混沌中的孤儿-第一章The Boundaries

1.
The estate grounds were, at once, our home, our academy, and our prison. We were outnumbered by campus staff, and by the imposing old Georgian and Edwardian edifices. There were more mares in the stables than there were students in the classrooms.It was only the five of us.

那里曾是我们的家,我们的学校,同时也是我们的监狱.我们的数量没有学校职工多, 也没有老乔治王和爱德华七世时代壮丽的建筑物多。甚至马厩里的母马都比我们教室里的学生更多.我们一共只有五个人.

The estate was bound to the North by the Barrows, to the West by the sea cliff, to the East by the low, gray hills of the Downs. What bound us to the South is a matter of dispute.

那里的北边界是坟堆,西边界是海崖,东边界是唐斯山脉低矮、灰暗的丘陵.而我们南面的边界则是一个有争议的问题.

2.
Colin claimed the forest was the only boundary to the South.His story was that the wood had no further side, but extended forever, with the trees growing ever taller, the shade ever darker, and beasts within it ever more dangerous, huge, and savage. He said that beyond the world’s end the trees were titanic,the darkness was from Tartarus, and the beasts were vast enough to swallow the sun and moon.

科林声称南边的一切都是森林.在他的故事里，那雪些树木没有边界,无尽地延伸,树越来越高,阴影越来越暗,里面的野兽也越来越危险、巨大、和凶残.他说世界末日来临之后,树木将巨大无比,黑暗犹如来自地狱深渊,猛兽巨大得能够吞噬日月.

When the two of us broke into the Headmaster’s library, I climbed up to wipe with my skirt the dust from the glasscovered map that stood above the volumes and antique folios of the oaken bookshelf. The map showed Wales to the North and Cornwall to the South. To the East were English towns famous from history and legend: Bristol and Bath, Hastings and Canterbury and Cambridge. There was London, queen of all cities.

有一次我们两个溜进校长的图书馆, 我爬上装满卷籍和古老手稿的橡木书架, 撩起裙角擦去一张玻璃压着的地图上的灰尘, 地图上画着我们北边是威尔士,南面是康尔沃.东方是历史上和传说中著名的英国城镇:布里斯托尔和巴思, 黑斯廷斯、坎特伯雷和剑桥. 还有伦敦, 所有城市的女王.

Beyond the White Cliffs of Dover was the Channel and Calais on the coast of France, gateway to the continent, to places rich and bright and beautiful and ever so far away.Colin rolled his eyes, which were large, startlingly blue, and very expressive. “And you believe our world is the one depicted on that map?” His voice dripped silky contempt.He ducked his head to peer up at my under-things, but scampered back when I aimed a kick at his head.

多佛的白色悬崖对面是海峡和法国的海滨城市加来,通往大陆的要道, 通往遥远的,富有,光明,美丽的地方.科林转动着他灵动的蓝色大眼睛,"你相信我们的世界像地图上描绘的那样吗?"他声音中充满了轻蔑.同时,他正伸着头盯着我的裙下看,但在我对准他的头踢上一脚时逃了回去.

3.
Quentin, on the other hand, implied the Old Road (which ran through the forest) constituted the boundary to the South. He argued that the Straight Tracks were older than the Roman road built atop them; older than the standing stone we found among the gray hills of the Downs; older than the green mound on the South Lawn.

另一方面,昆廷暗示那条老路(那条穿过森林的路)也是南边界的一部分.他提出,那些直道比修建在上面的罗马路更古老;比我们在唐斯阴暗的丘陵中发现的竖石古老;也比南边草坪上的绿色土丘古老.

He spoke of ley lines, and energy paths and mysterious connections between certain hilltops, standing stones, the crumbled ruins of the tower on a rock in the bay we all called the “lighthouse.”He had charts to show their alignments with various rising and setting stars on certain dates. He used an astrology chart from the back of one of Mrs. Wren’s magazines to show, with some plane geometry, why the Straight Tracks defined the transition point between different astral domains. The argument was incomprehensible, and that made it easier to believe.

他谈到了某些小山顶、竖石、海湾岩石上那些坍塌了的塔楼遗迹(我们都把它叫做"灯塔")之间的能量轨道和神秘联系。他还有几张标记出在特殊日子里不同星星位置的排列图。他用一张从瑞恩女士的杂志背面撕下来的占星术图纸,加上一些平面几何学,演示了为什么那些直道定义了不同星形区域之间的变换点。他的观点不能让人理解，但这样一来，就使它更容易被人相信了。

Where Colin was loud, Quentin was quiet, indrawn, unassuming.He never claimed to be a warlock, and therefore we all thought he was.Vanity and I saw him on the Manor House roof tiles one October midnight, talking to a winged shape too large to be a crow. It took flight, and we saw its outline against the moon.

