雪夜的星辰

It had been snowing all night, not a single star in sight. My roommate and I , each wrapped①in a quilt②, were seated far apart in a different corner of the porch, facing each other and chatting away③. She exclaimed pointing to something afar, "Look, Venus is rising!" I looked up and saw nothing but a lamp round the bend in a mountain path. I beamed and said pointing to a tiny lamplight on the opposite mountain, "It's Jupiter over there!"More and more lights came into sight as we kept pointing here and there. Lights from hurricane lamps④flickering about in the pine forest created the scene of a star-studded⑤sky. With the distinction between sky and forest obscured⑥by snowflakes, the numerous lamp-lights now easily passed for as many stars. Completely lost in make-believe world, I seemed to see all the lamplights drifting from the ground. With the illusory⑦stars hanging still overhead, I was spared the effort of tracing their positions when I woke up from my dreams in the dead of night. Thus I found consolation⑧even on a lonely snowy night.

連夜降雪，一點星光都看不見。荷和我擁衾對坐，在廊子的兩角，遙遙談話。 荷指著說：“你看維納斯（Venus）升起來了！”我抬頭望時，卻是山路轉折處的路燈。我怡然一笑，也指著對山的一星燈火說：“那邊是丘比特（Jupiter）呢！”愈指愈多。松林中射來凌亂的風燈，都成了滿天星宿。真的，雪花隙里，看不出天空和森林的界線，將燈當作繁星，簡直是抵得過。 一念至誠的將假作真，燈光似乎都從地上飄起。這幻成的星光，都不移動，不必半夜夢醒時，再去追尋它們的位置。 于是寂寞雪夜，也有了慰安。

① wrap 英 [r?p] 美 [r?p] vt. 包；纏繞；隱藏；掩護vi. 包起來；纏繞；穿外衣 n. 外套；圍巾

② quilt 英 [kw?lt] 美 [kw?lt]n. 被子；棉被 vt. 東拼西湊地編；加軟襯料后縫制 vi. 縫被子

③ chat away 閑談

④ hurricane lamp n. [電] 防風燈；颶風燈；馬燈

⑤ star-studded ['stɑ:st?did] adj. 星羅棋布的

⑥ obscure 英 [?b'skj??] 美 [?b'skj?r]adj. 模糊的；晦澀的；昏暗的vt. 遮掩；使變暗；使難理解

⑦ illusory 英 [?'l(j)u?s(?)r?] 美 [?'lus?ri]adj. 錯覺的；幻影的；虛假的；產生幻覺的

⑧ consolation 英 [,k?ns?'le??(?)n]美 [?kɑns??le??n] n. 安慰；慰問；起安慰作用的人或事物