秋山行译文并序

看到朋友们在《美语世界》来往问答，仿佛一觞一咏，快乐有余。有朋友与林贝卡就博客文章唱和。我对博客毫无概念，偶然打开林贝卡的园地，令我非常惊异：如同白兰花的芳园，纯洁、美丽。菩提树一树婆娑，仿佛是对人生虚无的绝大安慰。由此鼓励了我将去年秋天刚来美国一年时，写的两篇游记之一，翻成英文请大家评改。愿和大家在英文学习上共勉。

Thanks to my friend Susan Schilling for her help in wording of this writing.



深秋红叶大熊山

Hues of Bear Mountain Foliage in Late Autumn

这一个星期去了哈德逊河谷左岸的大熊山。山以熊名，大概是因为两个世纪以前群熊出没山莽，或取于岗峦体势之“熊”姿，我未得其解。想像中山以熊名，山亦雄也。虽然是深秋，且木叶已经开始脱落，但我所见的大熊山却如春光柔丽，完全不是想像当中那种草木摇落，群雁辞归，秋色苍凉的景色。

This week I went to Bear Mountain on the left bank of Hudson River Valley. The
mountain was named after bears; perhaps there were bears roaming in the mountain
woods two centuries ago; or it may be that the configuration of the mountain is like a
bear. I don’t really know the answers. By my reckoning, if the mountain took the name of
bears; it should certainly be magnificent. Although it was late autumn, and leaves had
begun to fall, it seemed more like a lovely and gentle spring. It was not so desolate that
plants and trees wilted in the wind with falling leaves, and teams of geese flew up high
returning home to the south.

大熊山景区位于北纬 41度18分46秒，西经74度0分21秒。离纽约曼哈顿城区北去不足四十英里。自1913年立为公园，面积约为二十一平方公里。境内山势峥莽，间有平湖、清流。春夏峰峦耸翠，秋冬云海苍茫。然最着人看处乃其秋山红叶。每年游客人数胜过世界著名景区怀俄明州黄石公园。当然主要原因是大熊山靠近大都市纽约。

The coordinates of Bear Mountain scenic area are north latitude 41°18′46″ and west
longitude 74°00′21″, not more than 40 miles from downtown Manhattan, New York. Opening as
a state park in 1913, it has an area of 21 square kilometers encompassing towering mountains,
tranquil lakes and clear streams. In the spring and summer greenery covers its ridges and peaks,
and in the autumn and winter clouds envelop it in mist. Yet the mountain’s charm is its autumn foliage. Bear Mountain remains popular today, and in fact, it welcomes more visitors annually than Yellowstone National Park. This is possibly due to its close proximity to New York City.



在美国独立战争期间，英军为南控纽约，扼守哈德逊河要冲，而于1777年在大熊山驻军，由此大熊山声名始播。大熊山出产木材、铁矿、尤其是玄武岩basalt，但在美国工业革命期间遭到了无情开采。仅1898年就有数吨炸药用来开山取石，数百万立方码的玄武岩被开采运走作为曼哈顿城区的建材。期年之内，境内遍布采石场，林木砍伐殆尽，加之山区内土质贫瘠，土层浅薄，到了1900年大熊山区的天然景色几乎荡然无存。当然,今天的大熊山已经恢复了它的天然景观，人们已经普遍具有环境保护的意识。
Bear Mountain became well renowned near and far since the American Revolutionary War when British troops were stationed there in 1777. It was the hub of the Hudson River and southern New York area and teemed with lumber, iron mines, and most of all, traprock. During the American Industrial Revolution, however, its resources were exploited ruthlessly. In 1898 alone, several million cubic yards of traprock provided building material for the growth of nearby Manhattan Island, by exploding more than150 tons of dynamite in the mountain rock. Within a year or so, quarries spread all over the area, and timberland was all but depleted. In addition, the topsoil on the hillsides became poor and thin. By the year 1900, most of the area’s natural beauty was destroyed. Today, however, due to increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection, its natural landscapes have been restored.




大熊山境内林木种类繁多，除松柏外，还有枫树、花楸、角树、山毛榉、山胡桃、胡桃、黑樱、黑柳、栗子、山茱萸、橡树、白杨、红槭、红桑、红榆、糖枫、郁金香树、白腊、黄桦，可谓千姿百态。木叶辞岁，“还以颜色”，叶绿素变为叶黄素、叶红素。树木的种类及其生化代谢各不相同，变色之功缓急不一，明艳差异从微殊到迥异，形成广域色谱，大自然恣意挥洒，于是万山红遍，层林尽染，一时间草木贲华，云霞雕色，游客耳听松涛，目接“春光”，快意得不可收拾。

The great variety of forest trees in the mountain is evidenced by the presence of pines
and cypress as well as others: maples, catalpas, algarrobas, beeches, hickories, walnuts,
black cherries, black willows, chestnuts, cornels, oaks, white poplars, red maples, red
mulberries, red elms, sugar maples, tulip trees, Chinese ashes, yellow birches, and more.
These trees say farewell to the waning year by changing their color, converting chlorophyll to erythophyll and xanthophylls. Their different postures seem to express their wide variety of color. Different species and varying biological metabolism reflect the entire spectrum of the chromatogram, and subtle was well as remarkable differences.
Mother Nature generously irradiates all her botanical subjects, and suddenly, thousands of hills were gilted and crimsoned. Plants didn’t escape her magic touch, and even clouds reflect the hues below. The soughing of the wind in the pines, and the “spring scenery”, were pleasantly intoxicating to us visitors.

