A spider scuttled over the back of her hand and she choked back a shriek. But apart from the spider she was alone in the cupboard, in the pitch dark.
一只蜘蛛爬上手背。她差点叫起来，好不容易才忍住。除了这只蜘蛛，这个黑漆漆的地方只有她一个，别的什么都没有。
And then her hand touched something that felt for all the world like somebody’s cheek and lips, small and cold, and a voice whispered in her ear, “Hush! And shush! Say nothing, for the beldam might be listening!”
可就在这时，她的手碰到一样东西。像人的脸蛋和嘴唇。又小，又冷。有人悄悄在她耳朵边上说：“噤声，噤声！噤声勿言，隔墙有耳，须提防那恶妇！”
Somewhere inside her Coraline could feel a huge sob welling up. And then she stopped it, before it came out. She took a deep breath and let it go. She put out her hands to touch the space in which she was imprisoned. It was the size of a broom cupboard: tall enough to stand in or to sit in, not wide or deep enough to lie down in. One wall was glass, and it felt cold to the touch.
卡萝兰觉得，胸口里面什么地方，一团哽哽的东西直往上挤。她硬把那团东西压下去，不让它跑出来。她深深吸了一口气，再吐出来。卡萝兰伸出手，四周摸索这个小监狱。大小跟放扫帚的卫生柜差不多，高度够她站起来，坐下也行，就是不能躺下。不够长，也不够宽。一面墙是玻璃。一摸，冰冷。
Coraline said nothing.
卡萝兰没有说话。
She went around the tiny room a second time, running her hands over every surface that she could reach, feeling for doorknobs or switches or concealed catches — some kind of way out — and found nothing.
她又摸了一次，手能够着的地方都摸了一遍，看有没有门把手、开关，或者暗门什么的（有的监狱有这种暗门），没找到。
She felt a cold hand touch her face, fingers running over it like the gentle beat of a moth’s wings.
一只凉凉的手摸着她的脸，手指轻轻动着，轻得像飞蛾的翅膀。
“Perhaps,” said the voice sadly. “But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange-and-red, and red-and-orange-and-yellow, like the embers in the nursery fire of a winter’s evening. I remember them.”
“也说得是。”那个声音伤心地说，“我却总当彼等各有嘉名。红的，橘红带红，橘红带红夹黄色，如冬夜儿童室之壁炉余烬。我还没忘哩。”
“Yes,” whispered Coraline.
“活的。”卡萝兰悄悄说。
“Names, names, names,” said another voice, all faraway and lost. “The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names. I still keep pictures in my mind of my governess on some May morning, carrying my hoop and stick, and the morning sun behind her, and all the tulips bobbing in the breeze. But I have forgotten the name of my governess, and of the tulips too.”
“名字，唉，名字，名字。”又传来第三个声音，远远的，飘飘荡荡的，“生气一去，心脏不复跳动，姓名随之而逝。所幸我等尚有记忆，名虽亡，记忆犹在。犹记五月天，艳阳高照，女教师提篮倚杖，携我等漫步花田。微风起处，郁金香俯仰摇曳。吁，女教师姓甚名谁，我却不记得了，郁金香的名字更是忘却了。”
“Poor child,” said the first voice.
“可怜，可怜。”第一个声音说。
“Who are you?” whispered Coraline.
“你们是谁？”卡萝兰压低嗓门问。
“I don’t think tulips have names,” said Coraline. “They’re just tulips.”
“照我看，郁金香好像没有自个儿的名字吧。”卡萝兰说，“郁金香就是郁金香。”
Another voice, hesitant and so faint Coraline wondered if she were imagining it, said, “Art thou — art thou alive?”
又响起一个声音。犹犹豫豫的，轻极了。卡萝兰还以为是自个儿脑子里想出来的。“敢问你是何人？是死是活？”
The voice sounded so sad that Coraline put out a hand to the place where it was coming from, and she found a cold hand, and she squeezed it tightly.
声音难过极了，卡萝兰忍不住朝声音的方向伸出手。她摸到一只冰冷的手，使劲捏了捏。
“Are you a girl?” asked Coraline. “Or a boy?”
“你是男孩还是女孩？”卡萝兰问。
“Tain’t something we give a mind to,” said the first of the voices.
“裙裤细事，我等是不在意的。”第一个声音说。
Her eyes were beginning to get used to the darkness. Now Coraline saw, or imagined she saw, three shapes, each as faint and pale as a moon in the daytime sky. They were the shapes of children about her own size. The cold hand squeezed her hand back. “Thank you,” said the voice.
