In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. —
在拉曼恰的一个村庄里，我不想提起它的名字，不久前住着一个绅士，他家里有一支槍放在槍架上，一塊佈满老茧的盾牌，一匹瘦弱的骡子，还有一只用来赶兔子的灰狗。 —

An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. —
他每天吃的是烩牛肉比羊肉多一点，几乎每天晚上吃沙拉，星期六吃剩菜，星期五吃扁豆，偶尔星期天多吃一只鸽子，这些吃的已经用掉了他四分之三的收入。 —

The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. —
其它收入则用来购买一件细布双层上衣，天鹅绒裤子和与之相匹配的鞋子，用来度假；而在工作日，他穿着他最好的家纺就已经显得雄伟黝黑。 —

He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook. —
他家里有一名年过四十的家政管理员，一名未满二十岁的侄女，还有一个在田间和市场上打理事务的少年，他既会给骡子套上鞍，又会使用弯刀。 —

The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; —
这位绅士已经接近五十岁了； —

he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. —
他身体强壮，面容苍白，早起的习惯，喜欢打猎。 —

They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was called Quexana. —
人们说他的姓是奇克撒达或克萨达（对于在这个问题上写作的作者之间存在一些分歧），尽管从合理的推测上看，他应该叫做克普夏纳。 —

This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; —
但这对我们的故事来说毫无关系； —

it will be enough not to stray a hair’s breadth from the truth in the telling of it.
重要的是在讲述故事时不离真相一毫。

You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; —
你们应该知道，提到的那位绅士每当有空闲时间（几乎全年）都会投身于阅读骑士小说，沉迷其中，以致几乎割舍了打猎以及管理财产； —

and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get. —
他的热情和痴迷达到了一个顶点，以至于他卖掉了许多土地来买书籍，尤其是那些著名费利西亚诺·德·席尔瓦创作的书籍。 —

But of all there were none he liked so well as those of the famous Feliciano de Silva’s composition, for their lucidity of style and complicated conceits were as pearls in his sight, particularly when in his reading he came upon courtships and cartels, where he often found passages like “the reason of the unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that with reason I murmur at your beauty; —
但在所有的书中，他最喜欢费利西亚诺·德·席尔瓦的作品，因为它们的风格清晰，构思繁复，对他来说就像珍珠一样，特别是当他读到一些充满梦幻和挑战的场景，比如“我因无法理解你的美，导致我的理性受到无理的挑战，我的理性微弱的如此程度，以至于有理由对你的美吹毛求疵； —

” or again, “the high heavens, that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you deserving of the desert your greatness deserves. —
”或者，“高高的苍穹，以你的神圣仿佛用星星来保护你，使你配得上你伟大的自然所配得到的美德。 —

” Over conceits of this sort the poor gentleman lost his wits, and used to lie awake striving to understand them and worm the meaning out of them; —
”在这样的构思中，这位可怜的绅士迷失了，常常熬夜努力理解，并费力地去推测它们的含义； —

what Aristotle himself could not have made out or extracted had he come to life again for that special purpose. —
即便是亚里士多德本人活过来，要探究出这些构思中的含义，也亦难。 —

He was not at all easy about the wounds which Don Belianis gave and took, because it seemed to him that, great as were the surgeons who had cured him, he must have had his face and body covered all over with seams and scars. —
他对唐·贝利亚尼斯给予和承受的伤口一点也不满意，因为他觉得尽管医生们治愈了他，但他的脸和身体肯定到处都是疤痕和伤痕。 —

He commended, however, the author’s way of ending his book with the promise of that interminable adventure, and many a time was he tempted to take up his pen and finish it properly as is there proposed, which no doubt he would have done, and made a successful piece of work of it too, had not greater and more absorbing thoughts prevented him.
然而，他赞赏作者以那无尽的冒险作为结尾的方式，并且他常常动心要拿起笔，按照那里所提出的完成这本书，毫无疑问他本来会这么做的，而且也会取得成功，如果不是更伟大更吸引人的想法阻止了他。

