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今天是九月的最后一天。
September is more than a month, really; it is a season, an achievement in itself. It begins with August’s leftovers and it ends with October’s preparations, but along the way it achieves special satisfactions. After summer’s heat and haste, the year consolidates itself. Deliberate September—in its own time and tempo1)—begins to sum up another summer.
九月，真的并非仅仅是一个月份；它更代表了一个季节，一份成就。自八月之余韵而始，以十月之孕育为终，九月承前启后，别有一番收获的快慰。历经夏季的炎热和急躁，日子变得愈发厚重。九月从容不迫——以它自己的时机和节拍翩然而至——宣告又一个夏季的结束。
With September comes a sense of autumn. It creeps in on a misty dawn and vanishes in the hot afternoon. It tiptoes through the treetops, rouging2) a few leaves, then rides a tuft3) of thistledown4) across the valley and away. It sits on a hilltop and hoots like an October owl in the dusk. It plays tag5) with the wind. September is a changeling6), busy as a squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid7) brook. It is summer’s ripeness and richness fulfilled.
九月捎来了一丝秋意。这秋意随薄雾朦朦之清晨悄然而至，又在暖阳煦煦之午后隐没无踪。它蹑手蹑脚地掠过树梢，抹红几片树叶，又轻踏一簇蓟花冠毛，越过山谷飘然而去。它时而栖息山颠，如十月黄昏中猫头鹰般啼鸣，时而又同风儿追逐嬉戏。九月就像山核桃树上的松鼠，忙忙碌碌；又仿佛慵懒的小溪，缓缓流淌。夏日的成熟与丰饶在九月一览无余。
Some of the rarest days of the year come in the September season-days when it is comfortably cold but pulsing with life, when the sky is clear and clean, the air crisp, the wind free of dust. Meadows still smell of hay and the sweetness of cut grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Goldenrod8) comes by mid-August, but rises to a peak of golden abundance in early September. Late thistles make spectacular purple accents. And asters9) blossom everywhere, along the roadsides, in meadows, on the hilltops, even in city lots, raging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender10) to the royal New England purple11).
一年中最珍贵的几天好时光在九月里到来。值此良辰，天地间清凉宜人，却也生机勃勃；晴空如碧，秋高气爽，金风徐来，纤尘不染。草地上还弥漫着干草的气息和新刈绿草的清香。九月的花朵虽不及五月那般绚烂多姿，却也繁花似锦，将九月妆扮成另一个花季。黄菊在八月中旬开始绽放，但要到得九月初才能开得热烈恣意，金黄遍野。晚蓟吐露着紫色风情，蔚为大观。紫苑怒放，在小路旁、草场中、山顶上，甚至在市区空地里，随处可见，从纯白色到深浅不一的淡紫色，直至高贵的新英格兰紫，颜色各异，应有尽有。
We think of spring as the miracles time, when opening bud and new leaf proclaim the persistence of life. But September is when the abiding wonder makes itself known in a subtler way. Now growth comes to annual fruition, and preparations are completed for another year, another generation. The acorn12) ripens and the hickory nut matures. The plant commits its future to the seed and the root. The insect stows13) tomorrow in the egg and pupa14). The surge is almost over and life begins to relax.
我们觉得，春天是一个充满奇迹的季节，其时蓓蕾初绽，绿叶新萌，宣告着生命的绵延不息。但是九月却以更微妙的方式，让这种永恒的奇迹展现于我们眼前。此时，生命的成长带来了这一年的累累硕果, 也为来年，为下一代做好了准备。橡子熟了，山核桃黄了。植物把自己的未来寄托于种子和根茎。昆虫则将明天蕴藏在卵蛹之中。激情澎湃的高潮将近尾声，生命开始养精蓄锐。
The green prime is passing. The trees begin to proclaim the change. Soon the leaves will be discarded, the grass will sere15). But the miracle of life persists, the mysterious germ of growth and renewal that is the seed itself.
