作者：[英] 罗伯特·路易斯·斯蒂文森（Robert Louis Stevenson）
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内河航行记(外研社双语读库)试读：
Antwerp To Boom从安特卫普到布姆We made a great stir in Antwerp1Docks. A stevedore and a lot of dock porters took up the two canoes, and ran with them for the slip. A crowd of children followed cheering. The Cigarette went off in a splash and a bubble of small breaking water. Next moment the Arethusa was after her. A steamer was coming down, men on the paddle-box shouted hoarse warnings, the stevedore and his porters were bawling from the quay. But in a stroke or two the canoes were away out in the middle of the Scheldt2, and all steamers, and stevedores, and other 'long-shore vanities were left behind.
我们在安特卫普码头引起了一阵不小的骚动。一名码头装卸工和许多脚夫抬起两艘小艇，跑着将它们送下水。一群孩子跟在后面欢呼。“西格雷特”号扑通一声下了水，划开水面，激起一片泡沫。“阿瑞托莎”号也紧随其后出发了。一艘汽船正从上游驶来，坐在明轮罩上的船员声嘶力竭地呼喊，发出警告，那名装卸工和他的脚夫们也在码头上大声疾呼。只划了一两下，我们的小艇便驶离码头，到了斯凯尔特河中央，把所有的汽船、码头装卸工和沿岸的浮华虚幻都抛在了身后。
The sun shone brightly; the tide was making—four jolly miles an hour; the wind blew steadily, with occasional squalls. For my part, I had never been in a canoe under sail in my life; and my first experiment out in the middle of this big river was not made without some trepidation. What would happen when the wind first caught my little canvas? I suppose it was almost as trying a venture into the regions of the unknown as to publish a first book, or to marry. But my doubts were not of long duration; and in five minutes you will not be surprised to learn that I had tied my sheet.
阳光明媚，潮水上涨——我们的船以每小时四英里的速度快活地前进着，风速平稳，偶尔有阵急风。就我而言，我平生从未坐小艇航行过，如今第一次在大河中央航行，要说没点心惊胆战的感觉是不可能的。第一阵风扬起我的小帆时会是什么感觉呢？我想这一定和前往未知地带探险差不多，或是像出版一本处女作，亦或如同结婚。不过我的疑虑并未持续太长时间，五分钟后，我已经拉紧了帆脚索，你最好不要对此大惊小怪。
I own I was a little struck by this circumstance myself; of course, in company with the rest of my fellow-men, I had always tied the sheet in a sailing-boat; but in so little and crank a concern as a canoe, and with these charging squalls, I was not prepared to find myself follow the same principle; and it inspired me with some contemptuous views of our regard for life. It is certainly easier to smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk, and gravely elected for the comfortable pipe. It is a commonplace, that we cannot answer for ourselves before we have been tried. But it is not so common a reflection, and surely more consoling, that we usually find ourselves a great deal braver and better than we thought. I believe this is every one's experience: but an apprehension that they may belie themselves in the future prevents mankind from trumpeting this cheerful sentiment abroad. I wish sincerely, for it would have saved me much trouble, there had been some one to put me in a good heart about life when I was younger; to tell me how dangers are most portentous on a distant sight; and how the good in a man's spirit will not suffer itself to be overlaid, and rarely or never deserts him in the hour of need. But we are all for tootling on the sentimental flute in literature; and not a man among us will go to the head of the march to sound the heady drums.
我承认面对这样的情形自己有点不知所措。当然，和其他同伴出行时，我总是将帆船的帆脚索扣牢。但坐在像小艇这样又小又容易颠覆的玩意儿上，面对来势凶猛的阵阵狂风，我却一反以往惯例；而这也触发了我一些玩世不恭的念头。扣牢帆脚索后再吸烟当然要容易的多；但这之前，我从未在衡量显而易见的风险时考虑过舒舒服服地吸一斗烟，并严肃地决定还是抽斗烟。在亲身体验之前，我们无法给出答案——这是老生常谈。但我们常常会发现自己超乎想象的勇敢和优秀—这种感想并不普遍，但肯定更抚慰人心。我相信人人都有这样的经历：但出于担心自己将来可能辜负自己的期望，人们不敢到处宣扬这一振奋人心的看法。我多么希望在我年轻时有人能给我生活的勇气，告诉我危险如何越远观之，越为凶险，告诉我一个人的良知如何得以出淤泥而不染，且在需要之时很少或绝不离开他，这样就能省去我诸多麻烦。但我们都赞同在文学上轻轻吹奏柔情的长笛，却没有一个人会走到队伍的前头去擂响激昂的战鼓。
It was agreeable upon the river. A barge or two went past laden with hay. Reeds and willows bordered the stream; and cattle and grey venerable horses came and hung their mild heads over the embankment. Here and there was a pleasant village among trees, with a noisy shipping-yard; here and there a villa in a lawn. The wind served us well up the Scheldt and thereafter up the Rupel; and we were running pretty free when we began to sight the brickyards of Boom, lying for a long way on the right bank of the river. The left bank was still green and pastoral, with alleys of trees along the embankment, and here and there a flight of steps to serve a ferry, where perhaps there sat a woman with her elbows on her knees, or an old gentleman with a staff and silver spectacles. But Boom and its brickyards grew smokier and shabbier with every minute; until a great church with a clock, and a wooden bridge over the river, indicated the central quarters of the town.
