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按：几年前，美国《读者文摘》出版的《我们的国家公园》(Our National Parks)深深地吸引了我。这本图文并茂的杂志不同于一般的地理书籍。其文章，一扫干巴巴的数字罗列和味同嚼蜡的简单描述。真可谓篇篇有美文，篇篇有深情，堪称抒情散文的上乘之作。有鉴于此，我曾摘要发表过一些，有的还是英汉对照的方式。对于地理风光，介绍的方式无非两种，一种是直观的图像，一种是抽象的文字。美国国家公园的图片大概并不少见，但细致入微，文采飞扬的文字描述，恐怕并不多见。为此，我愿把自己的译文发在这里，和大家共同分享。

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Few mountains anywhere in the world are more aptly named than the Great Smokies. Rank upon rank of smoothly rounded ridges recede toward the horizon like shadowy silhouettes, their contours blurred during the summer months by an ever-present haze ? the product of incalculable quantities of vapor exhaled into the air by the luxuriant mantle of forest that covers these well-watered slopes.

大烟山，在世间任何地方，命名比它更加贴切者实属凤毛麟角。线条圆柔的道道山岭逶迤不绝，酷似朦朦胧胧的剪影被赋予了生命，朝地平线缓缓蠕动。夏季，潮湿的山坡透过茂密的山林，把夏季必有的大量水蒸气源源不断地发散到空中，致使此地终日烟雾缭绕，山影憧憧。此时的大烟山，迷迷蒙蒙，虚无缥缈，宛若仙境。

注释：

也有译作“大雾山”的。如果字对字的硬译，这段的译文其实是这样的：世界上任何地方都没有什么山的命名比大烟山更贴切了。把全文的主角，实体词大烟山置于最前面，堪称名副其实的“开门见山”，比一上来先读一串跑龙套的修饰词语效果要好得多。

光溜溜，圆乎乎的山岭，就像隐隐约约的剪影，一道一道地朝着地平线的方向下降，它们的轮廓在夏季里，被必不可少的烟雾弄得模糊不清 - 而这些烟雾就是被覆盖这些潮湿山坡的森林所形成的丰富的覆盖物所发散到空中的大量的水蒸气的产物。

破折号后面的一段话多么复杂，而这么复杂的一段文字又仅仅是破折号前面的“烟雾”（haze）的说明。可如果分解开说又会是：这些烟雾是大量水蒸气的产物，而这些水蒸气又是被丰富的覆盖物发散到空中的，而这些覆盖物又是由覆盖潮湿山坡的森林所形成。连续不断的层层解释，反复说明，总共三次之多，真可谓一步三回头。这在中文里简直难以容忍。有鉴于此，我才采用“半直译半意译”的方法做如上译。

Time has gentled the ancient Smokies (they are among the oldest mountains on earth), softening their outlines as erosion works its magic. Yet the heights are still impressive: 20 peaks rise to elevations of more than 6,000 feet. Tallest of all is Clingmans Dome, near the very center of the park, at 6,642 feet.

时光柔化了古老的大烟山（这些都是世界上最古老的山），经年累月的风化腐蚀，就像魔术一般无二，把层峦叠嶂的轮廓琢磨得圆润平滑。诚然，其高度依然令人叹为观止。高达6，000英尺的山峰就不下20座之多。接近公园中心的多姆峰，更是以其6，642英尺的高度鹤立鸡群。

On the heights are forests that seem strangely out of place in the South ? a touch of Maine that is a remnant and reminder of the bygone Ice Age. During the thousands of years in which the northern part of the continent was locked in the grip of ice, the climate here was much cooler than today. As the glaciers advanced, cold-loving evergreens gradually extended their range farther and farther to the south. Then, as the Ice Age came to an end and the climate warmed, these forests receded toward the north ? except on the mountain slopes, where they found the cool, moist growing conditions they require. And there they remain to this day, covering the ridge tops with the year-round greenery of red spruce and Fraser fir.

高山区的森林怪异多姿，仿佛不该地处南方。乍看上去，颇具缅因州的北国风韵，令人不禁联想起古老的冰河期，进而思古之幽情油然而生。在北美洲当初还处在冰雪禁锢的数千年时光里，此地的气候比现在凉得多。随着冰河的前进，耐寒的常绿植物区，逐渐向南延伸，直至冰河期结束，其后变暖，这些森林又向北退缩。当然，一些山坡地带除外，因为那里有耐寒植物所需的凉爽湿润的生长环境。所以直至今日，千山万岭依旧被郁郁葱葱的常绿云杉林所覆盖。

Dampness is pervasive on these heights: showers are always imminent, fog a constant companion. Moss grows everywhere, and wood sorrel spreads its delightful blossoms over the forest floor. The calls of winter wrens and the scolding of red squirrels ? wildlife more typical of Canada and New England than of the South ? echo through the trees. Otherwise only the sighing of the wind interrupts the silence.

