"Now I wake me up to work; 现在我振作精神去工作，
I pray the Lord I may not shirk. 我向主祈祷自己不再懒惰。
If I should die before the night, 如果我在天黑之前就将死去，
I pray the Lord my work's all right." 我向主祈祷我的工作没有瑕疵。
Amen. 阿门。
"If you don't git up, Johnny, I won't give you a bite to eat!"
“Johnny，如果你再不起床 我就不给你吃的了！
The threat had no effect on the boy. He clung stubbornly to sleep, fighting for its oblivion as the dreamer fights for his dream. The boy's hands loosely clenched themselves, and he made feeble, spasmodic blows at the air. These blows were intended for his mother, but she betrayed practised familiarity in avoiding them as she shook him roughly by the shoulder.
这个威胁对男孩毫无作用。他仍然固执地睡着，就像梦想家为梦想一样与这叫声进行着斗争。男孩空握着拳头朝着空气 无意识地挥动着无力的拳头。这些拳头是挥向他的母亲的，但她老练的避开了它们并用力摇晃着男孩的肩膀。
"Lemme 'lone!"
“让我静静！”
It was a cry that began, muffled, in the deeps of sleep, that swiftly rushed upward, like a wail, into passionate belligerence, and that died away and sank down into an inarticulate whine. It was a bestial cry, as of a soul in torment, filled with infinite protest and pain.
这叫声一开始像是沉睡之人在压抑着的哭泣，随后又提高了几度 像是痛哭，一会儿又转变成了情绪激昂的斗争声，然后逐渐低沉 变成了含糊不清的哀嚎。这野兽般的哀嚎发自灵魂上所遭受的折磨，包含了无限的抗议与痛苦。
But she did not mind. She was a sad-eyed, tired-faced woman, and she had grown used to this task, which she repeated every day of her life. She got a grip on the bed-clothes and tried to strip them down; but the boy, ceasing his punching, clung to them desperately. In a huddle, at the foot of the bed, he still remained covered. Then she tried dragging the bedding to the floor. The boy opposed her. She braced herself. Hers was the superior weight, and the boy and bedding gave, the former instinctively following the latter in order to shelter against the chill of the room that bit into his body.、
但她并没有意识到。她是一个有着哀伤眼神 带着一脸倦容的妇人，她已经习惯了这项任务 每天这一幕都在无限的重复。她抓住了被子的一角试着将它拉到地下，男孩停止了他的击打，绝望地抓着被子。他蜷缩成一团谁在床脚依旧盖着被子。然后她尝试着将整条被子拖到地上。男孩用力的反抗。于是她以自己为支点使劲拽着，因为她的身体比较重 被子被她拉到了地上，而男孩为了不让房间中的寒冷侵袭到自己的身体也就本能地一同与被子一起被拉到了地上。
As he toppled on the edge of the bed it seemed that he must fall head-first to the floor. But consciousness fluttered up in him. He righted himself and for a moment perilously balanced. Then he struck the floor on his feet. On the instant his mother seized him by the shoulders and shook him. Again his fists struck out, this time with more force and directness. At the same time his eyes opened. She released him. He was awake.
当他即将摔下床时 看上去他将会摔个倒栽，但在千钧一发之际他恢复了意识 端正了自己的身体保持住平衡。然后他双脚着地。在另一边 她的母亲抓着他的肩膀并不断摇晃着他。他的拳头再次出击相比之前更加有力与精准。与此同时他的眼睛也睁开了。她放开了他。男孩已经安全醒了。
"All right," he mumbled.
"好吧。“他咕哝着。
She caught up the lamp and hurried out, leaving him in darkness.
她提着灯匆匆走开，将男孩留在了黑暗之中。
"You'll be docked," she warned back to him.
”你会被扣工资的。“她回头这样提醒他。
He did not mind the darkness. When he had got into his clothes, he went out into the kitchen. His tread was very heavy for so thin and light a boy. His legs dragged with their own weight, which seemed unreasonable because they were such skinny legs. He drew a broken-bottomed chair to the table.
他不在乎什么黑暗。他一边穿着衣服一边来到厨房。作为一个瘦弱的男孩 他的步伐异常沉重以至于不得不拖着双腿的重量前行，这看上去非常不合理 因为它们是如此瘦弱。他拉开了一把坐垫破裂的椅子 坐在桌前。
"Johnny!" his mother called sharply.
