1、2012 年 MTI 文学翻译第 6 周练习英译汉：As the Arctic half night dissolved suddenly in the pink and then the glaring yellow of the onrushing June day, the Eskimo curlew recognized at last the familiar S-twist of the ice-hemmed river half a mile below. In the five hundred miles of flat and featureless tundra he ha
2、d flown over that night, there had been many rivers with many twists identical to this one, yet the curlew knew that now he was home. He was tired. The brown barbs of his wing feathers were frayed and ragged from the migration flight that had started in easy stages below the tropics and had ended no
3、w in a frantic, non-stop dash across the treeless barren grounds as the full frenzy of the mating madness gripped him.六月，北极区的午夜突然消逝，变为一片粉红，继而发出黄得耀眼的光芒，极北杓鹬终于认出了半英里外那条熟悉的蜿蜒的冰河。那晚它飞过了 500 英里平坦得一成不变的苔原，那儿有许多的河流，给这条河似的蜿蜒曲折。然而杓鹬却知道，现在，它才到家了。它又累又乏。羽毛上棕色的倒刺因为这场迁徙飞行变得散落脏乱，这次迁徙从热带地区轻轻松松地开始，但是结束的时候却让他们有点疯狂，它们
4、被交配的强烈欲望驱使，无休无止地穿越在光秃秃的、贫瘠的土地上。The curlew set his wings and dropped stone-like in a series of zigzagging side-slips. The rosy-pink reflections of ice pans on the brown river rushed up toward him. Then he levelled off into a long glide that brought him to earth on the oozy shore of a snow-water puddl
5、e well back from the river bank.杓鹬调整翅膀,在一连串 Z 字形滑翔后像石头一样落下。迎接它的是棕色河流的冰块反射出的粉红色的光芒。接着它摆平身子作了一个长的滑翔,慢慢降落到河背后的雪水坑边的软泥岸上。Here for millenniums the Eskimo curlew males had come with the Junetime spring to claim their individual nesting plots. Here on the stark Arctic tundra they waited feverishly for the
6、females to come seeking their mates of the year. As they waited, each male vented the febrile passion of the breeding time by fighting savagely with neighboring males in defense of the territory he had chosen. In the ecstasy of the home-coming, the curlew now hardly remembered that for three summers
7、 past he had been mysteriously alone and the mating fire within him had burned itself out unquenched each time as the lonely weeks passed and, inexplicably, no female had come.几千年来,雄极北杓鹬都会在六月的春季宣布它们占领的私人巢穴领地。在这荒凉的北极苔原上,他们狂热地等待着雌杓鹬来寻找她们的配偶。在等待中,每只雄鸟都会与邻居展开猛烈的搏斗来捍卫他们选定的领土,并通过这种方式来宣泄繁殖期洋溢的激情。杓鹬沉浸在回家的狂喜
8、中,此刻很难记起在过去三个夏季里,为什么会形单影只, 孤独的日子一周周过去，它心中的交配之火一次又一次地燃烧,可令人费解的是，始终没有一只雌鸟到来。The curlews instinct-dominated brain didnt know or didnt ask why.He had been flying ten hours without stop but now his body craved food more than rest, for the rapid heartbeat and metabolism that had kept his powerful wing mus
9、cles flexing rhythmically hour after hour had taken a heavy toll of body fuel. He began probing into the mud with his long bill. It was a strange bill, curiously adapted for this manner of feeding, two-and-a-half inches long, strikingly down-curved, almost sickle-like. At each probe the curlew opene
10、d his bill slightly and moved the sensitive tip in tiny circular motions through the mud as he felt for the soft-bodied larvae of water insects and crustaceans. The bill jabbed in and out of the ooze with a rapid sewing-machine action.杓鹬受直觉支配的大脑不明所以,也不知道寻根究底。虽然他已经连续飞行了 10 个小时,但它现在对食物的渴求却远远超过了对休息的渴望。
