小小说选译｜How Light Belief Bringeth Damage

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How Light Belief Bringeth Damage

Bidpai

轻信的后果

〔印〕比德派

Two skillful thieves one night entered the house of a wealthy knight, no less wise than worshipped in the community. The gentleman, hearing the noise of their feet in the house, awakened and suspected that they were thieves. They were upon the point of opening the door of the chamber wherein he lay, when he jogged his wife, awakened her, and whispered, “I hear the noise of thieves who have come to rob us. I would have you, therefore, ask me straight, and with great insistence, whence and by what means I came by all I own. Ask me loudly and earnestly, and, as I shall appear reluctant, you must plead and wheedle until, at length, I shall succumb and tell you.”

从前有位家道充裕的爵爷，不但受四邻敬重，而且头脑灵活。一天夜晚，两个惯偷溜进了他家。他听到屋子里有脚步声，警惕起来，猜准是来了贼。没等贼进房门，他忙推醒妻子，轻声说：“我听到有贼进来，要偷东西。你照我的办，追问我从哪儿挣来这么大一份家当，有什么生财之道。你要大声问，求我说。我假装不肯，你就又求又哄，让我到头来没办法，只好说。”

The Lady, his wife, being wise and subtle, began in this manner to question her husband—“O, dear sir. Grant me one thing this night that I have for so long desired to know. Tell me how you have come by all these goods you now possess.” He, speaking at random and carelessly, scarce answered. Finally, after she kept pleading, he said, “I can but wonder, Madam, at what moves you to know my secrets. Be contented, then, to live well, to dress richly, and to be waited upon and served. I have heard that all things have ears, and that many things are spoken which are later repented. Therefore, I pray you, hold your peace.”

爵爷夫人也聪明过人，按爵爷吩咐的话问了起来：“好老爷，有件事我一直想知道，今天晚上你非告诉我不可。你现在金银财宝不少，说说吧，是怎么弄到手的。”他支支吾吾，答非所问。后来禁不住一再恳求，说道：“我的太太，奇怪得很，你为什么要刨我的根底呢？你住得好，穿得好，有人侍候，该心满意足了。我听人说隔墙有耳，好些话说过了会后悔。算我求你，还是别多操心。”

But even this did not deter the Lady. Sweetly and lovingly enticing, she besought him to tell her. Finally, wearying of her speech, the knight said, “All we have—and I charge you to say nothing of this to anyone—is stolen. Indeed, of all I own I got nothing truly.” The Lady, unbelieving, so berated her husband that he answered farther, “You think what I have already told you is a wonder. Listen then. Even in my cradle I delighted in stealing and filching. And I lived among thieves so that my fingers might never be idle. One friend among them loved me so well that he taught me a rare and singular trick. He taught me a conjuration which I made to the moonbeams—enabling me to embrace them suddenly. Thus I sometimes came down upon them from a high window—or served myself with them to go up again to the top of the house. So I used them as I would. The Moon, hearing my conjuration seven times, showed me all the money and treasure of the house and with her beams I flew up and down. And thus, good wife, I made me rich. Now, no more.”

爵爷夫人不依。她用尽甜言蜜语，叫他别瞒她。爵爷终于招架不住，说：“我的金银财宝——你千万不能走漏风声——全是偷来的。老实告诉你吧，没有一件来路正当。”爵爷夫人不相信，逼着爵爷交代明白。“你只当我刚才对你说的话是胡诌。那就听着吧！我从小爱干偷偷摸摸的事，又住在贼窝里，两只手从来没有闲过。有位贼朋友与我很有交情，教了我一个绝招。他传给我一套咒语，让我对着月光念，一念就能驾着月光走。所以有时候我驾着月光从楼上的窗口下来，有时候又驾着月光回到楼上，随心所愿。我念过七遍咒语月亮会告诉我这家人家的金银财宝藏在哪里，我驾着月光上下自如。好太太，我就这样发了财，秘诀算是全告诉你了。”

One of the thieves, listening at the door, heard all that was said and bore it away. Because the knight was known to be a man of credit and integrity, the thieves believed his story. The chief thief, desirous to prove in deeds what he had heard in words, repeated the conjuration seven times, and then, embracing the moonbeams, he cast himself upon them thinking to go from window to window, and he fell headlong to the ground. The moon, however, favored him so that he was not killed, but broke his legs and one arm. He cried aloud in his pain and at his stupidity in trusting too much to another’s words.

有一个贼躲在门边偷听，把话牢牢记着。这位爵爷的诚实可靠出了名，贼深信不疑。为首的想试试偷听到的诀窍，念了七遍咒语，然后把月光当梯子，想从窗口出窗口进，可是刚跨一步就一头栽到了地上。还好，总算月神慈悲，他没伤及性命，只摔断两条腿，一只胳膊。他痛得哇哇叫，悔不该轻信别人的话，上了大当。

So, lying on the ground expecting death, he was found by the knight who beat him sorely. The thief begged for mercy, saying that what hurt him most was that he was such a fool to believe such words. And he besought him, since he had hurt him so with words, he would not also hurt him in deeds.

这家伙躺在地上等死，等到爵爷来了，又挨一顿痛打。他苦苦求饶，说他主要不是痛在身上，而是痛在心上，后悔上当，既然伤了他的心，就别再伤他的身了。

以上内容摘自《世界名作家小小说选译》，图片来自unsplash.com。

经典小说，名家翻译

本书精选并翻译了薄伽丘、马克·吐温、霍桑、哈代、莫泊桑、毛姆、契诃夫等世界名作家的38篇小小说，书后还附有简短的作家简介。这些作品题材广泛，风格各异，构思精巧，想象丰富，故事妙趣横生，具有很强的可读性。译文语言生动流畅，力求保持原作风味，可为读者理解欣赏英语原作和学习文学翻译提供参考与帮助。

译者张经浩，湖南长沙人。1993年获教授职称。先后任教于江西师范大学、湖南师范大学、上海理工大学。2017年获香港翻译学会“荣誉会士”衔。译有《欧·亨利短篇小说全集》《简·爱》《查泰莱夫人的情入》等文学名著，著有《译论》《高清当代英语语法》等。45家出版社曾出版过其作品。

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