"Why can't you?" asked the pig. "I'm right here."
“你為什么看不清我？”小豬問。“我就在這兒呀。”

"Yes, but I'm near-sighted," replied Charlotte. "I've always been dreadfully near-sighted. It's good in some ways, not so good in others. Watch me wrap up this fly."
“是的，不過我近視，”夏洛回答。“我的近視十分嚴重。這對我既有好處，也有壞處。你看我來抓住這只蒼蠅。”

A fly that had been crawling along Wilbur's trough had flown up and blundered into the lower part of Charlotte's web and was tangled in the sticky threads. The fly was beating its wings furiously, trying to break loose and free itself.
一只剛才在威伯的食槽邊上爬的蒼蠅飛了起來，卻愚蠢地碰上了夏洛的網(wǎng)，被那些粘粘的絲線纏住了。蒼蠅憤怒地拍打著翅膀，想要掙脫。

"First," said Charlotte, "I dive at him." She plunged headfirst toward the fly. As she dropped, a tiny silken thread unwound from her rear end.
“首先，”夏洛說，“我要悄悄靠近他。”她慢慢地頭朝下往蒼蠅那里爬去。在她往下蕩的時候，一根細絲線從她的尾部抽了出來。

"Next, I wrap him up." She grabbed the fly, threw a few jets of silk around it, and rolled it over and over, wrapping it so that it couldn't move. Wilbur watched in horror. He could hardly believe what he was seeing, and although he detested flies, he was sorry for this one.
“接著，我要把他包起來。”她抓住蒼蠅，往他身上纏了幾道黑絲線，絲線越繞越密，直到裹得蒼蠅一動也不能動。威伯驚恐地看著這一切。他幾乎不敢相信他所看到的場面，盡管他也憎恨蒼蠅，可還是為這只蒼蠅感到難過。

"There!" said Charlotte. "Now I knock him out, so he'll be more comfortable." She bit the fly. "He can't feel a thing now," she remarked. "He'll make a perfect breakfast for me."
“看，”夏洛說。“現(xiàn)在我要把他弄暈，他就會覺得舒服點兒了。”她咬了蒼蠅一口。“他現(xiàn)在毫無知覺了，”她說，“他將是我的一頓美味的早餐。”

"You mean you eat flies?" gasped Wilbur.
“你是說你吃蒼蠅？”威伯喘了起來。

"Certainly. Flies, bugs, grasshoppers, choice beetles, moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, midges, daddy longlegs, centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets--anything that is careless enough to get caught in my web. I have to live, don't I?"
“當(dāng)然。蒼蠅，小蟲子，蚱蜢，漂亮的甲蟲，飛蛾，蝴蝶，可口的蟑螂，蚊子，小咬兒，長腳蚊子，麻蚊子，蟋蟀——任何粗心地撞到我網(wǎng)上的小昆蟲我都吃。我總得吃飯吧，是不是？”

"Why, yes, of course," said Wilbur. "Do they taste good?"
“為什么？哦，是的，當(dāng)然。”威伯說。“他們的味道美嗎？”

"Delicious. Of course, I don't really eat them. I drink them--drink their blood. I love blood," said Charlotte, and her pleasant, thin voice grew even thinner and more pleasant.
“美妙極了。當(dāng)然，我不是真的吃掉他們。我喝他們——喝他們的血。我喜歡喝血，”夏洛說。她的聲音聽起來越來越清脆，越來越快活了。

"Don't say that!" groaned Wilbur. "Please don't say things like that!"
“別再說下去了！”威伯呻吟。“請不要講這件事兒了！”

"Why not? It's true, and I have to say what is true. I am not entirely happy about my diet of flies and bugs, but it's the way I'm made. A spider has to pick up a living somehow or other, and I happen to be a trapper. I just naturally build a web and trap flies and other insects. My mother was a trapper before me. Her mother was a trapper before her. All our family have been trappers. Way back for thousands and thousands of years we spiders have been laying for flies and bugs."
“為什么不？真的，我說的是真的。雖然我也不愿意吃蒼蠅和小蟲子，但那是我的生存方式。一個蜘蛛必須要設(shè)法謀生，而我恰巧可以作一名捕獵者。我生來就會織網(wǎng)，用它來捕食蒼蠅和別的昆蟲。在我之前，我的媽媽是一個捕獵者；在她之前，她的媽媽也是。我們?nèi)叶际遣东C者。千百萬年以前，我們蜘蛛就靠捕食蒼蠅和蟲子為生了。”

