第十三届天津市高校翻译大赛英译汉赛题

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Thomas R. Vale and Geraldine R. Vale

West of the pine barrens, the sandy soils give way to finer textured loams, and the empty forests yield to fields of alfalfa and corn, of tomatoes and asparagus. The stretch of highway in this view is crossing the gently rolling country just east of Woodstown New Jersey, a landscape which reminded us of the upper <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Midwest: crops of field corn and hay, pastures with milk cows, and farms with silos.

The farmhouse, which Stewart described simply as “a good early American house,” is home for a dairy farmer who pastures his herd to the right of the picture and who may harvest the alfalfa field across the highway from his home. The maple tree in the front yard has grown so large that our view of the house is blocked. The willow in the backyard is gone, but a small tree has grown up on the fence line east of the garden plot of corn. Additional tree growth on the horizon near the highway gives testimony to the ease with which, woody plants grow in this moist mild climate and these fertile soils. The hedge fronting the house is as perfectly trimmed in 1980 as in 1950, although it has grown sufficiently to provide privacy for the farming family and perhaps to block traffic noise. The pointed and conical “top knots” adorn the hedge as more recent curious embellishments. The barn has been painted white since Stewart’s time, but its generally poor condition is not revealed by the photograph. With broken windows, sagging doors, and peeling paint, the barn is now being used to store field machinery and hay. The farm’s small silo is behind the barn, hidden from our view, although other outbuildings are visible in the backyard; these probably provide interior space for milking and shelter for the cows. The house itself is in good repair, but the window shutters and front porch, both noted by Stewart, are gone. The mowed grass on the slope between the hedge and the highway suggests that the family takes pride in its modest farmstead.

Reflecting a kind of permanence appropriate for this farming landscape, the utility lines occupy the same alignments they did in1950. The electricity line continues on the right side and the telephone line, now with cables instead of individual wires, is on the left. The poles are new, however, and seem to be set in different locations.

The highway here shows signs of its secondary status. When Stewart passed through, the pavement was new and unblemished, with sharply defined, regular edges. Today, the highway’s appearance implies only minimal maintenance, as does the jostling ride produced by the rough surface. Tar and gravel have been used to resurface the eastbound lane and, in places, the shoulder. The weedy bank with blooming dandelions rising above the left side of the road is in contrast to the mowed condition revealed in the earlier photo.