The Velveteen Rabbit 绒布兔子（选译）

当时看《老友记》里Chandler为自己喜欢的女生，满大街找的就是这本画册。
The Velveteen Rabbit
绒布兔子
Margery Williams
诗。 译
There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy , as a rabbit should be.
从前有一只绒布做的兔子，像团子一样圆滚滚的。一开始它漂亮极了，就像只真的兔子。
The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself.
绒布兔并不知道自己只是其它东西的一个“模型”，因为它根本不知道这个世界上还存在着“真的”兔子；它以为所有的兔子都和它一样，一肚子木屑。
 “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“什么是‘真的’？” 绒布兔有一天问道，“是不是代表身体里有嗡嗡响的东西，然后还长着个把手呢？”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time.”
“这和你的身体构造无关，”皮马说，“只要有个小孩一直一直爱着你，你就会变成真的。”
 “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“我会受伤吗？”绒布兔又问。
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“有时候会，”一向诚实的皮马说，“但是当你变成真的了，你就不会害怕受伤。”
The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. And the magic happened, that night, a Boy put him into the his arms.
绒布兔叹了口气。它觉得那种叫“真实”的魔法要降临到它身上来，还得好久好久。然而奇迹就在这一夜发生了，一个小男孩把它抱入怀里。
That night, and for many nights after, the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the Boy’s bed. At first he found it uncomfortable, for the Boy hugged him very tight, and sometimes he rolled over on him, But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrow the real rabbits lived in.
从那以后，每天夜里绒布兔子都睡在小男孩的床上。起初它觉得很不舒服，因为小男孩把它抱得太紧了，有时候还会压到它身上。但是很快它就喜欢和小男孩在一起了，因为小男孩常常和它说话，还在床下给它做了个漂亮的窝，小男孩告诉它，真兔子就是住在这种窝里。
“You must stop fancy all that fuss for a rabbit toy!” said his mom.
小男孩的妈妈说：“你别再这么宝贝它了，这不过是个兔子玩具！”
The boy said. “You mustn’t say that. He isn’t a toy. He’s REAL!”
小男孩说：“不许你这么说，它不是玩具，它是‘真的’！”
The little Rabbit overheard it. That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst.
绒布兔无意听到了这段对话，那晚它兴奋得睡不着觉，它那颗小小的木屑做的心脏里洋溢着满满的爱，几乎要爆炸了。
One day they were played in the woods, the Rabbit saw two strange beings. They were rabbits like himself, but quite furry their seams didn’t show at all, and they changed shape in a queer way when they moved; one minute they were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy.
一天，小男孩带着绒布兔到森林里玩耍。绒布兔看到两个奇怪的家伙。它们好像和它一样，也是兔子，但是它们浑身毛茸茸的，完全遮住了身上的缝合线。它们动来动去，一会儿把身子拉得又瘦又长，一会儿又变成圆滚滚的样子。
They crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, “Why don’t you get up and play with us?”
它们抽动着鼻子，慢慢地爬到绒布兔身边，问道：“你怎么不来和我们一起玩呀？”
“I don’t feel like it,” said the Rabbit, for he didn’t want to explain that he had no clockwork .
“我不想玩。”绒布兔说。它不想告诉它们自己身上没有发条。
He came so close this time that his long whiskers brushed the Velveteen Rabbit’s ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly and flattened his ears and jumped backwards.
这次，真兔子又往前凑了一点，长长的胡须刷到了绒布兔子的耳朵，然后真兔子猛地吸吸鼻子，竖起的耳朵耷拉下来，往后蹦开了。
“He doesn’t smell right!” he exclaimed. “He isn’t a rabbit at all! He isn’t real!”
“它闻起来有点不对劲！”真兔子叫道，“它根本不是兔子！它不是真的！”
“I am Real!” said the little Rabbit. “I am Real! The Boy said so!” And he nearly began to cry.
