4 OVER HILL AND UNDER HILL

Chapter 4 OVER HILL AND UNDER HILL There were many paths that led up into those mountains, and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; and most of the passes were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. The dwarves and the hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass. Long days after they had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up. It was a hard path and a dangerous path, a crooked way and a lonely and a long. Now they could look back over the lands they had left, laid out behind them far below. Far, far away in the West, where things were blue and faint, Bilbo knew there lay his own country of safe

第四章 越山丘穿山谷 有许多小路通往山中，也有许多山口能翻过山岭。 可大多数小路都是骗人的陷阱，要么走不通要么落得糟糕下场；大多数山口也盘踞着妖邪，处处藏着可怕的危险。 矮人和霍比特人靠着埃尔隆德的明智建议，还有甘道夫的经验记忆，走上了通往正确山口的正路。 他们走出山谷，把最后一家客屋远远抛在身后好多天，还一直在往上爬呀爬。 这条路难走又危险，弯弯曲曲，偏僻又漫长。 现在他们能回头眺望，走过的土地铺展在远远的脚下。 在遥远遥远的西方，一切都蓝幽幽模模糊糊，比尔博知道那里有他安稳的故乡

and comfortable things, and his little hobbit-hole. He shivered. It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind came shrill among the rocks. Boulders, too, at times came galloping down the mountainsides, let loose by mid-day sun upon the snow, and passed among them (which was lucky), or over their heads (which was alarming). The nights were comfortless and chill, and they did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and the silence seemed to dislike being broken—except by the noise of water and the wail of wind and the crack of stone. "The summer is getting on down below," thought Bilbo, "and haymaking is going on and picnics. They will be harvesting and blackberrying, before we even begin to go down the other side at this rate." And the others were thinking equally gloomy thoughts, although when they had said good-bye to Elrond in the high hope of a midsummer morning, they had spoken gaily of the passage of the mountains, and of riding swift across the lands beyond. They had thought of coming to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain, perhaps that very next last moon of Autumn—"and perhaps it will be Durin's Day" they had said. Only Gandalf had

和舒适的生活，还有他小小的霍比特洞。 他打了个哆嗦。 这里越来越冷，风在岩石间尖声呼啸。 有时候正午阳光晒化积雪，巨石顺着山坡滚下来，它们要么从众人身边擦过（这还算走运），要么从头顶飞过（可太吓人了）。 夜晚又冷又难熬，他们不敢大声唱歌说话，因为回声太诡异，连寂静都好像讨厌被打破——只有水声、风声和岩石开裂声例外。 “山下的夏天都快过去了，”比尔博想，“大家正在晒干草、野餐呢。 按我们这个速度，等我们开始下山到另一边，人家都收完庄稼摘完黑莓了。” 其他人也满脑子都是烦心事，虽然仲夏清晨和埃尔隆德道别时，他们还满心期待，兴高采烈地说着翻过大山，就能快马加鞭穿过对岸的原野。 他们本来想着就能走到孤山的密门前，说不定就在下一个秋末——“说不定刚好就是都林节呢”，他们当时这么说。 只有甘道夫

shaken his head and said nothing. Dwarves had not passed that way for many years, but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild, since the dragons had driven men from the lands, and the goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of Moria. Even the good plans of wise wizards like Gandalf and of good friends like Elrond go astray sometimes when you are off on dangerous adventures over the Edge of the Wild; and Gandalf was a wise enough wizard to know it. He knew that something unexpected might happen, and he hardly dared to hope that they would pass without fearful adventure over those great tall mountains with lonely peaks and valleys where no king ruled. They did not. All was well, until one day they met a thunderstorm—more than a thunderstorm, a thunder-battle. You know how terrific a really big thunderstorm can be down in the land and in a river-valley; especially at times when two great thunderstorms meet and clash. More terrible still are thunder and lightning in the mountains at night, when storms come up from

摇了摇头，什么也没说。 矮人已经好多年没走过这条路了，但甘道夫走过，他知道自从恶龙把人类赶出这片土地，摩瑞亚矿坑之战后哥布林偷偷蔓延，荒野里的邪恶和危险已经越来越猖獗。 哪怕是甘道夫这样的智者、埃尔隆德这样的好人定下的计划，踏入蛮荒边缘的危险冒险，有时也会偏离轨道；甘道夫足够聪明，早就明白这点。 他知道说不定会发生意外，几乎不敢奢望他们能安然翻过这些崇山峻岭——这里山峰孤寂，山谷无主，不可能不遇上可怕的险情。 果然出事了。 之前一切都顺利，直到有一天他们遇上了雷雨——这不是普通雷雨，是雷的大战。 你肯定知道，平原河谷里的大雷雨已经够可怕了，尤其是两大雷雨撞在一起的时候。 夜晚山里的电闪雷鸣更加可怕，暴风雨从

East and West and make war. The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light. Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind. They were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim valley at one side of them. There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and shook from head to toe. When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out, and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang. Then came a wind and a rain, and the wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock was no protection at all. Soon they were getting drenched and their ponies were standing with their heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.

东西两边涌来，互相攻战。 闪电劈在山峰上，岩石都在发抖，巨响撕开空气，滚进每一个洞穴凹地；黑暗里充满了震耳的轰鸣和突如其来的亮光。 比尔博从来没见过，连想都没想过这样的场面。 他们高高走在窄路上，一旁就是幽深山谷，掉下去就粉身碎骨。 他们在一块悬岩下过夜躲雨，比尔博裹在毯子里，从头到脚抖个不停。 闪电亮起的时候他偷偷往外看，看见山谷对面石巨人出来了，正互相扔石头玩游戏，接住又扔进黑暗里，石头砸在下方远处的树林里，或是砰的一声炸成碎片。 接着刮起风下起雨，风把雨和冰雹吹得到处乱打，悬岩根本挡不住。 没一会儿他们就全身湿透，小马垂着头夹着尾巴站着，有些还吓得嘶叫起来。 他们能听见石巨人在整面山坡上哄笑大喊。

"This won't do at all!" said Thorin. "If we don't get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football."

“这可根本不行！”索林说。 “要是我们没被吹下去，没淹死，没被雷劈，也会被巨人抓去当足球踢上天。”

The Mountain-path

山间小路