CHAPTER 23

 One night, when the autumn leaves were falling and whispering through the whole of the forest, the tawny¹ owl² gave his shrill³ cry through the tree tops. Then he waited.

 

But Bambi had already seen him in the distance through the now sparse⁴ foliage⁵ and now he kept still.

 

The owl flew closer and gave his shrill cry even louder. Then he waited. But this time too, Bambi said nothing.

 

The owl could not hold back any longer. “Aren’t you startled, then?” he asked discontentedly.

 

“Oh, yes,” Bambi answered gently. “A little bit.”

 

“Well ...,” the owl grumbled⁷, “only a little bit? You always used to be terribly shocked. It was always such a pleasure to see how shocked you were. What’s happened then, what’s happened that means your only a little bit shocked ...?”

 

He was annoyed and repeated, “just a little bit ...”

 

The owl had grown old, and that had made him even more vain and even more sensitive than he had been.

 

Bambi wanted to answer; I was never startled before, either, but I just said I was because I knew you liked it. But he decided⁸ he would rather keep this information to himself. He felt sorry for the good old owl, as he sat there being cross. He did his best to calm him down. “Maybe it’s because I was just thinking about you,” he said.

 

“What?” The owl became cheerful again. “What? You were thinking about me?”

 

“Yes,” answered Bambi hesitantly, “just when began to screech⁹. Otherwise, of course, I would have been just as startled as ever.”

 

“Really?” the owl purred.

 

Bambi could not resist. What harm could there be in it? Let the little old boy have some pleasure.

 

“Really,” he confirmed and went on .”.. it pleases me ... it goes through all my limbs when I suddenly hear you like that.”

 

The owl puffed¹⁰ up his feathers, turned himself into a soft, brown and light grey, fluffy¹¹ ball, and he was very pleased. “That’s very nice of you to have been thinking about me ... very nice indeed ...” he cooed gently. “It’s such a long time since we saw each other.”

 

“A very long time,” said Bambi.

 

“Maybe it’s that you don’t go along the same old paths any more?” enquired¹² the owl.

 

“No ...,” Bambi spoke¹³ slowly, “I don’t go along the same old paths any more.”

 

“I’ve been seeing a lot more of the world too lately,” remarked the owl, puffing¹⁴ his chest out. He did not tell Bambi that he had been driven out of the old territory he had inherited from his ancestors by a young and reckless lad. “You can’t always stay on the same spot,” he added. Then he waited for Bambi’s reply.

 

But Bambi had gone. By now he had learned the art of disappearing in silence almost as well as the elder.

 

The owl was dismayed. “Shameless ...” he grumbled. He shook himself, buried his beak¹⁵ into his plumage and philosophized to himself; “You should never think you could make friends with these posh types. They might seem ever so likeable ... but one day they’ll shamelessly ... and then you sit there looking stupid, just like I am now ...”

 

Suddenly he fell vertically¹⁶ down to the ground like a stone. He had seen a mouse, which then, caught in his talons¹⁷, had the time to squeal¹⁸ just once. He tore the mouse into pieces because he was so angry. He pulled the head off this mouthful quicker than he normally would. And then he flew away. “What does Bambi matter to me?” he thought. “What does any of those posh people matter to me? Nothing. They don’t matter at all!” He started to screech. So shrill, so long, that a pair of wood pigeons he passed by were woken up and, with much loud flapping of wings, they fell out of where they had been sleeping.

 

The storm blew through the woods for many days, tearing the last of the leaves from the twigs¹⁹ and branches. The trees now stood there naked.

 

In the grey of morning twilight²⁰ Bambi was making his way home in order to sleep together with the elder in their chamber²¹.

 

A thin voice called to him, two times, three times in quick succession. He stayed where he was. Then the squirrel swooped²² down from the tree like lightning and sat on the ground in front of him.

 

“It really is you, then!” he piped with respectful astonishment²³. “I recognized you straight away when you passed by me, I didn’t really want to believe it ...”

 

“How come you’re here ...?” Bambi asked.

 

The cheerful, little face in front of him took on a worried expression. “The oak tree is gone ...” the squirrel began to complain, “my lovely old oak tree ... do you remember? It’s terrible ... He’s cut it down.”

 

Bambi lowered his head in sadness. It really did hurt his soul to hear about the wonderful ancient tree.

 

“It all happened so quickly,” the squirrel told him. “All of us who lived on the old tree, we all ran away and we could only watch as He bit through it with an enormous blinking tooth. The tree screamed out loud from his wound. He just kept on screaming, and the tooth screamed too ... it was horrible to hear it. Then that poor, lovely tree fell over. Out onto the meadow ... it made all of us cry.”

 

Bambi was silent.

 

“Yes ...” said the squirrel with a sigh, “He can do anything ... He’s omnipotent²⁴ ...” He looked at Bambi with eyes wide open and pricked²⁵ up his ears, but Bambi was silent.

