《凱爾特的薄暮》是愛爾蘭著名詩人葉芝的代表作之一， 本文節(jié)選自其中的一篇，因篇幅所限，有刪節(jié)。
I am not certain that he distinguishes between the natural and supernatural very clearly. He told me the other day that foxes and cats like to be in the “forths” after nightfall; and he will certainly pass from some story about a fox to a story about a spirit with less change of voice than when he is going to speak about a marten cat—a rare beast nowadays. Many years ago he used to work in the garden, and once they put him to sleep in a garden-house where there was a loft full of apples, and all night he could hear people rattling plates and knives and forks over his head in the loft. Once, at any rate, he has seen an unearthly sight in the woods. He says, “One time I was out cutting timber over in Inchy, and about eight o’clock one morning when I got there I saw a girl picking nuts, with her hair hanging down over her shoulders, brown hair, and she had a good, clean face, and she was tall and nothing on her head, and her dress no way gaudy but simple, and when she felt me coming she gathered herself up and was gone as if the earth had swallowed her up. And I followed her and looked for her, but I never could see her again from that day to this, never again.”
我不確定他能否清楚地區(qū)分自然和超自然的生物。有一天，他告訴我，狐貍和貓都特別喜歡在夜幕降臨之后，跑到“山寨”里。他經(jīng)常從一個關(guān)于狐貍的故事，講著講著就跳到一個鬼故事去，語調(diào)幾乎沒有變化，就好像只是換到一個關(guān)于松貂的故事似的——現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)很少見到這種動物了。許多年前，他在一個花園干活，有次人家吩咐他到園里的一間屋子里睡，看守閣樓上的蘋果。整晚，他都聽到頭頂上的閣樓里傳來叮叮當(dāng)當(dāng)擺弄碟子和刀叉的聲音。不管怎么說，他還真有一次在樹林里看到過神奇的一幕。他說，“有一陣，我在茵奇一帶砍柴，一天早上8點，我在那兒看到一個拾堅果的女孩，她的棕色秀發(fā)下垂過肩，小臉清秀潔凈，個兒高高，頭上沒戴什么，身上穿著非常簡樸。她察覺我的到來，蜷縮身子，突然消失了，好像地面開了個口子把她吸走那樣。我往她的方向一路走去，想找她，但是從那天起到現(xiàn)在，我再也沒有見過她，再也沒有?！?/div>