MY father’s family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister - Mrs Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, `Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,’ I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine - who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle - I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond, was the river; and that the distant savagelair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.
`Hold your noise!’ cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. `Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!’
A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
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6
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“噢,先生,不要扭断我的脖子,”我惊恐地哀求着,“请你不要这样对待我,先生,我求你了。”
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6
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`O! Don’t cut my throat, sir,’ I pleaded in terror. `Pray don’t do it, sir.’
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7
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“告诉我你叫什么名字!”那个人说道,“快讲!”
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7
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`Tell us your name!’ said the man. `Quick!’
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8
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“我叫皮普,先生。”
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8
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`Pip, sir.’
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9
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“你再说一遍!”那人说着,目光紧紧地盯住我,“张开嘴说清楚些。”
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9
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`Once more,’ said the man, staring at me. `Give it mouth!’
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10
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“皮普,皮普,先生。”
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10
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`Pip. Pip, sir.’
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11
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“告诉我你住在哪里,”那人说道,“把方向指给我看!”
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11
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`Show us where you live,’ said the man. `Pint out the place!’
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12
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我把我们村子的位置指给他看。村子就坐落在距离教堂一英里多远的平坦河岸上,四周矗立着赤杨树和截梢树。
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12
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I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself - for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet - when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.
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14
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“你这条小狗,”他一面舔着嘴唇,一面说道,“你这张小脸蛋倒生得肥肥的。”
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14
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`You young dog,’ said the man, licking his lips, `what fat cheeks you ha’ got.’
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15
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从我的年龄来说,虽然我的个头不大,体质也不强壮,但是我的脸蛋儿确实有些肥。
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15
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I believe they were fat, though I was at that time undersized for my years, and not strong.
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“他妈的,我吃不了你的脸蛋儿才怪呢,”他说着,威胁性地摇晃了一下脑袋,“我真想把你这脸蛋吃掉。”
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16
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`Darn Me if I couldn’t eat em,’ said the man, with a threatening shake of his head, `and if I han’t half a mind to’t!’
I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn’t, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly, to keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.
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18
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“看着我,”那人说道,“你妈妈在什么地方?”
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18
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`Now lookee here!’ said the man. `Where’s your mother?’
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19
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“在那里,先生。”我答道。
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19
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`There, sir!’ said I.
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20
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听了我的话,他大吃一惊,立刻拔脚就逃,跑了几步又停下来,口过头看了看。
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20
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He started, made a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder.
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21
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“就在那里,先生!”我心惊肉跳地向他解释着,“那里写着乔其雅娜几个字,那就是我的妈妈。”
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21
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`There, sir!’ I timidly explained. `Also Georgiana. That’s my mother.’
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22
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“噢!”他说道,又跑了回来,“那么和你妈妈葬在一起的是你的爸爸喽?”
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22
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`Oh!’ said he, coming back. `And is that your father alonger your mother?’
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23
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我答道:“一点不错,先生,是我爸爸。那里写着‘已故的本教区居民’。”
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23
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`Yes, sir,’ said I; `him too; late of this parish.’
After darkly looking at his leg and me several times, he came closer to my tombstone, took me by both arms, and tilted me back as far as he could hold me; so that his eyes looked most powerfully down into mine, and mine looked most helplessly up into his.
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28
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他对我说道:“仔细听着,现在的问题是究竟让不让你活。我问你,你懂不懂什么是锉子?”
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`Now lookee here,’ he said, `the question being whether you’re to be let to live. You know what a file is?’
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29
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“懂,先生。”
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29
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`Yes, sir.’
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30
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“我再问你,你懂不懂什么是食物?”
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30
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`And you know what wittles is?’
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“懂,先生。”
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31
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`Yes, sir.’
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32
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他每提出一个问题,便把我的身体向后按一点儿,为的是使我感到无路可走,危险迫在眼前。
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After each question he titled me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger.
`You get me a file.’ He tilted me again. `And you get me wittles.’ He tilted me again. `You bring ’em both to me.’ He tilted me again. `Or I’ll have your heart and liver out.’ He tilted me again.
I was dreadfully frightened, and so giddy that I clung to him with both hands, and said, `If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn’t be sick, and perhaps I could attend more.’
He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather-cock. Then, he held me by the arms, in an upright position on the top of the stone, and went on in these fearful terms:
`You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them wittles. You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder. You do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a sign concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any person sumever, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate. Now, I ain’t alone, as you may think I am. There’s a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am a Angel. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him open. I am a keeping that young man from harming of you at the present moment, with great difficulty. I find it wery hard to hold that young man off of your inside. Now, what do you say?’
I said that I would get him the file, and I would get him what broken bits of food I could, and I would come to him at the Battery, early in the morning.
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38
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“那么你发誓,要是你不送来,天主就用雷电劈死你。”那人说道。
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38
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`Say Lord strike you dead if you don’t!’ said the man.
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39
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我照他的活起了誓,他这才把我从墓碑顶上抱下来,并且继续说道:
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39
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I said so, and he took me down.
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40
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“听着,不要忘记你说过的话、该做的事;也不要忘记那个年轻人。现在,你可以回家了。”
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40
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`Now,’ he pursued, `you remember what you’ve undertook, and you remember that young man, and you get home!’
At the same time, he hugged his shuddering body in both his arms - clasping himself, as if to hold himself together - and limped towards the low church wall. As I saw him go, picking his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds, he looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in.
When he came to the low church wall, he got over it, like a man whose legs were numbed and stiff, and then turned round to look for me. When I saw him turning, I set my face towards home, and made the best use of my legs. But presently I looked over my shoulder, and saw him going on again towards the river, still hugging himself in both arms, and picking his way with his sore feet among the great stones dropped into the marshes here and there, for stepping-places when the rains were heavy, or the tide was in.
The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad not yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. On the edge of the river I could faintly make out the only two black things in all the prospect that seemed to be standing upright; one of these was the beacon by which the sailors steered - like an unhooped cask upon a pole - an ugly thing when you were near it; the other a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate. The man was limping on towards this latter, as if he were the pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook himself up again. If gave me a terrible turn when I thought so; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze after him, I wondered whether they thought so too. I looked all round for the horrible young man, and could see no sings of him. But, now I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping.