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皇家大战（3，双语）
拉尔夫-埃里森著
Everyone fought hysterically. It was complete anarchy. Everybody fought everybody else. No group fought together for long. Two, three, four, fought one, then turned to fight each other, were themselves attacked. Blows landed below the belt and in the kidney, with the gloves open as well as closed, and with my eye partly opened now there was not so much terror. I moved carefully, avoiding blows, although not too many to attract attention, fighting group to group. The boys groped about like blind, cautious crabs crouching to protect their midsections, their heads pulled in short against their shoulders, their arms stretched nervously before them, with their fists testing the smoke-filled air like the knobbed feelers of hypersensitive snails. 每个人都歇斯底里地战斗着。这是完全的无政府状态。每个人都打了别人。没有一组一起战斗过太长的时间。二，三，四，对一，然后当他们自己遭袭击了 就转身相互打对方。攻击点落在腰带以下的部位，肾的部位，由于手套伸开又合起，又因为我的眼睛此时半开着所以没有那么多恐怖。我小心地移动，躲避着打击，虽然没有吸引太多的注意力，小组对小组的战斗。孩子们像盲人样摸索着，以谨慎的螃蟹蹲来保护他们的腹部，他们的头缩进双肩，双臂紧张地伸展在他们面前，用拳头试探着，弥漫在空气里的烟就像蜗牛多节过敏的触角。In one comer I glimpsed a boy violently punching the air and heard him scream in pain as he smashed his hand against a ring post. For a second I saw him bent over holding his hand, then going down as a blow caught his unprotected head. I played one group against the other, slip- ping in and throwing a punch then stepping out of range while pushing the others into the melee to take the blows blindly aimed at me. The smoke was agonizing and there were no rounds, no bells at three minute intervals to relieve our exhaustion. The room spun round me, a swirl of lights, smoke, sweating bodies surrounded by tense white faces. I bled from both nose and mouth, the blood spattering upon my chest.在一个角落里我瞥见一个男孩在剧烈地拳击空气，还听到他疼痛地尖叫，当时他把手缩到了圆圈后面。一会儿我看见他弯下腰，握着他的手，然后就倒下了，好象是一个重击落在了他无保护的头上。我参与的一组对另一組，平滑呯击并投掷一拳然后走出范围而同时把其他人推到混战之中去承受盲目针对我的打击。烟雾令人痛苦难忍，还没有几个回合，在三分钟的间隔里还不摇铃使我们很疲惫。这个场地让我周身精疲力尽，灯光，烟雾，汗体混成一片，并被紧张的白面孔所包围。我鼻子和嘴都在流血，血液泼洒在了我的胸膛。 The men kept yelling, "Slug him, black boy! Knock his guts out!" "Uppercut him! Kill him! Kill that big boy!" 那个男人不停地喊，“重重地击他，黑孩！揍他个七窍生烟！”“上击他一拳！摧毁他！杀了那个大男孩！” Taking a fake fall, I saw a boy going down heavily beside me as though we were felled by a single blow, saw a sneaker-clad foot shoot into his groin as the two who had knocked him down stumbled upon him. I rolled out of range, feeling a twinge of nausea. 采取假摔倒，我看到了一个男孩重重地倒在我旁边，而我们仿佛是被一个单击拳击倒了，看到一只运动鞋脚尖踢进了他的腹股沟，当时把他击倒的那两个人偶然发现了他。我滚出了场地，感到一阵恶心。 The harder we fought the more threatening the men became. And yet, I had begun to worry about my speech again. How would it go? Would they recognize my ability? What would they give me? 更坚强的我们越打越威胁到那几个人了。然而，我再次开始担心我的演讲了。如何脱身呢？他们会承认我的能力吗？他们会给我什么呢？ I was fighting automatically when suddenly I noticed that one after another of the boys was leaving the ring. I was surprised, filled with panic, as though I had been left alone with an unknown danger. Then I understood. The boys had arranged it among themselves. It was the custom for the two men left in the ring to slug it out for the winner's prize. I discovered this too late. When the bell sounded two men in tuxedoes leaped into the ring and removed the blindfold. I found myself facing Tatlock, the biggest of the gang. 当我是在不自觉地战斗着时，突然我发现一个又一个的男孩子离开了圈子。我很惊讶，充满了恐惧，好像我独自一个未知危险地留下来了。然后我明白了。那些孩子们他们自己有了约定的。按照惯例，那两个留在圈子里的人要为了奖杯而决一雌雄的。我发现这太晚了。钟声敲响的时候两个穿着无尾夜礼服的人跳进圈子并除去了眼罩。我发现我自己面对着的是泰特卢克，那个最大的团伙。I felt sick at my stomach. Hardly had the bell stopped ringing in my ears than it clanged again and I saw him moving swiftly toward me. Thinking of nothing else to do I hit him smash on the nose. He kept coming, bringing the rank sharp violence of stale sweat. His face was a black blank of a face, only his eyes alive—with hate of me and aglow with a feverish terror from what had happened to us all. I became anxious. I wanted to deliver my speech and he came at me as though he meant to beat it out of me. I smashed him again and again, taking his blows as they came. Then on a sudden impulse I struck him lightly and we clinched. I whispered, "Fake like I knocked you out, you can have the prize."我觉得肚子不舒服。我的耳朵里的铃声几乎还没有停止铿锵声就再次响起来，而我就看见他迅速地来到我跟前。什么也还没想我就朝他的鼻子猛击一拳。他一直前来，带来一股子刺鼻的臭汗味。他的脸上一脸的黑色茫然，只有他的眼睛充满了活力——憎恨我并充满了对我们所有人的狂热恐怖的闪光。我也着急万分。我想要拯救我的演讲，而他继续向我走来，好像他想打败我。我曾击败了他一次又一次，当他们到来的时候他使出了打击。然后，我突然一冲动，轻轻地击了他一拳，然后我们热烈拥抱。我低声说，“假如我击倒你，你就可以有奖。” "I'll break your behind," he whispered hoarsely. “我会打断你的后背，”他沙哑地低声说。 "For them?" “为了他们吗？” "For me, sonafabitch!” “为了我吗，狗娘养的！” They were yelling for us to break it up and Tatlock spun me half around with a blow, and as a joggled camera sweeps in a reeling scene, I saw the howling red faces crouching tense beneath the cloud of blue-gray smoke. For a moment the world wavered, unraveled, flowed, then my head cleared and Tatlock bounced before me. That fluttering shadow before my eyes was his jabbing left hand. Then falling forward, my head against his damp shoulder, I whispered. 他们为我们呼喊摧毁他，塔特卢克缠我到半场给了我一个沉重的打击，而当一个轻摇的镜头扫过摇晃的场景的时候，我看见那个嚎叫的红色的面孔紧张地蹲在蓝灰色的烟雾下。那一刻世界动摇了，散开了，流动了，然后我的头脑清醒了而塔特洛克跳到我面前。我眼前那飘动的影子是他那猛击过来的左手。然后向前倒下了，我的头靠在他潮湿的肩膀上，我悄声说： "I'll make it five dollars more." “我又将得到五美元。” "Go to hell!" “去死吧。” But his muscles relaxed a trifle beneath my pressure and I breathed, "Seven?" "Give it to your ma," he said, ripping me beneath the heart. 但是在我的压力下，他的肌肉放松了一点，而我也气喘吁吁，“七元呢？”“给你妈妈，”他说，同时撕我的心脏下面。 