现代大学英语精读5 An Iowa Christmas 课文翻译 译文

Every Christmas should begin with the sound of bells, and when I was a child mine always did.

But they were sleigh bells, not church bells, for we lived in a part of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where

there

were

no

churches.

My

bells

were

on

my

father’s

team

of

hor

ses

as

he

drove

up

to

our

horse-headed

hitching

post

with

the

bobsled

that

would3

take

us

to

celebrate

Christmas

on

the

family farm ten miles out in the country. My father would bring the team down Fifth Avenue at a

smart trot, flicking his whip over the h

orses’ rumps and making the bells double their light, thin

jangling over the snow, whose radiance threw back a brilliance like the sound of bells. < /p>

每一个圣诞节都是由铃铛声拉开序幕的，

我童年记忆中的圣诞节总 是如此。

但那不是教堂里

的铃铛，

而是 雪橇上的铃铛，

因为我们家居住在爱荷华州的细达河洛佩兹的一个地区，

那个

地区没有教堂。

我的铃铛在我父亲拉雪橇的马队里 。

我家有一个马头形的拴马桩，

父亲会把

马儿们赶到拴马桩那儿把大雪橇套在马身上，带着我们到

10

英里以外的乡下农场去庆祝圣

诞节。

当父亲驾着马车轻快地驶过 第五大街，

轻轻地舞动着马鞭时，

清脆悦耳的铃声便跳跃

在我的耳畔。地上辉映着的雪光使铃声更加清脆动听。

There are no such departures any more: the whole family piling into the bobsled with a foot of

golden oat straw to lie in and heavy buffalo robes to lie under, the horses stamping the soft snow,

and at every motion of their hoofs the bells jingling, jingling. My father sat there with the reins

firmly held, wearing a long coat made from the hide of a favorite family horse, the deep chestnut

color still glowing, his mittens also from the same hide. It always troubled me as a boy of eight

that the horses had so indifferent a view of their late friend appearing as a warm overcoat on the

back of the man who put the iron bit in their mouths.

如今再也没有那样的出发场景了：

一家人挤上大雪橇，

身下是金黄的燕麦草，

身上盖着厚厚

的水牛皮长袍；

拉雪橇的马儿踩着柔软的雪，

系在它们脖子上的铃铛随着马蹄的节奏叮当作

响。

父亲坐在那 里牢牢地握着缰绳，

他穿的长大衣是用家里人都非常喜欢的一匹马的皮毛做

成的。

那深红棕色的皮毛仍然闪着光泽，

他戴的手套 也出自同一张马皮。

那时

8

岁的我总是

很纳闷，

不知道为什么那些马眼见着它们刚刚故去的朋友变成了 把衔铁塞在它们嘴里的人身

上温暖的大衣而熟视无睹，毫无反应。

There are no streets like those any more: the snow sensibly left on the road for the sake of sleighs

and easy travel. We could hop oil and ride the heavy runners as they made their hissing, tearing

sound over the packed snow. And along the streets we met other horses, so that we moved from

one set of bells to another, from the tiny tinkle of the individual bells on the shafts to the silvery,

leaping

sound

of

the

long

strands

hung

over

the

harness.

There

would

be

an

occasional

brass-mounted automobile laboring on its narrow tires and as often as not pulled up the slippery

hills by a horse, and we would pass it with a triumphant shout for an awkward nuisance which was

obviously not here to stay. < /p>

如今再也没有那样的街道了：

为了让雪橇能够顺利驶过，

路面上的积雪被有意地保留了下来。

我们的雪橇跳跃着在铺满雪得路上狂 奔，沉重的划板摩擦着地面发出嘶嘶的声音。在街上，

我们会遇到其他的马匹，

当我们驶过时可以挺大一串串各不相同的铃铛声。

有的马车车辕上

挂着单个铃铛，

发出轻微的叮当声；

有的马具 上则挂着一长串铃铛，发出清脆悦耳、忽高忽

低的响声。

在路上 ，

偶尔我们会遇上坐着镇上官员的小汽车，

窄窄的车轮在积雪的 路上吃力

地行驶着，

而且经常不得不用一匹马拉着才能驶上溜滑 的山坡。

每当这时我们就会发出胜利

者的欢呼快速驶过，嘲笑那 个钢铁家伙的蠢笨和不合时宜。

The country road ran through a landscape of little hills and shallow valleys and heavy groves of

timber, including one of great towering black walnut trees which were all cut down a year later to

be made into gunstocks for the First World War. The great moment was when we left the road and

turned up the long lane on the farm. It ran through fields where watermelons were always planted

in the summer because of the fine sandy soil, and I could go out and break one open to see its

Christmas colors of green skin and red inside. My grandfather had been given some of that farm as

bounty land for service as a cavalryman in the Civil War.

乡间公路穿过一片小山丘，那里有很多浅浅的山 谷，到处长满了郁郁葱葱成片成片的树林。

其中有一大片高耸入云的黑胡桃树一年后都被 砍倒，

制成了在第一次世界大战中使用的枪支

的枪托。最令人兴 奋的时刻是我们的雪橇离开乡村公路驶上通往农场的长长的小路的时候。

雪橇驶过片片田 地，

那里是优良的沙质土壤，

夏天种满了西瓜。在西瓜成熟的季 节，我总会

好奇地跑去地里打开一个，

看看墨绿的瓜皮里红红的 瓜瓤，

那是圣诞的颜色。

那片土地是我

祖父因在南北战争中服过役当过骑兵而得到的奖赏。

Near

the

low

house

on

the

hill,

with

oaks

on

one

side

and

apple

trees

on

the

other,

my

father

would stand up, flourish his whip, and bring the bobsled right up to the door of the house with a

burst of speed.

