作家Gerald Durrell写给妻子的情书

I have seen a thousand sunsets and sunrises, on land where it floods forest and mountains with honey-coloured light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multi-coloured nest of cloud, slipping in and out of the vast ocean.

我曾见过千番日出和日落。大地上的森林与高山被镀上一层蜜色光泽，在它升落的海面，好似五彩云团里的一颗血橙出没不止，在那浩瀚汪洋间。

I have seen a thousand moons: harvest moons like gold coins; winter moons as white as ice chips; new moons like baby swans' feathers.

我见过千般月色。满月好似金币，冬日寒月白如冰屑，新月宛如雏天鹅的绒羽。

I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, coloured like shot silk or blue as a kingfisher or transparent¹ as glass or black and crumpled² with foam³, moving ponderously⁴ and murderously.

我曾见过大海静谧如画。色似锦缎，或蓝如翠羽，或通透似玻璃，或乌色泛褶出泡沫，汹涌得沉重又狠恶。

I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, bleak⁵ and wailing⁶ like a lost child; winds as tender and warm as a lover's breath; winds that carried the astringent⁷ smell of salt and the death of seaweeds; winds that carried the moist rich smell of a forest floor, the smell of a million flowers; fierce winds that churned and moved the sea like yeast⁸; or winds that made the waters lap at the shore like a kitten.

我曾感受过风，凛冽自南极而来，刺骨哀嚎，仿佛迷途的小孩。风，温柔和煦如爱人的呼吸;风，承载着盐与海藻湮灭的咸涩;风，充盈着森林土壤的气息，温润肥沃，芬芳，自百万花朵。狂风蹈海，如同发了酵起了沫，又或风驱着水波拍岸，猫咪轻扑一般。

I have known silence: the cold, earthy silence at the bottom of a newly dug well; the implacable stony⁹ silence of a deep cave; the hot, drugged midday silence when everything is hypnotized and stilled into silence by the eye of the sun; the silence when great music ends.

我曾知悉静默。那在一眼新井里的静默，冷冽且夹着泥土气味，深邃洞穴中的静默，冷酷决绝;酷热迷离，正午的静默，万物被当空烈日催眠，平息而至静默;静默，当天籁终了时。

I have heard summer cicadas cry so that the sound seems stitched into your bones.

我曾听夏日蝉嘶，那声声如芒刺骨。

I have heard tree frogs in an orchestration as complicated as Bach, singing in a forest lit by a million emerald fireflies.

我曾听树蛙在林中咏唱，复杂严谨俨如巴赫，翠绿萤火虫为之燃起百万点亮光。

I have seen Whales, black as tar¹⁰, cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versailles of fountain with their breath.

我见过鲸鱼，黝似沥青，衬着矢车菊般蓝蓝的大海，他们一呼一吸之间，筑起凡尔赛的喷泉。

I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling, while the sun irons their swings smooth.

我见过蝴蝶破茧时危坐，颤栗着，任由阳光把鳞翼熨平。

I have watched tigers, like flames, mating in the long grass.

我见过虎，好似烈焰，在长草深处交欢。

I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven¹¹, black and glossy¹² as a Devil's hoof¹³.

我曾被愤怒的渡鸦俯冲轰炸，玄青浮光，似魔鬼之蹄。

I have lain in water warm as milk, soft as silk, while around me played a host of Dolphins.

我曾躺在温润如奶、柔滑如丝的水中，以客道迎待周遭的海豚。

I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things. All this I did without you. This was my loss. All this I want to do with you. This will be my gain. All this I would gladly have forgone¹⁴ for the sake of one minute of your company, for your laugh, your voice, your eyes, hair, lips, body, and above all for your sweet, ever surprising mind which is an enchanting¹⁵ quarry¹⁶ in which it is my privilege to delve¹⁷.

我遇过千种生灵，见过千般绝妙的事情。这一切曾经，没与你携手，于我尽是枉过。这一切将历，有你在左右，于我便为收获。这一切所有，我愿放弃，只为换取你一分钟的相伴，换你的笑语、你的声音，换你明眸、秀发、朱唇、玉体，最重要的，换你那美妙而几可惊叹的心智，那迷人的宝藏，唯有我一人，有权探究。