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第14课 |
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我们刚刚路过一群冰山中的一个，觉得非常有趣。它像一只巨大的北极熊，静卧于一个倒立的锥形上，这个倒立的锥形像一只扭曲的贝壳，随着海水慢慢转动。透过满溢的、像空气一样澄净的绿色海水，我们看到它层叠、嶙峋的底部。
这只北极熊足有10英尺高，不停地被湍急的小浪头拍打着。首先，一个浪头打在它的屁股上，扫过他的尾巴和双腿，退回海里。马上，一个更大的浪头又起来了，猛击它的后背，似乎一下就能将他击倒。但是，北极熊还是矗立着，只是缎子似的皮毛更光滑洁白了。
布鲁因掉过头，想从正面看看这个大胆的攻击者。这时这个无赖又形成了一个巨大的浪窝，准备再发出一击。一个巨大的浪头马上就要击中他了。浪头的威力巨大，形成了一团银色的水雾，洒在北极熊的鬃毛上，使它更明亮了。浪头过后，白色的泡沫喷涌而起，海浪掉转头，也急忙跑回自己的栖息之所。
小浪一点也不停歇。它们一起从四面八方冲过来，朝着共同的敌人，好像它们在水下已经商量好了似的，一起冲上前去，怒吼震天，泡沫飞溅，猛烈地振颤着北极熊，好像要让他四分五裂，变成碎片。但是我们错了！虽然浪儿在刹那间剧烈地奔涌，但是并没有伤害到布鲁因。随着银绿色的海浪退回海中，刚才的低鸣、浪尖和浪窝也都渐渐消失，这景象可以与最精美的雕塑媲美。大自然不仅向我们展示她那线条细腻、光影协调的石雕作品，还为它们涂上颜色。她可不是素描画家，她的画笔五颜六色。在描绘她的珍宝和天空时，毫不犹豫地用了鸽灰、祖母绿和天蓝色。
我们尽量向巨大的冰山靠拢。让我们非常高兴的是，我们本来希望发生的、刚刚看到的景象，在这里也发生着：猛烈的爆炸声，伴随着冰屑的溅落，然后是瀑布似的轰鸣和被高高掀起的海水，优美地滚动着，浪尖上覆盖着银光闪闪的泡沫。如果可能的话，请想象一下观者的感受：高耸的冰崖，吱吱爆裂，以可怕的气势向我们砸来。
长长的水线沉到深色的海里，白瓷一样的峭壁和玻璃般光滑的雕塑也沉了下去。另一些雕塑和峭壁浮了上来，盐水形成的一圈圈印记也浮上了水面，陌生的东西也浮了上来——峭壁、凹壁、凸块。它们浮得越来越高，沟壑处淌着泡沫组成的细流。冰峰、冰脊、冰尖什么的，隐约对望着。现在它停止翻滚，又开始吱吱作响了。冰山开始翻滚时，发出霹雷一样的怒吼，像炸药爆炸一样，飞溅出无数碎片。这个场面真是壮观极了。人们无法表达他们的感情，只是疯狂地大声欢呼着。
（露易斯·L·诺贝尔）
露易斯·L·诺贝尔（1813～1882年），出生于纽约奥瑟戈乡村。他12岁时，全家迁到密歇根的山林里。父亲去世后，他又回到纽约学习神学，1840年担任神职。约在这时，他发表了第一部作品——两首诗，描写了两个印度人之间的罗曼史。诺波先生在北加利福尼亚州生活过一段时间，又在哈德逊河的加斯基尔度过了一段时光，他在这时与艺术家科尔成了好朋友。科尔去世时，他为其写作回忆录。他的其他作品还有《时光与其他诗歌》、《与画家一起看冰山》。
We have just passed a fragment of some one of the surrounding icebergs that had amused us.It bore the resemblance ofa huge polar bear, reposing upon the base of an inverted cone, with a twist of a seashell, and whirling slowly round and round.The ever-attending green water, with its aerial clearness, enabled us to see its spiral folds and horns as they hung suspended in the deep.
The bear, a ten-foot mass in tolerable proportion, seemed to be regularly beset by a pack of hungry little swells.First, one would take him on the haunch, then whip back into the sea over his tail and between his legs.Presently a bolder swell would rise and pitch into his back with a ferocity that threatened instant destruction.It only washed his satin fleece the whiter.
While Bruin was turning to look the daring assailant in the face, the rogue had pitched himselfback into his cave.No sooner that, than a very bulldog ofa billow would attack him in the face.The serenity with which the impertinent as-sault was borne was complete.It was but a puff of silvery dust, powdering his mane with fresher brightness.Nothing would be left ofbull but a little froth of all the foam displayed in the fierce onset.He too would turn and scud into his hiding place.
Persistent little waves! After a dash, singly, all around, upon the common enemy, as if by some silent agreement underwater, they would all rush on at once, with their loudest roar and shaggiest foam, and overwhelm poor bear so completely that nothing less might be expected than to behold him broken in four quarters, and floating helplessly asunder.Mistaken spectators! Although, by his momentary rolling and plunging, he was evidently aroused, yet neither Bruin nor his burrow was at all the worse for all the wear and washing.
The deep fluting, the wrinkled folds, and cavities, over and through which the green and silvery water rushed back into the sea, rivaled the most exquisite sculpture.And nature not only gives her marbles, with the finest lines, the most perfect lights and shades, she colors them also.She is no monochromist, but polychroic, imparting such touches ofdove tints, emerald, and azure as she bestows upon her gems and skies.
We are bearing up under the big berg as closely as we dare.To our delight, what we have been wishing and watching for is actually taking place:loud explosions, with heavy falls of ice, followed by the cataract-like roar, and the high, thin seas, wheeling away beautifully crested with sparkling foam.Ifit is possible, imagine the effect upon the beholder:this precipice ofice, with tremendous cracking, is falling toward us with a majestic and awful motion.
Down sinks the long water line into the black deep; down go the porcelain crags and galleries of glassy sculpture — a speechless and awful baptism.Now it pauses, and returns:up rise sculptures and crags streaming with the shining white brine; up comes the great encircling line, followed by things new and strange — crags, niches, balconies, and caves; up, up, it rises, higher and higher still, crossing the very breast ofthe grand ice, and all bathed with rivulets ofgleaming foam.Over goes the summit, ridge, pinnacles, and all, standing off obliquely in the opposite air.Now it pauses in its upward roll:back it comes again, cracking, cracking, cracking, “groaning out harsh thunde.” as it comes, and threatening to burst, like a mighty bomb, into millions of glittering fragments.The spectacle is terrific and magnificent.Emotion is irrepressible, and peals of wild hurrah burst forth from all.