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[CaptainSnafu]

作者：Clark Ashton Smith [on April 1957]

译者：CaptainSnafu

注：此文类似于克苏鲁神话体系《终北之地》系列的番外篇，主要是对系列中的重要角色和地点的一些背景补充，故而没什么克苏鲁元素。由于此文遣词构句以及叙述风格都十分直白简朴，没有太多文学上的讲究，故而有部分内容使用了机翻后修饰、校正的方式。


Let it be said as a foreword to this tale that I have robbed no man who was not in some way a robber of others. In all my long and arduous career, I, Satampra Zeiros of Uzuldaroum, sometimes known as the master-thief, have endeavored to serve merely as an agent in the rightful redistribution of wealth. The adventure I have now to relate was no exception: though, as it happened in the outcome, my own pecuniary profits were indeed meager, not to say trifling.

作为这个故事的前言，我得先说明我所抢劫过的人都曾以某种形式抢劫过他人。在我那漫长而艰辛的职业生涯里，我，乌祖尔达罗姆的萨坦普拉·泽洛斯，有时以盗贼大师著称，仅仅只是在尽力地充当一名服务于财富再分配的公正代理人。我现在正要讲述的这次冒险也不例外，不过，正如其结果那般，我的金钱收益实在贫乏，甚至可谓微不足道。

Age is upon me now. And sitting at that leisure which I have earned through many hazards, I drink the wines that are heartening to age. To me, as I sip, return memories of splendid loot and brave nefarious enterprise. Before me shine the outpoured sackfuls of djals or pazoors, removed so dexterously from the coffers of iniquitous merchants and money-lenders. I dream of rubies redder than the blood that was shed for them; of sapphires bluer than depths of glacial ice; of emeralds greener than the jungle in spring. I recall the escalade of pronged balconies; the climbing of terraces and towers guarded by monsters; the sacking of altars beneath the eyes of malign idols or sentinel serpents.

岁月催人老。我在经历许多次危机才赚来的闲暇中静坐，尝饮着陈年佳酿。我一边品啜，一边回顾着那些辉煌的战利品以及无畏的不法事业。在我的面前，堆满了我巧妙地从奸商和放贷人的金库中挪移过来的钱袋，满溢而出的德加尔（djals）和帕祖尔（pazoors）币熠熠生辉。我梦见那些比我为其而流的血还要鲜红的红宝石、比冰川的深渊还要湛蓝的蓝宝石以及比春天的丛林还要幽绿的绿宝石。我忆起自己攀上那些插满尖刺的露台，登上由怪物看守的阶地和高塔，在邪恶雕像和蛇人哨兵的眼皮底下洗劫祭坛。

Often I think of Vixeela, my one true love and the most adroit and courageous of my companions in burglary. She has long since gone to the bourn of all good thieves and comrades; and I have mourned her sincerely these many years. But still dear is the memory of our amorous or adventurous nights and the feats we performed together. Of such feats, perhaps the most signal and audacious was the theft of the thirty-nine girdles.

我时常怀念起维希拉（Vixeela）——我的真爱以及最机巧和勇敢的盗窃同伙。她早已远去，到达了所有出色的盗贼和好同志们的最终归宿。这些年来，我一直都在诚挚地为她哀悼。我依然珍视着我们之间的记忆，关于那些充满爱恋和惊险的夜晚，以及我们一起实现的壮举。在这些功绩之中，或许最为显赫和大胆的便要数对那三十九条兜带的偷盗。

These were the golden and jeweled chastity girdles, worn by the virgins vowed to the moon god Leniqua, whose temple had stood from immemorial time in the suburbs of Uzuldaroum, capital of Hyperborea. The virgins were always thirty-nine in number. They were chosen for their youth and beauty, and retired from service to the god at the age of thirty-one.

这是一些镶嵌着黄金和珠宝的贞操带，由向月亮之神兰尼夸（Leniqua）宣誓的处女佩戴。兰尼夸的神殿自古以来就矗立在希帕波利亚（Hyperborea）首府乌祖尔达罗姆的城郊。这些处女的数目总是三十九，她们因年轻和美丽而被选中，到三十一岁时便退任于对月神的侍奉。

The girdles were padlocked with the toughest bronze and their keys retained by the high-priest who, on certain nights, rented them at a high price to the richer gallants of the city. It will thus be seen that the virginity of the priestesses was nominal; but its frequent and repeated sale was regarded as a meritorious act of sacrifice to the god.

这些贞洁兜带由用最坚硬的青铜挂锁封闭着，钥匙则由大祭司保管。在某些晚上，大祭司会以高价将钥匙出租给城中更富有的殷勤者。由此可见，女祭司的贞操只是有名无实，但这些频繁、反复的贞操出售却被认为是对神的一种值得赞扬的献祭行为。

Vixeela herself had at one time been numbered among the virgins but had fled from the temple and from Uzuldaroum several years before the sacerdotal age of release from her bondage. She would tell me little of her life in the temple; and I surmised that she had found small pleasure in the religious prostitution and had chafed at the confinement entailed by it. After her flight she had suffered many hardships in the cities of the south. Of these too, she spoke but sparingly, as one who dreads the reviving of painful recollections.

