Polly nodded. All the faces they could see were certainly nice. Both the men and women looked kind and wise, and they seemed to come of a handsome race. But after the children had gone a few steps down the room they came to faces that looked a little different. These were very solemn faces. You felt you would have to mind your P 8217;s and Q 8217;s, if you ever met living people who looked like that. When they had gone a little further, they found themselves among faces they didn 8217;t like: this was about the middle of the room. The faces here looked very strong and proud and happy, but they looked cruel. A little further on they looked crueller. Further on again, they were still cruel but they no longer looked happy. They were even despairing faces: as if the people they belonged to had done dreadful things and also suffered dreadful things. The last figure of all was the most interesting 8211; a woman even more richly dressed than the others, very tall (but every figure in that room was taller than the people of our world), with a look of such fierceness and pride that it took your breath away. Yet she was beautiful too. Years afterwards when he was an old man, Digory said he had never in all his life known a woman so beautiful. It is only fair to add that Polly always said she couldn 8217;t see anything specially beautiful about her.
波莉点点头。他们者见的所有面孔都很可爱。男男女女都显得聪明而善良，而且，似乎是一个漂亮、英俊的种族的后代。但当孩子们朝屋子中间走了几步后，他们看见的面孔便有些异样。这些面孔十分严肃，使你觉得，如果你遇到有这种而孔的活生生的人，便不得不注意自己的言行举止。又走了几步，眼前的面孔看去非常强悍、自豪、得惫，却十分冷酷，是他们不喜欢的那一种。越往前走，面孔越显得冷酷。再往前．那些面孔依然冷酷，但得意的痕迹消失了，甚至显得沮丧绝望：好像有一那种面孔的人做过可怕的事，有过可怕的经历似的。最后一尊塑像也是最有趣的一个衣着更加富丽的高女人（屋子里每一尊塑像都比我们这个世界的人高），脸上露出的残忍和骄傲表情使人窒息。多年以后，迪格雷老了，还说这是他一生中见过的最美丽的女人。不过我们得公平地补充说，波莉总是认为，她从那个女人身上着不出特别美丽的地方。
This woman, as I said, was the last: but there were plenty of empty chairs beyond her, as if the room had been intended for a much larger collection of images.
我说的这个女人是最后一个，在她的身后，放着无数把空椅子，似乎这间屋子原来准备容纳更多的塑像。
8220;I do wish we knew the story that 8217;s behind all this, 8221; said Digory. 8220;Let 8217;s go back and look at that table sort of thing in the middle of the room. 8221;
“我多希望我们知道这里面的故事。”迪格雷说，“我们回头看看中间那个像桌子一样的东西吧。”
The thing in the middle of the room was not exactly a table. It was a square pillar about four feet high and on it there rose a little golden arch from which there hung a little golden bell; and beside this there lay a little golden hammer to hit the bell with.
屋子的中间不是一张真正的桌子，而是一个四尺高的方形柱，上面降起一个金色的小拱门，门上悬梓着一只金色的小钟，钟的旁边放着一把用来敲钟的金色小锤。
8220;I wonder 8230; I wonder 8230; I wonder 8230; 8221; said Digory.
“我想… … 我想… … 我想… … ”迪格雷说。
8220;There seems to be something written here, 8221; said Polly, stooping down and looking at the side of the pillar.
“这儿好像写着什么。”波莉弯下腰，看着柱子的侧面。‘天哪，就在这儿”迪格雷说，“可是，我们读不懂的。”
8220;By gum, so there is, 8221; said Digory. 8220;But of course we shan 8217;t be able to read it. 8221;
“读不性？我看不一定。” 波莉说。
8220;Shan 8217;t we? I 8217;m not so sure, 8221; said Polly.
两人认真地看着，你可能猜得到，刻在石头上的是一种奇怪的字母。但就在这时，一个不可思议的奇迹发生了：他们看的时候，字母的形状并未改变，他们却发现自己能够读懂了。要是迪格雷记得几分钟前他说过，这间屋子里有魔法，他就早该想到魔法开始起作用了，但他的心中除了好奇以外，什么也想不到。他越来越急于知道柱子上写了什么。很快，内人都读懂了。上面是这样写的，至少大意如此，虽然原诗读起来更好：
They both looked at it hard and, as you might have expected, the letters cut in the stone were strange. But now a great wonder happened: for, as they looked, though the shape of the strange letters never altered, they found that they could understand them. If only Digory had remembered what he himself had said a few minutes ago, that this was an enchanted room, he might have guessed that the enchantment was beginning to work. But he was too wild with curiosity to think about that. He was longing more and more to know what was written on the pillar. And very soon they both knew. What it said was something like this 8211; at least this is the sense of it though the poetry, when you read it there, was better:
选择吧．喜欢冒险的陌生人，
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, Or wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had.
敲响钟，等候危险的来临，
8220;No fear! 8221; said Polly. 8220;We don 8217;t want any danger. 8221;
或者，呆呆地想，这会有什么后果，
8220;Oh but don 8217;t you see it 8217;s no good! 8221; said Digory. 8220;We can 8217;t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I 8217;m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that. No fear! 8221;
直到你想得发疯。