When the war between Spain and George Dewey was over, I went to the Philippine Islands. —
当西班牙和乔治·杜威之间的战争结束后，我去了菲律宾群岛。 —

There I remained as bushwhacker correspondent for my paper until its managing editor notified me that an eight-hundred- word cablegram describing the grief of a pet carabao over the death of an infant Moro was not considered by the office to be war news. —
我在那里一直留下作为我所在报纸的游击队记者，直到主编通知我，一篇800字的电报描述一只宠物水牛对摩洛婴儿之死的悲痛在办公室不被视为战争新闻。 —

So I resigned, and came home.
所以我辞职了，回到了家。

On board the trading-vessel that brought me back I pondered much upon the strange things I had sensed in the weird archipelago of the yellow-brown people. —
我在带我回来的贸易船上沉思了很多，在那里我对黄褐色人种的奇怪事物有了直观的感受。 —

The manoeuvres and skirmishings of the petty war interested me not: —
琐碎的战争演习和战斗对我来说没什么兴趣: —

I was spellbound by the outlandish and unreadable countenance of that race that had turned its expressionless gaze upon us out of an unguessable past.
我被那个民族无法理解和解读的面容所吸引，他们以不可思议的过去向我们注视。

Particularly during my stay in Mindanao had I been fascinated and attracted by that delightfully original tribe of heathen known as the head-hunters. —
在我在棉兰老岛逗留期间，我对那些有趣的原始部落——猎头族着迷并吸引。 —

Those grim, flinty, relentless little men, never seen, but chilling the warmest noonday by the subtle terror of their concealed presence, paralleling the trail of their prey through unmapped forests, across perilous mountain-tops, adown bottomless chasms, into uninhabitable jungles, always near with the invisible hand of death uplifted, betraying their pursuit only by such signs as a beast or a bird or a gliding serpent might make-a twig crackling in the awful, sweat-soaked night, a drench of dew showering from the screening foliage of a giant tree, a whisper at even from the rushes of a water-level-a hint of death for every mile and every hour-they amused me greatly, those little fellows of one idea.
那些阴沉、冷酷无情的小人，虽然从未被看见，但他们通过潜藏的存在在最炎热的午后也能让人感到寒意，他们在未被勘测的森林中追踪猎物的轨迹，穿越危险的山顶，跌入无底的峡谷，进入无法居住的丛林，他们总是近在咫尺，隐形的死神之手令人战栗不已，只有兽类、鸟类或是滑行的蛇类才留下追踪的痕迹-在可怕、充满汗水的夜晚中，树林中的树枝碎裂声、巨大树木的掩护下洒下的露水、水面上的草丛中的低语-每经过一英里、每度过一小时，都意味着死亡的暗示。这些只拥有单一念头的小家伙令我非常着迷。

When you think of it, their method is beautifully and almost hilariously effective and simple.
仔细想想，他们的方法是多么精准、巧妙而又引人发笑的。

You have your hut in which you live and carry out the destiny that was decreed for you. —
你有一个小屋，你在其中生活并履行了注定于你的命运。 —

Spiked to the jamb of your bamboo doorway is a basket made of green withes, plaited. —
扎在你的竹门口的是一个用绿色绳子编制而成的篮子。 —

From time to time, as vanity or ennui or love or jealousy or ambition may move you, you creep forth with your snickersnee and take up the silent trail. —
时而，出于虚荣、倦怠、爱情、嫉妒或野心的驱使，你拿起你的短剑，悄无声息地追踪着。 —

Back from it you come, triumphant, bearing the severed, gory head of your victim, which you deposit with pardonable pride in the basket at the side of your door. —
你胜利地回来了，带着被斩下的、血淋淋的头颅，骄傲地把它放在门旁的篮子里。 —

It may be the head of your enemy, your friend, or a stranger, according as competition, jealousy, or simple sportiveness has been your incentive to labor.
无论是你的敌人、朋友还是陌生人的头颅，取决于你是竞争、嫉妒还是简单地追求乐趣驱使着你劳作。

In any case, your reward is certain. The village men, in passing, stop to congratulate you, as your neighbor on weaker planes of life stops to admire and praise the begonias in your front yard. —
无论如何，你的奖励是确定的。路过的村民停下来祝贺你，就像你生活在较低层次的邻居停下来赞美你前院的秋海棠花一样。 —

Your particular brown maid lingers, with fluttering bosom, casting soft tiger’s eyes at the evidence of your love for her. —
你特殊的棕色女仆停留下来，怀着激动的胸口，用柔和的虎眼看着你对她的爱的证据。 —

You chew betel-nut and listen, content, to the intermittent soft drip from the ends of the severed neck arteries. —
你嚼着槟榔，心满意足地倾听着被斩断的脖子动脉时断时续的柔软滴落声。 —

And you show your teeth and grunt like a water-buffalo–which is as near as you can come to laughing-at the thought that the cold, acephalous body of your door ornament is being spotted by wheeling vultures in the Mindanaoan wilds.
你露出牙齿，像水牛一样咆哮——这是你能想到的最接近笑声的样子。想到你门上挂着的冷酷无情的猎物正被菲律宾森林中盘旋的秃鹫发现，你心中不禁得意。

Truly, the life of the merry head-hunter captivated me. —
实际上，那位欢乐的猎头所过的生活使我心醉。 —

He had reduced art and philosophy to a simple code. —
他将艺术和哲学简化为一个简单的密码。 —

To take your adversary’s head, to basket it at the portal of your castle, to see it lying there, a dead thing, with its cunning and stratagems and power gone– Is there a better way to foil his plots, to refute his arguments, to establish your superiority over his skill and wisdom?
把你对手的头颅割下来，放在你城堡的门口，看着它躺在那里，失去了其狡猾、阴谋和权力——有什么比这更好的方法来挫败他的计划，驳斥他的论点，证明你在技巧和智慧上的优越性呢？