维希拉也曾是这些圣女中的一员，但她在达到解脱束缚的圣龄还有几年时，就已逃离了乌祖尔达罗姆的庙宇。她不愿告知我太多在神殿里的生活。我猜测她并不享受于那段神妓时光，并对它所带来的禁锢深感不满。在逃亡中，她在南方的城市遭受了诸多苦难。当然，她对此也吐露甚少，生怕会唤醒那些痛苦的记忆。

She had returned to Uzuldaroum a few months prior to our first meeting. Being now a little over age, and having dyed her russet-blonde hair to a raven black, she had no great fear of recognition by Leniqua's priests. As was their custom, they had promptly replaced her loss with another and younger virgin; and would have small interest now in one so long delinquent.

在我们初次见面的几个月前，她回到了乌祖尔达罗姆。她现在已经有点超龄，而且把她那金褐的头发染成了乌黑，所以她也不太害怕被兰尼夸的祭司辨认出来。按照他们的习惯，他们会立刻用另一名更年轻的处女顶替掉她的缺席，而如今，他们也不会对一个累犯过失之人再有太大兴趣。

At the time of our foregathering, Vixeela had already committed various petty larcenies. But, being unskilled, she had failed to finish any but the easier and simpler ones, and had grown quite thin from starvation. She was still attractive and her keenness of wit and quickness in learning soon endeared her to me. She was small and agile and could climb like a lemur. I soon found her help invaluable, since she could climb through windows and other apertures impassable to my greater bulk.

在我们偶遇时，维希拉已经犯下过各种琐碎的盗窃之罪。不过，由于技艺拙劣，她除了能完成一些简单容易的小偷小摸外，其它都以失败告终。因为饥饿，她变得十分消瘦。但她魅力依旧，而且她的机智敏锐和快速的学习能力使我很快便喜欢上了她。她娇小灵敏，能像狐猴一样攀爬。用不多久我就意识到她的帮助极为宝贵，因为她可以爬进我那壮硕的身躯所无法通过的窗户和其它孔洞。

We had consummated several lucrative burglaries, when the idea of entering Leniqua's temple and making away with the costly girdles occurred to me. The problems offered, and the difficulties to be overcome, appeared at first sight little less than fantastic. But such obstacles have always challenged my acumen and have never daunted me.

当我突发奇想地要进入兰尼夸神殿偷走那些贵重的贞操带时，我们已经完满地完成过好几次获利丰厚的行窃。我们对此计划所提出的难题和需要克服的困难，乍一看来都几乎是异想天开。但一直以来都有这样的障碍在挑战着我的聪明才智，而我也从未气馁。

Firstly, there was the problem of entrance without detection and serious mayhem at the hands of the sickle-armed priests who guarded Leniqua's fane with baleful and incorruptible vigilance. Luckily, during her term of temple service, Vixeela had learned of a subterranean adit, long disused but, she believed, still passable. This entrance was through a tunnel, the continuation of a natural cavern located somewhere in the woods behind Uzuldaroum. It had been used almost universally by the virgin's visitors in former ages. But the visitors now entered openly by the temple's main doors or by posterns little less public: a sign, perhaps, that religious sentiment had deepened or that modesty had declined. Vixeela had never seen the cavern herself but she knew its approximate location. The temple's inner adit was closed only by a flagstone, easily levitated from below or above, behind the image of Leniqua in the great nave.

第一个问题，就是如何不被祭司察觉和残害地进入殿堂。这些手执镰刀的祭司凶狠而不可动摇，时刻警惕地守护着兰尼夸神殿。幸运的是，在维希拉于神庙侍奉的期间，她知晓了一条早已废弃的地下密道，但她相信它尚可通行。入口通向一条隧道，而这条隧道是位于乌祖尔达罗姆后方森林某处一个天然洞穴的延续。在过去的时代，它被圣女们的拜访者所普遍使用。但现在，拜访者们可以从神殿的正门或稍微不那么公开的边门堂而皇之地进去：这也许是宗教观念加深或保守程度下降的迹象。维希拉未曾亲眼见过这个洞穴，但她知道它的大致位置。在神殿内部的出口就在大中殿的兰尼夸神像后面，它只被一块石板所封闭，而这石板很容易就能被抬升起来。

Secondly, there was the selection of a proper time, when the women's girdles had been unlocked and laid aside. Here again Vixeela was invaluable, since she knew the nights on which the rented keys were most in demand. These were known as nights of sacrifice, greater or lesser, the chief one being at the moon's full. All the women were then in repeated request.

其次是合适时机的选择，那便是圣女们的兜带被解开并放在一边时。维希拉不可估量的价值又体现在此了，因为她知道在哪些晚上富人们对租用钥匙的需求最大。这些夜晚被称为献祭之夜，有盛大的也有简小的，其中最首要的一夜是在月圆之际。所有的圣女都会在此夜被反复征求。

Since, however, the fane on such occasions would be crowded with people, the priests, the virgins and their clients, a seemingly insurmountable difficulty remained. How were we to collect and make away with the girdles in the presence of so many persons? This, I must admit, baffled me.

再者，在这种场合下，神庙会挤满各种人群，祭师、圣女和她们的客户。一个看似无法克服的困难仍然存在：我们要如何当着这么多人的面把兜带收集起来并带走？我必须承认，这把我难住了。

Plainly, we must find some way in which the temple could be evacuated, or its occupants rendered unconscious or otherwise incapable during the period needed for our operations.

