The Island of Formosa

翻譯 by Mahakasappa 2007/10/01

The Island of Formosa
島嶼福爾摩莎

Few names have been more correctly bestowed. Formosa is indeed majestic in its beauty. It may be regarded as a fortunate event in the history of geographical nomenclature that its sponsors were early Spanish navigators, who inherited a sense of the beautiful and the romantic with their southern blood. The seas about abou studded with the uncouth patronymics of rival Dutch explorers, which throw into brighter contrast this well-desesrved appellation.

很少名字能取得比這個更正確的．福爾摩莎的美麗的確是帝皇莊嚴式的．它的給名人是西班牙航海者，這應該可以說是地理取名歷史上一件幸運的事，因為西班牙航海者從他們（歐洲）南方的血統裡，傳承了一種對美感和浪漫的敏思．（福爾摩莎）四周的海被插飾以來自對手荷蘭探險者給予的粗糙賜名，明亮地對比著（福爾摩莎）這個最合適的命名．

A line of Alpine heights runs along the island in the interior. On th west this splendid range sinks into an extensive plain, fertile and rich in streams, which has received a multitude of industrious colonists from the neighboring Chinese province of Foh-kien. There these colonists have built cities and have turned the country into a garden. But where the mountains begin, their occupation ceases; and the eastern part of the island, abrupt and mountainous to the very shore, is inhabited by tribes of savages who stil live in unreclaimed barbarism. The territory in the possession of the chinese strethces across the northern end of the island from sea to sea; but its extent on the Pacific shore is very limited and may be said to end at the seaport of Kelung. Coasting along the eastern side the voyager is repeatedlystruck by the magnificence of the scenery.

阿爾卑斯式的高山高度一線沿著島嶼的內陸延綿．在西邊，這輝煌壯麗的山脈沉降至一個肥沃又充滿河水的廣闊平原，這裡接受了多數來自鄰近的中國〔清國〕省份福建的勤奮的殖民者．這裡，這些殖民者建立了一些城鎮，將這個國家〔Country：可譯：地方〕轉變成一個田園．但是，山地從哪裡開始，他們的殖民就在那裡終止．而島嶼的東部一直到海岸線都陡峭又多山，住著仍生活在未經更改的野蠻之中的野生人．漢人佔有的地域，從海線至海線的，延伸到島嶼北端，但是這延伸線的太平洋海岸部份則是相當有限的，並可以說是終止於海港基隆．沿著東海岸航行，航海者不斷地被其景觀的壯麗所震動．

The central range rises to a height of above twelve thousand feet; whilst between it and the water are mountains of an elevation at least half as great. Their outline is at once beautiful and fantastic. Domes, and peaks, and wall-like precipices succeed each other in striking variety. A brilliant verdure clothes their sides, down which dash cascades that shine like silver in the tropical sunlight.

〔島嶼地理〕中間的山脈升高到一萬二千英呎的高度；而在這山脈和海水間則是高度至少是其一半的群山．這些山群的形線是不假思索地美麗和令人贊歎的．圓頂的，尖山的，壯牆似的徒壁，一案一案互相銜接，令人震盪的多樣．一層精奇的翠綠，衣衫式的披在他們的兩側，往下則是看似飆飛迅行的層層地形，在熱帶陽光中如銀般的閃亮著．

Occasionally on rounding a headland a deep gorge is revealed, and in the shadow cast by the inclosing heights can be dimly discerned the outlines of a native village. The scenery of the mainland was very tine. Even the views we had had on our way up the coast had not at all prepared us for it. The copious moisture of a tropical climate was apparent in the rich luxuriance of the vegetation. The varied outlines of the heights which rose on either side told of earthquakes and of a volcanic regions.

