"Why can't you?" asked the pig. "I'm right here."

“你为什么看不清我？”小猪问。“我就在这儿呀。”

 

"Yes, but I'm near-sighted," replied Charlotte. "I've always been dreadfully near-sighted. It's good in some ways, not so good in others. Watch me wrap up this fly."

“是的，不过我近视，”夏洛回答。“我的近视十分严重。这对我既有好处，也有坏处。你看我来抓住这只苍蝇。”

 

A fly that had been crawling along Wilbur's trough had flown up and blundered into the lower part of Charlotte's web and was tangled¹ in the sticky threads. The fly was beating its wings furiously, trying to break loose and free itself.

一只刚才在威伯的食槽边上爬的苍蝇飞了起来，却愚蠢地碰上了夏洛的网，被那些粘粘的丝线缠住了。苍蝇愤怒地拍打着翅膀，想要挣脱。

 

"First," said Charlotte, "I dive at him." She plunged² headfirst toward the fly. As she dropped, a tiny silken thread unwound from her rear end.

“首先，”夏洛说，“我要悄悄靠近他。”她慢慢地头朝下往苍蝇那里爬去。在她往下荡的时候，一根细丝线从她的尾部抽了出来。

 

"Next, I wrap him up." She grabbed the fly, threw a few jets of silk around it, and rolled it over and over, wrapping it so that it couldn't move. Wilbur watched in horror. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, and although he detested³ flies, he was sorry for this one.

“接着，我要把他包起来。”她抓住苍蝇，往他身上缠了几道黑丝线，丝线越绕越密，直到裹得苍蝇一动也不能动。威伯惊恐地看着这一切。他几乎不敢相信他所看到的场面，尽管他也憎恨苍蝇，可还是为这只苍蝇感到难过。

 

"There!" said Charlotte. "Now I knock him out, so he'll be more comfortable." She bit the fly. "He can't feel a thing now," she remarked. "He'll make a perfect breakfast for me."

“看，”夏洛说。“现在我要把他弄晕，他就会觉得舒服点儿了。”她咬了苍蝇一口。“他现在毫无知觉了，”她说，“他将是我的一顿美味的早餐。”

 

"You mean you eat flies?" gasped⁴ Wilbur.

“你是说你吃苍蝇？”威伯喘了起来。

 

"Certainly. Flies, bugs⁵, grasshoppers⁶, choice beetles⁷, moths⁸, butterflies, tasty cockroaches⁹, gnats¹⁰, midges, daddy longlegs, centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets--anything that is careless enough to get caught in my web. I have to live, don't I?"

“当然。苍蝇，小虫子，蚱蜢，漂亮的甲虫，飞蛾，蝴蝶，可口的蟑螂，蚊子，小咬儿，长脚蚊子，麻蚊子，蟋蟀——任何粗心地撞到我网上的小昆虫我都吃。我总得吃饭吧，是不是？”

 

"Why, yes, of course," said Wilbur. "Do they taste good?"

“为什么？哦，是的，当然。”威伯说。“他们的味道美吗？”

 

"Delicious. Of course, I don't really eat them. I drink them--drink their blood. I love blood," said Charlotte, and her pleasant, thin voice grew even thinner and more pleasant.

“美妙极了。当然，我不是真的吃掉他们。我喝他们——喝他们的血。我喜欢喝血，”夏洛说。她的声音听起来越来越清脆，越来越快活了。

 

"Don't say that!" groaned¹¹ Wilbur. "Please don't say things like that!"

“别再说下去了！”威伯呻吟。“请不要讲这件事儿了！”

 

"Why not? It's true, and I have to say what is true. I am not entirely¹² happy about my diet of flies and bugs, but it's the way I'm made. A spider has to pick up a living somehow or other, and I happen to be a trapper. I just naturally build a web and trap flies and other insects. My mother was a trapper before me. Her mother was a trapper before her. All our family have been trappers. Way back for thousands and thousands of years we spiders have been laying for flies and bugs."

“为什么不？真的，我说的是真的。虽然我也不愿意吃苍蝇和小虫子，但那是我的生存方式。一个蜘蛛必须要设法谋生，而我恰巧可以作一名捕猎者。我生来就会织网，用它来捕食苍蝇和别的昆虫。在我之前，我的妈妈是一个捕猎者；在她之前，她的妈妈也是。我们全家都是捕猎者。千百万年以前，我们蜘蛛就靠捕食苍蝇和虫子为生了。”

 

"It's a miserable¹³ inheritance," said Wilbur, gloomily. He was sad because his new friend was so bloodthirsty.

