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Part3 Have You Seen the Tree
第三部分 你見過那棵樹嗎
My neighbor Mrs. Gargan first told me about it. "Have you seen the tree?" she asked as I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the October twilight.
關于那棵樹，最初是我的鄰居加根太太告訴我的。"你見過那棵樹嗎？"她問道，當時我正坐在后院欣賞十月的暮色。
"The one down at the corner," she explained. "It's a beautiful tree-all kinds of colors. Cars are stopping to look. You ought to see it."
"就是下去拐角處的那棵"她解釋說，"漂亮極了-五顏六色的。好多車路過都停下來看，你該去看看。"
I told her I would, but I soon forgot about the tree. Three days later, I was jogging down the street, my mind swimming with petty worries, when a splash of bright orange caught my eye. For an instant, I thought someone's house had caught fire. Then I remembered the tree.
我對她說我會去看的，可轉眼就忘記了關于樹的事。三天后，我順著街道慢跑，腦子里充斥著惱人的小事，忽然，一片耀眼的橘紅色映入眼簾。有一會兒，我還以為是誰家的房子著火了呢，但我馬上想到了那棵樹。
As I approached it, I slowed to a walk. There was nothing remarkable about the shape of the tree. a medium-sized maple. But Mrs. Gargan had been right about its colors. Like the messy whirl of an artist's palette, the tree blazed a bright crimson on its lower branches, burned with vivid yellows and oranges in its center. and simmered to deep red at its top. Through these fiery colors cascaded thin rivulets of pale-green leaves and blotches of deep-green leaves, as yet untouched by autumn.
當我靠近樹時，禁不住放慢了腳步。樹的形狀并沒有什么非凡之處，是一棵中等大小的楓樹。但加根太太說得不錯，它的色彩確實很奇特，像畫家調色板中斑斕的顏料，令人眼花繚亂。樹底部的枝丫好似一片鮮紅的火海，樹的中部燃燒著明快的黃色和橘色，頂部的樹梢又爆發著深紅色。在這火一樣的色彩中，流淌著淺綠的葉子匯成的小溪，深綠的葉子斑駁點綴其間，似乎至今末曾受到過秋天的侵襲。
Edging closer-like a pilgrim approaching a shrine-I noticed several bare branches near the top, their black twigs scratching the air like claws. The leaves they had shed lay like a scarlet carpet around the trunk.
我慢慢走近它.就像朝圣者緩緩步向神殿，我發現靠近樹梢的地方有幾根光禿禿的枝丫，上面黑乎乎的小枝像鷹爪一般伸向天空。枯枝上落下的葉子一片猩紅，像地毯似的鋪在樹干周圍。
With its varied nations of color, this tree seemed to become a globe, embracing in its broad branches all seasons and continents: the spring and summer of the Southern hemisphere in the light and dark greens, the autumn and winter of the Northern in the blazing yellows and bare branches.
這棵楓樹集各種顏色于一體。如果一種顏色就是一個國家，楓樹儼然成了一個繽紛的地球，它張開寬大的枝條，歷數著四季輪回，容納著五湖四海。深淺錯落的綠葉，昭示著南半球的春夏，耀眼的黃葉和光禿禿的枝丫勾勒出北半球的秋冬。整個星球就圍繞這一時空的交集點和諧運轉。
As I marveled at this all-encompassing beauty, I thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson's comments about the stars. If the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, he observed in Nature, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they're up there every night, we barely give them a look.
我為這棵樹無所不包的美而驚嘆不已。這時,我想起了著名作家拉爾夫•沃爾多•愛默生有關星星的評論。他在《自然》一書中寫道：倘若星座一千年才出現一次，那么，星座的出現是一樁多么激動人心的事；可正因為星座每夜都掛在天上，人們才很少去看上一眼。
I felt the same way about the tree. Because its majesty will last only a week, it should be especially precious to us. And I had almost missed it.
對于眼前這棵樹，我也有同感。它此時的華美只能維持一個星期，所以它對于我們就相當珍貴。可我竟差一點錯過了。
Once when Emily Dickenson's father noticed a brilliant display of northern lights in the sky over Massachusetts, he tolled a church bell to alert townspeople. That's what I felt like doing about the tree. I wanted to become a Paul Revere of autumn, awakening the countryside to its wonder.
有一次，當埃米莉•迪金森的父親偶然看見馬薩諸塞州上空一道炫目的北極光時，他立刻跑到教堂鳴鐘告知所有市民。現在，我也產生了同樣的想法，我要向世人宣揚這棵樹。我愿成為秋天的信使。讓田園鄉村每一個角落的人們都了解它的神奇。
I didn't have a church bell or a horse, but as I walked home, I did ask each neighbor I passed the same simple but momentous question Mrs. Gargan had asked me: "Have you seen the tree?"
可我沒有教堂的大鐘，也沒有快馬，但當我走在回家的路上，我會問遇見的每一位鄰居加根太太曾問過我的那個極其簡單又極其重要的問題:"你見過那棵樹嗎?"
