The Bell-Deep

"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" It sounds up from the "bell-deep" in the Odense-Au. Every child in the old town of Odense, on the island of Funen, knows the Au, which washes the gardens round about the town, and flows on under the wooden bridges from the dam to the water-mill.

“叮咚！叮咚！”这声音从欧登塞河的“钟潭”里传出来。菲英岛上欧登塞古城的每一个孩子都认识这条河，它绕着城市冲刷两岸的花园，又从水坝下经过一座座木桥，一直流到水磨坊。

In the Au grow the yellow water-lilies and brown feathery reeds; the dark velvety flag grows there, high and thick; old and decayed willows, slanting and tottering, hang far out over the stream beside the monk's meadow and by the bleaching ground; but opposite there are gardens upon gardens, each different from the rest, some with pretty flowers and bowers like little dolls' pleasure grounds, often displaying cabbage and other kitchen plants; and here and there the gardens cannot be seen at all, for the great elder trees that spread themselves out by the bank, and hang far out over the streaming waters, which are deeper here and there than an oar can fathom.

河里长着黄色的睡莲和棕色的羽状芦苇；深绒般的菖蒲长得又高又密；老朽倾颓的柳树东倒西歪，在僧侣草地和漂洗场旁远远地探向水面；可对岸却是一片连着一片的花园，各不相同，有的开满娇美的花朵，搭着凉亭，像小小的玩偶乐园，也常常种着卷心菜和别的菜蔬；还有些地方根本看不见花园，因为大棵接骨木树沿岸铺展，远远地探到湍急的水面上，那里的水有的地方深得连船桨都探不到底。

Opposite the old nunnery is the deepest place, which is called the "bell-deep," and there dwells the old water spirit, the "Au-mann." This spirit sleeps through the day while the sun shines down upon the water; but in starry and moonlit nights he shows himself. He is very old.

在古修道院的对面，是这条河最深的地方，人称“钟潭”，老水精“奥门”就住在那里。这精灵白天太阳照在水面上时便沉睡不醒，只有在星光和月光下的夜晚才现身。他非常古老。

Grandmother says that she has heard her own grandmother tell of him; he is said to lead a solitary life, and to have nobody with whom he can converse save the great old church Bell. Once the Bell hung in the church tower; but now there is no trace left of the tower or of the church, which was called St. Alban's.

祖母说，她曾听自己的祖母讲起过他；据说他过着孤独的生活，除了那口古老的大钟，没有谁可以和他交谈。那口钟曾经挂在教堂的钟楼里，可如今那座钟楼，还有那座名叫圣阿尔班的教堂，都已荡然无存。

"Ding-dong! ding-dong!" sounded the Bell, when the tower still stood there; and one evening, while the sun was setting, and the Bell was swinging away bravely, it broke loose and came flying down through the air, the brilliant metal shining in the ruddy beam.

当钟楼还矗立在那里的时候，大钟曾经“叮咚！叮咚！”地响着；有一天傍晚，夕阳西下，大钟正摇摆得起劲，忽然挣脱了束缚，凌空飞落下来，在夕阳的红光里，发亮的金属熠熠生辉。

"Ding-dong! ding-dong! Now I'll retire to rest!" sang the Bell, and flew down into the Odense-Au, where it is deepest; and that is why the place is called the "bell-deep."

“叮咚！叮咚！现在我要去休息了！”大钟唱着，一头飞进了欧登塞河最深的地方；这就是这个地方被称为“钟潭”的缘由。

But the Bell got neither rest nor sleep. Down in the Au-mann's haunt it sounds and rings, so that the tones sometimes pierce upward through the waters; and many people maintain that its strains forebode the death of some one; but that is not true, for the Bell is only talking with the Au-mann, who is now no longer alone.

可是大钟既没有得到安歇，也没有睡着。在奥门的巢穴深处，它依然发出声响，叮当作响，那声音有时会穿透水面传上来；许多人都说，这钟声预示着有人将要死去；可这并不是真的，因为大钟只是在和奥门说话罢了，奥门从此不再孤单一人。

And what is the Bell telling? It is old, very old, as we have already observed; it was there long before grandmother's grandmother was born; and yet it is but a child in comparison with the Au-mann, who is quite an old quiet personage, an oddity, with his hose of eel-skin, and his scaly Jacket with the yellow lilies for buttons, and a wreath of reed in his hair and seaweed in his beard; but he looks very pretty for all that.

