The other mother looked healthier than before: there was a little blush to her cheeks, and her hair was wriggling like lazy snakes on a warm day. Her black-button eyes seemed as if they had been freshly polished. She had pushed through the mirror as if she were walking through nothing more solid than water and had stared down at Coraline. Then she had opened the door with the little silver key. She picked Coraline up, just as Coraline’s real mother had when Coraline was much younger, cradling the half-sleeping child as if she were a baby.
另一个妈妈的样子精神极了，气色比平时好得多，脸上还有一抹红，头发扭来扭去，像晒暖的蛇。两只黑纽扣眼睛亮晶晶的，像刚刚擦过。她探头穿过镜子，好像前面根本没东西，就那么一探，把脑袋伸进来，低头看着卡萝兰。然后，她用那把银色的小钥匙打开镜子，抱起卡萝兰。卡萝兰很小的时候，她真正的妈妈也这么抱她，把她搂在怀里摇来摇去，好像她还是个小婴儿似的。
Coraline struggled to wake herself up, conscious only for the moment of having been cuddled and loved, and wanting more of it; then realising where she was, and who she was with.
卡萝兰使劲想清醒过来，可只醒了一会儿，觉得自己被抱着，哄着，有人爱她。她想多享受一会儿，可就在这时，她清醒了，想起自己是谁，和她在一起的人又是谁。
“There, my sweet Coraline,” said her other mother. “I came and fetched you out of the cupboard. You needed to be taught a lesson, but we temper our justice with mercy here, we love the sinner and we hate the sin. Now, if you will be a good child who loves her mother, be compliant and fair-spoken, you and I shall understand each other perfectly and we shall love each other perfectly as well.”
“好了，亲爱的卡萝兰，”另一个妈妈说，“我把你从碗橱里抱出来了。应该给你一点点教训，但我们都是心肠特别好的好人。我们讨厌犯错误，但不讨厌犯错误的孩子。如果你肯当一个爱妈妈的好孩子，听话，懂礼貌，咱们一定会处得非常好，我们还是亲亲热热的一家人。”
The other mother carried Coraline into the kitchen and put her down, very gently, upon the counter-top.
另一个妈妈抱着卡萝兰，把她抱到厨房，轻轻放在备餐台上。
Coraline scratched the sleep-grit from her eyes.
卡萝兰揉了揉眼睛。
“There were other children in there,” she said. “Old ones, from a long time ago.”
“那儿还有几个小孩。”她说，“从前的小孩，很久很久以前。”
“Were there?” said the other mother. She was bustling between the pans and the fridge, bringing out eggs and cheeses, butter and a slab of sliced pink bacon.
“是吗？”另一个妈妈说。她在煎锅和冰箱之间来来回回忙个不停，拿出鸡蛋、奶酪、黄油，还有一片粉红色的火腿。
Her other mother smiled gently. With one hand she cracked the eggs into a bowl, with the other she whisked them and whirled them. Then she dropped a pat of butter into a frying pan, where it hissed and fizzled and spun as she sliced thin slices of cheese. She poured the melted butter and the cheese into the egg mixture, and whisked it some more.
另一个妈妈和气地笑起来。她一只手把鸡蛋打进一只碗里，另一只手不停地搅打着鸡蛋。然后，她把一块黄油放进煎锅，黄油咝咝啦啦响着，她趁这工夫把奶酪切成薄片。最后，另一个妈妈把融化的黄油和奶酪一起放进鸡蛋碗里，重新搅打起来。
“Now, I think you’re being silly, dear,” said the other mother. “I love you. I will always love you. Nobody sensible believes in ghosts anyway. That’s because they’re all such liars. Smell the lovely breakfast I’m making for you.” She poured the yellow mixture into the pan. “Cheese omelette. Your favourite.”
“听着，亲爱的，我觉得你真是个傻孩子。”另一个妈妈说，“我爱你呀。我会一直爱你。再说，只要是有一点点头脑的人，谁都不会相信鬼魂说的话。他们统统是骗子。闻闻，妈妈给你做的早饭多香。”她把蛋汁倒进煎锅，“奶酪蛋卷，你最喜欢了。”
“Yes,” said Coraline. “There were. I think you’re planning to turn me into one of them. A dead shell.”