科林喧闹，昆廷则安静，内向，谦逊。他从不声称要作一个术士，也正是因为如此，我们都认为他是一个术士。在一个十月的午夜，瓦妮特和我看到他在主楼顶上和一块云一样大的翼形生物交谈。它很快就消失了,我们只在月光下看到了它的轮廓.

4.
Victor was more logical. He argued that the Southern boundary was the new highway B-4247, which led from the coast to Oxwich Green. This new highway was on our side of the forest,and cut through it in places. Following the highway toward the bay led to the fishing village of Abertwyi, from which the island of Worm’s Head could be seen. Victor said the highway right-of-way followed the legal boundary as defined in the courthouse records for Shire of West Glamorgan, which listed the metes and bounds of the Estate.

维克托更加严谨.他指出南边界是一条新的高速公路B-4247,它连通了海岸和奥克斯维奇.格林.这条新高速公路在森林的我们这边,并且它穿过森林,把它分为两块.沿着公路到海湾可以通向一个叫"阿伯特维夷"的鱼村, 在那里可以看到海堤.维克托说那条高速公路的通行权遵循西格拉摩根郡的法院档案中所规定的法律边界, 那份档案中还列出了土地的各条分界线.

We knew Victor had disappeared when the group all went to Mass one Sunday in Abertwyi-town. We did not know how he got over the stone wall surrounding the churchyard and courthouse unseen, or picked the lock on the massive iron grate, forged into fanciful shapes of leaves and black roses, which blocked the courthouse doors. Victor just was able to do things like that.

在一个星期天去了阿伯特维夷镇做弥撒之后,我们所认识的维克托消失了.我们不知道他是怎样翻过那些从未见过的墓地和教堂周围的石墙, 怎样取下那扇厚重的铁门的锁, 溜入刻着奇怪的叶子和黑色玫瑰的法院大门.维克托就是能做够到那样的事.

We know what he had been looking for, though. We all knew:records of our parents.

“I was naïve to expect our records to be there,” he confided in me curtly. “The adoption records and genealogies only apply to men.”

可是我们知道他在找什么:我们父母的记录.

"我天真地以为我们的档案会在那里,"他敷衍地对我说道."收养记录和家谱只有人类(man)的."

I cocked an eyebrow at him, and gave him an arch look. “And what about women, then?”
“The word refers to both sexes.”
“Does it, really? You’ll never talk me into going with you to the Kissing Well, if you sit there and say I look to you like a man.”
“Define your terms. We are certainly human. We are certainly not Homo sapiens.”

我对他挑了挑眉毛,惊讶地看着他."那女性的呢?"

"人类(men)的意思包括了男人和女人."

"真的吗?如果你坐在这里说:我看你像个男人(man),你就永远也别想说服我和你一起去'亲吻井'."

And, after a moment, he said, “Actually, I do not recall asking you about going to the Kissing Well. Your comment seems to be based on a false assumption.”Victor was, in some ways, the smartest one of the five of us.In other ways, he was just so stupid.

过了一会,他说道,"实际上,我想不起有请你一起去'亲吻井'.你的话似乎是建立在一个错误的假设之上."在某些方面,维克托是我们五个中最聪明的.但在另一些方面,他笨极了.

I should explain that, during that summer, the chapel attached to the estate had been undergoing repairs for water damage from the rains. When Mr. Glum, the groundskeeper,brought Victor, dragged by his ear, back to stand before the Headmaster, there was a consultation in the library among the Board of Trustees. The next Sunday we went to Mass in our own chapel, water-streaked walls behind the saints covered with tarp, scaffolding blocking the stained-glass windows, and everything.

我应该解释一下,在那个夏天,我们自己的小礼拜堂由于雨水的破坏需要修复.当馆长格罗姆先生揪着维克托的耳朵把他拉到校长面前时,理事会正在图书馆里举行会议.一个礼拜之后,我们就留在自己的小礼拜堂作弥撒了,圣徒雕像身后水痕斑斑的墙壁被用油布盖住,脚手架档住了彩色玻璃窗和其他的一切.

Further expeditions to Abertwyi were canceled.Victor’s argument was brief and solid. A boundary was a fiction defined by law; there were documents reciting the applicable law; and they named the new highway as the boundary. Q.E.D.(拉丁文缩写quod erat demonstrandum，既：这被证明了)

更多去阿伯特维夷的旅行被取消了.维克托的结论简短可靠.边界是法律中的一个虚构定义; 有文件陈述适用的法律;并且他们指定那条新的高速公路为边界.Q.E.D.(拉丁文缩写quod erat demonstrandum，既：这被证明了)