Heart of Darkness — Page 11

我会盯着南美洲、非洲或澳大利亚看上好几个小时，沉浸在探险的无限荣光之中。

I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration.

那时地球上有许多空白之处，每当我在地图上看到一处看起来格外诱人的地方（其实每处看起来都如此），我就会把手指放上去说：'等我长大了，我要去那里。'

At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, 'When I grow up I will go there.'

我记得北极就是这些地方之一。

The North Pole was one of these places, I remember.

唉，我至今还没去过那里，现在也不打算去了。

Well, I haven't been there yet, and shall not try now.

那份魔力已经消散了。

The glamour's off.

其他地方散落在两个半球各处，我曾去过其中一些……唉，这些就不多说了。

Other places were scattered about the hemispheres. I have been in some of them, and... well, we won't talk about that.

但还有一个地方——最大的、可以说是最空白的——令我魂牵梦萦。

But there was one yet—the biggest, the most blank, so to speak—that I had a hankering after.

诚然，到那时它已不再是一片空白了。

True, by this time it was not a blank space any more.

自我童年以来，它已被河流、湖泊和地名填满。

It had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names.

它不再是那片令人心旷神怡、充满神秘感的空白——不再是供少年尽情遐想的白色地块了。

It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery—a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over.

它已变成了一片黑暗之地。

It had become a place of darkness.

但其中有一条河流尤为引人注目——一条你在地图上便能看到的浩大河流，宛如一条舒展开来的巨蛇，蛇头伸入大海，蛇身蜿蜒横卧于辽阔的大地之上，蛇尾则消失在内陆深处。

But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.