19 Turning Their Backs

19. TURNING THEIR BACKS It would have been good if this was THE END. But unfortunately this is a Hiccup story, and if I have said it once, I have said it a hundred times: this is the story of becoming a Hero the Hard Way. We've become so caught up in listening to Hiccup's speech that we've forgotten about the witch. All the while that Hiccup was talking, and the Vikings were listening, the witch had been busy. Scuttling and slaloming through the hairy legs of the watching crowd, like a bony white dog, searching, searching. Looking for someone. And she found him. Whisper, whisper, whisper in Snotlout's ear. It's all about timing you see. That's what the witch had learnt from her twenty years in the tree trunk. And on this occasion, her timing was impeccable. Just at that moment, when it was all in the balance, when it looked like, against all odds, that everything might just go right in the end after all, someone threw a stone.

19. 如果这就是结局，那就好了。 但不幸的是，这是一个小嗝嗝的故事，如果我说过一次，我已经说过一百次了：这是一个艰难地成为英雄的故事。 我们太专注于听小嗝嗝的演讲了，忘记了女巫的存在。 在小嗝嗝说话、维京人倾听的这段时间里，女巫一直在忙着。 像一条骨瘦如柴的白狗，在观看的人群的毛茸茸的腿间疾行、疾行，寻找着，寻找着。 在找人。她找到了他。 小声说，小声说，在鼻子鼻子的耳边小声说。 你看，一切都取决于时机。 这是女巫在树干里呆了二十年所学到的。 这一次，她的时机无可挑剔。 就在那一刻，就在一切都处于平衡之中，就在一切似乎都不顾一切地最终会顺利进行的时候，有人扔了一块石头。

Snotlout threw the stone and Snotlout was an exceptionally good shot. The stone connected with Hiccup's helmet with a bright clear ring, and it fell to the ground. Hiccup gave an appalled gasp and tried to put his hand to his forehead. Too late. The Eldest Elder's quick old eyes saw something there, and his knobbly old arm reached out, and slowly, sternly, he brought down Hiccup's hand to reveal…

斯诺特把石头扔了出去，斯诺特射得特别准。 那块石头在小嗝嗝的头盔上打了一个明亮的环，然后掉到了地上。 嗝嗝吓得倒吸了一口气，想用手捂住额头。 太迟了。长老那双敏锐而苍老的眼睛看到了什么东西，他伸出一只多节的老胳膊，慢慢地、严厉地拉下小嗝嗝的手，露出……

…the Slavemark. You see, that was what the witch had seen, earlier, in the hut. Hiccup had done a wonderful job of keeping the Slavemark secret over the years.* *To find out how Hiccup got the Slavemark read How to Ride a Dragon's Storm. But when Toothless crept under Hiccup's helmet, in that moment that he lifted it up from Hiccup's forehead, before letting it fall again, the witch had seen the Mark that was hiding underneath. The Slavemark was the ultimate mark of shame in the Archipelago. It meant instant banishment from your Tribe, and a life lived for ever in slavery. The crowd let out a cry of horror. 'The boy is a slave!' yelled a Murderous. 'No wonder he wanted us to free the dragons, and the human slaves as well! He is a slave himself!'

Slavemark……。你看，这就是女巫早些时候在小屋里看到的。 这些年来，小嗝嗝在保守斯拉夫马克的秘密方面做得非常出色。* *想知道小嗝嗝是如何得到奴隶标记的，请阅读《如何驾驭龙的风暴》。 但是，当无牙钻到嗝嗝的头盔下面，把头盔从嗝嗝的额头上拿起来，然后又让它掉下来的那一刻，女巫看到了藏在头盔下面的标记。 Slavemark是群岛上耻辱的终极标志。 这意味着立刻被驱逐出你的部落，永远在奴役中生活。 人群发出一声惊恐的喊叫。 “这孩子是个奴隶！”一个杀人犯喊道。 “难怪他想让我们解放巨龙和人类奴隶！”他自己就是个奴隶！”

'We have been tricked!' called out a Visithug. Roars of indignation and shaken fists. 'Silence!' cried the Eldest Elder, his white beard all a-quiver. And he turned to Stoick, aghast. 'How is it that your son has the Slavemark? Surely you are not trying to foist upon us a leader who is a slave?' Stoick was barely able to take this in. 'But… but… this isn't possible… Hiccup, how could this be? There is some mistake, surely?' Hiccup had put his hand up to his forehead again, almost as if he was hoping that the Mark wasn't really there. 'I was given the Mark by the Wanderers long ago on the slave ship when I went to America,' explained Hiccup. He brought his hand down again. 'It was an accident… but there is no shame in this, Father…' He had lost the goodwill of the crowd, however. It was all a question of timing. In that time, in that place, a person with the Slavemark could never be a Chief, let alone a King. 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,' sighed the Eldest Elder. This was all very confusing.

