翻譯練習

當我看完這篇文章時，我感覺心底暖暖的。  當時我就想要把這篇文章給翻譯出來。  翻譯的時候才發現有多困難。  我覺得我的中文詞彙愈來愈少，另外，這篇文章裡有關愛情和性的描述在我來說也很困難。  我不知道現在的華人是怎麼描述的這些事情的。  我覺得我翻譯的中文也沒有給自己看英文時的所得到的感受。  可惜了。  

 All  excerpts are from tamed and untamed.  It's a collection of articles written by 2 columnists about animals.  

Wildebeest: 角馬/牛羚

Octopuslove by pSy

The lights were low. The roses were tied with satin ribbon.  Barry White's sexy bass throbbed on the sound system: "I can't get enough of your love, babe."  It was Valentine's Day, and I had big plans to celebrate: I had flown to Seattle to watch two giant Pacific octopuses mate.  

昏暗的燈光。纏繞緞帶的玫瑰。 Barry White 帶著性感貝斯的歌曲傳播在空氣中，｢I can't get enough of your love, babe」。  今天是情人節。  期待已久的日子終於來了：我要坐飛機到西牙圖去觀看兩個巨型太平洋章魚的約會。

Every February 14 for more than a decade, the Seattle Aquarium has hosted the "Octopus Blind Date."  It's surprisingly popular with children.  The year I went, 150 sixth graders, 88 second graders, and kids as young as five from at least five other elementary schools lined up in front of the three-thousand-gallon, two-part tank, strung with heart-shaped red lights, waiting for the moment that Rain, the sixty-five pound male, and Squirt, the forty-five pound female, would meet.  Everyone was eager to see what they would do.  

西雅圖水族館在每年二月十四日舉辦的 ｢陌生章魚的約會」已超過十年。 令人驚訝的是這個盛會吸引很多兒童來參觀。  今年與會的人裡，就有一百五十個六年級生，八十八個二年級生，再加上至少其他五所小學的小孩，甚至還有五歲的娃娃聚集在三千加侖的水箱前。  這個水箱分成兩部分，上面用紅色的燈泡串成心型。 所有的與會者都耐心等候一個六十五磅的公章魚【Rain】和一個四十五磅的母章魚【Squirt】相會。  每個人都很好奇他們會做些什麼？

It's a fraught moment.  Despite the plastic roses floating in the tank and the romantic music over the PA, not every blind date works out.  Most of their lives, giant Pacific octopuses are solitary.  One year one octopus ate the other.  (Happily this didn't happen in front of the public, but after the visitors had gone home.)  Another year the female was scared of the male; at his approach she inked and fled.  

這種約會其實充滿了不確定的氣氛。  雖說工作人員布置了玫瑰漂浮在水面上，播放著浪漫的音樂，但不是所有約會都能成功。 巨型太平洋章魚一輩子習慣一個人過日子。  十年裡約會裡，曾經有一次，一隻章魚吃了他的對象。  (還好這事沒發生在觀眾面前，而是在大家都回家後。) 另一次，一隻母的章魚對一個公章魚的接近感到恐懼，噗出墨汁後逃走了！  

The aquarium's lead invertebrate biologist, Kathryn Kegel, estimated there was a fifty fifty chance that Rain and Squirt would hit it off.  If there was a problem, she and another diver, clad in dry suits, would try to separate them.  But, she admitted, "There's too many arms to do much about it, though."

水族館的首席無脊椎動物專家， Kathryn Kegel，估計【Rain】和 【Squirt】相親大概有五十五十的成功機會。  如果真有問題的話，他和另一個潛水夫會身著潛水衣下水去試著分開兩個章魚。 不過，他自己也承認，｢到時候觸手太多了，恐怕自己也沒辦法做甚麼。」

With those sixteen arms, plus 32,000 sucker and six hearts (each octopus has three) beating as one, octopus sex would seem to offer possibilities that leave the Kama Sutra in the dust.  Not so -- at least compared with other seagoing invertebrates.  Take the sea slug, Chromodoris reticulata, which lives in the shallow reefs around Japan.  All have both male and female sex organs -- and can use them at the same time.  By contrast, most octopuses usually mate in one or two familiar ways: male on top or side by side.  

擁有十六條觸手，三萬兩千個吸盤，再加上六顆跳動的心臟(每個章魚有三顆)，在想像中，章魚的性愛場面應該會讓印度慾經瞠目結舌。  但是和其他無脊椎的海洋動物相比，其實不然。  拿海蛞蝓 (Chromodoris reticulata) 來說，這個住在日本四周淺海珊瑚礁中，是一種同時擁有雌雄性器官的動物，不僅如此，兩種性器官甚至可以同時運用。  相較之下，章魚做愛時的體位只有兩種我們熟習的方式，男的在上，或是側上。  

"Our divers are going to encourage Squirt to come out and meet Mr. Rain," the aquarium emcee announced to the crowd.  Kegel and the other diver then lifted up a Plexiglas barrier that had been separating the two halves of the tank.   But Squirt didn't need much encouragement.  Purposefully she flowed from her side of the tank, crawling along the bottom toward Rain, who was sitting on a rock wall at the opposite end.  

