The Gee
Elwyn B. White
villTo give a clear account of what took place in the barnyard early in the morning on that last Sunday in June, I will have to go back more than a year in time, but a year is nothing to me the days. Besides, I intend to be quick about it, and not dawdle.
learning chine为了能说清谷仓的院子里在六月的最后一个星期日的清早发生了什么事，我只好让思绪先回到一年前的此时了，幸好对现在的我来说一年的时间还不算太远。此外，我还打算快点谈到正题，不再浪费时间。
I have had a pair of elderly gray gee- a goo and a gander-living on this place for a number of years, and they have been my friends. “Companions” would be a better word; gee are friends with no one, they badmouth everybody and everything. But they are companionable once you get ud to their ingratitude and their fal accusations. Early in the spring, a year ago, as soon as the ice went out of the pond, my goo started to lay. She laid three eggs in about a week’s time and then died. I found her halfway down the lane that connects the barnyard with the pasture. There were no marks on her – she lay with wings partly outspread, and with her neck forward in the grass, pointing downhill. Gee are rarely sick, and I think this goo’s time had come and she had simply died of old age. We buried h
radar
er in our private graveyard, and I felt sad at losing an acquaintance of such long standing-long standing and loud shouting.
我曾有过一对老灰鹅——一只母鹅和一只公鹅——他们在这里住了很多年，早已成为我的朋友了。用“伴侣”这个词或许会更适合一些；鹅是些感情不专一的朋友，他们对什么人什么事都可以恶口相向。可你一旦习惯了他们的忘恩负义和血口喷人，就会觉得他们还是不错的朋友。一年前的早春，池塘里的冰刚解冻时，我的母鹅就开始下蛋了。她在约一周的时间里共下了三个蛋，然后便死掉了。我是在谷仓院子与草场之间的那条小路的半路上发现她的。她看上去不像是已经死了——躺在那里的她，双翅微微张着，脖子伸在草地上，朝着下坡的方向。鹅几乎从不得病，所以我猜这只鹅一定是寿限已到，仅仅是死于衰老而已。我早就注意到，她在从池塘回到她在谷仓里的窝时，步伐总是很缓慢。我从不知道她的年纪，可另外也找不到别的解释了。我们把她埋在我们的私人墓地里，心里为失去了一位认识了这么久的老友（顽固的大嗓门朋友）而悲伤。
Her legacy, of cour, was the three eggs. I knew they were good eggs and did not like to
pitch them out. It emed to me that the least I could do for my departed companion was to e that the eggs she had left in my care were hatched. I checked my hen pen to find out whether we had a broody, but there was none. During the next few days, I scoured the neighborhood for a broody hen, with no success.
remind她的遗物当然就是那三个蛋了。我觉得它们是非常好的蛋，所以就舍不得扔掉。我能为我死去的伴侣所做的，大概只能是把这些她留给我照料的蛋孵出来了。我去我的鸡舍察看，想知道我们有没有孵蛋鸡，可那里却没有这样的鸡。接下来的几天里，我又去邻居们那里寻找孵蛋鸡，却仍是一无所获。在多年以前，如果你需要一只孵蛋鸡，在任何一个谷仓或者鸡舍里差不多都能找到一只。可如今它却被看作是不受欢迎的；现代的母鸡只是个下蛋机器，孵蛋已经不是她的天职了。此外，许多人都不再养母鸡了——他们想要一打鸡蛋的时候，去的不是谷仓，而是第一国民商场。
Days went by. My gander, the widower, lived a solitary life-nobody to swap gossip with, nobody to protect. He emed dazed. The three eggs were not getting any younger, and I mylf felt dazed-restless and unfulfilled, I had stored the eggs down cellar in the arch where it is cool, and every time I went down there for something they emed silently to reproach me. My plight had become known around the town, and one day a friend phoned and said he would lend me an incubator designed for hatching the eggs of waterfowl. I brought the thing home, cleaned it up, plugged it in, and sat down to read the directions. After studying them, I realized that if I were to tend eggs in that incubator, I would have to withdraw from the world for thirty days-give up everything, just as a broody goo does. Obsd though I was with the notion of bringing life into the three eggs, I wasn’t quite prepared to pay the pri ce.