The ship that brought me home was captained by an erratic Swede, who changed his course and deposited me, with genuine compassion, in a small town on the Pacific coast of one of the Central American republics, a few hundred miles south of the port to which he had engaged to convey me. —
带我回家的船由一位脾气古怪的瑞典船长驾驶，他改变了航线，真心实意地将我放在了中美洲一个小镇上的太平洋沿岸，距离他预定要带我去的港口有几百英里远。 —

But I was wearied of movement and exotic fancies; —
但我对旅行和异国情调已感到厌倦。 —

so I leaped contentedly upon the firm sands of the village of Mojada, telling myself I should be sure to find there the rest that I craved. —
因此，我满心欢喜地跳上莫哈达村坚实的沙滩，告诉自己我应该能在那里找到我渴望的休息。 —

After all, far better to linger there (I thought), lulled by the sedative plash of the waves and the rustling of palm-fronds, than to sit upon the horsehair sofa of my parental home in the East, and there, cast down by currant wine and cake, and scourged by fatuous relatives, drivel into the ears of gaping neighbors sad stories of the death of colonial governors.
毕竟，留连在那里（我想），被波浪的镇静声和棕榈叶子的沙沙声所安抚，要比坐在东部父母家的马毛沙发上，被葡萄干酒和蛋糕击倒，被愚蠢的亲戚折磨，向家居听众唠叨殖民地州长死亡的悲伤故事要好得多。

When I first saw Chloe Greene she was standing, all in white, in the doorway of her father’s tile-roofed ‘dobe house. —
当我第一次看到克洛伊·格林时，她站在她父亲的瓦顶土屋门口，穿着雪白的衣服。 —

She was polishing a silver cup with a cloth, and she looked like a pearl laid against black velvet. —
她正用一块布擦拭着一只银杯，看起来像一颗放在黑色天鹅绒上的珍珠。 —

She turned on me a flatteringly protracted but a wiltingly disapproving gaze, and then went inside, humming a light song to indicate the value she placed upon my existence.
她对我投以颇长时间但毫不赞许的目光，然后进了屋子，哼着轻快的歌曲，表达了她对我的存在的重视。

Small wonder: for Dr. Stamford (the most disreputable professional man between Juneau and Valparaiso) and I were zigzagging along the turfy street, tunelessly singing the words of Auld Lang Syne to the air of Muzzer’s Little Coal-Black Coon. We had come from the ice factory, which was Mojada’s palace of wickedness, where we had been playing billiards and opening black bottles, white with frost, that we dragged with strings out of old Sandoval’s ice-cold vats.
我和Dr. Stamford（自从Juneau到Valparaiso之间最名声不好的专业人士）一起在曲折的街道上走着，不知调子地唱着《友谊地久天长》的歌词，奏着Muzzer的《小黑脸的儿子》的曲调。我们刚离开冰场，那是Mojada的邪恶王宫，在那里我们一直在打台球，打开着绳子拖出的冷得白雪皑皑的黑瓶，这些瓶子是从老Sandoval的冰冷水槽里拖出来的。

I turned in sudden rage to Dr. Stamford, as sober as the verger of a cathedral. —
我突然愤怒地转向Dr. Stamford，他像大教堂的门房一样清醒。 —

In a moment I had become aware that we were swine cast before a pearl.
我马上意识到我们俩都是珍珠前的猪。

“You beast,” I said, “this is half your doing. —
“你这个畜生，”我说道，”这一半都是你的错。 —

And the other half is the fault of this cursed country. —
另一半是这个该死的国家的错。 —

I’d better have gone back to Sleepy-town and died in a wild orgy of currant wine and buns than to have had this happen.”
我宁愿回到Sleepy-town，在黑醋栗酒和小圆面包的狂欢中死去，也不愿让这种事情发生。”

Stamford filled the empty street with his roaring laughter.
Stamford的笑声在空荡荡的街道上回荡。

“You too!” he cried. “And all as quick as the popping of a cork. —
“你也是！”他喊道，”就像开香槟瓶一样快活。 —

Well, she does seem to strike agreeably upon the retina. —
嗯，她似乎很讨人欢迎地映入视网膜。 —

But don’t burn your fingers. All Mojada will tell you that Louis Devoe is the man.
但不要触碰脏乱的事情。所有的莫哈达（Mojada）人都会告诉你路易斯·德沃（Louis Devoe）就是那个人。

“We will see about that,” said I. “And, perhaps, whether he is a man as well as the man.”
“我们拭目以待，”我说。“也许，我们得先看看他是不是一个真正的男人。”

I lost no time in meeting Louis Devoe. That was easily accomplished, for the foreign colony in Mojada numbered scarce a dozen; —
我毫不拖延地与路易斯·德沃见了面。这很容易办到，因为莫哈达的外国社区几乎只有十几个人； —

and they gathered daily at a half-decent hotel kept by a Turk, where they managed to patch together the fluttering rags of country and civilization that were left them. —
他们每天聚集在一家由土耳其人经营的不错的酒店里，他们设法拼凑着没有的乡野和文明的那些残留。 —

I sought Devoe before I did my pearl of the doorway, because I had learned a little of the game of war, and knew better than to strike for a prize before testing the strength of the enemy.
我之所以在见到那个在门口的珍珠之前就找到了德沃，是因为我了解一点战争游戏，知道在测试敌人的实力之前，最好不要去争夺奖品。

A sort of cold dismay-something akin to fear-filled me when I had estimated him. —
当我评估了他的实力后，一种类似恐惧的寒意充满了我。 —

