《魔法师的外甥》第53期:迪格雷和他的舅舅又陷困境(3)

The two Moles settled that part of the business pretty quickly. There was some dispute as to which way up Uncle Andrew ought to be put into the hole, and he had a very narrow escape from being put in head foremost. Several animals said his legs must be his branches and therefore the grey, fluffy thing (they meant his head) must be his root. But then others said that the forked end of him was the muddier and that it spread out more, as roots ought to do. So finally he was planted right way up. When they had patted down the earth it came up above his knees.

"It looks dreadfully withered," said the Donkey.

"Of course it wants some watering," said the Elephant. "I think I might say (meaning no offence to anyone present) that, perhaps, for that sort of work, my kind of nose -"

"I object to that remark very strongly," said the Bulldog. But the Elephant walked quietly to the river, filled her trunk with water, and came back to attend to Uncle Andrew. The sagacious animal went on doing this till gallons of water had been squirted over him, and water was running out of the skirts of his frock-coat as if he had been for a bath with all his clothes on. In the end it revived him. He awoke from his faint. What a wake it was! But we must leave him to think over his wicked deed (if he was likely to do anything so sensible) and turn to more important things.

Strawberry trotted on with Digory on his back till the noise of the other animals died away, and now the little group of Aslan and his chosen councillors was quite close. Digory knew that he couldn't possibly break in on so solemn a meeting, but there was no need to do so. At a word from Aslan, the He-Elephant, the Ravens, and all the rest of them drew aside. Digory slipped off the horse and found himself face to face with Aslan. And Aslan was bigger and more beautiful and more brightly golden and more terrible than he had thought. He dared not look into the great eyes.

"Please - Mr Lion - Aslan - Sir," said Digory, "could you - may I - please, will you give me some magic fruit of this country to make Mother well?"

He had been desperately hoping that the Lion would say "Yes"; he had been horribly afraid it might say "No". But he was taken aback when it did neither.

"This is the Boy," said Aslan, looking, not at Digory, but at his councillors. "This is the Boy who did it."

"Oh dear," thought Digory, "what have I done now?"

"Son of Adam," said the Lion. "There is an evil Witch abroad in my new land of Narnia. Tell these good Beasts how she came here."

两只鼹鼠迅速完成了任务。对该栽哪一头意见不一，安德鲁舅舅很难避免要被头朝下栽进土里了。有几个动物说他的腿一定是树枝，因此，那团灰色的毛茸茸的东西(指他的头)一定是根。但其他动物说，叉开的那一端沾了更多的泥土，而且伸得长些，更像根部。最后，他直立着被栽了起来，栽好以后，泥土掩到了他的膝盖。

“它看上去很干枯。”驴子说。

“当然，它需要浇水，”象说，“我想我可以说(并非要冒犯在场的各位)，也许，对这项工作，我的这种鼻子……”

“我强烈反对。”公狗说。但大象默默地走到河边，用鼻子灌满水，回来洒在安德鲁舅舅身上。这有灵性的动物不断地浇，直到好多好多水浇到他身上，又从他外衣的边缘流了出来，犹如他穿着衣服洗了一次澡。最后，他恢复了理智，从昏迷中醒了过来，彻彻底底地清醒了！但我们必须将他撇开，让他慢慢去想他做过的坏事(如果他还有可能做出如此有理智的事的话)，我们去讲些更重要的事情。

“草莓”驮着迪格雷，一路小跑着前进，其他动物的声音渐渐远去，而阿斯兰和它选出来的那群动物们则很近。迪格雷知道他不能干扰这样一个严肃的会议，而且也没有必要。阿斯兰说了句什么，公象、渡鸦以及其他所有的动物都闪开了。迪格雷翻身下马，发现阿斯兰与他面对面地站在那里，比他想像的更大、更美，更加金光闪闪，也更加可怕。他不敢注视它那双大眼睛。

“对不起——狮子先生——阿斯兰——阁下，”迪格雷说，“能否——能否请您，您能否给我一些这里的神奇果子来治我妈妈的病？”

他非常希望狮子会说“好的”，非常害怕它说“不”。但当狮子既没有说“好”也没有说“不”时，迪格雷吃了一惊。

“这就是那个男孩，”阿斯兰没有看迪格雷，而是看着它的顾问们说，“是这个男孩干的。”

“天哪，”迪格雷想，“我做了什么？”

“亚当的儿子，”狮子说，“有个恶魔般的女巫踏上了我新的国土纳尼亚。告诉这些好动物们她是怎么到这儿的。”