我们沿着盘山公路Perkins Road直达山顶。据说这条盘山公路完全是手工凿成的。山上空气澄明，草木枯黄，放眼望去，四围岗峦起伏，林木郁郁，满山的斑驳、满山的紫红。哈德逊河在群山的怀抱中慵懒地徜徉，一带碧水，没有风帆，没有船航。

We drove up a winding mountain road called Perkins Memorial Drive and reached the top of the mountain. It was said that the road was constructed almost entirely by hand. The air at the mountain top felt transparent; it wa clean and clear, fresh and cool. Plants and grasses had donned their withered, yellow. Look of autumn, all around me were undulations of the ridges and hills, and dense woods of motley, purplish reds. The Hudson River winds leisurely between the connecting mountains. Its water was green-blue, and serene, void of any sailboats or ships.



山顶上有一座40多英尺高的塔楼，是为纪念公园创建人之一Perkins而建造，其造型像碉堡或囚狱，事实上纽约州的新新监狱Sing Sing Prison曾于1908年移建于大熊山，占地曾达740英亩。这塔楼给人一种联想和再现历史的凝重感。

There is a 40 foot high tower built in 1934, that looks like a blockhouse or even like a prison watchtower, and was built as a memorial to Perkins who was one of the founders of the State Park. Seeing the tower is a somber reminder of when Sing Sing Prison of New York state once sttod nearby, have been relocated to Bear Mountain in 1908 and its area had reached 740 acres. People could have a quite dignified impression to the tower for as if the history reappeared.



依山望远，林表云色有如诗画：“云来山更佳，云去山如画，山因云晦明，云共山高下……”

Gazing far into the distance, one can see the mists enshroud the forest just as the poem said: “The mountain is always graceful, elegant and forceful whether the clouds are coming or going. It is alternately gloomy and bright for the clouds’ shadows now coming and now going, high and low…”

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid217/p301edbd5e9ba44cc07914f5920a553ce/ec5078df.jpg

除山草里丛林中有野鹿外，大熊山里没有熊。山不甚高，水不甚深，有钓鱼滑雪去处。如果你来寻“孤峰限日，森壁争霞”，如果你想象的是“连峰去天不盈尺，枯松倒挂依绝壁”，那你就会失望。大熊山给人的是温存、柔美和色彩。它没有泰山那样雄奇，没有华山那样险峻，没有峨嵋那样秀丽，没有青城那样幽深，更没有黄山那样的云海波涛，也几无人文景观。它更像一位美丽的姑娘，离开它的时候，让你心中油然生出眷念之情。大熊山名不至天下名山，虽则如此，也堪为北美境内一方山水。

There are actually no bears only wild deer in the bushes and woods.Neither are the mountains very high and the waters very deep. There are, however, many excellent places for skiing and fishing. If you go there wish to see the scenery of that sun behind the peaks and clouds rounding high cliffs; if you imagine the scenery are with the highest crag barely a foot below heaven, where dry pines hang, heads bowed, from the face of the cliffs, you would definitely be disappointed. Bear Mountain is gentle, sweet and charming. It lies in sharp contrast to the more familiar mountains of China – to sublime Tai Mountain, to precipitous Huashan Mountain, to delicate and elegant Emei Mountain, to secluded Qingcheng Mountain, and most of all, to Huangshan Mountain that is always enveloped in waves of rolling clouds. Bear Mountain has almost no historic remains either, yet it is easy to become sentimentally attached when one leaves, as one would to a beautiful lady.Though Bear Mountain is not the most famous mountain in the world, still, it is pretty enough to be one of the best sceneries within the North America.



译注：

1．有朋友建议把标题改为：“A Historical and Picturesque Glimpse of Bear
Mountain”《大熊山历史与景物之一瞥》，这个标题似乎更为贴切于文意。

2．“万山红遍，层林尽染：thousands of hills were crimsoned through by their serried woods deep-dyed”采自《毛主席诗词》英译本, 有改动。

“连峰去天不盈尺，枯松倒挂依绝壁：highest crag barely a foot below heaven, dry pines hang, head down, from the face of the cliffs”采自唐诗英译本李白•《蜀道难》，有改动。因为老外不理解为什么”head down”，仿佛树的头朝下，根附于天。
以上两则均可在网上查到。

3．王勃：《滕王阁赋》：“ 岗峦体势”，曹丕《燕歌行》：“草木摇落，群雁辞归”， 刘勰“草木贲华，云霞雕色”，张养浩：“云来山更佳，云去山如画，山因云晦明，云共山高下”，祖咏“林表云色”， 欧阳询《吴均山水》：“孤峰限日，森壁争霞”未查到相应的英文译文, “山不甚高 ，水不甚深”源出《陋室铭》：“山不在高……水不在深……”在林贝卡的博客里也未找到相应的英译文，
都只好自译，英文笔力不济，原文音韵循徊抑扬顿挫的风格尽失，请大家不吝删改增益。

4．大熊山地理坐标及历史物产采自维基百科网页，可参看该网页。

5．地区植物名，采自网页，不能确记，以下秋叶英文附图供参考：