英國語文第五冊(雙語):冰島和間歇泉(2)
"Irritated by this false alarm, we determined to avenge ourselves by going and tormenting the Strokkur. Strokkur, or the churn, you must know, is an unfortunate Geyser, with so little command over his temper and his stomach that you can get a rise out of him whenever you like. All that is necessary is to collect a quantity of sods, and throw them down his funnel. As he has no basin to protect himself from these liberties, you can approach to the very edge of the pipe, about five feet in diameter, and look down at the water, which is perpetually boiling at the bottom.
“我們被這個假警報激怒了，決心來報復一下。你一定知道，振動器或稱攪拌器，其實就是一個不幸的間歇噴泉，只要你喜歡，任何時候都能因為丟進它胃里的小東西而使它勃然大怒。而你所要做的，只要收集一點草皮，扔進它的漏斗口。因為它的周圍沒有可以讓自己維持自由的盆地，所以你能輕易地走進它——一個直徑僅僅約5英尺的管狀噴泉，只要低頭向下望，便能看到底部永久沸騰的水。
"In a few minutes the dose of turf you have just administered begins to disagree with him. He works himself up into an awful passion. Tormented by the qualms of sickness, he groans, and hisses, and boils up, and spits at you with malicious vehemence, until at last, with a roar of mingled pain and rage, he throws up into the air a column of water forty feet high, which carries with it all the sods that have been cast in, and scatters them scalded and half digested at your feet.
“幾分鐘后，你剛剛喂食的那塊草皮開始攪擾它了。它表現出極其可怕的憤怒狀，由于受到了嘔吐的不安的折磨，它開始呻吟起來，發(fā)出嘶嘶的聲音，接著便沸騰起來，惡意地朝著你噴灑口水，終于，按耐不住的它帶著混雜了痛苦與憤怒的咆哮，朝著天際噴出一道約四十英尺高的水柱，其中夾雜著剛剛吞下的那堆草皮，四散落下的草皮已經被煮熟，散落在你腳下的殘渣說明大概有一半已經被消化。
"So irritated has the poor thing's stomach become by the discipline it has undergone, that even long after all foreign matter has been thrown off, it goes on retching and sputtering, until at last nature is exhausted, when, sobbing and sighing to itself, it sinks back into the bottom of its den.
“這個可憐的家伙，被剛剛經歷的懲罰觸痛了胃部，以至于在一段時間內，幾乎倒空了胃里所有的雜質，可它繼續(xù)干嘔著，噴濺著雜質，直到最后筋疲力盡，哭泣著嘆息著，慢慢沉入它巢穴的底部。
