2 到這種季節，有陽光也很微弱，
2 What sun there is this time of year shines
隔着白茫茫的雲層，有氣無力，不帶來weakly, halfheartedly through the white gauze of
一絲暖意。幾乎一個禮拜了，在威斯康clouds, offering not even the slightest pretense of
辛我的木屋這一帶，氣溫始終不超過零warmth. For nearly a week now the temperatures
around my Wisconsin cabin have not risen above 度。水銀像是畫在寒暑表底部一般。我zero. The mercury seems painted to the bottom of the 跺腳取暖，再細聽有什麼生命的消息，thermometer. A shiver runs through me as I stomp 一面竟感到全身一陣寒顫。唯一的聲響my feet for warmth and then listen again for any sign
來自空禿的枝頭，像牙齒在打哆嗦。
of life. The only sound is from the bare tips of
branches chattering like teeth.
3 一眼看去，造化對這樣的深冬似
乎不怎麼照顧。森林簡直像一幅粗略的3 At first glance nature doesn't seem to have
invested much in this late-winter day. The forest can 蝕刻板畫──荒涼、死寂、暗淡。雪片
像降落傘一般降在屋前的草地，十二月seem like a rough etching — barren, lifeless and
gray. The sight of flakes parachuting onto the front 間這樣的景色曾令你感動，現在只意味lawn, which swept you up in December, now just 著你得把汽車的擋風玻璃刮一下了。含means you have to scrape your car windshield. There 蓄的美景還是有的──白雪點綴松樹枝are subtle beauties — pine branches tipped in white,
梢，雪地反映淺藍的月色。但是冬深如
the pale-blue glow of moonlight off the snow. But
此，你所尋找的與其說是美景，不如說this deep into winter, you look less for beauty than
是有什麼徵兆暗示春天未被遺忘。 for signs that spring has not been forgotten.
4 但徵兆不易尋找。從前大家認4 They are not easy to find. Once it was
believed that nature simply wiped the slate clean 為：每到冬天造化索性來個大掃除，像every winter, a kind of yearly apocalypse followed 是為殘年送終，好待春天帶來新生的奇by a miracle rebirth each spring. Mice were thought 蹟。從前大家以為老鼠是從破布堆裏自to regenerate spontaneously from rag piles. Frogs and 然復活；青蛙和烏龜爬出池塘，是靠春turtles climbed out of puddles, spawned by magic
spring rains. Birds changed into other animals to get 雨的魔力生長；而禽類要變成其他動物
才能挨過冰封的季節。 through the frigid months.
造化應付嚴寒的實際方法，幾乎5 The real ways nature copes with the cold are 5
像前述的古老傳說一樣神奇。冬天給野almost as amazing as these old tales. Winter gives
wildlife two basic choices: leave or tough it out. In 生動物兩大選擇：若不搬家就得苦撐。some places, the landscape empties like a jug of 有些地方四望空寂，像一隻踢翻的水water kicked over. Branches bend under the weight 罐。混雜成群的山烏、牛鳥、掠鳥，多of mixed flocks of blackbirds, cowbirds and starlings,
達十萬隻，聚齊了準備大舉遷徙，把樹
a hundred thousand strong, gathering for mass
migrations. Two-thirds of the bird species that nest in 枝全壓彎了。定居在北美洲的鳥類裏，
有三分之二遷去較暖的地區。 North America move to warmer climates.
6 多達一億隻叢斑蝶像飛舞的野6 A hundred million monarch butterflies, like
wildflowers on wings, travel sometimes 4000 miles 花，有時竟會遠征四千英里外的墨西to Mexico, Texas and California. Caribou stream out 哥、德州、加州。冬天剛降霜，馴鹿就
A Promise of Spring 春之生機 1
余光中譯
of the high Arctic with the first frosts of winter. Gray whales travel thousands of miles seeking warmth, food and sunlight. 7 Not all migrations span the globe, however. Many species make short trips, sometimes only a few miles, to take advantage of local conditions known as microclimates. Elk in Colorado move from high
country to nearby valleys. Bald eagles in Alaska seek open water. White-tailed deer in these Wisconsin woods search out a south-facing slope to catch the morning sun. 8 Other creatures devise their own ways to deal with the harsh realities of winter. Musk ox stand with their backs to the below-zero wind, slowly breathing through nostrils that warm the supercooled arctic air before it is taken into the lungs. Polar bears stay warm by laying on layers of fat up to seven inches thick beneath a coat of fur with nearly 10,000 hairs per square inch. Their rough footpads are skid-resistant on the ice. 9 The survival of some species seems nothing short of miraculous. The chickadee, for example, weighing just one-third of an ounce, seems a tiny spark of life to throw to the mercy of frigid, 40-m.p.h. winds. 10 To keep their internal furnace stoked, chickadees eat twice as much food in winter as in summer. They feed almost constantly during daylight to accumulate a layer of fat that will burn slowly through the cold night. They also have 30-percent more feathers in the winter and can fluff them up, trapping a layer of warm air. 11 When it gets very cold, chickadees lower themselves into a kind of controlled hypothermic state, dropping their body temperatures as much as 20 degrees below the normal 104, thereby slowing energy consumption. With any hint of warmth, chickadees emerge from their sheltered caverns of thick brush, chirping softly and eating, always eating. 12 Many coldblooded species bury themselves in the mud to avoid freezing, slowing themselves to near-death states. Wood frogs actuallyfreeze solid, like lumps of ice, and thaw out come spring. The frog floods its bloodstream with glucose, a natural
antifreeze that prevents cell damage — a trick also used by garter snakes, insects and painted turtles.