”Jonhnny！“她的母亲突然叫道。
He arose as sharply from the chair, and, without a word, went to the sink. It was a greasy, filthy sink. A smell came up from the outlet. He took no notice of it. That a sink should smell was to him part of the natural order, just as it was a part of the natural order that the soap should be grimy with dish-water and hard to lather. Nor did he try very hard to make it lather. Several splashes of the cold water from the running faucet completed the function. He did not wash his teeth. For that matter he had never seen a tooth-brush, nor did he know that there existed beings in the world who were guilty of so great a foolishness as tooth washing.
他急忙站起沉默地来到水池边。那是一个油腻，充满污秽的水池。有阵阵臭气从出口漂来。他并没有注意到，水槽中的臭气对他而言已经是生活中自然而然的一部分，就像肥皂被洗盘水所弄脏后很难在搓出泡沫一样自然。但他也并不想让肥皂搓出泡沫。用水管中的冷水拍打着脸颊 任务就完成啦。他并没有刷牙。关于这个 他从未看见有牙刷这个东西，或者说他根本不知道这个世界上有那么多傻瓜要受刷牙这份罪。
"You might wash yourself wunst a day without bein' told," his mother complained.
“你每天的梳洗应该不要再我提醒了。”他的母亲抱怨道
She was holding a broken lid on the pot as she poured two cups of coffee. He made no remark, for this was a standing quarrel between them, and the one thing upon which his mother was hard as adamant. "Wunst" a day it was compulsory that he should wash his face. He dried himself on a greasy towel, damp and dirty and ragged, that left his face covered with shreds of lint.
她拿着一个破了盖子的水壶到了两杯咖啡。他没有再接着就这件事进行谈论，这是他们经常争论的话题 而在这点上他的母亲是非常坚决的。每天至少洗一次脸 这是他必做的事情。他用一条油腻、潮湿、肮脏、破烂不堪的毛巾擦干了脸，这在他的脸上弄上了许多细小的断纱。
"I wish we didn't live so far away," she said, as he sat down. "I try to do the best I can. You know that. But a dollar on the rent is such a saving', an' we've more room here. You know that."
“我也不希望我们住得这么远。”当他坐下时，她说。“你知道的，我一直试着去做到我能做到的最好。但能省一块就省一块，我们住在这儿还有更多的房间，你知道的。”
He scarcely followed her. He had heard it all before, many times. The range of her thought was limited, and she was ever harking back to the hardship worked upon them by living so far from the mills.
他没有附和她。这些话他已经听过很多次了。她的思想十分狭隘，她一直在说他们生活的如此艰难是因为离工厂太远了。
"A dollar means more grub," he remarked sententiously. "I'd sooner do the walkin' an' git the grub."
“多一块就是多一份事物。”她简单明了的说“为了多一份食物，我宁愿早出门。”
He ate hurriedly, half chewing the bread and washing the unmasticated chunks down with coffee. The hot and muddy liquid went by the name of coffee. Johnny thought it was coffee -- and excellent coffee. That was one of the few of life's illusions that remained to him. He had never drunk real coffee in his life.
他吃得很匆忙，刚咀嚼完一半面包就把另一半就着咖啡灌了下去。那个热气腾腾黑如泥浆般的液体就被他们称之为咖啡。Johnny认为这就是咖啡而且是极好的那一种。这是他人生几大错觉之一，他从未喝过真正的咖啡。
In addition to the bread, there was a small piece of cold pork. His mother refilled his cup with coffee. As he was finishing the bread, he began to watch if more was forthcoming. She intercepted his questioning glance.
除了面包外，盘子中还有一小片培根。她的母亲帮他重新倒满了咖啡。当他吃完了面包，他开始四处观察还有没有更多的食物。她打断了他搜索的眼神。
"Now, don't be hoggish, Johnny," was her comment. "You've had your share. Your brothers an' sisters are smaller'n you."
“别太贪得无厌了，Johnny。”她这样说道；“你已经吃完了你那一份。你弟弟妹妹都还小呢。”
He did not answer the rebuke. He was not much of a talker. Also, he ceased his hungry glancing for more. He was uncomplaining, with a patience that was as terrible as the school in which it had been learned. He finished his coffee, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and started to rise.
