《能言馬與男孩》第16期:在塔什班城門口(5)

Soon, however, they had more important things to think of. They were getting near Tashbaan. There were more, and larger, villages, and more people on the roads. They now did nearly all their travelling by night and hid as best they could during the day. And at every halt they argued and argued about what they were to do when they reached Tashbaan. Everyone had been putting off this difficulty, but now it could be put off no longer. During these discussions Aravis became a little, a very little, less unfriendly to Shasta; one usually gets on better with people when one is making plans than when one is talking about nothing in particular.

然而，不久他們就有更加重大的事情要考慮了。他們正在走近塔什班城，路上有更多更大的村莊，和爲數更多的人們。如今他們差不多都是在夜間趕路，到了白天就儘可能地躲藏起來。每次暫時歇腳，他們總是再三討論，到達塔什班時他們該怎麼辦？大家都把這個困難問題往下拖延，如今不能再拖下去了。在這些討論中，阿拉維斯對待沙斯塔的不友好態度，倒是點兒點兒地減少了，人在商量計劃時往往比閒談聊天時相處得好些。

Bree said the first thing now to do was to fix a place where they would all promise to meet on the far side of Tashbaan even if, by any ill luck, they got separated in passing the city. He said the best place would be the Tombs of the Ancient Kings on the very edge of the desert. "Things like great stone bee-hives," he said, "you can't possibly miss them. And the best of it is that none of the Calormenes will go near them because they think the place is haunted by ghouls and are afraid of it." Aravis asked if it wasn't really haunted by ghouls. But Bree said he was a free Narnian horse and didn't believe in these Calormene tales. And then Shasta said he wasn't a Calormene either and didn't care a straw about these old stories of ghouls. This wasn't quite true. But it rather impressed Aravis (though at the moment it annoyed her too) and of course she said she didn't mind any number of ghouls either. So it was settled that the Tombs should be their assembly place on the other side of Tashbaan, and everyonefelt they were getting on very well till Hwin humbly pointed out that the real problem was not where they should go when they had got through Tashbaan but how they were to get through it.

布里說，第一樁要辦的事情就是先確定一個地方，要是運氣不好，穿過城市時走散了，大家也要約定在塔什班城另一邊集合起來。它說最好的地方是古代國王的墳場，就在大沙漠的邊緣。”就像巨大的石頭蜂房似的東西，”它說，”你不可能錯過的。最大的優點是，沒有一個卡樂門人會走近這古墳場，因爲他們認爲那個地方是食屍鬼出沒之處，他們害怕它。”阿拉維斯問，是否真的有食屍鬼出沒？布里說，它是匹自由的納尼亞馬兒，不相信這些卡樂門的傳說。接着，沙斯塔說，他也不是個卡樂門人，對於這些個老掉了牙的食屍鬼傳說，他可絲毫不怕。這話可並不十分確實，但這話給阿拉維斯的印象倒很深(雖然當時電很叫她惱火)。當然啦，她說，有多少食屍鬼她也不怕。所以，事情就這麼決定下來了，古墳場應是他們在塔什班城那邊集合的地點，大家都覺得他們的討論進步很大，後來對由赫溫謙遜地指出，真正的問題不在於他們穿過了塔什班城應該到什麼地方去集合，而在於如何穿過塔什班城。

"We'll settle that tomorrow, Ma'am," said Bree. "Time for a little sleep now."

“女士，我們明天會安排好的，”布里說，”現在該睡一會兒了。”

But it wasn't easy to settle. Aravis's first suggestion was that they should swim across the river below the city during the night and not go into Tashbaan at all. But Bree had two reasons against this. One was that the river-mouth was very wide and it would be far too long a swim for Hwin to do, especially with a rider on her back. (He thought it would be too long for himself too, but he said much less about that). The other was that it would be full of shipping and of course anyone on the deck of a ship who saw two horses swimming past would be almost certain to be inquisitive.

然而，要安排好並不容易。阿拉維斯第一個建議是：他們應該在夜間游泳橫渡城外的河流，而根本不進入塔什班城。但布里反對，理由有兩條。一是河口很闊，赫溫要游過去的話，路程可太長了，特別是它背上還騎着一個人。(它認爲，對它自己說來，路程也太長，但對此它說得很少。)另一條理由是河上往來船隻繁多，當然囉，坐在甲板上的任何人，看到兩匹馬兒游泳渡河，定會問長問短的。

Shasta thought they should go up the river above Tashbaan and cross it where it was narrower. But Bree explained that there were gardens and pleasure houses on both banks of the river for miles and that there would be Tarkaans and Tarkheenas living in them and riding about the roads and having water parties on the river. In fact it would be the most likely place in the world for meeting someone who would recognize Aravis or even himself.

沙斯塔主張到塔什班以北的上游去，那兒的河流比較狹窄，容易橫渡。但布里解釋道，那兒好幾里長的河流兩岸，都有花園和遊樂場所，泰坎和泰克希娜們很可能就住在那兒的屋子裏面，並且在大路上騎馬，在河上舉行社交聚會。事實上，這很可能是世界上最容易遇到熟人，把阿拉維斯或布里認出來的地方。