27 Twenty-seven

Twenty-seven James Henry Trotter and his companions crouched close together on top of the peach as the night began closing in around them. Clouds like mountains towered high above their heads on all sides, mysterious, menacing, overwhelming. Gradually it grew darker and darker, and then a pale three-quarter moon came up over the tops of the clouds and cast an eerie light over the whole scene. The giant peach swayed gently from side to side as it floated along, and the hundreds of silky white strings going upward from its stem were beautiful in the moonlight. So also was the great flock of seagulls overhead. There was not a sound anywhere. Travelling upon the peach was not in the least like travelling in an aeroplane. The aeroplane comes clattering and roaring through the sky, and whatever might be lurking secretly up there in the great cloud

詹姆斯·亨利·特罗特和他的同伴们紧紧地蜷缩在桃子顶上，夜幕开始笼罩着他们。 云像山一样从四面八方高耸在他们的头顶上，神秘、险恶、势不可挡。 渐渐地，天色越来越暗，一轮苍白的四分之三的月亮从云顶升起，在整个场景上投下了一种怪异的光芒。 巨大的桃子漂浮着，轻轻地左右摇摆着，在月光下，从它的茎上向上伸展的数百根白色丝线非常美丽。 头顶上那一大群海鸥也是如此。 周围一点声音也没有。 在桃子上旅行一点也不像在飞机上旅行。 飞机轰鸣着飞过天空，不管什么东西在那片大云里偷偷潜伏着

mountains goes running for cover at its approach. That is why people who travel in aeroplanes never see anything. But the peach… ah, yes… the peach was a soft, stealthy traveller, making no noise at all as it floated along. And several times during that long silent night ride high up over the middle of the ocean in the moonlight, James and his friends saw things that no one had ever seen before. Once, as they drifted silently past a massive white cloud, they saw on the top of it a group of strange, tall, wispy-looking things that were about twice the height of ordinary men. They were not easy to see at first because they were almost as

群山在它靠近时四处寻找掩护。 这就是为什么乘飞机旅行的人什么都看不到的原因。 可是桃子……啊，是的……桃子是一个柔软的、偷偷摸摸的旅行者，它漂来漂去，一点声音也没有。 在那个漫长而宁静的夜晚，在月光下，詹姆斯和他的朋友们多次在海洋中央高处骑行，看到了以前从未见过的东西。 有一次，当他们静静地漂过一片巨大的白云时，他们看到云顶上有一群奇怪的、高大的、纤细的东西，大约是普通人身高的两倍。 它们起初不容易被发现，因为它们几乎是

white as the cloud itself, but as the peach sailed closer, it became obvious that these 'things' were actually living creatures – tall, wispy, wraithlike, shadowy, white creatures who looked as though they were made out of a mixture of cotton-wool and candyfloss and thin white hairs. 'Oooooooooooooh!' the Ladybird said. 'I don't like this at all!' 'Ssshh!' James whispered back. 'Don't let them hear you! They must be Cloud-Men!' 'Cloud-Men!' they murmured, huddling closer together for comfort. 'Oh dear, oh dear!'

像云一样白，但当桃子航行得更近时，很明显，这些“东西”实际上是活生生的生物——高大、纤细、幽灵般的、模糊的白色生物，看起来好像是用棉花、棉花糖和细细的白色毛发混合而成的。 “Oooooooooooooh !瓢虫说。 “我一点也不喜欢这样!”“Ssshh !”詹姆斯小声回答。 “别让他们听见!”他们一定是云人!“使男性!他们低声说，挤得更紧些以求安慰。 “天哪，天哪!”

'I'm glad I'm blind and can't see them,' the Earthworm said, 'or I would probably scream.' 'I hope they don't turn round and see us,' Miss Spider stammered. 'Do you think they would eat us?' the Earthworm asked. 'They would eat you,' the Centipede answered, grinning. 'They would cut you up like a salami and eat you in thin slices.' The poor Earthworm began to quiver all over with fright. 'But what are they doing?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper whispered. 'I don't know,' James answered softly. 'Let's watch and see.' The Cloud-Men were all standing in a group, and they were doing something peculiar with their hands. First, they would reach out (all of them at once) and grab handfuls of cloud. Then they would roll these handfuls of cloud in their fingers until they turned into what looked like large white marbles. Then they would toss the marbles to one

“我很高兴我是瞎子，看不见他们，”蚯蚓说，“否则我可能会尖叫。“我希望他们不要回头看见我们，”蜘蛛小姐结结巴巴地说。 “你认为它们会吃掉我们吗?”蚯蚓问。 “他们会吃掉你的。”蜈蚣咧嘴笑着回答。 “他们会像切腊肠一样把你切成薄片吃掉。”可怜的蚯蚓吓得浑身发抖。 “可他们在干什么?”老绿蚱蜢低声说。 “我不知道。”詹姆斯轻声回答。 “让我们拭目以待。”云人都站成一群，他们的手在做一些奇怪的事情。 首先，他们会伸出手来(所有人同时伸出手来)，抓一把云。 然后他们会用手指把这些云卷起来，直到它们变成看起来像白色的大弹子。 然后他们会把弹珠扔给一个

side and quickly grab more bits of cloud and start over again. It was all very silent and mysterious. The pile of marbles beside them kept growing larger and larger. Soon there was a truckload of them there at least. 'They must be absolutely mad!' the Centipede said. 'There's nothing to be afraid of here!' 'Be quiet, you pest!' the Earthworm whispered. 'We shall all be eaten if they see us!' But the Cloud-Men were much too busy with what they were doing to have noticed the great peach floating silently up behind them. Then the watchers on the peach saw one of the Cloud-Men raising his long wispy arms above his head and they heard him shouting, 'All right, boys! That's enough! Get the shovels!' And all the other Cloud-Men immediately let out a strange high-pitched whoop of joy and started jumping up and down and waving their arms in the air. Then they picked up enormous shovels and rushed over to the pile of marbles and began shovelling them as fast as they could over the side of the cloud,

一边快速抓取更多的云，重新开始。 一切都很安静，很神秘。 他们身边的那堆弹珠越来越大。 很快，至少有一卡车的人在那里。 “他们一定是疯了!”蜈蚣说。 “这里没有什么可怕的!”“安静点，你这个讨厌鬼!”蚯蚓低声说。 “如果他们看到我们，我们都会被吃掉的!”但是云人太忙于他们正在做的事情，没有注意到那只巨大的桃子在他们身后静静地漂浮着。 这时，桃子上的守望者看到一个云人把他细长的手臂举过头顶，他们听到他喊道:“好了，孩子们!够了!拿铲子来!”所有其他的云人立刻发出一声奇怪的高亢的欢呼，开始上蹿下跳，在空中挥舞着手臂。 然后，他们拿起巨大的铁锹，冲到那堆弹子堆前，用最快的速度把弹子铲过云层，

into space. 'Down they go!' they chanted as they worked. 'Down they go! Hail and snow! Freezes and sneezes and noses will blow!' 'It's hailstones!' whispered James excitedly. 'They've been making hailstones and now they

进入太空。“他们下去了!”他们一边工作一边高呼。 “他们下去了!”冰雹和雪!冻僵、打喷嚏、擤鼻涕!“是冰雹!”詹姆斯兴奋地小声说。 他们一直在造冰雹，现在他们