Stars on a Snowy Night

The thermometer had dropped to 18 degrees below zero, but still chose to sleep in the porch as usual. In the evening, the most familiar sight to me would be stars in the sky. Though they were a mere¹ sprinkle of twinkling dots, yet I had become so accustomed to them that their occasional absence would bring me loneliness and ennui².

It had been snowing all night, not a single star in sight. My roommate and I, each wrapped in a quilt, were seated far apart in a different corner of the porch, facing each other and chatting away.

She exclaimed pointing to something afar, “Look, Venus in rising!” I looked up and saw nothing but a lamp round the bend in a mountain path. I beamed and said pointing to a tiny lamplight on the opposite mountain, “It’s Jupiter over there!”

More and more lights came into sight as we kept pointing here and there. Lights from hurricane lamps flickering³ about in the pine forest created the scene of a star-studded sky. With the distinction between sky and forest obscured by snowflakes, the numerous lamp-lights now easily passed for as many stars.

Completely lost in a make-believe world, I seemed to see all the lamplights drifting from the ground. With the illusory stars hanging still overhead, I was spared the effort of tracing their positions when I woke up from my dreams in the dead of night.

Thus I found consolation⁴ even on a lonely snowy night !

寒暑表降到冰点下十八度的时候，我们也是在廊下睡觉。每夜最熟识的就是天上的星辰了。也不过是点点闪烁的光明，而相看惯了，偶然不见，也有些想望与无聊。

连夜雨雪，一点星光都看不见。荷和我拥衾对坐，在廊子的两角，遥遥谈话。

荷指着说：“你看维纳斯升起来了！”我抬头望时，却是山路转折处的路灯。我怡然一笑，也指着对山的一星灯火说：“那边是丘比特呢！”

愈指愈多。松林中射来零乱的风灯，都成了满天星宿。真的，雪花隙里，看不出来天空和森林的界限，将繁灯当作繁星，简直是抵得过。

一念至诚的将假作真，灯光似乎都从地上飘起。这幻成的星光，都不移动，不必半夜梦醒时，再去追寻他们的位置。

于是雨雪寂寞之夜，也有了慰安了!