The silent village 沉默的村莊

In this much-travelled world, there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists. We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable. But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers. Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable -- as my wife and I discovered during a tour through the Balkans.

We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of old churches in the vicinity. These attracted many visitors, for they were not only of great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifully preserved frescoes as well. On the day before our departure, several bus loads of tourists descended on the town. This was more than we could bear, so we decided to spend our last day exploring the countryside. Taking a path which led out of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood. We expected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way through the trees. We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at a deep stream. We could see that the path continued on the other side, but we had no idea how we could get across the stream. Suddenly my wife spotted a boat moored to the bank. In it there was a boatman fast asleep. We gently woke him up and asked him to ferry us to the other side. Though he was reluctant to do so at first, we eventually persuaded him to take us.

The path led to a tiny village perched on the steep sides of a mountain. The place consisted of a straggling unmade road which was lined on either side by small houses. Even under a clear blue sky, the village looked forbidding, as all the houses were built of grey mud bricks. The village seemed deserted, the only sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat on a short length of rope tied to a tree in a field nearby. Sitting down on a dilapidated wooden fence near the field, we opened a couple of tins of sardines and had a picnic lunch. All at once, I noticed that my wife seemed to be filled with alarm. Looking up I saw that we were surrounded by children in rags who were looking at us silently as we ate. We offered them food and spoke to them kindly, but they remained motionless. I concluded that they were simply shy of strangers. When we later walked down the main street of the village, we were followed by a silent procession of children. The village which had seemed deserted, immediately came to life. Faces appeared at windows. Men in shirt sleeves stood outside their houses and glared at us. Old women in black shawls peered at us from doorways. The most frightening thing of all was that not a sound could be heard. There was no doubt that we were unwelcome visitors. We needed no further warning. Turning back down the main street, we quickened our pace and made our way rapidly towards the stream where we hoped the boatman was waiting.

New words and expressions 生詞與短語

inaccessible

adj. 難接近的,達不到的

hospitable

adj. 不好客的

hostile

adj. 不友好的,有敵意的

vicinity

n. 周圍,近鄰

architectural

adj. 建筑的

fresco

n. 壁畫

abruptly

adv. 突然地,意外地

tramp

v. 徒步行進

moor

v. (用繩、鏈、錨)系(船)

ferry

v. (用渡船)運

straggle

v. 蔓延，散亂分布

sardine

n. 沙丁魚，沙丁魚罐頭

rag

n. 破爛衣服

procession

adj. 不動的

shawl

n. 披巾，圍巾

peer

v. 凝視，盯著

quicken

v. 加快

本文參考譯文

在這個旅游頻繁的世界上，仍有成千上萬個游人足跡未至的地方。人們總是以為偏僻的地方的村民們熱情好客。但是，那些不但與外國旅游者隔絕，而且與本國同胞隔絕的人們有可能對游客抱有敵意。到真正偏僻的村莊去旅游并不是一件愉快的事情。我與妻子在一次周游巴爾干半島時對此深有體會。

我們在一座小鎮(zhèn)上逗留了幾天，參觀了附近的許多古老的教堂。這些教堂吸引大量游客，不僅是因為建筑風(fēng)格奇特，而且還有大量保存完好的壁畫。我們離開小鎮(zhèn)的前一天，鎮(zhèn)上來了幾輛滿載游客的公共汽車。人多得使我們難以忍受，于是我們決定利用最后一天去鄉(xiāng)間一游。我們走上了一條出鎮(zhèn)的小路，穿過幾塊農(nóng)田，來到一片茂密的樹林。我們原以為小路會到此突然終止。沒想到它到樹林中繼續(xù)向前延伸。我們在樹林中跋涉了兩個多小時，到了一條深溪邊。我們可以看到小路在深溪對岸繼續(xù)向前伸展，但卻不知如何越過這道深溪。突然，妻子發(fā)現(xiàn)岸邊泊著一條小船，船上有一船夫在呼呼大睡。我們輕輕地把他喚醒，請他把我們擺渡過溪。一開始，他很不愿意，但經(jīng)勸說，終于同意了。

順著小路，我們來到一個座落在陡峭山坡上的小村莊。這兒有一條未經(jīng)修筑的彎彎曲曲的道路，路兩邊排列著一些矮小的農(nóng)舍。農(nóng)舍全用灰色的土坯建成，因此，即使在晴朗的藍天底下，村莊看上去也會令人感到難以親近。村里似乎無人居住，唯一的生命跡象是附近田里一只面目可憎的黑山羊，用一截短繩拴在一棵樹上。我們在田邊一堵東倒西歪的籬笆墻上坐下來，打開幾聽沙丁魚罐頭，吃了一頓野外午餐。突然，我注意到妻子十分驚恐。我抬頭一看，發(fā)現(xiàn)我們被一群衣衫襤褸的小孩團團圍住了，他們在默不作聲地看著我們吃飯。我們給他們東西吃，客客氣氣地同他們交談，但他們卻一動也不動。我認為這不過是他們在陌生人面前表現(xiàn)出的害羞。后來，我們在村里的主要街道上行走的時候，一隊默不作聲的孩子跟在我們后頭。剛才還似乎空蕩蕩的村莊一下子活躍了起來，窗口露出了一張張面孔，只穿著襯衣的男人們站在屋子外面兇狠地盯著我們，披黑紗巾的老婦人站在門口偷偷地瞅著我們。最令人害怕的是到處沒有一點聲音。毫無疑問，我們的來訪是不受歡迎的。我們不需要進一步的警告了。便掉轉(zhuǎn)身子，沿著那條主要街道加快步伐，快速地朝深溪邊走去，希望船夫還在那兒等著我們。

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