The Lighting-Rod Man 译文

The Lightning-Rod Man

Herman Melville

避雷针商人

赫尔曼·梅尔维尔

1.What grand irregular thunder, thought I, standing on my hearth-stone among the Acroceraunian hills, as the scattered bolts boomed overhead, and crashed down among the valleys, every bolt followed by zigzag irradiations, and swift slants of sharp rain, which audibly rang, like a charge of spear-points, on my low shingled roof. I suppose, though, that the mountains hereabouts break and churn up the thunder, so that it is far more glorious here than on the plain. Hark! - some one at the door. Who is this that chooses a time of thunder for making calls? And why don't he, man-fashion, use the knocker, instead of making that doleful undertaker's clatter with his fist against the hollow panel? But let him in. Ah, here he comes. "Good day, sir:" an entire stranger. "Pray be seated." What is that strange-looking walking-stick he carries: "A fine thunder-storm, sir."

真是一场巨大的不同寻常的闪电啊，我想，我站在Acroceraunian山脉里的我的房间的壁炉旁，当分叉的闪电划过我的头顶，撞击到山谷

深处，每一道闪电都伴随着之字形的放射并且伴随着急雨，声音很大，就像是矛头的冲锋，撞到我的低矮的木瓦房顶。我想，尽管山的周围会被闪电所冲击和翻腾，所以景象会比平原地带壮丽得多。听！-有人在门口，谁会在这种闪电天气拜访别人呢？他，一个文明人，为什么不使用门环，而是用一种类似于阴郁的送葬人的咔啦咔啦声撞击门板？让他进来吧。啊，他进来了。“你好，先生。”一个完全不认识的人。“请坐。”他手里拿的那个看起来会跟奇怪像手杖一样的是什么：“真是一场不错的暴风雨，先生。”

2."Fine? - Awful!" “不错？太糟了！”

3."You are wet. Stand here on the hearth before the fire."。“你被淋湿了，站在壁炉前面烤烤火。”

4."Not for worlds!" “坚决不行！”

5.The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularity impelled a closer scrutiny. A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes

were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.It was a polished copper rod, four feet long, lengthwise attached to a neat wooden staff, by insertion into two balls of greenish glass, ringed with copper bands. The metal rod terminated at the top tripodwise, in three keen tines, brightly gilt. He held the thing by the wooden part alone. 这个陌生人仍然站在小屋的正中央，他一开始就站在那里，他的奇怪举动令我想要离近了观察他一下。一个消瘦，阴郁的人，头发又黑又稀疏，纠缠并笼罩眉宇之间，他的深陷的青色的眼圈呈现出一种那种无害的闪电的样子：没有雷击的闪电。他整个人都在滴着水，他站在无覆盖的橡木地板的水坑上：他的奇怪的手杖垂直放在他的身旁。这是一根做工精细的铜质的棍子，4英尺长，有一个穿过2个绿色玻璃制成的球状物的插入物，球状物以铜环环绕，通过这个插入物在纵向上连接一个小巧玲珑的木制的东西，这根金属棍子在另一端以三脚架结束。每一个头都非常尖，被镀金了闪闪发光。而他只是握住木头那一端。

6."Sir," said I, bowing politely, "have I the honour of a visit from that illustrious god, Jupiter Tonans? So stood he in the