If I could have a thousand years–just one little thousand years–more of life, I might, in that time, draw near enough to true Romance to touch the hem of her robe.
如果我能多活一千年,只有一小段时间,我可能在那段时间里靠近真正的浪漫,触摸她长袍的边。

Up from ships men come, and from waste places and forest and road and garret and cellar to maunder to me in strangely distributed words of the things they have seen and considered. —
人们从船上、荒地、森林、道路、阁楼和地窖走出来,用他们所见和思考的事情在我面前胡言乱语。 —

The recording of their tales is no more than a matter of ears and fingers. —
记录他们的故事只是依靠耳朵和手指。 —

There are only two fates I dread–deafness and writer’s cramp. —
我只害怕两种命运——失聪和手指抽筋。 —

The hand is yet steady; let the ear bear the blame if these printed words be not in the order they were delivered to me by Hunky Magee, true camp-follower of fortune.
手还是稳定的;如果这些印刷文字不是按照汉基·马吉真实的陈述次序,那就怪我的耳朵。

Biography shall claim you but an instant–I first knew Hunky when he was head-waiter at Chubb’s little beefsteak restaurant and cafe on Third Avenue. —
传记只会占据你片刻时间——我第一次认识汉基是当他在第三大道的查布小牛排餐厅和咖啡馆担任主等候员时。 —

There was only one waiter besides.
除了他,只有一个服务员。

Then, successively, I caromed against him in the little streets of the Big City after his trip to Alaska, his voyage as cook with a treasure- seeking expedition to the Caribbean, and his failure as a pearl-fisher in the Arkansas River. Between these dashes into the land of adventure he usually came back to Chubb’s for a while. —
接着,我在这个大城市的小街上与他多次碰到,他在阿拉斯加旅行后,他在加勒比海寻宝远航时做的厨师,以及他在阿肯色河作为捕珍珠的失败经历。在这些冒险之间,他通常会回到查布酒吧一段时间。 —

Chubb’s was a port for him when gales blew too high; —
对他来说,查布酒吧是一个避风港, —

but when you dined there and Hunky went for your steak you never knew whether he would come to anchor in the kitchen or in the Malayan Archipelago. —
当大风刮得太猛时;但当你在那里用餐,汉基为你端上牛排时,你永远不知道他会停靠在厨房还是马来亚群岛。 —

You wouldn’t care for his description–he was soft of voice and hard of face, and rarely had to use more than one eye to quell any approach to a disturbance among Chubb’s customers.
你不会喜欢他的外貌,他说话声音很柔和,脸皮很厚,很少需要动用眼睛来制止查布酒吧顾客之间的争执。

One night I found Hunky standing at a corner of Twenty-third Street and Third Avenue after an absence of several months. —
一个晚上,我在第三大道和第二十三街的一个角落找到了汉基,他已经消失了几个月。 —

In ten minutes we had a little round table between us in a quiet corner, and my ears began to get busy. —
十分钟后,我们在一个安静的角落有了一张小圆桌,我的耳朵开始变得忙碌起来。 —

I leave out my sly ruses and feints to draw Hunky’s word-of-mouth blows–it all came to something like this:
我不再使用狡猾的诡计和假动作引诱汉基出口舌的打击 - 结果就是变成了这样:

“Speaking of the next election,” said Hunky, “did you ever know much about Indians? No? —
“说到下一次选举,” 汉基说道, “你了解印第安人吗?不了解吗? —

I don’t mean the Cooper, Beadle, cigar-store, or Laughing Water kind-I mean the modern Indian–the kind that takes Greek prizes in colleges and scalps the half-back on the other side in football games. —
我指的不是库珀(作家)、皮尔斯基(书商)、雪茄店或者笑水之类的那种印第安人 - 我指的是现代印第安人 - 那些获得希腊大奖的大学生和在橄榄球比赛中割掉对方后卫头皮的那种人。 —

The kind that eats macaroons and tea in the afternoons with the daughter of the professor of biology, and fills up on grasshoppers and fried rattlesnake when they get back to the ancestral wickiup.
我指的是那些下午和生物学教授的女儿一起吃马卡龙和喝茶的人,回到祖传茅屋后又吃蝗虫和炸响尾蛇的人。

“Well, they ain’t so bad. —
“嗯,他们并不坏。 —

I like ‘em better than most foreigners that have come over in the last few hundred years. —
我比过去几百年里移民来的大多数外国人更喜欢他们。 —

One thing about the Indian is this: —
印第安人的一点就是: —

when he mixes with the white race he swaps all his own vices for them of the pale-faces–and he retains all his own virtues. —
当他与白人混在一起时,他用自己的恶习换取了白人的恶习 - 而他保留了自己的优点。 —

Well, his virtues are enough to call out the reserves whenever he lets ‘em loose. —
好吧,他的优点足以在他发威时召集后备部队。 —

But the imported foreigners adopt our virtues and keep their own vices–and it’s going to take our whole standing army some day to police that gang.
但是进口的外国人会采纳我们的美德,却保持自己的恶习 - 将来我们整个常备军都需要来管理那帮人。