几天过去了。我的公鹅，那个鳏夫，还在过着单身生活——没有谁来和他闲谈，也没有谁再需要他保护了。他似乎有些神情恍惚。这三个蛋越来越不新鲜了，我很不安——难以入睡，忧心忡忡。我把这些蛋藏到了地下室拱门里的阴凉处，每当我因什么事而下到那里时，它们似乎都在那儿默默责怪着我。我的誓言早已在镇子左右传遍了，一天，一个朋友打来电话说，他可以借给我一台专门用来孵水鸟蛋的孵蛋机。我把这东西带回家，擦干净，插上插头，然后就坐下来读说明书。看完后，我才明白如果我想用这台孵蛋机孵蛋，就得从外面的世界里暂时消失三十天——只能像孵蛋鹅那样一直坐着，此外的一切都不能去做。虽然我始终被想把三个蛋孵出三只鹅的企图所困扰，但我还是不想付出这样的代价。
Instead, I abandoned the idea of incubation and decided to ttle the matter by acquiring three
ready-made goslings, as a memorial to the goo and a gift for the lonely gander. I drove up the road about five miles and dropped in on Irving Closson. I knew Irving had gee; he has everything-even a sawmill. I found him shoeing a very old hor in the doorway of his barn, and I stood and watched for a while. Hens and gee wandered about the yard, and a turkey tom circled me, wings adroop, strutting. I brought up the question of goslings, and he took me into the barn and showed me a sitting goo. He said he thought she was covering more than twenty eggs and should bring off her goslings in a couple of weeks and I could buy a few if I wanted. I said I would like three.
我放弃了这个用孵蛋机的想法，转而决定去买三只现成的小鹅回来，把它们当作对已逝的母鹅的纪念和孤独的公鹅的礼物。我把车开到五英里外的欧文•克娄森家。我知道欧文那里有鹅；他什么都有——甚至有一座锯木场。我发现他正在给一匹站在他的谷仓门口的老马打掌，于是便站在那里看了一会儿。鸡与鹅们在院子里到处闲逛，缩着翅膀的雄火鸡神气活现地在我周围踱着步。那匹一只前蹄架在他两膝间的马，似乎很难用三条腿找到平衡，可还是神定气闲的，像是睡着了一样。我问欧文是不是也想给马钉后掌，他说，“不，这我可很难做到，何况他也不常用他的后腿。”接着我对他谈了有关小鹅的问题，于是他将我领到谷仓，把那只正在孵蛋的鹅指给我看。他说他觉得她在两周后大概就能孵出二十多只小鹅来，如果我想要的话，到时候可以买几只。我说我就要三只。
I took to calling at Irving’s every few days-it is about the pleasantest place to visit anywhere around. At last, I was rewarded: I pulled into the driveway one morning and saw a goo surrounded by green goslings. She had been staked out, like a cow. Irving had simply tied a piece of string to one leg and fastened the other end to a peg in the ground. She was a pretty goo-not as large as my old one had been, and with a more slender neck. The goslings had the cheerful, right, and innocent look that all baby gee have. We scooped up three and tosd them into a box, and I paid Irving and carried them home.
