365天读《A song of Ice and Fire》Day

Chapter 3

Daenerys

Her brother held the gown up for her inspection. “This is beauty. Touch it. Go on. Caress the fabric.”

gown/gaʊn/ n. 长袍，长外衣；法衣；睡袍；礼服 vt. 使穿睡衣

Dany touched it. The cloth was so smooth that it seemed to run through her fingers like water. She could not remember ever wearing anything so soft. It frightened her. She pulled her hand away. “Is it really mine?”

“A gift from the Magister Illyrio,” Viserys said, smiling. Her brother was in a high mood tonight. “The color will bring out the violet in your eyes. And you shall have gold as well, and jewels of all sorts. Illyrio has promised. Tonight you must look like a princess.”

violet/'vaɪələt/ n. 紫罗兰

A princess, Dany thought. She had forgotten what that was like. Perhaps she had never really known. “Why does he give us so much?” she asked. “What does he want from us?” For nigh on half a year, they had lived in the magister’s house, eating his food, pampered by his servants. Dany was thirteen, old enough to know that such gifts seldom come without their price, here in the free city of Pentos.

nigh/naɪ/ prep. 近于 adj. 在附近的；直接的 adv. 在附近地；几乎

pamper/'pæmpə/ vt. 纵容;宠;娇养

“Illyrio is no fool,” Viserys said. He was a gaunt young man with nervous hands and a feverish look in his pale lilac eyes. “The magister knows that I will not forget my friends when I come into my throne.”

gaunt /gɔːnt/ adj. 荒凉的；憔悴的；枯瘦的

feverish/'fiːv(ə)rɪʃ/ adj. 发热的；极度兴奋的

magister/mə'dʒistə/ n. 古罗马或中世纪的教师，总督

Dany said nothing. Magister Illyrio was a dealer in spices, gemstones, dragonbone, and other, less savory things. He had friends in all of the Nine Free Cities, it was said, and even beyond, in Vaes Dothrak and the fabled lands beside the Jade Sea. It was also said that he’d never had a friend he wouldn’t cheerfully sell for the right price. Dany listened to the talk in the streets, and she heard these things, but she knew better than to question her brother when he wove his webs of dream. His anger was a terrible thing when roused. Viserys called it “waking the dragon.”

dealer /'diːlə/ n. 商人；经销商 v. 商人； gemstones/'dʒemstəʊn/   n. （经雕琢的）宝石

savory /'seivəri/ adj. 可口的；风味极佳的；味美的 n. 开胃菜；[植]香薄荷

wove his webs of dream 编织迷梦时戳破

Her brother hung the gown beside the door. “Illyrio will send the slaves to bathe you. Be sure you wash off the stink of the stables. Khal Drogo has a thousand horses, tonight he looks for a different sort of mount.” He studied her critically. “You still slouch. Straighten yourself” He pushed back her shoulders with his hands. “Let them see that you have a woman’s shape now.” His fingers brushed lightly over her budding breasts and tightened on a nipple. “You will not fail me tonight. If you do, it will go hard for you. You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” His fingers twisted her, the pinch cruelly hard through the rough fabric of her tunic. “Do you?” he repeated.

bathe/beɪð/ vt. 沐浴；用水洗 vi. 洗澡；沐浴 n. 游泳；洗澡

the stink of the stables 马厩的臭味；mount/maʊnt/ vt. & vi. 登上; 骑上 vi. 增加; 上升 vt. 上演; 配有… 发动攻击; 攻击 n. 山峰 ；坐骑

slouch/slaʊtʃ/ vi. 无精打采地立、坐或行走；驼背；budding /'bʌdɪŋ/ adj. 正发芽的；开始发育的,成长中的 新获得成功的,初露头角的 n. 发芽

twist/twɪst/ vt. 捻；拧；扭伤；编织；使苦恼 n. 扭曲；扭伤；拧 vi. 扭动；弯曲

pinch/pɪn(t)ʃ/ vt. 捏；勒索；使苦恼；掐掉某物，修剪 n. 匮乏；少量；夹痛 vi. 夹痛；节省

“No,” Dany said meekly.