“But let me tell you about the trip I took to Mexico with High jack Snakefeeder, a Cherokee twice removed, a graduate of a Pennsylvania college and the latest thing in pointed-toed, rubber-heeled, patent kid moccasins and Madras hunting-shirt with turned-back cuffs. —
“但是让我告诉你我和海杰克·斯内克菲德一起去墨西哥的旅行吧,他是一个被排除在外的切罗基人,毕业于宾夕法尼亚州的大学,是尖头胶底专利儿童鹿皮鞋和马德拉斯狩猎衫的最新潮流。 —

He was a friend of mine. I met him in Tahlequah when I was out there during the land boom, and we got thick. —
他是我的一个朋友。我在土贵乌遇到他的时候,正值那个土地繁荣时期,我们变得很亲密。 —

He had got all there was out of colleges and had come back to lead his people out of Egypt. He was a man of first-class style and wrote essays, and had been invited to visit rich guys’ houses in Boston and such places.
他从大学中得到了一切,然后回来带领他的人民离开埃及。他是一个非常有风度的人,写论文,获邀去波士顿等地拜访富人家。

“There was a Cherokee girl in Muscogee that High Jack was foolish about. —
“在马斯科吉有一个切罗基女孩让海杰克很迷恋。 —

He took me to see her a few times. —
他带我去见她几次。 —

Her name was Florence Blue Feather–but you want to clear your mind of all ideas of squaws with nose-rings and army blankets. —
她叫弗洛伦斯·布鲁菲瑟 - 但是你要清空脑海中有关带鼻环和军用毛毯的女人的任何想法。 —

This young lady was whiter than you are, and better educated than I ever was. —
这位年轻女士比你白,也比我受过更良好的教育。 —

You couldn’t have told her from any of the girls shopping in the swell Third Avenue stores. —
你无法将她与在高级第三大道商店购物的任何女孩区分开来。 —

I liked her so well that, I got to calling on her now and then when High Jack wasn’t along, which is the way of friends in such matters. —
我喜欢她,所以偶尔不带High Jack去看她,这就是朋友在这种事情上的方式。 —

She was educated at the Muscogee College, and was making a specialty of– let’s see–eth–yes, ethnology. —
她受过Muscogee College的教育,专门研究…让我想想…是人种学。 —

That’s the art that goes back and traces the descent of different races of people, leading up from jelly-fish through monkeys and to the O’Briens. —
这是一门追溯不同人种的血统的艺术,从水母经过猴子一直到奥布莱恩家族。 —

High Jack had took up that line too, and had read papers about it before all kinds of riotous assemblies–Chautauquas and Choctaws and chowder-parties, and such. —
High Jack也学习了这方面的知识,并在各种狂欢集会上发表演讲,比如夏托夸大会、乔克托族人聚会、以及吃海鲜浓汤的派对之类的。 —

Having a mutual taste for musty information like that was what made ‘em like each other, I suppose. But I don’t know! —
对这种陈旧的信息有共同兴趣,这就是他们互相喜欢的原因吧。但是我不知道! —

What they call congeniality of tastes ain’t always it. Now, when Miss Blue Feather and me was talking together, I listened to her affidavits about the first families of the Land of Nod being cousins german (well, if the Germans don’t nod, who does? —
他们所谓的口味和谐并不总是如此。现在,当我和蓝羽小姐谈话时,我听她提到诺德之地的第一家族们是近亲(嗯,如果德国人不点头,还有谁会点头呢? —

) to the mound-builders of Ohio with incomprehension and respect. —
关于俄亥俄州的土堆建筑者,她向我描述了很多,我怀着敬意和无法理解的心情倾听。 —

And when I’d tell her about the Bowery and Coney Island, and sing her a few songs that I’d heard the Jamaica niggers sing at their church lawn-parties, she didn’t look much less interested than she did when High Jack would tell her that he had a pipe that the first inhabitants of America originally arrived here on stilts after a freshet at Tenafly, New Jersey.
当我告诉她关于鲍尔里和康尼岛的事情,还给她唱了几首我在牙买加黑人教堂草坪晚会上听到的歌曲时,她的兴趣似乎并没有比她听 High Jack说,美国最早的居民在新泽西的Tenafly经历一次山洪后,刚到这里时还踩着高跷。

“But I was going to tell you more about High Jack.
“但是我还要告诉你更多关于High Jack的事情。”

“About six months ago I get a letter from him, saying he’d been commissioned by the Minority Report Bureau of Ethnology at Washington to go down to Mexico and translate some excavations or dig up the meaning of some shorthand notes on some ruins–or something of that sort. —
大约六个月前,我收到他的一封信,他说他被华盛顿的少数民族报告民族学局委托去墨西哥,翻译一些考古发现或者挖掘出一些有关废墟上速记笔记的含义,或者是类似的事情。 —

And if I’d go along he could squeeze the price into the expense account.
如果我跟着去,他可以将费用计入报销账户。

“Well, I’d been holding a napkin over my arm at Chubb’s about long enough then, so I wired High Jack ‘Yes’; —
“嗯,我在 Chubb’s 最近一直擦着长时间的餐巾,所以我给 High Jack 发了一封电报,说‘是的’; —

and he sent me a ticket, and I met him in Washington, and he had a lot of news to tell me. —
然后他给我买了张机票,我在华盛顿和他会面,他告诉了我很多消息。 —