再过一会儿，她的眼睛能在黑暗里看见东西了。卡萝兰看见三个人影，也说不定是她想像出来的。每个影子都淡淡的，像大白天见到的月亮。瞧影子的模样，都是孩子，个头跟她差不多。那只冰冷的手也捏了捏她的手，“谢过了。”那个声音说。
“She left us here,” said one of the voices. “She stole our hearts, and she stole our souls, and she took our lives away, and she left us here, and she forgot about us in the dark.”
“是那恶妇干的好事。”一个声音说，“此人盗走我等的心，窃取我等的灵魂。二般既去，自然命不久长。她便将我等羁押在此，弃置如敝屣。”
There was a pause. “When I was small I wore skirts and my hair was long and curled,” it said doubtfully. “But now that you ask, it does seem to me that one day they took my skirts and gave me britches and cut my hair.”
顿了顿。“垂髫时，我记得仿佛是着裙的，蓄了头发。”声音很没有把握，“问起时我方才想起，似乎过些时日，我又剪了头发，换裙着裤了。”
“A boy, perhaps, then,” continued the one whose hand she was holding. “I believe I was once a boy.” And it glowed a little more brightly in the darkness of the room behind the mirror.
“那么，必是男孩无疑了。”跟她拉着手的那个影子接着说，“想来必是男孩。”镜子后面的这个黑窟窿里，这个影子好像亮了一点。
“What happened to you all?” asked Coraline. “How did you come here?”
“你们到底出了什么事？”卡萝兰问，“怎么会关在这儿？”
“You poor things,” said Coraline. “How long have you been here?”
“真可怜。”卡萝兰说，“你们关在这儿多久了。”
“I walked through the scullery door,” said the voice of the one that thought it might be a boy, “and I found myself back in the parlour. But she was waiting for me. She told me she was my other mamma, but I never saw my true mamma again.”
“我自杂物室门内过来，”那个觉得自个儿是男孩的声音说，“却见又回到自家厅堂。那恶妇正等着，说她乃是我另一个妈妈。自那日起，我便再也未曾见着我真正的妈妈了。”
“So very long a time,” said a voice.
“久啊。”一个声音说。
“Aye. Time beyond reckoning,” said another voice.
“唉，时日漫漫，早已不记得了。”另一个声音说。
“No,” said Coraline. “She won’t.”
“不，”卡萝兰说，“她不会的。”
“Flee!” said the very first of the voices — another girl, Coraline fancied –“Flee, while there’s still air in your lungs and blood in your veins and warmth in your heart. Flee while you still have your mind and your soul.”
“逃命去吧！”第一个声音说，卡萝兰觉得是个女孩，“逃吧，只要胸中尚存一息之气，体尚温热。逃吧，否则灵魂与意识一去，那便大势去矣。”
“Ah, but she’ll keep you here while the days turn to dust and the leaves fall and the years pass one after the next like the tick-tick-ticking of a clock.”
“罢了，罢了。她必陷你于此，此后永日如灰，岁月如流。再想逃时已为时太晚，待逃到哪里去？”
“I’m not running away,” said Coraline. “She has my parents. I came to get them back.”
“我不能逃。”卡萝兰说，“她抓住了我的爸爸妈妈。我是来救他们的。”
There was silence then in the room behind the mirror.
镜子后面的小黑屋里静悄悄的，三个影子谁都没有说话。
“Peradventure,” said a voice in the darkness, “if you could win your mama and your papa back from the beldam, you could also win free our souls.”
“也未必不能。”黑暗中，一个声音说，“果能救令尊令堂离虎口，亦必能救我等出此苦海。”
“That is why we could not leave here, when we died. She kept us, and she fed on us, until now we’re nothing left of ourselves, only snakeskins and spider-husks. Find our secret hearts, young mistress.”
“一如我等三人。我三人亡故时，那恶妇将我三人的灵魂监押于此，以我等为食，直至再无甚可食之物，仅余一具如蛇蜕也似的残壳。务请小姐觅得我三人被那恶妇藏过的心脏。”
“Has she taken them?” asked Coraline, shocked.
“你是说，我爸爸妈妈真的被她抓走了？”卡萝兰吃惊地问。
The voices said nothing.
没有声音。
“And what is she going to do to me?” she said.
