这病那病不断。她父亲在英国政府里任职，一直忙忙碌碌，自己也病病歪歪。她母亲是个大美人，只爱参加聚会，和快活的人一起寻欢作乐。她压根儿就不想要个小姑娘，玛丽一出生，她就把孩子交给一个阿妈照管，还让阿妈明白，要是她想讨太太欢心，就得尽量别让孩子露面。于是，玛丽还是个病恹恹、爱哭闹、丑巴巴的小婴儿时，就被藏得远远的。等她长成个病恹恹、爱哭闹、蹒跚学步的小东西时，照样被藏得远远的。她记事以来，除了阿妈和其他当地仆人的黑脸，就没怎么见过别的面孔。这些人总是顺着她，事事由着她，因为太太要是被她的哭声吵到，就会发脾气。所以，到六岁时，她成了个要多专横有多专横、要多自私有多自私的小猪猡。来教她读书写字的年轻英国女教师讨厌她极了，三个月就辞了职。后来别的女教师来接替，待的时间总比第一个还短。所以，要不是玛丽自己真心想学会读书，她根本连字母都学不会。

One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.

一个热得可怕的早晨，她大约九岁时，醒来时心情很坏，看到站在床边的仆人不是她的阿妈，心情就更坏了。

“Why did you come?” she said to the strange woman. “I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me.”

「你来干什么？」她对那个陌生女人说。「我不让你待在这儿。叫我的阿妈来。」

The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.

那女人神色惊慌，只是结结巴巴地说阿妈来不了。玛丽大发脾气，对她又打又踢，她显得更加惊慌，只是反复说阿妈不可能到小姐这儿来。

There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a flowerbed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she returned.

那天早晨，空气里有一种神秘的气氛。什么事都不按常规进行，好几个当地仆人似乎不见了踪影，玛丽看见的那些人则灰着脸，神色惊恐，要么溜着走，要么匆匆来去。可是没人肯告诉她任何事，她的阿妈也没有来。随着上午过去，她真被独自丢在了一边。最后，她溜达到花园里，开始在游廊附近一棵树下自己玩。她假装在做一个花坛，把大朵大朵鲜红的木槿花插进一小堆一小堆土里，一边越来越生气，一边自言自语，念叨着等赛迪回来她要说什么话，要骂什么名。

“Pig! Pig! Daughter of pigs!” she said, because to call a native a pig is the worst insult of all.

「猪！猪！猪崽子！」她说，因为骂当地人是猪，是最厉害的侮辱。