8 FLIES AND SPIDERS

Chapter 8 FLIES AND SPIDERS They walked in single file. The entrance to the path was like a sort of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel made by two great trees that leant together, too old and strangled with ivy and hung with lichen to bear more than a few blackened leaves. The path itself was narrow and wound in and out among the trunks. Soon the light at the gate was like a little bright hole far behind, and the quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened. As their eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer. Occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and

第八章 苍蝇与蜘蛛 他们排成一列往前走。 小路入口就像一道拱门，通向阴森的隧道，那是两棵大树斜靠在一起形成的，树已经太老了，缠着常春藤、挂着地衣，只长出了几片发黑的叶子。 小路本身十分狭窄，在树干之间绕来绕去。 没多久，入口的光就变成了身后远处的一个小亮洞，四周静得可怕，他们脚下的脚步声咚咚直响，所有树都斜过身来偷听。 等眼睛适应了昏暗，他们能看清两边不远之处泛着朦胧的暗绿色微光。 偶尔会有一缕细细的阳光，侥幸从高处树叶的缝隙溜进来，还格外幸运地没被交错缠结的枝桠和

matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased altogether. There were black squirrels in the wood. As Bilbo's sharp inquisitive eyes got used to seeing things he could catch glimpses of them whisking off the path and scuttling behind tree-trunks. There were queer noises too, grunts, scufflings, and hurryings in the undergrowth, and among the leaves that lay piled endlessly thick in places on the forest-floor; but what made the noises he could not see. The nastiest things they saw were the cobwebs: dark dense cobwebs with threads extraordinarily thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them. There were none stretched across the path, but whether because some magic kept it clear, or for what other reason they could not guess. It was not long before they grew to hate the forest as heartily as they had hated the tunnels of the goblins, and it seemed to offer even less hope of any ending. But they had to go on and on, long after they were sick for a sight of the sun and of the sky, and longed for the feel of wind on their faces. There was no movement of air down under the forest-roof,

下方交错的嫩枝拦住，它就细亮亮地刺落在他们跟前。 可这种情况少之又少，没过多久就连一缕阳光都没有了。 树林里住着黑松鼠。 等比尔博那双敏锐好奇的眼睛适应了黑暗，就能瞥见它们窜离小路，急急忙忙躲到树干后面去。 林子里还有奇怪的声响，矮树丛里、森林地面厚厚堆积的落叶层里，传出咕哝声、蹭动声和匆匆跑动声，可他看不到是什么弄出了这些动静。 他们见过最恶心的东西就是蜘蛛网：又黑又密的网，蛛丝粗得离谱，常常从这棵树拉到那棵树，或是缠在小路两侧的低矮树枝上。 路上倒是没有张网，可他们猜不出，是有魔法保持道路通畅，还是因为别的什么原因。 没过多久，他们就像痛恨哥布林的隧道一样痛恨这片森林，而且这片森林看起来更没希望走到头。 可他们只能不停往前走，早就盼着能看见太阳天空，渴望感受风吹过脸颊，却还是只能走下去。 森林的树冠下一点风都没有，

and it was everlastingly still and dark and stuffy. Even the dwarves felt it, who were used to tunnelling, and lived at times for long whiles without the light of the sun; but the hobbit, who liked holes to make a house in but not to spend summer days in, felt that he was being slowly suffocated. The nights were the worst. It then became pitch-dark—not what you call pitch-dark, but really pitch: so black that you really could see nothing. Bilbo tried flapping his hand in front of his nose, but he could not see it at all. Well, perhaps it is not true to say that they could see nothing: they could see eyes. They slept all closely huddled together, and took it in turns to watch; and when it was Bilbo's turn he would see gleams in the darkness round them, and sometimes pairs of yellow or red or green eyes would stare at him from a little distance, and then slowly fade and disappear and slowly shine out again in another place. And sometimes they would gleam down from the branches just above him; and that was most terrifying. But the eyes that he liked the least were horrible pale bulbous sort of eyes. "Insect eyes," he thought, "not animal eyes, only they are much too big."

这里永远都是那么安静、漆黑又闷热。 就连习惯挖隧道、时常久不见阳光的矮人都觉得难受；而霍比特人虽说喜欢把洞当房子，可不爱闷在洞里过夏天，他觉得自己都快要慢慢憋死了。 夜晚才最糟糕。 那是真的漆黑一片——不是平常说的那种漆黑，是真真正正的纯黑，黑到你完全看不见任何东西。 比尔博试着在鼻子跟前挥挥手，可他完全看不见自己的手。 其实说他们什么都看不见也不对：他们能看见眼睛。 他们睡觉时紧紧挤在一起，轮流放哨；轮到比尔博放哨的时候，他总能看见黑暗里四周有微光闪动，有时候一双双黄的红的或是绿的眼睛会在不远处盯着他，接着慢慢变暗消失，再在另一个地方慢慢重新亮起来。 有时候那些眼睛会从他头顶的树枝往下发光，这是最吓人的。 可他最讨厌的，是那种可怕的、鼓鼓的淡色眼睛。 "是虫子的眼睛，"他想，"不是野兽的眼睛，就是太大了。"

