書蟲二級 坎特維爾幽靈：3.又一個幽靈現(xiàn)身古堡

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3．A second ghost appears at Canterville

3．又一個幽靈現(xiàn)身古堡

The next morning, when the Otis family met at breakfast, they talked about the ghost for some time. Mr Otis was a little cross to find the bottle of Tammany's Sun Oil lying on the floor of the passage.

第二天早晨，奧蒂斯一家一起吃早餐時，談?wù)摿艘粫河撵`的事。奧蒂斯先生對于坦馬尼太陽油倒在走廊的地板上有些氣惱。

I don't want,' he said, 'to hurt the ghost in any way.' Here he looked at the boys. 'We must remember that he has lived in this house for a very long time, so I don't think it's very nice to throw pillows at him — no, don't laugh, boys, it's not funny. But if the ghost won't use the oil, we will have to take his chains away from him. We can't possibly sleep with that noise going on outside our bedrooms every night.'

“我不希望，”他說，“以任何方式傷害到幽靈。”說到這兒，他看了眼男孩子們。“我們要記得，他在這所宅子里已經(jīng)住了相當(dāng)長時間，所以我認(rèn)為朝他扔枕頭可不太好——不，別笑，小伙子們，這不好笑。但是如果幽靈不想擦油，我們就得把鐵鏈從他身上卸下來。每天晚上臥室外面要全是噪音，那我們就別想睡安穩(wěn)覺啦。”

But for the rest of the week all was quiet. The only interesting thing was the bloodstain. Every day Washington cleaned the floor with Pinkerton's Stain Cleaner, and every night Mr Otis carefully locked the windows and the library door. But the bloodstain was always there again the next morning.

可是這一周的剩下幾天平安無事。唯一有趣的事情是那塊血跡。每天華盛頓都用平克頓去污劑清理地板，每天晚上奧蒂斯先生都仔細(xì)地鎖好窗戶和書房門。但第二天早晨血跡總是再度出現(xiàn)。

It also changed colour a few times. On some days it was red, on other days it was purple, and once it was bright green. Most of the family thought these colour changes were very funny and they hurried downstairs each morning to find out the new colour. The only person who did not laugh was little Virginia, but she would not explain why. And on the morning the bloodstain was bright green, she nearly cried.

有幾次它還變換了顏色。有些天它是紅色的，有些天又是紫色的，還有一次變成鮮綠色。家里多數(shù)人都覺得這些顏色變換十分好玩兒，每天早上都迫不及待地跑下樓來，查看新?lián)Q的顏色。唯一一個不覺得好笑的是小弗吉尼婭，可她卻不愿說出為什么。在血跡變成鮮綠色的那個早晨，她差一點兒哭了出來。

On Sunday night, soon after the family went to bed, the ghost made his next move. There was a three-hundred-year-old suit of armour downstairs. 'Now, a ghost in armour will surely frighten even modern Americans,' he thought. He began to put on the suit of armour, but it was too heavy for him, and he and the armour fell to the floor with a loud CRASH.

星期天晚上，一家人剛剛就寢，幽靈就采取了下一步的行動。在樓下有一副300年歷史的盔甲。“好啦，就算是時髦的美國人肯定也會害怕穿甲胄的幽靈吧。”他暗想。他開始穿戴盔甲，可它太重了，只聽“哐當(dāng)”一聲，他連人帶盔甲都摔到了地上。

All the men in the Otis family jumped out of bed and hurried downstairs at once. They found the unhappy ghost sitting there, holding his head and crying softly with pain. The twins had their pea-shooters with them and immediately began to shoot little balls of paper at him. Mr Otis brought out his handgun and, like the good Californian he was, called out to the ghost:

奧蒂斯家的所有男子漢都從床上蹦了起來，馬上沖到樓下。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)倒霉的幽靈坐在原地，雙手抱頭，疼得在小聲哭泣。雙胞胎兄弟帶著射豆槍，立即用小紙球向他射擊。奧蒂斯先生掏出了手槍，像加利福尼亞的好漢一樣對幽靈大喝道：

Hold up your hands!'

“把手舉起來！”

At this, the ghost jumped up with a wild and angry scream and flew through them. Washington Otis's candle went out, and suddenly everything was dark. At the top of the stairs, the ghost turned to give his terrible ghostly laugh — the famous laugh which once turned Lord Raker's hair white in a single night. It went on and on until the house was full of the sound.

見此情景，幽靈怒喝一聲，跳了起來，從他們當(dāng)中飛了過去。華盛頓·奧蒂斯手中的蠟燭熄滅了，突然間一片黑暗。在樓梯的頂端，幽靈發(fā)出了可怕的笑聲——這笑聲因為曾經(jīng)讓雷克斯勛爵一夜之間變白了頭發(fā)而聞名天下。笑聲持續(xù)不斷，直到充斥整棟宅邸。

A bedroom door opened and Mrs Otis appeared with a bottle in her hand. 'I'm afraid you're not feeling very well,' she said to the ghost. 'I've brought you some of Dr Dobell's special stomach medicine. If you're having trouble with your stomach, this will soon help you to feel better.'

