All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

所有的小孩都会长大成人，但有一个例外。所有的小孩很快都会知道他们将要长大，而温迪是这样知道的。当温迪两岁的时候，有一天她在一个花园里玩耍。她摘了一朵花，拿着花向妈妈跑去。我想，她看起来肯定非常讨人喜欢，因为达林夫人把手放在胸口，大声说道：“噢，你为什么不能永远都像这样呢！”在这个问题上，事情的经过就是这样的。但是从此以后，温迪就知道了，她终究是要长大的。你通常在两岁以后就知道这一点了。两岁是一个终点，但也是一个起点。

Of course they lived at 14 (their house number on their street), and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

当然，他们住在14号（这是他们的房子在街道上的门牌号）。温迪出生之前，妈妈是主要角色。她是一位可爱的女士，喜欢幻想，嘴巴很甜，喜欢逗弄别人。她那喜欢幻想的脑袋瓜，就像是产自神秘东方的小盒子，一个套着另一个，不管你打开了多少个，里面总还有一个。而她那甜甜的喜欢逗弄人的嘴巴，总挂着一个吻，但温迪从来也得不到，虽然它明明就在右边的嘴角上。

The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

达林先生是这样赢得他太太的芳心的：她还是女孩时，身边有好些男孩。这些男孩长大后突然发现他们同时都爱上了她，因此他们全部都跑着去她家跟她求婚——但达林先生并没有这样做，他雇了一辆马车，第一个飞快地到达她家，于是他就这样得到她了。他得到了她所有的一切，除了最里层的那个盒子和那个吻。他对那个盒子从来都一无所知，而那个吻，随着时间的流逝，他也不再尝试着要去得到它了。温迪想，也许拿破仑能得到那个吻。但是我能想象他屡次尝试未果，之后生气地甩门而去的样子。

Mr. Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved him but respected him. He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made any woman respect him.

达林先生老是向温迪吹嘘说，她妈妈不但爱他，而且敬重他。他是一个有高深学问的人，了解股票之类的事情。当然，没有人真的知道那些事，可他似乎挺了解的。他经常说股票涨了，股票跌了，说得头头是道，似乎能让每个女人都佩服他。

Mrs. Darling was married in white, and at first she kept the books perfectly, almost gleefully, as if it were a game, not so much as a Brussels sprout was missing; but by and by whole cauliflowers dropped out, and instead of them there were pictures of babies without faces. She drew them when she should have been totting up. They were Mrs. Darling's guesses.

达林夫人结婚的时候，穿着一身洁白的礼服。起初，她把家里的账簿记得非常仔细，甚至很愉快，就像玩游戏一样，连一个小菜芽都不会漏掉。可是渐渐地，整堆的花椰菜都漏记了，却出现了一些没有脸的小娃娃的图画。当她应该算总账的时候，她却画上了这些图画。达林夫人猜想着她的宝宝可能要来了。

Wendy came first, then John, then Michael.

温迪第一个出生了，然后是约翰，最后是迈克尔。

For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed. Mr. Darling was frightfully proud of her, but he was very honourable, and he sat on the edge of Mrs. Darling's bed, holding her hand and calculating expenses, while she looked at him imploringly. She wanted to risk it, come what might, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had to begin at the beginning again.

温迪出生后的一两个星期，达林夫妇不知道他们能否留下她，因为她的出生意味着家里多了一个人要吃饭。达林先生有了温迪非常地得意，但是他同时也是一个很实在的人，他坐在达林夫人的床边，握着她的手，计算着开销，而达林夫人则恳求地望着他。她想，无论如何，都要冒险试一试，但是达林先生却不是这么做的。他拿起一支笔和一张纸开始算账，如果达林夫人提的意见打乱了他的思绪，他就又得重新算。

"Now don't interrupt," he would beg of her.

