March 15th, 1957

1957年3月15日

Albus—

阿不思——

So you've got yourself a baby Dark Lord on the fair Isles of Alba? Then it would seem you should beware the Ides of March.

所以，你在正义的阿尔巴半岛上拥有了一个黑魔王宝宝？看来你需要小心3月15日这一天了。

I wonder—will you go after Voldemort now, as a vigilante, in the good ten years or so before the officials will have any idea what's going on, or will you play it safe, bide your time, and watch the first deaths? Either way I'm sure that inflamed conscience of yours will suffer. Give it a sherbet lemon and spare us.

我想知道——你现在要逮捕伏地魔吗，像一个义务警员那样，在那些什么主意也没有的官员们反应过来之前，在他成为黑魔王的最初十年打败他；或者你谨慎一点，等待时机，直到出现第一个受害者？无论哪种，我能肯定的是，你的良心都过不去。给它一个柠檬雪宝，放过我们吧。

The boy has a lot of power and little imagination. You and I, at least, never lacked in the latter department. Part of why we were magnificent.

这个男孩有着强大的力量和少得可怜的想象力。至少你和我从不缺少这个。这也是你我为什么能够有如此成就。

The more I read these Muggle books of yours, the more I am bewildered. All this time they spend on their cultural conceits, their literature and arts, their social niceties, their limited, supposedly scientific ways of understanding the world without magic. I suppose it is what people do when they do not have magic? Yet without magic, what is the point of it? A wizard with a violin can alter reality itself, but a Muggle with the same is limited to simply affecting the emotions of his fellow-kind. And two Muggles arguing over commas change nothing, but two wizards revising a spell structure can change the world.

你寄来的那些麻瓜书，我越读越感到迷惑不解。他们的文明浪费了大量的时间在他们的文化自负，虚构的文学艺术和繁复的社交礼节上，他们是受限的，所以只能脱离魔法使用所谓的“科学”来理解这个世界。我想这也许就是人们在没有魔法的世界中才会做的事？但是，如果没有魔法，这一切又有什么意义呢？一个巫师拥有一架小提琴，他可以用魔法改变它的本质；而麻瓜拥有它则仅仅能在一定程度上影响同类的情绪。两个麻瓜关于一个小韵脚的争论什么也改变不了；而两个巫师改进的一句咒语却能改变世界。

Is this your lesson, Albus, when you sent me these books? To teach me to pity them in their small worlds? How ineffective they are?

这就是你想要告诉我的吗，阿不思，你给我寄来这些书就是为了这个？要教我为他们狭小的世界感到悲哀？看到他们对这个世界有多么无能为力？

My heart was untangled with—It—in my hand. Without It now, without the surety of magic—

当我手中握着——它——的时候，我的内心清明。现在我失去它了，没有了魔法的保障——

How?

怎么办？

How does one live?

一个人该如何生活下去？

The landscape out my window has changed in twelve years, though how much I cannot say. My thoughts slip and slide away from me. One would think they would have nowhere to go, with shield charms thick as goblin steel through my walls. You always used to say you'd get a Pensieve one day—

在这十二年的时间里，窗外的风景早已发生了改变，但是我说不上来变了多少。我的思维渐渐从身体中流逝。牢墙上的防御魔咒密如妖精的金库，谁被关在这里都无路可逃。你过去总说你一定要有一个冥想盆——

My Nurmengard will not break me, Albus, and neither shall you. Go, deal with your whippersnapper of a Dark Lord. I'm just a rotting—am I really an old man now? I suppose I am. Well, in my day we had to go up hill both ways in the snow to conquer countries.

我的纽蒙伽德摧毁不了我，阿不思，你也不能。去吧，去解决你那妄自尊大的黑魔王吧。我不过是一个正在慢慢腐烂的——我现在真的是个老人了吗？我想是的。啊，在我的时代，为了征服世界，我们也都不得不餐风啮雪艰难跋涉。

Crochetily yours,

带着钩针花边的，你的，

注：

1.Ides：罗马历法中的月中日。

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第15章 Gellert Grindelwald