不久前读了由 Howard Goldblatt （葛浩文）译的《狼图腾》，觉得第五章不错。现把前面部分抄下，与原文一同比较，与各位品评。英文取自2008年版的Penguin Books 《Wolf Totem》。由于没有在网上找到英文版，英文是用手敲进去的，所以如有拼写，语法，标点错误的，肯定不是译者的：）
狼图腾 Chapter 5
厚厚的黑云，冲出北部边境的地平线，翻滚盘旋，直上蓝天，像浓烟黑火般地凶猛。瞬间，云层便吞没了百里山影，像巨大的黑掌向牧场头顶压来。西边橙黄的落日还未被遮没，裹挟着密密雪片的北风，顷刻就扫荡了广袤的额仑草原。横飞的雪片，在斜射的阳光照耀下，犹如亿万饥蝗，扇着黄翅，争先恐后地向肥美富庶的牧场扑来。
Dense dark clouds raced over from the northern horizon, tumbling and roiling their way through the blue sky, ferocious as dense smoke or a black fire. In a matter of seconds, clouds swallowed up many miles of mountain ranges, like a colossal black hand pressing down on the pastureland. Off to the west, the orange-colored sun was not yet consumed, as a northern wind carrying powdery snow swept quickly across the vast Olonbulag. Swirling flakes sparkled in the slanting rays of sunlight like hungry locusts.
蒙谚：狼随风窜。几十年来一直在国境内外运动游击的额仑草原狼群，随着这场机会难得的倒春寒流，越过界桩，跃过防火道，冲过边防巡逻公路，杀回额仑边境草原。境外高寒低温，草疏羊稀，山穷狼饥。这年境内狼群的雪下冬储肉食被盗，境外春荒加剧，狼群又难以捕获到雪净蹄轻的黄羊。大批饿狼早已在边境线完成集结。这一轮入境的狼群眼睛特别红，胃口特别大，手段特别残忍，行为特别不计后果。每头狼几乎都是怀着以命拼食的亡命报复劲头冲过来的。然而额仑草原正忙于在境内掏挖狼窝，对外患却疏于防范。
A Mongol proverb: Wolves follow the wind. For decades, the Olonbulag pack, which had fought guerrilla wars on both sides of the border, took advantage of the rare early spring to come south, leap across fire breaks, and force its way past guarded public roads to return to the grassland. The wolves had suffered the bitter cold and, since there was little grass, scant prey, which had left them desperately hungry. But the little cache of frozen gazelles in their home territory had been pillaged, while beyond their territory famine raged, making it impossible to catch the light-footed gazelles. Great numbers of starving wolves had formed a pack on the frontier, eyes burning red as they entered the territory; their appetites were gargantuan, their killing methods ruthless, their behavior unmindful of consequences. Alpha males, filled with murderous thoughts of revenge, and ready to die for food, led the pack ever nearer, at a time when the people were so caught up in raids on wolf dens that they were oblivious to the scourge bearing down on them.
60年代中后期，草原气象预告的水准，报雨不见水，报晴不见日。乌力吉场长说，天气预报，胡说八道。除了毕利格等几位老人，对牧场领导班子抽调那么多劳力去掏狼窝表示担心，几次劝阻外，其他人谁也没有预先警报这次寒流和狼灾。连一向关心牧民和牧业生产的边防站官兵，也未能预料和及时提醒。而以往他们在边防巡逻公路一旦发现大狼群足迹，就会立即通知场部和牧民的。额仑草原的边境草场，山丘低矮，无遮无拦，寒流风暴白毛风往往疾如闪电，而极擅长气象战的草原狼也常常利用风暴，成功地组织起一次又一次的闪电战。
During the latter half of the 1960s, if rain was predicted, a drought occurred; if a clear, bright day was on tap, the sun never made an appearance. “Those weather reports are a joke,” Director Uljii commented. Except for Bilgee and some of the other old-timers, who worried that the pasture leadership had taken too many people away from their jobs to raid wolf dens, no one had anticipated the early spring or the wolf scourge. The men at the frontier station, who had always shown concern for the herders and the liversotck production, failed to warn of what was on its way. In the past, when they discovered tracks of a wolf pack during their rounds, they notified headquarters and the herdsmen. Low hills occupied the frontier grazing land, offering neither cover nor barriers, and artic currents produced blizzards known locally as white-hair winds. Wolves, unmatched at climatological warfare, often launched lighting strikes during blizzard conditions.