那么大钟都在讲些什么呢？正如我们前面说过的，它很古老，非常古老；早在祖母的祖母出生之前，它就已经在那里了；可即便如此，和奥门比起来，它也不过是个孩子罢了。奥门是个十分古老而沉静的人物，一个怪人，穿着鳗鱼皮做的裤子，穿着鳞片外套，用黄色的睡莲当纽扣，头上戴着芦苇编的花环，胡须里还夹着海藻；不过尽管如此，他看上去还是很好看的。

What the Bell tells? To repeat it all would require years and days; for year by year it is telling the old stories, sometimes short ones, sometimes long ones, according to its whim; it tells of old times, of the dark hard times, thus:

大钟讲的是什么呢？要把这一切都复述出来，得花上好些年好些天；因为它年复一年地讲述着古老的故事，有时讲得短，有时讲得长，全凭它自己的心意；它讲述古老的时代，讲述那黑暗艰难的岁月，是这样讲的：

"In the church of St. Alban, the monk had mounted up into the tower. He was young and handsome, but thoughtful exceedingly. He looked through the loophole out upon the Odense-Au, when the bed of the water was yet broad, and the monks' meadow was still a lake. He looked out over it, and over the rampart, and over the nuns' hill opposite, where the convent lay, and the light gleamed forth from the nun's cell. He had known the nun right well, and he thought of her, and his heart beat quicker as he thought. Ding-dong! ding-dong!"

“在圣阿尔班教堂里，那个修士曾登上钟楼。他年轻英俊，却心事重重。他从瞭望孔望出去，望着欧登塞河——那时河床还很宽阔，僧侣草地还是一片湖水。他望着河水，望着城墙，又望着对岸的修女山，那里坐落着女修道院，一点灯光从修女的小室里透出来。他和那位修女相识已久，想起她时，他的心跳得更快了。叮咚！叮咚！”

Yes, this was the story the Bell told.

是的，这就是大钟讲的故事。

"Into the tower came also the dapper man-servant of the bishop; and when I, the Bell, who am made of metal, rang hard and loud, and swung to and fro, I might have beaten out his brains. He sat down close under me, and played with two little sticks as if they had been a stringed instrument; and he sang to it.

“钟楼里还来了一个主教手下的俊俏侍从；我这口大钟是金属做的，当我用力地、响亮地鸣响，来回摆动的时候，本可以把他的脑袋敲碎。他就坐在我下面不远处，拿着两根小木棍摆弄，仿佛那是一件弦乐器；他还就着这声响唱起歌来。

"'Now I may sing it out aloud, though at other times I may not whisper it. I may sing of everything that is kept concealed behind lock and bars. Yonder it is cold and wet. The rats are eating her up alive! Nobody knows of it! Nobody hears of it! Not even now, for the bell is ringing and singing its loud Ding-dong, ding-dong!'

“‘如今我可以把它大声唱出来了，尽管在别的时候我连低声说都不敢。我可以唱出一切被锁在门后、藏在铁栏里的秘密。那边又冷又湿。老鼠正把她活活地吃掉！没有人知道这件事！没有人听见这件事！就连现在也不会有人听见，因为大钟正响亮地叮咚、叮咚地唱着呢！’

"There was a King in those days. They called him Canute. He bowed himself before bishop and monk; but when he offended the free peasants with heavy taxes and hard words, they seized their weapons and put him to flight like a wild beast. He sought shelter in the church, and shut gate and door behind him. The violent band surrounded the church; I heard tell of it. The crows, ravens and magpies started up in terror at the yelling and shouting that sounded around. They flew into the tower and out again, they looked down upon the throng below, and they also looked into the windows of the church, and screamed out aloud what they saw there.

