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Down below them, spread out like a map, lay the flat hill-top which they had struggled over yesterday afternoon; seen from the castle, it could not be mistaken for anything but the ruins of a gigantic city.
窗户正下方跟地图一样的东西正是他们昨天下午在风雪中奋战的平顶山。从城堡向下俯视，你能清楚看到那是一座巨大的城市遗迹。
It had been flat, as Jill now saw, because it was still, on the whole, paved, though in places the pavement was broken.
现在吉尔看清了，那里之所以平坦，是因为内部的路仍然是铺设好的，虽然有些地方的铺路石已经损坏。
The criss-cross banks were what was left of the walls of huge buildings which might once have been giants' palaces and temples.
那些纵横交错的土埂是巨大建筑物残留的墙壁，没准这里以前曾是巨人的宫殿或神庙。
One bit of wall, about five hundred feet high, was still standing; it was that which she had thought was a cliff.
一堵高达500英尺的墙仍旧耸立着，吉尔原先还以为那是悬崖。
The things that had looked like factory chimneys were enormous pillars, broken off at unequal heights; their fragments lay at their bases like felled trees of monstrous stone.
那些像工厂里烟囱的物体原来是巨柱，它们断成一截一截的，长短不一。断开的部分倒在柱基边上，就像伐倒的大树。
The ledges which they had climbed down on the north side of the hill—and also, no doubt the other ledges which they had climbed up on the south side—were the remaining steps of giant stairs.
他们三人在山的北面（当然南部也是）攀爬的岩架是巨型台阶的残留部分。
To crown all, in large, dark lettering across the centre of the pavement, ran the words UNDER ME.
在整个废墟的顶端，人行道的中央，由几条黑色巨大的线条构成了两个单词：UNDER ME（在我下面）。
The three travellers looked at each other in dismay, and, after a short whistle, Scrubb said what they were all thinking, "The second and third signs muffed."
三位旅行者沮丧地互相看着，过了一小会儿，斯库波说出了他们三人的心中所想：“我们错过了第二个和第三个暗示。”
And at that moment Jill's dream rushed back into her mind.
突然，吉尔记起了昨晚的梦境。
"It's my fault," she said in despairing tones. "I—I'd given up repeating the signs every night. If I'd been thinking about them I could have seen it was the city, even in all that snow."
“是我的错。”她绝望地说，“我，我放弃了每天晚上要重复那些暗示。如果我一直想着暗示的事，即使当时漫天大雪，我也会发现那是废城的。”
"I'm worse," said Puddleglum. "I did see, or nearly. I thought it looked uncommonly like a ruined city." "You're the only one who isn't to blame," said Scrubb. "You did try to make us stop."
“我的错更大。”帕德格莱姆说，“我几乎已经发现它了。我当时觉得那就是废城。”“最不应该责备的就是你。”斯库波说，“你当时的确建议我们停下来研究一下那座山。”
"Didn't try hard enough, though," said the Marsh-wiggle. "And I'd no call to be trying. I ought to have done it. As if I couldn't have stopped you two with one hand each!"
“但我也没坚持到底。”沼泽人说，“我当时认为用不着固执己见，但我真该那么做。实际上我一手抓一个就能让你俩停下来。”
"The truth is," said Scrubb, "we were so jolly keen on getting to this place that we weren't bothering about anything else. At least I know I was.
“其实，”斯库波说，“我俩那时一心想着哈尔方城堡，别的都抛到脑后了。至少我自己是这样。
Ever since we met that woman with the knight who didn't talk, we've been thinking of nothing else. We'd nearly forgotten about Prince Rilian."
自从遇见和沉默骑士同行的绿衣女人，我们就被哈尔方城堡迷住了，甚至把瑞廉王子都忘了。”
"I shouldn't wonder," said Puddleglum, "if that wasn't exactly what she intended."
“我一点都不感到奇怪。”帕德格莱姆说，“这正是她的目的所在。”
"What I don't quite understand," said Jill, "is how we didn't see the lettering? Or could it have come there since last night. Could he—Aslan—have put it there in the night? I had such a queer dream." And she told them all about it.