Although it was not yet very cold, they tried lighting watch-fires at night, but they soon gave that up. It seemed to bring hundreds and hundreds of eyes all round them, though the creatures, whatever they were, were careful never to let their bodies show in the little flicker of the flames. Worse still it brought thousands of dark-grey and black moths, some nearly as big as your hand, flapping and whirring round their ears. They could not stand that, nor the huge bats, black as a top-hat, either; so they gave up fires and sat at night and dozed in the enormous uncanny darkness. All this went on for what seemed to the hobbit ages upon ages; and he was always hungry, for they were extremely careful with their provisions. Even so, as days followed days, and still the forest seemed just the same, they began to get anxious. The food would not last for ever: it was in fact already beginning to get low. They tried shooting at the squirrels, and they wasted many arrows before they managed to bring one down on the path. But when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels. They were thirsty too, for they had none too much water, and in all the time they had seen

虽然天还不算很冷，他们试着晚上生火放哨，但很快就放弃了。 生火好像把成百上千双眼睛都引到了他们周围，不过那些生物不管是什么，都小心得很，从不把身体露在跳动的微弱火光里。 更糟的是，还引来了成千上万只深灰和黑色的飞蛾，有的差不多有手掌那么大，围着他们的耳朵扑棱打转。 他们受不了这个，也受不了像礼帽一样黑的大蝙蝠，只好放弃生火，晚上坐在诡异的无边黑暗里打盹。 这一切对霍比特人来说好像过了无数个世纪，他一直饿着肚子，因为他们对口粮抠得极紧。 就算这样，日子一天天过去，森林还是一点变化都没有，他们开始慌了。 粮食不可能永远够吃，实际上存量已经越来越少了。 他们试着射松鼠，浪费了好多箭才在路上射倒一只。 可烤好之后，味道难吃得离谱，他们就再也不射松鼠了。 他们还口渴，因为带的水本来就不多，这么久以来他们还没看见

neither spring nor stream. This was their state when one day they found their path blocked by a running water. It flowed fast and strong but not very wide right across the way, and it was black, or looked it in the gloom. It was well that Beorn had warned them against it, or they would have drunk from it, whatever its colour, and filled some of their emptied skins at its bank. As it was they only thought of how to cross it without wetting themselves in its water. There had been a bridge of wood across, but it had rotted and fallen leaving only the broken posts near the bank. Bilbo kneeling on the brink and peering forward cried: "There is a boat against the far bank! Now why couldn't it have been this side!" "How far away do you think it is?" asked Thorin, for by now they knew Bilbo had the sharpest eyes among them. "Not at all far. I shouldn't think above twelve yards." "Twelve yards! I should have thought it was thirty at least, but my eyes don't see as well as they used a hundred years ago. Still twelve yards is as good as a mile. We can't jump it, and we daren't try to wade or swim."

既看不到春天，也找不到溪流 这天他们正赶路，忽然前路被一道激流挡住了 激流横在路中，水流湍急汹涌，不过不算太宽，昏暗中看去水色乌黑 幸好贝奥恩提前警告过他们别碰这水，不然不管水色如何，他们早就去喝水，还在岸边把空水袋装满了 所以他们现在只想着，怎么才能渡过去还不把身上弄湿 原来这里本来有座木桥，可早已朽坏坍塌，岸边只剩下几根断桥柱 比尔博跪在岸边，朝前探身望去，大喊道：“对岸岸边停着一条小船！ 它怎么就偏偏停在对岸呢！” “你觉得它离我们有多远？”索林问道，大伙早就知道比尔博的眼睛最尖 “一点儿都不远 我看不会超过十二码远。” “十二码！ 我还以为至少有三十码呢，我的眼睛可比不上一百年前好使了 可就算十二码，也跟一英里没差啊 我们跳不过去，也不敢涉水或是游过去啊！”

"Can any of you throw a rope?" "What's the good of that? The boat is sure to be tied up, even if we could hook it, which I doubt." "I don't believe it is tied," said Bilbo, "though of course I can't be sure in this light; but it looks to me as if it was just drawn up on the bank, which is low just there where the path goes down into the water." "Dori is the strongest, but Fili is the youngest and still has the best sight," said Thorin. "Come here Fili, and see if you can see the boat Mr. Baggins is talking about." Fili thought he could; so when he had stared a long while to get an idea of the direction, the others brought him a rope. They had several with them, and on the end of the longest they fastened one of the large iron hooks they had used for catching their packs to the straps about their shoulders. Fili took this in his hand, balanced it for a moment, and then flung it across the stream. Splash it fell in the water! "Not far enough!" said Bilbo who was peering forward. "A couple of feet and you would have dropped it on to the boat. Try again. I don't suppose the magic is strong enough to hurt you, if you just touch a bit of wet rope." Fili picked up the hook when he had drawn it

“咱们当中有人能抛绳子吗？” “这有什么用呢？ 就算咱们能勾到小船，它肯定也拴在岸上，我看没戏的。” “我觉得它没拴着，”比尔博说，“当然，这光线我也不敢打包票；可我看着它就是被拖到岸边停着，那边河岸低，路刚好通到水边。” “多力力气最大，可菲力最年轻，眼睛也最好使，”索林说 “菲力过来，看看能不能看见巴金斯先生说的那条船。” 菲力说他能看见；他盯着那边看了好半天找准方向，其他人给他递了一根绳子 他们随身带了好几根绳子，大家在最长那根的末端拴了个大铁钩，就是平时用来把背包挂在肩带上的那种 菲力握着铁钩，掂了掂找好平衡，就把它抛到了河对岸 扑通一声，铁钩掉进了水里！ “还差一点！”一直盯着对岸的比尔博说道 再差两英尺，你就落到船上了 再试一次 就算绳子沾了点水，魔法也没那么厉害，伤不到你的。” 菲力把绳子拉了回来，捡起了铁钩