Many an argument did he have with the curate of his village (a learned man, and a graduate of Siguenza) as to which had been the better knight, Palmerin of England or Amadis of Gaul. Master Nicholas, the village barber, however, used to say that neither of them came up to the Knight of Phoebus, and that if there was any that could compare with him it was Don Galaor, the brother of Amadis of Gaul, because he had a spirit that was equal to every occasion, and was no finikin knight, nor lachrymose like his brother, while in the matter of valour he was not a whit behind him. —
他曾和村里的教士（学富五车，西贡萨大学毕业生）争论过谁是更出色的骑士，是英格兰的帕尔米林还是高卢的阿玛迪斯。然而，村里的理发师尼古拉斯大师却说，他们两个都不如太阳神骑士，若非他有一颗不畏艰难的精神，也不像他的兄弟那样爱哭鼻子，而在勇气方面他也不逊色于他。 —

In short, he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them; —
总之，他如痴如醉于书中，白天从拂晓到天黑熬夜，夜晚则从日落到日出埋头苦读; —

and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits. —
既少睡又多读，导致他的脑袋变得干燥，失去了理智。 —

His fancy grew full of what he used to read about in his books, enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies, and all sorts of impossible nonsense; —
他的幻想充满了他在书中所读到的内容，着魔于魔法、争吵、战斗、挑战、创伤、求爱、痛苦和各种不可能的胡说八道; —

and it so possessed his mind that the whole fabric of invention and fancy he read of was true, that to him no history in the world had more reality in it. —
他的头脑被这些占据得如此之深，他所读到的想象和幻想世界对他来说已经变得真实无比。 —

He used to say the Cid Ruy Diaz was a very good knight, but that he was not to be compared with the Knight of the Burning Sword who with one back-stroke cut in half two fierce and monstrous giants. —
他觉得西德鲁伊迪亚兹是一个非常出色的骑士，但与能一剑斩断两只凶恶怪物的燃烧之剑骑士相比还是不足。 —

He thought more of Bernardo del Carpio because at Roncesvalles he slew Roland in spite of enchantments, availing himself of the artifice of Hercules when he strangled Antaeus the son of Terra in his arms. —
他更看重贝尔纳多·德尔卡尔皮奥，因为他在龙塞瓦勒斯击败罗兰，尽管那里布满了魔法，他利用了海格力士的巧计，将大地之子安塔埃俄在他怀里勒死。 —

He approved highly of the giant Morgante, because, although of the giant breed which is always arrogant and ill-conditioned, he alone was affable and well-bred. —
他特别赞赏巨人莫甘特，因为虽然是那种总是傲慢而不易相处的巨人，但他却和蔼可亲且有品位。 —

But above all he admired Reinaldos of Montalban, especially when he saw him sallying forth from his castle and robbing everyone he met, and when beyond the seas he stole that image of Mahomet which, as his history says, was entirely of gold. —
但他最崇拜蒙特尔班的雷纳尔多，尤其是当他从城堡中出发抢劫所遇之人时，以及在海外偷了那尊金质先知穆罕默德雕像时。 —

To have a bout of kicking at that traitor of a Ganelon he would have given his housekeeper, and his niece into the bargain.
如果有机会揍背叛者加内隆，他愿意把他的管家和他的侄女都送给他。

In short, his wits being quite gone, he hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon, and that was that he fancied it was right and requisite, as well for the support of his own honour as for the service of his country, that he should make a knight-errant of himself, roaming the world over in full armour and on horseback in quest of adventures, and putting in practice himself all that he had read of as being the usual practices of knights-errant; —
简而言之，他的头脑完全失常，他想到了世界上疯狂人士从未想到过的奇怪想法，那就是他认为自己应当自封为骑士-征途，身披全副铠甲，骑马在世界各地寻找冒险，实践他所读到的有关骑士-征途的一切做法； —

righting every kind of wrong, and exposing himself to peril and danger from which, in the issue, he was to reap eternal renown and fame. —
纠正各种不义行为，面临危险和困境，最终收获永恒的荣耀和名声； —

