吹小號的天鵝 第20期:路易斯(4)

　　Poor Louis! While his father watched, he took a deepbreath, opened his mouth, and let the air out,hoping it would say beep. But there wasn't a sound.

　　可憐的路易斯!就在他父親的注視下，他深吸了一口氣，張大了嘴巴，吐出里面的空氣，希望可以借此發(fā)出一聲“嗶”來?？墒撬麉s發(fā)不出一絲聲音。

　　"Try again, Louis!" said his father. "Perhaps you'renot making enough of an effort."

　　“再試一次，路易斯!”他的父親說，“可能你努力得還不夠。”

　　Louis tried again. It was no use. No sound came fromhis throat. He shook his head, sadly.

　　路易斯又試了一次。這并沒有用。他的喉嚨里根本就沒發(fā)出聲音。他難過地搖了搖頭。

　　"Watch me!" said the cob. He raised his neck to its full height and cried ko-hoh so loud it washeard by every creature for miles around.

　　“看我!”雄天鵝說。他高高地仰起脖子叫了聲“吭—嗬”，聲音大得方圓數(shù)里內(nèi)的所有動物都聽到了。

　　"Now let me hear you go beep!" he commanded. "Say beep, Louis--loud and clear!"

　　“現(xiàn)在讓我來聽你說‘嗶’!”他命令道，“說‘嗶’，路易斯——大聲點，清楚些!”

　　Louis tried. He couldn't beep.

　　路易斯想說?？伤麉s不能說“嗶”。

　　"Let me hear you burble! Go ahead and burble! Like this: burble, burble, burble."

　　“讓我聽你說‘波’好了!開始，‘波’!就像這樣：波，波，波。”

　　Louis tried to burble. He couldn't do it. No sound came.

　　路易斯試著說“波”?？伤€是不能說。什么聲音都沒有。

　　"Well," said the cob, "I guess it's no use. I guess you are dumb."

　　“好了，”雄天鵝說，“我猜這是沒有用的。我想你是啞的。”

　　When he heard the word "dumb," Louis felt like crying.

　　聽到“啞”這個詞時，路易斯感到自己快要哭了。

　　The cob saw that he had hurt Louis's feelings.

　　雄天鵝看出來他已經(jīng)傷了路易斯的心。

　　"You misunderstand me, my son," he said in a comforting voice.

　　“你誤會我的意思了，我的兒子，”他用安慰的口氣說，

　　"You failed to understand my use of the word "dumb," which has two meanings.

　　“你對我用的‘啞’這個詞理解錯了，它是有兩種含義的。

　　If I had called you a dumb cluck or a dumb bunny, that would have meant that I had a pooropinion of your intelligence.

　　如果我說你是笨蛋或傻子，那才意味著那才意味著我認為你的智力有缺陷呢。

　　Actually, I think you are perhaps the brightest, smartest, most intelligent of all my cygnets.

　　實際上，我認為你可能是我所有的孩子中最聰明的，最機靈的，最有才能的。

　　Words sometimes have two meanings; the word "dumb" is such a word.

　　一個詞有時會同時具有兩種意思;‘啞’就是這樣的詞。

　　A person who can't see is called blind. A person who can't hear is called deaf. A person whocan't speak is called dumb.

　　看不見東西的人叫盲人。聽不到聲音的人叫聾子。說不出話的人叫啞巴。

　　That simply means he can't say anything. Do you understand?"

　　這意思僅僅是說他不能說話而已。你明白了嗎?”

　　Louis nodded his head. He felt better, and he was grateful to his father for explaining that theword had two meanings.

　　路易斯點點頭。他感覺好點兒了，他對父親關于這個詞的兩種含義的解釋表示感激。

　　He still felt awfully unhappy, though.

　　不過，他還是特別的不開心。