英语散文名篇欣赏：林中漫步(上)

A walk in the woods-Jastin

林中漫步-詹斯汀

I was puzzled! Why was this old woman makingsuch a fuss about an old copse which was of no useto anybody? She had written letters to the localpaper, even to a national, protesting about aprojected by-pass to her village, and, looking at amap, the route was nowhere near where she lived and it wasn't as if the area was attractive. Iwas more than puzzled, I was intrigued.

The enquiry into the route of the new by-pass to the village was due to take place shortly, andI wanted to know what it was that motivated her.

我实在不明白!为什么这个年老女士会对一片毫无用处的老灌木林如此紧张呢?她给当地报纸写了信，甚至给全国性的报纸也写了信，对拟将在她们村子里修建小路的方案表示抗议。但从地图上看，这条拟建的小路离她家并不近，那一带也并非风景优美。这不仅使我感到迷惑，还激起了我的好奇心。

很快就要进行对新小路的调查了，我想了解一下她反对的原因。

So it was that I found myself knocking on a cottage door, being received by Mary Smith andthen being taken for a walk to the woods.

"I've always loved this place," she said, "it has a lot of memories for me, and for others. We allused it. They called it 'Lovers lane'. It's not much of a lane, and it doesn't go anywhereimportant, but that's why we all came here. To be away from people, to be by ourselves," sheadded.

于是我敲响了小屋的门，一位叫玛丽·史密斯的女士接待了我，然后她带我去树林中走走。

“我一直深爱这个地方，”她说，“这里珍藏了我和其他许多人的回忆。我们都曾在这个地方呆过。人们称它为‘情人路’。它其实并不能算是什么路，也不通往什么重要的地方，但这正是我们来这里的原因。远离他人，只有我们自己。”她补充说道。

It was indeed pleasant that day and the songs of many birds could be heard. Squirrels gazedfrom the branches, quite bold in their movements, obviously few people passed this way andthey had nothing to fear.

I could imagine the noise of vehicles passing through these peaceful woods when the by-passwas built, so I felt that she probably had something there.

那天林间实在迷人，小鸟唱着歌，松鼠在树枝间张望，很自在地活动，显然这里人迹罕至，它们一点都不害怕。

我能想象得出，在小路修好后，汽车通过这片宁静的树林将会是怎样的喧闹，因此我猜这对她来说可能意味着些什么。

But as I hold strong opinions about the needs of the community over-riding the opinions ofprivate individuals, I said nothing. The village was quite a dangerous place because of the trafficespecially for old people and children, their safety was more important to me than an oldwoman's whims.

"Take this tree," she said pausing after a short while. "To you it is just that, a tree. Not unlikemany others here." She gently touched the bark. "Look here, under this branch, what can yousee?"

但我坚持认为社区的需要重于个人的意见，所以我没说什么。村里目前的交通，特别是对于老人和小孩来说，尤其危险，所以对我来说他们的安全比这个老年女士的怪念头更重要。

“拿这棵树来说吧，”她停了一会儿说，“对你来说它只是一棵普通的树，与这里其它的树没什么区别。”她轻轻地摸着这棵树的树皮说：“看这，在这个枝条下面，你看见了什么?”

"It looks as if someone has done a bit of carving with a knife," I said after a cursoryinspection.

"Yes, that's what it is!" she said softly. "There are letters and a lover's heart."

I looked again, this time more carefully. The heart was still there and there was a suggestion ofan arrow through it.

“好像有人用小刀在这里刻过什么东西。”我略略看了一下后说。

是的，正是这样!”她轻轻地说，“是一些字母和一颗爱人的心。”

我又看了一下，这回看得认真了一些。刻的那颗心还在那，此外还依稀可以看见有支箭穿心而过。