他并没有回应这些指责。他并没有再说什么也没有再四处张望。他并抱怨，这种近乎可怕的耐心是在同样可怕的学校中学来的。他已经喝完了自己的咖啡，用他黑乎乎的手擦了擦嘴 并站起了身。
"Wait a second," she said hastily. "I guess the loaf kin stand you another slice -- a thin un."
“等一等。”她匆忙的说道。“我想还能给你一片薄的面包。”
There was legerdemain in her actions. With all the seeming of cutting a slice from the loaf for him, she put loaf and slice back in the bread box and conveyed to him one of her own two slices. She believed she had deceived him, but he had noted her sleight-of-hand. Nevertheless, he took the bread shamelessly. He had a philosophy that his mother, what of her chronic sickliness, was not much of an eater anyway.
在这里她耍了个把戏。看上去是她为他切了一块面包，实际上她是将自己两块面包中的一块放到了盘子中。她相信自己已经骗到了他，但他已经注意到了这个把戏。然而他还是不害臊的拿过了面包。他对自己母亲有着自己的一套想法，像他母亲这样的慢性病人 反正是吃不多的。
She saw that he was chewing the bread dry, and reached over and emptied her coffee cup into his.
她看着他这样干嚼着面包便将自己的咖啡导入了他的杯中。
"Don't set good somehow on my stomach this morning," she explained.
“不知怎么的 今天我的胃好像不太舒服。”她抱怨着。
A distant whistle, prolonged and shrieking, brought both of them to their feet. She glanced at the tin alarm-clock on the shelf. The hands stood at half-past five. The rest of the factory world was just arousing from sleep. She drew a shawl about her shoulders, and on her head put a dingy hat, shapeless and ancient.
一声刺耳且持久的长哨声从远方响起 带起了他们的脚步。她看了看在架子上的小钟。钟上显示的是5点半。工厂里的其余人才刚刚从睡梦中醒来。她披上了披肩，并带上了一个肮脏、无形的破旧帽子。
"We've got to run," she said, turning the wick of the lamp and blowing down the chimney.
“我们必须跑起来了额。”她一面说，一面捻短灯芯，向灯罩里吹了一口气。
They groped their way out and down the stairs. It was clear and cold, and Johnny shivered at the first contact with the outside air. The stars had not yet begun to pale in the sky, and the city lay in blackness. Both Johnny and his mother shuffled their feet as they walked. There was no ambition in the leg muscles to swing the feet clear of the ground.
他们摸着黑下了楼。当Johny刚接触到外面寒冷、干爽的空气时忍不住打了个颤。天空中的星星尚未消失，整个城市还在一片漆黑之中。Johnny和他的母亲都拖着脚步的走着。没有任何想把脚从地面上完全抬起的意向。
After fifteen silent minutes, his mother turned off to the right.
在沉默的十五分钟后，他的母亲转向了右边。
"Don't be late," was her final warning from out of the dark that was swallowing her up.
“别迟到了。”这是她被黑暗吞没后留下的最后提醒。
He made no response, steadily keeping on his way. In the factory quarter, doors were opening everywhere, and he was soon one of a multitude that pressed onward through the dark. As he entered the factory gate the whistle blew again. He glanced at the east. Across a ragged sky-line of housetops a pale light was beginning to creep. This much he saw of the day as he turned his back upon it and joined his work gang.
他没有任何回应，继续稳步地走着自己的路。在这个工厂区中 门四处随意打开这，很快他就成为黑压压进入工厂的人群中一个了。当他进入工厂大门后哨声又再次响起。他望向东方。望着层次不齐的天空——淡淡的光线已经爬上了挨家挨户的屋檐。这就是他一天所能看见的光亮 随后他就转过身回到他的工作中了。
He took his place in one of many long rows of machines. Before him, above a bin filled with small bobbins, were large bobbins revolving rapidly. Upon these he wound the jute-twine of the small bobbins. The work was simple. All that was required was celerity. The small bobbins were emptied so rapidly, and there were so many large bobbins that did the emptying, that there were no idle moments.
他的位置在许多吵闹的机器中间。
He worked mechanically. When a small bobbin ran out, he used his left hand for a brake, stopping the large bobbin and at the same time, with thumb and forefinger, catching the flying end of twine. Also, at the same time, with his right hand, he caught up the loose twine-end of a small bobbin. These various acts with both hands were performed simultaneously and swiftly. Then there would come a flash of his hands as he looped the weaver's knot and released the bobbin. There was nothing difficult about weaver's knots. He once boasted he could tie them in his sleep. And for that matter, he sometimes did, toiling centuries long in a single night at tying an endless succession of weaver's knots.
