First Snow

　　The first fall of snow is not only an event but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?

　　The very stealth, the eerie quietness, of the thing makes it more magical. Ifall the snow fell at once in one shattering crash, awakening us in the middle of the night the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it flutters down, soundless, hour after hour while we are asleep. Outside the closed curtains of the bedroom a vast transfbrmation scene is takiag place, just as if a myriad elves and brownies were at work, and we turn and yawn and stretch and know nothing about it. And then, what an extraordinary change it is! It is as if the house continent. Even the inside, which has not been touched, seems different, every room appearing smaller and cosier, just as if some power were trying to turn it into a woodcutter's hut or a snug logcabin. Outside, where the garden was yesterday, there is now a white and glistening level, and the village beyond is no longer your own familiar cluster of roofs but a village in an old German fairy-tale. You would not be surprised to learn that all the people there, the speetacled postmistress, the cobbler, the retired school master, and the rest, had suffered a change too and had become queer elvish beings, purveyors of invisible caps and magic shoes. You yourselves do not feel quite the same people you were yesterday. How could you not when so much has been changed? There is a curious stir, a little shiver of excite-ment, troubling the house, not unlike the feeling there is abroad when a journey has to be made. The children, of course, are all excitement but even the adults hang about and talk to one another longer than usual before setting down to the day's work. Nobody can resist the windows. It is like being on board a ship.

　　第一场雪

　　第一场雪不仅是一件大事，而且是充满魔力的大事。入睡时世界是一个样子，醒来时发现你在一个完全不同世界里，假如不是魔法的作用，又能到哪儿找到这样的奇迹呢?

　　它的诡秘和悄无声息更增添了它的神奇。假如所有的雪“轰”地一下子落下，半夜把我们惊醒，也就失去了它神奇的魅力。但是雪是悄悄地飘然而下，一个小时，又一个小时，而此时我们睡得正熟。在窗帘紧拉的卧室外面景色正发生着巨大的变化，就好像有无数小精灵和小仙童在工作，我们打呵欠，伸展腰腿却全然不知发生的一切。然而这是一个多么巨大的变化啊!好像你所住的房子落到了另一块陆地上，甚至不曾碰到的里面也似乎变了模样，每个房间都变小了，变温暖了，就好像是有一种力量正把它变成一座伐木工的棚屋或舒适的圆木小屋。屋外昨日的花园，如今却是一片洁白，闪烁着光芒。远处的村庄不再是你热悉的一片片屋顶，而变成了德国古老神话中的村庄。那里所有的人：戴眼镜的女邮政局长、补鞋工人、退休的小学校长以及其他的人也经历了一场变化，变成了奇怪的精灵般的人为你提供隐形帽和魔力鞋。对这一切，你不会惊讶，你自己也觉得与昨日不同。当发生了这么大的变化之后，你怎么又能不变呢?屋内出现了一阵不同平日的小小的骚动，一种激动的微微颤动，这种感觉就好像要外出旅行时的莫名其妙的感觉。孩子当然是非常兴奋，甚至于大人们在开始一天工作之前逗留交谈的时间也比平日长了。无人能抗拒窗子的诱惑，好像在船上一样。