The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

湯姆.索亞歷險記

   CHAPTER V

   第五章

   ABOUT half-past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to ring, and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon. The Sunday-school children distributed themselves about the house and occupied pews with their parents, so as to be under supervision. Aunt Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her--Tom being placed next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible. The crowd filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better days; the mayor and his wife--for they had a mayor there, among other unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair, smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St. Petersburg could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward; lawyer Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the village, followed by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young heart-breakers; then all the young clerks in town in a body--for they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a circling wall of oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet; and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful care of his mother as if she were cut glass. He always brought his mother to church, and was the pride of all the matrons. The boys all hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown up to them" so much. His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind, as usual on Sundays--accidentally. Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked upon boys who had as snobs.

   大約10點30分的時候,小教堂的破鐘開始響了起來,隨即大家便聚集在一起聽上午的佈道。主日學校的孩子們各隨各的父母坐在教堂裡,為的是好受他們的監督。波莉姨媽來了,湯姆、希德和瑪麗在她旁邊坐下來。湯姆被安排在靠近過道的位子上坐著,為的是儘可能和開着的窗戶及外面誘人的夏日景物離得遠一些。人們簇擁着順着過道往裡走:有上了年紀的貧苦的郵政局局長,他曾經是過過好日子的;有鎮長和他的太太——這地方竟然還有個鎮長,這和其他許多沒有必要的擺設一樣;有治安法官;有道格拉斯寡婦,她40來歲,長得小巧而美麗,為人寬厚,慷慨大方而又心地善良,生活還算富裕,她山上的住宅是鎮上唯一漂亮講究的,可算得上殿堂,每逢節慶日,她可是聖彼德堡鎮上人們引以為榮的最熱情好客、最樂善好施的人;有駝背的、德高望重的華德少校和他的夫人;還有維爾遜律師,一位遠道而來的新貴客。再下面就是鎮上的大美人,後面跟着一大幫穿細麻布衣服、扎着緞帶的、讓人害單相思病的年輕姑娘。跟在她們后里的是鎮上所有年輕的店員和職員,他們一湧而進——原來他們是一群如痴如醉的愛慕者,開始都站在門廊裡,嘬着自己的手指頭,圍在那兒站成一道牆似的,一直到最後一個姑娘走出他們的包圍圈為止。最後進來的一位是村裡的模範兒童威利·莫夫遜,他對他母親照顧得無微不至,就好像她是件易碎的雕花玻璃品似的。他總是領着他媽媽到教堂來,其他的媽媽都引以為豪。而男孩子們都恨他,因為他太乘巧,太聽話。況且他常被人誇獎,讓他們覺得難堪。他白色的手絹搭拉在屁股口袋的外面,星期天也不例外——偶而有次把除外。湯姆沒有手絹,他鄙視那些有手絹的孩子們,把他們看作是故作姿態的勢利小人。

   The congregation being fully assembled, now, the bell rang once more, to warn laggards and stragglers, and then a solemn hush fell upon the church which was only broken by the tittering and whispering of the choir in the gallery. The choir always tittered and whispered all through service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred, but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago, and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in some foreign country.

   聽佈道的人到齊後,大鐘又響了一遍,為的是提醒那些遲到的和在外面亂跑的人。教堂裡一片寂靜,顯得十分莊嚴,只有邊座席上唱詩班裡有些低聲嘻笑和說話的聲音,打破了這種寂靜,而且自始至終整個佈道過程,唱詩班裡一直有人在竊竊私語,低聲說笑。曾有過一個唱詩班不像這樣沒教養,可是我忘記那是在什麼地方了。這是許多年以前的事了,我几乎對那些事沒有印象了,不過,我想大概是在外國吧。

   The minister gave out the hymn, and read it through with a relish, in a peculiar style which was much admired in that part of the country. His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily up till it reached a certain point, where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost word and then plunged down as if from a spring-board:

   牧師把大家要唱的歌頌主的歌詞拿了出來,津津有味地念了一遍,他那特別的腔調在那地區是受人歡迎的。他的音量先由中音部開始,逐漸升高,一直升到最高音的一個字,強調了一下,然後就像從跳板上跳下來一樣,突然降低:

Shall I be car-ri-ed toe the skies,
    on flow'ry _beds_ of ease,
 Whilst others fight to win the prize,
    and sail thro' _blood_-y seas?

