我的奇幻树屋生活

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CHAPTER 7 THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND 第七章　地下的家

One of the first things Peter did next day was to measure Wendy and John and Michael for hollow trees. Hook, you remember, had sneered at the boys for thinking they needed a tree apiece, but this was ignorance, for unless your tree fitted you it was difficult to go up and down, and no two of the boys were quite the same size. Once you fitted, you drew in (let out) your breath at the top, and down you went at exactly the right speed, while to ascend you drew in and let out alternately, and so wriggled up. Of course, when you have mastered the action you are able to do these things without thinking of them, and nothing can be more graceful.

第二天，彼得做的第一件事就是量量温迪、约翰和迈克尔的大小，好为他们找合适的空心树。你们记得的，孩子们认为他们需要每人一棵树，胡克还曾经为此嘲笑他们。但无知的是他，因为除非你的树大小合适，否则你很难上去或下来，而每个孩子的身材都不一样。一旦树洞合适，你就可以在上面吸入（吐出）一口气，然后以恰当的速度往下滑；上升的时候，你交替着吸气吐气，就能扭动着爬上来。当然，要是你掌握了这套动作，你就能不假思索地做出来，而且那姿势肯定是优美至极。

But you simply must fit, and Peter measures you for your tree as carefully as for a suit of clothes: the only difference being that the clothes are made to fit you, while you have to be made to fit the tree. Usually it is done quite easily, as by your wearing too many garments or too few, but if you are bumpy in awkward places or the only available tree is an odd shape, Peter does some things to you, and after that you fit. Once you fit, great care must be taken to go on fitting, and this, as Wendy was to discover to her delight, keeps a whole family in perfect condition.

但是，你得和树洞的大小一致。因此彼得给你量身材的时候，就像给你量一身衣服一样地细心。唯一的区别是，衣服是可以适应你的，而你却得适应树洞。通常这不是很难做到，你可以穿很多衣服或很少衣服。不过，要是你身上有些笨拙的地方过于臃肿，或是唯一合适你的树洞形状过于怪异，彼得就会为你想一些办法，然后就合适了。一旦大小合适了，就需要特别小心维持这种合适的状态。温迪高兴地发现，这一点使全家人都得以保持着绝佳的状态。

Wendy and Michael fitted their trees at the first try, but John had to be altered a little.

温迪和迈克尔一下子就找到合适的树洞了，可约翰不得不改变一点自己的身材。

After a few days' practice they could go up and down as gaily as buckets in a well. And how ardently they grew to love their home under the ground; especially Wendy. It consisted of one large room, as all houses should do, with a floor in which you could dig (for worms) if you wanted to go fishing, and in this floor grew stout mushrooms of a charming colour, which were used as stools. A Never tree tried hard to grow in the centre of the room, but every morning they sawed the trunk through, level with the floor. By tea-time it was always about two feet high, and then they put a door on top of it, the whole thus becoming a table; as soon as they cleared away, they sawed off the trunk again, and thus there was more room to play. There was an enormous fireplace which was in almost any part of the room where you cared to light it, and across this Wendy stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she suspended her washing. The bed was tilted against the wall by day, and let down at 6:30, when it filled nearly half the room; and all the boys slept in it, except Michael, lying like sardines in a tin. There was a strict rule against turning round until one gave the signal, when all turned at once. Michael should have used it also, but Wendy would have a baby, and he was the littlest, and you know what women are, and the short and long of it is that he was hung up in a basket.

经过几天的练习后，他们就能像水井里的水桶一样，快乐地上上下下了。他们渐渐地爱上了他们地下的家，尤其是温迪。它和所有的房子一样，有一个大房间。如果你想钓鱼的话，可以在地板上挖洞（找虫）；绚丽多彩的蘑菇从地板上长出来，很结实，可以拿来当椅子。一棵梦幻树艰难地在屋子中间生长着。每天早上，孩子们就会把树干锯到与地板持平。到了喝茶的时候，梦幻树通常会长到两英尺高。然后，孩子们会在树顶上放一个门板，整棵树就变成了一个桌子；他们一吃完茶点，就又把树干锯平，这样就有更多的空间玩耍了。一个非常大的壁炉几乎占满了整个屋子，你喜欢在哪里生火都可以。温迪把植物纤维做成的绳子拴在壁炉前，把洗好的衣服挂在上面。白天，床斜靠着墙，到晚上六点半才放下来，这时候床几乎占去了半个房间。除了迈克尔，所有的孩子都在这张床上面睡觉，像罐头里的沙丁鱼一样，一个挨着一个。翻身有一个严格的规定，由一个人发出信号，所有的人才立刻翻身。迈克尔本可以睡在床上，但温迪想要一个小宝宝，而迈克尔最小。你知道的，女人就是这样。简单来说，迈克尔被放在一个篮子里，挂了起来。

