草原日出
作者：［英国］多丽丝·莱辛／作 余书娴／译
'A Sunrise
on the Veld'
by Doris
Lessing
那年冬天，每晚入睡前，他都对着枕头里面大声喊：“四点半！四点半！”直到确信脑袋已经紧紧抓牢这三个字，才安然入睡，仿佛一片安眠药突然降临。他脸朝着闹钟的方向，这样醒来后第一眼便能看到它。
Every night that
winter he said aloud into the dark of the pillow:
Half-past four! Half-past
four! till his brain had gripped the words and
held them fast. Then he fell asleep at once,
as if a shutter had fallen; and lay with his face turned to the
clock so that he could see it first thing when he
woke.
早晨四点半，分秒不差，他骄傲地按下将要响起的闹铃。他尚且稚嫩的思想战胜了闹铃：它整夜警醒地数着时间过去，他却酣然大睡，毫无准备。他缱绻在被窝里，一边享受着最后一瞬温暖，一边玩转着一个想法：就躺这最后一秒吧！不过，他如此玩转只是为了证明这个想法其实是一个弱点，战胜它易如反掌，如同他每晚设闹钟只是为了醒来那一瞬骄傲。他伸了个懒腰，感觉肌肉更结实了，心想：我连自己的思想都能战胜！我更能控制身体的每一部分！
It was half-past
four to the minute, every morning.
Triumphantly pressing down the alarm-knob of the clock, which the
dark half of his mind had outwitted, remaining vigilant all night
and counting the hours as he lay relaxed in sleep, he huddled down
for a last warm moment under the clothes, playing with the idea of
lying abed for this once only. But he played
with it for the fun of knowing that it was a weakness he could
defeat without effort; just as he set the alarm each night for the
delight of the moment when he woke and stretched his limbs, feeling
the muscles tighten, and thought: Even my
brain – even that! I can control every part of
myself.
他躺在床上，觉得温暖而奢华，两臂、两腿和十指都像随时听候吩咐的士兵！他欣喜地承认：他是心甘情愿睡这一觉的。因为他曾经连续三个晚上出去跑步，不眠不休，证明自己能挺住；然后工作一整天，甚至拒绝承认自己累了。现在，睡眠对于他来说也是一位仆人，呼之即来，挥之即去。
Luxury
of warm rested body, with the arms and legs and fingers waiting
like soldiers for a word of command! Joy of
knowing that the precious hours were given to sleep voluntarily! –
for he had once stayed awake three nights running, to prove that he
could, and then worked all day, refusing even to admit that he was
tired; and now sleep seemed to him a servant to be commanded and
refused.
这男孩全面舒展身躯：手掌抵着头边的墙壁，脚趾顶着床角。忽然，他弹跳而起，如鱼跃水面。冷啊，真冷啊！
The boy
stretched his frame full-length, touching the wall at his head with
his hands, and the bedfoot with his toes; then he sprung out, like
a fish leaping from water. And it was cold,
cold.
他穿衣服通常很迅速，试图在两小时后的日出前保持这夜间累积起来的温暖。但当他穿好上衣时，手指就已冻得麻木，连鞋子都提不起来了。怕吵醒父母，他只能赤脚了。他们可从来不知道他起得这么早。
He always dressed
rapidly, so as to try and conserve his night-warmth till the sun
rose two hours later; but by the time he had on his clothes his
hands were numbed and he could scarcely hold his shoes.
These he could not put on for fear of waking
his parents, who never came to know how early he
rose.
一跨出门槛，他就感到地面冰冷，脚底发凉，腿开始痛起来。现在可还是夜里啊：星星还在眨眼，树在身后静伫。他试图寻找天亮的迹象：石头边缘呈现灰白，或是那将升起红日的天空显现一丝光亮。但现在什么迹象也没有。他像一头警醒的小兽，蹑手蹑脚地经过那扇危险的窗户：一只手按在窗台上，踮起脚，朝窗内看去，这是多么难得而骄傲的时刻，只见房内一片漆黑，令人窒息，他的父母就躺在其中呢。
As soon
as he stepped over the lintel, the flesh of his soles contracted on
the chilled earth, and his legs began to ache with cold.
It was night: the stars
were glittering, the trees standing black and still.
