My neighbor Mrs. Gargan first told me about it. "Have you seen the tree?" she asked as I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the October twilight¹.

关于那棵树，最初是我的邻居加根太太告诉我的。"你见过那棵树吗？"她问道，当时我正坐在后院欣赏十月的暮色。

"The one down at the corner," she explained. "It's a beautiful tree-all kinds of colors. Cars are stopping to look. You ought to see it."

"就是下去拐角处的那棵"她解释说，"漂亮极了-五颜六色的。好多车路过都停下来看，你该去看看。"

I told her I would, but I soon forgot about the tree. Three days later, I was jogging down the street, my mind swimming with petty worries, when a splash of bright orange caught my eye. For an instant, I thought someone's house had caught fire. Then I remembered the tree.

我对她说我会去看的，可转眼就忘记了关于树的事。三天后，我顺着街道慢跑，脑子里充斥着恼人的小事，忽然，一片耀眼的橘红色映入眼帘。有一会儿，我还以为是谁家的房子着火了呢，但我马上想到了那棵树。

As I approached it, I slowed to a walk. There was nothing remarkable² about the shape of the tree. a medium-sized maple³. But Mrs. Gargan had been right about its colors. Like the messy whirl of an artist's palette, the tree blazed a bright crimson⁴ on its lower branches, burned with vivid yellows and oranges in its center. and simmered to deep red at its top. Through these fiery⁵ colors cascaded⁶ thin rivulets⁷ of pale-green leaves and blotches⁸ of deep-green leaves, as yet untouched by autumn.

当我靠近树时，禁不住放慢了脚步。树的形状并没有什么非凡之处，是一棵中等大小的枫树。但加根太太说得不错，它的色彩确实很奇特，像画家调色板中斑斓的颜料，令人眼花缭乱。树底部的枝丫好似一片鲜红的火海，树的中部燃烧着明快的黄色和橘色，顶部的树梢又爆发着深红色。在这火一样的色彩中，流淌着浅绿的叶子汇成的小溪，深绿的叶子斑驳点缀其间，似乎至今末曾受到过秋天的侵袭。

Edging closer-like a pilgrim approaching a shrine-I noticed several bare branches near the top, their black twigs⁹ scratching the air like claws. The leaves they had shed lay like a scarlet¹⁰ carpet around the trunk.

我慢慢走近它.就像朝圣者缓缓步向神殿，我发现靠近树梢的地方有几根光秃秃的枝丫，上面黑乎乎的小枝像鹰爪一般伸向天空。枯枝上落下的叶子一片猩红，像地毯似的铺在树干周围。

With its varied¹¹ nations of color, this tree seemed to become a globe, embracing in its broad branches all seasons and continents: the spring and summer of the Southern hemisphere in the light and dark greens, the autumn and winter of the Northern in the blazing yellows and bare branches.

这棵枫树集各种颜色于一体。如果一种颜色就是一个国家，枫树俨然成了一个缤纷的地球，它张开宽大的枝条，历数着四季轮回，容纳着五湖四海。深浅错落的绿叶，昭示着南半球的春夏，耀眼的黄叶和光秃秃的枝丫勾勒出北半球的秋冬。整个星球就围绕这一时空的交集点和谐运转。

As I marveled at this all-encompassing beauty, I thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson's comments about the stars. If the constellations¹² appeared only once in a thousand years, he observed in Nature, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they're up there every night, we barely give them a look.

我为这棵树无所不包的美而惊叹不已。这时,我想起了著名作家拉尔夫•沃尔多•爱默生有关星星的评论。他在《自然》一书中写道：倘若星座一千年才出现一次，那么，星座的出现是一桩多么激动人心的事；可正因为星座每夜都挂在天上，人们才很少去看上一眼。

I felt the same way about the tree. Because its majesty¹³ will last only a week, it should be especially precious to us. And I had almost missed it.

对于眼前这棵树，我也有同感。它此时的华美只能维持一个星期，所以它对于我们就相当珍贵。可我竟差一点错过了。

Once when Emily Dickenson's father noticed a brilliant display of northern lights in the sky over Massachusetts, he tolled¹⁴ a church bell to alert townspeople. That's what I felt like doing about the tree. I wanted to become a Paul Revere¹⁵ of autumn, awakening¹⁶ the countryside to its wonder.

有一次，当埃米莉•迪金森的父亲偶然看见马萨诸塞州上空一道炫目的北极光时，他立刻跑到教堂鸣钟告知所有市民。现在，我也产生了同样的想法，我要向世人宣扬这棵树。我愿成为秋天的信使。让田园乡村每一个角落的人们都了解它的神奇。

I didn't have a church bell or a horse, but as I walked home, I did ask each neighbor I passed the same simple but momentous¹⁷ question Mrs. Gargan had asked me: "Have you seen the tree?"

可我没有教堂的大钟，也没有快马，但当我走在回家的路上，我会问遇见的每一位邻居加根太太曾问过我的那个极其简单又极其重要的问题:"你见过那棵树吗?"

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