01 A Note about Witches

A Note about Witches In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy-tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. The most important thing you should know about REAL WITCHES is this. Listen very carefully. Never forget what is coming next. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ORDINARY JOBS. That is why they are so hard to catch. A REAL WITCH hates children with a red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and red-hot than any hatred you could possibly imagine. A REAL WITCH spends all her time plotting to get rid of the children in her particular territory. Her passion is to do away with them, one by one. It is

在童话故事中，女巫总是戴着愚蠢的黑帽子，穿着黑斗篷，骑着扫帚。 但这不是童话。 这是关于真正的女巫。 关于真正的女巫，你应该知道的最重要的事情是。 仔细听。永远不要忘记接下来会发生什么。 真正的女巫穿着普通的衣服，看起来很像普通的女人。 他们住在普通的房子里，做着普通的工作。 这就是为什么它们如此难以捕捉。 一个真正的女巫对孩子的憎恨是炽热的，比你能想象到的任何仇恨都要强烈和炽热。 一个真正的女巫花了她所有的时间来密谋摆脱孩子在她的特定领土。 她的热情就是一个接一个地除掉他们。 它是

all she thinks about the whole day long. Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman or driving round in a fancy car (and she could be doing any of these things), her mind will always be plotting and scheming and churning and burning and whizzing and phizzing with murderous bloodthirsty thoughts. 'Which child,' she says to herself all day long, 'exactly which child shall I choose for my next squelching?' A REAL WITCH gets the same pleasure from squelching a child as you get from eating a plateful of strawberries and thick cream. She reckons on doing away with one child a week. Anything less than that and she becomes grumpy. One child a week is fifty-two a year. Squish them and squiggle them and make them disappear. That is the motto of all witches.

她整天想的都是。 即使她在超市当收银员，或者为商人打字，或者开着豪车到处转(她可能在做这些事情中的任何一件)，她的脑子里也总是在密谋、策划、翻腾、燃烧、呼啸、嗡嗡作响，充满了嗜血的杀人念头。 “哪一个孩子，”她整天都在对自己说，“下一个我应该选择哪个孩子呢?”一个真正的女巫从压扁一个孩子中得到的乐趣和你吃一盘草莓和浓奶油的乐趣是一样的。 她打算每星期处死一个孩子。 如果做不到这一点，她就会变得脾气暴躁。 一周一个孩子一年52个。 把它们压扁，乱涂乱画，让它们消失。 这是所有女巫的座右铭。

Very carefully a victim is chosen. Then the witch stalks the wretched child like a hunter stalking a little bird in the forest. She treads softly. She moves quietly. She gets closer and closer. Then at last, when everything is ready … phwisst! … and she swoops! Sparks fly. Flames leap. Oil boils. Rats howl. Skin shrivels. And the child disappears. A witch, you must understand, does not knock children on the head or stick knives into them or shoot at them with a pistol. People who do those things get caught by the police. A witch never gets caught. Don't forget that she has magic in her fingers and devilry dancing in her

受害者的选择非常小心。 然后女巫跟踪这个可怜的孩子，就像猎人在森林里跟踪一只小鸟一样。 她轻轻地走着。她安静地移动。 她越来越近了。 最后，当一切都准备好了，嘘!她猛扑过来!火花飞。 火焰跳跃。油沸腾。老鼠嚎叫。 皮肤皱纹。然后孩子就消失了。 你必须明白，女巫不会敲孩子的头，不会用刀捅他们，也不会用手枪向他们射击。 做这些事的人会被警察抓住。 女巫永远不会被抓住。 别忘了她手上有魔法，还会跳魔鬼舞

blood. She can make stones jump about like frogs and she can make tongues of flame go flickering across the surface of the water. These magic powers are very frightening. Luckily, there are not a great number of REAL WITCHES in the world today. But there are still quite enough to make you nervous. In England, there are probably about one hundred of them altogether. Some countries have more, others have not quite so many. No country in the world is completely free from WITCHES. A witch is always a woman. I do not wish to speak badly about women. Most women are lovely. But the fact remains that all witches are women. There is no such thing as a male witch. On the other hand, a ghoul is always a male. So indeed is a barghest. Both are dangerous. But neither of them is half as dangerous as a REAL WITCH. As far as children are concerned, a REAL WITCH is easily the most dangerous of all the living

血。她能让石头像青蛙一样跳来跳去，她能让火焰的舌头在水面上闪烁。 这些魔力是非常可怕的。 幸运的是，当今世界上真正的女巫并不多。 但仍然有足够的东西让你紧张。 在英国，大概总共有100个。 有些国家有更多，有些国家没有这么多。 世界上没有一个国家完全没有女巫。 女巫总是女人。 我不想说女人的坏话。 大多数女人都很可爱。但事实是所有的女巫都是女人。 根本就没有男巫这回事。 另一方面，食尸鬼总是雄性的。 所以确实是最便宜的。两者都很危险。 但是他们都没有真正的女巫一半危险。 对孩子们来说，一个真正的女巫无疑是所有活着的女巫中最危险的

creatures on earth. What makes her doubly dangerous is the fact that she doesn't look dangerous. Even when you know all the secrets (you will hear about those in a minute), you can still never be quite sure whether it is a witch you are gazing at or just a kind lady. If a tiger were able to make himself look like a large dog with a waggy tail, you would probably go up and pat him on the head. And that would be the end of you. It is the same with witches. They all look like nice ladies. Kindly examine the picture below. Which lady is the witch? That is a difficult question, but it is one that every child must try to answer. For all you know, a witch might be living next door to you right now. Or she might be the woman with the bright eyes who sat opposite you on the bus this morning. She might be the lady with the dazzling smile who offered you a sweet from a white paper bag in the street before lunch.

地球上的生物。让她更加危险的是她看起来并不危险。 即使你知道了所有的秘密(你马上就会听到这些)，你仍然无法确定你所凝视的是一个女巫还是一个善良的女士。 如果一只老虎能让自己看起来像一只摇着尾巴的大狗，你可能会走过去拍拍它的头。 那你就完蛋了。 女巫也是一样。 她们看起来都很漂亮。 请看下面的图片。 哪位女士是女巫?这是一个很难回答的问题，但也是每个孩子都必须努力回答的问题。 据你所知，一个女巫现在可能就住在你隔壁。 或者她可能是今天早上在公共汽车上坐在你对面的那个有着明亮眼睛的女人。 她可能是一个面带灿烂笑容的女士，在午餐前在街上从白色纸袋里递给你一块糖果。