双语：7位文学泰斗的儿童绘本故事二

2014年08月01日14:36 新浪教育收藏本文

　　1.奥尔德斯·赫胥黎 ALDOUS HUXLEY

　　奥尔德斯·赫胥黎的代表作是1932年出版的《美好新世界》，这是一部对未来主义以及科技如何改变社会的重要著作。他对儿童文学同样痴迷。1967年，赫胥黎逝世后的第三年，兰登书屋出版了他23年前写的唯一一本童书《梨花大道的乌鸦一家》。这部书讲述了乌鸦夫妇俩的蛋从来孵化不出，因为住在树底下的响尾蛇一直偷吃他们的蛋。第297枚蛋被吃掉之后，这对满怀希望的父母终于展开谋杀响尾蛇的行动，并号召他们的朋友猫头鹰先生前来相助。猫头鹰先生用泥土烘制了两颗石蛋，涂上颜料，让他们看起来跟乌鸦夫妇的蛋一模一样。响尾蛇上当了，不一会儿就疼的打滚儿，在树枝上缠成几个结。乌鸦妈妈高兴的去孵蛋了，一共“四波蛋，每波17枚”，而缠在书上的响尾蛇则被她当成晒乌鸦宝宝尿布的晾衣绳。

　　Aldous Huxley may be best known for his iconic 1932 novel Brave New World, one of the most important meditations on futurism and how technology is changing society ever published, but he was also deeply fascinated by children’s fiction. In 1967, three years after Huxley’s death, Random House released a posthumous volume of the only children’s book he ever wrote, some 23 years earlier. The Crows of Pearblossom tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Crow, whose eggs never hatch because the Rattlesnake living at the base of their tree keeps eating them. After the 297th eaten egg, the hopeful parents set out to kill the snake and enlist the help of their friend, Mr. Owl, who bakes mud into two stone eggs and paints them to resemble the Crows’ eggs. Upon eating them, the Rattlesnake is in so much pain that he beings to thrash about, tying himself in knots around the branches. Mrs. Crow goes merrily on to hatch “four families of 17 children each,” using the snake “as a clothesline on which to hang the little crows’ diapers。”

《梨花大道的乌鸦一家》

《梨花大道的乌鸦一家》插图

　　后来的芭芭拉·库尼为原版创作插图，但今春的新版以索菲·布莱克奥的插画为主。她是我最喜欢的艺术家之一，网站上曾经介绍过她无比可爱的插画作品。

　　The original volume was illustrated by the late Barbara Cooney, but a new edition published this spring features artwork by Sophie Blackall, one of my favorite artists, whose utterly lovely illustrations of Craigslist missed connections you might recall。