Decumus Scotti was drowning, and he didn't think much of it. He couldn't move his arms or his legs to swim because of the paralysis spell the Argonian peasant had lobbed at him, but he wasn't quite sinking. The Onkobra River was a crashing force of white water and currents that could carry along large rocks with ease, so Scotti tumbled head over heels, spinning, bumping, bouncing along.
Scotti 被水淹没，他也没什么办法，因为那两个乡巴佬的魔法搞得他手脚无法动弹，但他又不会那么快的沉入水底。Onkobra河水湍急，能够把大岩石冲刷成鹅卵石，Scotti顺水而下，在水流中翻滚。
He figured that soon enough he would be dead, and that would be better than being in Black Marsh. He wasn't too panicked about it all when he felt his lungs fill with water and cold blackness fell upon him.
他想是不是自己快要死了，至少也比在Black Marsh强的多。他的肺部灌满了河水，而寒冷也包围着他，这时他反而感到不那么惊慌。
For a while, for the first time in some time, Decumus Scotti felt peace. Blessed darkness. And then pain came to him, and he felt himself coughing, spewing water up from his belly and his lungs.
过了不知道多久，第一次，出发到Black Marsh以来的第一次，他感到平静，感谢黑暗。一阵刺痛袭来，他忍不住咳嗽起来，一阵猛吐，把体内的积水吐了出来。
A voice said, "Oh bother, he's alive, ain't he, now?"
一个声音说到”噢，他还活着，接下来怎么办？“
Scotti wasn't quite sure if that were true, even when he opened his eyes and looked at the face above him. It was an Argonian, but unlike any he had seen anywhere. The face was thin and long like a thick lance; the scales were ruby-red, brilliant in the sunlight. It blinked at him, its eyelids opening and closing in vertical slits.
Scotti睁开眼睛看了看四周都还不敢相信自己还活着，眼前是一个Argonian人，和他看到的其他Argonian人不同，他的脸又长又消瘦，像一柄长矛。他的鳞片是红宝石样的深红色，在阳光的照射下闪烁着刺眼的光芒，他的眼睛睁开闭上时中间有条垂直的缝隙.
"I don't suppose we should eat you, should we now?" the creature smiled, and Scotti could tell from its teeth that it was no idle suggestion.
"我们不会吃了你的,你觉得呢?"那个人笑道,Scotti听他的口吻没有恶意.
"Thank you," said Scotti weakly. He craned his head slightly to find out who the "we" were, and discovered he was on the muddy bank of the still, sludgy river, surrounded by a group of Argonians with similarly needle-like faces and a whole rainbow of scales. Bright greens and gem-like purples, blues, and oranges.
"谢谢你，"Scotti微弱地说道。他抬头看了看确认那个人说的”我们“是哪些生物。发现他在一个泥泞的河岸边上，被一群细长脸庞而又五颜六色的鳞片的Argonian人围着，像彩虹一样多的颜色的鳞片。
"Can you tell me, am I near - well, anywhere?"
”你能告诉我我在什么地方？“
The ruby-colored Argonian laughed. "No. You're in the middle of everywhere, and near nowhere."
有着深红色鳞片的Argonian人笑道”你在任何地方的中心，又靠近任何位置。“
"Oh," said Scotti, who grasped the idea that space did not mean much in Black Marsh. "And what are you?"
”噢。“Scotti说到，突然想到了在Black Marshall没有位置的概念。”你们是谁？“
"We are Agacephs," the ruby-colored Argonian replied. "My name is Nomu."
“我们是Agaceph。”这个红色的Argonian人回答说,"我叫Nomu。"
Scotti introduced himself. "I'm a senior clerk in Lord Vanech's Building Commission in the Imperial City. My job was to come here to try to fix the problems with commerce, but I've lost my agenda, haven't met with any of my contacts, the Archeins of Gideon..."