“她会怎么待我？”她说。
“And what will happen to you if I do?” asked Coraline.
“找到以后，你们会怎么样？”卡萝兰问。
The pale figures pulsed faintly; she could imagine that they were nothing more than afterimages, like the glow left by a bright light in your eyes, after the lights go out.
淡淡的影子们轻轻地一起一伏。她觉得这里既像真有这三个影子，又像没有。好像一道亮光照在眼睛里，熄灭以后，眼睛里还觉得有亮光似的。
“It doth not hurt,” whispered one faint voice. “She will take your life and all you are and all you care’st for, and she will leave you with nothing but mist and fog. She’ll take your joy. And one day you’ll awake and your heart and your soul will have gone. A husk you’ll be, a wisp you’ll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten.”
“倒是不痛。”一个轻轻的声音，悄悄说。“她会取你的性命，你的全部，尽取你之为你。待她得手后，你便一无可取了，只余一个影子。你的幸福亦将入她的掌握。总有一日，清晨梦醒，发觉心与灵魂已不复存在。那时你便是一个壳，一道轻风，如醒后之梦，似有若无的片断记忆。”
“Aye. And hidden them.”
“是。令尊令堂被那恶妇藏过了。”
“Hollow,” whispered the third voice. “Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow.”
“只余下一场空。”第三个声音悄声说，“空，空，空。”
“I don’t think so,” said Coraline. “I tried running away, and it didn’t work. She just took my parents. Can you tell me how to get out of this room?”
“我不逃。”卡萝兰说，“我逃过，可逃不掉。她抓走了我的爸爸妈妈。怎么逃出这间小黑屋，你们能告诉我吗？”
“She won’t keep me in the dark for ever,” said Coraline. “She brought me here to play games. ‘Games and challenges,’ the cat said. I’m not much of a challenge here in the dark.” She tried to get comfortable, twisting and bending herself to fit the cramped space behind the mirror.
“她不会老把我关在这儿。”卡萝兰说，“她把我引到这儿来，是想跟我玩游戏。游戏和挑战，猫就是这么说来着。关在这儿，我还算什么挑战。”她想尽量坐舒服点儿，可镜子后面这间小黑屋太小了，她扭来扭去，怎么都舒服不了。
“Poor things,” said Coraline to herself. She sat down. She took off her sweater and rolled it up and put it behind her head, as a pillow.
“可怜。”卡萝兰自言自语。她坐下来，脱下套头衫，卷成一团，垫在脑袋下面当枕头。
“You must flee,” sighed a voice, faintly.
“还是逃命去吧。”又一个声音叹了口气。
“If we knew then we would tell you.”
“我们若知道，自然告诉你了。”
Her stomach rumbled. She ate her last apple, taking the tiniest bites, making it last as long as she could. When she had finished she was still hungry.
她的肚子咕噜咕噜直响。她掏出最后一个苹果，小口小口咬着，想吃得更久一点。可苹果吃完了，她还是饿。
“We wish that we could,” they sighed to her, in their barely-there voices. “But she has our hearts in her keeping. Now we belong to the dark and to the empty places. The light would shrivel us, and burn.”
“果能如此，自然再好不过。”他们叹着气，用那种简直听不见的声音告诉她，“她那里押着我们的心哩。如此一来，我等见光即焚，只得藏在暗处。”
Then an idea struck her, and she whispered, “When she comes to let me out, why don’t you three come with me?”
忽然间，她想到一个好主意。卡萝兰悄声说：“等她来放我出去的时候，你们三个跟我一块儿出去，好吗？”
“Oh,” said Coraline. She closed her eyes, which made the darkness darker, and she rested her head on the rolled-up sweater, and she went to sleep. And as she fell asleep she thought she felt a ghost kiss her cheek, tenderly, and a small voice whisper into her ear, a voice so faint it was barely there at all, a gentle wispy nothing of a voice so hushed that Coraline could almost believe she was imagining it.
“噢。”卡萝兰说。她闭上眼睛。眼睛一闭，觉得更黑了。她把头靠在卷成一团的套头衫上，睡了。快睡着的时候，她觉得有个鬼魂轻轻亲着她的脸，用非常非常小的声音凑在她耳朵边说着什么。声音真是太小了，她以为是自己瞎想出来的。
“Look through the stone,” it said to her. And then she slept.
“穿过石头的洞眼看。”那个声音告诉她。然后，她睡着了。
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