雙語美文《寫給九月》

　　With September comes a sense of autumn. It creeps in on a misty dawn and vanishes in the hot afternoon. It tiptoes through the treetops, rouging a few leaves, then rides a tuft of thistledown across the valley and away. It sits on a hilltop and hoots like an October owl in the dusk. It plays tag with the wind. September is a changeling busy as a squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid brook. It is summer’s ripeness and richness fulfilled.

　　九月給我們帶來了絲絲的秋意。它在薄霧朦朧的清晨無聲無息地潛入，又在陽光和煦的午后悄然消失了蹤影。它踮起腳尖，輕手輕腳地掠過樹頂，順手抹紅了幾片葉子，又踏著一叢薊花冠毛，越過峽谷后飄然而去。它時而坐在山巔，啾啾猶如十月黃昏中啼叫的貓頭鷹，時而又和風兒追逐玩耍。九月又是變化無常的。它一會兒繁忙如同山核桃樹上的小松鼠，一會兒又慵懶有如緩緩流淌的小溪。夏季的成熟與豐饒成就了甜美的九月。

　　Some of the rarest days of the year come in the September season—days when it is comfortably cold but pulsing with life, when the sky is clear and clean, the air crisp, the wind free of dust. Meadows still smell of hay and the sweetness of cut grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Goldenrod comes by mid-August, but rises to a peak of golden abundance in early September. Late thistles make spectacular purple accents. And asters blossom everywhere, along the roadsides, in meadows, on the hilltops, even in city lots, raging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender to the royal New England purple.

　　一年中難得的幾天好時光就在九月到來。九月天氣涼爽宜人，萬物生機勃勃。天空清澈明澄，空氣清冽，纖塵不染。草地上飄散著干草味和新割下的草的甜甜的氣息。九月的花兒雖不如五月的花兒那樣百花爭艷，但爛漫多姿的花兒成就九月成為繁花似錦的又一個花季。金菊八月中旬含苞，九月初即綻放。晚薊花開，紫色一片，蔚為壯觀。紫菀怒放，道路邊，草地上，山頂上，甚或是都市的空地上，處處可覓得芳蹤。紫色千姿百態，素白，淡紫，深紫，豐富的色彩，時而平易如薰衣草，時而高貴如皇室紫，斑斕炫麗。

　　We think of spring as the miracle time, when opening bud and new leaf proclaim the persistence of life. But September is when the abiding wonder makes itself known in a subtler way. Now growth comes to annual fruition, and preparations are completed for another year, another generation. The acorn ripens and the hickory nut matures. The plant commits its future to the seed and the root. The insect stows tomorrow in the egg and the pupa. The surge is almost over and life begins to relax.

　　春季蓓蕾綻放，新葉吐綠，生機盎然。春天是一個昭示生命奇跡的季節，而秋天則以其婉約之姿展示這個奇跡。九月，生長，成熟，不僅一年的碩果盡在于此，它又為來年、新生的生命做好了準備。橡果熟了，胡桃老了。植物將未來托付給種子和根莖，昆蟲將明天托付給卵蛹。勃發的生命脈動接近尾聲，開始歇息。

　　The green prime is passing. The trees begin to proclaim the change. Soon the leaves will be discarded, the grass will sere. But the miracle of life persists, the mysterious germ of growth and renewal that is the seed itself.

　　綠色蔥籠即將逝去，葉落，草枯。季節的更替在樹木的身上一覽無余。可是，生命的奇跡生生不息，成長、復生的生命就孕育在神秘的粒粒種籽中。

　　This is the season of the harvest moon. With reasonably clear skies it will be a moonlit week, for the harvest moon is not hasty; it comes early and stays late. There was a time when the busy farmer could return to the fields after supper and continue his harvest by moonlight. There’s still harvesting to be done, but much of it now centers on the kitchen rather than the barns. The last bountiful yield comes from the garden, the late sweet corn, the tomatoes, the root vegetables. The canning, the preserving, the freezing, the kitchen harvest in all its variety, reaches its peak.

　　九月是收獲的季節。天空明凈，持續數日。夜晚月光皎潔，月兒早早升上天空，遲遲離去，淡定從容。忙碌的農夫吃完晚飯，又回到田間地頭，頂著月光收割。農夫還有好多事要做，活兒只不過從谷場移到了廚房。菜園里晚熟的玉米、西紅柿、根莖類蔬菜，是豐收的最后一批果實。在廚房里，該罐裝的罐裝，該腌制的腌制，該冷凍的冷凍，好一派熱鬧忙碌的景象。

　　First frost comes in the night, a clear, scant-starred night when the moon is near its fullness. It comes without a whisper, quiet as thistledown, brushing the corner of a hillside garden. Dawn comes and you see its path—the glistening leaf, the gleaming stem, the limp, blackening garden vine.