從高緯的北極地區源源南下。灰鯨為了取暖覓食、追求陽光，不惜遠航幾千英里。 7 話說回來，遷徙也不必全要遠征。許多動物只要搬到近處，有時不過幾英里外，就可得地利之便，找到所謂小氣候。科羅拉多州的麋鹿只要從高地搬去附近的谷地。阿拉斯加的禿鵬尋找空闊的水鄉。在威斯康辛這一帶的林地，白尾鹿就一找朝南的山坡，好曬晨曦。 8 其他動物也各有對策應付嚴冬。公麝背著零下的冰風而立，放慢呼吸，先用鼻孔把極地酷冷的空氣加溫，然後吸進肺去。北極熊的保暖之道，是在每平方吋幾乎有一萬根毛的皮裘之下，堆積七吋厚的層層脂肪。這種熊肉趾粗糙，在冰上可以防滑。 9 有些禽獸的求生本領簡直神奇。例如山雀，體重只有三分之一盎斯，真像一星生之火花，丟給時速四十英里的冰風去擺布。 10 為了供應體內的火爐，山雀在冬天的進食量為夏天的兩倍。為了儲存一層脂肪供寒夜慢火取暖，山雀在白天幾乎不斷進食。這種鳥到冬天會多長三成羽毛，還會把毛聳起圍住一股暖氣。 11 等到酷寒來臨，山雀就會縮進一種緊控的超低溫狀態，把體溫從正常的一零四度降低二十度之多，使能量的消耗減緩。稍有轉暖的跡象，山雀就會飛出矮樹密蔽的洞穴，輕囀啄食，不斷地啄食。 12 許多冷血動物為防凍僵，會鑽入土中，逐漸放慢，陷入半死狀態。林蛙真的會凍僵像冰塊，等春來才解凍。青蛙把周身的血液注滿葡萄糖，因為這是天然的防凍劑，可防細胞受損──這一招束帶蛇、昆蟲、花金水龜也會使用。
余光中譯
A Promise of Spring 春之生機 2
13 I cross a small creek. Bending down, I shovel the snow off the surface and tap the ice with my
mittened hand, imagining a painted turtle somewhere beneath it half-hearing the thud as it waits patiently for spring. 14 Somewhere in these woods, too, are the
hibernating black bears. Each fall, triggered by some ancient memory of winter, black bears go on a
feeding frenzy. They consume up to 20,000 calories a day, adding 30 percent to their body weight. With the first snow, they den — deep in hollow logs, caves, shallow holes lined with grass. Sometimes they den up to 90 feet high in the broken-off trunks of ancient trees. Their heart rates drop to ten beats a minute, and they settle in for four to six months. 15 They do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate. Research on how they recycle waste without
poisoning their systems has helped in treating kidney patients. Learning how they manage long periods of inactivity without calcium loss or atrophied muscles may help prevent osteoporosis and have implications for long-term spaceflight. 16 The bear's utter faith in the return of spring keeps coming to my mind. Standing here on the thin edge, a few degrees from a climate unsuitable for life, it is comforting to know that under the snow, bears are sleeping with an innocent belief that the sun will come again and unlock the rivers and make the flowers bloom. 