Mountain Scenery (Ⅰ) 山景(一)

吉内尔德·W. 布莱斯(Gerald W. Brace)

To achieve a hundred miles in four hours in a Model T was fine work, but exhausting. Yet on this day the air lay sweetly over the golden countryside, full of balm and peace and the faint taste of leaf smoke. We sang and laughed and drank the rare and mellow distillations of Indian summer, our hearts grew light, our heads giddy with joy:the flames of the northern maples made great chords of splendid music in our spirit. We hailed the northward adventure, the lifting of each higher hill, the spreading miles of forest, the coming of dark spruce, the first glint of rock peaks in the silvery blue, and then the long slow waning of the sun, the golden flow of light from the southwest level across the colored land, the intensity of it, deepening and brightening toward night, the palpable gold on the leaves and grasses, the blue wells of shadows, valleys lost now in dusk and high hills still glowing in smokeless mantles of fire. We turned silent and watched the slow evening climb the slopes of brightness. In the far north a peak gleamed like a luminescent spearhead of pearl, purer than white itself.

- balm [bɑːm] n. 香味，芳香

- distillation [ˌdɪstɪˈleɪʃn] n. 蒸馏，精华

- palpable [ˈpælpəbl] a. 可触摸的；明显的

- luminescent [ˌluːmɪˈnesnt] a. 发光的

驾着福特T型车，四个小时开100英里，虽然很累，可景色宜人，感觉倒不错。这天，金色的山野乡间，空气清新，芬芳怡人，一片宁静，充满了树叶散发出的淡淡的清香。我们边开车，边说笑，边歌唱，大口地吸进少有的芳醇的小阳春的气息，心情轻松愉快，头脑快乐得发晕：北方枫林的烈焰般的红叶在我们灵魂深处谱出了美妙的乐章。我们向北游历，一路兴高采烈，欢声笑语。但见山势渐高，森林绵延数英里，深色云杉林扑面而来，淡蓝色岩石顶峰初露芳容，接着太阳缓缓西沉，从西南方的地平线上撒下一泻千里的金色光芒，万山层林尽染，日暮时漫天云霞，给树叶和草地镀上了一层绛亮的金黄色，蓝色的林泉，映着树木的倒影，山谷此刻在黄昏中已隐然消失，而明净的晚霞依然笼罩在高高的山岗上。我们都静了下来，看着那徐徐而至的暮色爬上明亮的山坡。在遥远的北方，有一个山顶射出光芒，像是发光的珠宝制成的矛头，圣洁无比。

吉内尔德·W. 布莱斯(1901—1978)，出生于纽约长岛。著作很多，包括《岛》(The Islands ，1936)，《加里特森编年史》(The Garretson Chronicle ，1947)，《夏天的故事》(A Summer's Tale , 1949)，《冬至》(Winter Solstice ，1960)，《风与水》(Between Wind and Water ，1966)，《往昔时光》(Days that Were ，1976)等。