It was rough and simple, and not unlike what baby bears would have made of an underground house in the same circumstances. But there was one recess in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private apartment of Tinker Bell. It could be shut off from the rest of the house by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious, always kept drawn when dressing or undressing. No woman, however large, could have had a more exquisite boudoir and bed-chamber combined. The couch, as she always called it, was a genuine Queen Mab, with club legs; and she varied the bedspreads according to what fruit-blossom was in season. Her mirror was a Puss-in-Boots, of which there are now only three, unchipped, known to fairy dealers; the washstand was Pie-crust and reversible, the chest of drawers an authentic Charming the Sixth, and the carpet and rugs the best period of Margery and Robin. There was a chandelier from Tiddlywinks for the look of the thing, but of course she lit the residence herself. Tink was very contemptuous of the rest of the house, as indeed was perhaps inevitable, and her chamber, though beautiful, looked rather conceited, having the appearance of a nose permanently turned up.

这个家粗糙而简单，在同样的环境下，小熊宝宝也会做出来这么一个位于地下的家。但在墙上有一个小小的壁龛，不比一个鸟笼大，那是叮当铃的私人房间。壁龛有一条小帷幔，可以把它同外面的世界隔开。叮当很挑剔，她在穿上或脱下衣服的时候，总是要拉上帷幔。没有一个女人——不论她有多大——会有比这间更精致的起居室和卧室合一的闺房了。那个卧榻——叮当总是这么叫它——是一个真正的麦布女王的卧榻，床脚是三叶草形的。叮当会根据不同季节里的果树花的颜色更换床单。她的镜子是穿长筒靴的猫用的那种镜子，在精灵商贩中是很出名的，现在只剩下三面没有打碎了；洗脸盆是馅饼壳形状的，可以翻过来用；抽屉柜是魅力六世时期的正品；地毯是玛杰丽和罗宾汉鼎盛时期的珍品。还有一盏用亮片装饰的大吊灯，用来观赏而已。当然，她自己就能点亮住处。叮当对于屋子里的其他地方很是不屑，这确实是在所难免。她的卧房尽管漂亮，看起来却有点过于高傲，就像一个永远翘得高高的鼻子。

I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those rampageous boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter's whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy, which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe was so real to him that during a meal of it you could see him getting rounder. Of course it was trying, but you simply had to follow his lead, and if you could prove to him that you were getting loose for your tree he let you stodge.

我琢磨着，温迪肯定觉得这一切特别有意思，因为她那些喧闹的孩子们给她添了许多事情做。真的，除了有时夜晚拿着袜子上来缝补，温迪一连几个星期都留在地下的家里。我敢跟你说，她在煮饭时，鼻子总是与锅凑得很近。即便是锅里没东西，即便连一个锅也没有，她也得看着，以防它还是一样地沸腾起来。你从来不会知道，你是真的吃了饭，还是假装吃了饭，这一切都得由彼得的兴致决定。如果是游戏的一部分，他可以吃饭，真的吃饭，但他不会为了填饱肚子而狼吞虎咽，而那正是大多数孩子最喜欢的，第二喜欢的便是谈论吃了。假装对于彼得来说是那么真实。假装吃饭的时候，你甚至能看到他的肚子鼓起来。这当然是一件痛苦的事，但你不得不效法他。如果你可以向他证明，树洞对你来说变大了，他就会让你大吃一顿。

Wendy's favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on their knees.