17 Just as I start to turn back home I hear it: the soft, two-toned whistle of chickadees. As I search for them, I see a downy woodpecker spiraling up a birch tree, its blaze of red as sharp as a tongue of flame. On the, ground, I notice rabbit tracks where moments ago I had seen only unbroken snow. 18 These slight signs of life make it possible to believe in spring again. They help me appreciate the beauty of what is left of winter and remind me that the cold won't last forever. Each track, each snippet of bird song, each frozen seedpod, is an affirmation of life, a defiance to the cold, a promise. 19 Take heart, they seem to say. Spring is coming soon. (1,100 words)
13 我越過一條小溪。我彎下腰去，鏟開冰面的雪，用戴了連指手套的手敲打冰面，想像在冰下某處有一隻花金水龜正耐心地等候春天，恍惚聽到了我的重敲。 14 在森林的某處還有黑熊在冬眠。每到秋天，黑熊觸動了古老的冬天之記憶，就會開始拼命進食。黑熊一天吸收的熱量，高達二萬卡路里，因此增加三成體重。初雪一降，黑熊就冬眠──深藏在空心的木材裏，岩穴裏，鋪了草的淺坑裏。有時候牠會窩在老樹的斷幹之中，離地高達九十英尺。牠的心跳降到每分鐘十次，而且一住定了，就是四個月到半年。 15 這時黑熊不吃、不喝，也不大、小便了。廢物在牠體內一用再用而不引起中毒，加以研究當有助於治療腎病病人。若能明瞭這些黑熊怎能長期蟄伏而不引起鈣質流失或肌肉萎縮，當有助於防止骨質疏鬆，而對長期的太空航行也具有意義。 16 熊對於春回大地的絕對信心，今我難忘。我站在這嚴寒逼人的鋒口，再低幾度氣候就不適於生存，而令我安慰的，是知道在雪封之下冬眠的熊類有一個單純的信念，認定太陽會再光臨，而使河水解凍，百花盛開。 17 我正要轉身回家，卻聽見了；那是山雀一呼雙響的輕唱。我四下尋找，看見一隻毛茸茸的啄木鳥正繞著一棵樺樹飛上去，紅艷艷地，鮮明如一條火舌。在地面，剛才還只見雪白一片，現在竟發現兔子腳印了。 18 這些生命的細微蹤跡，令人對春天恢復了信心。這些蹤跡引導我欣賞冬天的殘餘之美，並且提醒我寒冷不會久留。每一個足印、每一聲鳥鳴、每一莢凍僵的種子，都是對生命的肯定，對嚴寒的否定，都是一線生機。 19 它們似乎在說，鼓起勇氣來。春天就來了。 (1,850 字)
余光中譯
A Promise of Spring 春之生機 3
傳意與傳形 ── 余光中，《讀者文摘》1998年3月號 ，158頁。
本期英漢對照《春之生機》是一篇清暢可喜的小品文，描寫大自然不但知識豐富，而且帶有情趣，略具淡淡的詩意。作者住在美國北部的威斯康辛，但他對冬景的描述遍及更高緯的寒帶。
本篇文字乾淨，句法有力，除了偶見 apocalypse, hypothermic, osteoporosis之類的「大字眼」之外，遣詞用字都很平實，不算難譯，但要譯得自然貼切，也非易事。在不違拗中文的原則下，我仍儘量追摹原文，不但力求「傳意」，也兼顧 「傳形」。另一方面，中文的常態也不可不顧。譯者對於本國的語文，負有「國防」重任，不可為了遷就外文，太過勉強本國語文。
英文使用代名詞遠多於中文，在許多情況下不宜直譯，而應化解。例如第四段首句 They are not easy to find. 主詞是複數代名詞，指的是前一句的複數名詞signs。Signs 譯成「徵兆」，在中文裏並非複數，如果逕將 They 譯成「它們」，譯文讀者未必明白是指前文的「徵兆」，何況兩字之間不但隔了句，而且換了段。又例如第十段和第十一段，chickadees 的代名詞有兩個they，一個 themselves，我都不直譯；另有三個所有格 their，我根本不譯。再如第十四段和第十五段裏，black bears 的後面拖了一大堆代名詞和所有格，共計七個 they，三個 their。我把其中兩個 they 保留，但不理其複數，只譯為「牠」；另外四個 they 我都還原為「黑熊」；剩下一個 they 我根本不譯。至於三個their，我只譯其一為單數「牠的」，其他兩個根本不譯。這麼多代名詞我如果全加直譯，必然冗雜不堪。
「詞性變換，也是譯者必須權宜處理的問題。例如倒數第二段首句，to believe in spring again 若直譯為「再度相信春天」會失之生硬。我譯為「對春天恢復了信心」，才像中文，但是 believe 變成了名詞，again 變成了動詞，詞性都變換了。他如 to the mercy of frigid, 40-m.p.h. winds，我譯成「給時速四十英里的冰風去擺布」，也是同樣道理。
其他細節不能逐一說明，姑舉其一為例。第四段 wiped the slate clean 原指學 童拭淨石板，以便重新開始。衡以上下文，當然不可直譯，乃意譯為「大掃除」。
A Promise of Spring 春之生機 4 余光中譯
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