优美英语散文:Ole and Trufa 两片树叶的爱情

So long as it was still day, Trufa managed somehow to endure her grief. But when it grew dark and cold and a piercing rain began to fall, she sank into despair. Somehow she felt that the blame for all the leafy misfortunes lay with the tree, the trunk with all its mighty limbs. Leaves fell, but the trunk stood tall, thick and firmly rooted in the ground. No wind, rain or hail could upset it. What did it matter to a tree, which probably lived forever, what become of a leaf? To Trufa, the trunk was a kind of god. It covered itself with leaves for a few months, then it shook them off. It nourished them with its sap for as long as it pleased, then it let them die of thirst. Trufa pleaded with the tree to give her back her Ole, to make it summer again, but the tree didn’t heed her prayers.

特鲁法从没想到一个夜晚能像今晚这么长——这么黑暗，这么严寒。她呼唤着奥立，希望能听到一声回答，可是奥立沉默着，没有给出一点他存在的迹象。

　　特鲁法对树说道：“既然你从我身边带走了奥立，把我也一起带走吧。”

　　可是甚至这个祈求树也没有注意。

Trufa didn’t think a night could be so long as this one—so dark, so frosty. She spoke to Ole and hoped for an answer, but Ole was silent and gave no sign of his presence.

Trufa said to the tree: “Since you’ve taken Ole from me, take me too.”

But even this prayer the tree didn’t acknowledge.

片刻后，特鲁法打瞌睡了。这不是睡，而是让人不适的衰弱无力。醒来后，她吃惊地发现她不挂在树上了，睡着时风已把她刮了下来。这给了她不同于伴着日出醒来的感觉，她所有的害怕和焦虑此刻都消失了。这次醒来给了她前所未有的意识。她知道现在她不只是一片依赖于风的一时兴致的树叶了，她成为宇宙的一部分。通过某些神秘的力量，特鲁法了解了自身分子，原子，质子和电子的奇迹，她所代表的巨大能量以及她是其中一部分的神圣计划。

After a while, Trufa dozed off. This wasn’t sleep but a strange languor. Trufa awoke and to her amazement found that she was no longer handing on the tree. The wind had blown her down while she was asleep. This was different from the way she used to feel when she awoke on the tree with the sunrise. All her fears and anxieties had now vanished. The awakening also brought with it an awareness she had never felt before. She knew now that she wasn’t just a leaf that depended on every whim of the wind, but that she was part of the universe. Through some mysterious force, Trufa understood the miracle of her molecules, atoms, protons and electrons－the enormous energy she represented and the divine plan of which she was a part.

奥立就躺在她身旁，他们怀着前所未有的爱问候对方。这不是依赖机会或反复无常的爱，这爱跟宇宙本身一样巨大和永恒。在四月至十一月间他们日日夜夜恐惧的结果却不是死亡而是解救。一阵和风把奥立和特鲁法带到空中，他们在只有解放自己进入永恒才能领悟到的无限幸福里冲入云宵。

Next to her lay Ole, and they greeted each other with a love they hadn’t been aware of before. This wasn’t a love that depended on chance or caprice, but a love as mighty and eternal as the universe itself. That which they had feared all the days and nights between April and November turned out to be not death but redemption. A breeze came and lifted Ole and Trufa in the air and they soared with the bliss known only by those who have freed themselves and have joined with eternity.

On the tip of a tree which had lost all its other leaves, two still remained hanging from one twig: Ole and Trufa. For some reason unknown to them, Ole and Trufa had survived all the rains, all the cold nights and winds. Who knows the reason one leaf falls and another remains? But Ole and Trufa believed the answer lay in the great love they bore one another. Ole was slightly bigger than Turfa and a few days older, but Trufa was prettier and more delicate. One leaf can do little for another when the wind blows, the rain pours, or the hail begins to fall. Still, Ole encouraged Ttufa at every opportunity. During the worst storms, when the thunder clapped, the lightning flashed and the wind tore off not only leaves but even whole branches, Ole pleaded with Trufa: “Hang on, Trufa! Hand on with all your might!”