But I was beginning to understand
但我开始明白了,
that life was far more complicated than it had appeared to be in the Yard and that it was people who were in charge of it, not dogs.
这里的生活远比院子里的生活要复杂得多,而且主导一切的是人类,不是狗子。
What mattered was not what I wanted; what mattered was that I was there in the woods
这里重要的东西并不是我想要的。对我来说,重要的是:在树林里时
when Ethan was cold and hungry, keeping him warm at nights, being his companion.
伊森又冷又饿,晚上给他取暖,做他的伙伴,这才是重要的事。
That winter, around the time when Dad put a tree in the living room for Merry Christmas, Chelsea got a new puppy.
那年冬天,大约在爸爸在客厅里放了一棵圣诞树来庆祝圣诞的时候,切尔西有了一只新的小狗。
They named her Duchess.
他们给她取名为公爵夫人。
She was relentlessly playful, to the point where I’d get annoyed at her sharp teeth digging into my ears and would give her a quick growl to make her stop.
她玩起来很疯,会用她的尖牙咬我的耳朵,这让我很生气,我会对她发出一声咆哮,让她停下来。
She’d blink at me innocently and back off for just a few seconds before deciding I couldn’t have meant it, and then she’d come right back at me.
她会无辜地对我眨一下眼睛,然后退后几秒钟,然后发现我不是故意的,就又会回来找我。
It was very irritating.
这很令人恼火。
In the spring, the word “go-kart” swept through the neighborhood, and all up and down the street the children were sawing and hammering on wood, totally ignoring their dogs.
春天的时候,“卡丁车”这个词频繁出现在整个街区,街道上到处都是孩子们在锯木头、锤木头,完全不理会他们的狗子。
Dad would come out to the garage every evening and talk to the boy while he fussed over whatever he was doing.
爸爸每天晚上都会到车库来,和伊森聊天,而伊森则会顾着忙自己的事情。
I even went so far as to go into the boy’s closet and bring out the loathsome flip, thinking I could tantalize him with that,
我甚至跑到那个男孩的壁橱里,把那个讨厌的筋斗云拿了出来,想着可以用筋斗云来吸引伊森的注意,
but he remained totally focused on playing with pieces of wood that he never once threw for me to chase and bring back.
但他仍然完全专注于玩那些木头,也不会扔给我去接。
“See my go-kart, Bailey? It’s going to go fast!”
“看到我的卡丁车了吗,贝利?”它会开得很快!”
Finally the boy opened the garage door, sat on the go-kart, and rode it like a sled down the short driveway.
最后,男孩终于打开了车库门,他坐在卡丁车上,像滑雪橇一样滑过短短的车道。
I trotted beside him, thinking we’d both been through a lot of bother for such a pointless ending,
我小跑着跟在他身边,想着我们都为这样一个毫无意义的结局费很多劲儿,
but when the go-kart reached the bottom of the driveway he picked it up and carried it back into the garage to play with it some more!
但是当卡丁车开到车道底时,伊森把它捡了起来,想拿回车库再玩一会儿!
At least with the flip you had something you could chew on.
如果是筋斗云的话,至少我还有的嚼。