雙語對照 | 書蟲二級《長池村的故事》：4.教堂樂隊

00:00

00:00

MP3下載 文本下載

https://online2.tingclass.net/lesson/shi0529/10000/10214/04.mp3

https://image.tingclass.net/statics/js/2012

教堂樂隊

It was on the Sunday after Christmas. That was the last time the band played in Longpuddle church, but they didn't know it at the time, of course.

那是圣誕節(jié)之后的第一個星期天，也是那個樂隊在長池村教堂的最后一次演奏。當(dāng)然，那時候他們沒料到事情會變成這樣。

They were a very good band, the best of all the villages around. There was Nicholas Puddingcome, who played the first fiddle. There was Timothy Thomas and John Biles on the other fiddles; and Dan Hornhead and Robert Dowdle played the oboes.

他們是個非常不錯的樂隊，在周圍的幾個村子里是最好的。尼古拉斯·帕丁康姆是第一小提琴，蒂莫西·托馬斯和約翰·拜爾斯也拉小提琴，丹·霍恩海德和羅伯特·多德爾吹雙簧管。

They didn't just play church music; they could play all kinds of dance music too. They often went out to play at dancing parties in people's homes or in the village inn. So one night they were in the squire's big house, playing nice Christmas songs, and drinking tea with all the squire's fine friends. And the next night they were down at the Dog and Fox, playing noisy dance music for twenty dancers, and drinking hot brandy-and-water.

他們不光演奏教堂音樂，還會演奏各種各樣的舞曲。他們常常到人們家里或村里的旅館為舞會伴奏。頭一天晚上，他們可能在鄉(xiāng)紳的大宅子里演奏優(yōu)美的圣誕樂曲，跟鄉(xiāng)紳的貴客們一起喝茶。第二天晚上，他們可能又會在“獵狗和狐貍”旅館演奏鬧哄哄的舞曲，為20個跳舞的人伴奏，喝熱的加水白蘭地。

Well, that Christmas week was a busy time for them. They were out at dance parties every night, and got very little sleep. Then came the Sunday after Christmas. It was cold that winter — oh my word, it was cold! And upstairs in the church gallery, it was even colder.

唉，圣誕節(jié)那個星期可真夠他們忙活的，天天晚上有舞會，根本睡不了多少覺，就這樣到了圣誕節(jié)后的那個星期天。那年冬天特別冷——老天，真是冷極了!而且教堂樓上樂隊待的地方就更冷了。

So when the band was playing on that Sunday morning, Nicholas Puddingcome said to the others:

所以，那個星期天早上樂隊在教堂演奏的時候，尼古拉斯·帕丁康姆跟其他人說道：

'I can't feel my fingers, it's so cold. How can a man play the fiddle when he can't feel his fingers? This afternoon we'll have something to make us warm.'

“天太冷了，我的手指都被凍麻了。手麻了還怎么拉琴?今天下午我們得喝點(diǎn)兒東西，讓身上暖和起來。”

So he brought a big jar of hot brandy-and-water to church in the afternoon. They put the jar inside Timothy Thomas's fiddle bag, which kept it nice and warm. And during that long afternoon in church, they all had a little glass now and then, so when the parson began his sermon, they were all feeling comfortable and warm. Unluckily for them, the sermon that day was a long one, and the parson went on and on and on. And every man in the band fell asleep, and they slept like babies all through the sermon.

于是，他下午帶了一大罐熱的加水白蘭地去教堂。他們把罐子藏在蒂莫西·托馬斯的琴袋里，好讓酒一直暖著。那個漫長的下午，他們在教堂里待著，不時喝上一小杯，所以當(dāng)牧師開始布道的時候，他們各個都覺得身上又暖和又舒服。不幸的是，那天的布道格外長，牧師一講起來就沒完沒了。樂隊的幾個人全都睡著了，一直到布道結(jié)束還沒醒。

It was a very dark afternoon, and by the end of the sermon you couldn't see very much inside the church. When the parson finished, he called for the last piece of music. But the band did not start playing, and people began to turn round and look up at the gallery. Then Levi Limpet, a boy who sat in the gallery, whispered to Nicholas, 'Begin! Begin!'

