在遼遠的海極

在遼遠的海極

than than her,an

作者簡介

安徒生1805年4月2日生於丹麥菲英島歐登塞

的貧民區,父親是個窮鞋匠。安徒生童年喪父,母親改嫁。他從小為貧困折磨,先後在幾家店鋪學徒,沒有受過正規教育。1819年後開始學習寫作。他寫的作品不適合演出,沒有被採用。後來他得到資助上學,寫了一些作品。他的第一部重要作品《1828和1829年從霍爾門運河至阿邁厄島東角步行記》於1829年問世,受到社會的初步承認。1833年寫了《埃格內特和美人魚》(詩劇)、《即興詩人》(小說,1835),兩部作品出版後,他的名字開始享譽國際。
他的第一部《講給孩子們聽的故事集》包括《打火匣》、《小克勞斯和大克勞斯》、《豌豆上的公主》、《小意達的花兒》等。
安徒生的作品大多帶有自傳的性質。
他一生堅持不懈地進行創作,把他的天才和生命獻給了“未來的一代”,共寫了168篇童話和故事。作品被譯成80多種語言。
1875年8月4日,安徒生在哥本哈根去世。

原文

SOME great ships had been sent up towards the North Pole,to explore the most distant coasts,and to try how far men might penetrate up there.For more than a year they had already been pushing their way among ice and mist,and had endured many hardships;and now the winter was begun,and the sun had disappeared.For many many weeks there would now be a long night.All around was a single field of ice;the ships had been made fast to it,and the snow had piled itself up in great masses,and out of these,huts had been built in the form of beehives, some of them large as our old grave-mounds,others only containing room enough for two or four men.But it was not dark,for the Northern Lights flamed red and blue,like great continual fireworks;and the snow glistened,so that the night here was one long,flaming twilight hour.When the gleam was brightest,the natives came in crowds,wonderful to behold in their hairy fur dresses;and they rode in sledges formed of blocks of ice,and brought with them furs in great bundles,so that the snow houses were furnshed with warm carpets;and,in turn,the furs also served for coverlets when the sailors went to bed under their roofs of snow,while outside it froze in far different fashion than in the hardest winter here with us.In our regions it was still the late autumn-time;and they thought of that up there,and thought of the sunshine at home,and of the yellow and red leaves on the trees.The clock showed that it was evening,and time to go to sleep;and in one of the huts two men had already stretched themselves out to rest.The younger of these had his best,dearest treasure,that he had brought from home-the Bible which his grandmother had given him on his departure.Every night it lay beneath his head,and he knew from his childish years what was written in it .Every day he read in the book,and often the holy words came into his mind where it is written,“If I take the wings of the morning,and flee into the uttermost parts of the sea,even there The art with me,and They right hand shall up-hold me”;and,under the influence of these words of truth and in faith,he closed his eyes,and sleep came upon him,and dreams-the manifestation of Providence to the spirit.The soul lived and was working while the body was enjoying its rest:he felt this life,and it seemed to him as if dear old well-known melodies were sounding,as if the mild breezes of summer playing around him;and over his bed he beheld a brightness,as if something were shin-in in through the roof of snow.He lifted up his head,and behold,the bright gleam was neither wall nor roof, but came from the mighty pinions of an angel,into whose beaming face he was gazing.As if from the cup of a lily the angel arose from among the leaves of the Bible,and on his stretching out his arm,the walls of the snow hut sank down around,as though they had been a light airy veil of mist;the green meadows and hillocks of home,and its russet woods,lay spread around him in the quiet sunshine of a beauteous autumn day;the nest of the stork was empty,but ripe fruit still clung to the wild apple tree,although the leaves had fallen;the red hips gleamed,and the magpie whistled in the green cage over the window of the peasant's cottage that was his home;the magpie whistled the tune that had been taught him,and the grandmother hung green food around the cage,as he,the grandson,had been accustomed to do;and the daughter of the blacksmith,very young and fair,stood the well drawing water,and nodded to the grand-dame,and the old woman nodded to her,and showed her a letter that had come from a long way off.That very morning the letter had arrived from the cold regions of the North-there where the grandson was resting in the hand of God.And they smiled and wept;and he,far away among the ice and snow,under the pinions of the angel,he,too,smiled and wept with them in spirit,for he saw them and heard them.
And from the letter they read aloud the words of Holy Writ,that in the uttermost parts of the sea.His right hand would be a stay and a safety.And the sound of a beauteous hymn welled up all around;and the angel spread his wings like a veil over the sleeping youth.The vision had fled,and it grew dark in the snow hut;but the Bible rested beneath his head,and faith and hope dwelt in his soul.God was with him;and he carried home about with him in his heart,even in the uttermost parts of the sea.

