First Snow 第一場雪

The first fall of snow is not only an event but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?

The very stealth, the eerie quietness, of the thing makes it more magical. Ifall the snow fell at once in one shattering crash, awakening us in the middle of the night the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it flutters down, soundless, hour after hour while we are asleep. Outside the closed curtains of the bedroom a vast transfbrmation scene is takiag place, just as if a myriad elves and brownies were at work, and we turn and yawn and stretch and know nothing about it. And then, what an extraordinary change it is! It is as if the house continent. Even the inside, which has not been touched, seems different, every room appearing smaller and cosier, just as if some power were trying to turn it into a woodcutter’s hut or a snug logcabin. Outside, where the garden was yesterday, there is now a white and glistening level, and the village beyond is no longer your own familiar cluster of roofs but a village in an old German fairy-tale.

You would not be surprised to learn that all the people there, the speetacled postmistress, the cobbler, the retired school master, and the rest, had suffered a change too and had become queer elvish beings, purveyors of invisible caps and magic shoes. You yourselves do not feel quite the same people you were yesterday. How could you not when so much has been changed? There is a curious stir, a little shiver of excite-ment, troubling the house, not unlike the feeling there is abroad when a journey has to be made. The children, of course, are all excitement but even the adults hang about and talk to one another longer than usual before setting down to the day’s work. Nobody can resist the windows. It is like being on board a ship.

第一場雪不僅是一件大事，而且它是一個(gè)神奇的事件。你上床睡覺時(shí)是一個(gè)世界，醒來時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)你在一個(gè)完全不同的世界，如果這不是魔法，那么它在哪里可以找到?

很隱形的，怪異的平靜，讓它有更神奇的事。如果所有的雪在一瞬間崩潰，覺醒在半夜的事件將被有搶劫的奇跡。但它飄下來，無聲的，在我們熟睡時(shí)。臥室外的一個(gè)巨大震動現(xiàn)場封閉窗簾地方，就好像有無數(shù)小精靈仙童在工作，我們打呵欠，伸展，什么都不知道。然后，它是一個(gè)多么巨大的變化!這是因?yàn)槿绻诖箨懙姆孔永?。甚至在里面，并沒有被感動，似乎有所不同，每個(gè)房間顯得更小更舒適了，就像一些力量試圖把它變成一個(gè)樵夫的小屋或一個(gè)舒適的木屋。外面，昨天的花園，現(xiàn)在有一個(gè)閃亮的，遠(yuǎn)處的村莊不再是你自己熟悉的屋頂，而像在一個(gè)古老的德國童話村。

你會不會感到驚訝，那里所有的人，郵局局長，鞋匠，退休的校長，和休息，也經(jīng)歷了一場變化，變得古怪精靈般的人物，提供隱身帽和魔術(shù)鞋。你自己也覺得不是同樣的人，你是昨天。你怎么能不做這么多改變了嗎?有一個(gè)奇怪的騷動，一點(diǎn)顫抖的激動順序，令人不安的房子，沒有不同的感覺在外出旅行時(shí)要做。當(dāng)然，孩子，是非常興奮，甚至成年人在跟另一位比平時(shí)更長的時(shí)間之前，開始一天的工作。無人能抗拒窗子。這像是在船上。