And while I still him I butted him and moved away. I felt myself bombarded with punches. I fought back with hopeless desperation. I wanted to deliver my speech more than anything else in the world, because I felt that only these men could judge truly my ability, and now this stupid clown was ruining my chances. I began fighting carefully now, moving in to punch him and out again with my greater speed. A lucky blow to his chin and I had him going too—until I heard a loud voice yell, "I got my money on the big boy." 当我仍然控着他的时候我就撞他推他离开。我感到自己被打了。绝望地反击。我想拯救我的演讲超过世界上任何别的东西，因为我觉得只有这些人能判断出自己的真正能力，而现在这个愚蠢的小丑毁了我的机会。我现在小心谨慎地开始战斗，移动着去打他，再次以我更大的速度出围。一次幸运的打击击中了他的下巴，我也将让他去——直到我听见一大声叫喊，“我在这大男孩身上挣到钱了。” Hearing this, I almost dropped my guard. I was confused: Should I try to win against the voice out there? Would not this go against my speech, and was not this a moment for humility, for nonresistance? A blow to my head as I danced about sent my right eye popping like a jack-in-the-box and settled my dilemma. The room went red as I fell. It was a dream fall, my body languid and fastidious as to where to land, until the floor became impatient and smashed up to meet me. A moment later I came to. An hypnotic voice said FIVE emphatically. And I lay there, hazily watching a dark red spot of my own blood shaping itself into a butterfly, glistening and soaking into the soiled gray world of the canvas. 听到这，我几乎放弃了我的防卫。我很困惑：我应该逆着出自这儿的声音去争取赢的吗？这该不会不利于我的演讲吗？这一刻不是因为谦卑，也不是因为不抵抗？当我跳跃起来要解决我的困境时他打到我头上的这一击让我的右眼突出像玩偶盒子里的杰克。当我倒下时这个房间就红了。这是一个梦的破碎，我的身体落到地上时我感觉疲倦而挑剔，直到连地板都变得不耐烦了懒得来见我。片刻之后，我苏醒过来。一种催眠的声音重重地说了个五。而我还躺在那里，模模糊糊地看见一个暗红色的斑点，那是我自己的血液本身形成的蝴蝶形，晶莹闪光地浸入到拳击场地上的灰色泥土地上。 When the voice drawled TEN I was lifted up and dragged to a chair. I sat dazed. My eye pained and swelled with each throb of my pounding heart and I wondered if now I would be allowed to speak. I was wringing wet, my mouth still bleeding. We were grouped along the wall now. The other boys ignored me as they congratulated Tatlock and speculated as to how much they would be paid. One boy whimpered over his smashed hand. Looking up front, I saw attendants in white jackets rolling the Portable ring away and placing a small square rug in the vacant space surrounded by chain. Perhaps, I thought, I will stand on the mg to deliver my speech. 当那个声音慢慢地数到十时我站了起来，拖过一把椅子。我头昏眼花地坐在椅子上。我的眼睛疼痛而我心脏每跳动一下都如膨胀，我不知道我现在是否可以说话。我全身湿透了，嘴里还在流血。我们被分组沿墙站了。其他的男孩都不理我，他们都祝贺泰特卢克并推测他们会付出多少。一个男孩手捂着脸抽泣。抬头望着前面，我看到穿白色夹克的服务员滚走便携式环圈，将一个小的方形地毯放置在空地上。我想，也许，我会站在那个mg上演讲了。 Then the M.C. called to us. "Come on up here boys and get your money." 然后主持人叫我们。“上这里来男孩子们，领你们的钱来。” We ran forward to where the men laughed and talked in their chairs, waiting. Everyone seemed friendly now. 我们向前跑去，在那里等待着的人们坐在他们的椅子上笑着。现在每个人似乎都很友好。 "There it is on the rug," the man said. I saw the mg covered with coins of all dimensions and a few crumpled bills. But what excited me, scattered here and there, were the gold pieces. “这儿没有地毯，”那个人说。我看见mg上满是所有面值的硬币和几张皱巴巴的钞票。但最让我兴奋的，散落在这里那里的都是金币。 （3.未完待续） |
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