英语经典恐怖鬼故事

2017-03-19

英语经典鬼故事：曾祖母的奇怪故事

I love listening to my great-grandma's stories, so I didn't object when she started to tell me a story about one of her strange experiences over a glass of iced tea…

我喜欢听曾祖母讲故事。有一天喝茶的时候，她要给我讲一个她所经历过的奇怪事情，当然我是不会反对的。

My Great-Great Grand-dad died in 1918 at the age of 48 when he fell off of a galloping horse. My Great Grandma was only 17 when this happened. The story goes that at the get together after the funeral, a strange man showed up. No one had seen him at the funeral, or anytime else for that matter. He stayed for a long time, hardly talking to anybody, and refusing to take off his coat and hat. When my Great-Great aunt pointed out to this man that, for the life of her, she could not recall who he was, he became absolutely livid and ran from the house. You can imagine how strange this seemed to everybody.

曾祖母的父亲是在1918年去世的，那年他48岁，从一匹烈马上面摔了下来，当时曾祖母才仅仅17岁。故事发生在葬礼过后大家一起说话的时候。有个奇怪的男人出现了，没有人在葬礼上见过这个人，并且也没在别的什么时候看见过他。他出现以后呆了很长时间，没和任何人说话，也不愿意脱下外套。这时姨姥姥对他说，自己这些年从来没有见过他而且也不知道他是谁，他突然变得脸色铁青，随即跑了出去。你可以想象的到，人们对眼前的这一幕会是多么奇怪。

Curiosity got the best of Great grandma and she decided to follow this strange man outside to see where he had gone. She stepped outside and proceeded out into the middle of the yard, but she stopped short because the strangest sight met her eyes…the man was standing quietly on the roof of the barn, just about 5 yards away, illuminated only by the moonlight. She remembers that he had an unnatural gleam to his eyes, and when the clouds passed over the moon, and the night was pitch black, that gleam remained.

好奇心占据了曾祖母的内心，她决定去看个明白。于是她跟了出去来到院子中央，但是一看到眼前奇怪的情景马上就停下了…差不多五码以外的地方，那个人静静地站在粮仓的屋顶上，在月光的照耀下格外醒目。曾祖母记得刚才看见他的眼睛里有一道很不自然的亮光，随后乌云遮住了月亮，夜晚变得更黑，那道光就又出现了。

英语经典鬼故事：爱尔兰女妖

My mom's side of the family is Irish. So my grandma would tell me stories about my great-grandpa who was from Ireland. Just small stories, such as the fact that he had a musical ear and could play almost every instrument. (I wish it passed on through the family.) I've always been into paranormal things, so I would always ask her if he had encountered anything out of the ordinary throughout his life. Her memory was vague, so she asked her sister Mary, and Mary reminded her of his banshee incidents back in County Cork Ireland.

我母亲娘家在爱尔兰，因此姥姥总是给我讲一些太姥爷在爱尔兰的故事。那都是些很短的小故事，比如他非常喜欢音乐，几乎能演奏任何乐器。(但愿这能一辈一辈地传下去。)我总是对那些不同寻常的事情感兴趣，因此我就问她是不是太姥爷遇到过那些奇异的事情。姥姥的记性已经模糊了，于是就问她妹妹玛丽还记不记得类似的事情，玛丽姥姥就想起了太姥爷在科克郡与女妖的那次遭遇。

My grandma explained to me what Mary had remembered her father telling her as a kid. A banshee, before I go on, is an Irish myth. A ghost that protects an Irish family throughout eternity without showing itself, unless someone in the family dies. Since the banshee can predict the future, it knows who is going to die beforehand. So it mourns under the moonlight, with cries more like the wind and shows itself to someone in the family (preferably the one who isn't going to die). It gets so sad because it is a part of the family.