那天下午天色很暗，布道結(jié)束的時候，教堂里已經(jīng)看不太清楚了。牧師講完了，宣布唱最后一首贊美詩，可樂隊卻沒有動靜，人們紛紛回頭往樓上看。這時，一個坐在樓上的男孩，利瓦伊·林皮特悄悄對尼古拉斯說：“開始了!開始了!”

'Hey? What?' said Nicholas, and nearly fell out of his chair.

“啊?什么?”尼古拉斯差點(diǎn)兒從椅子上摔下來。

Then, because the church was dark and he was still half-asleep, he thought that he was at a party. The night before, you see, the band was playing all night at a party at the Dog and Fox, and Nicholas thought he was still there! So he took his fiddle and immediately began to play The Laughing Sailor — that was the favourite dance tune in our village that winter.

接著，因?yàn)榻烫美锖馨担胨胄阎g，他以為自己是在舞會上。你知道，前一天晚上他們在“獵狗和狐貍”旅館演奏了一整夜，而尼古拉斯以為自己還在那里!于是他拿起小提琴，立刻拉起了《大笑的水手》——這是那年冬天我們村里最受歡迎的舞曲。

The rest of the band woke up suddenly, and hearing The Laughing Sailor, of course they just followed Nicholas. And away they all went, fiddles and oboes, as loudly as they could. They played that dance tune until the church walls shook with the sound.

樂隊的其他人也突然醒過來，聽到《大笑的水手》，自然也都跟著尼古拉斯演奏起來。他們就這么又吹又拉，而且還鼓足了勁兒，要多響有多響。熱鬧的舞曲把教堂的墻都震得直晃。

Then Nicholas saw that nobody was moving. If people didn't know the dances, he often called out the moves to help them. And so he did that now.

后來尼古拉斯才發(fā)現(xiàn)沒有人動。如果人們對一種舞不太熟，他常常幫他們喊動作，現(xiàn)在他就這么做了。

'Up to the top, change hands, then back down the other side!' he shouted. 'Then turn around, once, twice, take hands, and back to the top again!'

“走到盡頭，換手，再走到另一邊!”他大聲喊著，“然后轉(zhuǎn)圈，一圈，兩圈，拉手，再回到盡頭!”

The boy Levi was very frightened. He ran down the gallery stairs and out of the church as fast as his little legs could carry him. The parson's hair stood on end when he heard that wicked dance tune in his church. He held up his hand and cried, 'Stop, stop, stop! Stop, stop!'

那個男孩利瓦伊嚇壞了。他跑下樓梯，沖出教堂，一溜煙地不見了。牧師氣得頭發(fā)都豎起來了，他居然在自己的教堂里聽到了這首邪惡的舞曲。他舉起手來大喊：“停下，停下，停下!停下，停下!”

But the band didn't hear him because of the noise of the music. The parson went on calling 'Stop, stop!' and the band went on playing.

可是音樂的聲音太大，樂隊根本沒聽見他說話。牧師不停地喊“停下，停下!”，而樂隊一刻也沒停。

Then people in the church began to stand up and talk. 'What's happening? Why are they playing this wicked music? Is it the Devil himself up there in the gallery?'

教堂里的人開始站起來議論紛紛：“出了什么事?他們?yōu)槭裁囱葑噙@首邪惡的曲子?難道魔鬼本人就在樓上?”

And the squire, too, stood up. He was there with all his fine friends, and he was very angry. He went and stood in front of the gallery, and shouted at the band.

鄉(xiāng)紳也站了起來，他的貴客們也全在場，這讓他非常生氣。他沖到樂隊對面，向樓上大聲喊起來：

'Stop this wicked noise! At once! D'you hear?'

“停下這邪惡的噪音!馬上停下!你們聽見了嗎?”

The squire had a good, loud voice, and at last the band heard him, and stopped playing.

鄉(xiāng)紳的嗓門很大，樂隊這次總算聽見了，停止了演奏。

'Playing the Devil's music in church — in God's house!' said the squire. 'I have never heard anything so disgraceful in all my life — never!' Oh, he was so angry!

