Sweet September By Hal Borlnd September is more than a month, really; it is a season, an achievement in itself. It begins with August's leftovers and it ends with October's preparations, but along the way it achieves special satisfactions. After summer's heat and haste, the year consolidates itself. Deliberate September—in its own time and tempo—begins to sum up another summer. With September comes a sense of autumn. It creeps in on a misty dawn and vanishes in the hot afternoon. It tiptoes through the treetops, rouging a few leaves, then rides a tuft（头发羽毛等的一绺） of thistledown across the valley and away. It sits on a hilltop and hoots like an October owl in the dusk. It plays tag with the wind. September is a challenging busy as a squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid brook. It is summer's ripeness and richness fulfilled. Some of the rarest days of the year come in the September season—days when it is comfortably cold but pulsing with life, when the sky is clear and clean, the air crisp, the wind free of dust. Meadows still smell of hay and the sweetness of cut grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Goldenrod comes by mid-August, but rises to a peak of golden abundance in early September. Late thistles make spectacular purple accents. And asters blossom everywhere, along the roadsides, in meadows, on the hilltops, even in city lots, raging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender to the royal New England purple. We think of spring as the miracles time, when opening bud and new leaf proclaim the persistence of life. But September is when the abiding wonder makes itself known in a subtler way. Now growth comes to annual fruition, and preparations are completed for another year, another generation. The acorn ripens and the hickory nut matures. The plant commits its future to the seed and the root. The insect stows tomorrow in the egg and pupa. The surge is almost over and life begins to relax. The green prime is passing. The trees begin to proclaim the change. Soon the leaves will be discarded, the grass will sere. But the miracle of life persists, the mysterious germ of growth and renewal that is the seed itself. 甜美的九月 真的，九月不仅仅是一个月份，它还是一个季节，一份成就。它始于八月的余热，终于十月繁忙的准备。但在这之间，它带来了异常的惊喜与满足。熬过夏季的燥热， 这年就平静下来。九月，伴着它的时令，踩着它的节拍，翩然而至，宣告夏季的结束。 九月悄然给我们捎来了一丝秋意。它无声无息地浸入雾蒙蒙的清晨，又在阳光煦暖的午后没了踪影；它蹑手蹑脚地跨过树梢，掠过些许叶子，又轻踏一簇毛蓟绕过山谷而去。它时而独栖山顶，像十月黄昏中猫头鹰的鸣叫；时而又同微风嬉戏；时而如山核树上的松鼠，忙得不亦乐乎；时而如慵懒的小溪，汩汩流淌。夏季的成熟与丰饶成就了甜美的九月。 九月给我们带来了一年中最难得的时光：晴空万里，秋高气爽，清风徐来，一尘不染，生命与季节一起脉动。草场上散发着新草垛及新刈绿草的清香。九月花草争荣，不亚于百花竞放的五月，又是一个繁华似锦的季节。黄花在八月中旬含苞欲放，待到九月初花重四野，遍地金黄。晚蓟却争紫斗艳，引人入胜。从纯白到各种色调的熏衣草紫再到新英格兰的贵族紫，紫苑轰轰烈烈地到处绽放：小路旁，草场中，山顶上，甚至在市郊空地里。 新叶悄然吐绿，揭示着生命永恒的主题。在我们看来春天是个充满奇迹的季节。但却是九月让我们不知不觉地感受这种永恒奇迹。此时，一年的成长带来了一度的丰硕, 也为新的一年即将诞生的生命做好了准备。橡子熟了，山桃黄了，植物把未来寄托给种子和根须。昆虫把明天蕴藏在卵蛹之中。奔放的旋律已接近尾声，生命开始归于平静。 欣欣向荣的绿色生命季节正渐行渐远。渐黄的树木开始宣告季节的变更，很快叶落归根，小草即将枯萎。但生命的奇迹依然持续，那就是种子所孕育的萌芽和再生的神奇力量。 Essay—Sweet September 2
This is gossamer season. Dawn shimmers with spider filaments, proof that late hatches of spiderlings have the instinct to travel. On such gossamer strands tiny spiders have traveled into the Arctic and almost to the summits of the Himalayas. Soon pods will open, with their silver floss. This is the season of the harvest moon. With reasonably clear skies it will be a moonlit week, for the harvest moon is not hasty; it comes early and stays late. There was a time when the busy farmer could return to the fields after supper and continue his harvest by moonlight. There's still harvesting to be done, but much of it now centers on the Kitchen, the late sweet corn, the tomatoes, the root vegetables. The canning, the preserving, the freezing, the kitchen harvest in all its variety, reaches its peak. First frost comes in the night, a clear, scant-starred night when the moon is near its fullness. It comes without a whisper, quiet as thistledown, brushing the comer of a hillside garden. Dawn comes and you see its path—the glistening leaf, the gloaming stem, the limp, blackening garden vine. Another night or two the frost walks the valleys in the moonlight. Then it goes back beyond the northern hills to wait a little longer, and the golden mildness of early autumn comforts the land. A faint anise smell is on the air, goldenrod scent. The mist swirls and September sun shines through the deep-blue sky of September. By September’s end the treasure chest of autumn begins to spill over with wealth. You see it glowing in the quiet afternoon, aflame in the sunset. Woodland, roadside and dooryard will soon be jeweled beyond a rajah’s richest dreams. The year’s season in the sun has run its course. Nature begins to prepare for winter. After the color in the woodlands, the leaves will blanket the soil. The litter of autumn will become mulch, then humus for root and tender seed. The urgency of growth is ended for another year, but life itself is hoarded in root and bulb and seed and egg. 这是游丝的季节。黎明之际，闪光的蜘蛛丝表明晚生的蜘蛛有旅行的天性。这些小东西就是踏着这摸不到的游丝走向北极，也几乎爬到喜马拉雅山的顶峰。不久，马利筋豆荚就要绽裂，绒毛丛丛，犹如银丝。 这是丰收的季节。天空明净怡人，一周都会明月高照。她悠然自得，不慌不忙，早早光临，迟迟不归。这时，忙碌的农人可以在晚饭后返回田间，借朗朗月光继续劳作。当然还有其它要忙碌的，但大多是菜园的活儿。晚熟的甜玉米、西红柿，还有根菜在这里进行罐装、贮存、冷冻等诸多步骤，人们忙得不可开交. 在一个月圆星稀之夜，第一场霜降临了。它默默不语，静如蓟花冠毛，轻轻掠过山坡上果园的一角。当黎明来临，到处都会发现它的踪迹，在亮光闪闪的叶子上，薄雾微泛的根茎上，盘曲黝黑的藤蔓上…… 再过一两个晚上，它趁着月光的清辉，漫过山谷，然后踱至北山后边，稍歇脚步。金色的初秋温柔地抚慰着大地。一丝淡淡的茴香味弥漫在空气中，那是黄花的芬芳。薄雾如烟缭绕。秋阳穿透了九月湛蓝的天空。 九月终了，秋天的金库财富四溢。它们在宁静的午后发光，于黄昏之际变红，如同火焰。林中，路旁，庭院，处处金碧辉煌，就连帝王首领也梦想不及。 阳光下九月健步走完它的旅程，大自然开始进入冬季。丛林褪色，树叶凋零，大地铺满了厚毯。秋日的馈赠覆盖在大地之上，沃土滋养着根茎和细嫩的种子。生长的冲动中止了，静待来年，但是生命本身却藏身于根茎、籽卵之中，永无止息。
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