54 THE WINTER

CHAPTER 54 THE WINTER The island was quiet. The migratory birds had all left, the hibernators were asleep, and everyone else had begun their simple winter routines. Everyone but Roz. Now that she was alone, our robot didn't know what to do with herself. She stood in her gray garden and watched a sheet of ice slowly form on the pond. Sometimes she could hear her good friends the beavers going about their business beneath the ice, and she wondered when she would see them again. Roz stood there until snowflakes started drifting down from the sky. The flakes swirled in the breeze and slowly piled up on the ground and on the trees and on the robot. So she crouched into the Nest, slid the stone door behind her, and sat in darkness. Hours, and days, and weeks went by without the robot moving. She had no need to move; she felt perfectly safe in the Nest. And so, in her own way, the robot hibernated.

第五十四章冬天岛上静悄悄的。 候鸟都离开了，冬眠的动物都睡着了，其他的动物都开始了它们简单的冬季生活。 除了罗兹，所有人。现在她一个人了，我们的机器人不知道自己该怎么办。 她站在灰色的花园里，看着池塘上慢慢结起了一层冰。 有时她能听到她的好朋友海狸在冰下忙碌的声音，她不知道什么时候能再见到他们。 罗兹站在那里，直到雪花开始从天上飘落下来。 雪花在微风中旋转，慢慢地堆积在地上、树上和机器人身上。 于是她蹲进巢里，推开身后的石门，坐在黑暗中。 几个小时、几天、几个星期过去了，机器人一动也不动。 她不需要动；她觉得在巢里很安全。 就这样，机器人以她自己的方式冬眠了。

Roz's body relaxed. Her quiet whirring slowly stopped. Her eyes faded to black. She probably could have spent centuries like that, hibernating in total darkness. But the robot's hibernation was suddenly interrupted when a shaft of sunlight fell upon her face and carried energy back to her empty battery. Roz's body tensed. Her quiet whirring slowly started. Her eyes began to glow. "Hello, I am ROZZUM unit 7134, but you may call me Roz," the robot said automatically. When all her systems were up and running again, Roz noticed that she was surrounded by broken branches and piles of snow. The roof of the Nest had caved in, and the lodge was now flooded with sunlight. Roz felt more energized with each passing minute. But she also felt cold. Her joints felt stiff and brittle, and her thinking was slow. So she got up, cleared a spot on the floor, and made a fire. The snow inside the Nest began to melt and the robot's sensors began to thaw, and when she was ready, she climbed out through the hole in the roof and into a bright,

罗兹的身体放松了。她安静的嗡嗡声慢慢停止了。 她的眼睛渐渐变黑了。她可能已经在黑暗中蛰伏了好几个世纪。 但是，当一束阳光照在她的脸上，把能量带回她的空电池时，机器人的冬眠突然被打断了。 罗兹的身体绷紧了。她安静的嗡嗡声慢慢响起。 她的眼睛开始发光。“你好，我是ROZZUM 7134单元，但你可以叫我Roz，”机器人自动地说。 当她所有的系统重新启动并运行时，罗兹注意到她被折断的树枝和成堆的雪包围着。 巢的屋顶塌陷了，小屋现在阳光普照。 随着时间的流逝，罗兹感到精力越来越充沛。 但她也觉得冷。她的关节僵硬而脆弱，思维迟钝。 于是她站起来，在地板上清理了一块地方，生起了火。 巢里的雪开始融化，机器人的传感器开始融化，当她准备好了，她从屋顶上的洞爬出来，进入一个明亮的，

foreign landscape.

外国的风景。

The world Roz had known was now covered in a thick layer of snow. Tree limbs bent to the ground under heavy sleeves. The dark pond was now pure white. The only sounds were Roz's own crunching footsteps. Faint wisps of steam curled up from the robot's body as she trudged through the forest. Roz plunged a hand into a lump of snow and pulled up a long stick. She snapped it in half and flung both pieces back to the Nest. She took a few more steps and picked up a fallen tree. She hacked it into smaller pieces and flung them back as well. Then she reached down to another snowy shape. But what she pulled up was not a piece of wood. It was Dart the weasel. He was frozen solid. Roz stared at his stiff body for a moment, then decided it was best to leave the poor thing where he was. As the robot continued gathering wood, she found more victims of the cold. A frozen mouse. A frozen bird. A frozen deer. Had all the island animals frozen to death? No, not all. There were a few fresh tracks in the snow. As we know, the wilderness is filled with beauty, but it's also filled with ugliness. And that winter was

罗兹所熟悉的世界现在被一层厚厚的雪覆盖着。 树干在厚重的袖子下弯向地面。 黑暗的池塘现在变成了纯白色。 唯一的声音是罗兹自己嘎吱嘎吱的脚步声。 当机器人艰难地穿过森林时，微弱的蒸汽从她身上袅袅升起。 罗兹把手伸进一堆雪里，拔出一根长棍子。 她把它掰成两半，扔回鸟巢。 她又走了几步，捡起一棵倒下的树。 她把它砍成小块，又扔了回去。 然后她把手伸到另一个雪花形状的地方。 但她拔出来的不是一块木头。 是黄鼠狼达特。他冻僵了。 罗兹盯着他僵硬的身体看了一会儿，然后决定最好还是让这个可怜的家伙留在原地。 随着机器人继续收集木材，她发现了更多的受害者。 一只冻僵的老鼠。一只冻僵的鸟。 一只冻僵的鹿。岛上所有的动物都冻死了吗？ 不，不是全部。雪地上有几条新留下的脚印。 正如我们所知，荒野充满了美丽，但它也充满了丑陋。 那个冬天

ugly. A devastating cold front had swept down from the north and brought dangerous temperatures and huge amounts of snow. The animals had prepared for winter. But nothing could have prepared the weaker ones for those long nights, when the temperature plummeted and the wind whipped over the island. Roz returned to the Nest, where the fire had melted the interior snow to a muddy soup. She took a minute to warm her body by the flames, and then she began the repairs. She patched up the hole in the dome with a latticework of branches before adding a layer of mud and leaves, and soon the repairs were complete. But another snowfall might cave in the Nest all over again. So Roz decided to keep a fire going day and night to prevent snow from building up on the roof. The robot brought in load after load of firewood. And each time she went outside, she was reminded of the frozen weasel and mouse and bird and deer. How many other frozen animals were hidden beneath the snow? Before going in for the night, she called out to whoever was listening. "Animals of the island! You do not have to freeze! Join me in my lodge, where it is safe and warm!"

丑。一股毁灭性的冷锋从北方席卷而来，带来了危险的气温和大量的降雪。 动物们已经为冬天做了准备。 但是，对于那些气温骤降、狂风肆虐的漫漫长夜，弱小的孩子们是毫无准备的。 罗兹回到巢巢，屋内的雪已被大火融化成一团泥汤。 她花了一分钟在火堆旁取暖，然后开始修复。 她先用树枝把圆屋顶上的洞补好，再铺上一层泥土和树叶，很快就修好了。 但如果再下一场雪，鸟巢可能会再次塌陷。 因此，罗兹决定让火日夜燃烧，以防止屋顶上积起雪。 机器人运来一车又一车的柴火。 每次出门，她都会想起冻僵的黄鼠狼、老鼠、鸟和鹿。 还有多少冰冻的动物被藏在雪下？ 在上床睡觉之前，她对正在听她说话的人喊了一声。 “岛上的动物！”你不需要冻住！到我的小屋里来吧，那里既安全又温暖！”