Theyll be mourning for you soon enough, came a reply from directly above, and this was followed by a hideous cackling laugh very much like someone choking on a fishbone.
（要做的事情多着呢，我们有一张安排得很紧的日程表——）
Agreed, said the bird, with a sharp click of his beak, but neither is it left, although if I were you I would have left a long time ago.
其实，还远远不止这些。
小米勒在他的旅行中，结识了很多朋友，也遇到了各种各样的人物和怪物，翻译他们的名字也很有意思。
（那可不行。小米勒无可奈何地说，因为大脏鸟把一切都搞错了，它根本不知道他说的是什么。
你们什么事也不做。
白天和黑夜，都不是你们过的。大脏鸟傲慢地回答。）
Its not yours to spend, the bird shrieked again, and followed it with the same horrible laugh.
（两点到两点半我们睡一小觉）
roar（咆哮声）
（六点到七点我们消磨时光）
小米勒原来是一个不爱动脑子，整天无所事事，不知道怎么打发时光的小男孩儿，他对周围生活中的什么事都不感兴趣，他说，“我没有一件想做的事，也没有一个想去的地方，在生活中连值得我看一眼的东西都没有。”在家里他就想到学校去，可到了学校又想回家。有一天，小米勒回到家里，忽然看见他房间的角落里有一个大包裹，上面附着一个天蓝色的信封，上面写着——To Milo who has enough time.小米勒第一次好奇而激动地打开了包裹，原来是一辆汽车和一个公路收费亭，还有一张地图，于是，他开始了一次奇特的旅行。
He began to jump around the wagon, snatching bottles from the shelves until he had a large assortment in various colors and sizes collected at one end of the table. All were neatly labeled: Loud Cries, Soft Cries, Bangs, Bongs, Smashes, Crashes, Swishes, Swooshes, Snaps and Crackles, Whistles and Gongs, Squeaks, Squawks, and Miscellaneous Uproar. After pouring a little of each into a large glass beaker, he stirred the mixture thoroughly with a wooden s藏书网poon, watching intently as it smoked and steamed and boiled and bubbled.
bang（突然巨响）
You see, continued another in a more conciliatory tone, its really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us?
Of course youre mean, interrupted the bird, closing the eye that had been open and opening the one that had been closed. Anyone whod spend a night that doesnt belong to him is very mean.
Well, I thought that by… he tried again desperately.
From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap.
From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner.
bong（当当声）
From ll:00 to 12:00 we bide our time and then eat lunch.
《小米勒旅行记》里有一章是描写声音的，在翻译这本书以前，我曾以为英语的象声词不如汉语的丰富，可是看了小米勒遇到一位“噪音医生”(Doctor of dissonance )的故事，我改变了原来的看法。
（八点钟起床后我们这样安排，）
后来，一个小读者给我写信说，看到这儿，他都笑弯了腰。
Anything as long as its nothing, and everything as long as it isnt anything.
（九-九-藏-书-网十一半至十二点我们等着吃午饭）
Well, if you cant laugh or think, what can you do?
From 3:30 to 4:00 we take our early late afternoon nap.
Let me try once more, he said in an effort to explain. In other words…
That doesnt make any sense, you see… he started to explain.
You mean you have other words? Cried the bird happily. Well, by all means, use them. Youre certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now.
From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap.
（九点半至十点半我们闲混打发时间）
（其实你们什么事也不做。小米勒纠正它说。）
他不是装不知道，而是真的不知道。所以，他不是万能人。
You must never feel badly about making mistakes, explained Reason quietly. As long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.
这样的短语从字面看，很难找到对应的中文。于是我就把好几个nap 分别翻译成了“迷糊一会儿”，“打个小盹儿”，“睡一小觉”，“睡一会儿”，“睡个预备觉”……这样既表现了瞌睡虫的特点，又照顾了上下文的衔接，读起来也比较顺畅。还有，wed never get nothing done和youd never get anything done这两个句子，看起来相似，其实却有根本的差别，我分别把它们译成了：
（我以为你听不懂我的话呢。小米勒胆怯地说，我们想找一个地方过夜。咔答也“汪汪”地吠叫着警告。
…………
We dont want to get anything done, snapped another angrily，we want to get nothing done, and we can do that without your help.
还有对话里的同音词by（经过）和buy（买），sell（出售）和cell（胡同、牢房），双关语right（正确、右边）和 left（离开、左边），in other words （换句话说）和have other words（还有别的话），等等。遇到这样的词语，最重要的就是反复比较各种译法，尽可能地体现作者的智慧，又让读者清楚地了解文句的真正含义。
As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we’d never get nothing done.
Thats a different story, interjected the bird a bit more amiably. If you want to buy, Im sure I can arrange to sell, but with what youre doing youll probably end up in a cell anyway.
You must be Canby.
smash（碰撞声）
crash (轰隆一声）
It has been a long trip, said Milo, climbing onto the couch where the princesses sat; but we would have been here much sooner if I hadnt made so many mistakes. Im afraid its all my fault.
screech（尖叫声）
bellow（呼啸声）
From 7:00 to 8:00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9:00 we waste time.
书里还有两位美丽的公主，Princess of Pure Reason和Princess of Sweet Rhyme，我把她们分别译成“真理公主”和“音韵公主”，虽然从字面上看，pure和sweet 没有翻译出来，但是“真理”和“音韵”这两个词已经充分地表达了pure和sweet的意义，如果硬要加上“纯洁”和“甜蜜”这两个字，反而觉得累赘，也不符合少年儿童的阅读特点。我觉得，在儿童文学作品中，一定要把那些拟人化的“人物”的名字翻译好，让人们觉得亲切，可爱，就像自己的朋友一样。
From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off fo藏书网r tomorrow what we could have done today.
我再来试一次吧。小米勒鼓起勇气解释。换句话说——
（三点半四点我们睡一会儿）
Theres lots to do，we have a very busy schedule——
gong（铜锣声）
squawk（咯咯的叫声）
另一个类似的难题是，大脏鸟故意把spend的“度过”、“花费”这两个意思混淆起来，它把spend the night（过夜）故意打岔说成spend dollars and cents （花钱）。在这里我没有照字面意思译，而是把dollars and cents 翻译成了“白天和黑夜”，这样，就把小米勒说的“找个地方过夜”过渡到大脏鸟的“白天和黑夜，都不是你们过的”，让上下文合理地衔接起来。
（八点至九点做一场白日梦）
You may not see it now, said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milos puzzled face, but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, even if in the tiniest way. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in a pond; and whenever youre sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And its much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.
在这本小说里经常出现像nothing, nowhere这样的词语，如果照词典上的释义翻译成“没有什么，没有东西，任何地方都不”，不但生硬，而且也表达不了人物的情态、语气，所以只能根据上下文的联系来翻译。比如，把go nowhere翻译成“到一个不存在的地方去”，也许这正是作者的幽默感。另外，in a more conciliatory tone这个短语，如果直译，就不太符合儿童文学的特点，所以我把它译成了“像劝架似的”。
whistle（汽笛声）
（你能告诉我我是谁吗？）
接着，小米勒说“But I didnt mean——”，大脏鸟又打岔说，“Of course youre mean”，小米勒说的mean是“我是说，我的意思是”，而大脏鸟的mean却是“卑鄙的”，“不善良的”，两个mean 当然是南辕北辙，为了上下文的衔接，我把它们分别翻译成“我的意思不是——”和“当然是你的不是……”，这样就显出了大脏鸟的恶意，又让双方的对话顺利进行下去，而不显得别扭。
And remember, also, added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday youll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
