《魔法師的外甥》第68期:栽樹(2)
To explain all this we must go back a bit. The Beasts, you remember, had tried planting and watering him. When the watering brought him to his senses, he found himself soaking wet, buried up to his thighs in earth (which was quickly turning into mud) and surrounded by more wild animals than he had ever dreamed of in his life before. It is perhaps not surprising that he began to scream and howl. This was in a way a good thing, for it at last persuaded everyone (even the Warthog) that he was alive. So they dug him up again (his trousers were in a really shocking state by now). As soon as his legs were free he tried to bolt, but one swift curl of the Elephant's trunk round his waist soon put an end to that. Everyone now thought he must be safely kept somewhere till Aslan had time to come and see him and say what should be done about him. So they made a sort of cage or coop all round him. They then offered him everything they could; think of to eat.
The Donkey collected great piles of thistles and threw them in, but Uncle Andrew didn't seem to care about them. The Squirrels bombarded him with volleys of nuts but he only covered his head with his hands and tried to keep out of the way. Several birds flew to and fro deligently dropping worms on him. The Bear was especially kind. During the afternoon he found a wild bees' nest and instead of eating it himself (which he would very much like to have done) this worthy creature brought it back to Uncle Andrew. But this was in fact the worst failure of all. The Bear lobbed the whole sticky mass over the top of the enclosure and unfortunately it hit Uncle Andrew slap in the face (not all the bees were dead). The Bear, who would not at all have minded being hit in the face by a honeycomb himself, could not understand why Uncle Andrew staggered back, slipped, and sat down. And it was sheer bad luck that he sat down on the pile of thistles. "And anyway," as the Warthog said, "quite a lot of honey has got into the creature's mouth and that's bound to have done it some good." They were really getting quite fond of their strange pet and hoped that Aslan would allow them to keep it. The cleverer ones were quite sure by now that at least some of the noises which came out of his mouth had a meaning. They christened him Brandy because he made that noise so often.
In the end, however, they had to leave him there for the night. Aslan was busy all that day instructing the new King and Queen and doing other important things, and could not attend to "poor old Brandy". What with the nuts, pears, apples, and bananas that had been thrown in to him, he did fairly well for supper; but it wouldn't be true to say that he passed an agreeable night.
"Bring out that creature," said Aslan. One of the Elephants lifted Uncle Andrew in its trunk and laid him at the Lion's feet. He was too frightened to move.
"Please, Aslan," said Polly, "could you say something to - to unfrighten him? And then could you say something to prevent him from ever coming back here again?"
"Do you think he wants to?" said Aslan.
"Well, Aslan," said Polly, "he might send someone else. He's so excited about the bar off the lamp-post growing into a lamp-post tree and he thinks -"
"He thinks great folly, child," said Aslan. "This world is bursting with life for these few days because the song with which I called it into life still hangs in the air and rumbles in the ground. It will not be so for long. But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would hear only growlings and roarings. Oh Adam's sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good! But I will give him the only gift he is still able to receive."
我們必須倒回去才能解釋清楚。你記得動物們曾試着把他栽進土裏並且澆了水吧?當水使他頭腦清醒時，他發現自己渾身溼透，大腿以下全部埋在土裏(土很快變成了泥漿)，被他做夢也想不到的衆多野獸包圍着。自然他開始尖聲號叫。從某種意義上講，這是一件好事，因爲，最終動物們(包括野豬)知道他還活着。於是，它們又把他挖出來(此刻，他的褲子着實會嚇人一跳)。腿一出來，他就想跑，但大象用鼻子在他腰上輕輕一卷便擋住了他。每個動物都認爲必須將他安全地囚起來，直到阿斯蘭有空過來看了以後再行發落。所以，它們就做了一個籠子或者說棚子將他圈了起來。然後，用它們想得到的所有食物喂他。
驢子將一大堆薊扔進籠子，但安德魯舅舅似乎並不理睬。松鼠們連珠炮似的砸下許多堅果，但他只是用手遮頭，想法躲開。幾隻鳥兒勤奮地飛來飛去，向籠子裏投下蟲子。那頭熊尤其善良。下午，它發現一隻野蜂的蜂巢，高尚的熊自己捨不得吃(它其實非常想吃)，帶回來給了安德魯舅舅。然而，這是最失敗的一招。熊把那團黏乎乎的東西掛在籠子的頂上，不巧打着了安德魯舅舅的臉(不是所有的蜂都死了)。那頭熊自己毫不在乎臉被蜂巢打一下，也就無法理解安德魯舅舅爲什麼蹣跚着往後退，滑了一跤，跌坐在地。而非常不幸的是，他又坐在了那堆薊上。“無論如何，”像那頭野豬說的，“不少蜂蜜流進了那東西的嘴巴，一定會對他有好處。”它們對這個奇怪的寵物真正地感起興趣來，並希望阿斯蘭允許它們飼養他。較聰明的一些動物十分肯定地說，他嘴裏發出的聲音中至少有一部分是有意義的。它們叫他“白蘭地”，因爲他常常發出那個音。
然而，最後，他們不得不把他留在那裏過夜。那天，阿斯蘭一直忙着指導新的國王和王后，或做其他重要的事情，無法過問“可憐的老白蘭地”。那麼多蘋果、梨子、堅果和香蕉扔了進去。他的晚餐相當豐盛，但要說他度過了一個愉快的夜晚卻很不真實。
“把那東西帶出來。”阿斯蘭說。一頭大象用鼻子將安德魯舅舅捲了起來，放在獅子腳邊，他嚇得無法動彈了。
“對不起，阿斯蘭，”波莉說，“你能說點兒什麼——讓他別害怕嗎?然後再說點兒什麼讓他以後別再來這兒?”
“你認爲他想來嗎?”阿斯蘭說。
“嗯，阿斯蘭，”波莉說，“他可能會派別人來。從燈柱上扭下的鐵棒又長成小燈柱使他很激動，他想——”
“他的想法非常蠢，孩子，”阿斯蘭說：“這個世界在這幾天裏充滿着生命力，是因爲給它注入生命力的歌聲還飄逸在空中，迴盪在地上。這是不會持續很久的。可是我不能跟這老無賴說這些，我也無法安慰他。他弄得他自己無法聽懂我的話。如果我對他說話，他只會聽到咕噥和咆哮。啊，亞當的孩子，你們抵抗了對你們有好處的所有誘惑，多麼聰明!但我會把他能夠接受的惟一禮物給他的。”
