斯雷德尼·瓦什塔尔

康拉丁十岁了，医生给出了专业诊断，认为这个男孩活不过五年。

Conradin was ten years old, and the doctor had pronounced his professional opinion that the boy would not live another five years.

这位医生举止文弱、毫无魄力，算不上什么人物，但他的意见得到了德罗普夫人的赞同，而她几乎决定了一切。

The doctor was silky and effete, and counted for little, but his opinion was endorsed by Mrs. de Ropp, who counted for nearly everything.

德罗普夫人是康拉丁的表姐兼监护人，在他眼中，她代表着世界上那五分之三不可或缺、令人讨厌且现实的部分；而剩下的五分之二则与前者永无休止地对立，凝聚在他自己和他的想象之中。

Mrs. De Ropp was Conradin’s cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, in perpetual antagonism to the foregoing, were summed up in himself and his imagination.

康拉丁心想，总有一天自己会屈服于那些令人厌烦的琐事的沉重压力之下——比如疾病、娇生惯养的限制和漫长沉闷的无聊。

One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the mastering pressure of wearisome necessary things—such as illnesses and coddling restrictions and drawn-out dullness.

如果没有他在孤独刺激下格外活跃的想象力，他早就支撑不住了。

Without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.

德罗普夫人哪怕在最坦诚的时刻，也绝不会向自己承认她讨厌康拉丁，尽管她可能隐约意识到，“为了他好”而处处阻挠他，是一项她并不觉得特别烦人的职责。

Mrs. de Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him “for his good” was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.

康拉丁恨她恨得咬牙切齿，却又能够极好地掩饰这种仇恨。

Conradin hated her with a desperate sincerity which he was perfectly able to mask.

他为自己设法寻得的为数不多的乐趣，因为很有可能会惹恼监护人而平添了一份滋味；而在他的想象王国里，她是完全被关在门外的——一个不洁之物，绝不可踏入半步。

Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out—an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.

在那座沉闷阴郁的花园里，有太多扇窗户正对着外面，随时可能打开，传来叫他不要做这做那的斥责，或是该吃药的提醒；他觉得这花园毫无吸引力。

In the dull, cheerless garden, overlooked by so many windows that were ready to open with a message not to do this or that, or a reminder that medicines were due, he found little attraction.

花园里仅有的几棵果树被严加防范，不准他去采摘，仿佛它们是在荒漠中绽放的稀世珍宝；其实很可能很难找到一个菜农愿意花十先令买下它们全年的收成。

The few fruit-trees that it contained were set jealously apart from his plucking, as though they were rare specimens of their kind blooming in an arid waste; it would probably have been difficult to find a market-gardener who would have offered ten shillings for their entire yearly produce.

然而，在一个被遗忘的角落里，几乎隐藏在一片阴沉的灌木丛后面，有一座相当宽敞的废弃工具棚；在这四堵墙内，康拉丁找到了一个避难所，一个时而像游戏室、时而像大教堂的地方。

In a forgotten corner, however, almost hidden behind a dismal shrubbery, was a disused tool-shed of respectable proportions, and within its walls Conradin found a haven, something that took on the varying aspects of a playroom and a cathedral.

他在里面填满了无数熟悉的幻影，这些幻影一部分来自历史片段，一部分来自他自己的脑海；不过，里面也有两个有血有肉的住客。

He had peopled it with a legion of familiar phantoms, evoked partly from fragments of history and partly from his own brain, but it also boasted two inmates of flesh and blood.

在一个角落里住着一只羽毛凌乱的乌丹母鸡，男孩把几乎无处安放的深情都倾注在它身上。在更深处的昏暗中，立着一个大木笼，分成两个隔间，其中一个前面装有密集的铁栏杆。

In one corner lived a ragged-plumaged Houdan hen, on which the boy lavished an affection that had scarcely another outlet. Further back in the gloom stood a large hutch, divided into two compartments, one of which was fronted with close iron bars.

这是一只大雪貂的居所。一个友好的屠户小帮工曾收下康拉丁藏了很久的一小笔银币，连笼带兽把雪貂偷偷运到了这里。

This was the abode of a large polecat-ferret, which a friendly butcher-boy had once smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters, in exchange for a long-secreted hoard of small silver.