他机械地工作着。每逢一小锭纱放光了，他就用左手当作刹车，让大锭子停住，一面用拇指和食指捏住飞出来的纱头。同时，他又用右手捏住一个小绽子上的松的纱头。这些动作都是他同时用双手迅速完成的。接着，他的手飞快地一闪，接好纱头，松开了锭子。接纱头并不是难事。他曾经夸口说他能打着盹儿把这些做完。关于这事儿，他有时的确会这样做，在沉睡的梦与数个世纪漫长的劳作中完成一个个无止境的编织工作。
Some of the boys shirked, wasting time and machinery by not replacing the small bobbins when they ran out. And there was an overseer to prevent this. He caught Johnny's neighbor at the trick, and boxed his ears.
有些男孩有时会偷懒当线轴跑完时没有接上让机器空转。这时监察者就会出面戳穿Johnny邻工的这些小把戏，并赏他一耳光。
"Look at Johnny there -- why ain't you like him?" the overseer wrathfully demanded.
“看看Johnny——你就不能像他一样吗？”监工愤怒的指责道。
Johnny's bobbins were running full blast, but he did not thrill at the indirect praise. There had been a time . . . but that was long ago, very long ago. His apathetic face was expressionless as he listened to himself being held up as a shining example. He was the perfect worker. He knew that. He had been told so, often. It was a commonplace, and besides it didn't seem to mean anything to him any more. From the perfect worker he had evolved into the perfect machine. When his work went wrong, it was with him as with the machine, due to faulty material. It would have been as possible for a perfect nail-die to cut imperfect nails as for him to make a mistake.
Johnny的线轴都在飞速的转着 ，但他并没有因为这些赞赏而感到任何激动。以前他则不然...不过那是很久以前的事情，很久很久以前。当他听见他自己成为了榜样时他面无表情的脸上没有流露出任何的情绪。他是个完美的工人。他知道这一点。他一直被别人这样说着。这是一件很平凡的事情，此外这对他而言也并没有任何的意义。他已经从一个完美的工人变成了一台完美的机器。如果他工作出了岔子，就像机器出了岔子一样，只能说原料不好。他出错的几率就和一个完美的铸钉子机器产出不完美的钉子一样。
And small wonder. There had never been a time when he had not been in intimate relationship with machines. Machinery had almost been bred into him, and at any rate he had been brought up on it. Twelve years before, there had been a small flutter of excitement in the loom room of this very mill. Johnny's mother had fainted. They stretched her out on the floor in the midst of the shrieking machines. A couple of elderly women were called from their looms. The foreman assisted. And in a few minutes there was one more soul in the loom room than had entered by the doors. It was Johnny, born with the pounding, crashing roar of the looms in his ears, drawing with his first breath the warm, moist air that was thick with flying lint. He had coughed that first day in order to rid his lungs of the lint; and for the same reason he had coughed ever since.
这也没什么奇怪的。他从来没有不与机器密切相伴的时候。他简直像机器生产出的一样，或者说他是伴随着机器长大的。十二年前，有这么一个小小的令人激动的事情发生在这个小工厂的纺织机前。Johnny的母亲晕倒了。他们把她抬到正在轰鸣的纺织机中间的地上。有几个年长的妇人从纺织机前被叫来。工头在一旁帮忙。几分钟后在这纺织机前又多了一个生命。这就是Johnny，伴随着轰鸣声出生了，纺织机发出的咆哮不断进入他的耳朵，当他刚刚从温暖的母体中被拽出时，第一次呼吸就吸进了潮湿空气中那一道道细小正在飞舞的棉絮。他从出生的第一天就因为要把肺中的棉絮咳出来而一直在咳嗽，而因为同样的原因，他至今一直在咳嗽。
The boy alongside of Johnny whimpered and sniffed. The boy's face was convulsed with hatred for the overseer who kept a threatening eye on him from a distance; but every bobbin was running full. The boy yelled terrible oaths into the whirling bobbins before him; but the sound did not carry half a dozen feet, the roaring of the room holding it in and containing it like a wall.