很显然，我们必须找到疏空神殿的方法，又或者，得让里面的人群在我们行动期间里昏迷或失能。

I thought of a certain soporific drug, easily and quickly vaporized, which I had used on more than one occasion to put the inmates of a house asleep. Unfortunately the drug was limited in its range and would not penetrate to all the chambers and alcoves of a large edifice like the temple. Moreover it was necessary to wait for a full half hour, with doors or windows opened, till the fumes were dissipated: otherwise the robbers would be overcome together with their victims.


我想到了一种轻易就可迅速蒸发的催眠药剂，我曾不止一次地使用它来让屋里的人困睡。不幸的是，这种药物的作用范围有限，不能渗透遍像神殿这样的大型建筑的所有房间和壁龛里。此外，还必须打开门窗等上整整半小时，直到烟雾散去，否则入内抢劫者就会和他们的受害者一同动弹不得。

There was also the pollen of a rare jungle lily, which, if cast in a man's face, would induce a temporary paralysis. This too I rejected: there were too many persons to be dealt with, and the pollen could hardly be obtained in sufficient quantities.

还有一种稀有的丛林百合的花粉，如果将其撒在一个人的脸上，就会引起短暂的瘫痪。这个主意也被我否决了，因为要对付的人太多，几乎没法获得足够数量的花粉。

At last I decided to consult the magician and alchemist, Veezi Phenquor, who, possessing furnaces and melting-pots, had often served me by converting stolen gold and silver into ingots or other safely unrecognizable forms. Though skeptical of his powers as a magician, I regarded Veezi Phenquor as a skilled pharmacist and toxicologist. Having always on hand a supply of strange and deadly medicaments, he might well be able to provide something that would facilitate our project.

最后，我决定去咨询魔术师兼炼金术士维兹·芬库尔。他拥有一些熔炉和坩埚，经常帮我把金银赃物转化成锭块或其它无法辨识来源的安全财宝。虽然我对他作为魔术师的能力不敢恭维，但我承认维兹·芬库尔是一位娴熟的药剂师和毒理学家。他手边总有一些奇怪而致命的药剂，也许能提供一些能推动我们计划的东西。

We found Veezi Phenquor decanting one of his more noisome concoctions from a still bubbling and steaming kettle into vials of stout stoneware. By the smell I judged that it must be something of special potency: the exudations of a pole-cat would have been innocuous in comparison. In his absorption he did not notice our presence until the entire contents of the kettle had been decanted and the vials tightly stoppered and sealed with a blackish gum.

我们找到维兹·芬库尔时，他正在从一个仍在冒泡、蒸腾着的釜锅中将一种恶臭的调合物倒入一些厚实的小瓶里。根据气味，我判断这一定是某种强力的特效剂，相比之下，就连臭鼬的分泌物都无伤大雅。他聚精会神，没有注意到我们的存在，直到把釜里的液体全部倒空，并用黑色黏胶把小瓶的瓶口紧紧塞住、封好。

"That," he observed with unctuous complacency, "is a love-philter that would inflame a nursing infant or resurrect the powers of a dying nonagenarian. Do you—?"

“那个，”他洋洋自得地说，“是一种催情剂，能让一个正在哺乳的婴儿欲火中烧，也能让一个九十岁的垂死老人重振春风。而你....？”

"No," I said emphatically. "We require nothing of the sort. What we need at the moment is something quite different." In a few terse words I went on to outline the problem, adding: "If you can help us, I am sure you will find the melting-down of the golden girdles a congenial task. As usual, you will receive a third of the profits."

“不，”我断然道。“我们不需要这类玩意。我们现在要的是截然不同的东西。”我用几句简短的话概述了我们的问题，并补充道：“如果你能帮助我们，我相信你会发现熔化金制兜带是一件多么惬意的工作。像往常一样，你将得到三分之一的利润。”

Veezi Phenquor creased his bearded face into a half-lubricious, half-sardonic smile.

维兹·芬库尔皱起他那张髯须满面的脸，摆出一道半露淫意和讥讽的贱笑。

"The proposition is a pleasant one from all angles. We will free the temple-girls from incumbrances which they must find uncomfortable, not to say burdensome; and will turn the irksome gems and metal to a worthier purpose—notably, our own enrichment." As if by way of afterthought, he added: "It happens that I can supply you with a most unusual preparation, warranted to empty the temple of all its occupants in a very short time."

“从任何角度来看，这个提议都令人欣喜。我们不但能将神殿里的姑娘们从她们必然为之深感不适和沉重的累赘中解放出来，也能赋予这些令人生厌的宝石和金属更有价值的意义——尤其是让我们自己富裕起来。”仿佛是事后想起了什么，他又补充道：“碰巧我可以给你提供一种最非同寻常的配制品，保证能在很短的时间内把神殿里的所有人处理干净。”

Going to a cobwebbed corner, he took down from a high shelf an abdominous jar of uncolored glass filled with a fine grey powder and brought it to the light.

他走到一个布满蜘蛛网的角落，从一个高高的架子上取下一个无色的圆肚玻璃瓶，里面装满灰色的细粉末。他把它拿到了光亮底下。

"I will now," he said, "explain to you the singular properties of this powder and the way in which it must be used. It is truly a triumph of chemistry; and more devastating than a plague."