我开始每过几天就去一次欧文的谷仓了——在这里的任何一处参观都是最开心的事。最后，我终于得
到了回报：一天早晨，我在开进他的私人车道时被一只由许多小鹅簇拥着的母鹅吸引了。她曾一直被栓着，就像一头母牛一样。欧文只在她的一条腿上栓了段绳子，绳子的另一端则系在地面的一根木桩上。她是一只漂亮的母鹅——没有我原来的那只大，不过脖子却更细长一些。她似乎是一只杂交种，身上有两种灰色，还带有白色的条纹——大概就是一种杂交鹅。小鹅们有着兴奋，明澈，天真的眼神，就像所有的小鹅那样。我们挑了三只装
进盒子里，然后我付了款，把它们带回了家。
My next concern was how to introduce the small creatures to their foster father, my old gander. I thought about this all the way home. I’ve had enough experience with domesticated animals and birds to know that they are a bundle of eccentricities and crotchets, and I was not at all sure what sort of reception three strange youngsters would get from a gander who was full of sorrows and suspicions. (I once saw a gander, taken by surpri, ize a newly hatched gosling and hurl it the length of the barn floor.) I had an uneasy feeling that my three little charges might be dead within the hour, victims of a grief-crazed old fool. I decided to go slow. I fixed the make-shift pen for the goslings in the barn, arranged so that they would be parated from the gander but visible to him, and he would be visible to them. The old fellow, when he heard youthful voices, hustled right in to find out what was going on, he studied the scene in silence and with the greatest attention. I could n
ot tell whether the look in his eye was one of malice or affection-a goo’s eye is a small round enigma. After obrving this introductory scene for a while, I left and went into the hou.
我的下一个问题是该怎样把这三只小生命介绍给它们的养父，我的那只老公鹅。我在回家的路上一直在想这个问题。凭我饲养家禽和鸟类的经验，我知道他们全都是一群充满奇思怪想的动物，所以我根本说不清这三只陌生的小鹅将从一只满心都是悲伤和猜忌的公鹅那里得到什么样的对待。（我曾见过一只公鹅奇袭一只新生的小鹅，那一次，他叼起小鹅，把它抛到了谷仓的地面上。）我有种不祥的预感，觉得我那三只可爱的小家伙可能会在一小时内死去，成为一只忧伤得发狂的老傻瓜的受害者。我决定还是慢慢的来。我在谷仓里给小鹅们修了一个临时的圈，让它们与公鹅相隔离，却又可以被他看见，他肯定会来看它们的。那个老家伙一听到那种年轻的声音，就赶忙跑过来看发生了什么事。他以最专心的态度静静地研究着眼中所见的东西。我说不清他的眼神是恶毒还是钟情——鹅的眼睛就是一个小而圆的谜。看了一会儿这种相互介绍的情景，我就离开了，回到我的屋里。
Half an hour later, I heard a commotion in the barnyard: the gander was in full cry. I hustled out. The goslings, impatient with life indoors, had escaped from their hastily constructed enclosure in the barn and had joined their foster father in the barnyard. The cries I had heard were screams of welcome- the old bird was delighted with the turn that events had taken. His period of mourning was over, he now had interesting and uful work to do, and he threw himlf into the role of father with immen
satisfaction and zeal, hissing at me with renewed malevolence,
拉帕奇shepherding the three children here and there, and running interference against real and imaginary enemies. My fears were laid to rest. Summer was upon us, the pond was alive again.
半小时后，我听到了从谷仓院子里传出的骚乱声音：公鹅在拼命地扯着嗓子喊呢。我忙跑出去。对圈门内的生活失去耐心的小鹅们，已经从我在谷仓里匆匆搭建的那个鹅圈里逃出来，到了院子里的养父身边。我刚才听到的声音是表示欢迎的大笑——这只老鸟对形势的转变感到开心。他的悼亡期已经结束，现在则有了更有趣的，更值得去做的工作，他以十足的满意和热情扮演着父亲的角色，又对我不怀好意地嘶叫起来，想要保护那三只跑来跑去的孩子，随时准备冲向真正或假想的敌人。我的担忧终于咽回了肚子里。他发现自己又是一家之主了，这种感觉令他格外激动，立刻把心思转到了池塘那里，我则以赞许的目光望着他领着小鹅们沿着长长的，曲折的小路走过茂密的小径，穿过生有越桔的小丘和布满大鹅卵石的山冈之间的崎岖草地。当看到他为了能让小鹅安全地前进而挡住在干草堆旁的小母牛时，我心里非常感动。夏天来到了我们身旁，池塘又恢复了活力。我从地下室拿出那三个蛋，把它们抛到了镇里的垃圾堆。
individualsAt first, I did not know the x of my three goslings. But nothing on two legs grows any faster than a young goo, and by early fall it was obvious that I had drawn one male and two females. You tell
x of a goo by its demeanor and its stance-the way it holds itlf, its general approach to life. A gander carries his head high and affects a threatening attitude. Females go about with necks in a graceful arch and are less aggressive. My two young females looked like their mother, parti-colored. The young male was quite different. He feathered out white all over except for his wings, which were a very light, pearly gray. Afloat on the pond, he looked almost like a swan, with his tall, thin white neck and his cooked-up white tail- a real dandy, full of pompous thoughts and surly gestures.
