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The young people knocked on his door, and when they told him they were from the association, he said, ‘No, thank you! ’ and shut the door in their face.
年轻人敲了敲他的门，当他们告诉他他们来自协会时，他说：“不，谢谢！”然后当着他们的面关上了门。
This didn’t work so well, though, because the door was warped and didn’t shut properly.
这并没有什么用，因为门已经变形了，无法正常关闭。
The young people from the association came knocking several times, and each time the old man shut the door in their face, but one day, they brought a carrot cake in a tin.
协会的年轻人来了好几次，每次老人都当着他们的面把门关上，但有一天，他们带来了一个装在锡盒里的胡萝卜蛋糕。
And it just so happened that the old man needed a new tin. All his old tins had become warped like the house.
碰巧老人需要一个新的锡罐。他所有的旧锡罐都像房子一样变形了。
He wasn’t interested in the cake, of course – he could bake anything better than these young people.
他当然对蛋糕不感兴趣——他可以烤出比这些年轻人更好的任何东西。
Though recently he mostly cooked the fish that grew in the bathroom… But that tin. He wanted that tin. So he allowed them inside.
虽然最近他主要煮的是在浴室里养的鱼……但是那个罐头。他想要那个罐头。所以他让他们进来了。
At first, they pretended to find the house charming, and said all sorts of things like, ‘It’s so… interesting how the floor goes up here,’ and, ‘A zip-line indoors! Wow, that’s fun!’
起初，他们假装觉得这房子很迷人，说了各种各样的话，比如，“这里的地板往上走，真有趣”，还有，“室内有滑索！哇，真好玩！”
He invited them into the kitchen for tea, but when they saw the climb, they said that was quite alright. ‘Alright, then,’ said the old man.
他邀请他们到厨房喝茶，但当他们看到攀登时，他们说那没关系。“好吧，那么，”老人说。
Then he tied the cake tin around himself, took the climbing hooks off the wall and started to climb.
然后他把蛋糕盒绑在自己身上，从墙上取下攀爬钩，开始攀爬。
The next time the young people from the association visited, they didn’t pretend to like the place.
下一次协会的年轻人来访时，他们没有假装喜欢这个地方。
Instead, they said things like, ‘Are you really comfortable here?’, and, ‘You know, there are homes you could live in with other people, and they cook and clean for you.’
相反，他们会说这样的话，“你在这里真的舒服吗？”，而且，“你知道，你可以和其他人一起住在一些地方，他们会为你做饭和打扫。”
‘No, thank you,’ said the old man, grabbing the tin of chocolate cake they had brought – he hated to admit it, but their carrot cake had been very good.
“不，谢谢，”老人说着，抓起他们带来的巧克力蛋糕罐——他不愿承认，但他们的胡萝卜蛋糕确实很好吃。
‘If that’s all you have to say, then don’t come round here again. ’ He thought for a moment. ‘Actually, you can bring cake. Just leave it by the door. ’ ‘Oh no! ’ said the young people. ‘We do love visiting you.
“如果这就是你要说的全部内容，那么就别再来这里了。”他想了一会儿。“实际上，你可以带蛋糕来。把它放在门边就行了。”“哦，不！”年轻人说。“我们确实喜欢拜访你。”
Why don’t we sit and have a cup of tea? ’ So they pretended to be comfortable on the sofa surrounded by all the wild animals.
“我们为什么不坐下来喝杯茶呢？”于是他们假装在被所有野生动物包围的沙发上很舒服。
It was very hard for them to pretend, because the floor under the sofa was so warped that they kept falling off.
他们很难假装下去，因为沙发下面的地板太不平整了，他们不停地掉下来。
After that, the young people from the association stopped coming round.
在那之后，协会的年轻人就不再来了。
The old man thought it was a shame, because he really had liked their cake.
老人觉得这很可惜，因为他真的很喜欢他们的蛋糕。
But as long as he had the energy to climb up to the kitchen, he could certainly bake his own cakes – and he had two nice new tins to put the cake in!