“现在，”他说，“我得向你解释一下这种粉末的特性和你必须遵循的使用方法。这简直是化学的一次伟大胜利，它比瘟疫更具破坏性。”

We were astounded by what he told us. Then we began to laugh. "It is to be hoped," I said, "that none of your spells and cantrips are involved."

我们为他的话语所震惊。随即笑了起来。“那我希望它最好不要跟你的那些法术和咒语扯上关系。”我笑道。

Veezi Phenquor assumed the expression of one whose feelings have been deeply injured. "I assure you," he protested, "that the effects of the powder, though extraordinary, are not beyond nature."

维兹·芬库尔装出一副像是感情受到深重伤害的神态。“我向你保证，”他抗议道，“这种药粉的效果尽管卓越非凡，但并不是什么超自然的玩意。”

After a moment's meditation he continued: "I believe that I can further your plan in other ways. After the abstraction of the girdles, there will be the problem of transporting undetected such heavy merchandise across a city which, by that time, may well have been aroused by the horrendous crime and busily patrolled by constabulary. I have a plan. . . ."

在沉思一阵后，他接着说:“我相信我还能在其它方面推进你的计划。在取走兜带之后，会出现一个问题，就是如何不被发现地将如此沉重的货物从城市的一边运输到另一边。到那时，这座城市很可能已经被可怕的犯罪事件所唤醒，巡捕们也已在忙碌地四处巡逻。我有一个计划. . . .”

We hailed with approval the ingenious scheme outlined by Veezi Phenquor. After we had discussed and settled to our satisfaction the various details, the alchemist brought out certain liquors that proved more palatable than anything of his we had yet sampled. We then returned to our lodgings, I carrying in my cloak the jar of powder, for which Veezi Phenquor generously refused to accept payment. We were filled with the rosiest anticipations of success, together with a modicum of distilled palm-wine.

我们对维兹·芬库尔概述的巧妙方案欢呼赞同。在我们讨论并满意地解决了各种细节之后，炼金术士拿出了一些烈酒，那比他给我们品尝过的任何酒品都更为可口。然后我把那罐维兹·芬库尔慷慨地拒绝收款的粉末藏在斗篷里，并回到了屋舍。我们满怀对成功最乐观的期望，一起喝了一点蒸馏棕榈酒。

Discreetly, we refrained from our usual activities during the nights that intervened before the next full moon. And we kept closely to our lodgings, hoping that the police, who had long suspected us of numerous peccadilloes, would believe that we had either quitted the city or retired from burglary.


在下一次满月之前的那些夜晚里，我们都小心谨慎地克制住了平时的活动。我们秘密地藏在住所，希望那些长期以来都在怀疑我们已屡犯轻罪的巡捕们，会相信我们已离开这个城市或从盗窃生涯中退休。

A little before midnight, on the evening of the full moon, Veezi Phenquor knocked discreetly at our door—a triple knock as had been agreed. Like ourselves, he was heavily cloaked in peasant's homespun.

在快到月圆之午夜的时候，维兹·芬库尔小心翼翼地敲了我们的门——按约定敲了三下。和我们一样，他也厚厚地裹着农民的朴素衣装。

"I have procured the cart of a vegetable seller from the country," he said. "It is loaded with seasonable produce and drawn by two small asses. I have concealed it in the woods, as near to the cave-adit of Leniqua's temple as the overgrown road will permit. Also, I have reconnoitered the cave itself.

“我从乡下一个菜贩子处买了辆车”他说道。“它满载时令农产品，由两头小驴拉着。通向兰尼夸神殿的山洞入口的路上植被丛生，我把它藏在附近树林里尽可能更近的地方了。还有，我已经侦察过了那个洞穴。

"Our success will depend on the utter confusion created. If we are not seen to enter or depart by the rear adit, in all likelihood no one will remember its existence. The priests will be searching elsewhere.

“我们的成功将依赖于我们制造的彻底混乱。如果没有人看见我们进出于后方的洞口——很可能没有人会记得它的存在，祭司们将会到别处寻找。”

"Having removed the girdles and concealed them under our load of farm produce, we will then wait till the hour before dawn when, with other vegetable and fruit dealers, we will enter the city."

“我们把兜带顺走，藏在车载的农产品下面，然后等到黎明前的时分，和其他蔬菜贩子、水果商人一起进城。”

Keeping as far as we could from the public places, where most of the police were gathered around taverns and the cheaper lupanars, we circled across Uzuldaroum and found, at some distance from Leniqua's fane, a road that ran countryward. The jungle soon grew denser and the houses fewer. No one saw us when we turned into a side-road overhung with leaning palms and closed in by thickening brush. After many devious turnings, we came to the ass-drawn cart, so cleverly screened from view that even I could detect its presence only by the pungent aroma of certain root-vegetables and the smell of fresh-fallen dung. Those asses were well-trained for the use of thieves: there was no braying to betray their presence.

