After this the cold would come, they warned, and a long summer always meant a long winter. This summer had lasted ten years. Jon had been a babe in arms when it began.
他们还警告说,在这之后,酷寒便会降临,而长夏之后总是漫长的冬季。这次的夏天已经持续了十年,夏季刚开始时,琼恩还是大人怀抱里的小孩儿。
Ghost ran with them for a time and then vanished among the trees. Without the direwolf, Jon felt almost naked. He found himself glancing at every shadow with unease. Unbidden, he thought back on the tales that Old Nan used to tell them, when he was a boy at Winterfell. He could almost hear her voice again, and the click-click-click of her needles. In that darkness, the Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every living creature with hot blood in its veins. Holdfasts and cities and kingdoms of men all fell before them, as they moved south on pale dead horses, leading hosts of the slain. They fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children...
白灵跟着他们跑了一段,然后消失在树林。身边少了冰原狼,琼恩觉得自己赤裸裸的。他带着怀疑的目光,不安地瞄着每一处阴影。他不由得想起自己还是个小男孩时,临冬城的老奶妈给他们讲过的故事。她的嗓音和缝衣针的“嗟嗟”声犹在耳际。在一片黑暗之中,异鬼骑马到来,这是她最拿手的开头,之后她不断压低声音,他们浑身冰冷,散发着死亡的气息,痛恨钢铁、烈火和阳光,以及所有流淌着温热血液的生命。他们骑着惨白的死马,率领在战争中遇害的亡灵大军一路南下,横扫农村、城市和王国。他们还拿人类婴儿的肉来饲养手下的死灵仆役……
When he caught his first glimpse of the Wall looming above the tops of an ancient gnarled oak, Jon was vastly relieved. Mormont reined up suddenly and turned in his saddle. "Tarly," he barked, "come here."
当琼恩终于自一棵扭曲的老橡树枝间瞥见远方高耸的长城时,不禁感到如释重负。这时莫尔蒙突然勒住缰绳,在马鞍上转过头。“塔利,”他喊道,“你过来。”