作者：[美] 杰克·伦敦（Jack London）
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
悲情人生(外研社双语读库)试读：
The One Thousand Dozen一千打David Rasmunsen was a hustler, and, like many a greater man, a man of the one idea. Wherefore, when the clarion call of the North rang on his ear, he conceived an adventure in eggs and bent all his energy to its achivement. He figured briefly and to the point, and the adventure became iridescent-hued, splendid. That eggs would sell at Dawson for five dollars a dozen was a safe working premise. Whence it was incontrovertible that one thousand dozen would bring, in the Golden Metropolis, five thousand dollars.
戴维·拉斯马森是个有心搞点事儿的人；跟许多伟大人物一样，他也有着非常专一的想法。因此，当他的耳旁响起北方感人的召唤时，他就谋划着在鸡蛋上搞一笔投机生意，并且倾尽全力要搞成功。他简要地盘算了一下，这种生意太诱人了，笼罩在一片五光十色的华彩当中。在加拿大的道森，一打鸡蛋能卖到五个美元吧，这个估价很靠谱。那样的话，一千打鸡蛋就能在那个“金光之都”里卖出五千美元来，指定没错儿。
On the other hand, expense was to be considered, and he considered it well, for he was a careful man, keenly practical, with a hard head and a heart that imagination never warmed. At fifteen cents a dozen, the initial cost of his thousand dozen would be one hundred and fifty dollars, a mere bagatelle in face of the enormous profit. And suppose, just suppose, to be wildly extravagant for once, that transportation for himself and eggs should run up eight hundred and fifty more; he would still have four thousand clear cash and clean when the last egg was disposed of and the last dust had rippled into his sack.
此外呢，花销还是要考虑的。他已经考虑得很周全了，因为他向来谨慎，讲求实际，头脑冷静，从来不会因为幻想而激动起来。鸡蛋十五美分一打，那他买上一千打也只要一百五十美元，这在巨大的利润面前简直不值一提。假设一下，只是假设，他大大方方出手一回，人和鸡蛋的运费花个八百五十美元吧，等到最后一只鸡蛋出了手，最后一粒金砂蹦进他的钱袋，他还是可以净赚四千美元现钱。
"You see, Alma,"—he figured it over with his wife, the cosy dining room submerged in a sea of maps, government surveys, guidebooks, and Alaskan itineraries,—"you see, expenses don't really begin till you make Dyea—fifty dollars'll cover it with a first-class passage thrown in. Now from Dyea to Lake Linderman, Indian packers take your goods over for twelve cents a pound, twelve dollars a hundred, or one hundred and twenty dollars a thousand. Say I have fifteen hundred pounds, it'll cost one hundred and eighty dollars—call it two hundred and be safe. I am creditably informed by a Klondiker just come out that I can buy a boat for three hundred. But the same man says I'm sure to get a couple of passengers for one hundred and fifty each, which will give me the boat for nothing, and, further, they can help me manage it. And...that's all; I put my eggs ashore from the boat at Dawson. Now let me see how much is that?”“你瞧，阿尔玛，”他跟他的妻子盘算起来。他们舒适的饭厅里堆满了各种地图、政府测绘报告、旅行指南和阿拉斯加行程安排,“你瞧，到了戴亚才开始产生费用——这段路程，就算买头等船票，五十美元也够了。从戴亚到林德尔曼湖，印第安运货工每磅收十二美分，一百磅就是十二美元，一千磅就是一百二十美元。假设我的货有一千五百磅重，就得花一百八十美元——保险起见，就算两百好了。有个从克朗代克淘金回来的可靠的人跟我说，拿三百美元我就能买到一条小船。这个人还说，我肯定能捞到两个搭船的人，每人收一百五，那船就等于白捡的，那两人还能帮我驾船。还有什么呢——呃，没啦。船一到道森，我就把鸡蛋运上岸。现在来算算一共花了多少钱？”
"Fifty dollars from San Francisco to Dyea, two hundred from Dyea to Linderman, passengers pay for the boat—two hundred and fifty all told," she summed up swiftly.“从旧金山到戴亚，五十美元,从戴亚到林德尔曼，两百，买船的钱搭船的人出了——一共是两百五十美元。”她很快就算出来了。
"And a hundred for my clothes and personal outfit," he went on happily; "that leaves a margin of five hundred for emergencies. And what possible emergencies can arise?"“我的衣服行李，得花个一百，”他高兴地接着说，“还剩五百可以拿来应急。不过能有什么紧急情况发生呢？”
Alma shrugged her shoulders and elevated her brows. If that vast Northland was capable of swallowing up a man and a thousand dozen eggs, surely there was room and to spare for whatever else he might happen to possess. So she thought, but she said nothing. She knew David Rasmunsen too well to say anything.
