令我觉得有趣的是，我发现我的想象总是竭力靠近田园诗般的生活。这完完全全是另一个爱德蒙?卡尔。假如我们看见一叶扁舟靠向海岛的岸边，我的想象便随着那扁舟上的渔夫而去，看着他把船推上小海湾的沙滩，接着发出一声海鸟的叫唤，向家中人通报他的归来，他的女人马上出门迎接他。他们都很年轻，皮肤是金褐色的。她从他手中接过捕捞的鱼，他们那间茅草编成的棚屋里充满着健康和爱。
One night we passed two islands, steeply humped against faint reflected moonlight; and on each of them, high up, shone a steady yellow gleam.
有一天夜里，我们驶过了两座海岛，在海水反射的昏黄的月色映照下，海岛呈现出陡峭的驼峰形轮廓，两个海岛的峰顶上都闪烁着一种稳定的黄色的微光。 ‘Not lighthouses.' I said to Laura. ‘Villages.'
We gazed, as the ship slid by and the humps receded into darkness and even the lights were obscured by the shoulder of a hill, never to be seen by us again. So peaceful and secret; so self-contained .
One of the ship's officers joined us, off duty. “不是灯塔，”我对劳拉说。“是村落。”
我们注目凝视着，轮船这时已渐渐从岛边滑过，海岛的驼峰形轮廓也渐渐消失在一片黑暗中，连岛上的闪光都给一个山
肩挡住，从我们的视线中永远地消失了。多么宁静、隐秘而又深沉。
船上的一名下了班的高级船员走过来加入了我们的谈话。 Yes, 'he said, following our gaze. ‘One of them is a leper colony and the other a penal settlement.' God, is there no escape from suffering and sin?
“没错，”他顺着我们的目光望去，一边说，“其中的一个村落是麻风病患者聚居点，另一个是犯人劳改营。” 天哪，难道就没有办法摆脱苦难和罪恶吗?
Laura and I amuse ourselves by watching for the green flash which comes at the instant the sun disappears below the line of the.horizon.This does not happen every day, for sky must be entirely clear of cloud and clouds seem very liable to gather along the path of the setting sun, but we are as pleased as children when our game succeeds. Laura claps her hands. Only a second does it last, that streak of green light; we wait for it while the red ball, cut in half as though by a knife, sinks to
its daily doom . Then come the twilight colours of sea and heaven (we have discovered the fallacy of saying that darkness falls suddenly in these latitudes, at any rate on sea level), the wine pink width of water merging into lawns of aquamarine , and the sky a tender of pink and blue. But the green flash is our chief delight.
※ 劳拉和我还有一种白娱的方法，就是等着观看太阳从地平线上消失的那一瞬间产生的一道绿色的闪光。这种绿色的闪光不是每天都能看到的，只有当天空没有一丝云彩时才能看到，而云彩却又特别喜欢沿着日落的轨道聚集。每当我们的这一游戏成功(即看到绿光)时，我们就会像孩子般的兴高采烈，劳拉还会不住的拍手。那道绿色光芒一闪即逝。我们等着看这道绿光时，太阳宛如被刀子切去一半的红球，随即坠落到每日的归宿之处。接着便见大海和天空上出现一片茫茫的暮色(有人说，在这种纬度的地区的海面上，夜幕总是突如其来地降临，我们发现这种说法是错误的)，深红色的海面渐渐变成了一块块蓝绿色的草坪，天空则变成了一块柔和的浅红色和蓝色的调色板。但最使我们喜悦的还是那道绿色的
闪光。 ‘creme de menthe , ' says Laura ‘Jade, ' I say. ‘ Emerald , ' says Laura. ' Jade is too opaque ‘Vicious viridian , ' I say, not to be outdone .
'You always did lose yourself in the pleasure of words Edmund. Say green as jealousy and be done with it.' ‘I have never known the meaning of jealousy.' “薄荷酒色，”劳拉说。 “裴翠色，”我说。
“鲜绿色，”劳拉说，“裴翠色太暗了。” “墨绿色，”我不想输给她，又说了一句。
“爱德蒙，你一咬文嚼字起来总是那么忘乎所以。干脆就说绿得发青叫人嫉妒好了，别再争下去了。” “我可从来不知道什么是嫉妒。”
I am sorry to see the sun go, for one of the pleasures I have discovered is the warmth of his touch on my skin. At home in London I never noticed the weather, unless actually inconvenienced by fog or rain; I had no temptation to take a flying holiday to the South and understood little when people spoke or wrote of sunlight on white walls. Now the indolence of southern latitudes has captured me. I like to see dusky men sitting about doing nothing. I like the footfall of naked feet in the dust, silent as a oat passing. I like turning a corner from the shade of a house into the full to
rrid glare of an open space. I put my hand on metal railings and snatch it away, burnt. But it is seldom that I go ashore. ※ 看到太阳落下去了，我感到惋惜，因为我发觉温暖的阳光照到皮肤上是令人舒心惬意的。在家乡伦敦时，我从来不去注意天气情况，除非是雨和雾确实给我带来了不便。我又 从未想过去南方作一次短暂的旅行，因此也不大理解别人谈论或描写阳光洒满白墙的情景。而现在南纬地带懒洋洋的气氛深深地吸引着我。我喜欢看那些晒得黑黝黝的男人无所事事地闲坐着的样子，我喜欢听人们打赤脚踩踏在尘土中所发出的像猫儿一样轻的脚步声，我喜欢绕过一个屋角时从房屋的阴影中一步跨人在烈日照射下赤热耀眼的空旷场地时的感觉。我刚把手搭到金属栏杆上立刻便缩了回来，烫得要命。但我很少上岸。
I would never have believed in the simple bliss of being, day after day, at sea. Our ports of call are few, and when they do occur I resent them. I should like this empty existence to be prolonged beyond calculation. In the ship's library stands a large globe whose function so far as I am concerned is to reveal the proportion of ocean to the landmasses of the troubled would; the Pacific alone dwarfs all the continents put together. Blue, the colour of peace. And then I like all the small noises of a ship: the faint creaking, as of the saddle-leather to a horseman riding across turf , the s