第3章 小美人鱼 The Little Mermaid 续(2/9)

首发：~第3章 小美人鱼 The Little Mermaid 续

陆地上没有人有他们那样可爱的嗓音。

no one on earth has such a lovely voice as theirs

小美人鱼比他们所有人唱得都更甜美。

the little mermaid sang more sweetly than them all

整个宫廷都用手和尾巴为她鼓掌；

the whole court applauded her with hands and tails;

有那么一瞬间，她的心里感到十分欢快，因为她知道自己有着世上或海里最美妙的嗓音。

and for a moment her heart felt quite gay, for she knew she had the loveliest voice of any on earth or in the sea

但她很快又想起了上面的世界，因为她无法忘记迷人的王子，也无法忘记自己没有像他那样不朽的灵魂的悲伤；

but she soon thought again of the world above her, for she could not forget the charming prince, nor her sorrow that she had not an immortal soul like his;

因此她悄悄地从父亲的宫殿溜了出去，当宫殿里一切都是欢乐和歌声的时候，她却独自悲伤地坐在自己的小花园里。

therefore she crept away silently out of her father’s palace, and while everything within was gladness and song, she sat in her own little garden sorrowful and alone

然后她听到号角声在水中回荡，心想 ——“他肯定正在海面上航行呢，他就是我愿望所系之人，我愿意将自己一生的幸福交托到他手中。

then she heard the bugle sounding through the water, and thought— “he is certainly sailing above, he on whom my wishes depend, and in whose hands i should like to place the happiness of my life

我要为他冒险一切，去赢得一个不朽的灵魂，当我的姐妹们在我父亲的宫殿里跳舞时，我要去找海巫婆，我一直非常害怕她，但她能给我建议和帮助。”

i will venture all for him, and to win an immortal soul, while my sisters are dancing in my father’s palace, i will go to the sea witch, of whom i have always been so much afraid, but she can give me counsel and help”

于是小美人鱼走出她的花园，踏上通往冒着泡沫的漩涡的路，巫婆就住在漩涡后面。

and then the little mermaid went out from her garden, and took the road to the foaming whirlpools, behind which the sorceress lived

她以前从未走过那条路：

she had never been that way before:

那里既没有花也没有草生长；

neither flowers nor grass grew there;

只有光秃秃、灰蒙蒙的沙地一直延伸到漩涡处，在那里，水就像冒着泡沫的水车，把它卷住的一切东西都卷起来，然后抛进无底的深渊。

nothing but bare, gray, sandy ground stretched out to the whirlpool, where the water, like foaming mill - wheels, whirled round everything that it seized, and cast it into the fathomless deep

小美人鱼必须穿过这些湍急的漩涡中间，才能到达海巫婆的领地；

through the midst of these crushing whirlpools the little mermaid was obliged to pass, to reach the dominions of the sea witch;

而且在很长一段距离内，唯一的路正好要穿过一大片温热、冒泡的泥潭，巫婆称这片泥潭为她的泥炭沼。

and also for a long distance the only road lay right across a quantity of warm, bubbling mire, called by the witch her turfmoor

在这片泥潭的那一边矗立着她的房子，房子位于一片奇特的森林中央，这片森林里所有的树木和花朵都是珊瑚虫，半是动物半是植物；

beyond this stood her house, in the centre of a strange forest, in which all the trees and flowers were polypi, half animals and half plants;

它们看起来像从地里长出一百个头的蛇。

they looked like serpents with a hundred heads growing out of the ground

树枝是长长的黏糊糊的手臂，手指像柔软的蠕虫，从根部到顶部一节一节地移动。

the branches were long slimy arms, with fingers like flexible worms, moving limb after limb from the root to the top

海里能抓到的东西它们都抓，而且抓得紧紧的，所以没有东西能从它们的爪子下逃脱。

all that could be reached in the sea they seized upon, and held fast, so that it never escaped from their clutches

小美人鱼看到眼前的景象非常惊恐，她站着不动，心因恐惧而跳动，她差一点就转身回去了；

the little mermaid was so alarmed at what she saw, that she stood still, and her heart beat with fear, and she was very nearly turning back;

但是她想到了王子，想到了她渴望得到的人类灵魂，她又鼓起了勇气。

but she thought of the prince, and of the human soul for which she longed, and her courage returned

她把长长的飘动的头发盘在头上，这样珊瑚虫就抓不到它了。

she fastened her long flowing hair round her head, so that the polypi might not seize hold of it

她双手交叉放在胸前，然后像鱼在水中穿梭一样向前冲去，在她两侧伸展着的丑陋珊瑚虫柔软的手臂和手指间穿梭。

she laid her hands together across her bosom, and then she darted forward as a fish shoots through the water, between the supple arms and fingers of the ugly polypi, which were stretched out on each side of her

她看到每个珊瑚虫都用它众多的小手臂紧紧抓住它抓到的东西，就好像那些是铁箍一样。

she saw that each held in its grasp something it had seized with its numerous little arms, as if they were iron bands

在海上遇难并沉入深水的人类的白色尸骨、陆地动物的尸骨、船桨、船舵和船舱都被它们紧紧抓住；

the white skeletons of human beings who had perished at sea, and had sunk down into the deep waters, skeletons of land animals, oars, rudders, and chests of ships were lying tightly grasped by their clinging arms;

甚至还有一个被它们抓住并勒死的小美人鱼；

even a little mermaid, whom they had caught and strangled;

这在小公主看来是最令人震惊的。

and this seemed the most shocking of all to the little princess

现在她来到树林里一片沼泽地，那里肥大的水蛇正在泥潭里翻滚，露出它们丑陋的、土褐色的身体。

she now came to a space of marshy ground in the wood, where large, fat water - snakes were rolling in the mire, and showing their ugly, drab - colored bodies

在这片沼泽地的中央有一座房子，是用失事船只上遇难者的骨头建造的。

in the midst of this spot stood a house, built with the bones of shipwrecked human beings

海巫婆坐在那里，让一只癞蛤蟆从她嘴里吃东西，就像人们有时用一块糖喂金丝雀一样。

there sat the sea witch, allowing a toad to eat from her mouth, just as people sometimes feed a canary with a piece of sugar

她把那些丑陋的水蛇称作她的小鸡，还让它们在她的胸前爬来爬去。

she called the ugly water - snakes her little chickens, and allowed them to crawl all over her bosom

“我知道你想要什么，” 海巫婆说；

“i know what you want,” said the sea witch;