Chapter 28

CHAPTER XXVIII An Unfortunate Lily Maid "OF course you must be Elaine, Anne," said Diana. "I could never have the courage to float down there." "Nor I," said Ruby Gillis, with a shiver. "I don't mind floating down when there's two or three of us in the flat and we can sit up. It's fun then. But to lie down and pretend I was dead-I just couldn't. I'd die really of fright." "Of course it would be romantic," conceded Jane Andrews, "but I know I couldn't keep still. I'd be popping up every minute or so to see where I was and if I wasn't drifting too far out. And you know, Anne, that would spoil the effect." "But it's so ridiculous to have a redheaded Elaine," mourned Anne. "I'm not afraid to float down and I'd love to be Elaine. But it's ridiculous just the same. Ruby ought to be Elaine because she is so fair and has such

第二十八章 “倒霉的百合少女” “安妮，你当然得演伊莱恩啦，”戴安娜说。 “我可没勇气从那儿漂下去。” “我也不敢，”鲁比·吉利斯说着打了个寒颤。 “要是两三个人一块儿坐在平底船上漂，我倒不害怕。” 那样挺好玩的。 可要躺着装死——我真做不到。 我会真的吓死的。” “这当然很浪漫啦，”简·安德鲁斯也同意，“可我知道我肯定静不下来。 我隔一分钟就会忍不住起来看看我在哪儿，会不会漂太远了。 安妮你也知道，那样就全毁了。” “可是让红头发的人演伊莱恩太荒唐了呀，”安妮难过地说。 我不怕漂下去，我也很愿意演伊莱恩。 可不管怎么说都很荒唐。 鲁比才该演伊莱恩，她那么白，还有那么

lovely long golden hair-Elaine had `all her bright hair streaming down," you know. And Elaine was the lily maid. Now, a red-haired person cannot be a lily maid." "Your complexion is just as fair as Ruby's," said Diana earnestly, "and your hair is ever so much darker than it used to be before you cut it." "Oh, do you really think so?" exclaimed Anne, flushing sensitively with delight. "I've sometimes thought it was myself-but I never dared to ask anyone for fear she would tell me it wasn't. Do you think it could be called auburn now, Diana?" "Yes, and I think it is real pretty," said Diana, looking admiringly at the short, silky curls that clustered over Anne's head and were held in place by a very jaunty black velvet ribbon and bow. They were standing on the bank of the pond, below Orchard Slope, where a little headland fringed with birches ran out from the bank; at its tip was a small wooden platform built out into the water for the convenience of fishermen and duck hunters. Ruby and Jane were spending the midsummer afternoon with Diana, and Anne had come over to play with them.

漂亮的金色长发——伊莱恩就是‘满头亮发散开来’，你知道的。 而且伊莱恩就是百合少女呀。 哪有红头发的百合少女啊。” 你的肤色和鲁比一样白呀，”戴安娜诚恳地说，“而且你剪发之后，头发比以前深多啦。 啊，你真这么想吗？”安妮又惊喜又开心，脸一下子红了，激动地叫起来。 我有时候自己也这么觉得，可我不敢问别人，怕人家说不是。 戴安娜，你说现在它能算赤褐色了吗？” 对呀，我觉得真的很好看，”戴安娜说着，羡慕地望着安妮头上蓬松柔软的短卷发，头发用一条俏皮的黑丝绒蝴蝶结发带固定着。 她们站在果园坡下方的池塘岸边，一块长着桦树的小岬角从岸边伸出来； 岬角顶端往水里伸出一个小木平台，供渔夫和猎鸭人使用。 仲夏的这个下午，鲁比和简来戴安娜家玩，安妮也过来和她们一起玩了。

Anne and Diana had spent most of their playtime that summer on and about the pond. Idlewild was a thing of the past, Mr. Bell having ruthlessly cut down the little circle of trees in his back pasture in the spring. Anne had sat among the stumps and wept, not without an eye to the romance of it; but she was speedily consoled, for, after all, as she and Diana said, big girls of thirteen, going on fourteen, were too old for such childish amusements as playhouses, and there were more fascinating sports to be found about the pond. It was splendid to fish for trout over the bridge and the two girls learned to row themselves about in the little flat-bottomed dory Mr. Barry kept for duck shooting. It was Anne's idea that they dramatize Elaine. They had studied Tennyson's poem in school the preceding winter, the Superintendent of Education having prescribed it in the English course for the Prince Edward Island schools. They had analyzed and parsed it and torn it to pieces in general until it was a wonder there was any meaning at all left in it for them, but at least the fair lily maid and Lancelot and Guinevere and King Arthur had become very real people to them, and Anne was

那个夏天，安妮和戴安娜大部分玩乐时间都在池塘边和水上度过。 闲野园已经是过去的事了，贝尔先生春天的时候无情砍光了他后山牧场上的那一小圈树。 安妮坐在树桩堆里哭了，哭的时候还没忘了感受这份浪漫； 不过她很快就想开了，毕竟就像她和戴安娜说的，十三岁快十四岁的大姑娘，已经过了玩过家家这种幼稚游戏的年纪，池塘边有更多有意思的玩法。 在桥边钓鳟鱼很棒，两个女孩还学会了划巴里先生用来猎鸭的平底小渔船。 排演伊莱恩这个点子是安妮想出来的。 去年冬天她们在学校学了丁尼生的这首诗，这是教育总监给爱德华王子岛学校规定的英语课程内容。 她们把这首诗分析拆解了一遍，几乎都不剩什么原意了，但至少美丽的百合少女、兰斯洛特、桂妮维亚和亚瑟王对她们而言已经是十分真实的人物，安妮还

devoured by secret regret that she had not been born in Camelot. Those days, she said, were so much more romantic than the present. Anne's plan was hailed with enthusiasm. The girls had discovered that if the flat were pushed off from the landing place it would drift down with the current under the bridge and finally strand itself on another headland lower down which ran out at a curve in the pond. They had often gone down like this and nothing could be more convenient for playing Elaine. "Well, I'll be Elaine," said Anne, yielding reluctantly, for, although she would have been delighted to play the principal character, yet her artistic sense demanded fitness for it and this, she felt, her limitations made impossible. "Ruby, you must be King Arthur and Jane will be Guinevere and Diana must be Lancelot. But first you must be the brothers and the father. We can't have the old dumb servitor because there isn't room for two in the flat when one is lying down. We must pall the barge all its length in blackest samite. That old black shawl of your mother's will be just the thing, Diana."

