旅行的藝術(shù):風(fēng)景 Ⅴ 鄉(xiāng)村與城市-7

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我和M無法在湖區(qū)久留。我們?cè)谶@里待了3天，然后就坐上了回倫敦的火車。坐在我們對(duì)面的男士不斷使用手提電話，但好像總也找不到要找的人?；疖囬_過許多田園和工業(yè)城鎮(zhèn)，這段時(shí)間里，我們通過他的許多交談了解到他正在尋找一位叫吉姆的人，因?yàn)榧非妨怂腻X。

M and I were unable to stay long in the Lake District. Three days after our arrival, we were back on the London train, seated opposite a man who was making calls on his mobile phone in a vain search, the carriage learnt during conversations extending across many fields and industrial cities, for someone called Jim who owed him money.

即使是我們承認(rèn)能從與大自然的接觸中獲益不淺，我們卻仍可能因?yàn)榻佑|它的時(shí)間短暫而受限制。用3天的時(shí)間沉浸在大自然中所得到的精神撫慰，未必能持續(xù)超過幾個(gè)小時(shí)。

Even if we allow how beneficial contact with nature might be, its influence must surely be limited by its brevity. Three days in nature can scarcely be expected to work a psychological effect lasting longer than a few hours.

然而，華茲華斯卻沒那么悲觀。在1790年的秋天，詩(shī)人踏上了阿爾卑斯山之旅。他從日內(nèi)瓦起步，前往杰莫利谷，然后穿過辛普朗山口，再?gòu)呢暥嘞韧伦撸诌_(dá)馬焦雷湖。他在寫給妹妹的一封信中描繪了目睹的景觀：“此刻，當(dāng)眼前的景物浮現(xiàn)在我腦海時(shí)，我?guī)е浅Ｓ淇斓男木匙屑?xì)思考著，今后每一天，只要憶及這些印象，我便能從中感受到快樂。”

Wordsworth was less pessimistic. In the autumn of 1790, the poet went on a walking tour of the Alps. He travelled from Geneva to the Vale of Chamouni, then crossed the Simplon pass and descended through the ravine of Gondo to Lake Maggiore. In a letter to his sister describing what he had seen, he wrote: 'At this moment when many of these landscapes are floating before my mind, I feel a high enjoyment in reflecting that perhaps scarce a day of my life ［my italics］ will pass in which I shall not derive some happiness from these images.'

這里并沒有夸張的成分。幾十年后，阿爾卑斯山的景象還存活在他的心中，并且一旦喚起便重新帶給他一股力量。這些景象的復(fù)活使他信心十足地表示：我們?cè)诖笞匀恢兴姷降木跋罂赡苡肋h(yuǎn)留在我們一生的記憶中，每當(dāng)它們進(jìn)入我們的意識(shí)中，便能與我們眼前困境形成對(duì)比，給予我們慰藉。他稱這些自然界的體驗(yàn)為“凝固的時(shí)間點(diǎn)”。

This was no hyperbole. Decades later, the Alps continued to live within him and strengthened him whenever he evoked them. Their survival in memory led him to argue that we may witness in nature certain scenes that stay with us throughout our lives and, every time they enter consciousness, can offer us a contrast to, and relief from, present difficulties. He termed such experiences in nature 'spots of time'.

在我們的生命中有若干個(gè)凝固的時(shí)間點(diǎn)

There are in our existence spots of time,

卓越超群、瑰偉壯麗

That with distinct pre-eminence retain

讓我們?cè)诶ьD之時(shí)為之一振

A renovating virtue …

并且彌漫于我們?nèi)?，讓我們不斷爬?/p>

That penetrates, enables us to mount,

當(dāng)我們身居高處時(shí)，激發(fā)我們爬得更高

When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.

當(dāng)我們摔倒時(shí)，又鼓舞我們重新站起

This belief in small, critical moments in nature explains Wordsworth's unusually specific way of subtitling many of his poems. For example, the subtitle of Tintern Abbey, On revisiting the banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798, cites the exact day, month and year to suggest that a few moments in the countryside overlooking a valley could number among the most significant and useful of one's life, and be as worthy of precise remembrance as a birthday or a wedding.

對(duì)于自然界中這些細(xì)小卻關(guān)鍵的時(shí)刻的信念，使我們了解了華茲華斯在為詩(shī)作定副題時(shí)的用意：如《廷特恩修道院》的副題為“1798年7月13日重訪瓦伊河畔之作”。具體的年、月和日的記載，透露了在鄉(xiāng)間遙望河谷的那些瞬間，或許就是生命中最重的一刻，讓人獲益良多，所以值得像生日或結(jié)婚紀(jì)念日那樣銘記在心。

I too was granted a 'spot of time'. It occurred in the late afternoon on the second day of the visit to the Lake District. M and I were sitting on a bench near Ambleside eating chocolate bars. We had exchanged a few words about the chocolate bars we preferred. M said she liked caramel-filled ones, I expressed a greater interest in dry biscuity ones, then we fell silent and I looked out across a field to a clump of trees by a stream. There were a host of different colours in the trees, sharp gradations of green, like someone had fanned out samples from a colour chart. These trees gave off an impression of astonishing health and exuberance. They seemed not to care that the world was old and often sad. I was tempted to bury my face in them so as to be restored by their smell. It seemed extraordinary that nature could on its own, without any concern for the happiness of two people eating chocolate on a bench, have come up with a scene so utterly suited to a human sense of beauty and proportion.

