Julie of the Wolves (Excerpt I)

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Miyax pushed back the hood of her sealskin parka and looked at the Arctic sun.It was a yellow disc in a lime-green sky, the colors of six o’clock in the evening and the time when the wolves awoke.Quietly she put down her cooking pot and crept to the top of a dome-shaped frost heave, one of the many earth buckles that rise and fall in the crackling cold of the Arctic winter.Lying on her stomach, she looked across a vast lawn of grass and moss and focused her attention on the wolves she had come upon two sleeps ago.They were wagging their tails as they awoke and saw each other.

米娅克斯把她海豹皮的爱斯基摩人大衣风帽往后推了推，看着北极的太阳。淡黄绿色天空里挂着一只黄色圆盘，这是傍晚六点钟的颜色，也是狼群醒来的时候。她悄悄地放下蒸煮罐，爬到一个穹顶形状的冻土堆的顶端。在北极的冬天，严寒地区有很多这样隆起的土堆，起起伏伏。米娅克斯趴在地上，目光掠过一大片长着野草和苔藓的草地，注视着两天之前她碰到的狼群。他们刚刚醒来，互相看看，摇着尾巴。

[2]Her hands trembled and her heartbeat quickened, for she was frightened,not so much of the wolves, who were shy and many harpoon-shots away, but because of her desperate predicament.Miyax was lost.She had been lost without food for many sleeps on the North Slope of Alaska.The barren slope stretches for two hundred miles from the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean,and for more than eight hundred miles from Canada to the Chukchi Sea.No roads cross it; ponds and lakes freckle its immensity.Winds scream across it,and the view in every direction is exactly the same.Somewhere in this cosmos was Miyax; and the very life in her body, its spark and warmth, depended upon these wolves for survival.And she was not so sure they would help.

[2]米娅克斯的手抖了起来，心跳也开始加速，她害怕的不是狼群，狼群胆小，还在几十米外；她害怕的是自己面临的绝境。米娅克斯迷路了。在阿拉斯加的北坡地区，她已经迷路好几天，也没有食物。这片荒芜的坡地从布鲁克斯岭直到北冰洋绵延两百英里，而从加拿大直到楚科奇海则绵延八百多英里。这里没有道路穿过，无垠的荒野上散布着水塘和湖泊。大风呼啸而过，每个方向的景色都一模一样。米娅克斯就待在这片荒野的某处；她躯体里的生命，生命的火花和温暖，都要依赖这群野狼来延续下去。但米娅克斯不敢肯定狼群会帮忙。

[3]Miyax stared hard at the regal black wolf, hoping to catch his eye.She must somehow tell him that she was starving and ask him for food.This could be done she knew, for her father,an Eskimo hunter, had done so.One year he had camped near a wolf den while on a hunt.When a month had passed and her father had seen no game,he told the leader of the wolves that he was hungry and needed food.The next night the wolf called him from far away and her father went to him and found a freshly killed caribou.Unfortunately,Miyax’s father never explained to her how he had told the wolf of his needs.And not long afterward he paddled his kayak into the Bering Sea to hunt for seal, and he never returned.

[3]米娅克斯使劲儿盯着那头气度非凡的黑狼，希望能对上他的目光。她必须用某种方式告诉黑狼，她饥肠辘辘，想跟他要点食物。她知道这个可以做到，因为她的父亲，一位爱斯基摩猎人，曾经做到过。有一年，他狩猎时在一个狼窝附近露营。一个月过去了，她父亲也没有碰见猎物，就告诉头狼他很饿，需要食物。第二天夜里，头狼在远处呼唤她父亲，于是他就去找头狼，发现了一只刚刚杀死的驯鹿。不幸的是，米娅克斯的父亲从来没有向她解释他是如何告诉头狼自己的需求的。此后不久，她父亲就划着爱斯基摩皮船去白令海猎捕海豹，从此一去不回。

[4]She had been watching the wolves for two days, trying to discern which of their sounds and movements expressed goodwill and friendship.Most animals had such signals.The little Arctic ground squirrels flicked their tails sideways to notify others of their kind that they were friendly.By imitating this signal with her forefinger, Miyax had lured many a squirrel to her hand.If she could discover such a gesture for the wolves she would be able to make friends with them and share their food,like a bird or a fox.