“是。”卡萝兰说，“没错，就是有。我猜，你想把我变成他们那样，一个死了的壳。”
“Yes,” said Coraline. She climbed down from the counter and sat at the kitchen table.
“对。”卡萝兰说。她从备餐台上爬下来，在餐桌边坐好。
The other mother’s black eyes flashed. “Everybody likes games,” was all she said.
另一个妈妈的黑纽扣眼睛闪了一下，“每个人都喜欢玩游戏。”她只说了这一句话。
The bacon was sizzling and spitting under the grill. It smelled wonderful.
火腿也烤得了，在烤架上嘶嘶响，火腿油往下滴答着。真香啊。
“Wouldn’t you be happier if you won me, fair and square?” asked Coraline.
“如果你赢了我，公公道道地赢了我，你会不会很高兴？”卡萝兰问。
“Possibly,” said the other mother. She had a show of unconcernedness, but her fingers twitched and drummed and she licked her lips with her scarlet tongue. “What exactly are you offering?”
“可能吧。”另一个妈妈说。她装出不感兴趣的样子，可她的手指不住动弹，敲打着台面，还伸出鲜红的舌头舔了舔嘴唇，“玩游戏要有赌注，你想拿什么当赌注？”
Coraline’s mouth watered. “You like games,” she said. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
卡萝兰的嘴里口水直冒。“你喜欢玩游戏，”她说，“他们就是这么告诉我的。”
“Me,” said Coraline, and she gripped her knees under the table, to stop them from shaking. “If I lose I’ll stay here with you for ever and I’ll let you love me. I’ll be a most dutiful daughter. I’ll eat your food, and play Happy Families. And I’ll let you sew your buttons into my eyes.”
“我。”卡萝兰说，两手伸到餐桌下面，紧紧抓住膝盖，让它们别哆嗦，“要是我输了，我就永远留在这儿，还会让你爱我，当一个最听话的女儿。我会吃你吃的东西，玩幸福家庭。还有，我会让你在我眼睛上缝纽扣。”
“Then you let me go. You let everyone go — my real father and mother, the dead children, everyone you’ve trapped here.”
“那，你就要让我走。让所有人走：我真正的爸爸妈妈，那些死了的小孩。你关在这儿的每个人。”
Her other mother stared at her, black buttons unblinking. “That sounds very fine,” she said. “And if you do not lose?”
另一个妈妈盯着她，黑纽扣眼睛一眨不眨。“听上去挺不错。”她说，“要是你没输呢？”
She placed the breakfast plate in front of Coraline, along with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a mug of frothy hot chocolate.
她把盛着这份早餐的盘子放在卡萝兰面前，加上一杯新榨的橙汁，还有一大杯直冒泡的热巧克力。
“And what is it you think you should be finding in this hide-and-go-seek game, Coraline Jones?”
“比赛找东西。你打算找什么，卡萝兰·琼斯？”
The other mother took the bacon from under the grill and put it on a plate. Then she slipped the cheese omelette from the pan on to the plate, flipping it as she did so, letting it fold itself into a perfect omelette shape.
另一个妈妈把火腿从烤架上拿下来，盛进一只盘子里，然后把煎锅里的鸡蛋饼翻了个面儿，扣在盘子上，再卷成一个漂漂亮亮的蛋卷。
“Yes,” she said. “I think I like this game. But what kind of game shall it be? A riddle game? A test of knowledge? Or of skill?”
“好吧，”她说，“我觉得，我挺喜欢这个游戏。但咱们怎么个玩法？猜谜？知识问答？”
“An exploring game,” suggested Coraline. “A finding-things game.”
“探险游戏。”卡萝兰说，“比赛找东西。”
The other mother smiled at this, triumphantly, and Coraline wondered if she had made the right choice. Still, it was too late to change her mind now.
听了这句话，另一个妈妈得意地笑了。卡萝兰心想，自己可能犯了个大错误。现在改主意已经来不及了。
“A deal,” said the other mother. “Now eat up your breakfast, my sweet. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.”
“说定了。”另一个妈妈说，“现在，宝贝儿，吃完早饭。别担心，吃顿好饭没坏处的。”
Coraline hesitated. Then, “My parents,” said Coraline. “And the souls of the children behind the mirror.”
