文/Gerald Durrell

Now let me tell you something …

I have seen a thousand sunsets and sunrises, on land where it floods forest and mountains with honey coloured light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multicoloured nest of cloud, slipping in and out of the vast ocean. I have seen a thousand moons: harvest moons like gold coins, winter moons as white as ice chips, new moons like baby swans’ feathers.

我見過千種日出日落，在大地上森林與高山都被籠罩在蜜色光澤之中，在海里為一團五彩云朵平添并渲染上一道血橙色的殷紅，在廣闊的大洋之中潮汐潮落。我見過千般的月亮；滿月如金幣，寒月蒼白如冰屑，新月宛如雛天鵝的絨毛。

I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, coloured like shot silk or blue as a kingfisher or transparent as glass or black and crumpled with foam, moving ponderously and murderously.

我見過的海平靜如止，顏色如緞，藍如翠鳥或者通透如玻璃，亦或烏黑褶皺地泛起泡沫，沉重又危險地翻動著。

I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, bleak and wailing like a lost child; winds as tender and warm as a lover’s breath; winds that carried the astringent smell of salt and the death of seaweeds; winds that carried the moist rich smell of a forest floor, the smell of a million flowers. Fierce winds that churned and moved the sea like yeast, or winds that made the waters lap at the shore likea kitten.

我曾感受過風——自南極凜冽的直吹過來，刺骨哀嚎著就好像迷途的小童；風——溫柔和煦如同愛人的呼吸；風——載著海草的滅亡與咸澀的味道；風——充釋著森林大地潤澤肥沃的氣息，和百萬種花朵的芬芳?？耧L蹈海如同發(fā)酵起沫，或者風驅(qū)著水輕拍海岸恰似可人的小貓。

I have known silence: the cold, earthy silence at the bottom of a newly dug well; the implacable stony silence of a deep cave; the hot, drugged midday silence when everything is hypnotized and stilled into silence by the eye of the sun; the silence when great music ends.

我也曾感受過寧靜——在一眼新挖的井中寒冷又飽含著泥土的氣息，在深邃洞穴中堅決又冷酷；炎熱迷離的午后的寧靜，炎炎烈日之下萬物被催眠平息；寧靜——當一曲悠揚終了時的那一剎。

I have heard summer cicadas cry so that the sound seems stitched into your bones. I haveheard tree frogs in an orchestration as complicated as Bach singing in a forest lit by a million emerald fireflies. I have heard the Keas calling over grey glaciers that groaned to themselves like old people as they inched their way to the sea. I have heard the hoarse street vendor cries of the mating Fur seals as they sang to their sleek golden wives, the crisp staccato admonishment of the Rattlesnake, the cobweb squeak of the Bat and the belling roar of the Red deer knee-deep in purple heather. I have heard Wolves baying at a winter’s moon, Red Howlers making the forest vibrate with their roaring cries. I have heard the squeak, purr and grunt of a hundred multi-coloured reef fishes.

我聽過夏天里知了聲聲好似如芒在骨，我聽過樹蛙伴著億萬只蜻蜓詠唱出與巴赫的管弦樂同樣鬼斧神工地旋律。我聽過啄羊鸚鵡悠緩上路去投奔大海的懷抱，在越過灰色冰川時叫喊著，像老人那樣抱怨著自己。我聽過聲嘶力竭的街道商販成交皮草生意時的叫嚷，如同對他們鎏金的妻子的贊美，響尾蛇清脆卻不連貫的警告聲，成群結(jié)隊的蝙蝠的刺耳尖叫，馬鹿在齊膝深的石楠從中的咆哮。我聽過狼群吠穿冷月，紅吼猴嘯震叢林。我聽過珊瑚礁中異彩斑斕的魚群的吱吱，呱呱與呢噥。

I have seen hummingbirds flashing like opals round a tree of scarlet blooms, humming like a top. I have seen flying fish, skittering like quicksilver across the blue waves, drawing silver lines on the surface with their tails. I have seen Spoonbills flying home to roost like a scarlet banner across the sky. I have seen Whales, black as tar, cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versailles of fountain with their breath. I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling, while the sun irons their wings smooth. I have watched Tigers, like flames, mating in the long grass. I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven, black and glossy as the Devil’s hoof. I have lain in water warm as milk,soft as silk, while around me played a host of Dolphins. I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things… but –

我見過蜂鳥圍著綻開艷紅花朵的樹如貓眼石般閃爍，忙碌得好像陀螺。我見過飛魚輕輕掠過，亦如水銀穿過藍色的波浪，用它們的尾巴在水面上畫出銀色的條紋。我見過琵鷺歸巢，儼如一條猩紅色的條幅橫跨天際。我見過鯨魚，黝似瀝青，映襯著矢車菊色亮藍的大海，用它們的呼吸筑起凡爾賽的噴泉。我見過蝴蝶破繭時危坐顫栗，任由陽光撫平它的鱗翼。我見過老虎好似戀人，在草叢深處交歡。我見過憤怒的渡鴉俯沖轟炸，魔鬼之蹄一般玄青又有光澤。我曾置身于溫潤如奶，柔順如絲的水中，周圍有海豚做我的客人。我遇到過千種不同的動物，目睹過千般絕妙的事物……然而——

All this I did without you. This was my loss.

沒有你，我做了什么都是失落。

All this I want to do with you. This will be my gain.

有了你，我做什么都是收獲。

All this I would gladly have forgone for the sake of one minute of your company, for your laugh, your voice, your eyes, hair, lips, body, and above all for your sweet,ever surprising mind which is an enchanting quarry in which it is my privilege to delve.

為了有你一分鐘的相伴我愿把這一切都放棄，為你的笑語，你的聲音，你的眼睛，頭發(fā)，嘴唇，身體，尤其你可愛甚至不可思議的心，那是只有我才有權(quán)開采的迷人寶藏。