Scotti介绍了他自己。“我是Lord Vanech的公司职员派来这里解决这里贸易的一些问题，但是我丢失了我的合同文件，工作日程也打乱了。还约见了Gideon的Archeins。。。。。。”
"Pompous, assimiliated, slaver kleptocrats," a small lemon-colored Agaceph murmured with some feeling.
“这个自大的，种族主义，贪官奴隶主。”一个浅黄色小个儿Agaceph人愤愤地笑声嘀咕道。
"...And now I just want to go home."
“现在我想回家。”
Nomu smiled, his long mouth arching up like a host happy to see an unwanted guest leave a party. "Shehs will guide you."
Nomu 笑的合不拢嘴，就像是主人看到不受欢迎的客人离开聚会的样子。“Shehs会带你走的。”
Shehs, it seemed, was the bitter little yellow creature, and he was not at all pleased at the assignment. With surprising strength, he hoisted Scotti up, and for a moment, the clerk was reminded of Gemullus dropping him into the bubbling muck that led to the Underground Express. Instead, Shehs shoved Scotti toward a tiny little raft, razor-thin, that bobbed on the surface of the water.
Shehs，就是那个一脸苦相的小个儿，带着点儿不情愿走过来，把Scotti扶起来。这让Scotti想起之前Gemullus把他拉进一片冒泡的淤泥上面让他坐地下快车的是。不过这次，Shehs把他放到一个如刀片般轻薄的小筏上。
"This is how you travel?"
“这就是你们旅行的方式？”
"We don't have the broken wagons and dying horses of our brothers on the outside," Shehs replied, rolling his tiny eyes. "We don't know better."
“我们不像外面的那些同胞，不需要那些破旧的拖车和快死的马匹。”Shehs转动着他的小眼睛回复到“我们了解不深。”
The Argonian sat at the back of the craft and used his whip-like tail to propel and navigate the craft. They traveled quickly around swirling pools of slime that stank of centuries of putrefaction, past pinnacled mountains that seemed sturdy but suddenly fell apart at the slightest ripple in the still water, under bridges that might have once been metal but were now purely rust.
这个Argonian人坐在筏艇的后面用他的鞭子一样的尾巴划着水。划得很快，穿过由数世纪的淤泥积成而来的泥浆漩涡水流。倒映在湖水中的山顶影子被滑行的筏子的波纹打乱。穿过许多过去搭建的如今早已腐朽的金属大桥。
"Everything in Tamriel flows down to Black Marsh," Shehs said.
“Tamriel的所有东西都冲到Black Marsh来了。”Shehs说着。
As they slid through the water, Shehs explained to Scotti that the Agacephs were one of the many Argonian tribes that lived in the interior of the province, near the Hist, finding little in the outside world worth seeing. He was fortunate to have been found by them. The Nagas, the toad-like Paatru, and the winged Sarpa would have killed him on the spot.
在路上，SHehs给他介绍到Agaceph族是众多Argonian分支的一个，他们生活在大陆的中部，靠近Hist，很少到外面的世界。他很幸运被他们找到了。如果是Nagas，Paatru和Sarpa之类的恐怕早就命丧此地了。
There were other creatures too to be avoided. Though there were few natural predators in inner Black Marsh, the scavengers that rooted in the garbage seldom shied away from a living meal. Hackwings circled overhead, like the ones Scotti had seen in the west.
还有一些生物要小心的。因为这里的肉食动物比较稀少，所以一些食腐类动物都不怎么害怕活物。老鹰也在天空盘旋。就像Scotti在西部看到的那样子。
Shehs fell silent and stopped the raft completely, waiting for something.
这时Shehs停了下来并马上停止说话。像是等待着什么东西。
Scotti looked in the direction Shehs was watching, and saw nothing unusual in the filthy water. Then, he realized that the pool of green slime in front of them was actually moving, and fairly quickly, from one bank to the other. It deposited small bones behind it as it oozed up into the reeds, and disappeared.
