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| 2024/08/24 06:18:35瀏覽95｜回應0｜推薦1 | |
| Excerpt：顏元叔編註的《現代經典英文散文選》(之二） 書名：現代經典英文散文選 作者：顏元叔 編註 出版社：萬人出版社 出版日期：1992/03 【Excerpt】 THE DEATH OF THE MOTH （蛾之死） Virginia Woolf Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths; they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow-underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us. They are hybrid creatures, neither gay like butterflies nor sombre like their own species. Nevertheless the present specimen, with his narrow hay-coloured wings, fringed with a tassel of the same colour, seemed to be content with life. 白晝飛行的蛾稱爲蛾並不恰當；它們不會激起熟睡在帘影中最普通的黃後翼蛾從來都能在我們心中激起的那種黑暗秋夜與常春藤花的悅人感覺。它們是雜種的小動物，從不像蝴蝶的輕快或它們同類的陰沉。然而現在的這個樣品，有著窄的乾草色翅膀，邊緣鑲著同色花邊，似乎對生命感到滿足。 It was a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant, yet with a keener breath than that of the summer months. The plough was already scoring the field opposite the window, and where the share had been, the earth was pressed flat and gleamed with moisture. Such vigour came rolling in from the fields and the down beyond that it was difficult to keep the eyes strictly turned upon the book. The rooks too were keeping one of their annual festivities; soaring round the tree tops until it looked as if a vast net with thousands of black knots in it had been cast up into the air; which, after a few moments sank slowly down upon the trees until every twig seemed to have a knot at the end of it. Then, suddenly, the net would be thrown into the air again in a wider circle this time, with the utmost clamour and vociferation, as though to be thrown into the air and settle slowly down upon the tree tops were a tremendously exciting experience. 那是個舒適的早晨，九月中，溫和而親切，卻帶著比夏天月份尖銳的氣息。犂已在窗戶對面的田中劃下線條，犂頭走過的地方泥土壓平了而閃著水光。這麼蓬勃的活力從田間和更遠處的草原滾滾而來，以至於很難把眼睛專注在書上。烏鴉也正在擧行一年一度的節慶，在樹頂周圍高飛，直到看來就像是一張有幾千個結扣的大網被拋在空中；略過一會兒這網又緩緩降在樹上，直至似乎每根枝椏的尖端都有一個結。然後，突然間，網又再拋入空中，這次的弧形更大，帶著最激烈的喧叫吵鬧，就如同拋入空中再緩緩落在樹頂是非常值得興奮的經驗。 The same energy which inspired the rooks, the ploughmen, the horses, and even, it seemed, the lean bare-backed downs, sent the moth fluttering from side to side of his square of the window-pane. One could not help watching him. One was, indeed, conscious of a queer feeling of pity for him. The possibilities of pleasure seemed that morning so enormous and so various that to have only a moths part in life, and a day moths at that, appeared a hard fate, and his zest in enjoying his meagre opportunities to the full, pathetic. He flew vigorously to one corner of his compartment, and, after waiting there a second, flew across to the other. What remained for him but to fly to a third corner and then to a fourth? That was all he could do, in spite of the size of the downs, the width of the sky, the far-off smoke of houses, and the romantic voice, now and then, of a steamer out at sea. What he could do he did. Watching him, it seemed as if a fibre, very thin but pure, of the enormous energy of the world had been thrust into his frail and diminutive body. As often as he crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital light became visible. He was little or nothing but life. 鼓舞了烏鴉、犂田人、馬兒，甚至似乎也鼓舞著瘠瘦赤裸草原的那股精力，促使飛蛾在他的那一方格窗玻璃上來回撲拍。令人禁不住要看他，而且確實意識到可憐他的奇怪感覺。那天早上的作樂希望似乎那麼大而式樣繁多，卻只過著一隻蛾的生活，而且是一隻白晝的蛾，似乎是難堪的命運，他想盡情享受他貧乏機會的那股興味似乎是可憫的。他有勁地飛到他那一格的一邊角上，在那兒等了一秒鐘，飛過至另一角。他除了再飛到第三個角然後到第四個角之外還有什麼可做的嗎？那便是他所能做的全部了，雖然有大草原、廣闊天空、遠處房屋的烟、偶然傳來的航在海上蒸汽船的浪漫鳴聲。他把他能夠做的都做了。看著它，似乎世界無此精力的細而純的一絲投進了他軟弱的小身體。每當它飛掠在那格玻璃上，我就能幻想有一線活力的光顯現。他很細小，却充滿生命。 Yet, because he was so small, and so simple a form of the energy that was rolling in at the open window and driving its way through so many narrow and intricate corridors in my own brain and in those of other human beings, there was something marvellous as well as pathetic about him. It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zig-zagging to show us the true nature of life. Thus displayed one could not get over the strangeness of it. One is apt to forget all about life, seeing it humped and bossed and garnished and cumbered so that it has to move with the greatest circumspection and dignity. Again, the thought of all that life might have been had he been born in any other shape caused one to view his simple activities with a kind of pity. 