Peace and goodness and jollity. The only thing that was wrong now, really, was the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the 41)outboard motors. This was the note that 42)jarred, the one thing that would sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving. In those other summertimes, all motors were 43)inboard; and when they were at a little distance, the noise they made was a sedative, an ingredient of summer sleep. But now the campers all had outboards. In the daytime, in the hot mornings, these motors made a 44)petulant, irritable sound; at night, in the still evening when the 45)afterglow lit the water, they 46)whined about one's ears like mosquitoes…
一切看起来还是那么恬静、美好和欢乐。惟有一点与当年不尽相同，那就是周围的声响——外置式马达的轰鸣，令人感到生疏和不适。这声音嘈杂刺耳，似乎是在提示你岁月的流逝，将你从往事中拉回现实世界。早年间，马达都是包在船板里面的；那声音听着有点幽远，让人心如止水，催人渐入夏梦。现在人人开的都是发动机外置的小艇。一大早，你就被这些马达吵得心浮气躁，愈发感觉溽热难耐；向晚时分，斜阳夕照，湖面波光流动，这嗡嗡声却像一团蚊子般不绝于耳……
We had a good week at the camp. The bass were biting well and the sun shone endlessly, day after day. We would be tired at night and lie down in the accumulated heat of the little bedrooms after the long hot day and the breeze would stir almost47)imperceptibly outside and the smell of the swamp drift in through the rusty 48)screens. Sleep would come easily and in the morning the red squirrel would be on the roof, tapping out his gay routine. I kept remembering everything, lying in bed in the mornings—the small steamboat that had a long rounded 49)stern like the lip of a 50)Ubangi, and how quietly she ran on the moonlight sails, when the older boys played their 51)mandolins and the girls sang and we ate doughnuts dipped in sugar, and how sweet the music was on the water in the shining night. We explored the streams, quietly, where the turtles slid off the sunny logs and dug their way into the soft bottom; and we lay on the town 52)wharf and fed worms to the tame bass. Everywhere we went I had trouble making out which was I—the one walking at my side or the one walking in my pants.
我们在湖边度过了美妙的一周。阳光洒满肩头，鲈鱼频频咬钩，日复一日，日日如此。入夜，人玩累了，在积了一天暑气的小房间里躺着不想动，屋外有风，但也仅仅聊胜于无，倒是林间的瘴气渗透锈蚀的纱窗源源而来。我很快就坠入梦乡，直到清晨被屋顶上欢蹦乱跳的棕红色松鼠吵醒。我不急着起床，而是继续躺着，追忆往昔的一切——那只小汽船，船尾又长又圆，活像乌班吉女人的嘴唇，她悄无声息，行驶在月色之中，小伙子们拨弄着曼陀林，姑娘们在轻声歌唱，我们这群小孩子大嚼蘸了糖的面包圈，那曼妙乐声与月光一起荡漾在湖面上。我们沿着溪流静静地漫步，那里总有乌龟趴在圆木上享受日光，失足滑落便奋力在底部松软处刨坑，想挖开一条通路；我们有时趴在小镇码头上，丢鱼虫给温驯的鲈鱼吃。无论走到哪里，我时常都会恍然分不清哪个是我自己——是走在我身边这孩子呢，还是低头所见穿着这一身衣裤的那家伙。
One afternoon while we were there at that lake a thunderstorm came up. It was like the revival of an old 53)melodrama that I had seen long ago with childish awe. The second-act climax of the drama of the electrical disturbance over a lake in America had not changed in any important respect. This was the big scene, still the big scene. The whole thing was so familiar, the first feeling of oppression and heat and a general air around camp of not wanting to go very far away. In mid-afternoon (it was all the same) a curious darkening of the sky, and a 54)lull in everything that had made life tick; and then the way the boats suddenly swung the other way at their 55)moorings with the coming of a breeze out of the new quarter, and the 56)premonitory 57)rumble. Then the 58)kettle drum, then the 59)snare, then the bass drum and 60)cymbals, then 61)crackling light against the dark, and the gods grinning and licking their 62)chops in the hills. Afterward the calm, the rain steadily rustling in the calm lake, the return of light and hope and spirits, and the campers running out in joy and relief to go swimming in the rain, their bright cries 63)perpetuating the deathless joke about how they were getting simply 64)drenched, and the children screaming with delight at the new sensation of bathing in the rain, and the joke about getting drenched linking the generations in a strong 65)indestructible chain...
有天下午，我们在湖边与一场雷雨不期而遇。这仿佛是一幕旧时的情景剧再次上演，一幕很久以前，让孩提时代的我胆战心惊的场景。那是第二幕的高潮部分，美国某处湖面上空电光闪闪，雷声隐隐，那场景与眼前并无二致。这是一出大戏，从来如此。一切再熟悉不过，起先是一种令人压抑的闷热，仿佛暗示人们不宜走远。下午三点左右（总是在这个时候），天空暗得离奇，万物陷入凝滞，一秒秒地数着时间的搏动；不出一刻钟，一阵轻风拂过码头，停靠的船只顷刻间开始摇摆不定，隆隆的雷声接踵而至。于是定音鼓、小军鼓、大鼓、钹依次响起，闪电撕裂乌云，诸神俱展欢颜，在山岳间纵情品尝甘霖玉露。再后来，一切归于平静，雨水变得不紧不慢，打在湖面上沙沙作响，天光重放，希望重生，勇气重现，如释重负的人们冲出屋外，满心欢喜，要在雨中游个痛快，他们唱得响亮，就算被淋得湿透，那又怎样？孩子们欢快地尖叫，头一次体会到沐浴在雨水中的酣畅淋漓，正是这种勇于淋雨的乐趣，如同一条牢不可破的锁链，将人们代代相连……