但是只要他还有力气爬上厨房，他当然可以自己烤蛋糕——而且他还有两个漂亮的新罐子可以用来装蛋糕！
Though recently he had lost the energy to cook much.
虽然最近他已经失去了做饭的精力。
Instead, he just ate the mushrooms that grew in the bathroom.
相反，他只是吃长在浴室里的蘑菇。
He didn’t even have to climb up to the kitchen for that.
他甚至不必为此爬上厨房。
One day, as the old man was zip-lining down from the kitchen, the zip-line broke. SNAP!
一天，当老人从厨房滑索下来时，滑索断了。啪！
He fell to the floor and rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill.
他摔倒在地板上，一路滚到了最下面。
The house started to shake, and the climbing hooks fell off the wall with a CLANG!
房子开始摇晃，登山钩从墙上哐当一声掉了下来！
The wild animals made horrible noises, and the fish in the bath tried to jump out of the water.
野生动物发出可怕的声音，浴缸里的鱼试图跳出水面。
In the sitting room, the sofa fell down and rolled all the way across the floor. And the old man couldn’t get up.
在客厅里，沙发倒了下来，一路滚过地板。而那位老人无法站起来。
He had hurt himself in the fall, but more than that, he simply didn’t want to.
他在跌倒时受了伤，但更重要的是，他根本就不想这样。
He was cold, and it was moist, and hadn’t he done enough in this life?
他感到寒冷，周围又很潮湿，难道他这辈子受的苦还不够多吗？
So he lay down on the floor and let the house take him.
于是他躺在地板上，任由房子把他带走。
The ferns from the bathroom slowly climbed over and wrapped their fingers around him.
浴室里的蕨类植物慢慢爬过来，用它们的手指缠住了他。
The moisture poured down the walls and made a pool until only his face was above the water.
湿气顺着墙壁流下来，形成了一个水池，直到只有他的脸露出水面。
Some of the animals came and sniffed him, and when he did nothing, they opened their mouths.
有些动物走过来嗅他，他什么也没做，它们张开了嘴。
Before the old man closed his eyes, he thought he even saw a mushroom get up and move towards him. The crooked old house let out a sigh.
在老人闭上眼睛之前，他觉得自己甚至看到了一只蘑菇站起来朝他走来。这座歪歪扭扭的老房子发出了一声叹息。
Three hundred summers and winters was more than enough.
三百个夏天和冬天，已经足够长了。
The bones of the house started to break, and then in a few seconds, the whole thing came down.
房子的骨架开始断裂，然后在几秒钟内，整个房子都倒塌了。
The ceilings fell, the water rose, and before people outside knew what was happening, the ground had eaten the whole place up.
天花板掉了下来，水位上升了，而外面的人还不知道发生了什么事，地面就已经把整个地方吞没了。
For years afterwards, people spoke of the crooked old man who lived in the crooked old house.
多年以后，人们说起住在那所歪歪扭扭的老房子里的那个歪歪扭扭的老人。
Although people searched for months, nobody could find the body.
虽然人们搜寻了数月，但是没有人能找到尸体。
Some of the animals were rescued, although they weren’t very friendly to the humans who saved them, and the walls, doors, plants and furniture mixed into the earth.
有些动物被救了出来，尽管它们对救它们的人类并不友好，墙壁、门、植物和家具都混进了泥土里。
A hundred summers and a hundred winters later, when people had long forgotten about the crooked old house, something moved in the wet earth. Nobody was watching, so nobody noticed it.
一百年的夏天和一百年的冬天过去了，当人们早已忘记那座歪歪扭扭的老房子时，潮湿的泥土里有什么东西在动。没有人在看，所以也没有人注意到。
But if someone had looked very closely, they would’ve seen something small push out of the ground.
但如果有人非常仔细地观察，他们就会看到有个小东西从地里冒出来。
It was a tiny wooden door, opening in the spring like a new flower.
那是一扇小小的木门，在春天像一朵新开的花一样打开。
