03 Three

Three It was at this point that the first thing of all, the rather peculiar thing that led to so many other much more peculiar things, happened to him. For suddenly, just behind him, James heard a rustling of leaves, and he turned round and saw an old man in a funny dark-green suit emerging from the bushes. He was a very small old man, but he had a huge bald head and a face that was covered all over with bristly black whiskers. He stopped when he was about three yards away, and he stood there leaning on his stick and staring hard at James. When he spoke, his voice was very slow and creaky. 'Come closer to me, little boy,' he said, beckoning to James with a finger. 'Come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful.' James was too frightened to move.

就是在这个时候，他发生了第一件事，一件相当奇怪的事，它导致了许多其他更奇怪的事情。 因为突然，就在他身后，詹姆斯听到树叶沙沙作响，他转过身来，看到一个穿着有趣的深绿色西装的老人从灌木丛中走了出来。 他是一个非常矮小的老人，但他有一个巨大的秃头和一张满是浓密的黑胡须的脸。 走到大约三码远的地方，他停了下来，拄着手杖站在那里，死死盯着詹姆斯。 当他说话时，他的声音非常缓慢和吱吱作响。 “靠近我一点，小男孩。”他说着，用手指向詹姆斯示意。 “到我跟前来，我要给你看一件奇妙的东西。”詹姆斯吓得动弹不得。

The old man hobbled a step or two nearer, and then he put a hand into the pocket of his jacket and took out a small white paper bag. 'You see this?' he whispered, waving the bag gently to and fro in front of James's face. 'You know what this is, my dear? You know what's inside this little bag?' Then he came nearer still, leaning forward and pushing his face so close to James that James could feel breath blowing on his cheeks. The breath smelled musty and stale and slightly mildewed, like air in an old cellar.

老人一瘸一拐地走近一两步，然后把手伸进上衣口袋，掏出一个白色的小纸袋。 “你看到了吗?”他低声说，在詹姆面前轻轻地来回挥动着书包。 “你知道这是什么吗，亲爱的?” 你知道这小包里装的是什么吗?”然后他更靠近了，身体前倾，把脸凑得离詹姆斯很近，詹姆斯都能感觉到呼吸吹在他的脸颊上。 呼出的气闻起来发霉、不新鲜，有点发霉，就像旧地窖里的空气。

'Take a look, my dear,' he said, opening the bag and tilting it towards James. Inside it, James could see a mass of tiny green things that looked like little stones or crystals, each one about the size of a grain of rice. They were extraordinarily beautiful, and there was a strange brightness about them, a sort of luminous quality that made them glow and sparkle in the most wonderful way. 'Listen to them!' the old man whispered. 'Listen to them move!' James stared into the bag, and sure enough there was a faint rustling sound coming up from inside it, and then he noticed that all the thousands of little green things were slowly, very very slowly stirring about and moving over each other as though they were alive. 'There's more power and magic in those things in there than in all the rest of the world put together,' the old man said softly. 'But – but – what are they?' James murmured, finding his voice at last. 'Where do they come from?'

“看一看，亲爱的。”他说着打开袋子，把它朝詹姆斯倾斜。 在里面，詹姆斯可以看到一团小小的绿色东西，看起来像小石头或水晶，每一个都有一粒米那么大。 它们美得出奇，有一种奇特的光辉，一种发光的品质，使它们发出最奇妙的光芒。 “听他们的!”老人低声说。 “听他们的动静!”詹姆斯盯着袋子，果然从袋子里传出了微弱的沙沙声，然后他注意到，成千上万的绿色小东西都在慢慢地、非常非常缓慢地搅动着，彼此移动着，好像它们是活的。 “那里的那些东西比世界上所有其他东西加在一起还要有力量和魔力。”老人轻声说。 “可是——可是——它们是什么?”詹姆斯低声说，终于开口说话了。 “它们是从哪儿来的?”

'Ah-ha,' the old man whispered. 'You'd never guess that!' He was crouching a little now and pushing his face still closer and closer to James until the tip of his long nose was actually touching the skin on James's forehead. Then suddenly he jumped back and began waving his stick madly in the air. 'Crocodile tongues!' he cried. 'One thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey, the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew for another week, and then let the moon do the rest!' All at once, he pushed the white paper bag into James's hands, and said, 'Here! You take it! It's yours!'

“啊哈，”老人低声说。 “你绝对猜不到!”他现在稍微蜷缩了一下，把脸越来越靠近詹姆，直到他的长鼻尖真的碰到了詹姆额头上的皮肤。 然后他突然跳了回来，开始疯狂地在空中挥舞他的手杖。 “鳄鱼的舌头!他叫道。 “一千根长长的、黏糊糊的鳄鱼舌头在一个死去的女巫的头骨里沸腾了二十天两夜，还有一只蜥蜴的眼球!”加入小猴子的手指、猪的砂囊、绿鹦鹉的喙、豪猪的汁液和三勺糖。 再熬一个星期，剩下的就让月亮来做吧!”突然，他把那个白色纸袋塞到詹姆斯手里，说:“给!你拿去吧!这是你的!”