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Chapter Seven The Hill of the Strange Trenches
第七章 带有奇怪沟壑的山
There is no denying it was a beast of a day. Overhead was a sunless sky, muffled in clouds that were heavy with snow; underfoot, a black frost; blowing over it, a wind that felt as if it would take your skin off.
不可否认，今天的天气坏透了。太阳被结满冰雪的云挡在身后，一点影子都找不着；脚下是一片黑乎乎的霜，寒风呼啸而过，好像皮肤都要被吹裂一样。
When they got down into the plain they found that this part of the ancient road was much more ruinous than any they had yet seen.
当他们走进平原才发现这段路比先前的还要难走。
They had to pick their way over great broken stones and between boulders and across rubble: hard going for sore feet. And, however tired they got, it was far too cold for a halt.
他们只能在乱石和瓦砾中曲折前进：本来脚就酸痛，这下更是难以忍受。他们虽然疲惫不堪，但天气太冷，根本不能停下来。
At about ten o'clock the first tiny snow flakes came loitering down and settled on Jill's arm. Ten minutes later they were falling quite thickly. In twenty minutes the ground was noticeably white.
大约十点钟，一朵小雪花从空中飘落下来，落在了吉尔的胳膊上。又过了十分钟，雪越下越密。二十分钟后，大地一片银白。
And by the end of half an hour a good steady snowstorm, which looked as if it meant to last all day, was driving in their faces so that they could hardly see.
半个小时不到，暴风雪就降临了，看样子，这场风雪要持续一天。雪花朝他们脸上飞来，弄得眼睛都睁不开。
In order to understand what followed, you must keep on remembering how little they could see.
为弄懂后面的情节，各位读者必须记住这三位主人公现在被暴风雪弄得睁不开眼睛。
As they drew near the low hill which separated them from the place where the lighted windows had appeared, they had no general view of it at all.
当他们靠近那座位于他们和城堡中间的平顶山时，他们根本没看清整座山的样子。
It was a question of seeing the next few paces ahead, and, even for that, you had to screw up your eyes. Needless to say, they were not talking.
当时连几步之外的地方都看不清楚，更别提远处了。就算是近处，你还得使劲睁开眼睛。不用说，他们之间也无法交谈。
When they reached the foot of the hill they caught a glimpse of what might be rocks on each side—squarish rocks, if you looked at them carefully, but no one did.
到达平顶山脚下时，他们瞥了一眼道路两旁那些好像石头似的东西。如果仔细看的话，你会发现那都是些方形石头，但却没有人认真看过。
All were more concerned with the ledge right in front of them which barred their way. It was about four feet high.
他们更关注正前方的岩架，因为这玩意儿把去路挡住了。它有四英尺高。
The Marsh-wiggle, with his long legs, had no difficulty in jumping onto the top of it, and he then helped the others up.
沼泽人长着一双长腿，跳到顶上不成问题，他上去后又帮助两个孩子爬了上去。
It was a nasty wet business for them, though not for him, because the snow now lay quite deep on the ledge.
虽然这一切对沼泽人来说不算什么，但对他俩来说攀爬是个极艰难的事儿，石头上湿得要命，岩架上的雪已经积老厚了。
They then had a stiff climb—Jill fell once—up very rough ground for about a hundred yards, and came to a second ledge. There were four of these ledges altogether, at quite irregular intervals.
接着，他们还要在一个陡峭难走的坡道上攀爬大约100码的距离，吉尔还摔倒了一次。然后，他们到达了第二个岩架。这座山共有四个岩架，彼此之间隔的距离都不一样。
As they struggled on to the fourth ledge, there was no mistaking the fact that they were now at the top of the flat hill.
当征服了第四个岩架时，他们确定自己已经到达山顶平台。
Up till now the slope had given them some shelter; here, they got the full fury of the wind.
爬山时，坡道还能为他们遮挡一下风雪，而现在只有挨刮的份了。
For the hill, oddly enough, was quite as flat on top as it had looked from a distance: a great level tableland which the storm tore across without resistance.
这座山奇怪得很，顶部非常平，从远处看也是如此：站在如此大的平地上，没遮没挡，风当然呼啸而过，毫不留情。
In most places the snow was still hardly lying at all, for the wind kept catching it up off the ground in sheets and clouds, and hurling it in their faces.
在大多数地方，雪根本无法飘落，风把它们统统卷走了，成片成片的，有时还会猛扑到他们脸上。
And round their feet little eddies of snow ran about as you sometimes see them doing over ice. And, indeed, in many places, the surface was almost as smooth as ice.
雪片在脚下形成一个个小漩涡，就像有时你在冰上看到的一样。事实上，在有些地方，地面已经和冰面一样滑了。
But to make matters worse it was crossed and crisscrossed with curious banks or dykes, which sometimes divided it up into squares and oblongs.
更糟糕的是，一道道埂和土堤纵横交错，把地面分成若干正方形和长方形小块。
All these of course had to be climbed; they varied from two to five feet in height and were about a couple of yards thick.
有二至五英尺高，几码深，他们必须一一爬过这些土堤才行。
On the north side of each bank the snow already lay in deep drifts; and after each climb you came down into a drift and got wet.
每个埂的北面都有一堆深深的积雪，每爬一次，他们都会掉进积雪中，把全身弄湿。
Fighting her way forward with hood up and head down and numb hands inside her cloak, Jill had glimpses of other odd things on that horrible tableland—things on her right that looked vaguely like factory chimneys, and, on her left, a huge cliff, straighter than any cliff ought to be.
吉尔在风雪中艰难前行，她低着头，兜帽都被吹了起来，藏在斗篷里的手早已麻木。她看了看这个恐怖的平台，上面还有其他怪东西：右边一些隆起的轮廓依稀像工厂里的烟囱，而左边是一个巨大的峭壁，它直上直下，比所有峭壁都陡。
But she wasn't at all interested and didn't give them a thought. The only things she thought about were her cold hands (and nose and chin and ears) and hot baths and beds at Harfang.
但吉尔并没在意，她也不感兴趣。现在她唯一在意的就是自己那双手（还有鼻子、下巴和耳朵），以及哈尔方城堡的热水澡和软床。
Suddenly she skidded, slid about five feet, and found herself to her horror sliding down into a dark, narrow chasm which seemed that moment to have appeared in front of her.
突然，吉尔滑倒了，她在地上出溜了大约五英尺，更令她害怕的是她发现自己跌进了一个既黑且窄的裂缝中，这一切发生得太快，好像这个裂缝是一下子出现在她眼前似的。
Half a second later she had reached the bottom. She appeared to be in a kind of trench or groove, only about three feet wide.
只过了半秒，吉尔就到了裂缝底部。这好像属于沟壑之类的，里面大约有三英尺宽。
And though she was shaken by the fall, almost the first thing she noticed was the relief of being out of the wind; for the walls of the trench rose high above her.
虽然她被这突如其来的一切吓得够呛，但也是她第一时间发现在这里待着可以免受寒风的肆虐。因为沟壑的边缘高出她许多。
The next thing she noticed was, naturally, the anxious faces of Scrubb and Puddleglum looking down at her from the edge. "Are you hurt, Pole?" shouted Scrubb.
抬起头来她才注意到斯库波和帕德格莱姆正站在洞口焦急地看着自己。“没受伤吧，吉尔？”斯库波喊道。
