兔子和呱呱的日常（听读兔子巴比蒂和她的呱呱树桩）

兔子巴比蒂和她的呱呱树桩(2)

★ 第8章 ★

The story of “Babbitty Rabbity and her Cackling Stump” is, in many ways, the most “real” of Beedle's tales, in that the magic described in the story conforms, almost entirely, to known magical laws.

在许多方面，《兔子巴比蒂和她的呱呱树桩》都是彼豆故事中最“真实”的，因为故事中的魔法几乎完全遵循了已知的魔法规则。

It was through this story that many of us first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead –and a great disappointment and shock it was, convinced as we had been, as young children, that our parents would be able to awaken our dead rats and cats with one wave of their wands.

正是通过这个故事，我们许多人第一次发现魔法不能起死回生——这是一种莫大的失望和震惊，因为作为孩子，我们一直相信父母只要一挥魔杖，就会让那些死去的老鼠和猫苏醒过来。

Though some six centuries have elapsed since Beedle wrote this tale, and while we have devised innumerable ways of maintaining the illusion of our loved ones' continuing presence, (Note. 1: Wizarding photographs and portraits move and (in the case of the latter) talk just like their subjects.

尽管从彼豆写这个故事起已经过了六个多世纪，我们仍一直在想发明各种办法保持那种我们所爱的人还会继续存在的幻想。(注释一：魔法照片和肖像会动，而且(在肖像中)还会像真人一样说话。

Other rare objects, such as the Mirror of Erised, may also reveal more than a static image of a lost loved one.

其他稀罕物品，如厄里斯魔镜，跟静态图片比起来，也能透露已故亲人更多的情况。

Ghosts are transparent, moving, talking and thinking versions of wizards and witches who wished, for whatever reason, to remain on earth. JKR) wizards still have not found a way of reuniting body and soul once death has occurred.

幽灵是某些巫师的透明的、活动的、会说话会思想的翻版，这些巫师出于某种原因希望继续留在世界上。——J.K.罗琳注。但是，巫师们仍然没有找到一种在死亡发生之后，把身体和灵魂重新连接在一起的办法。

As the eminent wizarding philosopher Bertrand de Pensées-Profondes writes in his celebrated work A Study into the Possibility of Reversing the Actual and Metaphysical Effects of NaturalDeath, with Particular Regard to the Reintegration of Essence and Matter: “Give it up. It's never going to happen.”

正如著名的魔法哲学家伯特兰·德·潘西-普罗方德斯在他的名著《对自然死亡之实际及抽象结果的研究，特别是对精神与物质的再度统一的研究》中所写的：“放弃吧。这种事永远不会发生。”

The tale of Babbitty Rabbitty does, however, give us one of the earliest literary mentions of an Animagus, for Babbitty the washerwoman is possessed of the rare magical ability to transform into an animal at will.

不过，兔子巴比蒂的故事倒是首次在文学作品中提到了阿尼马格斯，因为洗衣妇巴比蒂拥有罕见的法术，能够随心所欲地变形为一只动物。

Animagi make up a small fraction of the wizarding population.

阿尼马格斯只占巫师人口中的很少一部分。

Achieving perfect, spontaneous human to animal transformation requires much study and practice, and many witches and wizards consider that their time might be better employed in other ways.

要熟练而自然地由人转变为动物，需要大量的钻研和练习，许多巫师认为把时间用在别的方面更有价值。

Certainly, the application of such a talent is limited unless one has a great need of disguise or concealment.

当然，对这种才能的利用是非常有限的，除非此人特别需要伪装或隐藏自己。

It is for this reason that the Ministry of Magic has insisted upon a register of Animagi, for there can be no doubt that this kind of magic is of greatest use to those engaged in surreptitious, covert or even criminal activity.

