《魔法师的外甥》第12期:各个世界之间的树林(3)
"Can you swim?"
"A bit. Can you?"
"Well - not much."
"I don't think we shall need to swim," said Digory "We want to go down, don't we?"
Neither of them much liked the idea of jumping into that pool, but neither said so to the other. They took hands and said "One - Two - Three - Go" and jumped. There was a great splash and of course they closed their eyes. But when they opened them again they found they were still standing, hand in hand, in the green wood, and hardly up to their ankles in water. The pool was apparently only a couple of inches deep. They splashed back on to the dry ground.
"What on earth's gone wrong?" said Polly in a frightened voice; but not quite so frightened as you might expect, because it is hard to feel really frightened in that wood. The place is too peaceful.
"Oh! I know," said Digory, "Of course it won't work. We're still wearing our yellow rings. They're for the outward journey, you know. The green ones take you home. We must change rings. Have you got pockets? Good. Put your yellow ring in your left. I've got two greens. Here's one for you."
They put on their green rings and came back to the pool. But before they tried another jump Digory gave a long "O-ooh!"
"What's the matter?" said Polly.
"I've just had a really wonderful idea," said Digory. "What are all the other pools?"
"How do you mean?"
"Why, if awe can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, mightn't we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing there was a world at the bottom of every pool."
"But I thought we were already in your Uncle Andrew's Other World or Other Place or whatever he called it. Didn't you say -"
"Oh bother Uncle Andrew," interrupted Digory. "I don't believe he knows anything about it. He never had the pluck to come here himself. He only talked of one Other World. But suppose there were dozens?"
"You mean, this wood might be only one of them?"
"No, I don't believe this wood is a world at all. I think it's just a sort of in-between place."
Polly looked puzzled. "Don't you see?" said Digory. "No, do listen. Think of our tunnel under the slates at home. It isn't a room in any of the houses. In a way, it isn't really part of any of the houses. But once you're in the tunnel you can go along it and come into any of the houses in the row. Mightn't this wood be the same? - a place that isn't in any of the worlds, but once you've found that place you can get into them all."
"Well, even if you can -" began Polly, but Digory went on as if he hadn't heard her.
“会一点儿，你呢?”
“游得不太好。”
“我认为我们不需要游泳，”迪格雷说，“我们需要往下沉，不是吗?”
他们谁也不太想跳进水潭，但谁都没有说出口。他们手拉手，喊道“一、二、三，跳”便跳了进去。水花飞溅，他们自然闭上了双眼，但当他们睁开眼时，他们仍然手拉手地站在那片绿树林里，水只淹没到他们的踝部。显然，水潭只有几寸深。他们又蹚着水回到陆地上。
“到底出什么错了?”波莉害怕地说，但也没有你想像的那么害怕，因为，在那片林子里，谁也不可能真正感到害怕，那儿太安详、太宁静了。
“哦，我懂了!”迪格雷说，“当然不会成功了。我们还戴着黄戒指呢。它们是只管往外走的，你知道，绿色的才管回去。我们必须换戒指。你有口袋吗?好，把黄戒指放在左边口袋里。我有两枚绿戒指，给你一个。”
他们戴上了绿戒指，又回到潭边。还没有再跳，迪格雷就“噢——噢——啊!”地喊了起来。
“怎么了?”波莉说。
“我有一个绝妙的主意，”迪格雷说，“其他那些水潭是怎么回事?”
“什么意思?”
“如果我们跳进这个水潭就可以回去，那么，跳进别的水潭不就可以到另外的地方去了吗?想想，每个水潭底下都可能有一个世界!”
“但我认为我们已经到了你的安德鲁舅舅所说的‘另外的世界’或者‘另外的地方’，或其他什么名称。你是说……”
“唉，讨厌的安德鲁舅舅，”迪格雷打断她，“我不相信他什么都知道。他绝对不敢到这儿来。他只说了一个‘另外的世界’，也许还有好多呢！”
“你是说，这片树林可能只是其中之一?”
“不，我认为这片树林并不是一个世界。我想，它只是一个过渡的中间地带。”
波莉迷惑不解。“你难道不明白?”迪格雷说，“那么听我讲。想想家里那些石板下的隧道吧。它不是任何房子的一个房间，也就是说，它不是真正属于哪幢房子的某个部分。但只要你进去了，就可以沿着隧道，走进那一排房子中的任何一幢。这片林子不也一样吗?——一个不属于任何世界的地方，但只要找对了，你就可以到达所有的世界。”
“那，即使你能……”波莉刚开了头，迪格雷就像没听见似的继续往下说。
