Gerald Warner Brace (1901—1978)
本文選自《賈氏家傳》（The Garretson Chronicle, by Gerald Warner Brace, W. W. Norton & Co., 1947）之第二十六章。《賈氏家傳》是一部傳記體的長篇小說，作者白瑞斯，是美國作家，其文字明淨洗煉，瘦硬遒勁，鑄字煉句，具見功力，堪與本世紀任何大家相比。《賈氏家傳》全書於描寫人物，討論思想之處，亦皆陳義深遠、語句精警，論者比之於Santayana的The Last Puritan（按:兩書題材體例亦頗相近）。
My friend Tommy Tucker was a senior at Harvard. I used to go to some of the football games with him, and one day we made a plan to go off together with Tommy's roommate John Somes, to climb Mount Washington. John Somes was a veteran mountaineer and had been up Washington several years before. He said that out west they'd hardly call it a mountain.
● senior：大學四年級生。Mount Washington：在美國東北部之New Hampshire，為白山山脈（White Mts.）之最高峰，高達6,293尺，約台灣玉山最高峰之半。
● veteran：老資格。mountaineer：登山專家。out west：在（美國）西部。they：泛指美國西部的人。照文法的規定，「代名詞」一定要明確地代表「名詞」，像這樣含混的they是懸為禁忌的；但是這種說法在日常會話中常聽得到，寫小說的要傳狀說話的人的口吻，只好不顧文法書的規定了。
● 美國西部一萬尺以上的高峰很多，這種六千多尺的山，算不了什麼山。they'd之'd為would之縮寫，隱含虛擬語氣：假如他們看見了這座山，也不會叫它是山的。
We loaded sweaters and windbreakers and knapsacks into the Ford and started north on a bright October afternoon. Motoring twenty years ago was a more rugged adventure than it is now: we had to force a passage through cobbled streets and jammed-up traffic and then jounce everlastingly over the high-crowned washboard roads in the open country, determined to maintain a twenty-five-mile-an-hour average.
● loaded：裝，放。sweaters：羊毛衫。windbreakers：厚夾克（jacket），防風御寒運動外套。knapsacks：背包，可背在肩上的帆布包或皮包。
● Motoring：坐汽車長途旅行。rugged：艱苦。
● 在二十年代坐汽車旅行，比今日苦得多。（這裡的adventure，不作「探險」解，只是一種不平凡的經歷而已。）他們三人坐車從波士頓出發，先經過的是市區，市區的街道是用石卵鋪的（cobbled），行人車馬（traffic）很擠（jammed-up），我們非衝出一條路來不可（force a passage）。市區過後，進入鄉區，鄉區開闊（in the open country），然而道路崎嶇，路中間凸起（high-crowned），若有稜骨，好像搓衣服的板（washboard）似的。jounce：顛簸。everlasting：不停的。
● determined是過去分詞，形容主語we。車子假如慢慢地開，也許可以平穩得多，但是他們決心要保持平均（average）每小時廿五英里的速度，只好先在市區裡直衝，後在鄉區顛簸著走了。
To achieve a hundred miles in four hours in a Model T was fine work, but exhausting. Yet on this day the air lay sweetly over the golden countryside, full of balm and peace and the faint taste of leaf smoke. We sang and laughed and drank the rare and mellow distillations of Indian summer, our hearts grew light, our heads giddy with joy: the flames of the northern maples made great chords of splendid music in our spirit. We hailed the northward adventure, the lifting of each higher hill, the spreading miles of forest, the coming of dark spruce, the first glint of rock peaks in the silvery blue, and then the long slow waning of the sun, the golden flow of light from the southwest level across the colored land, the intensity of it, deepening and brightening toward night, the palpable gold on the leaves and grasses, the blue wells of shadows, valleys lost now in dusk and high hills still glowing in smokeless mantles of fire. We turned silent and watched the slow evening climb the slopes of brightness. In the far north a peak gleamed like a luminescent spearhead of pearl, purer than white itself.
