童声英文版02 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

02 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
     小兔本杰明的故事

One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank.He pricked his ears and listened to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony. A gig was coming along the road; it was driven by Mr. McGregor, and beside him sat Mrs. McGregor in her best bonnet.
一天早上，一只小兔坐在斜坡上。
他竖起耳朵，听到一阵哒哒、哒哒的马蹄声。
一辆轻便双轮马车沿路驶了过来，驾车的是麦格雷戈先生，旁边坐着他的太太，头上戴着她那顶最漂亮的无边女帽。

As soon as they had passed, little Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road, and set off—with a hop, skip, and a jump—to call upon his relations, who lived in the wood at the back of Mr. McGregor’s garden.
车子刚刚驶过，小兔本杰明就顺着坡溜到了路面上。他站起身来，连蹦带跳地找他的亲戚去了。他的亲戚就住在麦格雷戈先生菜园子后面的树林里。

That wood was full of rabbit holes; and in the neatest, sandiest hole of all lived Benjamin’s aunt and his cousins—Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.
那片树林里到处都是兔子洞。其中，最整洁、沙子最多的洞里住着本杰明的姑妈和他的那些表兄妹——弗洛普希、莫普希、棉花尾和彼得。

Old Mrs. Rabbit was a widow; she earned her living by knitting rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees (I once bought a pair at a bazaar). She also sold herbs, and rosemary tea, and rabbit-tobacco (which is what we call lavender).
老兔夫人是个寡妇，她靠编织兔毛手套和围巾为生。（我还在集市上买过一副呢。）另外，她还卖草药、迷迭香茶和兔儿烟——也就是我们说的薰衣草。

Little Benjamin did not very much want to see his Aunt. He came round the back of the fir-tree, and nearly tumbled upon the top of his Cousin Peter.
小本杰明并不太想见到自己的姑妈。他绕到大杉树的后面，差点儿绊倒在表弟彼得的头上。

Peter was sitting by himself. He looked poorly, and was dressed in a red cotton pockethandkerchief.
彼得正独自坐着，身上裹着一块红色的棉手帕，看上去可怜巴巴的。

“Peter,” said little Benjamin, in a whisper, “who has got your clothes?”
Peter replied, “The scarecrow in Mr. McGregor’s garden,” and described how he had been chased about the garden, and had dropped his shoes and coat.
Little Benjamin sat down beside his cousin and assured him that Mr. McGregor had gone out in a gig, and Mrs. McGregor also; and certainly for the day, because she was wearing her best bonnet.
“彼得，”小本杰明悄声问道“, 你的衣服让谁拿走啦？”
“麦格雷戈先生菜园子里的稻草人呗。”彼得答道。
接着，他讲述了自己在菜园子里被追来逐去的情形，以及跑丢了鞋子和外套的经过。
小本杰明挨着表弟坐下来，十分确信地跟他说，麦格雷戈先生驾着轻便双轮马车出门去了，他太太也在车上。他们肯定会在外面待上一整天，因为麦格雷戈太太戴着她最漂亮的无边女帽呢。

Peter said he hoped that it would rain.At this point old Mrs. Rabbit’s voice was heard inside the rabbit hole, calling: “Cotton-tail! Cottontail! Fetch some more camomile!” Peter said he thought he might feel better if he went for a walk.
彼得说，他真希望能下场雨。这时候，老兔夫人的声音从洞里传了出来。她高声喊着：“棉花尾，棉花尾！多弄点儿甘菊回来！”彼得说，要是能出去转悠一圈，可能会感觉好点。

They went away hand in hand, and got upon the flat top of the wall at the bottom of the wood. From here they looked down into Mr. McGregor’s garden. Peter’s coat and shoes were plainly to be seen upon the scarecrow, topped with an old tamo’-shanter of Mr. McGregor’s.
于是，他们手拉着手出去了。他们来到树林尽头，爬上了一堵顶部平平的围墙。从那儿往下一看，正是麦格雷戈先生的菜园子。他们清楚地看到，彼得的外套和鞋子就穿在稻草人身上，稻草人的头上还戴着一顶破旧的苏格兰无檐帽，那是麦格雷戈先生的。

Little Benjamin said: “It spoils people’s clothes to squeeze under a gate; the proper way to get in is to climb down a pear-tree.”