起先，我并不知道我那三只小鹅的性别。不过，没有什么能比小鹅的两条腿长得更快了，刚到秋天，我就能明显地看出，他们一只是公的，两只是母的。你可以从鹅的风度和神态上看出其性别——他的行为习惯，他对生活的一般态度。一只公鹅喜欢把头昂得高高的，装出一副很吓人的样子。母鹅们则弯着优雅的长脖子到处走，很少露出挑衅的神态。我那两只年轻的母鹅长得就像她们的妈妈，也都是杂色的。那只小公鹅却不大一样。他全身的羽毛都是白色的，只除了翅膀那里，他的翅膀有一种很淡的珍珠灰色。浮在池塘里的时候，他简直就像一只天鹅，有着长长的，纤细的白脖子和翘起的白尾巴——又像个真正的充满自大念头的花花公子，一副盛气凌人的表情。
Winter is a time of waiting, for man and goo. Last winter was a long wait, the pasture deep in drifts, the lane barricaded, the pond inaccessible and frozen. Life centered in the barn and the barnyard. When the time for mating came, conditions were unfavorable, and this was uptting to th
奖牌英文>multipliere old gander. Gee like a body of water for their coupling; it doesn’t have to be a large body of water –just any wet place in which a goo can become partly submerged. My old gander, studying the calendar, inflamed by passion, unable to get to the pond, showed signs of desperation. On veral occasions, he tried to manage with a ten-quart pail of water that stood in the barnyard. He would chivvy one of his young foster daughters over to the quail, ize her by the nape of the neck, and hold her head under water while he made his attempt. I noticed two things: the old fellow confined his attention to one of the two younger gee and let the other alone, and he never allowed his foster son to approach either of the girls –he was very strict about that, and the handsome young male lived all spring in a state of ostracism.
冬天是等待的季节，对人与鹅来说都是如此。对去年冬天的等待格外的长，草场总是深陷在雪堆中，小径被吞没的太久，不可企及的池塘也被封得太严。生活的中心转到了谷仓及其院子里。当交配季节到来时，池塘仍然没有解冻，那只老公鹅因此而不安起来。鹅在交配时需要一片水域；它不一定要特别的大——只要是能部分地将其淹没的湿地就行。我那善于观测天时的老公鹅，虽然被欲火所撩拨，但却不能到池塘那里去，所以就显得格外的绝望。有几次，他想在院子里的那个十夸脱的水桶里完成他的美事。他把一个年轻的养女追到水桶边，用颈背抵住她，把她的头推倒了水下，想让自己的企图得逞。这种做法从未成功过，通常都会半途而废，看起来更像是有趣的翻跟斗表演，而不像是性交。
你在看到水桶边的这种例行表演时，恐怕会认为这只雄鹅事先一定翻阅过一本里面记载着罕见姿势的现代性交手册。不管怎么说，此外我还注意到了两件事：那只老公鹅只把他的注意力集中在其中的一只小母鹅上，却不去理会另一只，他还从不让他的养子靠近任何一个女孩子——他对此的要求很严格，使那只漂亮的小公鹅在整个春天里都像遭到了贝壳放逐一样。
Eventually, the pond opened up, the happy band wended its way down across the melting snows, and the breeding ason was officially opened. My pond is visible from the hou, but it is at quite a distance. I am not a voyeur and do not spend my time watching the x antics of gee or anything el. But I try to keep reasonably well posted on all the creatures around the place, and it was apparent that the young gander was not allowed by his foster father to enjoy the privileges of the pond and that the old gander’s attentions continued to be directed to just one of the young
平面培训设计>opportunitiy