● Model T：福特公司的T型車，三四十年前在美國很流行。achieve：做成功。exhausting：使人筋疲力盡。
● 車行雖吃力，好在道旁景物很美：時已深秋，田野中滿目金色。空氣中似含香味（sweetly），籠罩大地，一片溫馨（balm原義是止痛的油膏）寧靜之氣，充塞宇宙之間，還可以淡淡地聞到鄉民焚燒落葉的清香。
● Indian summer：秋天裡的亢爽溫暖的天氣，中文所謂十月小陽春。distillations：蒸餾所得的液體；精華（有許多的酒也是蒸餾出來的，這裡還使讀者聯想到酒）。rare：稀薄的。mellow：圓熟的；和醇的。drank：吸收，領略，享受。「我們唱著笑著，欣逢這種亢爽溫暖的秋天好天氣，更領略到一種清淡醇和的味道，中人欲醉，似乎天氣的精華也給我們吸收進去了。」
● light：輕鬆的。giddy：眩暈（照應上句的「酒」）。
● maples：楓樹。northern：長在北方的（車子正往北開）。flames：楓樹不是紅似火嗎？chords：音樂裡的和弦（如do, mi, so三個音便成和弦）。音樂裡幾聲雄壯的和弦，很有撼人心魄的力量，現在火紅似的楓葉，在他們心裡所起的效果，亦復如此。
● hailed：向（人或物）歡呼；這裡未必叫出聲音來，只是心裡非常高興而已。他們駕車北上，漸入佳境，如入山陰道上，應接不暇，觸目所及，無非美景奇觀，他們每看見一樣新的景致，心裡就要喝一聲彩。這一句很長，列舉眼前的各種景致，精彩的phrases一個一個出現，汽車就向山區邁進，而時間也漸近黃昏了。
● the lifting of each higher hill：山一個比一個高，一個一個地抬頭顯露出來。spruce：虎尾樅。這種樹出現，恐怕是已近山區了。glint：發晶光。peak：山峰。先看見的還是些小山，現在初次看見蒙著一層銀色的碧空之中，露出一排山峰，峰尖岩石閃閃發光。
● the long slow waning of the sun：日光漸漸轉弱。slow前面有一long字，此字意義與slow相仿，不過有了此字，更可把slow襯托出來。the southwest level：深秋黃昏時候的太陽，應該在西南方；level大約是地平線。太陽從那邊照過來，凡經照耀之處，猶如金光流注；地上本自有其色彩（colored），經此一照，更顯得鮮艷奪目。
● the intensity of it：日色漸暮，金光更顯濃盛。deepening：色彩更深更濃。brightening：日落前的迴光返照，特別顯得明亮。palpable：手可以摸得出來的。草上葉上的金光，本是幻象，可是現在看來，宛然真金。well：井。迴光返照將過，黑夜漸臨，低窪之處，黑影漸濃，作深青之色，望之黝然如井。dusk：暮色。mantles：外罩。暮色降臨，山谷已消失不見，唯霞光照處，山頭仍通體透紅，如披火袍，唯不發煙耳。
● 這句很長，可是只要仔細一看它裡面所敘景物之多，這樣一句話能包括這許多東西，描寫這麼長的一段路程，筆墨可說十分經濟。
● We turned silent：黑夜已臨，人亦轉趨沉寂，沒有剛才那麼高興了。黑夜來時，先從山腳下黑起，沿坡而上（climb），最後太陽西沉，山頭上也是一片黑暗。
● 可是他們還沒有算正式入山。遠望極北之處，尚有一峰矗立，狀甚尖銳，猶如矛鋒（spearhead），隱隱發光，色潤如珠，其皎潔勝過一般之所謂白色也。
Snow, we said.
Snow already? Winter up there in that far point in the sky?
Several peaks—a range of shining pearl like a shimmer of unearthly light. The land below, ourselves, everything, fell away and vanished in the dark.
We plunged into forest and the headlights made a small tunnel in the night ahead.
● 長句長段之後，忽來這麼短短三個字的一段，自然令人耳目一新。而文章的內容，亦已轉換：遠處白峰，乃是雪山。山下天氣，猶如暖和陽春三月，峰上竟已積雪，未免令人難信。
● 先看見孤峰一座，後來又看見數峰橫列，遠處看不真切，僅見珠光耀目，如有天際異光（unearthly light），在空中閃耀（shimmer）而已。
● plunged：深入。現在汽車開入森林，林中更是漆黑一團，全憑汽車的車燈（headlights），射出一條狹長的光衖（tunnel：隧道），衝破前面的黑暗，往前開去。
The day and evening remained as warm as summertime. We stopped at Conway for supper in a restaurant, continued on to a place John knew of where we got rooms for the night.
