A few villagers wondered why Almighty Bob would send his onlie begotten Sandwich Maker in a burning fiery chariot rather than perhaps in one that might have landed quietly without destroying half the forest, filling it with ghosts and also injuring the Sandwich Maker quite badly. Old Thrashbarg said that it was the ineffable will of Bob, and when they asked him what ineffable meant he said look it up.
也有几个村民觉得奇怪,为什么万能的鲍伯要让他的独生三明治大师坐着熊熊燃烧的战车下到凡间,为什么不选另一辆交通工具,比如噪音小些的那种,最好别毁掉半片森林,让里头充满幽灵,还免得三明治大师身受重伤。对此老刷希巴回答道,这是出于鲍伯那不可言说的意志;他们问他不可言说是什么意思,他回答说想知道就自己查去。
This was a problem because Old Thrashbarg had the only dictionary and he wouldn’t let them borrow it. They asked him why not and he said that it was not for them to know the will of Almighty Bob, and when they asked him why not again he said because he said so. Anyway, somebody sneaked into Old Thrashbarg’s hut one day while he was out having a swim and looked up ‘ineffable’. ‘Ineffable’ apparently meant ‘unknowable, indescribable, unutterable, not to be known or spoken about’. So that cleared that up.
这有点困难,因为唯一的一本字典掌握在老刷希巴手里,而他又不肯借给他们。他们问他为什么不借,他回答说万能的鲍伯的意志不是他们可以知道的;他们又问他为什么不可以,他回答说因为我这么说了。反正,最后还是有人趁老刷希巴出去游泳的时候偷偷溜进他的茅屋,拿字典查了“不可言说”。原来“不可言说”的意思是“没法知道,没有形容,没法说,不可能知道或者说起”。这下清楚了。
At least they had got the sandwiches.
至少他们有了三明治。
One day Old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had decreed that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches. The villagers asked him when this had happened, exactly, and Thrashbarg said it had happened yesterday, when they weren’t looking. ‘Have faith,’ Old Thrashbarg said, ‘or burn!’
有一天老刷希巴说,万能的鲍伯命令他,刷希巴,头一个吃三明治。村民们问他这是什么时候的事儿到底,而刷希巴回答说就是昨天他们没在看的时候。“要有信心”,老刷希巴说,“否则就会堕入地狱!”
They let him have first pick of the sandwiches. It seemed easiest.
他们让他头一个吃三明治。这样似乎容易理解些。
And now this woman had just arrived out of nowhere, and gone straight for the Sandwich Maker’s hut. His fame had obviously spread, though it was hard to know where to since, according to Old Thrashbarg, there wasn’t anywhere else. Anyway, wherever it was she had come from, presumably somewhere ineffable, she was here now and was in the Sandwich Maker’s hut. Who was she? And who was the strange girl who was hanging around outside the hut moodily and kicking at stones and showing every sign of not wanting to be there? It seemed odd that someone should come all the way from somewhere ineffable in a chariot that was obviously a vast improvement on the burning fiery one which had brought them the Sandwich Maker, if she didn’t even want to be here?
而现在,竟然不知从哪儿冒出来个女人,直愣愣地冲着三明治大师的茅屋去了。虽然他的声名已经广为流传,尽管实在很难知道传到了哪里,因为按照老刷希巴的说法,除了这儿根本就不存在任何地方。反正,无论她从哪儿来,那多半都是个不可言说的地方。关键是她已经来了,而且进了三明治大师的茅屋。她是谁?还有,那个闷闷不乐的在茅屋外晃悠,踢石子,一脸不情愿显然不乐意待在这儿的姑娘又是谁?这难道不是有些奇怪吗?如果她根本不想待在这儿,怎么还会坐这么一辆战车——比起带来三明治大师的烈火战车,它明显已经有了巨大的改进——大老远地从一个不可言说的地方跑到这儿来?