16、第十五只猫头鹰 ...
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March 15th, 1957
Albus—
阿不思——
So you've got yourself a baby Dark Lord on the fair Isles of Alba? Then it would seem you should beware the Ides of March.
所以你在正义的阿尔巴岛上拥有了一个自己的黑魔王宝宝？看来你得当心三月十五这天了。
I wonder—will you go after Voldemort now, as a vigilante, in the good ten years or so before the officials will have any idea what's going on, or will you play it safe, bide your time, and watch the first deaths? Either way I'm sure that inflamed conscience of yours will suffer. Give it a sherbet lemon and spare us.
我想知道——在最初还算美好的十年里，你会在那些官员意识到之前就逮捕伏地魔吗，就像一个义警警员那样。或者你会小心行事，等待时机，见证第一个死亡的诞生？不过我肯定，无论哪条路，都会让你的良心备受谴责。给你的良心一个柠檬雪宝吧，让我们都先歇一会。
The boy has a lot of power and little imagination. You and I, at least, never lacked in the latter department. Part of why we were magnificent.
那男孩的力量强大但头脑简单。而你和我，至少从不缺少。这是我们无可比拟的一个原因。
The more I read these Muggle books of yours, the more I am bewildered. All this time they spend on their cultural conceits, their literature and arts, their social niceties, their limited, supposedly scientific ways of understanding the world without magic. I suppose it is what people do when they do not have magic? Yet without magic, what is the point of it? A wizard with a violin can alter reality itself, but a Muggle with the same is limited to simply affecting the emotions of his fellow-kind. And two Muggles arguing over commas change nothing, but two wizards revising a spell structure can change the world.
这些你送来的麻瓜书读得的越多，我就越困惑。他们把所有时间都花费在文化构想、文学艺术和社交礼仪上。这些人为此受限，据说科学也是他们试图理解没有魔法的世界的一个途径。我猜这就是这些没有魔法的人会做的事？但要没有魔法，这些东西的意义又在何呢？一个巫师拥有一把小提琴，就可以改变它的本质。但一个麻瓜拥有它，能做的仅仅是在一定范围内影响他同类的情绪。两个麻瓜为了一个小小的逗号争吵改变不了任何事情，但两个巫师改进一句咒语却能颠覆整个世界。
Is this your lesson, Albus, when you sent me these books? To teach me to pity them in their small worlds? How ineffective they are?
你给我寄来这些书是想告诉我这个吗，阿不思？教我怜悯他们的小小世界？他们多无能啊？
My heart was untangled with—It—in my hand. Without It now, without the surety of magic—
当它握在我手里的时候，我的心结才真正解开了。现在我失去了它，失去了魔法的保障——
How?
怎么办？
How does one live?
我一个人怎么生活？
The landscape out my window has changed in twelve years, though how much I cannot say. My thoughts slip and slide away from me. One would think they would have nowhere to go, with shield charms thick as goblin steel through my walls. You always used to say you'd get a Pensieve one day—
十二年来，我窗外的风景变了，只是我说不上来变了多少。我的思想不自主地开始脱离。墙上保护咒镀得如同妖精制的钢铁，无论是谁都会觉得自己无处可逃。你过去总是说你总有一天会有一个冥想盆的——
My Nurmengard will not break me, Albus, and neither shall you. Go, deal with your whippersnapper of a Dark Lord. I'm just a rotting—am I really an old man now? I suppose I am. Well, in my day we had to go up hill both ways in the snow to conquer countries.
我的纽蒙迦德无法摧毁我，阿不思，你也不能。去吧，对付你那狂妄自大的黑魔王去吧。我只是一个正在腐烂的——我真的老了吗？我想是的。记得在我的时代里，我们也曾为了征服一个国家去走了不同的路，风雪无阻。
Crochetily yours,
埋怨着的，你的，
注：
1.“beware the Ides of March”是一句源自于古罗马的谚语，译为：“当心三月十五日”。凯撒当年被刺杀，是由于元老院中有人怀疑他有当国王的野心。在遇刺之前的一次公开活动中，曾有一位算命先生警告凯撒：在三月十五日这天要格外小心。凯撒没有当回事，几天后就在三月十五日遇刺身亡。
2.救命我怎么感觉这翻译是越来越难了（哭），最后两段我越做越难受。那句“we had to go up hill both ways in the snow to conquer countries”我实在是不确定，翻了各路太太的译本发现没人跟我译的一样啊淦。我就理解为GG说的是他是武力征服而AD柔性劝导吧。“黄色的树林里分出两条路……”（碎碎念）
3.“Crochetily yours”的结束语里“crochetily”啥意思啊？“crochet”是钩针花边，我觉得不大对，所以怀疑是“crotchety”被少写了一个“t”，形容词性是“易怒的”。原来看到后面也有这个单词还是决定译成了“勾花针边”，但最近看到有太太和我想的一样就又双叒叕改回来了。
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第16章 第十五只猫头鹰
