雙語美文-瞬間之美

My morning routine varies little from day to day. I walk the dog, eat breakfast at the kitchen counter with Katie and Matt, then settle in for a day at the computer. And because I work mostly from home, I have learned that little forays into the outside world are imperative for psychological well-being. So before I begin attempting to put sentences together, I stroll over to a quirky little coffee shop in my neighborhood, chat with the folks behind the counter, and get a large coffee to go. No sugar. No cream.

每天早上，我都要做這樣幾件事：遛一陣小狗，坐在廚房餐桌前陪妻子卡蒂和兒子馬特吃早餐，然後對着電腦,一頭扎進寫作天地中。天天如是，無甚變化。由於主要在家裏工作，我很明白時不時到外邊的世界“闖蕩”一下對自己保持良好的心態有多麼重要。因此，在推敲詞句着筆成文之前,我會散步去附近一間風格奇特的小咖啡店，和店裏的夥計們聊聊天，然後帶回一大杯咖啡——不加糖、不加奶的那一種。

The coffee shop is on the other side of the historic Chesapeake & Ohio Canal from my house. In season, a mule-drawn barge is docked there, and tourists line up to take a slow boat, if not to [en]China, at least into the 19th century. The men who work the boat wear what canal workers might have worn back then-broad-brimmed straw hats and suspenders that pull their scratchy-looking pants high above their boots.

離我家不遠的地方就是歷史悠久的切薩皮克—俄亥俄運河，那間小咖啡店就座落在運河對岸。每逢旺季,便有一條用騾子拖拽的駁船停靠在河邊，遊客們會排起長隊等着乘坐一艘慢悠悠的小船，即使不像駛往古老的中國，至少也像是要駛回19世紀的昔日時光。船上的工人穿着只有當年運河船工們纔有的行頭：寬邊草帽和吊帶褲。那吊帶把他們那看起來粗糙的褲子高高吊起,露出他們的靴子。

One warm day last fall, I was on my morning outing when I turned the corner to see one of the men sitting alone on the boat, bathed in early-morning light. He was playing a tiny accordion, the kind such canal men squeezed as they floated down the inland waterways of a westward-expanding America. The sound was both melancholy and sweet. It was as if he were alone in the universe. The scene stopped me in my tracks. What I witnessed could only be described as a perfect moment. Ten seconds at most. But months later I still remember just standing there, watching, listening, taking it all in.

去年秋天裏的一天，風和日麗，我還和平常一樣一早外出溜達。剛轉過街口，我一眼就看見那條船。船上沒有別人,只有一個船工靜靜地坐着，沐浴着晨曦。他正在船上拉着小手風琴。當年的運河船工正是這樣，撫琴駕舟，沿着這條古老的內陸河道向美國西部航行。琴聲憂鬱而甜美，彷彿整個宇宙只有他一人。此情此景，令我情不自禁停了下來。我所看到的這個情景只能用“完美時刻”來描述！不過十秒的時光。可數月後，我仍清楚地記得當時自己就站在那裏，注視着,傾聽着，把一切都刻印在腦海中。

We all have such moments put before us. Little surprises. Whether we’re wise enough to see them is another thing.

我們都曾經歷過類似的時刻。小小的'驚喜。不過，我們是否都具有發現這種瞬間之美的智慧，則是另外一回事。

I thought of the accordion man Sunday afternoon while reading the biographies of those killed in the Columbia tragedy. Mission specialist Laurel Clark, talking from the shuttle a few days before it was to land, said she was delighted by the simple unexpected wonders of space. Like a sunset. “There’s a flash; the whole payload bay turns this rosy pink,” she said. “It only lasts about 15 second and then it’s gone. It’s very ethereal and extremely beautiful.” A moment not lost on her.

一個週日的下午,當我閱讀有關哥倫比亞號航天飛機事故中喪生的宇航員的傳記時，我的腦海中又浮現出那個船工在演奏手風琴的情景。執行那次飛行任務的女專家勞雷爾克拉克，在哥倫比亞號着陸前的幾天，曾從飛船上發回講話,她說能有幸看見太空中那些意想不到的自然奇觀令她非常開心。比如日落。“有一道閃光，整個有效載荷艙被暈染成了玫瑰紅，”她說，“這僅僅持續了15秒就消失了。過程神奇非凡且美豔絕倫。”她沒有錯過這一瞬間。

In The Hour Meryl Streep and Ed Harris recall a moment they shared years before at a beach house on Cape Cod. It was nothing more than him watching her walk out into the early-morning light. But for that moment, everything was right with their world, everything was possible, everything aligned. They agreed it was the happiest they had ever been.

在電影《時時刻刻》裏,梅麗爾斯特里普和埃德哈里斯回憶起多年前他們倆在科德角上的那間沙灘小屋裏共度的時光。也就是他看着她走出小屋，走進晨曦的一幕。就在那一刻，在他們的兩人世界裏，一切都正好,一切都變得可能，處處是生機。他們都認爲，那是他們一生中最幸福的時刻。

And in last month’s issue of her magazine, Oprah Winfrey confessed to a “moment” she had last summer. It was a walk down a Santa Barbara lane, a hummingbird and the smell of orange blossoms. She said it was one of those rare times she could say she was truly happy.

奧普拉溫弗瑞在她上個月出刊的雜誌中提到，去年夏天她也有過一次美妙的“時刻”。那一刻她正走在聖巴巴拉市的一條小巷子裏，猛然間看見一隻蜂鳥，和着一陣撲面而來的橘子花香。她說，這是她一生中難得的幾次讓她真正感到幸福的時刻之一。

I once had a friend who had an odd habit that never ceased to amuse me, maybe because I never quite knew when she was going to spring it on me. It could be while sitting quietly at the end of a dock on Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks. Or it could come in the middle of a particularly lively dinner with old friends. Out of the blue, she’d say, “Stop! I want to remember this moment.”

我曾有一個朋友，她有個怪習慣，對此我總覺得很好笑，或許是因爲我始終沒法料到她的怪癖會在什麼時候發作。或許在我們靜靜地坐在阿迪朗達克山下舒倫湖邊的碼頭邊上之時，或許在和老朋友那次尤其熱鬧的聚餐之時。每每在這樣的時刻，她會突然說道：“停一下！我要記住這一刻！”

I realize now, after her death, what wise advice that is.

她去世以後，我才明白到,那是多麼明智的建議啊。