我也體驗(yàn)過“凝固的時(shí)間點(diǎn)”。它發(fā)生在我拜訪湖區(qū)的第二天傍晚。我和M在安布賽德附近的一張長(zhǎng)凳上坐著吃巧克力條。我們對(duì)所喜愛的巧克力條交換了意見。M說她喜歡里面有焦糖的，而我卻偏愛干硬、餅干味較濃的。接著，我們靜了下來。我的目光停留在小溪旁田野上的樹林。樹的顏色不一，呈現(xiàn)不同色度的綠，仿佛是有人從調(diào)色板上取下的樣本。這些樹給人一種特別健康、充滿活力的印象。它們似乎并不在乎這個(gè)世界是否老舊或悲哀。我很想把臉埋在樹林中，好讓它們散發(fā)的芳香幫助我恢復(fù)元?dú)?。自然界不在乎兩個(gè)在長(zhǎng)凳上吃巧克力的人快樂與否，只是自行地呈現(xiàn)一個(gè)那么符合人類審美條件的景觀，這的確神奇非凡。

My receptivity to the scene lasted only a minute. Thoughts of work then intruded and M suggested we return to the inn so that she could make a phone call. I was unaware of having fixed the scene in memory, until one mid-afternoon in London, while waiting in a traffic jam, oppressed by cares, the trees came back to me, pushing aside a raft of meetings and unanswered correspondence, and asserting themselves in consciousness. I was carried away from the traffic and the crowds and returned to trees whose names I didn't know, but which I could see as clearly as if they stood before me. These trees provided a ledge against which I could rest my thoughts, they protected me from the eddies of anxiety and, in a small way that afternoon, contributed a reason to be alive.

我的注意力停留在這個(gè)景觀上僅1分鐘的時(shí)間，過后便被工作的思緒打亂，M也建議我們回旅館，因?yàn)樗氪螂娫挕Ｎ也⑽匆庾R(shí)到這個(gè)景象已印在我腦海里，直到有一天下午，我困在倫敦的交通阻塞中，心煩焦慮，突然那片樹林的景象又涌現(xiàn)了出來，將那些排得滿滿的會(huì)議和未答復(fù)的信件都一一撇開了。我的思緒被帶離了繁忙的交通和擁擠的人群，回到了那些我叫不出名字、卻非常清晰可見的樹木面前。這些樹木成了我思緒得以休息的避風(fēng)港，它們保護(hù)著我，使我免于陷入焦慮的漩渦，并且在那個(gè)下午給了我一小部分生存的理由。

At eleven in the morning on 15 April 1802, Wordsworth saw some daffodils along the western shore of Ullswater lake, a few miles north of where M and I had stayed. There were some 10,000 of these flowers 'dancing in the breeze', he wrote. The waves of the lake seemed to dance beside them too, though the daffodils 'outdid the sparkling waves in glee'. 'What wealth the shew to me had brought,' he explained of a moment that became a spot of time:

1802年4月15日，上午11點(diǎn)，華茲華斯在阿爾斯沃特湖西岸發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些水仙花。這個(gè)湖位于我們居所以北的地方，相距幾英里。在他的描繪中，近萬(wàn)朵水仙花“在風(fēng)中婆娑起舞”，湖中的漣漪似乎也在伴舞，然而水仙“舞姿輕盈快活，比那晶瑩的湖水還要更勝一籌”。他說：“這場(chǎng)演出給我?guī)砣绱硕嗟呢?cái)富。”這一刻也因此成為凝固的時(shí)間點(diǎn)：

For oft when on my couch I lie

常常，我在臥榻上躺著

In vacant or in pensive mood,

內(nèi)心空虛或憂慮。

They flash upon that inward eye

突然，我的心靈之眼

… And then my heart with pleasure fills,

……顯現(xiàn)奇觀，頓時(shí)充滿歡愉

And dances with the Daffodils.

與那些水仙一同飛舞

An unfortunate last line perhaps, open to Byronic accusations of being 'namby-pamby', but nevertheless offering the consoling idea that in vacant or pensive moods, in traffic in the city's 'turbulent world', we may also draw on images of our travels through nature, images of a group of trees or a spread of daffodils on the shores of a lake, and with their help blunt a little the forces of 'enmity and low desires'.

詩(shī)中最后一行或許不幸落入了拜倫所指責(zé)的“矯揉造作”范圍之中，但是它卻提供了令人慰藉的理念：我們或處于空虛、焦慮的思緒中，或在“動(dòng)蕩的世界”里、城市的交通阻塞中穿梭，但都能夠借助旅行中所見的自然景象，如一片樹林或湖畔的幾朵水仙花，來緩解我們一些“怨恨和卑劣欲望”。

On Travelling in the Lake District, 1418 September 2000

2002年9月14至18日湖區(qū)之旅有感