昨天读完了Thomas Paine的Common Sense一文，真的想说太清醒的认知了。放在现在这个时代都毫不逊色，历史的舞台不过风水轮流转。尤其是和之后的一篇托马斯杰斐逊的自传选段一起读，能碰撞出很多有趣的发现，涉及到的内容就不过多评论了，毕竟豹豹还是更喜欢谈一谈温暖而甜蜜的童书。但此文很值得一读。
因为亨利休格的故事没有第一篇音频，睡前就随便扒拉了Matilda的广播剧，实在是太趣味盎然了。没忍住，这本书也慢慢看吧，真得太迷罗尔德大爷了。当父母对自己的熊孩子夸夸其谈时，真得让人忍不住想说"Bring us a basin! we are going to be sick!"哈哈哈，开篇就这么狠厉，是不是太过打人七寸啦！很欢乐的阅读感受。亨利休格第一个故事已经读完了，只想说作为一个故事高开低走，或者说有点烂尾。类似The Twits里面的情节，前半部分超级有意思，到了后面就落了窠臼，实在可惜。
故事讲得是作者去牙买加西印度群岛度假的时候关于一只大海龟被抓被放的故事。
Not so long ago, I decided to spend a few days in the West Indies. I was to go there for a short holiday. Friends had told me it was marvellous. I would laze around all day, they said, sunning myself on the silver beaches and swimming in the warm green sea.
开篇交代故事背景。这里全段摘出是因为西印度群岛并不在印度，而是位于北美洲。属于哥伦布一个美丽的错误，但是哥伦布的劣迹斑斑是够倒人胃口的。
The big Jamaican who drove the taxi told me that up in those forests lived whole communities of diabolical people who still practised voodoo and witch-doctory and other magic rites.
这个地方山一片一片，黑压压的。加上覆盖的植被，总有一种说不出的邪恶感。更不用说开车的司机告诫"我"不要乱跑，那片森林不安全。这个地方还存在着巫术，巫医和奇特的仪式。
Voodoo is a form of religion involving magic which is practised by some people in the West Indies, especially Haiti. (西印度群岛人、尤其是海地人信奉的) 伏都教
A rite is a traditional ceremony that is carried out by a particular group or within a particular society. (传统的) 仪式, 典礼
The whole island, the mountains and the forests, the black rocks along the coastline and the trees cascading with brilliant scarlet flowers, all these and many other things made me feel uncomfortable in my skin. There was something malignant crouching underneath the surface of this island. I could sense it in my bones.
这一段很带感，但其实和后文联系真的不大。
If water cascades somewhere, it pours or flows downwards very fast and in large quantities. (水) 飞流直下, 倾泻而下
(cascade第二次见到，之前实在快乐王子中，生词复习)
If you say that someone is malignant, you think they are cruel and like to cause harm. (人) 恶意的, 恶毒的
突然想起Maleficent，沉睡魔咒
The Jamaican girl who came in to tidy my room told me that a wealthy American called Mr Wasserman had met his end in precisely this manner only two months before.
"我"住的地方有一片沙滩，周围长满了椰子树，但"我"已察觉在树下附近散步是极其不明智的。果然旅馆的小姑娘说有个有钱的美国佬两月前被椰子砸死了。哈哈哈
而消息被hush up(掩盖)了，最后she added with a touch of relish, ‘is the very last sunset Mr Wasserman ever did see.’有声有色神补刀。
‘Was he dead?’
‘Dead as a doornail,’ she said.
在莎士比亚时代as dead as a doornail不能再普遍，死的透透的。据说是莎翁在写《亨利六世》被演员托马斯修门时敲得的灵感。
There was a narrow canoe-type fisherman’s boat pulled up on the sand nearby, and all I could think of was that the fisherman had come in with a lot of fish and that the crowd was looking at it.A haul of fish is something that has always fascinated me.
"我"是被一大群人吸引到外面的，本以为是渔夫拉了一船鱼，拉网捕鱼这事向来迷人。
The men were wearing those frightful Bermuda shorts that came down to the knees, and their shirts were bilious with pinks and oranges and every other clashing colour you could think of.
这一段人物描写实在是让人读得津津有味。
男人们穿的衣服不忍直视，百慕大及膝的大短裤，并不雅观。上身粉的，橙的各种让人hold不住的颜色，只有你没想到的，没有你想不到的。
If someone describes the appearance of something as bilious, they mean that they think it looks unpleasant and rather disgusting. 令人不快的; 让人恶心的(书面用语，贬义词)
clash:矛盾，冲突v.(词库字典均无clashing)
Upside down it lay, this magnificent creature, with its four thick flippers waving frantically in the air, ...
The crowd of hotel guests was thrilled and delighted by this spectacle. A dozen cameras were out and clicking away. Many of the women were squealing with pleasure clutching on to the arms of their men, and the men were demonstrating their lack of fear and their masculinity by making foolish remarks in loud voices.
