the geese 译文资料.pdf

The Geese Elwyn B. White To give a clear account of what took place in the barnyard early in the morning on that last Sunday in June, I will have to go back more than a year in time, but a year is nothing to me these days. Besides, I intend to be quick about it, and not dawdle. 为了能说清谷仓的院子里在六月的最后一个星期日的清早发生了什么事， 我只好让思绪 先回到一年前的此时了，幸好对现在的我来说一年的时间还不算太远此外，我还打算快点 谈到正题，不再浪费时间 I have had a pair of elderly gray geese- a goose and a gander-living on this place for a number of years, and they have been my friends. “Companions” would be a better word; geese are friends with no one, they badmouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get used to their ingratitude and their false accusations. Early in the spring, a year ago, as soon as the ice went out of the pond, my goose started to lay. She laid three eggs in about a week’s time and then died. I found her halfway down the lane that connects the barnyard with the pasture. There were no marks on her – she lay with wings partly outspread, and with her neck forward in the grass, pointing downhill. Geese are rarely sick, and I think this goose’s time had come and she had simply died of old age. We buried her in our private graveyard, and I felt sad at losing an acquaintance of such long standing-long standing and loud shouting. 我曾有过一对老灰鹅——一只母鹅和一只公鹅——他们在这里住了很多年， 早已成为我 的朋友了。

用“伴侣”这个词或许会更适合一些；鹅是些感情不专一的朋友，他们对什么人 什么事都可以恶口相向 可你一旦习惯了他们的忘恩负义和血口喷人， 就会觉得他们还是不 错的朋友一年前的早春，池塘里的冰刚解冻时，我的母鹅就开始下蛋了她在约一周的时 间里共下了三个蛋， 然后便死掉了 我是在谷仓院子与草场之间的那条小路的半路上发现她 的她看上去不像是已经死了——躺在那里的她，双翅微微张着，脖子伸在草地上，朝着下 坡的方向鹅几乎从不得病，所以我猜这只鹅一定是寿限已到，仅仅是死于衰老而已我早 就注意到，她在从池塘回到她在谷仓里的窝时，步伐总是很缓慢我从不知道她的年纪，可 另外也找不到别的解释了 我们把她埋在我们的私人墓地里， 心里为失去了一位认识了这么 久的老友（顽固的大嗓门朋友）而悲伤 Her legacy, of course, was the three eggs. I knew they were good eggs and did not like to pitch them out. It seemed to me that the least I could do for my departed companion was to see that the eggs she had left in my care were hatched. I checked my hen pen to find out whether we had a broody, but there was none. During the next few days, I scoured the neighborhood for a broody hen, with no success. 她的遗物当然就是那三个蛋了。

我觉得它们是非常好的蛋，所以就舍不得扔掉我能为 我死去的伴侣所做的，大概只能是把这些她留给我照料的蛋孵出来了我去我的鸡舍察看， 想知道我们有没有孵蛋鸡，可那里却没有这样的鸡接下来的几天里，我又去邻居们那里寻 找孵蛋鸡，却仍是一无所获在多年以前，如果你需要一只孵蛋鸡，在任何一个谷仓或者鸡 舍里差不多都能找到一只可如今它却被看作是不受欢迎的；现代的母鸡只是个下蛋机器， 孵蛋已经不是她的天职了此外，许多人都不再养母鸡了——他们想要一打鸡蛋的时候，去 的不是谷仓，而是第一国民商场 Days went by. My gander, the widower, lived a solitary life-nobody to swap gossip with, nobody to protect. He seemed dazed. The three eggs were not getting any younger, and I myself felt dazed-restless and unfulfilled, I had stored the eggs down cellar in the arch where it is cool, and every time I went down there for something they seemed silently to reproach me. My plight had become known around the town, and one day a friend phoned and said he would lend me an incubator designed for hatching the eggs of waterfowl. I brought the thing home, cleaned it up, plugged it in, and sat down to read the directions. After studying them, I realized that if I were to tend eggs in that incubator, I would have to withdraw from the world for thirty days-give up everything, just as a broody goose does. Obsessed though I was with the notion of bringing life into the three eggs, I wasn’t quite prepared to pay the price. 几天过去了。

我的公鹅，那个鳏夫，还在过着单身生活——没有谁来和他闲谈，也没有 谁再需要他保护了他似乎有些神情恍惚这三个蛋越来越不新鲜了，我很不安——难以入 睡，忧心忡忡我把这些蛋藏到了地下室拱门里的阴凉处，每当我因什么事而下到那里时， 它们似乎都在那儿默默责怪着我我的誓言早已在镇子左右传遍了，一天，一个朋友打来电 话说，他可以借给我一台专门用来孵水鸟蛋的孵蛋机我把这东西带回家，擦干净，插上插 头，然后就坐下来读说明书看完后，我才明白如果我想用这台孵蛋机孵蛋，就得从外面的 世界里暂时消失三十天——只能像孵蛋鹅那样一直坐着， 此外的一切都不能去做 虽然我始 终被想把三个蛋孵出三只鹅的企图所困扰，但我还是不想付出这样的代价 Instead, I abandoned the idea of incubation and decided to settle the matter by acquiring three ready-made goslings, as a memorial to the goose and a gift for the lonely gander. I drove up the road about five miles and dropped in on Irving Closson. I knew Irving had geese; he has everything-even a sawmill. I found him shoeing a very old horse in the doorway of his barn, and I stood and watched for a while. Hens and geese wandered about the yard, and a turkey tom circled me, wings adroop, strutting. I brought up the question of goslings, and he took me into the barn and showed me a sitting goose. He said he thought she was covering more than twenty eggs and should bring off her goslings in a couple of weeks and I could buy a few if I wanted. I said I would like three. 我放弃了这个用孵蛋机的想法， 转而决定去买三只现成的小鹅回来， 把它们当作对已逝 的母鹅的纪念和孤独的公鹅的礼物。

我把车开到五英里外的欧文•克娄森家我知道欧文那 里有鹅； 他什么都有——甚至有一座锯木场 我发现他正在给一匹站在他的谷仓门口的老马 打掌，于是便站在那里看了一会儿鸡与鹅们在院子里到处闲逛，缩着翅膀的雄火鸡神气活 现地在我周围踱着步那匹一只前蹄架在他两膝间的马，似乎很难用三条腿找到平衡，可还 是神定气闲的，像是睡着了一样我问欧文是不是也想给马钉后掌，他说， “不，这我可很 难做到，何况他也不常用他的后腿 ”接着我对他谈了有关小鹅的问题，于是他将我领到谷 仓，把那只正在孵蛋的鹅指给我看他说他觉得她在两周后大概就能孵出二十多只小鹅来， 如果我想要的话，到时候可以买几只我说我就要三只 I took to calling at Irving’s every few days-it is about the pleasantest place to visit anywhere around. At last, I was rewarded: I pulled into the driveway one morning and saw a goose surrounded by green goslings. She had been staked out, like a cow. Irvin。