那些無法抗拒的名篇35:I Am Legend我是傳奇(節(jié)選)

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35 I Am Legend

35 我是傳奇

On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back.

在陰天，羅伯特·奈維爾判斷日落的時間就不準(zhǔn)了。有時在他趕回家之前，天就黑了。

If he had been more analytical，he might have calculated the approximate time of their arrival;but he still used the lifetime habit of judging nightfall by the sky, and on cloudy days that method didn't work. That was why he chose to stay near the house on those days.

如果他仔細(xì)分析一下，或許能推測出日落的大概時間。但他已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了根據(jù)天色來判斷時間。一到陰天，這方法就不靈了，所以一到陰天，他就呆在自家附近。

He walked around the house in the dull gray of afternoon，a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth，trailing threadlike smoke over his shoulder. He checked each window to see if any of the boards had been loosened. After violent attacks, the planks were often split or partially pried off, and he had to replace them completely, a job he hated. Today only one plank was loose. Isn't that amazing? he thought.

一個陰晦的下午，他正繞著房屋散步，嘴角叼著香煙，細(xì)絲狀的煙霧在他身后繚繞上升。他仔細(xì)檢查每扇窗戶，看是否有木板松動。瘋狂襲擊過后，那些厚實(shí)的木板總會出現(xiàn)裂痕甚至被掀起一角，他只好換掉它們。一個討厭的活兒。今天只有一塊窗板松脫，真讓人吃驚!他暗自想著。

In the back yard he checked the hothouse and the water tank. Sometimes the structure around the tank might be weakened or its rain catchers bent or broken off. Sometimes they would lob rocks over the high fence around the hothouse, and occasionally they would tear through the overhead net and he'd have to replace panes.

他檢查后院的溫室和貯水池，貯水池周圍的桁架總是失去力度，接雨裝置要么彎曲要么斷裂。有時他們把石頭扔過溫室周圍的高大圍欄，石塊偶爾會撕開上面的天棚，他不得不替換它們。

Both the tank and the hothouse were undamaged today. He went to the house for a hammer and nails. As he pushed open the front door, he looked at the distorted reflection of himself in the cracked mirror he' d fastened to the door a month ago. In a few days, jagged pieces of the silver-backed glass would start to fall off. Let'em fall, he thought. It was the last damned mirror he'd put there, it wasn't worth it. He'd put garlic there instead. Garlic always worked.

今天溫室和貯水池都沒損壞。他進(jìn)屋拿錘子和釘子。推開前門，他看到自己在破裂的鏡子里的扭曲影像。鏡子是他上個月釘在門上的?？蓻]幾天，鍍銀玻璃就開始剝落，由它們落吧，他想。他再也不往那地方放混蛋鏡子了，不值，還不如放大蒜。大蒜總是管用。

He passed slowly through the dim silence of the living room，turned left into the small hallway, and left again into his bedroom. Once the room had been warmly decorated, but that was in another time. Now it was a room entirely functional, and since Neville's bed and bureau took up so little space, he had converted one side of the room into a shop.

他緩慢地穿過昏暗寂靜的客廳，左轉(zhuǎn)進(jìn)入狹窄的走廊，然后來到他的臥室。那房間曾經(jīng)裝飾得很漂亮，但那是過去?，F(xiàn)在它只是個實(shí)用性房間，奈維爾的衣櫥和床沒占多大空間，于是他把房間一頭改成了工作坊。

A long bench covered almost an entire wall, on its hardwood top a heavy band saw，a wood lathe, an emery wheel, and a vise. Above it, on the wall, were haphazard racks of the tools that Robert Neville used.

一個長凳占據(jù)了幾乎整面墻，在它的硬木表面放著重鋸齒、車床、砂輪、錘子和老虎鉗，在長凳上方的壁架上，散亂堆放著羅伯特·奈維爾常用的各種工具。

He took a hammer from the bench and picked out a few nails from one of the disordered bins. Then he went back outside and nailed the plank fast to the shutter. The unused nails he threw into the rubble next door.

他從長凳上拿起錘子，又從雜物箱里摸出了幾個釘子。他來到屋外，把松動的木板釘好。剩余的釘子隨手丟到了挨門的石堆里。

For a while he stood on the front lawn looking up and down the silent length of Cimarron Street. He was a tall man，thirty-six, born of English-German stock, his features undistinguished except for the long, determined mouth and the bright blue of his eyes, which moved now over the charred ruins of the houses on each side of his. He' d burned them down to prevent them from jumping on his roof from the adjacent ones.

他在門口草坪上站了一會，前后打量著西馬倫大街。他是個高個兒男子，今年36歲，英德血統(tǒng)。他的長相一般，只有細(xì)長的嘴唇和湛藍(lán)的眼睛還算有型。現(xiàn)在這雙藍(lán)眼睛正盯著他房子兩邊的一堆燒毀的房屋廢墟。是他自己燒的，以防有人通過鄰近的房屋跳上他的屋頂。

After a few minutes he took along, slow breath and went back into the house. He tossed the hammer on the living-room couch, then lit another cigarette and had his midmorning drink.

幾分鐘后，他伸了個懶腰，走回屋去。他把錘子丟在客廳沙發(fā)上，又點(diǎn)了支煙，開始喝上午茶。

Later he forced himself into the kitchen to grind up the five-day accumulation of garbage in the sink. He knew he should burn up the paper plates and utensils too, and dust the furniture and wash out the sinks and the bathtub and toilet, and change the sheets and pillowcase on his bed, but he didn't feel like it.

