April四月

文◎James J. Kilpatrick

譯◎宋德利

繪◎秋林夕

Springs are not always the same. In some years, April bursts upon our Virginia hills in one prodigious①prodigious 英 [pr?'d?d??s] 美 [pr?'d?d??s]adj. 驚人的，異常的，奇妙的；巨大的leap – and all the stage is filled at once, whole choruses②chorus 英 ['k??r?s] 美 ['k?r?s] n. 合唱隊(duì)；齊聲；歌舞隊(duì)of tulips③tulip 英 ['tju?l?p] 美 ['t?l?p] n. 郁金香, arabesques of forsythia④forsythia 英 [f??'sa?θ??; f?-] 美 [f?'s?θ??] n. 連翹, cadenzas of flowering plum. The trees grow leaves overnight.

The dogwood bud, pale green, is inlaid with russet⑤russet 英 ['r?s?t] 美 ['r?s?t] adj. 黃褐色的，赤褐色的markings. Within the perfect cup a score of clustered⑥clustered 英 ['kl?st?d] 美 ['kl?st?d]adj. 成群的；聚集成群的seeds are nestled. One examines the bud in awe⑦awe 英 [??] 美 [?] vt. 使敬畏；使畏怯: Where were those seeds a month ago? The apples display their milliner's scraps of ivory silk, rosetinged. All the sleeping things wake up – primrose,baby iris, blue phlox.The earth warms – you can smell it, feel it,crumble⑧crumble 英 ['kr?mb(?)l] 美 ['kr?mbl] vi. 崩潰；破碎，粉碎April in your hands.

春天并非總是一模一樣。四月，有時(shí)不知怎的一躍，就來(lái)到了弗吉尼亞的山坡上——轉(zhuǎn)眼到處生機(jī)勃勃。郁金香組成了大合唱，連翹構(gòu)成了阿拉伯式圖案。一夜之間，林木著裝，綠葉瑟瑟。

山茱萸的蓓蕾，淡綠清雅，表面點(diǎn)綴著褐色斑痕，活像一只完美無(wú)缺的小杯，一撮撮種子，半隱半現(xiàn)地藏在里面。我敬畏地觀察著這蓓蕾，暗自發(fā)問(wèn)：一個(gè)月之前，這些種子在什么地方呢？蘋(píng)果花開(kāi)，展示出一片片染了玫瑰紅的象牙色薄綢。一切冬眠的東西都在蘇醒——美麗的櫻草花，纖細(xì)的蝴蝶花，還有藍(lán)色的草夾竹桃。大地開(kāi)始變暖——這，你既可以嗅到，也可以觸摸到——抓起一把泥土，四月便揉碎在你的手心里了。