 

“We’ve all got nowhere to live now ...” the squirrel continued, “I don’t even have any idea of where the others have got to ... I came over here ... but it’ll take me ages to find another tree like that.”

 

“The old oak tree ...,” muttered Bambi to himself, “I’ve known it since I was a child.”

 

“No ... but it’s good to see that it’s really you!” The squirrel became quite contented⁶. “We all thought you must have died a long time ago. But there were some who said you were still alive ... some said that someone or other had seen you ... but we couldn’t find out anything definite, so we just supposed it was an empty rumour²⁶ ...” The squirrel looked at him searchingly. “Well, that was ... that was because you didn’t come back.”

 

He sat there waiting for an answer, you could see that he was very keen to know what had happened.

 

Bambi was silent. But he, too, felt a slight, anxious curiosity. He wanted to ask. About Faline, about Aunt Ena, about Ronno and Karus, about everyone he had known as a child. But he was silent.

 

The squirrel continued to sit in front of Bambi and examined him. “Look at that crown!” he exclaimed in admiration²⁷. “What a crown! Apart from the old prince, no-one has a crown like that, no-one anywhere in the forest!”

 

Earlier, Bambi would have felt very pleased and flattered by an observation like this. Now he just said wearily, “Yes ... I suppose so ...”

 

The squirrel nodded his head vigorously. “It really is!” he said in astonishment. “Really. You’re beginning to go grey.”

 

Bambi walked away.

 

The squirrel saw that the discussion was at an end and swung up into the branches. “Bye then,” he called down. “Look after yourself! I enjoyed seeing you again. If I see any of your old friends I’ll tell them you’re still alive ... they’ll all be glad to hear it.”

 

Bambi heard this and once again felt those slight stirrings in his heart. But it said nothing. You have to stay alone, the elder had taught him when Bambi was still a child. And the elder had shown him many things, told him many secrets, and continued doing so up to the present day. But of all the things he had been taught, this was the most important: You have to stay alone. If you’re going to preserve your life, if you want to understand existence, if you want to become wise, you have to stay alone!

 

“But,” asked Bambi one time, “but what about the two of us, we’re always together nowadays ...?”

 

“We soon won’t be,” the elder had retorted.

 

That had only been a few weeks earlier.

 

Now, it again occurred to Bambi, and it occurred to him very suddenly, that the very first thing the elder had said to him had been that he had to stay alone. That had been when Bambi was still a child and was calling for his mother. Then the elder had come up to him and asked, “Are you not able to be alone?”

 

Bambi walked on.

1 tawny   

adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色

参考例句：

• Her black hair springs in fine strands across her tawny,ruddy cheek.她的一头乌发分披在健康红润的脸颊旁。
• None of them noticed a large,tawny owl flutter past the window.他们谁也没注意到一只大的、褐色的猫头鹰飞过了窗户。

2 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

3 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

4 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

5 foliage   

n.叶子，树叶，簇叶

参考例句：

• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
• Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。

6 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

7 grumbled   

抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声

参考例句：

• He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低。
• The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 天热得让人发昏，水手们边干活边发着牢骚。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 screech   

n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音

参考例句：

• He heard a screech of brakes and then fell down. 他听到汽车刹车发出的尖锐的声音,然后就摔倒了。
• The screech of jet planes violated the peace of the afternoon. 喷射机的尖啸声侵犯了下午的平静。

10 puffed   

adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟，狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了，便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

12 enquired   

打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问

参考例句：

• He enquired for the book in a bookstore. 他在书店查询那本书。
• Fauchery jestingly enquired whether the Minister was coming too. 浮式瑞嘲笑着问部长是否也会来。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

16 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

17 talons   

n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部

参考例句：

• The fingers were curved like talons, but they closed on empty air. 他的指头弯得像鹰爪一样，可是抓了个空。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命
• The tiger has a pair of talons. 老虎有一对利爪。 来自辞典例句

18 squeal   

v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音

参考例句：

• The children gave a squeal of fright.孩子们发出惊吓的尖叫声。
• There was a squeal of brakes as the car suddenly stopped.小汽车突然停下来时，车闸发出尖叫声。

19 twigs   

细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
• Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。

20 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

21 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

22 swooped   

俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The aircraft swooped down over the buildings. 飞机俯冲到那些建筑物上方。
• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it. 鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来，并把它杀死。

23 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

24 omnipotent   

adj.全能的，万能的

参考例句：

• When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science.我们达到万能以后就不需要科学了。
• Money is not omnipotent,but we can't survive without money.金钱不是万能的，但是没有金钱我们却无法生存。

25 pricked   

刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry. 厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• He was pricked by his conscience. 他受到良心的谴责。

26 rumour   

n.谣言，谣传，传闻

参考例句：

• I should like to know who put that rumour about.我想知道是谁散布了那谣言。
• There has been a rumour mill on him for years.几年来，一直有谣言产生，对他进行中伤。

27 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。