24 Epilogue

EPILOGUE I said, at the beginning of this episode of my memoirs, that the making of a Hero is like the making of a sword. How the sword and the Hero must be tested time and time again, and the more fearsome and dreadful the test, the stronger the sword and the Hero, in the end. That Boy-That-Once-Was-Me who is lying back there on the beach at Hero's End, he seems to have lost everything, doesn't he? He risked everything to get the Lost Things, and then at the last minute, they slipped through his fingers. He does not know this yet, poor boy, as he lies there. He is still dreaming that he is driving the ship with the Lost Things on it, safely through the Wind. 'Don't worry, Toothless,' he is muttering to himself, slightly delirious. 'It will be all right… everything will be all right…' Little knowing that poor Toothless has fallen into dark hands, and is not all right at all. It is pathetic, is it not, to see the boy's delusion, lying on that beach like a crumpled piece of driftwood thrown up by the careless gods, as if he were nothing.

结语在我回忆录这一章的开头，我说过，造就英雄就像造就一把剑。 剑和英雄必须经受一次又一次的考验，越是可怕的考验，最终剑和英雄就越强大。 那个曾经是我的男孩躺在英雄尽头的海滩上，他似乎失去了一切，不是吗？ 他冒着一切危险去找失物，可在最后一刻，失物却从他的指缝间溜走了。 可怜的孩子，他躺在那里还不知道呢。 他还在做梦，梦见自己驾驶着那艘载着失物的船，安全地在风中航行。 “别担心，无牙。”他喃喃自语，有点神志不清。 “一切都会好起来的……一切都会好起来的……”他一点也不知道可怜的无牙已经落入了黑暗之手，一点也不好。 看着这孩子的幻觉，躺在沙滩上，就像粗心的诸神抛起的一块皱巴巴的浮木，好像他什么都不是，真可怜，不是吗？

But now I am seventy-six years old, looking back, I have to say that things are not quite as bleak as they seem. At last, for the first time in the boy's life, he is finally ready. It may not look like it, as he lies there, broken on the beach, having lost the Things, having lost Toothless, having lost everything. But this was the moment the Hero was made. He is ready to take on his destiny now. I meet him on Hero's End, hovering over him as he lies there, and I whisper: You are ready now. Know this, when you wake. You are finally ready to take on Tomorrow. You may look like a corpse, but you are in fact a King. He will need this knowledge when he wakes into painful reality. For it will be painful. He will grieve for the loss of the Things, and know that it is his fault. He will grieve for Snotlout. He will feel that this is his fault too, even though Snotlout chose to take that risk out of his own free will. But Snotlout has taught him something. Hiccup believed in Snotlout. He went on trying

但现在我已经七十六岁了，回首往事，我不得不说，事情并不像看起来那么黯淡。 最后，这是男孩一生中第一次，他终于准备好了。 当他躺在那里，身体残破地躺在沙滩上，失去了东西，失去了无牙，失去了一切的时候，也许看起来并不是这样。 但这就是英雄诞生的时刻。 他现在已经准备好承担自己的命运了。 我在英雄尽头遇到了他，当他躺在那里时，我在他身边徘徊，我低声说：你现在准备好了。 当你醒来的时候，要知道这一点。你终于准备好迎接明天了。 你可能看起来像一具尸体，但实际上你是一个国王。 当他在痛苦的现实中醒来时，他将需要这些知识。 因为这将是痛苦的。他会为失去这些东西而悲伤，并知道这是他的过错。 他会为鼻涕精伤心的。 他也会觉得这是他的错，尽管鼻涕虫选择冒险是出于他自己的自由意志。 但是鼻涕虫教会了他一些东西。 小嗝嗝相信鼻子怪。 他继续尝试

to believe in Snotlout. And in the end Snotlout believed in Hiccup, and that was one of the crucial, final things that gave Hiccup belief in himself. This was what mattered. He has carried Snotlout with him ever after. Snotlout and his Black Star are part of his Kingship. Remember the Wodensfang's wheezy voice, whispering in the darkness of the underground hideout high in the Murderous Mountains, about how a boy can change from being Speedfast to being Grimbeard the Ghastly… '…and also the other way around.' Back on those ships crossing Hero's Gap on Doomsday Eve, Snotlout's father, Baggybum the Beerbelly, does not yet know that Snotlout has chosen the right side. Gobber and the Dragonmarkers are still cursing Snotlout's name, still believing him to be the most treacherous Traitor of Traitors, still shaking their heads and their fists, and calling down dreadful imprecations on his head. But they will find out the truth, in the end. Time will shake out the truth, as it always does. Gobber and Baggybum will find out the truth, just as Snotlout knew they would when he hung his Black Star round my neck.

