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On the Far Side of the Mountain (Excerpt I)

ByJean Craighead George

This June morning is hot and humid with a haze so dense I can barely see the huge hemlock tree in which I live. I like the haze. It has erased all but the great tree trunks, making my mountaintop home as simple as it was when I first came here more than two years ago.

[2] I lean back in the lounging chair I constructed from bent saplings held together with rope made from the inner bark of the basswood tree, and enjoy the primitive forest.

[3] A wind rises as the sun warms the earth. The haze moves off, and I see my pond, my millhouse, and the root cellar. The fi rst year I lived here I had only a tree, a bed, and a fireplace.But one idea led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had built myself a habitat. Things just kept evolving.Take this lounging chair, for instance.One day I replaced the old stump I sat on with a three-legged stool, and then I replaced the three-legged stool with this comfortable chair.

六月的这天早晨，天气炎热潮湿，雾气很浓，我连自己住的巨大铁杉树都看不大清。我喜欢雾气。它遮盖了一切，只剩下巨大的树干，让我的山顶住所变得十分简朴，正如两年前我刚来的时候一样。

[2]我靠在安乐椅上，欣赏这一片原始森林。安乐椅是我自己做的，是把小树压弯，然后用椴树皮内层的韧皮做的绳索绑到一起。

[3]太阳照暖了大地，一阵风吹过。雾气飘到旁边，我看清了我的池塘、磨坊，还有树根做的地窖。刚刚来住的第一年，我只有一棵树、一张床和一个壁炉。但造一个物件儿再造一个物件儿，到现在，我已经给自己建造了一处住所。事物总是在改善。拿这把安乐椅为例。有一天我用一个三条腿的凳子替换了我坐的老树墩，后来又用这把舒适的椅子替代了那个三条腿的凳子。

[4] The people changed, too. At first I was alone. Then my family arrived and—except for my lively sister,Alice—departed. I don’t know where Alice is this morning. She was going to go strawberry picking, but the haze is too dense for that. Maybe she’s sitting on the porch of her tree house talking to herself just as I am. A haze mutes not only the birds and beasts, but people,too.

[5] As a hot dry wind clears the air, I can see Frightful, my peregrine falcon, sitting in front of the six-foot-indiameter hemlock tree that I hollowed out for a home. Unlike the chairs and people, Frightful has not changed. She still holds her body straight up and down and her head high in the manner of the peregrine falcon. Her tawny breast is decorated with black marks;her back is gray blue; her head black.When she fl ies, she is still a crossbow in the sky, and she still “waits on” above my head until I kick up a pheasant or a rabbit. Then she stoops, speeding toward her prey at two hundred miles an hour, the fastest animal on earth. She almost never misses.

[4]人也在变。最初我孤单一人。然后我的家人到来，又离开，只有活泼的妹妹艾丽斯留了下来。今天早上，我不知道艾丽斯在哪儿。她本来是要去采摘草莓，但雾气太浓摘不了。也许她正坐在她树屋的门廊上自言自语呢，像我一样。雾气不仅让鸟兽安静，人也安静了。

[5]一阵干燥的热风吹过，雾气消散，我看到了我的游隼“惊悚”，她就停留在我的树屋前。那是一棵直径六英尺的铁杉树，我掏空了当作树屋。“惊悚”不像椅子和人，她没有变化。她的身体还是那样直上直下移动，头高高抬起，正是游隼的姿态。她的黄褐色胸口上点缀着黑色斑点；后背蓝灰色；头黑色。飞翔时，她依然是天空中的十字弓，依然会“悬停”在我的头顶，等待我惊起一只野鸡或者兔子。然后她会俯冲而下，以每小时两百英里的速度扑向猎物。她是地球上最快的动物，几乎从不失手。

【背景知识】《远方山林》是《我的山林》的续篇，描写山姆和妹妹艾丽斯继续在山林生存的故事。这一次，他们的故事背景不限于自己祖先的领地，而是跋涉到远方，为了游隼和其他野生鸟类的自由而行动，和偷猎者作斗争。故事曲折生动，引人入胜。

【第一段】单词haze经常被用来形容雾霾，但这里指山中的雾气或者山岚，不是污染物smog。短语can barely see意为“几乎看不见”，译文调整了语序，译为“看不大清”。动词erase（抹掉）如果直译显得不恰当（抹掉/擦掉了一切），换为“遮盖”。形容词simple不太好译，需要上下文才能弄清楚——这里指大雾遮住了很多人造物品，只剩下天然的东西，所以住所显得“简朴”。

【第二段】句中核心词chair的定语从句太长，因此译文把第二分句提前，定语从句提出，单独成句放在后边。

【第三段】短语one idea led to another也可以译为“一个想法引出另一个想法”，但在上下文中意思不很清楚，因此译文明晰化为“造一个物件儿再造一个物件儿”；接下来的the next thing I knew（接下来我知道的）也不宜直译，译文简化为“到现在”。动词evolve意思是“进化、发展”，这里选择更明确的“改善”。

【第四段】第三句中的插入语照搬到中文里会打断语流，所以将其挪到句尾。最后一句没有选择使动句“使人们安静”，因为稍嫌别扭。

【第五段】第一句最后的定语从句提取出来，独立成句，这样中文更自然一些。游隼待着不动的时候，身子也会直上直下地动，这一点只需在网上搜索视频就能验证。下文的“十字弓”是暗喻，译文加以保留，应该不会造成阅读障碍。

【小结】这一选段里有几处定语从句需要调整语序才能更加符合中文习惯。除此之外，原文有好多短句，言简意赅，言近旨远，译者需要尽力传译原文简约传神的风格。

《远方山林》（节选一）

文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治译析/吴文安