正是由于这个原因，魔法部坚持把所有的阿尼马格斯登记在案，因为对于那些从事鬼鬼祟祟、不可告人的勾当，甚至从事犯罪活动的人来说，这类魔法无疑是十分有用的。

(Note. 2: Professor McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, has asked me to make clear that she became an Animagus merely as a result of her extensive researches into all fields of Transfiguration, and that she has never used the ability to turn into a tabby cat for any surreptitious purpose, setting aside legitimate business on behalf of the Order of the Phoenix where secrecy and concealment were imperative. JKR)

(注释二：霍格沃茨学校的校长麦格教授要求我说明，她之所以成为阿尼玛格斯，是因为她广泛研究变形术的各种领域。她从没把变成花斑猫的本领用于任何不可告人的勾当，除了凤凰社的正事，但在这种情况下必须遵守保密和隐藏的准则。——J.K.罗琳注)

Whether there was ever a washerwoman who was able to transform into a rabbit is open to doubt; however, some magical historians have suggested that Beedle modeled Babbitty on the famous French sorceress Lisette de Lapin, who was convicted of witchcraft in Paris in 1422.

是否真有这样一个能变为兔子的洗衣妇，还有待证实。但是，一些魔法历史学家提出，彼豆是根据法国著名的女魔法师莉塞特·德·拉潘的形象塑造巴比蒂的。莉塞特于一四二二年因在巴黎从事巫术活动被判刑。

To the astonishment of her Muggle guards, who were later tried for helping the witch to escape, Lisette vanished from her prison cell the night before she was due to be executed.

令那些麻瓜看守大为吃惊的是，就在莉塞特将要被处死的前一天夜里，她从牢房里消失了，他们本打算晚些时候帮助女巫越狱的。

Although it has never been proven that Lisette was an Animagus who managed to squeeze through the bars of her cell window, a large white rabbit was subsequently seen crossing the English Channel in a cauldron with a sail fitted to it, and a similar rabbit later became a trusted advisor at the court of King Henry VI.

尽管没有证据可以证明莉塞特是一个阿尼马格斯，从牢房窗户的栏杆间挤了出去，但是随后人们看见一只大白兔坐着一口扬着船帆的坩埚渡过了英吉利海峡。后来有一只形似的兔子成了国王亨利六世朝廷里的心腹顾问。

(Note. 3: This may have contributed to that Muggle King's reputation for mental instability. )

(注释三：这大概说明了麻瓜国王以思想不稳定闻名的原因。)

The King in Beedle's story is a foolish Muggle who both covets and fears magic.

彼豆故事里的国王，是一个愚蠢的麻瓜，他对魔法既垂涎又害怕。

He believes that he can become a wizard simply by learning incantations and waving a wand.

他相信，他只要通过学习念咒语和挥魔杖就能成为一名巫师。

(Note. 4: As intensive studies in the Department of Mysteries demonstrated as far back as1672, wizards and witches are born, not created.

(注释四：早在一六七三年，神秘事务司的深入研究就显示，巫师是天生的，而不是造就的。

While the “rogue” ability to perform magic sometimes appears in those of apparent non-magical descent (though several later studies have suggested that there will have been a witch or wizard somewhere on the family tree), Muggles cannot perform magic.

麻瓜不会施魔法，尽管有时非魔法人士会表现出会施魔法的“异常”本领(不过后来的几项研究提出，这些家族里偶尔确实会出现一个巫师)。

The best - or worst - they could hope for are random and uncontrollable effects generated by a genuine magical wand, which, as an instrument through which magic is supposed to be channeled, sometimes holds residual power that it may discharge at odd moments – see also the notes on wand lore for “The Tale of the Three Brothers”. )

他们最多能够奢望的，是一根真正有魔力的魔杖随意地、无法控制地发挥作用，因为魔杖作为输送魔法的工具，有时候会保留一些残余力量，偶尔就会释放出来——参照《三兄弟的传说》评论中关于魔杖学的笔记。)

He is completely ignorant of the true nature of magic and wizards and therefore swallows the preposterous suggestions of both the charlatan and Babbitty.

