The vast proportions of his features made it impossible to assess the age of the giant, but his classically modeled mouth and nose , suggest he had been a young man of discreet and modest temper.

他那巨大的五官让我们很难评估这个巨人的年龄,但他那带有古典气息的嘴唇和鼻子,表明他曾是一个谨慎谦逊的年轻人

It was a noble face, possessed of an ornate charm that belied the brutish power of the giant's physique.

那张高贵的脸庞散发着华美的魅力,掩盖了巨人丰硕的体格所蕴藏的野蛮力量

His magnificent Homeric stature offered a more authentic example of a drowned Argonaut or a hero from The Odyssey, than the conventional human-sized portraitspreviously in my mind.

他那雄壮的荷马式身型,正如溺水的阿尔戈英雄或《奥德赛》里的英雄,比起我曾在脑海中想象的普通人类大小的雕像提供了更为真实的参考样本

What I found so fascinating was partly his immense scale, of course, but above all, it was simply the categorical fact of his existence.

我被深深吸引的原因一部分肯定要归结于他巨大的体型,但最令我着迷的是他绝对存在的这个事实

Whatever else in our lives might be open to doubt, this giant existed in an absolute sense... providing us a glimpse into a world of similar absolutes , in which we spectators on the beach were such imperfect and puny copies.

不管我们在生活中对何事持有怀疑,这个巨人绝对的存在…让我们对自己这个相似绝对的世界有了一丝见解,在这个世界里海滩上的参观者,只是不尽完美、微不足道的复制品

From a distance, it looked as if he was merely asleep, and could , at any moment, clap his heels together and crush the miniscule replicas of himself that swarmed around him.

从远处望去貌似他只是睡着了可能会随时把两个脚后跟合拢在一起,把一窝蜂围在他身旁的自己那些微小的复制品夹碎

But as time passed, the magical spell cast by the giant began to dissipate.

但随着时间的流逝,这个巨人施下的神奇咒语开始消散

Three days passed before my next visit to the beach.

我第二次去海滩已经是三天后了.

Sensing a particular interest in the giant, my associates at the institute delegated the task of keeping the giant under observation to me.

研究所的同事们感受到,我对巨人格外关注,便把观察巨人的任务托付给了我

There was nothing morbid about this because, for all intents, the giant was still alive for me.. Indeed, more alive than many of the people around me ”这也没什么可怕的,因为不论怎样,巨人对我来说仍然活着,其实,他比我身边的很多人都要有活力。

No, it‘s not . This bastard’s big .lf the butchers start here, we can soon get access to the thigh bone. And we can work our way up to the hip. Going to be some overtime, getting this done.不不是的这家伙真大如果屠夫从这里开始我们很快就能到股骨那,然后就能一路到臀部了,肯定得加个班才能弄完了

Prolonged immersion in seawater and the tumefaction of his tissues had given the face a less youthful look. His features now had an appearance of well-fed maturity，hinting at the growing corruption to come.

长时间浸泡在海水里导致身体的组织肿胀 让他的脸渐渐失去了年轻的光泽，他的五官如今有了一种养尊处优的成熟感，也暗示着腐烂在慢慢扩散

This was the beginning of his surrender to that all-demanding system of time, in which the rest of humanity found itself.

这意味着 他开始对苛刻的时间系统投降，其余的人类也都在遵循这一系统

However repellent it may seem, this ceaseless metamorphosis,this visible life-in-death, is what gave me the courage to finally set foot on his corpse.

不论这过程看起来有多令人反感，这不休不止的质变，这种可见的死亡中蕴含的本质最终给了我踏上他的尸体的勇气

This new perspective made me more aware of the last physical agonies of the giant.

新萌发的这个念头让我更加意识到巨人最后经历的身体痛苦

No less painful for his unawareness of them.

巨人感知不到这些痛苦 让我更是痛心

ln the end, his face had been transformed into a mask of exhaustion and helplessness.

到最后 他的脸变成了一张显示着疲惫和无助的面具

Caught in that same twisting whirlpool for which all our finite lives are destined.

困在那个螺旋状的旋涡中，而我们有限的人生也注定被困在那同一处

And his suffering was made all the more tragic by the isolation in which he endured it.

他默默忍受的孤立 只是让他的痛苦更具有悲剧色彩

Cast like an abandoned ship upon the empty shore.

他就像一艘被抛弃的船一样 被搁浅在空荡荡的海滩上

The amputation was but the first of a series of depredations.

肢解就是接连的破坏

Two days had passed, while l struggled to overcome my reluctance ;to witness the end of this magnificent illusion.

两天过去了,我尽全力克制住自己的不情愿目睹了这一神奇幻觉的结束

Despite his immense size, these insults to the giant's body made him appear more human to me. More vulnerable

尽管他体型巨大,巨人身体经受的侮辱;让他在我眼里更具人性。更加脆弱.

But that weakness has released a sudden flood of repressed spite, encouraging the mutilation of the colossus by the tiny creatures around it.

但这种脆弱导致受压抑的恶意洪流突然之间·煽动围在它身边的微小生物毁噬这一庞然大物* When l visited the beach the following day, l found, almost with relief, that the head had been removed.

第二天又去海滩时,我看到他的头已经被锯掉几平是松了一口气

Some weeks had lapsed before my next journey to the beach. And by then, any human likeness held by the giant had vanished.

我下一次去海滩时已经过去了几周。到了那时，巨人的人体特征都已经消失不见了

And with the loss of those few remaining traces of personality that had clung tenuously to the figure, the interest of the spectators had, at last, expired.

残存不多的人类特征 轻飘飘地攀附在他的尸体上 随着这些特征逐渐消失 参观者的兴趣最终都消退了

Months later , after the giant's arrival had been generally forgotten, various pieces of the body began to reappear around town.

几个月后在大家已经渐渐遗忘了巨人的到来后，他身体的各种部位开始在镇上重现

Most of those remains were bones.

大多数残留物都是骨头

These mighty yet disembodied fragments seem to better convey the essence of the giant's magnificence than my last memories of his bloated appendages.

这些威武但脱离肉体的残肢貌似比我最后 对他那浮肿的四肢的记忆能更有力地传达巨人的宏伟

l have no doubt that if l search the town's pubs, hotels , and eateries, I'd also find the mummified nose or ears of the giant hanging on walls and fireplaces.

我不得不怀疑如果我探访镇上的酒吧,旅馆和餐厅我也会发现巨人被风干的鼻子或耳朵,挂在那些地方的墙壁上或壁炉上

As for the immense pizzle , this ends its days in the freak museum of a small circus, which travels up and down the northwest coast.

至于他那巨大的生殖器.它最后落入一个小型马戏团的猎奇博物馆之手,这个马戏团沿着西北海岸线不停地北上或南下

That monumental apparatus, stunning in its proportions and once potency, occupies a complete tent to itself, though, sadly, it is mislabeled as belonging to a whale.

那个曾经雄姿勃发的巨大器官,因其尺寸出奇得大,独自占了一个帐篷,但可惜的是标签上错把来源写成了鲸鱼

Even those who came and saw the giant after the storm now remember him, if at all, as merely a large sea beast.

尽管那些在暴风雨过后去海滩围观过的人如今还记得他,但在他们的记忆里那也只是一头巨大的海兽

But the giant is still alive for me , I often dream of his resurrection .A colossus striding through the streets of town ,picking up the fragments of himself on his return journey to the sea.

但在我眼里巨人还活着，我经常梦到他复活 一个巨物大步穿过小镇的街道，在他返回海洋之前收集自己的各块碎片