血字的研究 44沙漠中的旅客(2)（在线收听）

Looking down on this very scene, there stood upon the fourth of May, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, a solitary traveller.

一八四七年五月四日，一个孤单的旅客从山上俯望着这幅凄惨的情景。

His appearance was such that he might have been the very genius or demon of the region.

从他的外表看来，简直就是这个绝境里的鬼怪精灵。

An observer would have found it difficult to say whether he was nearer to forty or to sixty.

即便是具有观察力的人，也难猜出他究竟是四十岁还是年近六十。

His face was lean and haggard, and the brown parchment- like skin was drawn tightly over the projecting bones;

他的脸憔悴瘦削，干羊皮似的棕色皮肤紧紧地包着一把突出的骨头。

his long, brown hair and beard were all flecked and dashed with white;

长长的棕色须发已然斑白，

his eyes were sunken in his head, and burned with an unnatural lustre; while the hand which grasped his rifle was hardly more fleshy than that of a skeleton.

深陷的双眼，射出呆滞的目光。握着来复枪的那只手，上面的肌肉比骨架也多不了许多。

As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon for support, and yet his tall figure and the massive framework of his bones suggested a wiry and vigorous constitution.

他站着的时候，要用枪支撑着身体。可是，他那高高的身材、魁伟的体格，可以看出他当初是一个十分健壮的人。

His gaunt face, however, and his clothes, which hung so baggily over his shrivelled limbs, proclaimed what it was that gave him that senile and decrepit appearance.

但是，他那削瘦的面庞和罩在骨瘦如柴的四肢上的大口袋似的衣服，使他看起来老朽不堪。

The man was dying–dying from hunger and from thirst. He had toiled painfully down the ravine, and on to this little elevation, in the vain hope of seeing some signs of water.

这个人由于饥渴交加，已临死境了。他曾经忍受了痛苦，沿着山谷跋涉前进，现在又挣扎着来到这岂不大的高地，他抱着渺茫的希望，但愿能够发现点滴的水源。

Now the great salt plain stretched before his eyes, and the distant belt of savage mountains, without a sign anywhere of plant or tree, which might indicate the presence of moisture.

现在，在他面前展开的只是无边无际的硷地和那远在天边的连绵不断的荒山，看不到一棵树木的踪影，因为有树木生长的地方就可能会有水气。

In all that broad landscape there was no gleam of hope.

在这片广阔的土地上，一点希望也没有。

North, and east, and west he looked with wild, questioning eyes, and then he realized that his wanderings had come to an end, and that there, on that barren crag, he was about to die.

他张大疯狂而困惑的眼睛向北方、西方和东方了望了以后，他明白了，漂泊的日子已经到了尽头，自己就要葬身这片荒凉的岩崖之上了。

"Why not here, as well as in a feather bed, twenty years hence?" he muttered, as he seated himself in the shelter of a boulder.

"死在这里，和二十年后死在鹅绒锦被的床上又有什么区别呢？"他喃喃地说着，一面就在一块突出的大石的阴影里坐了下来。

Before sitting down, he had deposited upon the ground his useless rifle, and also a large bundle tied up in a gray shawl, which he had carried slung over his right shoulder.

他在坐下之前，先把他那无用的来复枪放在地上，然后又把背在右肩上的用一大块灰色披肩裹着的大包袱放了下来。

It appeared to be somewhat too heavy for his strength, for in lowering it, it came down on the ground with some little violence.

看来他已经精疲力竭，拿不动了。当他放下包袱的时候，着地很重。

Instantly there broke from the gray parcel a little moaning cry, and from it there protruded a small, scared face, with very bright brown eyes, and two little speckled dimpled fists.

因此从这灰色的包袱里发出了哭声，钻出来受惊的、长着明亮的棕色眼睛的脸，并且还伸出了两个胖胖的长着浅涡和雀斑的小拳头。

"You've hurt me!" said a childish voice, reproachfully.

"你把我摔痛啦。"这个孩子用埋怨的口气稚平地说。

"Have I, though?" the man answered penitently; "I didn't go for to do it."

"是吗？"这个男人很抱歉地回答说，"我不是故意的。"

As he spoke he unwrapped the gray shawl and extricated a pretty little girl of about five years of age, whose dainty shoes and smart pink frock with its little linen apron, all bespoke a mother's care.

说着他就打开了灰色包袱，从里边抱出了一个美丽的小女孩。这个小女孩大约五岁左右，穿着一双精致的小鞋，漂亮的粉红色上衣，麻布围嘴。从这些打扮可以看出，妈妈对她是爱护得无微不至的。

The child was pale and wan, but her healthy arms and legs showed that she had suffered less than her companion.

这个孩子脸色虽也有些苍白，但是她那结实的胳膊和小腿都说明她所经受的苦难并没有她的同伴多。