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I saw the heart of time. I could hear the heavy pulse beats of the rapid seconds-one-two-three-up to sixty.
我仿佛看見了時間的心臟，我聽見了飛速流逝的時間那沉重的脈搏聲，一秒、兩秒、三秒，一直到六十秒。
Then a sudden quivering noise when all the wheels seemed to stop and another minute had been chopped off eternity.
隨著一陣猛然的震顫聲，所有的齒輪仿佛一齊停止了轉動，被從永恒的時間長河中切割了下來。
Without pause it began again-one-two-three-until at last after a warning rumble and the scraping of many wheels a thunderous voice, high above us, told the world that it was the hour of noon.
并不間斷的重新開始它的--一--二--三--直到最后，在一個警告的轟聲與許多齒輪的磨擦之后，高高在我們頭頂之上，一聲震耳的雷鳴，報告世上的人們此時已是正午了。
On the next floor were the bells.
一層是許許多多的鐘。
The nice little bells and their terrible sisters.
還有體形巨大、令人害怕的巨型大鐘。
In the centre the big bell, which made me turn stiff with fright when I heard it in the middle of the night telling a story of fire or flood.
房間正中是一口大鐘。當它在半夜敲響，告之某一處大火或洪水的消息時，我總是嚇得渾身僵硬、汗不敢出。
In solitary grandeur it seemed to reflect upon those six hundred years during which it had shared the joys and the sorrows of the good people of Rotterdam.
而現在，大鐘卻籠罩在寂寞莊嚴的氣氛里， 仿佛正在回思過去600年里，它和鹿特丹人民一道經歷了那些歡樂和哀愁。
Around it, neatly arranged like the blue jars in an old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows,
大鐘的身邊是掛著一些小鐘，它們整齊規矩的樣子活像老式藥店至擺放的大口瓶子。
who twice each week played a merry tune for the benefit of the country-folk who had come to market to buy and sell and hear what the big world had been doing.
它們每星期奏兩次悅耳的曲子，給進城來作買賣的，或來聽新聞的鄉下人一點消遣。
But in a corner-all alone and shunned by the others-a big black bell, silent and stern, the bell of death.
但在一個犄角上--獨自一個，為別的吊鐘所遠避的--有一只寂靜而且嚴肅的大黑鐘，那是報喪鐘。
Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and even more dangerous than those we had climbed before, and suddenly the fresh air of the wide heavens.
我們接著往上爬，再度進入一片漆黑當中。此時，梯子也比剛才的更陡峭、更危險。爬著爬著，突然間，我們已經 呼吸到廣闊天地的清新空氣了。
We had reached the highest gallery.
我們到達了塔樓的最高點。
Above us the sky.
頭上是高遠的碧空，
Below us the city-a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily crawling hither and thither,
腳下是城市——一個積木搭建的玩具般的城市。人們像螞蟻似的匆匆來去，
each one intent upon his or her particular business, and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the open country.
人人專注 于自己的心思，忙著自己的事情。遠處，在一片亂石堆外，是鄉村寬廣的綠色田野。
It was my first glimpse of the big world.
這是我對遼闊世界的最初一瞥。
Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have gone to the top of the tower and enjoyed myself.
從此一有機會，我就上到塔樓頂上去自得其樂。
It was hard work, but it repaid in full the mere physical exertion of climbing a few stairs.
登上樓頂是一件很費力氣的事情，可我體力上的付出卻得到了充分的精神回報。
Besides, I knew what my reward would be.
何況我又知道我的報酬是什么。
I would see the land and the sky, and I would listen to the stories of my kind friend the watchman, who lived in a small shack, built in a sheltered corner of the gallery.
并且，我清楚這份回報是什么。我可以極目縱覽大地和天空，我可以從我好心的朋友——塔樓看守人那里聽到許許 多多的故事。在塔樓的一個隱蔽的角落里搭著一間小房子，看守人就住在里面。
He looked after the clock and was a father to the bells, and he warned of fires,
他負責照顧城市的時鐘，也是呵護其它大小鐘的細心的父親。他還密切地注視著城 市，一有火災的跡象就敲鐘發出警訊。
but he enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and thought his own peaceful thoughts.
但他也享受不少閑暇的時間，有時抽一筒煙，想想他個人的寧靜的思想。
He had gone to school almost fifty years before and he had rarely read a book,
差不多在五十年之前，他也進過學校，他很少讀書，
but he had lived on the top of his tower for so many years that he had absorbed the wisdom of that wide world which surrounded him on all sides.
但在這塔頂上住過這許多年，也就吸收了他周圍大世界里的不少知識。