河上风景宜人。一两艘驳船载着干草经过。芦苇和柳树装点着河流；牛群和一些灰色的老马来到岸边，低下它们柔顺的头喝水。岸边树丛中不时出现美丽的村庄和繁忙的船坞，草地上也到处可见一幢幢乡村别墅。我们顺风航行到斯凯尔特河，接着上了鲁佩尔河。我们正无忧无虑地前行，然后开始可以看到布姆的砖厂了，在右岸排了很长一列。左岸依然绿意盎然，一派田园风光。河堤上绿树成径，到处可见一段段用作渡口的台阶，有时上面会坐着一名妇女，手肘支在膝上；亦或坐着一位年老的绅士，手拄拐杖，戴着银边眼镜。但越往前走，布姆和它的砖厂就显得更加灰暗和破旧；直到看到一座气势宏伟的时钟高悬教堂，一座跨越河流的木桥，我们这才知道已到了这座城镇的中心地段了。
Boom is not a nice place, and is only remarkable for one thing: that the majority of the inhabitants have a private opinion that they can speak English, which is not justified by fact. This gave a kind of haziness to our intercourse. As for the Hotel de la Navigation, I think it is the worst feature of the place. It boasts of a sanded parlour, with a bar at one end, looking on the street; and another sanded parlour, darker and colder, with an empty bird-cage and a tricolour3subscription box by way of sole adornment, where we made shift to dine in the company of three uncommunicative engineer apprentices and a silent bagman. The food, as usual in Belgium, was of a nondescript occasional character; indeed I have never been able to detect anything in the nature of a meal among this pleasing people; they seem to peck and trifle with viands all day long in an amateur spirit: tentatively French, truly German, and somehow falling between the two.
布姆并不是个迷人的地方，只有一件事值得一提：大多数居民私底下都认为自己能讲英语，但事实并非如此。这使得我们之间的交流有点含混不清。至于航海酒店，我认为是布姆最糟糕的地方了。它自夸有一间铺沙的会客室：其中一头有个酒吧，正对着街道；另一头是铺沙的客厅，较先前那个阴冷些。屋里有一只空鸟笼和一个仅做装饰之用的三色旗捐款箱。在这里，我们凑合着和三个沉默寡言的工程师学徒、一个缄默的行商一起用餐。食物嘛，就像通常会在比利时吃到的那样，就是一般酒席上那种；实际上，在与这些可爱的居民相处时我从未觉察出食物有什么与众不同之处；他们似乎整天以业余美食家的精神啄食和品玩着各种食物：似为法国式的，实则德国式的，或介乎两者之间。
The empty birdcage, swept and garnished, and with no trace of the old piping favourite, save where two wires had been pushed apart to hold its lump of sugar, carried with it a sort of graveyard cheer. The engineer apprentices would have nothing to say to us, nor indeed to the bagman; but talked low and sparingly to one another, or raked us in the gaslight with a gleam of spectacles. For though handsome lads, they were all (in the Scots phrase) barnacled.
