Piquette was picking up stones and snail shells and then dropping them again.

皮格特正在从地上拾起一些石子和蜗牛壳，然后又丢到地上。

Who gives a good goddamn? she said.

谁有心思去管那些?她说。

It became increasingly obvious that, as an Indian, Piquette was a dead loss.

要想通过皮格特来了解印第安人的情况看来是不可能了，这一点已经越来越清楚了。

That evening I went out by myself, scrambling through the bushes that overhung the steep path, my feet slipping on the fallen spruce needles that covered the ground.

那天晚上，我独自一人出去，沿着陡峭的山路攀爬而行，一边走一边要用手扒开那些伸到路中间的灌木枝，而脚踏在铺着一层云杉针叶的地面上也是一滑一滑的。

When I reached the shore, I walked along the firm damp sand to the small pier that my father had built, and sat down there.

到了湖边后，我穿过坚实的湿沙滩，走到我父亲筑起的那道小防波堤上坐了下来。

I heard someone else crashing through the undergrowth and the bracken, and for a moment I thought Piquette had changed her mind, but it turned out to be my father.

我听到有人穿过灌木丛和羊齿蕨丛风风火火地一路行来，当下我还以为是皮格特回心转意了，没想到来的竟是我父亲。

He sat beside me on the pier and we waited, without speaking.

他挨着我在防波堤上坐下，我们俩都没说话，静静地在那等候着。

At night the lake was like black glass with a streak of amber which was the path of the moon.

夜间的湖面看起来像一块黑色玻璃，只有一线水面因映照着月光才呈现出琥珀色，

All around, the spruce trees grew tall and close-set, branches blackly sharp against the sky, which was lightened by a cold flickering of stars.

湖的周围到处密密丛丛地生长着高大的云杉树，在寒光闪烁的星空映衬下，云杉树的枝桠呈现出清晰的黑色剪影。

Then the loons began their calling. They rose like phantom birds from the nests on the shore, and flew out onto the dark still surface of the water.

过了一会儿，潜水鸟开始呜叫。它们像幽灵般地从岸边的窝巢中腾起，飞往平静幽暗的湖面上。

No one can ever describe that ululating sound, the crying of the loons, and no one who has heard it can ever forget it.

潜水鸟的鸣声悲凉凄厉，任何人都无法形容，任何人听后也难以忘怀。

Plaintive , and yet with a quality of chilling mockery , those voices belonged to a world separated by aeon from our neat world of summer cottages and the lighted lamps of home.

那种悲凉之中又带着冷嘲的声调属于另外一个遥远的世界，那世界与我们这个有着避暑别墅和居家灯火的美好世界相隔不下亿万年之遥。

They must have sounded just like that, my father remarked, before any person ever set foot here.

在人的足迹尚未踏入此地之前，我父亲开口说，它们一定也就是这样叫的。

Then he laughed. You could say the same, of course, about sparrows or chipmunk, but somehow it only strikes you that way with the loons.

说完他自己笑了起来。当然，你也可以这样去评论麻雀和金花鼠，但不知何故，你却只想到这样去评论潜水鸟。