評論
打印
The Wall did not awe Jarl’s raiders, Jon saw.
長城絲毫沒有嚇倒賈爾的部下。
They have done this before, every man of them.
他們每人都曾親手越過長城。
Jarl called out names when they dismounted beneath the ridge, and eleven gathered round him.
大家在山脊底部下馬，賈爾喊了若干名字，便有十一人出列聚在周圍。
All were young.
他們都很年輕，
The oldest could not have been more than five-and-twenty, and two of the ten were younger than Jon.
最大的不超過二十五歲，有兩人甚至比瓊恩還小。
Every one was lean and hard, though;
但個個精瘦結實，
they had a look of sinewy strength that reminded him of Stonesnake,
強健的模樣讓他想起石蛇——
the brother the Halfhand had sent off afoot when Rattleshirt was hunting them.
遭遇叮當衫窮追時，斷掌派他徒步離開，不知這位弟兄此刻身在何方呢？
In the very shadow of the Wall the wildlings made ready,
在長城的陰影里，野人們作好準備，
winding thick coils of hempen rope around one shoulder and down across their chests, and lacing on queer boots of supple doeskin.
將卷卷粗麻繩繞在一側肩頭，斜挎過胸，然后綁上奇特的軟鹿皮靴，
The boots had spikes jutting from the toes; iron, for Jarl and two others, bronze for some, but most often jagged bone.
靴子頂端有突出的尖刺——賈爾和另兩人的是鐵制，有一些是銅制，但多數是參差不齊的骨頭。
Small stone-headed hammers hung from one hip, a leathern bag of stakes from the other.
小石錘掛在臀間，一個裝滿鐵釘、骨釘乃至獸角釘的皮袋懸于另一側，
Their ice axes were antlers with sharpened tines, bound to wooden hafts with strips of hide.
冰斧則拿在手上，它是把磨尖鹿角用獸皮綁在木柄上制成。
The eleven climbers sorted themselves into three teams of four; Jarl himself made the twelfth man.
十一名攀登者分成三組，每組四人，賈爾本人親自上陣，湊足十二個。
“Mance promises swords for every man of the first team to reach the top,”
“曼斯答應給爬上去的第一組每人一把新劍，”
he told them, his breath misting in the cold air.
他告訴他們，呼吸在冷氣中結霜，
“Southron swords of castle-forged steel.
“那可是南方人的城堡里鑄的鋼劍。
And your name in the song he’ll make of this, that too.
他還會把你們的名字編入歌謠。
What more could a free man ask?
一個自由民還能要求什么呢？
Up, and the Others take the hindmost!”
來吧，往上爬呀，讓異鬼帶走落在最后的懦夫！”
The Others take them all, thought Jon, as he watched them scramble up the steep slope of the ridge and vanish beneath the trees.
讓異鬼把你們全帶走，瓊恩心想。他看他們爬上山脊頂端的陡坡，消失在樹下。
It would not be the first time wildlings had scaled the Wall, not even the hundred and first.
這不是野人第一次攀登長城，甚至不是一百零一次。
The patrols stumbled on climbers two or three times a year, and rangers sometimes came on the broken corpses of those who had fallen.
一年里，巡邏隊總有兩三回無意中撞上攀爬者，發現墜落的殘破尸體就更常見了。
Along the east coast the raiders most often built boats to slip across the Bay of Seals.
沿東海岸，掠襲者們建造小船，偷溜過東海望，進入海豹灣。
In the west they would descend into the black depths of the Gorge to make their way around the Shadow Tower.
在西方群山，他們潛入陰暗的大峽谷深處，繞過影子塔。
But in between the only way to defeat the Wall was to go over it, and many a raider had.
但在中間，逾越長城的惟一方法是翻墻，許多掠襲者都曾干過。
Fewer come back, though, he thought with a certain grim pride.
活著回來的卻很少，他帶著一絲陰郁的驕傲想。
Climbers must of necessity leave their mounts behind, and many younger, greener raiders began by taking the first horses they found.
攀登之前，掠襲者們必將座騎拋下，他們中許多缺乏經驗的新手過去后就立刻搶奪馬匹，
Then a hue and cry would go up, ravens would fly,
引發爭執，消息傳出，
and as often as not the Night’s Watch would hunt them down and hang them before they could get back with their plunder and stolen women.
守夜人軍團往往在他們來不及帶著戰利品和偷的女人回去之前，就將其逮捕絞首正法。
Jarl would not make that mistake, Jon knew, but he wondered about Styr.
賈爾不會犯這種錯誤，瓊恩知道，但斯迪就說不準了。
The Magnar is a ruler, not a raider.
馬格拿是君主，不是掠襲者。
He may not know how the game is played.
他不懂游戲規則。
“There they are,”
“瞧，他們在那兒，”
Ygritte said, and Jon glanced up to see the first climber emerge above the treetops.
耶哥蕊特說。瓊恩抬眼，看到第一個攀登者出現在樹梢之上。
It was Jarl.
是賈爾。
He had found a sentinel tree that leaned against the Wall, and led his men up the trunk to get a quicker start.
他找到一棵斜倚長城的哨兵樹，便帶組員順勢而上。一個不錯的開局。
The wood should never have been allowed to creep so close.
我們不該讓樹延伸到此。
They’re three hundred feet up, and they haven’t touched the ice itself yet.
他們已登了三百尺，卻還根本沒碰到冰墻呢。
He watched the wildling move carefully from wood to Wall, hacking out a handhold with short sharp blows of his ice axe, then swinging over.
他注視著那精悍的野人小心翼翼地從樹頂移向城墻，用冰斧短促有力地劈出一個供手抓握的口子，然后蕩過去。
The rope around his waist tied him to the second man in line, still edging up the tree.
他腰上的繩索連著第二個人，那人仍在緩緩地往樹頂爬。
Step by slow step, Jarl moved higher, kicking out toeholds with his spiked boots when there were no natural ones to be found.
賈爾一步步向高處前進，找不到落腳點時，就用尖刺靴踢出一個來。
When he was ten feet above the sentinel, he stopped upon a narrow icy ledge,
等他到達哨兵樹上方十尺，便在一個狹窄的冰臺停下，
slung his axe from his belt, took out his hammer, and drove an iron stake into a cleft.
把斧子掛到腰帶，取出錘子，將一根鐵釘敲入一道裂縫中。
The second man moved onto the Wall behind him while the third was scrambling to the top of the tree.
第二個人也移到了城墻上，同時，第三個人正爬上樹頂。
The other two teams had no happily placed trees to give them a leg up,
另兩組沒有位置合適的樹木助陣，
and before long the Thenns were wondering whether they had gotten lost climbing the ridge.
等不耐煩的瑟恩人很快就開始懷疑，認為他們迷路了。
Jarl’s party were all on the Wall and eighty feet up before the leading climbers from the other groups came into view.
當他們的領頭人出現在視野中時，賈爾那組已爬了八十尺。
