18 Spring in the Snow

In Which I Have a Good Look at Winter and Find Spring in the Snow With Christmas over, the winter became serious. The snows deepened, the wind blew, the temperatures dropped until the air snapped and talked. Never had humanity seemed so far away as it did in those cold still months of January, February, and March. I wandered the snowy crags, listening to the language of the birds by day and to the noises of the weather by night. The wind howled, the snow avalanched, and the air creaked. I slept, ate, played my reed whistle, and talked to Frightful.

本章我好好打量冬天，还在雪地里发现春天踪迹。圣诞节过后，真正的严冬来了。 雪越积越深，寒风不停呼啸，气温一路下降，连空气都冻得噼啪作响。 在一二三月这几个寒冷寂静的月份里，人类世界从未离我如此遥远。 我在积雪的峭壁间漫步，白天聆听鸟儿的话语，夜晚感受天气的声响。 狂风呼啸，积雪崩塌，空气冻得嘎吱作响。 我吃饭睡觉，吹芦笛，和佛莱特聊天。

To be relaxed, warm, and part of the winter wilderness is an unforgettable experience. I was in excellent condition. Not a cold, not a sniffle, not a moment of fatigue. I enjoyed the feeling that I could eat, sleep and be warm, and outwit the storms that blasted the mountains and the subzero temperatures that numbed them. It snowed on. I ploughed through drifts and stamped paths until eventually it occurred to me that I had all the materials to make snowshoes for easier travelling. Here are the snowshoe notes: I made slats out of ash saplings, whittling them thin enough to bend. I soaked them in water to make them bend more easily, looped the two ends together, and wound them with hide. With my penknife I made holes an inch apart all around the loop.

放松地浸在暖意里，融入冬日旷野，这样的体验让人终生难忘。 我的身体状态好极了。 没感冒，没鼻塞，半分疲惫都没有。 我能吃饱睡暖，还能斗过席卷群山的暴风雪、冻僵一切的零下低温，这种感觉棒极了。 雪一直下个不停。 我在雪堆里艰难跋涉踩出小路，后来我想到，我凑齐了所有材料，可以做一双雪鞋方便出行。 我的做鞋笔记：我用白蜡树苗做鞋框，把它们削得细到能弯曲。 我把它们泡在水里方便弯曲，再把两头弯成圈，用兽皮缠牢。 我用折刀在鞋圈四周每隔一英寸钻一个洞。

I strung deer-hide crisscross through the loops. I made a loop of hide to hold my toe and straps to tie the shoes on. When I first walked in these shoes, I tripped on my toes and fell but by the end of the first day I could walk from the tree to the gorge in half the time. I lived close to the weather. It is surprising how you watch it when you live in it. Not a cloud passed unnoticed, not a wind blew untested. I knew the moods of the storms, where they came from, their shapes and colours. When the sun shone, I took Frightful to the meadow and we slid down the mountain on my snapping-turtle-shell sled. She really didn't care much for this. When the winds changed and the air smelled like snow, I would stay in my tree, because I had got lost in a blizzard one afternoon and

我把鹿皮交叉穿进洞里，绷成雪鞋网面。 我做了皮圈套住脚尖，再做绑带把雪鞋系在脚上。 第一次穿雪鞋走路时，我绊了一跤摔了跟头，可到第一天结束，我从树屋走到峡谷的时间已经缩短了一半。 我的生活和天气紧紧贴在一起。 当你亲身活在天气里，你会时时刻刻关注它，这件事真的很奇妙。 没有一片云飘过不被我发现，没有一阵风吹过我感受不到。 我摸透了暴风雪的脾气，知道它们从哪来，是什么形状什么颜色。 出太阳的时候，我带着佛莱特去草地，坐我的鳄龟壳雪橇从山上滑下来。 它其实一点都不喜欢玩这个。 当风向变了，空气里都飘着雪的味道，我就待在树屋里，因为有天下午我在暴风雪里迷了路，

had had to hole up in a rock ledge until I could see where I was going. That day the winds were so strong I could not push against them, so I crawled under the ledge; for hours I wondered if I would be able to dig out when the storm blew on. Fortunately I only had to push through about a foot of snow. However, that taught me to stay home when the air said "snow". Not that I was afraid of being caught far from home in a storm, for I could find food and shelter and make a fire anywhere, but I had become as attached to my hemlock house as a brooding bird to her nest, Caught out in the storms and weather. I had an urgent desire to return to my tree, even as The Baron Weasel returned to his den, and the deer, to their copse. We all had our little "patch" in the wilderness. We all fought to return there. I usually came home at night with the nuthatch that roosted in a nearby sapling. I knew I was late if I tapped the tree and he came out. Sometimes when the weather was