偶而遶行過一個山頭，掀開在前的是深深溪流，而在四周高山的陰影中，可以遠遠約略的分辨出一個在地人村莊的外形．內陸景致非常分叉不齊．即使是我們從海岸登上來時沿途所看到的景觀，也不足以讓我們預期到（即將在內陸看到的）．熱帶氣候的豐盛濕氣，在豐富盛宴式植物景觀中可以得到明顯見證．兩旁高山的各式各樣的陵線，敘述著（自身的）地震和火山地帶（的地質）．

Inland from the head of the little bay to which we had been brought across run a narrow valley, through which water had at some time evidently forced its way. On each hand were tokens of a great upheaval. The strata dipped steeply toward the west; and the edges of the seams of rock were scored and eaten away by the action of the water. Yellow sandstone and masses of coralline limestone abounded. The former exhibited in the little prmontories and points that jutted out into the sea the strangest forms. Blocks of the soft stone stood upright near the water's edge, and here and there they were rounded off and scraped away near the lower part till they looked like gigantic mushrooms, or huge egg-cups or wine-glasses,or took some other quaint shape. In some cases so exact was the resemblance to these objects that it was difficult to believe that art had not been called in to aid nature in fashioning them.

在一個我們被帶經的小海灣而入的內陸頂處，是一道峽窄山谷，明顯地可以看出，史上曾經有水從這裡強行而過．兩旁都是極大地質變動遺留的特徵地物．層層的岩崖一片片往西方疾降式地深邃而走，石壁裂縫的邊角也都被水的行駛強摘和飲蝕．黃色沙石和珊瑚石岩滿地都是．前者（黃色沙石）展現在往海突出的小石緣和尖石上，其形狀最是非常．軟石塊則矗立在水畔，或這或那，它們的底部被滾銷和切落，直到它們看來像似巨大的芝菇那般，或似極大的蛋形杯或酒杯那款，或其它的迷人奇妙的形狀．有些外形和實物的相似性，恰好到令人沒法相信大自然真的沒有徵召藝術來幫它創塑這些石雕．

The bottom of the valley was laid out in rice-plots. The rice had been recently transplanted, and each plant had a clear space around it of several inches. The surface of the ground was covered to a slight depth with water. The brilliant green of the young rice formed a charming contrast to the more sombre foliage of the shrubs and trees which half hid the steep cliffs on both sides of the valley. The number and beauty of the wild flowers were extraordinary. We were first struck by a convolvulus of enormous size, of a rich violet hue striped with crunson, which covered the bank by the side of which the path ran. Then a white lily of exquisite shape and delicate perfume delighted us. Orchids of varied colors fringed the pathway. A graceful creeper with a tiny blossom trailed along the narrow strip of sward that edged the rice-field on our right. A cottage or two lay half hidden behind a hedge of bamboo and screw-pine, above which waved the graceful leaves of the plantain tree.

山谷的底部披陳著一片稻的（梯）田．稻苖近日才剛轉播，每株週圍保有清楚的數寸空間．土表留有一層淺水．和亮綠新苖互作媚人輝映的是，山谷兩坡上半遮在陡石裡面的灌叢樹木相對的肅謹綠意．野花的數量和美麗是極不尋常的．我們一開始就被一個體形極大的迴旋花類所震動，深紫色帶著深紅斑紋，鋪蓋在路徑兩旁的河岸上．然後，一朵精緻且散放著細膩芬芳的白色百合提昇了我們的心神．各款色彩的蘭花延飾了整個路途．一款典雅的爬草，細劍梢上帶著小花，行長在我們右側的稻田邊緣．一兩個屋舍半掩在竹圍和紅刺林投後面，而其上，更飄舞著優雅的芭蕉樹葉．

A splendid variety of tree-fern, like a dwarf palm, grew in great profusion. A variety of willow is a common object in Chinese villages, and some of the delicately-leaved trees, which we met with in our further progress, bore no inconsiderable resemblance to the aspen. At the head of the valley we came upon the sea. A sandy beach swept round with a wide curve toward the east, beneath a line of almost perpendicular sandstone cliffs. Midway along it was a little hamlet of fisherman's cottages. Some of the inhabitants were on the beach repairing their boats and nets. Imitating in pantomimic action the occupation of coal miners, we asked, and were readily shown the way to the pits. Our road lay by the shore beneath the cliffs, then round the headland which they formed.