Johnny旁边的男孩正在呜咽与抽泣着。他的脸不断抽搐着并露出对监工的恨意，而那监工正在不远处用威胁的眼神盯着他看；然而每个线轴依然在无误的飞速旋转着。这个男孩在他面前骂了句可怕的咒言；但这声音传不出半英寸，整个房间轰鸣的声音像墙壁一样完全遮盖并挡住了它。
Of all this Johnny took no notice. He had a way of accepting things. Besides, things grow monotonous by repetition, and this particular happening he had witnessed many times. It seemed to him as useless to oppose the overseer as to defy the will of a machine. Machines were made to go in certain ways and to perform certain tasks. It was the same with the overseer.
这一切Johnny都并未注意。他自有一套对待事物的方法。此外这乏味的事儿已经重复过好几次了，就这样的情景 他已经目睹过许多次了。在他看来违抗监工就和拒绝机器的意志一样是无用功。机器是以特定的方法被制造出用来完成特定的任务。监工也是一样。
But at eleven o'clock there was excitement in the room. In an apparently occult way the excitement instantly permeated everywhere. The one-legged boy who worked on the other side of Johnny bobbed swiftly across the floor to a bin truck that stood empty. Into this he dived out of sight, crutch and all. The superintendent of the mill was coming along, accompanied by a young man. He was well dressed and wore a starched shirt -- a gentleman, in Johnny's classification of men, and also, "the Inspector."
但在11点时小作坊中开始紧张起来，像是有一种神秘力量突然让紧张情绪渗透到了每一个及哦啊罗。那个瘸了一条腿在Johnny旁边工作的男孩一瘸一拐地跑到空箱子前，带着拐杖与自己藏了进去。工厂的主管与一个年轻人一起进来了，他穿着笔挺的衬衫——按照Johnny对人们的分类方法来看他是一个真正的绅士，以及“监察者”。
He looked sharply at the boys as he passed along. Sometimes he stopped and asked questions. When he did so, he was compelled to shout at the top of his lungs, at which moments his face was ludicrously contorted with the strain of making himself heard. His quick eye noted the empty machine alongside of Johnny's, but he said nothing. Johnny also caught his eye, and he stopped abruptly. He caught Johnny by the arm to draw him back a step from the machine; but with an exclamation of surprise he released the arm.
他一边走着一边用锐利的眼光打量着周边的孩子。有时他会停下问一些问题，在这时他会把自己的嗓子提到最高为了能够听到自己的声音，而他的脸与此同时也会可笑的扭曲成一团。他敏锐的眼睛看到了Johnny身边空荡的机器，但他并没有说什么。Johnny也吸引了他的注意，他突然停下了。他用手臂把Johnny带离了机器，但随着一声惊讶的叫喊他松开了手臂。
"Pretty skinny," the superintendent laughed anxiously.
“瘦的的很啊。”主管不安地笑了一声。
"Pipe stems," was the answer. "Look at those legs. The boy's got the rickets -- incipient, but he's got them. If epilepsy doesn't get him in the end, it will be because tuberculosis gets him first."
“跟烟斗的管子一样，”视察回答道，“瞧那两条腿。这个孩子有佝偻病——初期的，不过他已经有了这个毛病。以后，他一定会生癫痫病死掉的，不然的话，那一定是因为肺病先让他送了小命。”
Johnny listened, but did not understand. Furthermore he was not interested in future ills. There was an immediate and more serious ill that threatened him in the form of the inspector.
Johnny听着但并不理解。再者他也并不关心未来的什么疾病。现在这人有个更急迫更严肃的问题威胁着他，就是眼前的这位视察。
"Now, my boy, I want you to tell me the truth," the inspector said, or shouted, bending close to the boy's ear to make him hear. "How old are you?"
“现在，小男孩 我想让你告诉我真相。”视察者说道，或者或者说是弯腰贴在男孩耳边吼道：“你几岁啦？”
"Fourteen," Johnny lied, and he lied with the full force of his lungs. So loudly did he lie that it started him off in a dry, hacking cough that lifted the lint which had been settling in his lungs all morning.
“14岁，”Johnny说谎了，他用尽肺部每一份力气说着谎言。由于喊得太大声让他开始干咳，以至于早上进入他肺部的棉絮被咳了出来。
"Looks sixteen at least," said the superintendent.
“看上去至少有十六岁。”主管说道。
"Or sixty," snapped the inspector.
“或者六十岁。”视察很快说道。
"He's always looked that way."
“他总是看上去这样。”
"How long?" asked the inspector, quickly.
“多久了。”视察快速问道。
"For years. Never gets a bit older."
