William Sansom (1912—1976)
本文作者威廉·山森是英國當代作家，據New World Writing, 4th Selection介紹，山森七歲即開始寫作，第一篇作品於三十歲時始發表。曾服務銀行，正式寫作之外，在音樂（作曲，彈奏鋼琴）、電影（編劇）、廣播（編排節目）各界均曾幹過，可稱多才多藝。曾獲獎多次，並為英國皇家文學會會員（Fellow of Royal Society of Literature）。
本文選自山森短篇小說集The Passionate North（1953），其開首幾節，可作遊記文字讀，現摘錄介紹如下。山森文字華麗，想像豐富，描寫景物，傾全力以赴，能使讀者如身歷其境。尤妙在情境相生，內外交融，此處雖未能將全文錄下，但短短數段，似已不同凡響，於寫景之外，似另有一番意境，非但能忠實描寫，實能境界獨創，發人所未發者也。
We began at Oslo. Throughout the day, we mounted through long Norway, from slush to snow, from snow to deeper snow, proceeding both up the map and onto higher ground.
● Oslo：挪威首都，在挪威南部。本文主角敘坐火車自南往北旅行。mounted：上行，從下往上或從低處行往高處。long Norway：挪威形勢狹長。
● slush：半融之雪。挪威南部氣候此時恐尚溫和，雪不能積，多成雪水；稍北則見雪，愈北雪愈厚。proceeding：行進。地圖上的路程是從下往上，事實上地勢也是愈走愈高。
From the warm, almost the hot carriage it was invigorating and fresh to watch the snow. No fierce peaks and sharp summits to disturb a gentle skyline, but instead a good rolling of high distant hills that swam around the wide perspective with a rise and fall of waves: often these were fir-capped, when the snow-back stood fringed against the sky with short rich bristles.
● carriage：火車車廂。invigorating自vigor一字衍化而來：增添精神。車內溫暖，幾乎令人難受（hot指高於體溫之熱度，為人身所難受），望窗外雪景，則使人精神徒增，神清氣爽。
● 地平線上之景物，其線條輪廓（skyline）大致和緩，並無奇峰（fierce peaks）峻嶺，矗立突出。縱目四望，天地遼闊（wide perspective），遠遠高山，升降起伏，猶如波濤滾滾（rolling）在四周環繞浮動（swam）焉。
● fir-capped：山上植有樅樹，如為樅樹所覆蓋。snow-back：山如臥伏地上，其背部皆雪。fringe：織物邊緣上之須頭。山上皆有樹，看來周圍似乎有密集短刺。against the sky：以天空為陪襯。
By midday we had passed through the skiing country, where, apart from the beauty of the snow, there was at certain stations a spirit of festivity as red-capped skiers left the train and sought sleighs to take them out to their snowy places of holiday.
● skiing country：滑雪地區。stations：火車站。spirit of festivity：辦喜事那樣的高興。red-capped：戴紅帽的（紅帽子想是滑雪家的「行頭」）。sleigh：雪橇，雪車。那些來滑雪度假的客人，下火車之後，再坐雪車轉往滑雪勝地。
But some time after that the real country began, the skies changed, a frozen magnificence charged the air with a peculiar magic. Great lakes appeared, ice-bound, their miles to the horizon furred with snow. Icicles as thick as tree trunks hung their green glow from rock ledges, and where waterfalls had been struck solid they hung in rows like monstrous teeth. Over everything the far gleaming sun and its greening sky played strange tricks of transparency.
● after that：過了滑雪地區之後。the real country：真正的原野景色，少見人工建設，多見天然之美。skies：天空（常用複數形式）。frozen magnificence兩字言簡意賅。可供有志煉字者之參考：magnificence言宇宙之大與景物之壯麗，添frozen，則言天凝地凍，一片冰雪。兩字聯用，頗見巧思，然甚難翻譯。
● charged：充電，充塞。冰雪壯麗，不過有形之物，作者文思更進一步，從有形推至無形，無形者，空氣（air）也，氣氛也。有形之美影響及於無形之氣，使空氣裡都充滿了某種神秘之感。
● ice-bound：為冰所封。their miles to the horizon：湖面開闊，無際無涯，直接天外（horizon），計程當不止數里；湖面全部積雪均如茸毛（furred）。
● Icicles：冰柱。trunks：樹幹。ledges：山崖突出處。此句本來說Icicles as thick as tree trunks hung from rock ledges就夠，但作者於hung之後加上their green glow（明潤綠光）三字，按文法，glow是 hung的賓語；按實際，green glow就是主語icicles；綠光不能下垂，下垂者仍是冰柱；唯添此三字之後，冰柱形態乃更見生動。
● where waterfalls had been struck solid：瀑布受寒凍結之處。瀑布此時業已凍結。故動詞用過去完成式。struck solid二字，其聲其義，都很顯硬性力量，此處用來，較之用frozen勝過多多。
● gleaming：光線微弱的。greening sky之greening一字乃現在分詞，從動詞green變來，但動詞green可以「及物」，也可以「不及物」；如不及物，則意謂「本身漸漸轉綠」，如及物，則意謂「使別的東西成為綠色」，此處當以作不及物動詞較妥。played tricks：耍花樣，施法術。日光慘淡，自遠處照來，天空似亦漸呈綠色，日色天光，相互為用，凡照射所及，皆起種種奇妙透明作用。transparency：透明。日光當不能使不透明者成為透明，但萬物皆已多為冰雪所覆，經奇妙光線照射，斯乃彩色奇麗，變化多端矣。
Such a sun! It hung and traveled all day on the horizon so low that losing heat it grew in complement larger—it gleamed more than shone. It gleamed like a force of great candle-power over the wide land, turning the snow to lavender and pink, greening the icicles and greening the sky; and the sky itself receded infinitely, it became more transparent than itself, it provoked in its pale green a visible sense of infinity.
