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Part2 Adventure in the World of Nature
第二部分 在自然界中探險
One stormy autumn night when my grandnephew Roger was about twenty months old I wrapped him in a blanket and carried him down to the beach in the rainy darkness. Out there, just at the edge where we couldn't see big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes that boomed and shouted and threw great handfuls of froth at us. Together we laughed for pure joy-he a baby meeting for the first time the wild tumult of oceanus, I wish the salt of half a lifetime of sea love in me. But I think we felt the same spine-tingling response to the vast, roaring ocean and the wild night around us.
一個暴風(fēng)驟雨的秋夜，我用毛毯把侄孫羅杰裹好，帶著他冒雨在黑暗里穿行，徑直走到海灘邊，當(dāng)時他只有大約20個月大。在那里，在我們無法看見海的邊緣，巨浪雷鳴般呼嘯而來，依稀可見白色形狀的浪花翻騰著、吼叫著，朝我們拋來大把大把的泡沫。我們一起大笑，因為純粹的快樂而放聲歡笑-嬰兒的他第一次見到了海洋之神異常激動的神態(tài)，我多么希望我能擁有大海一半的愛的情懷。但我想，面對遼闊咆哮的大海還有周圍狂野的黑夜，我們都感受到了同樣的興奮。
A night or two later the storm had blown itself out and I took Roger again to the beach, this time to carry him along the water's edge, piercing the darkness with the yellow cone of our flashlight.Although there was no rain the night was again noisy with breaking waves and the insistent wind.It was clearly a time and place where great elemental things prevailed.
一兩個晚上以后，暴風(fēng)雨平息了，我?guī)е_杰再次來到海邊。這一次我抱著他沿著水邊漫步，手電筒射出的錐形的黃色光芒穿透了黑暗。雖然沒有下雨，海浪的巨響和持續(xù)的風(fēng)聲使得夜晚一樣喧鬧。顯然，就在此時此地，偉大的自然力量盡顯無疑。
One adventure on this particular night had to do with life, for we were searching for ghost crabs, those sand-colored, fleet-legged beings which Roger had sometimes glimpsed briefly on the beaches in daytime. But the crabs are chiefly nocturnal, and when not roaming the night beaches they dig little pits near the surf line where they hide, seemingly watching and waiting for what the sea may bring them. For me the sight of these small living creatures, solitary and fragile against the brute force of the sea, had moving philosophic overtones, and I do not pretend that Roger and I reacted with similar emotions. But it was good to see his infant acceptance of a world of elemental things, fearing neither the song of the wind nor the darkness nor the roaring surf, entering with baby excitement into the search for a " ghost."
在這樣一個特別的夜晚做一次冒險是和生命相關(guān)的，因為我們找尋著那些羅杰有時白天在海堆上匆匆瞥見過的和沙子一樣顏色的、行動敏捷的幽靈蟹。但蟹主要在夜間活動，當(dāng)它們不能在黑夜的沙灘漫游時,就在它們在沖浪線的附近挖些小坑藏在里面，似乎在觀察，在等待大海帶給他們什么。看到這些小生靈，面對大海的強(qiáng)力而孤單脆弱時，我體會到了令人感動的哲學(xué)寓意，我不敢說羅杰和我有相似的反應(yīng)。但是，看到嬰兒的他接受著自然的世界，不怕風(fēng)在唱歌，也不怕黑暗包圍和海浪轟吟，帶著嬰兒的興奮尋求著"幽之蟹"實在是一件令人高興的事。
It was hardly a conventional way to entertain one so young, I suppose, but now, with Roger a little past his fourth birthday, we are continuing that sharing of adventures in the world of nature that we began in his babyhood, and I think the results are good. The sharing includes nature in storm as well as calm, by night as well as day, and is based on having fun together rather than on teaching.
我想，這不是一個讓如此年幼的孩子高興的方式，通常人們不會這么做。但現(xiàn)在，羅杰剛過了他第四個生日，我們?nèi)匀焕^續(xù)著從他嬰兒時期就開始的自然界探險之旅，我們一同感受這個旅程，而且我認(rèn)為結(jié)果是美好的。我們一同感受自然，不僅有風(fēng)暴，也有寧靜；不僅有黑夜，也有白晝，并且我們的目的是一同嬉戲玩耍，而不是教導(dǎo)。