阿尔玛耸了耸肩，又扬了扬眉毛。如果辽阔的北方大地能容得下一个人和一千打鸡蛋，那么肯定会有充足的地方容纳这个人可能拥有的一切。她这么想着，却什么也没说。她太了解戴维·拉斯马森这个人了，什么都不用说了。
"Doubling the time because of chance delays, I should make the trip in two months. Think of it, Alma! Four thousand in two months! Beats the paltry hundred a month I'm getting now. Why, we'll build further out where we'll have more space, gas in every room, and a view, and the rent of the cottage'll pay taxes, insurance, and water, and leave something over. And then there's always the chance of my striking it and coming out a millionnaire. Now tell me, Alma, don't you think I'm very moderate ?”“就算有时候耽搁了，多花上一倍的时间，我这一趟两个月也足够了。想想吧，阿尔玛！两个月搞到四千美元！我现在一个月那可怜巴巴的一百美元薪水，一下子就给比下去了。嗯，我们以后要在更远的地儿盖房子，要住得更宽敞些，每间屋子都要有煤气灯，都要有风景可看。现在这个小破屋子就租出去，房租拿来交我们的税啦，保险费啦，水费啦，还能有剩。而且我总会有机会掘到金矿的，一下就成百万富翁了。来，阿尔玛，你说说，你不觉得我的想法还是太保守了吗？”
And Alma could hardly think otherwise. Besides, had not her own cousin,—though a remote and distant one to be sure, the black sheep, the harum-scarum, the ne'er-do-well,—had not he come down out of that weird North country with a hundred thousand in yellow dust, to say nothing of a half-ownership in the hole from which it came?
阿尔玛简直没法有别的想法。而且，谁让她那个堂兄弟——当然，只是门远亲，那是个败家子，一事无成的冒失鬼——谁让那个堂兄弟当初从神秘莫测的北方回来的时候，就带了价值十万美元的金砂？这还不算他在金砂矿上拥有的一半的所有权呢。
David Rasmunsen's grocer was surprised when he found him weighing eggs in the scales at the end of the counter, and Rasmunsen himself was more surprised when he found that a dozen eggs weighed a pound and a half—fifteen hundred pounds for his thousand dozen! There would be no weight left for his clothes, blankets, and cooking utensils, to say nothing of the grub he must necessarily consume by the way. His calculations were all thrown out, and he was just proceeding to recast them when he hit upon the idea of weighing small eggs. "For whether they be large or small, a dozen eggs is a dozen eggs," he observed sagely to himself; and a dozen small ones he found to weigh but a pound and a quarter. Thereat the city of San Francisco was overrun by anxious-eyed emissaries, and commission houses and dairy associations were startled by a sudden demand for eggs running not more than twenty ounces to the dozen.
戴维·拉斯马森经常照顾生意的那家杂货铺的老板看见他在柜台那头的秤上称鸡蛋，很是惊讶，而拉斯马森自己更惊讶，因为他发现一打鸡蛋有一磅半重——他那一千打鸡蛋就得有一千五百磅重！这样一来，重量预算里就没有余地给他的衣服、毯子、炊具了，更别提他总得带点儿在路上吃的东西。他的算盘落空了，而就在他准备推倒重来的时候，他又想出了称小蛋的主意。他可能耐地对自己说：“不管大小，一打鸡蛋就是一打鸡蛋。”他发现，一打小鸡蛋只有一又四分之一磅重。一时间旧金山城里满眼都是神色焦急的跑腿儿代办，各商社和畜禽产品联合会因为突然有人要一打不足二十盎司的鸡蛋而大为诧异。
Rasmunsen mortgaged the little cottage for a thousand dollars, arranged for his wife to make a prolonged stay among her own people, threw up his job, and started North. To keep within his schedule he compromised on a second-class passage, which, because of the rush, was worse than steerage; and in the late summer, a pale and wabbly man, he disembarked with his eggs on the Dyea beach. But it did not take him long to recover his land legs and appetite. His first interview with the Chilkoot packers straightened him up and stiffened his backbone. Forty cents a pound they demanded for the twenty-eight-mile portage, and while he caught his breath and swallowed, the price went up to forty-three. Fifteen husky Indians put the straps on his packs at forty-five, but took them off at an offer of forty-seven from a Skaguay Croesus in dirty shirt and ragged overalls who had lost his horses on the White Pass Trail and was now making a last desperate drive at the country by way of Chilkoot.