● 挪威地近北極，太陽與我人在溫帶熱帶等地所習見者不同，本段以一驚歎短句開始。
● low：太陽走不到天當中去，整天只在離地平線不遠處巡行。根據經驗，太陽於甫出或將落之際，離地平線近、不甚熱、看來甚大，本文中所敘太陽，則是整天如此。losing heat it grew large：熱雖不足，而形體變大。in complement：作為補充（似乎以形體之大，補足其熱之喪失）。
● so…that是連接詞。
● 日光照耀，本來應該用shone一字，但這裡的太陽不能說是shone，只好說是gleam：與其說是照耀，不如說是微露弱光而已。
● a force of great candle-power：燭光（光度之單位）甚強之燈。
● lavender and pink：淺紫淡紅，此句即照應上段的strange tricks。日光所照之處，積雪成為淺紫粉紅，冰柱成為綠色，天空亦為綠色。
● receded：後退。infinitely：無限地。天空無限地往後撤退，足見高曠。it became more transparent than itself頗費解，it指「天空」，itself亦是「天空」，天空本來是透明的，現在受日光影響，看來較往常更為明澈。provoked：引起。sense of infinity：高曠無限的感覺。visible：可以肉眼觀察得之。
Yet this was no true arctic sun—although we were traveling near to the polar circle: it shone not on a barren land, but on a snow-laden gentle place rich with cream-colored birch and black fir. On such country its low long beam cast everything into a strange clearness—in the same way, though a thousand times clarified, that a lowering sun on a summer\'s day clears and stills the air just before evening. Everything seemed set in glass, transplendent, motionlessly clear.
● arctic：北極的。polar circle：（北）極圈。barren land：荒地。如在北極，則草木不生，一片荒涼，挪威樹木甚多，非荒蕪不毛之地，氣象平和（gentle），亦無淒厲之狀。birch：樺樹。
● beam：光線，日光斜照，各物顯得特別清晰。在溫帶國家，夏日黃昏日落之前，空氣似更覺清澈寧靜，今挪威情況亦復類此，唯清晰更勝千倍耳。
● set（過去分詞）：安放。各物如置玻璃之中，紋絲不動，明淨耀目。transplendent為罕見之字，解作very resplendent（十分光亮）。（按：此句上應題意。）
So the day passed as we steamed on through the snows, higher ever north. The sun set early. Then the light was gone, the snows were gray—and soon after we ran into a blizzard. Now from the warm and easy carriage nothing was to be seen: only the drive of snow hailing by, and the white steam and smoke of the forward engine driven down past the windows by the weight of the wind.
● steamed：坐火車進行（火車借蒸汽發動）。higher ever north：愈北則地勢愈高。
● blizzard：大風雪。
● drive of snow：雪風猛撲。hailing by：勢如冰雹，在窗外吹過。
We steamed out of the blizzard into clear cloud-high height. A hidden moon shone a starshine light over the snow, giving to things mysterious visibility but no exact shape. Then the train passed the last station, and curled round towards Trondheim. A grinding of iron brakes, a jolt of luggage, and the train came expiring its last steam to a halt. Outside, a babel of fresh faces to receive us the stiff and weary.
● cloud-high height：與雲高相齊之高地。mysterious visibility：神秘的可視性。but no exact shape：朦朧可見，疑真疑幻，形體模糊。
● curled round：盤旋而行。Trondheim：挪威中部海港。
● brakes：煞車；grinding：磨擦（動作或聲音）。jolt：晃動。luggage：行李。連用兩個不定冠詞「a」——煞車這麼「克拉」一煞，行李這麼來回一晃，很能表示停車一剎那間的情形。expiring：吐氣。came to a halt：停止。
● babel：嘈雜混亂的景象（原出《舊約·創世紀》十一章一節至九節）。stiff：（四肢）僵硬。跋涉一天之後，目的地已到，旅客個個身乏骨直，車外喧嘩以迎者，皆「生人面孔」也。