评论
打印
"Shoot !Shoot !"cried the Master Bowman, and several obeyed, but the arrows glanced off the Sea Serpent's hide as if it was iron--plated.
"射箭, 射箭!"弓箭手头领一声令下, 几个人开始射箭, 可是箭只是从蛇皮上擦过去, 好像射在了铁甲上一样。
Then, for a dreadful minute, everyone was still, staring up at its eyes and mouth and wondering where it would pounce.
这时, 大家一动不动地看着海蛇的眼睛和嘴, 倒吸了一口冷气, 因为不知道它会向哪儿扑过来。
But it didn't pounce. It shot its head forward across the ship on a level with the yard of the mast.
可是它没有。它的脑袋沿着桅杆探过船身,
Now its head was just beside the fightingtop.
眼看就要到观测台旁边了,
Still it stretched and stretched till its head was over the starboard bulwark.
仍不断伸长, 一直伸到右舷上。
Then down it began to come--not onto the crowded deck but into the water, so that the whole ship was under an arch of serpent.
然后开始向下钻----不是钻向甲板上的人群, 而是海里。然后它的身体就把整条船给围住了。
And almost at once that arch began to get smaller：indeed on the starboard the Sea Serpent was now almost touching the Dawn Treader's side.
这个圈越来越小, 海蛇的身体简直要碰到右舷壁了。
Eustace(who had really been trying very hard to behave well, till the rain and the chess put him back)now did the first brave thing he had ever done.
尤斯塔斯一直努力好好表现, 后来天下雨了他就和别人下棋, 虽然输给别人的时候他得表现让人生厌, 但这时他居然做出平生第一次壮举。
He was wearing a sword that Caspian had lent him.
他随身带着凯斯宾借给他的一把剑,
As soon as the serpent's body was near enough on the starboard side he jumped on to the bulwark and began hacking at it with all his might.
当蛇身快接近右舷壁的时候, 他向舷壁扑过去, 使出浑身力量猛然刺向海蛇。
It is true that he accomplished nothing beyond breaking Caspian's second-best sword into bits, but it was a fine thing for a beginner to have done.
当然结果除了把凯斯宾那第二把好剑折成碎片之外, 毫无收获。可是对一个初出茅庐的人来说, 这倒是件好事。
Others would have joined him if at that moment Reepicheep had not called out, "Don't fight ! Push !"
若不是雷佩契普大声喊："别打!推!"别人早就跟凯斯宾一起去战斗了。
It was so unusual for the Mouse to advise anyone not to fight that, even in that terrible moment, every eye turned to him.
到了那样的紧要关头, 老鼠竟然还劝大家别打, 这太奇怪了, 所以大家目光都转向它。
And when he jumped up on to the bulwark, forward of the snake, and set his little furry back against its huge scaly, slimy back, and began pushing as hard as he could, quite a number of people saw what he meant and rushed to both sides of the ship to do the same.
当它扑向舷壁, 挡在海蛇前面, 用它那毛茸茸的小身子挡住海蛇那长满鳞甲, 滑腻腻的巨大身子使劲往外推的时候, 好多人这才明白它的用意, 纷纷冲到船舷两侧, 学着他那样往外推。
And when, a moment later, the Sea Serpent's head appeared again, this time on the port side, and this time with its back to them, then everyone understood.
过了一会, 海蛇的脑袋又出现了, 这回在左舷, 而且是背对着大家, 于是大家都明白了。
The brute had made a loop of itself round the Dawn Treader and was beginning to draw the loop tight.
这怪物竟把身子绕成个圈, 套着黎明踏浪号, 并开始把圈套收紧。
When it got quite tight-- snap ! --there would be floating matchwood where the ship had been and it could pick them out of the water one by one.
等这个圈套收得相当紧了, "啪"的一下子, 大船就会变成一堆漂浮的碎片, 它就可以在水里把他们一一吃掉。
Their only chance was to push the loop backward till it slid over the stern;or else(to put the same thing another way)to push the ship forward out of the loop.
他们的唯一出路是把这个圈套往船后推, 推得它滑过船尾, 不然就把圈套朝另一个方向推, 让船身前进, 脱出圈套。
Reepicheep alone had, of course, no more chance of doing this than of lifting up a cathedral, but he had nearly killed himself with trying before others shoved him aside.
雷佩契普势单力薄, 无异蚍蜉撼大树。当别人把它推到一边时, 它已用尽力气, 差点送了命。
Very soon the whole ship's company except Lucy and the Mouse(which was fainting) was in two long lines along the two bulwarks, each man's chest to the back of the man in front, so that the weight of the whole line was in the last man, pushing for their lives.
一会儿工夫全船人, 除了露茜和晕倒的老鼠之外, 都沿着两边舷壁, 排成两条长队, 个个前胸贴后背, 整列队伍的重量都落在队尾一个人身上, 大家拼命推。
For a few sickening seconds(which seemed like hours)nothing appeared to happen.
推了几秒钟, 就像推了好几个小时, 还是毫无结果。
Joints cracked, sweat dropped, breath came in grunts and gasps.
大家伙儿的关节都像散了架, 汗珠往下淌, 嘴里哼哼嘿嘿地直喘气。
Then they felt that the ship was moving.
这时他们觉得船在动了,
They saw that the snake-loop was further from the mast than it had been.
他们看见蛇圈离桅杆比先前更远了,
But they also saw that it was smaller. And now the real danger was at hand.
蛇圈却收小了。真正的危险迫在眉睫。
Could they get it over the poop, or was it already too tight ? Yes. It would just fit. It was resting on the poop rails.
他们能让船尾穿过这个圈吗?这个圈是不是已经太小了?是啊, 这个圈套贴着船尾楼的栏杆绕成一个圈。
A dozen or more sprang up on the poop. This was far better.
十几个人跳上船尾去, 这样就好得多了。
The Sea Serpent's body was so low now that they could make a line across the poop and push side by side.
这时海蛇的身体很低, 他们在船尾对面排成一排并肩一齐推。
Hope rose high till everyone remembered the high carved stern, the dragon tail, of the Dawn Treader.
大家满怀希望, 但忽然又想起黎明踏浪号高耸在船尾的雕花龙尾,
It would be quite impossible to get the brute over that.
要让龙尾摆脱那个圈套就不太可能了。
