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第22章 The Bell Deep(2)

Yes, this was the story the Bell told.

是的,钟讲的就是这样的东西。

“Into the tower came also the dapper manservant of the bishop, and when I, the Bell, who am made of metal, rang hard and loud, and swung to and fro, I might have beaten out his brains. He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a stringed instrument, and he sang to it. ‘Now I may sing it out aloud, though at other times I may not whisper it. I may sing of everything that is kept concealed behind lock and bars. Yonder it is cold and wet. The rats are eating her up alive! Nobody knows of it! Nobody hears of it! Not even now, for the bell is ringing and singing its loud dingdong, dingdong!’

“主教的傻仆人来到了钟塔上,在我,也就是用铁铸成的又硬又重的钟,摇晃的时候,我本可以砸碎他的前额。他紧靠我坐下,手中玩着两根签子,好像是带弦的琴。他还一面唱:‘现在我敢放声高唱,唱那些平时我连哼都不敢哼的事,唱出锁在铁栅后面的一件件往事,那里又冷又潮湿,老鼠把有的人活活吃掉!这事谁也不知道,谁也没有听到过!现在也没有听到。因为铁钟在高声鸣唱,叮当!叮当!’

“There was a King in those days. They called him Canute. He bowed himself before bishop and monk, but when he offended the free peasants with heavy taxes and hard words, they seized their weapons and put him to flight like a wild beast. He sought sheltershelter n.掩蔽处, 身避处, 掩蔽, 保护, 庇护所, 掩体v.掩蔽, 躲避 in the church, and shut gate and door behind him. The violent band surrounded the church, I heard tell of it. The crows, ravens and magpiesmagpie n.鹊 started up in terror at the yelling and shouting that sounded around. They flew into the tower and out again, they looked down upon the throng below, and they also looked into the windows of the church, and screamed out aloud what they saw there. King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer, his brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords, but the Kings servant, the treacheroustreacherous adj.背叛的, 背信弃义的, 奸诈的, 叛逆的 Blake, betrayed his master. The throng in front of the church knew where they could hit the King, and one of them flung a stone through a pane of glass, and the King lay there dead! The cries and screams of the savage horde and of the birds sounded through the air, and I joined in it also, for I sang ‘Dingdong! dingdong!’

“从前有一位国王,人们称他为克鲁兹,他对主教和修士恭敬万分。可是当他用过分沉重的赋税压榨汶苏塞尔一带的人民,用过分粗暴的语言辱骂他们的时候,他们拿起武器和棍棒反抗了,把他像赶野兽一样赶走。他溜进了教堂,紧紧关上门窗。愤怒的人群围在外面,我听到:鹊、乌鸦,还加上寒鸦都被叫声喊声吓坏了,它们飞进钟塔,又飞出钟塔。它们看着下面的人群,也透过教堂的窗子朝里面望,高声地叫着它们看到了什么。克鲁兹国王跪在祭坛前祷告,他的两位兄弟艾立克和班尼迪克特持着出鞘的剑在保卫他。但是国王的仆人,那个不忠于他的布莱克却出卖了自己的主人。外面的人知道可以在哪里击中他,有一个人朝窗子投进一块石头,国王倒地死了!——叫喊声从那一群疯狂的人和鸟群中响起来。我也跟着喊,我唱‘叮当!叮当!’

“The church bell hangs high, and looks far around, and sees the birds around it, and understands their language. The wind roars in upon it through windows and loopholes, and the wind knows everything, for he gets it from the air, which encircles all things, and the church bell understands his tongue, and rings it out into the world, ‘Dingdong! dingdong!’

“钟挂得高高的,望着四周远近各处。鸟儿都来串门,它听得懂鸟语,风从窗洞、传声孔,从一切有缝的地方飒飒吹进去。风什么都知道,它从天空中得到信息,它从一切生物那里了解一切信息,它钻进人的肺里,探到了一切声息,每一个字,每一个叹息!——空气知道它。风讲述它,教堂的钟懂得风的语言,用钟声传给全世界,‘叮当!叮当!’

“But it was too much for me to hear and to know, I was not able any longer to ring it out. I became so tired, so heavy, that the beam broke, and I flew out into the gleaming Au, where the water is deepest, and where the Aumann lives, solitary and alone, and year by year I tell him what I have heard and what I know. Dingdong! Dingdong!”

“我听到的、知道的实在太多了,我无法把它们全传播出去!我累极了,我变得十分沉重,把木梁都拉断了。我飞出来进入明晃晃的空中,落到了河中最深、河爷爷孤孤单单居住的地方。在那里年复一年地讲我听到的我知道的东西:叮当!叮当!”

Thus it sounds complaininglycomplainingly adv.诉苦地, 抱怨地 out of the belldeep in the OdenseAu. That is what grandmother told us.

奥登斯河钟渊那里传来的就是这样的声音,外祖母这样说。

But the schoolmaster says that there was not any bell that rung down there, for that it could not do so, and that no Aumann dwelt yonder, for there was no Aumann at all! And when all the other church bells are sounding sweetly, he says that it is not really the bells that are sounding, but that it is the air itself which sends forth the notes, and grandmother said to us that the Bell itself said it was the air who told it to him, consequentlyconsequently adv.从而, 因此 they are agreed on that point, and this much is sure.

可是我们的校长说,没有什么钟可以在河底下鸣响,它做不到!——那儿没有什么河爷爷,因为不存在河爷爷!所有的钟都在响亮地鸣唱,于是他便说,在响的不是钟,本来是空气在鸣响。空气是一种能传声的物体——外祖母也说,钟这么说过——在这一点上他们取得了一致意见,这是肯定无疑的!

“Be cautious, cautious, and take good heed to thyself,” they both say.

“小心点,小心点,好好小心你自己!”他们俩都这么说。

The air knows everything. It is around us, it is in us, it talks of our thoughts and of our deeds, and it speaks longer of them than does the Bell down in the depths of the OdenseAu where the Aumann dwells. It rings it out in the vault of heaven, far, far out, forever and ever, till the heaven bells sound “Dingdong! Dingdong!”

风知道一切。它在我们周围,它在我们体内。它讲述我们的思想和行动,它讲述得比奥登斯河河爷爷住的深渊里的钟讲述的时间还要长,它讲到广阔天空的深渊里,远极了,永远无休无止,与天国的钟“叮当!叮当!”地一唱一和。