Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX A Good Imagination Gone Wrong Spring had come once more to Green Gables-the beautiful capricious, reluctant Canadian spring, lingering along through April and May in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and miracles of resurrection and growth. The maples in Lover's Lane were red budded and little curly ferns pushed up around the Dryad's Bubble. Away up in the barrens, behind Mr. Silas Sloane's place, the Mayflowers blossomed out, pink and white stars of sweetness under their brown leaves. All the school girls and boys had one golden afternoon gathering them, coming home in the clear, echoing twilight with arms and baskets full of flowery spoil. "I'm so sorry for people who live in lands where there are no Mayflowers," said Anne. "Diana says perhaps they have something better, but there couldn't be anything better than Mayflowers, could there, Marilla? And Diana says

第二十章 误入歧途的好想象力 美丽任性、姗姗来迟的春天再次降临绿山墙——加拿大的春天，从四月慢悠悠延续到五月，一路都是清甜清新微凉的日子，缀着粉霞，还有万物复苏生长的奇迹。 情人小径的枫树冒出了红色新芽，干仙女泡泡泉边长出了卷卷的小蕨菜。 远处石楠荒地里，赛拉斯·斯隆先生的宅子后方，五月花绽放了，棕褐色叶片下藏着粉白甜香的星星小花。 学校里所有男孩女孩都花了一个惬意的金色午后采摘它们，在清澈回响着笑声的暮色里回家，怀里和篮子都装满了芬芳的收获。 “我真同情那些住在没有五月花的地方的人，”安妮说。 “戴安娜说他们说不定有更好的花，但不可能有比五月花更好的了，对不对，玛丽拉？” 而戴安娜说

if they don't know what they are like they don't miss them. But I think that is the saddest thing of all. I think it would be TRAGIC, Marilla, not to know what Mayflowers are like and NOT to miss them. Do you know what I think Mayflowers are, Marilla? I think they must be the souls of the flowers that died last summer and this is their heaven. But we had a splendid time today, Marilla. We had our lunch down in a big mossy hollow by an old well-such a ROMANTIC spot. Charlie Sloane dared Arty Gillis to jump over it, and Arty did because he wouldn't take a dare. Nobody would in school. It is very FASHIONABLE to dare. Mr. Phillips gave all the Mayflowers he found to Prissy Andrews and I heard him to say `sweets to the sweet." He got that out of a book, I know; but it shows he has some imagination. I was offered some Mayflowers too, but I rejected them with scorn. I can't tell you the person's name because I have vowed never to let it cross my lips. We made wreaths of the Mayflowers and put them on our hats; and when the time came to go home we marched in procession down the road, two by two, with our bouquets and wreaths, singing `My Home on the Hill." Oh, it was so

如果他们不知道五月花长什么样，就不会想念它们。 但我觉得这才是最让人难过的事。 我觉得这太不幸了，玛丽拉，不知道五月花长什么样，也不会想念它们。 你知道我觉得五月花是什么吗，玛丽拉？ 我觉得它们一定是去年夏天凋谢的花儿的灵魂，这里就是它们的天堂。 我们今天玩得可开心啦，玛丽拉。 我们在一口老井旁边那块长满苔藓的大山谷里吃了午餐，那个地方可浪漫了。 查理·斯隆激阿蒂·吉利斯跳过去，阿蒂跳了，因为他不会被激将法吓住。 学校里没人会怕激将。 玩激将游戏现在可时髦了。 菲利普斯先生把他找到的所有五月花都给了普里西·安德鲁斯，我听见他说‘美好的东西属于美好的人。’ 我知道这句话是从书里来的，但这也说明他还有点想象力。 也有人给我送了五月花，我轻蔑地拒绝了。 我不能告诉你那个人的名字，我发誓再也不会让这个名字从我嘴里说出来。 我们把五月花编成花环，戴在帽子上； 该回家的时候，我们排成队沿路走，两个两个并排，捧着我们的花束和花环，唱着《山上我的家》。 哦，这真是太