Scotti朝着Shehs注视的方向望去，不过在这肮脏的水中并没有什么发现异常。这时他看到他前面的绿色的淤泥突然开始移动，很快地从岸的一边到另一边。然后进入到一片芦苇中，消失了，只留下一滩骨头。
"Voriplasm," Shehs explained, moving the boat forward again. "Big word. It'll strip you to the bone by the second syllable."
“那是Voriplasm，”Shehs解释道。又重新开始划起船来。“毫不夸张的说，你还没有发出第二声，它就把你吃的只剩骨头了。”
Scotti, desirous to distract himself from the sights and smells that surrounded him, thought it a good time to compliment his pilot on his excellent vocabulary. It was particularly impressive, given how far from civilization they were. The Argonians in the east did, in fact, speak so well.
Scotti尝试把注意力从这片情形和气味重转移出去，看来他需要好好的赞扬他的领航员知识渊博能说会道。印象深刻的是远离文明世界那么久，仍然如此健谈。
"They tried to erect a Temple of Mara near here, in Umpholo, twenty years ago," Shehs explained, and Scotti nodded, remembering reading about it in the files before they were lost. "They all perished quite dreadfully of swamp rot in the first month, but they left behind some excellent books."
“二十年前，一些人在Umpholo，离这里不远的地方准备建立一座Mara的庙宇。”Shehs说到，Scotti点点头，回忆起了他读过的那些已经丢失的文件里面的内容。“在那些沼泽开始腐败后，一个月之内他们全部相继死去。但是他们留下来一些不错的书籍。”
Scotti was going to inquire further when he saw something so huge, so horrifying, it made him stop, frozen.
Scotti正想问个究竟，这时他看到一个可怕的巨大的东西在他面前。一下动弹不得。
Half submerged in the water ahead was a mountain of spines, lying on nine-foot-long claws. White eyes stared blindly forward, and then suddenly the whole creature spasmed and lurched, the jaw of its mouth jutting out, exposing tusks clotted with gore.
一半露出水面的是巨大的如山一样的脊柱，9英尺长的厉爪，白色的眼睛看着前方。突然间这个庞然大物开始抽搐，然后倾倒在旁边。嘴巴张开，露出白森森的牙齿，间或有淤血在上面。
"Swamp Leviathan," Shehs whistled, impressed. "Very, very dangerous."
“Swamp Leviathan”Shehs小声说道“非常非常危险!”
Scotti gasped, wondering why the Agaceph was so calm, and more, why he was continuing to steer the raft forward towards the beast..
Scotti倒吸一口气，但突然奇怪为什么Agaceph如此平静，不仅如此，他还开始划船继续向这个怪物划过去。
"Of all the creatures in the world, the rats are sometimes the worst," said Shehs, and Scotti noticed that the huge creature was only a husk. Its movement was from the hundreds of rats that had burrowed into it, rapidly eating their way from the inside out, bursting from the skin in spots.
“在所有的生物里边，有时候老鼠是最最可怕的生物。”Shehs说到，这时Scotti注意到，那个庞然大物只剩下一张皮。成百上千的老鼠在体内窜动，从里到外吃的只剩下一张皮，面上早已布满鼠洞。
"They are indeed," Scotti said, and his mind went to the Black Marsh files, buried deep in the mud, and four decades of Imperial work in Black Marsh.
“确实如此”。Scotti说到。他的思绪飞到了Black Marsh他丢失文件的地方，被埋进了淤泥沼泽里面。40余年的辛苦研究资料毁于一旦。
The two continued westward through the heart of Black Marsh.
他们两个人穿过Black Barsh的中心继续朝西前进。
Shehs showed Scotti the vast complicated ruins of the Kothringi capitals, fields of ferns and flowered grasses, quiet streams under canopies of blue moss, and the most astonishing sight of Scotti's life—the great forest of full-grown Hist trees. They never saw a living soul until they arrived at the edge of the Imperial Commerce Road just east of Slough Point, where Mailic, Scotti's Redguard guide, was waiting patiently.
