《绿山墙的安妮》是北美小学生的必读书之一。
加拿大女作家露西·莫德·蒙哥马利以清晰流畅、生动幽默的笔触,讲述了纯真善良、热爱生活的女主人公小安妮·雪莉(Anne Shirley)的故事。她自幼失去父母,十一岁时被人领养,但她个性鲜明,富于幻想,而且自尊自强,凭借自己的刻苦勤奋,不但得到领养人的喜爱,也赢得老师和同学的敬重和友谊。
该书问世至今被翻译成50多种文字,持续发行5000多万册,是一本世界公认的文学经典。如今,这本书仍以电视剧、电影和音乐剧等多种艺术形式在全世界范围内广为传播。
美式发音 适合泛听
Chapter 23 Anne Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honor (Excerpt)
第二十三章危险游戏(节选)
A week after the tea at the 1)manse Diana Barry gave a party.
They had a very good time and nothing 2)untoward happened until after tea, when they found themselves in the Barry garden, a little tired of all their games and 3)ripe for any 4)enticing form of mischief which might present itself. This presently took the form of “daring.”
Daring was the fashionable amusement among the Avonlea small 5)fry just then. It had begun among the boys, but soon spread to the girls, and all the silly things that were done in Avonlea that summer, because the doers thereof were “dared” to do them would fill a book by themselves.
First of all Carrie Sloane dared Ruby Gillis to climb to a certain point in the huge old willow tree before the front door; which Ruby Gillis, 6)albeit in mortal dread of the fat green 7)caterpillars with which said tree was 8)infested and with the fear of her mother before her eyes if she should tear her new muslin dress, 9)nimbly did, to the 10)discomfiture of the aforesaid Carrie Sloane.
Then Josie Pye dared Jane Andrews to hop on her left leg around the garden without stopping once or putting her right foot to the ground; which Jane Andrews gamely tried to do, but gave out at the third corner and had to confess herself defeated.
Josie’s triumph being rather more pronounced than good taste permitted, Anne Shirley dared her to walk along the top of the board fence which bounded the garden to the east. Now, to “walk” board fences requires more skill and steadiness of head and heel than one might suppose who has never tried it. But Josie Pye, if deficient in some qualities that make for popularity, had at least a natural and inborn gift, duly cultivated, for walking board fences. Josie walked the Barry fence with an airy unconcern which seemed to imply that a little thing like that wasn’t worth a “dare.”
Reluctant admiration greeted her exploit, for most of the other girls could appreciate it, having suffered many things themselves in their efforts to walk fences. Josie descended from her perch, flushed with victory, and darted a defiant glance at Anne.
Anne tossed her red braids.
“I don’t think it’s such a very wonderful thing to walk a little, low, board fence,” she said. “I knew a girl in Marysville who could walk the 11)ridgepole of a roof.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Josie flatly. “I don’t believe anybody could walk a ridgepole. YOU couldn’t, anyhow.”
“Couldn’t I?” cried Anne 12)rashly.
“Then I dare you to do it,” said Josie defiantly. “I dare you to climb up there and walk the ridgepole of Mrs. Barry’s kitchen roof.”
Anne turned pale, but there was clearly only one thing to be done. She walked toward the house, where a ladder was leaning against the kitchen roof. All the fifth-class girls said, “Oh!” partly in excitement, partly in dismay.
“Don’t you do it, Anne,” 13)entreated Diana. “You’ll fall off and be killed. Never mind Josie Pye. It isn’t fair to dare anybody to do anything so dangerous.”
“I must do it. My honor is at stake,” said Anne solemnly. “I shall walk that ridgepole, Diana, or perish in the attempt. If I am killed you are to have my pearl bead ring.”
Anne climbed the ladder amid breathless silence, gained the ridgepole, balanced herself uprightly on that 14)precarious footing, and started to walk along it, dizzily conscious that she was uncomfortably high up in the world and that walking ridgepoles was not a thing in which your imagination helped youmuch. Nevertheless, she managed to take several steps before the catastrophe came. Then she swayed, lost her balance, stumbled, staggered, and fell, sliding down over the sun-baked roof and crashing off it through the 15)tangle of Virginia 16)creeper beneath—all before the dismayed circle below could give a simultaneous, terrified shriek.
If Anne had tumbled off the roof on the side up which she had ascended Diana would probably have fallen heir to the pearl bead ring then and there. Fortunately she fell on the other side, where the roof extended down over the porch so nearly to the ground that a fall therefrom was a much less serious thing. Nevertheless, when Diana and the other girls had rushed frantically around the house, they found Anne lying all white and 17)limp among the wreck and ruin of the Virginia creeper.
“Anne, are you killed?” shrieked Diana, throwing herself on her knees beside her friend. “Oh, Anne, dear Anne, speak just one word to me and tell me if you’re killed.”
To the immense relief of all the girls, and especially of Josie Pye, who, in spite of lack of imagination, had been seized with horrible visions of a future branded as the girl who was the cause of Anne Shirley’s early and tragic death, Anne sat dizzily up and answered uncertainly:
“No, Diana, I am not killed, but I think I am18)rendered unconscious.”
