His questions were different now, though, not aseasily answered. He wanted to know what I missedabout home, insisting on descriptions of anything hewasn't familiar with. We sat in front of Charlie'shouse for hours, as the sky darkened and rainplummeted around us in a sudden deluge.
不過,他現(xiàn)在的問題變得不一樣了,不再那么容易回答了。他想知道我想念著家里的什么事物,堅(jiān)持要我描述出任何他不熟悉的部分。我們坐在查理的房子前,坐了好幾個(gè)小時(shí),直到天黑下來,驟然泛濫的雨水筆直地落在我們周圍。
I tried to describe impossible things like the scent of creosote — bitter, slightly resinous, butstill pleasant — the high, keening sound of the cicadas in July, the feathery barrenness of thetrees, the very size of the sky, extending white-blue from horizon to horizon, barely interruptedby the low mountains covered with purple volcanic rock. The hardest thing to explain was why itwas so beautiful to me — to justify a beauty that didn't depend on the sparse, spiny vegetationthat often looked half dead, a beauty that had more to do with the exposed shape of the land,with the shallow bowls of valleys between the craggy hills, and the way they held on to the sun.I found myself using my hands as I tried to describe it to him.
我試圖描述出一些根本沒法形容的食物,像是木餾油的香味——發(fā)苦的,有點(diǎn)像樹脂,但還是很親切——七月里尖銳凄厲的蟬鳴,柔軟如鴻毛的無葉樹(仙人掌),廣闊無垠的天空,那種發(fā)白的藍(lán)色從一側(cè)的地平線一直延伸到另一側(cè)的地平線,極少被覆滿了紫色火山巖的低矮的山丘阻斷。最難解釋的事情是為什么我會(huì)覺得它們?nèi)绱嗣利?mdash;—定義一種并非基于稀稀落落的,多刺的,經(jīng)??瓷先グ胨啦换畹闹脖坏拿利悾环N與大地裸路的形狀,與崎嶇的山谷間淺淺的有如碗狀的山谷,與他們在太陽底下綿延的方式毫無關(guān)系的美麗。當(dāng)我努力向他解釋時(shí),我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己常常得用上手勢。
His quiet, probing questions kept me talking freely, forgetting, in the dim light of the storm, tobe embarrassed for monopolizing the conversation. Finally, when I had finished detailing mycluttered room at home, he paused instead of responding with another question.
他安靜的,尖銳的提問讓我自由自在地說著話,在暴風(fēng)雨中微弱的光線里,完全忘記了要為自己壟斷了所有的對話而窘迫不安。最終,當(dāng)我描述完我在家里的那個(gè)亂糟糟的房間以后,他停了下來,沒有再提出下一個(gè)問題。
"Are you finished?" I asked in relief.
“你問完了?”我如釋重負(fù)地問道。