13 The Autumn Provides Food and Loneliness

In Which The Autumn Provides Food and Loneliness September blazed a trail into the mountains. First she burned the grasses. The grasses seeded and were harvested by the mice and the winds. Then she sent the squirrels and chipmunks running boldly through the forest, collecting and hiding nuts. Then she frosted the aspen leaves and left them sunshine yellow. Then she gathered the birds together in flocks, and the mountaintop was full of songs and twitterings and flashing wings. The birds were ready to move to the south.

秋日带来食物，也带来寂寞 九月一路走进了深山 她先烧黄了野草 野草结了籽，被野鼠和风收走了 接着她催着松鼠和花栗鼠大胆跑遍森林，收集坚果藏起来 然后她给杨树叶覆上霜，把它们变成了明亮的金黄色 再后来她把鸟儿聚成群，山顶满是歌声、啁啾声和扑闪的翅膀 鸟儿们准备飞往南方了

And I, Sam Gribley, felt just wonderful, just wonderful I pushed the raft down the stream and gathered arrowleaf bulbs, bulrush roots, and the nutlike tubers of the sedges.

而我，山姆·格里博利，感觉棒极了，真的棒极了 我把木筏推下小溪，采集了箭头叶球茎、香蒲根，还有莎草坚果状的块茎

And then the crop of crickets appeared and Frightful hopped all over the meadow snagging them in her great talons and eating them. I tried them, because I had heard they are good. I think it was another species of cricket that was meant. I think the field cricket would taste excellent if you were starving. I was not starving, so I preferred to listen to them. I abandoned the crickets and went back to the goodness of the earth. I smoked fish and rabbit, dug wild onions by the pouchful and raced September for her crop.

之后地里冒出好多蟋蟀，惊风满草地蹦跳，用大爪抓住蟋蟀吃掉 我也尝了一口，因为我听说蟋蟀很好吃 我觉得人家说的好吃的蟋蟀是另一个品种 我想如果你饿坏了，田野蟋蟀吃起来也会很棒 我还没饿到那份上，所以我更乐意听它们叫 我放弃了吃蟋蟀，回头去挖大地的好东西 我熏制了鱼和兔子，挖了满满一袋野洋葱，赶着九月抢收她的物产

October 15 Today The Baron Weasel looked mouldy. I couldn't get near enough to see what was the matter with him, but it occurs to me that he might be changing his summer fur for his white winter mantle. If he is, it is an itchy process. He scratches a lot. Seeing The Baron changing his mantle for winter awoke the first fears in me. I wrote that note on a little birch bark, curled up on my bed, and shivered. The snow and the cold and the long lifeless months are ahead, I thought. The wind was blowing hard and cool across the mountain. I lit my candle, took out the rabbit and squirrel hides I had been saving, and began rubbing and kneading them to softness.

10月15日 今天黄鼠狼男爵看起来毛发乱糟糟的 我没法靠近看他出了什么问题，但我猜他正把夏毛换成冬天的白毛外套 如果真的在换毛，这个过程肯定很痒 他老是挠个不停 看到男爵换冬装，我心里第一次生出了恐惧感 我把这句话写在一小块桦树皮上，蜷在床上，打了个寒颤 我想，大雪、严寒还有漫长死寂的几个月就要来了 大风猛烈地吹着，凉飕飕扫过山头 我点上蜡烛，拿出一直攒着的兔皮和松鼠皮，开始揉搓鞣制让皮子变软

The Baron was getting a new suit for winter. I must have one too, Some fur underwear, some mittens, fur-lined socks. Frightful, who was sitting on the foot post of the bed, yawned fluffed, and thrust her head into the slate-grey feathers of her back. She slept. I worked for several hours. I must say here that I was beginning to wonder if I should not go home for the winter and come back again in the spring. Everything in the forest was getting prepared for the harsh months. Jessie Coon James was as fat as a barrel. He came down the tree slowly, his fat falling in a roll over his shoulders. The squirrels were working and storing food. They were building leaf nests. The skunks had burrows and plugged themselves in at dawn with bunches of leaves. No draughts could reach them. As I thought of the skunks and all the animals preparing themselves against the winter, I

男爵要换上一身新的冬装 我也得有一身，几件毛皮内衣，几副手套，还有衬了毛皮的袜子 惊风蹲在床尾的立柱上，打了个哈欠，抖了抖羽毛，把脑袋钻进后背深灰色的羽毛里 她睡着了 我揉了好几个小时 我得说，我开始琢磨，我是不是该回家过冬，春天再回来 森林里所有生灵都在为难熬的冬日做准备 浣熊杰西胖得像个圆桶 他慢慢从树上爬下来，肥肉堆成一团耷拉在肩膀上 松鼠们忙着储存粮食 它们还在搭建树叶窝 臭鼬挖好了洞穴，天亮的时候就用大把树叶堵住洞口 风都钻不进去 当我想到臭鼬和所有动物都在为过冬做准备时 我

realized suddenly that my tree would be as cold as the air if I did not somehow find a way to heat it. Notes: Today I rafted out into the deep pools of the creek to fish. It was a lazy sort of autumn day, the sky clear, the leaves beginning to brighten the air warm. I stretched out on my back because the fish weren't biting, and hummed. My line jerked and I sat up to pull, but was too late. However, I was not too late to notice that I had drifted into the bank– the very hank where Bando had dug the clay for the jam pots. At that moment I knew what I was going to do. I was going to build a fireplace of clay, even fashion a little chimney of clay. It would be small, but enough to warm the tree during the long winter.

突然反应过来，如果我不想办法取暖，我的树洞会和外面空气一样冷 日记： 今天我撑木筏漂到小溪的深潭钓鱼 这是秋日里悠闲的一天，天空晴朗，树叶渐渐变亮，空气温暖宜人 因为鱼不咬钩，我就仰躺着哼歌 鱼线猛地一扯，我坐起来拉竿，可还是晚了 但我刚好发现，我漂到了岸边——就是班杜挖陶土做果酱罐的那片河岸 就在那一刻我知道我要做什么了 我要用黏土砌一个壁炉，再做一个小小的黏土烟囱 它虽然不大，但足够在漫长冬天给我的树洞取暖了