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DAVOS
戴佛斯
He watched the sail grow for a long time, trying to decide whether he would sooner live or die.
他久久凝视着那张越变越大的帆，不知自己究竟想死还是想活。
Dying would be easier, he knew.
等死很容易。
All he had to do was crawl inside his cave and let the ship pass by, and death would find him.
只需爬回洞穴，任凭船只驶过，死亡很快就会来到。
For days now the fever had been burning through him, turning his bowels to brown water and making him shiver in his restless sleep.
高烧多日不退，几乎蒸发了他，浑黄的毒水在肚肠里翻滚，烦乱的睡眠中颤抖从未停止。
Each morning found him weaker.
每个清晨他都更加虚弱。
It will not be much longer, he had taken to telling himself.
很快我就不会再受折磨了，他告诉自己。
If the fever did not kill him, thirst surely would.
即便高烧不能夺走他的生命，他也会渴死。
He had no fresh water here, but for the occasional rainfall that pooled in hollows on the rock.
这里没有淡水，只有偶尔的降雨，积存在岩石缝隙中。
Only three days past (or had it been four?
三天以前（还是四天？
On his rock, it was hard to tell the days apart) his pools had been dry as old bone,
躺在这块石礁上，要分清天日是不可能的）他的小水池就干掉了，
and the sight of the bay rippling green and grey all around him had been almost more than he could bear.
干得象块老骨头，而四周却是无边无际、起着涟漪的灰绿汪洋，让他无法承受。
Once he began to drink seawater the end would come swiftly, he knew,
饮用海水就意味着末日的来临，他对此十分明白，
but all the same he had almost taken that first swallow, so parched was his throat.
可当时实在忍受不住，喉咙烧得像火。
A sudden squall had saved him.
是一阵突来的暴雨拯救了他，
He had grown so feeble by then that it was all he could do to lie in the rain with his eyes closed and his mouth open,
当时他好虚弱，以至于只能躺在雨中，闭上眼睛，张开嘴巴，
and let the water splash down on his cracked lips and swollen tongue.
一任雨点打在干裂的嘴唇和肿胀的舌头上。
But afterward he felt a little stronger, and the island’s pools and cracks and crevices once more had brimmed with life.
不管怎样，接下来总算有了点力气，而石礁上的水池、小沟和裂缝都暂时注满生气。
But that had been three days ago (or maybe four), and most of the water was gone now.
但这是三天（或四天？）前的事了，而今水已消失殆尽。
Some had evaporated, and he had sucked up the rest.
有些被蒸发，剩下的他吮了个干净，
By the morrow he would be tasting the mud again, and licking the damp cold stones at the bottom of the depressions.
等到明天，又得吮吸污泥，以及从洼穴底部挖到的潮湿冷硬的石头。
And if not thirst or fever, starvation would kill him.
退一万步讲，就算没有高烧和干渴，饥饿同样会要命。
His island was no more than a barren spire jutting up out of the immensity of Blackwater Bay.
他所在之地不过是辽阔的黑水湾中一块突出的荒石。
When the tide was low, he could sometimes find tiny crabs along the stony strand where he had washed ashore after the battle.
潮落之时，会有细小的螃蟹吸附在石滩上——他在战斗过后也是被冲刷到这里来的。
They nipped his fingers painfully before he smashed them apart on the rocks to suck the meat from their claws and the guts from their shells.
他在岩石上撞碎它们，吮吸爪子里的肉和壳里的内脏。螃蟹们总把他的手夹得生痛。
But the strand vanished whenever the tide came rushing in,
潮起之时，石滩会消失，
and Davos had to scramble up the rock to keep from being swept out into the bay once more.
戴佛斯不得不慌忙爬上岩石，以免再次被冲进海湾。
The point of the spire was fifteen feet above the water at high tide,
满潮时分，岩石顶端比海平面高出十五尺，
but when the bay grew rough the spray went even higher,
但海湾里的浪很高，
so there was no way to keep dry, even in his cave (which was really no more than a hollow in the rock beneath an overhang).
因而无法保持身上干燥，就算躲进洞里也没用（说真的，所谓的洞不过是岩石中的大窟窿）。
Nothing grew on the rock but lichen, and even the seabirds shunned the place.
石礁上除了青苔之外什么也不长，海鸥也不来这儿。
Now and again some gulls would land atop the spire and Davos would try to catch one, but they were too quick for him to get close.
时而有些幼鸟会停在尖顶上，戴佛斯不断尝试抓它们的方法，可每当他靠拢，它们便飞快地离开。
He took to flinging stones at them, but he was too weak to throw with much force,
他扔石子，却虚弱得发不上力，
so even when his stones hit, the gulls would only scream at him in annoyance and then take to the air.
即便击中目标，也只能惹得海鸟对他恼怒尖叫，接着拍拍翅膀远走高飞。
There were other rocks visible from his refuge, distant stony spires taller than his own.
从他的避难所，可以望见其他石礁，有的似乎比他这块要高。
The nearest stood a good forty feet above the water, he guessed, though it was hard to be sure at this distance.
别的不说，虽然目测可能出现误差，但他认为最近那块至少比海平面高出四十尺。
A cloud of gulls swirled about it constantly, and often Davos thought of crossing over to raid their nests.
更诱人的是，那儿常盘旋着一大群海鸥，戴佛斯幻想游过去侵夺它们的巢穴。
But the water was cold here, the currents strong and treacherous, and he knew he did not have the strength for such a swim.
可海水冰凉，潮流多变而剧烈，自己又没力气。
That would kill him as sure as drinking seawater.
如此的举动和喝海水无异，同样会要命。
Autumn in the narrow sea could often be wet and rainy, he remembered from years past.
多年的海上生涯使他明白狭海的秋季总是潮湿而多雨。
The days were not bad so long as the sun was shining,
因为日照转弱，白天倒不太难过，可夜里却越来越冷。
but the nights were growing colder and sometimes the wind would come gusting across the bay,
海风不时刮过海湾，卷起道道白色的浪涛，
driving a line of whitecaps before it,and before long Davos would be soaked and shivering.
湿透了戴佛斯，让他浑身颤抖。
Fever and chills assaulted him in turn, and of late he had developed a persistent racking cough.
在高烧和寒冷的轮番攻击下，很快他便开始持续而痛苦的咳嗽。
His cave was all the shelter he had, and that was little enough.
洞穴是他唯一的遮蔽所，却远远不够。
Driftwood and bits of charred debris would wash up on the strand during low tide, but he had no way to strike a spark or start a fire.
退潮之际，漂流的木头和烧焦的残骸不时被冲刷到石滩上来，可它们无法打出火花。
Once, in desperation, he had tried rubbing two pieces of driftwood against each other,
曾有一次，在绝望中，他试着摩擦两片浮木，
but the wood was rotted, and his efforts earned him only blisters.
但木头业已彻底腐朽，他的努力只换回几大块水疱。
His clothes were sodden as well, and he had lost one of his boots somewhere in the bay before he washed up here.
衣服没有干过，而来此之前一只鞋就已在海湾中遗失。