“那是多么可悲的遗传。”威伯幽幽地说。他真为新朋友的残忍难过。

 

"Yes, it is," agreed charlotte. "But I can't help it. I don't know how the first spider in the early days of the world happened to think up this fancy idea of spinning a web, but she did, and it was clever of her, too. And since then, all of us spiders have had to work the same trick. It's not a bad pitch, on the whole."

“是的，”夏洛表示同意。“但我也没办法改变这特性。我不知道世上最早的第一只蜘蛛是怎么想出织网这个奇妙的主意的，可是她却想出来了，她可真聪明。从那时起，我们所有的蜘蛛都会这么做了。总的来说，这个发明不坏。”

 

"It's cruel," replied Wilbur, who did not intend to be argued out of his position.

“这是残酷的发明。”威伯简捷地回答。他并不打算为此而争论。

 

"Well, you can't talk," said Charlotte. "You have your meals brought to you in a pail. Nobody feeds me. I have to get my own living. I live by my wits. I have to be sharp and clever, lest I go hungry. I have to think things out, catch what I can, take what comes. And it just so happens, my friend, that what comes is flies and insects and bugs. And furthermore," said Charlotte, shaking one of her legs, "do you realize that if I didn't catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth, wipe out everything?"

“噢，你不能这么说，”夏洛说。“你有别人给你送饭吃。可没人喂我呀。我不得不独力谋生。我只有靠我的智力活着。为了避免挨饿，我只好变得又敏捷又聪明。我不得不想方设法，去抓住我能抓到的东西，享用他们的血。就是这么回事儿，我的朋友，我吃的就是我抓到的苍蝇和别的小昆虫。此外，”夏洛说着，挥起一条腿儿，“你明白如果我不抓小虫子吃，小虫子们就会增多，繁殖，直到多得足以破坏地球，毁灭一切吗？”

 

"Really?" said Wilbur. "I wouldn't want that to happen. Perhaps your web is a good thing after all."

“真的吗？”威伯说。“我可不想发生这种事。可能你的网真是个好东西吧。”

 

The goose had been listening to this conversation and chuckling¹⁴ to herself. "There are a lot of things Wilbur doesn't know about life," she thought. "He's really a very innocent little pig. He doesn't even know what's going to happen to him around Christmastime; he has no idea that Mr. Zuckerman and Lurvy are plotting to kill him." And the goose raised herself a bit and poked¹⁵ her eggs a little further under her so that they would receive the full heat from her warm body and soft feathers.

一直听着这场对话的母鹅嘎嘎自语。“对于生活，威伯不懂的还多着呢。”她想。“他真是一头天真的小猪。他甚至都不知道圣诞节会发生什么事儿呢；他根本就不知道祖克曼先生和鲁维正在密谋杀掉他呢。”母鹅稍稍抬抬身子，把她的蛋往身下推得更近些，以便他们能更好的接收到她温暖的身体和柔软的羽毛下面的热量。

 

Charlotte stood quietly over the fly, preparing to eat it. Wilbur lay down and closed his eyes. He was tired from his wakeful night and from the excitement of meeting someone for the first time. A breeze brought him the smell of clover--the sweet-smelling world beyond his fence. "Well," he thought," I've got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal¹⁶, scheming, bloodthirsty--everything I don't like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?

夏洛在苍蝇的上方静停了一会儿，准备去吃它了。威伯忙闭上双眼，躺了下来。昨晚没睡好，再加上首次遇到新朋友的激动，使他感到分外的疲倦。微风把苜蓿的香味给他送了过来——他的栅栏外的世界里充满了甜香的气息。“很好，”他想，“我有了一个新朋友，真不错。但这是多危险的友谊呀！夏洛凶猛，残酷，狡诈，嗜血——这些我都不喜欢。虽然她是那么可爱，当然，也很聪明，可我怎么能让自己去试着喜欢她呢？”

 

Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath¹⁷ her rather bold and cruel exterior¹⁸, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.

威伯像那些初交新朋友的人一样，被猜疑和恐惧困绕着。以后，他将发现自己误解了夏洛。其实，在她那可怕冷漠的外表下，有着一颗善良的心，以后发生的事情将证明，她对朋友是忠实，真诚的，每一刻都是如此。

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