一種長著蕨葉的樹，像是矮小的椰子樹，到處可見．數款的柳樹是漢人村莊常見的物種，還有一些我們在接下來的行程一直遇到的長著精緻葉子的樹木，外表和白楊樹幾乎一模一樣．在山谷口，我們見到了海．一遍沙灘捲帶著開闊的弧線向東方而行，幾乎就在一行垂直的沙石壁嵦的腳下．它的半途，立著數個小小漁舍的避世之居．有些它的居民，在沙灘上修補著他們的漁船和漁網．以默劇般的動作，作出礦夫的動作，我們作了問，也被立即指向往礦場的路．我們行經斷岩下沙岸邊的路，再轉遶過山岩形成的山頭．

A geologist would have been charmed with the scene laid open to our view. At the water's edge were numberious rocky pinnacles, and cup-shaped masses like those we had already seen. The beach itself was strewn with boulders in every stage of formation. Some of the sandstone stems were so eaten away by the waves that the globular mass on the summit was ready to fall, others had but recently been broken off, while on the ground lay many rolled about to a greater or less degree of sphericity.

任一個地理學者一定會被出現在我們眼前的景觀所著迷．水的邊緣立著很多的石尖塊和種種杯形的地物，就像我們之前看過的一般．沙灘上，滿散著還在它們成形的各個過程中的石岩．有些石塊的中幹部份，被水飲食得它的圓頭頂部幾乎要掉下來的樣子，有的則是新近才破裂，地上則滾躺著許多不同程度的圓弧形石頭．

As the path led round the extremeity of the headland, two parallel lines of rock in crystallized blocks, as lever and as regular as tiled footway, ran out for some hundreds of yards into the sea. It was the Giant's Causeway on a larger scale. These long and shapely roads that almost joied the point on which we stood to another promontory in front of us, were just the edges of strata tilted up from where the sea now flows, and inclining toward the land. On our right or inshore hand great sandstone cliffs towered above us.

路徑遶著山頭的最外圍而行，兩行平行的岩石以整齊的塊形，平壓規則得像是鋪磚的行路，數百碼的，向海走去．這是巨人的行穚〔Giant's Causeway, 位於愛爾蘭的地理勝地〕再更放大的版本．這些在我們站的地方相接的長而多形的路徑，幾乎接向那個在我們面前的突石，這些全部只是那從海流處矗立而起，向內陸而偏，層層岩壁的邊際而已．我們右邊，即海岸這一側，巨大的沙石斷崖高立在我們之上．

Superimposed on these was a line of perpendicular coralline limestone, edged at the summit with shrubs and creepers, and presenting, with its buttressed projections, and grey and hoary surface, the appearance of an old castle wall. Indeed, so closely in this did nature resemble art, that we were forced to make a close inspection before we could get rid of the idea that we were actually passing beneath ruided walls. The flowers had followed us still. The giant convolvulus still shone upon the prominences and projections of the cliffs; and the snowy lily grew boldly in clumps far out on the rocks toward the sea. - Fortnightly Review

置畫在這些景觀之上的是一線垂直的珊瑚礁石，飾在山峰的邊際，含帶著矮叢和爬草，以護牆姿勢，戴著灰色舊時光的外表，呈現出一個古老城堡外牆的面貌．真的，這一切之中，大自然模仿藝術的程度，大到我們被迫必須幾度重新查看審視，才能確定我們可以拋開我們經過的可能是廢墟城牆的這個想法．眾花仍舊跟隨著我們．那巨大的迴旋花類依然在斷崖的大璧和突石上閃色；而雪白的百合也大膽的成群在向海的石上生長．


--- The New York Times
　　　　Published: September 3, 1876
　　　　Copyright © The New York Times

── 紐約時報，１８７６年９月３日出版，Copyright © The New York Times
──　翻譯：Mahakasappa，２００７年１０月１日