Hell Gate

鬼门关

About six miles from the renowned city of the Manhattoes, and in that sound, or arm of the sea, which passes between the main land and Nassau or Long Island, there is a narrow strait, where the current is violently compressed between shouldering promontories, and horribly irritated and perplexed by rocks and shoals. Being at the best of times a very violent, hasty current, its takes these impediments in mighty dudgeon; boiling in whirlpools; brawling and fretting in ripples and breakers; and, in short, indulging in all kinds of wrong-headed paroxysms. At such times, woe to any unlucky vessel that ventures within its clutches.

离著名的曼哈托斯城大约六英里的地方，在那片海潮或者海湾里，有一个狭窄的海峡，其坐落在大陆同拿骚岛或长岛的海湾之间。海水一流到这里，就受到两边耸出的海岬的猛烈挤压，在乱石和浅滩之间咆哮挣扎。在海水异常凶猛、湍急的时候，这些障碍就会掀起一波狂涛，波涛在漩涡中沸腾，在浪潮中喧嚣，在急流和暗礁中汹涌咆哮，总而言之，是尽情颠狂。这个时候，不管是哪只倒霉的船，只要敢闯进它的虎口，就肯定要遭殃。

This termagant humor is said to prevail only at half tides. At low water it is as pacific as any other stream. As the tide rises, it begins to fret; at half tide it rages and roars as if bellowing for more water; but when the tide is full it relapses again into quiet, and for a time seems almost to sleep as soundly as an alderman after dinner. It may be compared to an inveterate hard drinker, who is a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skin full, but when half seas over plays the very devil.

据说这种凶悍的脾气只在半潮的时候才会发作。在低潮的时候，它就和其他任何一条小溪一样平静。而潮水一涨，它就又开始激荡起来。在半潮的时候，它拼命地咆哮着，似乎在索要更多的海水；但到了满潮的时候，它反而恢复了平静，有那么一会儿，居然会像一位吃完正餐的市议员一样，睡得那样香甜。就像一个成瘾的酒鬼，在根本不曾喝酒或酩酊大醉的时候，他倒显得非常安静，但是在半醉的时候，却闹得天翻地覆。

This mighty, blustering, bullying little strait was a place of great difficulty and danger to the Dutch navigators of ancient days; hectoring their tub-built barks in a most unruly style; whirling them about, in a manner to make any but a Dutchman giddy, and not unfrequently stranding them upon rocks and reefs. Whereupon out of sheer spleen they denominated it Hellegat (literally Hell Gut) and solemnly gave it over to the devil. This appellation has since been aptly rendered into English by the name of Hell Gate; and into nonsense by the name of Hurl Gate, according to certain foreign intruders who neither understood Dutch nor English. May St. Nicholas confound them!

对于从前的荷兰航海家而言，这个波涛汹涌、呼啸澎湃、恃强凌弱的小海峡是一个极其危险和极其麻烦的地方。它极其蛮横地威吓着那些木盆式的三桅帆船，使它们在漩涡中急剧地转动，除了荷兰人以外，船上的其他人几乎都头晕目眩。它还常常使船碰到岩石，或触上暗礁。出于纯粹的愤怒，他们称这里为 “魔洞” （字面意思是 “地狱的内脏” ），并严肃地要把它送给魔鬼。后来，这个名称又被很贴切地译成了英文，变成 “鬼门关” ；后来又有外来的闯入者，他们既不懂荷兰文也不懂英文，就胡乱地把这叫做 “赫尔门” 。愿圣尼古拉斯叫他们统统见鬼去吧！

From this strait to the city of the Manhattoes the borders of the sound are greatly diversified; in one part, on the eastern shore of the island of Manhata and opposite Blackwell's Island, being very much broken and indented by rocky nooks, overhung with trees which give them a wild and romantic look.

从这个海峡到曼哈托斯城，也就是海峡的边缘地区，一路风景迥异。有一部分，就是在曼哈他岛屿的东海岸以及布莱克韦尔岛屿的对面，极其破碎，被岩石的凹陷处切割成锯齿状，在树木的掩盖下，呈现出一派野性浪漫的景象。

The flux and reflux of the tide through this part of the sound is extremely rapid, and the navigation troublesome, by reason of the whirling eddies and counter currents. I speak this from experience, having been much of a navigator of these small seas in my boyhood, and having more than once run the risk of shipwreck and drowning in the course of divers holiday voyages, to which in common with the Dutch urchins I was rather prone.