卡萝兰迟疑了一下，“找我的爸爸妈妈。”她说，“还有镜子后面那几个小孩的灵魂。”
Coraline stared at the breakfast, hating herself for giving in so easily; but she was starving.
卡萝兰盯着盘子，心里很不情愿向另一个妈妈屈服。可她真是太饿了。
Coraline shrugged. “Okay,” she said. “It’s a deal.”
卡萝兰耸耸肩，“好吧。”她说，“说定了。”
As she ate, the other mother stared at her. It was hard to read expressions into those black-button eyes, but Coraline thought that her other mother looked hungry, too.
她吃饭的时候，另一个妈妈盯着她。很难看出那双纽扣眼睛里是什么表情，但卡萝兰觉得，另一个妈妈的样子也挺饿的。
“Where should I start looking?” asked Coraline.
“我应该从哪儿找起？”卡萝兰问。
“I swear it,” said the other mother. “I swear it on my own mother’s grave.”
“我发誓。”另一个妈妈说，“我向我自己妈妈的坟墓发誓。”
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” asked Coraline.
“我怎么知道你会说话算话？”卡萝兰问。
She ate the breakfast, trying not to wolf it down. She was hungrier than she had thought.
她开始吃早饭，尽量别大口大口往下吞。吃上东西以后才知道，原来她比想像的饿得更厉害。
“Where you wish,” said her other mother, as if she did not care at all.
“想从哪儿就从哪儿。”另一个妈妈说，一脸满不在乎。
“My right hand,” said the other mother, holding it up. She waggled the long fingers slowly, displaying the claw-like nails. “I swear on that.”
“我的右手，怎么样？”另一个妈妈说，举起右手，慢慢动着那几根长长的手指头，露出像爪子一样的指甲。“我拿它发誓。”
“Swear on something else. So I can trust you to keep your word.”
“还是拿别的东西发誓吧。要不，我不相信你会说话算话。”
“Oh yes,” said the other mother. “I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”
“哦，当然有。”另一个妈妈说，“还是我亲手埋的呢。当时她还一个劲儿地想爬出来，我把她塞回去了。”
She drank the orange juice, but even though she knew she would like it she could not bring herself to taste the hot chocolate.
她喝了橙汁，很想再尝尝那杯热巧克力，到底还是忍住了。
“Does she have a grave?” asked Coraline.
“她真有坟墓吗？”卡萝兰问。
The other mother sat down at the kitchen table and leaned back against the wall, saying nothing. She picked at her teeth with a long crimson-varnished fingernail, then she tapped the finger gently, tap-tap-tap, against the polished black surface of her black-button eyes.
另一个妈妈在橱柜边坐下，向后一仰，靠在墙上，什么都没说。她用一根长长的红指甲剔着牙，剔完以后，又用这根指头一下一下轻轻敲打擦得亮铮铮的黑纽扣眼睛：嗒，嗒，嗒。
“How big are souls anyway?” asked Coraline.
“对了，灵魂有多大个儿？”卡萝兰问。
“Fine,” said Coraline. “Don’t tell me. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter if you help me or not. Everyone knows that a soul is the same size as a beach ball.”
“不说就不说，”卡萝兰说，“有什么了不起的。说不说都一样。谁都知道，灵魂跟水球大小差不多。”
She was hoping the other mother would say something like, “Nonsense, they’re the size of ripe onions — or suitcases — or grandfather clocks,” but the other mother simply smiled, and the tap-tap-tapping of her fingernail against her eye was as steady and relentless as the drip of water droplets from the tap into the sink. And then, Coraline realised, it was simply the noise of the water, and she was alone in the room.
她一心指望另一个妈妈落进这个圈套，接过她的话头说，“胡说，灵魂只有熟透了的洋葱那么大”，或者手提箱那么大，或者老爷爷的座钟那么大。可另一个妈妈只是笑，继续用指甲敲打纽扣眼睛。嗒，嗒，嗒，不紧不慢，一直不停敲打下去，像水龙头朝水池里滴水似的。接着，卡萝兰发现，真的是水龙头滴水的声音。房间里只有她一个人。
Coraline looked at her, and Coraline thought hard. There was no point, she decided, in exploring the garden and the grounds: they didn’t exist, they weren’t real. There was no abandoned tennis court in the other mother’s world, no bottomless well. All that was real was the house itself. She looked around the kitchen. She opened the oven, peered into the freezer, poked into the salad compartment of the fridge. The other mother followed her about, looking at Coraline with a smirk always hovering at the edge of her lips.