First of all, was that Florence Blue Feather had suddenly disappeared from her home and environments.
首先,佛洛伦斯·蓝羽突然从家里和周围的环境中消失了。

”‘Run away?’ I asked.
“‘逃跑了吗?’我问道。

”‘Vanished,’ says High Jack. ‘Disappeared like your shadow when the sun goes under a cloud. —
“‘消失了,’High Jack 说。‘就像太阳被云朵遮住时你的影子消失一样。 —

She was seen on the street, and then she turned a corner and nobody ever seen her afterward. —
她在街上被看到,然后她转过一个街角,再也没有人见过她。 —

The whole community turned out to look for her, but we never found a clew.’
整个社区都出来寻找她,但我们从未找到任何线索。”

”‘That’s bad–that’s bad,’ says I. ‘She was a mighty nice girl, and as smart as you find em.
“‘那很糟糕,很糟糕,’我说。‘她是个非常好的女孩,聪明过人。

“High Jack seemed to take it hard. —
“High Jack 看起来很难过。 —

I guess he must have esteemed Miss Blue Feather quite highly. —
我猜他一定非常重视蓝羽小姐。 —

I could see that he’d referred the matter to the whiskey-jug. That was his weak point–and many another man’s. —
我可以看出他把这件事复杂化了。那是他的软肋,也是许多其他人的软肋。 —

I’ve noticed that when a man loses a girl he generally takes to drink either just before or just after it happens.
我注意到,当男人失去女孩时,他通常会在失去之前或之后开始喝酒。

“From Washington we railroaded it to New Orleans, and there took a tramp steamer bound for Belize. —
“我们从华盛顿坐火车去了新奥尔良,然后乘坐一艘开往伯利兹的拖船。” —

And a gale pounded us all down the Caribbean, and nearly wrecked us on the Yucatan coast opposite a little town without a harbor called Boca de Coacoyula. —
我们遭遇了一场风暴,让我们受尽加勒比海的狂风巨浪,差点把我们冲至尤卡坦半岛的一座叫做Boca de Coacoyula的没有港口的小镇对面。 —

Suppose the ship had run against that name in the dark!
假设船在黑暗中撞到了那个名字怎么办!

”‘Better fifty years of Europe than a cyclone in the bay,’ says High Jack Snakefeeder. —
“与其在海湾里遭遇飓风,还不如在欧洲待上五十年,”High Jack Snakefeeder说。 —

So we get the captain to send us ashore in a dory when the squall seemed to cease from squalling.
所以我们让船长在风暴似乎停止时把我们送上岸,用一只小舢板。

”‘We will find ruins here or make ‘em,’ says High. ‘The Government doesn’t care which we do. —
“我们要在这里找到废墟,或者自己造一个,”High说。“政府无所谓我们做哪个。 —

An appropriation is an appropriation.’
拨款就是拨款。”

“Boca de Coacoyula was a dead town. —
Boca de Coacoyula是一个死气沉沉的小镇。 —

Them biblical towns we read about–Tired and Siphon–after they was destroyed, they must have looked like Forty-second Street and Broadway compared to this Boca place. —
我们在圣经中读到的那些城市,像是Tired和Siphon,在被摧毁后,与Boca相比就像是第42街和百老汇。 —

It still claimed 1300 inhabitants as estimated and engraved on the stone court-house by the census-taker in 1597. —
根据1597年普查人的估计,该地仍有1300名居民,并刻在石头法院上。 —

The citizens were a mixture of Indians and other Indians; —
公民是印第安人和其他印第安人的混合物; —

but some of ‘em was light- colored, which I was surprised to see. —
但其中一些人肤色较浅,我对此感到惊讶。 —

The town was huddled up on the shore, with woods so thick around it that a subpoena-server couldn’t have reached a monkey ten yards away with the papers. —
镇子靠近海岸,四周都是茂密的树林,以至于一个传票送达人无法用文件将一只猴子十码外。 —

We wondered what kept it from being annexed to Kansas; —
我们想知道是什么阻止它被并入堪萨斯州; —

but we soon found out that it was Major Bing.
但我们很快就发现是Bing少校。

“Major Bing was the ointment around the fly. —
“Bing少校是苍蝇周围的膏药。 —

He had the cochineal, sarsaparilla, log-wood, annatto, hemp, and all other dye-woods and pure food adulteration concessions cornered. —
他控制了仓房、萨尔帕里拉、红木染料、红柳、红字和所有其他染料以及纯食品掺假让渡权。 —

He had five-sixths of the Boca de Thingama jiggers working for him on shares. —
他有五六分之五的Boca de Thingama捷格人与他合作。 —

It was a beautiful graft. —
这是一个美妙的利益关系。 —

We used to brag about Morgan and E. H. and others of our wisest when I was in the provinces–but now no more. —
当我在省份的时候,我们常常夸耀有根和E.H.等我们最明智的人,但现在不再了。 —

That peninsula has got our little country turned into a submarine without even the observation tower showing.
这个半岛把我们的小国家变成了一个没有观察塔的潜艇。

“Major Bing’s idea was this. —
Bing少校的想法是让人们到森林中去采集这些产品。 —

He had the population go forth into the forest and gather these products. —

When they brought ‘em in he gave ‘em one-fifth for their trouble. —
当他们把产品带回来时,他给了他们五分之一作为报酬。 —

