They were looking down upon a lovely valley. There were green meadows on either side of the valley, and along the bottom of it there flowed a great brown river.
他们正低头看着一个可爱的谷地。谷地两旁是翠绿的草地，顺着谷底流着一条棕色的大河。
“An important room, this!” cried Mr Wonka, taking a bunch of keys from his pocket and slipping one into the keyhole of the door. “This is the nerve centre of the whole factory, the heart of the whole business! And so beautiful! I insist upon my rooms being beautiful! I can’t abide ugliness in factories! In we go, then! But do be careful, my dear children! Don’t lose your heads! Don’t get over-excited! Keep very calm!”
“这是一个重要车间！”旺卡先生一面大声说着，一面从衣袋里掏出一串钥匙，把其中一把塞到这道门的钥匙孔里去，“这是整座工厂的神经中枢，是整个事业的心脏！它是那么漂亮！我坚持要使我的车间全都漂漂亮亮！我不能容忍工厂丑陋难看！好，我们进去吧！但必须小心，我亲爱的小朋友们！别冲动！别过分兴奋！要保持十分冷静！”
Below the waterfall (and this was the most astonishing sight of all), a whole mass of enormous glass pipes were dangling down into the river from somewhere high up in the ceiling! They really were enormous, those pipes. There must have been a dozen of them at least, and they were sucking up the brownish muddy water from the river and carrying it away to goodness knows where. And because they were made of glass, you could see the liquid flowing and bubbling along inside them, and above the noise of the waterfall, you could hear the never-ending suck-suck-sucking sound of the pipes as they did their work.
瀑布底下（这是最使人叹为观止的奇观），一整套巨型玻璃管从天花板高处悬挂下来，插入河中。那些玻璃管确实是巨型的。它们至少有一打之多，把棕色的泥水从河中吸上去，送到老天才知道的什么地方。因为管子是玻璃的，可以看到液体在管内流动、起泡，还可以听到管子不停吸水的唧唧声，比瀑布的喧腾声更响。
What is more, there was a tremendous waterfall halfway along the river — a steep cliff over which the water curled and rolled in a solid sheet, and then went crashing down into a boiling churning whirlpool of froth and spray.
不但这样，河上有一道巨大的瀑布，上面是一个陡峭的悬崖，悬崖上的溶液像块大钢片那样弯曲着，随即哗哗地直泻而下，落到一个泡沫飞溅的滚烫的旋涡里。
Mr Wonka opened the door. Five children and nine grown-ups pushed their ways in — and oh, what an amazing sight it was that now met their eyes!
旺卡先生推开门。五个孩子和九个大人一路进去——噢，现在他们看见的是多么惊人的景象啊！
Graceful trees and bushes were growing along the riverbanks — weeping willows and alders and tall clumps of rhododendrons with their pink and red and mauve blossoms. In the meadows there were thousands of buttercups.
沿着河岸生长着美丽的高大树木和矮树丛，有垂柳、桤木和一丛丛高高的杜鹃花，开着粉红的、大红的和紫红的花。草地上有千万棵金凤花。
The children and their parents were too flabbergasted to speak. They were staggered. They were dumbfounded. They were bewildered and dazzled. They were completely bowled over by the hugeness of the whole thing. They simply stood and stared.
孩子们和他们的家长全都目瞪口呆，说不出话来。他们都站不稳。他们都成了哑巴。他们都头昏眼花。他们被整个装置的宏大规模惊呆了。他们就这样站着，凝视着。
“There!” cried Mr Wonka, dancing up and down and pointing his gold-topped cane at the great brown river. “It’s all chocolate! Every drop of that river is hot melted chocolate of the finest quality. The very finest quality. There’s enough chocolate in there to fill every bathtub in the entire country! And all the swimming pools as well! Isn’t it terrific? And just look at my pipes! They suck up the chocolate and carry it away to all the other rooms in the factory where it is needed! Thousands of gallons an hour, my dear children! Thousands and thousands of gallons!”
“那里！”旺卡先生叫道，他蹦蹦跳跳着，用他那根金头手杖指着棕色的大河，“全是巧克力！这条河的每一滴都是质量一流的热巧克力溶液。质量是最好的。河里的巧克力足够装满全国的每一个浴缸！还有所有的游泳池！是不是多极了？就看看我那些玻璃管吧！它们吸进巧克力后，便把它送到工厂里所有需要它的车间去！一小时几千升呢，我亲爱的小朋友们！几千几万升啊！”
“The waterfall is most important!” Mr Wonka went on. “It mixes the chocolate! It churns it up! It pounds it and beats it! It makes it light and frothy! No other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall! But it’s the only way to do it properly! The only way! And do you like my trees?” he cried, pointing with his stick. “And my lovely bushes? Don’t you think they look pretty? I told you I hated ugliness! And of course they are all eatable! All made of something different and delicious! And do you like my meadows? Do you like my grass and my buttercups? The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of a new kind of soft, minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!”
