诗翁彼豆故事集 第3期:巫师和跳跳埚(3)

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　　A kind old wizard decides to teach his hardhearted son a lesson by giving him a taste of the local Muggles' misery². 一位善良的老巫师，想给铁石心肠的儿子一个教训，让他尝尝当地麻瓜们的苦难。

　　The young wizard's conscience awakes, and he agrees to use his magic for the benefit of his non-magical neighbours. 年轻巫师的良知觉醒了，他同意利用自己的魔法去帮助那些不会魔法的邻居。

　　A simple and heart-warming fable³, one might think – in which case, one would reveal oneself to be an innocent nincompoop. 读者会认为这是一个简单而温馨的寓言故事——在这种情况下，读者会暴露自己是一个天真的傻瓜。

　　A pro-Muggle story showing a Muggle-loving father as superior in magic to a Muggle-hating son? 这是一个亲麻瓜的故事，表明爱麻瓜的父亲在魔法上比恨麻瓜的儿子高明，是不是？

　　It is nothing short of amazing that any copies of the original version of this tale survived the flames to which they were so often consigned⁴. 因此，这个故事的原版书没有一本能够逃脱火焰而保存下来，也就毫不令人吃惊了，这样的书是经常会被丢进火里焚烧的。

　　Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles. 彼豆宣传对麻瓜要怀有手足之情，这跟他的时代有点格格不入。

　　The persecution⁵ of witches and wizards was gathering⁶ pace all over Europe in the early fifteenth century. 十五世纪早期，迫害巫师的行径在欧洲愈演愈烈。

　　Many in the magical community felt, and with good reason, that offering to cast a spell on the Muggle-next-door's sickly pig was tantamount to volunteering to fetch the firewood for one's own funeral pyre. 魔法界的许多人觉得，向隔壁麻瓜邻居的瘟猪施咒语，就等于是在主动往焚烧自己的火堆上添加柴火，这么想也是有道理的。

　　Note 1. It is true, of course, that genuine witches and wizards were reasonably adept⁷ at escaping the stake, block and noose⁸ (see my comments about Lisette de Lapin in the commentary on “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump” ) . 注释一：这当然是真的，那些真诚的巫女和巫师们开始熟练的逃避火刑，石块和套索（参见“芭比蒂兔兔和饶舌树桩”注释里我对利塞特的兔子的评论）。

　　However, a number of deaths did occur: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (a wizard at the royal court in his lifetime, and in his death-time, ghost of Gryffindor Tower) was stripped of his wand before being locked in a dungeon⁹, and was unable to magic himself out of his execution; 然而，一些杀戮还是发生了，西敏汀的尼古拉斯爵士（生前是宫廷的御用巫师，死后是格兰芬多塔的常驻幽灵）在关入地牢前被剥夺了魔杖，因此他无法使用魔法来让自己免于处决。

　　And wizarding families were particularly prone¹⁰ to losing younger members, whose inability to control their own magic made them noticeable, and vulnerable, to Muggle witch-hunters. 巫师的家庭尤其容易失去年轻的家庭成员，由于他们没有控制魔法的能力使得自己引人注目，对于麻瓜巫师狩猎者来说他们十分脆弱。

　　“Let the Muggles manage without us!” was the cry, as the wizards drew further and further apart from their non-magical brethren, culminating with the institution of the International Statute¹¹ of Wizarding Secrecy¹² in 1689, when wizardkind voluntarily went underground. 他们的口号是：“让麻瓜们自生自灭吧！”巫师跟他们的非魔法兄弟的距离越来越远，最后于一六八九年颁布了《国际巫师保密法》，从此巫师界便自动转入地下。

　　Children being children, however, the grotesque¹³ Hopping Pot had taken hold of their imaginations. 然而，孩子就是孩子，古怪滑稽的跳跳埚占据了他们的想象。

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