The Revelation of the Duck 鸭的启示

J. B. 普里斯特利(J. B. Priestley)

It was rather late the other night, and we were coming home to Highgate Village by way of High Street, Hampstead. We had to pass the Whitestone Pond. Now I like the Whitestone Pond. On fine afternoons, boys sail their toy boats on it, and when there's a wind blowing across the Heath the toy boats have to battle with enormous waves — about three inches high. At night, this pond is like a little hand-mirror that the vast, sprawling , yawning London still holds negligently; and you see the stars glimmering in it. Well, the other night was one of those mysterious nights we've had lately when there seems to be a pale light coming from nowhere, and the sky has a pure washed look. The dim lights of a few cars could be seen in the dusk round the pond, and some people, late as it was, standing and staring.

We stopped, and heard a solicitous quacking and a great deal of faint squeaking. Then we saw on the pond, like a tiny feathered flotilla , a duck accompanied by her minute ducklings, just squeaking specks of yellow fluff. We joined the fascinated spectators; We forgot the war, the imminence of invasion, the doubts about the French Fleet.

Our eyes and ears, and our imagination were caught and held by those triumphant little parcels of life. This duck hadn't hatched her brood here; she'd hatched them in some hidden corner — nobody knows where — and had then conveyed them — and nobody knows how — to swim happily in the dusk on the city pond. She hadn't asked anybody's advice or permission; she hadn't told herself it was too late or too difficult; nobody had told her to “go to it” and that “it all depended on her.” She had gone to it, a triumphant little servant of that life, mysterious, fruitful, beautiful, which expresses itself as a man writes a poem — now in vast galaxies of flaming suns, now in a tiny brood of ducklings squeaking in the dusk.

- sprawl [sprɔːl] v. 无计划地延伸，蔓延

- yawn [jɔːn] v. 打呵欠

- solicitous [səˈlɪsɪtəs] a. 挂念的，渴望的

- flotilla [fləʊˈtɪlə] n. 小舰队

- galaxy [ˈɡæləksɪ] n. 星系，一群出色的人物

前些时候某个夜晚，夜已深了，我们走在回家的路上，要到高门村，取道汉普斯特得的高街。白石池塘是必经之地。现在我喜欢上了白石池塘。在晴朗的下午，男孩子们把玩具船放在池塘里航行，而当有风从希思公园那边吹过来的时候，玩具船就得跟大风浪搏斗——那波浪有大约三英寸高。夜幕下，这个池塘就像一面袖珍镜子，那庞大的、东倒西歪、打着哈欠的伦敦，把它漫不经心地拿在手中；你能看见满天星斗在池塘里闪着微光。是的，那个夜晚是我们最近度过的神秘的夜晚之一，当时好像有一种暗淡的光，不知来自何处，而天空呈现出一种清洗过的纯净。暮色中，池塘周围可以看到少数汽车发出的昏暗的灯光，虽然很晚了，还能看见一些人，站在那儿，注目凝视。

我们停了下来，听到了鸭子牵挂小鸭子的嘎嘎叫声，又听到许多轻微的吱吱的尖叫声。接着我们在池塘水面上看到，一只母鸭和伴随她的极小的小鸭子，像一支长着羽毛的小型舰队。小鸭子们满身是有斑点的黄色绒毛，叽叽喳喳叫着。我们加入了着迷的观众的行列。我们忘记了战争，忘掉了入侵的威胁，忘掉了对于法国舰队作战能力的怀疑。

我们的眼睛、耳朵、我们的想象力都被那些得意扬扬的一个个小生命迷住，吸引住了。这只母鸭没有在这里孵化她的那窝小鸭；她在某个隐蔽的角落孵的蛋——谁也搞不清在什么地方——然后把他们转移运来——谁也不知道怎么做——在黄昏的城市池塘里快乐地戏水。她无需他人忠告，不用别人批准，不用担心行动有点迟缓或过于艰难，没有人告诉她“加油干”或“一切由你决定”。那种生活中大获全胜的小仆人，是那么神秘、卓有成效而又漂亮的小精灵，这一切就像有人在写一首诗——一会儿在广阔无垠、烈焰熊熊的星系之中，一会儿在黄昏一小窝小鸭子的嘎嘎叫声之中。