内卡河上木筏行（1/2）

Raftg Down the Neckar

马克·吐温/ Mark Twa

马克·吐温（1835—1910），美国杰出的小说家，美国文学史上最重要的作家之一，也是美国文学史上第一个用口语进行写作的作家，开创了一代文风，被福克纳称为“美国文学之父”。马克·吐温幼年家境贫寒，被迫放弃学业外出谋生。丰富的生活经历对他后期的创作影响很大。19世纪70年代到90年代是他创作的鼎盛时期，其代表作有《哈克贝里·费恩历险记》和它的姊妹篇《汤姆·索亚历险记》等。

Acethe Hole

Uand these new words before you read this article.

1. raft [rɑ:ft, r?ft] n. 筏

2. sash [s??] v. 粉碎

3. feverish [fi:v?ri?] adj. 发热的；极度兴奋的

4. splendor [splend?] n. 光彩；壮丽

When the ndlord learhat I and y agents were artists, our party rose perceptiblyhis estee; we rose still higher when he learhat we were akg a pedestrian tour of Europe.

He toldall about the Heidelberg road, and which were the best pces to avoid and which the best oo tarry at; he chargedless than st for the thgs I brokethe night; he put up a fe n forand added to it a quantity of great light-green ps, the pleasa fruitGerany; he was so anxio to dohonor that he would not allowto walk out of Heilbronn, but called up Gotz von Berli s horse and cab and aderide.

I ade a sketch of the turnout. It is not a Work, it is only what artists call a“study”—a thg to ake a fished picture fro. This sketch has several bleishesit; for stahe wagon is not travelg as fast as the horse is. This is wrong. Aga, the pers to get out of the way is too sall, he is out of perspective, as we say. The o upper les are not the horse’s back, they are the res; there sees to be a wheel issg—this would be rrecteda fished Work, of urse. That thg flyg out behd is not a fg, it is a curta. Thatup there is the sun, but I didn’t get enough distan it. I do not reber, now, what that thg is that isfront of the an who is runng, but I thk it is a haystack or a woan. This study was exhibitedthe Paris Salon of 1879, but did not take any dal; they do not give dals for studies.

We discharged the carriage at the bridge. The river was full of logs—long, slender, barkless pe logs—and we leaned on the rails of the bridge, and watched the n put the together to rafts. These rafts were of a shape and nstru to suit the crookedness are narrowness of the Neckar. They were fro fifty to one hundred yards long, and they gradually tapered fro a ne-log breadth at their sterns, to a three-log breadth at their bow-ends. The a part of the steerg is do the bow, with a pole; the three-log breadth there furnishes roo for only the steersan, for these little logs are ner around that an average young dy’s waist. The ions of the several ses of the raft are sd pliant, so that the raft ay be readily bent to any sort of curve required by the shape of the river.

The Neckar isany pces so narrow that a personthrow a dog across it, if he has one; when it is also sharply curvedsuch pces, the raftsan has to do so pretty niug pilotg to ake the turns. The river is not always allowed to spread over its whole bed—which is as uch as thirty, and sotis forty yards wide—but is split to three equal bodies of water, by stone dikes which throw the a vo, depth, and current to the tral one. In low water thesenarrow-edged dikes project four or five ches above the surface, like the b of a subrged roof, buthigh water they are overflowed. A hatful of ra akes high waterthe Neckar, and a basketful produces an overflow.

There are dikes abreast the Schloss Hotel, and the current is violently swift at that pot. I ed to sit for hoursy gss cage, watchg the long, narrow rafts slip along through the tral el, grazg the right-bank dike and aig carefully for the iddle arch of the stone bridge below; I watched thethis way, and lost all this ti hopg to see one of the hit the bridge-pier and wreck itself soti or other, but was always disappoted. One was sashed there one , but I had jt stepped to y roo a ont to light a pipe, so I lost it.

While I was lookg down upon the rafts thatHeilbronn, the daredevil spirit of adventure ca suddenly upon , and I said to y rades:

“I a gog to Heidelberg on a raft. Will you veh ?”

Their faces paled a little, but they assented with as good a grace as they uld. Harris wao cable his other—thought it his duty to do that, as he was all she hadthis world—so, while he atteo this, I went down to the lo a raft and hailed the capta with a hearty“Ahoy, shipate!”which putupon pleasant ters at once, aered upon bess. I said we were on a pedestrian tour to Heidelberg, and would like to take passage with hi. I said this partly through young Z, who spoke Geran very well, and partly through Mr. X who spoke it peculiarly. Iuand Geran as well as the aniac that ve, but I talk it best through an terpreter.

