She's dead, she said at last. Then, as I stared at her, Oh, Vanessa, when it happened, I couldn't help thinking of her as she was that summer-so sullen and gauche and badly dressed.
她已经不在人世了，她终于说了出来。我怔怔地望着母亲，她接着说，呵，凡乃莎，她出事的时候，我不禁又想起她那个夏天时的样子--那么愁眉苦脸、呆头呆脑的，穿的衣服也不像样子。
I couldn't help wondering if we could have done something more at that time--but what could we do? She used to be around in the cottage there with me all day, and honestly it was all I could do to get a word out of her.
我不禁想起，当初我们是不是能够多帮助她一点--但我们能做些什么呢?她虽说整天和我一起呆在别墅里，但说实话，我想引导她说一句话都不容易。
She didn't even talk to your father very much, although I think she liked him in her way.
她连同你父亲都没有多少话讲，尽管我感觉她心里是喜欢你父亲的。
What happened? I asked.
究竟出了什么事?我问道。
Either her husband left her, or she left him, my mother said. I don't know which. Anyway, she came back here with two youngsters, both only babies-they must have been born very close together.
或许是她丈夫离开了她，也许是她离开了她丈夫,我母亲说。我也不知道是谁先离开谁的。总之，她带着两个孩子回到这里--两个都是婴儿，他们一定是先后紧接着出生的。
She kept house, I guess, for Lazarus and her brothers, down in the valley there, in the old Tonnerre place. I used to see her on the street sometimes, but she never spoke to me.
我猜想，她给她父亲和兄弟们管理家务。他们就住在山谷里坦纳瑞家的老地方。有时我在街上看到她，可她从来不和我讲话。
She'd put on an awful lot of weight, and she looked a mess, to tell you the truth, a real slattern,dressed any old how. She was up in court a couple of times-drunk and disorderly, of course.
她发胖了许多，看上去乱七八糟的，说实话，完全是个邋遢的女人，衣着非常马虎。有几次她被法院传了去，自然是因为酗酒和妨碍治安。
One Saturday night last winter, during the coldest weather, Piquette was alone in the shack with the children.
去年的一个周六晚上，是在最寒冷的冬季，皮格特独自带着两个小孩在那间窝棚里。
The Tonnerres made home brew all the time, so I've heard, and Lazarus said later she'd been drinking most of the day when he and the boys went out that evening.
我听说坦纳瑞家总是自己酿酒。据拉扎鲁后来说，那天他和儿子晚上不在家，皮格特整天在喝酒。
They had an old woodstove there--you know the kind, with exposed pipes.
他们家有个老式的烧木头的炉子，你知道的，就是烟筒暴露在外的那种。
The shack caught fire. Piquette didn't get out, and neither did the children.
窝棚起火了，皮格特和两个孩子都没有逃出来。
I did not say anything. As so often with Piquette, there did not seem to be anything to say.
我啥也没说，就像与皮格特一起时总没有什么可讲似的。
There was a kind of silence around the image in my mind of the fire and the snow, and I wished I could put from my memory the look that I had seen once in Piquette's eyes.
在一片静寂之中，我脑海里浮现出皮格特住的那间窝棚在一片冰天雪地之中着火燃烧的情景。我真希望能够回忆出我曾经从皮格特眼睛中看见过的那种神情。
I went up to Diamond Lake for a few days that summer, with Mavis and her family.
那年暑期我又去钻石湖住了几天，是同马维斯一家一起去的。
The MacLeod cottage had been sold after my father's death, and I did not even go to look at it, not wanting to witness my long-ago kingdom possessed now by strangers. But one evening I went clown to the shore by myself.
麦克里奥家的湖边别墅自我父亲去世以后就卖出去了，从此我就再也没去看它一眼，因为我不想看见自己昔日的王国如今为别的陌生人所有。但是，有一天傍晚，我却独自一人去了湖边。
The small pier which my father had built was gone, and in its place there was a large and solid pier built by the government, for Galloping Mountain was now a national park, and Diamond Lake had been re-named Lake Wapakata, for it was felt that an Indian name would have a greater appeal to tourists.
我父亲筑起的那道防波堤不见了，代之而出现于眼前的是政府出资修筑的一道坚固的大堤。这是因为跑马山现已辟为国家公园，钻石湖也已更名为瓦帕卡塔湖，原因是认为用上一个印第安名称对游客会更具有吸引力。
The one store had become several dozen, and the settlement had all the attributes of a flourishing resort--hotels, a dance-hall, cafes with neon signs, the penetrating odoursof potato chips and hot dogs.
湖区原先只有一家商店，现在已发展到几十家了，一个繁荣兴旺的旅游胜地所具有的一切特征这里都已经有了--宾馆、舞厅、灯红酒绿的咖啡馆、四处弥漫着的炸土豆片和热狗的香味。
I sat on the government pier and looked out across the water. At night the lake at least was the same as it had always been, darkly shining and bearing within its black glass the streak of amber that was the path of the moon.
我坐在政府修筑的防波大堤上眺望着湖面，至少，夜间的湖面还是保持着先前的样子，墨镜般乌黑发亮的湖面上倒映着一线琥珀色的月光。
There was no wind that evening, and everything was quiet all around me. It seemed too quiet, and then I realized that the loons were no longer here.
那天晚上风平浪静，周围的一切都是静悄悄的。我感觉似乎是太静了一点，随即我开始意识到潜水鸟已经不在这儿了。
I listened for some time, to make sure, but never once did I hear that long-drawn call, half mocking and half plaintive, spearing through the stillness across the lake.
为了证实这种推测，我静等了许久，但到底也没有再听见一声那划过静寂的湖面传来的、尾音拖得长长的、凄厉而带有冷嘲意味的叫声。
I did not know what had happened to the birds. Perhaps they had gone away to some far place of belonging.
我不知道那些鸟儿究竟遭到了何种命运。也许它们去一个遥远的地方找到了栖身之地，
Perhaps they had been unable to find such a place, and had simply died out, having ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not.
也许它们找不到这样的地方，于是把生死也不再放在心上，就这样自生自灭了。
I remembered how Piquette had scorned to come along, when my father and I sat there and listened to the lake birds.
我记起那年夏天，当我和我父亲坐在湖边听鸟声时皮格特不屑一顾，不愿一起去听。
It seemed to me now that in some unconscious and totally unrecognized way, Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons.
现在我倒觉得，只有皮格特才以一种无意识的、别人完全不理解的方式，真正听懂了潜水鸟的叫声。