11、为了使翅膀上强健的肌肉能够连续几个小时保持有节奏地伸缩,他的心跳和体内代谢迅速加快,使得体内的燃料消耗殆尽。他开始把长长的喙探进泥里。这种喙很奇妙,有两英寸半长,明显地向下弯曲,近似一把镰刀,非常适合在此地觅食。每试探一下,杓鹬都会轻轻地张开喙,用敏锐的喙头在泥里打着小圈,找出水生昆虫和甲壳虫的软体幼虫。喙在软泥中进进出出,颇似飞快转动的缝纫机。There were still dirty grey snowdrifts in the tundra hollows but the sun was hot and the flat Arctic world already teemed with
12、 life. Feeding was good, and the curlew fed without stopping for over an hour until his distended crop at the base of his throat bulged grotesquely. Then he dozed fitfully in a half-sleep, standing on one leg, the other leg folded up close to his belly, his neck twisted so that the bill was tucked d
13、eeply into the feathers of his back. It was rest, but it wasnt sleep, for the curlews ears and his one outside eye maintained an unrelaxing vigil for Arctic foxes or the phantom-like approach of a snowy owl. His body processes were rapid and in half an hour the energy loss of his ten-hour flight was
14、 replenished. He was fully rested.虽然在这片冻原空谷里还残留着灰白色的雪堆,但阳光却非常温暖,平坦的北极世界呈现出一派生机勃勃的景象。这个时节最适合觅食。1 个多小时里,杓鹬不停地进食,把咽喉底部的嗉囊胀得怪怪的。然后,他一只腿站立,另一只腿收起来抵近腹部,半睡半醒地、断断续续地打了一会儿盹。他扭转脖子,将喙深深地埋进背羽。那只是休息,不是睡觉。杓鹬的双耳和露在外面的那只眼睛仍然警惕地注意着周围的动静,提防着北极狐或神出鬼没的雪枭接近。他的体能恢复很快,半个小时之后,10 个小时飞行耗掉的能量就得到了补充。他休息够了。The Arctic summer wou
15、ld be short and there would be much to do when the female came. The curlew flew to a rocky ridge that rose about three feet above the surrounding tundra, alighted and looked about him. It was a harsh, bare land to have flown nine thousand miles to reach. Its harshness lay in its emptiness, for above
16、 all else it was an empty land. The trees which survived the gales and cold of the long winters were creeping deformities of birch and willow which, after decades of snail-paced growth, had struggled no more a foot or two high. The timberline where the trees of the sub-arctic spruce forests petered
17、out and the tundra Barren Grounds began was five hundred miles south. It was mostly a flat and undrained land laced with muskeg ponds so close-packed that now, with the spring, it was half hidden by water. The low gravel humps and rock ridges which kept the potholes of water from merging into a vast
18、, shallow sea were covered with dense mats of grey reindeer moss and lichen, now rapidly turning to green. A few inches below lay frost as rigid as battleship steel, the lands foundation that never melted.北极的夏天总是很短,雌鸟到来前,他还有许多事要做。杓鹬飞到一块高出周围冻原约3 英尺的岩脊上,站在那儿观察周围的情况。这是一片荒凉的、光秃秃的大地,是鸟儿飞行了 9000 英里后到达的地方。
19、这里的荒凉在于它的空旷,地表上空荡荡的,几乎什么也没有。能挺过漫长冬季里的严寒与狂风的树子就是些长得歪歪扭扭的桦树和柳树。它们长得极其缓慢，像蜗牛爬行似的,经过几十年的抗争也仅仅长到一两英尺高。树木分界线就在 500 英里以南的地方。那里,生长于亚北极地区的云杉林逐渐消失,露出贫瘠的冻原带。这一带大部分地区地势平坦,常年积水,沼泽坑一个接着一个,沼泽坑太多了，现在，即使是春天来临,这里还有一半泡在水中。那些低矮的砾石堆和岩脊隔开了这些水洼和广阔的浅海，使之不会合二为一，上面长满的一丛丛茂密的灰色石蕊和地衣此时正迅速变绿。地表以下几英寸的地方被霜冻得像战舰上的钢铁一般坚硬, 它是永远也不会融化的
20、这块土地的地基。The curlew took off, climbed slowly, and methodically circled and re-circled the two-acre patchwork of water and moss that he intended to claim as his exclusive territory. Occasionally, sailing slowly on set, motionless wings, he would utter the soft, rolling whistle of his mating song. Ther
