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But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them alive, and particularly I wanted a she-goat great with young.
现在我已在岛上生活了十一年。前面也说过，我的弹药越来越少了。于是我开始研究如何用陷阱或夹子捕捉山羊，看看能否活捉一两只；我特别希望能抓到一只怀孕的母羊。
For this purpose I made snares to hamper them, and I do believe they were more than once taken in them, but my tackle was not good, for I had no wire, and I always found them broken and my bait devoured.
为此，我做了几只夹子来捕捉山羊。我确信有好几次山羊曾被夹子夹住了，但是，由于没有铅丝之类的金属线，夹子做得不理想，它们总是吃掉诱饵弄坏夹子后逃之夭夭。
At length I resolved to try a pitfall, so I dug several large pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to feed, and over those pits I placed hurdles of my own baking too, with a great weight upon them;
最后，我决定挖陷阱试试。于是，我在山羊经常吃草的地方掘了几个大陷坑，在坑上盖上几块自制木条格子，再在上面压了一些很重的东西。
and several times I put ears of barley, and dry rice, without setting the trap, and I could easily perceive that the goats had gone in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the mark of their feet.
开始几次，我在复盖好的陷坑上面放了一些大麦穗子和干米，但有意未装上机关。我一看就知道，山羊曾走进去吃过谷物，因为上面留下了它们的脚印。
At length I set three traps in one night, and going the next morning I found them all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone: This was very discouraging.
有一天晚上，我一下子在三个陷阱里都安了机关。第二天早晨跑去一看，只见食饵都给吃掉了，可三个机关都没有动。这真使人丧气。
However, I altered my traps, and not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of them a large old he-goat, and in one of the others, three kids, a male and two females.
于是，我改装了机关。具体我不再细说了。总而言之，有一天早上我去看陷阱，结果发现在一个陷阱里扣着一只老公羊，另一个陷阱里扣着三只小羊，其中一只是公羊，两只是母羊。
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him, he was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to bring him away alive, which was what I wanted.
对那只老公羊我毫无办法。它凶猛异常，我不敢下坑去捉。我是想抓活的，这也是我的目的。
I could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it answer my end. So I even let him out, and he ran away as if he had been frighted out of his wits: But I did not then know what I afterwards learned, that hunger will tame a lion.
当然我也可以把它杀死，但我不想那么做，因为那不是我的本意。所以我只好把它放走了。老山羊一跑出陷坑，便像吓掉魂一样一溜烟逃跑了。当时我没有想到，就是一头狮子，也可以用饥饿的办法把它驯服。
If I had let him stay three or four days without food, and then have carried him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids, for they are mighty sagacious, tractable creatures where they are well used.
如果我让那头老山羊饿上三四天，不给它吃东西，然后再稍稍给它点水喝，给它点谷物吃，它也一定会像那些小山羊一样被驯服。只要饲养得法，山羊十分伶俐、很容易驯养。
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that time; then I went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, I tied them with strings together, and with some difficulty brought them all home.
可是，当时我并不知道有什么好办法，所以只好把老山羊放走了。然后，我就到小山羊的陷坑里，一只只把它们捉起来，再用绳子把它们拴在一起，又费了不少力气才把它们牵回家。
It was a good while before they would feed, but throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them and they began to be tame;
小山羊好久都不肯吃东西。后来，我给它们吃一些谷粒，因为味道甜美，它们很喜欢吃，就慢慢驯顺起来。
and now I found that if I expected to supply myself with goats' flesh when I had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way, when perhaps I might have them about my house like a flock of sheep.
现在我知道，如果弹药用尽之后还想吃山羊肉，唯一的办法就是驯养一些山羊。将来我屋子周围也许会有一大群山羊呢！
But then it occurred to me that I must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when they grew up, and the only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those without break in.
目前，我首先想到的是，必须把驯养的山羊与野山羊隔开。否则，驯养的小山羊一长大，就会跑掉又变成野山羊。而要把它们隔开，唯一的办法是找一块空地，用坚固的篱笆或木栅栏圈起来。这样，里面的驯羊出不来，外面的野羊进不去。
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands, yet as I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first work was to find out a proper piece of ground, viz. where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun.
