2 Oliver’s first job
2 奥利弗的第一份工作
Oliver stayed a prisoner alone in the dark room for a week.
奥利弗被独自关在黑屋子里囚禁了一个星期。
He cried bitterly all day, and when the long night came, he spread his little hands over his eyes to shut out the darkness, and tried to sleep.
他整天痛哭流涕，当漫长的黑夜降临时，他用小手捂住眼睛以遮挡黑暗，试图入睡。
He was given freezing water to wash with, and was beaten daily by Mr Bumble in front of all the other boys in the hall, as a warning to them.
他只能用冰冷刺骨的水洗漱，而且每天都被邦布尔先生当着大厅里所有其他男孩的面殴打，以此作为对他们的警告。
One day Mr Bumble met the local undertaker, Mr Sowerberry, outside the workhouse.
一天，邦布尔先生在济贫院外遇到了当地的殡仪馆老板索尔伯里先生。
‘Do you know anybody who wants to train a boy for work, Mr Sowerberry?’ Mr Bumble pointed at the notice on the wall above him, which offered five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver Twist for work.
“索尔伯里先生，您认识什么想收学徒干活的人吗？”邦布尔先生指着头顶墙上的告示问道，那上面写着谁要是领走奥利弗·特威斯特去干活，就能得到五英镑赏金。
Mr Sowerberry rubbed his chin and thought for a while. ‘I pay enough for the poor with my taxes,’ he said, ‘so why shouldn’t I be able to make use of them in my work? Yes, I’ll take the boy myself.’
索尔伯里先生摸着下巴想了一会儿。“我交的税已经够养活穷人了，”他说，“那我为什么不能在工作中利用他们呢？行吧，我自己收下这孩子。”
And so the board agreed to send Oliver to work for the undertaker. The necessary papers were signed.
于是，理事会同意把奥利弗送去给殡仪馆老板当学徒。必要的手续都签好了。
Oliver’s small possessions were put into a brown paper parcel, and he was led to Mr Sowerberry’s house by Mr Bumble. As they walked along, tears began to run down Oliver’s face.
奥利弗仅有的几件物品被装进一个牛皮纸包里，随后邦布尔先生领着他前往索尔伯里先生的家。走着走着，眼泪开始顺着奥利弗的脸颊流下来。
‘What is it this time?’ asked Mr Bumble impatiently. ‘Don’t be so ungrateful. This gentleman is going to look after you.’
“这次又怎么了？”邦布尔先生不耐烦地问，“别这么不知好歹。这位先生以后会照顾你的。”
‘It’s just that I’m so lonely, sir!’ said the child. ‘Everybody hates me. Please don’t be angry with me, sir!’
“我只是太孤单了，先生！”孩子说道，“所有人都讨厌我。请别生我的气，先生！”
Even Mr Bumble felt a little pity. He coughed, told Oliver to dry his eyes and be a good boy, and walked on with him in silence.
就连邦布尔先生也动了点恻隐之心。他咳嗽了一声，叫奥利弗擦干眼泪做个好孩子，然后便默不作声地带着他继续往前走。
The undertaker had just finished work for the day when Mr Bumble entered his shop.
邦布尔先生走进店铺时，殡仪馆老板刚结束一天的工作。
‘Here, I’ve brought the boy,’ said the beadle.
“瞧，我把这孩子带来了，”教区执事说道。
Oliver bowed to the undertaker, who raised his candle to get a better view of the boy. ‘Mrs Sowerberry,’ he called, ‘come and have a look.’
奥利弗向殡仪馆老板鞠了一躬，老板举起蜡烛好更清楚地看看这孩子。“索尔伯里太太，”他喊道，“过来瞧瞧。”
His wife, a short, thin woman with a disagreeable face, came out to see. ‘He’s very small,’ she said immediately.
他的妻子走了出来，那是个矮小瘦削、面相刻薄的女人。“他个子太小了，”她立刻说道。
‘He is,’ agreed Mr Bumble, ‘but he’ll grow, Mrs Sowerberry.’
“确实小，”邦布尔先生附和道，“但他会长大的，索尔伯里太太。”
‘Yes,’ she said crossly, ‘when he eats our food. Go on, get downstairs.’ She pushed Oliver downstairs into a damp, dark kitchen, and called to the girl working down there. ‘Here, Charlotte, give this boy some meat that the dog left — if he thinks it’s good enough for him.’