21、e was nothing of joy in the song. It was a warcry, a warning to all who could hear that the territory had an owner now, an owner flushed with the heat of the mating time who would defend it unflinchingly for the female that would come.杓鹬展翅起飞,缓缓地攀升,然后有条不紊地在长满苔藓的两英亩水域上空一次又一次地盘旋,他这是向外界宣布:这是他的领地。有时,他也会展
22、开翅膀一动不动地缓缓翱翔,一直唱着柔和婉转的情歌。这歌声听起来并没有欢乐,而是一种战前的警告,警告那些所有能够听到歌声的同类们:现在,这块领地已经有主了。领地的主人正处在求偶的兴奋期,为了即将到来的雌鸟他会毫不畏惧地保卫领地。The curlew knew every rock, gravel-bar, puddle, and bush of his territory, despite the fact that in its harsh emptiness there wasnt a thing that stood out sufficiently to be called a land
23、mark. The territorys western and northern boundaries were the top of the rivers S-twist which the curlew had spotted from the air. There was nothing of prominence to mark the other boundaries, only a few scattered granite boulders which sparkled with specks of pyrite and mica, a half dozen birch and
24、 willow shrubs and a few twisting necks of brown water. But the curlew knew within a few feet where his territory ended. Well in toward the centre was a low ridge of cobblestone so well drained and dry that, in the ten thousand years since the ice age glaciers had passed, the mosses and lichens had
25、never been able to establish themselves. At the foot of this parched stony bar where drainage water from above collected, the moss and lichen mat was thick and luxuriant. Here the female would select her nesting site. In the top of a moss hummock she would fashion out a shallow, saucer-like depressi
26、on, line it haphazardly with a few crisp leaves and grasses and lay her four olive-brown eggs.尽管在这片荒凉、空旷的土地上几乎没有任何可以称作界标的东西,但杓鹬还是对领地中的每一块岩石,每一处砾石滩,每一个水坑甚至每一片丛林都了如指掌。这块领地的西边界和北边界在 S 形河流的上游,这是他从空中划定的。而在另外几个方向,除了闪闪发光的碎硫化矿石和云母夹杂着散乱的花岗石砾、几棵桦树、几处柳丛以及几处弯曲的褐色水流外,实在没有什么显眼的东西可以确定边界。但是,杓鹬十分清楚他的只有几英尺宽的领地。就在这块领地
27、的中央,是一片低矮的大鹅卵石垄,由于干燥、排水性好,所以从冰川期至今的千万年里,这里始终不曾生长过苔藓和地衣类植物。而从这条干燥的石垄排出的积水却把它脚下的一丛丛苔藓和地衣滋润得又肥又壮,极其繁茂。雌鸟一般会选择这里筑巢。她通常会在长满苔藓的冰丘顶部啄出一个浅浅的、和茶托差不多的坑,再随意地铺上一层枯叶和干草,在上面生下四枚绿褐色的蛋。The curlew circled higher and higher, his mating song becoming sharper and more frequent. Suddenly the phrases of the song were tum
28、bled together into a loud, excited, whistling rattle. Far upriver, a brown speck against the mottled grey and blue sky, another bird was winging northward, and the curlew had recognized it already as another curlew.构 杓鹬在空中盘旋着, 越飞越高 , 求偶的啼叫越来越高昂, 越来越频繁。突然, 这求偶的歌声和其它声音混杂在一起，变成了一片高昂、兴奋的哨音。在河流远处的上游, 在斑驳
29、的灰蓝相间的天空下出现了一个褐色的小点, 那是向北飞来的一只鸟。杓鹬已经认出那是另外一只杓鹬。He waited within the borders of his territory, flying in tightening circles and calling excitedly as the other bird came nearer. The female was coming. The three empty summers that the male had waited vainly and alone on his breeding territory were a va
30、gue, tormenting memory, now almost lost in a brain so keenly to instinctive responses that there was little capacity for conscious thought or memory. Instinct took full control now as the curlew spiraled high into the air in his courtship flight, his wings deep strokes of normal flight. At the zenit