“现在不要打扰我了。”他会这样请求她。

"I have one pound seventeen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at the office, say ten shillings, making two nine and six, with your eighteen and three makes three nine seven, with five naught naught in my cheque-book makes eight nine seven—who is that moving? —eight nine seven, dot and carry seven—don't speak, my own—and the pound you lent to that man who came to the door—quiet, child—dot and carry child—there, you've done it! —did I say nine nine seven? yes, I said nine nine seven; the question is, can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?" "Of course we can, George," she cried. But she was prejudiced in Wendy's favour, and he was really the grander character of the two.

“我这里有一镑十七先令，办公室里有两先令六个便士。我可以取消办公室里的咖啡开支，算是省下十先令，那么就有了两镑九先令六便士，再加上你的十八先令三便士，我们就有三镑九先令七便士，我的支票上还有五镑零先令零便士，这样总共有八镑九先令七便士——谁在那里动？——八镑九先令七便士，小数点进位七——别说话，亲爱的——再加上你借给那个找上门的人的一镑——安静点，宝宝——小数点进位宝宝——看，都让你们给搞乱了！——我刚才说的是九镑九先令七便士吗？是的，我说的是九镑九先令七便士，问题是，我们可以靠九镑九先令七便士过一年吗？”“当然可以啦，乔治。”她大声说道。但她是在偏袒温迪，现在达林先生才是两个人中真正更为厉害的人。

"Remember mumps," he warned her almost threateningly, and off he went again. "Mumps one pound, that is what I have put down, but I daresay it will be more like thirty shillings—don't speak—measles one five, German measles half a guinea, makes two fifteen six—don't waggle your finger—whooping-cough, say fifteen shillings”—and so on it went, and it added up differently each time; but at last Wendy just got through, with mumps reduced to twelve six, and the two kinds of measles treated as one.

“别忘了腮腺炎。”他几乎是带着威胁的口吻提醒她，然后又接着算了起来。“腮腺炎要一镑，那是我算在账面的，但是我敢说可能要花得更多，就算三十先令——不要说话——麻疹要一镑五先令，风疹要花半个几尼，这样就要两镑十五先令六便士——不要晃手指——百日咳，算十五先令吧”——他就这么继续算着，而每次加起来的结果都不一样，但是最后温迪总算是熬过来了，腮腺炎减少到十二先令六便士，而两种麻疹也并作了一次治疗。

There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.

约翰也遇到了同样的风险，迈克尔更是侥幸脱险，但是两个孩子都成功地留下来了，而且很快地，你就能看到他们三个排着队到福尔萨姆小姐的幼儿园里去上学，由他们的保姆陪同着。

Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat. She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. It was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. On John's footer days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There is a room in the basement of Miss Fulsom's school where the nurses wait. They sat on forms, while Nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They affected to ignore her as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. She resented visits to the nursery from Mrs. Darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off Michael's pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, and smoothed out Wendy and made a dash at John's hair.

达林夫人喜欢事事都顺其自然，但是达林先生却希望和邻居们保持一致。所以，他们当然得有一个保姆。由于他们很穷，孩子们喝牛奶花费得又多，所以他们的“保姆”其实是一只严肃的纽芬兰狗，名叫娜娜。在达林夫妇雇佣她之前，她并没有固定的主人。不过，她一直都认为孩子是很重要的。达林夫妇是在肯辛顿公园遇到她的。她在那里度过了大部分空闲的时间，经常把头伸进摇篮车窥探。那些粗心的保姆们很讨厌她，因为她总是跟她们回家，向雇佣她们的主人抱怨。事实证明，她的确是一名出色的保姆。给孩子洗澡的时候，她是如此地仔细周到。晚上不管任何时候，只要她照顾的孩子发出哪怕是很轻的一声哭叫，她就会立即醒来。她的窝当然是在育婴室里。她天生就知道，对待哪一种咳嗽不能掉以轻心，什么时候需要在脖子上围上长袜。她一向都对那些传统的治疗方法深信不疑，比如用大黄叶治病，而对细菌之类的新名词发出蔑视的声音。看她护送孩子们上学还真是给我们上了一堂行为规范课。孩子们乖的时候，她就静静地走在他们旁边；孩子们随便乱跑的时候，她就用头把他们推进队列。在约翰踢足球的日子里，她从未把他的毛衣落下过，而且嘴里总是叼着一把伞，以防下雨。在福尔萨姆小姐的幼儿园里，有一间地下室，保姆们在那里等着。一般保姆们会坐在条凳上，而娜娜则躺在地板上，但那是唯一的不同之处。她们假装无视娜娜，就因为她们觉得她的社会地位比她们低，而娜娜才鄙视她们那种无聊的谈话呢。她不喜欢达林夫人的朋友来育婴室，但是如果她们真的来了，她会首先把迈克尔的围裙扯下，给他换上那件带蓝色花边的，然后抚平温迪的衣服，再匆匆捋一捋约翰的头发。