“是啊，”她恼火地说，“等吃了咱们的饭自然就长了。去吧，下楼去。”她把奥利弗推到楼下潮湿阴暗的厨房里，朝在那儿干活的女孩喊道，“喂，夏洛特，把狗吃剩的肉给这孩子拿点来——要是他不嫌弃的话。”
Oliver tore the meat to pieces with his teeth as if he were a wild animal. Mrs Sowerberry watched him in silent horror, already thinking about her future food bills, then took him upstairs to the shop.
奥利弗像野兽一样用牙齿把肉撕成碎片。索尔伯里太太惊恐地看着他，心里已经在盘算未来的伙食开销了，随后便把他带上楼回到店里。
‘You’ll sleep here, among the coffins,’ she said.
“你就睡在这儿吧，在棺材堆里，”她说。
Oliver stared around the dark, airless shop at the coffins, some finished, some only half-made. He trembled at the thought of ghosts. His bed was a small hole in the floor, and looked very like a grave.
奥利弗环顾着这间黑暗闷热的店铺，盯着那些有的已完工、有的只做了一半的棺材。一想到鬼魂，他就浑身发抖。他的床是地板上的一个小坑，看起来活像个坟墓。
But it was not only the room that depressed Oliver. He felt very lonely, with no friends and no one to care for him. As he lay on the bed, he found himself wishing that it really was his grave.
但让奥利弗沮丧的不只是这间屋子。他感到无比孤独，没有朋友，也没人关心他。躺在床上时，他甚至希望这真的就是自己的坟墓。
The next morning he was woken up by someone kicking at the shop door.
第二天早上，他被一阵踢店门的声音吵醒了。
‘Open the door, will you?’ shouted a voice through the keyhole.
“把门打开，好吗？”钥匙孔外传来一声吼叫。
‘Yes, sir.’
“好的，先生。”
‘I suppose you’re the new boy,’ said the voice through the keyhole. ‘How old are you?’
“想必你就是新来的小子吧，”钥匙孔外的声音说道，“你多大了？”
‘Ten, sir.’
“十岁，先生。”
‘Then I’ll hit you when I get in,’ said the voice.
“那等我进去就揍你一顿，”那声音说。
Oliver was experienced enough to know that the promise was probably true. He opened the door with a shaking hand, then looked up and down the street. All he could see was a large boy wearing the uniform of one of the charity schools, where the children of the very poor used to go.
奥利弗凭经验知道这话多半是真的。他颤抖着手打开了门，然后朝街道两头张望。他只看到一个穿着慈善学校制服的大男孩，那种学校是极穷人家的孩子以前常去的地方。
‘Did you want a coffin?’ asked Oliver, innocently.
“您是想要口棺材吗？”奥利弗天真地问。
The charity-boy looked at him fiercely. ‘You’ll be needing a coffin soon, Workhouse, if you make jokes like that! I’m Mister Noah Claypole, and you’re working under me. Now, hurry up and open the curtains!’ As he said this, he kicked Oliver and entered the shop. He was a big, clumsy boy of about fourteen, with a large head and very small eyes. Added to these attractions were a red nose and dirty yellow trousers.
那个慈善学校的男孩恶狠狠地瞪着他。“你要是再开这种玩笑，济贫院的，很快你就得给自己备口棺材了！我是诺亚·克莱波尔少爷，你得听我的差遣。现在，赶紧去把窗帘拉开！”说着，他踢了奥利弗一脚，走进了店里。他是个十四岁左右、笨手笨脚的大个子，脑袋很大，眼睛却很小。再加上一个红鼻子和一条脏兮兮的黄裤子，模样更是“出众”。
The boys went down to breakfast, which the girl Charlotte had made for them. She gave an extra piece of meat to Noah, then told Oliver to hurry up as it was his job to look after the shop.
两个男孩下楼吃早饭，这是女孩夏洛特给他们准备的。她多给了诺亚一块肉，然后催促奥利弗快点吃，因为看店是他的活儿。
‘Did you hear that, Workhouse?’ shouted Noah.
“听见没，济贫院的？”诺亚嚷道。
‘He heard, Noah,’ said Charlotte. ‘Leave him alone.’
“他听见了，诺亚，”夏洛特说，“别理他了。”
‘Why?’ asked Noah. ‘All his relations have already left him alone. His mother and father aren’t going to interfere with him!’ Charlotte and Noah both started laughing loudly. Oliver sat alone in the corner, eating old bits of bread.
“凭什么？”诺亚问，“他的亲戚早就都不管他了。他爹妈也不会来找他麻烦！”夏洛特和诺亚都放声大笑起来。奥利弗独自坐在角落里，啃着陈面包屑。
Noah was a charity-boy, but not a workhouse orphan; he at least knew who his parents were. But for a long time all the local shop-boys had insulted him because he wore the uniform of a charity-boy. Now fortune had brought him a creature in an even lower position in society than himself. Noah intended to repay to Oliver every insult he had ever received, and to make the new boy’s life a misery.
