評論
打印
Piquette was picking up stones and snail shells and then dropping them again.
皮格特正在從地上拾起一些石子和蝸牛殼，然后又丟到地上。
Who gives a good goddamn? she said.
誰有心思去管那些?她說。
It became increasingly obvious that, as an Indian, Piquette was a dead loss.
要想通過皮格特來了解印第安人的情況看來是不可能了，這一點已經越來越清楚了。
That evening I went out by myself, scrambling through the bushes that overhung the steep path, my feet slipping on the fallen spruce needles that covered the ground.
那天晚上，我獨自一人出去，沿著陡峭的山路攀爬而行，一邊走一邊要用手扒開那些伸到路中間的灌木枝，而腳踏在鋪著一層云杉針葉的地面上也是一滑一滑的。
When I reached the shore, I walked along the firm damp sand to the small pier that my father had built, and sat down there.
到了湖邊后，我穿過堅實的濕沙灘，走到我父親筑起的那道小防波堤上坐了下來。
I heard someone else crashing through the undergrowth and the bracken, and for a moment I thought Piquette had changed her mind, but it turned out to be my father.
我聽到有人穿過灌木叢和羊齒蕨叢風風火火地一路行來，當下我還以為是皮格特回心轉意了，沒想到來的竟是我父親。
He sat beside me on the pier and we waited, without speaking.
他挨著我在防波堤上坐下，我們倆都沒說話，靜靜地在那等候著。
At night the lake was like black glass with a streak of amber which was the path of the moon.
夜間的湖面看起來像一塊黑色玻璃，只有一線水面因映照著月光才呈現出琥珀色，
All around, the spruce trees grew tall and close-set, branches blackly sharp against the sky, which was lightened by a cold flickering of stars.
湖的周圍到處密密叢叢地生長著高大的云杉樹，在寒光閃爍的星空映襯下，云杉樹的枝椏呈現出清晰的黑色剪影。
Then the loons began their calling. They rose like phantom birds from the nests on the shore, and flew out onto the dark still surface of the water.
過了一會兒，潛水鳥開始嗚叫。它們像幽靈般地從岸邊的窩巢中騰起，飛往平靜幽暗的湖面上。
No one can ever describe that ululating sound, the crying of the loons, and no one who has heard it can ever forget it.
潛水鳥的鳴聲悲涼凄厲，任何人都無法形容，任何人聽后也難以忘懷。
Plaintive , and yet with a quality of chilling mockery , those voices belonged to a world separated by aeon from our neat world of summer cottages and the lighted lamps of home.
那種悲涼之中又帶著冷嘲的聲調屬于另外一個遙遠的世界，那世界與我們這個有著避暑別墅和居家燈火的美好世界相隔不下億萬年之遙。
They must have sounded just like that, my father remarked, before any person ever set foot here.
在人的足跡尚未踏入此地之前，我父親開口說，它們一定也就是這樣叫的。
Then he laughed. You could say the same, of course, about sparrows or chipmunk, but somehow it only strikes you that way with the loons.
說完他自己笑了起來。當然，你也可以這樣去評論麻雀和金花鼠，但不知何故，你卻只想到這樣去評論潛水鳥。
