"I think you're beautiful," said Wilbur.

　　“你真漂亮。”威尔伯说。
　　"Well, I am pretty," replied Charlotte. "There's no denying that. Almost all spiders are rather nice-looking. I'm not as flashy as some, but I'll do. I wish I could see you, Wilbur, as clearly as you can see me."

　　“嗯，是的，我是很美。”夏洛蒂附和着：“这是不可否认的事实，几乎所有的蜘蛛都长得不错。虽然我不像别的一些蜘蛛一样会闪闪发光，但总有一天我会的。我想好好的看一下你，威尔伯，就像你看我那样，看得那么清楚，那么仔细。”
　　"Why can't you?" asked the pig. "I'm right here."

　　“你看不清我吗？”威尔伯奇怪的问道：“我就在这儿。”
　　“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."

　　“我知道你就在那里，但是我是近视眼。”夏洛蒂说：“我的眼睛非常近视，有时它是好事，但在其他方面，可不是什么好事。看我怎样抓住这只苍蝇。”

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 tangled in the sticky threads. The fly was beating its wings furiously, trying to break loose and free itself.

　　一只刚才还停在威尔伯食槽沿上的苍蝇，现在飞起来了，一头撞进夏洛蒂的蜘蛛网里面，被那些密密麻麻的线网住了。那只苍蝇拼命的挥动翅膀，想挣脱网飞走。
　　"First," said Charlotte, " I dive at him." She plunged headfirst toward the fly. As she dropped, a tiny silken thread unwound from her rear end.

　　“首先，”夏洛蒂说：“我要吸干它的汗液。”说完，她低下头靠近那只苍蝇。就在她吸取苍蝇的汁液时，威尔伯看到有一继细细的银丝从她的尾部延伸了出来。
　　"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 detested flies, he was sorry for this one.

　　“接下来，我就用线把它绑起来。”她抓住那只苍蝇，吐了一些银色胶状的物体在它身上，然后不停的滚动苍蝇的身体，用那些胶状的物质绑住它，使之不能动弹。威尔伯战战兢兢的看着她做完这一切，简直不敢相信自己的眼睛，尽管他讨厌苍蝇，但还是为这只苍蝇感到伤心。
　　"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，”夏洛蒂又说：“现在我要把它踢走了，那样它会舒服一点的。”她踢了踢那只苍蝇：“噢，它已经毫无知觉了，真是一顿美味的早餐呀。”
　　"You mean you eat flies?" gasped Wilbur.

　　“你是说你吃苍蝇的吗？”威尔伯吸了一口气，不敢相信。
　　"Certainly. Flies, bugs, grasshoppers, choice beetles, moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, 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，臭虫，蚱蜢，甲虫，飞蛾，蝴蝶，蟑螂，小虫子，蚊子，等等，任何撞在我网上的小昆虫，我得活下去，不是吗？”
　　"Why, yes, of course," said Wilbur. "Do they taste good?"

　　“那是肯定的。”威尔伯说：“但是，它们味道好吗？”
　　"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.

　　“当然，味道棒极了。实际上，我并不吃它们，只是吮吸，吸它们的血，我太喜欢血了。”夏洛蒂兴奋的说，原本就尖细的嗓音听起来更是提高了八度。
　　"Don't say that!" groaned Wilbur. "Please don't say things like that!"

　　“别说了。”威尔伯喊了起来：“请别说了。”
　　"Why not ? It's true, and I have to say what is true. I am not entirely 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."

　　“为什么要停止呢？那是事实，我只是说出事实而已。靠吃苍蝇和臭虫为生，我也不是很高兴，但这是我生存的方式。我们总要选择一种这样或那样的方式生存下去，而我正好选择了这种，我只是自然而然的编织了一张网，用它来网住那些苍蝇和其他的一些小昆虫。我的妈妈也是这样生存的，而我妈妈的妈妈，我的外婆，也是这样。我们一整个家庭都是靠织网来获取食物的，几千年以来，我们蜘蛛都是靠吃苍蝇和臭虫生活的，这是我们的生存方式。”
　　"It's a miserable inheritance," said Wilbur, gloomily. He was sad because his new friend was so bloodthirsty.

　　威尔伯听了她的话，垂头丧气的说：“这真是令人难过的生活方式。”他很伤心，因为他有新朋友居然如此嗜血。
　　"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."

　　夏洛蒂点点头，说：“没错，我知道这太残忍。但是我没办法，我不知道最开始时，蜘蛛祖先是怎样想到这种方式，织一张网来捕捉昆虫，然后吸干它们的血。但是它确实这样做了，而且，事实也证明了这是一种聪明的做法。从那时候开始，所有蜘蛛都要玩这种织网的花样来获取食物，但总的来说，这并不是个太坏的方法。”
　　"It's cruel," replied Wilbur, who did not intend to be argued out of his position.

　　“太残忍了。”威尔伯说，从它的角度，它并不想就此进行一番辩论。
　　"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. Ant 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?"

　　“嗯，你无权这样说，威尔伯。”夏洛蒂对它说：“有人每天把食物提到你的面前，但我没有，我得靠我自己去寻找吃的，要完全靠我自己的能力。我必须要机灵一点，甚至残忍一点，不然的话，就只有挨饿的份了。我必須解决自己的温饱，抓住那些自动撞到网上的东西，亲爱的朋友，那些苍蝇，臭虫只是不凑巧撞到我的网中。而且，”夏洛蒂停下来，摆了摆她的一条腿：“难道你没有意识到，如果不是我抓住那些臭虫并且吃掉它们的话，它们会繁殖的很快，数量会猛增，甚至会毁掉整个地球。”
　　"Really?" said Wilbur. "I wouldn't want that to happen. Perhaps your web is a good thing after all."

　　“真的吗？”威尔伯大吃一惊：“我可不想这样。或者，你的网真的是个好东西。”
　　The goose had been listening to this conversation and chuckling 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 poked her eggs a little further under her so that they would receive the full heat from her warm body and soft feathers.

　　这时，那只一直都在倾听他们之间谈话的那只母鹅开始自顾自地笑了起来。有关生活，威尔伯不知道的事情可多呢，她想，它真是一只很天真的小猪，他甚至不知道到圣诞节的时候，会有什么事情发生在自己身上；他完全不知道扎克曼先生和勒维正在谋划着杀它了。然后，母鹅稍稍起了起身，把她的蛋往身下移了移，以便于让它们更好的得到孵化。
　　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, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty--everything I don't like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?

　　夏洛蒂静静的站在那只苍蝇上面，准备吃掉它。威尔伯也躺了下来，闭上了眼睛。经历了一个漫长的无眠之夜，加之和夏洛蒂初次见面的兴奋，让它感到有点困了。一阵微风吹过，送来阵阵三叶草的气息，那片在它的围栏之外的三叶草地清甜的气息。威尔伯闻着这股清甜的气息，心里想：好吧，我总算有一个新朋友了。但是，这将是多么冒险的一段友谊呀，夏洛蒂那么凶狠，残忍，嗜血，擅于计谋，所有这些我都不喜欢，可不能学得跟她一样，虽然她又漂亮，又聪明。
　　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. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.

　　威尔伯只是处在一个交新朋友常常都会经历的阶段而已，一个充满了怀疑和害怕的阶段，过不久，它就会发现自己误解了夏洛蒂。在凶狠残忍的外表底下，夏洛蒂有一颗非常善良的心，而且从头到尾，她都证明了自己对威尔伯的爱和忠诚。