然而，因爲他是這樣小而簡單的精力形態從開著的窗戶進來，在我腦中以及其他人腦中許多狹窄錯綜的廻廊裏推進，他既有些奇妙又有些可憐。那就像是有人取了一小粒純淨生命再盡可能輕輕地用柔毛和細羽裝飾它，使它跳舞曲行來給我看生命的眞正本質。這樣地展示了，令人抹不去那奇怪之感。一個人會易於忘記有關生命的一切，看著它被推負、控制、裝飾、阻碍，以至它不得不極周密而帶尊嚴地行動。再一次地，想到他若生在任何其他形體裏可能享有的那麼多生命，令人懷著一種憐憫去看他的簡單動作。 After a time, tired by his dancing apparently, he settled on the window ledge in the sun, and, the queer spectacle being at an end, I forgot about him. Then, looking up, my eye was caught by him. He was trying to resume his dancing, but seemed either so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the window-pane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed. Being intent on other matters I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure. After perhaps a seventh attempt he slipped from the wooden ledge and fell, fluttering his wings, on to his back on the window sill. The helplessness of his attitude roused me. It flashed upon me that he was in difficulties; he could no longer raise himself; his legs struggled vainly. But, as I stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself, it came over me that the failure and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil down again. 一段時間之後，顯然是他舞得累了，他在陽光下的窗沿上停下，這奇怪景觀結束了，我把它忘了。後來，往上看的時候，我的眼光又被他拉住。他試圖繼續他的舞，但似乎是太僵或太笨拙而只能夠拍翅落到窗玻璃的底部；他試圖飛過窗玻璃時失敗了。因爲我專注在別的事上，什麼也未想地看著他徒然的努力，無意識地等他再飛起來，就像等著暫時停下的機器再動起來而不會想到它停頓的原因。也許是試到第七次後他從木頭窗沿滑下來，仰天跌在窗枱上，撲拍著翅膀。他無援的態度激動了我。我突然想到他陷入了困境；他再也抬不起身子；他的腿徒勞地掙扎著。但是我伸過一隻鉛筆想要幫他扶正身子的時候，我才想到這樣的挫敗與笨拙行動是死亡的臨近。我又放下了鉛筆。 The legs agitated themselves once more. I looked as if for the enemy against which he struggled. I looked out of doors. What had happened there? Presumably it was midday, and work in the fields had stopped. Stillness and quiet had replaced the previous animation. The birds had taken themselves off to feed in the brooks. The horses stood still. Yet the power was there all the same, massed outside indifferent, impersonal, not attending to anything in particular. Somehow it was opposed to the little hay-coloured moth. It was useless to try to do anything. One could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by those tiny legs against an oncoming doom which could, had it chosen, have submerged an entire city, not merely a city, but masses of human beings; nothing, I knew, had any chance against death. 腿又再動了動。我像是在找他掙扎抵抗的敵人似地看著。我望到門外。那兒發生了什麼事情？也許是中午，田間的工作停了。寧靜與沉寂取代了先前的生氣。鳥兒飛走至溪裏取食去了。馬兒靜立著。但那力量依舊在，集合在外面，淡漠的、無人情的，並不特別注意任何事物。不知怎地它是與乾草色的小蛾敵對的。想怎樣做都徒然。只能看著那些小腿向即將降臨的劫難而作的奮力抵抗，那劫難若是願意它可以把整座城市掩沒，不僅僅是一座城，而是大羣的人們；我知道，誰都抵抗不過死亡。 Nevertheless after a pause of exhaustion the legs fluttered again. It was superb this last protest, and so frantic that he succeeded at last in righting himself. Ones sympathies, of course, were all on the side of life. Also, when there was nobody to care or to know, this gigantic effort on the part of an insignificant little moth, against a power of such magnitude, to retain what no one else valued or desired to keep, moved one strangely. Again, somehow, one saw life, a pure bead. I lifted the pencil again, useless though I knew it to be. But even as I did so, the unmistakable tokens of death showed themselves. The body relaxed, and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over. The insignificant little creature now knew death. As I looked at the dead moth, this minute wayside triumph of so great a force over so mean an antagonist filled me with wonder. Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now as strange. The moth having righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed. O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am. 然而，疲憊地休歇過後，腿又顫動起來。這最後的反抗是偉大的，而且那麼狂暴以至他終於把身子翻正過來。同情心自然是全部都在生命這一邊。同時，在沒有人來關心或知道的時候，一隻無足輕重的蛾爲了保住沒有其他人重視或想要留住的而盡這樣大的努力反抗如此强的力量，令人莫名地受感動。再一次，我看見生命，一粒純珠。我再抬起鉛筆，雖然我知道這是無用的。但是正當我這麼做，死亡的明顯徵兆現身了。蛾的身體放鬆了，並且立即變僵。掙扎結束了。這無足輕重的小生命現在嘗到了死亡。我看著死去的蛾，這樣巨大的强力把如此卑微的一個敵手這麼不經意地制服，使我充滿驚歎。正如幾分鐘前生命曾是那樣奇異，此刻死亡也是同樣地奇異。已經翻正過來的蛾現在非常端莊而堅忍安詳地伏著。是的，他似乎在說，死亡比我强大。 |
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| ( 知識學習｜隨堂筆記 ) |