相信鼻涕虫的存在最后，鼻涕虫相信了小嗝嗝，这是让小嗝嗝相信自己的关键因素之一。 这才是最重要的。从那以后，他一直带着鼻涕精。 鼻鼻和他的黑星是他王权的一部分。 还记得沃登斯方的呼哧呼哧的声音吗？他在凶山高处的地下藏身处的黑暗中低声说，一个男孩是如何从飞人变成可怕的Grimbeard的……“……也可以反过来。”在世界末日前夕，在那些穿越英雄峡的船只上，鼻涕虫的父亲，啤酒肚Baggybum，还不知道鼻涕虫选择了正确的一方。 戈伯和龙的标记们还在诅咒着鼻涕鼻子的名字，还认为他是叛徒中最奸猾的叛徒，还在摇着头，挥舞着拳头，对着他的脑袋发出可怕的诅咒。 但他们最终会发现真相的。 时间会一如既往地揭示真相。 戈伯和Baggybum会查出真相的，就像鼻鼻子把黑星勋章挂在我脖子上时知道的那样。

They will know that Snotlout was a Hero after all… Gobber and Baggybum will be proud of him at last. And long after Kings are forgotten, and their names have fallen into dust, the good deeds and the actions of the Heroes live on in glory. Once I dreamed of castles and a crown upon my head… Now the night sky is my only roof and the sea my rocking bed… But let my heart be wrecked by hurricanes and my ship by stormy weather I know I am a Hero… and a Hero is FOREVER! As I write, sixty-two years later, I am wearing Snotlout's Black Star on a chain around my neck, the Black Star that in the Hooligan Tribe is the highest honour that can be given for bravery in battle. It looks a little incongruous on the chest of such a very old man as myself, but I wear it with such pride, and it makes me stand a little straighter, even though I am bowled into a hoop by age and the Archipelago's howling winds, and I am not as steady on my legs as I once was. It is the Black Star that Snotlout gave me when

他们会知道鼻鼻子毕竟是个英雄……戈伯和Baggybum最终会为他感到骄傲。 在国王们被遗忘，他们的名字化为尘土之后很久，英雄们的善行和行为将在荣耀中长存。 曾经，我梦见城堡和王冠戴在我的头上……现在，夜空是我唯一的屋顶，大海是我摇摇的床……但让我的心被飓风摧毁，让我的船被暴风雨摧毁……我知道我是一个英雄……永远是一个英雄！62年后，当我写这篇文章的时候，我的脖子上戴着一条项链，上面戴着鼻涕鬼的黑星，在流氓部落里，这颗黑星是对战斗勇敢的最高荣誉。 它戴在像我这样年纪很大的人的胸口上，显得有些不协调，但我却很自豪地戴着它，它使我站得更直了一些，尽管由于年龄和群岛的呼啸风，我被挤进了一个圈里，我的腿也不像以前那么稳了。 这是鼻屎给我的黑星勋章

he exchanged his clothes for my clothes, and his destiny for my destiny. A noble gift, do not you think, in the end, from one cousin to another? Here is the odd thing though. Time has rubbed away at the black of the Star. And underneath the black… there was just a glint of something, over the years, and then I rubbed at it, and rubbed at it, until the crusty dark surface crumbled away from the heart of the star, and the star fell out, the metal just as bright and brilliant as when it was first dug from the ground. Now the star doesn't look black at all. Just gold. A HERO… IS… FOREVER. Adieu, Snotlout. I could not have done this without you. I carry you with me, every step I take, every decision I make. You are part of my blood, and I would never have got this far without you. We shall meet again, in a better world than this one.

他用他的衣服换了我的衣服，他的命运换了我的命运。 你不觉得这是一份崇高的礼物吗，最终，从一个表兄传给另一个表兄？ 但奇怪的是。 时间磨去了星星的黑色。 在那黑色的下面，有一些东西在闪烁，多年过去了，然后我不停地摩擦它，摩擦它，直到那坚硬的黑色表面从恒星的中心碎裂，恒星脱落，金属像刚从地下挖出来时一样明亮灿烂。 现在星星看起来一点也不黑了。 只是金子。英雄永远是英雄。 Adieu, Snotlout。没有你我做不到。 我把你带在身边，我走的每一步，做的每一个决定。 你是我血液的一部分，没有你我不可能走到今天。 我们会再见面的，在一个比这个更好的世界。