大多数的巡捕都聚集在酒馆和廉价妓院周围，我们尽可能地远离公众场所，一路绕行，穿过了乌祖尔达罗姆。我们在离兰尼夸神殿还有一段距离之处，找到了一条通往乡间的道路。丛林越发茂密，而屋舍愈发稀少。没有人看见我们转进了一条支路。旁边倾斜的棕榈树枝叶悬吊在路间，而小路最终也被敦厚的灌木丛所堵塞。在众多次迂回曲折的转向后，我们来到了驴车面前。它被高明地隐藏了起来，即使是我也只能从某些特定根菜和新鲜排泄物的刺鼻气味察觉到它的存在。这两头驴在盗窃的用途上受到过良好的训练：它们不会乱叫导致自身暴露。

We groped on, over hunching roots and between clustered boles that made the rest of the way impassable for a cart. I should have missed the cave; but Veezi Phenquor, pausing, stooped before a low hillock to part the matted creepers, showing a black and bouldered aperture large enough to admit a man on hands and knees.

我们在马车无法通过的树林中摸索着前进，越过驼曲盘生的树根，在密集成群的树干之间穿行。我本会错过那个山洞，但是维兹·芬库尔停了下来，在一个低矮的山丘前俯身，把蔓生的匍匐植物分开，露出一个黑漆漆的洞穴，里面铺满碎石，大到足以容下一个四肢着地的人。

Lighting the torches we had brought along, we crawled into the cave, Veezi going first. Luckily, due to the rainless season, the cave was dry and our clothing suffered only earth-stains such as would be proper to agricultural workers.

我们点燃了随身带来的火把，爬进了山洞，维兹领路在前。幸运的是，由于正处枯水季，山洞里很干燥，我们的衣服上只沾染上一些适合于农夫形象的泥土污渍。

The cave narrowed where piles of debris had fallen from the roof. I, with my width and girth, was hard put to squeeze through in places. We had gone an undetermined distance when Veezi stopped and stood erect before a wall of smooth masonry in which shadowy steps mounted.

在一个从穴顶落下的碎片成堆之处，洞穴变窄了。以我的宽度和腰围，有些地方很难挤过去。在我们走一段不确定的距离后，维兹停了下来，笔直地站在一堵光滑的石砖墙前，墙边有几道幽暗的台阶。

Vixeela slipped past him and went up the steps. I followed. The fingers of her free hand were gliding over a large flat flagstone that filled the stair-head. The stone began to tilt noiselessly upward. Vixeela blew out her torch and laid it on the top step while the gap widened, permitting a dim, flickering light to pour down from beyond. She peered cautiously over the top of the flag, which became fully uptilted by its hidden mechanism, and then climbed through motioning us to follow.

维希拉从他身边溜过去，踏上台阶。我跟在其后。她空着的那只手的手指在阶梯顶口的一块大而平整的石板上划动。石板开始轻声地向上倾斜。维希拉吹灭了她的火把，把它放在最上面的台阶上。与此同时，砖石间的缝隙变大，让一束微弱但闪烁的光芒从上方倾泻下来。她小心翼翼地观察着厚石板的顶部，厚石板已被隐藏的机械装置完全向上地翘了起来。然后她爬了上去，示意我们跟着。

We stood in the shadow of a broad pillar at one side of the back part of Leniqua's temple. No priest, woman or visitor was in sight but we heard a confused humming of voices at some vague remove. Leniqua's image, presenting its reverend rear, sat on a high dais in the center of the nave. Altar-fires, golden, blue and green, flamed spasmodically before the god, making his shadow writhe on the floor and against the rear wall like a delirious giant in a dance of copulation with an unseen partner.

我们站在了兰尼夸神庙后半部内一侧的一根大柱子的阴影里。视野中没有祭司和圣女，也没有访客，但我们听到在某个不明确的地方传来一阵混乱的嗡嗡声。兰尼夸的雕像立于圣堂中殿中央的一个高台上，展现着他那尊贵可敬的背影。祭坛上的焰火金黄、幽蓝而又碧绿，在神像面前断断续续地燃烧着，使祂的影子在地板和后墙上翻腾搐动，就像一个精神错乱的巨人在与一位看不见的伴侣跳着交合之舞。

Vixeela found and manipulated the spring that caused the flagstone to sink back as part of a level floor. Then the three of us stole forward, keeping in the god's wavering shadow. The nave was still vacant but noise came more audibly from open doorways at one side, resolving itself into gay cries and hysterical laughters.

维希拉找到并操作了一个弹簧装置，使得石板下沉，变回平整地板的一部分。随后我们三人继续潜行，始终保持在神像摇曳的阴影中。中殿依然空无一人，但从一侧敞开的门内传出的噪音也愈发清晰可闻，最终变为愉悦的呼喊和歇斯底里的笑声。

"Now," whispered Veezi Phenquor.

“就是现在”，维兹·芬库尔低声说道。

I drew from a side-pocket the vial he had given us and pried away the wax with a sharp knife. The cork, half-rotten with age, was easily removed. I poured the vial's contents on the back bottom step of Leniqua's dais—a pale stream that quivered and undulated with uncanny life and luster as it fell in the god's shadow. When the vial was empty I ignited the heap of powder.

