納尼亞傳奇：第一章 露茜窺探衣櫥

Chapter 1: Lucy Looks Into A Wardrobe.

第一章 露茜窺探衣櫥

ONCE there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids.

從前，有這么四個孩子，他們的名字分別叫彼得、蘇珊、愛德蒙和露茜。下面講的故事就是他們親身經歷過的事情。

They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy (who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide it.

那是在戰(zhàn)爭時期，為了躲避空襲，他們被送離倫敦，來到一位老教授的家里。這位老教授的家在英國的中部，離最近的火車站有十英里遠，離最近的郵局也有兩英里。他沒有老伴，和女管家瑪卡蕾蒂太太以及另外三個仆人一起，住著一所很大很大的房子(這三個仆人一個叫愛薇，一個叫瑪格麗特，還有一個叫蓓蒂，但她們在這個故事中出現的不多)。教授已經老態(tài)龍鐘，一頭蓬亂的白發(fā)。孩子們一來就喜歡上了他。但在頭天傍晚，當他從大門口出來迎接他們一行的時候，他的這副怪模樣使年齡最小的露茜感到有點害怕，而愛德蒙呢(除了露茜他年齡最小)，卻忍不住要笑，他只好一次又一次的裝做擦鼻涕，這才沒有笑出聲來。

As soon as they had said good night to the Professor and gone upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls' room and they all talked it over.

第一天晚上，他們向老教授道了晚安，就一起上樓，兩個男孩來到女孩子的寢室，互相交談起來。

"We've fallen on our feet and no mistake," said Peter. "This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like."

“我們的確運氣不錯，”彼得說，“這兒太好了，我們高興干啥就可以干啥，這位老先生是不會管我們的。”

"I think he's an old dear," said Susan.

“我看他是個惹人喜歡的老頭。”蘇珊說。

"Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. "Don't go on talking like that."

“哎呀，別東拉西扯了!”愛德蒙說，他已經很累了，但偏偏裝作不累的樣子，每當這時，他往往要發(fā)脾氣，“別再說這些啦!”

"Like what?" said Susan; "and anyway, it's time you were in bed."

“說什么才好?”蘇珊回了他一句，“你該睡了。”

"Trying to talk like Mother," said Edmund. "And who are you to say when I'm to go to bed? Go to bed yourself."

“你倒學著媽媽教訓起我來了，”愛德蒙說，“你是什么人?我什么時間睡，還要你管!你自己去睡吧。”

"Hadn't we all better go to bed?" said Lucy. "There's sure to be a row if we're heard talking here."

“大家都睡，好不好?”露茜調解說，“如果人家聽見我們還在這兒說話，非要罵我們不可。”

"No there won't," said Peter. "I tell you this is the sort of house where no one's going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won't hear us. It's about ten minutes' walk from here down to that dining-room, and any amount of stairs and passages in between."

“根本不會，”彼德說，“我不是說過，在老教授家里，誰也不會管我們的嗎?再說，他們也不會聽見我們講話。從這里下去到飯廳，中間有這么多樓梯和過道，大約要走十分鐘的路。”

"What's that noise?" said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a little creepy. "It's only a bird, silly," said Edmund.

“什么聲音?”露茜突然問道。這所房子比她以前住過的任何一所房子都要大得多，一想到那些長長過道和一排排通向空蕩蕩的房間的門，她就感到有點兒害怕，渾身都起了雞皮疙瘩。

"It's an owl," said Peter.

“傻東西，這是鳥兒叫。”愛德蒙說。

"This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let's go and explore tomorrow. You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There'll be hawks."

“這是貓頭鷹的叫聲。”彼得說，“這里是各種鳥兒棲息的最好場所。我要去睡啦。喂，我們明天去探險吧。在這樣一個地方，隨便什么東西你也許都可以找到。在來的路上，你們看見了那些山沒有?還有那些樹林?那里也許有鷹啊，鹿，鷲啊。”

"Badgers!" said Lucy.

“有獾嗎?”露茜問。

"Foxes!" said Edmund.

“還有蛇!”愛德蒙說。

"Rabbits!" said Susan.

“還有狐貍呢!!”蘇珊說。

But when next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.

但第二天早晨，卻冷瀝瀝地下起雨來了。雨很大，透過窗子朝外望去，你既看不見山，也看不見樹林，甚至連花園里的小溪也看不見。

"Of course it would be raining!" said Edmund. They had just finished their breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had set apart for them - a long, low room with two windows looking out in one direction and two in another.

“沒有辦法，天大概還要下雨，我們只好聽天由命嘍，”愛德蒙說。他們剛和教授一起吃好了早飯，就來到樓上教授給他們安排的房間。這是一個狹長而又低矮的房間，兩頭各開著兩扇窗子可以看到外面。

"Do stop grumbling, Ed," said Susan. "Ten to one it'll clear up in an hour or so. And in the meantime we're pretty well off. There's a wireless and lots of books."

“別發(fā)牢騷，艾德，”蘇珊說，“說不定過個把小時以后，天會轉晴。就是現在，也不是沒有什么可玩的。這里有無線電，還有許多書。”

"Not for me"said Peter; "I'm going to explore in the house."

“我才不稀罕這些玩意兒呢，”彼得說，“我要在這所住宅內進行探險。”

Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they found a suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books - most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking-glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue-bottle on the window-sill.