為獲功勛別人正浴血奮戰
    在沙場
 我豈能安睡花床夢想
    進天堂

   He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps, and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal earth."

   大家一致認為他的朗誦很精彩,很美妙。在教堂的“聯歡會”上,他經常被請來給大家朗誦詩文,每當他唸完之後,婦女們都要舉起雙手,然後軟綿綿地把手落下來,放在膝上,一面“轉溜”着眼睛,一面搖頭,好像在說:“這簡直是語言無法形容的,太美了,這樣動聽的聲音在這凡俗的人世間實在是太難得了。”

   After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into a bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of doom--a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

   唱完頌主歌之後,牧師斯普拉格先生就把自己變成了一塊佈告牌,開始宣佈一些集會和團體的通知之類的事情,他一直說個沒完,似乎他要宣佈事情就得講個不停直到世界末日霹靂聲響時才停止——這是一種很奇怪的習慣,至今在美國還保留着,甚至在當今新聞報紙很多的城市裡還沒有改變這種習慣。通常傳統習俗越是沒有多少理由存在,越很難消除它。

   And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little children of the church; for the other churches of the village; for the village itself; for the county; for the State; for the State officers; for the United States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for the President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed by stormy seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of European monarchies and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light and the good tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a grateful harvest of good. Amen.

   再後來牧師就做禱告了。這是一篇很好的、內容豐富的禱告詞,面面俱到:它為教堂和裡面的孩子們祈禱;為全縣向主求福;為漂泊在狂風暴雨的海洋上可憐的水手們求福;為被迫在歐洲君主制度和東方專制制度鐵蹄下呻吟着的數萬勞苦大眾求福;為那些有了教主的光和福音而熟視無睹、充耳不聞的人求福;為遠處海島上的那些異幫教徒求福;最後牧師祈求天主恩准他所說的話,希望他的話像播種在肥沃土地裡的種子一樣,將會開花結果,造福無窮。阿門。

   There was a rustling of dresses, and the standing congregation sat down. The boy whose history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer, he only endured it--if he even did that much. He was restive all through it; he kept tally of the details of the prayer, unconsciously--for he was not listening, but he knew the ground of old, and the clergyman's regular route over it--and when a little trifle of new matter was interlarded, his ear detected it and his whole nature resented it; he considered additions unfair, and scoundrelly. In the midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together, embracing its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that it seemed to almost part company with the body, and the slender thread of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its wings with its hind legs and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails; going through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly safe. As indeed it was; for as sorely as Tom's hands itched to grab for it they did not dare--he believed his soul would be instantly destroyed if he did such a thing while the prayer was going on. But with the closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward; and the instant the "Amen" was out the fly was a prisoner of war. His aunt detected the act and made him let it go.

   站着的人們在一片衣服的沙沙聲中都坐了下來。這本書裡講述的主人公並不欣賞這篇禱告詞,他只是忍受着罷了,能忍受就算不錯了。他在祈禱過程中,一直不安分。他記錄下禱告詞的詳細內容,不過是無意識地這麼做——因為他沒有聽,但是他熟悉牧師先生慣彈的老調,慣用的陳詞罷了——每當禱告詞里加進一點新內容時,他的耳朵立刻就能辨別出來,而且渾身上下都不舒服。他認為加進去的太不合適,也不光明正大,簡直是在耍無賴。在祈禱做到半中間的時候,有一隻蒼蠅落在他前面的座椅靠背上,它不慌不忙地搓着腿,伸出胳膊抱住頭,用勁地擦着腦袋,它的頭几乎好像要和身子分家似的,脖子細的像根綫,露出來看得清清楚楚。它又用後腿撥弄翅膀,把翅膀向身上拉平,好像翅膀是它禮服的後擺;它不緊不慢,自在逍遙地老在那兒做着一全套梳妝打扮的動作,似乎很清楚自己是絶對安全的。這只蒼蠅的逍遙勁讓湯姆心裡難受極了。那小東西的確很安全,因為當湯姆兩手發癢,慢慢地移過去想抓它時,又停住了,他不敢——他相信在做禱告時幹這種事情,他的靈魂立刻就會遭到毀滅的。可是,當禱告講到最後一句時,他弓着手背悄悄地向蒼蠅靠過去,“阿門”剛一說出口,蒼蠅就做了階下囚。他姨媽發現後讓他把蒼蠅放掉了。