通过这部分海峡的涨潮和落潮极其迅速，湍急的漩涡和逆流给航海带来了麻烦。以上都是我的经验之谈，我小时候是这些小片海域上的航海家。像那些荷兰顽童一样，我很喜欢航海，在各种各样的假日里，还不止一次地冒着船只失事、我被淹死的风险去航海。

In the midst of this perilous strait, and hard by a group of rocks called "the Hen and Chickens, " there lay in my boyish days the wreck of a vessel which had been entangled in the whirlpools and stranded during a storm. There was some wild story about this being the wreck of a pirate, and of some bloody murder, connected with it, which I cannot now recollect. Indeed, the desolate look of this forlorn hulk, and the fearful place where it lay rotting, were sufficient to awaken strange notions concerning it. A row of timber heads, blackened by time, peered above the surface at high water; but at low tide a considerable part of the hull was bare, and its great ribs or timbers, partly stripped of their planks, looked like the skeleton of some sea monster. There was also the stump of a mast, with a few ropes and blocks swinging about and whistling in the wind, while the sea gull wheeled and screamed around this melancholy carcass.

我小时候，在这道危险的海峡中间，在一堆叫做 “母鸡和小鸡” 的岩石附近，就有一只卷入漩流、在暴风雨到来时搁浅的帆船的残骸。关于这只帆船的残骸有很多荒诞的故事，有人说这是海盗船的残骸，和某个残忍的凶杀案有关，现在我已经记不起来了。的确，这艘被抛弃的破船那副凄惨的样子，还有那个它躺在那里慢慢腐烂的可怕地方，足以让人产生一些奇怪的猜想。它那一排拖桩因为年深日久发了黑。满潮的时候，只见它微微露出水面；但低潮的时候，相当多的船身裸露在外，有巨大的船骨和木料，部分被剥掉了后木板，看起来就像是某种海怪的骷髅。那儿还有半截桅杆，上面有几根绳子和几个滑轮在风里摇摆、呼啸，只见海鸥在这个令人悲伤的残骸周围盘旋和尖叫。

The stories connected with this wreck made it an object of great awe to my boyish fancy; but in truth the whole neighborhood was full of fable and romance for me, abounding with traditions about pirates, hobgoblins, and buried money. As I grew to more mature years I made many researches after the truth of these strange traditions; for I have always been a curious investigator of the valuable, but obscure branches of the history of my native province. I found infinite difficulty, however, in arriving at any precise information. In seeking to dig up one fact it is incredible the number of fables which I unearthed; for the whole course of the sound seemed in my younger days to be like the straits of Pylorus of yore, the very region of fiction. I will say nothing of the Devil's Stepping Stones, by which that arch fiend made his retreat from Connecticut to Long Island, seeing that the subject is likely to be learnedly treated by a worthy friend and contemporary historian1whom I have furnished with particulars thereof. Neither will I say anything of the black man in a three-cornered hat, seated in the stern of a jolly boat who used to be seen about Hell Gate in stormy weather; and who went by the name of the Pirate's Spuke, or Pirate's Ghost, because I never could meet with any person of stanch credibility who professed to have seen this spectrum; unless it were the widow of Manus Conklin, the blacksmith of Frog's Neck, but then, poor woman, she was a little purblind, and might have been mistaken; though they said she saw farther than other folks in the dark. All this, however, was but little satisfactory in regard to the tales of buried money about which I was most curious; and the following was all that I could for a long time collect that had anything like an air of authenticity.

在我的童年幻想中，与残骸有关的故事是我非常敬畏的事物；但事实上，对我来说，这一带流传着许多寓言和冒险故事，都是些关于海盗、妖怪和藏钱的传说。后来，人近中年，为了考察这些奇怪的传说是否真实，我做了许多研究；因为我一向就是一个好奇心很强的调查者，喜欢考察故乡那些宝贵的、但却模糊不清的历史分支。然而，我发现，想得到任何确凿的证据都有极大的困难。为了弄清楚一件事，我常常会发现无数不可思议的传说。在我年轻时，海峡的整个航线就像是昔日的幽门海峡，就是那个虚构的地方。我不打算谈魔王从康涅狄格退到长岛时用的 “魔鬼的踏脚石” ，因为我知道这些事似乎是我的一位可敬的当代历史学家朋友 [1] ，进行深刻研究的题材，我已经把一些详细情节提供给他了。同时，我也不打算谈那个经常在暴风雨里出现、戴着一顶三角帽、老在鬼门关附近被看见、坐在工作艇船尾的那个黑汉子，大家都把他叫做 “海盗的鬼魂” ，因为我从来找不到一个真正可靠的人，说他见过这个鬼怪。除非他是蛙颈岛上的铁匠马纳斯·康克林的寡妇。可是，这个可怜的女人，她有点老眼昏花，也许是一时弄错了，虽然大伙都说，她在黑暗里，比别人看得远些。不过，这些种种，对于我最感兴趣的有关藏金的传说来讲，几乎不能带来满足感。下面是我长期以来尽可能搜罗到的一些看起来还靠得住的材料。

[1] For a very interesting account of the Devil and his Stepping Stones, see the learned memoir read before the New York Historical Society since the death of Mr. Knickerbocker, by his friend, an eminant jurist of the place.

关于魔鬼及其 “脚踏石” 的有趣描述，参见尼克博克先生去世后，他的朋友、当地著名的法学家在纽约历史学会面前诵读的学术回忆录。