大家都同意彼得的這個建議，一場奇遇就是這樣開始的。這所住宅，你似乎永遠也走不到它的盡頭，里邊凈是些意料不到的地方。他們先試著打開了幾扇門，原來是幾間無人居住的空房間，這是大家事先預料到的。接下來，他們進了一個非常狹長的房間，墻上掛滿了畫，他們還在屋內發(fā)現了一副盔甲。然后，他們又進了另一個房間，里面全是綠色的裝飾物，只是在角落里放著一把豎琴。這以后，他們走過一下一上的兩段樓梯，來到樓上的一間小廳，小廳有一扇門通向外面的陽臺。從小廳出來以后，他們又走進了一連串各自相通的房間，里面都放滿了書，這些書絕大部分都是很舊的，有些比教堂里的《圣經》還要大。他們在這里逗留了片刻，又順路走進另一個空蕩蕩的房間望了一下，只見里面放著一只很大很大的衣櫥，櫥門上鑲著鏡子。除了窗臺上面放著一個褪了色的藍花瓶以外，別的什么也沒有了。

"Nothing there!" said Peter, and they all trooped out again - all except Lucy. She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth while trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two moth-balls dropped out.

“這有啥意思?”彼得說。大家都跟著走出去了，只有露茜一個人留在后面。她想試試能否把那個大衣櫥打開，盡管她幾乎肯定衣櫥的門是鎖著的。她自己都沒有想到，櫥門竟然很容易的被打開了，里面還滾出了兩顆樟腦丸。

Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up - mostly long fur coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in - then two or three steps always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.

她朝櫥里仔細看了一下，里面并排掛著好幾件外套，幾乎全都是長長的皮外套。這些衣服摸上去軟綿綿的，還帶有樟腦丸的清香，露茜高興極了。她一步跨進衣櫥，擠到皮衣中間，把她的小臉蛋貼在毛茸茸的皮衣上輕輕地摩擦。當然嘍，她讓櫥門開在那兒，因為她知道，一個人把自己關在衣櫥里是非常愚蠢的。她往里挪動了一下身子，發(fā)現在第一排衣服的后面還掛著一排衣服，里面黑糊糊是。她把兩只手往前伸，生怕自己的臉碰到了櫥的后壁。她向前又跨了一步，接著兩步，三步，想用手指尖摸到木頭的櫥壁，但她始終沒能摸到。

"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. "I wonder is that more mothballs?" she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. "This is very queer," she said, and went on a step or two further.

“這個衣櫥多大啊!”露茜一邊暗自想，一邊又繼續(xù)往前走。她不時撥開交迭著的柔軟的皮衣，為自己開路。這時，她感到腳底下有什么東西在“吱嘎”“吱嘎”作響。“我難道踩著了樟腦丸了?”她想，一邊蹲下身來用手去摸。然而她摸到的不是堅硬而又光滑的木頭櫥底，而是一樣柔軟的、粉末似的、冰冷的東西。“多么奇怪啊?”她一邊說，一邊又朝前走了一兩步。

Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. "Why, it is just like branches of trees!" exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air. Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree trunks; she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. "I can always get back if anything goes wrong," thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp-post.

她很快就發(fā)現，碰在她臉上和手上的已不再是軟綿綿的皮毛了，而是一種又堅硬又粗糙甚至有點戳手的東西。“哎呦，這像樹枝嘛!”露茜一聲驚叫。這時，她看見前面亮著一盞燈。本來衣櫥后壁只有幾英寸遠，但這盞燈看上去卻在老遠老遠的地方。一種輕飄飄的冰冷的東西落在她身上。一會兒以后，她發(fā)現自己站在深夜的樹林中，雪花正從空中飄落下來，她的腳下全是積雪。露茜有點害怕起來，但同時又感到好奇和興奮。她回頭望去，穿過樹干與樹干之間的幽暗的空隙，依然可以看到敞開著的櫥門，甚至還可以瞥見她從那里進來的那間空屋。(當然，她是讓櫥門開著的，因為她知道，把自己關在衣櫥里是件非常愚蠢的事)。那里好像還是白天。“即使出了什么事，我也能回去。”露茜想。她又繼續(xù)朝前走，“嘎吱”、“嘎吱”的踩著積雪，穿過樹林，一直朝著那盞燈走去。大約走了十分鐘，她就到了那里，原來這是一根燈柱。正當她凝神望著燈柱，猜測著為什么在樹林中有一個燈柱，考慮著下一步該怎么辦的時候，她猛地聽到一陣“啪嗒”“啪嗒”的腳步聲。沒多久，從樹林中走出一個樣子奇怪的人，一直來到燈柱下面。

He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat's (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat's hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella: in the other arm he carried several brown-paper parcels. What with the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all his parcels.

這人只比露茜略高一點，頭上打著一把傘，傘上滿是雪，一片白色。他的上半身看起來像人，但他的腿卻像山羊，上面的毛黑油油的;他沒有腳，卻長著山羊的蹄子。他還有一條尾巴，但露茜最初并沒有看見。因為怕拖在雪地里搞臟，他把它放在拿傘的那個手臂彎里。他的頸項里圍著一條紅色的羊毛圍巾，紅撲撲的小臉，長相有點奇怪，卻又惹人喜歡。他留著尖尖的短胡子，長著卷曲的頭發(fā)，額頭兩邊各長著一只角。他一只手撐著傘，另一只手臂抱著幾個棕色的紙包。看起來，他很像剛買了東西回來準備過圣誕節(jié)的。原來，他就是古羅馬農牧之神豐訥。當他發(fā)現露茜時，他大吃一驚，手中所有的紙包都掉落在雪地上。

"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed the Faun.

“天哪!”羊怪驚叫了一聲。