Sometimes they’d strike and demand a sixth. —
有时候他们会罢工并要求六分之一的份额。 —

The Major always gave in to ‘em.
Bing少校总是让步给他们。

“The Major had a bungalow so close on the sea that the nine-inch tide seeped through the cracks in the kitchen floor. —
Bing少校的平房靠海那么近,以至于九英寸的潮水会从厨房地板的缝隙渗透进来。 —

Me and him and High Jack Snakefeeder sat on the porch and drank rum from noon till midnight. —
我、他和High Jack Snakefeeder坐在门廊上从中午喝到半夜。 —

He said he had piled up $300,000 in New Orleans banks, and High and me could stay with him forever if we would. —
他说他在新奥尔良的银行里存了30万美元,只要我们愿意,我和High Jack可以永远和他在一起。 —

But High Jack happened to think of the United States, and began to talk ethnology.
但High Jack突然想起了美国,并开始谈论人类学。

”‘Ruins!’ says Major Bing. ‘The woods are full of ‘em. —
Bing少校说:“遗迹!树林里到处都是。 —

I don’t know how far they date back, but they was here before I came.’
我不知道它们的历史有多久,但它们在我来之前就在这里了。”

“High Jack asks what form of worship the citizens of that locality are addicted to.
High Jack问道当地的居民信奉的宗教形式是什么。

”‘Why,’ says the Major, rubbing his nose, ‘I can’t hardly say. I imagine it’s infidel or Aztec or Nonconformist or something like that. —
“‘为什么呢?’大佐揉着鼻子说道,‘我几乎说不上来。我猜想可能是异教徒、阿兹特克人或非国教徒之类的。’” —

There’s a church here–a Methodist or some other kind–with a parson named Skidder. —
在这里有一座教堂,是一座卫理公会或其他教派的。牧师名叫斯基德。 —

He claims to have converted the people to Christianity. —
他说他已经使人们皈依基督教。 —

He and me don’t assimilate except on state occasions. —
除了在特殊场合,他和我不太亲近。 —

I imagine they worship some kind of gods or idols yet. —
我猜想他们仍然崇拜某种神或偶像。 —

But Skidder says he has ‘em in the fold.’
但斯基德说他们已经‘加入了群体’。

“A few days later High Jack and me, prowling around, strikes a plain path into the forest, and follows it a good four miles. —
几天后,海大杰克和我四处搜寻,找到了一条通往森林的明显小径,一直走了好四英里。 —

Then a branch turns to the left. We go a mile, maybe, down that, and run up against the finest ruin you ever saw–solid stone with trees and vines and under-brush all growing up against it and in it and through it. —
然后小径向左拐。我们继续沿着它走了大约一英里,然后撞上了最壮观的废墟——一座坚固的石头建筑,被树木、藤蔓和灌木丛包围。 —

All over it was chiselled carvings of funny beasts and people that would have been arrested if they’d ever come out in vaudeville that way. —
整个建筑上刻着搞笑的动物和人物浮雕,如果它们真的在杂耍中露面,估计会被逮捕。 —

We approached it from the rear.
我们从后方接近它。

“High Jack had been drinking too much rum ever since we landed in Boca. You know how an Indian is–the palefaces fixed his clock when they introduced him to firewater. —
高杰克自从我们到达博卡后就一直喝太多的朗姆酒。你知道印地安人是怎样的——当他们给他介绍火水时,白人就给他的时间做了调整。 —

He’d brought a quart along with him.
他带了一个夸脱的朗姆酒。

”‘Hunky,’ says he, ‘we’ll explore the ancient temple. —
“‘猛男,’他说,‘我们去探索古老的神庙。 —

It may be that the storin that landed us here was propitious. —
也许是风暴使我们降落在这里是个好兆头。 —

The Minority Report Bureau of Ethnology,’ says he, ‘may yet profit by the vagaries of wind and tide.’
少数民族报告人类学局,’他说,‘也许能从风和潮水的变幻中获益。’

“We went in the rear door of the bum edifice. —
“我们从后门进入了这座失修的建筑物。 —

We struck a kind of alcove without bath. —
我们进入了一种有点凸起的房间,没有浴室。 —

There was a granite davenport, and a stone wash- stand without any soap or exit for the water, and some hardwood pegs drove into holes in the wall, and that was all. —
有一张花岗岩长椅,一个没有肥皂或放水口的石质洗脸池,还有一些硬木钉钉在墙上的孔中,仅此而已。 —

To go out of that furnished apartment into a Harlem hall bedroom would make you feel like getting back home from an amateur violoncello solo at an East Side Settlement house.
从这间装修得很糟糕的公寓走出来,进入一个哈莱姆区的小卧室,你会感觉像是从东区定居点的一次业余大提琴独奏会回到家中。

“While High was examining some hieroglyphics on the wall that the stone-masons must have made when their tools slipped, I stepped into the front room. —
当海伊正在检查墙上一些石匠在使用工具时可能滑了的象形文字时,我走进了前房间。 —

That was at least thirty by fifty feet, stone floor, six little windows like square port-holes that didn’t let much light in.
那个房间至少有30乘50英尺,是石头地板,有六个像方形舷窗一样的小窗户,光线不多。