No nursery could possibly have been conducted more correctly, and Mr. Darling knew it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily whether the neighbours talked.

没有哪个育婴室能够打理得比这儿更好了，达林先生也知道这一点。但是他有时又会担心，邻居们会不会有闲言碎语。

He had his position in the city to consider.

他得考虑到自己在这个城市的地位。

Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feeling that she did not admire him. "I know she admires you tremendously, George," Mrs. Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed, in which the only other servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. Such a midget she looked in her long skirt and maid's cap, though she had sworn, when engaged, that she would never see ten again. The gaiety of those romps! And gayest of all was Mrs. Darling, who would pirouette so wildly that all you could see of her was the kiss, and then if you had dashed at her you might have got it. There never was a simpler happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.

娜娜还在另一方面困扰着他。他有时觉得她并不那么佩服他。“我知道她是非常崇拜你的，乔治。”达林夫人会这样向他保证，然后示意孩子们要对爸爸特别好。接着，动人的舞蹈跳起来了。他们家唯一的另一个仆人莉莎，有时也能获准加入。莉莎穿着长裙，带着女仆的帽子，看起来是多么矮小啊，虽然受雇的时候，她发誓她肯定不止十岁了。这些嬉闹的人们是多么快乐啊！而其中最快乐的要数达林夫人了，她疯狂地踮起脚尖旋转着，你能看得清的就只有那个吻。如果这时你冲了上去，没准还能得到它呢。在彼得·潘来临之前，再也没有比他们更单纯、更开心的家庭了。

Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can't) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

达林夫人是在整理孩子们想法的时候第一次听说彼得的。每一位好妈妈晚上都有一个习惯，那就是等孩子们睡着后，搜索他们的思绪，把白天散落的东西归回原位，把一切收拾整齐，迎接第二天的早晨。如果你能醒着（不过当然你不能），你就会看到你的妈妈在做这些事情，而你会发现看她收拾东西是件非常有趣的事。那很像是在整理抽屉。我猜，你会看见她跪着，饶有趣味地察看你的一些东西，想不通你到底是从哪里捡到这东西的。她发现有些东西是讨人喜欢的，有些则是招人讨厌的。她把某个东西贴在脸上，仿佛它和小猫一样可爱，又赶紧地把另一件东西藏得不见踪影。当你清晨醒来的时候，那些你睡觉前揣着的淘气的念头和坏脾气都被叠得小小的，放在你脑子的底层，而在上层，整整齐齐铺放着的是你那些美好的想法，等着你去拾起。

I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.

我不知道你是否看过人的心思的图片。医生有时会把你身上的其他部位画下来，而看你自己的图像会特别地有意思。但要是你看到医生在努力画一张孩子的心思的图，你会发现，那图不仅是令人费解的，还总是在绕圈。那上面有弯弯曲曲的线条，就像卡片上的体温记录。这些应该就是岛上的道路了吧，因为梦幻岛总的来说就是一个岛，四处散落着令人惊奇的色彩。海面上覆盖着珊瑚礁，漂流着轻快的小船；岛上有野人和孤零零的巢穴；有土地精灵们，他们大多是裁缝；有小河穿过的一个个洞穴；有王子们和他们的六个哥哥；有一间快要倒塌的小屋；还有一位长着鹰钩鼻、身材矮小的老妇人。如果那就是全部的话，这图画起来倒也简单。但是还有呢：第一天上学，宗教，爸爸，圆水池，针线活，谋杀案，绞刑，与格动词，吃巧克力布丁的日子，穿背带裤，数到九十九，自己拔牙得到了三便士，等等。这些要么是岛上的一部分，要么就是画在另外一张图片上了。总之，全部让人看不明白，尤其是在没有一件东西静止不动的情况下。

Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents, but on the whole the Neverlands have a family resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say of them that they have each other's nose, and so forth. On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.

当然啦，每个人心目中的梦幻岛各不相同。拿约翰来说吧，他的梦幻岛有一个礁湖，火烈鸟在湖上飞翔，约翰就朝它们射去。而迈克尔呢，年纪还很小，他的梦幻岛则是有一只火烈鸟，有很多礁湖在火烈鸟上面飞。约翰住在一艘倒扣在沙滩上的船上，迈克尔住在一个印第安人的帐篷里，温迪住在一间用树叶巧妙缝成的屋子里。约翰没有朋友，迈克尔只在夜晚有朋友，温迪有一匹被父母抛弃的狼宝宝。但总的来说，他们的梦幻岛就像一家人一样，如果站成一排，你会说它们的鼻子长得一模一样，等等。在这些充满魔力的海岸边，玩耍的孩子们总是在将他们简陋的小圆舟拖上岸。我们也去过那个地方，我们至今还能听到海浪的声音，但是，我们再也不上岸了。

Of all delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very real. That is why there are night-lights.

在所有让人快乐的岛中，梦幻岛是最舒适、最紧凑的了，不大也不散——也就是说，从一次冒险到另一次冒险，距离虽有点远，但也算得上恰到好处。白天，你用椅子和桌布玩岛上的游戏时，一点也不会觉得害怕。可是，在你临睡前的两分钟，它几乎就会变得很真实了。那就是晚上要点灯的原因。

Occasionally in her travels through her children's minds Mrs. Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and as Mrs. Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.

达林夫人在孩子们的脑袋中漫步的时候，偶尔会发现一些她无法理解的事，其中最叫她困惑的便是彼得这个名字。她对彼得一无所知，但在约翰和迈克尔的脑袋中他无处不在，而温迪的脑海中更是慢慢地开始涂满了这个名字。这个名字比其他任何字都要粗大和醒目。达林夫人盯着它看时，觉得它是那么古怪、自大。

"Yes, he is rather cocky," Wendy admitted with regret. Her mother had been questioning her.

“没错，他就是有点儿自大。”温迪遗憾地承认。妈妈一直不停地问她。

"But who is he, my pet?" "He is Peter Pan, you know, mother." At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. She had believed in him at the time, but now that she was married and full of sense she quite doubted whether there was any such person.

“但他是谁啊，我的宝贝？”“他是彼得·潘啊，你知道的，妈妈。”起初，达林夫人并不知道，但是后来她回想自己的童年，也记起了一个叫彼得·潘的孩子。据说，他和精灵们住在一起。有关他的许多故事可奇怪哩，比如说，当孩子们死的时候，他会陪着他们走上一段路，这样孩子们就不会害怕了。她那时是相信的，可现在她结婚了，也懂得了许多道理，便非常怀疑这样一个人是否存在。

"Besides," she said to Wendy, "he would be grown up by this time." "Oh no, he isn't grown up," Wendy assured her confidently, "and he is just my size." She meant that he was her size in both mind and body; she didn't know how she knew, she just knew it.

“况且，”她对温迪说，“他现在应该长大了吧。”“噢，不，他没长大，”温迪信心满满地跟她保证，“而且他和我一样大。”温迪的意思是，彼得的身心都和她的一样大，她不知道自己是怎么知道的，反正她就是知道。

Mrs. Darling consulted Mr. Darling, but he smiled pooh-pooh. "Mark my words," he said, "it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into their heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone, and it will blow over." But it would not blow over and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs. Darling quite a shock.

