1、A fable for tomorrow (Rachel Carson) There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom d
2、rifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.从前在美国中心有一个小镇，那里的万物看上去都与其四周的环境融洽相处。小镇的四周是像
3、棋盘交错的生意盎然的农庄，还有一块块的田地和一座座遍布山坡的果园。春天来了，白色的鲜花云彩般地漂浮在田野上；秋天到了，橡树、枫树和桦树色彩斑斓，在一片松树林间火焰般地燃烧与跳跃。小山上狐狸吠叫，田野间小鹿静静地跃过，所有的一切都在秋天清晨的薄雾中半隐半现。Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the travelers eye through much of the year. Even in winter the roadsides were places of b
4、eauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The countryside was, in fact, famous for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and when the flood of migrants was pouring through in spring and fall people traveled from gre
5、at distances to observe them. Others came to fish the streams, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills and contained shady pools where trout lay. So it had been from the days many years ago when the first settlers raised their houses, sank their wells, and built their barns.在路的两旁，一年中许多时候，月桂树、荚莲
6、、桤木、蕨类植物和各样的野花都能让过往的行人赏心悦目。即使是冬天，路边的景色依旧是美不胜收，那里无数的小鸟来觅取浆果莓和露在雪地上的枯枝上的种子。事实上，这乡村正是由于鸟类的数量和种类之繁多而出名的。在候鸟群潮涌而来的春秋季节，人们从大老远的地方慕名前来欣赏。还有的人来这里的小溪垂钓。清冽的溪水从山中流出，溪水中有许多鳟鱼藏身的背阴的水潭。所以，从许多年前开始，第一批居住者就在这里盖房挖井，搭起了自己的谷仓。Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had
7、settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing am
8、ong their patients. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among adults but even among children, who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.后来，一种奇怪的摧毁力悄然袭击了这个地区，所有的一切都开始变了。某种邪恶的符咒笼罩了这个社区：神秘的疾病攻击了鸡群，牛、羊也纷纷病死，到处都有一层死亡的阴影。农夫们谈论着家中的许多疾病；镇上的医生也越来越因病人中出
9、现的新的病症而感到迷惑。在成人和孩子中发生了好几起突发的不明其由的死亡，那些孩子在玩耍中突然病倒，几小时后就死去了。There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example - where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled viole
10、ntly and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins, catbirds, doves, jays, wrens, and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh这里是一派奇怪的寂静。就说鸟儿们吧-它们都去哪儿了？许多人说起鸟儿的时
11、候都充满了迷惑与不安。他们后院的饲养站已经没有鸟儿光顾了。随处能见到的几只鸟都奄奄一息。他们猛烈地颤抖，却飞不起来。这是一个无声的春天。曾经是震动着画眉鸟、猫鸟、鸽子、樫鸟、欧鹪和许多鸟儿的黎明合唱声的清晨如今却寂然无声。田野间、树林中和沼泽地里也是一片寂静。On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched. The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs - the litters were small and the young survived only
12、a few days. The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms, so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit.在农庄，母鸡下蛋却孵不出小鸡。农夫们抱怨无法养猪，因为刚生下的猪崽太小了，小猪也只能活几天的功夫。苹果树开花了，可是没有蜜蜂在花丛中嗡嗡地采蜜，没有蜜蜂的授粉，也就没有任何果子。The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned an
13、d withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died.曾经是如此迷人的路旁如今却铺着黑黑的枯干的草木，仿佛是被一场大火烧过一般。那里也是一片寂静，因为所有的生物都遗弃了它。即使是溪流中也没有了生命。因为所有的鱼都已经死了，垂钓者也就不再来了。In the gu
14、tters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs, a white granular powder still showed a few patches; some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns, the fields and streams.在屋檐下的天沟里，屋顶的木瓦之间仍旧可见几片白色的粒状的粉末。几个星期之前，它像白雪一样洒在了屋顶上、草地上、田野里和溪流里。No witchcraft, no enemy actio
15、n had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.在这个遭受袭击的地球上，没有巫术，也没有敌人的行动抑制了新生命的复苏；这一切都是人自身造成的。Since the mid-1940s, over 500 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vern
16、acular as “pests“, and they are sold under thousand different brand names.自 20 世纪 40 年代中期起，人们制造了 500 多种基本的化学药品来杀死在现代语言中被称作“害虫“ 的昆虫、杂草、啮齿动物和其他的生物体，以几千种的品牌名称来出售它们。These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes - nonselective chemicals that ha
17、ve the power to kill every insect, the “good“ and the “bad,“ to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil - all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible
18、to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life?这些液体喷剂、粉末和雾状喷剂现在几乎普遍使用于农庄、花园、森林和家庭。非选择性的化学药品能杀死每只昆虫（不管是“好“的还是“坏“的） ，能使鸟儿不再歌唱，溪流中的鱼儿不再跳跃，能在树叶上覆盖一层致命的薄膜，并能存留在土地中。而造成这一切的预定的目标可能仅仅是一些杂草和昆虫。难道真的有人认为，我们在地球的表面撒下如此多的毒药，同时还能使它继续成为一个任何生命都能存活的地方吗？This town
19、 does not actually exist, but it might easily have a thousand counterparts in America or elsewhere in the world. I know of no community that has experienced all the misfortunes I describe. Yet every one of these disasters has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffer
20、ed a substantial number of them. A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know.这个小镇事实上并不存在，但是在美国或地球的别的地方我们能轻易地找到一千个与它对应的地方。我知道没有一个社区经历了我所描述的所有不幸，但是其中的每一个灾难都已经在某个地方发生了，许多社区已经遭受了相当多的灾难。一个冷酷的幽灵几乎是在不经意间已悄悄向我们走来了，而这个想像的悲剧也
21、许很容易就成为一个我们都应该知道的严酷的事实。NOTESThis text is the Foreword to Rachel Carsons acclaimed book Silent Spring, a prophetic expos of the long-term effects of pesticides upon our environment. In the Foreword, Rachel Carson illustrates vividly the harms done by chemicals to her imaginary American town.Rachel Carson is a marine biologist and an elegant author. She wrote a number of books and articles in the 1950s and 1960s that alerted Americans to dangers facing our natural environment.