在额仑西北部一片优良暖坡草场，这几天刚刚集合起一个新马群。这是内蒙古民兵骑兵某师某团在额仑草原十几个马群中，精选的上等马，有七八十匹。这些天只等体检报告单了，只要没有马鼻疽，就可立即上路。战备紧张，看管军马责任重大。牧场军代表和革委会专门挑选了四个责任心、警觉性、胆量和马技俱佳的马倌，让他们分两拨，二十四小时轮流值班，昼夜守护。二队民兵连长巴图任组长，为了防止军马恋家跑回原马群，巴图又让所有马群远离此地几十里。前些日子一直风和日暖，水清草密，还有稀疏的第一茬春芽可啃。准军马乐不思蜀，从不散群。四个马倌也尽心尽力，几天过去，平安无事。
A new herd of horses had recently been guided to a patch of fine grazing land on the Olonbulag, seventy or eighty of the finest horses among the dozens of herds belonging to a certain regiment of the Mongolian mounted militia. They had been sent there to await the results of a medical examination. If none of the horses was found to be suffering from glanders, they could be on the road. Given the tensions of war preparedness, the herdsmen were saddled with great responsibility. The military representative and revolutionary committee had specially selected four dependable, vigilant, and courageous herdsmen, who were also excellent horsemen, divided them into two teams, and assigned them the task of watching over the horses twenty-four hours a day. The two teams were led by Batu, who was a company commander in the Second Militia Group. In order to keep the horses from running back to their own herds, he ordered all the other herds moved to a distance of several miles. The breezes were light, the spring air warm, the water clear, the grass lush; the year’s first buds had appeared, setting the scene for a contented herd of warhorses that happily stayed together. The four herdsmen took their task seriously, and all was well for several days.
先头冷风稍停，风力达十级以上的草原白毛风就横扫过来。湖水倾盆泼向草滩，畜群倾巢冲决畜栏。风口处的蒙古包，被刮翻成一个大碗，转了几圈便散了架。迎风行的毡棚车，被掀了顶，棚毡飞上了天。雪片密得人骑在马上，不见马首马尾。雪粒像砂枪打出的砂粒，嗖嗖地高速飞行，拉出亿万根白色飞痕，仿佛漫天白毛飞舞。老人说，蒙古古代有一个萨满法师曾说，白毛风，白毛风，那是披头散发的白毛妖怪在发疯。白毛风有此言而得大名。天地间，草原上，人畜无不闻白毛风而丧胆。人喊马嘶狗吠羊叫，千声万声，顷刻合成一个声音：白毛巨怪的狂吼。
Suddenly the gentle breezes were replaced by sweeping gale-force winds. Lake water poured onto the grassland, and livestock began breaking out of their pens. Yurts set up along wind tunnels were blown upside down, turned into huge bowls that tumbled briefly before falling to pieces. Carts heading into the wind lost their felt canopies, which flew off into the sky. The blowing snow was so dense that anyone riding a horse could see neither the head nor the tail of his mount. The snow stung like buckshot, whistling through the air as it tore millions of white scars across the sky. Old Man Bilgee said that in ancient times there had been a shaman who exclaimed, “Blizzard, blizzard, the madness of a white goblin with unkempt hair!” The shaman’s words had survived into modern times. Everywhere between heaven and earth on the grassland, the mere mention of a blizzard struck fear into man and beast. People screamed, horse neighed, dogs barked, and sheep bleated – a cacophony that came together in a single sound: the crazed howls of the monstrous white-hair blizzard.