卡萝兰望着她，暗暗动脑筋。她断定，肯定不在园子里。远处更不会，因为根本没有什么远处，本来在远处的东西全都没有了。在另一个妈妈的世界里，没有那个废弃的旧网球场，也没有那口井。只有宅子是真实的。她从厨房开始。打开烤箱，朝冰箱里张望，在冰箱的沙拉格子里东翻西找。另一个妈妈跟在她身后，看着卡萝兰找，嘴角还挂着一丝嘲笑。
Coraline looked down at her hand, surprised: it was just a pebble with a hole in it, a nondescript brown stone. Then she looked back into the mirror where the stone glimmered like an emerald. A trail of green fire blew from the stone in the mirror, and drifted towards Coraline’s bedroom.
卡萝兰吓了一跳，低头看着手里。只是一块普普通通的褐色卵石，中间有个洞眼。她又朝镜子里看。镜子里的石头亮晶晶的，像一块绿宝石。一线绿火从镜子里的卵石上飘出来，朝卡萝兰的卧室飘去。
She glanced at the mirror at the end of the hall. For a moment it clouded over, and it seemed to her that faces swam in the glass, indistinct and shapeless, and then the faces were gone, and there was nothing in the mirror but a girl who was small for her age holding something that glowed gently, like a green coal.
她望着走道尽头那面镜子。有一会儿工夫，它上面蒙了一层雾，镜子里好像有几张模模糊糊、没形没状的脸，动来动去。接着，脸不见了。镜子里什么都没有，只有一个小个子小姑娘，手里拿着一件发着淡淡绿光的东西，像一块绿莹莹的煤。
Coraline shivered. She preferred the other mother to have a location: if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see. She put her hands into her pockets and her fingers closed around the reassuring shape of the stone with the hole in it. She pulled it out of her pocket, held it in front of her as if she were holding a gun, and walked out into the hall. There was no sound but the tap-tap of the water dripping into the metal sink.
卡萝兰打了个哆嗦。她希望另一个妈妈能实实在在地在什么地方。如果什么地方都找不着她，她就可能在任何地方。还有，看不见的东西总是更吓人。她双手插进口袋，握住那块上面带洞眼、让人觉得踏实的石头。她把它从口袋里掏出来，像端枪瞄准一样凑到眼睛跟前，走进过道。静悄悄的，只有水滴在金属水池里的嗒嗒声。
Coraline looked around the room. She looked in the cupboards and the drawers. Then she picked up one end of the toybox and tipped all the toys in it out on to the carpet, where they grumbled and stretched and wiggled awkwardly free of each other. A grey marble rolled across the floor and clicked against the wall. None of the toys looked particularly soul-like, she thought. She picked up and examined a silver charm-bracelet from which hung tiny animal charms which chased each other around the perimeter of the bracelet, the fox never catching the rabbit, the bear never gaining on the fox.
卡萝兰四处找。她在柜子里找，在抽屉里找。又抓住玩具盒子一边，把玩具全部倒在地毯上。玩具们吵吵嚷嚷，笨手笨脚地四下乱爬。一颗灰色大理石弹子一直滚到房间另一头，撞在墙上。卡萝兰心想，没有哪件玩具看上去特别像灵魂呀。她拾起一只魔法银手镯，手镯里关着中了魔法的小动物，不停地绕着手镯追来追去。狐狸追兔子，狗熊追狐狸，可谁也追不上谁。
She walked into the bedroom. The toys fluttered excitedly as she came in, as if they were pleased to see her, and a little tank rolled out of the toybox to greet her, its treads rolling over several other toys. It fell from the toybox on to the floor, tipping as it fell, and it lay on the carpet like a beetle on its back, grumbling and grinding its treads before Coraline picked it up and turned it over. The tank fled under the bed in embarrassment.
她走进卧室。玩具们高兴地扑腾着，好像很高兴看到她。一辆小坦克的履带从其他玩具身上滚过，想从玩具盒子里翻出来欢迎她。它从玩具盒子翻到地板上，结果翻了个个儿，履带朝天哼哼着。卡萝兰替它翻了个身。坦克害臊了，飞快钻进床底。
“Hmm,” said Coraline.
