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Chapter XII
第十二章
After my first visit to Boston, I spent almost every winter in the North. Once I went on a visit to a New England village with its frozen lakes and vast snow fields. It was then that I had opportunities such as had never been mine to enter into the treasures of the snow.
在我第一次訪問了波士頓后，幾乎每一個冬天我都在北方度過。我曾經(jīng)去過新英格蘭地區(qū)的一個村莊，那里的凍湖和廣袤的雪原令我印象深刻。如果沒有身臨其境，我是永遠(yuǎn)也體會不到與雪融為一體的美妙感受的。
I recall my surprise on discovering that a mysterious hand had stripped the trees and bushes, leaving only here and there a wrinkled leaf. The birds had flown, and their empty nests in the bare trees were filled with snow. Winter was on hill and field. The earth seemed benumbed by his icy touch, and the very spirits of the trees had withdrawn to their roots, and there, curled up in the dark, lay fast asleep. All life seemed to have ebbed away, and even when the sun shone the day was Shrunk and cold, As if her veins were sapless and old, And she rose up decrepitly For a last dim look at earth and sea. The withered grass and the bushes were transformed into a forest of icicles.
我驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，冬天的大樹和灌木會遭受一只神秘的自然之手的摧殘，枝條上只剩下一些皺巴巴的葉子。鳥兒全都飛走了，枯枝敗葉間的鳥巢里裝滿了雪。山頭和田野里也是一派冬天的氣象，在冰雪的觸摸下，大地也被凍得僵硬麻木了。樹木的靈魂紛紛退縮到根部，它們蜷曲在幽暗的地下進(jìn)入夢鄉(xiāng)。所有的生物似乎都退到幕后，甚至連白天的陽光也變得短暫而寒冷，如同她那老邁而枯萎的血脈，她要同衰老拼死一搏，為了再看一眼她心中的大地和海洋。干枯的草叢和灌木也都變成了一片掛滿冰凌的森林。
Then came a day when the chill air portended a snowstorm. We rushed out-of-doors to feel the first few tiny flakes descending. Hour by hour the flakes dropped silently, softly from their airy height to the earth, and the country became more and more level.
隨后而來的是一股強(qiáng)冷空氣，這預(yù)示著暴風(fēng)雪的來臨。我們沖出屋外，去迎接最先降落的小雪片。一個小時又一個小時過去了，雪片悄無聲息地墜落，廣袤的原野變得白茫茫一片。
