A Tour Made in Scotland 苏格兰游历

多萝西·华兹华斯(Dorothy Wordsworth)

We had to climb right up the hill, which is very steep, and, when close under it, seemed to be high, but we soon reached the top, and when we were there had lost sight of the lake; and now our road was over a moor, or rather through a wide moorland hollow . Having gone a little way, we saw before us, at the distance of about half a mile, a very large stone building, a singular structure, with a high wall round it, naked hill above, and neither field nor tree near; but the moor was not overgrown with heath merely, but grey grass, such as cattle might pasture upon.We could not conjecture what this building was; it appeared as if it had been built strong to defend it from storms; but for what purpose? William called out to us that we should observe that place well, for it was exactly like one of the spitals of the Alps, built for the reception of travellers, and indeed I had thought it must be so before he spoke. This building, from its singular structure and appearance, made the place, which is itself in a country like Scotland nowise remarkable, take a character of unusual wildness and desolation — this when we first came in view of it; and afterwards, when we had passed it and looked back, three pyramidal mountains on the opposite side of Loch Lomond terminated the view , which under certain accidents of weather must be very grand. Our Highland companion had not English enough to give us any information concerning this strange building; we could only get from her that it was a “large house”, which was plain enough.

We walked about a mile and a half over the moor without seeing any other dwelling but one hut by the burn-side, with a peat-stack and a ten-yard-square enclosure for potatoes; then we came to several clusters of houses, even hamlets they might be called, but where there is any land belonging to the Highland huts there are so many out-buildings near, which differ in no respect from the dwelling-houses except that they send out no smoke, that one house looks like two or three. Near these houses was a considerable quantity of cultivated ground, potatoes and corn, and the people were busy making hay in the hollow places, and all along the sides of the becks. It was a pretty sight altogether — men and women, dogs, the little running streams, with linen bleaching near them, and cheerful sunny hills and rocks on every side. We passed by one patch of potatoes that a florist might have been proud of; no carnation-bed ever looked more gay than this square plot of ground on the waste common.The flowers were in very large bunches, and of an extraordinary size, and of every conceivable shade of colouring from snow-white to deep purple. It was pleasing in that place, where perhaps was never yet a flower cultivated by man for his own pleasure, to see these blossoms grow more gladly than elsewhere, making a summer garden near the mountain dwellings.

wide moorland hollow 广阔的沼泽低地

- conjecture [kənˈdʒektʃə] v. 想象

- spital [ˈspɪtl] n. 供路边行人用的避风雨或落脚处

terminate the view 挡住了视线

- hamlet [ˈhæmlɪt] n. 村庄

- bleaching [ˈbliːtʃɪŋ] a. 漂白的

every conceivable shade of colouring 各种层次的颜色

我们得径直爬到小山顶上，小山很陡峭，在山脚下时，小山似乎很高，但不一会儿，我们就登顶了。站在山顶上，我们便看不见湖泊了。这会儿，我们行走在沼泽地里，或者说是穿过一片很宽的沼泽低地。走了一小段路，我们看到在我的前面约半英里之遥，有一个很大的石头房子，一座奇特的建筑结构，四周一堵高墙环绕，背靠光秃秃的小山，不近田野，也不见一棵树；但是沼泽地并非只是长着灌木，还有灰色的草，像是可以喂牲口的。我们无法想象这是什么建筑，是用来干什么的，好像造得非常结实，用以抵挡暴风雨的侵袭，但是出于什么目的呢？我哥哥威廉大声对我们说，要好好观察它，这和阿尔卑斯山接待游客的落脚点相似，其实他不说，我早就这么想过。这座建筑，从其奇特的结构和外表看，使得这个地方——它本身在苏格兰这样的国家里一点也不出众——带有不寻常的荒芜凄凉的特点——我们最初看到它时就产生了这种感觉。随后，当我们路过后回头看时，罗蒙湖对面三座金字塔般的大山挡住了视线，在某些天气情况下，这种景色一定是非常壮丽的。我们的苏格兰导游，因为英语水平不高，无法给我们讲这奇特建筑的任何事情，只听她讲是“大房子”，这是不讲自明嘛。

我们在沼泽地上走了大约一英里半，没有见到别的房子，只见到在一块用火烧出的空地上有一个小木屋，旁边有一堆泥煤和一个十码见方的围墙，里面堆放着土豆。接着我们来到了几簇房屋的地方，甚至可以称它们为小村庄，但在任何属于苏格兰高地木屋的地方，附近的附属房屋很多，同人们居住的房子没有什么不同，只是它们不冒炊烟，一个房子看上去像两三个似的。一簇簇、一座座房屋附近有大片耕作的土地，种着土豆和玉米，人们忙着在空地上堆干草。景致还不错——男男女女，还有小狗以及流淌的溪水，溪水旁晾着漂白的亚麻织物宜人而阳光明媚的小山，每个山坡都有石头。我们经过一块花农会为之自豪的土豆地；没有见过哪个康乃馨花床里的花比这块方正的闲置公地上的花更鲜艳夺目。花是一大束一大束的，长得出奇大，颜色从雪白到深紫，五彩缤纷，色调层次非常丰富。在这里真叫人高兴，在这里，可能没有一朵人工栽培的花。这里的花比其他地方的花绽放得更自由、更开心。

花是人工栽培自己观赏的，看到这些花比别处的花开得更艳丽多彩，使山中的居所成了夏日的花园，真让人高兴。

多萝西·华兹华斯(1771—1855)，英国女诗人，威廉·华兹华斯的妹妹与助手，他们一起旅游、散步，一起阅读、抄写诗稿。优秀诗作《乞丐》(Beggars )，《水仙花》(The Daffodils )就是写兄妹友情的。不朽之作《格拉斯米尔日志》(The Grasmere Journal )，还有《苏格兰旅行回忆录》(Journal of a Tour Made in Scotland ，1803)，《山间漫步的日子》(1815)，此外还写了一些短诗。

多萝西·华兹华斯在她的日记和信件中记录了她与威廉·华兹华斯及其诗人朋友们的生活，这些记录为后世提供了宝贵的文学史料。她在兄弟的作品中扮演着重要的角色，她的观察和体验经常成为他诗歌的灵感来源。

尽管多萝西本人没有出版过大量的作品，但她的日记和信件在她去世后被发现并出版，为了解她兄弟及当时英国文学界的生活和环境提供了重要的资料。