“哟。”卡萝兰说。
Coraline opened her hand and looked at the stone with the hole in it, hoping for a clue but not finding one.
卡萝兰摊开巴掌，望着那块带洞眼的石头，想找到什么线索。可什么线索都没找到。
She was about to leave and look elsewhere. And then she remembered a voice in the darkness, a gentle whispering voice, and what it had told her to do. She raised the stone with the hole in it, and held it in front of her right eye. She closed her left eye and looked at the room through the hole in the stone.
她正想离开卧室，忽然想起以前在一片黑暗中听过的一个声音，一句悄悄话。她想起那个声音是怎么说的。卡萝兰举起带洞眼的石头，凑在右眼上。她闭上左眼，从洞眼里看着这个房间。
Most of the toys that had been in the toybox had now crawled away to hide under the bed, and the few toys that were left (a green plastic soldier, the glass marble, a vivid pink yo-yo, and such) were the kind of things you find in the bottoms of toyboxes in the real world: forgotten objects, abandoned and unloved.
以前待在玩具盒子里的玩具大多数躲到床下去了，只有很少几件留在外面：一个绿色的塑料兵，那颗灰色大理石弹子，一个粉红色的溜溜球，等等。这些都是压在玩具盒子最底下的玩具，被抛弃了，没人理，没人爱。
Through the stone, the world was grey and colourless, like a pencil drawing. Everything in it was grey — no, not quite everything. Something glinted on the floor, something the colour of an ember in a nursery fireplace, the colour of a scarlet-and-orange tulip nodding in the May sun. Coraline reached out her left hand, scared that if she took her eye off it it would vanish, and she fumbled for the burning thing.
透过洞眼望出去，这个世界变成了灰扑扑的一片，像铅笔画的颜色。里面的所有东西都是灰色的——不，不是所有东西：地板上有个发亮的东西，像儿童室壁炉里没有燃尽的火头，又像五月里冲太阳直点头的郁金香，橘黄带红。卡萝兰伸出左手。她不敢让右手的石头离开眼睛，生怕一拿开石头，那个亮东西就会不见了。于是她的左手到处摸，寻找那个闪闪发亮的东西。
If I’m going to do this, thought Coraline, I’m not going to do it in her clothes. She changed back into her pyjamas and her dressing gown and her slippers, leaving the grey sweater and the black jeans neatly folded up on the bed, the orange boots on the floor by the toy box. She put the marble into her dressing-gown pocket and walked out into the hall. Something stung her face and hands like sand blowing on a beach on a windy day. She covered her eyes, and pushed forward.
我不能穿着她的衣服做这些事，卡萝兰想。她换上自己的睡裤、睡袍、拖鞋，把灰色套头衫和黑色牛仔裤整整齐齐叠好，放在床上，把橘红色靴子放在地下的玩具盒旁边。她把大理石弹子放进睡袍口袋，重新走进过道。什么东西狠狠扑打在她脸上，手上。她好像走在大风天的海滩上。她伸手捂住眼睛，迎着风沙向前走。
Her fingers closed about something smooth and cool. She snatched it up, and then lowered the stone with the hole in it from her eye and looked down. The grey glass marble from the bottom of the toybox sat, dully, in the pink palm of her hand. She raised the stone to her eye once more, and looked through it at the marble. Once again the marble burned and flickered with a red fire.
手指碰上了什么，凉凉的，很光滑。她一把抓住，这才把石头从眼睛前面挪开，低下头看着自己的左手。粉红色的手掌心里，是那颗从前压在玩具盒子最底下的灰色大理石弹子。她重新把带洞眼的石头凑到眼前。大理石又一次发出亮闪闪的红光，红得像火。
A voice whispered in her mind, “Indeed, lady, it comes to me that I certainly was a boy, now I do think on it. Oh, but you must hurry. There are two of us still to find, and the beldam is already angry with you for uncovering me.”
脑海里响起一个轻轻的声音，“确然无疑了，女士，从前之我委实是个男孩。你须得快些。我等尚余二人。觅得我后，那恶妇已大怒了。”
She stepped forward in the hallway, into another gust of wind, which stung her cheeks and face with invisible sand, sharp as needles, sharp as glass.
