凯特·道格拉斯·威金(Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1856～1923),美国著名儿童文学作家、著名教育家。1878年,威金和妹妹在旧金山创办了美国第一家免费幼儿园,从此一生致力于幼儿教育事业。为了给幼儿园筹备资金,威金开始了自己的写作生涯。1903年发表的小说《太阳溪农场的丽贝卡》(Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm)和1905年发表的小说《河上的玫瑰》(Rose O' the River)一度成为年度最畅销小说,位于美国经典儿童小说之列,风靡全球。2002年,《太阳溪农场的丽贝卡》被亚马逊书店评为“20世纪对人类心志有重大影响的50部图书”之一。
You might harness1) Rebecca to the heaviest plough2), and while she had youth on her side, she would always remember the green earth under her feet and the blue sky over her head. Her physical eye saw the cake she was stirring3) and the loaf she was kneading4); her physical ear heard the kitchen fire crackling and the teakettle singing, but ever and anon5) her fancy mounted6) on pinions7), rested itself, renewed its strength in the upper air. The bare little farmhouse was a fixed fact, but she had many a palace into which she now and then withdrew; palaces peopled8) with stirring9) and gallant10) figures belonging to the world of romance; palaces not without their heavenly apparitions11) too, breathing12) celestial13) counsel14). Every time she retired to her citadel15) of dreams she came forth16) radiant17) and refreshed, as one who has seen the evening star, or heard sweet music, or smelled the rose of joy. 
你或许可以给丽贝卡套上最沉重的铁犁,但是,正值青春年少的她,心中却永远记得脚下绿色的土地和头顶蔚蓝的天空。虽然她的眼睛看见的是她正在搅拌的蛋糕糊,还有她正在揉制的做面包的面团;她的耳朵听见的是厨房里灶火的噼啪作响和茶壶的欢声歌唱,但时不时地,她的幻想会生出双翼,在高空中稍作休息,恢复力量。尽管这个空荡荡的小农舍是一个没法改变的事实,但是她心里却拥有许许多多的宫殿,可以时不时地进去躲藏。住在宫殿里的人个个都活泼而英勇,仿佛来自传奇的世界;宫殿里也不乏他们神圣的幻影,轻声低语着天国的忠告。每当她退回到自己梦想的城堡,她都会变得容光焕发、精神振奋,就像看到了夜空中的星星,或是听到了甜美的音乐,抑或是闻到了令人快乐的玫瑰花香一般。
It was a marvelous morning. The sun had climbed into a world that held in remembrance only a succession of18) golden days and starlit19) nights. The air was fragrant with ripening fruit, and there was a mad little bird on a tree outside the door nearly bursting his throat with joy of living. He had forgotten that summer was over, that winter must ever come; and who could think of cold winds, bare boughs, or frozen streams on such a day? A painted moth came in at the open window and settled on the tuft20) of brilliant leaves. Aurelia heard the bird and looked from the beauty of the glowing bush to her tall, splendid daughter, standing like young Spring with golden Autumn in her arms.
这是一个奇妙的早晨。一连几天都没见到金色的阳光和闪耀的星星,今天太阳终于露面了。空气里弥漫着成熟水果的芳香。门外的一棵树上,一只小鸟满怀生命的喜悦,疯狂地高声歌唱。它忘了夏天已经过去了,冬天迟早会到来的。可是在这么明丽的秋日,谁又会去想那凛冽的寒风、光秃的枝丫和冰冻的溪流呢?一只艳丽的蛾子从敞开的窗户飞了进来,落在那丛色彩斑斓的叶子上。奥里莉亚(编者注:丽贝卡的母亲 )听见小鸟在歌唱,视线从那簇充满生气的美丽枝叶转到她那高挑美丽的女儿身上,她站在那里,恰似一位年轻的春之女神,将金秋拥在她的怀中。
Then suddenly she covered her eyes and cried, "I can't bear it! Here I lie chained21) to this bed, interfering with everything you want to do. It's all wasted! All my saving and doing without22); all your hard study; all Mirandy's outlay23); everything that we thought was going to be the making24) of you!"
忽然,她捂住眼睛哭了起来,“我受不了了!我就这样躺在床上动弹不了,把你的事儿都给耽误了。全白费了!我所有的节省和将就,你在学习上付出的所有努力,米兰达所有的花费,所有我们以前认为能让你成才的一切!”