Already the poor man saw himself crowned by the might of his arm Emperor of Trebizond at least; —
这个可怜的男人已经看到自己成功地由自己的臂力加冕为特雷比松帝国皇帝； —

and so, led away by the intense enjoyment he found in these pleasant fancies, he set himself forthwith to put his scheme into execution.
因此，受到这些愉快幻想带来的极大享受的驱使，他立即着手付诸实施自己的计划；

The first thing he did was to clean up some armour that had belonged to his great-grandfather, and had been for ages lying forgotten in a corner eaten with rust and covered with mildew. —
他所做的第一件事就是清理一套曾属于他曾祖父的盔甲，这套盔甲已经被遗忘许久，被锈蚀腐蚀，被发霉覆盖着； —

He scoured and polished it as best he could, but he perceived one great defect in it, that it had no closed helmet, nothing but a simple morion. —
他尽其所能擦拭和打磨它，但他发现了一个重大缺陷，那就是没有密闭的头盔，只有一个简单的头盔； —

This deficiency, however, his ingenuity supplied, for he contrived a kind of half-helmet of pasteboard which, fitted on to the morion, looked like a whole one. —
然而，他的聪明才智弥补了这一缺陷，他设计了一种用纸板制成的半头盔，安装在头盔上，看起来像是一个完整的头盔； —

It is true that, in order to see if it was strong and fit to stand a cut, he drew his sword and gave it a couple of slashes, the first of which undid in an instant what had taken him a week to do. —
为了测试它是否坚固，并适合经受一剑砍击，他拔出剑，给了它两个劈砍，第一次劈砍瞬间摧毁了他花了一周时间做的工作； —

The ease with which he had knocked it to pieces disconcerted him somewhat, and to guard against that danger he set to work again, fixing bars of iron on the inside until he was satisfied with its strength; —
他发现轻易将其打碎令他有些犹豫，为了防范这种危险，他又开始工作，将铁条固定在内部，直到他对其强度感到满意； —

and then, not caring to try any more experiments with it, he passed it and adopted it as a helmet of the most perfect construction.
然后，不想再对其进行任何实验，他通过了它，并将其采用为最完善的头盔；

He next proceeded to inspect his hack, which, with more quartos than a real and more blemishes than the steed of Gonela, that “tantum pellis et ossa fuit,” surpassed in his eyes the Bucephalus of Alexander or the Babieca of the Cid. Four days were spent in thinking what name to give him, because (as he said to himself) it was not right that a horse belonging to a knight so famous, and one with such merits of his own, should be without some distinctive name, and he strove to adapt it so as to indicate what he had been before belonging to a knight-errant, and what he then was; —
接下来是检查他的老马，有比真正马还要多的铜板，有比冈尼拉的坐骑还要多的瑕疵，这在他看来超越了亚历山大的布塞法勒斯或西德的巴比卡； —

for it was only reasonable that, his master taking a new character, he should take a new name, and that it should be a distinguished and full-sounding one, befitting the new order and calling he was about to follow. —
他花了四天时间考虑给他取什么名字，因为（他自言自语）一个如此有名望的骑士所属的马，一个有着自己优点的马，不应该没有某个与众不同的名字，他努力使其适应以示他以前属于一位著名骑士，现在属于一位骑士-征途的主人；因为他主人换了新身份，他也应该换一个新名字，这个名字应该是优美且响亮的，与他即将追随的新秩序和职业相称。 —

And so, after having composed, struck out, rejected, added to, unmade, and remade a multitude of names out of his memory and fancy, he decided upon calling him Rocinante, a name, to his thinking, lofty, sonorous, and significant of his condition as a hack before he became what he now was, the first and foremost of all the hacks in the world.
因此，经过创作、删改、拒绝、增补、毁灭和重新制作出无数名字后，他决定给他起名叫Rocinante，他认为这个名字高尚、响亮，寓意着他在成为现在这个世界上第一流的骡子之前，是一匹卑微的骑马的。

Having got a name for his horse so much to his taste, he was anxious to get one for himself, and he was eight days more pondering over this point, till at last he made up his mind to call himself “Don Quixote,” whence, as has been already said, the authors of this veracious history have inferred that his name must have been beyond a doubt Quixada, and not Quesada as others would have it. —
给他的马起了一个如此中意的名字后，他急于给自己取一个名字，再思考了八天，最终决定称自己为“唐·吉诃德”，正如本实在历史的作者们已经推断出来的，他的名字毫无疑问应该是奎萨达，而不是其他人所认为的克萨达。 —

