17 Seventeen

Seventeen At this moment, the scene inside the peach itself was one of indescribable chaos. James Henry Trotter was lying bruised and battered on the floor of the room amongst a tangled mass of Centipede and Earthworm and Spider and Ladybird and Glowworm and Old-Green-Grasshopper. In the whole history of the world, no travellers had ever had a more terrible journey than these unfortunate creatures. It had started out well, with much laughing and shouting, and for the first few seconds, as the peach had begun to roll slowly forward, nobody had minded being tumbled about a little bit. And when it went BUMP !, and the Centipede had shouted, 'That was Aunt Sponge!' and then BUMP! again, and 'That was Aunt Spiker!' there had been a tremendous burst of cheering all round.

此时，桃子内部的景象本身就是一种难以形容的混乱。 詹姆斯·亨利·特罗特伤痕累累地躺在地板上，周围是一堆乱七八糟的蜈蚣、蚯蚓、蜘蛛、瓢虫、萤火虫和老绿蚱蜢。 在整个世界历史上，没有一个旅行者比这些不幸的生物经历过更可怕的旅程。 一开始很顺利，大家笑着叫着，在最初的几秒钟里，桃子开始慢慢地向前滚动，没有人介意被摇晃了一下。 砰的一声，蜈蚣叫道:“那是海绵姨妈!“然后砰!”“那是斯派克姑妈!”四周爆发出一阵热烈的欢呼声。

But as soon as the peach rolled out of the garden and began to go down the steep hill, rushing and plunging and bounding madly downward, then the whole thing became a nightmare. James found himself being flung up against the ceiling, then back on to the floor, then sideways against the wall, then up on to the ceiling again, and up and down and back and forth and round and round, and at the same time all the other creatures were flying through the air in every direction, and so were the chairs and the sofa, not to mention the forty-two boots belonging to the Centipede. Everything and all of them were being rattled around like peas inside an enormous rattle that was being rattled by a mad giant who refused to stop. To make it worse, something went wrong with the Glow-worm's lighting system, and the room was in pitchy darkness. There were screams and yells and curses and cries of pain, and everything kept going round and round, and once James made a frantic grab at some thick bars sticking out from the wall only to find that they were a couple of the Centipede's legs. 'Let go, you idiot!' shouted the Centipede, kicking himself

可是，桃子一滚出花园，开始往陡峭的山坡上滚去，又冲又跳，疯狂地往下跳，整个事情就变成了一场噩梦。 詹姆斯发现自己被抛到天花板上，然后又回到地板上，然后又侧身贴在墙上，然后又回到天花板上，上上下下，前后来回，转来转去，与此同时，所有其他的生物都在空中向四面八方飞来飞去，椅子和沙发也是如此，更不用说那只蜈蚣的四十二只靴子了。 他们所有的东西都像豌豆一样在一个巨大的摇铃里摇来摇去，这是一个不肯停下来的疯狂巨人在摇铃。 更糟糕的是，萤火虫的照明系统出了问题，房间里一片漆黑。 尖叫声、喊叫声、诅咒声和痛苦的叫声，一切都在不停地转啊转。有一次，詹姆斯疯狂地去抓墙上伸出来的几根粗粗的铁条，却发现那是蜈蚣的两条腿。 “放开我，你这个白痴!”蜈蚣喊着，踢了自己一脚

free, and James was promptly flung across the room into the Old-Green-Grasshopper's horny lap. Twice he got tangled up in Miss Spider's legs (a horrid business), and towards the end, the poor Earthworm, who was cracking himself like a whip every time he flew through the air from one side of the room to the other, coiled himself around James's body in a panic and refused to unwind. Oh, it was a frantic and terrible trip!

杰姆斯立刻被扔到房间的另一头，落在老绿蚱蜢长了角的腿上。 有两次，他被蜘蛛小姐的腿缠住了(这是一件可怕的事)。最后，那条可怜的蚯蚓，每次在空中从房间的一边飞到另一边时，都像鞭子一样噼啪作响，惊慌失措地盘绕在詹姆斯的身体上，不肯放松。 哦，这是一次疯狂而可怕的旅行!

But it was all over now, and the room was suddenly very still and quiet. Everybody was beginning slowly and painfully to disentangle himself from everybody else. 'Let's have some light!' shouted the Centipede. 'Yes!' they cried. 'Light! Give us some light!' 'I'm trying,' answered the poor Glow-worm. 'I'm doing my best. Please be patient.' They all waited in silence. Then a faint greenish light began to glimmer out of the Glow-worm's tail, and this gradually became stronger and stronger until it was anyway enough to see by. 'Some great journey!' the Centipede said, limping across the room. 'I shall never be the same again,' murmured the Earthworm. 'Nor I,' the Ladybird said. 'It's taken years off my life.' 'But my dear friends!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper, trying to be cheerful. 'We are there!' 'Where?' they asked. 'Where? Where is there?'