"Mother, mother, don't talk so, don't think so!" exclaimed Rebecca, sitting down impetuously25) on the floor by the bed and dropping the goldenrod26) by her side. "Why, mother, I'm only a little past seventeen! This person in a purple calico27) apron with flour on her nose is only the beginnings of me! Do you remember the young tree that John transplanted? We had a dry summer and a cold winter and it didn't grow a bit, nor show anything of all we did for it; then there was a good year and it made up for lost time. This is just my little 'rooting season', mother, but don't go and believe my day is over, because it hasn't begun! The old maple by the well that's in its hundredth year had new leaves this summer, so there must be hope for me at seventeen!"
“妈妈,妈妈,别这样说,也别这样想!”丽贝卡大声喊着,她急切地坐到床边的地上,把秋麒麟扔在了一旁。“哎呀,妈妈,我才不过17岁多一点儿!这个身上穿着紫色印花布围裙、鼻子上沾着面粉的人,只不过是我生活的开端而已!你还记得约翰移植的那棵小树吗?那一年,夏天非常干燥,冬天非常寒冷,它一点儿也没见长高,我们为它做了那么多都是白忙活;可是第二年风调雨顺,它一下子就蹿高了,把耽误的时间都赶了回来。妈妈,现在还只是我这棵小树‘扎根的季节’,可千万别以为我的好日子已经结束了,因为它压根儿还没有开始呢!井边的那棵老枫树都一百岁了,可是今年夏天它又长出了新的叶子。所以,对于17岁的我来说,希望肯定是有的!”
"You can put a brave face on it," sobbed Aurelia, "but you can't deceive me. You've lost your place; you'll never see your friends here, and you're nothing but a drudge28)!"
“虽然你可以摆出一副勇敢的面孔,”奥里莉亚抽噎着说,“但是你骗不了我。你已经丢了工作,在这里你再也看不到你的朋友们了,你现在只是一个苦工!”
"I look like a drudge," said Rebecca mysteriously, with laughing eyes, "but I really am a princess; you mustn't tell, but this is only a disguise29); I wear it for reasons of state. The king and queen who are at present occupying my throne are very old and tottering30), and are going to abdicate31) shortly in my favor. It's rather a small kingdom, I suppose, as kingdoms go, so there isn't much struggle for it in royal circles, and you mustn't expect to see a golden throne set with jewels. It will probably be only of ivory with a nice screen of peacock feathers for a background; but you shall have a comfortable chair very near it, with quantities of slaves to do what they call in novels your 'lightest bidding32)'."
“我看起来像是一个苦工,”丽贝卡神秘地说道,眼睛里含着笑,“但其实我是一个公主。你肯定看不出来,苦工只是我的伪装。为了国家的利益,我不得不披上伪装。占着我的王位的国王和王后已经很老了,连走路都摇摇晃晃。他们很快就会退位,把王位传给我的。我想,相对于其他王国来说,这个王国非常小,因而皇室中的人对于王位并没有太多的争夺。而且你也别指望会看到镶满珠宝的金色宝座,它很可能只是一个象牙宝座,背后立着一扇孔雀羽毛做成的漂亮屏风。但是,就在王座旁边,一定会有属于你的舒适的座椅,有很多仆人服侍在旁,他们会像小说里写的那样悉听尊命,即使是‘最无足轻重的吩咐’,他们也勤于效劳。”
Aurelia smiled in spite of herself33), and though not perhaps wholly deceived, she was comforted.
奥里莉亚脸上不禁露出了笑容,虽然她可能并没有完全被丽贝卡骗到,但还是感到十分欣慰。
"I only hope you won't have to wait too long for your thrones and your kingdoms, Rebecca," she said, "and that I shall have a sight of them before I die; but life looks very hard and rough to me, what with34) your aunt Miranda a cripple at the brick house, me another here at the farm, you tied hand and foot, first with one and then with the other, to say nothing of Jenny and Fanny and Mark! You've got something of your father's happy disposition35), or it would weigh on36) you as it does on me."
