《能言馬與男孩》第41期:在蒂斯羅克的密室裏(1)

Chapter 8 In the House of The Tisroc
"OH-my-father-and-oh-the-delight-of-my-eyes," began the young man, muttering the words very quickly and sulkily and not at all as if the Tisroc were the delight of his eyes. "May you live for ever, but you have utterly destroyed me. If you had given me the swiftest of the galleys at sunrise when I first saw that the ship of the accursed barbarians was gone from her place I would perhaps have overtaken them. But you persuaded me to send first and see if they had not merely moved round the point into better anchorage. And now the whole day has been wasted. And they are gone - gone - out of my reach! The false jade, the-" and here he added a great many descriptions of Queen Susan which would not look at all nice in print. For of course this young man was Prince Rabadash and of course the false jade was Susan of Narnia.
"Compose yourself, O my son," said the Tisroc. "For the departure of guests makes a wound that is easily healed in the heart of a judicious host."
"But I want her," cried the Prince. "I must have her. I shall die if I do not get her- false, proud, black-hearted daughter of a dog that she is! I cannot sleep and my food has no savour and my eyes are darkened because of her beauty. I must have the barbarian queen."
"How well it was said by a gifted poet," observed the Vizier, raising his face (in a somewhat dusty condition) from the carpet, "that deep draughts from the fountain of reason are desirable in order to extinguish the fire of youthful love."
This seemed to exasperate the Prince. "Dog," he shouted, directing a series of well-aimed kicks at the hindquarters of the Vizier, "do not dare to quote the poets to me. I have had maxims and verses flung at me all day and I can endure them no more." I am afraid Aravis did not feel at all sorry for the Vizier.
The Tisroc was apparently sunk in thought, but when, after a long pause, he noticed what was happening, he said tranquilly:
"My son, by all means desist from kicking the venerable and enlightened Vizier: for as a costly jewel retains its value even if hidden in a dung-hill, so old age and discretion are to be respected even in the vile persons of our subjects. Desist therefore, and tell us what you desire and propose."
"I desire and propose, O my father," said Rabadash, "that you immediately call out your invincible armies and invade the thrice-accursed land of Narnia and waste it with fire and sword and add it to your illimitable empire, killing their High King and all of his blood except the queen Susan. For I must have her as my wife, though she shall learn a sharp lesson first."

第8章 在蒂斯羅克的密室裏
“啊——我的父親，我——眼睛——中——的——喜悅，”年輕人開言道，咕咕噥噥，吐字很快，很不開心，壓根兒不像他所說的蒂斯羅克是他眼中的喜悅。”願你萬壽無疆，但你已經把我完全毀了。如果你在日出時給了我最快的單層甲板大帆船，如果我最初看見那該死的外邦人的船開出去時就追的話，說不定已經追上他們了。可是你勸我先送行，瞧瞧他們是否只是繞着海呻找個更好的碇泊所。如今整整一天已經浪費了。而他們走掉了——走掉了——走得我們追不上了！那個虛假的女人，那個……”他在這兒還加了許多對女王蘇珊的形容詞，如果印出來，就壓根兒不雅觀了。因爲，這個年輕人當然是王子拉巴達什，那個虛假的女人當然是納尼亞的蘇珊。
“我的兒子啊，把你的情緒鎮靜下來，”蒂斯羅克說道，”因爲，客人的離去所造成的創傷，在一個明智的主人的心裏是容易治好的。”
“可是我要她，”王子大聲嚷嚷道，”我必須佔有她。如果我弄不到她，我就要死了。她是一隻老狗的虛僞的、驕傲的、黑心腸的女兒。我沒法睡覺，我吃東西不香，沒有滋味，由於她的美麗，我的眼睛都發黑了。我一定要把這外邦的女王弄到手。”
“一位天才詩人說得好，”首相說道，從地毯上擡起他那滿是灰塵的臉，”爲了消滅年輕的愛情之火，從理智的泉水深飲幾口是合乎需要的。”
這話似乎激怒了王子。”狗東西，”他吼道，一連幾腳對準首相的展股踢去，”別對我放肆引證詩人的話。整天都有格言和詩句向我扔過來，我再也忍受不了啦！”我想，阿拉維斯恐怕壓根兒不爲大臣感到難過。
蒂斯羅克顯然陷入了沉思，但過了半晌，當他注意到正發生什麼事情時，他平靜地答道：
“我的兒子，無論如何，別再踢年高德劭和博學開明的大臣了；正如昂貴的珠寶，即使藏在糞堆裏，也仍舊保持它的價值，所以老年和謹慎都是該尊敬的，即使它們存在於我們臣民中微不足道的人身上。因此，別再踢了，把你的願望和建議告訴我們吧。”
“我的父親啊，我的願望和建議是，”拉巴達什說，”你立刻召集你那戰無不勝的軍隊，入侵納尼亞這萬分該死的土地，用火和劍掃蕩這個國家，把它吞併到你無限的帝國裏來，殺掉它的至尊王以及他的王族，只放過女王蘇珊一人口因爲我一定要娶她做我的妻子，儘管她得先領教一下辛辣的教訓！。”