Sweet September
By Hal Borland
甜美的九月
海尔·包兰德 著 刘庆荣 译
It is summer’s completion, autumn’s prelude.
夏日的终结，秋日的序曲。
September is more than a month, really; it is a seasonal achievement in itself. It begins with August’s leftovers and it ends with October’s preparations, but along the way it achieves special satisfactions. After summer’s heat and haste, the year consolidated itself. Deliberate September – in its own time and tempo – begins to sum up another summer.
九月，实际上不仅仅只是一个月，它还是一个季节，收获的季节。它始于八月的残暑，止于十月的准备。它一路走来，得到无限的满足。经过夏季的酷热与匆忙，这一年就变得更加充实了。九月，它踏着自己的节拍，按照自己的速度，从容不迫地走来，为又一个夏季画上了句号。
With September comes a sense of autumn. It creeps in on a misty dawn and vanishes in the hot afternoon. It tiptoes through the tree-tops, rouging a few leaves, then rides a tuft of thistle down 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 as changeling busy as a squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid brook. It is summer’s ripeness and riches fulfilled.
伴随九月而来的是一丝秋意。它悄然走进雾蒙蒙的黎明，却在炎热的午后消失得无影无踪。它蹑手蹑脚地穿过树梢，揉皱了几片树叶，它跨在蓟草种子的冠毛上，穿过山谷，飘然而去。它坐在山顶上，发出的秋声很像十月黄昏猫头鹰的叫声。它时而与秋风嬉戏，时而像山核桃树上的松鼠，忙得不可开交，时而悠闲自在，宛如一条平静的小溪，缓缓流去。九月是夏季的成熟与丰收的完成。
Some of the rarest days of the year come in the September season-days when it is comfortably cool 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 grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Golden-red 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, ranging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender to the loyal New England purple.
九月带来一年中最难得的几天，晴空万里，秋高气爽。秋风阵阵，却不带半点沙尘。天气凉爽，令人舒适，生命的脉搏却依然在跳动。草场上散发着干草的气息和碧草的清香。九月的鲜花不像五月的鲜花那么万紫千红，多彩多姿，却依然开得那么旺盛，使九月成为一年中另一个花季。八月中旬，大地开始变黄，九月初达到顶点：漫山遍野，一片金黄。晚开的蓟花，一片紫色，蔚为壮观。小路边，草场中，山顶上，甚至在城市里的空地上，紫苑花随处可见，有的纯白，有的淡紫，有的绛紫，颜色不同，深浅各异。
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.
在我们的心目中，春天是一个充满奇迹的季节。绽放的花蕾、新生的嫩叶，歌颂着生命的顽强。但九月却以一种更加奇妙的方式让人们感受到那永恒的奇迹。到了九月，一年一度的生长结成了累累硕果，为下一年，为新一代生长所做的准备已经完成。橡果、山核桃都已成熟，植物把自己的未来寄托在种子和根茎里，昆虫则把明天储藏在虫卵或蛹里。蓬蓬勃勃的生长已近尾声，生命开始憩息静养。
The green prime is passing. The trees begin to proclaim the change. Soon the leaves will be discarded, and the grass will sere. But the miracle of life persists, the mysterious germ of growth and renewal that is the seed itself.
生机勃勃的绿色盛夏即将过去，树木开始变黄，过不多久，树叶就要凋落，青草就要枯萎，但生命的奇迹仍在，坚持不改—那就是种子，它孕育着神秘的萌芽与新生。
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.
九月是在月光下进行秋收的季节。如果天空晴朗，便会有一周的时间皓月当空。秋收季节的月亮总是不慌不忙，她出来的早，归去的迟。有时，忙碌的农民，晚饭后还能回到田里，在月光下继续秋收。还有许多收获的工作要做，但大多数都是在厨房里，而不是在谷仓里。最后一批丰收的果实来自菜园子，有晚熟的甜玉米、西红柿以及各种根菜。罐装、储藏、冷冻，厨房里的工作这时才达到顶峰，且种类繁多，忙不胜忙。
This is gossamer season. Dawn shimmers with spider filaments, proof that late hatches of spiderlings have the instinct to travel. On such gossamer strands tiny spiders have traveled into the Arctic and almost to the summits of the Himalayas. Soon milkweed pods will open , with their silver floss.
九月是游丝的季节。黎明时分，蜘蛛网在闪闪发光，说明晚孵的小蜘蛛已经有了走动的本能。乘着这样的蛛网，一个个小蜘蛛走进北极圈，甚至走上喜马拉雅山的山峰。过不多久，马利筋的外壳就要裂开，露出里面白色的绒毛。
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.
对温血动物来说，九月的夜晚，空气清新、凉爽，令人精神振奋。但对于冷血的昆虫来说，其命运如何，只能任凭太阳的支配。它们的时光已经不多了。知了已不再鸣叫，蟋蟀、螽斯的合唱声越来越弱。当它们果真叫起来时，那刺耳的声音，仿佛是有人用一张破旧的琴弓，在破旧的琴弦上，故意拉出不和谐的节奏。
Now come the hoarding days. Mice have been harvesting and stowing seed for weeks. The chipmunk lines his winter bedroom, and squirrels hide the nut trees’ bounty. The woodchucks, gorging on grass and clover and fruit, lay up their harvest in body fat under their own skins.
冬储的季节到了。一连几周，老鼠都在收集、储藏各类种子。金花鼠把自己冬天的卧室装得满满的，小松鼠把各种坚果储藏起来。旱獭则狼吞虎咽地猛吃野草、红花草和各种野果，把自己的收获变成脂肪储存在皮下。
The flickers begin to gather for migration. All summer these big woodpeckers 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 pre-migration 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?
啄木鸟开始聚成一群一群的，准备南迁。整个夏天，这些啄木鸟都是单身独处，各自忙着自己的家庭生活，绝不和别人搭伴。现在却聚在一起，不是闲聊，就是一块儿做游戏。刺嘴鹰和小燕子已经聚成团伙，准备南迁。再过几天，知更鸟也要聚在一起了。孵卵的工作已经完成，孵出的小鸟已经可以独立生活，更何况可吃的东西到处都有，多得很。九月是鸟儿放假的日子。它们是否已经提前开始讨论南迁的旅行了，谁又知道呢？
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. Woodland, roadside and dooryard will soon be jeweled beyond a rajah’s richest dreams.
到了九月底，秋天的百宝箱里的珠宝开始外溢。宁静的午后，你看见它在闪闪发光，黄昏日落时，你看见它鲜红似火。过不多久，宽阔的林地，大路的两边，房屋的前院，都将用宝石装点起来，景象之美，就连印度的酋长拉亚在他的最美妙的梦里也没见过。
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.
一年里阳光普照的季节已经走完了它的旅途，大自然开始准备过冬。林地里斑斓的色彩消失以后，落叶会给土地铺上一层毯子。秋天的枯枝败叶变成了一层覆盖物，给植物的根茎和柔嫩的种子盖上了腐殖土。匆忙的生长到此已经结束，只好等待来年，但生命本身却在根茎、球茎、种子和卵中储藏起来。