绿色葱茏的全盛时期正离我们而去。树木开始宣告季节的更迭交替。很快，树叶就会凋零，小草也将枯萎。但生命的奇迹仍将持续，这生命成长和再生的神奇力量就在种子中孕育。
This is the season of the harvest moon. With reasonably clear skies it will be a moonlit week, for the harvest moon is not hasty; it comes early and stays late. There was a time when the busy farmer could return to the fields after supper and continue his harvest by moonlight. There’s still harvesting to be done, but much of it now centers on the kitchen rather than the barns. The last bountiful yield comes from the garden, the late sweet corn, the tomatoes, the root vegetables. The canning, the preserving, the freezing, the kitchen harvest in all its variety, reaches its peak.
这是一个秋分前后满月照临的季节。只要天空晴朗少云，那皓月当空的美景将持续一周，因为秋分时节的满月总是那么不慌不忙，来得早，去得迟。在前几天，忙碌的农夫还可以在晚饭后返回田间，趁着月色继续劳作。而现在，虽然还有些庄稼需要收割，但活儿大多已经从谷仓转到了厨房。最后的丰收来自菜园：晚熟的甜玉米、西红柿，还有块根类蔬菜。或罐装，或腌制，或冷冻，厨房里的活儿多种多样，人们忙得不可开交。
First frost comes in the night, a clear, scant-starred night when the moon is near its fullness. It comes without a whisper, quiet as thistledown, brushing the corner of a hillside garden. Dawn comes and you see its path—the glistening leaf, the gloaming stem, the limp, blackening garden vine.
在一个月圆星稀的夜里，第一场霜悄然而至。它来得无声无息，静如蓟花冠毛，掠过山坡上菜园的一角。待到拂晓时分，便随处可见它的踪迹——在晶莹闪亮的叶子上，在影影绰绰的根茎上，在弯曲黝黑的藤蔓上。
Another night or two the frost walks the valleys in the moonlight. Then it goes back beyond the northern hills to wait a little longer, and the golden mildness of early autumn comforts the land. A faint anise16) smell is on the air, goldenrod scent. The mist swirls and September sun shines through the deep-blue sky of September.
再过一两个晚上，霜花就会沐着月色，在山谷中穿行。然后，绕回到北面的山冈后面，稍作停歇。金色的初秋温情脉脉，抚慰着大地。空气中弥漫着一丝淡淡的茴香味，那是黄菊的清香。薄雾袅袅，九月的阳光照彻湛蓝的天空。
Now come the hoarding20) days. Mice have been harvesting and stowing seeds for weeks. The chipmunk21) lines22) his winter bedroom, and squirrels hide the nut trees’ bounty. The woodchucks, gorging on grass and clover and fruit, lay up23) their harvest in body fat under their own skins.
现在是该为冬日囤积食物的时候了。一连好几个星期，老鼠们都在忙着收集和储藏种子。花栗鼠正在往它的卧室中填塞过冬物什，而松鼠们已经把坚果树的果实贮藏了起来。土拔鼠尽情地吞吃杂草、苜蓿和果子，将收获的食物都贮存在皮下脂肪里。
To warm-blooded creatures, the crisp, cool nights of September are invigorating. But cold-blooded insects are at the mercy of the sun and now their clocks run down. The cicada is stilled. The chorus of the cricket and katydid17) diminishes. When they rasp18) at all it is with the deliberate tempo of a fiddler19) drawing a worn bow across fraying strings.
九月的夜晚，空气凉爽清新，让温血动物倍感畅快。但是冷血昆虫的命运却要由太阳决定，现在，它们剩下的时日也不多了。知了已经沉寂无声。蟋蟀和纺织娘的吟唱也日渐稀少。即使鸣叫，也像琴师手持老旧的琴弓弹奏磨损的琴弦一般，沉郁凝滞。
The flickers24) begin to gather for migration. All summer these big wood-peckers were resolutely individual, busy with family life and wanting no company. Now they are gregarious25), with time for tribal gossip and community play. The warblers26) and swallows have already formed in premigration flocks; soon the robins will be gathering too. Nesting is completed, fledglings are on their own, and there is food in plenty. September is vacation time for birds. Who knows but that they are discussing the trip ahead?