Her brother smiled. “Good.” He touched her hair, almost with affection. “When they write the history of my reign, sweet sister, they will say that it began tonight.”

affection/ə'fekʃ(ə)n/ n. 喜爱, 爱 〈心〉感情

When he was gone, Dany went to her window and looked out wistfully on the waters of the bay. The square brick towers of Pentos were black silhouettes outlined against the setting sun. Dany could hear the singing of the red priests as they lit their night fires and the shouts of ragged children playing games beyond the walls of the estate. For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo’s manse.

wistfully /'wistfəli/ adv. 渴望地;希望地 沉思地;忧愁地

 silhouette /ˌsɪlʊ'et/剪影；priests/pri:st/ n. [宗]牧师；神父；祭司；教士（priest的复数）

barefoot/'beəfʊt/ adj. & adv. 赤脚的〔地〕 adj. 赤脚的； tatters/'tætɚz/ n. 破衣服；梭织者；碎片（tatter的复数） v. 撕碎；把…穿破（tatter的三单形式）；

manse/mæns/   n. 牧师住宅

Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers, where towers of dark stone rose amidst magnificent blue-grey mountains, and armored knights rode to battle beneath the banners of their lords. The Dothraki called that land Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals. In the Free Cities, they talked of Westeros and the Sunset Kingdoms. Her brother had a simpler name. “Our land,” he called it. The words were like a prayer with him. If he said them enough, the gods were sure to hear. “Ours by blood right, taken from us by treachery, but ours still, ours forever. You do not steal from the dragon, oh, no. The dragon remembers.”

amidst/ə'mɪdst/ prep. 在…当中

treachery/'tretʃ(ə)rɪ/ n. 背信弃义, 不忠, 背叛; 欺诈 背叛行为; 欺诈行为

And perhaps the dragon did remember, but Dany could not. She had never seen this land her brother said was theirs, this realm beyond the narrow sea. These places he talked of, Casterly Rock and the Eyrie, Highgarden and the Vale of Arryn, Dorne and the Isle of Faces, they were just words to her. Viserys had been a boy of eight when they fled King’s Landing to escape the advancing armies of the Usurper, but Daenerys had been only a quickening in their mother’s womb.

womb/wuːm/ n. 子宫；发源地 vt. 容纳

Yet sometimes Dany would picture the way it had been, so often had her brother told her the stories. The midnight flight to Dragonstone, moonlight shimmering on the ship’s black sails. Her brother Rhaegar battling the Usurper in the bloody waters of the Trident and dying for the woman he loved. The sack of King’s Landing by the ones Viserys called the Usurper’s dogs, the lords Lannister and Stark. Princess Elia of Dorne pleading for mercy as Rhaegar’s heir was ripped from her breast and murdered before her eyes. The polished skulls of the last dragons staring down sightlessly from the walls of the throne room while the Kingslayer opened Father’s throat with a golden sword.

shimmer/'ʃɪmə/ vi. 闪闪发光;发微光；Usurper/ju:'zə:pə/ n. 篡夺者,篡位者,霸占者

She had been born on Dragonstone nine moons after their flight, while a raging summer storm threatened to rip the island fastness apart. They said that storm was terrible. The Targaryen fleet was smashed while it lay at anchor, and huge stone blocks were ripped from the parapets and sent hurtling into the wild waters of the narrow sea. Her mother had died birthing her, and for that her brother Viserys had never forgiven her.

fleet /fliːt/ adj. 快速的，敏捷的 n. 舰队；小河；港湾 vi. 疾驰；飞逝；掠过 vt. 消磨

smash/smæʃ/ n. 破碎(声) 猛击; 猛撞 大成功; 极为成功的新书[新戏, 电影等] vt. & vi. 打碎; 捣烂 vt. 重击; 打败

anchor /'æŋkə/ n. 锚 给人安全感的物(或人) vt. 抛锚 担任(电视节目等的)主持人 vt. & vi. (把…)系住, (使)固定

parapet /'pærəpɪt/ n. 栏杆；扶手；矮护墙

hurtling/'hɜːt(ə)l/ vi. 猛冲, 疾飞

She did not remember Dragonstone either. They had run again, just before the Usurper’s brother set sail with his new-built fleet. By then only Dragonstone itself, the ancient seat of their House, had remained of the Seven Kingdoms that had once been theirs. It would not remain for long. The garrison had been prepared to sell them to the Usurper, but one night Ser Willem Darry and four loyal men had broken into the nursery and stolen them both, along with her wet nurse, and set sail under cover of darkness for the safety of the Braavosian coast.

garrison /'gærɪs(ə)n/ n. 守备部队, 卫戍部队 vt. 卫戍部队守备 派部队驻防

She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, halfblind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometimes “My Lady,” and his hands were soft as old leather. He never left his bed, though, and the smell of sickness clung to him day and night, a hot, moist, sickly sweet odor. That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. After Ser Willem had died, the servants had stolen what little money they had left, and soon after they had been put out of the big house. Dany had cried when the red door closed behind them forever.

