Frightful’s Mountain (Excerpt III)

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Frightful had not been fed for ten hours. She was desperately hungry.Her first act of freedom would be to hunt for herself.

“惊悚时”没已有经进有食十。个她小饿坏了。重获自由后，她的第一件事就是自己狩猎去。

[2] But the forest was not the habitat she knew. Sam had trained her to hunt in abandoned fields. She circled and waited for him.

[3] He did not appear. Frightful fl ew higher. A movement on the ground caught her eye. Alice was walking on a road that wound through the pine forest. Frightful pumped her wings once and plummeted earthward. When she was twenty feet above Alice’s head, she scooped her wings, dropped her secondary feathers, and braked herself. She hovered, “waiting on” for the girl to kick through the fi elds and scare up the game as Sam would have done.

[2]但这片森林并非她所了解的地方。山姆训练过她在废弃的田地上觅食。于是“惊悚”在空中盘旋着等待山姆。

[3]山姆没有出现。“惊悚”飞得更高一点。地上的一个人影引起了她的注意。松树林里有一条曲曲折折的小路，艾丽斯正在沿着小路行走。“惊悚”抖了抖翅膀，朝着地面速降下来。飞到距离艾丽斯头顶二十英尺的时候，她兜起翅膀，放下辅助飞羽，减慢了速度。她盘旋在空中，等待女孩走过田野惊起猎物，就像山姆做的那样。

[4] Alice did not look up. Her eyes were on the road. Presently she came out of the forest into open farmland.Frightful’s eyes sought movement. This was the kind of country she and Sam hunted. Tipping one wing, she moved effortlessly over an abandoned field.She waited on for Alice.

[4]艾丽斯没有抬头看。她的眼睛盯着小路。不一会儿她就走出森林，来到开阔的农田里。“惊悚”的眼睛在搜索移动的目标。这里正是她和山姆狩猎用的地形。她的一只翅膀稍稍倾斜，在一片废弃的田地上方滑翔。她在等待着艾丽斯。

[5] But Alice did not come into the field. She stayed on the macadam,where nothing lived. She was in a hurry.Breaking into a run, she dashed around a bend, just as a yellow-white-andbrown dog with long ears and droopy eyes left his hideout in a culvert. He saw Alice run past him. Crouching,he pulled his tail between his legs and dropped out of sight in the daisies. He had been beaten as a pup and was terrified of people. He was thin, but not skinny, for he lived quite well on the mice and rabbits in the fi eld. The farmer who saw him from time to time called him Mole. Every time he lifted his gun to shoot the dog, Mole disappeared in the ground. The man had Mole pegged for the killer of his chickens.

[6] Mole slipped silently through a thistle patch. A pheasant burst up.Frightful rocketed earthward. She struck the bird a mortal blow and dropped with it to the ground. Instinctively she covered the food with her wings to hide it from other predators. She plucked but did not eat. She was waiting for Sam.

[5]但艾丽斯没有来到田地上。她沿着柏油路走，惊不起任何动物。艾丽斯很匆忙。她开始小跑，飞快地转过一个弯。正在这时，有一条狗从藏身的涵洞中出来。他身上的毛色黄白夹杂还有棕色，耳朵长长的，眼神沮丧。他看着艾丽斯从身旁跑过。他蹲下身子，尾巴夹到两腿之间，躲到了雏菊丛里。他从小就挨揍，很怕人。他很瘦，但算不上皮包骨，因为田里的老鼠和兔子让他的小日子过得还不赖。那个偶尔见过他的农夫把他叫做鼹鼠。每次农夫举起枪来要打这条狗，鼹鼠就消失在田野里。那个农夫认定鼹鼠吃掉了他家的鸡。

[6]鼹鼠悄无声息地从一片蓟草丛穿过。一只野鸡飞起来。“惊悚”飞掠而下。她给了野鸡致命一击，然后又扔到地上。出于本能，“惊悚”用翅膀盖住猎物，防止其他猎食者抢走。她撕扯野鸡，却没有啄食。她在等着山姆。

[7] Mole smelled the dead pheasant and lifted his head above the thistles.Alice was gone and, seeing no other humans, he followed the scent of the game. Suddenly he burst upon not just a pheasant, but also Frightful. He stopped. Frightful lifted her feathers and threatened him. Then, holding the heavy bird in one foot, she beat her wings and skimmed over the thistles. She gained height and sped away and up.

