Early one morning as we were beginning our day’s play in the back yard, Jem and I heard something next door in Miss Rachel Haverford’s collard patch. We went to the wire fence to see if there was a puppy - Miss Rachel’s rat terrier was expecting - instead we found someone sitting looking at us. Sitting down, he wasn’t much higher than the collards. We stared at him until he spoke:

一天清晨，我和杰姆正在后院准备开始一天的玩耍，突然听到邻居雷切尔·哈弗福特小姐家的甘蓝地里有什么响动。我们走到铁丝栅栏旁，想看看是不是有条小狗崽——雷切尔小姐的狗当时要生崽了。出乎意料之外，我们看到的却是个小孩，坐在那儿望着我们。他坐着不比身旁的甘蓝高多少。我们一个劲儿地盯着他，直到他开口说话。

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” said Jem pleasantly.

“I’m Charles Baker Harris,” he said. “I can read.”

“So what?” I said.

“I just thought you’d like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin’ I can do it…”

“How old are you,” asked Jem, “four-and-a-half?”

“Goin’ on seven.”

“Shoot no wonder, then,” said Jem, jerking his thumb at me. “Scout yonder’s been readin’ ever since she was born, and she ain’t even started to school yet. You look right puny for goin’ on seven.”

“I’m little but I’m old,” he said.

Jem brushed his hair back to get a better look. “Why don’t you come over, Charles Baker Harris?” he said. “Lord, what a name.”

“’s not any funnier’n yours. Aunt Rachel says your name’s Jeremy Atticus Finch.”

Jem scowled. “I’m big enough to fit mine,” he said. “Your name’s longer’n you are. Bet it’s a foot longer.”

“Folks call me Dill,” said Dill, struggling under the fence.

“Do better if you go over it instead of under it,” I said. “Where’d you come from?”

“你们好。”

“你好。”杰姆和颜悦色地回答道。

“我叫查尔斯?贝克?哈里斯，”他说，“我认识字了。”

“那有什么了不起?”我说。

“我原以为你们想知道我认不认得字。你们有什么要读的我可以读给你们听……”

“你多大了?”杰姆问，“四岁半吗?”

“快七岁了。”

“嘿，这么大了，当然能识字啊。”杰姆将大拇指朝我一扬说，“那边的斯各特一生下来就识字，现在还没上学呢。你都快七岁了，看上去这么小。”

“我个子小，可年纪大。”他说。

杰姆把头发向后拂了拂，好看得更清楚些。“千吗不过来，查尔斯·贝克·哈里斯?”他说，“天啊，多么怪的名字啊！”

“和你的名字一样，没有什么好奇怪的。雷切尔姑妈说，你叫杰里米?阿迪克斯?芬奇。”

杰姆皱起眉头。“我这么大了，当然可以取这样的名字。”他说，“你的名字比你这个人的身体还要长，我断定要长一英尺。”

“大家都叫我迪尔。”迪尔说着，身子使劲在栅栏下朝这边钻。

“从上边过来好些，别从底下钻。”我说，“你是哪里人?”

Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on. His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.

迪尔是密西西比州梅里迪安县人，正在这里和他姑妈雷切尔小姐一道过夏天。从现在起，每年夏天都将在这里度过。他家原来也在梅科姆县。他妈妈在梅里迪安给一个摄影师干活，曾经拿迪尔的照片参加过一次儿童比美竞赛，得了五美元的奖金。她把钱给了迪尔，迪尔用这笔钱看了二十场电影。

“Don’t have any picture shows here, except Jesus ones in the courthouse sometimes,” said Jem. “Ever see anything good?”

“我们这儿没有电影，除了有时候在法院里放些关于耶稣的片子，”杰姆说，“看过什么好电影吗?”

Dill had seen Dracula, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect. “Tell it to us,” he said.

迪尔看过《德古拉》。听他这么一说，杰姆开始以敬佩的目光端详着他。“给我们讲讲这个电影。”

Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duck-fluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him. As he told us the old tale his blue eyes would lighten and darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the center of his forehead.

迪尔是个很有趣的孩子。他身穿蓝色的亚麻布短裤。短裤扣在他的衬衣上。雪一样白的头发像鸭绒一样竖在他头上。他比我大一岁，但我比他高得多。他给我们讲这个古老的故事时，两只蓝眼睛忽明忽暗。他笑得突然，又笑得畅快，时时抹着额头中央伸出来的一绺不听话的头发。

When Dill reduced Dracula to dust, and Jem said the show sounded better than the book, I asked Dill where his father was: “You ain’t said anything about him.”