● John knew of是定語從句。John所認識的那個地方。got rooms for the night：借宿。Conway：地名。
Warm in the morning too; but at first foggy and sunless, even drizzly. The forests were wet, the sky dark and low. John Somes, the mountaineer, said he thought it would clear. Anyway, unless it really poured we might as well try it.
● 第一晚在山腳下歇過，第二天起來，天還是很溫暖，可是起先霧多天暗，甚至於略有濛濛細雨（drizzly是形容詞）。第一句主語it，動詞was，都經省略。
● John Somes是三人中爬山最內行的一個，見前文。clear是動詞，=become clear。
● poured：傾盆大雨，雨下如注。除非雨真下大了，否則我們還是不妨一試。as well：試與不試反正一樣，還是一試的好。it指登山之事。
Then, as we stood waiting and gazing, a vast piece of mountain pageantry occurred. In the overhead darkness a ragged blue hole showed itself, then splashes of pale sun. Mountain shoulders suddenly took shape high among the curtains of light and cloud. The west wind came down over Tuckerman's Ravine and moved the whole cloud-mass before it.
● pageantry：壯觀，奇景。我們正在守候眺望之際，忽然一幕山景奇觀，浩瀚雄偉，在我們面前展開了。
● 頂上天空，色本濃重，現在忽然裂出青色一角，在此破碎不整（ragged）的裂孔之中，淡淡的陽光，像水花（splashes）似的飛濺下來。
● 雲破天青，在光幕雲層之中，群峰（Mountain shoulders：山隆起如肩狀者）突然顯露，聳立高空。took shape：成形，現形。本來虛無縹緲，漸漸輪廓顯明。
● Tuckerman's Ravine：為華盛頓山中一峽谷之名。西風從峽谷上方吹來，滾滾白雲，俱為吹開。before it：雲在前面，風在後面，風吹雲動。
We jumped and scurried like starters in a gold rush. Knapsacks were stuffed with food and sweaters and cameras. Matches? Pocket knives? Compass? Yes, all those in spite of a certain disdain on the part of John Somes, who was accustomed to Canadian Rockies. Light of foot, tireless, happy as puppies, we started at midmorning up the Tuckerman trail.
● 天既已轉晴，我們可以正式登山了。scurried：快跑，急行，倉皇而走。gold rush：淘金熱。我們上山之前的匆忙與興奮，好像是一窩蜂地出發去開採金礦的人。
● Compass：指南針。登山以前，各物都檢點一下，看看有什麼遺漏的沒有。
● all those：要帶的東西全帶了。disdain：鄙夷不屑的神氣。Somes是爬山老手，看見我們出發之前，這樣小題大做的緊張，臉上似乎露出一種（a certain）瞧不起的神氣。Rockies即Rocky Mountains，通常譯作落磯山脈，從美國南部新墨西哥州起，縱貫美國、加拿大以迄阿拉斯加。其在加拿大的一部分，高峰甚多，遠在這座華盛頓山之上。
● Light of foot：腳步輕快。tireless：精神抖擻。puppies：小狗。midmorning:上午九、十點鐘。Tuckerman trail：山上小徑之名。
Of the three who stepped so lightly up the steep trail that brightening October morning, one would not return. But we went in innocence and immense confidence. The sun came out and filled the glades with yellow warmth. Blood ran joyfully in our veins, and we could have climbed to the moon. The cool breeze lifted our damp hair and refreshed the skin under our open shirts. Clouds rolled up over the mountain wall and fanned out into the high blue. The mountain torrents sang through the forests.
● innocence：天真，無知。一行三人，有一個是不能生還的了，但是出發的時候，我們怎麼會知道？只是糊里糊塗高興而已。immense：極大的。confidence：自信。我們深信力能應付，前途平安。
● glades：森林中的空曠草地。yellow warmth：和煦的金光。
● veins：（狹義）靜脈，（廣義）血管；這裡宜譯作血管。could have climbed（虛擬語氣）：照我們那天的興致，我們會一直爬到月亮上去的。
● lifted：吹起。damp hair：濕的頭髮。（山中霧氣重，頭髮易濕。）mountain wall：峭壁。fanned out：像扇子狀地展開。雲塊冉冉上升，捲過崖壁，散入碧空之中。
● torrents：急湍，激流。sang：水聲潺潺。
Up out of the woods we came, to the rocks of the Little Headwall, and stood in a lee in the noon sun to look eastward across the bottomless valley to Carter Dome and Wildcat. All earth and air rang with clear autumn brilliance. White cumulus marched away through the blue to the pale southeastward rim of the world, but the sun kept its warm blaze against us, partly drying our wet skin. In the thin air the white vapor of our breathing took shape.
