Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror—indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy—but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend and saw him at his side cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And still there was utter silence in the populous bird-haunted branches around them; and still the light grew and grew.
鼹鼠顿生敬畏之情，他全身肌肉变得松软，头低低垂下，双脚像在地上生了根。那并不是一种惶恐的感觉，实际上，他心情异常宁静快乐；那是一种袭上心头并且紧紧抓住他的敬畏感，虽然他看不见，心里却明白，一个宏伟神圣的存在物就近在眼前。他费力地转过身去找他的朋友，只见河鼠诚惶诚恐地站在他旁边，浑身剧烈地颤抖。四周，栖满了鸟雀的树枝上，依旧悄无声息。天色，也越来越亮了。
Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fullness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humourously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.
笛声现在虽已停止，但那种召唤，似仍旧那么强有力，那么刻不容缓；要不然，鼹鼠或许连抬眼看一看都不敢。他无法抵拒那种召唤，不能不用肉眼去看那隐蔽着的东西，哪怕一瞬间就要死去也在所不惜。他战战兢兢地抬起谦卑的头。就在破晓前那无比纯净的氛围里，大自然焕发着她那鲜艳绝伦的绯红，仿佛正屏住呼吸，等待这件大事——就在这一刻，鼹鼠直视那位朋友和救主的眼睛。他看到一对向后卷曲的弯弯的犄角，在晨光下发亮；他看到一双和蔼的眼睛，诙谐地俯视着他俩，慈祥的两眼间一只刚毅的鹰钩鼻。一张藏在须髯下的嘴，嘴角似笑非笑地微微上翘；一只筋肉隆起的臂，横在宽厚的胸前，修长而柔韧的手，仍握着那支刚离唇边的牧神之笛。毛蓬蓬的双腿线条优美，威严而安适地盘坐草地上；而偎依在老牧神的两蹄之间，是水獭娃娃那圆滚滚、胖乎乎、稚嫩嫩的小身子，他正安逸香甜地熟睡。就在这屏住呼吸心情紧张的一瞬间，他看到了呈现在晨曦中的这幅鲜明的景象。他活着看到了这一切，因为他还活着，他感到十分惊讶。
‘Rat!’ he found breath to whisper, shaking. ‘Are you afraid?’
“河鼠，”好不产易才缓过气来的鼹鼠，战战兢兢地低声说。“你害怕吗？”
‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. ‘Afraid! Of HIM? O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I am afraid!’
“害怕？”河鼠的眼睛闪烁着难以言表的敬爱，低声喃喃道。“害怕？怕他？啊，当然不！当然不！不过——不过——我还是有点害怕！”
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
说罢，两只动物匐匍在地上，低头膜拜起来。
Sudden and magnificent, the sun’s broad golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn.
骤然间，对面的天边升起一轮金灿灿的太阳。最初的光芒，横穿平坦的水浸草地，直射他们的眼睛，晃得他们眼花缭乱。等到他们再看到东西时，那神奇的景象已经不见了，只听得空中回荡着百鸟欢呼日出的颂歌。
As they stared blankly in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last best gift that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should be happy and lighthearted as before.
他们茫茫然凝望着，慢慢地意识到，转瞬就失去了他们所看到的一切，一种说不出的怅惘袭上心头。这时，一阵忽忽悠悠的微风，飘过水面，摇着白杨树，晃着含露的玫瑰花，轻柔爱抚地吹拂到他们脸上，随着和风轻柔的触摸，顷刻间，他们忘掉了一切。这正是那位慈祥的半神为了关怀他显身相助的动物，送给他们的一件礼物——遗忘。为了不让那令人敬畏的印象久久滞留心头，给欢乐蒙上沉重的阴影，不让那段重大回忆萦回脑际，损害那些被他救出困境的小动物的后半生，让他们们还能像从前那样过得轻松愉快，他送给了他们这份礼物。
Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who was looking about him in a puzzled sort of way. ‘I beg your pardon; what did you say, Rat?’ he asked.
鼹鼠揉了揉眼睛，愣愣地望着茫然回顾的河鼠。他问：“对不起，河鼠，你说什么来着？”
‘I think I was only remarking,’ said Rat slowly, ‘that this was the right sort of place, and that here, if anywhere, we should find him. And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!’ And with a cry of delight he ran towards the slumbering Portly.
“我想我是说，”河鼠慢吞吞地回答，“这才是我们要找的地方，我们就应该在这里找到他。瞧！啊哈！他不就在那儿，那个小家伙！”河鼠高兴地喊了一声，向沉睡的胖胖跑去。
But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can re-capture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty!Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties; so Mole, after struggling with his memory for a brief space, shook his head sadly and followed the Rat.
