《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 23

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對文學(xué)名著的愛好與追求，以及對大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由網(wǎng)友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 23的內(nèi)容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

All through the morning, the air was held in an ominous stillness. Sitting over my books, I seemed to feel the silence; when I turned my look to the window, I saw nothing but the broad, grey sky, a featureless expanse, cold, melancholy. Later, just as I was bestirring myself to go out for an afternoon walk, something white fell softly across my vision. A few minutes more, and all was hidden with a descending veil of silent snow.

整個早晨，空氣中醞釀著一種令人不安的寂靜。坐著看書的我，似乎也感到了這種沉默；我把目光投向窗外，看到的只是一片廣闊的灰色天空，空曠而沒有特色，寒冷，憂郁。后來到下午，正當(dāng)我要起身出門散步時，某個白色的東西輕輕地落入我的視線。幾分鐘后，一切都隱藏在靜靜落下的雪花的面紗中了。

It is a disappointment. Yesterday I half believed that the winter drew to its end; the breath of the hills was soft; spaces of limpid azure shone amid slow-drifting clouds, and seemed the promise of spring. Idle by the fireside, in the gathering dusk, I began to long for the days of light and warmth. My fancy wandered, leading me far and wide in a dream of summer England. ...

這真叫人失望。昨天，我還以為冬天要走到盡頭了，山巒的氣息是柔和的，清澈如洗的碧空在緩慢飄游的白云間閃閃發(fā)亮，似乎預(yù)示著春天的來臨。我在爐火旁無所事事，暮色漸濃，我開始渴望那些光明溫暖的日子。我的思緒開始飄蕩，帶著我夢里遨游夏天的英格蘭……

This is the valley of the Blythe. The stream ripples and glances over its brown bed warmed with sunbeams; by its bank the green f lags wave and rustle, and, all about, the meadows shine in pure gold of buttercups. The hawthorn hedges are a mass of gleaming blossom, which scents the breeze. There above rises the heath, yellow-mantled with gorse, and beyond, if I walk for an hour or two, I shall come out upon the sandy cliffs of Suffolk, and look over the northern sea. ...

這是布萊斯的河谷。溪流泛起陣陣漣漪，流過被陽光曬得暖洋洋的棕色河床；岸上，綠色水草像旗幟迎風(fēng)飄揚，沙沙作響，四周芳草萋萋，中間閃耀著金色的毛茛花。山楂樹組成的樹籬，簡直是一道道燦爛的花墻，讓微風(fēng)也芳香醉人了。那高處是石南，蔭庇在黃色的金雀花下，再遠處，走上一兩個小時，便會來到薩?？丝さ纳皫r峭壁，俯視著北方的大?！?/p>

I am in Wensleydale, climbing from the rocky river that leaps amid broad pastures up to the rolling moor. Up and up, till my feet brush through heather, and the grouse whirrs away before me. Under a glowing sky of summer, this air of the uplands has still a life which spurs to movement, which makes the heart bound. The dale is hidden; I see only the brown and purple wilderness, cutting against the blue with great round shoulders, and, far away to the west, an horizon of sombre heights. ...

我在文斯利代爾，沿著寬闊草場間多礁的小河，爬到了地勢起伏的荒野。我繼續(xù)往上爬，直到腳邊全都是石南花，松雞在我前面呼呼地逃走。在夏日閃亮的天空下，這高地的空氣中蘊藏著一種生命力，催人奮進，讓人心跳。溪谷隱沒不見，我只看到一片棕色和紫色相間的荒野，像一對寬闊圓實的肩膀倚接遠處的藍天，在遙遠的西邊，是幽暗的高地連成的一條地平線……

I ramble through a village in Gloucestershire, a village which seems forsaken in this drowsy warmth of the afternoon. The houses of grey stone are old and beautiful, telling of a time when Englishmen knew how to build whether for rich or poor; the gardens glow with flowers, and the air is delicately sweet. At the village end, I come into a lane, which winds upwards between grassy slopes, to turf and bracken and woods of noble beech. Here I am upon a spur of the Cotswolds23, and before me spreads the wide vale of Evesham, with its ripening crops, its fruiting orchards, watered by sacred Avon. Beyond, softly blue, the hills of Malvern. On the branch hard by warbles a little bird, glad in his leafy solitude. A rabbit jumps through the fern. There sounds the laugh of a woodpecker from the copse in yonder hollow. ...

我漫步在格洛斯特郡的一座村莊，在溫暖的令人懨懨欲睡的午后，它似乎是廢棄了的。灰色石頭建成的房舍古老而美麗，訴說著一個英國人無論貧富都還懂得修建房屋的時代?；▓@中的鮮花流光溢彩，空氣有微妙的甜美氣息。在村子盡頭，我走到一條小路上，它順著綠草茵茵的斜坡蜿蜒向上，延伸到草坡、歐洲蕨和高貴的山毛櫸樹林中。我又來到了科茨沃爾德丘陵的一個支脈上，面前橫亙著伊夫舍姆寬闊的山谷，那里的莊稼就要成熟，果樹正在結(jié)實，都享受著神圣的埃文河水的灌溉。在遠方，那一抹淡藍色，是馬爾文丘陵。附近的樹枝上傳來了一只小鳥婉轉(zhuǎn)的啼鳴，在樹陰下它是寂寞而快樂的；一只兔子跳著跑過那片蕨草；遠處山谷的樹林里傳來了一只啄木鳥的笑聲……

In the falling of a summer night, I walk by Ullswater. The sky is still warm with the afterglow of sunset, a dusky crimson smouldering above the dark mountain line. Below me spreads a long reach of the lake, steel-grey between its dim colourless shores. In the profound stillness, the trotting of a horse beyond the water sounds strangely near; it serves only to make more sensible the repose of Nature in this her sanctuary. I feel a solitude unutterable, yet nothing akin to desolation; the heart of the land I love seems to beat in the silent night gathering around me; amid things eternal, I touch the familiar and the kindly earth. Moving, I step softly, as though my footfall were an irreverence. A turn in the road, and there is wafted to me a faint perfume, that of meadow-sweet. Then I see a light glimmering in the farmhouse window—a little ray against the blackness of the great hillside, below which the water sleeps. ...