“I looked back over my shoulder, and sees High Jack’s face three feet away.
“我回过头,看见了离我三英尺远的海伊杰克的脸。

”‘High,’ says I, ‘of all the–’
“‘海伊,’我说,‘你真是……’

“And then I noticed he looked funny, and I turned around.
“然后我注意到他看起来很奇怪,于是我转过身去。

“He’d taken off his clothes to the waist, and he didn’t seem to hear me. —
“他光着腰部,似乎没听到我说话。 —

I touched him, and came near beating it. —
我碰了碰他,差点逃跑。 —

High Jack had turned to stone. —
海伊杰克变成了石头。 —

I had been drinking some rum myself.
我自己也喝了点朗姆酒。

”‘Ossified!’ I says to him, loudly. —
“‘石化了!’我大声对他说, —

‘I knew what would happen if you kept it up.’
‘我早就知道如果你继续这样下去会发生什么。’

“And then High Jack comes in from the alcove when he hears me conversing with nobody, and we have a look at Mr. Snakefeeder No. 2. —
“然后当海伊杰克听到我在与无人交谈时,他从凹室中走出来,我们看了看蛇餐者2号。 —

It’s a stone idol, or god, or revised statute or something, and it looks as much like High Jack as one green pea looks like itself. —
那是一个石像,或者神像,或者修订版的法令或其他什么东西,它看上去像一颗绿豆就像本身一样看上去像海伊杰克。 —

It’s got exactly his face and size and color, but it’s steadier on its pins. —
这像像他的脸、身材和颜色完全一样,但是站立更稳定。 —

It stands on a kind of rostrum or pedestal, and you can see it’s been there ten million years.
它站在一种讲台或座儿上,你可以看到它已经在那里待了一千万年。

”‘He’s a cousin of mine,’ sings High, and then he turns solemn.
“‘他是我的表兄弟,’大声唱着High,然后他变得庄重。

”‘Hunky,’ he says, putting one hand on my shoulder and one on the statue’s, ‘I’m in the holy temple of my ancestors.’
“‘老兄,’他一只手放在我的肩膀上,一只手放在雕像上,‘我在我的祖先的神圣殿堂里。’

”‘Well, if looks goes for anything,’ says I, ‘you’ve struck a twin. Stand side by side with buddy, and let’s see if there’s any diff’erence.’
“‘好吧,如果外貌有什么说服力,’我说,‘你俩简直一模一样。站在一起,让我们看看是否有任何区别。’

“There wasn’t. You know an Indian can keep his face as still as an iron dog’s when he wants to, so when High Jack froze his features you couldn’t have told him from the other one.
“没有区别。你知道印第安人想要时可以把他的面部保持像铁狗一样不动,所以当High Jack僵住他的面容时,你根本无法从另一个人辨认出他来。

”‘There’s some letters,’ says I, ‘on his nob’s pedestal, but I can’t make ‘em out. —
“‘这个神像的底座上有一些字母,’我说,‘但我看不懂。这个国家的字母似乎由有时是a、e、I、o和u,但通常是z、l和t组成。’ —

The alphabet of this country seems to be composed of sometimes a, e, I, o, and u, but generally z’s, l’s, and t’s.’
“High Jack的人种学在一分钟内击败了他的朗姆酒,他探究着铭文。

“High Jack’s ethnology gets the upper hand of his rum for a minute, and he investigates the inscription.
High Jack看了看铭文。

”‘Hunky,’ says he, ‘this is a statue of Tlotopaxl, one of the most powerful gods of the ancient Aztecs.’
“‘亲爱的’,他说,‘这是托洛特帕克斯尔,古代阿兹特克人最强大的神之一的雕像。’”

”‘Glad to know him,’ says I, ‘but in his present condition he reminds me of the joke Shakespeare got off on Julius Caesar. —
“‘很高兴认识他,’我说,‘但就他现在的状态而言,他让我想起了莎士比亚在《凯撒大帝》上讲的一个笑话。’” —

We might say about your friend:
关于你的朋友,我们可以这样说:

”‘Imperious what’s-his-name, dead and tunied to stone–No use to write or call him on the ‘phone.’
“‘这个傲慢无礼的某人,已经死了,成了石头—写信或给他打电话都没用了。’”

”‘Hunky,’ says High Jack Snakefeeder, looking at me funny, ‘do you believe in reincarnation?’
“‘亲爱的,’海杰克·蛇饲食者说着看着我,神情奇怪,‘你相信转世吗?’”

