尽管附近有上百种东西可以踩，但那称不了库伯的心。库伯要他最后找一个干树枝。要是他找不到，就去借一个。照他这样，《皮袜子故事集》干脆就叫它《断树枝丛书》好了。
The Leather Stocking Tales
The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five popular novels by James Fenimore Cooper, constitute an epic of the American wilderness. Natty Bumppo, the central character, embodies the spirit of the frontier in The Deersayer (1841), where he is an idealized youth, and in The Prairie (1827), in which, as an old man, he is transfigured and dies. The other novels in the series are The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Pioneers (1823). Text
I am sorry there is not room to put in a few dozen instances of the delicate art of the forest, as practised by Natty Bumppo and some of the other Cooperian experts. Perhaps we may venture two or three samples. 译文
很遗憾，我没有足够的篇幅，写上几十个例子，看看奈地·班波和其他库伯专家们是怎样运用他的森林中的高招。大概我们可以试着斗胆举它两三个例子。
Text
Cooper was a sailor -- a naval officer; yet he gravely tells us how a vessel, driving toward a lee shore in a gale, is steered for a particular spot by her skipper because he knows of an undertow there which will hold her back against the gale and save her. For just pure woodcraft, or sailorcraft, or whatever it is, isn't that neat? 译文
库伯曾经航过海—当过海军军官。但是他却一本正经（煞有介事）地告诉我们，一条被风刮向海岸就要撞礁的船，被船长驶向一个有离岸暗流的地点而得救。因为暗流顶着风，把船冲了回来。看看这森林术，这行船术，或者叫别的什么术，怎么样？（千载难逢的机会，可就是被库伯找到了，）真巧吧（真是干净利索吧）？ Text
For several years Cooper was daily in the society of artillery, and he ought to have noticed that when a cannon-ball strikes the ground it either buries itself or skips a hundred feet or so; skips again a hundred feet or so -- and so on, till finally it gets tired and rolls. 译文
有好几年，库伯每天都呆在炮兵部队。他当然注意到了一个炮弹落到地上要么钻到地里，要么就会弹起来，跳出百把尺，再弹再跳，直到跳不动了，就往前滚。 Text
Now in one place he loses some \in the edge of a wood near a plain at night in a fog, on purpose to give Bumppo a chance to show off the delicate art of the forest before the Reader. These mislaid people are hunting for a fort. They hear a cannon-blast, and a cannon-ball presently comes rolling into the wood and stops at their feet. To the females this suggests nothing. The case is very different with the admirable Bumppo. I wish I may never know peace again if he doesn't strike out promptly and follow the track of that cannon-ball across the plain through the dense fog and find the fort. Isn't it a daisy? 译文
现在有个地方，他的几个女性（他总是这样称呼女的）在一个雾夜在平原附近的树林边上迷了路。他的目的就是给班波一个机会来给读者显示一下他的森林中的本事。这些迷了路的人正在寻找一个城堡。她们听到一声炮响，接着一发炮弹就滚进树林，停在她们脚下。对女性，这毫无价值。但对可敬的班波则完全不同了。我敢发誓，要是班波不
立刻行动，跟着弹痕，穿过浓雾，跨过平原，找到要塞，就让我一生不得安宁。怎么样？够巧的了吧？ Text
If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact. For instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chinachgook (pronounced Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I could never have guessed out the way to find it. It was very different with Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person's moccasin-tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done in all other like cases -- no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the reader. 译文
如果库伯不是对自然规律一无所知，他就是故意隐瞒事实。比方说，他的精明的印地安专家之一，名叫芝稼哥（我想，该读作芝加哥）的，跟踪一个人，在穿过树林的时候，脚印就找不到了。很明显，脚印是再也没法找到了。无论你还是我，都猜不出，怎么会找到它。对芝加哥可完全不同。他没迟疑多久。他改变了一条小溪的流向，在原来泥
泞的河床上，那人的鹿皮鞋印竞然历历在目。在其他情况下，脚印一定被水冲得荡然无存，但在（库伯笔下）这里流水竟然冲不掉脚印！对，当然不会冲掉啰！因为只要库伯要给读者显示一下他森林中的本事，永恒的自然规律也会失效。
翻译三要素 信 Trustfulness
达 Conveyance of the original purpose, ideas, viewpoints, and tone. 雅 Retention of the original stylistic features in the target language. 要做到上述三点，而不必苛求词性、词序，甚至是句子次序的一致。 译出语气：他的书要是有哪一章没有人踩上干树枝，惊动周围二百码内的印地安人和白人，那就谢天谢地了。
为了达，可以增加原文设有，但字里行间有的意思：因为暗流顶着风，把船冲了回来。看看这森林术，这行船术，或者叫别的什么术，怎么样？（千载难逢的机会，可就是偏偏被库伯找到了，）真巧吧（真是干净利索吧）？
不考虑原来的词性：我敢发誓，要是班波不立刻行动，跟着弹痕，穿过浓雾，跨过平原，找到要塞，就让我一生不得安宁。
尽量保持原文风格：他的精明的印地安专家之一，名叫芝稼哥（我想，该读作芝加哥）的
Requirements of good composition