一間臥室的門打開，奧蒂斯夫人出現(xiàn)了，手中拿著一個瓶子。“我擔(dān)心你是感覺不舒服了，”她對幽靈說，“我給你拿了點兒多貝爾醫(yī)生治胃病的特效藥。如果你胃有毛病，這個能讓你馬上感覺好起來。”

The ghost looked at her angrily, and began to turn himself into a big black dog (one of his most famous tricks). But the sound of young footsteps coming up the stairs stopped him, and he quickly disappeared with a ghostly 'Oooooooh!' before the twins arrived at the top.

幽靈氣憤地看著她，搖身變成一條巨大的黑犬（這是他著名的把戲之一）。但是蹦蹦跳跳跑上樓梯的腳步聲令他停了下來，“呼——”的一聲，他就迅速消失了，那對雙胞胎還沒來得及跑上樓來呢。

For some days after this he was very ill, and only went out to make the bloodstain again each night. But when he began to feel better, he decided to try for the third time to frighten Hiram B. Otis and his family.

在這之后的很長時間，幽靈都病得十分厲害，每天晚上他僅僅是去把那塊血跡變出來。但當(dāng)他稍稍恢復(fù)以后，他決心第三次再去嚇唬海勒姆·B. 奧蒂斯一家。

He spent most of Friday, the 17th of August, trying to decide what to wear. At last he decided on a dead man's shroud, a large black hat with a red feather in it, and a long knife.

8月17日星期五，差不多一整天他都在考慮應(yīng)該怎么打扮自己。他最終決定：身穿裹尸布，頭戴大黑帽，帽插紅羽毛，手持長刀。

That night the wind shook all the doors and windows, and the rain crashed down onto the roof of the house. The ghost made his plans carefully.

當(dāng)天晚上，狂風(fēng)搖曳著所有的門窗，雨滴砸在屋頂之上。幽靈在小心翼翼地計劃著：

I'll go first to Washington Otis's room,' he said to himself. 'He cleans away the famous Canterville bloodstain each morning, so I want to be sure that he'll be really frightened. I'll make ghostly noises to wake him up, then I'll push my knife into my neck three times, to the sound of slow music.'

“我要先去華盛頓·奧蒂斯的房間，”他自言自語道，“他每天都來清洗坎特維爾著名的血跡，所以我要好好地嚇?biāo)惶?。我先一陣鬼叫把他吵醒，然后合著緩慢的音樂?jié)拍，用刀子戳進(jìn)我的脖子三次。”

Then I'll go to Mr Hiram B. Otis's room. I'll make a terrible noise in his ear, and at the same time put my cold hand on Mrs Otis's face. Now, what about Virginia? She's never played any tricks on me, and she's sweet and pretty. Perhaps I'll just make a soft 'Ooooh!' in her ear ... or move her bed sheets a little with my skeleton's fingers.'

“然后我要去海勒姆·B. 奧蒂斯先生的房間。我要沖著他的耳朵鬼叫，同時把我冰涼的手放在奧蒂斯夫人的臉上。那弗吉尼婭怎么辦？她倒從來沒對我耍過什么花樣，也挺漂亮可愛。要不我只在她耳朵邊上輕輕“嗷”一聲吧……或者用我的骷髏手指拽一下她的床單。”

And then on to the twins! Those horrible boys are going to learn a lesson tonight! I'll stand between their beds, looking like a dead body — cold and green and smelling of death. They'll be too frightened to move. Then I'll throw off my shroud and do my famous skeleton dance all round the room.'

“接著就輪到那對雙胞胎了！今天晚上，要好好教訓(xùn)一下這兩個壞小子！我要站在他們倆的床中間，看上去就像具死尸——冰冷、鐵青，發(fā)出死亡的臭味。他們會被嚇得動也不敢動。然后我就扯掉我的尸袍，在屋子里跳起我那著名的骷髏舞。”

He heard the family go to bed at half past ten. For some time he listened to the laughs and shouts of the twins, but by a quarter past eleven all was quiet.

10點半，他聽到一家人都上床了。有一段時間他還聽到那對雙胞胎在又笑又叫，但11點一刻之后，一切都安靜下來。

At the sound of midnight, the ghost left his room. He came out of the wall with the knife in his hand and a smile on his face. It was not a nice smile, and when the moon saw it through a window, she hid behind a cloud.

午夜的鐘聲響了，幽靈離開自己的房間。他穿墻而出，手中拿著刀，臉上帶著竊笑。這笑容不懷好意，就連月亮透過窗戶看到它時，也躲到了云叢中。

Slowly and silently the ghost moved through the house, while the Otis family went on happily sleeping. At the corner of the passage which went along to Washington's room, the ghost stopped for a minute. A little wind came from nowhere, pulling his long white shroud this way and that, and showing the skeleton arms and neck of the walking dead. He heard the clock sound a quarter past midnight, gave a little laugh, and turned the corner...