“有几年了身体一点也没怎么长。”
"Or younger, I dare say. I suppose he's worked here all those years?"
“或者说更年轻，我敢说。我猜这些年他一直在这里做？”
"Off and on -- but that was before the new law was passed," the superintendent hastened to add. "Machine idle?" the inspector asked, pointing at the unoccupied machine beside Johnny's, in which the part-filled bobbins were flying like mad.
“有时在，有时不在——不过那是在新法律发布之前。”主管急忙解释道。“空转的机器？”视察者指着那台在Johnny旁边空着的机器问道，那上面的没有绞满的锭子正发疯一样地飞转。
"Looks that way." The superintendent motioned the overseer to him and shouted in his ear and pointed at the machine. "Machine's idle," he reported back to the inspector.
“看看这个。”主任把建工叫来并在他耳边说了什么指了指这台机器。“机器是空着的。”他向视察报告道。
They passed on, and Johnny returned to his work, relieved in that the ill had been averted. But the one-legged boy was not so fortunate. The sharp-eyed inspector haled him out at arm's length from the bin truck. His lips were quivering, and his face had all the expression of one upon whom was fallen profound and irremediable disaster. The overseer looked astounded, as though for the first time he had laid eyes on the boy, while the superintendent's face expressed shock and displeasure.
他们继续视察，而Johnn回到了自己的工作岗位，相信自己已经避开了危机。但是那个瘸腿男孩就没那么幸运了。敏锐的视察者一眼就看穿了并抓住他的手臂从木桶中拖了出来。他的双唇在不听打颤，他的脸上只留下了一种掉入深不可测、无可挽救的在灾难之中。监工惊讶的看着他仿佛第一次看到这个男孩一样，主管的脸上也露出了惊讶和生气的表情。
"I know him," the inspector said. "He's twelve years old. I've had him discharged from three factories inside the year. This makes the fourth."
“我知道他。”监察员说：“他才12岁，我已经把他从三个工厂中赶出来过了，这是第四个。”
He turned to the one-legged boy. "You promised me, word and honor, that you'd go to school."
他转向那个瘸腿男孩。“你答应过我 发过誓，你会去学校上课。”
The one-legged boy burst into tears. "Please, Mr. Inspector, two babies died on us, and we're awful poor."
瘸腿男孩哇得哭了起来“视察先生请放过我吧， 我们家已经有两个孩子饿死了，我们实在是太穷了。”
"What makes you cough that way?" the inspector demanded, as though charging him with crime.
"为什么你咳嗽得这么厉害？”视察盘问道，仿佛他犯了什么罪一样。
And as in denial of guilt, the one-legged boy replied: "It ain't nothin'. I jes' caught a cold last week, Mr. Inspector, that's all."
就像否认罪行一样，瘸腿男孩回应道：“这没有什么，我只是在上周感染了一些风寒，视察先生 这真的没什么。”
In the end the one-legged boy went out of the room with the inspector, the latter accompanied by the anxious and protesting superintendent. After that monotony settled down again. The long morning and the longer afternoon wore away and the whistle blew for quitting time. Darkness had already fallen when Johnny passed out through the factory gate. In the interval the sun had made a golden ladder of the sky, flooded the world with its gracious warmth, and dropped down and disappeared in the west behind a ragged sky-line of housetops.
最后瘸腿男孩跟着视察走出了房间，随后跟着的是焦虑且仍在喋喋不休的工厂主管。当再次度过一个无聊且漫长的早晨以及更加漫长的下午后，放工的汽笛响了起来。当Johnny走出工厂大门的时候，外面已是黑蒙蒙的一片。在这中间的一段时间里，太阳好像把天空当作了一架金梯，向世界传递着它亲切的温暖，然后向西沉下去，消失在给房顶划得参差不齐的天际线后面。
Supper was the family meal of the day -- the one meal at which Johnny encountered his younger brothers and sisters. It partook of the nature of an encounter, to him, for he was very old, while they were distressingly young. He had no patience with their excessive and amazing juvenility. He did not understand it. His own childhood was too far behind him. He was like an old and irritable man, annoyed by the turbulence of their young spirits that was to him arrant silliness. He glowered silently over his food, finding compensation in the thought that they would soon have to go to work. That would take the edge off of them and make them sedate and dignified -- like him. Thus it was, after the fashion of the human, that Johnny made of himself a yardstick with which to measure the universe.
