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I study images of quasars giving birth to galaxies, galaxie whirling in the shapes of pinwheels, supernovas ringed by strands of luminous debris, and all the while I'm delving back toward that utter g when you and I and my daughter and her new husband and the bright heavenly host were joined in the original burst of light.
我研究類星體產生星系的圖像，這些星系如同玩具風車一樣旋轉，超新星周圍是一條條由星體遺骸組成的閃閃發光的帶狀物。我在這中間一直不斷地探索宇宙的開始，一直追溯到你，我，我的女兒，她的新婚丈夫，以及天空中大量閃閃發光的星星匯合成最初的原始大耀光。
On these cool September mornings, I've been poring over two sets of photographs, those from deep space and those from Eva's wedding, trying to figure out why such different images-of supernova and shining daughter, of spinning galaxies and trembling bouquets-set up in me the same hum of delight. The feeling is unusually intense for me just now, so soon after the nuptials, but it has never been rare. As far back as I can remember, things seen or heard or smelled, things tasted or touched, have provoked in me an answering vibration. The stimulus might be the sheen of moonlight on the edles of a white pine, or the iridescent glimmer on a dragonfly's tail, or the lean silhouette of a ladder-back chair, or the glaze on a hand-thrown pot. It might be bird song or a Bach sonata or the purl of water over stone. It might be a line of poetry, the outline of cheek, the savor of bread, the sway of a bough or a bow. The provocation might be as grand as a mountain sunrise or as humble as an icicle's jeweled tip, yet in each case a familiar surge of gratitude and wonder wells up in me.
九月涼爽的早晨，我一直在研究兩套照片：一套來自遙遠的天際，一套來自伊娃的婚禮。我在試圖弄清楚為什么這些不同的形象——超新星和閃亮的女兒，旋轉的星系和顫動的花束——都在我心中激起了同樣喜悅的旋律。婚禮結束并沒有多久，這種感覺在我心中異常強烈，事實上這種感覺常常會有。就我所能回想起的，無論是所見、所聽、所聞，是所品嘗或所觸摸的事物，都曾激起我回應的共鳴。觸動這種激情的，也許是傾瀉在白松松針上的月色，是蜻蜓尾部變幻不定的彩虹色的閃光。它可能是小鳥的歌唱、巴赫的奏鳴曲，或流水淌過石頭的潺潺聲；它可能來自一行詩、面包的香味或者是樹枝的搖曳和琴弓的拉動；它可能來自高山日出的壯觀場面，也可能僅僅起自不起眼的冰錐兒頭上晶瑩的冰珠。但不管是何種起因，每次我心中都會涌起同樣的感激和驚嘆。
Now and again some voice raised on the stairs leading to my study, some passage of music, some noise from the street, will stir a sympathetic thrum from the strings of the guitar that tilts against the wall behind my door. Just so, over and over again, impulses from the world stir a responsive chord in me-not just any chord, but a particular one, combining notes of elegance, exhilaration, simplicity, and awe. The feeling is as recognizable to me, as unmistakable, as the sound of Ruth's voice or the beating of my own heart.
通向我書房樓梯上響起的談話聲、飄過的樂聲街道上的嘈雜聲，都會不時激起那把傾斜著放在我的門后墻上的吉他的和弦共鳴。就這樣一次又一次地，外部世界總會激起我回應的和弦——那不是一種任意的和弦，而是混合了優雅、振奮、簡潔和敬畏各種音符的一種特別的和弦。這種感覺如辨別魯思的聲音或確定我的心跳一樣清晰，準確無誤。