她向前跨了一步，又一步，在过道里前进。又一阵怪风，看不见的沙子扑打在脸上，尖得像针，尖得像玻璃。
The sand-stings got worse, and it got harder and harder to walk, as if she were pushing into the wind on a particularly blustery day. It was a vicious wind, and a cold one. She took a step backwards, the way she had come.
风沙似的东西来得更猛了，越走越费劲儿，好像顶着狂风前进。这股风很毒，冰冷。她向来的方向退了一步。
“Play fair,” shouted Coraline, into the wind.
“玩游戏要公平。”卡萝兰冲着大风嚷道。
Coraline went down the steps and around the house until she reached the other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible’s flat. The lamps around the door were flickering on and off almost randomly now, spelling out no words that Coraline could understand. The door was closed. She was afraid it was locked, and she pushed on it with all her strength. First it stuck, then suddenly it gave, and, with a jerk, Coraline stumbled into the dark room beyond.
卡萝兰走下台阶，绕着宅子走，最后来到另一个斯平克小姐和另一个福斯波尔小姐的套房。门上的小灯泡还在闪个不停。可现在，它们是乱闪一气，拼出的字眼卡萝兰一个都不认识。门关着。卡萝兰担心上了锁，所以使出全身力气使劲推门。开始推不动，可推着推着，它吱嘎一声，突然开了。卡萝兰脚下跌跌绊绊，走进门后面的黑房间。
“Oh, keep going,” whispered a ghost-voice in her ear. “For the beldam is angry.”
“退不得，须逆风而行。”耳边响起一个若有若无的声音，“那恶妇当真大怒了。”
There was no reply, but the wind whipped about her one more time, petulantly, and then it dropped away, and was gone. As she passed the kitchen Coraline could hear, in the sudden silence, the drip-drip of the water from the leaking tap, or perhaps the other mother’s long fingernails tapping impatiently against the table. Coraline resisted the urge to look. In a couple of strides she reached the front door, and she walked outside.
没有回答。但怪风闹脾气一样又抽打了她一次，然后慢慢小下去，最后没有了。在突然安静下来的屋子里，走过厨房时，卡萝兰又一次听到水龙头漏水的嗒嗒声，也许是另一个妈妈的长指甲不耐烦地敲打桌子发出的声音。卡萝兰忍住没朝厨房里看。她跨了几大步，来到前门。她走出屋子。
Something rustled once again. Coraline directed her light beam upwards, towards the ceiling. There were things up there, hairless, jellyish. She thought they might once have had faces, might even once have been dogs; but no dogs had wings like bats, or could hang, like spiders, like bats, upside-down.
沙沙沙，又响了几声。卡萝兰抬起手电筒，朝天花板上照。上面有东西。没有毛，浑身黏糊糊的。她觉得，这些东西从前说不定有自个儿的脸，说不定从前是狗。可没有哪只狗能像这样，长着蝙蝠翅膀，像蜘蛛或者蝙蝠一样头下脚上倒挂着。
Coraline closed one hand around the stone with the hole in it and walked forward into blackness. She expected to find a curtained anteroom, but there was nothing there. The room was dark. The theatre was empty. She moved ahead cautiously. Something rustled above her. She looked up into a deeper darkness, and as she did so her feet knocked against something. She reached down, picked up a torch, and clicked it on, sweeping the beam around the room.
卡萝兰一只手握住有洞眼的石头，走进黑暗中。她本来以为会发现一个挂着帘子的前厅，可那儿没有帘子。房间好黑，戏院里一个人都没有。她小心地向前走。头顶上沙沙一声响，她抬头向上看。上面更黑。仰声脑袋时，她脚下碰上了什么。她伸手捡起来，原来是个手电筒。卡萝兰打开手电筒，用电筒光柱在戏院里来回扫着。
The theatre was derelict and abandoned. Chairs were broken on the floor, and old, dusty spiders’ webs draped the walls and hung from the rotten wood and the decomposing velvet hangings.
戏院破破烂烂，荒凉极了。椅子都坏掉了。墙上、朽坏的木头上、腐烂的天鹅绒帷幕上，到处悬着一片片陈旧的蜘蛛网，上面积满了灰尘。
The light startled the creatures, and one of them took to the air, its wings whirring heavily through the dust. Coraline ducked as it swooped close to her. It came to rest on a far wall, and it began to clamber, upside-down, back to the nest of the dog-bats upon the ceiling.
