这两天的散文都是让人头蒙蒙的，所以今天换一篇写景文。说是写景。更多是一种情怀。本文作者Elwyn Brooks White 其实就是E.B.怀特，在上一本书中有他的一篇《散文家》(The Essayist)，最近才知道他的童书Stuart Little竟然就是电影《精灵鼠小弟》的原型，真的没有将两者一起想过。主要是书还没读，电影也只是看过选段。
这篇文读起来很舒服，很宁静的感觉，说起湖就会想起“四面荷花三面柳，一城山色半城湖”这句清朝有名的诗句。湖没去过几个，人工河段倒是待过不少。一下午坐在水边，光线跳跃，水面荡漾，昏昏沉沉又恍恍惚惚的感觉。时间的踢踏踢踏声莫名有种果冻的质感，周围下棋的人，树上的鸟叫鸣蝉，清脆的蛙鸣，时不时的过往车辆又将人拉回现实。而这篇文又将我带回了曾经在河边安静打发时光的日子。
文开篇提到1904年左右的一个夏天，作者的父亲带着家人一起在缅因州的一个湖边度过八月份，这也奠定了后文作者带着自己的儿子重游旧地而产生的时光交错感。
...outside of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake in Maine. We returned summer after summer--always on August 1st for one month. I have since become a salt-water man, but sometimes in summer there are days when the restlessness of the tides and the fearful cold of the sea water and the incessant wind which blows across the afternoon and into the evening make me wish for the placidity of a lake in the woods.
假期除了一些小事外其他都是很美好的记忆。孩子们甚至觉得没有什么地方比缅因州的湖更好了，以至于每年夏天他们都要再去一次。后来作者也成了水手(salt-water在海上工作的，但也有翻译认为是玩海，因为作者仅仅是提到了几句海面的汹涌与湖面的平静，更倾向于是去海边度假。两种意见)，却时不时向往平静的那片湖水。
salt-water 即seawater, 对应freshwater(内河，江，湖)
I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows. On the journey over to the lake I began to wonder what it would be like. I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot--the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps.
作者带着儿子一起去了缅因州心牵梦绕的湖，因为孩子除了在火车窗口外见过荷叶外，压根没见过大自然的湖。在旅途中他一直思绪万千，不知道曾经的圣地如今会被时光腐蚀成什么模样。记忆中的小河，草地，夕阳下的群山，木屋后的小路是否只能停留在旧时光中。
lily pads 睡莲的浮叶，植物大战僵尸中对待背着氧气罐的潜水僵尸Snorkel Zombies就是先放上睡莲叶lily pads，再放上坚果墙(wall-nuts)
It is strange how much you can remember about places like that once you allow your mind to return into the grooves which lead back. You remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thing. I guess I rememberedclearest of all the early mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen.
这一段很有共鸣。人一旦大脑回潮，就会有许许多多其他的相关的回忆。想起这一件，又会关联另一件(简书友友之前教会我一个心理学名词--联觉效应，应该类似)。作者仍旧清晰记得水面平静无漾的早晨，住的地方圆木的气息，纱窗外透来的树林的湿润。似乎一切都已深深刻在了身体之中。
The lake had never been what you would call a wild lake. There were cottages sprinkled around the shores, and it was in farming although the shores of the lake were quite heavily wooded. Some of the cottages were owned by nearby farmers, and you would live at the shore and eat your meals at the farmhouse. That's what our family did. But although it wasn't wild, it was a fairly large and undisturbed lake and there were places in it which, to a child at least, seemed infinitely remote and primeval.
湖像人一样，这是一片很大却安宁的湖，而不是什么野性子疯了似的乱长或荒芜的湖，周围点缀着些农舍。有些干脆就是附近村里人的住所，来到这里可以像当地人一样生活，在他们那里借食。但对于孩子来说这地方却带有一种原始和偏远的概念。
-I knew it, lying in bed the first morning, smelling the bedroom, and hearing the boy sneak quietly out and go off along the shore in a boat. I began to sustain the illusion that he was I, and therefore, by simple transposition, that I was my father. This sensation persisted, kept cropping up all the time we were there. It was not an entirely new feeling, but in this setting it grew much stronger. I seemed to be living a dual existence.
回到老地方，竟然没有过多时过境迁的味道。和以前似乎变化不大。但是作者却有一种错觉，似乎父亲→我，我→儿子这两种身份之间不停错换。这种感觉一直持续，在回到曾经父亲带自己来过的地方感情更加强烈。一瞬间他觉得自己是以双重身份生活，似乎是在一个双重世界。
某个动作进行一半，拿起鱼饵盒或者放下用餐叉，或者讲些什么话，会恍惚觉得不是自己而是父亲的行为，这让作者有点毛骨悚然。
sustain the illusion→This sensation persisted→living a dual existence层层递进。
crop up :呈现
这种感觉应该是类似我们做某事的时候会惊觉我曾经做过，或者这个场景我曾经见过或梦到过。既熟悉又吓人的感触。
We went fishing the first morning. I felt the same damp moss covering the worms in the bait can, and saw the dragonfly alight on the tip of my rod as it hovered a few inches from the surface of the water. It was the arrival of this fly that convinced me beyond any doubt that everything was as it always had been, that the years were a mirage and there had been no years.
第一天去钓鱼，作者感受到着同样潮湿的青苔盖住鱼饵罐里的蚯蚓，看见盘旋过湖面落在鱼竿上的蜻蜓，似乎岁月特别关照这个角落，从没有在这里遗失过。时光在这里定格了。
When we got back for a swim before lunch, the lake was exactly where we had left it, the same number of inches from the dock, and there was only the merest suggestion of a breeze. This seemed an utterly enchanted sea, this lake you could leave to its own devices for a few hours and come back to, and find that it had not stirred, this constant and trustworthy body of water.
午饭前我们去游泳，回来时水面还是一模一样。离船坞还是几英寸的距离，湖面微微有点小风。这湖你压根不用去管，它是一片稳重不变可信的湖。
the merest suggestion of a breeze微微有点小风，suggestion此处表示细微的迹象。
leave to its own devices听之任之，拟人化。
A school of minnows swam by, each minnow with its small, individual shadow, doubling the attendance, so clear and sharp in the sunlight. Some of the other campers were in swimming, along the shore, one of them with a cake of soap, and the water felt thin and clear and insubstantial. Over the years there had been this person with the cake of soap, this cultist, and here he was. There had been no years.
一群米诺鱼游过(也有翻译为鲦鱼，都是一种鱼)，每一条掠过水底都拖下斑驳的影子，在阳光下，清晰耀眼。其他度假的人中，有的在游泳，有一位带着肥皂洗澡。多年来就有这位带肥皂的人，这个崇拜者，依然在这。岁月悠悠没有今昔之隔。
A school of minnows一群鱼，在王尔德的《忠诚的朋友》中有一句说磨坊主的财产用的是a large flock of woolly sheep.
this cultist 崇尚某种时尚的人，狂热分子。这里指每年都会有这样拿着肥皂洗澡的人。
参考本书，参考网上搜索翻译和部分解析。
今天略有点累，就这样了。这本书中选的是全文的前半部分，后文还有，但后部分似乎比较萧杀。豹豹已经不准备看了，留点意境就挺好。有兴趣的友友可自行搜索全篇。
