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But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to get under it, much less to move it forward, towards the water; so I was forced to give it over; and yet, though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as the means for it seemed impossible.
船是落下来了，我却无法搬动它，也无法从船底下插入杠杆转木之类的东西，更不要说把它移到水里去了。最后，我只得放弃这个工作。可是，我虽然放弃了使用小艇的希望，我要去海岛对面大陆上的愿望不但没有减退，反而因为无法实现而更加强烈。
This at length put me upon thinking, whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe, or Periagua, such as the natives of those climates make, even without tools, or, as I might say, without hands, viz. of the trunk of a great tree.
最后，我想到，能否像热带地区的土人那样做一只独木舟呢，尽管我没有工具，没有人手。所谓独木舟，就是用一棵大树的树干做成的。
This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with my having much more convenience for it than any of the Negroes or Indians; but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under, more than the Indians did, viz. want of hands to move it, when it was made, into the water,
我觉得这不但可能，而且很容易做到。做独木舟的想法，使我非常高兴。而且，我还认为，与黑人或印第安人相比，我还有不少有利条件。但我却完全没有想到，比起印第安人来，我还有许多特别不利的条件，那就是，独木舟一旦做成后，没有人手可以帮我让独木舟下水。
a difficulty much harder for me to surmount, than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them; for what was it to me, that when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods, with much trouble cut it down, if I might be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat of it:
是的，印第安人有印第安人的困难，他们没有工具，但是，我缺少人手的困难更难克服。如果我能在树林里找到一棵大树，费了很大的劲把树砍倒，再用我的工具把树的外部砍成小舟形状，然后把里面烧空或凿空，做成一只小船；
If after all this, I must leave it just there where I found it, and not be able to launch it into the water.
假如这些工作全部完成后，小船仍不得不留在原地而无法下水，那对我又有什么用处呢？
One would have thought, I could not have had the least reflection upon my mind of my circumstance, while I was making this boat; but I should have immediately thought how I should get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that I never once considered how I should get it off the land;
人们也许会想到，我在做这小船时，不可能一点也不想到我所处的环境；我应该立即想到小舟下海的问题。可是，我当时一心一意只想乘小舟去航行，从不考虑怎样使小舟离开陆地的问题。
and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it over forty five miles of sea, than about forty five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
而实际上，对我来说，驾舟在海上航行四十五英里，比在陆地上使它移动四十五浔后让它下水要容易得多。
I went to work upon this boat, the most like a fool, that every man did, who had any of his senses awake.
任何有头脑的人都不会像我这样傻就着手去造船。
I pleased myself with the design, not determining whether I was ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop to my enquiries into it, by this foolish answer which I gave myself, let me first make it, I'll warrant I'll find some way or other to get it along, when 'tis done.
我对自己的计划十分得意，根本不去仔细想想计划的可行性。虽然我也想到船建成后下水可能是一大难题，但对于自己的疑惑，我总是愚蠢地认为："把船造好了再说。到时总会想出办法的。"
This was the most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went.
这是最荒谬的办法。我真是思船心切，立即着手工作。
I felled a cedar tree: I question much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the Temple at Jerusalem.
我砍倒了一棵大柏树。我相信，连所罗门造耶路撒冷的圣殿时也没有用过这样大的木料。
It was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty two feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches:
靠近树根的直径达五英尺十英寸，在二十二英尺处直径也达四英尺十一英寸，然后才渐渐细下去，并开始长出枝叉。
It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree: I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom. I was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and the vast spreading head cut off, which I hacked and hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressible labour:
我费尽辛苦才把树砍倒：用二十二天时间砍断根部，又花了十四天时间使用大斧小斧砍掉树枝和向四周张开的巨大的树顶；这种劳动之艰辛真是一言难尽。
After this, it cost me a month to shape it, and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought to do.
又花了一个多月的时间又砍又削，最后刮出了船底的形状，使其下水后能浮在水上。这时，树干已砍削得初具船的形状了。
It cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it:
接着又花了将近三个月的时间把中间挖空，做得完全像只小船。
This I did indeed without fire, by meer mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till I had brought it to be a very handsome Periagua, and big enough to have carried six and twenty men, and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo.
在挖空树干时，我不用火烧，而是用槌子和凿子一点一点地凿空，最后确实成了一只像模像样的独木舟，大得可乘26个人。这样，不仅我自己可以乘上船，而且可以把我所有的东西都装进去。