姥姥告诉我说玛丽姥姥回忆起来的事情还是在她小时候听太姥爷说的了。我马上要讲到的爱尔兰女妖，是个爱尔兰神话。她是个鬼魂，一生一世保护着一个爱尔兰人家庭，除非家里有人去世否则人们是不会看见她的。由于女妖能预知未来，因此她也就知道谁马上就要死去了。于是她就在月光下痛哭，声音就像风声一样，让家里的一个人(不会是即将要去世的那个人)能够看见她。她哭的是那么的悲伤，因为她也是这个家庭的一部分。

So anyway, when my great grandpa was a kid he would ride home on a horse, back in Ireland, through the fields from school dances. So once in a while his horse would stop dead in its tracks, because you know animals can sense things people can't. My great grandpa would tell it to trudge on, but it wouldn't budge

那时太姥爷还是个孩子，每天放学后就骑着马穿过农田回家，一边走一边手舞足蹈。有一次，马突然停下来，因为我们都知道动物能感觉的我们人感觉不到的东西。太姥爷想赶它继续走，但是那匹马一动也不动。

So then my great grandpa would feel the coldness of ghosts and would hear the banshee's wail, and my Aunt Mary recalled him saying that the banshee's wail is the worst. Then the wailing and the touch of the ghosts would pass on and his horse would move again. That was all my aunt Mary could remember.

随即太姥爷就感觉到了周围阴森的鬼魂，也听见了女妖的哀哭。玛丽姥姥还记得他说过，听到女妖哭是最倒霉的事情。随后哭声消失了，鬼魂也走开了，马又继续向前走。这就是她记得的全部经过了。

Now since my grandpa had seen and heard the banshees, I'm beginning to think we may have a banshee in our family. But not just because of my great grandpa, but because of my mom as well.

既然太姥爷曾经见过也听到过女妖，我就在想也许我家也有一个这样的女妖。当然不仅仅是由于太姥爷的经历，母亲也经历过同样的事情。

When my mom was nine, she woke up in the middle of the night to look outside the window into the backyard. Glittering in the moonlight, she saw a woman weeping. My mom could hear her cries and said they were more like the wind (she told me this before I read that most banshees cries ARE more like the wind). She also said that the woman was floating above their swimming pool and her appearance was unexplainable. My mom claimed that this woman looked young, but seemed as if she had lived for many years and was an old spirit. She also said that the woman had fair flowing hair. After a while of staring, my mom just lay her head back down on the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

那年母亲九岁，有一天深夜她醒过来，透过后院的窗户向外面看去。在明亮的月光下，她见一个女人在那啜泣。母亲听那哭声就和风声差不多(母亲给我讲这事的时候，我还不知道大多数女妖的哭声就像风声那样)。母亲还说，那个女人是漂在游泳池上面的，她的样子简直没法形容，一头金发随风飘逸，看上去很年轻，但是又仿佛已经活了很久，是一个年老的精灵。当时只看了一会儿，母亲就又躺下，渐渐地就睡着了。

Then I think one or two weeks later, my mom's grandparents died – in the same week. Coincidence? I wonder if I'm going to see one.

我就在想，母亲见到女妖的一两个星期以后，太姥姥太姥爷在一周内相继去世了。这难道是巧合吗?我很想知道，是不是我也会看见爱尔兰女妖。

英语经典鬼故事：酒吧

I worked in my local pub and over the weekends and some times during the week I would stay over there with the other bar manager. We shared a room. It wasn't strange to us to hear things at night. Sometimes the juke box would come on; sometimes you could hear voices and laughter coming from the bar. I used to like hearing that, as if those people who had really enjoyed coming to the pub still liked to pop in for a late drink!

我和朋友在本地开了家酒吧，周末的时候，并和朋友一起住在酒吧里，偶尔工作日也会住在那儿。我俩共用一个房间，晚上听到动静对我们来说并不是什么新鲜事。有时候是唱片点唱机，有时是从酒吧传来的谈笑声。我曾经是很喜欢听到这种声音的，就像那些非常喜欢泡吧的人大晚上也要来喝一杯一样。

Every morning, no matter how much you had scrubbed and polished the bar top the night before, you would find three water marks, as if the landlord and two regulars had stayed and had a drink together. Then other things started happening.