”‘It sounds to me,’ says I, ‘like either a clean-up of the slaughter- houses or a new kind of Boston pink. —
“‘对我来说,听起来像是屠宰场的清洗,还是一种新型的波士顿粉红。我不知道。 —

I don’t know.’
’”

”‘I believe,’ says he, ‘that I am the reincarnation of Tlotopaxl. —
“‘我相信,’他说,‘我是托洛特帕克斯尔的转世。我的研究让我确信,智利人是所有北美部落中最直接继承骄傲的阿兹特克种族的。’” —

My researches have convinced me that the Cherokees, of all the North American tribes, can boast of the straightest descent from the proud Aztec race. —
“那,’他说,‘是我和弗洛伦斯·蓝羽的一个最喜欢的理论。而她–如果她–!’” —

That,’ says he, ‘was a favorite theory of mine and Florence Blue Feather’s. —
“‘Impression haste-sa-name-name-na-me, —

And she–what’ if she–!’
doe-d and-a-tunie-d-t-o-stone–No-use-to-write-o-r-c-archical-phon-e-no”`‘”

“High Jack grabs my arm and walls his eyes at me. —
“海杰克抓住我的胳膊,用他的眼睛盯着我。 —

Just then he looked more like his eminent co-Indian murderer, Crazy Horse.
就在那一刻,他看起来更像他那位杰出的同胞印第安谋杀犯——疯马。

”‘Well,’ says I, ‘what if she, what if she, what if she? —
“‘好吧,’我说,‘她呢,她呢,她呢? —

You’re drunk,’ says I. ‘Impersonating idols and believing in–what was it ? —
你喝醉了,’我说。‘冒充偶像和相信什么——是什么来着? —

  • -recarnalization? Let’s have a drink,’ says I. ‘It’s as spooky here as a Brooklyn artificial-limb factory at midnight with the gas turned down.’
    “—转世吗?来喝一杯吧,’我说。‘这里就像布鲁克林的人造肢体工厂在深夜关了煤气一样阴森恐怖。

“Just then I heard somebody coming, and I dragged High Jack into the bedless bedchamber. —
“就在那时,我听到有人在走路,于是我把海杰克拖进了没有床的卧室。 —

There was peep-holes bored through the wall, so we could see the whole front part of the temple.
“墙上有孔眼,所以我们可以看到整个寺庙的前部。

Major Bing told me afterward that the ancient priests in charge used to rubber through them at the congregation.
Bing少校后来告诉我,负责的古代祭司常常通过这些孔眼偷看教众。

“In a few minutes an old Indian woman came in with a’ big oval earthen dish full of grub. —
“过了几分钟,一个老印第安妇人拿着一个大的椭圆形陶盘来了。 —

She set it on a square block of stone in front of the graven image, and laid down and walloped her face on the floor a few times, and then took a walk for herself.
她把它放在雕像前面的一个方形的石块上,然后用脸在地上猛击几次,之后自己走开了。

“High Jack and me was hungry, so we came out and looked it over. —
我和海杰克饿了,于是我们出来找吃的。 —

There was goat steaks and fried rice-cakes, and plantains and cassava, and broiled land-crabs and mangoes–nothing like what you get at Chubb’s.
那里有山羊扒和炒年糕,还有大蕉和木薯,还有烤陆蟹和芒果——与在查布斯得到的完全不同。

“We ate hearty–and had another round of rum.
“我们吃得很饱,又来了一轮朗姆酒。

”‘It must be old Tecumseh’s–or whatever you call him–birthday,’ says I. ‘Or do they feed him every day? —
“‘这一定是老特库姆塞的生日,或者你们叫他什么名字,’我说。‘他们是每天都喂他吗? —

I thought gods only drank vanilla on Mount Catawampus.’
我以为只有神灵在Catawampus山上喝香草口味的。

“Then some more native parties in short kimonos that showed their aboriginees punctured the near-horizon, and me and High had to skip back into Father Axletree’s private boudoir. —
“然后有一些穿着短和服露出他们的土著人的原住民跳了出来,我和海杰克不得不逃回艾克斯托德父亲的私人卧室中。 —

They came by ones, twos, and threes, and left all sorts of offerings–there was enough grub for Bingham’s nine gods of war, with plenty left over for the Peace Conference at The Hague. They brought jars of honey, and bunches of bananas, and bottles of wine, and stacks of tortillas, and beautiful shawls worth one hundred dollars apiece that the Indian women weave of a kind of vegetable fibre like silk. —
他们一个、两个、三个地来,留下了各种各样的供品——有足够的食物可以供应宾厄姆的九位战神,还有足够多的剩下的食物可以供应海牙和平会议。他们带来了罐罐蜜糖,一串串香蕉,瓶瓶葡萄酒,一叠叠墨西哥薄饼,还有美丽的丝绸般的蔬菜纤维编织而成的价值一百美元一件的披肩。 —

All of ‘em got down and wriggled on the floor in front of that hard-finish god, and then sneaked off through the woods again.
他们都趴在地板上,在那个光洁的神像面前蠕动着,然后再通过树林悄悄离开。

”‘I wonder who gets this rake-off?’ remarks High Jack.
“‘我想知道这些供品是给谁的?’哈克杰克问道。

”‘Oh,’ says I, ‘there’s priests or deputy idols or a committee of disarrangements somewhere in the woods on the job. —
‘哦,’我说,‘肯定有神职人员或者副神像,或者一个负责祭品的委员会在树林里等着。 —

Wherever you find a god you’ll find somebody waiting to take charge of the burnt offerings.’
你无论在哪里找到一座神像,你都能找到有人负责管理献祭品的地方。

“And then we took another swig of rum and walked out to the parlor front door to cool off, for it was as hot inside as a summer camp on the Palisades.
’然后我们再次喝了一口朗姆酒,走到了客厅前门口,以便冷静下来,因为里面热得跟波利塞德斯山夏令营一样。