"Colder than you'd think," John said.
● 他們走出林區，登上Little Headwall（峰名）的亂石山頭。Up out of the woods we came=we came up out of the woods。lee：背風之處，風力所不及之處。他們從九、十點鐘開始爬山，到中午已經穿越森林，攀登一小山頭，那天吹西風（前面已經說過），他們背西面東而立，身後山石將風擋住，縱目東望，下臨無底深谷，前面Carter Dome與Wildcat兩峰矗立。
● 其時秋高氣爽，天色明淨，clear autumn brilliance三字自不難瞭解，可是動詞rang一字，則大見功夫。rang者，鏗鏘有聲也；大地太空滿目清朗，秋氣颯爽，似作金石之聲。其有聲耶？其無聲耶？有待讀者之妙悟矣。
● cumulus：積雲（雲之成朵狀者，晴朗天氣時見之）。白雲為西北風所吹，飛過（原文用marched，聲勢雄壯，猶如天馬行空）碧空，飄向蒼茫杳靄（pale）西南方地平線（rim of the world：地球之邊緣）而去。
● blaze：光輝。
● the white vapor of our breathing：呼吸時所吐出之氣。人大抵於寒冷之處，始能「噓氣成雲」。該地日光照及之處雖仍覺熱，然空氣實已稀薄而冷，已是高空景象。
● Colder than you'd think：you'd之'd為would的縮寫，隱含虛擬語氣。我不知道你們對這邊天氣有什麼想法，你們也許以為它是熱，是不冷不熱，是冷，總之，實際上比你們所想像的要冷些。
I remember how Tommy Tucker danced on the rocky ledge, grinning and making whooping sounds. "I bet that's where God lives," he said, waving up to where the crags of the great headwall dissolved into the silver edge of a rolling cloud. "He sits up on one of those pinnacles and feels like the boss of all creation." Then he cocked his head at John. 'Just a dinky little foothill—I realize that. Out west God does things up much bigger—but of course he's a much bigger guy out there than he is here."
"Well, you do get the effect of high mountains, I must admit,"said John.
● rocky ledge：山崖之向外凸出部分。grinning：露齒而笑。whooping sounds：怪聲大叫。
● waving up to：手揮舞著向上指。crags：壁立巨石。the great headwall：他們所在之處是the Little Headwall；the great headwall應該是另一較大山峰，可是拼法不用大寫，似為普通名詞，並非專門名詞，但雖為普通名詞，作者心目中亦必專指某一山峰。headwall此字普通字典不載，想是山峰這一類的東西。dissolved：融解。巨石為浮雲所掩，終消失於雲邊銀光之中。I bet：我敢打賭。pinnacles：尖峰，「我敢說上帝就住在那邊。他就坐在那邊一座山峰之上，俯瞰萬物，自己覺得真像是個萬物之主。」
● cocked his head：側著頭（這樣說話，有諷刺之意）。
● dinky（俚語）：微不足道，小意思。foothill：山麓之小丘。I realize that：這個我明白。John老說這座山不算一座山，而Tommy已經歎為觀止，怕他又要來譏笑，趕快再向John說明一句：「我知道這不過是一座小土墩而已。在西部上帝做什麼事情，氣派都大得多——可是當然上帝在那邊，當然也是大一號的人物，這裡只好算是個小人物。」do up原義是「包紮、清理備用」，這裡轉作「創造」。請注意對白語氣逼肖說話人的口吻，相當粗俗，與描寫風景文章的典雅大不相同。
● effect：效果；味道。「你能說得出這兩句話來，我得承認你已經領略到高山的味道了。」
We ate our lunch there where it was warm. Once a cloud-mass obscured the sun, and the shroud of winter settled over us—the harsh and purple cold; I remember how the chill touched my heart and sent a tremor through me of something deeper than cold.