｢我們的潛水員現在要去鼓勵 【Squirt】出來和 【Rain】先生相會囉！」水族館的介紹員向大家宣布。 說完，Kegel 和另一個潛水夫把中間隔間的壓克力板拿開後，發現【Squirt】一點兒也不需要鼓勵。  馬上從自己的一邊朝著似乎畫好的路線，沿著水箱的底部不急不徐地往另一邊坐在大石頭牆上的 【Rain】爬過去。  

With excellent eyesight as well as sensitive chemoreceptors all over his body, Rain knew well that she was coming.  As she approached, Rain changed color from grey to red -- the color of excitement.  Squirt stretched two arms towards him, and at her touch, Rain poured down the side of the rock wall.  The two embraced, mouth to mouth, thousands of suckers mutually touching and tasting one another.  Both flushed red with emotion.  And then they were still.  

章魚擁有絕佳的視力，甚至全身布滿了和視力一樣敏感的化學感應器官， 【Rain】早就知道誰在靠近了。  就在等待中， 【Rain】的顏色從灰轉紅 -- 興奮的顏色。  【Squirt】向他伸出了兩條手臂，就在那接觸的一剎那，【Rain】像火山的溶漿一樣滾下石頭牆。  兩個人擁抱著，嘴對著嘴，數以千計的吸盤，觸摸品嘗著對方。  兩個章魚都展現熱情的紅色。  最後兩人都不動了。  

Shortly thereafter the children encamped for their buses.  Many of the kids appeared baffled.  If human sex was incomprehensible, octopus sex was unfathomable.  Aristotle explained octopus mating this way: "The male has a sort of penis on one of his tentacles...which it admits into the nostril of the female."  That's essentially correct: He uses a specialized arm to place a single, foot-long spermatophore into the large opening on the side of what looks like her head.  But what most people think is the octopus' head is really the mantle, containing most of the organs.  

在此之後，兒童們開始回到自己的公交車上準備回家。  但是很多娃娃都帶著一臉困惑。  在連人類的性愛都不了解的情況之下，更遑論章魚的性愛了。  亞里士多德是這樣描述章魚做愛的細節：｢雄的章魚在眾多的觸手中有一臂上有一種陰莖的構造。。。他用此器官伸進雌章魚的鼻孔中。」這描述基本上是正確的：雄章魚利用他一個特別的觸手臂把一個將近一英尺長的精筴放入母章魚頭旁的一個體腔裡。 不過，大多數人以為是章魚腦袋的部分實際上是他們的軀幹，那裏面放的是臟腑而不是大腦，那個放精筴的體腔也不是真的鼻孔。  

After the kids left, the two octopuses stayed at the bottom of the tank, not moving.  Rain's body covered Squirt's completely.  Rain's color turned paler and paler.  Finally he turned completely white -- the color of a relaxed octopuses.  

在孩子們離開後，兩隻章魚待在水箱的底部，一動不動。 【Rain】的身體把【Squirt】整個遮蓋起來。  【Rain】身體的顏色越來越淡，最後都變成白色了 -- 一個完全放鬆了的章魚。  

The octopuses were not moving, so I watched and listened to the people.  Two guys with arms around each other gazed into the tank, watching solemnly and in silence.  And elderly couple walked by, the wife leading the husband, who used a walker.  "They are mating. Leo!"  She told him.  "It's a very beautiful  experience!"  The murmurs from the humans quietly watching these marine invertebrates -- creatures who last shared an ancestor with us half a billion years ago -- were tinged with tenderness:  

"They're so peaceful."

"He looks happy."

"They are beautiful, just gorgeous."

"So dear.  The dear, sweet things."  

既然兩隻章魚都不動，我就開始觀察身旁的人們。  兩個互擁的男子注視的水族箱，寧靜的觀賞著。 有一對夫婦走過，老婆攙扶著柱著拐杖的老公：｢里歐，他們正在交配呢！」老婆告訴老公。 ｢這真是非常美麗的體驗！」雖然人類和章魚最後一個共同的祖宗是在五億年前， 但是當靜謐的人群看著這兩隻海裡的無脊椎生物時，他們竊竊的私語裡透露出無可描繪的柔情。

｢他們看上去那麼安寧」

｢他很快樂哪」

｢他倆多漂亮啊，真的是」

｢真好，他倆兒多親密？！」

It would be difficult to imagine a creature more different from a person than an octopus: We are the creatures of the land, they of the sea.  We are full of bones, and they haven't any.  They can taste with their skin and squeeze with their baggy bodies through tiny openings.  We mate early in life and may give birth year after year.  Octopuses mate at the end of their lives, and the female lay eggs -- up to 100,000 of them -- all at once.  

And yet, on that Valentine's day, the octopuses and people seemed to share the sweetness of the occasion: a celebration of the pleasure of love.  

很難再想像另一個生物和章魚那樣和我們不同。(需要重譯)  我們住在陸地，牠們在海裡。 我們全身都是骨頭，他們一根也沒有。 他們可以用肌膚來嚐味道，甚而用他無骨的身體擠進任何洞穴。  我們很早就可以成婚，甚至可以年年產子。  章魚只在他們生命將盡的時候才進行交配，母章魚一次下十萬顆卵。  

但是，就在這個情人節，章魚和人類似乎一起分享了這個情人節的甜蜜，慶祝愛情的快樂。