“我是真的！”绒布兔说着说着快要哭起来“小男孩说了！我是真的！”
With a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two strange rabbits disappeared.
两只奇怪的真兔子双脚一蹬，白白的尾巴一闪，消失在树林中。
“Come back and play with me!” called the little Rabbit. “Oh, do come back! I know I am Real!”
 “回来跟我玩呀！”绒布兔叫道，“哦！回来啊！我知道我是真的！”
For a long time he lay very still, hoping that they would come back. But they never returned, and the sun sank lower.
绒布兔在那儿一动不动地呆了好久，希望真兔子能回来。但是它们直到太阳落山也没有回来。
And then, one day, the Boy was ill. The room was to be disinfected , and all the books and toys that the Boy had played with in bed must be burnt.
再后来有一天，男孩生病了。房里上上下下都得消毒，男孩的书啦，床上的玩具啦都得烧掉。
“How about his old Bunny?” mom asked.
   “他的那只旧兔子该怎么办呢？”妈妈问。
“That?” said the doctor. “Why, it’s a mass of scarlet fever germs !Burn it at once. Get him a new one.”
“旧兔子？”医生说，“这还用问吗，上面都是猩红热病菌！快快把它烧掉，给他一只新的。”
And so the Rabbit was put into a sack, the gardener promised to burn the whole lot tomorrow morning.
就这样，绒布兔被扔进一个麻袋。园丁向他们保证第二天一早就把这些统统烧掉。
Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his velveteen nose and fell to the ground.
这一切有什么意义呢？为了被爱我失去了美丽，为了变成‘真的’，我付出了生命的代价。一滴眼泪，一滴真的眼泪，顺着它的绒布鼻子缓缓滑落到地上。
And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground, and out of it there stepped a fairy. she came close to the little Rabbit and gathered him up in her arms and kissed him on his velveteen nose that was all damp from crying.
就在这时，泪珠滴落的地方奇迹般地盛开一朵花，一个仙女从花里走出来。她走到绒布兔身边，把它抱在怀里，亲了亲它哭得湿漉漉的绒布鼻子。
She flew with him into the woods. It was light now, for the moon had risen. All the forest was beautiful. In the open glade between the tree-trunks the wild rabbits danced with their shadows on the velvet grass.
仙女把绒布兔带到森林里。此时，月亮早就升起来了。在皎洁的月色下，森林里的一切都那么美。树林间有片空地，一群野兔在这厚厚的草地上和自己的影子跳舞。
“I’ve brought you a new playfellow,” the Fairy said. “You must be very kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbit-land, for he is going to live with you for ever and ever!”
“我给你们带来了一个新的玩伴，”仙女说，“你们要好好对它，帮它学习兔子王国里他得知道的知识，因为从现在起，它将永永远远和你们生活在一起啦！”
And she kissed the little Rabbit again and put him down on the grass. “Run and play, little Rabbit!” she said.
仙女又吻了吻绒布兔，并把它放到草地上。“小兔子，去跑吧！去玩吧！”她说。
He was a Real Rabbit at last, at home with the other rabbits.
最后，它成了一只真真正正的兔子，和其它兔子呆在属于自己的家里。
Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew warm and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood. Two rabbits crept out and peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the other had strange markings under his fur. And about his little soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that the Boy thought to himself: “Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!”
秋天过去了，冬天过去了，春天来了，天气暖和起来。这天阳光灿烂，小男孩又来到这片树林玩耍。两只兔子冒出脑袋，悄悄地看着他。一只兔子是棕色的，另一只毛色有点奇怪，它的鼻子又小又软，眼睛黑黑圆圆的，小男孩心想，这只兔子看起来好眼熟。对了，它看起来像我感染猩红热时不见了的绒布兔！
But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.
　　但是，他永远也不会知道，这就是他以前的那只兔子。他也不会知道，绒布兔跑回这里只为看看他，因为这个孩子，它第一次有了生命。
已发表，如需转载，请告知本人，就是我啦。