“And while we stood there in the breeze we looks down the path and sees a young lady approaching the blasted ruin. —
“当我们站在微风中的时候,我们看到一个年轻女子朝着那个破旧废墟走来。 —

She was bare-footed and had on a white robe, and carried a wreath of white flowers in her hand. —
她赤脚走着,身穿白色长袍,手里拿着一束白花环。 —

When she got nearer we saw she had a long blue feather stuck through her black hair. —
当她走近时,我们看到她的黑发中插着一根长长的蓝色羽毛。 —

And when she got nearer still me and High Jack Snakefeeder grabbed each other to keep from tumbling down on the floor; —
当她走得更近时,我和蛇食高杰克紧紧抓住对方,以免摔到地上; —

for the girl’s face was as much like Florence Blue Feather’s as his was like old King Toxicology’s.
因为这个女孩的脸与弗洛伦斯·蓝羽的长得非常相似,就像他的脸长得像老毒理学之王一样。

“And then was when High Jack’s booze drowned his system of ethnology. —
“就在这时,蛇食高杰克的酒精冲昏了他的民族志。 —

He dragged me inside back of the statue, and says:
他把我拖进雕像背后,说道:

”‘Lay hold of it, Hunky. We’ll pack it into the other room. —
“‘抓住它,胖子。我们要把它搬到另一个房间里去。 —

I felt it all the time,’ says he. —
我一直感觉到了,’他说。 —

‘I’m the reconsideration of the god Locomotorataxia, and Florence Blue Feather was my bride a thousand years ago. —
“‘我是神无力症的重新考虑,一千年前弗洛伦斯·蓝羽就是我的新娘。 —

She has come to seek me in the temple where I used to reign.’
“她来到这座我曾统治的神庙寻找我。’

”‘All right,’ says I. ‘There’s no use arguing against the rum question. —
“好吧。”我说。“反对喝朗姆酒是没用的。 —

You take his feet.’
你去搞定他的脚。”

“We lifted the three-hundred-pound stone god, and carried him into the back room of the cafe–the temple, I mean–and leaned him against the wall. —
我们举起那座三百磅重的石神,把他搬进了咖啡馆的后屋——我是说神庙——然后把他靠在墙上。 —

It was more work than bouncing three live ones from an all- night Broadway joint on New-Year’s Eve.
这比在肆夜百老汇酒吧里给三个在除夕之夜喝过的人摔跤要累多了。

“Then High Jack ran out and brought in a couple of them Indian silk shawls and began to undress himself.
“然后海盖克跑出去,拿来了几条那种印度丝质披肩,然后开始脱衣服。

”‘Oh, figs!’ says I. ‘Is it thus? —
“’哦,胡说八道!’我说。 —

Strong drink is an adder and subtractor, too. —
“喝烈酒既毒又害, —

Is it the heat or the call of the wild that’s got you ?’
是热气还是野性的召唤把你搞成这样?’

“But High Jack is too full of exaltation and cane-juice to reply. —
“但是海盖克兴高采烈,糖蔗汁都灌满了,根本不回答我。 —

He stops the disrobing business just short of the Manhattan Beach rules, and then winds them red-and-white shawls around him, and goes out and. —
“他在脱衣服的时候停了下来,勉强符合曼哈顿海滩的规定,然后把那些红白相间的披肩围在身上,然后走出去。 —

stands on the pedestal as steady as any platinum deity you ever saw. —
“他稳稳地站在基座上,一点也不摇晃,就像你见过的任何一尊铂金神。 —

And I looks through a peek-hole to see what he is up to.
“我通过一个窥视孔看他在干什么。”

“In a few minutes in comes the girl with the flower wreath. —
“几分钟后那个头戴花环的女孩出现了。当她走近时, —

Danged if I wasn’t knocked a little silly when she got close, she looked so exactly much like Florence Blue Feather. —
我简直被她的相貌震撼了一下,她看起来和佛罗伦斯·布鲁·费瑟夫简直太像了。 —

‘I wonder,’ says I to myself, ‘if she has been reincarcerated, too? —
‘不知道,’我对自己说,‘她是否也被重新关押了呢? —

If I could see,’ says I to myself, ‘whether she has a mole on her left–’ But the next minute I thought she looked one-eighth of a shade darker than Florence; —
‘如果我能看清楚,’我对自己说,‘她的左边是否有个痣–’但下一分钟我想她看起来比佛罗伦斯黑了八分之一的阴影; —

but she looked good at that. —
但她看起来还不错。 —

And High Jack hadn’t drunk all the rum that had been drank.
而且海杰克没有喝掉所有喝过的朗姆酒。

“The girl went up within ten feet of the bum idol, and got down and massaged her nose with the floor, like the rest did. —
“那个女孩走到距离那个酒鬼偶像十英尺远的地方,趴下来用地板搓鼻子,就像其他人一样。 —

Then she went nearer and laid the flower wreath on the block of stone at High Jack’s feet. —
然后她走得更近些,将花环放在海杰克脚下的石块上。 —

Rummy as I was, I thought it was kind of nice of her to think of offering flowers instead of household and kitchen provisions. —
虽然我头晕晕的,但我觉得她考虑到送花而不是家务用品和厨房用具,还是挺好的。 —

