As Anman sat brooding and pining for his lost self, one of Swimmer’s creekside stories rushed into his memory with a great urgency and attractiveness. Swimmer claimed that above the blue vault of heaven there was a forest inhabited by a celestial race. Men could not go there to stay and live, but in that high land the dead spirit could be reborn. Swimmer described it as far and inaccessible region, but he said the highest mountains lifted their dark summits into its lower reaches. Signs and wonders both large and small did sometimes make transit from that world to our own. Animals, Swimmer said, were its primary messengers. Inman had pointed out to Swimmer that he had climbed Cold Mountain to its top, and Pisgah and Mount Sterling as well. Mountains did not get much higher than those, and Inman had seen no upper realm from their summits.
英曼坐在那兒沉思，苦想他迷失的自我，突然斯云麥說過的一個河畔故事迫不及待地閃現(xiàn)在他的記憶里，極具誘惑力。斯云麥曾說過蔚藍(lán)的天穹之上有一座森林，那里是神靈的棲息地。凡人無法涉足、存息，但死去的靈魂可以在那片天上凈土上獲得重生。他把那說成是個遙不可及的地方，可也提過最高的山巒上高聳黑黝的峰頂可以觸及神地的底部邊緣。大大小小的奇跡異象有時會從神地反映到塵世間來，而山上的動物是其主要的信使。英曼曾告訴過斯云麥，說他曾爬到冷山的頂端，還有毗斯迦山和斯特靈山。這些幾乎是最高的山了，可他從來沒在這些山的山頂看到過什么神地。

There’s more to it than just the climbing, Swimmer had said. Though Inman could not recall whether Swimmer had told him what else might be involved in reaching that healing realm, Cold Mountain nevertheless soared in his mind as a place where all his scattered forces might gather. Inman did not consider himself to be a superstitious person, but he did believe that there is a world invisible to us. He no longer thought of that world as heaven, nor did he still think that we get to go there when we die. Those teachings had been burned away. But he could not abide by a universe composed only of what he could see, especially when it was so frequently foul. So he held up to the idea of another world, a better place, and he figured he might as well consider Cold Mountain to be the location of it as anywhere.
斯云麥說過登山的意義遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大于登山本身。英曼雖然記不起斯云麥?zhǔn)欠裾f過關(guān)于到達(dá)那平復(fù)傷痛的神地的其他什么意義，但屹立于他心中的冷山的確是可以重新喚起他所有力量的地方。英曼并不認(rèn)為自己是個迷信的人，但他相信確實(shí)存在著人們?nèi)庋蹮o法觸及的世界。他不再認(rèn)為那里是天堂，也不再認(rèn)為那是我們死后之所歸。所有這些說教在他心中已燃燒殆盡。然而他覺得肉眼所見的并不是這個世界的全部，而且肉眼所見的往往是骯臟的。于是他信奉另一個世界，一個更好的世界，而他也大可以把冷山當(dāng)作這一世界的所在，就像他可以隨便想象任何地方一樣。