I found a man so perfectly poised, so charming, so deeply learned in the world’s rituals, so full of tact, courtesy, and hospitality, so endowed with grace and ease and a kind of careless, haughty power that I almost overstepped the bounds in probing him, in turning him on the spit to find the weak point that I so craved for him to have. —
我发现一个非常得体、迷人、深谙世界礼仪的人，充满机智、谦恭和热情，优雅轻松，带有一种疏漏的傲慢力量，以至于我几乎超越了自己的边界来探讨他，把他放在火上翻来覆去地寻找他所拥有的我如此渴望的弱点。 —

But I left him whole-I had to make bitter acknowledgment to myself that Louis Devoe was a gentleman worthy of my best blows; —
但是我让他完整无缺。我不得不自嘲地承认，路易斯·德沃是一位值得我全力以赴的绅士。 —

and I swore to give him them. He was a great merchant of the country, a wealthy importer and exporter. —
我发誓要给予他。他是这个国家的一位重要的商人，一个富有的进出口商。 —

All day he sat in a fastidiously appointed office, surrounded by works of art and evidences of his high culture, directing through glass doors and windows the affairs of his house.
整天他坐在一个装饰精美的办公室里，周围摆放着艺术品和他高尚文化的证据，透过玻璃门窗指挥着他的家族企业。

In person he was slender and hardly tall. —
他个子不高，身板苗条。 —

His small, well-shaped head was covered with thick, brown hair, trimmed short, and he wore a thick, brown beard also cut close and to a fine point. —
他小巧而饱满的头上长着浓密的棕色短发，还留着修剪整齐的棕色胡须。 —

His manners were a pattern.
他的举止是一种典范。

Before long I had become a regular and a welcome visitor at the Greene home. —
不久之后，我已成为格林家的常客，受到欢迎的访客。 —

I shook my wild habits from me like a worn-out cloak. —
我像褴褛的披风一样摆脱了我野性的习惯。 —

I trained for the conflict with the care of a prize-fighter and the self-denial of a Brahmin.
我像拳击手一样认真训练，就像婆罗门一样克己奉公。

As for Chloe Greene, I shall weary you with no sonnets to her eyebrow. —
至于克洛伊·格林，我不会对她的眉毛写出无尽的十四行诗。 —

She was a splendidly feminine girl, as wholesome as a November pippin, and no more mysterious than a windowpane. —
她是一个非常女性化的女孩，像十一月的皮平苹果一样健康，没有比窗玻璃更神秘的了。 —

She had whimsical little theories that she had deduced from life, and that fitted the maxims of Epictetus like princess gowns. —
她有奇特的小理论，这些理论是她从生活中归纳出来的，与伊壁鸠鲁的箴言相一致，就像公主礼服一样。 —

I wonder, after all, if that old duffer wasn’t rather wise!
不知道那个老家伙是否相当聪明！

Chloe had a father, the Reverend Homer Greene, and an intermittent mother, who sometimes palely presided over a twilight teapot. —
克洛伊有一个父亲，霍马·格林牧师，还有一个不定期的母亲，有时会苍白地坐在黄昏茶壶旁主持茶会。 —

The Reverend Homer was a burr-like man with a life-work. —
霍马牧师是一个像刺一样的男人，他有自己的一项事业。 —

He was writing a concordance to the Scriptures, and had arrived as far as Kings. Being, presumably, a suitor for his daughter’s hand, I was timber for his literary outpourings. —
他正在编写一本《圣经》的索引，目前已经编到《列王记》。作为他女儿的追求者，我成了他文学作品的素材。 —

I had the family tree of Israel drilled into my head until I used to cry aloud in my sleep: —
把以色列家族谱钻进我的脑子，直到我在睡梦中大声哭泣： —

“And Aminadab begat Jay Eye See,” and so forth, until he had tackled another book. —
“亚米拿达生了詹挨的西”，如此往复，直到他攻克了另一本书。 —

I once made a calculation that the Reverend Homer’s concordance would be worked up as far as the Seven Vials mentioned in Revelations about the third day after they were opened.
曾经算过，霍默牧师的按照启示录所提到的七个瓶子计算会在它们打开后的第三天完成。

Louis Devoe, as well as I, was a visitor and an intimate friend of the Greenes. —
路易斯·德沃以及我都是格林家的常客和亲密朋友。 —

It was there I met him the oftenest, and a more agreeable’ man or a more accomplished I have never hated in my life.
就是在那里我最常见到他，再没有一个人比他更讨人喜欢，或者更有才华。我一生中从未这样恨过一个人。

Luckily or unfortunately, I came to be accepted as a Boy. My appearance was youthful, and I suppose I had that pleading and homeless air that always draws the motherliness that is in women and the cursed theories and hobbies of pater-familiases.
幸运或者不幸地，我被接受为一个男孩。我的外貌年轻，我想我有着总能吸引女性内心母性的哀求和无家可归的气质，这总是为家长取名的诅咒般的理论和癖好所吸引。

Chloe called me “Tommy,” and made sisterly fun of my attempts to woo her. —
克洛伊叫我“汤米”，并对我试图追求她的尝试开玩笑。 —

With Devoe she was vastly more reserved. —
对于德沃，她显得非常保守。 —

He was the man of romance, one to stir her imagination and deepest feelings had her fancy leaned toward him. —
他是一个浪漫的人，能够激起她的想象力和最深刻的感受，这使她对他产生了好感。 —

I was closer to her, but standing in no glamour; —
我离她更近，但并没有任何魅力； —

I had the task before me of winning her in what seems to me the American way of fighting–with cleanness and pluck and everyday devotion to break away the barriers of friendship that divided us, and to take her, if I could, between sunrise and dark, abetted by neither moonlight nor music nor foreign wiles.
我面前的任务是以我认为的美式方式来争取她的心——以干净、勇气和每天的奉献来摧毁我们之间的友谊壁垒，并且在日出和黑暗之间抓住她，不受月光、音乐或外国诱惑的影响。

