初雪First Snow（1/2）

约翰·博因顿·普里斯特利/ John Boynton Priestley

约翰·博因顿·普里斯特利（1894—1984），英国小说家、剧作家、评论家。曾就读于剑桥大学，1922年到伦敦，从事文学创作。他的作品被人们广为传阅的有小说《好伙伴》《天使街》，剧本《危险的角落》《我曾到过那里》等。其散文写作思想纯真细腻，文笔婉转流畅，语言生动活泼，让人在平实的生活中感受人生的乐趣。

Acethe Hole

Uand these new words before you read this article.

1. witty [witi] adj. 诙谐的

2. tropic [tr?pik] n. 热带

3. shatterg [??t?ri?] adj. 令人震惊的

4. ftten [fl?tn] v. 使……平坦

Mr. Robert Lynd once rearked of Jaen’s characters: hey are peoplewhose lives a slight fall of snow is a. ven at the risk of appearg to this witty and genial critic as another Mr. Woodhoe, I t sist that st night’s fall of snow here was a. I was nearly as exitedly as if Christas had suddenly e round aga. The fact is, however, that the snow was as strange ag toas it was to the. It is the first fall we have had here this ter, and st year I was out of the untry, broilgthe tropics, durg the snowy season, so that it really does see an age sce I saw the ground so fantastically carpeted. It was while I was away st year that I t the three young girls fro British Guiana who had jt returned fro their first visit to Engnd. The o thgs that had ipressed the ost were the endless crowds of peoplethe London street, all strangers (they ephasized this, for they had spent all their livesa little town where everybody knows everybody), and the snow-vered ndscape they awoke to, onewhen they were stayg sowhereSorset. They were so thrilled and delighted that they fng aretence of beg deure young dies and rhed out of the hoe to run to and fro aatterg footarks orodden surface, jt as the children didthe garden this .

The first fall of snow is not only a but it is a agical event. You go to bedone kd of world and wake up to fd yourselfanother quite different, and if this is , then where is it to be found? The very stealth, the eerie quietness, of the thg akes it ical. If all the snow fell at onceone shatterg crash, awakengthe iddle of the night the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it ftters down, soundless, hour after hour while we are asleep. Outside the closed curtas of the bedroo a vast transforation sha is! It is as if the hoe you arehad been dropped dow. Even the side, which has not been touched, sees different, every roo appearg saller and sier, jt as if so power were tryg to turn it to a woodcutter’s hut or a snug log-cab. Outside, where the garden was yesterday, there is now a white and glisteng level, and the vilge beyond is no longer your own failiar cster of roofs but a vilgean old Geran fairy-tale. You would not be surprised to learn that all the people there, the spectacled postistress, the bbler, the retired school aster, and the rest, had suffered a ge too and had bee queer elvish begs, purveyors of visible caps and agic shoes. You yourselves do not feel quite the sa people you were yesterday. How uld you when so uch has beehere is a curio stir, a little shiver of ext, troublg the hoe, not uhe feelg there is abroad when a journey has to be ade. The children, of urse, are all ext but even the adults hang about and talk to one another lohan ual before settlg down to the day’s work. Nobodyresist the dows. It is like beg on board a ship.

When I got up thisthe world was a chilled hollow of dead white and fat bes. The light that ca through the dows was very queer, and it ntrived to ake the failiar bess of spshg and shavg and brhg and dressg very queer too. Then the sun ca out, and by the ti I had sat down to breakfast. It was shg bravely and fshg the snow with delicate pks. The dg roo dow had been transford to a lovely Japa. The little p-tree outside, with the fatly fshed snow lg its boughs and artfully disposed along its trunk, stoodfull sunlight. An hour or o ter everythg was a ld glitter of white ahe world had pletely ged aga. The little Japas had all vanished. I looked out of y study dow, over the garden, the adow, to the low hills beyond, and the ground was one long gre, the sky was steely, and all the trees so any bd sister shapes. There was deed sothg curioly sister about the whole prospect. It was as if our kdly untryside, close to the very heart of Engnd, had been turo a cruel steppe. At any ont, it seed, a body of horsen ight be seen breakg out fro the bck pse, so any strunts of tyranny ight be heard and so distant patch of snow be reddened. It was that kd of ndscape.

Now it has ged aga. The gre has gone and no touch of the sister reas. But the snow is fallg heavily,great soft fkes, so that youhardly see across the shallow valley, and the roofs are thid the trees all bendg, and the weatherck of the vilge church, still to be seen through the grey loaded air, has bee so creature out of Hans Andersen. Fro y study, which is part fro the hoe and faces it, Isee the children ftteng their noses agast the nursery dow, and there is runng through y head a jangle of rhy I ed to repeat when I was a child and fttened y nose agast the ld dow watchg the fallg snow:

Snow, snow faster:

White abaster!

Killg geeseStnd,

Sendg feathers here!