● there where it was warm=at the place where it was warm。他們挑暖和一點的地方，把午飯吃了。足見山上的冷已經相當可怕。
● obscured：遮住。shroud：屍衣（給人陰森可怕的聯想）。太陽一被遮住，立刻冬季降臨，我們身上好像罩了一件死人袍子。我們感覺到一種嚴厲的冷，紫色的冷。太陽忽然隱去，大地景物，是會變成紫色的；又，紫色使人聯想到凍僵的手足。注意前文的yellow warmth，與此地的purple cold正好遙遙相對，而一秋一冬，一日之內，氣候之變化大矣。
● chill：寒氣。tremor：戰慄。「我猶記得，寒氣侵襲心頭，全身一陣戰慄，而所以致此之故，似猶不止寒冷也。」through me=through my body。of something deeper than cold形容tremor。「比冷更深的東西」是什麼？是宇宙的神秘？是死亡的凶兆？作者並未明言，但當時確有此種感覺，現在照實寫下而已。
But the sun blazed again, and we pushed up against the funneled wind to the ravine and began the long climb to the top of the vast wall. And wondrous climbing it was, with sun still on our shoulders and small whirls and gusts of mountain wind, and the ocean of space deepening below us. John's boots clashed on the rock, but he went up powerfully, muttering a chant of joy to himself and watching for the turns of the trail.
● pushed up：向上爬。funnel：漏斗；funneled：四圍約束，像在漏斗裡漏過似的。山風為峽谷所制，勢更猛烈，我們頂風而上，先過峽谷，然後開始向一座大山頂爬去。
● whirls：旋風。gusts：疾風。ocean of space：開闊的空間。
● clashed：（鞋釘與山石相接觸）叮叮發聲。chant：歌。watching for the turns of the trail：留意山路轉折之處。
Ice appeared in shaded hollows. Some of the north rock faces were enameled with it.
"Maybe you guys shouldn't have sneakers," John said. "They're no good on ice."
"Clouds are lifting!" we shouted. Far ahead through a rift appeared a small dark nub that might have been the top itself.
● rock faces：岩石的表面。enameled：像是塗琺琅似的結了一層冰。
● sneakers（美國俗語）：橡皮底帆布鞋。他自己穿的是皮靴，上段已說過。
● rift：雲的縫隙。nub：饅頭狀地隆起一塊，他們現在立足之處，已然見冰，可是主峰還是剛剛在雲端裡隱隱約約露出一小塊而已。然而那裡是不是就是主峰，現在還沒有十分把握。
But the wind had us. Not the gusty autumnal wind, nor the tree-bending, whirling blasts of earth—not anything known to men or the world of men; rather, it was the released power of all creation, the one irresistible force, a nothing so intensified and materialized and charged that up there on the high cone of the mountain it became the all. In wind like that, no other life existed.
● 第一句的have（俗語）=hold at a disadvantage（此解根據The American College Dictionary）。風把我們「制住」了，或「吃住」了。
● 山頂上的風非同小可，它不是勁疾的秋風，也不是地面上普通把樹吹彎盤旋作勢的狂風（blasts），這種風是人類從未見識過，人世也從未吹過的。它是宇宙萬物所鬱結的力量的總發洩（released），它是一種不可抵抗的力量，它本身空洞，並無一物（a nothing），可是在山頂尖峰（cone）高處，它的聲勢增強（intensified）了，它成了有形有體（materialized），它充滿了活力（charge：充電），以致這種空無一物的風，在這裡成宇宙間一切生命力量的總匯（the all）。在這種風底下，別無他種生物（草木鳥獸），風就是一切。
We tried to duck back out of it and prepare. Caps, sweaters, jackets—we fumbled them on, feeling the touch of ice on our skin, in fingers and toes.
Turn back? No one said it. Give it a try, anyway. There's the top, right ahead—a straight and easy slope.
● duck：低頭閃避。prepare：準備應付。
● fumbled them on：把它們瞎摸瞎拉地戴上穿上。
● Give it a try, anyway：不管有風沒風，還是往前走著瞧吧。主峰就在前面，山坡很平，不難走。
We crouched, waiting and beginning to shiver. The wind blast would have to relent, we thought; nothing like that could keep on and on. Sun still shone and the sight of it warmed us. We couldn't feel it.
