Late Summer
夏末
欧内斯特•海明威
欧内斯特•海明威，美国著名小说家。海明威出生于美国伊利诺伊州芝加哥市郊区的奥克帕克，晚年在爱达荷州凯彻姆的家中自杀身亡。海明威代表作有《老人与海》《太阳照样升起》《永别了，武器》《丧钟为谁而鸣》等。海明威被誉为美利坚民族的精神丰碑，并且是“新闻体”小说的创始人，他的笔锋一向以“文坛硬汉”著称。海明威的写作风格以简洁著称，对美国文学及20世纪文学的发展有极深远的影响。众所周知，海明威的文学生涯与战争密不可分，而该篇短文《夏末》则来自于他的《永别了，武器》，描绘出夏末乡村里士兵备战的苍凉场景，画面感极强。
 
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders①, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching find afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.
The plain was rich with crops; there were many orchards of fruit trees and beyond the plain the mountains were brown and bare. There was fighting in the mountains and at night we could see the flashes from the artillery② . In the dark it was like summer lightning, but the nights were cool and there was not the feeling of a storm coming.
Sometimes in the dark we heard the troops marching under the window and guns going past pulled by motor-tractors. There was much traffic at night and many mules on the roads with boxes of ammunition③ on each side of their pack-saddles and gray motor-trucks that carried men, and other trucks with loads covered with canvas that moved slower in the traffic. There were big guns too that passed in the day drawn by tractors, the long barrels of the guns covered with green branches and green leafy branches and vines laid over the tractors.
 
翻译（反白可见）
      那年夏末，我们住在村中一间小屋里。从村子向外望去，视野跨越河流，穿过平原，直抵山峦。河底的鹅卵石和大板石随处可见，在阳光下，又似乎干干的，很苍白。蓝蓝的河水很是清澈，一刻不停地在河道里哗哗流淌。部队路过房子，沿着大路一直向前，踏得到处尘土飞扬，荡起的灰尘布满枝头。树干早已蒙上厚厚一层灰，那年的叶子落得特别早。我们看着部队大步向前，尘土漫天，叶子在这一片轰隆隆声中纷纷掉落。部队走了，路上空空荡荡，光秃秃、白晃晃，只有落叶，散落在地上。
      平原上庄稼长得丰茂，片片果园点缀其中。而背后深褐色的大山却光秃秃的，毫无生气。山里在打仗，夜里能够看到大炮的火光闪烁。漆黑的夜色中，那炮火的光好似夏日雨夜的闪电，然而夜很凉，丝毫没有暴风雨将至的感觉。
      时而在夜里，能够听得到窗外有部队行进，火炮被摩托牵引车拖着，一片隆隆之声。夜晚的交通无比繁忙，骡子驮着一箱箱军火，背鞍两侧一边一个。灰色的卡车载着战士们，还有一些拉着货物，外面罩着帆布，缓慢行驶。白天也会有重型火炮从这里经过，由拖拉机拉着。火炮上满满地盖着绿色的枝条，而拖拉机也被满是绿叶的树枝和藤蔓包裹得严严实实。