Chloe gave no sign of bestowing her blithe affections upon either of us. —
Chloe没有表现出对我们中的任何一个人给予她快乐的感情的迹象。 —

But one day she let out to me an inkling of what she preferred in a man. —
但有一天，她给我透露了她对于男人的偏好的一点点线索。 —

It was tremendously interesting to me, but not illuminating as to its application. —
对我来说，这非常有趣，但对它的运用并没有什么启示。 —

I had been tormenting her for the dozenth time with the statement and catalogue of my sentiments toward her.
我已经第十二次折磨她，告诉她我对她的情感和感受的陈述和目录。

“Tommy,” said she, “I don’t want a man to show his love for me by leading an army against another country and blowing people off the earth with cannons.”
“汤米，”她说，”我不希望一个男人通过领导一支军队对抗其他国家并用大炮把人炸飞来显示他对我的爱。”

“If you mean that the opposite way,” I answered, “as they say women do, I’ll see what I can do. —
“如果你是以相反的方式来说的话，”我回答道，“就像他们说女人会做的那样，我会尽力而为。 —

The papers are full of this diplomatic row in Russia. —
这些文件上充满了关于俄罗斯外交纠纷的报道。 —

My people know some big people in Washington who are right next to the army people, and I could get an artillery commission and–”
我的人在华盛顿认识一些重要人物，就在军方人员旁边，我可以得到一份炮兵委任书，然后……”

“I’m not that way,” interrupted Chloe. “I mean what I say. —
“我并不是那样的人，”克洛伊打断道。“我的意思就是我的话是真心的。 —

It isn’t the big things that are done in the world, Tommy, that count with a woman. —
在这个世界上，对于一个女人来说，重要的不是那些大事情。 —

When the knights were riding abroad in their armor to slay dragons, many a stay-at-home page won a lonesome lady’s hand by being on the spot to pick up her glove and be quick with her cloak when the wind blew. —
当骑士们穿着盔甲外出杀龙时，许多留在家里的侍从通过迅速捡起她们的手套、帮她们披上斗篷来赢得孤独女子的芳心。 —

The man I am to like best, whoever he shall be, must show his love in little ways. —
我最喜欢的那个人，无论他是谁，必须用小小的方式来表达他的爱。 —

He must never forget, after hearing it once, that I do not like to have any one walk at my left side; —
他在听过一次之后绝不能忘记，我不喜欢任何人走在我左边； —

that I detest bright-colored neckties; that I prefer to sit with my back to a light; —
我讨厌鲜艳的领带；我更喜欢背对着光坐着； —

that I like candied violets; that I must not be talked to when I am looking at the moonlight shining on water, and that I very, very often long for dates stuffed with English walnuts.”
我喜欢蜜饯的紫罗兰花；当我凝视着月光照在水面上时，请不要和我说话；而且我非常非常经常渴望用英式核桃填充的枣子。

“Frivolity,” I said, with a frown. “Any well-trained servant would be equal to such details.”
“轻浮，”我皱了皱眉。“一个训练有素的仆人都可以胜任这样的细节工作。”

“And he must remember,” went on Chloe, to remind me of what I want when I do not know, myself, what I want.”
“而且他必须记住，”克洛伊接着说，当我自己不知道自己想要什么时，提醒我我想要什么。

“You’re rising in the scale,” I said. “What you seem to need is a first-class clairvoyant.”
“你正在晋升，”我说。“你似乎需要一个一流的透视者。”

“And if I say that I am dying to hear a Beethoven sonata, and stamp my foot when I say it, he must know by that that what my soul craves is salted almonds; —
“而且如果我说我迫不及待地想听一首贝多芬的奏鸣曲，并且在说的时候跺脚，他必须通过那个知道我的灵魂渴望的是盐渍杏仁； —

and he will have them ready in his pocket.”
他会将它们准备在他的口袋里。”

“Now,” said I, “I am at a loss. I do not know whether your soul’s affinity is to be an impresario or a fancy grocer.”
“现在，”我说，“我迷茫了。我不知道你的灵魂的亲和是成为一个演出经纪人还是一个精品杂货店老板。”

Chole turned her pearly smile upon me.
克洛伊对我露出了珍珠般的笑容。

“Take less than half of what I said as a jest,” she went on. —
“将我所说的不到一半当作玩笑，”她继续说道。 —

“And don’t think too lightly of the little things, Boy. Be a paladin if you must, but don’t let it show on you. —
“不要对小事情轻视，小伙子。如果你必须成为一个圣骑士，但不要让它显露在你身上。 —

Most women are only very big children, and most men are only very little ones. Please us; —
大多数女人只是非常大的孩子，而大多数男人只是非常小的孩子。取悦我们； —

don’t try to overpower us. When we want a hero we can make one out of even a plain grocer the third time he catches our handkerchief before it falls to the ground.”
不要试图压倒我们。当我们想要一个英雄时，我们可以从一个普通的杂货店员身上使他变成英雄，只要他第三次逮住我们的手帕不让其落地。”

That evening I was taken down with pernicious fever. —
那天晚上我得了恶性疟疾。 —

That is a kind of coast fever with improvements and high-geared attachments. —
那是一种有改进和高级附件的沿海疟疾。 —

Your temperature goes up among the threes and fours and remains there, laughing scornfully and feverishly at the cinchona trees and the coal- tar derivatives. —
你的体温在三度和四度之间上升，然后在奎宁树和煤焦油衍生物面前夸夸其谈、发热不已。 —

Pernicious fever is a case for a simple mathematician instead of a doctor. —
恶性疟疾是一个需要简单的数学家而非医生解决的问题。 —