温迪缝补衣服的最好时间是孩子们都上床了以后。那时，按她的话说，她才能喘上一口气。温迪把这个时间拿来给他们做衣服。她把膝盖的地方做成双层，因为这个地方总是磨损得很厉害。

When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, "Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!"Her face beamed when she exclaimed this.

当她在一篮子袜子旁边坐下来，看到每双袜子后跟上都有一个洞，温迪会甩着两只胳膊，哀声叹道：“噢，天啊，我敢说，我有时还真是羡慕那些老姑娘！”她发出这种感叹时，脸上却发着光。

You remember about her pet wolf. Well, it very soon discovered that she had come to the island and it found her out, and they just ran into each other's arms. After that it followed her about everywhere.

你们还记得她的狼宝宝吧。是的，狼宝宝很快就发现温迪来到了岛上，并找到了她，他们拥抱着。从那以后，狼宝宝就到处跟着她。

As time wore on did she think much about the beloved parents she had left behind her? This is a difficult question, because it is quite impossible to say how time does wear on in the Neverland, where it is calculated by moons and suns, and there are ever so many more of them than on the mainland. But I am afraid that Wendy did not really worry about her father and mother; she was absolutely confident that they would always keep the window open for her to fly back by, and this gave her complete ease of mind. What did disturb her at times was that John remembered his parents vaguely only, as people he had once known, while Michael was quite willing to believe that she was really his mother. These things scared her a little, and nobly anxious to do her duty, she tried to fix the old life in their minds by setting them examination papers on it, as like as possible to the ones she used to do at school. The other boys thought this awfully interesting, and insisted on joining, and they made slates for themselves, and sat round the table, writing and thinking hard about the questions she had written on another slate and passed round. They were the most ordinary questions— "What was the colour of Mother's eyes? Which was taller, Father or Mother? Was Mother blonde or brunette? Answer all three questions if possible.""Write an essay of not less than 40 words on How I spent my last Holidays, or The Characters of Father and Mother compared. Only one of these to be attempted.”Or “(1) Describe Mother's laugh; (2) Describe Father's laugh; (3) Describe Mother's Party Dress; (4) Describe the Kennel and its Inmate.”They were just everyday questions like these, and when you could not answer them you were told to make a cross; and it was really dreadful what a number of crosses even John made. Of course the only boy who replied to every question was Slightly, and no one could have been more hopeful of coming out first, but his answers were perfectly ridiculous, and he really came out last: a melancholy thing.

日子一天天过去了，难道温迪不想念她抛开的亲爱的爸爸妈妈吗？这是一个很难回答的问题。因为在梦幻岛，谁也不清楚到底过去了多少时间。岛上的时间是用月亮和太阳计算的，但这里的月亮和太阳比大陆多得多。不过，恐怕温迪不是真的担心她的爸爸妈妈，她有十足的把握，他们一定会随时把窗开着，等她飞回去，这一点让她完全放下心来。她时不时感到困扰的是，约翰只模模糊糊地记得他的父母，仿佛他们是他以前认识的人一样；而迈克尔则宁愿相信，温迪就是他真正的妈妈。这些事情让她有点害怕，她急切地想履行义务。她努力通过考试的方式来让他们想起以前的事情，尽可能地像她过去在学校里做的一样。其他孩子觉得这有趣极了，坚持要加入。他们自己准备了石板，围坐在桌子旁边。温迪把问题写在另一个石板上，传给他们看。孩子们边努力地想，边把答案写下来。那是一些很普通的问题——“妈妈的眼睛是什么颜色？谁更高一些，爸爸还是妈妈？妈妈的头发是浅色还是深色？尽量回答全部问题。”“写一篇不少于40个字的文章，题目是《我是怎么度过上一次假期的》，或《比较爸爸和妈妈的性格》。两个题目任选一个。”或“(1)描述妈妈的笑；(2)描述爸爸的笑；(3)描述妈妈的宴会礼服；(4)描述狗窝和里面的狗。”就是像这样的寻常问题。如果你答不上来，温迪就叫你画一个叉。结果连约翰画的叉的数目都很惊人。当然啦，只有斯莱特利回答了所有的问题，而且他最有希望得第一名。但他的答案都非常荒谬，得了最后一名，真是个可怜的家伙。

Peter did not compete. For one thing he despised all mothers except Wendy, and for another he was the only boy on the island who could neither write nor spell; not the smallest word. He was above all that sort of thing.

