亨利休格故事3-The Swan
昨天终于一鼓作气将Matilda读完了，读得多就有点消化不良。不过阅读过程相对愉悦。里面还有一首小诗
Never and never, my girl riding far and near
In the land of the hearthstone tales, and spelled asleep,
Fear or believe that the wolf in the sheepwhite hood
Loping and bleating roughly and blithely shall leap, my dear, my dear,
Out of a lair in the flocked leaves in the dew dipped year
To eat your heart in the house in the rosy wood.
我的小女孩在炉边故事里来回驰骋，听入了迷，睡着了。
可永远永远不要害怕，或者相信，那只披着白羊皮的狼正慢慢地跑来，装出咩咩的声音叫着，
然后，哎哟哟，从它躲着的浸满露水的积叶中跳出来，要在玫瑰林中这所房子里吃你的心脏。
很有音乐感的一首诗，浪漫诗人迪兰托马斯的作品。虽然日常读诗不多，偶尔看见还是会停下来琢磨琢磨。
另外玛蒂尔达中提到小老鼠的心跳有六百多下，其实并没有这么夸张，但的确很快，每分钟400-500。成年人多是60-90运动员会偏低一些，说起来也很有意思，为什么说龟息大法，是因为乌龟心跳每分钟20-30，人要健康长寿心态平，不急躁，调整慢呼吸，多运动还是有道理的。
最后玛蒂尔达和甜蜜老师在一起了，远去的车子荡起一阵灰尘，吱咛的轮胎声中只有哥哥在后车窗挥了挥告别的手，挺空落落的感觉。电影果然是给孩子们看的，内容较简单，没有挂字幕但看了一半觉得没什么意思……，抽时间看一下同名音乐剧。
在读的另一本《亨利休格》读到了第四个故事，说实在的，这个故事有些披着儿童的外衣而讲得非儿童故事。其实整本书还是偏成人化的，像第二个故事搭车客和第四个故事亨利休格，都有些神奇色彩，亨利休格属于一个单独的中篇很长，原名《赌城侠影》。和罗尔德大爷后期转型的儿童作品来比总感觉少了些童趣，多了些隐藏的残酷。当然也有诙谐的影子，比如刚看完的宝藏一篇，考古专家意外收获了Ford的文物，Ford felt the walls of the room closing in on him and he didn’t quite know what to do.....The game was up now and Ford knew it. A thousand questions would be asked. How did you find it? When did you find it? What were you doing?
以及专家Fawcett看到全部珍品像是心脏病发作了一般
He flung himself on his knees. He gasped. He choked. He began spluttering like an old kettle.这几处描写实在是绘声绘色。
今天的这一篇《天鹅》其实是少年欺凌的题材(其实不单单是这个范围，后面还写到了这就成了一种社会现象，过多豹豹就不扩展了)。读了一半读不下去，然后又捡起来继续读，断断续续很短的一个故事硬是读了三天。因为这本书想按计划推进，所以今天的笔记只出一点点，后面的情节略有些残忍，就不放出来了。读完这一本罗尔德大爷的书准备放一放，换点其他的调剂调剂心情。
Ernie had been given a .22 rifle for his birthday. His father, who was already slouching on the sofa watching the telly at nine-thirty on this Saturday morning, ...
这种用法在散文集中见过.22指0.22口径
telly是罗尔德大爷喜欢用的词，比如玛蒂尔达就用telly指代电视，包括BFG中the telly-telly bunkum box and the radio squeaker来表示电视机和收音机。
‘Then go out and nab one,’ the father said, picking breakfast from between his front teeth with a split matchstick. ‘Go out and nab us a rabbit.’
‘And on the way back,’ the father said, ‘get me a quart bottle of brown ale.’
这一段也表示了Ernie这个孩子的家庭环境，父亲是一个卡车司机，对孩子缺少管教。15岁生日是来福枪，孩子也很粗鲁后文出现了lout ,loutish等词。包括后文母亲并不赞成，父亲也不过粗暴打断等等。
brown ale指麦芽啤酒，酒精度数较高。瞬间想起mulled, brandy-and-water,sherry, amontillado, home-made mead等等，amontillado忘记了又去查了一下。这些词其实都是早两年在书虫中见到的。挺有意思。
‘Gimme the money, then,’ Ernie said.
