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BRAN
布兰
The ridge slanted sharply from the earth, a long fold of stone and soil shaped like a claw.
山脊陡峭升起，岩石与土壤的长坡道形如利爪。
Trees clung to its lower slopes, pines and hawthorn and ash, but higher up the ground was bare, the ridgeline stark against the cloudy sky.
斜坡的低处有树，松木、山楂和岑树，但较高处无植被覆盖，顶端突兀地耸立在多云的天空下。
He could feel the high stone calling him.
山脊在呼唤他。
Up he went, loping easy at first, then faster and higher, his strong legs eating up the incline.
他向上跑去，一开始是轻松漫步，随后越来越快，越跑越高，斜坡在他强健的腿下向后退去，
Birds burst from the branches overhead as he raced by, clawing and flapping their way into the sky.
鸟儿在他经过时从头顶树枝间飞散开来，一边挥舞爪子，一边扇动翅膀，逃往空中。
He could hear the wind sighing up amongst the leaves, the squirrels chittering to one another,
他听见清风在树叶间叹息，听见松鼠唧唧喳喳地耳语，
even the sound a pinecone made as it tumbled to the forest floor.
甚至还听见松果翻滚落地的声响。
The smells were a song around him, a song that filled the good green world.
无数鲜活的气味则象一首歌谣，环绕着他，歌颂美好的绿色世界。
Gravel flew from beneath his paws as he gained the last few feet to stand upon the crest.
沙砾在爪下飞扬，他登上最后几尺，屹立于顶峰。
The sun hung above the tall pines huge and red, and below him the trees and hills went on and on as far as he could see or smell.
太阳高挂在松树之上，硕大而鲜艳，在他身下，树林与山丘连绵不断，向远方延伸，直到视线和嗅觉的尽头。
A kite was circling far above, dark against the pink sky.
一只鸢在天空中盘旋，犹如粉红底板上的一个黑影。
Prince.
我是王子。
The man-sound came into his head suddenly, yet he could feel the rightness of it.
一个声音在脑海中回响，他可以感觉到其中的亲切。
Prince of the green, prince of the wolfswood.
我是绿色世界的王子，狼林的王子。
He was strong and swift and fierce, and all that lived in the good green world went in fear of him.
他强壮、敏捷、凶猛，生活在美好的绿色世界中的生物都怕他。
Far below, at the base of the woods, something moved amongst the trees.
下方远处，林间有什么东西移动。
A flash of grey, quick-glimpsed and gone again, but it was enough to make his ears prick up.
只瞥见灰影一闪，然后又迅速消失，他不禁竖起耳朵。
Down there beside a swift green brook, another form slipped by, running.
水流湍急的绿溪边，又一条身影掠过。
Wolves, he knew.
是狼，他知道，
His little cousins, chasing down some prey.
是他的小个子远亲们，正在打猎。
Now the prince could see more of them, shadows on fleet grey paws.
王子看到更多形体，敏捷的灰爪子影影绰绰。
A pack.
他们是一个族群。
He had a pack as well, once.
他也有过一个族群，如今已找不到了。
Five they had been, and a sixth who stood aside.
六狼一体，五狼残存，分割天涯，互不联络。
Somewhere down inside him were the sounds the men had given them to tell one from the other, but it was not by their sounds he knew them.
在他内心残留着声音的印象，那是人类赋予他兄弟姐妹们的名字，但他不是通过声音来辨认他们的。
He remembered their scents, his brothers and his sisters.
他记得气味，他的兄弟姐妹。
They all had smelled alike, had smelled of pack, but each was different too.
他们有相似的气味，同一族群的气味，虽然每一个又各不相同。
His angry brother with the hot green eyes was near, the prince felt, though he had not seen him for many hunts.
王子身边只剩下暴躁的弟弟，那个眼里闪动绿火的弟弟，就连他也有许多次狩猎没见着了。
Yet with every sun that set he grew more distant, and he had been the last.
随着每一次日落，弟弟走得越来越远，王子终于成了孤身一人。
The others were far scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind.
其他的兄弟姐妹更是散落人间，好比狂风卷走的叶子。
Sometimes he could sense them, though, as if they were still with him, only hidden from his sight by a boulder or a stand of trees.
但他不时能感觉到他们，仿佛大家仍在一起，只不过被石头或树木阻挡了视线。
He could not smell them, nor hear their howls by night, yet he felt their presence at his back … all but the sister they had lost.
他嗅不到他们的气味，听不到他们的嗥叫，但能感觉到他们的支持……除了那个逝去的姐姐。
His tail drooped when he remembered her.
想起她来，他的尾巴默然低垂。
Four now, not five.
只有五个，没有六个了。
Four and one more, the white who has no voice.
四个外加白色而沉默的那个。
These woods belonged to them, the snowy slopes and stony hills, the great green pines and the golden leaf oaks,
他们属于森林，属于积雪的山坡和嶙峋的丘陵，属于巨大的绿松和金色叶子的橡树，
the rushing streams and blue lakes fringed with fingers of white frost.
属于湍急的溪流和镶着霜冻的湛蓝湖泊。
But his sister had left the wilds, to walk in the halls of man-rock where other hunters ruled,
可他的姐姐离开荒野，走进人类建造的石山孔洞中，
and once within those halls it was hard to find the path back out.
那里由另一类猎人统治，能进不能出。
The wolf prince remembered.
这些往事，狼王子统统都记得。
The wind shifted suddenly.
风向忽然转变。
Deer, and fear, and blood.
鹿，恐惧，血。
The scent of prey woke the hunger in him.
猎物的气味激起他内在的饥饿。
The prince sniffed the air again, turning, and then he was off, bounding along the ridgetop with jaws half-parted.
王子又嗅了嗅，便转过身，急速奔跑。他沿着山脊顶端跃驰，下颚半张。
The far side of the ridge was steeper than the one he’d come up,
山脊另一头比他上来的地方要险峻，
but he flew surefoot over stones and roots and rotting leaves, down the slope and through the trees, long strides eating up the ground.
但他稳健地踏过岩石、树根和腐叶，冲下山坡，穿过树林，大步前进，
The scent pulled him onward, ever faster.
被气息所牵引。愈行愈快。
The deer was down and dying when he reached her, ringed by eight of his small grey cousins.
鹿已倒下，濒临死亡，周围环绕着八个他的灰色小个子远亲。
The heads of the pack had begun to feed, the male first and then his female, taking turns tearing flesh from the red underbelly of their prey.
族群首领开始用餐，雄性先吃，接着是他的配偶，轮流从猎物鲜红的下腹部撕肉。