可是鼹鼠还怔怔地站了一会，想着心事。就像一个人突然从美梦中醒来，苦苦回忆这个梦。可又什么也想不起。只模模糊糊感到那个梦很美。美极了！随后，那点美的感觉也渐渐消失了。做梦的人只得悲哀地接受醒过来的冰冷严酷的现实；接受它的惩罚。鼹鼠正是这样，他苦苦回忆一阵之后，伤心地摇摇头，跟着河鼠去了。
Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and wriggled with pleasure at the sight of his father’s friends, who had played with him so often in past days. In a moment, however, his face grew blank, and he fell to hunting round in a circle with pleading whine. As a child that has fallen happily asleep in its nurse’s arms, and wakes to find itself alone and laid in a strange place, and searches corners and cupboards, and runs from room to room, despair growing silently in its heart, even so Portly searched the island and searched, dogged and unwearying, till at last the black moment came for giving it up, and sitting down and crying bitterly.
胖胖醒来，快活地叽叽叫了一声。他看到父亲的两位朋友——他们过去常和他一起玩——高兴地扭动着身子。可是不一会，他脸上露出茫然的神色，转着圈儿寻找什么，鼻子里发出乞求般的哀鸣。他像一个在奶妈怀里甜甜入睡的小孩，醒来时，发现自己孤零零呆在一个陌生的地方，就到处寻觅。找遍了所有的屋角和柜橱，跑遍了所有的房间，心里越来越失望。胖胖坚持不懈地搜遍了整个小岛，最后他完全绝望了，坐在地上伤心地大哭起来。
The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering, looked long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward.
鼹鼠赶紧跑过去安慰这小动物，可河鼠却迟迟不动，满腹疑云地久久注视着草地上一些深深的蹄印。
‘Some—great—animal—has been here,’ he murmured slowly and thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred.
“有个——伟大的——动物——来过这里，”他若有所思地慢慢说；他站在那里，左思右想，心中翻腾得好生古怪。
‘Come along, Rat!’ called the Mole. ‘Think of poor Otter, waiting up there by the ford!’
“快来呀，河鼠！”鼹鼠喊。“想想可怜的老水獭吧，他还在渡口苦等呐！”
Portly had soon been comforted by the promise of a treat—a jaunt on the river in Mr. Rat’s real boat; and the two animals conducted him to the water’s side, placed him securely between them in the bottom of the boat, and paddled off down the backwater. The sun was fully up by now, and hot on them, birds sang lustily and without restraint, and flowers smiled and nodded from either bank, but somehow—so thought the animals—with less of richness and blaze of colour than they seemed to remember seeing quite recently somewhere—they wondered where.
他们答应胖胖，要带他好好玩一趟——乘河鼠先生的小船在河上游荡一番，胖胖的心立刻得到了安慰。两只动物领他来到水边，上了船，让他安安稳稳坐在两人当中，打起桨往回水湾下游划去。太阳已经升得老高，晒在身上暖洋洋的，鸟儿们无拘无束地纵情歌唱，两岸的鲜花冲他们频频点头微笑。可不知怎的——他们觉得——花儿的颜色，总比不上新近在什么地方见过的那样丰富多采，那样鲜艳夺目——那究竟是在哪儿呢？
The main river reached again, they turned the boat’s head upstream, towards the point where they knew their friend was keeping his lonely vigil. As they drew near the familiar ford, the Mole took the boat in to the bank, and they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs on the tow-path, gave him his marching orders and a friendly farewell pat on the back, and shoved out into mid-stream. They watched the little animal as he waddled along the path contentedly and with importance; watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly lift and his waddle break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with shrill whines and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he crouched in dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark as he bounded up through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole, with a strong pull on one oar, swung the boat round and let the full stream bear them down again whither it would, their quest now happily ended.
又来到主河道了。他们掉转船头，逆流而上，朝水獭朋友正孤独守候的地点划去。快到那个熟悉的渡口时，鼹鼠把船划向岸边，把胖胖搀上岸，让他站在纤道上，命他开步走，又在他背上拍了拍，算是友好的道别，然后把船驶到中流。他们看着那个小家伙摇摇摆摆顺着纤道走去，一副满意又自得的神情。只见他猛地抬起嘴巴，蹒跚的步子一下子变成了笨拙的小步，脚步加快了，尖声哼哼着，扭动着身子，像是认出什么来了。他们向上游望去，只见老水獭一跃而起，纵身窜出他耐心守候的浅水滩，神情紧张又严肃。他连蹦带跳，跑上纤道，发出一连串又惊又喜的吼叫。这时，鼹鼠把一只桨重重地一划，掉转船头，听任那满荡荡的河水把他们随便冲向哪里，因为，他们的搜寻任务已经大功告成了。
‘I feel strangely tired, Rat,’ said the Mole, leaning wearily over his oars as the boat drifted. ‘It’s being up all night, you’ll say, perhaps; but that’s nothing. We do as much half the nights of the week, at this time of the year. No; I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and yet nothing particular has happened.’