我从侧口袋中掏出他给我们的那个小瓶，用锋利的小刀撬开蜡封。因老旧而半腐坏的软木塞很轻易地便被移除。我将瓶内之物倾倒在兰尼夸布道台后方的踏板上，一股苍白的粉末细流落入神像的阴影之中，带着不可思议的生命力和光泽震颤、波伏着。在瓶子被倒空后，我点燃了那堆粉末。

It burned instantly with a clear, high-leaping flame. Immediately, it seemed, the air was full of surging phantoms—a soundless, multitudinous explosion, beating upon us, blasting our nostrils with charnel fetors till we reeled before it, choking and strangling. There was, however, no sense of material impact from the hideous forms that seemed to melt over and through us, rushing in all directions, as if every atom of the burning powder had released a separate ghost.

它立刻就燃烧了起来，发出一簇明亮高腾的火焰。一瞬间，空气中似乎充盈了涌动着的幻影——一阵无声、巨大的爆炸向我们滚滚袭来，死亡的恶臭气息迸入我们的鼻孔，使我们顿感晕眩和窒息。然而我们并没有从那些可怕的形体中感受到任何实质性的冲击，它们似乎在我们身上融化并穿过了我们，向着四面八方冲去，仿佛燃烧中的粉末的每一个原子都释放出了一个单独的幽灵。

Hastily we covered our noses with squares of thick cloth that Veezi had warned us to bring for this purpose. Something of our usual aplomb returned and we moved forward through the seething rout. Lascivious blue cadavers intertwined around us. Miscegenations of women and tigers arched over us. Monsters double-headed and triple-tailed, goblins and ghouls rose obliquely to the far ceiling or rolled and melted to other and more nameless apparitions in lower air. Green sea-things, like unions of drowned men and octopi, coiled and dribbled with dank slime along the floor.

我们匆忙地用一块块厚布遮盖鼻子，这是在维兹的警告下专门为此带来的。我们又恢复了平时的冷静沉着，在拥挤的幻影中向前穿行。一具具充满淫欲的发青尸体在我们周围交缠。女人和老虎通婚诞下的混血儿盘踞在我们头上。双头三尾的怪物、地精和食尸鬼歪歪斜斜地浮升到远处的天花板上，或者翻滚着在低空中融化成其它更为不可名状的幽灵。还有通体透绿的海洋生物，像溺死者和章鱼的结合体，在地板上盘绕、滑行，留下一道道潮湿的黏液。

Then we heard the cries of fright from the temple's inmates and visitors and began to meet naked men and women who rushed frantically through that army of beleaguering phantoms toward the exits. Those who encountered us face to face recoiled as if we too were shapes of intolerable horror.

接着，我们听见了神庙里的内部人员和来访者们惊恐的叫声，并开始遇见赤身裸体的男女——他们正疯狂地穿越着那群围攻他们的幽灵大军，朝出口冲去。那些与我们迎面碰上的人们也都畏缩着后退着，仿佛我们也是那些恐怖得难以忍受的可怕形体。

The naked men were mostly young. After them came middle-aged merchants and aldermen, bald and pot-bellied, some clad in under-garments, some in snatched-up cloaks too short to cover them below the hips. Women, lean, fat or buxom, tumbled screaming for the outer doors. None of them, we saw with approbation, had retained her chastity girdle.

那些裸体的男子大多是年轻人。除他们之外的便是些中年富商和参议员，秃顶且大腹便便，有的穿着内衣，有的则随手披挂着遮不到臀部以下的短小斗篷。至于女人们，无论苗条或丰腴，都跌跌撞撞地尖叫着冲向通往外部的门。我们赞许地看见，没有任何一位圣女还留有她的贞洁兜带。

Lastly came the temple-guards and priests, with mouths like gaping squares of terror, emitting shrill cries. All of the guards had dropped their sickles. They passed us, blindly disregarding our presence, and ran after the rest. The host of powder-born specters soon shrouded them from view.

最后是神殿守卫和祭司们，他们惊恐得嘴巴大张，发出刺耳的叫喊。所有卫兵都丢下了他们镰刀，从我们身边越过去追随其余的人，盲然不顾我们的存在。一群诞生自炼金粉末的幽灵很快就包裹住了他们，使其在我们的视线中隐去。

Satisfied that the temple was now empty of its inmates and clients, we turned our attention to the first corridor. The doors of the separate rooms were all open. We divided our labors, taking each a room, and removing from disordered beds and garment-littered floors the cast-off girdles of gold and gems. We met at the corridor's end, where our collected loot was thrust into the strong thin sack I had carried under my cloak. Many of the phantoms still lingered, achieving new and ghastlier fusions, dropping their members upon us as they began to diswreathe.

如今神庙内的住民和访客都已被清空，我们甚是满意，然后将注意力转向第一条走廊。所有独立房间的都已门户大开。我们分工合作，每人负责洗劫一个房间，从纷乱的床和衣裙满覆的地板上掠走那些被落下的金石宝环。我们在走廊的尽头会合，将收集到的战利品都塞进我藏在斗篷下那结实却细薄的布袋里。许多鬼影仍在徘徊，融合成更为恐怖的新幻象，并在开始消散时不断地往我们头上抛下它们的幽灵成员。

Soon we had searched all the rooms apportioned to the women. My sack was full, and I had counted thirty-eight girdles at the end of the third corridor. One girdle was still missing; but Vixeela's sharp eyes caught the gleam of an emerald-studded buckle protruding from under the dissolving legs of a hairy satyr-like ghost on a pile of male garments in the corner. She snatched up the girdle and carried it in her hand hence-forward.