The capta hitarry passengers, and therefore was afraid the w would be after hicase the atter got noised about or any aident happened. So I chartered the raft and the crew and took all the responsibilities on yself.

With a rattlg song the starboard watch bent to their work and hove the cable short, then got the anchor ho, and our bark oved off with a stately stride, and soon was bowlg along at about o knots an hour.

Our party were grouped aidships. At first the talk was a little glooy, and ran aly upon the shortness of life, the uy of it, the perils which beset it, and the need and wisdo of beg alrepared for the worst; this shaded off to low-voiced refereo the dangers of the deep, and kdred atters; but as the gray east began to redden and the ysterio solenity and silence of the dawn to give pce to the joy-songs of the birds, the talk took a cheerier tone, and our spirits began to rise steadily.

Gerany,the sur, is the perfe of the beautiful, but nobody has uood, and realized, and ehe utost possibilities of this soft and peaceful beauty unless he has voyaged down the Neckar on a raft. The otion of a raft is the needful otion; it is gentle, and glidg, and sooth, and noiseless; it cals down all feverish astasy. How it ntrasts with hot and perspirg pedestrianis, and dty and deafeng railroad rh, and tedio joltg behd tired horses over bldg white roads!

We went slippg silently along, beeen the green and fragrant banks, with a sense of pleasure andthat grew, and grew, all the ti. Sotis the banks werewith thick asses of willows that wholly hid the ground behd; sotis we had noble hills on one hand, clothed densely with foliage to their s, and oher hand open levels bzg with poppies, or clothedthe rich be of the rn-flower; sotis we driftedthe shadow of forests, and sotis along the arg of long stretches of velvety grass, fresh and green and bright, a tireless char to the eye. And the birds!—they were everywhere; they swept bad forth across the river nstantly, and their jubt ic was illed.

It was a deep and satisfyg pleasure to see the sue the new , and gradually, patiently, lovgly, clothe it on with splendor after splendor, and glory after glory, till the iracle lete. How different is this arvel observed fro a raft, fro what it is when one observes it through the dgy dows of a railway-stationso wretched vilge while he unches a petrified sandwid waits for the tra.

参考译文

当旅店老板得知我和我的代理人是艺术家时，我们在他心中的地位就提升了一大截，得知我们正在欧洲徒步旅行后，我们的地位就更高了。

他向我们介绍了海德堡的路线情况，告诉我们最好绕过哪些地方，最好在哪些地方多逗留些时日；对那晚我所使用的物品，他只收取了低于成本的费用；还为我们准备了一桌丰盛的午餐，并送了很多德国人最喜爱的绿李子。因为我们赏光，他坚决不答应我们步行离开海尔布隆，于是，叫了葛兹·封·贝利欣根的马车来载我们离开。

我用素描的形式把马车画了下来。它算不上是件作品，只是画家所谓的“习作”——能够完整作画的素材。这幅素描有几处败笔，如：马车的速度与马的步伐不一致，这是不对的。而且，给马车让路的人实在太小了，就是我所说的不符合透视画法。最上边的两条线不是马背的曲线，而是缰绳；似乎还丢了一只车轮——当然在完成的画中，这些败笔都会被纠正。马车后面飞舞的不是旗帜，而是车上的篷帘。画中还有太阳，不过，我没有空出足够的空间。现在，我记不清奔跑的那个人前面是什么了，不过我想那可能是堆干草，或者是个女人。1879年的巴黎画廊上，这幅习作被展览出来，但是并没有获得任何奖项，因为展览不为习作设奖。

车到桥头的时候，我们付了钱打发马车回去了。河面上漂满了圆木——细长的、没有树皮的松树圆木——我们倚靠在桥栏上，看着人们把这些木头捆成木筏。这些木筏的形状和结构都适用于内卡河道弯曲和极狭窄的地方。木筏长50码至100码不等，尾部有九根圆木那么宽，前部的宽度相当于三根圆木。舵的主要部分是一根撑篙，安装在木筏的前部。三根圆木的宽度只能容纳一个舵手，因为这些小木材的粗细也不过相当于一名普通妇女的腰围大小。木筏几部分的连接是松散的，灵活性也较强，以便随时变向来适应河流任何水流形式的需要。

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