“河鼠，好奇怪。我感到疲乏极了，”鼹鼠有气无力地伏在桨上，由着船顺水漂流。“你也许会说，这是因为我们整宿没睡；可这并不算回事呀。每年这季节，我们每星期总有半数夜晚不睡觉的。不；我觉得像是刚刚经历过一件惊心动魄的大事件；可是，什么特别的事也没有发生呀。”
‘Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful,’ murmured the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. ‘I feel just as you do, Mole; simply dead tired, though not body tired. It’s lucky we’ve got the stream with us, to take us Home. Isn’t it jolly to feel the sun again, soaking into one’s bones! And hark to the wind playing in the reeds!’
“也可以说，是某种非常惊人的、光辉的、美好的事情。”河鼠仰靠着，闭上眼睛喃喃道。“我的感觉跟你一样，鼹鼠，简直疲乏得要命，但并不是身体疲倦。幸亏咱们是在河上，它可以把咱们送回家去。太阳又晒到身上，暖融融的，钻到骨头里去了，多惬意呀！听，风在芦苇丛里吹曲儿哩。”
‘It’s like music—far away music,’ said the Mole nodding drowsily.
“像音乐——遥远的音乐，”鼹鼠昏昏欲睡地点着头说。
‘So I was thinking,’ murmured the Rat, dreamful and languid. ‘Dance-music—the lilting sort that runs on without a stop—but with words in it, too—it passes into words and out of them again—I catch them at intervals—then it is dance-music once more, and then nothing but the reeds’ soft thin whispering.’
“我也这样想，”河鼠梦悠悠懒洋洋地说。“舞蹈音乐——那种节拍轻快又绵绵不绝的音乐——可是还带歌词——歌词忽而有，忽而没有——我断断续续能听到几句——这会儿又成了舞蹈音乐——这会儿什么也听不到了，只剩下芦苇细细的轻柔的窸窣声。”
‘You hear better than I,’ said the Mole sadly. ‘I cannot catch the words.’
“你耳朵比我好，”鼹鼠悲伤地说。“我听不见歌词。”
‘Let me try and give you them,’ said the Rat softly, his eyes still closed. ‘Now it is turning into words again—faint but clear—Lest the awe should dwell—And turn your frolic to fret—You shall look on my power at the helping hour—But then you shall forget! Now the reeds take it up—forget, forget, they sigh, and it dies away in a rustle and a whisper. Then the voice returns—
“我来试试把歌词念给你听，”河鼠闭着眼睛轻声说。“现在歌词又来了——声音很弱，但很清晰——‘为了不使敬畏长留心头——不使欢笑变为忧愁——只要在急需时求助于我的威力——过后就要把它忘记！’现在芦苇接茬又唱了——‘忘记吧，忘记，’声音越来越弱，变成了悄悄话。现在，歌词又回来了——
‘Lest limbs be reddened and rent—I spring the trap that is set—As I loose the snare you may glimpse me there—For surely you shall forget! Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is hard to catch, and grows each minute fainter.
‘Helper and healer, I cheer—Small waifs in the woodland wet—Strays I find in it, wounds I bind in it—Bidding them all forget! Nearer, Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has died away into reed-talk.’
“‘为了不使肢体红肿撕裂——我松开设下的陷阱——陷阱松开时，你们就能把我瞥见——因为你们定会忘记！’鼹鼠，把船划近些，靠近芦苇！歌词很难听清，而且越变越弱了。
“‘我是救援者，我是治疗者，我鼓舞潮湿山林里的小小游子——我找到山林里迷路的小动物，为他们包扎伤口——嘱付他们把一切忘怀！’划近些，鼹鼠，再近些；不行，没有用；那歌声已经消失，化成了芦苇的低语。”
‘But what do the words mean?’ asked the wondering Mole.
“可是，这歌词是什么意思？”鼹鼠迷惑不解地问。
‘That I do not know,’ said the Rat simply. ‘I passed them on to you as they reached me. Ah! now they return again, and this time full and clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing, simple—passionate—perfect----‘
“这我也不知道，”河鼠只简单地回答，“我听到什么，就告诉你什么。啊！歌声又回来了，这回很完整，很清楚！这回到底是真实的，绝对错不了，简单——热情——完美——”
‘Well, let’s have it, then,’ said the Mole, after he had waited patiently for a few minutes, half-dozing in the hot sun..
“那好，让咱听听，”鼹鼠说，他已经耐心等了几分钟，在炽热的阳光下、他都有点瞌睡了。
But no answer came. He looked, and understood the silence. With a smile of much Happiness on his face, and something of a listening look still lingering there, the weary Rat was fast asleep.
可是没有回答。他揪了河鼠一眼、就明白了为什么没有回答。他看到，河鼠睑上带着快乐的微笑。还挂着一丝侧耳倾听的神情，困倦的河鼠沉沉睡熟了。
VIII TOAD’S ADVENTURES
