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Albus Dumbledore on “The Tale of the Three Brothers”
阿不思·鄧布利多評《三兄弟的傳說》
This story made a profound impression on me as a boy.
我小時候，這個故事給我留下了深刻的印象。
I heard it first from my mother, and it soon became the tale I requested more often than any other at bedtime.
第一次我是聽我母親講的，很快，它就成為我睡覺前央求她講得最多的一個故事。
This frequently led to arguments with my younger brother, Aberforth, whose favourite story was “Grumble the Grubby Goat”.
弟弟阿不福思經(jīng)常為此跟我發(fā)生爭吵，他最喜歡的故事是《臟山羊克朗布》。
The moral of “The Tale of the Three Brothers” could not be any clearer: human efforts to evade or overcome death are always doomed to disappointment.
《三兄弟的傳說》的寓意再明顯不過：人類想要躲避或征服死神的努力注定不會成功。
The third brother in the story ( “the humblest and also the wisest” ) is the only one who understands that, having narrowly escaped Death once, the best he can hope for is to postpone their next meeting for as long as possible.
故事里的老三（“最謙虛也是最聰明的”）是唯一懂得的人，僥幸逃脫死神一次之后，他最多只能希望盡量延遲與死神的下一次見面。
This youngest brother knows that taunting Death – by engaging in violence, like the first brother, or by meddling in the shadowy art of necromancy, (Note1: Necromancy is the Dark Art of raising the dead. It is a branch of magic that has never worked, as this story makes clear. JKR) like the second brother - means pitting oneself against a wily enemy who cannot lose.
這位最小的弟弟明白，嘲弄死神——像老大那樣動武，或像老二那樣玩弄神秘莫測的招魂術(shù)（注釋一：招魂術(shù)是指喚醒死者的黑魔法。這門魔法根本不靈，故事里對此講得很清楚。——J.K。羅琳注）——意味著跟一位詭計多端、只贏不輸?shù)膭艛齿^量。
The irony is that a curious legend has grown up around this story, which precisely contradicts the message of the original.
具有諷刺意味的是，圍繞這個故事生出了一個奇怪的傳言，跟故事原來的寓意正好相反。
This legend holds that the gifts Death gives the brothers – an unbeatable wand, a stone that can bring back the dead, and an Invisibility Cloak that endures for ever – are genuine objects that exist in the real world.
傳言認(rèn)為，死神送給三兄弟的禮物——一根不可戰(zhàn)勝的魔杖，一塊能夠起死回生的石頭，還有一件永不磨損的隱形衣——都是確確實實存在于世界上的東西。
The legend goes further: if any person becomes the rightful owner of all three, then he or she will become “master of Death”, which has usually been understood to mean that they will be invulnerable, even immortal.
傳言還說：如果一個人合法擁有了這三樣?xùn)|西，他（或她）就會成為“死神的主人”，這句話通常被認(rèn)為是指他（或她）是無懈可擊的，甚至是長生不老的。
We may smile, a little sadly, at what this tells us about human nature.
看到故事里向我們揭示的人性，我們或許會露出略含憂傷的微笑。
The kindest interpretation would be: “Hope springs eternal”. (note2: This quotation demonstrates that Albus Dumbledore was not only exceptionally well read in wizarding terms, but also that he was familiar with the writings of Muggle poet Alexander Pope. JKR)
最仁慈的解釋是：“希望是永恒的”。（注釋二：這句引言顯示阿不思·鄧布利多不僅對巫師文獻(xiàn)涉獵甚廣，而且對麻瓜詩人亞歷山大·蒲柏的作品也很熟悉。——J.K。羅琳注）
