7 Sleepwalking

7. SLEEPWALKING It was the dead of night. Nothing stirred in Dull-on-Sea. Matilda had fallen asleep listening to her recording of Nugget's fiddle, which played on a loop from the phone at her bedside. Arthur Poppycock had fallen asleep too, after polishing off a large glass of rum and a jam doughnut. He had barely slept when the rats were infesting the harbor, but since the Pirate Piper had woven his magic throughout the town, he felt much

7. 那是夜深人静的时候。 杜尔海没有动静。 玛蒂尔达听着纽格特小提琴的录音睡着了，电话在她床边循环播放着。 阿瑟·波比科克喝了一大杯朗姆酒，吃了一个果酱甜甜圈，也睡着了。 老鼠在港口肆虐的时候，他几乎没有睡过觉，但自从海盗吹笛手把他的魔法编织在整个城镇之后，他感觉好多了

more relaxed. He liked Dull-on-Sea to be rat-free, and now there were probably fewer rats in Dull-on-Sea than there had ever been. So Arthur didn't see the shabby old ship return to the harbor. He didn't see the shadowy figure emerge from its deck, his threadbare tailcoat flapping behind him. And Arthur didn't see the same figure raise a pipe to his lips or hear the tunes that slipped from that pipe, drifting on the sea breeze and worming their way into children's bedrooms all over town. When the soft melodies of the pipe reached their ears,

更放松。他喜欢无鼠村，现在无鼠村的老鼠可能比以往任何时候都要少。 所以阿瑟没有看到那艘破旧的船返回港口。 他没有看到那个影子从甲板上出来，破旧的燕尾服在身后飘动。 阿瑟没有看到那个人把烟斗举到嘴边，也没有听到从烟斗里飘出来的曲调，随着海风飘荡，慢慢地进入镇上孩子们的卧室。 当柔和的笛声传到他们的耳朵里，

the children sat up in their beds. They put on their bathrobes and slippers and ambled out of their rooms. But they weren't awake. They were bewitched by the Pirate Piper's music. The pipe's music controlled them, drew them to the center of town, across lawns and flower beds. Bathed in the orange light of streetlamps, they passed locked-up shops and sleepwalked through deserted parks. But Matilda hadn't budged. She was fast asleep in her own bed, serenaded by the screeches of Nugget's fiddle.

孩子们从床上坐了起来。 他们穿上浴袍和拖鞋，慢悠悠地走出房间。 但是他们没有醒。他们被海盗吹笛手的音乐迷住了。 笛声控制着他们，把他们带到镇中心，穿过草坪和花坛。 他们沐浴在橘黄色的街灯下，走过紧闭的商店，梦游般地走过无人的公园。 但玛蒂尔达不为所动。 她在自己的床上睡得很熟，纳格特的小提琴奏着小夜曲。

The Pirate Piper was playing his pipe on the bandstand by the waterfront. He had been there for almost an hour and was now surrounded by hundreds of children with mucky feet or mud-stained slippers. No children had arrived for quite some time, so, believing every child in Dull- on-Sea was present, the piper stepped down from the bandstand and made his way along the waterfront toward the coast road, a long line of children following obediently behind. Captain Horatio Rattus smiled— as much as he could smile while still playing his pipe— and led the children down the rickety wooden steps to Contraband Cove,

海盗风笛手在岸边的舞台上吹着他的笛子。 他在那里待了将近一个小时，现在被数百个孩子包围着，他们的脚上沾满了泥，拖鞋上沾满了泥。 很长一段时间没有孩子来了，所以，他相信海边的孩子们都来了，于是吹笛手从演奏台上走下来，沿着海滨向海边的道路走去，一长排孩子乖乖地跟在后面。 霍雷肖·拉图斯船长微笑着——他一边吹着笛子，一边尽可能地微笑着——领着孩子们走下摇摇晃晃的木台阶，来到违禁品湾，

weaving down the cliff face and onto the windswept beach. But the piper hadn't noticed a dark feline shape blending with the shadows, skipping silently between the pools of darkness, and watching his every move.

从悬崖上蜿蜒而下，来到被风吹拂的海滩上。 但是吹笛者没有注意到一只黑色的猫的形状与阴影混在一起，在黑暗的水池之间静静地跳着，看着他的一举一动。