达林夫人去问达林先生，他忍不住笑了。“记住我的话，”他说，“这只是娜娜塞进他们脑子里的可笑念头，这种念头狗才会有。别管了，这念头很快就会消失的。”但是这个念头并没有消失，而且不久，这个爱惹麻烦的男孩就让达林夫人大吃了一惊。

Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them. For instance, they may remember to mention, a week after the event happened, that when they were in the wood they had met their dead father and had a game with him. It was in this casual way that Wendy one morning made a disquieting revelation. Some leaves of a tree had been found on the nursery floor, which certainly were not there when the children went to bed, and Mrs. Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy said with a tolerant smile: "I do believe it is that Peter again!" "Whatever do you mean, Wendy?" "It is so naughty of him not to wipe his feet," Wendy said, sighing. She was a tidy child.

孩子们会经历非常奇怪的事情，却丝毫不感到害怕。比如，他们会在事情发生一个星期后才想起来说，他们在树林里遇见了死去的爸爸，还和他一起玩游戏。一天早上，温迪就是这样漫不经心地透露出一件令人担忧的事。在育婴室的地板上发现了几片树叶，但孩子们昨天晚上上床睡觉的时候可没有。达林夫人对这些树叶感到很困惑，但温迪宽容地笑着说：“我相信这一定又是那个彼得干的！”“你到底说什么呢，温迪？”“他太顽皮了，也不擦干净他的脚印。”温迪叹了一口气说道。她可是一个爱干净的孩子。

She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way that she thought Peter sometimes came to the nursery in the night and sat on the foot of her bed and played on his pipes to her. Unfortunately she never woke, so she didn't know how she knew, she just knew.

她解释起来倒真像有那么一回事——她觉得，有时彼得会在晚上来到育婴室，坐在她的床脚边，吹笛子给她听。遗憾的是，她从来没醒过，所以她不知道自己是怎么知道的，反正她就是知道。

"What nonsense you talk, precious. No one can get into the house without knocking."

“你在乱说什么，宝贝。不敲门谁也无法进来。”

"I think he comes in by the window," she said.

“我想他应该是爬窗进来的。”温迪说。

"My love, it is three floors up." "Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?" It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the window.

“亲爱的，这可是三楼啊。”“可是树叶不就是在窗边发现的么，妈妈？”确实如此，那些树叶就是在靠窗很近的地方发现的。

Mrs. Darling did not know what to think, for it all seemed so natural to Wendy that you could not dismiss it by saying she had been dreaming.

达林夫人不知道该怎么理出头绪了。因为温迪觉得一切都是那么自然，你不能说她是在做梦而对此置之不理。

"My child," the mother cried, "why did you not tell me of this before?" "I forgot," said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her breakfast.

“我的孩子，”妈妈大声说道，“为什么你之前不告诉我呢？”“我忘记了。”温迪毫不在意地说。她正急着去吃早餐。

Oh, surely she must have been dreaming.

噢，没错，她肯定是在做梦。

But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs. Darling examined them very carefully; they were skeleton leaves, but she was sure they did not come from any tree that grew in England. She crawled about the floor, peering at it with a candle for marks of a strange foot. She rattled the poker up the chimney and tapped the walls. She let down a tape from the window to the pavement, and it was a sheer drop of thirty feet, without so much as a spout to climb up by.

但话说回来，地板上确实有树叶。达林夫人非常仔细地察看这些树叶，发现是一些只剩下叶脉的树叶，但是她确定英国没有可以长出这种树叶的树木。她趴在地板上，点亮了一根蜡烛，想看看有没有陌生人的脚印。她拿了跟拨火棒去捅烟囱，还用它敲了敲墙壁。她又从窗口放下一条带子，垂到地上，结果是，窗子高达30英尺，墙上连一个可以攀爬的喷水口都没有。

Certainly Wendy had been dreaming.