那个空鸟笼被收拾的干净、漂亮，却没有了昔日爱鸟啼声婉转的踪迹，只是有两根分开的铁丝夹着一块糖，颇有点祭奠的意味。那三个工程师学徒不想和我们攀谈，和那个行商也没什么聊的，只是彼此之间低声交谈，出言谨慎，有时借着煤气灯光扫我们一眼，他们眼镜片的反光便随之闪一下。虽然这几个家伙外表俊朗，但他们都“戴着藤壶壳”（苏格兰语）。
There was an English maid in the hotel, who had been long enough out of England to pick up all sorts of funny foreign idioms, and all sorts of curious foreign ways, which need not here be specified. She spoke to us very fluently in her jargon, asked us information as to the manners of the present day in England, and obligingly corrected us when we attempted to answer. But as we were dealing with a woman, perhaps our information was not so much thrown away as it appeared. The sex likes to pick up knowledge and yet preserve its superiority. It is good policy, and almost necessary in the circumstances. If a man finds a woman admire him, were it only for his acquaintance with geography, he will begin at once to build upon the admiration. It is only by unintermittent snubbing that the pretty ones can keep us in our place. Men, as Miss Howe or Miss Harlowe4would have said, "are such encroachers". For my part, I am body and soul with the women; and after a well-married couple, there is nothing so beautiful in the world as the myth of the divine huntress5. It is no use for a man to take to the woods; we know him; St. Anthony6tried the same thing long ago, and had a pitiful time of it by all accounts. But there is this about some women, which overtops the best gymnosophist7among men, that they suffice to themselves, and can walk in a high and cold zone without the countenance of any trousered being. I declare, although the reverse of a professed ascetic, I am more obliged to women for this ideal than I should be to the majority of them, or indeed to any but one, for a spontaneous kiss. There is nothing so encouraging as the spectacle of self-sufficiency. And when I think of the slim and lovely maidens, running the woods all night to the note of Diana's horn; moving among the old oaks, as fancy-free as they; things of the forest and the starlight, not touched by the commotion of man's hot and turbid life—although there are plenty other ideals that I should prefer—I find my heart beat at the thought of this one. 'Tis to fail in life, but to fail with what a grace! That is not lost which is not regretted. And where—here slips out the male—where would be much of the glory of inspiring love, if there were no contempt to overcome?
酒店里有个来自英格兰的女工，她离开英格兰已有相当长一段时间，学会了各种有趣的异域习语和古怪的行事方式，在此就无需赘述了。她用行话很流利地和我们聊天，问及时下英格兰的风俗习惯，而在我们试图回答时，又热心地纠正我们。但由于我们是在和一个女人打交道，或许我们提供的信息不像表面上那样被弃之不顾。女人喜欢打探消息，同时又保持其优越感。这是个明智的办法，在这种情形下也差不多是必需的。如果男人发现一个女人钦佩他，即使仅仅因为他精通地理，他也会立即得意忘形。美女们只有持续不断地冷落我们，才能让我们老老实实地呆着不动。正如豪小姐或哈洛小姐所说，男人“就是爱得寸进尺”。就我而言，我全身心站在女性一边；仅次于一对婚姻幸福的夫妇，人世间最美丽的莫过于狩猎女神的神话。男人逃往山林是没用的；我们知道有这么个人；很久以前圣安东尼就试过这种方法，但据说过得惨不忍睹。但却有一些这样的女性，胜过男人中最杰出的天衣派信徒，她们自力更生，没有男人的支持亦能行走于高寒地带。我声明我绝非不食人间烟火，但令我倾心的并非是芸芸女子那情不自禁的绵绵之吻，而是这类女子崇高的理想境界。没有什么比自力更生的景象更鼓舞人心的了。当我想象苗条可爱的少女随着狄安娜号角的曲调在林中彻夜奔跑，想象如她们一样无拘无束地穿梭于老橡树之间，想象森林中的事物和不受男人那炽热的、混浊的生活所影响的星光——尽管还有许多其他理想值得我追寻——一想到此，我就怦然心动。这是生活中的失败，但失败得如此优雅！没有后悔，失足也就无从谈起。同样——这里自然要提到男人——如不需克服这种蔑视，何来鼓舞人心的爱情之光？
(1)安特卫普，比利时北部城市，世界大港之一。
(2)斯凯尔特河，或译些耳德河，发源于法国北部，流经比利时，在荷兰注入北海。
(3)三色旗，蓝白红三色的法国国旗。
(4)哈洛小姐，英国小说家塞缪尔·理查逊书信体小说《克拉丽莎·哈洛》中的主人公，豪小姐是她的密友，两人互通书信。
(5)狩猎女神，指罗马神话中的狄安娜（Diana），亦为月神。
(6)圣安东尼（约512-约356），古埃及隐修士，相传系基督教古代隐修院的创建人。
(7)天衣派信徒。天衣派，形成于公元1世纪，为印度耆那教派别之一，认为教徒不应有私财，只能以天为衣，重苦行，靠乞食为生。On The Willebroek Canal在维勒布鲁克运河上
Next morning, when we set forth on the Willebroek Canal, the rain began heavy and chill. The water of the canal stood at about the drinking temperature of tea; and under this cold aspersion, the surface was covered with steam. The exhilaration of departure, and the easy motion of the boats under each stroke of the paddles, supported us through this misfortune while it lasted; and when the cloud passed and the sun came out again, our spirits went up above the range of stay-athome humours. A good breeze rustled and shivered in the rows of trees that bordered the canal. The leaves flickered in and out of the light in tumultuous masses. It seemed sailing weather to eye and ear; but down between the banks, the wind reached us only in faint and desultory puffs. There was hardly enough to steer by. Progress was intermittent and unsatisfactory. A jocular person, of marine antecedents, hailed us from the tow-path with a 'C'est vite, mais c'est long.'
