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Albus Dumbledore on “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot”
阿不思·鄧布利多關于《巫師和跳跳鍋》的批注：
A kind old wizard decides to teach his hardhearted son a lesson by giving him a taste of the local Muggles' misery.
一位善良的老巫師，想給鐵石心腸的兒子一個教訓，讓他嘗嘗當地麻瓜們的苦難。
The young wizard's conscience awakes, and he agrees to use his magic for the benefit of his non-magical neighbours.
年輕巫師的良知覺醒了，他同意利用自己的魔法去幫助那些不會魔法的鄰居。
A simple and heart-warming fable, one might think – in which case, one would reveal oneself to be an innocent nincompoop.
讀者會認為這是一個簡單而溫馨的寓言故事——在這種情況下，讀者會暴露自己是一個天真的傻瓜。
A pro-Muggle story showing a Muggle-loving father as superior in magic to a Muggle-hating son?
這是一個親麻瓜的故事，表明愛麻瓜的父親在魔法上比恨麻瓜的兒子高明，是不是？
It is nothing short of amazing that any copies of the original version of this tale survived the flames to which they were so often consigned.
因此，這個故事的原版書沒有一本能夠逃脫火焰而保存下來，也就毫不令人吃驚了，這樣的書是經常會被丟進火里焚燒的。
Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles.
彼豆宣傳對麻瓜要懷有手足之情，這跟他的時代有點格格不入。
The persecution of witches and wizards was gathering pace all over Europe in the early fifteenth century.
十五世紀早期，迫害巫師的行徑在歐洲愈演愈烈。
Many in the magical community felt, and with good reason, that offering to cast a spell on the Muggle-next-door's sickly pig was tantamount to volunteering to fetch the firewood for one's own funeral pyre.
魔法界的許多人覺得，向隔壁麻瓜鄰居的瘟豬施咒語，就等于是在主動往焚燒自己的火堆上添加柴火，這么想也是有道理的。
Note 1. It is true, of course, that genuine witches and wizards were reasonably adept at escaping the stake, block and noose (see my comments about Lisette de Lapin in the commentary on “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump” ) .
注釋一：這當然是真的，那些真誠的巫女和巫師們開始熟練的逃避火刑，石塊和套索（參見“芭比蒂兔兔和饒舌樹樁”注釋里我對利塞特的兔子的評論）。
However, a number of deaths did occur: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (a wizard at the royal court in his lifetime, and in his death-time, ghost of Gryffindor Tower) was stripped of his wand before being locked in a dungeon, and was unable to magic himself out of his execution;
然而，一些殺戮還是發生了，西敏汀的尼古拉斯爵士（生前是宮廷的御用巫師，死后是格蘭芬多塔的常駐幽靈）在關入地牢前被剝奪了魔杖，因此他無法使用魔法來讓自己免于處決。
And wizarding families were particularly prone to losing younger members, whose inability to control their own magic made them noticeable, and vulnerable, to Muggle witch-hunters.
巫師的家庭尤其容易失去年輕的家庭成員，由于他們沒有控制魔法的能力使得自己引人注目，對于麻瓜巫師狩獵者來說他們十分脆弱。
“Let the Muggles manage without us!” was the cry, as the wizards drew further and further apart from their non-magical brethren, culminating with the institution of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689, when wizardkind voluntarily went underground.
他們的口號是：“讓麻瓜們自生自滅吧！”巫師跟他們的非魔法兄弟的距離越來越遠，最后于一六八九年頒布了《國際巫師保密法》，從此巫師界便自動轉入地下。
Children being children, however, the grotesque Hopping Pot had taken hold of their imaginations.
然而，孩子就是孩子，古怪滑稽的跳跳堝占據了他們的想象。