但现在一切都结束了，房间里突然变得非常安静。 每个人都开始缓慢而痛苦地把自己从其他人中解脱出来。 “让我们来点光吧!”蜈蚣喊道。 “是的!他们叫道。“光!给我们点光!“我正在努力，”可怜的萤火虫回答。 “我已经尽力了。请耐心点。”他们都默默地等着。 然后，从萤火虫的尾巴上发出了微弱的绿光，这光越来越强，直到可以看过去为止。 “多么伟大的旅行啊!”蜈蚣说着，一瘸一拐地穿过房间。 “我再也不会像以前一样了。”蚯蚓喃喃地说。 “我也不知道，”瓢虫说。 “这让我少活了好几岁。“可是我亲爱的朋友们!”老绿蚱蜢叫道，努力使自己高兴起来。 “我们到了!”“在哪里?他们问。 “在哪里?那儿在哪儿?”

'I don't know,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. 'But I'll bet it's somewhere good.' 'We are probably at the bottom of a coal mine,' the Earthworm said gloomily. 'We certainly went down and down and down very suddenly at the last moment. I felt it in my stomach. I still feel it.' 'Perhaps we are in the middle of a beautiful country full of songs and music,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. 'Or near the seashore,' said James eagerly, 'with lots of other children down on the sand for me to play with!' 'Pardon me,' murmured the Ladybird, turning a trifle pale, 'but am I wrong in thinking that we seem to be bobbing up and down?' 'Bobbing up and down!' they cried. 'What on earth do you mean?' 'You're still giddy from the journey,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper told her. 'You'll get over it in a minute. Is everybody ready to go upstairs now and take a look round?' 'Yes, yes!' they chorused. 'Come on! Let's go!'

“我不知道，”老绿蚱蜢说。 “不过我敢打赌一定是在什么好地方。“我们可能是在煤矿底下，”蚯蚓沮丧地说。 “我们确实在最后一刻突然下降，下降，下降。 我感觉到了我的胃。我现在还能感觉到。“也许我们是在一个充满歌声和音乐的美丽国家的中央，”老绿蚱蜢说。 “或者在海边，”詹姆斯急切地说，“有很多其他的孩子在沙滩上让我玩!“对不起，”小鸟儿的脸色有点发白，喃喃地说，“我认为我们好像在上下浮动，我错了吗?”“上下摆动!”他们叫道。 “你到底是什么意思?”老绿蚱蜢对她说:“你还在晕乎乎的。” “你很快就会好起来的。 大家都准备好上楼去看看了吗?“是的，是的!”他们异口同声地说。 “来吧!我们走吧!”

'I refuse to show myself out of doors in my bare feet,' the Centipede said. 'I have to get my boots on again first.' 'For heaven's sake, let's not go through all that nonsense again,' the Earthworm said. 'Let's all lend the Centipede a hand and get it over with,' the Ladybird said. 'Come on.' So they did, all except Miss Spider, who set about weaving a long rope-ladder that would reach from the floor up to a hole in the ceiling. The Old-Green-Grasshopper had wisely said that they must not risk going out of the side entrance when they didn't know where they were, but must first of all go up on to the top of the peach and have a look round. So half an hour later, when the rope-ladder had been finished and hung, and the forty-second boot had been laced neatly on to the Centipede's fortysecond foot, they were all ready to go out. Amidst mounting excitement and shouts of 'Here we go, boys! The Promised Land! I can't wait to see it!' the whole company climbed up the ladder one by one and disappeared into a dark soggy tunnel in

“我不愿意光着脚出门。”蜈蚣说。 “我得先把靴子穿上。”“看在上帝的份上，我们不要再说那些废话了。”蚯蚓说。 “让我们大家帮蜈蚣一把，把它解决掉吧。”瓢虫说。 “来吧。”除了蜘蛛小姐，他们都这么做了，她开始编织一个长长的绳梯，从地板一直伸到天花板上的一个洞。 老绿蚱蜢很聪明地告诉他们，当他们不知道自己在哪里的时候，他们不能冒险从侧门出去，而是必须先爬到桃子的顶部，环顾四周。 所以，半小时以后，绳梯已经做好，挂好了，第四十二只靴子已经整齐地系在蜈蚣的第四十二只脚上，他们都准备出去了。 在不断高涨的兴奋和“出发了，孩子们!”应许之地!我等不及要看了!整个连队一个接一个地爬上梯子，消失在黑暗潮湿的隧道里