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She's dead, she said at last. Then, as I stared at her, Oh, Vanessa, when it happened, I couldn't help thinking of her as she was that summer-so sullen and gauche and badly dressed.
她已經不在人世了，她終于說了出來。我怔怔地望著母親，她接著說，呵，凡乃莎，她出事的時候，我不禁又想起她那個夏天時的樣子--那么愁眉苦臉、呆頭呆腦的，穿的衣服也不像樣子。
I couldn't help wondering if we could have done something more at that time--but what could we do? She used to be around in the cottage there with me all day, and honestly it was all I could do to get a word out of her.
我不禁想起，當初我們是不是能夠多幫助她一點--但我們能做些什么呢?她雖說整天和我一起呆在別墅里，但說實話，我想引導她說一句話都不容易。
She didn't even talk to your father very much, although I think she liked him in her way.
她連同你父親都沒有多少話講，盡管我感覺她心里是喜歡你父親的。
What happened? I asked.
究竟出了什么事?我問道。
Either her husband left her, or she left him, my mother said. I don't know which. Anyway, she came back here with two youngsters, both only babies-they must have been born very close together.
或許是她丈夫離開了她，也許是她離開了她丈夫,我母親說。我也不知道是誰先離開誰的?？傊?，她帶著兩個孩子回到這里--兩個都是嬰兒，他們一定是先后緊接著出生的。
She kept house, I guess, for Lazarus and her brothers, down in the valley there, in the old Tonnerre place. I used to see her on the street sometimes, but she never spoke to me.
我猜想，她給她父親和兄弟們管理家務。他們就住在山谷里坦納瑞家的老地方。有時我在街上看到她，可她從來不和我講話。
She'd put on an awful lot of weight, and she looked a mess, to tell you the truth, a real slattern,dressed any old how. She was up in court a couple of times-drunk and disorderly, of course.
她發胖了許多，看上去亂七八糟的，說實話，完全是個邋遢的女人，衣著非常馬虎。有幾次她被法院傳了去，自然是因為酗酒和妨礙治安。
One Saturday night last winter, during the coldest weather, Piquette was alone in the shack with the children.
去年的一個周六晚上，是在最寒冷的冬季，皮格特獨自帶著兩個小孩在那間窩棚里。
The Tonnerres made home brew all the time, so I've heard, and Lazarus said later she'd been drinking most of the day when he and the boys went out that evening.
我聽說坦納瑞家總是自己釀酒。據拉扎魯后來說，那天他和兒子晚上不在家，皮格特整天在喝酒。
They had an old woodstove there--you know the kind, with exposed pipes.
他們家有個老式的燒木頭的爐子，你知道的，就是煙筒暴露在外的那種。
The shack caught fire. Piquette didn't get out, and neither did the children.
窩棚起火了，皮格特和兩個孩子都沒有逃出來。
I did not say anything. As so often with Piquette, there did not seem to be anything to say.
我啥也沒說，就像與皮格特一起時總沒有什么可講似的。
There was a kind of silence around the image in my mind of the fire and the snow, and I wished I could put from my memory the look that I had seen once in Piquette's eyes.
在一片靜寂之中，我腦海里浮現出皮格特住的那間窩棚在一片冰天雪地之中著火燃燒的情景。我真希望能夠回憶出我曾經從皮格特眼睛中看見過的那種神情。
I went up to Diamond Lake for a few days that summer, with Mavis and her family.
那年暑期我又去鉆石湖住了幾天，是同馬維斯一家一起去的。
The MacLeod cottage had been sold after my father's death, and I did not even go to look at it, not wanting to witness my long-ago kingdom possessed now by strangers. But one evening I went clown to the shore by myself.
麥克里奧家的湖邊別墅自我父親去世以后就賣出去了，從此我就再也沒去看它一眼，因為我不想看見自己昔日的王國如今為別的陌生人所有。但是，有一天傍晚，我卻獨自一人去了湖邊。
The small pier which my father had built was gone, and in its place there was a large and solid pier built by the government, for Galloping Mountain was now a national park, and Diamond Lake had been re-named Lake Wapakata, for it was felt that an Indian name would have a greater appeal to tourists.
我父親筑起的那道防波堤不見了，代之而出現于眼前的是政府出資修筑的一道堅固的大堤。這是因為跑馬山現已辟為國家公園，鉆石湖也已更名為瓦帕卡塔湖，原因是認為用上一個印第安名稱對游客會更具有吸引力。
The one store had become several dozen, and the settlement had all the attributes of a flourishing resort--hotels, a dance-hall, cafes with neon signs, the penetrating odoursof potato chips and hot dogs.
湖區原先只有一家商店，現在已發展到幾十家了，一個繁榮興旺的旅游勝地所具有的一切特征這里都已經有了--賓館、舞廳、燈紅酒綠的咖啡館、四處彌漫著的炸土豆片和熱狗的香味。
I sat on the government pier and looked out across the water. At night the lake at least was the same as it had always been, darkly shining and bearing within its black glass the streak of amber that was the path of the moon.
我坐在政府修筑的防波大堤上眺望著湖面，至少，夜間的湖面還是保持著先前的樣子，墨鏡般烏黑發亮的湖面上倒映著一線琥珀色的月光。
There was no wind that evening, and everything was quiet all around me. It seemed too quiet, and then I realized that the loons were no longer here.
那天晚上風平浪靜，周圍的一切都是靜悄悄的。我感覺似乎是太靜了一點，隨即我開始意識到潛水鳥已經不在這兒了。
I listened for some time, to make sure, but never once did I hear that long-drawn call, half mocking and half plaintive, spearing through the stillness across the lake.
為了證實這種推測，我靜等了許久，但到底也沒有再聽見一聲那劃過靜寂的湖面傳來的、尾音拖得長長的、凄厲而帶有冷嘲意味的叫聲。
I did not know what had happened to the birds. Perhaps they had gone away to some far place of belonging.
我不知道那些鳥兒究竟遭到了何種命運。也許它們去一個遙遠的地方找到了棲身之地，
Perhaps they had been unable to find such a place, and had simply died out, having ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not.
也許它們找不到這樣的地方，于是把生死也不再放在心上，就這樣自生自滅了。
I remembered how Piquette had scorned to come along, when my father and I sat there and listened to the lake birds.
我記起那年夏天，當我和我父親坐在湖邊聽鳥聲時皮格特不屑一顧，不愿一起去聽。
It seemed to me now that in some unconscious and totally unrecognized way, Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons.
現在我倒覺得，只有皮格特才以一種無意識的、別人完全不理解的方式，真正聽懂了潛水鳥的叫聲。
