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A Walk in the Woods 林中漫步
◎ Tony Gathercole
I was puzzled! Why was this old woman making such a fuss about an old copse which was of no
use to anybody? She had written letters to the local paper, even to a national, protesting about a
projected by-pass to her village, and, looking at a map, the route was nowhere near where she lived
The enquiry into the route of the new by-pass to the village was due to take place shortly, and I
wanted to know what it was that motivated her. So it was that I found myself knocking on a cottage
door, being received by Mary Smith and then being taken for a walk to the woods.
“I’ve always loved this place,” she said, “It has a lot of memories for me, and for others. We all
used it. They called it ‘Lover’s lane’. It’s not much of a lane, and it doesn’t go anywhere important,
but that’s why we all came here. To be away from people, to be by ourselves.” she added.
It was indeed pleasant that day and the songs of many birds could be heard. Squirrels gazed
from the branches, quite bold in their movements, obviously few people passed this way and they had
nothing to fear. I could imagine the noise of vehicles passing through these peaceful woods when the
by-pass was built, so I felt that she probably had something there but as I hold strong opinions about
the needs of the community over-riding the opinions of private individuals, I said nothing. The
village was quite a dangerous place because of the traffic especially for old people and children, their
“Take this tree,” she said pausing after a short while. “To you it is just that, a tree. Not unlike
many others here.” She gently touched the bark. “Look here, under this branch, what can you see?”
“It looks as if someone has done a bit of carving3 with a knife.” I said after a cursory4 inspection5.
“Yes, that’s what it is!” she said softly. “There are letters and a lover’s heart.”
I looked again, this time more carefully. The heart was still there and there was a suggestion of
an arrow through it. The letters on one side were indistinct, but on the other an “R” was clearly
visible with what looked like an “I” after it. “Some budding romance?” I asked, “Did you know who
they were?”
“Oh yes, I knew them,” said Mary Smith, “it says RH loves MS.”
I realized that I could be getting out of my depth, and longed to be in my office, away from here
helped him to carve my initials. We were very much in love, but he was going away, and could not
tell me what he was involved in the army. I had guessed of course. It was the last evening we ever
spent together，because he went away the next day, back to his Unit.”
‘Sergeant R Holmes... Killed in action in the invasion of France.’”
and I would have loved to be a Granny, they would have been such lovely babies’— she was like
that!”
doctor said, but I think it was an old fashioned broken heart. A child would have helped both of us.”
turned to me. “I was young and pretty then, I could have had anybody, and I wasn’t always the old
woman you see here now. I had everything I wanted in life, a lovely man, health and a future to look
forwards to.”
She paused again and looked around. The breeze gently moved through the leaves with a
sighing sound. “There were others, of course, but not a patch on my Robin!” she said strongly. “And
now I have nothing—except the memories this tree holds. If only I could get my hands on that awful
man who writes in the paper about the value of the road they are going to build where we are
about memories? We were not the only ones, you know, I still meet some who came here as Robin
and I did. Yes, I would tell him!”
I turned away, sick at heart.
我被弄糊涂了！为什么这个老妇人会对一片毫无用处的老灌木林如此大惊小怪？她给当
地报纸写了信，甚至给全国性的报纸也写了信，抗议在她们村子里拟建小路的计划方案。但
从地图上看，这条拟建的小路距离她家并不近，那一带好像也并非风景优美。我岂止是纳
闷，我简直是十分好奇。
不久就要开展对新路径的调查了，我想知道她反对究竟是出于什么原因。于是我敲响了
小屋的门，一位叫玛丽·史密斯的女士接待了我，然后带我去树林中走走。
“我一直深爱着这个地方。”她说，“这里珍藏了我和很多人的回忆。我们都曾在这个地方
待过。人们称它为‘情侣巷’。它其实并不能算是什么小巷，也不通往什么重要的地方，不过，
这正是我们来这里的原因。远离他人，只有我们自己。”她补充说道。
那天的确是令人愉快的一天，小鸟唱着歌，松鼠在树枝间张望，自由自在地跳跃，显然
这里人迹罕至，它们没什么好怕的。我能想象得出，当小路建成后，车辆通过这片宁静的树
林将会多么喧闹，所以，我猜这对她来说可能意味着些什么。但我坚持认为社区的需要重于
个人的意见，所以我没说什么。村里目前的交通，特别是对于老人和小孩来说，尤其危险，
所以对我来说，他们的安全比这个老年女士的怪念头更重要。
“拿这棵树来说吧，”她暂停片刻后说，“对你来说它只是一棵普通的树，与这里与其他的
树没什么区别。”她轻轻地摸着树皮，“看这里，在这个枝条下面，你看见了什么？”
“好像有人用小刀在这里刻过什么东西。”我略略看了一下后说。
“是的，正是这样！”她轻声说 ，“是一些字母和一颗爱心。”
我又看了一下，这回看得更仔细了。刻的爱心还在那儿，此外还依稀可见有支箭穿心而
过。心一旁的字母已模糊了，但在另一边，字母“R”清晰可见，后面还有个像是“I”的字
母。“初恋罗曼史？”我问道，“你知道他们是谁吗？”
“噢，是的，我知道。”玛丽·史密斯说，“写的是‘RH爱MS’。”
我意识到我可能涉入太深了，真希望自己身在办公室，远离这个地方和这个老年女士，
手里还端着杯茶，舒适又自在。
她继续说着……“他拿着一把袖珍折刀，折刀上嵌有长钉，那种长钉可以用来挖出夹在马
蹄上的石块，我们一起刻了我名字的第一个字母。我们深深相爱，但他就要离开了，而且不
知道他将在军队里干什么。当然我也曾猜想过。那是我们在一起的最后一个夜晚，因为第二
天他就回部队去了。”
玛丽·史密斯停了一会儿，然后抽泣起来。“他母亲给我看了那封电报。‘R.荷尔姆斯军
士……在解放法国的战役中牺牲。’
“‘我本来希望有一天你和罗宾结婚的。’她母亲说，‘他是我唯一一个孩子，我本希望自己
能做祖母，有非常可爱的小宝宝’——她真是那么说的！
“两年后，她也去世了。医生说是‘肺炎，胸部着凉所致’，但我认为这是典型的伤心过
度。如果有个孩子，那我们俩就都不会这样了。”
玛丽·史密斯又安静了一会儿没说话。她轻柔地抚摩着那棵刻过的树，就像她曾经抚摩他
一样。“现在，他们想把我们的树从我身边夺走。”她又轻声抽泣一下，然后她转向我，“当时
我年轻漂亮，我爱嫁给谁都可以，我当时可不是像你现在看到的这么老。我拥有生命里我想
要的一切，一个值得爱的男人、健康的身体和充满梦想的未来。”
再一次，她顿了顿，环顾四周看了看。微风轻轻吹拂着树叶，发出叹息般的沙沙声。“当
然，那时还有其他人，但他们一点也比不上我的罗宾！”她加强了语气说，“现在我一无所有
——除了残留在这棵树上的记忆。那个可恶的家伙竟建议把路修在我们站的这个地方，我真
想用双手掐死他，我会对他说：你从没爱过吗，你活过吗，你从不知道什么叫记忆吗？你知
道，不仅仅是我们，现在我仍能看见有人像当年的我和罗宾那样到这儿来。是的，我一定要
对他说！”
我转过身去，心里感到很难过。
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