高山区常年潮湿，大雾不可或缺，山雨欲来之势无时不刻地笼罩着这里的一切。不过山林之内，则别是一番风光。那里处处青苔，处处红花，色彩艳丽，赏心悦目。尤其是为冬季所特有的鹪鹩也在这里婉转地歌唱，红松鼠也在发出欢快的叫声。这歌声，这叫声，在林木间回响，彰显了生命的存在，但其所具备的并非只是东方特色，而是典型的加拿大和新英格兰的特色。如果没有这些，那就只有风儿的叹息声才能打破这里的寂静。

On a few high ridges, forests are interrupted by openings known as balds. In some, tangled shrubbery takes the place of trees; others are grassy. Both offer superb vistas, but only the grass ones are welcoming, their thick, luxuriant carpet creating the perfect resting place. Along the edges of the openings the forest begins hesitantly with a flowery fringe. Bees buzz around azalea and rhododendron shrubs, creating a subtle back-ground music as they work the blooms for nectar. The fragrance of fir and of flowers drifts across the balds, mountains’ hazy contours fade in the distance.

（大烟山有一个独特的地理现象，）在几座蓊郁青葱的高山上，偶尔会出现秃顶。参天大树为绞绕盘结的灌木丛或绒绒碧毯般的萋萋芳草所替代，因而形成狭长空旷而景致极佳的林间开阔地。而最令人痴迷的要算那花团锦簇的开阔地边缘，擢发难数的野花绚丽多姿，尽态极妍，为森林提供了一条鲜花织就的天然流苏式饰带。无数只小蜂在美丽动人的杜鹃花丛中飞来飞去，以嗡嗡的响声为繁忙的采蜜营造一种轻松神秘，音乐气氛颇浓的环境。这种被称为秃顶的林间开阔地，终日浸沉在云杉和野花的馥郁芳香之中，而此时此刻，其背后忽隐忽现的山影则正逐步被迷蒙的云烟雾霭所湮没。

As centuries passed and the climate warmed at the close of the Ice Age, rain replaced snow, and streams began dancing down the mountains, twisting their way between great gray boulders that had been cracked from the slopes by relentless freezing. In only a short time, perhaps a mere thousand years or so, the Smokies began to resemble the mountains we know today ? mountains with a delightful array of forests of all different sorts. Oak and hickory, mixed together with pine, ungrudgingly contribute their gifts of acorns and nuts. In general such stands are confined to low elevations where thin soil and direct sun combine to rob the land of moisture. Quite different ? but found just around the bend on the moist, cool, shady side of many a ridge ? is another kind of forest, dominated by hemlocks. In mature forests these evergreens are huge, creating a moody sort of place where fog drifts among the branches and filters the morning sun into shafts of light and shadow. Little else grows within their world: the only shrubs that seem to thrive beneath the large old hemlocks are rhododendrons.

随着多少世纪的推移，到冰河时代的末期，气候逐渐转暖，雨滴替代雪花，溪流便开始在山间起舞，在巨大的灰色圆石之间蜿蜒曲折地向前奔流，而这些圆石都是山坡久经严寒冷冻分崩离析而成。仅在随后一个很短的时期，也许只有千年左右，大烟山就开始呈现类似我们今天所知道的这副模样。各种不同的森林在山间排列有序，齐榛榛，碧绿绿，委实壮观。在许多潮湿阴凉的山坡上，则以铁杉为主，株株高大参天。雾气穿枝透叶，朝阳初照，一道道金光，一片片阴影，间隔有序，相映成趣。在铁杉的一统天下里，似乎容不得任何其它植物，唯一能见到的异类就只是在高大古老的铁杉之下茂密生长的灌木丛，而这些灌木丛就是花团锦簇的杜鹃。

Growing from 2 to 20 feet in height, in some places rhododendrons form all but impenetrable thickets; stems and trunks are so intertwined that few creatures will attempt to pass through the tangled growth. This is especially true where rhododendrons and a few related shrubs grow not beneath taller plants but in solid stands of their own. Scientists know such places as heath balds; local people call them laurel slicks.

这里的杜鹃高达2至20英尺不等。有些地方的杜鹃长势繁茂，枝干盘绕之密，就连最灵巧的动物应对起来也无计可施。尤其是当杜鹃不是在高大的树木下生长，而是在独自成林时，就更是如此。这里以石南花开阔地的名字被科学家所认知，而当地人则把这里称作月桂谷。

From a distance, they look like open hilltop meadows where the grass is just right for resting. But this is pure illusion, as anyone who struggles up to one quickly realized. The first few steps into the thicket, even one that is only chest-high, require the strength of an ox. In taller tangles, forward movement is all but impossible. The branches are tough: they grab, they scratch, they whip. Even the most persistent soon give up, realizing that a laurel slick is more prison than refuge.

