1．The end of school days 校园生活的结束
I am John Ridd, a farmer of the village of Oare in Somerset, and I have a story to tell you. It is about some things that happened to me in my younger days.
我是约翰·里德，萨默塞特郡奥厄村的一名农夫，我有一个故事要讲给你听。这是关于我年轻时发生的一些事情。
On the 29th November 1673, when I was twelve years old, John Fry, a worker from our family’s farm, came to collect me from my school at Tiverton. He rode his horse up to the gate, leading my own little horse behind him. He was two weeks early, so I knew something was wrong.
1673年11月29日，在我十二岁那年，我们家农场的雇工约翰·弗莱来到蒂弗顿的学校接我。他骑马来到校门口，身后牵着我的小马。他提前了两周到来，所以我知道一定出了什么事。
‘What are you doing here, John?’ I asked him. ‘It’s not the holidays yet.’
“你来这里做什么，约翰？”我问他，“现在还没到假期呢。”
He would not look at me. ‘Oh, I know that, young Master Ridd. But your mother has saved the best apples, and cooked some wonderful cakes — all for you.’
他不肯看我。“哦，我知道的，小主人里德。但是您母亲留了最好的苹果，还烤了些美味的蛋糕——都是给您的。”
‘And Father? How is Father?’ I said. It was usually Father who came to collect me, and it was strange that John Fry hadn’t said anything about him.
“那父亲呢？父亲怎么样？”我说。通常都是父亲来接我的，约翰·弗莱对他只字不提，这很奇怪。
‘Oh, he’s very busy on the farm just now,’ he said. But John wasn’t his usual self, and I knew this was a lie.
“哦，他现在在农场很忙，”他说。但约翰不像往常那样自然，我知道这是个谎言。
When I had packed my bags and said goodbye to my friends, I got on my horse and we started the journey home.
当我收拾好行李和朋友们道别后，我骑上马，我们踏上了回家的旅程。
It was a long journey from Tiverton to Oare, and in places the road was very bad. John Fry would still not tell me why he had come to collect me, or answer my questions about Father. He looked unhappy about something, but I tried to hope for the best, as boys always do.
从蒂弗顿到奥厄路途遥远，有些路段非常难走。约翰·弗莱仍然不肯告诉我为什么来接我，也不回答我关于父亲的问题。他看起来心事重重，但我还是像所有男孩一样，尽量往好处想。
On the hill at the end of Dulverton town, we saw a big coach with six horses. In the front seat of the coach sat a foreign-looking woman, and next to her was a little dark-haired girl. I could see from the girl’s soft skin that she was from a rich family, and I felt too shy to look at her more than once. She didn’t look at me at all. Opposite them sat a very beautiful lady, in fashionable clothes, and next to her was a little boy, who was about two or three years old. The woman in the front, I thought, must be the servant of the family. I always remembered the family afterwards, because I had never seen people who were so grand, and so rich.
在杜尔弗顿镇尽头的山坡上，我们看到了一辆由六匹马拉着的大马车。马车前座坐着一位长相像外国人的妇人，她旁边是一个黑发小女孩。从女孩细腻的皮肤可以看出她出身富贵人家，我害羞得不敢多看她一眼。她根本没看我一眼。她们对面坐着一位衣着时髦、非常美丽的女士，旁边是一个大约两三岁的小男孩。我想，前面那位妇人一定是这家的仆人。后来我一直记得这一家人，因为我从未见过如此气派、如此富有的人。
After Dulverton, the road got worse and worse, and soon we came into a very dangerous part of the country. This was Exmoor, a place of high, wild hills and deep valleys, and on Exmoor lived a family of robbers called the Doones. Everyone was afraid of them. They had robbed and murdered on Exmoor for many years, and had grown very strong. Now it was getting dark, and a fog was coming down. It was just the kind of night when the Doones would be out — and we were coming near to the path that they always used.