“我不明白的是，”吉尔说，“我们怎么就没发现那些字母呢？或者它们是昨天晚上才出现的？会不会是它，阿斯兰昨晚写上去的？我这个梦有些奇怪。”吉尔把梦的内容告诉了他俩。
"Why, you chump!" said Scrubb. "We did see it. We got into the lettering. Don't you see? We got into the letter E in ME. That was your sunk lane.
“真是个笨蛋！”斯库波说，“我们当时其实看见它了，而且还走到了字母里面。不记得了吗？我们进到了单词ME的E部分。就是那个沟。
We walked along the bottom stroke of the E, due north—turned to our right along the upright—came to another turn to the right—that's the middle stroke-and then went on to the top left-hand corner, or (if you like) the north-eastern corner of the letter, and came back. Like the bally idiots we are."
咱俩在沟里走，先朝正北，然后沿着直道右拐，后面还有一个向右的岔口，那是E的中间部分，然后一直走到顶端左手边的角落或走向字母的东北角（随你喜欢），最后再回来。咱俩真像大傻子。”
He kicked the window seat savagely, and went on, "So it's no good, Pole. I know what you were thinking because I was thinking the same. You were thinking how nice it would have been if Aslan hadn't put the instructions on the stones of the ruined city till after we'd passed it.
斯库波使劲踢了踢窗台，继续说道，“所以这样很不好，吉尔。我知道你怎么想的，因为我和你想的一样。你在想如果阿斯兰在咱们路过废城之前就把指示告诉我们那该多好。
And then it would have been his fault, not ours. So likely, isn't it? No. We must just own up. We've only four signs to go by, and we've muffed the first three."
所以这应该是它的错，而非我们的。很可能是这样想的吧，不是吗？这样不对。我们必须坦白地承认，一共四个暗示，我们已经错了前三个。”
"You mean I have," said Jill. "It's quite true. I've spoiled everything ever since you brought me here. All the same— I'm frightfully sorry and all that—all the same, what are the instructions? UNDER ME doesn't seem to make much sense."
“你的意思是都是我的错。”吉尔说，“没错。自从你带我来这儿，我已经弄糟了不少事情。我很抱歉，对不起，非常抱歉。但字母的意义是什么？“在我下面”看起来说不通啊。”
"Yes it does, though," said Puddleglum. "It means we've got to look for the Prince under that city." "But how can we?" asked Jill.
“不，说得通。”帕德格莱姆说，“它意味着我们要在废城底下寻找王子。”“但我们怎么才能进去？”吉尔问。
"That's the question," said Puddleglum, rubbing his big, frog-like hands together. "How can we now? No doubt, if we'd had our minds on our job when we were at the Ruinous City, we'd have been shown how—found a little door, or a cave, or a tunnel, met someone to help us.
“问题就在这儿。”帕德格莱姆说着，搓了搓那双巨大的，像青蛙爪子似的手，“我们怎么可能知道？毋庸置疑，如果在废城时，大家脑子里都想着寻找王子的事，大概早找到门路了：发现一扇小门，一个山洞，隧道，或遇到什么人，
Might have been (you never know) Aslan himself. We'd have got down under those paving-stones somehow or other. Aslan's instructions always work: there are no exceptions. But how to do it now—that's another matter."
或者干脆就是阿斯兰自己。我们总有办法下到那些石头底下。阿斯兰的教导总是很管用，从没有意外。但我们现在该怎么办，那又是另外一回事了。”
"Well, we shall just have to go back, I suppose," said Jill. "Easy, isn't it?" said Puddleglum. "We might try opening that door to begin with."
“嗯，我想我们应该重新回到那儿去。”吉尔说。“这很简单，不是吗？”帕德格莱姆说，“我们打开那扇门跑出去就搞定了。”
And they all looked at the door and saw that none of them could reach the handle, and that almost certainly no one could turn it if they did.
他们三人看了门一眼，但发现根本够不到门把手，就算够到了，他们也拧不动。
"Do you think they won't let us out if we ask?" said Jill. And nobody said, but everyone thought, "Supposing they don't."
“如果我们要求的话，他们会放我们出去吗？”吉尔说。没人搭茬，但他们都在心里想：“估计不会。”