我们很快就把所有配予圣女使用的房间都找遍了。袋子已被填满，我在第三条走廊的尽头清点了下兜带的数量，三十八条。还有一条贞操带仍未被寻得。不过，维希拉敏锐的眼睛瞥见了角落里有一只毛茸茸、形似萨梯【注1】的幽灵，它那正溶解的腿下有一堆男式衣装，其中伸出着一个镶着绿宝石的搭扣。她抓起那条兜带便继续行动，此后也一直拿在了手上。

注1：Satyr，希腊神话中森林之神，半人半兽，耽于淫欲。

We hurried back to Leniqua's nave, believing it to be vacant of all human occupants by now. To our disconcertion the High-Priest, whose name Vixeela knew as Marquanos, was standing before the altar, striking blows with a long phallic rod of bronze, his insignia of office, at certain apparitions that remained floating in the air.

我们匆忙地返回兰尼夸的中殿，以为里面已经空无一人。使我们惊慌失措的是，那位维希拉知其名为马奎诺斯（Marquanos）的大祭司，正站在祭坛前挥舞一杆粗长的青铜阳具——他圣职的权力标志，击打着仍漂浮在空中的一些幽灵。

Marquanos rushed toward us with a harsh cry as we neared him, dealing a blow at Vixeela that would have brained her if she had not slipped agilely to one side. The High-Priest staggered, nearly losing his balance. Before he could turn upon her again, Vixeela brought down on his tonsured head the heavy chastity girdle she bore in her right hand. Marquanos toppled like a slaughtered ox beneath the pole-ax of the butcher, and lay prostrate, writhing a little. Blood ran in rills from the serrated imprint of the great jewels on his scalp. Whether he was dead or still living, we did not pause to ascertain.

当我们接近他时，马奎诺斯发出一声刺耳的战号并向我们冲锋，要不是维希拉敏捷地闪到一侧，她的脑袋便已遭重击。大祭司脚步踉跄，几乎要失去平衡。在他能转过身来再次对付她之前，维希拉就已把抓在右手那沉重的贞操兜带砸在了他剃光的头上。此时马奎诺斯就像一头在屠夫的长柄斧下被宰杀的牛畜，他俯倒在地，微弱地抽搐着。鲜血从他头皮上那硕大珠宝的锯齿刻痕中流淌出来。我们并没有停下来去查明他是死是活。

We made our exit without delay. After the fright they had received, there was small likelihood that any of the temple's denizens would venture to return for some hours. The movable slab fell smoothly back into place behind us. We hurried along the underground passage, I carrying the sack and the others preceding me in order to drag it through straitened places and over piles of rubble when I was forced to set it down. We reached the creeper-hung entrance without incident. There we paused awhile before emerging into the moon-streaked woods, and listened cautiously to cries that diminished with distance. Apparently no one had thought of the rear adit or had even realized that there was any such human motive as robbery behind the invasion of terrifying specters.

我们不受耽搁地实行撤离。在受到那般惊骇后，在几个小时内，任何一名神殿成员都不可能会冒险返回庙中。那块厚石板十分顺利地便在我们身后归位。我们在地下通道里一路急行。我载运着那一大袋兜带，其他人则走在我前面，在我被迫将它放下来时帮忙拽着它以通过那些窄小或满是石堆的地方。无惊无险地，我们到达了那个需匍匐通行的入口。在进入月光洒照的树林之前，我们在此停留了一阵子，仔细地监听着远处那些衰减过的呼号。显然没有人想到那条后方的坑道，甚至没有人意识到这场可怕的幽灵入侵背后竟是抢劫这种人类的动机。

Reassured, we came forth from the cavern and found our way back to the hidden cart and its drowsing asses. We threw enough of the fruits and vegetables into the brush to make a deep cavity in the cart's center, in which our sackful of loot was then deposited and covered over from sight. Then, settling ourselves on the grassy ground, we waited for the hour before dawn. Around us, after awhile, we heard the furtive slithering and scampering of small animals that devoured the comestibles we had cast away.

我们消除了疑虑，从山洞出来，找到了回去隐藏的马车和它那昏昏欲睡的驴子们身边的路。我们把足够多的水果和蔬菜扔进灌木丛中，在货物的中心挖了一个深洞，然后把我们那袋战利品放进去并埋藏起来。然后，我们在草地上安顿下来，等到黎明前的一小时。过了一会儿，我们听到了周围有鬼鬼祟祟的溜行和蹦跳的声音，是小动物在吃着我们扔掉的食物。

If any of us slept, it was, so to speak, with one eye and one ear. We rose in the horizontal sifting of the last moonbeams and long eastward-running shadows of early twilight.

这么说吧，如果我们中有人睡着了觉，那也会是只闭着一只眼和耳。我们在从地平线洒出的最后一缕月光和晨曦那向东延伸的长影中醒来。

Leading our asses, we approached the highway and stopped behind the brush while an early cart creaked by. Silence ensued, and we broke from the wood and resumed our journey cityward before other carts came in sight.

