Midway in my long walk yesterday, I lunched at a wayside inn. On the table lay a copy of a popular magazine. Glancing over this miscellany, I found an article, by a worman, On Lion Hunting, and in this article I came upon a passage which seemed worth copying.
"As I woke my husband, the lion --- which was then about forty yards off --- charged straight towards us, and with my .303 I hit him full in the chest, as we afterwards discovered, tearing his windpipe to pieces and breaking his spine. He charged a second time, and the next shot hit him through the shoulder, tearing his heart to ribbons."
昨天,在长途漫步中,我到路旁的一家餐厅里吃午餐。有一本通俗杂志摆在餐桌上;我随意浏览着里面五花八门的文章,在其中发现了《猎狮》一文,出自一个女人的手笔,里面有一段文字似乎值得抄录下来：
“当我将我丈夫叫醒的时候，那头狮子--那时它距离我们大约四十码远一一正向我们直扑过来，我举起我的那支0.303口径的猎枪正好打中了它的胸部;后来我们发现,那一枪打碎了它的气管,打断了它的脊骨。它再次向我们扑来,，这一次我打中了它的肩部，把它的心脏打成了碎片。
It would interest me to look upon this heroine of gun and pen. She is presumably quite a young woman; probably, when at home, a graceful figure in drawing-rooms. I should like to hear her talk, to exchange thoughts with her. She would give one a very good idea of the matron of old Rome who had her seat in the amphitheatre. Many of those ladies in private life must have been bright and gracious, high-bred, and full of agreeable sentiment; they talked of art and of letters; they could drop a tear over Lesbia's sparrow; at the same time, they were connoisseurs in torn windpipes, shattered spines, and viscera rent open. It is not likely that many of them would have cared to turn their own hands to butchery, and for the matter of that, I must suppose that our Lion Huntress of the popular magazine is rather an exceptional dame; but no doubt she and the Roman ladies would get on very well together, finding only a few superficial
differences. The fact that her gory reminiscences are welcomed by an editor with the popular taste in view is perhaps more significant than appears either to editor or public. Were this lady to write a novel (the chances are she will) it would have the true note of modern vigour. Of course her style has been formed by her favourite reading; more than probably, her ways of thinking and feeling owe much to the same source. If not so already, this will soon, I daresay, be the typical Englishwoman. Certainly, there is "no nonsense about her." Such women should breed a remarkable race.
我很想见见这位既拿枪又握笔的女英雄。她可能非常年轻,或许在家中的客厅里是一个温柔优雅的女子。我十分愿意倾听她的谈话，与她交流想法。她会像一位坐在古罗马圆形剧场中的贵妇一般，给人以一种美好的感觉。许多这样的女性在私人生活中都非常聪慧亲切,教养良好,情操高尚;她们以艺术与文学为话题;她们会为勒斯比娅的麻雀之死『而潸然落泪,同时也能以娴熟的枪法击中喉管、打碎脊骨或打裂内脏。她们中的许多人很可能不会亲手去进行猎杀,由此看来,我想通俗杂志中的这位女猎狮人一定是一个不平凡的女子。毋庸置疑,她一定能与那些罗马妇人相处融洽,只在极少数表面问题上存在分歧。她对往事血淋淋的回忆受到了一位关注大众兴趣的编辑的欢迎，这一事实本身似乎对编者或读者更有意义。如果这位女士要写一部小说(只要她愿意,有这样的机会),那一定是具有真正现代风情的作品。当然,她所钟爱的书籍决定了她的作品的风格,而且很有可能,也决定了她思考和感受事物的方式。我想,即使她还没有成为典型的英国妇女,也为时不远了。她当然不会有任何荒谬的行为,而且,这样的女人所养育的孩子一定是非常出色的人。
I left the inn in rather a turbid humour. Moving homeward by a new way, I presently found myself on the side of a little valley in which lay a farm and an orchard. The apple trees were in full bloom, and as I stood gazing, the sun, which had all that day been niggard of its beams, burst forth gloriously. For what I then saw I have no words; I can but dream of the still loveliness of that blossomed valley. Near me a bee was humming; not far away a cuckoo called; from the pasture of the farm below came a bleating of lambs.
离开那家餐厅的时候，我的心绪很混乱。我沿着一条从未走过的路返回，没走多久,我发现自己来到了一个小山谷旁,山谷里有一个农场和一个果园。苹果树上开满了花,当我驻足观赏时,阴沉了一整天的天空突然阳光灿烂。我无法形容当时映人眼帘的景色,我想,可能只有在梦中才能再次见到那宁静可爱、繁花似锦的山谷吧。一只蜜蜂在我的身边上下飞舞,发出嗡嗡的振翅声;布谷鸟在附近的树上鸣唱;山下牧场中羊羔的咩咩叫声也清晰可闻。
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