They had wandered since then, from Braavos to Myr, from Myr to Tyrosh, and on to Qohor and Volantis and Lys, never staying long in any one place. Her brother would not allow it. The Usurper’s hired knives were close behind them, he insisted, though Dany had never seen one.

At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. In the alleys and wine sinks of Pentos, they called her brother “the beggar king.” Dany did not want to know what they called her.

archon/'ɑːkən/ n. 执政官,统治者；merchant/'mɜːtʃ(ə)nt/ n. 商人

“We will have it all back someday, sweet sister,” he would promise her. Sometimes his hands shook when he talked about it. “The jewels and the silks, Dragonstone and King’s Landing, the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms, all they have taken from us, we will have it back.” Viserys lived for that day. All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

There came a soft knock on her door. “Come,” Dany said, turning away from the window. Illyrio’s servants entered, bowed, and set about their business. They were slaves, a gift from one of the magister’s many Dothraki friends. There was no slavery in the free city of Pentos. Nonetheless, they were slaves. The old woman, small and grey as a mouse, never said a word, but the girl made up for it. She was Illyrio’s favorite, a fair-haired, blue-eyed wench of sixteen who chattered constantly as she worked.

wench/wen(t)ʃ/ n. 少妇；乡下姑娘

chatter/'tʃætə/ vi. 唠叨；喋喋不休；（动物等）吱吱叫 vt. 喋喋不休地说；使卡嗒卡嗒作声 n. 唠叨；饶舌；（动物的）啁啾声；潺潺流水声

They filled her bath with hot water brought up from the kitchen and scented it with fragrant oils. The girl pulled the rough cotton tunic over Dany’s head and helped her into the tub. The water was scalding hot, but Daenerys did not flinch or cry out. She liked the heat. It made her feel clean. Besides, her brother had often told her that it was never too hot for a Targaryen. “Ours is the house of the dragon,” he would say. “The fire is in our blood.”

fragrant oils香油

The old woman washed her long, silver-pale hair and gently combed out the snags, all in silence. The girl scrubbed her back and her feet and told her how lucky she was. “Drogo is so rich that even his slaves wear golden collars. A hundred thousand men ride in his khalasar, and his palace in Vaes Dothrak has two hundred rooms and doors of solid silver.” There was more like that, so much more, what a handsome man the khal was, so tall and fierce, fearless in battle, the best rider ever to mount a horse, a demon archer. Daenerys said nothing. She had always assumed that she would wed Viserys when she came of age.

scrubbed /'skrʌbid/   v. 擦洗；废止；揉搓（scrub的过去分词）

collar/'kɒlə/ n. 衣领, 领子 (狗等的)项圈

demon archer 如恶魔般的神射手

For centuries the Targaryens had married brother to sister, since Aegon the Conqueror had taken his sisters to bride. The line must be kept pure, Viserys had told her a thousand times; theirs was the kingsblood, the golden blood of old Valyria, the blood of the dragon. Dragons did not mate with the beasts of the field, and Targaryens did not mingle their blood with that of lesser men. Yet now Viserys schemed to sell her to a stranger, a barbarian.

mingle/'mɪŋg(ə)l/ vt. & vi. 混合, 混入 vi. 混进, 与…交往[联系]

barbarian/bɑː'beərɪən/ n. 野蛮人, 未开化的人

When she was clean, the slaves helped her from the water and toweled her dry. The girl brushed her hair until it shone like molten silver, while the old woman anointed her with the spiceflower perfume of the Dothraki plains, a dab on each wrist, behind her ears, on the tips of her breasts, and one last one, cool on her lips, down there between her legs. They dressed her in the wisps that Magister Illyrio had sent up, and then the gown, a deep plum silk to bring out the violet in her eyes. The girl slid the gilded sandals onto her feet, while the old woman fixed the tiara in her hair, and slid golden bracelets crusted with amethysts around her wrists. Last of all came the collar, a heavy golden tore emblazoned with ancient Valyrian glyphs.

gilded sandals 金边凉鞋；tiara/tɪ'ɑːrə/ n. 女式冕状头饰；（罗马教皇的）三重冕

bracelet /'breɪslɪt/ n. 手镯；

emblazon/ɪm'bleɪz(ə)n/ vt. 用纹章装饰；颂扬