“我只是希望你的王位和你的王国不要让你等太久,丽贝卡,”她说道,“我希望在我死之前可以看它们一眼。但是,生活对我来说太艰难也太残酷了。你米兰达姨妈在砖房子里瘫痪在床行动不便,而我在农场成了另一个拖累,让你束缚住了手脚,照顾完一个又来照顾另一个,更别提还有珍妮、范妮和马克(编者注:丽贝卡年幼的弟弟妹妹)来添乱了!幸好你继承了一些你父亲的乐观性格,否则的话,你现在一定会像我这样感到不堪重负了。”
"Why, mother!" cried Rebecca, clasping her knees with her hands; "why, mother, it's enough joy just to be here in the world on a day like this; to have the chance of seeing, feeling, doing, becoming! When you were seventeen, mother, wasn't it good just to be alive? You haven't forgotten?"
“哎呀,妈妈!”丽贝卡哭喊道,双手紧紧抱住她的双膝,“别这样,妈妈。能够在这个世界上像这样过上一天,能够有机会去看、去感受、去做事、去成长,就足够快乐了!在你17岁的时候,妈妈,难道你不是觉得只要活着就很好吗?你没忘记吧?”
"No," said Aurelia, "but I wasn't so much alive as you are, never in the world."
“没忘,”奥里莉亚说,“不过我那时可没你这么有活力,从来都没有这样过。”
"I often think," Rebecca continued, walking to the window and looking out at the trees, "I often think how dreadful it would be if I were not here at all. If Hannah had come, and then, instead of me, John; John and Jenny and Fanny and the others, but no Rebecca; never any Rebecca! To be alive makes up for everything; there ought to be fears in my heart, but there aren't; something stronger sweeps them out37), something like a wind."
“我常常想,”丽贝卡继续说道,她走到窗边,看着外面的树,“我常常想,如果我没有来到这个世上,那该有多可怕啊。如果先是汉娜出生了,然后是约翰,而不是我;约翰、珍妮和范妮,还有其他孩子,但就是没有丽贝卡,从来就没有过什么丽贝卡,那该多可怕!只要能活着,就可以弥补一切了。本来我心里应该有些恐惧的,但是却没有。有种更强大的东西扫除了我心中的恐惧,一种像风一样的东西。”
1. harness [5hB:nIs] vt. 给……上挽具;系,栓
2. plough [plau] n. 犁
3. stir [st\:(r)] vt. 搅动,搅拌
4. knead [ni:d] vt. 揉,捏(湿面粉或陶土等)
5. ever and anon: 时而,不时地
6. mount [maunt] vt. 安放,安装
7. pinion [5pInjEn] n. <诗> 翼,翅
8. people [5pi:pl] vt. 居住于;构成……的人口
9. stirring [5st\:rIN] adj. 忙碌的,活跃的
10. gallant [5^AlEnt] adj. 英勇的;骑士风度的,豪侠的
11. apparition [7ApE5rIFEn] n. 幽灵,幻影
12. breathe [bri:T] vt. (尤指低声细气地)说出;吐露
13. celestial [sI5lestjEl] adj. 天国的,神圣的
14. counsel [5kaunsEl] n. 忠告;劝告
15. citadel [5sItEdEl] n. 堡垒,要塞
16. come forth: 出现
17. radiant [5reIdIEnt] adj. 容光焕发的,喜气洋洋的;(面容、目光)洋溢着幸福的;(美貌)光华照人的
18. a succession of: (前后相接的)一系列;一连串
19. starlit [5stB:lIt] adj. 星光照耀的
20. tuft [tQft] n. (头发、羽毛、草等的)一束,一簇
21. chain [tFeIn] vt. 束缚
22. do without: 没有……也行,没有……而设法对付过去
23. outlay [5autleI] n. (钱、精力等)的花费
24. making [5meIkIN] n. 成功因素(或基础)
25. impetuously [Im5petjuEslI] adv. 急躁地;冲动地
26. goldenrod [5^EuldEnrCd] n. 秋麒麟,一枝黄花属植物
27. calico [5kAlIkEu] n. 印花布
28. drudge [drQdV] n. 苦工
29. disguise [dIs5^aIz] n. 伪装
30. tottering [5tCtErIN] adj. 摇摇欲坠的;不稳的,动摇的
31. abdicate [5AbdIkeIt] vt. 退位
32. bidding [5bIdIN] n. 命令;请求;do the bidding of sb. (= do at sb.'s bidding): 服从某人,听命于某人,为某人效劳
33. in spite of oneself: 不由自主地
34. what with: 因为,由于
35. disposition [7dIspE5zIFEn] n. 性情;性格
36. weigh on: 重压;压垮;成为负担
37. sweep out: 彻底扫除,清扫(房间等)