第8章 The Last Hill——Francis Russel
内容导读
弗兰西斯·拉塞尔，当代著名史学家，代表作有《美国民族的成长》等。《最后的山》是其晚期散文名篇。在这篇散文中作者边描写边叙事，以写景勾勒画面，以叙事回忆童年，使得景中有人，人中有景。
英文正文
On thiswaningautumn afternoon the northern Maine landscape istart, compelling, shadowed here and there bypuffs of fair-weathercumulus, remnants of summer. Here, a dozen miles west of Waldoboro, I once spent my summers from the age of 12 to 14 at one of those India-named boys' camps more years ago than I like to think about.
I stand on the rise near what was once the baseball diamond. To my right is the black oak, several hundred years old, beside which we used to hold our Saturday night campfires.How many times on heat-heavy August days have I stood on this rise looking out over the wooded landscape towards the Camden Mils?For me it was always a magical prospect, theausterecountryside stretching away with the sharp definition of an eighteenth century aquatint across hill and woodland to Mt. Battle outlined against the horizon.At our campfire evening, when we gathered around the great oak just after sunset, Mt. Battle without losing its definition would take on a blue luminosity.
Over the years ragged second-growth of aspen and birch and speckled alder, at the far edge of the baseball diamond, hasblottedout that view. Now there is nothing to see beneath the crystalline sky but the uneven tops of second-growth trees. Already the sky has begun to take on steelier tints of winter. Even Mt. Battle has disappeared.
Onsultryafternoons, when the air quivered in the cool and fading light of early evening, I used to stand here by the old oak and look out across an interlude of scrub and swamp from which, several miles away, a hill emerged. As a hill it was insignificant enough. Below its bare summit an abandoned pasture lay dotted with round Jupiter and outcroppings of granite.Yet something about that hill drew me, beckoned to me, across the miles. I could not bear to take my eyes from it. I knew only that before summer ended I must go to it, （make my way over the pasture, up and up past shrub and granite until I stood on the very summit.） it was something I had to do. I could not explain why. I did not even ask myself.
中文译文
最后的山
弗兰西斯·拉塞尔
秋日黄昏，缅因州北部的景色别具风味，旖旎迷人，天空中飘荡着朵朵白云，大地上到处是片片浓荫，散发着夏日的余味。这里，沃尔沃博拉以西十二英里的地方，坐落着几个以印第安语命名的男童夏令营，从十二岁到十四岁我年年前来度假——岁月唏嘘，不堪回首。
我站在当年的棒球场附近的一座土坡上。右边是黑橡树，已有几百年树龄，昔日我们常在它的旁边举行周末篝火晚会。多少次，八月的日子溽暑蒸人，我站在这座土坡之上，越过树木葱郁的景色向康姆登山脉眺望啊？对我而言，这儿的风景总是充满无穷的魅力，朴素的田野连绵不断，跨过山岗，穿过林地，向着地平线轮廓清晰的巴蒂山延伸开去，如同一幅形象鲜活的18世纪的铜板蚀刻画。太阳刚落山时，我们就围聚在老橡树下举行篝火晚会，远处的巴蒂山轮廓依稀，披上了一层蓝茫茫的雾霭。
棒球场外围伐过的树林，多年以后长出了参差不齐的白杨、白桦和满身斑点的桤木，挡住了视野。现在，晶莹的天穹下除了高低不等的再生树冠之外，什么也看不见了。天幕意境蒙上了一层冷清的寒色，连巴蒂山也在远处消失了。
每逢下午闷热，我常常站在这棵老橡树下，透过灌木丛和沼泽地向远方眺望，凉风习习，薄暮的天色渐渐暗了下来。在几英里以外的地方，有一座小山映入眼帘。作为一座小山，它的确没有什么可值得称道的。山顶上光秃秃的，山脚下沉睡着一座荒废了的牧场，野生杜松星罗棋布，一块块花岗岩裸露在地面上。这座山虽然远在几英里以外，却对我产生了一种吸引力，频频向我招手。我目不转睛地凝视着它，一心一意地盘算着：暑假结束之前，我一定要爬上这座山，一路闯过牧场，勇往直前，穿过那片灌木丛，绕过花岗岩，非站在那个山顶不可。这件事我是干定了，连自己也说不清是为什么，甚至也没问过自己。
词汇速记
wanev.结束，到达终点
tartadj.酸的；锋利的
puffn.一阵烟，空气、蒸汽或烟雾短促而突然的散发
cumulusn.积云
austereadj.不加修饰的，朴素的，质朴的
blotv.遮蔽，使不清楚，模糊
sultry adj. 闷热的
beckon v. 打手势，做一个发信号或召唤的姿势
美句欣赏
①For me it was always a magical prospect, the austere countryside stretching away with the sharp definition of an eighteenth century aquatint across hill and woodland to Mt. Battle outlined against the horizon.对我而言，这儿的风景总是充满无穷的魅力，朴素的田野连绵不断，跨过山岗，穿过林地，向着地平线轮廓清晰的巴蒂山延伸开去，如同一幅形象鲜活的18世纪的铜板蚀刻画。
②Yet something about that hill drew me, beckoned to me, across the miles.这座山虽然远在几英里以外，却对我产生了一种吸引力，频频向我招手。