Barren Spring Part2
By Peal S.Buck
●Well, on such a day as this, if he had his buffalo and his plow as he had always had in other years, he would have gone out and plowed up that cracked soil.
好吧，在这样一个日子里，要是还和往年一样，他的水牛还在，耕犁还在，他应该早已出门去耕种那片已经开裂的土地了。
buffalo /ˈbʌfələu/ n. 水牛；野牛（产于北美）
plow /plaʊ/ n. 犁 v. 耕,犁
plowed up 耕作
◆He ached to plow it up and make it look like a field again, yes, even though he had not so much as one seed to put in it.
他很想念耕地，想念平整耕田的样子，是的，就算他连一颗可以播撒的种子也没有。
seed /sid/ n. 种子；萌芽 vt. 播种；结实
◆But he had no buffalo. If anyone had told him that he would eat his own water buffalo that plowed the good land for him, and year after year pulled the stone roller over the grain and threshed it at harvest he would have called that man idiot. Yet it was what he had done.
但如今他没有水牛了。要是先前有人劝他把他的水牛宰了吃，他一定会痛骂那个人是个王八犊子，他的水牛可是耕地能手，丰收时还可以帮着拉着拉石磨碾谷子。但这都是过去时了。
roller /'rolɚ/ n. 滚压机
grain /ɡren/ n. 谷粒
threshed /θrɛʃ/ vt. 推敲；打谷
harvest /'hɑːvɪst/ n. 收获；产量 vt. 收割
idiot /'ɪdɪət/ n. 傻子, 笨蛋；白痴
◆He had eaten his own water buffalo, he and his wife and his parents and his four children, they had all eaten the buffalo together.
他已经吃掉了自己的水牛。他和他的妻子、父母还有四个孩子一起把水牛给吃了。
water buffalo 水牛
●But what else could they do on that dark winter's day when the last of their store of grain was gone, when the trees were cut and sold, when he had sold everything, even the little they had saved from the flood, and there was nothing left except the rafters of the house they had and the garments they wore? Was there sense in stripping the coat off one's back to feed one's belly?
但是，在那个昏暗的冬日里，他们吃完了储藏的最后一点粮食，树也砍光卖了钱，能卖的都卖了，连从洪水中救出的那一点点东西也都卖了，除了房梁和身上的衣服，什么都没有剩下，他们还能怎么办？剥掉衣服来填肚子有意义吗？
rafters /'ræftəz/ 椽
garments /'gɑrmənt/ n. 服装，衣着（garment的复数）
◆Besides, the beast was starving also, since the water had covered even the grass lands, and they had had to go far afield to gather even enough to cook its bones and flesh.
而且当时牲口也已经快饿死了，因为洪水已淹没草地，连煮牲口的骨和肉所需的柴草也得走很远才能捡够。
afield /ə'fild/ adv. 在战场上；去野外；在远处
bones /bəunz/ n. 骨骼；身体；争议点 v. 剔去…的骨
flesh /flɛʃ/ n. 肉；果肉
◆On that day when he had seen the faces of his old parents set as though dead, on that day when he had heard the crying of his children and seen his little daughter dying, such a despair had seized him as made him like a man without his reason, so that he had gathered together his feeble strength and he had done what he said he never would; he had taken the kitchen knife and gone out and killed his own beast. When he did it, even in his despair, he groaned, for it was as though he killed his own brother. To him it was the last sacrifice.
那一天，他看到自己年迈的父母面如死灰，听到孩子们哭泣不停，眼见小女儿奄奄一息，他被一阵惨痛的绝望钳住，变得失去了理智，然后鼓起虚弱的气力，做了他说过永远不会做的事情。他到厨房拿起刀，走出去，把自己的牲口给宰了。那一刻他绝望地呻吟着，好像亲手杀了自己的兄弟，。对他而言，这是最后的牺牲。
seize /siz/ vt. & vi. 抓住, 捉住
feeble /'fibl/ adj. 虚弱的, 衰弱的, 无力的
beast /bist/ n. 野兽；畜生
groaned /ɡron/ vi. 呻吟；抱怨
sacrifice /'sækrɪfaɪs/ n. 牺牲, 舍身 vt. 牺牲, 献出
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