拉斯马森把他的小房子抵押了一千美元，把老婆送回娘家去长住，然后辞掉工作，动身北上。为了不超出预算，他只买了一张二等舱的票。因为正值淘金热，二等舱还比不上统舱。这时是夏末，等他带着鸡蛋在戴亚下船时，他已经面色苍白，连路都走不稳了。不过，不久之后他的腿就有劲儿了，胃口也好了起来。他第一次跟契尔库特运货工谈价钱就搞得他浑身一凛，背上发僵。运送这二十八英里路，他们讨要的运费是四十美分一磅，而他刚喘了口气，咽了口唾沫，价格就涨到了四十三美分。他出到四十五美分一磅的时候，十五个结实的印第安人把皮带栓上了他的货箱，不过又给解下来了，因为有个穿着脏兮兮的衬衣和破烂工装的斯卡圭财主出到了四十七美分。他在白隘口路上丢失了马匹，现在不顾一切地想借道契尔库特往前赶。
But Rasmunsen was clean grit, and at fifty cents found takers, who, two days later, set his eggs down intact at Linderman. But fifty cents a pound is a thousand dollars a ton, and his fifteen hundred pounds had exhausted his emergency fund and left him stranded at the Tantalus point where each day he saw the fresh-whipsawed boats departing for Dawson. Further, a great anxiety brooded over the camp where the boats were built. Men worked frantically, early and late, at the height of their endurance, calking, nailing, and pitching in a frenzy of haste for which adequate explanation was not far to seek. Each day the snowline crept farther down the bleak, rock-shouldered peaks, and gale followed gale, with sleet and slush and snow, and in the eddies and quiet places young ice formed and thickened through the fleeting hours. And each morn, toil-stiffened men turned wan faces across the lake to see if the freeze-up had come. For the freeze-up heralded the death of their hope—the hope that they would be floating down the swift river ere navigation closed on the chain of lakes.
不过拉斯马森也是个硬茬儿，他出到五十美分一磅时终于有了接活儿的人。两天以后，这些运货工把他的鸡蛋稳稳当当地送到了林德尔曼。但是五十美分一磅就等于是两千美元一吨，他这一千五百磅的重量耗尽了他准备的应急款，使他只能呆在坦塔罗斯角，每天看着那些新造好的小船开往道森。此外，造船的工房也笼罩在一种巨大的焦躁当中。从早到晚，人人都顶着忍耐的极限拼命地干活儿，急急忙忙地补船缝、钉钉子、涂沥青。其实这也不难理解。雪线每天都从荒凉萧瑟、山石嶙峋的雪峰上悄然下移，夹着冻雨和雪花的大风刮个不停，涡流和静水中都结起了薄冰，并随着飞逝的时光一点点加厚。每天早晨，这些忙活到手僵脚硬的人们都会抬起蜡白的脸看看湖面是否已经上冻。因为湖面一上冻，他们的希望就泡汤了——他们期望趁着一连串的湖泊还没上冻封航时，在湍急的河里顺流而下。
To harrow Rasmunsen's soul further, he discovered three competitors in the egg business. It was true that one, a little German, had gone broke and was himself forlornly back-tripping the last pack of the portage; but the other two had boats nearly completed and were daily supplicating the god of merchants and traders to stay the iron hand of winter for just another day. But the iron hand closed down over the land. Men were being frozen in the blizzard, which swept Chilkoot, and Rasmunsen frosted his toes ere he was aware. He found a chance to go passenger with his freight in a boat just shoving off through the rubble, but two hundred, hard cash, was required, and he had no money.
更让拉斯马森恼火的是，他发现了三个也做鸡蛋生意的竞争者。那个矮个儿德国人倒是已经破产，他正独自背着最后一箱货，黯然返回，但是另外两个竞争对手定做的船就快完工了，他们天天祈求商贩的保护神把寒冬的铁掌再多挡住一天。但是这铁掌已经紧紧地按在了大地上。暴风雪横扫契尔库特，很多人都冻伤了，拉斯马森的脚趾也在不知不觉中冻伤了。他本有机会搭上一条准备在冰碴子里开航的小船，但对方要价两百美元，还得是现钱，而他没有钱了。
"Ay tank you yust wait one leedle w'ile," said the Swedish boatbuilder, who had struck his Klondike right there and was wise enough to know it—"one leedle w'ile und I make you a tam fine skiff boat, sure Pete.”“我角得，你等一时间，”瑞典造船匠说，他在这儿简直是掘到了金矿，而且他也够聪明，自己明白这一层，“你等，我你给造，船好，没温题的。”
With this unpledged word to go on, Rasmunsen hit the back trail to Crater Lake, where he fell in with two press correspondents whose tangled baggage was strewn from Stone House, over across the Pass, and as far as Happy Camp.
