The Monkey Garden 1 (帶文本）

The?Monkey Garden 1?

?????? The monkey doesn’t live there anymore. The monkey moved—to Kentucky—and took his people with him. And I was glad because I couldn’t listen anymore to his wild screaming at night, the twangy yakkety-yak of the people who owned him. The green metal cage, the porcelain table top, the family that spoke like guitars. Monkey, family, table. All gone.

?????? 猴子再也不住那里了。猴子搬走了，去了肯塔基，帶著它的家人。我很開(kāi)心，因?yàn)橥砩显僖膊挥寐?tīng)它的狂嘶亂叫，聽(tīng)它的主任們嘭嚓嚓搖滾樂(lè)般的動(dòng)靜。那綠色的金屬籠子，陶瓷桌面，那說(shuō)話聲音跟吉他似的一家人。猴子，一家人，桌子。都消失了。

?????? And it was then we took over the garden we had been afraid to go into when the monkey screamed and showed its yellow teeth.

?????? 從那時(shí)起我們接管了花園。以前我們不敢走進(jìn)去，因?yàn)楹镒釉谀抢锛饨校⑶引b出它黃黃的牙齒。

?????? There were sunflowers big as flowers on Mars and thick cockscombs bleeding the deep red fringe of theater curtains. There were dizzy bees and bow-tied fruit flies turning somersault and humming in the air. Sweet sweet peach trees. Thorn roses and thistle and pears. Weeds like so many squinty-eyed stars and brush that made your ankles itch and itch until you washed with soap and water. There were big green apples hard as knees. And everywhere the sleepy smell of rotting wood, damp earth and dusty hollyhocks thick and perfumy like the blue-blond hair of the dead.

?????? 那里有向日葵，大得像火星上的花兒；還有肥厚的雞冠，花朵漫溢出來(lái)像劇院帷幔上深紅的裙邊。那里有令人頭暈的蜜蜂和打著領(lǐng)結(jié)的果蠅翻著跟頭，在空中嗡嗡鳴唱。還有很甜很甜的桃樹(shù)。還有刺玫瑰、大薊和梨樹(shù)。野草多得像瞇眼睛的星星，蹭得你腳踝癢癢的，直到你用肥皂和水洗凈。還有大個(gè)青蘋果，硬的像膝蓋。到處都是那種令人昏昏欲睡的氣味：腐爛的木頭、潮濕的泥土，以及那蒙了灰塵的蜀葵，像老去的人那白到發(fā)藍(lán)的金發(fā)一樣濃密而馥郁。

?????? Yellow spiders ran when we turned rocks over and pale worms blind and afraid of light rolled over in their sleep. Poke a stick in the sandy soil and a few blue-skinned beetles would appear, an avenue of ants, so many crusty lady bugs. This was a garden, a wonderful thing to look at in the spring. But bit by bit, after the monkey left, the garden began to take over itself. Flowers stopped obeying the little bricks that kept them from growing beyond their paths. Weeds mixed in. dead cars appeared overnight like mushrooms. First one and then another and then a pale blue pickup with the front windshield missing. Before you knew it, the monkey garden became filled with sleepy cars.

?????? 翻開(kāi)石頭，就會(huì)有黃色的蜘蛛逃竄出去，畏光且無(wú)明的蒼白蠕蟲(chóng)在它們的沉睡中翻卷起來(lái)。用一根小棍插進(jìn)沙土里，就會(huì)出來(lái)幾只藍(lán)色的甲蟲(chóng)。還有一路螞蟻，還有那么多的殼兒脆脆的瓢蟲(chóng)。這是一個(gè)花園，看著它，是春天里的一件賞心樂(lè)事?？墒牵?，從猴子走后，花園就開(kāi)始自作主張了?；▋翰辉僖?guī)矩地待在防止它們長(zhǎng)過(guò)小徑的小磚頭后面，野草混了進(jìn)來(lái)。廢棄的小汽車像蘑菇一樣一夜之間就冒了出來(lái)。先是一輛，又來(lái)了一輛，然后是那輛沒(méi)了擋風(fēng)玻璃的淺藍(lán)色皮卡車。不知不覺(jué)，猴子花園里充滿了沉睡的汽車。

?????? Things had a way of disappearing in the garden, as if the garden itself ate them, or, as if with its old-man memory, it put them away and forgot them. Nenny found a dollar and a dead mouse between two rocks in the stone wall where the morning glories climbed, and once when we were playing hide-and-seek, Eddie Vargas laid his head beneath a hibiscus tree and fell asleep there like a Rip Van Winkle until somebody remembered he was in the game and went back to look for him.

?????? 花園里的東西在以某種方式消失，好像是花園自己把它們給吃了，要不就是它的老頭記性，把東西收起來(lái)就忘掉了。在牽?；ㄅ肋^(guò)的那面石墻下的兩塊石頭中間，蕾妮發(fā)現(xiàn)了一元錢和一只死老鼠。有一次，我們捉迷藏時(shí)，埃迪·法加斯頭枕在一棵木槿樹(shù)下，像瑞普·凡·溫克爾那樣睡了過(guò)去，直到有人想起來(lái)他還在躲迷藏，才回去找他。

?????? This, I suppose, was the reason why we went there. Far away from where our mothers could find us. We and a few old dogs who lived inside the empty cars. We made a clubhouse once on the back of that old blue pickup. And besides, we liked to jump from the roof of one car to another and pretend they were giant mushrooms.

?????? 這個(gè)，我想，就是我們?nèi)ツ抢锏脑?。遠(yuǎn)得讓媽媽找不到我們。我們，還有幾條住在空車子里的老狗。有一次，我們?cè)谀禽v藍(lán)色舊皮卡車的后斗里設(shè)了個(gè)俱樂(lè)部。還有，我們喜歡從一輛車頂跳到另一輛車頂，家裝它們是巨大的蘑菇。

?????? Somebody started the lie that the monkey garden had been there before anything. We liked to think the garden could hide things for a thousand years. There beneath the roots of soggy flowers were the bones of murdered pirates and dinosaurs, the eye of a unicorn turned to coal.

?????? 漸漸起來(lái)一種傳言，說(shuō)別的事物都還沒(méi)出現(xiàn)之前，這里便有了猴子花園。我們很樂(lè)意去想，這個(gè)花園可以把東西藏上一千年。在濕漉漉的花兒的根下面，躺著被謀殺的海盜和恐龍的骨頭，而獨(dú)角獸的眼睛變成了煤。