彼得没有参加考试。一方面，他讨厌温迪以外的所有妈妈；另一方面，他是这个岛上唯一不会写也不会拼的孩子，连最短的单词也不会。他对这种事情很不屑。

By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. What was the colour of Mother's eyes, and so on. Wendy, you see, had been forgetting, too.

顺便提一下，所有的问题都是用过去时态写的。妈妈的眼睛曾经是什么颜色，等等。你看，温迪也忘了。

Adventures, of course, as we shall see, were of daily occurrence; but about this time Peter invented, with Wendy's help, a new game that fascinated him enormously, until he suddenly had no more interest in it, which, as you have been told, was what always happened with his games. It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly. To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do. He boasted that he had gone walking for the good of his health. For several suns these were the most novel of all adventures to him; and John and Michael had to pretend to be delighted also; otherwise he would have treated them severely.

我们会看到，冒险天天都会发生。但这一回，在温迪的帮助下，彼得发明了一个新游戏。他对这个游戏非常着迷，直到突然失去了兴趣。我告诉过你们，他对待游戏经常这样。这个游戏就是假装不去冒险，做约翰和迈克尔一直都在做的事情：坐在凳子上、把球扔向天空、互相推来推去、出去散步、连一只灰熊都没有杀死就回来了。看彼得坐在凳子上什么也不做，真是有趣极了。在这种时候，他还忍不住装出一本正经的样子。坐着不动对他来说，似乎是一件好玩的事。他吹嘘说，为了身体健康，他常出去散步。一连几天，对于彼得来说，这些就是最新奇的冒险了。而约翰和迈克尔还得装作也很高兴的样子，否则彼得会对他们不客气。

He often went out alone, and when he came back you were never absolutely certain whether he had had an adventure or not. He might have forgotten it so completely that he said nothing about it; and then when you went out you found the body; and, on the other hand, he might say a great deal about it, and yet you could not find the body. Sometimes he came home with his head bandaged, and then Wendy cooed over him and bathed it in lukewarm water, while he told a dazzling tale. But she was never quite sure, you know. There were, however, many adventures which she knew to be true because she was in them herself, and there were still more that were at least partly true, for the other boys were in them and said they were wholly true. To describe them all would require a book as large as an English-Latin, Latin-English Dictionary, and the most we can do is to give one as a specimen of an average hour on the island. The difficulty is which one to choose. Should we take the brush with the Indians at Slightly Gulch? It was a sanguinary affair, and especially interesting as showing one of Peter's peculiarities, which was that in the middle of a fight he would suddenly change sides. At the Gulch, when victory was still in the balance, sometimes leaning this way and sometimes that, he called out, "I'm Indian to-day; what are you, Tootles?”And Tootles answered, "Indian; what are you, Nibs?"and Nibs said, "Indian; what are you Twin?" and so on; and they were all Indians; and of course this would have ended the fight had not the real Indians fascinated by Peter's methods, agreed to be lost boys for that once, and so at it they all went again, more fiercely than ever.

彼得经常独自出去。当他回来时，你不能完全确定他是否做过冒险的事。他也许忘得一干二净，什么也说不上来，然后你出去的时候，却发现了那具尸体；或者，他可能会讲许多关于冒险的事，然而你却怎么也找不到那具尸体。有时，他回来的时候，头上绑着绷带。温迪过去安抚他，用温水清洗他的伤口。这时，彼得就会给她讲一个奇特的故事。可是，你知道的，温迪从来不敢全信彼得的故事。不过，她知道还是有许多冒险是真的，因为她自己亲自参与了。还有更多的冒险至少部分是真的，因为其他的孩子参与了，说这些都是真的。如果要把它们全部描述出来，需要一本像英语—拉丁语词典或是拉丁语—英语词典一样大的书。我们最多只能举一个例子，看看岛上普通的一小时是怎样度过的。难点在于要举哪一个例子。那我们就来说说孩子们和印第安人在斯莱特利峡谷的战斗吧。那是一场血腥的战斗，尤其好玩的是，它展示了彼得的一个特征——在战斗中，彼得会突然改变立场。在峡谷中，当胜负未分的时候，彼得时而倒向这边，时而倾向那边，他大声喊叫：“今天我是印第安人，你呢，图图？”图图回答：“印第安人，你呢，尼布斯？”尼布斯回答：“印第安人，你们呢，双胞胎？”等等。丢失的孩子都变成了印第安人。当然，这本可以结束这场战斗，但真的印第安人被彼得的方法给吸引住了，同意那次他们变成丢失的孩子。就这样，所有人继续战斗，比之前更激烈。