不管我们头天晚上是如何认真仔细得擦洗吧台，第二天早上，总能在上面发现三个水印，看起来就像是酒吧老板和俩位老主顾呆到很晚，一起喝了酒似的。还有其他奇怪的事情发生。

When I was in the bathroom there would be knocks on the door. I would call out but get no answer, and sometimes find there had been no one upstairs but me. I would hear running footsteps and a child's laughter. The sash window in the room I stayed in would never close fully and condensation used to build up on my full length mirror. In the morning you could see two small hand prints at the bottom of the mirror. Again, these occurrences didn't bother me; in fact it was quite comforting.

我上洗手间时，会听到敲门声，但当我大声的问是谁时，却没人回答。有几次我从洗手间出来，却发现二楼只有我一个人。我还会听到人跑动的脚步声和一个小孩的笑声。我房间的上下推拉窗总关不严，所以夜里我的大穿衣镜上会凝结水汽，第二天早上，就会在镜子下方看到两个小手印。这些事情并没有让我感到烦恼，实际上，我还觉得挺欣慰的。

At night I would sometimes feel someone get into bed with me and feel two little hands in the small of my back. However, things started happening that DID bother me.

到了晚上，我有时会觉得有人钻到了我的被窝里面，能感到有两只小手在背后摸我的腰部。 (这也算不了什么)，但是，这之后发生的事情真的让我感到不安。

After locking up one night I and the other bar manager were cleaning up. Now, in the ladies toilets there was a door that opened up into a courtyard, however no one had ever found the key. As I was checking out the toilets, I saw the door handle move. I thought someone had managed to get into the courtyard and called to my friend to look through the window. He didn't see anyone. Then the door handle started moving much more violently and I ran out to my friend.

一天晚上打烊后，我和朋友开始打扫酒吧。女洗手间有扇门能通到院子里，但那门的钥匙我们始终没找到。但当我在检查女洗手间的时候，却看到门把手在动，我以为是有人在后院，便从洗手间里喊朋友到窗边看看。他没看见院子里有人，但此时，门把手动得更厉害了，我赶紧跑出去和朋友呆在一起。

We both watched through the window as an unseen hand rattled the door handle. We took off upstairs quite quickly, put all the lights on and slept in the living room that night. I hated having to go to the toilet at night from that point on.

有人在咔哒咔哒得转动门把手，但我和朋友从窗户看出去的时候，却看不到院子里有任何人。我俩赶紧跑到楼上，把所有灯都打开，当晚我们都睡在客厅里。从此之后，我痛恨晚上上洗手间。

The bathroom was at the end of corridor and I would always feel as if something was walking right behind me. I once saw a tall, dark shadow walk around the corner and into the kitchen, but there was no one there. I started to feel scared to be upstairs on my own.

洗手间在走廊的尽头，每次我去那的时候，总有种身后有人跟着的感觉。有一次，我看见一个高大的黑影转过墙角进了厨房，但那儿根本没人。我开始害怕一个人上楼。

Downstairs, in the bar, it had a much more friendly atmosphere, but upstairs felt oppressive and claustrophobic. One night I woke up to find my sash window open and the tall figure standing on the balcony, looking out across the town. It then jumped off the rooftop. The child I had sensed, in such a comforting way, now began to scare me too. It was a little girl, and it seemed that with the appearance of this dark man she became intensely scared. I would see her standing in the doorway screaming while the black shadow approached behind her. I would hear cries and screams in the dead of night. My friend ended up pulling down the old fireplace that had been bricked up in the room we shared. That did it for I sensed something dreadful in the entire pub after he did that. I never worked or stayed there again.