● crouched：佝僂著身子，等風過去，可是身上已經顫抖不已了。
● relent：緩和。would：表示「將來」；have to：表示「一定」；風一定會緩和下來的，像這樣猛烈的東西，不會永久維持下去的。
● the sight of it warmed us：看見了太陽，心裡還覺得有點溫暖，可是實際上一點暖氣都覺不到。
So the plunge across the rock fields. Tommy shouted, and from the hiss of syllables I decided he was trying to say "excelsior!" Blood and sinews responded, pushed us buoyantly against the wall of wind. We had to bend low and breathe in quick gulps, turning our mouths under the lee of our shoulders. Our lungs felt the raw cold.
● 笫一句不完整，完整的形式大約是「So we started the plunge…」。plunge：往前直衝。rock fields：亂石崗。
● 風大得連話都說不清楚了。Tommy在叫，聽不清楚他在說些什麼，只是他的音節裡絲絲音很多，猜想上去，他一定是想說「excelsior」（=still higher，再往上爬呀！加油！）。
● sinews：肌肉（常用複數形式）。responded：響應；努力以赴。buoyantly：滿懷希望地（此字本有「往上浮」之意）。wall of wind：風之阻力極大，猶如牆壁擋路。
● breathe in quick gulps：很快地用嘴嚥氣，鼻子已經無能為力。under the lee of our shoulders：拿肩膀擋住風，嘴才可以呼吸。
● raw cold：極冷。寒冷徹骨，連肺裡都感覺到了。
The old notion that it was a cold autumn day still persisted; the gust, we felt, would pass, and our working muscles would spread warmth and life through our bodies. We kept pushing upward with slow and fumbling steps, slipping on ice surfaces like old men. It took a half hour or so for the thought to settle in my mind that we ought not to be there, that the windwall was coming at us more relentlessly, that we were stooping lower and fighting to stay on our feet, and especially that all warmth had withdrawn from feet and legs and hands.
● old notion：舊觀念。persisted：不退，仍在心頭。天雖冷，究竟不過是秋天，冷不到哪裡去的。我們覺得疾風就會過去，我們的肌肉活動之後（working muscles），暖氣生機，即能佈滿全身。
● the thought to settle in my mind：瞎爬了大約半個鐘頭之後，我方才認清了——第一，我們根本不應該到這裡來的；第二，風牆給我們的壓力是更洶湧可怕了；第三，我們身子愈俯愈低，拼了命才勉強把腳頭站住；第四，我們尤其覺得腳上腿上手上的暖氣已經全給吹跑了。
I tried to speak, then to yell, but made no sound. John Somes went on ahead. Tommy had dropped behind and seemed hardly to be moving. I crouched and waited.
When he came close he put his mouth to my ear and shouted, "I think we're damn fools." The words came faintly and stiffly, but I heard them and nodded. Back to the wind, we looked down the rough slope. My watery eyes were closed slits, and a fine spindrift of snow blew like white smoke over the rocks, but I could still see where the headwall fell away into cold space.
● dropped behind：落在後面。crouched：佝僂。
● faintly and stiffly：聲音模糊而僵硬。
● Back to the wind：背對著風。watery eyes：眼睛流淚，不能睜開，僅成細縫（slit）。fine spindrift：很細的浪花。雪為風所吹，如浪花似的凌空飛濺，雪質很細，望之乃如煙霧。fell away：人在高處下望，原駐足之山頭，漸漸消失。
"We better get back down there," I yelled.
John had not turned. We saw him dimly in the smoke, a hundred yards above us.
"Can't feel my feet any more," Tommy said—still shouting.
The truth broke suddenly. We are in deadly danger. The illusion of "October" vanished forever and I faced the facts of arctic winter and the ice-created hurricane.
● the smoke：煙狀的雪風。
● The truth broke suddenly：我這才恍然大悟。
● The illusion of "October"：假如還拿平地的眼光，認為天氣應該是十月天氣，這便成了癡想了，現在這種癡想已經消除淨盡；我所面對的事實，乃是北極的酷寒，和冰雪所造成的暴風。
But there was still John Somes—we ought to stick together. Tommy, I thought, could start back, and I could still keep on and get hold of John. I leaned to yell in his ear, glancing up once more to see if John had turned yet. What happened from that point on is so mingled with my fear and increasing desperation that I can re-create it only as a terrible dream.