光把这些生物吓了一跳，其中一只飞到空中，它的翅膀在尘土中沉重地呼啸着。当向她猛扑过来卡萝兰躲开了。它停在远处的一堵墙上，开始上下翻腾，爬回天花板上的狗蝙蝠窝。
Coraline raised the stone to her eye and she scanned the room through it, looking for something that glowed or glinted, a telltale sign that somewhere in this room was another hidden soul. She ran the beam of the torch about the room as she searched, the thick dust in the air making the light beam seem almost solid.
卡萝兰把石头举到眼前，她用石头扫视了一下房间，寻找什么东西发光或闪烁，这是一个迹象，表明在这个房间的某个地方有另一个隐藏的灵魂。她一边找，一边用手电筒在房间里转来转去，空气中的厚厚的灰尘使光线看起来几乎是实心的。
Coraline took a deep breath. “I’m not afraid,” she told herself. “I’m not.” She did not believe herself, but she scrambled on to the old stage, fingers sinking into the rotting wood as she pulled herself up.
卡萝兰深吸了一口气“我不怕，”她对自己说她不相信自己，但她爬上了旧舞台，手指伸进了腐烂的木头里。
The creature in the sac seemed horribly unformed and unfinished, as if two Plasticine people had been warmed and rolled together, squashed and pressed into one thing.
囊中的生物似乎可怕地没有成形，没有完成，好像两个橡皮泥人被加热，卷成一个东西，挤压成一个东西。
There was something up on the back wall behind the ruined stage. It was greyish-white, twice the size of Coraline herself, and it was stuck to the back wall like a slug.
在毁坏的舞台后面的后墙上有东西。它是灰白色的，是卡萝兰的两倍大，像个鼻涕虫一样粘在后墙上。
As she got closer to the thing on the wall, she saw that it was some kind of a sac, like a spider’s egg-case. It twitched in the light beam. Inside the sac was something that looked like a person, but a person with two heads, with twice as many arms and legs as it should have.
当她走近墙上的东西时，她发现那是一个囊，就像蜘蛛蛋的盒子。它在光束中颤动。在囊内有一个东西看起来像人，但一个人有两个头，胳膊和腿是它应该有两倍。
Coraline walked slowly across the damp stage, trying to make as little noise as she could, afraid that, if she disturbed the thing in the sac, it would open its eyes, and see her, and then É
卡萝兰慢慢走过潮乎乎的戏台，竭力不发出一点声音。她很害怕，怕弄出声音以后，惊动蛋囊里的怪物，它会睁开它的眼睛，发现她，然后…
But there was nothing that she could think of that was as scary as having it look at her. Her heart pounded in her chest. She took another step forward.
她想不下去了，想不出来还有什么比怪物睁开眼睛更可怕。她的心脏在胸膛里怦怦直跳。卡萝兰又向前迈了一步。
Perhaps there are no souls hidden in here, she thought. Perhaps I can just leave and go somewhere else. She took a last look through the hole in the stone: the abandoned theatre was still a bleak grey, but now there was a brown glow, as rich and bright as polished cherrywood, coming from inside the sac. Whatever was glowing was being held in one of the hands of the thing on the wall.
她想，也许这里没有隐藏的灵魂。也许我可以离开去别的地方。她透过石头上的洞最后看了一眼：废弃的剧院仍然是一片灰暗，但现在有一道褐色的光芒，像磨光的樱桃木一样丰富而明亮，从里面发出。任何发光的东西都握在墙上的一只手上。
Coraline hesitated. She did not want to approach the thing. The dog-bats dropped, one by one, from the ceiling, and began to circle the room, coming close to her but never touching her.
卡萝兰犹豫了一下。她不想接近那东西。狗蝙蝠一只接一只地从天花板上掉下来，开始在房间里转来转去，靠近她，但从未碰过她。
She had never been so scared, but still she walked forward until she reached the sac. Then she pushed her hand into the sticky, clinging whiteness of the stuff on the wall. It crackled softly, like a tiny fire, as she pushed, and it clung to her skin and clothes like a spider’s web clings, like white candy-floss. She pushed her hand into it, and she reached upward until she touched a cold hand, which was, she could feel, closed around another glass marble. The creature’s skin felt slippery, as if it had been covered in jelly. Coraline tugged at the marble.
