1 AN UNEXPECTED PARTY

THE HOBBIT

《霍比特人》

Chapter I AN UNEXPECTED PARTY In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats — the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill — The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it — and many little round doors opened out

第一章 不速之客的聚会 地底下的洞里住着一个霍比特人。 它不是恶心肮脏、湿漉漉的虫洞，里头堆着虫尸散发淤泥臭味；也不是干燥光秃的沙洞，里头没地方坐也没东西吃：这是霍比特人的洞，意思就是住得舒舒服服。 洞有一扇圆圆的门，像轮船舷窗，刷成绿色，正中间装着亮闪闪的黄铜圆把手。 开门进去就是一段像隧道的圆走廊：这条舒服的走廊没有烟，墙壁镶着护板，地面铺了瓷砖和地毯，摆着擦亮的椅子，还有好多好多挂衣帽的木钉——霍比特人可喜欢招待客人啦。 隧道弯弯曲曲向前延伸，大体顺着山坳走可不完全笔直——方圆好几里的人都把这座山叫做‘大山’——沿路开出了许多小小的圆门

of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river. This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained — well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. The mother of our particular hobbit — what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description

这些门一会儿开在一侧，一会儿开在另一侧。 霍比特人不用爬楼梯：卧室、浴室、地窖、食品储藏室（有好多间）、衣橱（他有一整个房间放衣服）、厨房、餐厅，全都在同一层，也都在同一条走廊上。 最好的房间都在进门左手边，只有这些房间有窗户，圆圆的凹窗正好对着他家花园，再往外是斜斜延伸到河边的草地。 这个霍比特人十分富裕，他姓巴金斯。 巴金斯家族住在大山附近不知道多少年，大家都觉得他们特别体面，不光因为他们大多有钱，还因为他们从来不冒险，也不做任何出人意料的事：不用开口问，你都能猜到巴金斯家的人会怎么说。 这个故事讲的就是一位巴金斯的冒险，他居然做了说了好多完全出人意料的事。 他或许丢掉了邻居的尊重，但他得到了——哎，到最后你就知道他到底有没有收获啦。 咱们故事里这位霍比特人的妈妈——对了，霍比特人是什么呀？ 我想现在该给大家介绍一下霍比特人了

nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with. As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit — of Bilbo Baggins, that is — was the famous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of

如今霍比特人已经很少见了，他们很怕我们这些‘大人物’——他们就是这么叫我们的。 他们是（或者说曾经是）小个子，身高大约只有我们的一半，比留胡子的矮人还要矮。 霍比特人不长胡子。 他们几乎没什么魔法，只会一点日常的小魔法：要是你我这样笨笨的大个子轰隆隆闯过来，吵得像大象，他们一英里外就能听见，然后安安静静快快地消失掉。 他们容易肚子发胖，喜欢穿鲜艳的衣服（大多是绿色和黄色），从来不穿鞋，因为脚天生长着硬硬的皮底，还长着浓密温暖的棕毛，和头上的卷毛一样；他们长着灵巧的长棕手指，性情温和，笑起来声音低沉浑厚（尤其是吃完晚饭，能吃两顿的时候他们肯定会吃两顿）。 现在你知道的足够接着听故事啦。 我刚才说到，这位霍比特人——也就是比尔博·巴金斯——的妈妈，就是有名的贝拉多娜·图克，她是老图克三个出色女儿中的一个，老图克是住在水河对岸的霍比特人的首领，水河就是大山脚下那条小河。 别的家族常说，很久以前图克家有位祖先肯定娶了一位仙女当妻子。 这当然

course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained to the end of their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father, got something a bit queer in his make-up from the Took side, something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I have just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down immovably. By some curious chance one morning long ago in

是无稽之谈，但图克家族身上确实有那么一点不像霍比特人的地方，时不时就有图克家的人出去冒险。 他们悄悄出门，家里人也绝口不提，但大家都知道图克家不如巴金斯家体面，虽然他们肯定更有钱。 不过贝拉多娜·图克嫁给邦戈·巴金斯之后，可从来没冒过险。 邦戈就是比尔博的爸爸，他给贝拉多娜建了全大山上下、水河两岸最豪华的霍比特洞（一部分还是用贝拉多娜的钱建的），夫妻俩一直住在那儿直到去世。 不过，她的独子比尔博虽然长相举止都和他稳重安逸的爸爸一模一样，骨子里却从图克家那边带了一点古怪的性子，就等着机会冒出来呢。 机会一直没出现，直到比尔博长大成人，差不多五十岁左右，一直住在爸爸建的漂亮霍比特洞里，就是我刚给你描述过的那个，看起来他会一直稳稳住在这儿不走了。 很久很久以前的一个早晨，奇妙的机缘就在

the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) — Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. He had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. He had been away over The Hill and across The Water on businesses of his own since they were all small hobbit-boys and hobbit-girls. All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which his long white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots. "Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green.

当世界回归安宁，喧嚣变少，绿意变多，霍比特人依旧人丁兴旺，日子过得富足安康，比尔博·巴金斯吃过早饭，正站在家门口抽着一根超大的长木烟斗，烟斗杆几乎碰到了他毛茸茸的脚趾——脚趾还梳得整整齐齐—— 甘道夫走了过来。 甘道夫！ 关于他的传闻，我听过的就已经很少了，要是你只听过我听过内容的四分之一，你就会知道，任何离奇的精彩故事都有可能发生。 不管他走到哪里，各种冒险传说都会冒出来，方式古怪又神奇。 自打他的老朋友老图克去世后，他已经好几十年没到山下这一带了，霍比特人们都快忘了他长什么样子。 早在现在这些霍比特人还是小男孩小女孩的时候，他就离开山丘，跨过河流，去忙自己的事了。 那天早上，毫无防备的比尔博只看到了一个拄着拐杖的老人。 他戴着高高的尖顶蓝帽子，披着长长的灰斗篷，围着银围巾，长长的白胡须垂到腰下，脚上穿著大大的黑靴子。 "早上好！"比尔博说，他是真心问好。 阳光灿烂，青草翠绿。