夏夜將至?xí)r，我行走在阿爾斯沃特湖畔。天空在落日的余暉中依然溫暖，黑色群山的輪廓上方，悶燃著一縷黯淡的深紅色云霞。我的下方，延伸著一片青灰色的湖水，兩邊是灰暗乏味的河岸。在這深沉的寂靜中，湖水遠處的一陣馬蹄聲聽起來出奇地清楚，似乎就在附近，更讓人感受到大自然在這塊庇護地上安憩是很明智的。我感到一種無法言說的孤獨，但它與荒涼感毫不相同；我熱愛的這塊土地的心臟，似乎在聚集于我周圍的靜夜中跳動；在永恒事物中，我觸摸著這塊熟悉親切的土地。我行走時把步伐放得很輕，似乎腳步聲是一種不敬。轉(zhuǎn)過一個彎，我嗅到一股淡淡的香氣，那是草地的甜美氣息。接著，我看到農(nóng)舍窗戶上閃爍著一點燈光——這點光線映襯著黑魆魆的山坡，下面是沉睡著的河水……

A pathway leads me by the winding of the river Ouse. Far on every side stretches a homely landscape, tilth and pasture, hedgerow and clustered trees, to where the sky rests upon the gentle hills. Slow, silent, the river lapses between its daisied banks, its grey-green osier beds. Yonder is the little town of St. Neots. In all England no simpler bit of rural scenery; in all the world nothing of its kind more beautiful. Cattle are lowing amid the rich meadows. Here one may loiter and dream in utter restfulness, whilst the great white clouds mirror themselves in the water as they pass above. ...

我順著烏斯河蜿蜒的河畔小路前行。河兩旁是廣闊鄉(xiāng)村景色，有田地和草場，灌木籬墻和樹林，最遠處天空慵懶地靠著溫柔的山巒。河水緩慢安靜地在雛菊點綴的河岸間流淌，河床上翠柳輕拂。那邊是圣尼茨小鎮(zhèn)。在整個英格蘭，找不到比它更簡樸的鄉(xiāng)村景色；在全世界，也沒有比它更美的風(fēng)景。牛羊在豐美的草地上低沉哞叫。這里，你可以在完全的寧靜中閑蕩做夢，天上大塊的白色云朵飄過時，在水中可以看到它們的倒影……

I am walking upon the South Downs. In the valleys, the sun lies hot, but here sings a breeze which freshens the forehead and fills the heart with gladness. My foot upon the short, soft turf has an unwearied lightness; I feel capable of walking on and on, even to that farthest horizon where the white cloud casts its floating shadow. Below me, but far off, is the summer sea, still, silent, its ever-changing blue and green dimmed at the long limit with luminous noontide mist. Inland spreads the undulant vastness of the sheep-spotted downs, beyond them the tillage and the woods of Sussex weald, coloured like to the pure sky above them, but in deeper tint. Near by, all but hidden among trees in yon lovely hollow, lies an old, old hamlet, its brown roofs decked with golden lichen; I see the low church-tower, and the little graveyard about it. Meanwhile, high in the heaven, a lark is singing. It descends; it drops to its nest, and I could dream that half the happiness of its exultant song was love of England. ...

我在南崗上散步。山谷中，陽光熱辣辣照著，但這里有吟唱的微風(fēng)輕拂額頭，讓人精神一振，心里充滿喜悅。踩在低矮柔軟的草地上，我的步伐輕快，不知疲憊；我覺得自己可以一直走啊走，走到遠處的地平線，那里有白色浮云投下的陰影。我下面的遠處，是夏天的海，靜寂，沉默，在正午明亮的薄霧中，它不斷變幻的藍色和綠色因為遙遠而模糊了。向內(nèi)陸延伸的是開闊起伏的高地，上面點綴著白色的綿羊，高地的盡頭，是蘇塞克斯郡原野的田地和樹林，它們的顏色點染得像上方的藍天，不過更深濃。附近可愛山谷的樹叢間，掩映著一座古老的小村落，棕色的房頂裝飾著金色的苔蘚；我看見教堂低矮的鐘樓，還有它周圍小小的墓地。此時，在天空高處，有一只云雀在歌唱。它飛回巢中，我可以想象，它歡愉歌聲中一半的快樂是對英格蘭的熱愛……

It is all but dark. For a quarter of an hour I must have been writing by a glow of firelight reflected on to my desk; it seemed to me the sun of summer. Snow is still falling. I see its ghostly glimmer against the vanishing sky. To-morrow it will be thick upon my garden, and perchance for several days. But when it melts, when it melts, it will leave the snowdrop. The crocus, too, is waiting, down there under the white mantle which warms the earth.

夜幕完全降臨了。我一定是借著映到書桌上的一縷爐火的光亮，寫作了一刻鐘，它在我眼里就像是夏天的艷陽。雪還在下著，我看到在逐漸變黑的天空中，落雪帶著一絲慘淡的微光。明天，我的花園會覆上厚厚一層雪，也許要持續(xù)幾天吧，但是當(dāng)雪融化時，會留下雪滴蓮。還有藏紅花，它也在暖熱大地的雪毯下面等待開放呢。