散文佳作108篇 第38期:鴨巢圍之夜 A Night at Mallard-Nest Village

A Night at Mallard-Nest Village

沈從文

Shen Congwen

天快黃昏時落了一陣雪子，不久就停了。天氣真冷，在寒氣中一切都仿佛結(jié)了冰。便是空氣，也像快要凍結(jié)的樣子。我包定的那一只小船，在天空大把撒著雪子時已泊了岸，從桃源縣沿河而上這已是第五個夜晚。看情形晚上還會有風(fēng)有雪，故船泊岸邊時便從各處挑選好地方。沿岸除了某一處有片沙嘴宜于泊船以外，其余地方全是黛色如屋的大巖石。石頭既然那么大，船又那么小，我們都希望尋覓得到一個能作小船風(fēng)雪屏障，同時要上岸又還方便的處所。凡是可以泊船的地方早已被當(dāng)?shù)貪O船占去了。小船上的水手，把船上下各處撐去，鋼鉆頭敲打著沿岸大石頭，發(fā)出好聽的聲音，結(jié)果這只小船，還是不能不同許多大小船只一樣，在正當(dāng)泊船處插了篙子，把當(dāng)作錨頭用的石碇拋到沙上去，盡那行將來到的風(fēng)雪，攤派到這只船上。

Towards dusk it started snowing, but soon the snow stopped. It was bitterly cold. In thatglacial atmosphere everything seemed turned to ice, the air itself as if on the point of freezing.The small boat I had hired moored after the first flurries of snow fell. This was the fifth night ofmy trip upstream from Taoyuan. Because it looked as if we were in for a blizzard, the boatmenhad searched for a good anchorage. But apart from a suitable beach, the bank was a mass ofblack boulders the size of houses. Since they were so big and our boat was so small, we wantedto find some shelter from the wind in a place where we could easily go ashore. However, all thebest moorings wore occupicd by local fishing-boats. The crew punted our little craft up anddown, the steel tips of the punting-poles clinking melodiously on the rocks; but in the end wehad to draw alongside the other vessels large and small in the regular anchorage, dropping therock which served us as an anchor on to the sand and leaving our little craft exposed to thecoming blizzard.

這地方是個長潭的轉(zhuǎn)折處，兩岸是高大壁立千丈的山，山頭上長著小小竹子，長年翠色逼人。這時節(jié)兩山只剩余一抹深黑，賴天空微明為畫出一個輪廓。但在黃昏里看來如一種奇跡的，卻是兩岸高處去水已三十丈上下的吊腳樓。這些房子莫不儼然懸掛在半空中，借著黃昏的金光，還可以把這些希奇的樓房形體，看得出個大略。這些房子同沿河一切房子有個共通相似處，便是從結(jié)構(gòu)上說來，處處顯出對于木材的浪費。房屋既在半山上，不用那么多木料，便不能成為房子嗎?半山上也用吊腳樓形式，這形式是必須的嗎?然而這條河水的大宗出口是木料，木材比石塊還不值價。因此，即或是河水永遠長不到處，吊腳樓房子依然存在，似乎也不應(yīng)當(dāng)有何惹眼驚奇了。但沿河因為有了這些樓房，長年與流水斗爭的水手，寄身船中枯悶成疾的旅行者，以及其他過路人，卻有了落腳處了。這些人的疲勞與寂寞是從這些房子中可以一律解除的。地方既好看，也好玩。

This place, at a bend in a long lake, was flanked by high cliffs on the peaks of which grew smallbamboos, an enchanting emerald the whole year round. Now that darkness was falling, onlytheir silhouettes were outlined against the faintly glimmering sky. What we could make out inthe dusk, though, was amazing—about three hundred feet up the cliff, high above the water,was a cluster of houses on stilts. There they hung majestically in mid air, and in the fading lightwe could still see the outline of these extraordinary buildings. In common with all the housesalong the river, their construction was characterized by a wasteful use of timber. Why was somuch timber needed for houses halfway up a hill? Yet they were built on stilts, quiteneedlessly. Well, timber was the main product shipped out from this river, costing less thanstone; and so, though there was no danger at all of flooding, it was really not astonishing thatthese houses were still built on stilts. And because they were there, the boatmen who grappledyear in year out with the current, their passengers nearly bored to death, and other travellerstoo had somewhere to rest. They could shake off their weariness and loneliness in thesehouses. So the place, besides being attractive, provided distractions.

河面大小船只泊定后，莫不點了小小的油燈，拉了篷。各個船上皆在后艙燒了火，用鐵鼎罐煮紅米飯。飯燜熟后，又換鍋子熬油，嘩的把菜蔬倒進熱鍋里去。一切齊全了，各人蹲在艙板上三碗五碗把腹中填滿后，天已夜了。水手們怕冷怕動的。收拾碗盞后，就莫不在艙板上攤開了被蓋，把身體鉆進那個預(yù)先卷成一筒又冷又濕的硬棉被里去休息。至于那些想喝一杯的，發(fā)了煙癮得靠靠燈，船上煙灰又翻盡了的，或一無所為，只是不甘寂寞，好事好玩想到岸上去烤烤火談?wù)勌斓模隳惶崃宋?，或燃一段廢纜子，搖晃著從船頭跳上了岸，從一堆石頭間的小路徑，爬到半山上吊腳樓房子那邊去，找尋自己的熟人，找尋自己的熟地。陌生人自然也有來到這條河中來到這種吊腳樓房子里的時節(jié)，但一到地，在火堆旁小板凳上一坐，便是陌生人，即刻也就可以稱為熟人鄉(xiāng)親了。

After the boats large and small had moored, all lit tiny oil lamps and fixed up mat canopies. Ricewas boiled in iron cauldrons over fires in the stem, and once this was cooked the vegetableswere fried in another pan of sizzling oil. When the meal was ready, everyone aboard could wolfdown three or five bowls. By then it was dark. When the bowls had been cleared away, theboatmen who felt cold or tired out spread their bedding on the deck and burrowed into theirstiff, clammy quilts which they had laid out like tubing. Those who wanted to drank or smokedby the lamp, and when the fire on the boat had burned to ashes or there was nothing to do, iflonely or eager for a bit of fun they would go ashore to sit by a fire and chat, taking the lanternfrom the mast or lighting a strip of old hawser with which they jumped unsteadily ashore totake the path through rocks to the stilt-houses halfway up the cliff, in search of an old friendor familiar house. Strangers naturally travelled along the river too, but once inside these stilt-houses, sitting on low stools by the fire, in no time they would feel not strangers but friends.