1705003945
1705003946
● raw cold:极冷。寒冷彻骨,连肺里都感觉到了。
1705003947
1705003948
The old notion that it was a cold autumn day still persisted; the gust, we felt, would pass, and our working muscles would spread warmth and life through our bodies. We kept pushing upward with slow and fumbling steps, slipping on ice surfaces like old men. It took a half hour or so for the thought to settle in my mind that we ought not to be there, that the windwall was coming at us more relentlessly, that we were stooping lower and fighting to stay on our feet, and especially that all warmth had withdrawn from feet and legs and hands.
1705003949
1705003950
● old notion:旧观念。persisted:不退,仍在心头。天虽冷,究竟不过是秋天,冷不到哪里去的。我们觉得疾风就会过去,我们的肌肉活动之后(working muscles),暖气生机,即能布满全身。
1705003951
1705003952
● the thought to settle in my mind:瞎爬了大约半个钟头之后,我方才认清了——第一,我们根本不应该到这里来的;第二,风墙给我们的压力是更汹涌可怕了;第三,我们身子愈俯愈低,拼了命才勉强把脚头站住;第四,我们尤其觉得脚上腿上手上的暖气已经全给吹跑了。
1705003953
1705003954
I tried to speak, then to yell, but made no sound. John Somes went on ahead. Tommy had dropped behind and seemed hardly to be moving. I crouched and waited.
1705003955
1705003956
When he came close he put his mouth to my ear and shouted, “I think we’re damn fools.” The words came faintly and stiffly, but I heard them and nodded. Back to the wind, we looked down the rough slope. My watery eyes were closed slits, and a fine spindrift of snow blew like white smoke over the rocks, but I could still see where the headwall fell away into cold space.
1705003957
1705003958
● dropped behind:落在后面。crouched:佝偻。
1705003959
1705003960
● faintly and stiffly:声音模糊而僵硬。
1705003961
1705003962
● Back to the wind:背对着风。watery eyes:眼睛流泪,不能睁开,仅成细缝(slit)。fine spindrift:很细的浪花。雪为风所吹,如浪花似的凌空飞溅,雪质很细,望之乃如烟雾。fell away:人在高处下望,原驻足之山头,渐渐消失。
1705003963
1705003964
“We better get back down there,” I yelled.
1705003965
1705003966
John had not turned. We saw him dimly in the smoke, a hundred yards above us.
1705003967
1705003968
“Can’t feel my feet any more,” Tommy said—still shouting.
1705003969
1705003970
The truth broke suddenly. We are in deadly danger. The illusion of “October” vanished forever and I faced the facts of arctic winter and the ice-created hurricane.
1705003971
1705003972
● the smoke:烟状的雪风。
1705003973
1705003974
● The truth broke suddenly:我这才恍然大悟。
1705003975
1705003976
● The illusion of “October”:假如还拿平地的眼光,认为天气应该是十月天气,这便成了痴想了,现在这种痴想已经消除净尽;我所面对的事实,乃是北极的酷寒,和冰雪所造成的暴风。
1705003977
1705003978
But there was still John Somes—we ought to stick together. Tommy, I thought, could start back, and I could still keep on and get hold of John. I leaned to yell in his ear, glancing up once more to see if John had turned yet. What happened from that point on is so mingled with my fear and increasing desperation that I can re-create it only as a terrible dream.
1705003979
1705003980
● John一个人走在前头,我们现在要掉头回去,应该把他叫来,三人团结一起(stick together)。我认为Tommy可以径自回去,我再往上爬,把John追回来。
1705003981
1705003982
● I leaned to yell in his ear…:我俯身过去把我的意思高声地对准Tommy的耳朵里嚷,一面往高处望,看看John是否已经转身回来了。
1705003983
1705003984
● 从那时候起,我就记不清楚了。我心中恐惧、惶急之情,与时俱增(increasing desperation),以后的事情,就和我这种情绪混淆在一起,真幻难分,于今思之(re-create:把当时情形重演或叙述一遍),犹如恶梦一场。
1705003985
1705003986
The mountain slope had glistened remotely above us in the cold sun—not clear to our half-blinded eyes, but palpably there, a visible part of earth’s substance. The smoke of snow revealed gray rock and even the cairns set by human hands to mark the trail; and beyond those outposts of earth the blue of sky had given us comfort. But now white and gray masses of cloud came like a cataract, solid, vast, silent in the gale. The sun flashed against it with cold and terrible brightness, but in the hollows and rifts it deepened to dark gray and black. Tatters of it came first like flying arrows, and I saw them flash past the dim, hunched figure of John Somes; then the mass came down like a solid avalanche of death itself, silver above and black in its caverns, riding the wind. A few seconds of terrifying beauty, and I saw John Somes fade, go under, vanish; and then before I could draw breath or warn Tommy it happened to us too.
1705003987
1705003988
● 以后发生些什么可怕的事,当事人自己都说不清楚呢。这事在第三句方才说明,现在先看第一二句。
1705003989
1705003990
● 他们到了山区高处,见到冰雪之后,只是觉得奇寒难忍,狂风难当,此外景色还和下面差不多:高处山坡在毫无暖气的日光底下,隐隐约约地晶晶发光,他们的眼睛睁不大开,看不清楚,可是前面的确有这么一块地方,似乎伸了手就摸得到的(palpably there),有形有体(substance),宛然可睹,分明是大地的一部分。一阵轻烟似的雪风过处,灰色的岩石便露了出来,还有前人以手堆植用以山行标路的石堆(cairns),也看得见了。这些都是大地尽处的前哨(outposts),前哨外面,便是一片碧空,看了心中也曾觉得安慰。
1705003991
1705003992
● 注意这两句的动词时态:had glistened和had given(过去完成式)是表示“过去”的事,接着第三句从But now起,就是叙述眼前的事了。
1705003993
1705003994
● cataract:瀑布。gale:大风(gust是突然发作随时可停的疾风,故常用复数gusts。gale则是劲吹不已的大风)。
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705003945e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]