有了这句空口无凭的保证，拉斯马森就回到了火山湖那边。在那儿他碰到了两个新闻记者，他们从石屋地穿过山道到达幸福营，一路上散失了许多行李。
"Yes," he said with consequence. "I've a thousand dozen eggs at Linderman, and my boat's just about got the last seam calked. Consider myself in luck to get it. Boats are at a premium, you know, and none to be had.”“是的，”他郑重其事地宣布，“我有一千打鸡蛋在林德尔曼，我的船就快补齐最后一条缝了。我运气还不赖，搞到了船。你们也知道，船现在很紧俏，要买都买不着。”
Whereupon and almost with bodily violence the correspondents clamored to go with him, fluttered greenbacks before his eyes, and spilled yellow twenties from hand to hand. He could not hear of it, but they overpersuaded him, and he reluctantly consented to take them at three hundred apiece. Also they pressed upon him the passage money in advance. And while they wrote to their respective journals concerning the good Samaritan with the thousand dozen eggs, the good Samaritan was hurrying back to the Swede at Linderman.
他的话一出口，两个记者嚷着要跟他同行，简直要动武了。他们拿着钞票在他眼前晃来晃去，把二十美元一枚的黄澄澄的金币在手里倒来倒去。他本不想听金币的声音，但两个记者缠住他不放，等他们每人都出到三百美元的时候，他也只好答应捎上两人。而且，两个记者硬要把旅费预付给他。当两个记者写信给各自的报馆说起这位有一千打鸡蛋的好心的撒马利亚人的时候，这位好心人正赶往林德尔曼去找那个瑞典造船匠。
"Here, you! Gimme that boat!" was his salutation, his hand jingling the correspondents' gold pieces and his eyes hungrily bent upon the finished craft.“嗨，伙计！把那船给我！”他直接这么打招呼，手里叮呤咣啷拨弄着记者给的金币，一双眼睛贪婪地盯在那条已经完工的船上。
The Swede regarded him stolidly and shook his head.
瑞典人只是冷冷地招呼了下，摇了摇头。
"How much is the other fellow paying? Three hundred? Well, here's four. Take it.”“那家伙出多少钱？三百美元？喏，这儿是四百。拿着。”
He tried to press it upon him, but the man backed away.
他想把钱塞给那个瑞典人，但是瑞典人往后退了几步。
"Ay tank not. Ay say him get der skiff boat. You yust wait—”“不熊。输过了，船，他的，给了。你等……”
"Here's six hundred. Last call. Take it or leave it. Tell'm it's a mistake.”“这儿是六百。我出最后一次价咯。要不要全看你。就跟他们说你搞错啦。”
The Swede wavered. "Ay tank yes," he finally said, and the last Rasmunsen saw of him his vocabulary was going to wreck in a vain effort to explain the mistake to the other fellows.
瑞典人动摇了。“嗯，好吧。”他终于答应了。拉斯马森最后一眼瞧见他的时候，他正在用愈发蹩脚的英语费劲地向那几个定船的人解释着哪儿搞错了，但没人买他的账。
The German slipped and broke his ankle on the steep hogback above Deep Lake, sold out his stock for a dollar a dozen, and with the proceeds hired Indian packers to carry him back to Dyea. But on the morning Rasmunsen shoved off with his correspondents, his two rivals followed suit.
那个德国人在深湖旁边的陡峭山脊上滑倒了，摔坏了脚踝，因此他以一美元一打的价钱清空了存货，拿这些钱雇了几个印第安运货工，把他抬回戴亚去了。不过拉斯马森跟两个记者开拔的那天早晨，他的两个对手也跟了上来。
"How many you got?" one of them, a lean little New Englander, called out.“你那儿有多少？”一个瘦小的新英格兰人喊道。
"One thousand dozen," Rasmunsen answered proudly.“一千打，”拉斯马森得意洋洋地应道。
"Huh! I'll go you even stakes I beat you in with my eight hundred.”“哼！我拿我的八百打也能赢你，打赌都不怕。”
The correspondents offered to lend him the money; but Rasmunsen declined, and the Yankee closed with the remaining rival, a brawny son of the sea and sailor of ships and things, who promised to show them all a wrinkle or two when it came to cracking on. And crack on he did, with a large tarpaulin squaresail which pressed the bow half under at every jump. He was the first to run out of Linderman, but, disdaining the portage, piled his loaded boat on the rocks in the boiling rapids. Rasmunsen and the Yankee, who likewise had two passengers, portaged across on their backs and then lined their empty boats down through the bad water to Bennett.