一直暗暗遗憾，自己没能出生在卡美洛特。 她说，那个年代可比现在浪漫太多了。 安妮的计划得到了大家的热烈赞同。 姑娘们发现，如果把平底船从码头推开，它会顺流漂过桥，最终搁浅在池塘下游弯道伸出的另一处岬角上。 她们以前就这么漂过，用来演伊莱恩再合适不过了。 “那好吧，我来演伊莱恩，”安妮不太情愿地答应了，她虽然很乐意演主角，可她觉得得符合角色形象，自己的缺点满足不了要求。 “鲁比，你演亚瑟王，简演桂妮维亚，戴安娜演兰斯洛特。 “不过一开始你们得演伊莱恩的兄弟和父亲。 我们不能带那个又哑又老的仆人，因为一个人躺下后，平底船就放不下第二个人了。 我们得用最黑的锦缎把整艘船遮起来。 戴安娜，你妈妈那块旧黑披巾正合适。”

The black shawl having been procured, Anne spread it over the flat and then lay down on the bottom, with closed eyes and hands folded over her breast. "Oh, she does look really dead," whispered Ruby Gillis nervously, watching the still, white little face under the flickering shadows of the birches. "It makes me feel frightened, girls. Do you suppose it's really right to act like this? Mrs. Lynde says that all play-acting is abominably wicked." "Ruby, you shouldn't talk about Mrs. Lynde," said Anne severely. "It spoils the effect because this is hundreds of years before Mrs. Lynde was born. Jane, you arrange this. It's silly for Elaine to be talking when she's dead." Jane rose to the occasion. Cloth of gold for coverlet there was none, but an old piano scarf of yellow Japanese crepe was an excellent substitute. A white lily was not obtainable just then, but the effect of a tall blue iris placed in one of Anne's folded hands was all that could be desired. "Now, she's all ready," said Jane. "We must kiss her quiet brows and, Diana, you say, `Sister,

拿到黑披肩后，安妮把它铺在平底木筏上，接着躺到筏底，闭上眼睛，双手交叠放在胸前。 “噢，她看起来真的像死人哪，”鲁比·吉利斯紧张地小声说，望着桦树晃动阴影下那张一动不动、苍白的小脸。 这真让我害怕，姑娘们。 你说我们这么做真的对吗？ 林德太太说，所有的扮戏玩耍都邪恶得不像话。” “鲁比，你不该提林德太太，”安妮严肃地说。 这破坏氛围啦，我们演的可是林德太太出生好几百年前的故事。 简，你来安排一下。 伊莱恩已经死了，死人说话可太傻了。” 简从容地做好了安排。 我们没有金线织的床罩，不过用一条旧的黄色日本绉丝钢琴罩顶替，效果好极了。 那时候找不到白百合，不过在安妮交叠的手里插一朵高高的蓝鸢尾，效果刚刚好，完全满足要求。 “好啦，全都准备就绪，”简说。 “我们得亲吻她安静的额头，戴安娜，你来说：‘妹妹，

farewell forever," and Ruby, you say, `Farewell, sweet sister," both of you as sorrowfully as you possibly can. Anne, for goodness sake smile a little. You know Elaine `lay as though she smiled." That's better. Now push the flat off." The flat was accordingly pushed off, scraping roughly over an old embedded stake in the process. Diana and Jane and Ruby only waited long enough to see it caught in the current and headed for the bridge before scampering up through the woods, across the road, and down to the lower headland where, as Lancelot and Guinevere and the King, they were to be in readiness to receive the lily maid. For a few minutes Anne, drifting slowly down, enjoyed the romance of her situation to the full. Then something happened not at all romantic. The flat began to leak. In a very few moments it was necessary for Elaine to scramble to her feet, pick up her cloth of gold coverlet and pall of blackest samite and gaze blankly at a big crack in the bottom of her barge through which the water was literally pouring. That sharp stake at the landing had torn off the strip of batting nailed on the flat.

永别了，’然后鲁比，你说：‘永别了，亲爱的妹妹，’你们俩都要尽可能说得悲伤一点。 安妮，看在老天的份上，笑一下吧。 你知道伊莱恩“躺着还带着微笑”呀。 这样就对了。 现在把筏子推出去吧。” 于是筏子被推了出去，推的时候粗糙地刮到了岸边埋着的一根旧木桩。 戴安娜、简和鲁比看到筏子被水流卷走朝着桥漂去，就立刻蹦跳着穿过树林，跑过马路，冲到下游岬角——她们要在那里扮演朗斯洛、桂妮薇儿和国王，做好迎接百合少女的准备。 有那么几分钟，顺着水流慢慢漂流的安妮，尽情享受着这份浪漫情境。 可接下来发生了一点也不浪漫的事。 筏子开始漏水了。 没一会儿，“伊莱恩”就不得不爬起来，抓起她的金床罩和黑丧布，茫然看着筏底的一道大裂缝，水正哗哗地往里灌。 岸边那根尖木桩刮掉了钉在筏子上的一块填絮条。