英譯現(xiàn)代散文●白馬湖之冬 ◎ 夏丏尊

白馬湖之冬

Winter in White Horse Lake

◎　夏丏尊

◎　Xia Mianzun

在我過去四十余年的生涯中，冬的情味嘗得最深刻的，要算十年前初移居白馬湖的時候了。十年以來，白馬湖已成了一個小村落，當(dāng)我移居的時候，還是一片荒野。春暉中學(xué)的新建筑巍然矗立于湖的那一面，湖的這一面的山腳下是小小的幾間新平屋，住著我和劉君心如兩家。此外兩三里內(nèi)沒有人煙。一家人于陰歷十一月下旬從熱鬧的杭州移居這荒涼的山野，宛如投身于極帶中。

I am now over forty, but it was not until ten years ago that I got a feel of what winter was really like soon after I had moved my residence to White Horse Lake, a place beyond my home town. Since then, however, it has grown into quite a village, but it was an expanse of wilderness at the time when I moved in. The new buildings of Chun Hui Middle School then stood tall on the other side of the Lake while on this side were several newly-built small one-storey houses tucked away at the foot of a mountain where lived two families separately, the family of mine and that of Liu Xinru. The neighborhood was totally unpopulated far and wide except for the two households. Having moved from Hangzhou to this desolate countryside late in the eleventh moon of the lunar year, we felt like getting bogged down in a polar region.

那里的風(fēng)，差不多日日有的，呼呼作響，好像虎吼。屋宇雖系新建，構(gòu)造卻極粗率，風(fēng)從門窗隙縫中來，分外尖削，把門縫窗隙厚厚地用紙糊了，椽縫中卻仍有透入。風(fēng)刮得厲害的時候，天未夜就把大門關(guān)上，全家吃畢夜飯即睡入被窩里，靜聽寒風(fēng)的怒號，湖水的澎湃。靠山的小后軒，算是我的書齋，在全屋子中風(fēng)最少的一間，我常把頭上的羅宋帽拉得低低地，在洋燈下工作至夜深。松濤如吼，霜月當(dāng)窗，饑鼠吱吱在承塵上奔竄。我于這種時候深感到蕭瑟的詩趣，常獨(dú)自撥劃著爐灰，不肯就睡，把自己擬諸山水畫中的人物，作種種幽邈的遐想。

The wind there blew almost every day, howling like a tiger's roaring. The new houses were of poor quality, with a biting wind coming in through every chink in the doors and windows. And our efforts to have all the cracks sealed with paper nevertheless failed to stop it from breaking into the house. When it was very windy, all we could do was shut the front door before dark and go to bed after supper, listening quietly to the whistling of the sharp wind and the surging of the Lake waters. In the small rear-room close to the mountain, which, least affected by the wind, was my study, I often worked by the light of an oil lamp late into the night, with my woolen cap pulled down, while the pines were soughing in the wind, the white moon shining on the window, and hungry rats squeaking and scurrying in the neighborhood of the ceilings. Seized with a poetic mood generated by the scene of bleakness, I would stay up late and sit alone poking the charcoal fire, imaging myself a figure in a traditional Chinese landscape painting and indulging in deep reveries.

現(xiàn)在白馬湖到處都是樹木了，當(dāng)時尚一株樹木都未種。月亮與太陽都是整個兒的，從上山起直要照到下山為止。太陽好的時候，只要不刮風(fēng)，那真和暖得不像冬天。一家人都坐在庭間曝日，甚至于吃午飯也在屋外，像夏天的晚飯一樣。日光曬到哪里，就把椅凳移到哪里，忽然寒風(fēng)來了，只好逃難似地各自帶了椅凳逃入室中，急急把門關(guān)上。在平常的日子，風(fēng)來大概在下午快要傍晚的時候，半夜即息。至于大風(fēng)寒，那是整日夜狂吼，要二三日才止的。最嚴(yán)寒的幾天，泥地看去慘白如水門汀，山色凍得發(fā)紫而黯，湖波泛深藍(lán)色。

White Horse Lake is now rich in vegetation while at that time it was totally treeless. When the sun shone bright on a windless day, it would be nice and warm. The whole family would then sit in the courtyard to bask in the sun, and even have lunch in the open air like we did in summer. Where there was sunshine, there we would move our chairs. When the cold wind came, however, we would scamper indoors like refugees, each carrying a chair or stool and hastily closing the doors behind us. The wind usually began to howl towards evening and lasted until midnight. In the case of a severe storm, it would rage for two to three days and nights on end. At the height of the bitter cold, the fields would for several days look deathly pale like cement, the mountains would turn dirty purple with cold, and the ripples of the Lake would be of a deep blue.

下雪原是我所不憎厭的，下雪的日子，室內(nèi)分外明亮，晚上差不多不用燃燈。遠(yuǎn)山積雪足供半個月的觀看，舉頭即可從窗中望見?？墒蔷烤故悄戏?，每冬下雪不過一二次。我在那里所日常領(lǐng)略的冬的情味，幾乎都從風(fēng)來。白馬湖的所以多風(fēng)，可以說有著地理上的原因。那里環(huán)湖都是山，而北首卻有一個半里闊的空隙，好似故意張了袋口歡迎風(fēng)來的樣子。白馬湖的山水和普通的風(fēng)景地相差不遠(yuǎn)，唯有風(fēng)卻與別的地方不同。風(fēng)的多和大，凡是到過那里的人都知道的。風(fēng)在冬季的感覺中，自古占著重要的因素，而白馬湖的風(fēng)尤其特別。

I had no aversion to snowfall because it very much brightened up my room, so much so that I could almost do without lamplight at night. The distant mountains would remain snow-capped for at least half a month — a scene I could easily enjoy from my window. However, it was a pity that, living in the south, we could have snowfall only once or twice each winter. Hence it was from the wind only that I could in my daily life get a taste of winter. White Horse Lake is windy for geographical reasons. The place is surrounded by mountains except in the north where there is a gap as wide as one fourth of a kilometer, like the wide open mouth of a bag, ready to accept the wind. It is the wind that differentiates White Horse Lake from other scenic spots. Anybody who has been to the place can tell how frequent and violent the wind is there. The wind has, since time immemorial, been an important factor in characterizing winter, particularly so in White Horse Lake.

現(xiàn)在，一家僦居上海多日了，偶然于夜深人靜時聽到風(fēng)聲，大家就要提起白馬湖來，說“白馬湖不知今夜又刮得怎樣厲害哩!”

Now it is quite a few days since I and my family moved to Shanghai. Whenever the wind blows in the stillness of the night, we will all mention White Horse Lake, saying,“White Horse Lake must be terribly windy tonight!”

夏丏尊(1886—1946)，浙江上虞縣人，我國著名文學(xué)家、教育家、出版家，著譯頗豐，其作品《文心》、《文章作法》、《平屋雜文》、《愛的教育》等，在20世紀(jì)20—40年代的文壇，曾風(fēng)行一時。1921年，他到家鄉(xiāng)上虞白馬湖的春暉中學(xué)教書，并在學(xué)校附近蓋平房安家，自題室名為“平屋”?！栋遵R湖之冬》一文是他后來移居上海時所寫的名篇，文章回憶舊地故居，蘊(yùn)含眷眷深情，用語平淡樸素，構(gòu)思嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)周密。