他完全不知道魔法和巫师的真正特性，因此只好把江湖骗子和巴比蒂的荒唐建议照单全收。

This is certainly typical of a particular type of Muggle thinking: in their ignorance, they are prepared to accept all sorts of impossibilities about magic, including the proposition that Babbitty has turned herself into a tree that can still think and talk.

这无疑是典型的麻瓜思维：因为无知，他们愿意接受魔法带来的各种不可能的事情，包括认为巴比蒂把自己变成了一棵会思想会说话的树。

(It is worth noting at this point, however, that while Beedle uses the talking-tree device to show us how ignorant the Muggle King is, he also asks us to believe that Babbitty can talk while she is a rabbit.

(不过，这里值得注意的是，彼豆利用会说话的树来反映麻瓜国王有多无知，同时他还要求我们相信巴比蒂变成兔子以后仍会说话。

This might be poetic license, but I think it more likely that Beedle had only heard aboutAnimagi, and never met one, for this is the only liberty that he takes with magical laws in the story.

这恐怕是属于诗人的大胆狂想了，但是我认为更有可能的是彼豆只听说过阿尼马格斯，并没有见过，因为故事中他只在这一点上歪曲了魔法规律。

Animagi do not retain the power of human speech while in their animal form, although they keep all their human thinking and reasoning powers.

阿尼马格斯变为动物形态后，就失去了会说人类语言的功能，尽管他们还保留着人类的思维和推理能力。

This, as every schoolchild knows, is the fundamental difference between being an Animagus, and Transfiguring oneself into an animal.

每个小学生都知道，这是阿尼马格斯和把自己变形为动物的根本区别。

In the case of the latter, one would become the animal entirely, with the consequence that one would know no magic, be unaware that one had ever been a wizard, and would need somebody else to Transfigure one back to one's original form. )

在后一种情况，此人会完全变成动物，结果就是不会魔法，也不知道自己曾经是一个巫师，并且需要别人把他重新变回原来的样子。)

I think it possible that in choosing to make his heroine pretend to turn into a tree and threaten the King with pain like an axe stroke in his own side, Beedle was inspired by real magical traditions and practices.

我认为，彼豆选择让女主人公假装变成一棵树，以此来威胁国王感受被斧头砍的痛苦，可能是受到了现实中的魔法传统和做法的启发。

Trees with wand-quality wood have always been fiercely protected by the wand makers who tend them, and cutting down such trees to steal them risks incurring not only the malice of the Bowtruckles (Note. 5:For a full description of these curious little tree-dwellers, see FantasticBeasts and Where to Find Them. ) usually nesting there but also the ill effect of any protective curses placed around them by their owners.

具有魔杖素质的树木总是受到魔杖制作者的有力保护，砍伐偷盗这样的树木，不仅会招惹通常栖息在哪里的护树罗锅(注释五：护树罗锅：欲知这种栖息在树上的古怪小动物的详情，请看《神奇动物及产地》。)的怨恨，而且还会尝到树的主人设置的防护咒所造成的恶果。

In Beedle's time, the Cruciatus Curse had not yet been made illegal by the Ministry of Magic, (Note.6:The Cruciatus, Imperius and Avada Kedavra Curses were first classified as Unforgivablein 1717, with the strictest penalties attached to their use. ) and could have produced precisely the sensation with which Babbitty threatens the King.

在彼豆那个时代，夺魂咒还没有被魔法部定为非法咒语，(注释六：夺魂咒、钻心咒和阿瓦达索命咒于一七一七年被定为不可饶恕咒，任何人一旦使用，将受到最严厉的惩罚。)它能够造成的效果跟巴比蒂威胁国王所产生的效果完全一样。

《诗翁彼豆故事集》故事情节与《哈利·波特》紧密相关又独立成篇。它是《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》中霍格沃茨魔法学校校长邓布利多留给赫敏的一本书。这本故事集由《巫师和跳跳埚》、《好运泉》、《男巫的毛心脏》、《兔子巴比蒂和她的呱呱树桩》和《三兄弟的传说》等5个魔法世界的童话故事组成，其中包含有帮助哈利和他的朋友们打败伏地魔的重要线索。

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