Recollecting, however, that the valiant Amadis was not content to call himself curtly Amadis and nothing more, but added the name of his kingdom and country to make it famous, and called himself Amadis of Gaul, he, like a good knight, resolved to add on the name of his, and to style himself Don Quixote of La Mancha, whereby, he considered, he described accurately his origin and country, and did honour to it in taking his surname from it.
然而，想到英勇的阿玛迪斯不满足于简单地称自己为阿玛迪斯而已，而是加上了他的王国和国家的名字以使之闻名，称自己为哥伦的阿玛迪斯，他，像一个好骑士一样，决定加上他的名字，并称自己为拉曼恰的唐·吉诃德，因此，他认为，这样他准确地描述了他的出身和国家，并且以取自这里的姓氏向它表示敬意。

So then, his armour being furbished, his morion turned into a helmet, his hack christened, and he himself confirmed, he came to the conclusion that nothing more was needed now but to look out for a lady to be in love with; —
所以，他的盔甲已经磨光，他的钢盔变成了头盔，他的骡子取了名字，他自己也被确认，他得出结论，现在只需寻找一位可爱的女士谈恋爱； —

for a knight-errant without love was like a tree without leaves or fruit, or a body without a soul. —
因为一个没有爱情的骑士就像一棵没有叶子或果实的树，或者一具没有灵魂的身体。 —

As he said to himself, “If, for my sins, or by my good fortune, I come across some giant hereabouts, a common occurrence with knights-errant, and overthrow him in one onslaught, or cleave him asunder to the waist, or, in short, vanquish and subdue him, will it not be well to have some one I may send him to as a present, that he may come in and fall on his knees before my sweet lady, and in a humble, submissive voice say, ‘I am the giant Caraculiambro, lord of the island of Malindrania, vanquished in single combat by the never sufficiently extolled knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, who has commanded me to present myself before your Grace, that your Highness dispose of me at your pleasure’? —
正如他对自己说的，“如果，因为我的罪孽，或是我的好运，我在这附近遇到某个巨人，这在骑士中是常有的事，我一举击败他，或是把他从腰部劈开，或者简单来说，征服和制服他，如果我能有一个我可以赠送他作为礼物的人，他可以前呈，并跪在我可爱的女士面前，用谦卑、顺从的声音说：‘我是加里姆布罗岛的巨人卡拉库林布罗，马恰岛的永不够得的骑士唐·吉诃德所击败，他命令我前来向你殿下致意，让你大人按你的心愿处置我’？ —

” Oh, how our good gentleman enjoyed the delivery of this speech, especially when he had thought of some one to call his Lady! —
”哦，我们的绅士如何享受这番演说，尤其是当他想到可以称为他的女士的某人时！ —

There was, so the story goes, in a village near his own a very good-looking farm-girl with whom he had been at one time in love, though, so far as is known, she never knew it nor gave a thought to the matter. —
据说，在他附近的一个村庄里有个十分漂亮的农场女孩，他曾经爱过她，尽管据所知，她从未知晓，也从未考虑过这件事。 —

Her name was Aldonza Lorenzo, and upon her he thought fit to confer the title of Lady of his Thoughts; —
她的名字叫阿尔敦扎·洛伦佐，他认为适合授予她他心思的贵夫人的称号。 —

and after some search for a name which should not be out of harmony with her own, and should suggest and indicate that of a princess and great lady, he decided upon calling her Dulcinea del Toboso — she being of El Toboso — a name, to his mind, musical, uncommon, and significant, like all those he had already bestowed upon himself and the things belonging to him.
之后搜索了一番，寻找一个名字，这个名字不应该与她自己的名字不协调，应该暗示并指明一个公主和贵族的名字，他决定称她为Dulcinea del Toboso — 她来自埃尔托博索 — 这个名字，在他看来，既优美又罕见，而且意义深远，就像他已经给自己和属于他的事物起的所有名字一样。