Shehs 给Scotti展示着河流沿岸的景色，Kothringi城的宏大繁杂遗迹，植被茂密的种类各异的林地。蓝色苔藓下的静静流淌着的溪流。这些景观深深的震撼着Scotti，更有Hist大树高耸入云让他毕生难忘。一路上安全无事没有遇到一个活物。直到抵达了Slough Point东部的帝国大道的边界，才看到了Mailic，他的护卫还在耐心的等着他。
"I was going to give you two more minutes," the Redguard scowled, dropping the last of his food onto the pile at his feet. "No more, sir."
“我准备给你2分钟时间”Mailic冷冷地说道。丢下他所剩的食物在Scotti脚下。“没有多少了。”
The sun was shining bright when Decumus Scotti rode into the Imperial City, and as it caught the morning dew, it lent a glisten to every building as if they had been newly polished for his arrival. It astonished him how clean the city was. And how few beggars there were.
初生的太阳照耀着大地，Scotti也抵达Imperial城。一切沐浴在朝阳中，晨露在阳光下闪烁，仿佛为了欢迎他回家，一切都是那么干净整洁，连乞讨者都变少了。
The protracted edifice of Lord Vanech's Building Commission was the same as it had always been, but still the very sight of it seemed exotic and strange. It was not covered in mud. The people within actually, generally, worked.
那座巨大的Lord Vanech的建筑物依然如故，仍然看起来别扭并且毫无美感可言。并没有被掩埋，里面的人也认真地工作着。
Lord Vanech himself, though singularly squat and squinty, seemed immaculate, not only relatively clean of dirt and scabs, but also relatively uncorrupt. Scotti couldn't help but stare at him when he first caught sight of his boss. Vanech stared right back.
Lord Vanech他自己，又矮又有斜视，但打扮的干净整洁，一尘不染。Scotti不由自主地打量他的老板，而这时Vanech也注视着他。
"You are a sight," the little fellow frowned. "Did your horse drag you to Black Marsh and back? I would say go home and fix yourself, but there are a dozen people here to see you. I hope you have solutions for them."
“你是个幸运儿。”小个子微微皱着眉，“你是不是被马儿拉到了沼泽里面又回来了啊。我本来想让你回家收拾下，但是已经有很多人在等着接见你。我希望他们满意你这次的旅行。”
It was no exaggeration. Nearly twenty of Cyrodiil's most powerful and wealthiest people were waiting for him. Scotti was given an office even larger than Lord Vanech's, and he met with each.
毫不夸张的说，至少有20多位Cyrodiil有权有势的人正在等着他。Scotti被安排一个比Lord大的多的办公室里接见他们。
First among the Commission's clients were five independent traders, blustering and loaded with gold, demanding to know what Scotti intended to do about improving the trade routes. Scotti summarized for them the conditions of the main roads, the state of the merchants' caravans, the sunken bridges, and all the other impediments between the frontier and the marketplace. They told him to have everything replaced and repaired, and gave him the gold necessary to do it.
第一个他接见的是5个腰缠万贯的自由贸易者，急切的想知道Scotti有什么措施改进他们的这条贸易线路。Scotti简要的介绍那条道路情况，商人的货车，那些淹没的桥梁，那些所有关于贸易障碍的情况。他们让他想办法处理这些，而金钱不是问题。
Within three months, the bridge at Slough Point had disappeared into the muck; the great caravan had collapsed into decrepitude; and the main road from Gideon had been utterly swallowed up by swamp water. The Argonians began once again to use the old ways, their personal rafts and sometimes the Underground Express to transport the grain in small quantities. It took a third of the time, two weeks, to arrive in Cyrodiil, none of it rotten.