31、h of the spiral his dive, leveled off a few feet above the tundra and spiraled upward again.当另一只鸟越飞越近的时候, 杓鹬在自己的领地里等着，它兴奋地鸣叫着，盘旋的圈子越来越小。雌鸟就要到了。它孤零零地在它的繁殖地白白地等了三个夏季，这一段痛苦、模糊的回忆已经消逝在它脑海深处，因为，此刻，它的大脑已完全听命于本能，再也没有能力进行有意识的思考或记忆。杓鹬完全被本能控制了。它飞得高高的，展现着它求爱的姿态，翅膀比平时拍打得更厉害，当盘旋到最高处时, 他摆正身体，俯冲下去，到离冻原几英尺的地方又盘旋而上。
32、The other bird heard the males frenzied calling, changed flight direction and came swiftly toward him. But instinctively obeying the territory law that all birds recognize, she came to earn and perched on a moss-crowned boulder well outside the males territory.飞来的鸟儿听到雄鸟的疯狂鸣叫, 改变飞行方向, 快速地向他飞来。但是, 出于所
33、有鸟类对领地的本能认可, 她落地时正好歇在雄鸟领地之外的一块长满苔藓的圆石上。The male was seething now with passion and excitement. He performed several more courtship flights in rapid succession, spiraling noisily upward each time until almost out of sight, then plunging earthward in a drive that barely missed the ground. For several m
34、inutes the female nonchalantly preened her wing feathers, oblivious to the love display. Then, alternately flying and running across the tundra a few quick wingbeats or steps at a time, she moved into the mating territory and crouched submissively, close to where the male was performing.现在雄鸟已热血沸腾，激情
35、澎湃。他飞快地又表演了几套求爱的飞行动作，它大声地叫着向上盘旋，直到飞到快要看不见的时候才又向地面俯冲下来,它俯冲得很低，几乎要擦着地面了。有好几分钟, 雌鸟若无其事地梳理着自己的羽翼 , 根本不理会他的示爱。接着, 她在冻原上一会儿飞起, 一会儿又扑闪几下或走几步, 最后才迈入繁殖地, 在靠近雄鸟表演的地方顺从地蹲下。The male whistled shrilly and zoomed up in a final nuptial flight, hovered in mid-air high above the crouching female, then dropped like a
36、falling meteorite to a spot about six feet from where she waited. He stood for a moment, feathers fluffed out and neck out-stretched, then walked stiff-legged toward her.雄鸟发出刺耳的叫声, 陡然向上飞去婚礼的最后一次飞行表演，它在蜷伏着的雌鸟上方的半空中盘旋, 然后像落下的陨石一般, 径直落到离她约六英尺的地方。他站了一会儿, 抖开羽毛, 伸长脖子, 然后直挺挺地向她走去。When still a yard away, th
37、e male abruptly stopped. The whispering courtship twitter that had been coming from deep in his throat suddenly silenced, and a quick series of alarm notes came instead. The females behavior also suddenly changed. No longer meekly submissive, she was on her feet and stepping quickly away.The male ab
38、andoned his courtship stance, lowered his head like a fighting cook and dashed at the female. She dodged sideways, and took wing. The male flew in pursuit, calling noisily and striking repeatedly at her retreating back.在还有一码远的地方, 雄鸟突然停下脚步, 喉咙深处发出的卿哪喳喳的求爱声嘎然而止, 取而代之的，是一连串警告声。雌鸟的态度也突然变了, 一改先前的温顺, 飞快地站
39、起来, 跑开了。雄鸟收起求爱姿势, 像斗鸡一样低下头,冲向雌鸟。她闪在一旁, 飞上天去。雄鸟紧追不舍, 大声地尖叫, 一次一次地从背后袭击她。The curlews mating passion had suddenly turned into an aggressive call to battle. The female was a trespasser on his territory, not a prospective mate, for at close range he had recognized the darker plumage and eccentric posture
40、 of a species other than his own. The other bird was a female of the closely related Hudsonian species, but the Eskimo curlew knew only, through the instinctive intuition set up by nature to prevent infertile matings between different species, that this bird was not the mate he awaited.雄鸟的交配热望突然间变成了
