Well, I was never in luck's way long. Suddenly, without a note of warning, the great mutiny broke upon us.
唉,真是好景不長。突然間,大叛亂出人意料地爆發(fā)了。
One month India lay as still and peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent;
前一個月,人們還和在祖國一樣地安居樂業(yè),
the next there were two hundred thousand black devils let loose, and the country was a perfect hell.
到下一個月,二十多萬黑鬼子就失去了約束,把全印度變成了地獄一般。
Of course you know all about it, gentlemen--a deal more than I do, very like, since reading is not in my line.
當然,這些事你們幾位在報紙上都已見過了,或者比我這個不識字的人還知道得多呢,
I only know what I saw with my own eyes.
因為我只知道我看到的事情。
Our plantation was at a place called Muttra, near the border of the Northwest Provinces.
我們靛青園的所在地叫作穆特拉,靠近西北幾省的邊緣。
Night after night the whole sky was alight with the burning bungalows,
每天晚上燒房的火焰照得滿天通紅。
and day after day we had small companies of Europeans passing through our estate with their wives and children,
每天白天都有小隊的歐洲兵士保護著他們的家小,
on their way to Agra, where were the nearest troops.
經過我們的靛青園開往最近駐有軍隊的阿格拉城去避難。
Mr. Abel White was an obstinate man.
園主阿勃懷特先生是一位固執(zhí)的人,
He had it in his head that the affair had been exaggerated, and that it would blow over as suddenly as it had sprung up.
他以為這些叛變的消息不免有些夸大,他想不久就可平復下去,
There he sat on his veranda, drinking whisky-pegs and smoking cheroots, while the country was in a blaze about him.
他還是照舊坐在涼臺上喝酒吸煙,可是周圍早已烽煙四起了。
Of course we stuck by him, I and Dawson, who, with his wife, used to do the book-work and the managing.
我和一個管帳的姓道森的夫婦倆都忠于職守,當然都和他生死不離。