诺亚是慈善学校的孩子，但不是济贫院的孤儿；他至少知道自己的父母是谁。但长期以来，当地所有的店员都因为他穿慈善学校的制服而侮辱他。如今命运给他送来了一个社会地位比他还低下的可怜虫。诺亚打算把自己受过的所有侮辱都报复到奥利弗身上，让这个新来的小子日子不好过。
After a few weeks, Mr Sowerberry decided that he liked Oliver’s appearance enough to train him in the undertaking business. Oliver’s permanent expression of sadness was very suitable, the undertaker thought, for collecting dead bodies from houses and accompanying the coffins to funerals.
几周后，索尔伯里先生觉得奥利弗的模样很合心意，决定培养他从事殡葬行业。殡仪馆老板认为，奥利弗脸上那副永恒的悲伤神情非常适合去人家家里收殓尸体，以及护送棺材参加葬礼。
One day Mr Bumble came to tell them about a woman who had died in an extremely poor part of the town, and Sowerberry and Oliver went to collect the body. They went down dirty narrow streets where the houses on either side were tall and large, but very old. Some of the houses were almost falling down, and had to be supported by huge blocks of wood. The area was so poor that even the dead rats in the street looked as though they had died of hunger.
一天，邦布尔先生来告诉他们镇上极度贫困区有个女人死了，索尔伯里便带着奥利弗去收尸。他们穿过肮脏狭窄的街道，两旁是高耸宽大却十分破旧的房子。有些房子几乎要倒塌了，不得不用巨大的木块支撑着。这一带穷困至极，连街上的死老鼠看上去都像是饿死的。
They found the right house, and climbed the dark stairs to a miserable little room. Some children watched them from the shadows as they entered. Something lay beneath a blanket on the floor in one corner. A man and an old woman stood near the body. Oliver was afraid to look at them. With their thin faces and sharp teeth, they looked like the rats he had seen outside.
他们找到了那栋房子，爬上黑暗的楼梯，来到一间凄惨的小屋。他们进门时，几个孩子在暗处盯着他们。角落里的地板上盖着一条毯子，下面躺着什么东西。一具尸体旁站着一个男人和一个老妇人。奥利弗不敢看他们。他们面容消瘦、牙齿尖利，看起来就像他在外面见到的那些老鼠。
As Sowerberry began to measure the body for a coffin, the man knelt on the floor and cried out, ‘She starved to death, I tell you! That’s why she died!’ He fell to the floor, and all the children behind him started to cry. Sowerberry and Oliver, their work done, left as fast as they could.
正当索尔伯里开始为做棺材量尺寸时，那个男人跪倒在地哭喊道：“我告诉你，她是活活饿死的！她就是这么死的！”他瘫倒在地上，身后的孩子们也都跟着哭了起来。索尔伯里和奥利弗干完活，便尽快离开了那里。
They returned the next day with the coffin and four men from the workhouse who were to carry it. The man and the old woman followed the coffin to the church, and waited silently by the grave for the priest to arrive. When at last he came, he hurried through the burial prayers, and as quickly as possible (it was only a job, after all) the coffin was put into the ground. At this point the husband, who had not moved once during his wife’s burial — not even during the long wait for the priest — suddenly fainted to the ground and had to have cold water thrown over him.
第二天，他们带着棺材和四个从济贫院找来抬棺的男人回来了。那个男人和老妇人跟在棺材后面去了教堂，默默地在墓穴旁等待牧师到来。牧师终于来了，匆匆念完葬祷文，便以最快的速度（毕竟这只是桩差事）将棺材下了葬。就在这时，那个丈夫——在下葬过程中一动不动，甚至在漫长等待牧师时也未曾动弹——突然晕倒在地，人们不得不往他身上泼冷水才把他弄醒。
‘So how did you like it, Oliver?’ asked Sowerberry later, as they walked home.
“那么，你觉得怎么样，奥利弗？”回程路上，索尔伯里问道。
‘Not very much, sir,’ Oliver answered truthfully.
“不太喜欢，先生，”奥利弗如实回答。
‘You’ll get used to it, my boy.’
“你会习惯的，孩子。”
Oliver wondered how long that would take, and remained silent all the way back to the shop, thinking about everything that he had seen and heard.
奥利弗心想那得花多长时间啊，回店的路上他一直沉默不语，脑海里回想着自己看到和听到的一切。
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