准备夜战继续开挖狼洞的人们，被困远山，进退两难。已经返程的猎手们，多半迷了路。留守畜群的劳力和老弱妇幼几乎全部出动，拼死追赶和拦截畜群。在草原，能否保住自己多年的劳动积蓄，往往就在一天或一夜。
People preparing to continue their nightly foraging for wolf dens were stranded in the mountains, with no way in or out. Hunters heading home lost their way. Laborers, the old and the sick, women, and children who stayed behind to tend livestock were kept busy chasing down and penning up stray animals. On the grassland, the ability to hold on to savings accumulated over years of labor was often tested in the space of a single day and night.
越境的狼群，有组织攻击的第一目标就是肥壮的军马群。那天，毕利格老人以为军马群已按规定时间送走，白毛风一起，他还暗自庆幸。后来才知马群被体检报告耽误了一天。而接送报告的通讯员，那天跟着军代表包顺贵上山去掏狼崽了。这年春天被掏出狼崽格外多，不下十几窝，一百多只。丧崽哭嚎的母狼加入狼群，使这年的狼群格外疯狂残忍。
The primary target of an organized attack by the wolf pack that had crossed the border was the thriving heard of warhorses. Bilgee, who assumed that the horses had already been sent off as ordered, secretly rejoiced when the blizzard rose up. He later learned that the herd’s departure had been delayed by one day, pending the medical report, and that the person who was to deliver the report had chosen instead to follow the military representative up the mountain to look for wolf cubs. A larger number had been found that year than usual, more than a hundred from at least a dozen dens, and grieving mothers whose cubs had been taken joined the pack, turning it especially frenzied and cruel.
老人说，这个战机是腾格里赐给狼王的。这一定是那条熟悉额仑草原的白狼王，经过实地侦察以后才选中的报复目标。
Bilgee said, “Tengger has presented the wolf leader with this opportunity. There’s no doubt that the white wolf king, so familiar with the Olonbulag, has chosen this path to vengeance.”
风声一起，巴图立即躬身冲出马倌远牧的简易小毡包。这个白天本来轮到他休班，巴图已经连续值了几个夜班，人困马乏，但他还是睡不着，一整天没合眼。在马群中长大的巴图，不知吃过多少次白毛风和狼群的大亏了。连续多日可疑的平安，已使他神经绷得紧如马头琴弦，稍有风吹草动，他的头就嗡嗡响。大马倌们都记得住血写的草原箴言：在蒙古草原，平安后面没平安，危险后面有危险。
At the first sound of wind, Batu had burst out of the small yurt for the temporary herders. After several night watches in a row, this was supposed to be his day of rest. He was exhausted, as was his horse, but he could not sleep and hadn’t closed his eyes all day. Having grown up around horses, he had suffered through many blizzards and had often been victimized by wolves. But now a number of uneventful days has put him on edge, and his nerves were as taut as the string of a Mongolian lute. The slightest breeze, the mere swaying of grass made his ears buzz. All the seasoned herders had committed to memory a grassland maxim, written in blood: On the Mongolian grassland, peace does not follow peace, but danger always follows danger.
巴图一出包马上就嗅出白毛风的气味，再一看北方天空和风向，他紫红色的宽脸顿时变成紫灰色，琥珀色的眼珠却惊得发亮。他急忙反身钻进包，一脚踹醒熟睡的同伴沙茨楞，然后急冲冲地拿手电、拉枪栓、压子弹、拴马棒、穿皮袍、灭炉火，还不忘给正在马群值班的马倌拿上两件皮袄。两人背起枪，挎上两尺长的大电筒，撑杆上马，向偏北面的马群方向奔去。
The moment he stepped out of the yurt, he could smell the coming blizzard, and when he saw the direction of the wind, his broad ruddy face turned a grayish purple and his amber eyes glowed with fear. He rushed back into the yurt and nudged his sleeping comrade, Laasurung. Then in rapid order, he picked up his flashlight, loaded his rifle, looped his herding club over his wrist, put on his fur deel, doused the fire in the stove, and picked up fur jackets for the two men watching the horses. He and his comrade, rifles slung over their backs and carrying long flashlights, mounted up and galloped north to where the heard was grazing.