“那时候有一位国王，人们称他为克努特。他在主教和修士面前俯首听命；可是他用苛捐重税和严厉的言辞得罪了自由的农民，农民们便拿起武器，把他像野兽一样赶得四处逃窜。他躲进教堂寻求庇护，把大门紧闭在身后。凶悍的暴民把教堂团团围住；我听见了这一切。乌鸦、渡鸦和喜鹊被四周的叫喊和呼啸声惊得四散飞起。它们飞进钟楼，又飞出去，俯视着下面的人群，还朝教堂的窗子里张望，把看见的景象大声叫喊出来。

"King Canute knelt before the altar in prayer; his brothers Eric and Benedict stood by him as a guard with drawn swords; but the King's servant, the treacherous Blake, betrayed his master. The throng in front of the church knew where they could hit the King, and one of them flung a stone through a pane of glass, and the King lay there dead! The cries and screams of the savage horde and of the birds sounded through the air, and I joined in it also; for I sang 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'

“克努特国王跪在祭坛前祈祷；他的兄弟埃里克和本尼迪克特拔剑侍立左右，守护着他；可是国王的仆人、奸诈的布莱克，却出卖了自己的主人。教堂外的人群知道该往哪里下手才能伤到国王，其中一人朝玻璃窗扔去一块石头，国王便倒地身亡了！凶暴人群和鸟群的哭喊尖叫响彻天空，我也加入了其中；因为我唱起了‘叮咚！叮咚！’

"The church bell hangs high, and looks far around, and sees the birds around it, and understands their language. The wind roars in upon it through windows and loopholes; and the wind knows everything, for he gets it from the air, which encircles all things, and the church bell understands his tongue, and rings it out into the world, 'Ding-dong! ding-dong!'

“教堂的钟悬挂得高高的，望得很远，看得见周围的鸟儿，也听得懂它们的语言。风从窗户和瞭望孔灌进来，朝它呼啸；风什么都知道，因为它是从环绕万物的空气中得来的消息，教堂的钟听得懂风的语言，便把它敲响，传遍这个世界，‘叮咚！叮咚！’

"But it was too much for me to hear and to know; I was not able any longer to ring it out. I became so tired, so heavy, that the beam broke, and I flew out into the gleaming Au, where the water is deepest, and where the Au-mann lives, solitary and alone; and year by year I tell him what I have heard and what I know. Ding-dong! ding-dong!"

“可是我听到和知道的事情实在太多了；我再也没法把它敲响传出去。我变得那样疲惫，那样沉重，以至于横梁都断裂了，我便飞进了那波光粼粼、水最深的河里，飞到孤独一人的奥门居住的地方；从此年复一年，我把我听到的、我知道的都告诉他。叮咚！叮咚！”

Thus it sounds complainingly out of the bell-deep in the Odense-Au. That is what grandmother told us.

这就是从欧登塞河“钟潭”里传出的那哀怨的声响。这是祖母告诉我们的。

But the schoolmaster says that there was not any bell that rung down there, for that it could not do so; and that no Au-mann dwelt yonder, for there was no Au-mann at all! And when all the other church bells are sounding sweetly, he says that it is not really the bells that are sounding, but that it is the air itself which sends forth the notes; and grandmother said to us that the Bell itself said it was the air who told it to him, consequently they are agreed on that point, and this much is sure.

可是教书先生说，那下面根本没有什么钟在响，因为那是不可能的；那里也根本没有什么奥门，因为压根就没有奥门这回事！他还说，每当所有别的教堂钟声悦耳地响起时，其实并不是那些钟真的在响，而是空气本身发出了这声音；祖母却告诉我们，大钟自己说过，是空气把这一切告诉它的，这样看来，两人在这一点上倒是意见一致，这一点是确凿无疑的。

"Be cautious, cautious, and take good heed to thyself," they both say.

“小心啊，小心，好好留神自己吧，”两人都这样说。

The air knows everything. It is around us, it is in us, it talks of our thoughts and of our deeds, and it speaks longer of them than does the Bell down in the depths of the Odense-Au where the Au-mann dwells. It rings it out in the vault of heaven, far, far out, forever and ever, till the heaven bells sound "Ding-dong! ding-dong!"

空气什么都知道。它就在我们周围，也在我们心里，它诉说着我们的思想，也诉说着我们的行为，而且比住在欧登塞河深处、奥门所在的那口大钟讲述得更加长久。它把这一切鸣响到苍穹之中，传得很远很远，直到永永远远，直到天上的钟也敲响“叮咚！叮咚！”