第二天一早，我们从维勒布鲁克运河出发时，下起了大雨，寒气逼人。运河的水温与饮茶的温度差不多；冷雨下，河面上覆盖着一层水气。尽管雨下个不停，但并没对我们造成太大影响。我们还是怀着愉快的心情启程了，每划一次桨，小艇都能很轻松地前行。乌云散去，太阳又探出头来时，我们已不再是那种“还不如呆在家”的心情了。和风阵阵，穿过运河边排排树木，吹起层层树叶，在阳光下摇曳生姿，忽明忽暗。看天色，听风声，这似乎是个适于航行的天气。但风吹过两岸间，吹到我们身上时，则变得微弱并且断断续续，无力推进小艇。航行速度时快时慢，不尽如人意。纤道上一个爱开玩笑的老船夫向我们吆喝道：“你们速度很快，但路还远着呢。”
The canal was busy enough. Every now and then we met or overtook a long string of boats, with great green tillers; high sterns with a window on either side of the rudder, and perhaps a jug or a flower-pot in one of the windows; a dinghy following behind; a woman busied about the day's dinner, and a handful of children. These barges were all tied one behind the other with tow ropes, to the number of twenty-five or thirty; and the line was headed and kept in motion by a steamer of strange construction. It had neither paddle-wheel nor screw; but by some gear not rightly comprehensible to the unmechanical mind, it fetched up over its bow a small bright chain which lay along the bottom of the canal, and paying it out again over the stern, dragged itself forward, link by link, with its whole retinue of loaded skows. Until one had found out the key to the enigma, there was something solemn and uncomfortable in the progress of one of these trains, as it moved gently along the water with nothing to mark its advance but an eddy alongside dying away into the wake.
运河上熙熙攘攘，一片繁忙景象。我们不时遇上连在一长串一起的驳船，或从它们旁边超过。这些船的船尾很高，舵柄很大，呈绿色。在方向舵的两端各有一扇窗户，其中一扇窗户上似乎还放着一个水壶或是一个花盆。后面跟着一条救生艇。一名妇女忙着做饭，还要照顾几个小孩。这些驳船用纤绳首尾相连，有二十五至三十艘的样子。一艘构造奇特的汽船在前面领航，带动后面的驳船行进。这艘汽船既无明轮，也无螺旋桨；它有某种传动装置，将河底一根明亮的细链条拉出穿过船首，再从船尾松出链条，环环相扣，拖着后面满载货物的驳船前进——不懂机械的人不易理解这种装置。解开疑问前，驳船的前进让人感到有些严肃和不安，因为它在水中缓慢前进，除了两边并排的漩涡渐渐汇入尾流，没有其他迹象表明它在行进。
Of all the creatures of commercial enterprise, a canal barge is by far the most delightful to consider. It may spread its sails, and then you see it sailing high above the tree-tops and the windmill, sailing on the aqueduct, sailing through the green cornlands: the most picturesque of things amphibious. Or the horse plods along at a foot-pace as if there were no such thing as business in the world; and the man dreaming at the tiller sees the same spire on the horizon all day long. It is a mystery how things ever get to their destination at this rate; and to see the barges waiting their turn at a lock, affords a fine lesson of how easily the world may be taken. There should be many contented spirits on board, for such a life is both to travel and to stay at home.