西山顶边，落日一沉，额仑草原便昏黑一片。两匹马刚冲下山坡，就跟海啸雪崩似的白毛风迎头相撞，人马立即被吞没。人被白毛风呛得憋紫了脸，被雪沙打得睁不开眼，马也被刮得一惊一乍。两匹马好像嗅到了什么，脑袋乱晃，总想掉头避风逃命。两人近在咫尺，可是巴图伸手不见五指，他急得大喊大叫，就是听不到沙茨楞的回音。风雪咆哮，湮没了一切。巴图勒紧马嚼子，擦了一把额头上的汗霜，定了定心，然后将套马杆倒了一下手，夹握住大电筒，打开开关。平时像小探照灯、能照亮百米开外马匹的光柱，此刻的能见度最多不过十几米。光柱里全是茂密横飞的白毛，不一会儿，一个雪人雪马出现在光柱里，也向巴图照射过来一个惨白模糊的光柱。两人用灯光画了个圈，费力地控制着又惊又乍的马，终于靠在了一起。
As soon as the sun set behind the mountains, the grassland was cloaked in darkness. The two riders had no sooner reached the bottom of a slope than they were met head-on by the blizzard, like a tidal wave or an avalanche. It swallowed them up. The men choked on the wind until their faces turned purple; the pounding snow pellets forced them to shut their eyes. The horses too succumbed to fear, throwing their heads up in a desperate attempt to turn and flee from the wind. The men had started out shoulder to shoulder, but Batu, who could not see his hand in front of his face, shouted frantically; there was no response from Laasurung. Wind and snow consumed everything in a raging howl. Batu reined in his horse, wiped the front from his forehead, and tried to calm himself. Then he tucked the flashlight under his arm and turned it on. Usually, it would light up the area like a searchlight, sending out a beam that could illuminate a horse at hundred yards or more. Now he could see no more than a few yards ahead; dense horizontal strands of white hair filled his sight. Suddenly, a snowman and snow-horse entered the beam and, at the same time, sent a weak light his way. The two men made circles in the air with their flashlights as they strained to control their panic-stricken mounts. Finally, they were side-by-side again.
巴图拽住沙茨楞，撩开他的帽耳，对他大喊：站着别动，就在这儿截马群。把马群往东赶，一定要躲开架子山的大泡子。要不，就全毁了。
Batu grabbed Laassurung, raised one of his earflaps, and shouted into his ear. “Stay here, don’t move. This is where we need to stop the herd. Then we’ll drive it east. We have to avoid the small lake at Jiazi Mountain at all costs. All is lost if we don’t.
沙茨楞也对着巴图的脸大喊：我马惊了，像是有狼。就咱四个咋顶得住？
Laassurung shouted back, “My horse is spooked, the way it gets when there are wolves around. If there are, how will the four of us manage?”
巴图大叫：豁出命也得顶……
“As if our lives depended on it,” Batu shouted.
说完，两人高举电筒，向北面照去，并不断摇晃光柱，向另两个同伴和马群发信号。
They aimed their flashlights to the north and waved them back and forth as a signal to their two comrades.
一匹灰鬃灰马突地闯进两束光柱里，几步减速，猛地急停在巴图身边，仿佛遇到了救星。大灰马惊魂未定，大口喘着气，脖子下有一咬伤，马胸上流满了血，伤口处冒着热气，在伤口下又滴成了一条一条的血冰。沙茨楞的坐骑一见到血，惊得猛地蹿起，接着又一低头，一梗脖子，不顾一切地顺风狂奔。巴图只得急忙夹马追赶。那匹大灰马也顿时跑没了影。
A gray horse appeared in the two beams of light; it slowed and stopped next to Batu, as if it had found its savior. The gray was snorting anxiously. It had been bitten below the neck, and blood leaking from the streaming wound formed lines of red ice. The sight of blood spooked Laasurung’s mount, who trampled the ground in a frenzy, then lowered its head, thrust out its neck, and single-mindedly galloped off with the wind. Batu spun around and raced after his comrade; the gray ran into the blinding snow.
