第57课

旁白 neutral

I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map.

我停车让车冷却下来，并研究地图。

旁白 neutral

I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me.

我本以为现在应该离目的地很近了，但周围的一切对我来说仍然很陌生。

旁白 neutral

I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that was eighteen years ago.

我父亲带我出国时我才五岁，那已经是十八年前的事了。

旁白 neutral

When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness.

母亲在一场悲惨的事故中去世后，他未能很快从震惊和孤独中恢复过来。

旁白 neutral

Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound.

他周围的一切都充满了她的气息，不断地撕开他的伤口。

旁白 neutral

So he decided to emigrate.

所以他决定移民。

旁白 neutral

In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve.

在新的国家，他全心投入为我们俩创造新生活，于是他渐渐停止了悲伤。

旁白 neutral

He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me.

他没有再婚，我是在没有女性关爱的情况下长大的；但我什么都不缺，因为他既是我的父亲也是我的母亲。

旁白 neutral

He always meant to go back one day, but not to stay.

他一直打算有一天回去，但不是为了留下。

旁白 neutral

His roots and mine had become too firmly embedded in the new land.

他和我的根基都已在新土地上扎得太深了。

旁白 neutral

But he wanted to see the old folk againand to visit my mother's grave.

But he wanted to see the old folk againand to visit my mother's grave.

旁白 neutral

He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.

在我们计划动身前的几个月，他得了绝症，当他知道自己快要去世时，他让我答应独自前往。

旁白 neutral

I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps,

降落的第二天，我租了一辆车，买了一本详尽的地图册，

旁白 neutral

which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage.

我发现这本地图册在跨国旅途中非常有用，但我不认为在最后一段路程中我还需要它。

旁白 neutral

It was not that I actually remembered anything at all.

并不是我真的记得任何东西。

旁白 neutral

But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone after leaving the nearest town,

但父亲曾一遍又一遍地描述，离开最近的城镇后，每过一个里程碑我们会看到什么，

旁白 neutral

so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory.

所以我确信我会认出那是熟悉的土地。

旁白 neutral

Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.

嗯，我错了，因为我现在迷路了。

旁白 neutral

I looked at the map and then at the milometer.

我看了看地图，然后看了看里程表。

旁白 neutral

I had come ten miles since leaving the town and at this point, according to my father,

我离开城镇已经走了十英里，按照我父亲的说法，在这个地方，

旁白 neutral

I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley,

我应该能看到山谷里的农场和小屋，

旁白 neutral

with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance.

远处还能看到我们村教堂的尖顶。

旁白 neutral

I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire-only a lake.

我看不到山谷，看不到农场，看不到小屋，也看不到教堂尖顶——只有一片湖。

旁白 neutral

I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere.

我断定我一定是在某个地方拐错了弯。

旁白 neutral

So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map.

于是我开车回到城镇，开始按原路返回，并不时地看一眼地图。

旁白 neutral

I landed up at the same corner.

我最终还是回到了同一个路口。

旁白 neutral

The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map.

奇怪的是，地图上并没有标示这片湖。

旁白 neutral

I felt as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams.

我感觉自己好像偶然闯入了一个噩梦般的国度，就像你在梦中有时会遇到的那样。

旁白 neutral

And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me.

就像在噩梦中一样，四周没有人能帮助我。

旁白 neutral

Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next,

幸运的是，正当我不知下一步该怎么办的时候，

旁白 neutral

there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction.

地平线上出现了一位骑马的人，正朝我这个方向骑来。

旁白 neutral

I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village.

我等到他走近，然后问他去我们那个老村子的路。

旁白 neutral

He said that there was now no village.

他说现在已经没有那个村子了。

旁白 neutral

I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name.

我以为他一定是误解了我的意思，所以我又重复了一遍村子的名字。

旁白 neutral

This time he pointed to the lake.

这次他指向了湖面。

旁白 neutral

The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too.

那个村子已经不复存在了，因为它连同整个山谷都被淹没了。

旁白 neutral

The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.

那片湖不是天然形成的，而是一个人工水库。