thrilling, Marilla. All Mr. Silas Sloane's folks rushed out to see us and everybody we met on the road stopped and stared after us. We made a real sensation." "Not much wonder! Such silly doings!" was Marilla's response. After the Mayflowers came the violets, and Violet Vale was empurpled with them. Anne walked through it on her way to school with reverent steps and worshiping eyes, as if she trod on holy ground. "Somehow," she told Diana, "when I'm going through here I don't really care whether Gil-whether anybody gets ahead of me in class or not. But when I'm up in school it's all different and I care as much as ever. There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting." One June evening, when the orchards were pink blossomed again, when the frogs were singing silverly sweet in the marshes about the

激动人心了，玛丽拉。 赛拉斯·斯隆全家都跑出来看我们，路上我们碰到的每个人都停下来，目送我们走远。 我们可引起好大的轰动呢。” “这有什么好奇怪的！ 净干些傻事！”这就是玛丽拉的回应。 五月花过后就是紫罗兰，紫罗兰谷都变成了紫色的海洋。 安妮走在上学的路上，脚步虔诚，满眼向往，就好像走在圣地上一样。 “不知道为什么，”她对戴安娜说，“当我走在这里的时候，我真的不在乎吉尔——不在乎谁的成绩比我好。 可我到了学校就不一样了，我还是和以前一样在乎成绩。 我身体里住着好多不一样的安妮呢。 我有时候想，这就是我这么麻烦的原因吧。 如果我只是同一个安妮，那会舒服多啦，可那样的话，也会少掉一半的乐趣呢。” 六月的一个傍晚，果园又开满了粉色的花，青蛙在沼泽边唱着甜美的银铃般歌声，那沼泽就在

head of the Lake of Shining Waters, and the air was full of the savor of clover fields and balsamic fir woods, Anne was sitting by her gable window. She had been studying her lessons, but it had grown too dark to see the book, so she had fallen into wide-eyed reverie, looking out past the boughs of the Snow Queen, once more bestarred with its tufts of blossom. In all essential respects the little gable chamber was unchanged. The walls were as white, the pincushion as hard, the chairs as stiffly and yellowly upright as ever. Yet the whole character of the room was altered. It was full of a new vital, pulsing personality that seemed to pervade it and to be quite independent of schoolgirl books and dresses and ribbons, and even of the cracked blue jug full of apple blossoms on the table. It was as if all the dreams, sleeping and waking, of its vivid occupant had taken a visible although unmaterial form and had tapestried the bare room with splendid filmy tissues of rainbow and moonshine. Presently Marilla came briskly in with some of Anne's freshly ironed school aprons. She hung them over a chair and sat down with a short sigh.

闪光湖的源头，空气里满是三叶草田野和香脂冷杉林的清香，安妮正坐在她的山墙窗边。 她本来一直在温习功课，可天太黑看不清字了，于是她睁着眼睛陷入了遐想，目光越过“白雪皇后”的苹果树枝，树枝又一次缀满了团团花簇。 从方方面面来看，这间小小的山墙房间都没什么变化。 墙壁还是那样洁白，针插还是那样硬，椅子还是像以前那样，硬邦邦黄澄澄地立着。 可整个房间的气质都变了。 房间里满是一种全新鲜活、跳动的气息，它弥漫在整个房间，和女学生的书、裙子、丝带，甚至桌上那只插着苹果花的破蓝瓷罐都没有关系。 就好像这个活泼主人所有醒着、睡着的梦，都变成了看得见却摸不着的模样，给这空房间挂上了用彩虹和月光织成的薄薄的漂亮挂毯。 不一会儿，玛丽拉轻快地走了进来，拿着几件刚熨好的安妮的学生围裙。 她把围裙挂在椅子上，坐下来轻轻叹了口气。

