目 录 上一节 下一节 
“狄克，你可不能说你见过我，”奥立弗说，“我是跑出来的。狄克，他们打我，欺负我。我要到很远很远的地方去碰碰运气，还不知道是哪儿呢。你脸色太苍白了。” 'I heard the doctor tell them I was dying,' replied the child with a faint smile. 'I am very glad to see you, dear; but don't stop, don't stop!' “我听医生对他们说，我快死了，”狄克带着一丝淡淡的笑容回答，“真高兴能看到你，亲爱的，可是别停下来，别停下来。” 'Yes, yes, I will, to say good-b'ye to you,' replied Oliver. 'I shall see you again, Dick. I know I shall! You will be well and happy!' “是的，是的，我这就和你说再会。狄克，我还要来看你，一定会的。你会变得非常快乐的。” 'I hope so,' replied the child. 'After I am dead, but not before. I know the doctor must be right, Oliver, because I dream so much of Heaven, and Angels, and kind faces that I never see when I am awake. Kiss me,' said the child, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms round Oliver's neck. 'Good-b'ye, dear! God bless you!' “我也这么盼着呢，”那孩子答道，“是在我死了以后，不是在那以前。我知道大夫是对的，奥立弗，因为我梦见过好多回天堂和天使了，还梦见一些和气的面孔，都是我醒着的时候从来没有看见过的。亲我一下吧，”他爬上矮门，伸出小胳膊搂住奥立弗的脖子，“再见了，亲爱的。上帝保佑你。” The blessing was from a young child's lips, but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head; and through the struggles and sufferings, and troubles and changes, of his after life, he never once forgot it. 这番祝福发自一个稚气未尽的孩子之口，但这是奥立弗生平第一次听到别人为他祈祷，他往后还将历尽磨劫熬煎，饱尝酸甜苦辣，但他没有一时一刻遗忘过这些话语。 
奥立弗到达小路尽头用来挡牲口的栅栏，重新上了公路。眼下是八点钟光景。尽管离城已经差不多有五英里了，他仍然时而跑几步，时而溜到路旁篱笆后面去躲一躲，生怕有人赶上来把他捉回去，这样一直折腾到中午。他在一块路碑旁边坐下来歇歇气，第一次开始盘算究竟上何处谋生为好。 The stone by which he was seated, bore, in large characters, an intimation that it was just seventy miles from that spot to London. The name awakened a new train of ideas in the boy's mind.London!--that great place!--nobody--not even Mr. Bumble--could ever find him there! He had often heard the old men in the workhouse, too, say that no lad of spirit need want in London; and that there were ways of living in that vast city, which those who had been bred up in country parts had no idea of. It was the very place for a homeless boy, who must die in the streets unless some one helped him. As these things passed through his thoughts, he jumped upon his feet, and again walked forward. 他身边就是路碑，上边的大字表明此地距伦敦七十英里。伦敦，这个地名在奥立弗心中唤起了一连串新的想像。伦敦！--那地方大得不得了！--没有一个人--哪怕是邦布尔先生--能在那里找到自己。过去他常听济贫院里一些老头讲，血气方刚的小伙子在伦敦压根儿不愁吃穿，在那个大都市里，有的谋生之道是土生土长的乡巴佬想像不到的。对于一个无依无靠，如果得不到帮助就只能死在街头的孩子来说，伦敦是最合适的去处。这些东西从奥立弗脑海里掠过，他从地上跳起来，继续朝前走去。 He had diminished the distance between himself and London by full four miles more, before he recollected how much he must undergo ere he could hope to reach his place of destination. As this consideration forced itself upon him, he slackened his pace a little, and meditated upon his means of getting there. He had a crust of bread, a coarse shirt, and two pairs of stockings, in his bundle. He had a penny too--a gift of Sowerberry's after some funeral in which he had acquitted himself more than ordinarily well--in his pocket. 