　　月兒快要滿盈的時候，月明星稀，初霜降臨。它掠過山邊的菜園，靜如薊花般悄然而至。晨曦初露，樹葉上、樹干上、藤蔓上，點點霜花，晶瑩閃爍。

　　Another night or two the frost walks the valleys in the moonlight. Then it goes back beyond the northern hills to wait a little longer, and the golden mildness of early autumn comforts the land. A faint anise smell is on the air, goldenrod scent. The mist swirls and September sun shines through the deep-blue sky of September.

　　再過一兩天，霜花借著月色，來到山谷，然后越過北坡回來小憩。初秋金色的太陽暖暖地照耀著大地，空氣中飄散著淡淡的茴香和金菊的香氣。薄霧漫舞，天空湛藍，九月暖陽，萬千閃耀。

　　To warm-blooded creatures, the crisp, cool nights of September are invigorating. But cold-blooded insects are at the mercy of the sun and now their clocks run down. The cicada is stilled. The chorus of the cricket and katydid diminishes. When they rasp at all it is with the deliberate tempo of a fiddler drawing a worn bow across fraying strings.

　　對于溫血動物來講，九月空氣清冽的夜晚依然生機勃勃，而冷血動物失去了太陽的庇護，生命的時鐘開始了倒計時。知了靜了，蟋蟀和蚱蜢的合唱息了。雖然它們還會吟唱，可這吟唱宛如一個小提琴手小心翼翼地用破舊的琴弓在磨損的琴弦上發出的暗啞琴聲。

　　Now come the hoarding days. Mice have been harvesting and stowing seeds for weeks. The chipmunk lines his winter bedroom, and squirrels hid the nut trees’ bounty. The woodchucks, gorging on grass and clover and fruit, lay up their harvest in body fat under their own skins.

　　儲藏的季節到了。田鼠收果實，存種子，忙活了數周。金花鼠將種子堆滿了過冬的洞穴，松鼠將胡桃樹的果實收藏了起來。土撥鼠拼命吃下各種草葉、三葉草和果實，將吃下的東西儲存在皮下厚厚的脂肪中。

　　The flickers begin to gather for migration. All summer these big wood-peckers were resolutely individual, busy with family life and wanting no company. Now they are gregarious, with time for tribal gossip and community play. The warblers and swallows have already formed in premigration flocks; soon the robins will be gathering too. Nesting is completed, fledglings are on their own, and there is food in plenty. September is vacation time for birds. Who knows but that they are discussing the trip ahead?

　　候鳥開始集結遷徙。整整一個夏季，這些大大的啄木鳥忙著享受家庭生活，并不想彼此結伴，而是各自為政。現在，它們聚在一起，彼此閑聊，集體玩耍。鳴鳥和燕子已經排好了遷徙飛行的隊列，很快知更鳥也將加入其中。窩筑好了，幼鳥自己覓食，食物豐足。九月就是鳥兒的假期。如果說它們在討論即將開始的旅行，誰說不是呢?

　　By September’s end the treasure chest of autumn begins to “spill over” with wealth. You see it glowing in the quiet afternoon, aflame in the sunset.

　　秋天收獲的寶藏太多，在九月末開始滿溢。這些寶藏在靜靜的午后，在日落的余暉中，熠熠發光。

　　Woodland, roadside and dooryard will soon be jeweled beyond a rajah’s richest dreams.

　　林地、路邊、門前小院，很快將被秋色點綴得一片珠光寶氣，即使古印度王侯最美的夢也夢不到這番景象。

　　The year’s season in the sun has run its course. Nature begins to prepare for winter. After the color in the woodlands, the leaves will blanket the soil. The litter of autumn will become mulch, then humus for root and tender seed. The urgency of growth is ended for another year, but life itself is hoarded in root and bulb and seed and egg.

　　秋季在陽光下走完了它的行程。大自然開始為越冬做準備。林地里斑斕的葉片將為大地鋪上一層厚毯。掉落的秋葉將化為護根，繼而化為腐殖質，為根莖和柔嫩的種子提供來年的養分。生長停歇，靜待來年，而生命就藏在根與球莖中，藏在卵與種子中。

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