我们牵着驴子来到公路附近。在听见另一辆赶早的拉车正嘎吱作响时，我们便停躲在灌木丛的后方。而接着只有一片寂静。我们从林中出来，在其它的拉车进入视野之前，重新开始我们前往城市的旅途。

In our return through outlying streets we met only a few early passers, who gave us no second glance. Reaching the neighborhood of Veezi Phenquor's house, we consigned the cart to his care and watched him turn into the courtyard unchallenged and seemingly unobserved by others than ourselves. He was, I reflected, well supplied with roots and fruits. . . .

在我们返回窝点的过程中，我们只在偏僻的街道上遇见寥寥数个赶早的过客，而他们对我们也不置多顾。到达维兹·芬库尔的房屋所在的街区时，我们把驴车交付给他，并目送他顺利地拐进了院子，似乎也并未被其他人看见。我想到，他这算是有了充足的根菜和水果补给...

We kept closely to our lodgings for two days. It seemed unwise to remind the police of our presence in Uzuldaroum by any public appearance. On the evening of the second day our food-supply ran short and we sallied out in our rural costumes to a nearby market which we had never before patronized.

这两天来，我们都紧紧躲在住处。于任何公开场合提醒警方我们仍在乌祖达鲁姆似乎都是不明智的。第二天晚上，我们食物短缺，便穿着乡间服饰，来到附近一个我们从未光顾过的市场。

Returning, we found evidence that Veezi Phenquor had paid us a visit during our absence, in spite of the fact that all the doors and windows had been, and still were, carefully locked. A small cube of gold reposed on the table, serving as paper-weight for a scribbled note.

回去时，我们找到了维兹·芬库尔曾在我们离开时拜访的证据，尽管所有门窗仍被紧锁着。一个小小的黄金方块被放置在桌上，充当着一张潦草便笺的镇纸。

The note read: "My esteemed friends and companions: After removing the various gems, I have melted down all the gold into ingots, and am leaving one of them as a token of my great regard. Unfortunately, I have learned that I am being watched by the police, and am leaving Uzuldaroum under circumstances of haste and secrecy, taking the other ingots and all the jewels in the ass-drawn cart, covered up by the vegetables I have providentially kept, even though they are slightly stale by now. I expect to make a long journey, in a direction which I cannot specify—a journey well beyond the jurisdiction of our local police, and one on which I trust you will not be perspicacious enough to follow me. I shall need the remainder of our loot for my expenses, et cetera. Good luck in all your future ventures.

Respectfully,
Veezi Phenquor.

便笺上写着:“我尊敬的朋友和同伴们：在取出各种宝石后，我把所有的金子都熔化成锭，留下一块以表我的敬意。不幸的是，我得知我正受到警察的监视，我正要匆忙切秘密地逃离乌祖达鲁姆，把其他的金块和所有的珠宝放在驴车里。幸运的是，我保存下了那些蔬菜，可用以盖住财物，尽管它们现在有点不新鲜了。我预期得来上一段长途旅行，我也确定不了要去往的方向——这段旅途将远远超出了我们当地警察的管辖范围，而且我相信你不会有足够的聪明来跟随我。我需要剩下的战利品来支付我的开销和其它花费。祝你今后一切顺利。

特此致敬，
维兹·芬库尔

"POSTSCRIPT: You too are being watched, and I advise you to quit the city with all feasible expedition. Marquanos, in spite of a well-cracked mazzard from Vixeela's blow, recovered full consciousness late yesterday. He recognized in Vixeela a former temple-girl through the trained dexterity of her movements. He has not been able to identify her; but a thorough and secret search is being made, and other girls have already been put to the thumb-screw and toe-screw by Leniqua's priests.

“附言：你们俩也被监视着，我建议你们尽可能快地离开这座城市。尽管马奎诺斯被维希拉的重击砸裂了脑袋，但他在昨天晚些的时候就已全然恢复神智。他从维希拉那训练有素的敏捷身手中识别出她前神殿圣女的身份。他未能辨认出她具体是谁，不过一项秘密的全面搜查正在开展，而其他的圣女们也已被兰尼夸祭司上了手指和脚趾的刑夹以作逼供。

"You and I, my dear Satampra, have already been listed, though not yet identified, as possible accomplices of the girl. A man of your conspicuous height and bulk is being sought. The Powder of the Fetid Apparitions, some traces of which were found on Leniqua's dais, has already been analyzed. Unluckily, it has been used before, both by myself and other alchemists.

I hope you will escape—on other paths than the one I am planning to follow."

“你和我，亲爱的萨坦普拉，虽然还没有被确认，但也已被列为那姑娘的嫌疑帮凶。像你这样高大魁梧的男人正被人们搜寻着。他们在兰尼夸的布道台上发现了那些臭腐臭幻影粉末的痕迹，也已经进行了分析。不幸的是，我和其他炼金术士都曾使用过这种粉末。

我希望你能逃掉——走别的路，而非我正要打算走的那条。”

This post has been edited by CaptainSnafu: 2023-09-08, 15:36

[Serenade]

感谢辛苦的付出，

但不知是否可以用[spoiler]的方式隐藏原文呢？

[CaptainSnafu]

感谢辛苦的付出，

但不知是否可以用[spoiler]的方式隐藏原文呢？

因为翻来主要是为了练习，所以习惯带上原文方便比对。不隐藏主要是懒得搞 😝😝

[密大宣传员]

话说有兴趣译一些没有被其他人译过的文吗