这种地方远看似一片片开阔的山顶草地，仿佛正好是游人休憩的最佳去处，但不少人千辛万苦，奋力拼搏，终于抵达那里之后，才立即发现那仅仅是一种迷人的幻觉。如果有人非想进去看一看，哪怕仅仅步入齐胸高的杜鹃丛，也是寸步难行。在高一些的杜鹃丛，枝交蔓绕，想插足一步，休想！杜鹃枝条坚硬粗壮，只要有人贸然闯入，它们便会非抓即挠，甚而抽打如鞭笞。即便是耐力最强的人，也会因为意识到一处月桂谷与其说是庇护所，倒不如说像是监狱而很快就会放弃。

Rhododendrons have their redeeming qualities, however: beauty and , in this park, abundance. In early summer the ridgetops are brightened by the great red-dish-purple flower clusters of the Catawba rhododendron. Each cluster is a bouquet some six inches in diameter, and each shrub bears dozens of bouquets. For generations people have made pilgrimages to these natural gardens, knowing that to see the rhododendrons in full bloom is to witness the wild glory of the high Appalachians at their best.

不过杜鹃也有其美妙可人的特点，那就是花容艳丽绝伦。而在大烟山公园内，数量之大也有与众不同之处。初夏时节，硕大的紫色花族把山岭装点得鲜艳绚丽。每一束花簇的直径都在6英寸左右，而每一丛的花簇就有10多束之多。人们一代接一代地远足这些天然园林，去观赏花团锦簇的杜鹃。他们知道这就是在巍峨的阿巴拉契亚山最佳时期，去见证其野趣十足的壮美景观。

During July the thickets at lower elevations come into their own with the pinkish-white flowers of the rosebay rhododendron, by far more common in the park than the catawba rhododendron. In winter the long, waxy leaves of both species serve as natural thermometers, drooping as limp as the ears of a basset hound when the temperature nears zero. Nothing looks so forlorn as rhododendron thicket in cold snow ? yet no plants contribute more to the summer splendor than rhododendrons and their smaller relatives, azaleas and mountain laurel.

七月是生长在低地的粉红色杜鹃花的黄金季节。这种粉红色杜鹃在大烟山公园要比紫红色的更为普遍。冬季里，这两个品种腊光光的长叶简直就是天然寒暑表。气温接近零度时，叶子就会像猎犬的耳朵那样无力地下垂。在寒冷的冬季，没有任何植物能像杜鹃及其小品种、类杜鹃及山月桂那样奉献如此之多的美。

Spring on the summits is brief, summer is almost nonexistent. By October the highest elevations have already felt frost, and the first icicles are forming on rocky cliff tops. Through November and early December the weather is indecisive: one day it is warm and hazy, the next day a howling wind pulls a shroud of clouds across the peaks, and one third morning the trees glisten with a coating of rime. Finally the snow begin.

山峰上的春季是短暂的；夏季是潮湿凉爽的；秋季几乎是不存在的。十月份，高山地带就已寒霜初降，第一个气候周期正在峭壁崖顶形成。在整个十一月里和十二月初，这里的气候变幻莫测。第一天温暖多雾；第二天寒风呼啸，山顶乌云笼罩；第三天林木结霜，处处熠熠闪光。而最后白雪终于从天而降。

Even this far south, winter stakes out a claim ? and often does so with force. Storms carry moisture hundreds of miles northward from the Gulf Mexico and dump it on the Smokies. At lower elevations a cold, drizzly rain sometimes falls for days, feeding the streams until their roar fills every valley. On the ridges the moisture falls as snow, sometimes in big, wet flakes but often in fine, stinging, wind-driven granules. When the storms pass, warm Gulf air is replaced by frigid blasts howling their way southward from the interior of Canada. The trees moan under the assault of the wind. Clouds rip through the gaps, limbs snap in the gusts, and temperatures plummet, sometimes reaching -20。F in January.During these bursts of Arctic fury it seems as if the ice ages have once again returned, if only for several days or weeks. Finally toward mid-February warm spells become more frequent. But winter does not give up easily at these elevations. Though spring has been creeping up the slopes since late February or early March, it does not scale the summits until May.

即便在这遥远的南方，冬季也是格外分明 ? 而且往往是来势汹汹。风暴把水汽从墨西哥湾带到数百英里之外的北方，而后又将其抛到大烟山上。在较低处，阴凉的蒙蒙细雨有时要持续数天之久，为溪流注入足够的水量，最终使其汹涌澎湃灌满每一处山川峡谷。在山梁上，这次湿气变成纷纷扬扬的白雪。有时是硕大潮湿的雪花，但经常呈现的则是寒冷刺骨的冰霰。风暴过后，加拿大内地的寒风呼啸着南下而来，最终替代了温暖的墨西哥湾空气。大树在狂风袭击之下呻吟。乌云撕扯着从大山缝隙间挤过去，粗大的树枝在狂飚中折断，一月的气温有时会骤然跌至华氏零下20度。只消数日，或数周的时间，北极狂飚的猖獗之势就会搅得天翻地覆，宛若冰河时代又卷土重来。季节终于进入二月中旬，源源不断地暖流就会经常光顾。然而，在如此之高的地势上，冬季是不会轻易认输的。从二月末或三月初，虽然春季已经悄然爬上山坡，然而在五月之前，意欲登顶，也是无能为力的。