Peter fell down head first; but it was of no consequence, as the bed below was newly raked and quite soft.
小本杰明说：“从门下面钻进去会把衣服弄坏的。咱们最好还是顺着梨树爬下去。”

彼得头朝下栽了下去，好在没关系，下面的苗床刚刚耙过，土质非常松软。

It had been sown with lettuces.
They left a great many odd little footmarks all over the bed, especially little Benjamin, who was wearing clogs.
那儿种的是莴苣。
他们在地里留下了好多奇怪的小脚印，尤其是小本杰明，因为他脚上穿的是一双木底鞋。

Little Benjamin said that the first thing to be done was to get back Peter’s clothes, in order that they might be able to use the pocket-handkerchief.
They took them off the scarecrow. There had been rain during the night; there was water in the shoes, and the coat was somewhat shrunk.
Benjamin tried on the tam-o’-shanter, but it was too big for him.
小本杰明说，首先得拿回彼得的衣服，这样，那块手帕就可以派上别的用场。
他们把衣服从稻草人身上脱了下来。夜里下过雨，鞋子里面进水了，外套也有点缩水。
本杰明试了试那顶苏格兰无檐帽，可对他来说太大了。

Then he suggested that they should fill the pocket-handkerchief with onions, as a little present for his Aunt.
Peter did not seem to be enjoying himself; he kept hearing noises.
随后，他提议在手帕中装满洋葱带回去，当作小礼物送给姑妈。
彼得似乎并不踏实，他总觉得周围有动静。

Benjamin, on the contrary, was perfectly at home, and ate a lettuce leaf. He said that he was in the habit of coming to the garden with his father to get lettuces for their Sunday dinner.
(The name of little Benjamin’s papa was old Mr. Benjamin Bunny.)
本杰明却恰恰相反，他吃着一片莴苣叶，就像在自己家里一样随意。他说，他常常和爸爸一起来这个菜园，弄些莴苣回去，作为星期天的晚餐。
（小本杰明的爸爸就是老兔本杰明先生。）

The lettuces certainly were very fine.

Peter did not eat anything; he said he should like to go home. Presently he dropped half the onions.
这里的莴苣的确很鲜美。

彼得什么也没吃。他说，他想回家了。不一会儿，手帕里的洋葱就掉了一半。

Little Benjamin said that it was not possible to get back up the pear-tree with a load of vegetables. He led the way boldly towards the other end of the garden. They went along a little walk on planks, under a sunny, red brick wall.

小本杰明说，带着一包蔬菜，再沿着梨树爬回去，肯定是不行了。他带着彼得，大胆地朝着园子的另一头走去。阳光照在红色的砖墙上，他们沿着墙下的一条小木板路一直向前走去。

The mice sat on their doorsteps cracking cherry-stones; they winked at Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin Bunny.
Presently Peter let the pocket-handkerchief go again.

几只小老鼠坐在自家门口的台阶上，敲着樱桃核吃。
他们冲着小兔彼得和小本杰明眨巴着眼睛。
没过多久，彼得手上手帕里的洋葱又掉了几个。

They got amongst flower-pots, and frames, and tubs. Peter heard noises worse than ever; his eyes were as big as lolly-pops!
He was a step or two in front of his cousin when he suddenly stopped.

他们穿过一堆花盆、木架和浴盆。这时，彼得听到一阵可怕的声音，这种声音他以前从未听到过。他的眼睛睁得足有棒棒糖那么大。
他正走在他表哥前面一两步远的地方，突然停了下来。

This is what those little rabbits saw round that corner!
Little Benjamin took one look, and then, in half a minute less than no time, he hid himself and Peter and the onions underneath a large basket ...