扑动鴷开始聚集，准备迁徙。整个夏天，这些大个儿的啄木鸟都执意独来独往，忙于家务，无心交友。现在有时间群聊、嬉戏了，所以也就开始集体交际了。黄莺和燕子已经在迁徙之前集合成群；不久，知更鸟也要开始聚集。巢穴已经筑好，雏鸟可以独立生活了，食物也已非常充裕。九月是这些鸟儿度假的时节。谁又知道它们有没有讨论即将开始的旅行呢？
By September’s end the treasure chest of autumn begins to “spillover” with wealth. You see it glowing in the quiet afternoon, aflame in the sunset. Woodland, roadside and dooryard will soon be jeweled beyond arajah27)’s richest dreams.
九月末，秋季丰收的宝库如此充盈，财富都开始“满溢”了。你能看到它们在静谧的午后熠熠生辉，在夕阳的映照下灼灼欲燃。林地、路旁和庭院很快就好似珠镶玉饰般流光溢彩，这样的财富即使是最富有的王公贵族也想像不出。
The year’s season in the sun has run its course. Nature begins to prepare for winter. After the color in the woodlands, the leaves will blanket the soil. The litter of autumn will become mulch28), then humus29) for root and tender seed. The urgency of growth is ended for another year, but life itself is hoarded in root and bulb and seed and egg.
一年之盛季已经结束。大自然开始为冬季的到来作准备。在林地颜色变换过后，凋落的树叶将覆盖在土壤之上。秋季的枯草落叶将化作植物根茎和娇嫩种子的覆盖层和腐殖质。如火如荼的生长期就这样告一段落，等待着来年，但是生命本身并没结束，它蕴藏在根茎、鳞茎、种子和幼卵中。
1. tempo [5tempEu] n. 发展速度
2. rouge [ru:V] vt. 擦口红
3. tuft [tQft] n. 一丛，一蔟
4. thistledown[5WIs(E)ldaJn] n. 蓟花的冠毛
5. tag [tA^] n. 追人游戏
6. changeling[5tFeindVliN] n. 〈古〉善变的人
7. languid [5lAN^wid] adj. 疲倦的，无力的，没精打采的
8. goldenrod [5^EuldEnrCd] n. [植]秋麒麟草属植物
9. aster [5AstE] n. [植]紫苑
10. lavender [5lAvindE] n. 淡紫色
11. New England purple：新英格兰紫色，即新英格兰紫苑(New England aster)的颜色，新英格兰紫苑为北美东部多年生紫花菊科植物
12. acorn [5eIkC:n] n. [植]橡树果，橡子
13. stow [stEu] v. 装载
14. pupa [5pju:pE] n. [昆]蛹
15. sere [siE] adj. 干枯的
16. anise [5Anis] n. [植]茴芹，茴香
17. katydid [5keitidid] n. 纺织娘
18. rasp [rB:sp] vi. 发出刺耳声
19. fiddler [5fidlE] n. 拉提琴的人，小提琴家
20. hoarding [5hC:diN] n. 贮藏，积蓄，囤积
21. chipmunk [5tFIpmQNk] n. [动]花栗鼠
22. line [lain] vt. 填充
23. lay up：储备，储存
24. flicker [5flikE] n. 扑动鴷，啄木鸟的一种
25. gregarious [^re5^ZEriEs]adj. 社交的，群居的
26. warbler [5wC:blE] n. 莺，鸣鸟
27. rajah [5rB:dVE] n. 〈印〉王侯
28. mulch [mQltF] n. 覆盖物
29. humus [5hju:mEs] n. 腐殖质
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