24 Twenty-four

Twenty-four But up on the peach itself, everyone was still happy and excited. 'I wonder where we'll finish up this time,' the Earthworm said. 'Who cares?' they answered. 'Seagulls always go back to the land sooner or later.' Up and up they went, high above the highest clouds, the peach swaying gently from side to side as it floated along. 'Wouldn't this be a perfect time for a little music?' the Ladybird asked. 'How about it, Old Grasshopper?' 'With pleasure, dear lady,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper answered, bowing from the waist. 'Oh, hooray! He's going to play for us!' they cried, and immediately the whole company sat

但在桃子上，每个人仍然很高兴和兴奋。 “我想知道这次我们在哪里结束。”蚯蚓说。 “谁在乎呢?他们回答说。 “海鸥迟早都会回到陆地上。”他们越升越高，一直升到最高的云层之上，桃子飘浮着，轻轻地左右摇摆着。 “这不是听点音乐的好时机吗?”瓢虫问。 “怎么样，老蚱蜢?”“很乐意，亲爱的女士，”老绿蚱蜢回答说，从腰部鞠了一躬。 “噢,万岁!他要为我们演奏!他们叫道，大家立刻坐了下来

themselves down in a circle around the Old Green Musician – and the concert began. From the moment that the first note was struck, the audience became completely spellbound. And as for James, never had he heard such beautiful music as this! In the garden at home on summer evenings, he had listened many times to the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the grass, and he had always liked the noise that they made. But this was a different kind of noise altogether. This was real music – chords, harmonies, tunes, and all the rest of it. And what a wonderful instrument the Old-Green-Grasshopper was playing upon. It was like a violin! It was almost exactly as though he were playing upon a violin! The bow of the violin, the part that moved, was his back leg. The strings of the violin, the part that made the sound, was the edge of his wing. He was using only the top of his back leg (the thigh), and he was stroking this up and down against the edge of his wing with incredible skill, sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, but always

他们围着老绿音乐家围成一圈——音乐会开始了。 从第一个音符响起的那一刻起，观众就完全被迷住了。 至于詹姆斯，他从来没有听过这么美妙的音乐!夏天的晚上，在家里的花园里，他多次听到蚱蜢在草地上唧唧喳喳的声音，他一直很喜欢它们发出的声音。 但这是一种完全不同的声音。 这是真正的音乐——和弦、和声、曲调等等。 老绿蚱蜢弹奏的是多么美妙的乐器啊! 它就像一把小提琴!他简直就像在拉小提琴!小提琴的琴弓，也就是他的后腿在动。 小提琴的琴弦，发出声音的部分，就是他翅膀的边缘。 他只用后腿的上部(大腿)，用令人难以置信的技巧在翅膀边缘上下拍打，有时慢，有时快，但总是如此

with the same easy flowing action. It was precisely the way a clever violinist would have used his bow; and the music came pouring out and filled the whole blue sky around them with magic melodies. When the first part was finished, everyone clapped madly, and Miss Spider stood up and shouted, 'Bravo! Encore! Give us some more!' 'Did you like that, James?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked, smiling at the small boy. 'Oh, I loved it!' James answered. 'It was beautiful! It was as though you had a real violin in your hands!' 'A real violin!' the Old-Green-Grasshopper cried. 'Good heavens, I like that! My dear boy, I am a real violin! It is a part of my own body!' 'But do all grasshoppers play their music on violins, the same way as you do?' James asked him. 'No,' he answered, 'not all. If you want to know, I happen to be a "short-horned" grasshopper. I have two short feelers coming out of my head. Can you see them? There they are.

用同样轻松流畅的动作。 这正是一个聪明的小提琴家使用他的弓的方式;音乐倾泻而出，让他们周围的蓝天充满了神奇的旋律。 当第一部分结束时，每个人都疯狂地鼓掌，蜘蛛小姐站起来喊道:“好!再来一个!再给我们一些!“你喜欢吗，詹姆斯?”老绿蚱蜢问，微笑着看着小男孩。 “哦，我爱死它了!”詹姆斯回答说。 “太美了!”就好像你手里拿着一把真正的小提琴!“一把真正的小提琴!”老绿蚱蜢叫道。 “天哪，我喜欢!”我亲爱的孩子，我是真正的小提琴手!它是我身体的一部分!“难道所有的蚱蜢都像你一样用小提琴演奏音乐吗?”詹姆斯问他。 “不，”他回答，“不全是。 如果你想知道，我恰好是一只“短角”蚱蜢。 我的脑袋里伸出了两个短触角。 你能看见他们吗?他们在那里。

