How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin

Once upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick.

从前，在红海岸边一座荒无人烟的小岛上，住着一个帕西人，他帽子上反射出的阳光，比东方的光辉还要灿烂夺目。这个帕西人住在红海边，身边只有他的帽子、他的小刀，还有一个绝对不能随便乱碰的炉子。有一天，他拿来面粉、水、醋栗、李子、糖之类的东西，给自己做了一个饼，那饼足有两英尺宽、三英尺厚。

It was indeed a Superior Comestible (that’s magic), and he put it on stove because he was allowed to cook on the stove, and he baked it and he baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental. But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight.

那真是一份上等美味（这可是有魔力的），他把它放在炉子上，因为他被允许在炉子上做饭，他就这么烤啊烤，一直烤到饼变得焦黄，闻起来香气扑鼻、格外诱人。可就在他正要吃这块饼的时候，从那片彻头彻尾荒无人烟的内陆走出一只犀牛，来到了海滩上，它鼻子上长着一只角，一双猪一样的小眼睛，而且完全不懂礼貌。那时候，犀牛的皮肤还是紧紧贴在身上的。

There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah’s Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners. He said, ‘How!’ and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour.

皮肤上一道皱纹都没有。它看起来简直就像诺亚方舟里那种犀牛，只是要大得多罢了。尽管如此，它那时候没有礼貌，现在也没有礼貌，将来也永远不会有礼貌。它说了声“喂！”，帕西人便丢下那块饼，只穿着那顶帽子——那顶总是反射出比东方光辉更灿烂阳光的帽子——爬到了棕榈树顶上去了。

And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate:—

犀牛用鼻子把那炉子撞翻了，饼便滚落到沙地上，它用鼻子上的角把饼叉起来，吃了个精光，然后摇着尾巴，扬长而去，回到了那片荒凉、彻底无人居住的内陆，那地方紧挨着马赞德兰群岛、索科特拉岛，以及大分点海角。随后帕西人从棕榈树上爬下来，把炉子重新扶正，念诵了下面这首偈语，既然你们从未听过，我现在就讲给你们听——

Them that takes cakes Which the Parsee-man bakes Makes dreadful mistakes.

拿走帕西人 烤出来的饼的家伙， 定会铸下大错。

And there was a great deal more in that than you would think.

这里头的深意，可比你们想的要多得多。

Because, five weeks later, there was a heat wave in the Red Sea, and everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his hat; but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake, because he had eaten it all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward. He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.

因为五个星期之后，红海掀起了一股热浪，人人都脱掉了身上所有的衣服。帕西人脱下了他的帽子；可是犀牛却脱下了自己的皮，扛在肩膀上，下到海滩去洗澡。那时候，犀牛的皮下面用三颗纽扣扣着，看起来就像一件雨衣。它对帕西人的那块饼只字未提，因为它早已把饼吃了个精光；而且它从来没有礼貌，无论是那时候、后来，还是往后。它大摇大摆地径直走进水里，用鼻子吹起了泡泡，把自己的皮留在了沙滩上。

Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands. Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp.

不一会儿，帕西人走了过来，发现了那张皮，脸上顿时绽开一个绕了脸庞两圈的笑容。接着他绕着那张皮跳了三圈舞，搓了搓双手。然后他回到自己的营地，往帽子里装满了饼渣，因为这帕西人除了饼什么都不吃，而且从来不打扫营地。

He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on.

他拿起那张皮，抖了又抖，擦了又擦，搓了又搓，尽可能地把那些又陈又干又硬、扎人得很的饼渣，还有一些烧焦的醋栗，统统塞进了皮里，塞得满满当当。然后他爬到棕榈树顶上，等着犀牛从水里出来，把皮重新穿上。

And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against it.

犀牛果然穿上了皮。它用三颗纽扣把皮扣好，那些饼渣就像床上的饼屑一样，扎得它痒痒的。它想挠一挠，可这样只会更痒；于是它躺到沙地上，翻来滚去、滚个不停，可它每滚一次，那些饼渣就把它扎得更痒、更痒、更痒。于是它跑到棕榈树旁，拼命地在树干上蹭啊蹭啊蹭。

He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his temper, but it didn’t make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside.

它蹭得如此用力、如此频繁，竟把自己的皮蹭出了一道大大的褶皱，横在肩膀上，肩膀下面又蹭出了一道褶皱，那正是原先扣纽扣的地方（因为纽扣都被它蹭掉了），它还在腿上蹭出了好几道褶皱。这可把它的脾气弄得糟透了，可对那些饼渣却丝毫没有影响。它们仍旧留在皮里面，痒得它难受。于是它气冲冲地回了家，浑身痒得难以忍受；从那天起直到今天，每一只犀牛的皮肤上都布满了大大的褶皱，脾气也十分暴躁，这一切都是因为皮里藏着那些饼渣的缘故。

But the Parsee came down from his palm-tree, wearing his hat, from which the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, packed up his cooking-stove, and went away in the direction of Orotavo, Amygdala, the Upland Meadows of Anantarivo, and the Marshes of Sonaput.

而帕西人则从棕榈树上下来，依旧戴着那顶反射出比东方光辉更灿烂阳光的帽子，收拾好他的炊具，朝着奥罗塔沃、阿米格达拉、阿南塔里沃高原草甸，以及索纳普特沼泽的方向走去了。

This Uninhabited Island Is off Cape Gardafui, By the Beaches of Socotra And the Pink Arabian Sea: But it’s hot—too hot from Suez For the likes of you and me Ever to go In a P. and O. And call on the Cake-Parsee!

这座荒无人烟的小岛， 就在加尔达富伊角外， 挨着索科特拉岛的海滩， 傍着那片粉红色的阿拉伯海： 可是啊——从苏伊士吹来的风实在太热， 像你我这样的人， 断然不会 乘着邮轮， 去拜访那位烤饼的帕西人！