[4]两天来米娅克斯一直在观察狼群，尽力分辨哪些声音和动作表示善意和友好。大部分动物都有这样的信号。小小的北极地松鼠会侧向甩动尾巴，告诉同类他们在示好。米娅克斯曾经用食指模仿这个动作，诱惑了好多松鼠到她手上来。如果她能发现狼群中类似功用的姿势，她就能跟狼群交上朋友，并分享他们的食物，就像小鸟或狐狸那样。

[5]Propped on her elbows with her chin in her fists,she stared at the black wolf, trying to catch his eye.She had chosen him because he was much larger than the others, and because he walked like her father, Kapugen, with his head high and his chest out.The black wolf also possessed wisdom, she had observed.The pack looked to him when the wind carried strange scents or the birds cried nervously.If he was alarmed, they were alarmed.If he was calm, they were calm.

[5]米娅克斯趴在地上，两肘撑地，双手托着下巴，紧盯着黑狼，极力要跟他对上眼。米娅克斯选择了黑狼，因为黑狼比其他狼大出好多，还因为黑狼走路的姿态像自己的父亲卡普根，总是昂首挺胸。通过她的观察，她知道黑狼也很有智慧。每当风中刮来奇怪的气味，或鸟儿紧张地鸣叫时，狼群就会望向黑狼。黑狼如果警觉，狼群就警觉。黑狼如果安静，狼群就安静。

【背景知识】米娅克斯是爱斯基摩小姑娘，英语名字是朱莉，只有14岁。父亲出海狩猎，一去不返。她成了丹尼尔的童养媳。因为有一天丹尼尔试图欺辱她，米娅克斯只身出走，迷失在阿拉斯加北坡的荒原上，孤立无援，没有食物，只有狼群在身边。她如何凭借爱斯基摩人的智慧，借助狼群生存下去呢？

【第一段】parka是爱斯基摩人特有的皮衣，如果只翻译成大衣不能传达特有的文化信息，所以译文添加了“爱斯基摩人”。而frost heave的词典释义为“冰冻隆胀”，即冻土堆。爱斯基摩人喜欢用sleeps（过几夜）来表示时间或距离（比如，two sleeps away就是需要走上两天的距离），但“两夜之前”（two sleeps ago）在中文里较为费解，译文就转译为“两天之前”。

【第二段】段中有一个句式she was frightened not so much of… but because of，中间还有一个插入的定语从句who were…，如果照搬原来句式，容易造成语义不畅。译文中重复了“她害怕的”，这样就使得上下文联系起来。文中还有一个文化专有项harpoon-shots，即投掷鱼叉的距离，如直译，即为“相隔有好几次投掷鱼叉的距离”，如此虽能传译爱斯基摩文化特色，但译文较为费解。于是译者将其简化为“几十米外”，这算是翻译中的损失。倒数第二句的译文基本上是直译，看似有点奇怪，但原文如此，文学性强，相信中文读者也能接受。

【第三段】短语catch his eye文中出现了好几次，不宜直译，译文选择了“对上目光”和“对上眼”。爱斯基摩人文化专有词语kayak（皮船）在译文中得到了保留，而且添加了“爱斯基摩人”使其明晰化。

【第四段】短语others of their kind如直译为“同类中的其他人”较为啰唆，于是简化为“同类”。而imitating this signal如直译为“模仿这个信号”在中文里会显得奇怪，于是改译为“模仿这个动作”。

【第五段】第二句有连续两个原因状语从句，译文当再现这个句式。段落最后的两句话简短有力，译文也要模仿。

【小结】本书是作者相对早期的作品（发表于1972年），语言风格较为经典，句式略微复杂，文学性强，这使得翻译难度大大增加。翻译过程中，译者在注意句式模仿和调整的同时，还要思考文化专有项的传译：可以传递文化特色的时候尽量在译文中保留爱斯基摩人文化词语；如果实在不妥，则只能简化、弱化或替代一些文化专有项。