我孤身一人，要圈地修筑篱笆无疑是一项巨大的工程，可这样做又是必须的。所以，我首先得找到一块合适的地方，那儿既要有青草供山羊吃，又要有水供它们喝，并且还要有荫凉的地方供它们歇息。
Those who understand such enclosures will think I had very little contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper for all these, being a plain open piece of meadow-land, or savanna, (as our people call it in the western colonies,) which had two or three little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody.
我找到了一个十分合适的地方，以上三个条件样样具备。这是一大片平坦的草原，也就是西部殖民者所说的热带那种树木稀疏的草原。草原上有两三条小溪，水流清澈，小溪尽头有不少树木。但凡是有圈地经验的人，一定会认为我这种做法不太聪明。
I say they will smile at my forecast, when I shall tell them I began my enclosing of this piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale must have been at least two miles about.
如果我把自己原来的想法告诉他们，他们也一定会笑话我。我的圈地规模过大，如果要把篱笆或木栅栏修筑起来，至少有两英里长！
Nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass, for if it was ten miles about I was like to have time enough to do it in.
其实，篱笆长短还在其次，即使十英里长我也有工夫将它完成，主要还是圈地范围过大所带来的后果。
But I did not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much compass as if they had had the whole island, and I should have so much room to chase them in, that I should never catch them.
当时我没有考虑到，山羊在这么宽广的范围内，一定会到处乱跑，就像没有围起来一样。如果要捕捉它们，就根本无法抓到。
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me, so I presently stopt short, and for the beginning I resolved to enclose a piece of about 150 yards in length, and 100 yards in breadth,
我开始动手修筑篱笆，但直到完成了大约五十码时，才想到了上面提到的问题。于是我立即停工，并决定先圈一块长约一百五十码，宽约一百码的地方。
which as it would maintain as many as I should have in any reasonable time, so as my stocking increased, I could add more ground to my enclosure. This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with courage.
这个面积，在相当一段时期内，足以容纳我能驯养的山羊；等以后羊群增加了，我可以进一步扩大圈地。这个办法较为审慎可行，我就鼓起勇气重新动手干起来。
I was about three months hedging in the first piece, and till I had done it I tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible to make them familiar;
第一块圈地用了差不多三个月才完成。在此期间，我一直把三只小羊拴在最好的地方，并让它们一直在我近旁吃草，使它们与我混熟。
and very often I would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was finished, and I let them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn.
我还经常用大麦穗子和大米喂它们，让它们在我手里吃。这样，当我把篱笆修筑完成之后，即使把它们放开，也会回来跟着我转，并咩咩叫着向我讨吃哩！
This answered my end, and in about a year and half I had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more I had three and forty, besides several that I took and killed for my food.
我的目的总算实现了。不到一年半，连大带小已经有十二只山羊了。又过了两年，除了被我宰杀吃掉的几只不算，我已有四十三只了。
After that, I enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one piece of ground into another.
之后我又圈了五六块地方养羊。在这些圈地上，都做了窄小的围栏；我要捉羊时，就把羊赶进去。同时，在各圈地之间，又做了一些门使之彼此相通。
But this was not all, for now I not only had goats' flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which indeed in the beginning I did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprize.
现在我不仅随时有羊肉吃，还有羊奶喝。当初我根本想也没有想到。所以忽然想到可以喝羊奶时，真是喜出望外。
For now I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as Nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to make use of it;
现在，我有了自己的挤奶房，有时每天可产一两加仑的羊奶。大自然不但使每个生灵都得到食物，而且还自然而然地教会他们如何充分地利用各种食物。
so I, that had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese made only when I was a boy, after a great many essays and miscarriages, made both butter and cheese at last, also salt (though I founded partly made to my hand by the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of the sea), and never wanted it afterwards.
我这人一生没有挤过牛奶，更没有挤过羊奶，也只在小时候见过人家做奶油或乳酪。经过多次的试验和失败，我终于做出了奶油和干酪，还有盐（部分是由于太阳照在海上岩石上制成的），后来就不再需要它了。
How mercifully can our great Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction. How can He sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise Him for dungeons and prisons.
造物主对待自己所创造的一切生灵是多么仁慈啊，哪怕他们身处绝境，他也还是那么慈悲为怀。他能把苦难的命运变得甜蜜，即使我们囚于牢狱也都要赞美他！
What a table was here spread for me in the wilderness, where I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger.
当我刚来到这片荒野时，以为自己一定会饿死；而现在，摆在我面前的是多么丰盛的筵席啊！