迄今为止在商业经营的所有产物当中，运河驳船是最令人愉悦的。它扬帆启航，你会感到它是在树梢和风车之上的高处航行，它驶上高架渠，驶过绿油油的麦田：构成最美的水陆风景画。或是让马拉着纤绳以步行速度沉重缓慢地移动，似乎世上压根儿没有商业这回事儿；船员靠在舵柄上做梦，整天都看到地平线上同一个尖顶。照这样的速度，货物究竟如何能到目的地，真是令人百思不得其解；看到驳船在船闸处排队等待通行，则给我们好好上了一课—告诉我们如何简单地看待世界。驳船的甲板上应该有很多心满意足的人，因为这样的生活既是旅行，也是在家休息。
The chimney smokes for dinner as you go along; the banks of the canal slowly unroll their scenery to contemplative eyes; the barge floats by great forests and through great cities with their public buildings and their lamps at night; and for the bargee, in his floating home, "travelling abed," it is merely as if he were listening to another man's story or turning the leaves of a picture-book in which he had no concern. He may take his afternoon walk in some foreign country on the banks of the canal, and then come home to dinner at his own fireside.
随船向前，烟囱里冒出了炊烟；运河两岸的景色向沉思者慢慢展现开来；驳船漂过一片片茂密的树林，穿过一座座大城市，饱览城里的公共建筑和灯火阑珊。对船夫而言，在他的水上之家，他“躺在床上旅行”，就像在听别人的故事，或是翻看与自己无关的画册。下午时分，他兴许会漫步于运河两岸陌生的乡村，然后回到家，坐在炉边吃晚餐。
There is not enough exercise in such a life for any high measure of health; but a high measure of health is only necessary for unhealthy people. The slug of a fellow, who is never ill nor well, has a quiet time of it in life, and dies all the easier.
以高标准的健康要求来衡量，这样的生活缺乏足够的锻炼，但只有不健康的人才需要高标准的健康要求。懒汉从不生病，当然也不健壮，生活过得波澜不惊，死的时候倒更轻松。
I am sure I would rather be a bargee than occupy any position under heaven that required attendance at an office. There are few callings, I should say, where a man gives up less of his liberty in return for regular meals. The bargee is on shipboard—he is master in his own ship—he can land whenever he will—he can never be kept beating off a lee-shore a whole frosty night when the sheets are as hard as iron; and so far as I can make out, time stands as nearly still with him as is compatible with the return of bed-time or the dinner-hour. It is not easy to see why a bargee should ever die.
我相信，在人世间我宁可当个船夫，也不愿在要求出勤坐班的办公室谋得一职。应该说，为了谋得一日三餐，你再找不到什么差事比这更自由了。船夫呆在船上，便是船的主人——只要他愿意，随时可以上岸。在降霜的夜里，当帆脚索冻得如铁一般硬，他不用一整夜都被海浪冲击而进不了背风港。依我看，时间对他来说几乎是静止的，不过是又到了该睡觉或者吃晚饭的时候。真不明白船夫怎么还会死。
Half-way between Willebroek and Villevorde, in a beautiful reach of canal like a squire's avenue, we went ashore to lunch. There were two eggs, a junk of bread, and a bottle of wine on board the Arethusa; and two eggs and an Etna cooking apparatus on board the Cigarette. The master of the latter boat smashed one of the eggs in the course of disembarkation; but observing pleasantly that it might still be cooked à la papier, he dropped it into the Etna, in its covering of Flemish newspaper. We landed in a blink of fine weather; but we had not been two minutes ashore before the wind freshened into half a gale, and the rain began to patter on our shoulders. We sat as close about the Etna as we could. The spirits burned with great ostentation; the grass caught flame every minute or two, and had to be trodden out; and before long, there were several burnt fingers of the party. But the solid quantity of cookery accomplished was out of proportion with so much display; and when we desisted, after two applications of the fire, the sound egg was little more than loo-warm; and as for à la papier, it was a cold and sordid fricassee of printer's ink and broken egg-shell. We made shift to roast the other two, by putting them close to the burning spirits; and that with better success. And then we uncorked the bottle of wine, and sat down in a ditch with our canoe aprons over our knees. It rained smartly. Discomfort, when it is honestly uncomfortable and makes no nauseous pretensions to the contrary, is a vastly humorous business; and people well steeped and stupefied in the open air are in a good vein for laughter. From this point of view, even egg à la papier offered by way of food may pass muster as a sort of accessory to the fun. But this manner of jest, although it may be taken in good part, does not invite repetition; and from that time forward, the Etna voyaged like a gentleman in the locker of the Cigarette.
