《魔法師的外甥》第49期:第一個笑柄及其他(5)

Then all the animals looked and saw Uncle Andrew, standing very still among the rhododendrons and hoping he wouldn't be noticed.

"Come on!" said several voices. "Let's go and find out." So, while Strawberry was briskly trotting away with Digory in one direction (and Polly and the Cabby were following on foot) most of the creatures rushed towards Uncle Andrew with roars, barks, grunts, and various noises of cheerful interest.

We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew's point of view. It had not made at' all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are. Ever since the animals had first appeared, Uncle Andrew had been shrinking further and further back into the thicket. He watched them very hard of course; but he wasn't really interested in seeing what they were doing, only in seeing whether they were going to make a rush at him. Like the Witch, he was dreadfully practical. He simply didn't notice that Aslan was choosing one pair out of every kind of Beasts. All he saw, or thought he saw, was a lot of dangerous wild animals walking vaguely about. And he kept on wondering why the other animals didn't run away from the big Lion.

When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion ("only a lion," as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn't singing and never had been singing - only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. "Of course it can't really have been singing," he thought, "I must have imagined it. I've been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?" And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the Lion spoke and said, "Narnia awake," he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl. And when the Beasts spoke in answer, he heard only barkings, growlings, bayings, and howlings. And when they laughed - well, you can imagine. That was worse for Uncle Andrew than anything that had happened yet. Such a horrid, bloodthirsty din of hungry and angry brutes he had never heard in his life. Then, to his utter rage and horror, he saw the other three humans actually walking out into the open to meet the animals.

所有的動物都朝那邊看去，看見安德魯舅舅筆挺地站在杜鵑花叢中，生怕被人發現。

“走”，幾個聲音說，“過去看看。”當“草莓”帶着迪格雷輕快地朝一個方向跑去時（波莉和馬車伕走在後面），大多數動物一路吼叫若、狂吠着、咕噥着，發出各種興高采烈的聲音，向安德住舅舅奔去。

我們必須回過頭去從安德魯舅舅的角度來解釋眼前發生的事。他的印象跟馬車伕和孩子們的完全不同；因爲一個人的見聞很大程度上取決於他所站的立場，以及他是哪種人自從動物們最初出現以來，安德每舅舅就一步一步地朝灌木叢退去。當然，他也仔細地看着它們；並不是對它們所做的事然興趣，而是看它們會不會朝自己跑來。像女巫一樣，他極端實際，根本沒注意到阿斯蘭從每種動物裏選出一對，他只看見，或者自認爲只看見，許多危險的野獸亂七八糟地走來走去。他一直感到納悶的是，爲什麼其他動物不逃離那頭巨獅。

出於一個十分滑稽的原因，他錯過了野獸們開口說話的偉大時刻。很久以前，當獅子最初開始歌唱時，天還很黑，他也意識到那聲音是一首歌。他很不喜歡那首歌。它使他想起並感覺到他不願想也不願感覺的事情。後來，當太陽升起時，他看見歌者是一頭獅子（“只不過是一頭獅子，”他對自己說）。他竭盡全力使自己相信它不是在唱歌。並且從來就沒有唱過歌——只有我們這個世界的動物園裏任何獅子都會發出的吼聲。“當然，它不可能唱歌，”他想，“是我的想像，我的神經有毛病了。誰聽見過獅子唱歌？”獅子唱得愈久愈動聽。他就愈加努力地使自己相信他聽到的不過是吼叫。麻煩的是，你想使自己比實際上更思蠢一些的時候。往往能夠成功。安德魯舅舅就是這樣。很快，他從阿斯蘭的歌聲中便只聽見獅吼了。即使他想聽，也聽不出別的內容。最後，當翻子張口說“納尼亞醒來”時，他除了一聲咆哮外什麼也沒聽見。當動物們回答阿斯蘭時，他也只聽見一陣混雜不清的叫聲。而當它們開口笑時——你可以想像，這對安德魯魯舅來說是最最可怕的事情。他一輩子從來沒有聽見過飢餓發狂的野獸發出如此恐怖、如此殘忍的殺氣騰騰的喧囂聲。過後，他看到那三個人真的朝開闊地早的動物們走去時，便感到憤怒和害怕極了。