双语美文之似水流年 （130）宽容(5)
They were pushed aside.
他们被推到一旁，
They complained of their lot.
嘴里还抱怨自己的命运不济，
They bewailed the ingratitude of their children, but when the last wagon pulled out of the village, they stopped the driver and forced him to take them along.
诅咒孩子们忘恩负义。下过，最后一辆马车驶出村子时，他们叫住了车夫，强迫他把他们带走。
The flight into the unknown had begun.
这样，投奔陌生世界的旅程开始了。
It was many years since the Wanderer had returned.
离那个漫游者回来的时间，已经过了很多年，
It was no easy task to discover the road he had mapped out.
所以要找到他开辟的道路并非易事。
Thousands fell a victim to hunger and thirst before the first cairn was found.
成千上万人死了，人们踏着他们的尸骨，才找到第一座用石子堆起的路标。
From there on the trip was less difficult.
此后，旅程中的磨难少了一些。
The careful pioneer had blazed a clear trail through the woods and amidst the endless wilderness of rock.
那个细心的先驱者已经在丛林和无际的荒野乱石中用人烧出了一条宽敞大道。
By easy stages it led to the green pastures of the new land.
它一步一步把人们引到新世界的绿色牧场。
Silently the people looked at each other.
大家相视无言。
He was right after all, they said. He was right, and the Old Men were wrong…
归根结底他是对了，人们说道。他对了，守旧老人错了。
He spoke the truth, and the Old Men lied…
他讲的是实话，守旧老人撒了谎…
His bones lie rotting at the foot of the cliffs, but the Old Men sit in our carts and chant their ancient lays…
他的尸首还在山崖下腐烂，可是守旧老人却坐在我们的车里，唱那些老掉牙的歌子。
He saved us, and we slew him…
他救了我们，我们反倒杀死了他。
We are sorry that it happened, but of course, if we could have known at the time…
对这件事我们的确很内疚，不过，假如当时我们知道的话，当然就…
Then they unharnessed their horses and their oxen and they drove their cows and their goats into the pastures and they built themselves houses and laid out their fields and they lived happily for a long time afterwards.
随后，人们解下马和牛的套具，把牛羊赶进牧场，建造起自己的房屋，规划自己的土地。从这以后很长时间，人们又过着幸福的生活。
A few years later an attempt was made to bury the brave pioneer in the fine new edifice which had been erected as a home for the Wise Old Men.
几年以后，人们建起了一座新大厦，作为智慧老人的住宅，并准备把勇敢先驱者的遗骨埋在里面。
A solemn procession went back to the now deserted valley, but when the spot was reached where his body ought to have been, it was no longer there.
一支肃穆的队伍回到了早已荒无人烟的山谷。但是，山脚下空空如也，先驱者的尸首荡然无存。
A hungry jackal had dragged it to his lair.
一只饥饿的豺狗早己把尸首拖入自己的洞穴。
A small stone was then placed at the foot of the trail (now a magnificent highway).
人们把一块小石头放在先驱者足迹的尽头（现在那已是一条大道），
It gave the name of the man who had first defied the dark terror of the unknown, that his people might be guided into a new freedom.
石头上刻着先驱者的名字，一个首先向未知世界的黑暗和恐怖挑战的人的名字，他把人们引向了新的自由。
And it stated what it had been erected by a grateful posterity.
石上还写明，它是由前来感恩朝礼的后代所建。
As it was in the beginning-as it is now-and as some day (so we hope) it shall no longer be.
这样的事情发生在过去，也发生在现在，不过将来（我们希望）这样的事不再发生了。
房龙
亨德里克威廉房龙（Hendrik Willem Van Loon 1882–1944），荷裔美国人，著名学者，作家，历史地理学家。1882年出生在荷兰鹿特丹，他是出色的通俗作家，在历史、文化、文明、科学等方面都有著作，而且读者众多，是伟大的文化普及者，大师级的人物。