● John一個人走在前頭，我們現在要掉頭回去，應該把他叫來，三人團結一起（stick together）。我認為Tommy可以逕自回去，我再往上爬，把John追回來。
● I leaned to yell in his ear…：我俯身過去把我的意思高聲地對準Tommy的耳朵裡嚷，一面往高處望，看看John是否已經轉身回來了。
● 從那時候起，我就記不清楚了。我心中恐懼、惶急之情，與時俱增（increasing desperation），以後的事情，就和我這種情緒混淆在一起，真幻難分，於今思之（re-create：把當時情形重演或敘述一遍），猶如惡夢一場。
The mountain slope had glistened remotely above us in the cold sun—not clear to our half-blinded eyes, but palpably there, a visible part of earth's substance. The smoke of snow revealed gray rock and even the cairns set by human hands to mark the trail; and beyond those outposts of earth the blue of sky had given us comfort. But now white and gray masses of cloud came like a cataract, solid, vast, silent in the gale. The sun flashed against it with cold and terrible brightness, but in the hollows and rifts it deepened to dark gray and black. Tatters of it came first like flying arrows, and I saw them flash past the dim, hunched figure of John Somes; then the mass came down like a solid avalanche of death itself, silver above and black in its caverns, riding the wind. A few seconds of terrifying beauty, and I saw John Somes fade, go under, vanish; and then before I could draw breath or warn Tommy it happened to us too.
● 以後發生些什麼可怕的事，當事人自己都說不清楚呢。這事在第三句方才說明，現在先看第一二句。
● 他們到了山區高處，見到冰雪之後，只是覺得奇寒難忍，狂風難當，此外景色還和下面差不多：高處山坡在毫無暖氣的日光底下，隱隱約約地晶晶發光，他們的眼睛睜不大開，看不清楚，可是前面的確有這麼一塊地方，似乎伸了手就摸得到的（palpably there），有形有體（substance），宛然可睹，分明是大地的一部分。一陣輕煙似的雪風過處，灰色的岩石便露了出來，還有前人以手堆植用以山行標路的石堆（cairns），也看得見了。這些都是大地盡處的前哨（outposts），前哨外面，便是一片碧空，看了心中也曾覺得安慰。
● 注意這兩句的動詞時態：had glistened和had given（過去完成式）是表示「過去」的事，接著第三句從But now起，就是敘述眼前的事了。
● cataract：瀑布。gale：大風（gust是突然發作隨時可停的疾風，故常用複數gusts。gale則是勁吹不已的大風）。
● 現在忽然大塊雪團襲來，風勢既猛，水氣又多結成冰雪，故竟予人以堅硬（solid）的感覺。日光照處，冷光耀目，特別可怕；然雲團低窪罅隙（hollows and rifts）之處，則又深暗作濃灰烏黑之色。
● 雲團的碎片（Tatters）先到，John在前，首當其衝，只見前面絲絲碎雲，像飛箭似的，射過他拱首隆背（hunched）模糊的身形，然後大塊雲團，表面銀光閃閃，其凹處黝暗，復如巖洞，挾生殺之威，如雪崖崩落（avalanche），御風而至，當頭落下。
● 這種驚心動魄的奇麗景色，不過是幾秒鐘的事，John即為當頭罩住，先是身形不清，繼則全身掩沒（go under），消失不見。我要換口氣的工夫都沒有，招呼Tommy也來不及了，我們兩人立刻都被罩住。
No beauty then. Nothing but wind and our hunched selves. The very rock we stood on lost substance. Air, earth, all reality, was turned into this gray force. I had felt fear like a blade when the cloud charged against us; now in the gray my feelings like my body grew numb.
● No beauty then呼應上段的terrifying beauty。
● lost substance：化為虛無（腳頭站不住了）。
● blade：利刃。charged：突襲。雲團初來襲擊時，我覺得恐懼萬狀，心頭刺痛；現在置身雲團之中，週身既然僵化，感覺亦復麻木。
"Time to move!" Tommy yelled.
In ten steps we had lost the trail, so we had to work cautiously over unknown ledges. Visibility, we figured, was ten feet, though it was hard to get our eyes open enough to see at all. We kept the wind square on our backs. It pummeled our bodies and spirits with solid blows, and I felt the life slowly going out of me as a man might who is being beaten by rubber truncheons.