在安妮应邀到牧师家做客一个礼拜之后,黛安娜·巴里举行了一次社交聚会。
聚会的气氛很轻松、愉快,也没发生什么问题。但一用完茶点,大家都来到院子里。因为对先前的小游戏都有点玩腻了,他们想玩点什么新奇古怪的。于是,她们就玩起了“挑战游戏”。
“挑战游戏”是眼下在亚邦里孩子中间极为流行的游戏,开始时只在男孩子中间玩,后来又渐渐扩展到了女孩子中间。如果把整个夏天在亚邦里玩“挑战游戏”的愚蠢可笑的事件全都列举出来的话,足够写本书了。
一开始,卡丽·斯隆向鲁比·吉里斯挑战的是爬到大门前那棵高大的老柳树的某个高度。这棵树上盘踞着许多粗粗的绿毛毛虫,鲁比怕得要死;而且,鲁比眼前还浮现出如果把新的麦斯林纱裙给弄破的话,被母亲训斥的可怕情景。但她还是敏捷地爬了上去,挫败了卡丽·斯隆的挑战。
接下来是乔茜·帕伊向珍妮·安德鲁斯发起挑战,让她只用左脚在院子里单腿连续跳着绕圈。珍妮虽然勇敢地接受了挑战,可是当跳到第三个墙角时,终于坚持不住,惨败下来。
乔茜趾高气扬,看上去很令人讨厌。于是安妮问她敢不敢在院子东边的板墙上走。没玩过这个游戏的人也许不明白,在板墙上走时要让头和脚后跟保持平衡需要高超技巧。虽然乔茜·帕伊也许不太讨人喜欢,但她好像天生就有在板墙上行走的本领,再加上她此前勤于练习,因此她在巴里家的板墙上走起来毫不费力,似乎在炫耀这种小事算不上是什么“挑战”。
因为大家都曾在板墙上试过,有过失败的经历,因此,女孩子们虽然不是出自内心,但还是勉勉强强地对乔茜赞扬了一番。乔茜的小脸因占了上风而涨得通红。她从板墙上下来,挑衅地看了安妮一眼。
安妮猛地一甩红发小辫子。
她说道:“在又低又矮的板墙上走,没什么了不起的。在梅利斯维尔有一个女生可以在屋脊上走呢。”
“那实在让人无法相信,”乔茜以不容分说的口气说道,“我不信有人能在屋梁上走。至少你不能。”
“我要是能呢?”安妮急忙喊道。
“那就请你走走试试吧,”乔茜也不服气地顶嘴说,接着她又挑战道,“我看你不敢爬到巴里家厨房屋脊的梁上走走看。”
安妮听完脸色都变了,然而话已出口已经别无选择了。厨房墙边上立着一把梯子,安妮走了过去。所有五年级的女孩子们一半兴奋,一半惊恐,都“噢”了一声。
“安妮,你不能在那上边走呀!”黛安娜带着恳求的语气喊着,“你会掉下来摔死的,你别在乎乔茜说的话,她让你干危险事儿,她太耍赖了。”
“我一定得做,不然我的名誉就会受到损害了,”安妮严肃地说道,“我只能在那根屋脊梁上走了。黛安娜,我要是死了,我的珍珠戒指就归你了。”
在女孩子们屏住呼吸紧张注视下,安妮登上了梯子,在屋顶上找了一个立脚点站稳,然后开始挪步。安妮觉得有些目眩,她很清楚这个高度对她来说太高了,这个时候,想象力对人在上面走起不了什么作用。虽然这样,在大祸临头之前,安妮还是走了几步。紧接着,她晃了一下,失去了平衡,绊了一下,踉跄了几步,失足踩空,顺着被太阳晒烤得很烫的屋顶滑了下来,摔到了下面茂盛的美洲常春藤中。在下面惊惶失措的女孩子都还没来得及叫出声来,这一切就在瞬间发生了。
安妮若是从爬上去的这侧屋顶摔下来,黛安娜可真的就当场成了那个珍珠戒指的继承人了。然而幸运的是,安妮是从另一侧的屋顶上摔下来的。这侧的屋顶一直向下延伸到门廊顶部,房檐离地面非常近,从那里摔下来也没有什么大不了的。尽管如此,黛安娜她们还是像疯了一样,绕过房子跑了过去,看到安妮倒在乱糟糟的美洲常春藤中间,脸色苍白,有气无力。
“安妮,你死了吗?”黛安娜尖叫着,跪倒在安妮的旁边,“噢,安妮,我的安妮,求求你,你就开口说一句话吧,你是死是活,快说话呀。”
这时,安妮摇摇晃晃地抬起身来,含混地开口说了句话。女孩子们这才长长地松了一口气,尤其是乔茜·帕伊把悬起来的心放了下来。乔茜尽管想像力匮乏,但也深知如果造成安妮这种悲剧性的早逝,对自己来说后果是什么,她的脑海里浮现出了许许多多可能会出现的可怕景象。
“没事儿,黛安娜,我没死,好像是神志不清了。”
翻译:丁一
安妮系列小说
作者继《绿山墙的安妮》后，在以后的20年时间里，又写了七部以安妮为主人公的小说，讲述她的成长过程，直至她结婚生子，以及她孩子们的故事。这个系列的八部小说是：《Anne of Green Gables》 (1908)、 《Anne of Avonlea》(1909)、《Anne of the Island》 (1915)、《Anne's House of Dreams》 (1917)、《Rainbow Valley》 (1919)、 《Rilla of Ingleside》 (1921).《Anne of Windy Poplars》 (1936)、《Anne of Ingleside》(1939)。