It is merely this formula: Vitality + the desire to live–the duration of the fever the result.
它仅仅是这个公式：生命力+生存欲望-疟疾的持续时间=结果。

I took to my bed in the two-roomed thatched hut where I had been comfortably established, and sent for a gallon of rum. —
我躺在我舒适安顿的两个房间的茅草屋里，叫来了一加仑的朗姆酒。” —

That was not for myself. Drunk, Stamford was the best doctor between the Andes and the Pacific. —
那不是为自己准备的。斯坦福德医生是安地斯山脉和太平洋之间最好的医生。 —

He came, sat at my bedside, and drank himself into condition.
他来了，坐在我床边，喝得醉醺醺的。

“My boy,” said he, “my lily-white and reformed Romeo, medicine will do you no good. —
“孩子，”他说，“我那个改邪归正的罗密欧，药是对你无济于事的。 —

But I will give you quinine, which, being bitter, will arouse in you hatred and anger-two stimulants that will add ten per cent. —
但我会给你奎宁，它的苦味会引起你的仇恨和愤怒-这两种刺激剂会增加你成功的十分之一。 —

to your chances. You are as strong as a caribou calf, and you will get well if the fever doesn’t get in a knockout blow when you’re off your guard.”
你像一只北美驼鹿一样强壮，如果发热不在你放松警惕时给你致命一击的话，你会康复的。”

For two weeks I lay on my back feeling like a Hindoo widow on a burning ghat. —
两个星期里，我躺在床上感觉像印度寡妇在火葬场上一样。 —

Old Atasca, an untrained Indian nurse, sat near the door like a petrified statue of What’s-the-Use, attending to her duties, which were, mainly, to see that time went by without slipping a cog. —
阿塔斯卡老人，一位没有接受过训练的印第安护士，坐在门口像一尊石化的“为什么要费心”，尽职尽责，主要是确保时间不会停滞。 —

Sometimes I would fancy myself back in the Philippines, or, at worse times, sliding off the horsehair sofa in Sleepytown.
有时候我会觉得自己回到了菲律宾，或者在最糟糕的时候，从马毛沙发上滑落到困倦之城。

One afternoon I ordered Atasca to vamose, and got up and dressed carefully. —
一个下午，我点了阿塔斯卡，穿好衣服。 —

I took my temperature, which I was pleased to find 104. —
我量了体温，很高兴地发现是104度。 —

I paid almost dainty attention to my dress, choosing solicitously a necktie of a dull and subdued hue. —
我非常注意我的着装，细心地选择了一条暗淡而低调的领带。 —

The mirror showed that I was looking little the worse from my illness. —
镜子里显示出我看上去因病而稍有所损。 —

The fever gave brightness to my eyes and color to my face. —
发热使我的眼睛变得明亮，脸色也红润起来。 —

And while I looked at my reflection my color went and came again as I thought of Chloe Greene and the millions of eons that had passed since I’d seen her, and of Louis Devoe and the time he had gained on me.
当我看着自己的倒影时，想起了克洛伊·格林和我见她之后数百万个纪元过去了，以及路易斯·德沃和他在我身上赢得的时间。

I went straight to her house. I seemed to float rather than walk; —
我径直走向她的家。我仿佛飘着而不是走着； —

I hardly felt the ground under my feet; I thought pernicious fever must be a great boon to make one feel so strong.
我几乎感觉不到脚下的地面；我想那致命的发热一定是一种很好的恩赐，让人感觉如此强壮。

I found Chloe and Louis Devoe sitting under the awning in front of the house. —
我发现克洛伊和路易斯·德沃坐在房子前面的遮阳篷下。 —

She jumped up and met me with a double handshake.
她跳起来，双手握住我的手。

“I’m glad, glad, glad to see you out again!” she cried, every word a pearl strung on the string of her sentence. —
“我很高兴，高兴，高兴地看到你又出来了！”她大声哭了出来，每个字都像珍珠一样串联在她的句子里。 —

“You are well, Tommy–or better, of course. —
“汤米，你没事，或者说，当然好些了。” —

I wanted to come to see you, but they wouldn’t let me.
我想过来看你，但他们不让我。

“Oh yes,” said I, carelessly, “it was nothing. Merely a little fever. I am out again, as you see.”
“噢，是的，”我漫不经心地说，“没什么。只是有点发烧。你看，我又出来了。”

We three sat there and talked for half an hour or so. —
我们三个坐在那里谈了半个小时左右。 —

Then Chloe looked out yearningly and almost piteously across the ocean. —
然后克洛伊渴望地，几乎可怜兮兮地望着海洋的那一边。 —

I could see in her sea-blue eyes some deep and intense desire. —
我可以从她的海蓝色眼睛中看到一些深沉而强烈的渴望。 —

Devoe, curse him! saw it too.
可恶的德沃也看到了。

“What is it?” we asked, in unison.
“是什么？”我们异口同声地问道。

“Cocoanut-pudding,” said Chloe, pathetically. —
“椰子布丁，”克洛伊可怜巴巴地说道。 —

“I’ve wanted some–oh, so badly, for two days. —
“我已经想要了，哦，真的很想要，已经两天了。 —

It’s got beyond a wish; it’s an obsession.
“这已经超出了愿望，成了一个困扰。”

“The cocoanut season is over,” said Devoe, in that voice of his that gave thrilling interest to his most commonplace words. —
“椰子季节已经过去了，”德沃用那种使他最普通的词语都显得引人入胜的声音说道。 —

“I hardly think one could be found in Mojada. —
“我几乎不认为在莫哈达能找到椰子。 —

The natives never use them except when they are green and the milk is fresh. —
“当地人只在它们还是绿色的、椰汁新鲜的时候才使用它们。” —

