第1章 海之滨AttheEdgeoftheSea

[美］蕾切尔卡逊/Rachel Carson

海岸是一个古老的世界。自从有地球和大海，就有了这个水陆相接的地方。人们却感觉它是一个总在进行创造、生命力顽强而又充沛的世界。每当我踏入这个世界，感觉到生物之间以及每一生物与它周围的环境之间，通过错综复杂的生命结构彼此相连的时候，我对它的美，对它的深层意蕴，都会产生某种新的认识。

我想起海岸，心中就有一个地方因为它所表现出的独特美景而感动。那是一个隐匿于洞中的水潭。平时，这个洞被海水淹没，一年当中只有海潮降落到最低，以至低于水潭时，人们才能在这难得的短时间内看见它。也许正因为如此，它获得了某种特殊的美。我选好这样一个低潮的时机，希望能看一眼水潭。根据推算，潮水将在清晨退下去。我知道，如果不刮西北风，远处的风暴就不会掀起惊涛骇浪，海平面就会落得比水潭的入口还低。夜里突然下了几场预示不祥的阵雨，碎石般的雨点密集地打在屋顶上。清晨，我向外眺望，只见天边笼罩着灰蒙蒙的曙光，只是太阳还没有升起。水和空气一片暗淡。一轮明月挂在海湾对面的西天上，月下灰暗的一线就是远方的海岸——八月的满月把海潮吸得很低，低到那与人世隔离的海的世界的门槛。在我观望的时候，一只海鸥飞过云杉。冉冉升起的太阳把它的腹部照成粉色。天终于晴了。

后来，当我在高于海潮的水潭入口附近驻足时，四周已笼罩着玫红色的晨光。从我立足的峭岩底部，一块被青苔覆盖的礁石伸向大海的最深处。海水拍击着礁石周围，水藻上下左右地漂动，像皮革般滑溜溜、亮闪闪。通往隐藏的小洞和洞中水潭的路径是那些凸现的礁石。偶尔一阵强于一阵的波涛，悠然地漫过礁石的边缘，并在岩壁上击成水沫。在这波涛间歇的时间足以让我踏上礁石，足以让我欣赏那仙境般的水潭。那平时不露面，露面也只是一瞬间的小潭。

我跪在那海苔藓铺成的湿漉漉的地毯上，向那些黑洞里窥探，就是这些黑洞把水潭环抱成浅盆模样。洞的底部距离顶部只有几英寸，一面天造明镜使得洞顶上的一切生物都倒映在下面纹丝不动的水中。

在透明如镜的水底，铺着一层碧绿的海绵。洞顶上一片片灰色的海蛸闪闪发光，一堆堆柔软的珊瑚披着淡淡的杏黄色衣裳。就在我朝洞里窥探时，从洞顶上挂下一只小海星，仅仅悬在一条线上，或许就在它的一只管足上。它向下接触到自己的倒影。多么完美的画面！看上去不是一只海星，而是一对海星。水中倒影的美，清澈的水潭本身的美，这都是些稍纵即逝的事物所体现的强烈而动人心扉的美——海水一旦漫过小洞，这种美便不复存在了。

The shore is an ancient world，for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water.Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life.Each time that I enter it，I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings，sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another，and each with its surroundings.

In my thoughts of the shore，one place stands apart for its revelation of exquisite beauty.It is a pool hidden within a cave that one can visit only rarely and briefly when the lowest of the year’s low tides fall below it，and perhaps from that very fact it acquires some of its special beauty.Choosing such a tide，I hoped for a glimpse of the pool.The ebb was to fall early in the morning.I knew that if the wind held from the northwest and no interfering swell ran in from a distant storm the level of the sea should drop below the entrance to the pool.There had been sudden ominous showers in the night，with rain like handfuls of gravel flung on the roof.When I looked out into the early morning the sky was full of a gray dawn light but the sun had not yet risen.Water and air were pallid.Across the bay the moon was a luminous disc in the western sky，suspended above the dim line of distant shore the full August moon，drawing the tide to the low，low levels of the threshold of the alien sea world.As I watched，a gull flew by，above the spruces.Its breast was rosy with the light of the unrisen sun.The day was，after all，to be fair.

Later，as I stood above the tide near the entrance to the pool，the promise of that rosy light was sustained.From the base of the steep wall of rock on which Istood，a moss-covered ledge jutted seaward into deep water.In the surge at the rim of the ledge the dark fronds of oar weeds swayed smooth and gleaming as leather.The projecting ledge was the path to the small hidden cave and its pool.Occasionally a swell，stronger than the rest，rolled smoothly over the rim and broke in foam against the cliff.But the intervals between such swells were long enough to admit me to the ledge and long enough for a glimpse of that fairy pool，so seldom and so briefly exposed.

And so I knelt on the wet carpet of sea moss and looked back into the dark cavern that held the pool in a shallow basin.The floor of the cave was only a few inches below the roof，and a mirror had been created in which all that grew on the ceiling was reflected in the still water below.Under water that was clear as glass the pool was carpeted with green sponge.Gray patches of sea squirts glistened on the ceiling and colonies of raft coral were a pale apricot color.In the moment when I looked into the cave a little elfin starfish hung down，suspended by the merest thread，perhaps by only a single tube foot.It reached down to touch its own reflection，so perfectly delineated that there might have been，not one starfish，but two.The beauty of the reflected images and of the limpid pool itself was the poignant beauty of things that are ephemeral，existing only until the sea should return to fill the little cave.