纳尼亚传奇4魔法师的外甥 《魔法师的外甥》第49期:第一个笑柄及其他(5)

《魔法师的外甥》第49期:第一个笑柄及其他(5)  

Then all the animals looked and saw Uncle Andrew
standing very still among the rhododendrons and hoping he wouldn't be noticed.
"Come on!" said several voices. "Let's go and find out." So
while Strawberry was briskly trotting away with Digory in one direction (and Polly and the Cabby were following on foot) most of the creatures rushed towards Uncle Andrew with roars
barks
grunts
and various noises of cheerful interest.
We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view. It had not made at' all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are. Ever since the animals had first appeared
Uncle Andrew had been shrinking further and further back into the thicket. He watched them very hard of course; but he wasn't really interested in seeing what they were doing
only in seeing whether they were going to make a rush at him. Like the Witch
he was dreadfully practical. He simply didn't notice that Aslan was choosing one pair out of every kind of beasts. All he saw
or thought he saw
was a lot of dangerous wild animals walking vaguely about. And he kept on wondering why the other animals didn't run away from the big Lion.
When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke
he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing
long ago when it was still quite dark
he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then
when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion ("only a lion
" as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn't singing and never had been singing - only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. "Of course it can't really have been singing
" he thought
"I must have imagined it. I've been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?" And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang
the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the Lion spoke and said
"Narnia awake
" he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl. And when the Beasts spoke in answer
he heard only barkings
growlings
bayings
and howlings. And when they laughed - well
you can imagine. That was worse for Uncle Andrew than anything that had happened yet. Such a horrid
bloodthirsty din of hungry and angry brutes he had never heard in his life. Then
to his utter rage and horror
he saw the other three humans actually walking out into the open to meet the animals.
所有的动物都朝那边看去，看见安德鲁舅舅笔挺地站在杜鹃花丛中，生怕被人发现。
“走”，几个声音说，“过去看看。”当“草莓”带着迪格雷轻快地朝一个方向跑去时（波莉和马车伕走在后面），大多数动物一路吼叫若、狂吠着、咕哝着，发出各种兴高采烈的声音，向安德住舅舅奔去。
我们必须回过头去从安德鲁舅舅的角度来解释眼前发生的事。他的印象跟马车伕和孩子们的完全不同；因为一个人的见闻很大程度上取决于他所站的立场，以及他是哪种人自从动物们最初出现以来，安德每舅舅就一步一步地朝灌木丛退去。当然，他也仔细地看着它们；并不是对它们所做的事然兴趣，而是看它们会不会朝自己跑来。像女巫一样，他极端实际，根本没注意到阿斯兰从每种动物里选出一对，他只看见，或者自认为只看见，许多危险的野兽乱七八糟地走来走去。他一直感到纳闷的是，为什么其他动物不逃离那头巨狮。
出于一个十分滑稽的原因，他错过了野兽们开口说话的伟大时刻。很久以前，当狮子最初开始歌唱时，天还很黑，他也意识到那声音是一首歌。他很不喜欢那首歌。它使他想起并感觉到他不愿想也不愿感觉的事情。后来，当太阳升起时，他看见歌者是一头狮子（“只不过是一头狮子，”他对自己说）。他竭尽全力使自己相信它不是在唱歌。并且从来就没有唱过歌——只有我们这个世界的动物园里任何狮子都会发出的吼声。“当然，它不可能唱歌，”他想，“是我的想像，我的神经有毛病了。谁听见过狮子唱歌？”狮子唱得愈久愈动听。他就愈加努力地使自己相信他听到的不过是吼叫。麻烦的是，你想使自己比实际上更思蠢一些的时候。往往能够成功。安德鲁舅舅就是这样。很快，他从阿斯兰的歌声中便只听见狮吼了。即使他想听，也听不出别的内容。最后，当翻子张口说“纳尼亚醒来”时，他除了一声咆哮外什么也没听见。当动物们回答阿斯兰时，他也只听见一阵混杂不清的叫声。而当它们开口笑时——你可以想像，这对安德鲁鲁舅来说是最最可怕的事情。他一辈子从来没有听见过饥饿发狂的野兽发出如此恐怖、如此残忍的杀气腾腾的喧嚣声。过后，他看到那三个人真的朝开阔地早的动物们走去时，便感到愤怒和害怕极了。