楼下酒吧里的气氛很好。但楼上却让人感到压抑恐惧。一天晚上，我醒来看到推拉窗开着，阳台上有个高高的黑影，正看着整个镇子。然后它从屋顶一跃而下。我曾经深感欣慰感觉到的那个小孩也开始让我害怕。那是个小女孩，看起来那个黑影的出现把她吓坏了。我曾看到那个黑影从背后向她走去，她就站在门口尖叫。寂静的夜里，我可以听到哭喊尖叫声。最后，我朋友把我们房间里的壁炉给拆了。之后，我开始在整个酒吧都感觉到可怕的东西。从此，我再没在那儿工作或是住过。

英语经典鬼故事：无头骑士

One cold winter night, early in the New Year, a certain Dutchman left the tavern in Tarrytown and started walking to his home in the hollow nearby. His path led next to the old Sleepy Hollow cemetery where a headless Hessian soldier was buried. At midnight, the Dutchman came within site of the graveyard. The weather had warmed up during the week, and the snow was almost gone from the road. It was a dark night with no moon, and the only light came from his lantern.

某年伊始的一个寒冷冬夜，一个荷兰人离开塔利镇的小酒馆，徒步向自己在附近山谷中的家走去。他回家时要经过一座古老的睡谷公墓，公墓里埋着一个无头黑森士兵。午夜时分，这个荷兰人进入了公墓地界。连续一周来，天气不断回暖，此时路上已基本没有积雪。天很黑，没有月亮，他提的灯笼便是仅有的亮光。

The Dutchman was nervous about passing the graveyard, remembering the rumors of a galloping ghost that he had heard at the tavern. He stumbled along, humming to himself to keep up his courage. Suddenly, his eye was caught by a light rising from the ground in the cemetery. He stopped, his heart pounding in fear. Before his startled eyes, a white mist burst forth from an unmarked grave and formed into a large horse carrying a headless rider.

荷兰人想起他在小酒馆听到的跳动的鬼影的故事，再想到自己要穿过墓地，有些犯憷。他跌跌撞撞地走着，小声哼哼着给自己打气。突然，他看到从坟地上冒出了光。他害怕的站住，心剧烈的跳动着。他惊恐地看到一阵白雾从一座没有墓碑的坟里喷出来，变成一个无头骑士骑在一匹马上的形状。

The Dutchman let out a terrible scream as the horse leapt toward him at a full gallop. He took to his heels, running as fast as he could, making for the bridge since he knew that ghosts and evil spirits did not care to cross running water. He stumbled suddenly and fell, rolling off the road into a melting patch of snow. The headless rider thundered past him, and the man got a second look at the headless ghost. It was wearing a Hessian commander's uniform.

那马飞快得向荷兰人奔过来，他惊恐地尖叫了一声，拔腿就跑，他全速向河边跑去，因为他知道鬼魂和邪恶的幽灵都不敢穿过流水。他突然一个趔趄，跌到在地，滚到了一堆还没化尽的积雪上。无头骑士从他身边呼啸而过，他又看了一眼那个无头骑士，发现他穿着黑森指挥官的制服。

The Dutchman waited a good hour after the ghost disappeared before crawling out of the bushes and making his way home. After fortifying himself with schnapps, the Dutchman told his wife about the ghost. By noon of the next day, the story was all over Tarrytown. The good Dutch folk were divided in their opinions. Some thought that the ghost must be roaming the roads at night in search of its head. Others claimed that the Hessian soldier rose from the grave to lead the Hessian soldiers in a charge up nearby Chatterton Hill, not knowing that the hill had already been taken by the British.

无头骑士消失后，荷兰人足足等了一个小时才敢从灌木丛里爬出来回家。回到家，荷兰人喝了点杜松子酒壮壮胆后，告诉了妻子他遇到鬼的故事。到第二天中午，故事便传遍了整个塔利镇。好心的荷兰人意见产生了分歧。有些人认为鬼魂一定是在夜里四处游荡找他的头。另一些人则认为这个黑森士兵还不知道附近的查特顿山已被英国人占领，他从坟墓里出来便是要领导其他黑森士兵向那儿冲锋。

Whatever the reason, the Headless Horseman continues to roam the roads near Tarrytown on dark nights from that day to this.

不管是什么原因吧，从那天起，这个无头骑士便总在漆黑的夜晚在塔利镇附近的路上游荡。