“我们上当了！”一个来客叫道。 愤怒的咆哮和颤抖的拳头。 “安静!”大长老叫道，他的白胡子在颤抖。 他目瞪口呆地转向斯托伊克。 “你儿子怎么会有奴隶标记？” 难道你想把一个奴隶强加给我们作首领吗？”斯托伊克几乎无法接受这一点。 “但是……但是……这不可能……小嗝嗝，这怎么可能呢？” 一定是出了什么差错吧？”小嗝嗝又把手放在额头上，似乎希望那个标记不是真的在那里。 “很久以前，在我去美国的奴隶船上，流浪者给了我这个标记，”小嗝嗝解释说。 他又把手放下来。 “这是个意外……但这没什么可耻的，父亲……”然而，他已经失去了群众的好感。 这都是时间的问题。 在那个时代，在那个地方，一个有奴隶标记的人永远不可能成为酋长，更不用说成为国王了。 “哦天哪，哦天哪，哦天哪，哦天哪，哦天哪。” 这一切都很令人困惑。

'Hiccup cannot be the King,' ruled the Eldest Elder. 'He is disqualified because he has the Slavemark. You, then, shall be the next King of the Wilderwest, Stoick, for you were the runner-up in the sword-fighting competition.' 'Stoick should be banished too!' came a hissing voice and the witch Excellinor rose, almost as if she were floating, on to the platform. She held up her iron-tipped fingernails. 'These are surgeon's fingers,' hissed the witch. 'What do we do when we meet a cancer, a tumour, or a canker in our bodies?' she screamed. 'We rip it out, we tear it from our flesh, so that the rest of the body may have a chance to live! So it is,' sneered the witch, and she snuffled a little, like a dog, 'so it is with runts. What is the motto of the Hooligan Tribe, Stoick?' 'Only the strong can belong,' said Stoick, who had turned very white. 'None of you idiots know your history do you?' purred the witch. 'Hiccup is the name given to RUNTS in the Horrendous Haddock family, isn't it, Stoick? 'Your son,' the witch spat out the words as if they were an exceptionally nasty taste in her mouth,

“小嗝嗝不可能是国王，”长老老大说。 “他被取消资格，因为他有奴隶标志。 那么，你将成为下一任西部荒野之王，斯托伊克，因为你在剑斗比赛中获得了亚军。“斯托伊克也应该被驱逐！”一个嘶嘶的声音传来，女巫女校长站了起来，几乎像在漂浮一样，来到了讲台上。 她举起铁头指甲。 “这是外科医生的手指。”女巫嘶嘶地说。 “当我们体内出现癌症、肿瘤或溃烂时，我们该怎么办？”她尖叫道。 “我们把它扯出来，我们把它从我们的肉上扯下来，这样身体的其余部分就有机会活下去！”“就是这样，”女巫讥笑着说，她像狗一样抽了抽鼻子，“矮子也是这样。 流氓部落的座右铭是什么，斯托伊克？“只有强壮的人才有归属，”斯托伊克说，他的脸色变得煞白。 “你们这些白痴谁也不知道你们的历史，是不是？”女巫咕噜着。 “小嗝嗝是恐怖黑道克家族里侏儒的名字，对吧，斯托伊克？” “你的儿子，”女巫吐出这几个字，仿佛嘴里有一种特别难闻的味道，

'your nasty, puny, odd little son, was pronounced a runt by the Naming Dame, wasn't he, Stoick? You should have set him out to sea, according to the Law, shouldn't you? But you DID NOT! Deny it if you can, Stoick the Vast!' Stoick could not. Thirteen years before, the Naming Dame had indeed pronounced Hiccup a runt. It was a private ceremony, so only he and Valhallarama knew this secret. But he and Valhallarama had wanted a child so very, very badly. They had argued to themselves that the Naming Dame must have been wrong. They kept their baby, and in so doing, they broke one of the most sacred Laws of the Archipelago. The Hooligans had watched Hiccup growing up, watched and wondered why he was so skinny and ordinary-looking. But never had they suspected that their own, most respected, Chief would have broken the Law in this way. Many among them had painfully said goodbye to their own infants, suppressed their personal feelings for the good of the Tribe. Was it possible that Stoick, their great leader, had not done the same? And all around the amphitheatre the sky

“你那讨厌的、瘦小的、古怪的小儿子，被命名夫人宣布为矮子了，是不是，斯托伊克？” 根据律法，你应该让他出海，不是吗？ 但是你没有！如果你能否认，浩瀚的斯托伊克！”斯托伊克不能。 十三年前，点名夫人确实宣布小嗝嗝是个矮子。 这是一个私人的仪式，所以只有他和瓦尔哈拉拉马知道这个秘密。 但他和瓦尔哈拉拉马都非常非常想要一个孩子。 他们对自己说，“命名圣母”一定是错的。 他们留下了他们的孩子，这样做，他们违反了群岛最神圣的法律之一。 小流氓们看着小嗝嗝长大，看着他，奇怪他为什么这么瘦，这么普通。 但他们从来没有想到，他们自己的，最受尊敬的酋长会这样违反法律。 他们中的许多人痛苦地告别了自己的孩子，为了部落的利益压抑了自己的个人感情。 难道他们伟大的领袖斯托伊克没有这样做吗？ 圆形剧场的四周都是天空