He looked for signs of day, for the greying of
the edge of a stone, or a lightening in the sky where the sun would
rise, but there was nothing yet. Alert as an
animal he crept past the dangerous window, standing poised with his
hand on the sill for one proudly fastidious moment, looking in at
the stuffy blackness of the room where his parents
lay.
路上的小草尖如刀刃，刺痛了他的脚趾。他沿着墙来到更远的一扇窗前，伸手进去提上来一把枪，昨晚他就准备好了这把枪。这冰冷的钢制家伙慢慢从他麻木的手指间滑落。为了安全起见，他只好把枪夹在臂弯里，踮着脚，朝狗屋走去，他担心脚步声会刺激它们提前冲出门。但它们还算安静。虽然不大情愿蜷缩着腰身慢行，它们却竖起双耳，欢快地摇着尾巴，心醉神迷地盯着他的枪。他不断回头朝它们低声警告，确保它们秘密安静地离开。当房子已被甩在百码之后，它们立刻像解放似的冲进树林，欢天喜地地吠着。男孩想像着父母此时一定在床上一边翻身，一边咕哝：“又是这群死狗！”然后又倒头睡去。想到这，男孩讽刺般地微笑着。他不时回望那个房子，直到被树挡住了视线；那矮小的房子卑微地蜷缩在高阔的天空下。他把房子甩在身后，把闷声闷气睡在其中的父母甩在身后，彻底忘掉它们。
Feeling for the
grass-edge of the path with his toes, he reached inside another
window further along the wall, where his gun had been set in
readiness the night before. The steel was icy,
and numbed fingers slipped along it, so that he had to hold it in
the crook of his arm for safety. Then he
tiptoed to the room where the dogs slept, and was fearful that they
might have been tempted to go before him; but they were waiting,
their haunches crouched in reluctance at the cold, but ears and
swinging tails greeting the gun ecstatically.
His warning undertone kept them secret and silent till the house
was a hundred yards back: then they bolted off
into the bush, yelping excitedly. The boy
imagined his parents turning in their beds and muttering:
Those dogs again! before
they were dragged back in sleep; and he smiled scornfully.
He always looked back over his shoulder at the
house before he passed a wall of trees that shut it from sight.
It looked so low and small, crouching there
under a tall and brilliant sky. Then he turned
his back on it.
他想加速前进，因为天亮前他得赶完四里路。此时，一丝绿光已经穿过叶片上的小洞折射而来，空气中充满了清晨的气息，星星也渐渐暗下去了。
He would have to
hurry. Before the light grew strong he must be
miles away; and already a tint of green stood in the hollow of a
leaf, and the air smelled of morning and the stars were
dimming.
他把鞋子挂在肩上。经过千百次晨露的洗礼，这双草鞋变得又皱又硬，地面炽热难忍时估计能派上用场。冷硬的灰尘在脚趾间飞扬，他充分伸展脚底的肌肉，使它们完全融入大地的怀抱。他想：我能这样赤脚走一百里呢！走一整天都不觉得累！
He slung the shoes
over his shoulder, veld skoen that were crinkled and hard with the
dews of a hundred mornings. They would be
necessary when the ground became too hot to bear.
Now he felt the chilled dust push up between
his toes, and he let the muscles of his feet spread and settle into
the shapes of the earth; and he thought: I
could walk a hundred miles on feel like these!
I could walk all day, and never tire!
他在铺满树叶的黑色小道上疾行，这条小道白天其实是条大马路。猎狗们在更低处四处探路，虽然他看不见它们的身影，却能听到它们的喘气声；有时它们会用冰冷的鼻子在他腿上厮磨一下，表示又要去探路啦！它们没有经过训练，自由散漫，兴起时还玩失踪，但却是他最好的同伴。因为，为了几枪射击，他通常要赶很长的路，有了它们路上就不枯燥了。不久，整个灌木丛在晨光中颤抖起来。在一丝狂野而奇异的晨光中，他看到它们了：这群蛮气十足的小兽正等着看日出如何把大地和草木渲染一新呢！
He was walking swiftly through
the dark tunnel of foliage that in day-time was a road.
The dogs were invisibly ranging the lower
travelways of the bush, and he heard them panting.
Sometimes he felt a cold muzzle on his leg
before they were off again, scouting for a trail to follow.
They were not trained, but free-running
companions of the hunt, who often tired of the long stalk before
the final shots, and went off on their own pleasure.
