学习贵在坚持，去年冬天我练笔翻译了Kipling的〈第二部丛林故事〉，并将其贴在e-book栏里，今年决定克服惰性，
将第一部慢慢译出，一为自我学习，二为娱乐大家。^O^
Mowgli's Brothers
莫格利的兄弟们
Now Rann the Kite brings home the night
That Mang the Bat sets free--
The herds are shut in byre and hut
For loosed till dawn are we.
This is the hour of pride and power,
Talon and tush and claw.
Oh, hear the call!--Good hunting all
That keep the Jungle Law!
-------Night-Song in the Jungle
现在，秃鹫蓝将夜晚带回了家
蝙蝠盲获得了自由
牲畜归栏直至黎明再现
这是尖指，长牙和利爪
展现骄傲与力量的时刻
哦，听那尖号——诸位捕猎愉快
这就是丛林法则！
——————丛林中的夜歌
It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills
when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself,
yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of
the sleepy feeling in their tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big
gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and
the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived.
"Augrh!" said Father Wolf. "It is time to hunt again." He was
going to spring down hill when a little shadow with a bushy tail
crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with you, O Chief
of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noble
children that they may never forget the hungry in this world."
It was the jackal--Tabaqui, the Dish-licker--and thewolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about makingmischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leatherfrom the village rubbish-heaps. But they are afraid of him too,
because Tabaqui, more than anyone else in the jungle, is apt to go
mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and
runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the
tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is
the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We
call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee--the madness—
and run.
"Enter, then, and look," said Father Wolf stiffly, "but there
is no food here."
"For a wolf, no," said Tabaqui, "but for so mean a person as
myself a dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the
jackal people], to pick and choose?" He scuttled to the back of
the cave, where he found the bone of a buck with some meat on it,
and sat cracking the end merrily.
"All thanks for this good meal," he said, licking his lips.
"How beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes!
And so young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that
the children of kings are men from the beginning."
Now, Tabaqui knew as well as anyone else that there is nothing
so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces. It pleased
him to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.
这是西诺伊山丘中一个非常温暖的7点时分。狼爸爸从白昼的休息中醒来，他挠着自己，低吟着，逐一伸展自己的爪子，好把睡意完全抛掉。狼妈妈正和她的四个蹒跚，吵闹的孩子倒在一起，不时用自己的大灰鼻子拱着他们。月光从他们居住的洞口洒进来。“啊呀！”狼爸爸说。“又到了捕猎的时候了。”他正要跃下山丘，一个带着短毛尾巴的影子忽然越过门口，并哀吟着。
“好运伴随你，哦，狼群的首领啊。愿好运和强壮的白牙伴随着高贵的孩子们，并愿他们永远别忘了这世上饥饿的生物们。” 这是豺，塔巴奎，舔盘子的。印度的狼们鄙视塔巴奎，因为他们到处乱跑，制造麻烦，散布谣言，吃村里垃圾里的破布破皮。但是，狼也怕他们，因为塔巴奎比丛林里的任何东西都容易发疯，然后他们就会忘了自己还曾怕过什么，他们会窜进丛林，沿路大咬一切他们遇到的东西。当矮小的塔巴奎发疯时，甚至老虎也得退避三舍，因为，疯狂是能征服一个野生动物的东西中最丢脸的一个。我们叫它狂犬病，但是他们称它为“dewanee”,也就是疯狂和奔跑。
“那么，进来看看，”狼爸爸硬邦邦地说，“但这里可没吃的。”
“对于一只狼来说，没有，” 塔巴奎说，“但对于一个可怜的人来说，就像我自己，一根干骨头就一一顿美餐啊。我们是谁啊，豺嘛，怎么能挑挑拣拣呐？”他匆匆退到洞穴的后部，他在那里发现了一根还带着点肉的鹿骨头，于是坐了下来，美美地咬了起来。
“万分感谢这顿美餐，”他舔着嘴说道。“这些高贵的孩子多美丽啊！他们的眼睛多大啊！多年轻！真的，真的！我应该记得，国王的孩子们从小就是男子汉！”
其实，塔巴奎和其他生物一样知道，没有什么比赞扬孩子的脸更不吉利的事了。他很高兴地看到狼爸爸和狼妈妈显得很不舒服。