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Lucy Looks Into A Wardrobe 露西进入魔衣柜
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air—raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. (Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at the front door he was so odd—looking that Lucy (who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide it.
As soon as they had said goodnight to the Professor and gone upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls’ room and they all talked it over.
“We’ve fallen on our feet and no mistake,” said Peter. “This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like.”
“I think he’s an old dear,” said Susan.
“Oh, come off it!” said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad—tempered. “Don’t go on talking like that.”
“Like what?” said Susan; “and anyway, it’s time you were in bed.”
“Trying to talk like Mother,” said Edmund. “And who are you to say when I’m to go to bed? Go to bed yourself.”
“Hadn’t we all better go to bed?” said Lucy. “There’s sure to be a row if we’re heard talking here.”
“No there won’t,” said Peter. “I tell you this is the sort of house where no one’s going to mind what we do. Anyway, they won’t hear us. It’s about ten minutes’ walk from here down to that dining—room, and any amount of stairs and passages in between.”
“What’s that noise?” said Lucy suddenly. It was a far larger house than she had ever been in before and the thought of all those long passages and rows of doors leading into empty rooms was beginning to make her feel a little creepy.
“It’s only a bird, silly,” said Edmund.
“It’s an owl,” said Peter. “This is going to be a wonderful place for birds. I shall go to bed now. I say, let’s go and explore tomorrow. You might find anything in a place like this. Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There’ll be hawks.”
“Badgers!” said Lucy.
“Foxes!” said Edmund.
“Rabbits!” said Susan.
But when next morning came there was a steady rain falling, so thick that when you looked out of the window you could see neither the mountains nor the woods nor even the stream in the garden.
“Of course it would be raining!” said Edmund. They had just finished their breakfast with the Professor and were upstairs in the room he had set apart for them—a long, low room with two windows looking out in one direction and two in another.
“Do stop grumbling, Ed,” said Susan. “Ten to one it’ll clear up in an hour or so. And in the meantime we’re pretty well off. There’s a wireless and lots of books.”
“Not for me,”said Peter; “I’m going to explore in the house.”
Everyone agreed to this and that was how the adventures began. It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare bedrooms, as everyone had expected that they would; but soon they came to a very long room full of pictures and there they found a suit of armour; and after that was a room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led out on to a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books—most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking—glass in the door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead bluebottle on the window—sill.
“Nothing there!” said Peter, and they all trooped out again—all except Lucy. She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth—while trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two mothballs dropped out.
Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up—mostly long fur coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in—then two or three steps—always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.
“This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!” thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. “I wonder is that more mothballs?” she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. “This is very queer,” she said, and went on a step or two further.
Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. “Why, it is just like branches of trees!” exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night—time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air.
Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree—trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,” thought Lucy. She began to walk forward, crunch—crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp—post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp—post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamp—post.
He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of feet he had goat’s hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant little face, with a short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns, one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the umbrella; in the other arm he carried several brown—paper parcels. What with the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise that he dropped all his parcels.
“Goodness gracious me!” exclaimed the Faun.
从前有四个孩子，他们的名字叫彼得、苏珊、埃德蒙和露西。这是一个发生在他们身上的故事。当时正处于战争期间，由于空袭，父母将他们从伦敦疏散，送到了一位住在偏远乡下一座庄园里的老教授家里。那个地方离最近的火车站有十英里，距离最近的邮局也有两英里。老教授没有妻子，他和一个名叫麦克里迪夫人的女管家还有三个仆人（她们的名字叫艾维、玛格丽特和贝蒂，但她们并不经常出现在故事中）住在一座非常大的房子里。他本人已经上了年纪，他脸上的大部分地方都和头上一样，长满了蓬乱的白色须发。孩子们几乎立刻就喜欢上了他。可是在第一天傍晚，当他走出来，站在前门迎接他们时，因为他的长相如此古怪，以致露西（她是年纪最小的）有一点儿怕他，而埃德蒙（他排行老三）想要大笑，只得不停地装作要擤鼻涕来加以掩饰。
头一个夜晚，他们刚跟教授道了晚安，回到楼上，男孩们就立刻来到了女孩们的房间，四个人凑在一起谈论起来。
“毫无疑问，我们的确非常幸运。”彼得说，“这里的一切都棒极了。那个老爷子会让我们随心所欲做我们想做的事情。”
“我觉得他是个老好人。”苏珊说。
“哦，打住！”埃德蒙说道，他已经累了，但他装出自己并没有感到疲惫的样子，这总会使得他脾气暴燥，“别再继续像那样讲话了。”
“像什么样？”苏珊问道，“不管怎样，你都该上床睡觉了。”
“学着像老妈那样讲话。”埃德蒙说，“你凭什么管我该啥时睡觉？你自己去睡吧。”
“是不是我们最好都去睡觉呢？”露西说，“如果有人听到我们在这里说话，我们肯定该要挨尅了。”
“不会有人听见的。”彼得说，“我告诉你们，在这种房子里，没有人会在意我们做些什么。再说，他们不会听到我们说话。从这里下到那个餐厅大概要走十分钟，中间还有那么多的楼梯和过道。”
“那是什么声音？”露西突然问道。这座房子比她以前到过的任何房子都要大，一想到所有那些长长的走廊，以及一排排通向空房间的房门，她就开始感到有点毛骨悚然。
“那只是一只鸟，傻瓜。”埃德蒙答道。
“那是一只猫头鹰。”彼得说，“对于鸟类来说，这里可真是个美妙的地方。我现在要去睡觉了。听着，我们明天出去探险吧。在这样一个地方，你可能会发现任何东西。我们来的时候，你们看见那些山了吗？还有那些树林？没准儿那里还有老鹰。说不定还有雄鹿呢。肯定会有隼。”
“还有獾！”露西说。
“还有狐狸！”埃德蒙说。
“还有兔子！”苏珊说。
但是当第二天清晨到来时，外面正在不停地下着雨，雨很大，如果你向窗外望去，既看不到山岭，也看不见树林，甚至连花园中的小溪都看不见了。
“竟然下起雨来！”埃德蒙说。他们刚刚和教授一起吃完早餐，来到楼上他专门给他们留出的一个房间——那是一个长长的低矮的房间，在两边墙上各有两扇窗户，可以眺望不同的方向。
“别再抱怨了，埃德。”苏珊说，“再过个把小时，十有八九天就会放晴。在此期间，我们可以自得其乐。这儿有一个无线电收音机，还有大量的书籍。”
“我对这些可不感兴趣。”彼得说，“我要在室内探索一番。”
大家一致同意这个建议，历险就这样开始了。这座房子属于那一种，你似乎永远也不可能走到它的尽头，因为里面到处都是出人意料的地方。恰如他们所预料的那样，打开来的头几扇门里面只是闲置的卧室。很快他们来到了一间非常长的，挂满了画像的房间，在那里他们还发现了一副盔甲。在那之后又是一间挂满绿色帘幕的房间，角落里还有一张竖琴。接着下了三级台阶，然后又上了五级台阶，他们来到了一间小小的楼上客厅，有一扇门通往外面的阳台。再往后又是一连串互相贯通的房间，里面摆满了书籍——大部分书籍都非常古老，有一些书比教堂里的《圣经》还要大。在那之后不久，他们又进入一个房间查看。那个房间空空荡荡，只有一个大衣柜，是那种柜门上有一面镜子的衣柜。除了窗台上一盆枯死的矢车菊，房间里没有其他任何东西。
“这里一无所有！”彼得说。他们又都鱼贯地走了出去——除了露西之外。她落在后面，是因为她觉得有必要打开柜门看一看，尽管她几乎确信柜门是锁着的。令她吃惊的是，柜门轻而易举地就打开了，两个樟脑丸滚了出来。
向里面张望，她看到了几件挂着的大衣——基本上都是皮毛长外衣。露西特别喜欢皮毛的气味和手感。她立刻进入衣柜，钻到皮大衣之间，把脸贴在皮毛上面轻轻摩擦。当然，她让柜门敞开在那里，因为她知道，将自己关进衣柜是一种很愚蠢的行为。她马上又朝衣柜深处走出一步，发现在第一排大衣的后面还挂着第二排大衣。那里黑咕隆咚的，她将两只手臂向前伸出，以避免将脸撞在衣柜的后壁上。她又向前跨了一步——然后又迈出两三步——一直期待着自己的指尖会触碰到木制板壁。但是她却摸不到木板。
“这一定是一个非常巨大的衣柜！”露西心里想着，仍然摸索着向前移动，把几件柔软的皮衣推到一边，给自己腾出地方。这时，她注意到自己脚下有什么东西在嘎吱作响。“我想知道是否有更多的樟脑丸？”她一边想着，一边弯下身子用手去摸。可是她摸到的并不是衣柜坚硬光滑的木地板，而是某种松软的粉末状的东西，而且异常冰凉。“这可真是奇怪。”她说着，又往前走了一两步。
就在这时，她发现碰触到她的脸和手的不再是柔软的毛皮，而是某种坚硬而粗糙，甚至是带刺的东西。“哎呀，这真像树的枝条！”露西大叫起来。随即她看见自己前面有一处亮光；不是在几英寸之外，即衣柜后壁应该在的位置，而是在远远的某个地方。一些又凉又软的东西飘落在她的身上。片刻之后，她发现自己站在一片树林中间，时间已是夜晚，脚下踏着积雪，雪花还在漫天飞舞，纷纷扬扬下个不停。
露西感到有点害怕，同时又感到非常激动与好奇。她扭头向后看去，在黑乎乎的树干之间，她仍然可以看见柜门敞开着，甚至能够依稀看见那个空空如也的房间。（当然她没有关上柜门，因为她知道，将自己关进衣柜中是一件再蠢不过的事情。）那边看起来依旧还是白天。“如果有什么不对劲儿，我总还能退回去。”露西心想。她开始向前走去，在积雪上发出咯吱—咯吱的声音。她穿过树林，朝那个亮光走去。大约走了十分钟，她到达了那里，发现那是一根路灯柱。她站在那里，看着它，心里在琢磨为什么树林中会有一根路灯柱，同时也在考虑下一步该做什么。这时，她听到拍挞拍挞的脚步声朝她这个方向而来。很快，一个非常奇特的人从树木之间走了出来，出现在路灯的亮光之中。
他只比露西高出一点点，头上撑着一把因落满了雪而变白的雨伞。他的上半身看起来像是一个人，但是他双腿的形状却像是山羊腿（腿上长着黑亮的羊毛）。他长着一对羊蹄子，而不是一双脚。他还有一条尾巴，但露西一开始并没有注意到，因为那条尾巴搭在了那只举着伞的手臂上，以免它拖在雪地上。他的脖子上围着一条红色的羊毛围巾，他的皮肤也红扑扑的。他有一张奇怪的、但颇为讨人喜欢的小脸，上面长着短短的尖胡子和卷曲的头发，两只角从他的头发中露出来，额头两边各有一只。正如我刚才所说，他一只手打着伞；另一只手臂夹着几个棕色纸包。由纸包和雪联想开来，他似乎刚刚去采购了一些圣诞礼物。他是一个农牧之神潘恩。他一眼看见露西，不由得大吃一惊，将手上的包裹都掉落在了地上。
“我的天啊！”那个潘恩大叫了一声。