『譯作 · FIRST SNOW』

初雪（选段）

[加拿大] 吉丽安·道格拉斯

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

      一天夜晚，当我从隐居的小屋向窗外望去，金黄的灯光下，柔软的雪花悄无声息地悠然飘落。整整一宿，飞雪纷扬不息。梯尔河的流水渐入宁静，喧嚣的森林归于沉寂。黎明时分，溪流川谷、林木群山已是白雪一片，皑皑动人。
      天蒙蒙亮，我便出了家门，屋外静谧无声，甚至连我的呼吸都成了一种打扰。北边的山峰泛出灰蓝的色泽，而西边的天空夜色还未消散。不断漫延的淡粉色晕染着东南边广袤的天际。我抬头仰望，依稀可见晨曦中的星宿，正俯瞰着这片白茫茫的世界。
      顷刻之间，整个天空有如火焰般一派红光。寒冷和沉静压弯了树枝，晶莹的冰雪覆盖了树桩，倒落的残木宛若披上了银装。遍生野莓的树丛间，随处可见嫩生的白色马勃菌，像是缀满珠宝的棉絮。铁杉和雪松光秃秃的树根已然成了石英和橄榄石砌成的洞穴。
      大雪过后，常青树最是可人，被积雪压弯的白色树枝垂挂在树干上，如同一只为抵御严寒而合拢翅膀的巨鸟。
      然而，小雪之后，最美的当属落叶树了。它们有如烟雾般飘渺轻盈，似乎是沿着河岸飘去，但又脆弱得不堪一击，仿佛这水声也能将它们震碎。银丝细缕的灌木丛恍若置身幻境，它好似轻得可以踮起脚尖，哪怕最轻柔的微风也会吹落枝梢上微微闪烁的雪花，徒留空荡的枝条，叫人怜爱不已。

（原文）

First Snow
(Excerpt)

Gilean Douglas (1900-1993)

      One evening I look out the window of my secluded cabin, and there are soft languid flakes falling in the golden lamplight. They fall all night, while the voice of the Teal River becomes more and more hushed and the noises of the forest die away. By dawn, the whole world of stream and wood and mountain had been kindled to a white flame of beauty.

      I go out on the early morning and there is such silence that even breath is a profanation. The mountain to the north has steel-blue light on it, and to the west the sky still holds something of the darkness of the night. To the east and the south a faint pink is spreading. I look up and see the morning star keeping white watch over a white world.

      Soon the whole sky is azure and flaming. Every branch of every tree is weighted with cold and stillness; every stump is crowned with crystal; every fallen log is overlaid with silver. The wild berry bushes have puffballs of jeweler’s cotton here and there along their branches, and the stark roots of hemlocks and cedars have become grottoes of quartz and chrysolite.

      After heavy snowfalls, it is the evergreens that are the loveliest, with their great white branches weighted down until they are almost parallel with the trunks. They seem like giant birds with their wings folded against the cold.

      But after a light fall, it is the deciduous trees that are the most beautiful. They are so fragile, so ethereal, that it seems even the sound of the rivers might shatter them as they appear to drift like crystal smoke along the banks. The bushes are silver filigree, so light, so much on tiptoe in this enchanted world. Even the slightest breeze sends the snow shimmering down from them, leaving the branches brown and bare and rather pitiful.

◎ 关于作者：Gilean Joan Douglas

      吉丽安•道格拉斯 (1900-1993)，是加拿大自然作家。她以诗人著称，但她同时也是摄影记者、女权主义者、历史学家和政治活动家。生长男权家庭的环境下，对成为独立女性的渴望便成了她写作灵感的源泉。她的诗歌、散文、小说和自传等作品，时间跨度近八十年，描写了在这段光阴岁月里，她的四段婚姻、在卡斯克德山（Cascade Mountains）的十年以及在英属哥伦比亚科尔特斯岛（Cortes Island）四十年的生活经历。她的自然散文作品集有《我所漫步的河流》（River For My Sidewalk, 1953）、《宁静是我的故乡：梯尔河生活记》（Silence Is My Homeland: Life on Teal River , 1978）和《守护之所》（The Protected Place, 1979）。 （顾忆青）

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《初雪》全文： First Snow