[7]鼹鼠闻到了被杀死的野鸡，从蓟草丛中抬起头来。艾丽斯已经走远，看不到别的人，鼹鼠就沿着猎物的气味追过来。突然之间，鼹鼠撞见的不只是野鸡，还有“惊悚”。他停下脚步。“惊悚”撑开羽毛威胁他。然后，“惊悚”一只脚抓起沉重的野鸡，扇动翅膀，从蓟草丛上掠过。她越飞越高，越飞越快，一直往上。

[8] Like a lightning bolt, a red-tailed hawk swept under her and, upside down, grabbed the pheasant in his talons. Frightful was pulled a short distance before she opened her feet and let go of the food. Four crows fl ew out of the woods and chased the red-tailed hawk.

[8]猛然间，像闪电一般，一只红尾鹰飞到“惊悚”身下，肚腹朝上，用利爪抓住了那只野鸡。“惊悚”被拖拽了一段距离，然后松开脚爪，放开了食物。四只乌鸦从树林里飞出，赶过来驱赶红尾鹰。

【背景知识】从偷猎者手里逃脱之后，“惊悚”的困境才刚刚开始。她从小就是山姆养大的，不会独自觅食和狩猎，抓到了食物也要等山姆处理过才吃。离开了群山中的那座山和林海中的那棵树，“惊悚”一无所知，一切都要从零开始：觅食、争斗、求生、交友、求偶、迁徙，一个个磨难在等待着她。

【第一段】短语had not been fed是被动式，直译应该是“没有被喂食”，稍嫌别扭，改为中性描述“进食”。desperately hungry也不宜直译，转化为“饿坏了”。最后一句的“重获自由”也调整到句首。

【第二段】abandoned fi eld不能译为“荒野”，要按照字面译为“废弃的田地”，小说中的上下文有说明。鉴于中英文代词用法的差异，英文中的代词在中文段落里要适时更换为名词，因为中文不太适合代词一用到底，所以She要适当转化为惊悚；同理，下文的He要适时转换为山姆或鼹鼠，这样指代更清楚。

【第三段】movement本意为动作，放在句子里有些突兀，这里明确为人影。第三句的语序有改变，按照中文习惯把定语从句提前。这一段的动词很精确，翻译时要认真琢磨，比如scoop、plummet、brake，不能简单化地直译。secondary feathers相当于飞机降落时展开的辅翼，有助于放慢速度，并没有现成的对应词语，这里译为“辅助飞羽”。

【第四段】还是movement一词，这里增译为“移动的目标”。The kind of country不能译为“这种乡间”，此处指“惊悚”和山姆一般狩猎的地形，所以译为“地形”。move effortlessly也不好译为“轻松地移动”，这里具体化为滑翔。

【第五段】where nothing lived（那里没有东西生活）需要转换一下视角来翻译，因此译文是“惊不起任何动物”。He lived quite well有调侃的意味，所以中文是“小日子过得还不赖”。

【第六段】原文前三句干脆利落，文字十分简洁生动。rocket指像火箭一样快，译文去掉了隐喻，只翻译了意思“飞掠而下”。

【第七段】第一句如果直译会是“鼹鼠闻到了死鸡”，意思反而不清楚，其实是野鸡被“惊悚”杀死，血腥味很浓。

【第八段】段落一开头如果是“像闪电一般”，跟上一段显得不连贯，所以译文添加了“猛然间”。upside down一般是“头朝下”的意思，形容人，此处指红尾鹰后背朝下肚腹朝上飞过来抢食物，并非头朝下。

【小结】这一选段看似不难，翻译起来却需要很多改变，因为这里的英文句子极为地道，中文无法直译。译者需要一定的英汉对比知识才更容易察觉和处理这些必须面对的差异。除了代词差异之外，这里的英汉差异很难用几个类别来概括，但要注意两点：深入理解原文的风格和文学效果，中文不应该诘屈聱牙。 □

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