“I haven’t got one.”

“Is he dead?”

“No…”

“Then if he’s not dead you’ve got one, haven’t you?”

迪尔讲完《德古拉》后，杰姆说听起来电影比小说有趣一些。我问迪尔他爸爸在哪儿：

“你还没提到过你爸爸呢。”

“我没有爸爸。”

“死了吗？”

“没……”

“既然没死，你就当然有个爸爸呀，是不是?”

Dill blushed and Jem told me to hush, a sure sign that Dill had been studied and found acceptable. Thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment. Routine contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin chinaberry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas based on the works of Oliver Optic, Victor Appleton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In this matter we were lucky to have Dill. He played the character parts formerly thrust upon me - the ape in Tarzan, Mr. Crabtree in The Rover Boys, Mr. Damon in Tom Swift. Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.

迪尔脸红了。杰姆要我住嘴。这是个信号，暗示经过审查，可以跟迪尔交朋友了。从那以后，整个夏天我们都过得十分愉快。十分愉快的含义是：不断改进建在后院两棵巨大的苦楝树之间的树上小屋；追跑嬉闹；把我们节目单上根据奥利弗·奥普蒂克、维克托·阿普尔顿和埃德加·赖斯·巴勒斯的作品改编的戏从头到尾地演一遍。在演戏方面，有了迪尔我们真幸运。他扮演了原来硬要我扮演的角色，《人猿泰山》中的猿人，《罗弗家的男孩》中的酸苹果树先生，《托姆·斯威夫特》中的达门先生。这样，我们渐渐发现迪尔就是个小默林，脑子里装满了古怪的计划、离奇的渴望和荒诞的幻想。

But by the end of August our repertoire was vapid from countless reproductions, and it was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

但是，到了八月底，我们的全部节目反反复复演了无数次，已经枯燥无味了。就是在这个时候，迪尔建议我们设法把布·拉德利从他家引出来。

The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole on the corner, a safe distance from the Radley gate. There he would stand, his arm around the fat pole, staring and wondering.

拉德利家的房子强烈地吸引着迪尔。我们一再警告、解释全部无济于事。这所房子吸引着他就像月亮吸引着海水一样。不过，最多只把他吸引到拐角处的电杆下。这里距离拉德利家还有相当一段距离。他常常站在那儿，紧紧搂着那根粗大的电杆，出神地凝望，内心充满了好奇。

精选赏析

1、He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duck-fluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him.

他身穿蓝色的亚麻布短裤。短裤扣在他的衬衣上。雪一样白的头发像鸭绒一样竖在他头上。他比我大一岁，但我比他高得多。

第一个分句（第一个逗号前）含有一个定语从句，第二个分句（第一个逗号和第一个分号之间）是一个并列句；第三个分句是一个并列句。tower (over)的意思是“to be much taller than the people or things around you”。

这个句子所在段一整段都在使用这样的短句子，形式和感觉也都十分相似。这句话虽然用了非常多复杂句式，但句子本身比较容易懂，而且这一连串的小短剧十分生动地刻画了一个看起来乖巧却带点灵气的害羞的美国小男孩形象。

2、In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws water, but drew him no nearer than the light-pole on the corner, a safe distance from the Radley gate.

我们一再警告、解释全部无济于事。这所房子吸引着他就像月亮吸引着海水一样。不过，最多只把他吸引到拐角处的电杆下。这里距离拉德利家还有相当一段距离。

句子整体上来说是个并列句，此外又添加了很多成分，是个较为复杂的句子。“a safe distance (from the Radley gate)”名词短语作同位语，解释说明“no nearer than the light-pole on the corner”。

并列句的前半句用了一个十分生动的比喻（拉德利加像月亮吸引着潮水一样吸引着他）自然地讲出这好奇对他的巨大吸引。而but后面来了一个漂亮的转折（却从没把他引到过电线杆之内的危险距离）说明了他仍抱有的恐惧。这样一种小孩子想看鬼片却又很害怕的有趣心情就跃然纸上了。

3、There he would stand, his arm around the fat pole, staring and wondering.

他常常站在那儿，紧紧搂着那根粗大的电杆，出神地凝望，内心充满了好奇。

句子主干“there he would stand”是there倒装句，目的在突出他经常站的那个位置。后面紧跟着介词短语作状语，后面又一个分句是现在分词短语作伴随状语。

但是这里枯燥的语法突然变成了神来之笔，一系列状语的叠加打造了极其具体的画面感，使得一个对着别人家的房子和主人煞有介事地思考研究的无聊小屁孩的形象立马生动起来。