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"Comfortable!" said Jill. But she got down and they crawled in on their elbows. It was a nasty place.
“舒服个头啊！”吉尔说。但她还是趴了下来，开始用胳膊肘一点点往前蹭。这地方真恶心。
You had to go flat on your face for what seemed like half an hour, though it may really have been only five minutes. It was hot. Jill felt she was being smothered.
你得脸挨着地爬大约五分钟，但这五分钟看上去像半小时那么漫长。热死了。吉尔觉得自己都快窒息了。
But at last a dim light showed ahead, the tunnel grew wider and higher, and they came out, hot, dirty, and shaken, into a cave so large that it scarcely seemed like a cave at all.
最终，前方出现了微弱的灯光，隧道开始变宽变高，他们三个从洞里爬出来，周围又热又脏。这个地方太大了，简直不像山洞。
It was full of a dim, drowsy radiance, so that here they had no need of the Earthmen's strange lantern.
这里已经有光了，暗淡而又朦胧，所以用不着洞穴人那个大灯笼了。
The floor was soft with some kind of moss and out of this grew many strange shapes, branched and tall like trees, but flabby like mushrooms.
地面软软的，上面长着些苔藓，除此之外还有像树一样的植物，它们奇形怪状，有枝叶，而且很高，但软趴趴的，和蘑菇差不多。
They stood too far apart to make a forest; it was more like a park.
这些树分布得很稀疏，根本构不成森林，更像一个公园。
The light (a greenish grey) seemed to come both from them and from the moss, and it was not strong enough to reach the roof of the cave, which must have been a long way overhead.
光线（透着绿色）好像是从这些苔藓和树中发出的，但它亮度不够，找不到洞顶，以此推断，洞顶一定很高。
Across the mild, soft, sleepy place they were now made to march. It was very sad, but with a quiet sort of sadness, like soft music.
这里既温和，又柔软，还令人昏昏欲睡。他们一行人跨过这个区域继续向前。周围的气氛很悲伤，但这悲伤更像首轻柔的乐曲。
Here they passed dozens of strange animals lying on the turf, either dead or asleep, Jill could not tell which.
这一路的草皮上躺着许多奇怪生物，吉尔一个都叫不出名来，它们不是死了就是睡着了。
These were mostly of a dragonish or bat-like sort; Puddleglum did not know what any of them were. "Do they grow here?" Scrubb asked the Warden.
这些大概是和龙或蝙蝠差不多的生物，帕德格莱姆也叫不出具体的名字。“它们就长在这儿吗？”斯库波问总督。
He seemed very surprised at being spoken to, but replied, "No. They are all beasts that have found their way down by chasms and caves, out of Overland into the Deep Realm. Many come down, and few return to the sunlit lands. It is said that they will all wake at the end of the world."
总督吃了一惊，想不到有人会主动和他说话，但他还是回答道：“不，它们都是凑巧从山洞或裂缝中掉下来的生物。许多东西都曾掉下来，但很少有东西能再回到地上。据说，它们要睡到世界末日才醒来。”
His mouth shut like a box when he had said this, and in the great silence of that cave the children felt that they would not dare to speak again.
刚说完这番话，他的嘴就像盒盖似的闭上了，周围一片沉寂，孩子们不敢再出声了。
The bare feet of the gnomes, padding on the deep moss, made no sound. There was no wind, there were no birds, there was no sound of water.
树精们光着脚踩在深深的苔藓中，一点声音都没有。没有风，没有鸟，也没有水流声。
There was no sound of breathing from the strange beasts. When they had walked for several miles, they came to a wall of rock, and in it a low archway leading into another cavern.
甚至听不到这些奇怪动物发出的呼吸声。走了几英里后，他们看到一堵石墙，上面有一扇低矮的拱门通向另一个山洞。
It was not, however, so bad as the last entrance and Jill could go through it without bending her head.
这回情况不像以前那么糟了，吉尔不用低头就能从门内穿过去。
It brought them into a smaller cave, long and narrow, about the shape and size of a cathedral. And here, filling almost the whole length of it, lay an enormous man fast asleep.
他们进入了另一个小点的山洞，既长且窄，形状、大小与教堂差不多。这里熟睡着一个身形巨大的人，他几乎占据了整个山洞。
He was far bigger than any of the giants, and his face was not like a giant's, but noble and beautiful. His breast rose and fell gently under the snowy beard which covered him to the waist.
他虽比巨人庞大很多，但长相却和他们完全不同：高贵且英俊。雪白的胡子一直覆盖到腰部，胸口轻轻地一起一伏。
A pure, silver light (no one saw where it came from) rested upon him. "Who's that?" asked Puddleglum.
而且周身还散发着银色的光芒（没人知道这光是哪儿来的）。“他是谁啊？”帕德格莱姆问。
And it was so long since anyone had spoken, that Jill wondered how he had the nerve.
到现在为止已经很长时间没人说话了，吉尔怀疑他哪来的勇气开口。
"That is old Father Time, who once was a King in Overland," said the Warden. "And now he has sunk down into the Deep Realm and lies dreaming of all the things that are done in the upper world.
“那是时间老人，曾是陆地上的国王。”总督说，“如今，他沉入地下王国沉睡不醒，正在梦里看着地上发生的一切。
Many sink down, and few return to the sunlit lands. They say he will wake at the end of the world."
许多人都曾掉下来，但没有几个能回去。据说他要睡到世界末日才醒来。”
And out of that cave they passed into another, and then into another and another, and so on till Jill lost count, but always they were going downhill and each cave was lower than the last, till the very thought of the weight and depth of the earth above you was suffocating.
出了这个山洞，他们又进了另一个。循环往复，无休无止，后来吉尔都数不过来了。总之，他们一直向下走，一个洞比一个低，直到最底下。想到头上堆积的土有如此之重、如此之深就令人窒息。
At last they came to a place where the Warden commanded his cheerless lantern to be lit again.
最后，他们来到一个地方，总督命令地精再次把灯笼点上。
