19 The Beginning of My Story’s End

More About The Spring in the Winter and the Beginning of My Story's End The owl had broken the spell of winter, From that time on, things began to happen that you'd have to see to believe. Insects appeared while the snow was on the ground. Birds built nests, raccoons mated, foxes called to each other, seeking again their life-long mates. At the end of February, the sap began to run in the maple trees. I tapped some trees and boiled the sap to syrup. It takes an awful lot of sap to make one cup of syrup, I discovered– thirty-two cups, to be exact. All this and I was still in my winter fur-lined underwear. One or two birds returned, the ferns by the protected spring unrolled– very slowly, but they did. Then the activity

冬天里的春天 我的故事即将收尾 猫头鹰打破了冬天的魔咒，从那之后，怪事一件接一件发生，你得亲眼见才会相信。 雪还覆盖着地面，虫子就已经冒出来了。 鸟儿筑巢，浣熊配对，狐狸互相呼唤，寻找相伴一生的伴侣。 二月底，枫树的树汁开始流动了。 我在几棵树上钻洞取汁，把树汁熬成了糖浆。 我发现，做一杯糖浆得用超多树汁，准确来说，整整三十二杯树汁。 这些变化都发生了，我还穿着冬天加绒的厚内衣呢。 一两只鸟儿飞了回来，避风泉边的蕨草慢慢舒展开了叶子——虽然速度很慢，但它们确实长开了。 紧接着，林间的生机

gathered momentum, and before I was aware of the change, there were the skunk cabbages poking their funny blooms above the snow in the marsh. I picked some and cooked them, but they aren't any good. A skunk cabbage is a skunk cabbage. From my meadow I could see the valleys turning green. My mountain was still snowcapped, so I walked into the valleys almost every day to scout them for edible plants. Frightful rode down with me on my shoulder. She knew even better than I that the season had changed, and she watched the sky like radar. No life travelled that sky world unnoticed by Frightful. I thought she wanted to be free and seek a mate, but I could not let her. I still depended upon her talents and company. Furthermore, she was different, and if I did let her go. she probably would have been killed by another female, for Frightful had no territory other than the hemlock patch. and her hunting instincts had been trained for man. She was a captive, not

越来越旺盛，我还没察觉出变化，沼泽里的臭菘已经顶着古怪的花苞，钻出积雪了。 我摘了一些煮来吃，味道一点都不好。 臭菘到底还是臭菘呀。 站在我的草甸上，能看到山谷慢慢变绿了。 我的山顶还盖着积雪，所以我几乎天天都走进山谷，搜寻可食用的植物。 佛莱伏蹲在我肩膀上，跟我一起下山。 她比我还清楚季节已经变了，像雷达一样盯着天空。 天空中飞过任何活物，都逃不过佛莱伏的眼睛。 我以为她想要自由，去找配偶，可我不能放她走。 我还依赖她的本领，也离不开她的陪伴。 而且，她和野鹰不一样，如果我真放她走， 她很可能会被别的雌鹰杀死，因为佛莱伏除了这片铁杉林，没有自己的领地。 她的捕猎本能，也是跟着人训练出来的。 她是被圈养的鹰，不是

a wild bird, and that is almost another kind of bird. One day I was in the valley digging tubers and collecting the tiny new dandelion shoots when Frightful saw another duck hawk and flew from my shoulder like a bolt, pulling the leash from my hand as she went. "Frightful!" I called. "You can't leave me now!" I whistled, held out a piece of meat, and hoped she would not get her leash caught in a treetop. She hovered above my head, looked at the hawk and then at my hand, folded her wings, and dropped to my fist. "I saw that!" a voice said. I spun around to see a young man about my own age, shivering at the edge of the woods. "You're the wild boy, aren't you?"

