My Side of the Mountain (Excerpt IV)《我的山林》（节选四）

文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治 译析/吴文安

By Jean Craighead George

We didn’t get another deer until fall, so with the scraps I made big square pockets for food gathering.One hung in front of me, and the other down my back. They were joined by straps. This device worked beautifully.

[2] Sometime in July I finished my pants. They fit well, and were the bestlooking pants I had ever seen. I was terribly proud of them.

[3] With pockets and good tough pants I was willing to pack home many more new foods to try. Daisies,the bark of a poplar tree that I saw a squirrel eating, and puffballs. They are mushrooms, the only ones I felt were safe to eat, and even at that, I kept waiting to die the first night I ate them. I didn’t, so I enjoyed them from that night on. They are wonderful.Mushrooms are dangerous and I would not suggest that one eat them from the forest. The mushroom expert at the Botanical Gardens told me that. He said even he didn’t eat wild ones.

[4] The inner bark of the poplar tree tasted like wheat kernels, and so I dried as much as I could and powdered it into flour. It was tedious work, and in August when the acorns were ready, I found that they made better flour and were much easier to handle.

[5] I would bake the acorns in the fire, and grind them between stones.This was tedious work, too, but now that I had a home and smoked venison and did not have to hunt food every minute, I could do things like make flour. I would simply add spring water to the flour and bake this on a piece of tin. When done, I had the best pancakes ever. They were flat and hard, like I imagined Indian bread to be. I liked them, and would carry the leftovers in my pockets for lunch.

[6] One fine August day I took Frightful to the meadow. I had been training her to the lure. That is, I now tied her meat on a piece of wood,covered with hide and feathers. I would throw it in the air and she would swoop out of the sky and catch it. She was absolutely free during these maneuvers,and would fly high into the air and hover over me like a leaf. I made sure she was very hungry before I turned her loose. I wanted her back.

[7] After a few tries she never missed the lure. Such marksmanship thrilled me. Bird and lure would drop to the earth, I would run over, grab her jesses,and we would sit on the big boulder in the meadow while she ate. Those were nice evenings.

我们在秋天之前都没有再抓到一头鹿，所以我用剩下的小片鹿皮做了两个方形大口袋来收集食物。一个口袋挂在胸前，另一个搭在背后。两个口袋用皮条接起来。这个器具好用极了。

[2]七月的某一天我缝完了裤子。很合身，是我见过的最好看的裤子。看着做好的裤子，我自豪极了。

[3]有了大口袋和结实好看的裤子，我就愿意把更多新的食物装回家来尝试。其中有雏菊、杨树皮（我见到松鼠吃来着），还有马勃菌。马勃菌就是蘑菇，是我唯一敢吃的蘑菇，即便如此，吃完后的第一天晚上我也一直担心会死掉。我没死，所以自此以后我一直享用它。马勃菌棒极了。蘑菇很危险，我不建议吃森林里的蘑菇。植物园里的蘑菇专家告诉了我这些。他说即便是他也不吃野蘑菇。

[4]杨树皮的里子尝起来像小麦颗粒，于是我尽量弄了很多晒干，然后磨成粉末。这活儿很乏味。八月，橡树籽成熟了，我发现橡树籽做的面粉更好，也更容易处理。

[5]我把橡树籽放在火上烘干，然后用石头碾碎。这活儿也很枯燥，但既然我有了家，也有熏制的鹿肉，就不需要一直搜寻食物，可以做些耗时费力的事情，就像研磨面粉。我只需要往面粉里加入泉水，再用罐头盒烘干。做好之后，就是我最好的烧饼。烧饼很平很硬，正像我所想象的印第安面包。我喜欢烧饼，会把吃剩的装在兜里当午饭吃。

[6]八月晴朗的一天，我带“惊悚”来到草坪上。我一直在训练她如何应对诱饵。方法是，把给她的肉绑到一块木头上，用兽皮和羽毛盖住，然后扔到空中，“惊悚”会从空中俯冲下来叼住。做这些动作时“惊悚”完全自由，可以飞到高空，像一片树叶一样在我头顶盘旋。我确保放开她之前她都饿着肚子。因为我想让她回来。

[7]几次尝试以后，她就百发百中了。这样的准确率让我兴奋。鸟儿和诱饵会落到地上，我跑过去，抓住她的脚带，我们一起坐在草坪的大石头上，她吃着肉。那些傍晚美好极了。

【背景知识】野外生存，小山姆自己狩猎，自己采摘果实研磨成粉，自己烹饪各种食物，而且训练一只猎鹰来为自己捕食。山姆的荒野求生历险看似逍遥自在，十分惬意。这些朴实的叙述引人入胜，特别会让小男孩们心神向往。

【第一段】一些词语的翻译需要具体化，比如scraps（小片鹿皮）、they（两个口袋）、straps（皮条），这样句子之间更连贯易懂。而beautifully无法直译字面意思，与work一起译为“好用极了”。

【第二段】Sometime被具体化为“某一天”。最后一句添加了“看着做好的裤子”，因为最后一句偏短，如果翻译为“我因为它们自豪极了”显得突兀不自然。

【第三段】第二句是省略句，列举了三种上句提到的新食物，而第二种杨树皮是看到松鼠吃才敢吃的。后面的句子里有几个代词，比如they、ones、them，需要根据情况灵活处理，不宜一律按照字面翻译。

【第四段】第一句中有两处省译。其一是as much as I could译为“尽量”，意思已经到位，不必多用文字。其二是powdered it into flour，如直译则为“研成粉末为面粉”，语义重复，因此简省为“磨成粉末”。

【第五段】短语grind them between stones如果译为“在石头之间把它们弄碎”很别扭，所以简化为“用石头碾碎”。every minute的译文引申为“一直”。而短句I could do things like make flour的译文补出隐含意义“耗时费力的事情”。

【第六段】第二句十分简洁，译文添加了“应对”。原文的第三、四句分开，译文则合成一句，这样更连贯，也更简洁。

【第七段】第一、二句中的几个词语不宜直译，比如missed the lure（如果直译就是：错过诱饵），以及marksmanship（枪法；射击术），需要根据上下文适当变通。while she ate的译文添加了宾语“她吃着肉”。

【小结】这段选文的翻译当中既使用了增译，又使用了省译。增译是为了译文连贯易懂，省译则为了译文简洁生动。可见实际的翻译过程中该增则增，该省则省，一切凭语境而定，总体目标是要得到贴合原文而又自然顺畅的译文。 □