She had had one of her headaches that afternoon, and although the pain had gone she felt weak and "tuckered out," as she expressed it. Anne looked at her with eyes limpid with sympathy. "I do truly wish I could have had the headache in your place, Marilla. I would have endured it joyfully for your sake." "I guess you did your part in attending to the work and letting me rest," said Marilla. "You seem to have got on fairly well and made fewer mistakes than usual. Of course it wasn't exactly necessary to starch Matthew's handkerchiefs! And most people when they put a pie in the oven to warm up for dinner take it out and eat it when it gets hot instead of leaving it to be burned to a crisp. But that doesn't seem to be your way evidently." Headaches always left Marilla somewhat sarcastic. "Oh, I'm so sorry," said Anne penitently. "I never thought about that pie from the moment I put it in the oven till now, although I felt INSTINCTIVELY that there was something missing on the dinner table. I was firmly resolved, when you left me in charge this morning, not to

那天下午她犯了头痛，虽然疼痛已经退了，可她就像自己说的那样，觉得浑身无力，累坏了。 安妮满含同情，清澈地望着她。 我真希望能替你承受头痛，玛丽拉。 为了你，我开开心心都愿意扛下来。 我猜你也做好了该做的活，也让我好好休息了，玛丽拉说。 你做得还不错，犯的错也比平时少。 当然啦，本来没必要给马修的手帕上浆的！ 大多数人把馅饼放进烤箱加热当晚餐，热好就拿出来吃，不会把它烤成焦糊。 不过很明显，这可不是你的风格。 头痛总让玛丽拉说话带点尖刻。 哦，真对不起，安妮愧疚地说。 自从我把馅饼放进烤箱后，我就完全忘了这回事，虽然我一直隐隐觉得餐桌上缺了点什么。 今天早上你让我看家的时候，我就下定决心，不

imagine anything, but keep my thoughts on facts. I did pretty well until I put the pie in, and then an irresistible temptation came to me to imagine I was an enchanted princess shut up in a lonely tower with a handsome knight riding to my rescue on a coal-black steed. So that is how I came to forget the pie. I didn't know I starched the handkerchiefs. All the time I was ironing I was trying to think of a name for a new island Diana and I have discovered up the brook. It's the most ravishing spot, Marilla. There are two maple trees on it and the brook flows right around it. At last it struck me that it would be splendid to call it Victoria Island because we found it on the Queen's birthday. Both Diana and I are very loyal. But I'm sorry about that pie and the handkerchiefs. I wanted to be extra good today because it's an anniversary. Do you remember what happened this day last year, Marilla?" "No, I can't think of anything special." "Oh, Marilla, it was the day I came to Green Gables. I shall never forget it. It was the turning point in my life. Of course it wouldn't seem so important to you. I've been here for a year and I've been so happy. Of course, I've had my troubles,

瞎想别的，只专注做好手头的事。 放馅饼进去之前我都做得好好的，后来我忍不住幻想，我是被关在孤塔里的中了魔法的公主，有个英俊骑士骑着黑骏马来救我。 所以我就把馅饼忘了。 我也不知道我给手帕上浆了呀。 我熨衣服的时候，一直在想我和戴安娜在小溪上游发现的新小岛该叫什么名字。 那地方真的太美了，玛丽拉。 岛上有两棵枫树，小溪刚好环绕着小岛流淌。 最后我想到，叫它维多利亚岛太棒了，因为我们是在女王生日那天发现它的。 我和戴安娜都非常忠诚。 不过馅饼和手帕的事我真的很抱歉。 我今天本来想好好表现的，因为今天是个纪念日。 你还记得去年今天发生了什么事吗，玛丽拉？ 不，我想不出有什么特别的事。 哎呀玛丽拉，那天就是我来到绿山墙的日子呀。 我永远都忘不了那一天。 那是我人生的转折点呀。 当然啦，这件事对你来说没那么重要。 我来这里一整年了，一直都很开心。 当然，我也碰到过不少麻烦，