動(dòng)物農(nóng)場(chǎng) Animal Farm 第1章(2)

Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.

鮑克瑟身材高大，有近兩米高的個(gè)頭，強(qiáng)壯得賽過兩匹普通馬相加。

A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance,

不過，他臉上長了一道直到鼻子的白毛，多少顯得有些戇相。

and in fact he was not of first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.

實(shí)際上，他確實(shí)不怎么聰明，但他堅(jiān)韌不拔的個(gè)性和干活時(shí)那股十足的勁頭，使他贏得了普遍的尊敬。

After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey.

跟著馬后面到的是白山羊穆麗爾，還有那頭驢，本杰明。

Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered.

本杰明是莊園里年齡最老的動(dòng)物，脾氣也最糟。

He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark--for instance,

他沉默寡言，不開口則已，一開口就少不了說一些風(fēng)涼話。譬如，

he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.

他會(huì)說上帝給了他尾巴是為了驅(qū)趕蒼蠅，但他卻寧愿沒有尾巴也沒有蒼蠅。

Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed.

莊園里的動(dòng)物中，唯有他從來沒有笑過。

If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at.

要問為什么，他會(huì)說他沒有看見什么值得好笑的。

Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer;

然而他對(duì)鮑克瑟卻是真誠相待，只不過沒有公開承認(rèn)罷了。

the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond theorchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.

通常，他倆總是一起在果園那邊的小牧場(chǎng)上消磨星期天，肩并著肩，默默地吃草。

The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings, which had lost their mother, filed into the barn,

這兩匹馬剛躺下，一群失去了媽媽的小鴨子排成一溜進(jìn)了大谷倉，

cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on.

吱吱喳喳，東張西望，想找一處不會(huì)被踩上的地方。

Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep.

克拉弗用她粗壯的前腿象墻一樣地圍住他們，小鴨子偎依在里面，很快就入睡了。

At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.

莫麗來得很晚，這個(gè)愚蠢的家伙，長著一身白生生的毛，是一匹套瓊斯先生座車的母馬。她扭扭捏捏地走進(jìn)來，一顛一顛地，嘴里還嚼著一塊糖。

She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with.

她占了個(gè)靠前的位置，就開始抖動(dòng)起她的白鬃毛，試圖炫耀一番那些扎在鬃毛上的紅飾帶。

Last of all came the cat, who looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover;

貓是最后一個(gè)來的，她象往常一樣，到處尋找最熱乎的地方，最后在鮑克瑟和克拉弗當(dāng)中擠了進(jìn)去。

there she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying.

在麥哲講演時(shí)，她在那兒自始至終都得意地發(fā)出“咕咕嚕嚕”的聲音，壓根兒沒聽進(jìn)麥哲講的一個(gè)字。

All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on aperch behind the back door.

那只馴順了的烏鴉摩西睡在莊主院后門背后的架子上，除他之外，所有的動(dòng)物都已到場(chǎng)。