原来是渔民们捕获了一只大海龟，正四脚朝天搁置的，四个厚厚的鳍脚疯狂乱舞。而周围围了一群人，他们不但一边惊叹一边拍照。那些男人们干脆冒出些傻里傻气的言论，来彰显自己无畏的气概。
Flippers are flat pieces of rubber that you can wear on your feet to help you swim more quickly, especially underwater. 脚蹼; 橡皮脚掌; 鸭脚板
Masculinity means the qualities, especially sexual qualities, which are considered to be typical of men. 男子气概; 阳刚之气
‘Leave him alone,’ the fisherman said. ‘It don’t help to get him all stirred up.’
大家各种讨论，这是不是啮龟，会不会咬人甚至一个大腹便便双腿短小的男人想要收购乌龟壳，想想放在家正中央多威风呀！
对此渔夫很崩溃，"别招惹它，惹急了没有好果子吃。"
‘Did you hear that?’ shouted another man. ‘He’s sold it to the manager of our hotel! And you know what that means? It means turtle soup, that’s what it means!’
当众人听说乌龟是卖给旅馆的，瞬间高兴了。这意味着turtle soup，甲鱼汤和鹿肉venison似乎在英国文化中一直是有钱有地位的象征，不管是散文中见到的还是狄更斯作品中流露的。不大明白。
He was senior to any of them in age. For probably one hundred and fifty years he had been cruising in the green waters of the West Indies. He was there when George Washington was President of the United States and Napoleon was being clobbered at Waterloo.
这一段有点意思，这只龟这么老了，比在场所有的人都年长，在华盛顿还是总统的时候，拿破仑遭遇滑铁卢的时候它就已经在了。略讽刺。
‘Hey, listen!’ cried a muscular young man. ‘Why don’t we drag him up?’ The muscular young man was wearing magenta and pea-green Bermuda shorts and no shirt. He had an exceptionally hairy chest, and the absence of a shirt was obviously a calculated touch. ‘What say we do a little work for our supper?’ he cried, rippling his muscles.
这一段单独描写实在太搞笑了，有点二。其中一个年轻人干脆建议直接把乌龟拖回去。这位有些肌肉的年轻人吊着膀子，胸毛浓密。之所以不穿上衣也是为了炫耀，顺便鼓一鼓肌肉，多爷们。读得时候真得不能太开心。
magenta:洋红，品红
ripple: 涌起，涟漪
The men handed their drinks to the women and rushed to catch hold of the rope. They ranged themselves along it as though for a tug of war, and the hairy-chested man appointed himself anchor-man and captain of the team.
所有人都开始行动起来，拽着捆绑乌龟的绳子，如同拔河比赛。
a tug of war, 拔河比赛
And now the gigantic turtle began very slowly to slide up the beach towards the hotel, towards the kitchen, towards the place where the big knives were kept.
这一段太幽默了。
正当大家兴高采烈往旅馆的方向前进时，快乐的气氛被打断，一个小男孩尖叫要求放了乌龟，并且毫不留情指出成年人的残忍。其父母虽尴尬但已习惯。
The crowd froze. The tug-of-war men stopped tugging and the onlookers stopped shouting and every single person present turned towards the place where the screams were coming from.
The tug-of-war pullers remained motionless, still holding the rope with the gigantic turtle on the end of it. Everyone stood silent and surprised, staring at the boy. They were all a bit off-balance now. They had the slightly hangdog air of people who had been caught doing something that was not entirely honourable.
Several people began shuffling their feet around in the sand. Here and there in the crowd it was possible to sense a slight change of mood, a feeling of uneasiness, a touch even of shame.
这三处分别是人们对小男孩的反应，先是吃惊，然后有一种做不大光彩的事被抓包的惭愧，之后是不安。
后来乌龟被小男孩的父亲买下之后，被放生。下面还有一处描写这群拔河的人的反应，豹豹挺同情他们的。这么辛苦快要喝到甲鱼汤了还要被一个孩子进行比对，实在是挺倒霉的。
The guests began wandering back towards the hotel. They were curiously subdued. There was no joking or bantering now, no laughing. Something had happened. Something strange had come fluttering across the beach.
大家都没了心情，没有说笑没有逗乐。气氛很闷。
之后就是小男孩不见了，警察搜索，渔民们的发现才知道小男孩在半夜骑着乌龟穿梭550英里去到了一个Eleuthera的海岛，生活很快活，至少在"我"看来是这样。
写得飘了，没想到写成了不伦不类的笔记。不过就这样吧，文也确实有点长，后面也不大好看。(其实是做笔记耗时略长就搁在这吧。)笔记一小部分会摘出来纸质记录。今天加把劲把散文集读完就很开心了~
感兴趣可以自行下载一起来阅读。
释义来自柯林斯。