《魔法師的外甥》第1期:開錯的門(1)
Chapter 1 The Wrong Door
This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between
our own world and the land of Narnia first began.
In those days Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. In those days, if you were a boy you had to
wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were usually nastier than now. But meals were nicer; and as for sweets, I won't tell you how cheap and good they were, because it
would only make your mouth water in vain. And in those days there lived in London a girl called Polly Plummer.
She lived in one of a long row of houses which were all joined together. One morning she was out in the back garden when a boy scrambled up from the garden next door and put his
face over the wall. Polly was very surprised because up till now there had never been any children in that house, but only Mr Ketterley and Miss Ketterley, a brother and sister,
old bachelor and old maid, living together. So she looked up, full of curiosity. The face of the strange boy was very grubby. It could hardly have been grubbier if he had first
rubbed his hands in the earth, and then had a good cry, and then dried his face with his hands. As a matter of fact, this was very nearly what he had been doing.
"Hullo," said Polly.
"Hullo," said the boy. "What's your name?"
"Polly," said Polly. "What's yours?"
"Digory," said the boy.
"I say, what a funny name!" said Polly.
"It isn't half so funny as Polly," said Digory.
"Yes it is," said Polly.
"No, it isn't," said Digory.
"At any rate I do wash my face," said Polly, "Which is what you need to do; especially after -" and then she stopped. She had been going to say "After you've been blubbing," but
she thought that wouldn't be polite.
"Alright, I have then," said Digory in a much louder voice, like a boy who was so miserable that he didn't care who knew he had been crying. "And so would you," he went on, "if
you'd lived all your life in the country and had a pony, and a river at the bottom of the garden, and then been brought to live in a beastly Hole like this."
"London isn't a Hole," said Polly indignantly. But the boy was too wound up to take any notice of her, and he went on "And if your father was away in India - and you had to come
and live with an Aunt and an Uncle who's mad (who would like that?) - and if the reason was that they were looking after your Mother - and if your Mother was ill and was going
to - going to - die." Then his face went the wrong sort of shape as it does if you're trying to keep back your tears.
"I didn't know. I'm sorry," said Polly humbly. And then, because she hardly knew what to say, and also to turn Digory's mind to cheerful subjects, she asked:
"Is Mr Ketterley really mad?"
"Well either he's mad," said Digory, "or there's some other mystery. He has a study on the top floor and Aunt Letty says I must never go up there. Well, that looks fishy to
begin with. And then there's another thing. Whenever he tries to say anything to me at meal times - he never even tries to talk to her - she always shuts him up. She says,
"Don't worry the boy, Andrew" or "I'm sure Digory doesn't want to hear about that" or else "Now, Digory, wouldn't you like to go out and play in the garden?"
"What sort of things does he try to say?"
"I don't know. He never gets far enough. But there's more than that. One night - it was last night in fact - as I was going past the foot of the attic-stairs on my way to bed
(and I don't much care for going past them either) I'm sure I heard a yell."
第1章 開錯的門
故事發生在很久以前，當你爺爺還是個孩子的時候。這個故享非常重要，因爲它告訴我們，我們自己的世界和納尼亞王國之間所有的事情最初是如何發生的。
那時，歇洛克·福爾摩斯仍住在貝克街，巴斯塔布爾一家還在路易斯罕大道上尋寶。那時，如果你是小男孩，你不得不天天戴上硬邦邦的伊頓領子，學校嘛，通常比現在的糟糕。不過，吃的比現在的好
；要說糖果，我不想告訴你多麼便宜，多麼好吃，因爲那隻能使你白白地流口水。那時，倫較住着一個女孩，名叫波莉·普盧默。
她家的房子和其他房子連成長長的一排。一天早晨，她在後花園裏，看見一個男孩從隔壁花園爬上牆頭，只露出一張臉。波莉感到很意外，因爲，迄今爲止．那幢房子除了老單身漢凱特利先生和老處女
凱特利小姐這兄妹倆外，並沒有住孩子。她好奇地擡起頭，那陌生男孩的臉髒極了，就算他的手先在土裏擦，然後大哭一場，再用泥手去擦臉，也不會這麼髒。實際上，這差不多就是他剛剛乾的事。
“你好！”波莉說。
“你好！”男孩回答，“你叫什麼？”
“波莉。”波莉說，“你呢？"
“迪格雷。”男孩答道。
“唉呀，這名字太好笑了 ！”波莉說。
“波莉好笑得多呢。”
“就是好笑。”波莉又說。
“就不好笑。”男孩反駁說。
“不管怎樣，我是洗臉的，”波莉說，“而你現在需要洗臉，尤其當你……
”她停住了。她本想說“當你號啕大哭以後”，但又覺得不太禮貌。
“對極了，我剛哭過。”迪格雷把嗓門提高了許多．像一個悲哀過度的男孩不在乎誰知道他哭過一樣。”你也會哭的，”他維續說，“要是你原來住在鄉下，有匹小馬，花園盡頭還有條小河，然後卻被
弄到這麼個糟糕透頂的窩裏來住的話。”
“倫敦不是糟糕透頂的窩。”波莉憤憤地說。但男孩太激動了，根本沒注意到她的口氣。他接着說：
“要是你爸爸遠在印度，你不得不來跟姨媽和瘋癲癲的舅舅住在一起，
你怎麼會高興呢？）而這又是因爲他們正在照看你的媽媽，而你的媽媽生病了，就要……就要死了。”他臉上做出想忍件不哭時的怪異表情。
“對不起，我一點兒也不知道。”波莉低聲下氣地道歉。接着，因爲實在不知道該說些什麼，同時也爲了能使迪格雷轉到愉快的話題上，她問：
“凱特利先生直的瘋了嗎？”
“要麼瘋了，”迪格雷回答，“要麼就有什麼祕密。他在樓頂上有間書房，蕾蒂姨媽叮囑過，我決不能去。這讓人覺得可疑。還有，他從不跟蕾蒂姨媽交談，而每當他在進餐時想要對我說什麼，她就要
阻止。她會說，‘安德魯，別去煩這孩子’，或者，‘我能肯定迪格雷不想知道那件事’，或者，‘迪格雷，你不想去外面花園裏玩嗎？’”
“他想要說什麼事情呢？”
“我不知道。他從來不多說。哦，還有，有天夜裏，就是昨夜，我經過閣樓樓梯下面去睡覺時（我不喜歡從那兒走過），我敢肯定聽到了一聲喊叫。”