They sell all the ripe ones to the fruiterers.”
他们把所有成熟的卖给水果商。

“Wouldn’t a broiled lobster or a Welsh rabbit do as well?” I remarked, with the engaging idiocy of a pernicious-fever convalescent.
难道一个烤龙虾或威尔士兔没有同样的效果吗？我以一种病后恢复者的迷人愚蠢发表了评论。

Chloe came as near to pouting as a sweet disposition and a perfect profile would allow her to come.
克洛伊尽可能生气地撅起嘴，尽管她有着甜美的性格和完美的轮廓。

The Reverend Homer poked his ermine-lined face through the doorway and added a concordance to the conversation.
主持牧师霍默把他裘皮皮衣覆盖的脸伸到门口，给对话增添了一份讲座。

“Sometimes,” said he, “old Campos keeps the dried nuts in his little store on the hill. —
他说：“有时候，老卡姆波斯会把干果放在他在山上的小店里。” —

But it would be far better, my daughter, to restrain unusual desires, and partake thankfully of the daily dishes that the Lord has set before us.”
但是，我女儿，更好的是节制非常的欲望，感恩地享受主给我们摆在面前的日常菜肴。

“Stuff!” said I.
“胡说！”我说。

“How was that?” asked the Reverend Homer, sharply.
“什么意思？”霍默牧师尖刻地问。

“I say it’s tough,” said I, “to drop into the vernacular, that Miss Greene should be deprived of the food she desires-a simple thing like kalsomine-pudding. —
“我是说很艰难，”我说，“用白话说，格林小姐应该被剥夺她所渴望的食物-像石灰水布丁这样简单的东西。” —

Perhaps,” I continued, solicitously, “some pickled walnuts or a fricassee of Hungarian butternuts would do as well.”
也许，“我继续关切地说，“一些腌核桃或匈牙利核桃炖肉同样好。”

Every one looked at me with a slight exhibition of curiosity.
每个人都带着一丝好奇的目光看着我。

Louis Devoe arose and made his adieus. I watched him until he had sauntered slowly and grandiosely to the corner, around which he turned to reach his great warehouse and store. —
路易斯·德沃站起身道别。我看着他，直到他缓慢而傲慢地漫步到街角，绕过转角就能到达他的大型仓库和商店。 —

Chloe made her excuses, and went inside for a few minutes to attend to some detail affecting the seven-o’clock dinner. —
克洛伊找借口，进屋处理一些关于晚七点钟的晚餐的细节问题，她耽搁了几分钟。 —

She was a passed mistress in housekeeping. —
她是一个过目不忘的家政达人。 —

I had tasted her puddings and bread with beatitude.
我吃过她的布丁和面包，感到无比幸福。

When all had gone, I turned casually and saw a basket made of plaited green withes hanging by a nail outside the door-jamb. —
当大家都离开后，我随便转身看到一只由编织的绿色枝条制成的篮子挂在门边的钉子上。 —

With a rush that made my hot temples throb there came vividly to my mind recollections of the head-hunters–those grim, flinty, relentless little men, never seen, but chilling the warmest noonday by the subtle terror of their concealed presence. —
一股使我灼热的太阳穴悸动的冲击突然使我脑中活灵活现地浮现出猎头者的回忆——那些冷酷、坚毅的小人，从未被见过，但却通过他们隐秘的存在带来难以言喻的恐怖，令最温暖的正午也变得寒冷凉薄。 —

… From time to time, as vanity or ennui or love or jealousy or ambition may move him, one creeps forth with his snickersnee and takes up the silent trail. —
… 不时地，随着虚荣心、厌烦、爱情、嫉妒或野心的涌动，某人悄悄地拿起他的小刀，踏上无声的征程。 —

… Back he comes, triumphant, bearing the severed, gory head of his victim … —
他凯旋而归，胜利而归，扛着受害者血淋淋的脑袋回来了…… —

His particular brown or white maid lingers, with fluttering bosom, casting soft tiger’s eyes at the evidence of his love for her.
他的特定的棕色或白色女仆徘徊着，心慌意乱地向他表达爱意，柔软而充满魅力的眼神盯着他对她的爱的证据。

I stole softly from the house and returned to my hut. —
我悄悄地离开了房子，回到了我的小木屋。 —

From its supporting nails in the wall I took a machete as heavy as a butcher’s cleaver and sharper than a safety-razor. —
我从墙上的挂钉上拿下一把像屠夫切肉刀一样沉重而锋利的大砍刀。 —

And then I chuckled softly to myself, and set out to the fastidiously appointed private office of Monsieur Louis Devoe, usurper to the hand of the Pearl of the Pacific.
然后我轻声地笑了起来，朝着精心布置的路易斯·德沃伊先生的私人办公室走去，他篡夺了太平洋明珠的手。

He was never slow at thinking; he gave one look at my face and another at the weapon in my hand as I entered his door, and then he seemed to fade from my sight. —
他思维敏捷，我一进他的办公室，他就看了我一眼，再看了看我手中的武器，然后他似乎在我的视线中消失了。 —

I ran to the back door, kicked it open, and saw him running like a deer up the road toward the wood that began two hundred yards away. —
我冲向后门，踢开它，看到他像鹿一样跑上了通往两百码远处的树林的路。 —

I was after him, with a shout. I remember hearing children and women screaming, and seeing them flying from the road.
我追了上去，大喊一声。我记得听到孩子和妇女们尖叫，看到他们从路边逃离。

He was fleet, but I was stronger. A mile, and I had almost come up with him. —
他快速行进，但我更强壮。走了一英里，我几乎追上了他。 —

He doubled cunningly and dashed into a brake that extended into a small canon. —
他机智地转弯，冲进了一片延伸到一个小峡谷中的灌木丛。 —

I crashed through this after him, and in five minutes had him cornered in an angle of insurmountable cliffs. —
我紧随其后破开了灌木丛，五分钟后，将他逼到了一片无法攀登的悬崖角落。 —

