【HP/FB 双语】GGAD通信集——三十五只猫头鹰(19)
我似乎逐渐养成了在圣诞节写信的习惯。很好，为一切狂欢吧、庆祝吧，将冬青与长春的藤蔓缠绕在一起，诸如此类。这可真是亮眼。人们仍旧犯着这个普遍的错误？将饮酒作乐与美德混作一谈？
I've heard wild stories. Apparently your Dark Lord was defeated by a one-year-old baby I think you dragged your feet on this one, Albus, and you didn't even have a dead sister for an excuse.
我听说了那些疯狂的故事。看来你的黑魔王被一个只有一岁的婴儿打败了？我想你这次一定磨磨蹭蹭了，阿不思，现在你甚至没有一个死去的妹妹来当作借口了。
But there I go again. After all these years, I thought I'd grown tired of mocking you. But you invite it so obligingly! And I will never quite cease to be angry at you. You seem to have confused that with hatred more than once.
但话又说回来。在历经过这些年以后，我本以为我已经疲于对你冷嘲热讽。结果你自己跑来找骂？！我大概永远无法再做到对你心平气和。而你，似乎不止一次将这种嘲弄与恨意混淆。
The Voldemort boy—no, but I suppose he isn't a boy anymore, is he He must be, what, at least forty by now Not dead yet Go off & finish the job, Dumbledore. Isn't that what you do
至于那个伏地魔小子——不，我想他大概不算是个孩子了，对吧？他现在一定有，嗯？至少四十岁了？怎么还没死？赶紧速战速决把这工作干完，邓布利多。你不就是做这个的吗？
As to remorse That is between myself and myself. Or what's left of myself. Wavy shadow of Gellert in the grimy narrow window, faded eyes, faded face, faded will—that's his concern. Just as your own burden of guilt is your business.
至于忏悔？这是我和我自己之间的事，或者说，这是我曾经遗留下来还未尽的东西。老盖勒特颤抖的阴影映在肮脏又狭窄的窗子上，凹陷的眼窝，瘦削的脸颊，还有几近消弭的意志——那是他自己的事。就像你背负的罪责从来只属于你自己一样。
How on earth did your fair island spawn its own Dark Lord anyway Wee from the wilds of the North, as a general rule.
你们那好好的岛上到底是怎么弄出来一个黑魔王的？一般来说，我们这种人来自北方的旷野。
Don't waste your sincerity, seeing as it's so rare. I'm the same as always. How could I be anything else
还是别浪费你那点少得可怜的真诚了。我一直都是老样子，不然呢？
注：
1.感觉GG第一段里的“very well”是讽刺意。
2.其实这时候老伏已经50多岁了，时间线记载，汤姆里德尔的出生日期在1926年12月31日。
3.“&”叫and。来源于拉丁语et （意为and）的连写，是指逻辑上表示两者属于缺一不可的关系。
4.那句“Or what's left of myself”实在是不会翻译了，问了一遍英语老师，说得也很模棱两可。评论区欢迎探讨。再者真的没想到有一天会因为做翻译去请教语文老师（扶额），初中毕业之后都快把省略句的重复类型忘完了……
第二十六只猫头鹰
February 2nd, 1982
Gellert,
盖勒特，
My sincerity is mine, to do with as I will; if I spend it on an old, angry friend, that is my choice. And—I have more of it than you think, I swear, somehow I do. I always try to be better.
决定真诚与否的权利在我手里，怎样抉择也全凭我的意志；如果我真的想要把这份诚恳交付给一位怒气冲冲的老朋友，那也是我的选择。另外——我所拥有的诚心比你想象得要多，我发誓，无论我会如何使用它。我一直试着做得更好一些。
As for England spawning a Dark Lord—
至于说英格兰是怎样孕育出一个黑魔王的——
I'd had my suspicions, ever since I first met him. He was eleven; I was sent to contact him, in the Muggle world, inform him of his eptance into Hogwarts and a world he'd never known. Even then, he was hungry, suspicious, cruel just under the surface. Off-putting. Sorted into Slytherin, and I wondered; and I thought of keeping an eye on him. But I was such a meddling, sanctimonious old bastard, wasn't I Always poking my long broken nose into other people's business, always making things worse when I did.
自从第一次见到他，我就有所怀疑了。他当时只有十一岁；我被派去从麻瓜世界接回他，告知他另一个其从未领略过的世界，以及他被霍格沃茨录取的消息。甚至在那时，他就已经是充满渴求的，多疑的，残忍蛰伏在外表之下蠢蠢欲动，令人生厌。正如我所料，他被分进了斯莱特林；我在他身上多留了个心眼。可我就是一个爱管闲事、道貌岸然的老混蛋，不是吗？总是把我那被打折了的长鼻子伸到别人那里，指手画脚，把一切都搅得更糟。
He learned, he grew, into what he was to be, at Hogwarts, even as I taught. He made his first Horcrux right under my selfsame nose, and I wasn't paying attention. Because Europe was groaning under your yoke; because I wrestled with the necessity of challenging you; because I didn't want to meddle in yet another child's life.
他学习着，成长着，逐渐长成他后来的样子，就在霍格沃茨，甚至是在我的教导之下。他做出了他的第一个魂器，而且就在我那条长鼻子底下，可我浑然不觉。因为那时整个欧洲都在你的枷锁下哀嚎着；因为我正为要不要出手阻止你而挣扎着；因为我不想再插手另一个孩子的人生……
Oh, I tell myself it wouldn't have made a difference if I had. Or that it would have made things worse. But my country fell to a Dark Lord until—yes, stopped by an infant—because I didn't stop him soon enough,because I didn't stay his hand when he was still a child , still learning his ways. Because I was trying to be better.