《Bridge to Terabithia》

仙境之桥

作者：凯塞琳·帕特森 (Katherine Paterson)

[美国]

美国文坛20世纪备受称赞的经典小说之一，在全世界销售了200万本。该小说曾荣获纽伯瑞儿童文学奖。

内容简介

十岁的男孩杰西住在乡下农场，有四个姐妹与永远做不完的家事。他喜欢绘画，但不被认可，郁闷的他想要通过赛跑夺冠证明自己的价值。但女孩莱斯莉却在开学第一天就打败了他。沉默寡言的杰西一度对开朗不羁的莱斯莉很反感，但两个“怪胎”却渐渐成为莫逆之交。

节选一

Of course he was going to run. He had gotten up early every day all summer to run. He figured if he worked at it -- and Lord, had he worked -- he could be the fastest runner in the fifth grade when school opened up. He had to be the fastest -- not one of the fastest or next to the fastest, but the fastest. The very best.

他当然是去跑步啦。整个暑假，他每天都很早起床，去跑步。他盘算着，如果下点功夫——上帝，他已经下功夫了——开学以后，就能是五年级跑得最快的了。他必须是最快的——不是最快的之一，更不是第二，而是最快的。那个唯一的最快的。

节选二

Jess drew the way some people drink whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body. Lord, he loved to draw. Animals, mostly. Not regular animals like Miss Bessie or the chickens, but crazy animals with problems -- for some reason he liked to put his beasts into impossible fixes. This one was a hippopotamus just leaving the edge of the cliff, turning over and over -- you could tell by the curving lines -- in the air toward the sea below where surprised fish were leaping goggle-eyed out of the water. There was a balloon over the hippopotamus -- where his head should have been but his bottom actually was --"Oh!" it was saying. "I seem to have forgot my glasses."

杰斯画画的时候和有些人喝了威士忌一样。脑子里先是杂乱无章的，平和的心情从头顶开始，经过疲倦而紧张的身体徐徐地往下渗。上帝，他爱画画，画的大多数是动物。他画的动物，不是小母牛贝茜小姐或小鸡那样正常的动物，而是有问题的怪物——由于某种原因，他喜欢让他画出来的动物处在不可能发生的困境中。比如，这是一头河马，刚刚飞越一个个山峰——你可以从一道道曲线辨认出来——跳出了悬崖的边缘，在空中扑向下面的大海，海里的鱼惊恐得瞪大眼睛，跳出了水面。河马的上边有一个气球——就在原本应该是河马头的地方，但它的臀部却正在——“噢！”它正在说：“我似乎忘记戴眼镜了。”

节选三

Miss Edmunds was one of his secrets. He was in love with her. Not the kind of silly stuff Ellie and Brenda giggled about on the telephone. This was too real and too deep to talk about, even to think about very much. Her long swishy black hair and blue, blue eyes. She could play the guitar like a regular recording star, and she had this soft floaty voice that made Jess squish inside. Lord, she was gorgeous. And she liked him, too.

艾徳梦丝小姐是他的秘密之一。他爱她，不是艾丽和布兰达在电话里咯咯傻笑地谈着的那种无聊内容。这太真诚，太深刻了，不能说的，甚至想也不能想得太多。她有漂亮的黑色长发，蓝而又蓝的眼睛。她弹吉他像经常录唱片的明星，她的声音那么柔和、悦耳，有一种漂浮的感觉，使杰斯的内心吱扭吱扭直响。上帝，她真是绚烂多彩，使人十分愉快。而且，她也喜欢他。

节选四

It was a beautiful spring morning. Early wildflowers were dotting the deep green of the fields, and the sky was clean and blue. The creek had fallen well below the bank and seemed less terrifying than before. A large branch was washed up into the bank, and he hauled it up to the narrowest place and laid it bank to bank. He stepped on it, and it seemed firm, so he crossed on it, foot over foot, to the other side, grabbing the smaller branches which grew out from the main one toward the opposite bank to keep his balance. There was no sign of his paints.

那是一个美丽的春晨。清晨开放的野花，点缀着深绿的田野，蔚蓝的天空上飘着几朵白云。小溪的水位降了下去，露出了浅滩，显得没有那么可怕了。他把一根被溪水冲到岸边的很大的树枝拖到了溪流最窄的地方，架起了一座简易的桥。他踩了上去，树枝依旧很牢固，于是他一步一步，扶着树枝上的侧枝，走向了对岸。没有任何颜料的迹象。