双语故事:迪克•惠廷顿和猫
【英文原文】
摘要：迪克•惠廷顿确有其人。他年轻时去伦敦，靠买卖布匹发了财。他后来当上了伦敦市长，连国王缺钱花时都要向他借。他死于1423年，死时把所有的遗产都捐给了慈善机构。
Dick Whittington was a real person living in England about six hundred years ago. He went to London when he was young and made a fortune there by buying and selling cloth. He became Lord Mayor of London, and lent large sums of money to the king. He died in 1423, leaving all his money as a gift to help the poor.
According to the stories, Dick Whittington was a poor orphan who went to London to seek his fortune because he had heard that its streets were paved with gold. In London he found a job helping the cook of a rich merchant. The merchant was sending a ship full of goods to Barbary in North Africa, and told his employees that each of them could send one thing in the ship to be sold along with the merchant’s goods. The only thing Dick Whittington owned was a cat, so he sent the cat.
Meanwhile, he was badly treated by the cook and he decided to leave London. As he was walking away from London, on his way back home, he heard the Bow bells ringing and they seemed to say to him,
Turn again, Whittington,
Lord Mayor of London.
Dick turned and went back. Soon the ship returned, and Dick learned that his cat had been sold for a great price because Barbary was full of rats and needed cats to kill them. This started Dick on the road to wealth.
【中文译文】
迪克•惠廷顿确有其人。他年轻时去伦敦，靠买卖布匹发了财。他后来当上了伦敦市长，连国王缺钱花时都要向他借。他死于1423年，死时把所有的遗产都捐给了慈善机构。
据传说迪克•惠廷顿是个贫苦的孤儿，他去伦敦是为了发财，因为他听说伦敦的马路都是黄金铺的。在伦敦，他找到一份工作，为一个富商的厨师做帮厨。商人有一艘货船要发往北非的柏柏里，他通知仆人们每人可送一件东西与他的货一并出售。迪克•惠廷顿除了一只猫外一无所有，就把猫送去了。
此时，迪克•惠廷顿难以忍受厨师的虐待，决定离开伦敦。在回家的路上，他听到伦敦圣玛利亚教堂的钟声敲响了，好像在对他说，
回来吧，惠廷顿
当市长，管伦敦
迪克转身回去了。不久，商人的货船回来了，迪克得知他的猫卖了大价钱，因为柏柏里正闹鼠灾，急需大量的猫灭鼠。靠这笔钱迪克•惠廷顿走上了致富路。
题外话：这故事很有趣，说明大多数人还是想发意外之财。既然有时天上会掉馅饼，何必流血流汗。殊不知历史上真实的迪克•惠廷顿是个骑士的儿子，家境殷实。他去伦敦跟一个有钱的亲戚学习经商，师傅赏识他的才能，把女儿嫁给了他。他靠雄厚的资本成为巨商。那么人们怎么编出了一个猫的故事？原来，惠廷顿时代还有英国人说法语，他们说惠廷顿发家靠的是“achat”，即“买卖”。但法语中的“猫”是“chat”，所以有人就误以为他发家靠的是“a chat”，或者说“a cat”。以讹传讹，后来人们就附会出这样一段故事。
故事中提到的“Bow bells”指伦敦圣玛利亚教堂（-le-Bow）的钟声。圣玛利亚教堂位于伦敦市中心附近，多年来以其钟声著名。英国有句俗话说，“地道的伦敦佬出生在能听到圣玛利亚教堂钟声的地方（A true cockney is one born within sound of Bow bells）。