“竟然在教堂里——在上帝的房子里演奏魔鬼的曲子!”鄉(xiāng)紳說，“我這輩子還沒聽過這么丟人的曲子呢——從來沒有!”哦，他氣得直冒煙!

The parson came down and stood beside the squire. 'Never!' he said. 'Never!'

牧師也走下講壇，站在鄉(xiāng)紳旁邊。“從來沒聽過，”他附和著，“從來沒有!”

'The Devil is in you men!' said the squire. (He was a wicked man himself, the squire was, but that day he was all on God's side, of course.) 'And you will never,' the squire went on, 'never, never play your fiddles in this church again! You have done a wicked thing today, and it must never happen again.'

“你們被魔鬼附身了!”鄉(xiāng)紳說。(鄉(xiāng)紳其實(shí)不是個好東西，但那天他當(dāng)然是站在上帝一邊的。)“你們永遠(yuǎn)，”鄉(xiāng)紳繼續(xù)說道，“永遠(yuǎn)，永遠(yuǎn)都別想再在這個教堂拉琴了!你們今天做了一件邪惡的事，這種事再也不能發(fā)生了。”

By now the unhappy players knew that they were in church, and not in the Dog and Fox. They put their fiddles and their oboes under their arms, and very quietly they went down the gallery stairs and out of the back door of the church.

到這會兒，可憐的樂隊才明白自己原來是在教堂，而不是“獵狗和狐貍”旅館。他們夾著提琴和雙簧管悄悄地下樓，從教堂后門溜走了。

The parson was a kind man, and when he heard the true story later, he wasn't angry any more. He knew that Nicholas, Timothy and the rest weren't wicked men. But the squire — that was a different matter. He was a hard man, and when he said 'no more fiddles', he meant 'no more fiddles'. He sent away for an organ, and the next week, there it was in the church. He found a young man from a good family to play it, and the old band played no more in Longpuddle church.

牧師是個好人，后來聽說了這件事的實(shí)情就不再生氣了。他知道尼古拉斯、蒂莫西和另外幾個人都不是壞人，但這在鄉(xiāng)紳眼里就不是那么回事了。他是個冷酷又固執(zhí)的人，只要說了“不準(zhǔn)拉琴”，那就是“不準(zhǔn)拉琴”，根本沒商量。他派人買來了風(fēng)琴，下一個星期就送到了教堂。他還找了個出身很好的年輕人來彈琴，原來的樂隊再也沒有在長池村的教堂里演奏過。

*　*　*

*　*　*

After this story John Lackland's son asks about the young women of the village. 'Or those who were young when I left, all those years ago,' he says. 'They're all married now, I'm sure.'

聽完這個故事，約翰·拉克蘭的兒子又問起了村里的年輕姑娘們。“或者說那些在我多年前離家時還年輕的姑娘們，”他說，“她們現(xiàn)在肯定都結(jié)婚了。”

'Let's see,' says the carrier. 'Do you remember Netty Sargent, sir?'

“讓我想想，”車夫說，“你還記得妮蒂·薩金特嗎，先生?”

'Netty Sargent...Yes, I do. When I left, she was living with her uncle, wasn't she?'

“妮蒂·薩金特……是的，我記得。我離開時，她和她叔叔住在一起，是吧?”

'That's right. She was a bright young thing, Netty was. Nothing bad about her, you understand, just a little bit clever. She was very clever about the leasehold of her house, I remember.' The carrier looks round at his passengers. 'Who'll tell Mr Lackland that story, then?'

“沒錯。妮蒂是個聰明的小東西。你明白的，她不壞，就是有點(diǎn)兒小聰明。我記得她在房子租約那件事上做得就很聰明。”車夫掃視了一下他的乘客們，“誰來給拉克蘭先生講講那件事?”

'My wife knew Netty when they were girls,' says the farmer, Mr Pawle. 'She can tell you.'

“我太太年輕的時候跟妮蒂很熟，”農(nóng)夫波爾先生說，“她可以告訴你。”

Nancy Pawle is a big, comfortable-looking woman. She laughs, and says, 'Oh yes, I can tell you all about Netty Sargent.'

南希·波爾是個高大、富態(tài)的女人。她笑著說：“哦，是的，我可以告訴你妮蒂·薩金特的一切。”