"It's a miserable inheritance," said Wilbur, gloomily. He was sad because his new friend was so bloodthirsty.
“那是多么可悲的遺傳。”威伯幽幽地說。他真為新朋友的殘忍難過。

"Yes, it is," agreed charlotte. "But I can't help it. I don't know how the first spider in the early days of the world happened to think up this fancy idea of spinning a web, but she did, and it was clever of her, too. And since then, all of us spiders have had to work the same trick. It's not a bad pitch, on the whole."
“是的，”夏洛表示同意。“但我也沒辦法改變這特性。我不知道世上最早的第一只蜘蛛是怎么想出織網(wǎng)這個奇妙的主意的，可是她卻想出來了，她可真聰明。從那時起，我們所有的蜘蛛都會這么做了。總的來說，這個發(fā)明不壞。”

"It's cruel," replied Wilbur, who did not intend to be argued out of his position.
“這是殘酷的發(fā)明。”威伯簡捷地回答。他并不打算為此而爭論。

"Well, you can't talk," said Charlotte. "You have your meals brought to you in a pail. Nobody feeds me. I have to get my own living. I live by my wits. I have to be sharp and clever, lest I go hungry. I have to think things out, catch what I can, take what comes. And it just so happens, my friend, that what comes is flies and insects and bugs. And furthermore," said Charlotte, shaking one of her legs, "do you realize that if I didn't catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth, wipe out everything?"
“噢，你不能這么說，”夏洛說。“你有別人給你送飯吃。可沒人喂我呀。我不得不獨力謀生。我只有靠我的智力活著。為了避免挨餓，我只好變得又敏捷又聰明。我不得不想方設(shè)法，去抓住我能抓到的東西，享用他們的血。就是這么回事兒，我的朋友，我吃的就是我抓到的蒼蠅和別的小昆蟲。此外，”夏洛說著，揮起一條腿兒，“你明白如果我不抓小蟲子吃，小蟲子們就會增多，繁殖，直到多得足以破壞地球，毀滅一切嗎？”

"Really?" said Wilbur. "I wouldn't want that to happen. Perhaps your web is a good thing after all."
“真的嗎？”威伯說。“我可不想發(fā)生這種事。可能你的網(wǎng)真是個好東西吧。”

The goose had been listening to this conversation and chuckling to herself. "There are a lot of things Wilbur doesn't know about life," she thought. "He's really a very innocent little pig. He doesn't even know what's going to happen to him around Christmastime; he has no idea that Mr. Zuckerman and Lurvy are plotting to kill him." And the goose raised herself a bit and poked her eggs a little further under her so that they would receive the full heat from her warm body and soft feathers.
一直聽著這場對話的母鵝嘎嘎自語。“對于生活，威伯不懂的還多著呢。”她想。“他真是一頭天真的小豬。他甚至都不知道圣誕節(jié)會發(fā)生什么事兒呢；他根本就不知道祖克曼先生和魯維正在密謀殺掉他呢。”母鵝稍稍抬抬身子，把她的蛋往身下推得更近些，以便他們能更好的接收到她溫暖的身體和柔軟的羽毛下面的熱量。

Charlotte stood quietly over the fly, preparing to eat it. Wilbur lay down and closed his eyes. He was tired from his wakeful night and from the excitement of meeting someone for the first time. A breeze brought him the smell of clover--the sweet-smelling world beyond his fence. "Well," he thought," I've got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty--everything I don't like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?
夏洛在蒼蠅的上方靜停了一會兒，準備去吃它了。威伯忙閉上雙眼，躺了下來。昨晚沒睡好，再加上首次遇到新朋友的激動，使他感到分外的疲倦。微風(fēng)把苜蓿的香味給他送了過來——他的柵欄外的世界里充滿了甜香的氣息。“很好，”他想，“我有了一個新朋友，真不錯。但這是多危險的友誼呀！夏洛兇猛，殘酷，狡詐，嗜血——這些我都不喜歡。雖然她是那么可愛，當(dāng)然，也很聰明，可我怎么能讓自己去試著喜歡她呢？”

Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.
威伯像那些初交新朋友的人一樣，被猜疑和恐懼困繞著。以后，他將發(fā)現(xiàn)自己誤解了夏洛。其實，在她那可怕冷漠的外表下，有著一顆善良的心，以后發(fā)生的事情將證明，她對朋友是忠實，真誠的，每一刻都是如此。

（來源：愛思英語 編輯：丹妮）