   The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod--and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless fire and brimstone and thinned the predestined elect down to a company so small as to be hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew anything else about the discourse. However, this time he was really interested for a little while. The minister made a grand and moving picture of the assembling together of the world's hosts at the millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a little child should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of the great spectacle were lost upon the boy; he only thought of the conspicuousness of the principal character before the on-looking nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that he wished he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.

   牧師宣佈了佈道詞引用的《聖經》章節,接着就單調乏味地進行施道,如此平淡囉嗦以致于有許多人漸漸地低下頭打瞌睡——他的佈道詞裡講了數不清的各種各樣的地獄裡的刑罰,讓人有種感覺,能夠有資格讓上帝選入天堂的真是為數極少,几乎不值得拯救了。湯姆計算着禱告詞的頁數,做完禮拜他總能說出牧師經文的頁數,至于內容他是很少知道。然而這一回卻不同:他對內容真有點感興趣了。牧師描繪了幅輝煌而動人的畫面:千年至福時期全世界各族人民團聚在一起,獅子和羊羔躺在一起,由一個孩子領着它們。可是這偉大的場面沒有一點感動湯姆,他關注的是那裡面的人物在成千上萬的人們面前所顯出的惹人注目的神氣。想到這裡,他的臉上露出喜色。他暗自想如果那頭獅子馴服不吃人的話,他很願意自己就是那孩子。

   Now he lapsed into suffering again, as the dry argument was resumed. Presently he bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out. It was a large black beetle with formidable jaws--a "pinchbug," he called it. It was in a percussion-cap box. The first thing the beetle did was to take him by the finger. A natural fillip followed, the beetle went floundering into the aisle and lit on its back, and the hurt finger went into the boy's mouth. The beetle lay there working its helpless legs, unable to turn over. Tom eyed it, and longed for it; but it was safe out of his reach. Other people uninterested in the sermon found relief in the beetle, and they eyed it too. Presently a vagrant poodle dog came idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the summer softness and the quiet, weary of captivity, sighing for change. He spied the beetle; the drooping tail lifted and wagged. He surveyed the prize; walked around it; smelt at it from a safe distance; walked around it again; grew bolder, and took a closer smell; then lifted his lip and made a gingerly snatch at it, just missing it; made another, and another; began to enjoy the diversion; subsided to his stomach with the beetle between his paws, and continued his experiments; grew weary at last, and then indifferent and absent-minded. His head nodded, and little by little his chin descended and touched the enemy, who seized it. There was a sharp yelp, a flirt of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell a couple of yards away, and lit on its back once more. The neighboring spectators shook with a gentle inward joy, several faces went behind fans and hand-kerchiefs, and Tom was entirely happy. The dog looked foolish, and probably felt so; but there was resentment in his heart, too, and a craving for revenge. So he went to the beetle and began a wary attack on it again; jumping at it from every point of a circle, lighting with his fore-paws within an inch of the creature, making even closer snatches at it with his teeth, and jerking his head till his ears flapped again. But he grew tired once more, after a while; tried to amuse himself with a fly but found no relief; followed an ant around, with his nose close to the floor, and quickly wearied of that; yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely, and sat down on it. Then there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the aisle; the yelps continued, and so did the dog; he crossed the house in front of the altar; he flew down the other aisle; he crossed before the doors; he clamored up the home-stretch; his anguish grew with his progress, till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its orbit with the gleam and the speed of light. At last the frantic sufferer sheered from its course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it out of the window, and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and died in the distance.

