The sun seemed to shoot up in the sky, and its heat poured out on us as if a door had been opened from a furnace.
太陽似乎發出耀眼的光芒,熱量灑向我們,似乎一個大熔爐突然開了門。
We stood still there, motionless, staring out intently.
我們站在那里一動不動,目不轉睛地盯著。
There was nothing to do but stand and wait and watch.
我們只有在這里等待,在這里觀察。
I kept telling myself that somewhere out in that green into
我一直告訴自己在那片綠色里,
which I was straining my eyes was the great striped beast we had hunted so long,
就是我一直緊盯著的位置,有我們一直希望捕獵到的條紋獵物,
sleeping, or perhaps padding about on stealthy feet, staring through the jungle at us.
它或許在睡覺,或許輕聲慢步地在某個地方盯著我們。
Six o'clock. Seven o'clock. Eight o'clock. Nine o'clock...
六點鐘,七點鐘,八點鐘,九點鐘。

Our friends, the Kings, had got their tiger at a quarter to nine;
金一家是我們的朋友,他們在8點45分時已逮到了老虎;
so I had decided that nine would be our lucky hour, but nine o'clock passed with nothing happening.
所以我認為我們的幸運時間應該是九點,但九點過后什么都沒發生。
Then I remembered a story I had heard about a tiger that had been seen at eleven o'clock,
我突然記起了一個關于老虎的故事,說這只老虎是在11點鐘時被發現的,
and I set eleven as the time at which things would happen.
我將時間設定為11點,那時一定有事情要發生。
The minutes passed with unbelievable slowness.
時間過得很慢。
The sun burned hotter and hotter. We would not stir.
太陽光愈加強烈了,我們沒有什么影響。
One of us could have rested while the other watched,
我們本可以讓其他人繼續盯著,一人休息,
but we were too excited for that. Our nerves were tense.
但我們太興奮了,我們的神經緊張了。
Eleven o'clock. Nothing happened. Then twelve. The sun was high overhead.
11點鐘,什么都沒發生,到了12點,陽光升到頭頂。
I felt burning up; the blood throbbed in my temples.
我感覺被灼燒了,血液直沖太陽穴。
I thought of the nights on an African mountain when we had stood on guard against plundering elephants,
我想起了在非洲山峰上的一個晚上,我們警惕著大象的入侵,
shivering with cold on the windswept heights, and I wondered why I had ever objected to cold and wind.
在寒風凜凜的高山上發抖,我驚異為什么我能抵御大風和寒冷。