I did not altogether believe my eyes. The days that had passed since I left Wellington seemed extraordinary and unusual. Wellington is trim and neat and English; it reminds you of a seaport town on the South Coast. And for three days afterwards the sea was stormy. Gray clouds chased one another across the sky. Then the wind dropped, and the sea was calm and blue. The Pacific is more desolate than other seas; its spaces seem more vast, and the most ordinary journey upon it has somehow the feeling of an adventure. The air you breathe is an elixir which prepares you for the unexpected. Nor is it vouchsafed to man in the flesh to know aught that more nearly suggests the approach to the golden realms of fancy than the approach to Tahiti. Murea, the sister isle, comes into view in rocky splendour, rising from the desert sea mysteriously, like the unsubstantial fabric of a magic wand. With its jagged outline it is like a Monseratt of the Pacific, and you may imagine that there Polynesian knights guard with strange rites mysteries unholy for men to know. The beauty of the island is unveiled as diminishing distance shows you in distincter shape its lovely peaks, but it keeps its secret as you sail by, and, darkly inviolable, seems to fold itself together in a stony, inaccessible grimness. It would not surprise you if, as you came near seeking for an opening in the reef, it vanished suddenly from your view, and nothing met your gaze but the blue loneliness of the Pacific.
我不太敢相信自己的眼睛。自從離開威靈頓以后，日子似乎過得非常奇特。威靈頓整齊有序，富于英國風味，使人想到英國南岸的一座濱海城市。這以后我在海上航行了三天，波浪滔天，烏云在空中互相追逐。三天以后風停了，大海變得非常寂靜，一片碧藍。太平洋看來比別的海洋更加荒涼，煙波浩渺，即使在這個水域上作一次最普通的旅行也帶有冒險意味。你吸到胸中的空氣象是補身的甘香酒，叫你精神振奮，準備經歷一些你從來未料到的事。但是你除了知道已經駛進塔希提，朦朧中感到走近一塊黃金的國土外，它絕不向你泄露別的秘密。與塔希提構成姊妹島的莫里阿島進入你的視野，危崖高聳，絢爛壯麗，突然從茫茫的海水里神秘地一躍而出，象魔棍召喚出的一幅虛無飄渺的彩錦。莫里阿巉巖嶙峋，有如蒙特塞拉特島（蒙特塞拉特島是英屬西印度群島中的一個島嶼）被移植到太平洋中。面對這幅景象，你會幻想波利尼西亞的武士正在那里進行奇特的宗教儀式，用以阻止世俗凡人了解某些秘密。當距離逐漸縮小，美麗的峰巒形狀愈加真切時，莫里阿島的美麗便完全呈現出來，但是在你的船只從它旁邊駛過時，你會發現它仍然重門深鎖，把自己閉合為一堆人們無法接近的陰森可怖的巨石，沒有人能闖入它那幽森的奧秘中去。誰也不會感到驚奇：只要船只駛到近處，想在珊瑚礁尋覓一個入口，它就會突然從人們的視線里消失，映入你眼簾的仍是太平洋一片茫茫碧波。
Tahiti is a lofty green island, with deep folds of a darker green, in which you divine silent valleys; there is mystery in their sombre depths, down which murmur and plash cool streams, and you feel that in those umbrageous places life from immemorial times has been led according to immemorial ways. Even here is something sad and terrible. But the impression is fleeting, and serves only to give a greater acuteness to the enjoyment of the moment. It is like the sadness which you may see in the jester's eyes when a merry company is laughing at his sallies; his lips smile and his jokes are gayer because in the communion of laughter he finds himself more intolerably alone. For Tahiti is smiling and friendly; it is like a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm and beauty; and nothing can be more conciliatory than the entrance into the harbour at Papeete. The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion. They are sensual with an unashamed violence that leaves you breathless. And the crowd that throngs the wharf as the steamer draws alongside is gay and debonair; it is a noisy, cheerful, gesticulating crowd. It is a sea of brown faces. You have an impression of coloured movement against the flaming blue of the sky. Everything is done with a great deal of bustle, the unloading of the baggage, the examination of the customs; and everyone seems to smile at you. It is very hot. The colour dazzles you.
塔希提卻是另外一番景象，它是一個高聳海面的綠蔥蔥的島嶼，暗綠色的深褶使你猜到那是一條條寂靜的峽谷。這些幽深的溝壑有一種神秘氣氛，凄冷的溪流在它深處琤琤鳴濺，你會感到，在這些濃蔭郁郁的地方，遠自太古以來生活就一直按照古老的習俗綿綿不息地延續到現在。塔希提也存在著某些凄涼、可怖的東西。但這種印象并沒有長久留在你的腦中，這只能使你更加敏銳地感到當前生活的歡樂。這就象一群興高采烈的人在聽一個小丑打渾，正在捧腹大笑時，會在小丑的眼睛里看到凄涼的眼神一樣；小丑的嘴唇在微笑，他的笑話越來越滑稽，因為在他逗人發笑的時候他更加感到自己無法忍受的孤獨。因為塔希提正在微笑，它一邊微笑一邊對你表現出無限的情誼，它象一個美麗的婦人，既嫻雅又浪漫地向你展示她的全部美貌和魅力，特別是在船只剛剛進入帕皮提港口的時候，你簡直感到心醉神馳。泊在碼頭邊的雙桅帆船每一艘都那么整齊、干凈，海灣環抱著的這座小城潔白、文雅，而法國火焰式建筑物在蔚藍的天空下卻紅得刺目，象激情的呼喊一般，極力炫示自己鮮艷的色彩。它們是肉感的，簡直大膽到不顧廉恥的地步，叫你看了目瞪口呆。當輪船靠近碼頭時，蜂擁到岸邊的人群興高彩烈而又彬彬有禮。他們一片笑語喧嘩，人人揮舞著手臂。從輪船上望去，這是一個棕色面孔的海洋。你會感到炎炎碧空下，色彩在炫目地旋轉移動。不論從船上往下卸行李也好，海關檢查也好，做任何事都伴隨著大聲喧鬧，而每個人都象在向你微笑。天氣非常熱。絢爛的顏色耀得你睜不開眼睛。
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