(中英)現(xiàn)代散文:霧 Fog

Fog

霧①

◎ Mao Dun

◎　茅　盾

The mountain peaks directly facing the back window of my room were veiled in fog.

霧遮沒了正對著后窗的一帶山峰。

The names of these mountain peaks are still unknown to me. The first night when I was there I had seen the top of the highest mountain shining with lights like a precious crown set with diamond. As there was no electric light in my room, all I could do in the evening was sit quietly in the dark and fix my eyes on the midair radiance, which reminded me of the fairy tales I had read in my childhood. Indeed, the orderly array of lights shining in three indistinct tiers one above another against a background of dark mountain peaks could conjure up, without fail, visions of the ethereal.

我還不知道這些山峰叫什么名兒。我來此的第一夜就看見那最高的一座山的頂巔像鉆石裝成的寶冕②似的燈火。那時我的房里還沒有電燈，每晚上在暗中默坐，凝望這半空的一片光明，使我記起了兒時所讀的童話。實在的呢，這排列得很整齊的依稀分為三層的火球，襯著黑魆魆的山峰的背景，無論如何，是會引起③非人間的縹緲的思想④的。

In the daytime, however, it was all prosaic. The five or six peaks forming the front row were about the same height. The westernmost one had on top a cluster of houses while the rest were topped by nothing but trees. The highest one in the middle had on it a large piece of barren land, like the scar on a favus-infected human head.

但在白天看來，卻就平凡得很⑤。并排的五六個山峰，差不多高低，就只最西的一峰戴著一簇房子，其余的僅只有樹；中間最大的一峰竟還有濯濯地一大塊，像是癩子頭⑥上的瘡疤。

Now, as usual, the morning fog had shut out everything completely, including the not-too-distant wire poles.

現(xiàn)在那照例的晨霧把什么都遮沒了⑦，就是稍遠的電線桿也躲得毫無影蹤。

Gradually, however, the sun managed to show through the dense fog. Yet how pitifully pale it looked! And soon it disappeared altogether, leaving the white thick fog to engulf everything and shroud mother earth.

漸漸地太陽光從濃霧中鉆出來了。那也是可憐的太陽呢！光是那樣的淡弱⑧。隨后它也躲開，讓白茫茫的濃霧吞噬了一切，包圍了大地。

I hate the all-obliterating fog!

我詛咒這抹煞一切的霧！

Of course I hate biting wind and icy snow too. But when they are compared with fog, I would rather have the former than the latter! Though biting wind and icy snow may sometimes be a killer, yet they can also spur people on to greater efforts. O you fog! You plunge us into a state of depression and dejection, from which we struggle in vain to extricate ourselves as if we were bogged down in a mire.

我自然也討厭寒風(fēng)和冰雪。但和霧比較起來，我是寧愿后者呵！寒風(fēng)和冰雪的天氣能夠殺人⑨，但也刺激人們活動起來奮斗。霧，霧呀，只使你苦悶；使你頹唐闌珊，像陷在爛泥淖中，滿心想掙扎，可是無從著力呢！

About noon the fog turned into a fine misty rain like a curtain hanging still at the window. Some 30 feet away, a cloud of misty vapour prevailed, blotting out everything. The air was windless. Every now and then, the withered lotus stems in the pond in front of my door gave a sudden violent jerk as a red carp was seen splashing briskly out of the water to break the death-like silence.

傍午的時候，霧變成了牛毛雨，像簾子似的老是掛在窗前。兩三丈以外，便只見一片煙云——依然遮抹一切，只不是霧樣的罷了。沒有風(fēng)。門前池中的殘荷梗時時忽然急劇地動搖起來，接著便有紅鯉魚的活潑潑的跳躍劃破了死一樣平靜的水面。

I wonder if the red carp's aberration was due to its impatience with the unbearably oppressive status quo. As for me, failing a bright sunshine, I would rather have a violent storm. I cannot endure the fine misty rain which came in the wake of the gloomy fog to linger like a curtain hanging still at the window.

我不知道紅鯉魚的軌外行動⑩是不是為了不堪沉悶的壓迫？在我呢，既然沒有杲杲的太陽?，便寧愿有疾風(fēng)大雨，很不耐這愁霧的后身的牛毛雨老是像簾子一樣掛在窗前。

《霧》是茅盾（1896—1981）于1928年夏東渡日本后寫的一篇散文。當(dāng)時他對國內(nèi)的黑暗現(xiàn)實深感失望，在文章中以托物詠懷的手法，抒發(fā)內(nèi)心的郁悶和茫然，反映出同時代知識分子的共同心態(tài)。