记者主动要借钱给拉斯马森打赌，但被他拒绝了。于是那个美国佬跟剩下的那个对手赌上了。那是个强壮的水里泡大的人，是个见过很多世面的水手。水手说，等满帆前进的时候，他一定要露两手。他确实满帆前进了，每过一个浪头，那张帆布大方帆就把一半的船头都压到水里。他是第一个驶出林德尔曼湖的人。但是由于他不屑于在浅水处将货物通过陆上转运，他那条满载的船在激流中搁浅了。拉斯马森和那个也搭了两个人的美国佬，靠背扛把货物转运过浅滩，然后驾着空船驶过险恶的水道，进入贝内特湖。
Bennett was a twenty-five-mile lake, narrow and deep, a funnel between the mountains through which storms ever romped. Rasmunsen camped on the sand-pit at its head, where were many men and boats bound north in the teeth of the Arctic winter. He awoke in the morning to find a piping gale from the south, which caught the chill from the whited peaks and glacial valleys and blew as cold as north wind ever blew. But it was fair, and he also found the Yankee staggering past the first bold headland with all sail set. Boat after boat was getting under way, and the correspondents fell to with enthusiasm.
贝内特湖是一个长二十五英里又窄又深的湖，像个漏斗一样夹在群山之中，时常受到风暴的光顾。拉斯马森在湖口的沙滩上搭起了帐篷，沙滩上还有许多其他顶着北极刀剑般的寒冬往北走的人，连同他们的船。他早晨醒来的时候，大风从南边呼啸着刮过来，带着雪峰冰谷的寒意，跟常年刮的寒冷北风没什么两样。但是天气其实不错，他还发现那个美国佬扬起满帆，一路跌跌撞撞地驶过第一个险峻的岬角。小船一条接一条下水启航，两个记者也充满了干劲。
"We'll catch him before Cariboo Crossing," they assured Rasmunsen, as they ran up the sail and the Alma took the first icy spray over her bow.“我们在驯鹿渡之前就能追上他，”他们拉起船帆，满怀信心地对拉斯马森说。拉斯马森命名的“阿尔玛号”的船首溅上了头一片冰冷的浪花。
Now Rasmunsen all his life had been prone to cowardice on water, but he clung to the kicking steering-oar with set face and determined jaw. His thousand dozen were there in the boat before his eyes, safely secured beneath the correspondents' baggage, and somehow, before his eyes, were the little cottage and the mortgage for a thousand dollars.
拉斯马森平生见了水就发怵，但现在他脸色坚定、牙关紧咬，牢牢握住那根被浪打得跳来跳去的掌控方向的桨。那一千打鸡蛋就在他眼前的这条小船上，稳稳当当地放在记者的行李下面；他眼前也似乎浮现出那栋小房子和换得的一千美元的抵押书。
It was bitter cold. Now and again he hauled in the steering-sweep and put out a fresh one while his passengers chopped the ice from the blade. Wherever the spray struck, it turned instantly to frost, and the dipping boom of the spritsail was quickly fringed with icicles. The Alma strained and hammered through the big seas till the seams and butts began to spread, but in lieu of bailing the correspondents chopped ice and flung it overboard. There was no let-up. The mad race with winter was on, and the boats tore along in a desperate string.
天气极冷。他时常得把那根掌控方向的桨拽上来，换上一根新的，而两个搭船的记者则负责敲掉桨叶上结的冰。浪花溅到哪儿，马上就结冰，斜杠帆的帆杆下端也很快挂满了冰柱。“阿尔玛”号大浪中奋力前行，船缝和板材结合处都松开了，而两个记者却不知道排水，只顾着敲碎冰块，扔到船外去。情况越来越危急。这场跟寒冬较劲的疯狂比赛已经开始了，一溜小船都在不顾一切地破浪前行。
"W-w-we can't stop to save our souls!" one of the correspondents chattered, from cold, not fright.“我、我、我们要想活命，就不能停！”其中一个记者结结巴巴地说，他倒不是害怕，而是因为冷。
"That's right! Keep her down the middle, old man!" the other encouraged.“说得对！划到湖中间去，老伙计！”另一个记者鼓励他说。
Rasmunsen replied with an idiotic grin. The iron-bound shores were in a lather of foam, and even down the middle the only hope was to keep running away from the big seas. To lower sail was to be overtaken and swamped. Time and again they passed boats pounding
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