在快要接近小山上那座低矮的、

一边种满 橡树、

一边种满苹果树的房子时，

父亲总会从雪橇

座位上站起来，用力挥舞着手中的马鞭，以风驰电掣般的速度把雪橇驶到房门口停下。

There are no such arrivals any more: the harness bells ringing and clashing like faraway steeples,

the horses whinnying at the horses in the barn and receiving a great, trumpeting whinny in reply,

the dogs leaping into the bobsled and burrowing under the buffalo robes, a squawking from the

hen house, a yelling of “Whoa, whoa,” at the excited horses, boy and girl cousins howling around

the bobsled, and the descent into the snow with the Christmas basket carried by my mother.

如今再也没有那样的到达时的热闹景象了：

车 辕上的铃铛清脆响亮，

就像远处的尖塔一样优

美绚丽；

马儿们朝着马厩里的马嘶鸣，

马厩里的马儿们也以热烈响亮的嘶鸣作答，

狗儿们牛

皮毯子下钻来钻去；

母鸡窝里 传来咯咯的鸡叫声；

为了让兴奋的马儿们安静下来的

“喔！

喔！

”

声；堂兄弟姐妹们在雪橇周围欢闹着 追逐着；

一家人走下雪橇，踏入雪中，

妈妈提着的篮子

里装满了圣诞节的东西。

While my mother and sisters went into the house, the team was unhitched and taken to the barn,

to be covered with blankets and given a little grain. That winter odor of a barn is a wonderfully

complex one, rich and warm and utterly unlike the smell of the same barn in summer: the body

heat of many animals weighing a thousand pounds and more; pigs in one corner making their dark,

brown- sounding grunts; milk cattle still nuzzling the manger for wisps of hay; horses eyeing the

newcomers and rolling their deep, oval eyes white; oats, hay, and straw tangy still with the live

August sunlight;

the manure steaming; the sharp odor of leather harness rubbed with neat’s

-foot

oil to keep it supple; the molasses- sweet odor of ensilage in the silo where the fodder was almost

fermenting. It is a smell from strong and living things, and my father always said it was the secret

of health, that it scoured out a man’s lungs; and he would stand there, breathing deeply, one hand

on a horse’s rump, watching the steam come out from under the blankets as the team cooled down

from

their

rapid

trot

up

the

lane.

It

gave

him

a

better

appetite,

he

argued,

than

plain

fresh

air,

which was thin and had no body to it. < /p>

母亲和姐妹们走进房子。

马儿们从雪橇上被解下来，带到了马厩里 ，披上了毯子，

喂上了饲

料。

冬天马厩 里的那种气味是一种令人陶醉的混合味道，

浓郁而温暖，

完全不 像夏天里的味

道：

许多重达上千磅甚至更重的大牲畜身上散发出 的体温；

几头猪在角落里发出阴郁低沉的

哼哼声；

奶牛不停地用鼻子拱着食槽，

咀嚼着里面的干草；

马 儿们滴溜溜地转动着它们那深

邃的椭圆形的大眼睛，

审视着那些 新成员；

燕麦、

干草还有稻草都散发着新鲜的八月阳光的

味道；

还有冒着热气的动物粪便的气味以及为了使皮革马具柔软而用牛 脚油摩擦皮革散发出

的浓烈的味道，

还有贮藏在地窖里正在发酵 的未干的秣草发出的米糖般甜甜的味道。

那是一

种从强壮而又有 生命力的东西身上发出的气味，父亲总是会说这种气味是保持健康的秘诀，

因为它可以洗 涤人的脾肺。他总会站在那里，

一只手搭在马屁股上，一边做着深呼吸，

一边

看着马匹由于刚刚在小径上疾驰而产生的热气从毯子下面冒出来。

他还说这种气味比新鲜空

气更能使他有好胃口，新鲜空气太过平淡而没有 味道。

A barn with cattle and horses is the place to begin Christmas; after all, that’s where the original

event happened, and that same smell was the first air that the Christ Child breathed.

牛马棚正是圣诞 节的发源地，

毕竟那是故事最开始发生的地方，

圣婴呼吸到的第 一口空气就

是这种味道。

By the time we reached the house, my mother and sisters were wearing aprons and busying in the

kitchen, as red-faced as the women who had been there all morning. The kitchen was the biggest

room

in

the

house

and

all

family

life

save

sleeping

went

on

there.

My

uncle

even

had a

couch

along one wall where he napped and where the children lay when they were ill. The kitchen range

was

a

tremendous

black

and

gleaming

one

called

a

Smoke

Eater,

with

pans

bubbling

over

the

holes

above

the

fire

box

and

a

reservoir

of

hot

water

at

the

side,

lined

with

dull

copper,

from

which my uncle would dip a basin of water and shave above the sink, turning his lathered face

now and then to drop a remark into the women’s talk, waving his straightedged razor as if it were

a threat to make them believe him. My job was to go to the woodpile out back and keep the fire

burning, splitting the chunks of oak and hickory, watching how cleanly the ax went through the

tough wood.

我们进到 屋子里的时候，

母亲和姐姐们正扎着围裙在厨房里忙碌着。

她们 的脸颊跟其他在厨

房里忙碌了一上午的妇女一样，

红扑扑的。< /p>

厨房时整个房子里最大的房间，

除睡觉之外的所

< br>有家庭活动都是在这里进行的。

叔叔甚至靠墙放了一张睡椅，

他经常会在上面打个盹儿，

孩

子们生病时也会躺在上面。叔 叔家的厨房的灶台很大，又黑又亮，被称做“食烟者”

。灶台

上 大大小小的锅在火箱上的灶眼里打出一盆水，

然后在下水池上刮他的脸。

他会不时地转过

他那涂满肥皂泡的脸在妇女们的谈话中间插几句嘴。