The extraordinary upshot of this adventure was—but we have not decided yet that this is the adventure we are to narrate. Perhaps a better one would be the night attack by the Indians on the house under the ground, when several of them stuck in the hollow trees and had to be pulled out like corks. Or we might tell how Peter save Tiger Lily's life in the Mermaids' Lagoon, and so made her his ally.

这次冒险绝妙的结局是——可我们还没决定这是不是我们要说的冒险故事。或许，印第安人夜袭地下的家会是一个更好的故事。几个印第安人卡在树洞中，像木塞一样被拔了出来。又或者，我们可以讲讲彼得是如何从美人鱼的礁湖里面救了虎莉的性命，从而和她结成了同盟。

Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark.

我们还可以说说海盗们做的那个孩子们吃了就会死掉的蛋糕，讲海盗们是如何把蛋糕放在一个又一个巧妙的地方，但温迪总是从孩子们手中把它夺走。蛋糕渐渐地失去了汁水，变得像石头一样硬，被当成一个飞弹来用。晚上，胡克踩到它，摔了一跤。

Or suppose we tell of the birds that were Peter's friends, particularly of the Never bird that built her nest in a tree overhanging the lagoon, and how the nest fell into the water, and still the bird sat on her eggs, and Peter gave orders that she was not to be disturbed. That is a pretty story, and the end shows how grateful a bird can be; but if we tell it we must also tell the whole adventure of the lagoon, which would of course be telling two adventures rather than just one. A shorter adventure, and quite as exciting, was Tinker Bell's attempt, with the help of some street fairies, to have the sleeping Wendy conveyed on a great floating leaf to the mainland. Fortunately the leaf gave way and Wendy woke, thinking it was bath-time, and swam back. Or again, we might choose Peter's defiance of the lions, when he drew a circle round him on the ground with an arrow and dared them to cross it; and though he waited for hours, with the other boys and Wendy looking on breathlessly from trees, not one of them dared to accept his challenge.

要不我们讲讲和彼得要好的那些鸟吧，尤其是梦幻鸟。这种鸟住在礁湖上面的一棵树上，鸟巢掉进水里，鸟还在里面孵蛋。彼得命令不准去打扰她。这是一个美丽的故事，从它的结尾就可以看出，一只鸟有多么感恩图报。但要讲这个故事，我们就得讲讲在礁湖发生的整个冒险，那当然就得讲两个故事，而不是一个。另一个故事比较短，可同样地精彩。叮当铃在一些四处漂游的精灵的帮助下，把睡着的温迪放在一片漂浮的大叶子上，想把她运回大陆。幸好，叶子碎掉了，温迪醒了，以为是洗澡的时间，就游了回去。我们还可以选择彼得跟狮子挑战的故事。他用一支箭绕着自己在地上画了一个圈，看狮子敢不敢走进圈里来。可是他等了好几个小时——其他孩子和温迪都在树上屏住呼吸看着——还是没有一只狮子敢接受他的挑战。

Which of these adventures shall we choose? The best way will be to toss for it.

这些冒险，我们到底该选哪一个呢？最好的办法就是抛硬币决定。

I have tossed, and the lagoon has won. This almost makes one wish that the gulch or the cake or Tink's leaf had won. Of course I could do it again, and make it best out of three; however, perhaps fairest to stick to the lagoon.

我抛出硬币，礁湖胜出了。这不禁要让人希望，峡谷、蛋糕或叮当的叶子能够胜出。我当然可以再抛硬币，抛三次决定胜负。可是，或许最公平的，还是讲礁湖的故事吧。