从维勒布鲁克到维勒沃德的中途，有一处河段风光旖旎，犹如地主人家的林荫道，我们在这里上岸吃午饭。“阿瑞托莎”号带了两个鸡蛋、一大块面包和一瓶葡萄酒；“西格雷特”号也带了两个鸡蛋，还有一套小酒精炉炊具。“西格雷特”号的主人在上岸时打碎了一个蛋，他并不沮丧，想着兴许还能裹在纸里煮，便把碎了的蛋用佛兰芒语报纸裹着扔进小酒精炉里煮。我们上岸的那一刻还风和日丽，可在岸上没呆两分钟就狂风大作起来，雨点啪哒啪哒打在肩头。我们尽量紧挨着酒精炉坐；酒精猛烈地燃烧着，每隔一两分钟地上的草就会着火，我们不得不把它踩熄；没过多久，我们的几根手指也烧伤了。但与如此的洋相相比，我们完成的烹饪量并不相称。烧了两次火我们才作罢，那个完好的蛋稍显温热；而裹在纸里的那个蛋，变成了又冷又脏、混着印刷油墨和碎蛋壳的烩蛋块。我们继而烘烤另外两个蛋，把它们凑近燃烧的酒精，这样效果好一些。接着，我们拔去酒瓶的木塞，坐在一条沟渠里，将小艇的挡板架在膝盖上方。瓢泼大雨倾泻下来。如果是真正觉得难受，而不是令人恶心地假装舒服的话，不舒服就成了件非常有趣的事了；人们在户外淋成落汤鸡、一筹莫展的样子，确实令人发笑。这样看来，甚至吃裹在报纸里煮的鸡蛋也无伤大雅，尽可把它当成这件趣事的笑料了。但是这种笑话，尽管能让人一笑了之，却不愿再来一次。打那以后，酒精炉就呆在“西格雷特”号的储物箱里，像绅士一样航行了。
It is almost unnecessary to mention that when lunch was over and we got aboard again and made sail, the wind promptly died away. The rest of the journey to Villevorde, we still spread our canvas to the unfavouring air; and with now and then a puff, and now and then a spell of paddling, drifted along from lock to lock, between the orderly trees.
自不必说，当我们吃完午饭、回到船上，扬帆准备继续航行时，风又忽然减弱了。我们继续朝维勒沃德航行，虽然风力太小，我们仍旧挂着船帆；时而借一阵风，时而划一阵桨，我们穿行于两岸整齐的树木中，驶过了一个个船闸。
It was a fine, green, fat landscape; or rather a mere green water-lane, going on from village to village. Things had a settled look, as in places long lived in. Crop-headed children spat upon us from the bridges as we went below, with a true conservative feeling. But even more conservative were the fishermen, intent upon their floats, who let us go by without one glance. They perched upon sterlings and buttresses and along the slope of the embankment, gently occupied. They were indifferent, like pieces of dead nature. They did not move any more than if they had been fishing in an old Dutch print. The leaves fluttered, the water lapped, but they continued in one stay like so many churches established by law. You might have trepanned every one of their innocent heads, and found no more than so much coiled fishing-line below their skulls. I do not care for your stalwart fellows in India-rubber stockings breasting up mountain torrents with a salmon rod; but I do dearly love the class of man who plies his unfruitful art, for ever and a day, by still and depopulated waters.
这是一幅青翠、富饶的美景；或者更准确地说，仅是一条绿色水路，沿岸是一座连一座的村庄。事物都有了固定的模样，正如长期住人的房子一样。我们从桥下经过时，留着平头的小孩儿，站在桥上朝我们吐唾沫，一副小心谨慎的样子。殊不知更谨慎的是那些钓鱼的人，他们专注于浮标，任我们从旁经过，看都不看一眼。他们沿堤岸的斜坡排开，坐在分水桩和扶墙上，悠然自得。他们漠然冷淡，像一块块毫无生气的木头；他们纹丝不动，像古老的荷兰拓印画里的垂钓者。树叶抖动，河水拍岸，而他们却始终保持一个姿势，如同许多法定修建的教堂。即便在他们单纯的脑袋上打个眼儿，你会发现其中除了盘成一团的鱼线，就没有别的东西了。我并不喜欢那些脚穿橡胶长靴、手拿鲑鱼钓竿、挺胸面对山间急流的壮汉；但我倒真喜欢上眼前这些人，他们静坐在安宁平静、人迹稀少的水边，即使很长时间都毫无成效，却仍乐此不疲。
At the last lock, just beyond Villevorde, there was a lock-mistress who spoke French comprehensibly, and told us we were still a couple of leagues1from Brussels. At the same place, the rain began again. It fell in straight, parallel lines; and the surface of the canal was thrown up into an infinity of little crystal fountains. There were no beds to be had in the neighbourhood. Nothing for it but to lay the sails aside and address ourselves to steady paddling in the rain.
