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At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon.
在翻書的間隙，我抬頭細看冬日下午的景色。
Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud.
只見遠方白茫茫一片云霧。
Near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.
近處濕漉漉一塊草地和受風(fēng)雨襲擊的灌木。一陣持久而凄厲的狂風(fēng)，驅(qū)趕著如注的暴雨，橫空歸過。
I returned to my book- Bewick's History of British Birds.
我重又低頭看書，那是本比尤伊克的《英國鳥類史》。
The letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking.
文字部份我一般不感興趣。
And yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank.
但有幾頁導(dǎo)言，雖說我是孩子，卻不愿當(dāng)作空頁隨手翻過。
They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl.
內(nèi)中寫到了海鳥生息之地。
Of 'the solitary rocks and promontories' by them only inhabited.
寫到了只有海鳥棲居的“孤零零的巖石和海岬”。
Of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape.
寫到了自南端林納斯尼斯，或納斯，至北角都遍布小島的挪威海岸。
Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles of farthest Thule.
那里，北冰洋掀起的巨大漩渦，咆哮在極地光禿凄涼約小島四周。
And the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.
而大西洋的洶涌波濤，瀉入了狂暴的赫布里底群島。
Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland,
還有些地方我也不能看都不看，一翻而過，那就是書中提到的拉普蘭、西伯利亞、斯匹次卑爾根群島、新地島、冰島和格陵蘭荒涼的海岸。
with 'the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space, that reservoir of frost and snow.
廣袤無垠的北極地帶和那些陰凄凄的不毛之地，宛若冰雪的儲存庫。
Where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights,
千萬個寒冬所積聚成的堅冰，像阿爾卑斯山的層層高峰，光滑晶瑩，
surround the pole and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold.
包圍著地極，把與日俱增的嚴寒匯集于一處。
Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy,
我對這些死白色的地域，已有一定之見，但一時難以捉摸，
like all the half-comprehended notions that float aim through children's brains, but strangely impressive.
仿佛孩子們某些似懂非懂的念頭，朦朦朧朧浮現(xiàn)在腦際，卻出奇地生動。
The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes,
導(dǎo)言中的這幾頁文字，與后面的插圖相配，
and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray.
使兀立于大海波濤中的孤巖。
To the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast.
擱淺在荒涼海岸上的破船。
To the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.
以及透過云帶俯視著沉船的幽幽月光，更加含義雋永了。
I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone.
我說不清一種什么樣的情調(diào)彌漫在孤寂的墓地。
Its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.
刻有銘文的墓碑、一扇大門、兩棵樹、低低的地平線、破敗的圍墻。
The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.
兩艘輪船停泊在水波不興的海面上，我以為它們是海上的鬼怪。
The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.
魔鬼從身后按住竊賊的背包，那模樣實在可怕，我趕緊翻了過去。
So was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
一樣可怕的是，那個頭上長角的黑色怪物，獨踞于巖石之上，遠眺著一大群人圍著絞架。
Each picture told a story.
每幅畫都是一個故事。
Mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting.
由于我理解力不足，欣賞水平有限，它們往往顯得神秘莫測。
As interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour.
但無不趣味盎然，就像某些冬夜，貝茜碰巧心情不錯時講述的故事一樣。
And when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery hearth,
遇到這種時候，貝茵會把燙衣桌搬到保育室的壁爐旁邊，讓我們圍著它坐好。
she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders,
她一面熨里德太太的網(wǎng)眼飾邊，把睡帽的邊沿燙出褶裥來，
fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and other ballads.
一面讓我們迫不及待地傾聽她一段段愛情和冒險故事，這些片段取自于古老的神話傳說和更古老的歌謠。
Or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
或者如我后來所發(fā)現(xiàn)，來自《帕美拉》和《莫蘭伯爵亨利》。
