文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治 译析/吴文安

《我的山林》（节选二）

文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治 译析/吴文安

When I wrote that last winter, I was scared and thought maybe I’d never get out of my tree. I had been scared for two days—ever since the fi rst blizzard hit the Catskill Mountains.When I came up to the sunlight, which I did by simply poking my head into the soft snow and standing up, I laughed at my dark fears.

[2] Everything was white, clean,shining, and beautiful. The sky was blue, blue, blue. The hemlock grove was laced with snow, the meadow was smooth and white, and the gorge was sparkling with ice. It was so beautiful and peaceful that I laughed out loud.I guess I laughed because my first snowstorm was over and it had not been so terrible after all.

[3] Then I shouted, “I did it!” My voice never got very far. It was hushed by the tons of snow.

[4] I looked for signs from The Baron Weasel. His footsteps were all over the boulder, also slides where he had played. He must have been up for hours,enjoying the new snow.

[5] Inspired by his fun, I poked my head into my tree and whistled.Frightful, my trained falcon, flew to my fist, and we jumped and slid down the mountain, making big holes and trenches as we went. It was good to be whistling and carefree again, because I was sure scared by the coming of that storm.

[6] I had been working since May,learning how to make a fire with flint and steel, finding what plants I could eat, how to trap animals and catch fish—all this so that when the curtain of blizzard struck the Catskills, I could crawl inside my tree and be comfortably warm and have plenty to eat.

[7] During the summer and fall I had thought about the coming of winter. However, on that third day of December when the sky blackened,the temperature dropped, and the first fl akes swirled around me. I must admit I wanted to run back to New York.Even the first night that I spent out in the woods, when I couldn’t get the fi re started, was not as frightening as the snowstorm that gathered behind the gorge and mushroomed up over my mountain.

[8] I was smoking three trout. It was nine o’clock in the morning. I was busy keeping the flames low so they would not leap up and burn the fish.As I worked, it occurred to me that it was awfully dark for that hour of the morning. Frightful was leashed to her tree stub. She seemed restless and pulled at her tethers. Then I realized that the forest was dead quiet. Even the woodpeckers that had been tapping around me all morning were silent. The squirrels were nowhere to be seen. The juncos and chickadees and nuthatches were gone. I looked to see what The Baron Weasel was doing. He was not around. I looked up.

去年冬天，我写日记的时候，感到非常恐慌，心想也许再也不能走出树屋了。有两天时间我都惊恐不安，自从第一次暴风雪袭击卡茨基尔山之后就是如此。可是当我来到阳光下，从大雪覆盖的树屋门口探出头并站起身来，忍不住笑了，为自己的惶惶不可终日而笑。

[2]一切都洁白无瑕，一尘不染，闪闪发亮，美不胜收。天空碧蓝碧蓝碧蓝的。铁杉树丛披上了白雪制作的蕾丝花边，草坪银装素裹平滑如镜，峡谷里因为冰雪而银光闪闪。四周如此美丽和静谧，我忍不住大笑起来。我想，我之所以大笑，是因为我经历的第一场暴风雪已经结束，而且它根本不是那么可怕。

[3]那时我大喊：“我成功了！”但我的声音传不远。厚厚的大雪吸收了我的声音。

[4]我四处寻找“黄鼠狼男爵”的踪影。大石头上到处都是他的脚印，他滑行过的地方也留下了痕迹。他一定起床好几个小时了，在这场初雪中玩了个够。

[5]既然黄鼠狼喜欢玩雪，我们也可以，我把头伸到树屋里面，吹了声口哨。训练有素的猎鹰“惊悚”飞到我的拳头上，我们一起蹦蹦跳跳，沿着山坡滑行，在身后留下巨大的雪坑和雪沟。能再次吹起口哨无忧无虑真是太好了，因为暴风雪来临把我吓得够呛。

[6]从五月份开始，我就在为过冬做准备，学习如何用燧石和钢片生火，寻找能吃的植物，学习如何设陷阱抓动物和钓鱼 —— 所有这一切都是为了在暴风雪肆虐卡茨基尔山之际，我能够爬进树屋，保持温暖舒适，并有足够的食物。……