不得不躲在岩石台架下，直到能看清路才出来。 那天风太大了，我根本顶不住风，只好爬进岩架下躲着；我担惊受怕了好几个小时，不知道暴风雪停了之后我还能不能挖开雪出去。 幸运的是，我只需要推开大约一英尺厚的雪就能出去。 不过这件事教会我，当空气预示要下雪时，就乖乖待在家里。 我不是怕在离家远的地方遇上暴风雪，我不管在哪都能找到食物、躲起来生起火，只是我早就离不开我的铁杉树屋，就像孵蛋的鸟儿离不开自己的巢，哪怕在外面遇上了暴风雨天气。 我总想快点回到我的树屋，就像黄鼠狼男爵想回它的洞，鹿想回它们的小树林一样。 我们在旷野里都有属于自己的一小块地盘。 我们拼尽全力都要回到那里。 我晚上回家的时候，通常会碰到那只五子雀，它就栖息在附近的小树苗上。 要是我敲树的时候它飞出来，我就知道我今天回晚了。 有时候当天气变得

icy and miserable, I would hear him high in the trees near the edge of the meadow, yanking and yanking and flicking his tail, and then I would see him wing to bed early. I considered him a pretty good barometer, and if he went to his tree early, I went to mine early too. When you don't have a newspaper or radio to give you weather bulletins watch the birds and animals. They can tell when a storm is coming. I called the nuthatch "Barometer", and when he holed up. I holed up, lit my light, and sat by my fire whittling or learning new tunes on my reed whistle. I was now really into the teeth of winter, and quite fascinated by its activity. There is no such thing as a "still winter night". Not only are many animals running around in the creaking cold, but the trees cry out and limbs snap and fall, and the wind gets caught in a ravine and screams until it dies. One noisy night I put this down: There is somebody in my bedroom. I can hear small exchanges of greetings and little

又冰又糟的时候，我就能听见它在草地边高高的树上叫个不停，还甩着尾巴，接着我就看见它早早飞回去睡觉了。 我觉得它是个很不错的晴雨表，它早早回树，我也早早回我的树屋。 要是你没有报纸广播给你预报天气，那就去观察鸟儿和小动物吧。 暴风雨要来的时候，它们都能提前感知到。 我把这只五子雀叫做“晴雨表”，它一躲起来， 我也躲起来，点上火，坐在炉火边削木头，或者学吹新的芦笛曲调。 那时候正是冬天最冷的时候，可冬日里的种种动静都让我着迷。 根本不存在什么“寂静的冬夜”。 不只是好多动物在冻得嘎吱响的夜里四处活动，树木也会发出声响，树枝劈啪折断掉落，风被困在山谷里，不停呼啸直到慢慢平息。 一个闹哄哄的夜晚，我写下这么几句话：有家伙进了我的卧室。 我能听到它们小声打招呼，还有小小的

feet moving up the wall. By the time I get to my light all is quiet. Next day There was something in my room last night, a small tunnel leads out from my door into the snow. It is a marvellous tunnel, neatly packed, and it goes from a dried fern to a dump of moss. Then it turns and disappears. I would say, mouse. That night I kept an ember glowing and got a fast light before the visitor could get to the door. It was a mouse– a perfect little white-footed deer mouse with enormous black eyes and tidy white feet. Caught in the act of intruding, he decided not to retreat, but came towards me a few steps. I handed him a nut meat. He took it in his fragile paws, stuffed it in his cheek, flipped, and went out his secret tunnel. No doubt the tunnel leads right over

脚丫顺着墙往上爬。 等我点起灯，四周又变得安安静静。 第二天：昨晚肯定有家伙来过我的房间，门口伸出来一条小隧道，一直通到雪地里。 这隧道棒极了，整整齐齐的，从干蕨菜那边一直通到一堆苔藓那儿。 然后它拐了个弯，看不见了。 我猜，是老鼠。 那天晚上，我留着一点炭火，客人还没到门口，我就快速点起了灯。 真的是一只老鼠——一只可爱的白足鹿鼠，大大的黑眼睛，干干净净的白脚丫。 闯进来被抓了正着，它居然不逃跑，还朝我走了几步。 我递了一块坚果仁给它。 它用软软的小爪子接过果仁，塞进脸颊里，一蹦一跳地钻回它的秘密隧道去了。 不用说，这条隧道肯定一直通到