过了杜尔弗顿之后，路况越来越差，很快我们就进入了一个非常危险的地区。这里是埃克斯穆尔，一个山峦高耸荒野、峡谷幽深的地方，埃克斯穆尔住着一个叫杜恩家族的强盗团伙。所有人都怕他们。多年来他们在埃克斯穆尔抢劫杀人，势力变得非常强大。此时天色渐暗，雾气弥漫。这正是杜恩家族出没的夜晚——而我们正逼近他们惯常经过的小径。
I wanted to ride fast, and cross the Doone path as quickly as possible, but John Fry knew better.
我想策马疾驰，尽快穿过杜恩家族的小径，但约翰·弗莱更有经验。
‘Go slowly and quietly,’ he said, ‘if you want to see your home again.’
“慢慢走，别出声，”他说，“如果你还想再见到你的家。”
But when we came to the valley where the Doone path was, we heard the sound of horses.
但当我们来到杜恩小径所在的山谷时，听到了马蹄声。
‘Hide!’ said John, and we rode our horses off the path, and hid. But I wanted to look at the Doones, and went up onto a hill above the path. From there I saw a frightening sight.
“躲起来！”约翰说，于是我们把马骑离小路，藏了起来。但我想看看杜恩家族的人，便爬上了小径上方的一座小山。从那里我看到了一幅可怕的景象。
Below me, moving quietly, were thirty horsemen. They were heavy, strong men, like all the Doones, and they were dressed for battle, carrying guns. Tied to their horses were all the things they had stolen. Some had sheep or other animals. But one man had a child across his horse — a little girl. She had on a very expensive dress, and I thought it was probably for this that the Doones had stolen her. I could not see whether she was alive or dead, but the sight of that child made me sad, and angry.
在我下方，三十名骑手悄无声息地行进着。他们像所有杜恩家族成员一样，身材魁梧强壮，全副武装带着枪。他们的马上绑满了抢来的东西。有些人带着羊或其他牲畜。但有一个人横在马背上驮着一个孩子——一个小女孩。她穿着非常昂贵的裙子，我想杜恩家族绑架她大概就是为了这身行头。我看不清她是死是活，但看到那个孩子让我既悲伤又愤怒。
When we got home to the farm, my father did not come out to meet us, not even when the dogs ran up and made a lot of noise. ‘Perhaps he has visitors,’ I thought, ‘and is too busy to come out.’ But really I knew this was not true. I went away and hid. I didn’t want anyone to tell me anything. I heard my mother and sister crying when they came out to find me, but I could not look at them.
当我们回到农场时，父亲没有出来迎接我们，即使狗跑过去大声吠叫也没有。也许他有客人，“我想”，忙得脱不开身。”但我心里清楚这不是真的。我跑开躲了起来。我不想让任何人告诉我任何事。当母亲和姐姐出来找我时，我听到她们在哭，但我不敢看她们。
Later they told me everything: my father had been killed. He had been murdered by the Doones.
后来她们告诉了我一切：父亲遇害了。他是被杜恩家族谋杀的。
It happened on his way back from the market at Porlock, on a Saturday evening. He was riding with six other farmers, and the Doones stopped them and asked them for their money. The other farmers passed their money over at once, but my father was brave. He rode at them, waving his long stick above his head. He managed to hit quite a few heads, but one Doone was waiting at the side of the road with a gun, and shot him.
这事发生在一个周六晚上，他从波洛克集市回来的路上。他和另外六个农夫一起骑马赶路，杜恩家族的人拦住了他们索要钱财。其他农夫立刻交出了钱，但我父亲很勇敢。他策马冲向强盗，在头顶挥舞着长棍。他打中了好几个人的脑袋，但一个杜恩强盗埋伏在路边拿着枪，射杀了他。
Although we knew it was the Doones who had killed my father, it was useless even to ask the local judges or law officers to do anything about it. They were afraid of the robbers, too — or were even helping them. The Doones did almost anything they wanted on Exmoor.
虽然我们知道是杜恩家族杀害了父亲，但请求当地法官或执法官员处理此事也是徒劳。他们也害怕这些强盗——甚至还在包庇他们。杜恩家族在埃克斯穆尔几乎可以为所欲为。
They were not local people. They came from the north of England, where their leader, Sir Ensor Doone, had been a rich man, with a lot of land. But he argued with his cousin, the Earl of Lorne, who had even more land, and because of the trouble he caused, the King took away nearly everything that Sir Ensor owned. A proud, angry man, Sir Ensor refused to make peace with his cousin, and without his land and farms he became very poor. Then he found that people who had once been happy to know him now turned away from him.
