吹小號的天鵝 第34期:愛情

Chapter 8 Love

第八章 愛情

When Louis's father and mother discovered thatLouis was missing, they felt awful.

路易斯的父母發(fā)現(xiàn)路易斯失蹤后，感到非常擔(dān)憂。

No other young swan had disappeared from thelakes--only Louis.

湖上從沒有失蹤過別的小天鵝--除了路易斯以外。

"The question now arises," said the cob to his wife, "whether or not I should go and look for our son.

“現(xiàn)在有麻煩了，”雄天鵝對他的妻子說，“無論如何我都要去找我的兒子。

I am disinclined to leave these attractive lakes now, in the fall of the year, with winter comingon.

我現(xiàn)在真不愿意離開這些迷人的湖，這可是在一年中的秋季呀，冬天就快來了。

I have, in fact, been looking forward to this time of serenity and peace and the society of otherwaterfowl.

我心里，實際上，一直期盼著在這個平靜的時刻和別的水鳥呆在一起呢。

I like the life here."

我喜歡這里的生活。”

"There's another little matter to consider besides your personal comfort," said his wife.

“除了你的個人享樂問題，還有件別的小事兒要考慮，”他的妻子說，

"Has it occurred to you that we have no idea which direction Louis went when he left?

“我們還不知道路易斯當(dāng)初是往哪個方向飛的呢，這個你想過沒有?

You don't know where he went any more than I do.

你并不比我更清楚他到底去了哪里。

If you were to start out looking for him, which way would you fly?"

如果你要去找他的話，你要往哪個方向飛呢?”

"Well," replied the cob, "in the last analysis, I believe I would go south."

“嗯，”雄天鵝回答，“根據(jù)我最后的分析，我相信我該往南飛。”

"What do you mean, "in the last analysis"?" said the swan impatiently. "You haven't analyzedanything.

“什么叫‘最后的分析’呀?”雌天鵝不耐煩地說，“你根本什么分析都沒做過。

Why do you say "in the last analysis"?

可你干嘛要說什么‘最后的分析’?

And why do you pick south as the way to go looking for Louis?

你憑什么認(rèn)定該上南邊去找路易斯?

There are other directions.

還有別的方向嘛。

There's north, and east, and west. There's northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest."

有北邊，有東邊，還有西邊。另外還有東北，東南，西南，西北呢。”

"True," replied the cob.

“可不是，”雄天鵝回答，

"And there are all those in-between directions: north-northeast, east-southeast, west-southwest.

“還有那些介于兩者之間的方位呢：北-東北，東-東南，西-西南。

There's north by east, and east by north. There's south-southeast a half east, and there's westby north a half north.

還有正北偏東，正東偏北。還有南-東南半偏東，還有正西偏北半偏北。

The directions a young swan could start off in are almost too numerous to think about."

一只小天鵝能去的方向真是多得你難以想象。”

So it was decided that no search would be made.

因此他們認(rèn)為還是不去找的好。

"We'll just wait here and see what happens," said the cob.

“我們就等在這里看會發(fā)生什么事吧，”雄天鵝說，

"I feel sure Louis will return in the fullness of time."

“我肯定路易斯在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r候會回來的。”

Months went by. Winter came to the Red Rock Lakes.

幾個月過去了。冬天來到了紅石湖。

The nights were long and dark and cold. The days were short and bright and cold. Sometimesthe wind blew.

夜晚長了，又黑又冷。白天短了，明亮然而寒涼。有時會刮風(fēng)。

But the swans and geese and ducks were safe and happy.

但天鵝們和野鵝還有野鴨們卻生活得安逸而又幸福。

The warm springs that fed the lakes kept the ice from covering them

流入湖中的溫泉使寒冰遠離了湖面——

--there were always open places. There was plenty of food.

這里總是有開闊的水面。還有足夠的食物。

Sometimes a man would arrive with a bag of grain and spread the grain where the birds couldget it.

有時會有個男人帶著一袋谷粒來，把它們?nèi)龅进B兒們能找到的地方。