晚餐是一天中家里人全部聚在一起吃饭的一顿——也是Johnny能看见他的小弟弟与妹妹的时候。对他而言这样会面有点像是冤家路窄，因为他已经太成熟了 而他们则太过于年轻幼稚了。他对于他们那令人吃惊 过度的幼稚毫无耐心。他根本无法理解。他自己的童年离他已经非常遥远了。他就像一个易怒的老头，因为被他们年轻过度充沛的精神扰乱 而感到恼怒，在他看来那是一种彻头彻尾的愚蠢。他板着脸沉默的吃完了自己的食物，想着他们很快就会去工作才找到了安慰。这会很快消磨他们的锐气让他们变得沉着且稳重——就像他一样。Johnny就是这样，把自己当做一个标尺去衡量世间上的所有事物。
During the meal, his mother explained in various ways and with infinite repetition that she was trying to do the best she could; so that it was with relief, the scant meal ended, that Johnny shoved back his chair and arose. He debated for a moment between bed and the front door, and finally went out the latter. He did not go far. He sat down on the stoop, his knees drawn up and his narrow shoulders drooping forward, his elbows on his knees and the palms of his hands supporting his chin. As he sat there, he did no thinking. He was just resting. So far as his mind was concerned, it was asleep. His brothers and sisters came out, and with other children played noisily about him. An electric globe on the corner lighted their frolics. He was peevish and irritable, that they knew; but the spirit of adventure lured them into teasing him. They joined hands before him, and, keeping time with their bodies, chanted in his face weird and uncomplimentary doggerel. At first he snarled curses at them -- curses he had learned from the lips of various foremen. Finding this futile, and remembering his dignity, he relapsed into dogged silence.
在晚餐期间，他的母亲叙述着她对于世间诸事的抱怨并不停地重复说着 她已经尽了自己最大的努力以减轻生活的负担，Johnny一边听着一边吃完了这寒酸的一餐 推开了他的椅子占了起来。他踌躇了一会想着去床上还是到门外，最后他走向了后者。他并没有走太远就坐在石阶上，他的双膝卷曲着 狭窄的肩膀向下耷拉着，双肘就这样抵着膝盖支撑着他的下巴。当他坐在那里的时候 他并没有想什么事情。他仅仅是在休息。他的思绪早已飘到了远方就像在睡觉时一样。他的弟弟妹妹也出来了，与其他一些孩子一起玩耍弄出了噪声吵闹了他。在街角的电灯照耀着他们的无忧无虑。他们知道他的脾气暴躁且易怒，但内心的冒险感不断诱惑着他们去逗弄他。他们手拉着手站在他的面前，配合着摇晃着身体，对他唱着那种古怪的，难听的打油诗。起先，他还用他从恶毒的工头那儿学来的骂人的话来骂他们。后来看到骂也不起作用，他就想起了自己的尊严，索性一声不响。
His brother Will, next to him in age, having just passed his tenth birthday, was the ring-leader. Johnny did not possess particularly kindly feelings toward him. His life had early been embittered by continual giving over and giving way to Will. He had a definite feeling that Will was greatly in his debt and was ungrateful about it. In his own playtime, far back in the dim past, he had been robbed of a large part of that playtime by being compelled to take care of Will. Will was a baby then, and then, as now, their mother had spent her days in the mills. To Johnny had fallen the part of little father and little mother as well.
他的二弟Will一个刚满十岁的男孩 就是孩子们的小头目。Johnny对他没有什么特别亲切的感情。他的生命由于不断的为Will做出牺牲与让步 过早的陷入苦涩之中。他感觉Will欠了他许多而他本人却一点也不感恩。在他自己的童年时刻，远离这昏暗的生活很久以前，他被迫 剥削掉一大部分时间来照顾Will。那时候Will还是个婴儿，他的母亲与现在一样一直在工厂中上班。Johnny则担下了一部分父亲 母亲所应做的责任。
Will seemed to show the benefit of the giving over and the giving way. He was well-built, fairly rugged, as tall as his elder brother and even heavier. It was as though the life-blood of the one had been diverted into the other's veins. And in spirits it was the same. Johnny was jaded, worn out, without resilience, while his younger brother seemed bursting and spilling over with exuberance.
