The Way to Rainy Mountain
雨山行
N·Scott Momaday
N·斯科特·莫马迪
A single knoil rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range. For my people, the Kiowas, it is an old landmark, and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain. The hardest weather in the world is there. Winter brings blizzards, hot tornadic winds arise in the spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil's edge. The grass turns brittle and brown, and it cracks beneath your feet. There are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel. At a distance in July or August the steaming foliage seems almost to writhe in fire. Great green-and-yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in the plenty of time. Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man. To look upon that landscape in the early morning, with the sun at your back, is to lose the sense of proportion. Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun.
一座孤零零的小山丘在俄克拉荷马的平原上拔地而起，西面和北面蜿蜒绵亘着维奇塔山脉，在我们克尔瓦人看来，这是个古老的地标，被命名为雨山，那里有世界上最恶劣的天气。冬季有暴风雪狂哮，春季又会刮起热的旋风，夏季的草原如同铁砧一块，草变得脆弱枯黄，在人的脚下劈啪作响，河流和小溪的沿岸有几条绿带，那是由山核桃树、柳树和金缕梅组成的狭长的树丛，七八月份从远处看着冒着蒸汽的树叶就像在火中痛苦地扭动。大个儿的黄绿色的蚱艋蔓延在高高的草丛中的各个地方，像爆米花一样冷不防地蹦起叮人，乌龟在红土地上爬行，大部分时间哪儿都不去，孤独是这片土地的一部分。平原上的一切都是疏离开来的，所见之物不会混杂在一起，而是清晰可辨，一目了然。淸晨你再观看这片大地的景致，此时太阳在你的背后冉冉升起，你会失去事物的比例感。想象力开始活跃起来，你会认为这就是上帝开始创世纪的地方。
I returned to Rainy Mountain in July. My grandmother had died in the spring, and I wanted to be at her grave. She had lived to be very old and at last infirm. Her only living daughter was with her when she died, and I was told that in death her face was that of a child.
我在七月里回到了雨山。我祖母在春季去世，我想去她的墓地看看。她很长寿，最后因年迈体弱而去世。她去世的时候她唯一健在的女儿陪伴在她的身边。我听说在去世的时候她的脸就如同一张孩子的脸。
I like to think of her as a child. When she was born, the Kiowas were living that last great moment of their history.
我喜欢把她想象成一个孩子。她出生时，克尔瓦人正处于他们历史上鼎盛时代的末期。