'A clean shirt,' thought Oliver, 'is a very comfortable thing; and so are two pairs of darned stockings; and so is a penny; but they small helps to a sixty-five miles' walk in winter time.' But Oliver's thoughts, like those of most other people, although they were extremely ready and active to point out his difficulties, were wholly at a loss to suggest any feasible mode of surmounting them; so, after a good deal of thinking to no particular purpose, he changed his little bundle over to the other shoulder, and trudged on. 到伦敦的距离缩短了足足四英里有余，到底还要走多久才能到目的地的念头冒了出来。他顾虑重重，步伐也随着放慢下来，心里老在琢磨自己到那儿去有些什么本钱。他有一片干面包和一件粗布衬衫，包袱里有两双长袜，口袋里还有一个便士--那是在一次葬礼后苏尔伯雷给的，那一次他发挥得异常出色。“一件干净衬衫，”奥立弗寻思着，“穿上肯定很舒服，两双长袜子，打过补丁，也还行，一个便士也挺不错。不过，这些东西对于冬天里走七十英里的路，可帮不了什么大忙。”但奥立弗的想法和大多数人碰上这类情形时一样，对于自己的难处，心中一点不糊涂，也不是漠然对待，却往往想不出任何行之有效的方法。奥立弗想了好半天仍不得要领，便把小包袱换换肩，拖着沉重的双腿往前走。 Oliver walked twenty miles that day; and all that time tasted nothing but the crust of dry bread, and a few draughts of water, which he begged at the cottage-doors by the road-side. When the night came, he turned into a meadow; and, creeping close under a hay-rick, determined to lie there, till morning. He felt frightened at first, for the wind moaned dismally over the empty fields: and he was cold and hungry, and more alone than he had ever felt before. Being very tired with his walk, however, he soon fell asleep and forgot his troubles. 一天下来，奥立弗走了二十英里，饿了啃两口干面包，渴了喝几口从路旁住户家里讨来的水。夜幕降临了，他拐进一片牧场，偷偷钻到一个干草堆底下，决定就在那里过夜。一开始他吓得心惊肉跳，晚风呜呜咽咽，一路哀号着掠过空旷的原野，他又冷又饿，孤独的感觉比以往任何时候都更加强烈，然而，他毕竟走得太疲倦了，不一会儿就睡着了，把烦恼忧愁全都抛到了脑后。 He felt cold and stiff, when he got up next morning, and so hungry that he was obliged to exchange the penny for a small loaf, in the very first village through which he passed. He had walked no more than twelve miles, when night closed in again. His feet were sore, and his legs so weak that they trembled beneath him. Another night passed in the bleak damp air, made him worse; when he set forward on his journey next morning he could hardly crawl along. 第二天早晨醒来的时候，他简直冻僵了，也饿得熬不过去了，他只好在经过的头一个村子就用那枚便士换了一个面包。他走了不到十二英里，夜幕就又垂落下来。他的双脚肿了，两条腿软得直哆嗦。又一个夜晚在阴冷潮湿的露天里度过，情况更糟糕了，当他天亮以后登上旅途时，几乎得要爬着走了。 
他在一座陡坡下停住，一直等到一辆公共马车开到近前。奥立弗求外座上的乘客给几个钱，可是没有几个人理睬。有人要他等一会，待马车开上坡了，再让他们瞧瞧，他为了半个便士跑得了多远。可怜的奥立弗竭力想跟上马车跑一小段路，然而由于疲乏，双脚肿痛，他连这一点也做不到。那几位外座乘客一看，又把半个便士放回钱包去了，并宣称他是一只懒惰的小狗，不配得到任何赏赐。马车嘎嗒嘎嗒地开走了，只在车后留下一团烟尘。 In some villages, large painted boards were fixed up: warning all persons who begged within the district, that they would be sent to jail. This frightened Oliver very much, and made him glad to get out of those villages with all possible expedition. In others, he would stand about the inn-yards, and look mournfully at every one who passed: a proceeding which generally terminated in the landlady's ordering one of the post-boys who were lounging about, to drive that strange boy out of the place, for she was sure he had come to steal something. If he begged at a farmer's house, ten to one but they threatened to set the dog on him; and when he showed his nose in a shop, they talked about the beadle--which brought Oliver's heart into his mouth,--very often the only thing he had there, for many hours together. 有几个村子里张挂着油漆的大木牌，上边警告说，凡在本地行乞者，一律处以监禁。奥立弗吓坏了，巴不得尽快离开这些村子。在另外一些村子，他站在旅店附近，眼巴巴地望着过往的每一个行人，老板娘照例要支使某个四下里闲逛的邮差来把这个陌生的孩子撵走，她断定这孩子是来偷东西的。若是上一户农家去讨点什么，别人十有八九会吓唬他，说是要唤狗出来咬他。他刚在一家铺子门口探了探头，就听见里边的人在议论教区干事如何如何--奥立弗的心好像一下子跳到了他的口中--而这往往是一连好几个钟头唯一进到他嘴里的东西。 In fact, if it had not been for a good-hearted turnpike-man, and a benevolent old lady, Oliver's troubles would have been shortened by the very same process which had put an end to his mother's; in other words, he would most assuredly have fallen dead upon the king's highway. But the turnpike-man gave him a meal of bread and cheese; and the old lady, who had a shipwrecked grandson wandering barefoot in some distant part of the earth, took pity upon the poor orphan, and gave him what little she could afford--and more--with such kind and gently words, and such tears of sympathy and compassion, that they sank deeper into Oliver's soul, than all the sufferings he had ever undergone. 说真的，要不是碰上一位好心肠的收税员和一位仁慈的老太太，奥立弗的苦难可能已经结束了，落得和他母亲一样的下场，换句话说就是，他必定已经死在通衢大道上了。那位收税员请他吃了一顿便饭，老太太有一个孙子，因船只失事流落异乡，她把这份心情倾注到可怜的孤儿身上，把拿得出来的东西都给了他--不仅如此--还说了一大堆体贴而亲切的话语，洒下了浸满同情与怜悯的泪水，此情此景胜过奥立弗以往遭受的一切痛苦，深深地沉人了他的心田。 Early on the seventh morning after he had left his native place, Oliver limped slowly into the little town of Barnet. The window-shutters were closed; the street was empty; not a soul had awakened to the business of the day. The sun was rising in all its splendid beauty; but the light only served to show the boy his own lonesomeness and desolation, as he sat, with bleeding feet and covered with dust, upon a door-step. 奥立弗离开故乡七天了。这天一大早，他一瘸一拐地走进小城巴涅特。各家各户的窗户紧闭着，街道上冷冷清清，还没有人起来做当天的生意。太阳升起来了，霞光五彩缤纷。然而，朝霞仅仅是使这个孩子看到，他自己是多么的孤独与凄凉，他坐在一个冰冷的台阶上，脚上的伤口在淌血，浑身沾满尘土。 By degrees, the shutters were opened; the window-blinds were drawn up; and people began passing to and fro. Some few stopped to gaze at Oliver for a moment or two, or turned round to stare at him as they hurried by; but none relieved him, or troubled themselves to inquire how he came there. He had no heart to beg. And there he sat. 沿街的窗板一扇扇打开了，窗帘也拉了上去，人们开始来来去去。有几位停下来，打量了奥立弗两眼，有的匆匆走过时扭头看看。没有一个人接济他，也没有人费心问一声他是怎么上这儿来的。他没有勇气去向人家乞讨，便一动不动地坐在那里。 
他蜷作一团，在台阶上坐了一阵子，街对面有那么多的酒馆，他感到有些纳闷（在巴涅特，每隔一个门面，或大或小就是一家酒馆），他无精打采地看着一辆辆马车开过去，心想这倒也真怪，他拿出超过自己年龄的勇气和决心，走了足足七天的路，马车却毫不费事，几个小时就走完了。就在这时，他猛一定神，看到几分钟前漫不经心从自己身边走过的一个少年又倒转回来，这功夫正在街对面仔仔细细地上下打量自己。奥立弗开初一点没在意，但少年一直盯着他看，奥立弗便抬起头来，也以专注的目光回敬对方。那孩子见了，就穿过马路，缓步走近奥立弗，说道：
| 