他们不是本地人。他们来自英格兰北部，其首领恩索尔·杜恩爵士曾是个拥有大片土地的富人。但他与拥有更多土地的表亲洛恩伯爵发生了争执，由于他惹出的麻烦，国王没收了恩索尔爵士几乎所有的财产。恩索尔爵士骄傲而愤怒，拒绝与表亲和解，失去了土地和农场后，他变得一贫如洗。随后他发现，那些曾经乐于与他结交的人如今都对他避之不及。
After this, Sir Ensor lived his life outside the law. With his wife and family and a few servants, he looked all over the country for a place to live, where no one would know him, and he could start again. He chose Exmoor, where few people live, and found the perfect place to build a new home.
此后，恩索尔爵士过上了法外之徒的生活。他带着妻子、家人和几个仆人，在全国各地寻找一个没人认识他的栖身之所，以便重新开始。他选择了人烟稀少的埃克斯穆尔，并找到了建造新家园的完美地点。
This was the place we now call Doone valley. It is a green valley far from any town, surrounded by steep, rocky mountains. At first Sir Ensor lived peacefully, and the local people were friendly, even bringing him presents of food. But as his sons grew older, they did not want to work as farmers, and they began to take whatever they needed from the local farms and villages. They carried off farmers’ daughters to be their wives and give them sons, and so over the years the Doone family became bigger and bigger.
这就是我们现在所说的杜恩山谷。这是一个远离城镇的绿色山谷，四周环绕着陡峭的岩石山脉。起初恩索尔爵士过着平静的生活，当地人也很友善，甚至给他送来食物作为礼物。但随着他的儿子们长大，他们不愿从事农耕，开始从当地的农场和村庄抢夺所需之物。他们掳走农夫的女儿做妻子以繁衍后代，因此多年来杜恩家族日益壮大。
They began as robbers, but robbery had quickly led to violence and murder. The people of Exmoor were too afraid to fight back because the Doones were big, strong men and excellent fighters, and now only soldiers could hope to break into their valley and defeat them.
他们起初只是抢劫，但抢劫很快演变成了暴力和谋杀。埃克斯穆尔的人们因恐惧而不敢反抗，因为杜恩家族的人高大强壮且善于格斗，如今只有军队才有希望攻入他们的山谷并将其击败。
So there was no punishment for my father’s murderer. We buried him quietly, and my mother was left without a husband, to manage our farm and take care of her three children. We were too young to be of much help to her yet. I was the oldest, then there was Annie, two years younger than me, then little Lizzie.
因此，杀害父亲的凶手没有受到任何惩罚。我们默默地安葬了他，母亲失去了丈夫，独自经营农场并照顾三个孩子。我们还太小，帮不上什么忙。我是长子，然后是比我小两岁的安妮，再就是小莉齐。
For a while, I wanted revenge. I was strong, and growing stronger every day. But my mother always calmed me down when I talked of revenge. She did not want to lose me too, and I used to worry about what would happen to her and my sisters if I were killed. We tried to get on with our lives, but we missed my father terribly. Sometimes my mother and Annie would remember him and cry, and sometimes John Fry saw me with tears in my eyes — which I said was because of the cold wind. Lizzie, though she was the cleverest of us all, was too young to really understand what had happened.
有一段时间，我想要复仇。我很强壮，而且一天比一天壮实。但每当我提起复仇，母亲总是安抚我平静下来。她不想连我也失去，我也常常担心如果自己遭遇不测，母亲和姐妹们该怎么办。我们努力继续生活，但我们极其想念父亲。有时母亲和安妮想起他会哭泣，有时约翰·弗莱看到我眼含泪水——我便推说是冷风吹的。莉齐虽然是我们中最聪明的，但年纪太小，无法真正理解发生了什么。
So the months passed. I learnt how to shoot with my father’s gun, and I worked hard on the farm to help my mother.
就这样几个月过去了。我学会了用父亲的枪射击，并在农场辛勤劳作以帮助母亲。
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