在到达维勒沃德之前的最后一个船闸那里，有个女闸主（她说的法语我们尚能听懂）告诉我们还有几里格才到布鲁塞尔。就在这里，雨又下起来。大雨如注，在运河表面溅起无数清澈透明的小喷泉。附近没有可供住宿的地方。我们别无他法，只能把帆收好放在一旁，在雨中稳健地划动船桨。
Beautiful country houses, with clocks and long lines of shuttered windows, and fine old trees standing in groves and avenues, gave a rich and sombre aspect in the rain and the deepening dusk to the shores of the canal. I seem to have seen something of the same effect in engravings: opulent landscapes, deserted and overhung with the passage of storm. And throughout we had the escort of a hooded cart, which trotted shabbily along the tow-path, and kept at an almost uniform distance in our wake.
美丽的田园屋舍，屋上镶着钟，还有长排的百叶窗，苍劲的古树挺立在丛林里和道路旁，在雨中显得浓郁而昏暗，令运河两岸暮霭重重。这种效果近乎雕版画：富饶的风光，经过暴风雨的洗礼，凸显荒凉、破败。全程都有一辆大篷车陪伴着我们，在纤道上颠簸前进，追随着小艇的尾波，与我们保持着几乎不变的距离。
(1)里格，旧时长度单位，1里格约等于4800米。The Royal Sport Nautique皇家航海俱乐部
The rain took off near Laeken. But the sun was already down; the air was chill; and we had scarcely a dry stitch between the pair of us. Nay, now we found ourselves near the end of the Allee Verte, and on the very threshold of Brussels, we were confronted by a serious difficulty. The shores were closely lined by canal boats waiting their turn at the lock. Nowhere was there any convenient landing-place; nowhere so much as a stable-yard to leave the canoes in for the night. We scrambled ashore and entered an estaminet where some sorry fellows were drinking with the landlord. The landlord was pretty round with us; he knew of no coach-house or stableyard, nothing of the sort; and seeing we had come with no mind to drink, he did not conceal his impatience to be rid of us. One of the sorry fellows came to the rescue. Somewhere in the corner of the basin there was a slip, he informed us, and something else besides, not very clearly defined by him, but hopefully construed by his hearers.
快到莱肯时，雨停了。可太阳已经下山，空气寒冷，我俩的衣服上几乎没有哪块不湿的。不仅如此，我们这时已快到绿阴大道的尽头，布鲁塞尔就在眼前，而一个棘手的问题出现了。运河两岸密密麻麻排列着船只，等待通闸。没有任何适合上岸的地方，甚至连一个可让小艇停靠过夜的地方都没有。我们爬上岸，进了一家小酒馆，酒馆里几个衣衫褴褛的家伙正和老板喝酒。老板对我们很不客气；他没听说过有马车房或棚院这一类的地方；见我们来此地并无喝酒之意，他就毫不掩饰自己不耐烦的心情，想赶我们走。那几个穷酸的家伙中有一个走过来帮了我们。他告诉我们，在内湾拐角的某处有个船台，还额外嘱咐了几声，他描述得并不十分清楚，却使我们看到了希望。
Sure enough there was the slip in the corner of the basin; and at the top of it two nice-looking lads in boating clothes. The Arethusa addressed himself to these. One of them said there would be no difficulty about a night's lodging for our boats; and the other, taking a cigarette from his lips, inquired if they were made by Searle and Son. The name was quite an introduction. Half-a-dozen other young men came out of a boathouse bearing the superscription ROYAL SPORT NAUTIQUE, and joined in the talk. They were all very polite, voluble, and enthusiastic; and their discourse was interlarded with English boating terms, and the names of English boat-builders and English clubs. I do not know, to my shame, any spot in my native land where I should have been so warmly received by the same number of people. We were English boating-men, and the Belgian boating-men fell upon our necks. I wonder if French Huguenots1were as cordially greeted by English Protestants when they came across the Channel out of great tribulation. But after all, what religion knits people so closely as a common sport?