Even a stone god ought to appreciate a little sentiment like that on top of the fancy groceries they had piled up in front of him.
即使是一尊石头神,也应该会欣赏一些像这样的感性之举,在他们用奢侈杂货堆满了神像面前。”

“And then High Jack steps down from his pedestal, quiet, and mentions a few words that sounded just like the hieroglyphics carved on the walls of the ruin. —
然后海杰克从他的高台上下来,静静地,提到几个词,听起来就像刻在遗迹墙上的象形字。 —

The girl gives a little jump backward, and her eyes fly open as big as doughnuts; —
女孩吃了一惊,眼睛睁得圆圆的, —

but she don’t beat it.
但她没有跑掉。

“Why didn’t she? I’ll tell you why I think why. —
“她为什么不跑呢? —

It don’t seem to a girl so supernatural, unlikely, strange, and startling that a stone god should come to life for her. —
我告诉你我为什么认为她不跑。一个石头神明为她而活还不足以让她感到超自然、不可思议、奇怪和震动。 —

If he was to do it for one of them snub-nosed brown girls on the other side of the woods, now, it would be different–but her! —
如果他是为了森林那边那些一脸不高兴的棕色女孩而活,那就不一样了——但是她! —

I’ll bet she said to herself:
我打赌她对自己说:

‘Well, goodness me! you’ve been a long time getting on your job. —
‘喂,老天!你上班还真是迟钝。 —

I’ve half a mind not to speak to you.’
我差点不想和你说话了。’

“But she and High Jack holds hands and walks away out of the temple together. —
“但是她和海杰克牵着手走出了庙宇。 —

By the time I’d had time to take another drink and enter upon the scene they was twenty yards away, going up the path in the woods that the girl had come down. —
等到我喝了一口酒进入场景的时候,他们已经离得有二十码远了,朝着女孩走下来的小路向树林中去。 —

With the natural scenery already in place, it was just like a play to watch ‘em–she looking up at him, and him giving her back the best that an Indian can hand, out in the way of a goo-goo eye. —
自然风光已经就位,就像看一场剧一样——她仰望着他,他也给她一个印地安人所能给予的最好表情,向她投去了一个甜蜜的眼神。 —

But there wasn’t anything in that recarnification and revulsion to tintype for me.
但对我来说,那种转世和倒退对铁板画没有任何作用。

”‘Hey! Injun!’ I yells out to High Jack.
“嘿!Injun!”我大声喊着高杰克。

‘We’ve got a board-bill due in town, and you’re leaving me without a cent. —
“我们在镇上有一笔房费要付,你却把我丢下一分钱也没有。 —

Brace up and cut out the Neapolitan fisher-maiden, and let’s go back home.’
振作起来,别再追求那个那不勒斯的渔女,咱们回家吧。”

“But on the two goes; without looking once back until, as you might say, the forest swallowed ‘em up. —
但他们俩没有回头,就这样继续上路,直到,可以这么说,森林吞噬了他们。 —

And I never saw or heard of High Jack Snakefeeder from that day to this. —
从那天起,我再也没见过或听说过高杰克·蛇饲者。 —

I don’t know if the Cherokees came from the Aspics; —
我不知道切诺基族是不是来自Aspics, —

but if they did, one of ‘em went back.
但如果是的话,其中一个回去了。

“All I could do was to hustle back to that Boca place and panhandle Major Bing. He detached himself from enough of his winnings to buy me a ticket home. —
“我能做的就是匆忙回到那个Boca地方,找Major Bing要钱。他从他的赢利中拿出足够的钱给我买回家的车票。 —

And I’m back again on the job at Chubb’s, sir, and I’m going to hold it steady. —
现在我又回到Chubb的工作上了,先生,我打算保持稳定。 —

Come round, and you’ll find the steaks as good as ever.”
过来一看,你会发现牛排和以前一样好吃。

I wondered what Hunky Magee thought about his own story; —
我想知道Hunky Magee对他自己的故事有什么看法, —

so I asked him if he had any theories about reincarnation and transmogrification and such mysteries as he had touched upon.
所以我问他是否对转世和变形等他触及到的奥秘有任何理论。

“Nothing like that,” said Hunky, positively. —
“没有那种情况,”Hunky很肯定地说。 —

“What ailed High Jack was too much booze and education. —
“高杰克的问题是喝酒和受过教育太多。 —

They’ll do an Indian up every time.”
这会使一个印第安人完蛋。”

“But what about Miss Blue Feather?” I persisted.
“那么蓝羽小姐呢?”我坚持问道。

“Say,” said Hunky, with a grin, “that little lady that stole High Jack certainly did give me a jar when I first took a look at her, but it was only for a minute. —
“嘿,”Hunky笑着说,“那个偷走高杰克的小家伙刚开始看见的时候确实让我吃了一惊,但只有一分钟而已。” —

You remember I told you High Jack said that Miss Florence Blue Feather disappeared from home about a year ago? —
你记得我告诉你高杰克说佛罗伦萨·蓝羽大约一年前从家里消失了吗? —

Well, where she landed four days later was in as neat a five-room flat on East Twenty-third Street as you ever walked sideways through–and she’s been Mrs. Magee ever since.”
嗯,她四天后到达的地方是东二十三街上一个漂亮的五居室公寓,一直以来她都是Magee夫人。