Will看上去由于他的牺牲与让步获得了不少好处。他的身体很健壮 毛发浓密，几乎与他的哥哥一样高 甚至来得更重。这仿佛是从一个身体中抽出了血液灌输到了另一个身体的血管中一样。而在精神上也是相同的。Johnny总是精疲力竭 打不起精神，而他年轻的弟弟则看上去生机勃勃 精神洋溢。
The mocking chant rose louder and louder. Will leaned closer as he danced, thrusting out his tongue. Johnny's left arm shot out and caught the other around the neck. At the same time he rapped his bony fist to the other's nose. It was a pathetically bony fist, but that it was sharp to hurt was evidenced by the squeal of pain it produced. The other children were uttering frightened cries, while Johnny's sister, Jennie, had dashed into the house.
嘲弄的声音越来越响了。威尔一边跳着一边离得更近了，并吐出了他的舌头。Johnny的左手突然生出并抓住了他的脖子，与此同时用他瘦弱的拳头打向Will的脖子。这是一个瘦的可怜的拳头，但由于它所造成的痛苦而产生的尖叫足以证明它的伤害力。其他孩子由于恐惧全部哭了，在这个时候Johnny的妹妹冲进了家中。
He thrust Will from him, kicked him savagely on the shins, then reached for him and slammed him face downward in the dirt. Nor did he release him till the face had been rubbed into the dirt several times. Then the mother arrived, an anaemic whirlwind of solicitude and maternal wrath.
他一把推开Will并野蛮地提着他的小腿骨，然后抓住他 把他的脸砸向污泥中，直到他的脸在污泥中搓揉了几次之后Jonnhy才放开他。这个时候母亲到了，像一阵旋风 又声嘶力竭地带着母亲特有的关心 骂了几句。
"Why can't he leave me alone?" was Johnny's reply to her upbraiding. "Can't he see I'm tired?"
“为什么他不能让我一个人呆着？”Johnny继续着他的叱责。"难道他看不见我已经累了吗？“
"I'm as big as you," Will raged in her arms, his face a mess of tears, dirt, and blood. "I'm as big as you now, an' I'm goin' to git bigger. Then I'll lick you -- see if I don't."
“我已经和你一样大了。”Will在他母亲的手臂中暴怒着，他的脸上充满了泪水 脏泥以及血。“我已经和你一样壮了，我还会长得更大。然后你就看我会不会揍你了。”
"You ought to be to work, seein' how big you are," Johnny snarled. "That's what's the matter with you. You ought to be to work. An' it's up to your ma to put you to work."
“如果你真得长得那么高大就该去上班。”Johnny咆哮着。“这就是你的问题。你应该去上班。你妈应该让你去上班。”
"But he's too young," she protested. "He's only a little boy."
“但他太小了。”她抗议道。“他还只是个孩子。”
"I was younger'n him when I started to work."
“在我开始上班的时候比他更小。”
Johnny's mouth was open, further to express the sense of unfairness that he felt, but the mouth closed with a snap. He turned gloomily on his heel and stalked into the house and to bed. The door of his room was open to let in warmth from the kitchen. As he undressed in the semi-darkness he could hear his mother talking with a neighbor woman who had dropped in. His mother was crying, and her speech was punctuated with spiritless sniffles.
Johnny的嘴巴已经张开，想要控诉他所感到的不公平，但嘴巴又突然的闭上了。他沮丧的转过身到屋里去睡觉了。他房间的们打开着 还残留这厨房中的温度。当他光着身子躺在黑暗中时 他还能听见他的母亲与到访的邻居大妈在屋里的谈话。他的母亲在哭泣，而她的话语中穿插着无力的抽泣。
"I can't make out what's gittin' into Johnny," he could hear her say. "He didn't used to be this way. He was a patient little angel.
“我不知道Johnny到底怎么了。”他可以听见她说：“他之前不是这样的。他以前是一个充满耐心的小天使。”
"An' he is a good boy," she hastened to defend. "He's worked faithful, an' he did go to work too young. But it wasn't my fault. I do the best I can, I'm sure."
“现在他也是个好孩子。”她立马为他辩护道“他工作十分努力 而且他也的确太早的去工作了。但这并不是我的错啊。我确信自己做到了所能做到的最好。”
Prolonged sniffling from the kitchen, and Johnny murmured to himself as his eyelids closed down, "You betcher life I've worked faithful."
从厨房持续传来抽泣的声音，Johnny闭上了眼睛 含糊不清的呢喃着：“我本来就在努力的干活嘛。”
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