Sweet September

甜美的九月

By Hal Borland

霍尔·波兰德

September is more than a month, really; it is a season, an achievement in itself. It begins with August’s leftovers and it ends with October’s preparations, but along the way it achieves special satisfactions. After summer’s heat and haste, the year consolidates itself. Deliberate September-in its own time and tempo-begins to sum up another summer.

九月真的不止一个月，而是一个季节，一个自我成就。始于八月之余热，终于十月之准备，但一路走来，它特别心满意足。夏之躁热后，一年归于平静。九月，伴着时令，踩着节拍，有备而来，给夏季划上句号。

With September comes a sense of autumn. It creeps in on a misty dawn and vanishes in the hot afternoon. It tiptoes through the treetops, rouging a few leaves, then rides a tuft of thistledown across the valley and away. It sits on a hilltop and hoots like an October owl in the dusk. It plays tag with the wind. September is a challenging busy as a squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid brook. It is summer’s ripeness and richness fulfilled.

九月捎来一丝秋意。它随薄雾之清晨悄然而来，又在煦暖之午后消失无踪；它蹑手蹑脚，掠过树梢，抹红叶子，然后，乘一簇毛蓟越过山谷而去。它驻足山顶，像十月猫头鹰鸣叫黄昏；它同风儿嬉戏玩耍；九月像山核树上的松鼠那般忙碌，又如缓缓流淌的小溪那般慵懒。夏季的成熟与丰饶，成就了甜美的九月。

Some of the rarest days of the year come in the September season-days when it is comfortably cold but pulsing with life, when the sky is clear and clean, the air crisp, the wind free of dust. Meadows still smell of hay and the sweetness of cut grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Goldenrod comes by mid-August, but rises to a peak of golden abundance in early September. Late thistles make spectacular purple accents. And asters blossom everywhere, along the roadsides, in meadows, on the hilltops, even in city lots, raging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender to the royal New England purple.

九月，一年中最珍贵的时光，秋高气爽，风中无尘，与生命一起律动。草场还弥漫着干草及刈草的芳香。九月虽不及五月众花争奇斗艳，但繁花依然造就了绚烂的九月。八月中旬，黄花含苞欲放；九月初，肆意盛开，洒遍金黄。晚蓟浮动诱人的紫色。紫菀处处绽放，小路旁，草场中，山顶上，甚或市区空地里，颜色各异，从各种熏衣草的纯白到高贵的新英格兰紫色。

We think of spring as the miracles time, when opening bud and new leaf proclaim the persistence of life. But September is when the abiding wonder makes itself know in a subtler way. Now growth comes to annual fruition, and preparations are completed for another year, another generation. The acorn ripens and the hickory nut matures. The plant commits its future to the seed and the root. The insect stows tomorrow in the egg and pupa. The surge is almost over and life begins to relax.

嫩芽新叶宣扬着生生不息，我们认为春季充满了奇迹。但九月以更微妙的方式显现这永恒的奇迹。此时，一年的生长结出果实，也为来年的新生命做好了准备。橡子熟了，山桃黄了。植物把未来托付给根与种子。昆虫把明天收藏在卵蛹中。汹涌的生命开始归于平静。

The green prime is passing. The trees begin to proclaim the change. Soon the leaves will be discarded, the grass will sere. But the miracle of life persists, the mysterious germ of growth and renewal that is the seed itself.

夏季正离我们而去。树木宣告着变化，不久，草枯叶零。但生命的奇迹不灭，缘于种子萌芽与再生的神奇力量。

This is the season of the harvest moon. With reasonably clear skies it will be a moonlit week, for the harvest moon is not hasty; it comes early and stays late. There was a time when the busy farmer could return to the fields after supper and continue his harvest by moonlight. There’s still harvesting to be done, but much of it now centers on the Kitchen, the late sweet corn, the tomatoes, the root vegetables. The canning, the preserving, the freezing, the kitchen harvest in all its variety, reaches its peak.

这是秋收之月的季节。将有一周的清空皓月。月儿很悠闲，来得早，去得迟。此时，忙碌的农夫可在晚饭后回到田里，沐着月光继续收割。还有其它要收获的，但大多以菜园为中心，晚熟的甜玉米，西红柿，还有根菜。菜园的活儿丰富多彩，罐装，贮存，冷冻等，这是最后的丰收。

First frost comes in the night, a clear, scant-starred night when the moon is near its fullness. It comes without a whisper, quiet as thistledown, brushing the corner of a hillside garden. Dawn comes and you see its path-the glistening leaf, the gloaming stem, the limp, blackening garden vine.

那夜，月圆星稀，下了第一场霜。它悄无声息地来临，静如蓟花冠毛，掠过山坡上果园的一角。拂晓时分，你随处可见它的踪迹，在闪亮的叶子上，朦胧的茎干上，盘曲黝黑的藤蔓上。

Another night or two the frost walks the valleys in the moonlight. Then it goes back beyond the northern hills to wait a little longer, and the golden mildness of early autumn comforts the land. A faint anise smell is on the air, goldenrod scent. The mist swirls and September sun shines through the deep-blue sky of September.

再过一两夜，它沐着月光越过山谷，然后绕过北山再回来，稍作停留。金色的初秋温柔地抚慰着大地。一丝淡淡的茴香，弥漫在空气中，还有黄花的芬芳。薄雾漫舞，九月的阳光照彻深蓝的天空。

译于2005年9月29日。