   當牧師繼續枯燥無味地往下講道時,湯姆重新又陷入了痛苦之中。立刻他想起了他的一個寶貝玩意,趕快把它拿了出來。那是一隻下巴骨長得可怕的大黑甲蟲——他叫它“大鉗甲蟲”。這只甲蟲是裝在雷管筒子裡。它一被放出來,就咬湯姆的手指。他很自然地彈了一下手指,那甲蟲就滾到過道里,仰面朝天,無奈地彈動着它那幾條腿,翻不了身。湯姆把被咬痛的手指放到嘴裡,眼巴巴地看著“大鉗甲蟲”,很想把它抓回來,可是他怎麼也夠不到。其他的人對牧師的佈道也不感興趣,就拿這只甲蟲來解悶,他們也盯着它看。這時一隻遊蕩的獅子狗懶洋洋地走過來,心情鬱悶,在安閒的夏日裡顯得懶懶散散,它在屋裡待膩了,很想出來換換環境。它一眼發現了這只甲蟲,垂着的尾巴立即豎起來,晃動着。它審視了一下這個俘虜,圍着它轉了一圈,遠遠地聞了聞,又圍着它走了一圈,膽子漸漸大了起來,靠近點又聞了聞。它張開嘴,小心翼翼地想把它咬住,可是卻沒咬住。於是它試了一回,又一回,漸漸地覺得這很開心,便把肚子貼著地,用兩隻腳把甲蟲擋在中間,繼續捉弄它。最後它終於厭煩了,下巴一點一點往下低,剛一碰到它的對手就被它咬住了。獅子狗尖叫一聲,猛然搖了一下頭,於是甲蟲被它摔出了有一兩碼,摔得仰面朝天。鄰座的觀看者心裡感到一種輕鬆的愉快,笑了起來,有些人用扇子和手絹遮住了臉,湯姆簡直高興死了。那只狗看起來傻乎乎的,也許它自己也覺得如此吧,可是它懷恨在心,決計報復。於是,它又走近甲蟲,小心翼翼地開始再向它進攻。它圍着它轉,一有機會就撲上去,前爪離甲蟲還不到一英呎遠,又靠上去用牙齒去咬它,忙得它頭直點,耳朵也上下直扇悠。可是,過了一會兒,它又厭煩了。它本想拿只蒼蠅來開開味,可是仍不能解悶;然後,它鼻子貼著地面,跟着一隻螞蟻走,不久又打了呵欠,嘆了口氣,把那只甲蟲徹底地給忘記了,一屁股坐在甲蟲上面。於是,就聽到這狗痛苦地尖叫起來,只見它在過道上飛快地跑着。它不停地叫着,不停地跑着,從聖壇前面跑過去,跑到了另一邊的過道上。它又從大門那兒跑出去,跑到門邊上的最後一段跑道,它往前跑,越是痛得難受,後來簡直成了一個毛茸茸的彗星,閃着光亮,以光的速度在它的軌道上運行着。最後這只痛得發瘋的獅子狗,越出了跑道,跳到主人的懷裡;主人一把抓住它,把它扔到窗戶外,痛苦的叫聲很快地小下來,最後在遠處聽不見了。

   By this time the whole church was red-faced and suffocating with suppressed laughter, and the sermon had come to a dead standstill. The discourse was resumed presently, but it went lame and halting, all possibility of impressiveness being at an end; for even the gravest sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of unholy mirth, under cover of some remote pew-back, as if the poor parson had said a rarely facetious thing. It was a genuine relief to the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the benediction pronounced.

   這時候,教堂裡所有的人都因竭力不發出笑聲而憋得滿臉通紅,喘不過氣來,佈道聲嘎然止住,一片寂靜。接着牧師又開始講道,猶猶豫豫而且聲音走調,再想引起注意,無論如何是不可能的了,因為即便他說的內容很嚴肅,在後面座位背後忍不住總有一陣子失敬的笑聲傳來,好像這個可憐的人剛剛說了什麼可笑的事情。等人們終於結束了受難,牧師給他們祝福的時候,全場都不免感到一陣輕鬆。

   Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful, thinking to himself that there was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of variety in it. He had but one marring thought; he was willing that the dog should play with his pinchbug, but he did not think it was upright in him to carry it off.

   湯姆·索亞心情舒暢地回了家。他心裡想,做禮拜時再加上點花樣,倒挺有趣的。美中不足的是:他願意讓那只狗和大鉗甲蟲玩耍,可是它竟帶著甲蟲跑了,這未免太不夠朋友了。