“瀑布是最重要的！”旺卡先生说下去，“它调拌巧克力！它搅拌它！它捣它！它使它变薄！世界上没有别的工厂是用瀑布来调制巧克力的！但只有这个办法才能调匀，这是唯一的办法！你们喜欢我的大树吗？”他用手杖指点着叫道，“还有我那些可爱的矮树丛？你们不觉得它们很漂亮吗？我告诉过你们，我讨厌丑陋难看！当然，那些大树和矮树丛都是可以吃的！它们全由不同的好吃的东西做成！你们喜欢我的草地吗？你们喜欢我的青草和金凤花吗？我亲爱的小朋友们，你们正站在上面的青草，是用我刚发明的一种新的薄荷味软糖做成的！我叫它‘司华芝糖’！摘一片尝尝吧！请！它是美味可口的！”
And Violet Beauregarde, before tasting her blade of grass, took the piece of world-record-breaking chewing-gum out of her mouth and stuck it carefully behind her ear.
维奥莉特·博雷加德在尝她那片草叶之前，先从嘴里拿出她那片打破世界记录的口香糖，小心地把它贴在耳朵后面。
Automatically, everybody bent down and picked one blade of grass — everybody, that is, except Augustus Gloop, who took a big handful.
每个人都不自觉地弯下腰来采一片草叶——每个人都采一片，除了奥古斯塔斯·格卢普，他不是采一片，而是采了一大把。
And now everybody started shouting at once.
现在所有的人同时叫起来。
“Where do they come from?”
“他们是从哪里来的？”
Suddenly, the air was filled with screams of excitement. The screams came from Veruca Salt. She was pointing frantically to the other side of the river. “Look! Look over there!” she screamed. “What is it? He’s moving! He’s walking! It’s a little person! It’s a little man!. Down there below the waterfall!”
空气中一下子充满了兴奋的尖叫声。这尖叫声来自维鲁卡·索尔特。她正发疯似的指着河的对岸。“瞧！瞧那边！”她尖叫道，“那是什么？他在动！他在走路！那是一个小矮人！那是一个小矮男人！就在瀑布底下！”
Everybody stopped picking buttercups and stared across the river.
所有人停止采金凤花，向对岸望去。
“She’s right, Grandpa!” cried Charlie. “It is a little man! Can you see him?”
“她说得对，爷爷！”查理叫道，“那是一个小矮男人！你看见他了吗？”
“I see him, Charlie!” said Grandpa Joe excitedly.
“我看见了，查理！”约瑟夫爷爷兴奋地说。
“There’s two of them!”
“有两个！”
“There’s more than two! There’s one, two, three, four, five!”
“不止两个！是一、二、三、四、五，五个！”
“I could eat the whole field!” said Grandpa Joe, grinning with delight. “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field!”
“我恨不得把整块草地的青草都吃掉！”约瑟夫爷爷兴高采烈地笑着说，“我恨不得像牛一样，低下头把草地上每一片草叶都吃掉！”
“Isn’t it wonderful!” whispered Charlie. “Hasn’t it got a wonderful taste, Grandpa?”
“好吃极了，不是吗？”查理低声说，“它的味道是不是好极了，爷爷？”
“Who are they?”
“他们是谁？”
“What are they doing?”
“他们在干什么？”
“Try a buttercup!” cried Mr Wonka. “They’re even nicer!”
“请尝尝金凤花吧！”旺卡先生叫道，“它们还要好吃！”
“My gosh, so there is!”
“天哪，在那边！”
“No higher than my knee!”
“还不到我的膝盖高！”
“Aren’t they fantastic!”
“他们真是很不可思议，不是吗？”
Children and parents alike rushed down to the edge of the river to get a closer look.
孩子们和家长不约而同地冲下河边，要靠近一点儿看。
“Look at their funny long hair!”
“瞧他们滑稽的长头发！”
“Of course they’re real people,” Mr Wonka answered. “They’re Oompa-Loompas.”
“他们当然是真正的人，”旺卡先生回答说，“他们是奥帕—伦帕人。”
“But they can’t be real people,” Charlie said.
“但他们不可能是真正的人。”查理说。
The tiny men — they were no larger than medium-sized dolls — had stopped what they were doing, and now they were staring back across the river at the visitors. One of them pointed towards the children, and then he whispered something to the other four, and all five of them burst into peals of laughter.
那些小矮人——比中号的洋娃娃还要小——这时已经放下工作，从河对岸看着这边的客人。其中一个指着孩子们对其余四个悄悄地说了句什么，五个人都一起哈哈大笑起来。
0 条评论