Lesson  1 The Delicate Art of the Forest

                 森林妙招

Cooper's gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such as it was he liked to work it, he was pleased with the effects, and indeed he did some quite sweet things with it. In his little box of stage properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, artifices for his savages and woodsmen to deceive and circumvent each other with, and he was never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing them go. A favorite one was to make a moccasined person tread in the tracks of the moccasined enemy, and thus hide his own trail. Cooper wore out barrels and barrels of moccasins in working that trick. Another stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was his broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig. There may be a hundred handier things to step on, but that wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one. In fact, the Leather Stocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig Series.

库珀的创造天分并不怎么样； 但是他似乎热衷于此并沾沾自喜。确实，他做了一些令人感到愉快的事情。在小小的道具箱内，他为笔下的森林猎人和土人准备了七八种诡计或圈套，这些人以此诱骗对方。利用这些幼稚的技巧达到了预期的效果，没有什么更让他高兴得了。 其中一个就是他最喜欢的，就是让一个穿着鹿皮靴的人踩着穿着鹿皮靴敌人的脚印，借以隐藏了自己行踪。这么做使库珀磨烂不知多少桶鹿皮靴。他常用的另一个道具是断树枝。他认为断树枝效果最好，因此不遗余力地使用。在他的小说中，如果哪章中没有人踩到断树枝惊着两百码外的印第安人和白人，那么这一节则非常平静/那就谢天谢地了。每次库珀笔下的人物陷入危险，每分钟绝对安静的价格是4美元/一分静一分金， 这个人肯定会踩到断树枝。尽管附近有上百种东西可以踩，但这都不足以使库珀称心。他会让这个人找一根干树枝；如果找不到，就去借一根。事实上，《皮袜子故事系列丛书》应该叫做《断树枝故事集》。

I am sorry there is not room to put in a few dozen instances of the delicate art of the forest, as practised by Natty Bumppo and some of the other Cooperian experts. Perhaps we may venture two or three samples. Cooper was a sailor--a naval officer; yet he gravely tells us how a vessel, driving towards a lee shore in a gale, is steered for a particular spot by her skipper because he knows of an undertow there which will hold her back against the gale and save her. For just pure woodcraft, or sailorcraft, or whatever it is, isn't that neat? For several years Cooper was daily in the society of artillery, and he ought to have noticed that when a cannon-ball strikes the ground it either buries itself or skips a hundred feet or so; skips again a hundred feet or so--and so on, till finally it gets tired and rolls. Now in one place he loses some "females"--as he always calls women--in the edge of a wood near a plain at night in a fog, on purpose to give Bumppo a chance to show off the delicate art of the forest before the reader. These mislaid people are hunting for a fort. They hear a cannonblast, and a cannon- ball presently comes rolling into the wood and stops at their feet. To the females this suggests nothing. The case is very different with the admirable Bumppo. I wish I may never know peace again if he doesn't strike out promptly and follow the track of that cannon-ball across the plain through the dense fog and find the fort. Isn't it a daisy? If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact. For instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chingachgook (pronounced Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is tracking through the forest. Apparently that trail is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I could ever have guessed out the way to find it. It was very different with Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person's moccasin-tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done in all other like cases--no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the reader.

很遗憾，我没有足够的篇幅，写上几十个例子，看看奈迪·班波和其他库伯专家们是怎样运用他的森林中的高招。大概我们可以试着斗胆举它两三个例子。库伯曾经航过海—当过海军军官。但是他却一本正经/煞有介事地告诉我们，一条被风刮向海岸遇险的船，被船长驶向一个有离岸暗流的地点而得救。因为暗流顶着风，把船冲了回来。看看这森林术，这行船术，或者叫别的什么术，很高明吧？库珀在炮兵部队里待过几年，他应该注意到炮弹落到地上时，要么爆炸，要么弹起来，跳起百英尺，再弹再跳，直到跳不动了滚几下。现在某个地方他让几个女性—他总是这么称呼女的—在一个迷雾重重的夜晚，迷失在平原附近一片树林边上—目的是让班波有机会向读者展示他在森林中的本事。这些迷路的人正在寻找一个城堡。他们听到一声炮响，接着一发炮弹就滚进树林，停在他们脚下。对女性，这毫无价值。但对可敬的班波就完全不同了。我想， 如果班波要是不马上冲出来，跟着弹痕，穿过浓雾，跨过平原，找到要塞，我就再也不知道什么是“和平”了。是不是非常聪明？ 如果库伯不是对自然规律一无所知，他就是故意隐瞒事实。比方说，他的精明的印地安专家之一，名叫芝稼哥（我想，该读作芝加哥）的，跟踪一个人，在穿过树林的时候，脚印就找不到了。很明显，脚印是再也没法找到了。无论你还是我，都猜不出，怎么会找到它。对芝加哥可完全不同。他没迟疑多久。他改变了一条小溪的流向，在原来泥泞的河床上，那人的鹿皮鞋印竞然历历在目。在其他情况下，脚印一定被水冲得荡然无存，但在（库伯笔下）这里流水竟然冲不掉脚印！对，当然不会冲掉啰！因为只要库伯要给读者显示一下他森林中的本事，永恒的自然规律也会失效。-本段翻译直接摘自潘明启老师的教案