過后，他強(qiáng)迫自己進(jìn)了廚房，在水槽里碾碎已經(jīng)積累了5天的垃圾。他知道他應(yīng)該燒掉紙餐具和炊具。應(yīng)該撣去家具上的灰塵，應(yīng)該清洗水槽，清洗浴缸和廁所。應(yīng)該換洗他的床單枕套。但他討厭做這些事。

For he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him.

因?yàn)樗悄腥?，而且?dú)自生活，這些破事對他來說無關(guān)緊要。

It was almost noon.Robert Neville was in his hothouse collecting a basketful of garlic.

快到中午時，羅伯特·奈維爾在他的溫室里收了滿滿一籃子大蒜。

In the beginning it had made him sick to smell garlic in such quantity his stomach had been in a state of constant turmoil. Now the smell was in his house and in his clothes, and sometimes he thought it was even in his flesh.

想當(dāng)初，聞到這么重的大蒜味時，他肯定會惡心得想吐，胃里會持續(xù)地翻騰?？涩F(xiàn)在，這種味道彌漫了他的房間、衣服，有時他甚至覺得這味道已經(jīng)滲透進(jìn)了他的肉體和血液里。

He hardly noticed it at all.

這味道再也不能引起他的注意了。

When he had enough bulbs, he went back to the house and dumped them on the drainboard of me sink. As he flicked the wall switch, the light flickered, then flared into normal brilliance. A disgusted hiss passed his clenched teeth. The generator was at it again. He' d have to get out that damned manual again and check the wiring. And, if it were too much trouble to repair, he' d have to install a new generator.

摘了足夠多的大蒜后，他回到房間把它們?nèi)康乖谒劾?。他輕彈了下墻上的開關(guān)，燈光閃爍了一陣，才恢復(fù)正常光亮。他發(fā)出厭煩的嘶嘶聲。一定是發(fā)電機(jī)的毛病。他又要找手冊，又要檢查線路。要是太難修理，又得去換新的。

Angrily he jerked a high-legged stool to the sink, got a knife,and sat down with an exhausted grunt.

他氣憤地拎了個高腳凳放到水槽旁，拿了把小刀，帶著疲憊的咕噥聲坐下。

First, he separated the bulbs into the small, sickle-shaped cloves. Then he cut each pink, leathery clove in half, exposing the fleshy center buds. The air thickened with the musky, pungent odor. When it got too oppressive, he snapped on the air-conditioning unit and suction drew away the worst of it.

首先，他把大蒜剝成月牙狀的小蒜瓣。然后把每個粉色皮革般堅(jiān)韌的蒜瓣切開，露出里面的蒜肉?？諝庵蓄D時充滿濃郁的刺激性氣味。當(dāng)他實(shí)在忍受不了這味道時，便打開空調(diào)抽掉這渾濁的氣體。

Now he reached over and took an icepick from its wall rack. He punched holes in each clove half, then strung them all together with wire until he had about twenty-five necklaces.

他起身從壁架上抽出一個碎冰錐，在蒜片上打孔，然后把它們穿在金屬絲上，直到他擁有25條項(xiàng)鏈為止。

In the beginning he had hung these necklaces over the windows. But from a distance they' d thrown rocks until he'd been forced to cover the broken panes with plywood scraps. Finally one day he' d torn off the plywood and nailed up even rows of planks instead. It had made the house a gloomy sepulcher, but it was better than having rocks come flying into his rooms in a shower of splintered glass. And, once he had installed the three air-conditioning units, it wasn't too bad. A man could get used to anything if he had to.

先前他把大蒜項(xiàng)鏈掛在窗戶上，但是有人總是從遠(yuǎn)處扔石頭，他不得不用廢鋼夾板蓋住損壞的窗戶。后來，他又扯掉夾板，釘上一排厚木板。房子弄得像一個陰沉的墓穴，但總比石頭夾著冰雹般的玻璃碎片飛進(jìn)屋來要強(qiáng)。在他安裝了三臺空調(diào)后，發(fā)現(xiàn)狀況還不錯。一個男人可以適應(yīng)任何事情，如果他必須這么做的話。

When he was finished stringing the garlic cloves, he went outside and nailed them over the window boarding, taking down the old strings, which had lost most of their potent smell.

串好蒜瓣，他走出去將它們釘?shù)酱鞍迳?，換下原來的舊項(xiàng)鏈，那些早已沒了濃烈的氣味。

He had to go through this process twice a week. Until he found something better, it was his first line of defense.

這事他每周都要做兩次。在找到更好的方法以前，這是他最好的第一防線。

Defense? he often thought. For what?

防線?他經(jīng)常想，防什么?

作者介紹：

理查德·馬瑟森被譽(yù)為“20世紀(jì)最偉大的作家之一”，《我是傳奇》小說問世以來，已經(jīng)于1964和1971年兩度被搬上熒屏。除了一些魔幻、科普、恐怖風(fēng)格的小說，馬瑟森還是一個多產(chǎn)的影視劇作家，他的很多小說都被改編成影視劇本，如《奇怪的收縮人》、《重返的時刻》等。

恐怖的生化戰(zhàn)爭席卷而來，人類為自己掘下了死亡的墳?zāi)?。世紀(jì)末日隨即而來，人類快要滅絕了，唯一存活下來的是紐約一個才華橫溢的病原體學(xué)者，羅伯特·奈維爾。這種通過空氣傳播的病毒快速地籠罩了整個城市。血液天生的免疫力使羅伯特成了僅存的人類。作為人類最后的希望，他用自己血液中的免疫系統(tǒng)，尋找逆轉(zhuǎn)病毒的方法。他別無選擇，因?yàn)樗臅r間不多了。