一只野鸟，这几乎是完全不同的两种鸟类了。 有一天，我在山谷挖块茎、采集刚长出来的蒲公英嫩苗，佛莱伏看到了另一只游隼，她像箭一样从我的肩膀飞出去，扯着牵绳从我手心脱逃了。 “佛莱伏！” 我喊道。 “你现在不能离开我！” 我吹了口哨，伸出一块肉，心里盼着她的牵绳别挂在树梢上。 她在我头顶盘旋，看了看那只鹰，又看了看我的手，折起翅膀，落到了我的拳头上。 “我都看见了！” 一个声音说道。 我转过身，看到一个和我年纪差不多的年轻人，在林边冻得发抖。 “你就是那个野孩子，对不对？”

I was so astonished to see a human being in all this cold thawing silence that I just stood and looked at him. When I gathered my wits I replied, "No, I'm just a citizen." "Aw, gee," he said with disappointment. Then he gave in to the cold and shivered until the twigs around him rattled. He stepped forward. "Well, anyway, I'm Matt Spell. I work after school on the Poughkeepsie New Yorker, a newspaper. I read all the stories about the wild boy who lives in the Catskills, and I thought that if I found him and got a good story, I might get to be a reporter. Have you ever run across him? Is there such a boy?"

在这融冰期寒冷的寂静里突然看到一个人，我太惊讶了，只是站着盯着他看。 我回过神来回答道：“不是，我只是个普通人。” “哎呀，”他失望地说。 接着他冻得受不住，浑身发抖，抖得身边的小树枝都哗哗作响。 他走上前来。 “好吧，不管怎样，我叫马特·斯佩尔。 放学后我在《波基普西纽约人报》干活，那是一家报社。 我读过所有关于住在卡茨基尔山的野孩子的故事，我想如果我找到他，写出一篇好报道，我就能当上记者了。 你碰到过他吗？ 真的有这个男孩吗？”

"Aw, it's all nonsense," I said as I gathered some dry wood and piled it near the edge of the woods. I lit it swiftly, hoping he would not notice the flint and steel. He was so cold and so glad to see the flames that he said nothing. I rolled a log up to the fire for him and shoved it against a tree that was blocked from the raw biting wind by a stand of hawthorns. He crouched over the flames for a long time, then practically burnt the soles off his shoes warming his feet. He was that miserable. "Why didn't you dress warmer for this kind of a trip?" I asked. "You'll die up here in this damp cold." "I think I am dying," he said sitting so close to the fire, he almost smothered it. He was nice-looking, about thirteen or fourteen, I would have said. He had a good bold face, blue eyes, hair about the colour of my stream

“哎呀，都是瞎扯，”我一边说一边捡了干柴，堆在林边。 我很快生起了火，希望他没注意到我的火石和钢片。 他冻坏了，满心欢喜看着火，什么也没问。 我滚了一根圆木到火边给他坐，把它靠在一棵树上，这片地方有一片山楂树挡着刺骨的寒风。 他蹲在火边烤了好久，后来烤脚的时候差点把鞋底烤焦了。 他冻得实在太惨了。 “跑出来玩怎么不穿暖一点呀？” 我问道。 “这种湿冷的天气，你会冻死在山上的。” “我都觉得我快死了，”他说，往火边坐得太近，差点把火闷灭了。 他长得挺好看，我猜他大概十三四岁的样子。 他长着一张英气的脸，蓝眼睛，头发的颜色就像我的溪流

in the thaw. Although he was big, he looked like the kind of fellow who didn't know his own strength. I liked Matt. "I've still got a sandwich," he said. "Want half?" "No thanks," I said. "I brought my lunch." Frightful had been sitting on my shoulder through all this, but now the smoke was bothering her and she hopped to a higher perch. I still had her on the leash. "There was a bird on your shoulder," Matt said. "He had nice eyes. Do you know him?" "I'm sort of an amateur falconer," I replied. "I come up here to train my bird. It's a she –Frightful is her name." "Does she catch anything?" "Now and then. How hungry are you?" I asked as his second bite finished the sandwich.

在融雪时节的样子。 虽然他个子高大，看起来却像是那种还摸不清自己力气的小伙子。 我挺喜欢马特。 “我还带了一个三明治，”他说。 “分你一半要不要？” “不了，谢谢，”我说。 “我自己带了吃的。” 刚才这番交谈，佛莱伏一直蹲在我肩膀上，现在烟熏得她不舒服，她就跳到更高的枝桠上待着了。 我还拿牵绳拴着她呢。 “你刚才肩膀上有一只鸟，”马特说。 “他的眼睛真好看。 你认识它吗？” “我算是个业余驯鹰人，”我回答。 “我上山来训练我的鹰。 它是雌鹰，名叫佛莱伏。” “她会捕猎吗？” “偶尔捕点。 你有多饿呀？ 他两口就吃完了三明治，我开口问道。