英语阅读翻译之：男孩的使命

2021年2月28日发(作者：香蕉的英文)

英语阅读翻译之：男孩的使命

In 1945, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window

that set his heart racing. But the price

—

five dollars

—

was

far beyond Reuben Earle's means. Five dollars would buy

almost a week's groceries for his family.

1945

年，一个

12

岁的男 孩在一家商店橱窗里看到一样令他心动的

东西，但是——

5

美元——远不是鲁本

?

厄尔能付得起的。< /p>

5

美元几乎

够买全家一周的食品呢。

Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything

Mark Earle made through fishing in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland,

Canada. Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed

and clothe their five children.

鲁本不能向父亲要钱。马克

?

厄尔的每一分钱都是靠在加拿大纽芬

兰的罗伯茨湾捕鱼挣来的。鲁本的 母亲多拉，为了不让五个孩子冻着

饿着，差不多是一个钱当两个钱用。

< br>

Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and

went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack

shirt and washed-out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he

wanted, adding, “But I don't have the money right now. Can

you please hold it for me for some time?”

< br>即使如此，鲁本还是推开商店那扇久经风雨的门走了进去。他穿

着面粉袋改做的衬 衫和洗得褪了色的裤子，站得笔直，丝毫不觉困窘。

他告诉了店主他想要的东西，又加上 一句：“可我现在还没有钱买它，

您能为我预留一段时间吗?”

“I'll try,”the shopkeeper smiled. “Folks around here

don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It

should keep for a while.”

< p>
“我尽量吧，”店主微笑着说，“这儿的人买起东西来，一般不

会花那么大 一笔钱的，一时半会儿卖不出去

。”

Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out

into the sunlight with the bay rippling in a freshening wind.

There was purpose in his loping stride5. He would raise the

five dollars and not tell anybody.

鲁本很有礼貌地碰了碰他的旧帽沿儿，走出店外。阳光下清新的

微风吹得罗伯 茨湾的海水泛起阵阵涟漪。鲁本迈着大步，下定决心：

他要凑齐那

5

美元，而且不告诉任何人。

Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben

had an idea.

听到街边传来的铁锤声，鲁本有了主意。

He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction

site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using

nails purchased in hessian sacks from a local factory.

Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of building,

and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for

five cents a piece.

他循声跑过去，来到一处建筑工地 。罗伯茨湾的人喜欢自己建房，

用的钉子是从本地一家工厂买的，都用麻袋来装。有时干 活时忙乱中

麻袋就被随手丢弃，而鲁本知道他能够

5

分钱一条把麻袋再卖给工厂。

That day he found two sacks, which he took to the

rambling wooden factory and sold to the man in charge of

packing nails.

那天，他找了两条麻袋，拿到杂乱的木材厂，卖给为钉子装袋 的

人。

The boy's hand tightly clutched the five-cent pieces as

he ran the two kilometers home.

两公里的路程他是一路跑着回的家，手里紧紧攥着两个

5

分硬币。

Near his house stood the ancient barn that housed the

family's goats and chickens. Reuben found a rusty soda tin

and dropped his coins inside. Then he climbed into the loft

of the barn and hid the tin beneath a pile of sweet smelling

hay.

他家旁边有个颇有年头的谷仓，里面圈着家里的山羊和鸡。鲁本

在那里找到一个生锈的装苏打的铁罐，把两枚硬币放了进去。然后，

他爬上谷仓的阁楼， 把铁罐藏在一堆散发着甜香味的干草下面。

It was dinnertime when Reuben got home. His father sat at

the big kitchen table, working on a fishing net. Dora was at

the kitchen stove, ready to serve dinner as Reuben took his

place at the table.

< /p>

晚饭时分，鲁本跨进家门。父亲正坐在厨房大餐桌旁摆弄渔网，

多 拉在灶台边忙碌着，准备开饭。鲁本就在桌边坐下了。

He looked at his mother and smiled. Sunlight from the

window gilded her shoulder-length blonde hair. Slim and

beautiful, she was the center of the home, the glue that held

it together.

< p>
他看着妈妈，笑了。窗户透进的夕阳余晖将她棕褐的披肩发染成

了金色。苗 条、美丽的母亲是这个家的中心，她像胶水一样使这个家

紧紧粘结在一起。

Her chores were never-ending. Sewing clothes for her

family on the old Singer treadle machine, cooking meals and

baking bread, planting and tending a vegetable garden,

milking the goats and scrubbing soiled clothes on a washboard.

But she was happy. Her family and their well-being were her

highest priority.

母亲的家务活永远也没个完。用老 式的“胜家”缝纫机为一家人

缝缝补补；要做饭、烤面包；要照料菜园；要挤羊奶；还要 在洗衣板

上搓洗脏衣服。可母亲是快乐的，全家人的幸福、健康在她心中是最

< p>
重要的。

Every day after chores and school, Reuben scoured the

town, collecting the hessian nail bags. On the day the two-

room school closed for the summer, no student was more

delighted than Reuben. Now he would have more time for his

mission.

每天放学，做完家务事后，鲁本就在镇上搜寻装钉子的麻袋。 只

有两间教室的学校开始放暑假的那天，没人能比鲁本更高兴了。现在

< br>他有更多时间去完成他的使命。

All summer long, despite chores at home weeding and

watering the garden, cutting wood and fetching water

—

Reuben

kept to his secret task.

整整一个夏天，鲁本除了干家务——给菜园锄草、浇水，砍柴 和

打水外，始终实行着他的秘密任务。

Then all too soon the garden was harvested, the

vegetables canned and stored, and the school reopened. Soon

the leaves fell and the winds blew cold and gusty from the

bay. Reuben wandered the streets, diligently searching for

his hessian treasures.