幽靈躡手躡腳地穿過宅邸，這時奧蒂斯一家還在酣美地睡著。在通向華盛頓房間的走廊拐角處，幽靈停了一會兒。不知哪兒來了一股微風(fēng)，吹得他身上長長的白色尸袍搖曳起來，露出了骷髏胳膊和脖子。他聽到鐘聲響過零點一刻后，就干笑一聲，轉(zhuǎn)過拐角……

...And stopped — in terror! There, in front of him, was standing the most horrible ghost. It had a large head with no hair on it, and a fat round face with a deathly smile across its open mouth. A red light burned like fire inside its mouth and behind both of its eyes. Its great body was hidden under a long shroud, and it carried a large piece of paper with strange writing on it.

……停在那兒了——太可怕了！就在他面前，矗立著一個最最可怕的幽靈。它的頭碩大無比，沒長頭發(fā)，肥胖的圓臉上咧著張嘴，露出死一般的微笑。嘴和雙眼燃燒著火一般的紅光。龐大的身軀隱藏在長長的裹尸布下，還帶著一大張紙，上面寫著奇形怪狀的文字。

The Canterville ghost did not wait to read it. He was too frightened. When you see your first ghost, you don't stop to talk, you turn and run — so the Canterville ghost turned and ran. His long shroud got caught around his feet and he nearly fell over, but he ran as fast as he could, away from the horrible thing that was watching him with fire in its eyes. He turned the corner, dropped his knife into one of Hiram B. Otis's shoes, which were outside his bedroom door (Mr Otis found it there the next morning) , and ran on to his room.

坎特維爾幽靈都沒等停下來讀一讀，他給嚇壞了。當(dāng)你頭一遭碰到幽靈時，你不會停下來搭訕吧，你肯定轉(zhuǎn)身便逃——所以坎特維爾幽靈轉(zhuǎn)身就跑。長長的尸袍纏著腳，害得他差點兒摔了一跤，但是他以最快的速度跑著，逃離這個眼中冒火還死盯著他的可怕家伙。他轉(zhuǎn)過墻角，把刀子掉在了海勒姆·B. 奧蒂斯的一只鞋里——他的鞋是放在臥室門外的（奧蒂斯先生第二天早上在鞋里發(fā)現(xiàn)了那把刀）——逃回了自己的房間。

He threw himself onto his bed, and hid his head under his pillow. It was some time before he began to feel better. Then he told himself that he was a Canterville, and that Cantervilles were fighters to the end.

他一頭扎在床上，把頭埋進(jìn)枕頭。過了好一陣子，他才稍稍緩過勁兒來。他告誡自己，他是坎特維爾人，而坎特維爾人都會戰(zhàn)斗到底。

When it gets light,' he thought, 'I'll go and speak to this other ghost. Perhaps we can be friends. After all, two ghosts are better than one, and if the two of us work together, perhaps we can frighten those terrible twins at last.'

“等天亮了，”他思忖著，“我就去找那個幽靈聊聊?；蛟S我們還能做朋友哩。畢竟，二鬼強(qiáng)似一鬼，如果我們兩個聯(lián)合起來，說不定最終能夠嚇壞那對可惡的雙胞胎。”

Very early the next morning, while the family was still sleeping, he went back to the passage. The other ghost was still there, but now there was something wrong with it. There was no fire in its eyes, and it was resting against the wall like a sick man. The Canterville ghost moved forward quickly and put his arms round the other ghost and its head fell off! Then the body fell to the floor, and the Canterville ghost saw that he was holding a white bed sheet. And there was a brush, and a turnip with holes in it, lying at his feet.

第二天一大早，當(dāng)奧蒂斯一家還在熟睡的時候，幽靈就又回到走廊里。那個幽靈仍然在那兒，但現(xiàn)在好像有點兒不大對勁兒。它的眼中沒有了火焰，而且還病歪歪地靠在墻上?？蔡鼐S爾幽靈趕快跑過去，摟住了那個幽靈——可它的腦袋居然掉了下來。接著身體也倒在地板上，坎特維爾幽靈發(fā)現(xiàn)自己拿著的是一張白床單。他的腳下躺著一把刷子和一個上面有洞的蕪菁。

What's happened?' he thought. 'Where has the ghost gone?'

“怎么回事？”他想，“那個幽靈去哪兒啦？”

Then he saw the piece of paper on the front of the sheet, and there, in the grey morning light, he read these terrible words:

這時他看到床單上的那張紙。在灰色的晨光中，他讀到了這些可怕的字：

The Otis Ghost

奧蒂斯幽靈，

The only true and real ghost,

唯一真正的幽靈，

All others are false.

余者皆為冒充。

At once he understood everything. It was a trick — another horrible trick! He stood there, too angry to move, and tried to think of a plan to finish these terrible Americans once and for all. But he couldn't think of any plan, so after a while he went to find a quiet dark place to lie down in.

他馬上就明白了一切。這是個騙局——又一個可惡的騙局！他站在那兒，氣得連動也不能動啦。他絞盡腦汁，要徹底干掉這些美國佬。可是他一個主意也想不出來，所以過了一會兒，他去找了個又黑又靜的地方，躺下了。