《魔法師的外甥》第71期:栽樹(5)

"I - I nearly ate one myself, Aslan," said Digory. "Would I -"

"You would, child," said Aslan. "For the fruit always works - it must work - but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be. And the Witch tempted you to do another thing, my son, did she not?"

"Yes, Aslan. She wanted me to take an apple home to Mother."

"Understand, then, that it would have healed her; but not to your joy or hers. The day would have come when both you and she would have looked back and said it would have been better to die in that illness."

And Digory could say nothing, for tears choked him and he gave up all hopes of saving his Mother's life; but at the same time he knew that the Lion knew what would have happened, and that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death. But now Aslan was speaking again, almost in a whisper:

"That is what would have happened, child, with a stolen apple. It is not what will happen now. What I give you now will bring joy. It will not, in your world, give endless life, but it will heal. Go. Pluck her an apple from the Tree."

For a second Digory could hardly understand. It was as if the whole world had turned inside out and upside down. And then, like someone in a dream, he was walking across to the Tree, and the King and Queen were cheering him and all the creatures were cheering too. He plucked the apple and put it in his pocket. Then he came back to Aslan.

"Please," he said, "may we go home now?" He had forgotten to say "Thank you", but he meant it, and Aslan understood.

“我——我自己差點兒吃了一個，阿斯蘭。”迪格雷說，“我——我會……?”

“你會的，孩子，”阿斯蘭說，“因爲蘋果總是要起作用的——必須起作用——但不會對那些爲了自己的私慾而摘它的人有好結果。如果任何一位納尼亞公民不聽勸告，偷一個蘋果，然後栽在這裏保衛納尼亞，當然它就會保衛納尼亞。但是，它會把納尼亞變成恰恩那樣強大而殘酷的帝國，而不是我所希望的這種友愛的國家。女巫還誘惑你幹另一件事，不是嗎，我的孩子?”

“是的，阿斯蘭。她要我摘一個蘋果帶回家給媽媽。”

“要知道，這也會治好她的病，但不會給你或她帶來歡樂。如果你那樣做了，總有一天，你和她回想起這件事時，會說，當初還不如病死的好。”

眼中的淚水噎得迪格雷說不出話來。他放棄了救媽媽性命的全部希望；但同時他也明白，獅子對於會發生的一切都瞭如指掌，也許有些事情比一個你所愛的人去世還要可怕。這時，阿斯蘭又說：

“如果偷一個蘋果，結果就和我剛剛說的那樣。但現在不會發生這樣的事。我現在給你的蘋果會帶來歡樂。在你們的世界裏，它不會使人長生不老，但能夠治病。去吧，從樹上摘一個蘋果給你媽媽。”

一時間，迪格雷簡直被弄糊塗了。好像整個世界都顛倒混亂了。然後，他彷彿做夢一樣，向那棵樹走去，國王和王后爲他歡呼，動物們也都爲他歡呼。他摘下蘋果，放進口袋，回到阿斯蘭身邊。.

“對不起，”他說，“我們可以回家了嗎?”他忘了說“謝謝”，但他有這個意思，而阿斯蘭也理解他。