内湾拐角处果真有个船台，船台顶端站着两个着航行服装的英俊少年。“阿瑞托莎”号的主人朝他们打招呼。其中一个说我们的船在这儿寄存一夜没什么问题；另一个则把烟从唇间拿开，询问这两艘小艇是不是塞尔父子公司制造的。造船商的名字颇有引见效力。另有五、六个年轻人，佩带着印有“皇家航海俱乐部”字样的标志，从船棚里走出来，一起攀谈起来。他们都很有礼貌，健谈而热心。他们的谈话中夹杂着英国航行术语，以及英格兰造船商和俱乐部的名字。令我惭愧的是，在自己的国家，却从来没有这么多人如此热情地接待过我。我们是英格兰航行者，却被比利时航行者簇拥着。当法国的胡格诺派教徒由于大迫害而横渡英吉利海峡来到英国时，不知道他们是否受到了英国新教徒同样热诚的欢迎。但话说回来，有什么宗教能像一项普及的体育运动一样把人们如此紧密地结合在一起呢？
The canoes were carried into the boat-house; they were washed down for us by the Club servants, the sails were hung out to dry, and everything made as snug and tidy as a picture. And in the meanwhile we were led upstairs by our new-found brethren, for so more than one of them stated the relationship, and made free of their lavatory. This one lent us soap, that one a towel, a third and fourth helped us to undo our bags. And all the time such questions, such assurances of respect and sympathy! I declare I never knew what glory was before.
小艇被抬进船棚，俱乐部的雇工替我们冲洗了船身，帆也挂在外面晾干，一切收拾得整洁有序，如图画一般。其间，新结交的同行把我们领上楼，他们中不只一人向我们表达了这样的友谊，并让我们随意使用他们的舆洗室。这个给我们香皂，那个给毛巾，另外两个则帮我们解开包裹。他们就这样一直问长问短，尊敬与慰问之情溢于言表！我声明，在此之前，我从不知何谓荣耀。
'Yes, yes, the Royal Sport Nautique is the oldest club in Belgium.'“是的，没错，皇家航海俱乐部是比利时历史最悠久的俱乐部。”
'We number two hundred.'“我们有二百名会员。”
'We'—this is not a substantive speech, but an abstract of many speeches, the impression left upon my mind after a great deal of talk; and very youthful, pleasant, natural, and patriotic it seems to me to be—'We have gained all races, except those where we were cheated by the French.'“我们”——这并不是一个实词，而是千言万语的精要，这可是多次谈话后留给我的印象。在我看来，“我们”一词象征着青春、快乐、自然和爱国：“我们赢得了所有的比赛，除了法国人弄虚作假的那几场外。”
'You must leave all your wet things to be dried.'“你们得把所有淋湿的东西都拿出来晾干。”
'O! entre freres! In any boat-house in England we should find the same.'(I cordially hope they might.)“呵！亲如兄弟嘛！在英格兰的任何一处船棚，我们也会发现同样的兄弟之情。”（我诚挚地希望他们能够享受到。）
'En Angleterre, vous employez des sliding-seats, n'est-ce pas?'“在英格兰，赛艇上装有滑座，是吧？”
'We are all employed in commerce during the day; but in the evening, voyez-vous, nous sommes serieux.'“白天，我们受雇从事商业活动；到了晚上，你看，我们就专注于自己的事情啦。”
These were the words. They were all employed over the frivolous mercantile concerns of Belgium during the day; but in the evening they found some hours for the serious concerns of life. I may have a wrong idea of wisdom, but I think that was a very wise remark. People connected with literature and philosophy are busy all their days in getting rid of secondhand notions and false standards. It is their profession, in the sweat of their brows, by dogged thinking, to recover their old fresh view of life, and distinguish what they really and originally like, from what they have only learned to tolerate perforce. And these Royal Nautical Sportsmen had the distinction still quite legible in their hearts. They had still those clean perceptions of what is nice and nasty, what is interesting and what is dull, which envious old gentlemen refer to as illusions. The nightmare illusion of middle age, the bear's hug of custom gradually squeezing the life out of a man's soul, had not yet begun for these happy-starred young Belgians. They still knew that the interest they took in their business was a trifling affair compared to their spontaneous, long-suffering affection for nautical sports. To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. Such a man may be generous; he may be honest in something more than the commercial sense; he may love his friends with an elective, personal sympathy, and not accept them as an adjunct of the
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