《能言馬與男孩》第1期:沙斯塔出奔(1)
Chapter 1 How Shasta Set out on His Travels
第1章 沙斯塔出奔THIS is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him.
這是個驚險故事，發生在黃金時代的納尼亞王國和卡樂門王國，以及兩國之間的地方。當年彼得是納尼亞王國的至尊王，他的弟弟和兩個妹妹，都是在他領導下的國王和女王。In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father. The boy's name was Shasta. On most days Arsheesh went out in his boat to fish in the morning, and in the afternoon he harnessed his donkey to a cart and loaded the cart with fish and went a mile or so southward to the village to sell it. If it had sold well he would come home in a moderately good temper and say nothing to Shasta, but if it had sold badly he would find fault with him and perhaps beat him. There was always something to find fault with for Shasta had plenty of work to do, mending and washing the nets, cooking the supper, and cleaning the cottage in which they both lived.
在那些歲月裏，在卡樂門王國遙遠的南方，大海之濱的一個小港灣裏，住着一個窮苦的漁夫叫做阿什伊什，有個孩子跟他一起住在那兒，管他叫爸爸。這孩子的名字叫沙斯塔。在大部分日子裏，阿什伊什早晨坐船出去打魚，下午把他的驢了安上一輛貨車，把魚裝在車子裏，走上一英里光景的路，到南邊的村子裏去出售。如果魚賣得順利，他回家時脾氣就比較溫和，對沙斯塔也不嚕囌；然而，如果賣魚的生意不好，他就會找沙斯塔的錯兒，或者打他一頓。總是可以找到沙斯塔的錯的，因爲沙斯塔得幹許許多多的活兒：修網洗網囉，做晚飯囉，打掃他們倆合住的房屋囉。
Shasta was not at all interested in anything that lay south of his home because he had once or twice been to the village with Arsheesh and he knew that there was nothing very interesting there. In the village he only met other men who were just like his father - men with long, dirty robes, and wooden shoes turned up at the toe, and turbans on their heads, and beards, talking to one another very slowly about things that sounded dull. But he was very interested in everything that lay to the North because no one ever went that way and he was never allowed to go there himself. When he was sitting out of doors mending the nets, and all alone, he would often look eagerly to the North. One could see nothing but a grassy slope running up to a level ridge and beyond that the sky with perhaps a few birds in it.
沙斯塔對他家南邊的任何東西壓根兒都不感興趣，因爲他跟阿什伊什到村子裏去過一兩次，知道那兒沒什麼有趣的事物。他在村子裏只遇見跟他父親一模一樣的人們—穿着骯髒的長袍，腳蹬足尖翹起的木頭鞋子，頭戴纏頭巾，滿臉鬍子，慢吞吞地講些聽起來單調乏味的話。但他對北邊的一切東西都很感興趣，因爲沒有人往北邊去過，也從來不許他到北邊去。他獨自一人坐在屋子外補網時，時常充滿渴望地朝北方眺望。望出去可只能見到一個青草茂盛的山坡，往上延伸到一個平坦的山脊，山脊外便是天空了，也許空中有幾隻飛鳥。Sometimes if Arsheesh was there Shasta would say, "O my Father, what is there beyond that hill?" And then if the fisherman was in a bad temper he would box Shasta's ears and tell him to attend to his work. Or if he was in a peaceable mood he would say, "O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle questions. For one of the poets has said, `Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the ship of folly towards the rock of indigence'."
有時候，如果阿什伊什在他身邊、沙斯塔會說：“我的父親啊，小山外是什麼地方?”如果漁夫心情不好，他就要打沙斯塔的耳光，叫他專心幹好他的話兒。或者，如果他碰巧心平氣和，他就會教誨他道：“我的兒子啊，別讓不相干的問題分了你的心。有位詩人說道：心思用在生意上，乃是發財致富的根本；凡是打聽與此無關的問題的人，便是正在把愚蠢的船向貧窮的礁石撞去。”Shasta thought that beyond the hill there must be some delightful secret which his father wished to hide from him. In reality, however, the fisherman talked like this because he didn't know what lay to the North. Neither did he care. He had a very practical mind.
沙斯培認爲：小山外必定有些令人愉快的祕密，他的爸爸卻希望瞞過他，不讓他知道。然而，事實上，漁夫之所以這樣說，是因爲他自己也不知道北方是什麼地方。他並不關心這種問題。他的頭腦是十分講究實際的。One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver. The spike of a helmet projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of chain mail. By his side hung a curving scimitar, a round shield studded with bosses of brass hung at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance. His face was dark, but this did not surprise Shasta because all the people of Calormen are like that; what did surprise him was the man's beard which was dyed crimson, and curled and gleaming with scented oil. But Arsheesh knew by the gold on the stranger's bare arm that he was a Tarkaan or great lord, and he bowed kneeling before him till his beard touched the earth and made signs to Shasta to kneel also.
有一天，從南方來了一個陌生人，他跟沙斯塔以前見過的任何人都截然不同。他騎一匹強壯的花斑馬，鬃毛和尾巴飄揚搖晃，馬鐙和馬籠頭都是鑲銀的。頭盔的尖端從他那絲綢纏頭巾中間突了出來，他上身穿一件鎖子甲。他的身邊掛一把彎彎的短刀，背後插一個圓圓的嵌着銅塊的盾牌，右手握一柄長矛。他的臉是黧黑的，但沙斯塔對此並不感到奇怪、因爲所有卡樂門王國的人都是這個樣子的；使他詫異的是：那個人的鬍子染得血紅，拳曲而閃閃發光，還散發出陣陣油香。但阿什伊什憑着陌生人赤裸胳膊上的金環，認出他是個“泰坎”，或大王爺，他彎腰跪在泰坎的面前，直至鬍子碰到了地面，他還作手勢叫沙斯塔也跪下來。The stranger demanded hospitality for the night which of course the fisherman dared not refuse. All the best they had was set before the Tarkaan for supper (and he didn't think much of it) and Shasta, as always happened when the fisherman had company, was given a hunk of bread and turned out of the cottage. On these occasions he usually slept with the donkey in its little thatched stable. But it was much too early to go to sleep yet, and Shasta, who had never learned that it is wrong to listen behind doors, sat down with his ear to a crack in the wooden wall of the cottage to hear what the grown-ups were talking about. And this is what he heard.
陌生人要求招待他住一宿，漁夫當然不敢拒絕。他們把最好的食物都擺在泰坎面前，作爲他的晚餐(他可都瞧不上眼)：至於沙斯塔呢，就像以往漁夫有客人時那樣，給了他一大塊麪包就把他打發出屋子去了。遇到這種情況，沙斯塔總是跟驢子一起睡在它小小的茅草棚裏。然而，睡覺還太早，沙斯塔坐下來，把耳朵湊在屋於木板牆的一條裂縫上，聽大人們正在進行的談話。沙斯塔從來不懂得，在門外竊聽是錯誤的。下面便是他聽到的談話。