The father, without taking his eyes from the TV screen, fished in his pocket for a pound note.
‘And don’t try pinchin’ the change like you did last time,’ he said. ‘You’ll get a thick ear if you do, birthday or no birthday.’
这篇文章是用方言填充了对话内容，至于是不是苏格兰还是其他哪个区就不知道了，从来没有研究过。读起来还是蛮好玩的。而且对话内容可以看出故意设置的语法错误来表示人物文化水平不高。
fish sth. out掏出来在英文故事中相当常见，纳尼亚，哈利波特中都常出现。此处fish in ...for用法是类似的。
pinch不是拧，在此处表示偷(少量钱)，昧掉零钱，揩油。
He was a big lout of a boy, fifteen years old this birthday.
Brought up in a household where physical violence was an everyday occurrence, he was himself an extremely violent person. Most Saturday afternoons, he and a gang of friends travelled by train or bus to football matches, and if they didn’t manage to get into a bloody fight before they returned home, they considered it a wasted day.
disapproval If you describe a man or boy as a lout, you are critical of them because they behave in an impolite or aggressive way. 举止粗野的男子 (或男孩)
从第二段描写可以看出家庭真得对一个孩子成长影响很大。
Ernie’s best friend was called Raymond. He lived four doors away, and he, too, was a big boy for his age. But while Ernie was heavy and loutish, Raymond was tall, slim and muscular.
Erine的狐朋狗友，Raymond这是文中三个主人公，另一个是一个乖巧的小男孩(弱势方为Peter Watson)
loutish是lout的形容词
disapproval If you describe a man or a boy as loutish, you are critical of them because their behaviour is impolite and aggressive. (男子或男孩) 粗野的, 粗鲁的
两人在路上打了很多鸟，而这片区域是水禽禁捕区(a sanctuary for waterfowl) 文中出现了很多鸟类的名称，这也是很不喜欢读罗尔德大爷的作品原因之一，另一个原因就是大片歌谣…
wild ducks and moorhens and coots and ring-ouzels,a bullfinch and a hedge-sparrow, a whitethroat and a yellowhammer
分别是野鸭，雌苏格兰雷鸟，黑鸭，黑鸫鸟。
红腹灰雀，篱雀，白喉莺和黄鹉(啄木鸟)
这类词汇包括植物在英文作品中出现的频率还挺高的，略无奈。算作阅读词汇，混个眼熟。
‘Blimey! You got a ruddy nerve, ain’t you?’ Ernie said. ‘I’m tellin’ you for the last time, if you don’t stick ’em up I’ll pull the trigger!’
‘That would be a criminal act,’ Peter said. ‘It would be a case for the police.’
‘And you’d be a case for the ’ospital!’ Ernie said.
...
‘You’re a stuck-up little squirt,’ Ernie said. ‘That’s exactly what you are, a stuck-up little squirt.’
Raymond leaned over and whispered something in Ernie’s ear. Ernie listened intently. Then he slapped his thigh and said, ‘I like it! It’s a great idea!’
这一处道出了这两个小恶棍的行径不过是出于对别人表现优秀的嫉妒。两人想出并实行了很卑劣的事情，可以定义为attempt for intentional homicide了。后文较黑暗，就到此结束。结尾还算良心，小Peter用保护下天鹅的翅膀飞回了家，戛然而止。至于这两个混蛋有没有受到惩罚就不知道了，因为故事中还提到He(Peter) had no doubt whatsoever that in their present mood they were capable of doing him quite serious bodily harm. He knew for a fact that Ernie had once broken little Wally Simpson’s arm after school and Wally’s parents had gone to the police. 但后续则压根没提。
今天就这样，准备给自己放松一下，听完Ivan，读完下一个故事The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar即可。