● lost the trail：走出山徑之外，找不到路了。因此只好小心翼翼地在不知深淺高低的石壁邊緣上爬行。「爬行」原文是work，走路成了「做工」了，其用心與費力可想而知。
● figured：估計。Visibility：可視度。十尺以外即不能辨物。
● square（副詞）：恰當。
● pummeled：（用拳）打。as a man might後面省去feel等字。一個人背上給橡皮棍子（truncheons）不斷地打著，會慢慢地給打死的，現在我覺得我的三魂六魄慢慢地都給打得跑掉了。
But before we quite knew it, the slope dipped steeply downward. Tommy took a little sliding step, then both feet went together. He sprawled out on his side and slid off feet first, flashing his grin at me and saying something I couldn't hear. At once he vanished in the white below.
I crawled from rock to rock after him, and realized that I was holding now to a steep wall. Tommy had gone.
● dipped：傾斜。steeply：險峻地。
● took a little sliding step：向前滑了一下。
● sprawled out：四肢沒有著落地（跌下）。on his side：側著身子。feet first：腳朝下。flashing his grin at me：猛地朝我慘笑了一下。
From then on my memory grows less clear. There are isolated pictures, such as my sudden awareness of the torn whitened flesh of my hands—hardly mine any more, for all feeling had gone from them. And I remember finally the first vague sense of darkness coming on. I had felt forever lost there among the gray rock shapes, as though my small human mechanism had been locked up in everlasting ice; but the fear had grown numb and cold like my body. Now suddenly night meant death itself, as sure as the eastward roll of the mountain.
I started downward at last. I gave up Tommy—abandoned him to wind and night.
● From then on：從那時候開始。
● isolated：孤立的，不相聯貫的。sudden awareness：突然發覺我手上的肉已割裂，色如白紙，而且雙手知覺全失，好像不是自己的了。
● vague sense of darkness coming on：模模糊糊地覺得黑夜來臨。
● rock shapes：岩石似乎只餘形狀，不具實體了。my small human mechanism：我的身體這具小小的機構，看來已是封鎖在萬古不消的冰雪之中了。可是我的身體固然凍僵麻木，我心頭的恐懼也已經凍僵麻木——我的恐懼已經不能發生什麼作用。可是現在突然醒悟……。請注意動詞時態的變換：先是過去完成式had felt和had grown，表示過去；一轉而為meant，表示現在。
● as sure as：山嶺起伏，滾滾向東而去，本山形勢如此，絕無問題；現在如在山間過夜，必定喪生，這也是沒有問題的。
The dusk came fast. Whether wind blew harder and colder I couldn't tell, but I remember groping down into the dark stone crevices. And then after a while a new wave of light seemed to roll up from below and shone against the curtains of mist and roof of dark. And at once I rushed downward into the visible world and saw it stretched out clear and free in the evening light.
● dusk：黃昏暮色。groping：摸索而行。crevices：隙縫。
● a new wave of light：俄而一陣光浪，似自下界湧起，照耀上方；頂上雖雲霧結幕，天宇暗黑，下界各物，反清晰可辨，我乃奮身下奔，脫離黑暗世界。夜色清朗，俯視大地山河，歷歷在目，無遮無攔，向四方伸展焉。
Below the snow level I tried to move faster, but made only shambling progress. Some parts of me were frozen, and there were more bruises and wrenched joints than I had any notion of.
Then a figure appeared in the trail below, and a voice called sharply. John Somes came up in a steady lope, his glistening face all tense and eager.
"Ralph? Is Tommy there?"
● snow level：雪線；這個高度以下就沒有雪。shambling：蹣跚的，踉蹌的。
● bruises：青紫腫傷（此字i不發音）。wrenched joints：關節扭傷。我身上青一塊紫一塊的，關節也扭壞了好幾處，我自己本來以為沒有受這麼多傷。
● lope：緩步而跑。steady：步履穩定。John不愧經驗豐富，反而先趕到下面去了。Ralph：即書中主人翁Ralph Garretson。
They found him on the mountain next morning. He had fallen about fifty feet, had broken both legs and perished from cold.
Meanwhile I had been bundled into a closed car and driven a hundred miles to a hospital, where I was kept for three days.
● bundled：捆起，紮起。closed car：門窗關緊的汽車，想是救護車（ambulance）。