There his instinct of self-preservation steadied him, as it will steady even animals at bay. —
此时，他的自我保护本能使他恢复了冷静，就像困兽一样。 —

He turned to me, quite calm, with a ghastly smile.
他转过身来，一副镇定的样子，带着可怕的笑容。

“Oh, Rayburn!” he said, with such an awful effort at ease that I was impolite enough to laugh rudely in his face. —
“哦，雷伯恩！”他费力地试图表现得轻松，我失礼地在他的脸上嘲笑了一声。 —

“Oh, Rayburn!” said he, “come, let’s have done with this nonsense. —
“哦，雷伯恩！”他说道，“来吧，别再胡闹了。” —

Of course, I know it’s the fever and you’re not yourself; —
当然，我知道这是发烧导致你不像平常的自己； —

but collect yourself, man-give me that ridiculous weapon, now, and let’s go back and talk it over.”
但是，收拾好自己吧，朋友，把那个可笑的武器给我，让我们回去谈谈吧。”

“I will go back,” said I, “carrying your head with me. —
我说，“我会带着你的头回去的。 —

We will see how charmingly it can discourse when it lies in the basket at her door.”
我们就看看当它躺在她门口的篮子里时，它会如何迷人地讲话。”

“Come,” said he, persuasively, “I think better of you than to suppose that you try this sort of thing as a joke. —
他劝说地说：“来吧，我觉得你有比拿这种东西当笑话更好的素养。 —

But even the vagaries of a fever-crazed lunatic come some time to a limit. —
但是，即使是发烧和精神错乱的疯子也会有个限度的。 —

What is this talk about heads and baskets? —
这些关于头和篮子的谈话是什么意思？ —

Get yourself together and throw away that absurd cane-chopper. —
整理好自己，扔掉那个荒谬的刀子。 —

What would Miss Greene think of you?” he ended, with the silky cajolery that one would use toward a fretful child.
格林小姐会对你有什么看法？”他用一种对待脾气不好的孩子的柔滑哄骗语气说道。

“Listen,” said I. “At last you have struck upon the right note. —
我说，“听着，你终于找到了正确的答案。 —

What would she think of me? Listen,” I repeated.
她会对我有什么看法？听着，”我重复道。

“There are women,” I said, “who look upon horsehair sofas and currant wine as dross. —
我说，“有些女人将马毛沙发和红酒视为无足轻重。” —

To them even the calculated modulation of your well- trimmed talk sounds like the dropping of rotten plums from a tree in the night. —
对于他们来说，即使你精心调整的谈话也听起来像是夜晚树上烂掉的梅子掉下来。 —

They are the maidens who walk back and forth in the villages, scorning the emptiness of the baskets at the doors of the young men who would win them.
他们就是在村庄里来回走动的女子，嘲笑那些年轻人门口空空如也的篮子。

One such as they,” I said, “is waiting. Only a fool would try to win a woman by drooling like a braggart in her doorway or by waiting upon her whims like a footman. —
其中一个，”我说。 “在等待。只有傻瓜才会试图通过在她的门口像吹牛者一样吹嘘或者像侍者一样迎合她的心情来赢得一个女人。 —

They are all daughters of Herodias, and to gain their hearts one must lay the heads of his enemies before them with his own hands. —
她们都是希罗底亚的女儿，要赢得她们的心，必须亲手用自己的头颅摆在她们面前。 —

Now, bend your neck, Louis Devoe. Do not be a coward as well as a chatterer at a lady’s tea-table.”
现在，弯曲你的脖子，路易斯·德沃。不要像一个胆小鬼一样，在女人的茶几旁喋喋不休。

“There, there!” said Devoe, falteringly. “You know me, don’t you, Rayburn?”
“好了，好了！”德沃迟疑地说。 “你认识我，对吧，雷伯恩？

“Oh yes,” I said, “I know you. I know you. I know you. But the basket is empty. —
“噢是的，”我说。 “我认识你。我认识你。我认识你。但篮子是空的。 —

The old men of the village and the young men, and both the dark maidens and the ones who are as fair as pearls walk back and forth and see its emptiness. —
村里的老人和年轻人，无论是黑人女子还是像珍珠一样美丽的女子，都来来回回地走动，看着空无一物。 —

Will you kneel now, or must we have a scuffle? —
你现在要下跪吗？还是我们要打一架吗？ —

It is not like you to make things go roughly and with bad form. —
你平时不这样操逼粗鲁、毫无造诣。 —

But the basket is waiting for your head.”
但是，篮子正等着你的脑袋呢。

With that he went to pieces. I had to catch him as he tried to scamper past me like a scared rabbit. —
于是他碎了。我不得不在他试图像只受惊的兔子一样从我身边逃走时拽住他。 —

I stretched him out and got a foot on his chest, but he squirmed like a worm, although I appealed repeatedly to his sense of propriety and the duty he owed to himself as a gentleman not to make a row.
我把他摊开，脚踩着他的胸口，但他像一条蠕虫一样扭动，尽管我一再呼吁他应遵循自己作为绅士的体面和责任不要惹麻烦。

But at last he gave me the chance, and I swung the machete.
但最后他给了我机会，我挥动起了砍刀。

It was not hard work. He flopped like a chicken during the six or seven blows that it took to sever his head; —
这并不是什么困难的工作。他在六七刀下像只鸡一样拍打着。 —

but finally he lay still, and I tied his head in my handkerchief. —
但最后他静了下来，我用手帕将他的头绑了起来。 —

The eyes opened and shut thrice while I walked a hundred yards. —
当我走了一百码时，他的眼睛睁开又合上了三次。 —

I was red to my feet with the drip, but what did that matter? —
我全身被鲜血染红，但那又有什么关系呢？ —