They are quite short, aren't they? That's why they call me a "short-horn". And we "short-horns" are the only ones who play our music in the violin style, using a bow. My "long-horned" relatives, the ones who have long curvy feelers coming out of their heads, make their music simply by rubbing the edges of their two top wings together. They are not violinists, they are wing-rubbers. And a rather inferior noise these wing-rubbers produce, too, if I may say so. It sounds more like a banjo than a fiddle.' 'How fascinating this all is!' cried James. 'And to think that up until now I had never even wondered how a grasshopper made his sounds.' 'My dear young fellow,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours that you haven't started wondering about yet. Where, for example, do you think that I keep my ears?' 'Your ears? Why, in your head, of course.' Everyone burst out laughing. 'You mean you don't even know that?' cried the Centipede.

他们很矮，不是吗? 这就是为什么他们叫我“短视者”。 我们“短号”是唯一用小提琴风格演奏音乐的人，用弓。 我的“长角”亲戚，那些长而弯曲的触角从头上伸出来的，仅仅通过摩擦它们的两个顶部翅膀的边缘来制作音乐。 他们不是小提琴手，他们是小提琴手。 如果我可以这么说的话，这些翅膀上的橡胶发出的声音也相当低。 听起来更像班卓琴而不是小提琴。“这一切多么迷人啊!”詹姆斯叫道。 “想到这一点，到目前为止，我甚至从未想过蚱蜢是如何发出声音的。“我亲爱的年轻人，”老绿蚱蜢温和地说，“在我们这个世界上，有很多事情你还没有开始想过。 比如，你认为我把耳朵放在哪里?“你的耳朵?” 当然是在你的脑子里。”大家都大笑起来。 “你是说你根本不知道?”蜈蚣叫道。

'Try again,' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper, smiling at James. 'You can't possibly keep them anywhere else?' 'Oh, can't I?' 'Well – I give up. Where do you keep them?' 'Right here,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. 'One on each side of my tummy.' 'It's not true!' 'Of course it's true. What's so peculiar about that? You ought to see where my cousins the crickets and the katydids keep theirs.' 'Where do they keep them?' 'In their legs. One in each front leg, just below the knee.' 'You mean you didn't know that either?' the Centipede said scornfully. 'You're joking,' James said. 'Nobody could possibly have his ears in his legs.' 'Why not?' 'Because… because it's ridiculous, that's why.'

“再试一次，”老绿蚱蜢对詹姆斯微笑着说。 “你不会把它们放在别的地方吧?”“哦，不能吗?”“好吧——我放弃了。” 你把它们放在哪里?“就在这儿，”老绿蚱蜢说。 “我肚子两边各一个。“这不是真的!””“当然是真的。 这有什么特别的? 你应该看看我的表亲蟋蟀和蝈蝈儿都养在哪里。“他们把它们放在哪里?””“在腿上。 每条前腿膝盖下方各有一个。“你是说你也不知道?”蜈蚣轻蔑地说。 “你在开玩笑。”詹姆斯说。 “没有人会把耳朵长在腿上。“为什么?”“因为……因为这太可笑了，这就是原因。”

'You know what I think is ridiculous?' the Centipede said, grinning away as usual. 'I don't mean to be rude, but I think it is ridiculous to have ears on the sides of one's head. It certainly looks ridiculous. You ought to take a peek in the mirror some day and see for yourself.' 'Pest!' cried the Earthworm. 'Why must you always be so rude and rambunctious to everyone? You ought to apologize to James at once.'

“你知道我认为什么是荒谬的吗?”蜈蚣像往常一样笑着说。 “我无意冒犯，但我觉得耳朵长在脑袋两侧是很可笑的。 这看起来确实很可笑。 哪天你应该照照镜子，自己看看。“害虫!蚯蚓叫道。 “你为什么总是对每个人都那么粗鲁无礼呢?” 你应该马上向詹姆斯道歉。”