New words:

1.       Gift : A talent, an endowment, an aptitude, or a bent.  天才，天资，才能，爱好

2.       endowment: A natural gift, ability, or quality. 天资、能力或天赋

3.       circumvent v. To avoid or get around by artful maneuvering:用狡诈的策略避免或应付：

       She planned a way to circumvent all the bureaucratic red tape.她计划避开官僚体制下的繁文缛礼

    To surround (an enemy, for example); enclose or entrap.

围住（例如敌人）；包围或诱陷

4.   moccasin   n. A soft leather slipper traditionally worn by Native Americans. 印第安软皮鞋：一种传统上由美洲土著穿的软皮便鞋

5.    artifices   An artful or crafty expedient; a stratagem.诡计：狡猾或狡诈的手段；计谋

                        Subtle but base deception; trickery.阴谋：精明的但是卑鄙的欺骗；圈套

                        Cleverness or skill; ingenuity.策略：聪明或技巧；机智

6.undertow  n. The seaward pull of receding waves after they break on a shore. 回头浪：在浪碰到海岸后，撤回的浪向海的牵拉

                      A tendency, especially in thought or feeling, contrary to what seems the strongest:

                       回潮：一种与看起来最强烈的相反倾向，尤指思想或感觉：

                       “As she talks nostalgically of her days of glory . . . a poignant undertow emerges”(Tina Brown)

                       “当她怀旧地谈到她的光荣日子时…一阵痛苦的回潮涌现出来”(蒂娜·布朗)

7.daisy   Slang One that is deemed excellent or notable. 【俚语】 名流上等品：被认为是优秀的或出众的人（物）

                My new car is simply a daisy.我的新车是一流产品。

8．Invention  n. A mental fabrication, especially a falsehood.捏造：内心捏造的东西，特指谎言

9.sweet   Pleasing to the mind or feelings; gratifying:愉快的；令人满足的：

               sweet revenge.痛快的复仇

以下自潘明启老师处学习

Grammar 语法
As it was
= as it was not rich
= though it was not rich

Vocabulary词汇
delicate    Marked by sensitivity of discrimination: a critic's delicate perception.
invention    the act of producing something new for the first time
stage-property     things, objects used on stages except scenery, costumes
cunning    Marked by or given to artful subtlety and deceptiveness
device    A plan or scheme, especially a malign one.
savage    Not civilized; barbaric
twig       Any small, leafless branch of a woody plant
handy     Readily accessible
vessel     A craft, especially one larger than a rowboat, designed to navigate on water
steer      a. To direct the course of. b. To maneuver (a person) into a place or course of action.
skipper      The master of a ship
cannon   A large, mounted weapon that fires heavy projectiles. Cannon include guns, howitzers, and mortars.
promptly immediately
trail  A mark or trace left by something that has moved or been dragged by.
stump   To clear stumps from; To bring to a halt; baffle
slush    Soft mud; slop; mire.
vacate    To cease to occupy or hold; give up

翻译三要素
信 Trustfulness
达 Conveyance of the original purpose, ideas, viewpoints, and tone.
雅 Retention of the original stylistic features in the target language.
要做到上述三点，而不必苛求词性、词序，甚至是句子次序的一致。
译出语气：他的书要是有哪一章没有人踩上干树枝，惊动周围二百码内的印地安人和白人，那就谢天谢地了。
为了达，可以增加原文设有，但字里行间有的意思：因为暗流顶着风，把船冲了回来。看看这森林术，这行船术，或者叫别的什么术，怎么样？（千载难逢的机会，可就是偏偏被库伯找到了，）真巧吧（真是干净利索吧）？
不考虑原来的词性：我敢发誓，要是班波不立刻行动，跟着弹痕，穿过浓雾，跨过平原，找到要塞，就让我一生不得安宁。
尽量保持原文风格：他的精明的印地安专家之一，名叫芝稼哥（我想，该读作芝加哥）的