譯文

有幾艘大船開到北極去;它們的目的是要發現陸地和海的界線,同時

也要試驗一下,人類到底能夠向前走多遠。它們在霧和冰中已經航行了好幾年,而且也吃過不少的苦頭。現在冬天開始了,太陽已經不見了。漫長的黑夜將要一連持續好幾個星期。四周是一望無際的冰塊。船隻已經凝結在冰塊的中間。雪堆積得很高;從雪堆中人們建立起蜂窠似的小屋——有的很大,像我們的古冢(註:這是指歐洲現存的一些史前期的古墓。有的還要大,可以住下三四個人。但是這兒並不是漆黑一團;北極光射出紅色和藍色的光彩,像永遠不滅的、大朵的焰火。雪發出亮光,大自然是一起黃昏的彩霞。
當天空是最亮的時候,當地的土人就成群結隊地走出來。他們穿著毛茸茸的皮衣,樣子非常新奇。他們坐著用冰塊製作成的雪橇,運輸大捆的獸皮,好使他們的雪屋能夠鋪上溫暖的地氈。這些獸皮還可以當做被子和褥子使用。當外面正在結冰、冷得比我們嚴寒的冬天還要冷的時候,水手們就可以裹著這些被子睡覺。
在我們住的地方,這還不過是秋天。住在冰天雪地里的他們也不禁想起了這件事情。他們記起了故鄉的太陽光,同時也不免記起了掛在樹上的紅葉。鐘上的時針指明這正是夜晚和睡覺的時候。事實上,冰屋裡已經有兩個人躺下來要睡了。
這兩個人之中最年輕的那一位身邊帶著他最好和最貴重的寶物——一部《聖經》。這是他動身前他的祖母送給他的。他每天晚上把它放在枕頭底下,他從兒童時代起就知道書裡面寫的是什麼東西。他每天讀一小段,而且每次翻開的時候,他就讀到這幾句能給他安慰的神聖的話語:“我若展開清晨的翅膀,飛到海極居住,就是在那裡,你的手必引導我,你的右手,也必扶持我。
他記住這些含有真理的話,懷著信心,閉起眼睛;於是他睡著了,做起夢來。夢就是上帝給他的精神上的啟示。當身體在休息的時候,靈魂就活躍起來,他能感覺到這一點;這好像那些親愛的、熟識的、舊時的歌聲;這好像那在他身邊吹動的、溫暖的夏天的風。他從他睡的地方看到一漂白光在他身上擴展開來,好像是一件什麼東西從雪屋頂上照進來了似的。他抬起頭來看,這白天並不是從牆上、或從天花板上射來的。它是從安琪兒肩上的兩個大翅膀上射下來的。他朝他的發光的、溫柔的臉上望去。
這位安琪兒從《聖經》的書頁里升上來,好像是從百合的花萼里升上來似的。他伸開手臂,雪屋的牆在向下墜落,好像不過是一層輕飄的薄霧似的。故鄉的綠草原、山丘和赤褐色的樹林在美麗的秋天的太陽光中靜靜地展開來。鸛鳥的窠已經空了,但是野蘋果樹上仍然懸著蘋果,雖然葉子都已經落掉了。玫瑰射出紅光;在他的家——一個農舍——的窗子面前,一隻八哥正在一個小綠籠子裡唱著歌。這隻八哥所唱的就正是他以前教給它的那支歌。祖母在籠子上掛些鳥食,正如他——她的孫子——以前所作過的那樣。鐵匠的那個年輕而美麗的女兒,正站在井邊汲水。她對祖母點著頭,祖母也對她招手,並且給她看一封遠方的來信。這封信正是這天從北極寒冷的地方寄來的。她的孫子現在就在上帝保護之下,住在那兒。
她們不禁大笑起來,又不禁哭起來;而他住在冰天雪地里,在安琪兒的雙翼下,也不禁在精神上跟她們一起笑,一起哭。她們高聲地讀著信上所寫的上帝的話語:就是在海極居住,“你的右手,也必扶持我。”四周發出一陣動聽的念聖詩的聲音。安琪兒在這個夢中的年輕人身上,展開他的迷霧一般的翅膀。
他的夢做完了。雪屋裡是一起漆黑,但是他的頭底下放著《聖經》,他的心裡充滿了信心和希望。“在這海極的地方”,上帝在他的身邊,家也在他的身邊!
(1856年)

作品評述

這篇作品最先發表在《丹麥大眾曆書》里。安徒生在這裡熱忱地歌誦了上帝——這也是他兒時在他篤信上帝的父母的影響下所形成的信念的再現。“雪屋裡是一起漆黑,但是他的頭底下放著《聖經》,他的心裡充滿了信心和希望。‘在這海極的地方’,上帝在他的身邊,家也在他的身邊!”對安徒生說來,上帝不是抽象的“神”,而是“信心”和“希望”的化身。人在困難的時候需要精神力量的支持,但安徒生在當時的現實社會中找不到這種力量,他只有在“上帝”身上尋求出路,他的出發點是人民,特別是那些善良勤勞的人民。

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