3个月之内，在Slough Point的那座桥被淤泥淹没，车队也分崩离析，通往Gideon的主要道路也被沼泽所吞没。Argonian人再一次用他们的老办法，他们私人的小筏和地下快车来少量的运送粮食。不过比起以前只用了以前三分之一的时间，2周时间就抵达Cyrodiil，而且食物也没有变质。
The Archbishop of Mara was the next client Scotti met with. A kindhearted man, horrified by the tales of Argonian mothers selling their children into slavery, he pointedly asked Scotti if it were true.
第二个参见的是Mara大主教。一个仁慈的人，被故事里面那个卖自己亲生骨肉的Argonian母亲所吓到，求证Scotti确有其事。
"Sadly, yes," Scotti replied, and the Archbishop showered him with septims, telling the clerk that food must be brought to the province to ease their suffering, and the schools must be improved so they could learn to help themselves.
“不幸的是，这是真的”Scotti回复后，大主教留下了一大笔钱，告诉他要让他用这些钱建立学校，让他们进步，然后自理更生，把粮食带到那里免得那些人受此罪孽。
Within five months, the last book had been stolen from the deserted Maran monastery in Umphollo. As the Archeins went bankrupt, their slaves returned to his parents' tiny farms. The backwater Argonians found that they could grow enough to feed their families provided they had enough hard workers in their enclave, and the buyers market for slaves sharply declined.
5个月之内，在Umphollo废弃的Maran修道院中的书被偷走。而Archein一家也宣告破产。他们的奴隶们回到了自己的家中，他们发现只要他们努力仍然可以养活自己一家人。而买卖奴隶的市场也逐渐退出舞台。
Ambassador Tsleeixth, concerned about the rising crime in northern Black Marsh, brought with him the contributions of many other expatriate Argonians like himself. They wanted more Imperial guards on the border on the border at Slough Point, more magically lit lanterns posted along the main roads at regular intervals, more patrol stations, and more schools built to allow young Argonians to better themselves and not turn to crime.
Tsleeixth大使，提到了Black Marsh北部的居高不下的犯罪率，带来了他和其他在异国他乡的Argonian们筹集的善款。他们希望多增加帝国的卫士在Slough Point，在主要大路上点上灯笼，和更多的巡逻站。还有建立学校让更多的年轻Argonian人提升自我而不是去犯罪。
Within six months, there were no more Nagas roaming the roads, as there were no merchants traveling them to rob. The thugs returned to the fetid inner swamp, where they felt much happier, their constitutions enriched by the rot and pestilence that they loved. Tsleeixth and his constituency were so pleased by the crime rate dropping, they brought even more gold to Decumus Scotti, telling him to keep up the good work.
在六个月之内，Naga们便不再出没于大路周边，因为早已没有商人经过那些已经淹没的道路。这些大家伙只好返回他们肮脏的沼泽深处，在那里他们会感觉好点，有他们喜欢的腐败的环境。Tsleeixth和他的选民们很满意，因为犯罪率下降，他们又给Scotti带来了更多的钱，希望他能继再接再厉。
Black Marsh simply was, is, and always shall be unable to sustain a large-scale, cash-crop plantation economy. The Argonians, and anyone else, the whole of Tamriel, could live in Black Marsh on subsistence farming, just raising what they needed. That was not sad, Scotti thought; that was hopeful.
Black Marsha地区特色注定了它不能支持一个大型的经济作物种植区。不过，Argonian人和其他Tamriel人只要生活在这里自给自足那是完全可以的。这也不是什么坏事，Scotti想着，这也是他希望的。
Scotti's solution to each of their dilemmas had been the same. Ten percent of the gold they gave him went to Lord Vanech's Building Commission. The rest Scotti kept for himself, and did exactly nothing about the requests.
Scotti每揽一件事情都向委员会上交10%，其他的都流入他自己的腰包。而其实以上事情全是自然因素造成的，Scotti坐享其成，从没有进行干预。
Within a year, Decumus Scotti had embezzled enough to retire very comfortably, and Black Marsh was better off than it had been in forty years.
一年之内，Scotti捞足油水风光退休。而Black Marsh也风平浪静这是40多年从来没有过的情形。
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