[美國]蕾切爾·卡遜/Rachel Carson
雷切爾·卡遜（1907-1964），美國海洋生物學家，但她是以她的作品《寂靜的春天》（Silent Spring）引發了美國以至於全世界的環境保護事業。她因乳腺癌不治於一年後逝世，時年56歲。在她去世後，1980年美國政府追授她美國對普通公民的最高榮譽——“總統自由獎章”。
The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time that I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings.
In my thoughts of the shore, one place stands apart for its revelation of exquisite beauty. It is a pool hidden within a cave that one can visit only rarely and briefly when the lowest of the year's low tides fall below it, and perhaps from that very fact it acquires some of its special beauty. Choosing such a tide, I hoped for a glimpse of the pool. The ebb was to fall early in the morning. I knew that if the wind held from the northwest and no interfering swell ran in from a distant storm the level of the sea should drop below the entrance to the pool. There had been sudden ominous showers in the night, with rain like handfuls of gravel flung on the roof. When I looked out into the early morning the sky was full of a gray dawn light but the sun had not yet risen. Water and air were pallid. Across the bay the moon was a luminous disc in the western sky, suspended above the dim line of distant shore the full August moon, drawing the tide to the low, low levels of the threshold of the alien sea world. As I watched, a gull flew by, above the spruces. Its breast was rosy with the light of the unrisen sun. The day was, after all, to be fair.
Later, as I stood above the tide near the entrance to the pool, the promise of that rosy light was sustained. From the base of the steep wall of rock on which I stood, a moss-covered ledge jutted seaward into deep water. In the surge at the rim of the ledge the dark fronds of oarweeds swayed smooth and gleaming as leather. The projecting ledge was the path to the small hidden cave and its pool. Occasionally a swell, stronger than the rest, rolled smoothly over the rim and broke in foam against the cliff. But the intervals between such swells were long enough to admit me to the ledge and long enough for a glimpse of that fairy pool, so seldom and so briefly exposed.
And so I knelt on the wet carpet of sea moss and looked back into the dark cavern that held the pool in a shallow basin. The floor of the cave was only a few inches below the roof, and a mirror had been created in which all that grew on the ceiling was reflected in the still water below.
Under water that was clear as glass the pool was carpeted with green sponge. Gray patches of sea squirts glistened on the ceiling and colonies of raft coral were a pale apricot color. In the moment when I looked into the cave a little elfin starfish hung down, suspended by the merest thread, perhaps by only a single tube foot. It reached down to touch its own reflection, so perfectly delineated that there might have been, not one starfish, but two. The beauty of the reflected images and of the limpid pool itself was the poignant beauty of things that are ephemeral, existing only until the sea should return to fill the little cave.
海岸是一個古老的世界。自從有地球和大海以來，就有這個水陸相接的地方。人們卻感覺它是一個總在進行創造、生命力頑強而又充沛的世界。每當我踏入這個世界，感覺到生物之間以及每一生物與它的周圍環境之間，通過錯綜複雜的生命結構彼此相連的時候，我對它的美，對它的深層意蘊，都會產生某種新的認識。
我想起海岸，心中就有一個地方因為它所表現出的獨特美景而占有突出的地位。那是一個隱匿於洞中的水潭。平時，這個洞被海水淹沒，一年當中隻有海潮降落到最低，以至低於水潭時，人們才能在這難得的短時間內看見它。也許正因如此，它獲得了某種特殊的美。我選好一個低潮的時機，希望能看一眼水潭。根據推算，潮水將在清晨退下去。我知道，如果不刮西北風，遠處的風暴就不再會掀起驚濤駭浪進行幹擾，海平麵就會落得比水潭的入口還低。夜裏突然下了幾場預示不祥的陣雨，把碎石般的雨點一把把地拋到屋頂上。清晨，我向外眺望，隻見天空籠罩著灰蒙蒙的曙光，隻是太陽還沒有升起。水和空氣一片暗淡。一輪明月掛在海灣對麵的西天上，月下灰暗的一線就是遠方的海岸——八月的望月把海潮吸得很低，直到那與人世隔離的海的世界的門檻。在我觀望的時候，一隻海鷗飛過雲杉。呼之欲出的太陽把它的腹部照成粉色。天終於晴了。
後來，當我在高於海潮的水潭入口附近駐足時，四周已是瑰紅色的晨光。從我立足的峭岩底部，一塊被青苔覆蓋的礁石伸向大海的最深處。海水拍擊著礁石周圍，水藻上下左右地漂動，像皮革般滑溜發亮。通往隱藏的小洞和洞中水潭的路徑是那些凸現的礁石。間或一陣強於一陣的波濤，悠然地漫過礁石的邊緣，並在岩壁上擊成水沫。這種波濤間歇的時間足以讓我踏上礁石，足以讓我探視那仙境般的水潭。它平時不露麵，露麵也隻是一瞬間。
我跪在那海苔蘚鋪成的濕漉漉的地毯上，向那些黑洞裏窺探，就是這些黑洞把水潭環抱成淺盆模樣。洞的底部距離頂部隻有幾英寸，一麵天造明鏡使得洞頂上的一切生物都倒映在下麵紋絲不動的水中。
在清明如鏡的水底，鋪著一層碧綠的海綿。洞頂上一片片灰色的海蛸閃閃發光，一堆堆軟珊瑚披著淡淡的杏黃色衣裳。就在我朝洞裏探望時，從洞頂上掛下一隻小海星，僅僅懸在一條線上，或許就在它的一隻管足上。它向下接觸到自己的倒影。多麽完美的畫麵！仿佛不是一隻海星，而是一對海星。水中倒影的美，清澈的水潭本身的美，這都是些稍縱即逝的事物所體現的強烈而動人心扉的美——海水一旦漫過小洞，這種美便不複存在了。
詞匯筆記
relentless[ri'lentlis]adj.無情的，殘酷的，不間斷的
Neither constancy nor relentless change will support a creation.
恒久不變和無情的變化都無益於創造。
intricate['intrik?t]adj.複雜的，錯綜的，糾結的
The plot of the novel is intricate and fascinating.
這部小說的情節錯綜複雜，引人入勝。
ominous['?min?s]adj.預兆的；不吉利的
That evening has an ominous silence.
那晚有著不祥的寂靜。
spruce[spru:s]n.雲杉
Under the canopy of the pioneering trees, oak, maple, linden, elm and spruce regenerate.
在它們林蔭的庇護下，橡樹、楓樹、菩提樹、榆樹和雲杉都欣欣向榮。
小試身手
夜裏突然下了幾場預示不祥的陣雨，把碎石般的雨點一把把地拋到屋頂上。
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一輪明月掛在海灣對麵的西天上，月下灰暗的一線就是遠方的海岸。
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它平時不露麵，露麵也隻是一瞬間。
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短語家族
For as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water.
as long as：隻要；和……一樣長
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Occasionally a swell, stronger than the rest, rolled smoothly over the rim and broke in foam against the cliff.
break in：打斷；闖入；訓練；使逐漸習慣
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