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.

我见过千种日出日落，在大地上森林与高山都被笼罩在蜜色光泽之中，在海里为一团五彩云朵平添并渲染上一道血橙色的殷红，在广阔的大洋之中潮汐潮落。我见过千般的月亮；满月如金币，寒月苍白如冰屑，新月宛如雏天鹅的绒毛。

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.

我见过的海平静如止，颜色如缎，蓝如翠鸟或者通透如玻璃，亦或乌黑褶皱地泛起泡沫，沉重又危险地翻动着。

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.

我曾感受过风——自南极凛冽的直吹过来，刺骨哀嚎着就好像迷途的小童；风——温柔和煦如同爱人的呼吸；风——载着海草的灭亡与咸涩的味道；风——充释着森林大地润泽肥沃的气息，和百万种花朵的芬芳。狂风蹈海如同发酵起沫，或者风驱着水轻拍海岸恰似可人的小猫。

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.

我也曾感受过宁静——在一眼新挖的井中寒冷又饱含着泥土的气息，在深邃洞穴中坚决又冷酷；炎热迷离的午后的宁静，炎炎烈日之下万物被催眠平息；宁静——当一曲悠扬终了时的那一刹。

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.

我听过夏天里知了声声好似如芒在骨，我听过树蛙伴着亿万只蜻蜓咏唱出与巴赫的管弦乐同样鬼斧神工地旋律。我听过啄羊鹦鹉悠缓上路去投奔大海的怀抱，在越过灰色冰川时叫喊着，像老人那样抱怨着自己。我听过声嘶力竭的街道商贩成交皮草生意时的叫嚷，如同对他们鎏金的妻子的赞美，响尾蛇清脆却不连贯的警告声，成群结队的蝙蝠的刺耳尖叫，马鹿在齐膝深的石楠从中的咆哮。我听过狼群吠穿冷月，红吼猴啸震丛林。我听过珊瑚礁中异彩斑斓的鱼群的吱吱，呱呱与呢哝。

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 –

我见过蜂鸟围着绽开艳红花朵的树如猫眼石般闪烁，忙碌得好像陀螺。我见过飞鱼轻轻掠过，亦如水银穿过蓝色的波浪，用它们的尾巴在水面上画出银色的条纹。我见过琵鹭归巢，俨如一条猩红色的条幅横跨天际。我见过鲸鱼，黝似沥青，映衬着矢车菊色亮蓝的大海，用它们的呼吸筑起凡尔赛的喷泉。我见过蝴蝶破茧时危坐颤栗，任由阳光抚平它的鳞翼。我见过老虎好似恋人，在草丛深处交欢。我见过愤怒的渡鸦俯冲轰炸，魔鬼之蹄一般玄青又有光泽。我曾置身于温润如奶，柔顺如丝的水中，周围有海豚做我的客人。我遇到过千种不同的动物，目睹过千般绝妙的事物……然而——

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

没有你，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，我做什么都是收获。

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.

为了有你一分钟的相伴我愿把这一切都放弃，为你的笑语，你的声音，你的眼睛，头发，嘴唇，身体，尤其你可爱甚至不可思议的心，那是只有我才有权开采的迷人宝藏。