参考译文

罗伯特·林德曾这样评论简·奥斯汀笔下的人物：“他们是这样的人，在他们的生活中，能遇上一场小雪就算是一件大事。”尽管可能被这位诙谐而温和的评论家看成是伍德豪斯式的人物，我仍然坚持认为，昨晚这里下了一场雪的确是一件大事。清晨，看到这皑皑白雪，我和孩子们不禁兴奋起来，我看到他们在幼儿室的窗户前凝望着外面奇妙的世界，七嘴八舌说个没完，仿佛又要过圣诞节了。事实上，这场雪对我和孩子们来说都是惊奇、迷人的。这是这里今年冬天的第一场雪，由于去年此时我身在国外，在落雪时节正经历着热带的高温，所以再次看到铺着这洁白地毯的大地，有种久违了的感觉。去年在国外时，我遇上英属圭亚那三个年轻的女孩子，她们刚结束对英国的初访。她们印象最深的两件事是：伦敦街头熙熙攘攘的人群，全都是陌生的面孔（她们强调这一点，是因为她们一直生活在小镇，人们彼此都很熟悉）；另外一件事是在索默塞特某地，一天清晨醒来忽然见到了白雪皑皑的景象。她们欣喜若狂，一扫淑女的矜持，冲出屋子，来回奔跑在那片晶莹洁白的雪地上，在无人踩过的雪毯上，留下了横七竖八快乐的脚印，正像孩子们今天早晨在花园里做的那样。

这场初雪不仅是件大事，而且还是件有魔力的大事。你睡觉时处在一个世界里，而醒来时，却发现你在一个截然不同的世界里。如果这都不让人沉醉，那么，到哪里去找更醉人的东西呢？一切都悄然地在一种神秘的沉静中完成，这更给这场初雪增添了玄妙的色彩。若所有的雪铺天盖地倾泻下来，把我们从午夜的沉睡中惊醒，那么，这就没什么值得欢呼雀跃的了。但它却是趁我们熟睡时，分秒必争，悄无声息地飘落下来。卧室里窗帘拉拢了，外面却发生着翻天覆地的变化，犹如无数的精灵仙童在悄悄地施展魔法，而我们只是翻个身，打个呵欠，伸一下懒腰，对此毫无知觉。然而，这变化是多么巨大呀！我们住的房子仿佛掉进了另一片天地。即使在白雪鞭长莫及的室内，也好像不一样了，每个房间都显得小巧而温馨，好像有某种力量的驱使让它成为一个伐木工的棚屋，或一所温暖舒适的圆木房。外面，昨天的花园，现在却是晶莹皎洁的一片，远处的村落犹如置于古老德国神话中的一个仙境，不再是你所熟识的一排排房屋了。所有住在那里的人们：戴眼镜的邮政局女局长、鞋匠、退休的小学校长以及其他人，如果你听说他们都改弦更张，成了古怪精灵般的人物，能为你提供隐身帽和魔术鞋，你也不要感到不可思议。你也会觉得自己和昨天不太一样。一切都在变化，你又怎会一成不变呢？屋里萦绕着一种莫名其妙的激动，一种由兴奋而产生的微弱的颤动，让人心神不宁，这和人们将要作一次旅行时所常有的那种感觉没什么两样。孩子们当然无比兴奋，就连大人们在准备开始一天的工作之前，拢在一起聊天的时间也比以往要长一些。任何人都会不由自主地到窗户前去瞧瞧——这种情形就和人们在一艘远行的游轮上一样。

今天早晨起床时，整个世界变成了淡蓝洁白交相呼应的冰封天地。光线从窗户射进来，迷迷离离，竟然使得洗脸、刷牙、刮胡子、穿衣服这些日常小事也显得很离奇古怪。接着太阳出来了，到我坐下来吃早餐时，太阳的光彩已经是绚丽夺目，给雪地添上一抹柔和的淡粉色。餐厅的窗户成了一幅可爱的日本版画，屋外的小梅树愉快地沐浴着日光，枝杈上镶嵌的淡粉色的雪花巧妙地装点着树干。过了一两个小时，万物都成了寒气四溢、白蓝交辉的发光体，世界再次焕然一新，那精巧的日本版画已然消失。我从书房的窗户望去，穿过花园，越过草地，看到那远处的低丘，大地晶莹皎洁，天空一片铅灰，所有的树木都阴森恐怖——确实有种非同寻常的危险蕴藏在这景象之中。它好像把我们这个与英国中心毗邻的宜人乡村变成了一个残忍冷酷的荒原。在那幽暗的矮树林中，似乎有一队骑兵随时都会从里面冲杀出来，随时都会听到刀剑无情的砍杀声，也可能会看到远方某一处雪地被鲜血染红。

———这就是我看到的情景。

这时情况又在变化。光亮已经消逝，那恐怖的迹象也**然无存。雪下得正紧，大片大片柔软的雪花扬扬洒洒，因而人们几乎看不清对面那浅浅的山谷，厚厚的积雪压着屋顶，树木也都弯下了腰，映着影影绰绰的光芒，乡村教堂的风标依然清晰可见，然而它已变成安徒生笔下的某种动物了。我的书房独立于整所房子，从这儿我可以看到幼儿室的孩子们把鼻尖紧紧地贴在玻璃窗上。突然，我的脑海里响起一首儿歌，虽然音韵不协调，但在我孩提时，每当鼻尖紧贴着冰冷的玻璃凝视着飘舞的雪花，总唱起它：

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