猜猜两只小兔子在拐角处看到了什么?
小本杰明只是看了一眼，就赶紧和彼得拿着洋葱藏
到了一个很大的箩筐下面……

The cat got up and stretched herself, and came and sniffed at the basket.
Perhaps she liked the smell of onions!
Anyway, she sat down upon the top of the basket.

眼前的猫站了起来，伸了个懒腰，来到箩筐边上，东闻闻，西闻闻。
或许，她喜欢洋葱的味道！
后来，她干脆坐在了箩筐上面。

She sat there for five hours.
I cannot draw you a picture of Peter and Benjamin underneath the basket, because it was quite dark, and because the smell of onions was fearful; it made Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin cry.
The sun got round behind the wood, and it was quite late in the afternoon; but still the cat sat upon the basket.

这一坐，就是五个小时。
我无法为你画一幅彼得和本杰明在箩筐下面的图画。里面实在太黑了，而且洋葱的味道太刺激了，小兔彼得和小本杰明一直在流泪呢。
太阳落到了树林后面，天色已经很晚了。可是，猫依然坐在箩筐上。

At length there was a pitter-patter, pitterpatter, and some bits of mortar fell from the wall above.
The cat looked up and saw old Mr. Benjamin Bunny prancing along the top of the wall of the upper terrace.
He was smoking a pipe of rabbit-tobacco, and had a little switch6 in his hand.
He was looking for his son.

最后，传来一阵噼里啪啦的声音，头顶上方的墙上掉落下一些碎灰泥。
猫抬起头来，看见老兔本杰明先生正昂首阔步地走在墙顶的露台上。
他嘴里叼着烟斗，抽着兔儿烟，手里拿着一根小树枝。
他正在寻找自己的儿子。

Old Mr. Bunny had no opinion whatever of cats.
He took a tremendous jump off the top of the wall on to the top of the cat, and cuffed it off the basket, and kicked it into the greenhouse, scratching off a handful of fur.The cat was too much surprised to scratch back.

老兔先生对猫可没什么好感。
他从墙头上纵身一跃，跳到了猫的背上，一巴掌将猫打下了箩筐，又一脚将她踢进了花房，最后，还揪下了一把毛。猫只顾惊讶了，完全没法还手。

When old Mr. Bunny had driven the cat into the greenhouse, he locked the door.
Then he came back to the basket and took out his son Benjamin by the ears, and whipped him with the little switch.
Then he took out his nephew Peter.

老兔先生把猫赶进花房之后，随手锁上了门。
然后，他回到箩筐边上，揪着本杰明的耳朵，将儿子拽了出来，用小树枝抽了他一顿。
接着，他把外甥彼得也拖了出来。

Then he took out the handkerchief of onions, and marched out of the garden.
When Mr. McGregor returned about half an hour later he observed several things which perplexed him.

最后，他把装着洋葱的手帕拿了出来，大步走出了菜园。
大约半个小时以后，麦格雷戈先生回来了，他看到了几件令他百思不得其解的事情。

It looked as though some person had been walking all over the garden in a pair of clogs—only the footmarks were too ridiculously little!
Also he could not understand how the cat could have managed to shut herself up inside the greenhouse, locking the door upon the outside.

似乎有人穿着木底鞋在整个菜园里走来走去，只是那些脚印太小了，小到不可思议！
另外，他怎么也想不明白，猫是怎么把自己关进花房，又是怎么从外面锁上门的。

When Peter got home his mother forgave him,because she was so glad to see that he had found his shoes and coat. Cotton-tail and Peter folded up the pocket-handkerchief, and old Mrs. Rabbit strung up the onions and hung them from the kitchen ceiling, with the bunches of herbs and the rabbit-tobacco.

彼得回到家里，妈妈见他找回了自己的鞋子和外套，非常高兴，就原谅了他。棉花尾和彼得一起把手帕叠好。老兔夫人把洋葱串起来，将它们和药草、兔儿烟一起挂在了厨房的天花板上。