温迪肯定在做梦。

But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very next night showed, the night on which the extraordinary adventures of these children may be said to have begun.

可是接下来的那个晚上证实了温迪并不是在做梦。就是在那个晚上，孩子们奇特的冒险正式开始了。

On the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed. It happened to be Nana's evening off, and Mrs. Darling had bathed them and sung to them till one by one they had let go her hand and slid away into the land of sleep.

在我们所说的那个晚上，所有的孩子都又在床上睡觉了。娜娜碰巧在那天晚上休息，达林夫人给孩子们洗澡，唱歌给他们听，直到他们一个接一个地松开了她的手，进入了梦乡。

All were looking so safe and cosy that she smiled at her fears now and sat down tranquilly by the fire to sew.

一切看起来都那么安全、祥和，达林夫人笑了，觉得自己的害怕是多余的。于是，她安静地坐在火炉边，缝起衣服来。

It was something for Michael, who on his birthday was getting into shirts. The fire was warm, however, and the nursery dimly lit by three night-lights, and presently the sewing lay on Mrs. Darling's lap. Then her head nodded, oh, so gracefully. She was asleep. Look at the four of them, Wendy and Michael over there, John here, and Mrs. Darling by the fire. There should have been a fourth night-light.

这是给迈克尔缝的，是给他生日那天穿的衬衫。炉火暖洋洋的，育婴室里点着三盏夜灯，忽暗忽明。没过多久，缝的衣服就落在达林夫人的膝盖上了。然后她的头往下一栽一栽的，噢，这是多么美好的画面啊。她也睡着了。看他们四个，温迪和迈克尔在那边睡着，约翰在这边，达林夫人则在火炉旁。应该再点亮第四盏夜灯的。

While she slept she had a dream. She dreamt that the Neverland had come too near and that a strange boy had broken through from it. He did not alarm her, for she thought she had seen him before in the faces of many women who have no children. Perhaps he is to be found in the faces of some mothers also. But in her dream he had rent the film that obscures the Neverland, and she saw Wendy and John and Michael peeping through the gap.

达林夫人睡着后，做了一个梦。她梦见梦幻岛离她非常近，从那里钻出来一个陌生的小男孩。小男孩并没有吓到她，因为她觉得她以前曾经在许多没有孩子的女人的脸上见过他的样子。或者她也在一些有孩子的女人脸上见过他。不过在她的梦里，小男孩却把遮掩梦幻岛的那层薄纱给撕开了，她看到温迪、约翰和迈克尔都在透过缝隙向里张望。

The dream by itself would have been a trifle, but while she was dreaming the window of the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop on the floor. He was accompanied by a strange light, no bigger than your fist, which darted about the room like a living thing and I think it must have been this light that wakened Mrs. Darling.

这个梦本身可能算不了什么，可就在她做梦的时候，育婴室的窗户突然打开了，一个男孩真的从天而降，落到了地板上。一簇奇怪的光伴着他，那光不比你的拳头大，却仿佛有生命似的在屋子里到处蹿动，我猜，肯定是这簇光把达林夫人弄醒了。

She started up with a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once that he was Peter Pan. If you or I or Wendy had been there we should have seen that he was very like Mrs. Darling's kiss. He was a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees but the most entrancing thing about him was that he had all his first teeth. When he saw she was a grown-up, he gnashed the little pearls at her.

她大叫了一声，跳了起来，看到了那个男孩。不知为什么，她立刻就知道他就是彼得·潘。倘若你或我或温迪也在那里，我们就会发现，他实在是太像达林夫人的那个吻了。他是一个非常可爱的小男孩，身上穿着用只剩下叶脉的树叶和从树上流出来的汁液做成的衣服，不过他最吸引人的地方还是他那满口的乳牙。当他看到达林夫人是个大人的时候，便朝她咧开了那一口小珍珠般的牙齿。 q3K3vu9Gu3KH5RT/lIn07DJvggxnYUPtGqG/6uw6QYbO+RdYbj57/oLEJeHGkF/P