泄密的心

泄密的心

The Tell-Tale Heart

是的，这是真的！我那时非常非常紧张，我现在也很紧张。但你们为什么说我疯了？疯了就是脑子生病了。我没有疯。我的病让我的耳朵变得更灵，而不是更差。我听到了天上和地上的一切声音。我怎么会疯呢？听着！听听我多么冷静地给你们讲完整个故事。

Yes, it is true! I was very, very nervous then, and I am nervous now. But why do you say that I am mad? Mad means ill in the head. I am not mad. My illness made my ears sharper, not weaker. I heard everything in the sky and on the earth. How can I be mad? Listen! Listen to how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

我说不清这个想法最早是什么时候出现在我脑子里的。但在那之后，它白天黑夜都跟着我。其实没有原因。我很喜欢这位老人。他对我一直很好，我也不想要他的金子。

I cannot say when the idea first came into my head. But after that, it stayed with me day and night. There was no reason for it. I loved the old man. He was always good to me, and I did not want his gold.

我想是因为他的眼睛。是的，就是他的眼睛！他有一只秃鹰一样的眼睛。秃鹰是一种吃死动物的大鸟。那是一只淡蓝色的眼睛，上面有一层薄薄的皮。当那只眼睛看着我时，我突然感到非常害怕。所以，我慢慢地，非常慢地，决定杀死这个老人。我想：“这样我就能永远不用再看这只秃鹰眼睛了。”

I think it was his eye. Yes, it was his eye! He had the eye of a vulture. A vulture is a big bird that eats dead animals. It was a pale blue eye, with a thin skin over it. When that eye looked at me, I was suddenly very afraid. So, slowly, very slowly, I decided to kill the old man. I thought: “Then I will be free of the vulture eye for ever.”

你们觉得我疯了。疯子什么都不知道。但是看看我！看看我多么小心，多么聪明！在杀死他的前一个星期，我对这位老人比以前任何时候都好。

You think I am mad. Mad people know nothing. But look at me! Look how careful I was, how clever! I was never kinder to the old man than in that week before I killed him.

每天夜里十二点，我都转动他房门的把手，把门打开。哦，多么安静啊！然后我把一盏灯放进房间里。灯是一种拿在手里的灯。我这盏灯有一扇金属小门，所以我能把它关上，一点光都透不出来。它的小门关得紧紧的，紧紧的。

And every night, at midnight, I turned the handle of his door and opened it. Oh, so quietly! Then I put a lantern into the room. A lantern is a lamp you carry in your hand. Mine had a small metal door, so I could close it and no light came out. Its little door was closed, closed.

然后我把头从门伸了进去。哦，你们可以笑，但我真的很聪明！我慢慢地动我的头，非常非常慢。我不想弄醒老人。我用了一个小时，才把整个头伸进房间里。哈！疯子能有这么聪明吗？

Then I put my head in through the door. Oh, you can laugh, but I was so clever! I moved my head slowly, very, very slowly. I did not want to wake the old man. It took me an hour to get my whole head into the room. Ha! Is a mad man as clever as that?

当我的头进到房间里后，我打开了灯的小门。哦，非常小心，非常小心！我只打开了一点点，一束细细的光照了出来。一束光就是细细的一道光。那束细光正好照在秃鹰眼睛上。

When my head was in the room, I opened the little door of the lantern. Oh, so carefully, so carefully! I opened it only a little, and a thin ray came out. A ray is a thin line of light. The thin ray fell on the vulture eye.

我这样做了七个长长的晚上。每个晚上那只眼睛都闭着。所以我什么都没做。我讨厌的不是老人。而是他的眼睛，那只秃鹰眼睛。

I did this for seven long nights. Every night the eye was closed. So I did nothing. It was not the old man that I hated. It was his eye, the vulture eye.

每天早上，太阳出来的时候，我走进他的房间。我用热情友好的声音叫他的名字。“你睡得好吗？”我问他。每天夜里十二点，我都在他睡着的时候看着他，他一点都不知道。

And every morning, when the sun came up, I went into his room. I called him by his name in a warm, friendly voice. “How did you sleep?” I asked him. Every night at midnight I looked at him while he slept, and he never knew.

在第八个晚上，我在门口更加小心了。钟表的指针走得比我当时的手还要快。那天晚上我觉得自己真聪明！我站在他的门前，一点一点地把门推开。他对我的秘密计划一无所知！

On the eighth night I was even more careful at the door. The hand of a clock moves faster than my hand moved then. I felt so clever that night! There I was at his door, and I opened it little by little. And he knew nothing about my secret plan!

想到这里，我轻轻地笑了。也许他听到了我的笑声，因为他突然在床上动了一下。你们以为我退回去了吗？没有！他的房间里很黑。百叶窗都关着，因为他害怕强盗。百叶窗就是窗户外面木头做的小门。所以我知道他看不到门在动。我继续推门，慢慢地，慢慢地。

I laughed quietly at the idea. Maybe he heard me, because he suddenly moved on the bed. Do you think that I went back? No! His room was very black. The shutters were closed, because he was afraid of robbers. Shutters are wooden doors on the outside of a window. So I knew that he could not see the door move. And I went on pushing it, slowly, slowly.

我的头伸进去了，我想把灯打开。但我的大拇指在灯的金属小门上滑了一下，弄出了一点声音。老人从床上坐了起来。

My head was in, and I wanted to open the lantern. But my thumb slipped on the metal door of the lantern, and it made a noise. The old man sat up in bed.

“谁在那儿？”他大声喊道。

“Who’s there?” he shouted.