美国语文第六册第255期:印第安耍把戏者(2)（打印版）

Yet it costs nothing to the performer, any more than if it were a mere mechanical deception with which he had nothing to do,

然而，对表演者来说，灵巧算不了什么。如果它只是呆板的骗术的话，一点价值也没有，

but to watch and laugh at the astonishment of the spectators.

只是在观看者的惊讶中博得一笑而已。

A single error of a hair's breadth, of the smallest conceivable portion of time, would be fatal;

一个极其细微的失误，哪怕是时间上最不经意的错位，都是致命的；

the precision of the movements must be like a mathematical truth; their rapidity is like lightning;

动作的精确必须像数学公理一样，如闪电般快捷；

To catch four balls in succession, in less than a second of time, and deliver them back so as to return with seeming consciousness to the hand again;

在一秒钟之内连续接住四个球，然后将它们再抛向空中，通过表面上意识的连续性造成连续不断的假象；

to make them revolve around him at certain intervals, like the planets in their spheres;

这种假象就是为了使球以一定的间歇围着他转，就像行星在轨道上转一样；

to make them chase each other like sparkles of fire, or shoot up like flowers or meteors;

使它们像火花一样彼此追逐，或者像花和流星一样绽放；

to throw them behind his back, and twine them round his neck like ribbons, or like serpents;

将球抛到身后，像缎带或蛇一样绕着脖子；

to do what appears an impossibility, and to do it with all the ease, the grace, the carelessness imaginable;

做似乎不可能的事情，一切都显得那样从容、优雅，淡定得令人难以想象；

to laugh at, to play with the glittering mockeries, to follow them with his eye as if he could fascinate them with its lambent fire,

嬉笑着，玩着表面令人炫目实则无甚价值的把戏，让人们眼睛围着他转，目不暇接，仿佛他能用闪烁的火光令他们着迷似的，

or as if he had only to see that they kept time with the music on the stage,

抑或仿佛只有他自己能发现他们在舞台上随着音乐的节拍亦醉亦痴，

there is something in all this which he who does not admire may be quite sure he never really admired anything in the whole course of his life.

所有这些都有一个要素，不会对这一切表示赞赏的他也许相当确定的是，在他的整个生涯里他从未真正对什么表示过赞赏。