41、战斗的冲锋号。这只雌鸟不是他期盼中的伴侣, 而是他领地的人侵者, 因为他近看才发现这种鸟的羽毛要黑一些, 姿势也古怪，不是它的同类。这是一只与他们极为相似的哈德逊雌性杓鹬。与生俱来的直觉本能告诉这只极北杓鹬, 与非本种属的鸟类交配会绝后的。因此,这只雌鸟不是他要等候的伴侣。He chased her a quarter of a mile with a fury as passionate as his love had been a few seconds before. Then he returned to the territory and resumed the waited for
42、 the female of his own kind that must soon come.满腔的怒火就像几秒钟前他强烈的爱一样, 驱使他将她追了四分之一英里, 然后他返回领地, 继续守候不久一定会来到的同种属的雌鸟The curlew species, among the longest legged and longest billed in the big shorebird family of snipes, sandpipers and plovers to which they belong, nest on the Arctic tundra-the Eskimo curle
43、w and the commoner and slightly larger Hudsonian. Though distinct species, they are almost indistinguishable in appearance.在尖喙长腿的沙锥鸟、矶鹞和千鸟等组成的滨鸟大家族中, 有两个种群的杓鹬在北极冻原筑巢。他们是极北杓鹬和普通些、体形稍大的哈德逊杓鹬。尽管他们属于不同的种群, 但是在外表上却没有太大的差别。The Arctic day was long, and despite the tundra gales which whistled endlessly acro
44、ss the unobstructed land the day was not hot and humid. The curlew alternately probed the mudflats for food and patrolled his territory, and all the time he watched the lands flat horizons with eyed that never relaxed. Near mid-day a rough-legged hawk appeared far to the north, methodically circling
45、 back and forth across the river and diving earthward now and then on a lemming that incautiously showed itself among the reindeer moss. The curlew eyed the hawk apprehensively as the big hunters circling brought it solely upriver toward the curlews territory. Finally the rough-leg crossed the terri
46、tory boundary unmarked on the ground but sharply defined in the curlews brain. The curlew took off in rapid pursuit, his long wings stroking the air deeply and his larynx shrieking a sharp piping alarm as he closed in on the intruder with a body weight ten times his own. For a few seconds the hawk i
47、gnored the threatened attack, then turned back northward without an attempt at battle. It could have killed the curlew with one grasp of its talons, but it was a killer only when it needed food, and it gave ground willingly before a bird so maddened with the fire of the mating time.北极大陆的白天很漫长, 虽然冻原上
48、的风一直不停地呼啸着掠过这块不毛之地, 但是白天既不炎热也不潮湿。极北杓鹬一边在泥滩上觅食, 一边在领地上巡逻, 他的双眼紧紧地注视着这块大陆平坦的地平线。临近中午时分, 一只腿上毛绒绒的鹰远远地出现在北边。它有条不紊地在河流上空来回盘旋,时不时地向下俯冲, 落到一只刚从石蕊中鲁莽地探出头来的旅鼠身上。鹰直直地向河流上游盘旋至杓鹬的领地，杓鹬焦虑地盯着这只庞然大物。最后, 这只腿上满是毛的鹰穿过了杓鹬的领地边界，这个边界在地上没有标记，但在杓鹬的大脑中却很清楚。杓鹬立即起飞追赶。在接近这个比他重 10 倍的入侵者时, 它长长的翅膀在空中有力地拍打着, 同时从它喉管里发出尖锐的警告声。几秒钟过去
49、了, 这只鹰根本不理会这种带有威胁性的进攻, 掉头向北飞去。因为它并不想打仗。它本来只需一抓子就能杀死这只杓鹬, 但它只有在需要食物的时候才会这样做。在一只正处于交配期极度亢奋的鸟儿面前, 它乐意让步。The sun dipped low, barely passing from view, and the curlews first Arctic night dropped like a grey mist around him. The tundra cooled quickly, and as it cooled the gale that had howled all day suddenly died. Dusk, but not darkness, followed.太阳下去了, 就快从视线中消失了, 杓鹬在北极的第一个夜晚像灰蒙蒙的薄雾一样落下, 笼罩着他。冻原上的气温很快变凉了。随着气温下降, 怒号了一天的大风也突然消失了。尽管还有些光亮，但终究暮色四合了。来。The curlew was drawn by an instinctive urge he felt but didnt understand to the dry ridge of cobblestone with the thick mat of reind
