吹小号的天鹅 第34期:爱情

Chapter 8 Love

第八章 爱情

When Louis's father and mother discovered thatLouis was missing, they felt awful.

路易斯的父母发现路易斯失踪后，感到非常担忧。

No other young swan had disappeared from thelakes--only Louis.

湖上从没有失踪过别的小天鹅--除了路易斯以外。

"The question now arises," said the cob to his wife, "whether or not I should go and look for our son.

“现在有麻烦了，”雄天鹅对他的妻子说，“无论如何我都要去找我的儿子。

I am disinclined to leave these attractive lakes now, in the fall of the year, with winter comingon.

我现在真不愿意离开这些迷人的湖，这可是在一年中的秋季呀，冬天就快来了。

I have, in fact, been looking forward to this time of serenity and peace and the society of otherwaterfowl.

我心里，实际上，一直期盼着在这个平静的时刻和别的水鸟呆在一起呢。

I like the life here."

我喜欢这里的生活。”

"There's another little matter to consider besides your personal comfort," said his wife.

“除了你的个人享乐问题，还有件别的小事儿要考虑，”他的妻子说，

"Has it occurred to you that we have no idea which direction Louis went when he left?

“我们还不知道路易斯当初是往哪个方向飞的呢，这个你想过没有?

You don't know where he went any more than I do.

你并不比我更清楚他到底去了哪里。

If you were to start out looking for him, which way would you fly?"

如果你要去找他的话，你要往哪个方向飞呢?”

"Well," replied the cob, "in the last analysis, I believe I would go south."

“嗯，”雄天鹅回答，“根据我最后的分析，我相信我该往南飞。”

"What do you mean, "in the last analysis"?" said the swan impatiently. "You haven't analyzedanything.

“什么叫‘最后的分析’呀?”雌天鹅不耐烦地说，“你根本什么分析都没做过。

Why do you say "in the last analysis"?

可你干嘛要说什么‘最后的分析’?

And why do you pick south as the way to go looking for Louis?

你凭什么认定该上南边去找路易斯?

There are other directions.

还有别的方向嘛。

There's north, and east, and west. There's northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest."

有北边，有东边，还有西边。另外还有东北，东南，西南，西北呢。”

"True," replied the cob.

“可不是，”雄天鹅回答，

"And there are all those in-between directions: north-northeast, east-southeast, west-southwest.

“还有那些介于两者之间的方位呢：北-东北，东-东南，西-西南。

There's north by east, and east by north. There's south-southeast a half east, and there's westby north a half north.

还有正北偏东，正东偏北。还有南-东南半偏东，还有正西偏北半偏北。

The directions a young swan could start off in are almost too numerous to think about."

一只小天鹅能去的方向真是多得你难以想象。”

So it was decided that no search would be made.

因此他们认为还是不去找的好。

"We'll just wait here and see what happens," said the cob.

“我们就等在这里看会发生什么事吧，”雄天鹅说，

"I feel sure Louis will return in the fullness of time."

“我肯定路易斯在适当的时候会回来的。”

Months went by. Winter came to the Red Rock Lakes.

几个月过去了。冬天来到了红石湖。

The nights were long and dark and cold. The days were short and bright and cold. Sometimesthe wind blew.

夜晚长了，又黑又冷。白天短了，明亮然而寒凉。有时会刮风。

But the swans and geese and ducks were safe and happy.

但天鹅们和野鹅还有野鸭们却生活得安逸而又幸福。

The warm springs that fed the lakes kept the ice from covering them

流入湖中的温泉使寒冰远离了湖面——

--there were always open places. There was plenty of food.

这里总是有开阔的水面。还有足够的食物。

Sometimes a man would arrive with a bag of grain and spread the grain where the birds couldget it.

有时会有个男人带着一袋谷粒来，把它们撒到鸟儿们能找到的地方。