Writing Prose – Techniques and Purposes( Third Edition)

When I was in the college in the end of 70’s, I borrowed two or three books from the library for over three years. One of them was “Writing Prose – Techniques and Purposes (Third edition) edited by Thomas S. Kane and Leonard J. Peters from University of Connecticut.

I tried to buy this book but failed. So I had to copy the book page by page. Some of essays are:

1. A Fable for Tomorrow by Rachel Carson

2. Whistling of Birds by D. H. Lawrence

3. If I were Sixteen Today by Marianne Moore

4. A Dream of Red Mansions by ??

Later I brought the book in October 3, 1983. But it was an Chinese press illegal copy edited. Some essays as I mentioned above are not in the copy. So I have to use my handwriting copy to check on the internet. It’s not easy. I found the first prose: A Fable for tomorrow. I once translated it into Chinese. I would like to share them with the readers.

明天的传说

——雷启尔. 卡森

在美国中部曾经有一座小镇，那里所有的生命似乎都生活在与自己环境协调的气氛之中。这座小镇坐落在星罗棋布的富饶农场包围之中，田里种满了谷物，山坡上果树遍布。当春天来到时，绿色的田野上覆盖着白云般的花朵。在秋天，橡树、枫树和杨树变成了火焰般的色彩，在青松的背景衬托下燃烧着、闪耀着。然后狐狸在山坳中嚎叫起来，麋鹿静悄悄地穿过田野，半隐在秋天清晨的雾霭里。

沿着大道，月桂、荚莲和桤木、蕨类和野花一年之中大部分时间都在取悦着旅游者的眼睛。甚至在冬天也有美不胜收的所在，无数的鸟儿啄食浆果以及露出在白雪上的枯死的野草的穗儿。实际上，这里的乡村以其大量各式品种的鸟类而著称，当春夏两季候鸟成群飞过时，人们不远万里赶来观赏它们。另一些人在溪流中垂钓，清爽冰冷的溪水从山上流出，注满了有鳟鱼的绿荫池塘。因此许多年之前，第一批原住民就在这里盖起他们的房子，打出他们的水井，建起他们的谷仓。

A FABLE FOR TOMORROW

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 drifted 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.

Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wildflowers delighted the traveler's eye through much of the year. Even in winter the road- sides were places of beauty, where countless birds came to feed on the berries and on the seed heads of the dried weeds rising above the snow. The country- side 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 great 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.

然而，奇怪的阴影笼罩着这个地区，一切都开始改变了。某种邪恶的咒语在村落里扎下了根：神秘的疾病席卷鸡群，牛羊都得病死了。到处都是死亡的阴影。农夫们谈论着他们家人当中的众多病人。镇上的医生为出现在病人中的新的种类的疾病而感到越来越困惑。发生了若干突然和未曾料到的死亡，不仅发生在成人身上，而且发生在孩子身上，当他们在玩耍时突然被击倒，几小时之内就死了。

到处是奇怪的静寂，比如说鸟儿，它们到哪里去了？许多人怀着困惑不安的心情谈论着它们。后院的喂鸟站被遗弃了，任何地方可以看见的少量鸟儿都是半死不活的：它们猛烈地颤抖着，无法飞起来。这是一个无声的春天，清晨曾有过知更鸟、猫头鹰、鸽子、鲣鸟、鹪鹩以及许多其他鸟儿组成黎明大合唱，但如今却无声了，只有被寂静笼罩着的田野、树林和沼地。

Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had 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 among 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.

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 violently 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.

农场里的母鸡在孵蛋，可是没有小鸡被孵出来。农夫们抱怨说他们无法养猪了，猪仔太小了，小猪只能存活几天。苹果树就要开花了，可是花朵之间却没有嗡嗡叫得蜜蜂，因此不能给花儿传播花粉了，也就不会再结果了。

曾是那样吸引人的路旁，如今是成排的枯黄凋零的植物，似乎被火烧过了。这里也是一片寂静，被所有生物所抛弃了。甚至连山涧如今也变得奄奄一息，渔夫不再来了，因为所有的鱼都死了。

屋檐下的沟渠，房顶上的瓦与瓦之间，一块块由被白色颗粒状粉末组成的斑痕依然可见。几周之前，它们如雪片般降落在房檐和草坪上，落在田地和溪流中。

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 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.

The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and 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 Rachel Carson visited them, for all the fish had died.

In the gutters 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.

不是魔法，也不是敌对行动停止了这个饱尝苦难的世界中新生命的复活。是人们自己导致了这一切。

这个小镇实际上并不存在，可是在美国和世界上其他的地方，可能早已有一千个这样的例子了。我不知道还有任何国家曾经历了我所描写的这些不幸，但这些灾难中的每个例子，在某些地方确实已经发生过了，许多现实中的社会已经遭受了大量的苦难。一个几乎未被察觉的可怕幽灵已经爬在我们身上，这个想象中的悲剧可能早已变成了人所皆知的荒凉现实……

No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.

This town 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 suffered 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. ...