With delight I felt under my hands the crisp touch of his short, thick, brown hair and close-trimmed beard.
我欣喜地感受着他那短而浓密的棕色头发和修剪整齐的胡须。

I reached the house of the Greenes and dumped the head of Louis Devoe into the basket that still hung by the nail in the door-jamb. —
我走到了格林家，将路易斯·德沃的头颅倒入了仍悬挂在门框上的篮子里。 —

I sat in a chair under the awning and waited. —
我坐在遮阳篷下的一把椅子上等待着。 —

The sun was within two hours of setting. —
太阳还有两个小时就要下山了。 —

Chloe came out and looked surprised.
克洛伊走出来，看起来很惊讶。

“Where have you been, Tommy?” she asked. “You were gone when I came out.”
“汤米，你去哪了？”她问道。“我出来的时候你不见了。”

“Look in the basket,” I said, rising to my feet. —
“看看篮子里。”我站起身来说道。 —

She looked, and gave a little scream–of delight, I was pleased to note.
她看了看，发出了一声小小的尖叫——高兴的尖叫，我很高兴地注意到这一点。

“Oh, Tommy!” she said. “It was just what I wanted you to do. —
“哦，汤米！”她说。“那正是我希望你做的事情。 —

It’s leaking a little, but that doesn’t matter. Wasn’t I telling you? —
它有一点漏水，但没关系。我是不是告诉过你？ —

It’s the little things that count. And you remembered.”
小事情才是最重要的。而你记住了。”

Little things! She held the ensanguined head of Louis Devoe in her white apron. —
小事情！她用白色围裙托着布满血迹的路易斯·德沃的头颅。 —

Tiny streams of red widened on her apron and dripped upon the floor. —
血在她的围裙上扩散开来，滴到地板上。 —

Her face was bright and tender.
她的脸色明亮而温柔。

“Little things, indeed!” I thought again. “The head-hunters are right. —
“小事情，确实如此！” 我再次想到。 “人头猎手是对的。 —

These are the things that women like you to do for them.”
这些就是女人们喜欢你为她们做的事情。

Chloe came close to me. There was no one in sight. —
克洛伊走近我。四周没有人。 —

She looked tip at me with sea-blue eyes that said things they had never said before.
她抬头望着我，海蓝色的眼睛说出了以前从未说过的话。

“You think of me,” she said. “You are the man I was describing. —
“你在想我，” 她说。 “你就是我在描述的那个人。 —

You think of the little things, and they are what make the world worth living in. —
你考虑到了那些微小的事情，它们让这个世界值得生活。 —

The man for me must consider my little wishes, and make me happy in small ways. —
对我来说，这个男人必须考虑到我那些微小的愿望，并以微小的方式让我快乐。 —

He must bring me little red peaches in December if I wish for them, and then I will love him till June. I will have no knight in armor slaying his rival or killing dragons for me. —
如果我想要，在12月份他必须给我带来一些小小的红桃子，那样我就会爱他直到六月。我不需要穿着盔甲杀死对手或为我杀龙的骑士。 —

You please me very well, Tommy.”
汤米，你让我非常满意。”

I stooped and kissed her. Then a moisture broke out on my forehead, and I began to feel weak. —
我弯下身亲吻她。然后我的额头上冒出了汗，我开始感到虚弱。 —

I saw the red stains vanish from Chloe’s apron, and the head of Louis Devoe turn to a brown, dried cocoanut.
我看到克洛伊围裙上的红色污渍消失了，路易斯·德沃的头变成了一个棕褐色干燥的椰子。

“There will be cocoanut-pudding for dinner, Tommy, boy,” said Chloe, gayly, “and you must come. —
“晚餐会有椰子布丁，汤米，孩子，”克洛伊开心地说道，“你一定要来。” —

I must go in for a little while.”
“我得进去一会儿。”

She vanished in a delightful flutter.
她愉快地消失了。

Dr. Stamford tramped up hurriedly. He seized my pulse as though it were his own property that I had escaped with.
斯坦福德医生疾步走上来，他像抓住自己的财产一样抓住我的脉搏。

“You are the biggest fool outside of any asylum!” he said, angrily. “Why did you leave your bed? —
“你是精神病院之外最大的傻瓜！”他生气地说道，“你为什么离开床？ —

And the idiotic things you’ve been doing! —
你做的蠢事！ —

–and no wonder, with your pulse going like a sledge-hammer.”
–难怪，你的脉搏像铁锤一样狂跳。”

“Name some of them,” said I.
“你说出其中一些来，”我说。

“Devoe sent for me,” said Stamford. “He saw you from his window go to old Campos’ store, chase him up the hill with his own yardstick, and then come back and make off with his biggest cocoanut.”
“迪沃叫我去，”斯坦福德说道。“他从窗户看到你去了卡姆波斯老店，用他自己的尺追着他冲上山，然后回来并偷走了他最大的椰子。”

“It’s the little things that count, after all,” said I.
“毕竟是小事情。”我说道。

“It’s your little bed that counts with you just now,” said the doctor. —
“你现在最关心的是你的小床，”医生说道。 —

“You come with me at once, or I’ll throw up the case. ‘You’re as loony as a loon.”
“你立刻跟我走，否则我就不接这个病例了。‘你像一只疯鸟一样疯狂。”

So I got no cocoanut-pudding that evening, but I conceived a distrust as to the value of the method of the head-hunters. —
所以那天晚上我没有吃到椰子布丁，但是我对猎头者的方法价值产生了怀疑。 —

Perhaps for many centuries the maidens of the villages may have been looking wistfully at the heads in the baskets at the doorways, longing for other and lesser trophies.
也许几个世纪以来，村庄的姑娘们一直渴望着门口篮子里的那些头颅，渴望其他更小的战利品。