All at once they quailed and were cowed.

所有鸟立即感到恐惧，而且感觉受到了威胁。

Yelling, they flew off to the stump of an ash jutting out of a cliff, a thousand feet above the cataract;

大喊大叫，它们飞到悬崖边上一千英尺高的一根树桩上；

and the frantic mother, falling across the aerie, in the midst of bones and blood, clasped her child

那疯狂的母亲，跳下去奔向猛禽，在她的骨骼和血液中，抱紧自己的孩子

—not dead, as she had expected, but unmangled and untorn,

——像她预料到的一般，孩子还没有死，而且没有被损坏和撕裂，

and swaddled just as it was when she laid it down asleep among the fresh hay, in a nook of the harvest field!

就像是她将熟睡的孩子放在庄稼地上一堆新鲜的草堆上睡着时一样。

Oh, what a pang of perfect blessedness transfixed her heart from that faint, feeble cry,

噢，那微弱的哭声击中了她的心，一阵喜悦之情。

"It lives—it lives—it lives!" and baring her bosom, with loud laughter, and eyes dry as stones,

“他还活着——他还活着——他还活着！”她敞开自己的胸部，大声地笑着，眼睛像石头一样干涩，

she felt the lips of the unconscious innocent once more murmuring at the fount of life and love!

她感觉嘴唇无意识地喃喃着生活与爱的源泉。

Below were cliffs, chasms, blocks of stone, and the skeletons of old trees, far, far down, and dwindled into specks;

下面是悬崖、深坑、成块的石头和枯树干，远了，更远了，固定成一个斑点；

and a thousand creatures of her own kind, stationary, or running to and fro!

很多的人静止在那里，或是来回地奔跑着。

Was that the sound of the waterfall, or the faint roar of voices?

这是瀑布的声音，或是微弱的咆哮声？

Is that her native strath? and that tuft of trees, does it contain the hut in which stands the cradle of her child?

这是她家乡的平底河谷吗？这一丛树，它里面立着的小屋是她的孩子的摇篮吗？

Never more shall it be rocked by her foot! Here must she die; and, when her breast is exhausted, her baby too!

她的脚将不会再摇晃！她肯定死了；而且，当她的胸膛停止跳动，她的孩子也会这样！

And these horrid beaks, and eyes, and talons, will return,

这些可怕的嘴，还有眼睛、爪子，将会回来。

and her child will be devoured at last even within the dead bosom that can protect it no more!

最后，她的孩子将会被吞噬掉，甚至那死掉的怀抱也不能够再保护他！

—Professor Wilson

——威尔逊教授