她从来没像现在这么害怕过，可她还是一步一步向前走，一直走到能够着蛋囊的地方。她伸出手，推着那个紧紧贴在墙上、黏糊糊、白乎乎的东西。它轻轻响了起来，噼噼叭叭，像很小的一堆火发出的声音。她推着推着，皮肤上、衣服上沾了不少蜘蛛丝一样的东西，一小团一小团，又有点像棉花糖。她的手插进了蛋囊，一直向上伸，最后碰到一只冰冷的手。她能感觉到，这只手攥着拳头，握着另一颗大理石弹子。怪物的皮肤滑溜溜的，好像上面有一层果子冻。卡萝兰开始从怪物手里向外扯那颗弹子。
At first nothing happened; it was held tight in the creature’s grasp. Then, one by one, the fingers loosened their grip, and the marble slipped into her hand. She pulled her arm back through the sticky webbing, relieved that the thing’s eyes had not opened. She shone the light on its faces: they resembled, she decided, the younger versions of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, but twisted and squeezed together, like two lumps of wax that had melted and melded together into one ghastly object.
一开始，弹子动都不动一下。怪物攥得非常紧。接着，怪物的手指头一根接一根松开，弹子滑进她的手里。卡萝兰把胳膊从那一大团黏糊糊的东西里抽回来。怪物没睁开眼睛，她长长地松了一口气。她用手电照了照它的两张脸，觉得很像年轻时候的斯平克小姐和福斯波尔小姐。问题是，这两张脸歪歪扭扭，挤在一起，像两团融化后压成一块的蜡，成了一个让人吓破胆子的可怕东西。
Without warning, one of the creature’s hands made a grab for Coraline’s arm. Its fingernails scraped her skin, but it was too slippery to grip, and Coraline pulled away successfully. And then the eyes opened — four black buttons glinting and staring down at her — and two voices that sounded like no voice that Coraline had ever heard began to speak to her. One of them wailed and whispered, the other buzzed like a fat and angry bluebottle at a windowpane, but the voices said, as one person, “Thief! Give it back! Stop! Thief!”
事先一点动静没有，可突然间，怪物的一只手向前一伸，抓住卡萝兰的胳膊。指甲划在她的皮肤上，嚓嚓响。幸好它又黏又滑，抓不住，卡萝兰这才抽回胳膊。就在这时，它的眼睛睁开了，四只黑黑的纽扣眼睛，从上往下瞪着她。它还会说话，声音混合着两个嗓门。一个尖尖的，很嘶哑；另一个瓮声瓮气，嗡嗡嗡的很单调，像爬在窗户玻璃上的大苍蝇。卡萝兰一辈子都没听过这种声音。这两个嗓门开口了，像一个人。“小偷！东西还来！还来！小偷！”
“Flee, miss,” wailed a girl’s voice in her head. “Flee, now. You have two of us. Flee this place while your blood still flows.”
“逃吧，小姐。”脑海里响起一个小姑娘轻轻的声音，“逃吧。三人已得其二，趁血尚温热，逃吧。”
The dog-bats flapped and fluttered about her, but they did nothing to hurt Coraline. She climbed down from the stage and shone the torch about the old theatre looking for the way out.
狗蝙蝠拍打着翅膀，来来回回绕着她飞，但并没有伤害卡萝兰。她爬下戏台，手电筒四下乱晃，拼命寻找离开这个老旧戏院的出口。
The air became alive with dog-bats. Coraline began to back away. She realised then that, terrifying though the thing on the wall was, the thing that had once been the other Misses Spink and Forcible, it was attached to the wall by its web, encased in its cocoon. It could not follow her.
那些既像狗又像蝙蝠的东西也大喊大叫起来。卡萝兰赶紧向后退。她差点连魂儿都吓掉了，但也发现，过去是斯平克小姐和福斯波尔小姐的怪物被关在那个茧里，紧紧粘在墙上。它不可能跑下来追赶她。
Coraline dropped the marble into her pocket beside the other. She spotted the door, ran to it, and pulled on it until it opened.
卡萝兰把大理石弹子放进口袋，和另一颗弹子放在一起。她找到了门，赶紧飞跑过去，拼命拉开大门。
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