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THE FIRE.
火災(zāi)
Thursday, 11th.
十一，星期二
This morning I had finished copying my share of the story, From the Apennines to the Andes, and was seeking for a theme for the independent composition which the teacher had assigned us to write, when I heard an unusual talking on the stairs, and shortly after two firemen entered the house, and asked permission of my father to inspect the stoves and chimneys, because a smoke pipe was on fire on the roof, and they could not tell to whom it belonged.
今天早晨，我抄畢了《六千英里尋母》，正想著這次作文的材料。忽然樓梯上有陌生的說話聲。過了一會兒，有兩個消防隊員進屋子來，和父親說要檢查屋內(nèi)的火爐和煙囪。因為屋頂?shù)臒焽杳俺隽嘶穑娌怀鰪恼l家發(fā)出來。
My father said, "Pray do so." And although we had no fire burning anywhere, they began to make the round of our apartments, and to lay their ears to the walls, to hear if the fire was roaring in the flues which run up to the other floors of the house. And while they were going through the rooms, my father said to me, "Here is a theme for your composition, Enrico, the firemen. Try to write down what I am about to tell you. "I saw them at work two years ago, one evening, when I was coming out of the Balbo Theatre late at night. On entering the Via Roma, I saw an unusual light, and a crowd of people collecting.
“請檢查！”父親說。其實我們屋子里并沒有燃著火。消防隊員仍在客室巡視，把耳朵貼近墻壁，聽有無火在爆發(fā)的聲音。在他們各處巡視時，父親向我說：“哦！這不是好題目嗎？——叫做《消防隊》。我講，你寫！“兩年以前，我深夜從劇場回來，在路上見過消防隊救火。我才要走入羅馬街，就見有猛烈的火光，許多人都集在那里。
A house was on fire. Tongues of flame and clouds of smoke were bursting from the windows and the roof; men and women appeared at the windows and then disappeared, uttering shrieks of despair. There was a dense throng in front of the door: the crowd was shouting: 'They will be burned alive! Help! The firemen!' At that moment a carriage arrived, four firemen sprang out of it, the first who had reached the town-hall and rushed into the house.
一間家屋正在燒著，像舌的火焰，像云的煙氣，從窗口屋頂噴出。男人和女人從窗口探出頭來拼命地叫，忽然又不見了。門口擠滿了人，齊聲叫喊說：“‘要燒死了哩！快救命啊！消防隊！’“這時來了一部馬車，四個消防隊員從車中跳出。他們最先趕到。
They had hardly gone in when a horrible thing happened: a woman ran to a window of the third story, with a yell, clutched the balcony, climbed down it, and remained suspended, thus clinging, almost suspended in space, with her back outwards, bending beneath the flames, which flashed out from the room and almost licked her head. The crowd uttered a cry of horror. The firemen, who had been stopped on the second floor by mistake by the terrified lodgers, had already broken through a wall and precipitated themselves into a room, when a hundred shouts gave them warning: "On the third floor! On the third floor!" They flew to the third floor.
一下車就沖進屋子里去。他們一進去，同時發(fā)生了可怕的事情。一個女子在四層樓窗口叫喊奔出，手拉住了欄桿，背向外，在空中掛著。火焰從窗口噴出。幾乎要卷著她的頭發(fā)了。群眾恐怖叫喊，方才進去的消防隊員弄錯了方向，打破了三層樓的墻壁進去。這時群眾齊聲狂叫：“在四層樓，在四層樓！”他們急忙上四層樓。
