树龄约三百年的罗宾汉树 | 经济学人讣告
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The Sycamore Gap tree
罗宾汉树
英文部分选自经济学人20231007期讣告板块
The Sycamore Gap tree
罗宾汉树
Beauty been
华盖落 芳华逝
The Sycamore Gap tree was felled maliciously on September 28th, aged around 300
Obituary • Oct 5th 2023
罗宾汉树于9月28日被蓄意砍倒，树龄约三百年
Gardeners often think unfondly of sycamores. These are big, resilient, untidy trees, relatively recent arrivals, and of careless habits. Their winged seeds, and the tough little seedlings that sprout from them, spread everywhere they can. One such seedling was determined enough to drive its taproot through thin marshy topsoil into the dark, crystalline dolerite of Whin Sill, the cliff-like ridge in Northumberland which carries Hadrian’s Wall. And there, over two or three centuries, it grew.
槭树总不受园艺师待见。这种树高大顽强、枝丫凌乱，而且无需太多照料，是英国近代才有的树种。它的种子能乘风飞翔，从中萌出的坚韧幼苗也四处飘落，随处安家。有这么一棵毅力非凡的幼苗，它的主根深深扎进潮湿稀薄的表土，直插进诺森伯兰郡怀恩锡尔山（Whin Sill）黝黑晶莹的辉绿岩。就这样，它在那里生长了两三百年。
Being a sycamore, it liked to cluster, and also to sow offspring round about. It seems that for a time the tree on Whin Sill had others growing close, with which its roots and its canopy could correspond. But gradually these disappeared. The natural dip in the landscape there gave protection of a sort. More important, the tree now had space to grow into the most beautiful shape possible for sycamores, with a rounded dome on a trunk slightly twisting, lovely as a cedar of Lebanon. Long before, when it was still germinating, 18th-century gardeners with parks to plan put in well spaced sycamores for that reason.
槭树喜欢扎堆生长，也喜欢四处播种。怀恩锡尔山上的这棵槭树附近似乎一度也有其他树木，与之盘根交错、树冠摩肩接踵，相映成趣。可久而久之，其他树木不见踪迹，唯独“罗宾汉树”还屹立不倒；它得以幸存，某种程度上是因为长在地势凹陷的地方。更为重要的是，这样一来，“罗宾汉树”便有了足够的生长空间，出落成最华美的姿态：圆冠高耸、树干微曲，如同黎巴嫩雪松一般可爱。其实，早在18世纪，“罗宾汉树”尚且年幼之时，园艺师就会在规划公园景观时为槭树留出足够的生长空间，就是为了得到漂亮的槭树。
Unlike other members of the genus Acer, it did not put on a blazing autumn display. Its big five-lobed leaves, with their irregular notching, merely turned a crumpled brown. No one minded. It was where and how it stood that drew crowds to the Steel Rigg car park and a good 20 minutes of perilous ascents and descents, to get a sighting. It was photographed in snow, mist and starlight, at sunrise and under the northern lights. It posed exquisitely. In 2016 it was voted England’s Tree of the Year, and the next year it came fifth in the European league, when the winner was a far less prepossessing Polish oak called Jozef.
不同于槭属的其他树种，这棵树并未在秋季大放异彩。它巨大的叶片分成五瓣，边缘参差不齐，到了秋天只会变成棕色，还皱巴巴的。然而，没有人在意这个。是它所矗立的位置和姿态吸引了一批又一批的人前来观赏。人们得先到Steel Rigg停车场，再经过整整20分钟上上下下的艰苦跋涉，才得以一睹芳容。人们在雪地里、薄雾中、星光下拍摄过它，也在日出时和北极光下捕捉过它的倩影。它姿态优美，亭亭而立。2016年，它被评为英格兰“年度之树”；2017年，它在“欧洲年度树木”评选中仅位列第五，当时夺冠的树木是一棵名叫“约瑟夫”（Jozef）的波兰橡树，却远不及它这么受人喜爱。
The sycamore was also snapped on thousands of ordinary phones. It had star billingwhen the Potters came to celebrate a 60th birthday, with the birthday girl in a gold sash and the spaniels behaving for once; when the Courage family gathered for Christmas, all in their wellingtons, shouting in triumph; when Lee proposed to Hayley and Brendan proposed to Sinead, kneeling awkwardly among the rocks and roots, and when miscellaneous walkers and rain-refugees brought out their pork pies and Kit-Kats. Not a few went on to the Twice Brewed pub where the beer was called Sycamore Gap, with the tree’s portrait on the bottle. It was left alone then to the stars, and the quietly munching sheep.
成千上万的普通手机镜头也拍过“罗宾汉树”。波特一家庆祝家人60大寿时，女寿星身着金腰带，西班牙猎犬也少有地乖巧；科勒奇一家聚在一起过圣诞节，大家都穿着各自的长筒雨靴，欢呼雀跃；李向海莉求婚时、布伦丹向西妮德求婚时，他们都笨拙地跪在岩石和树根之间；还有那些偶然路过的徒步者和躲雨的人们来到树下，拿出猪肉派和奇巧巧克力时；所有的这些时刻，罗宾汉树都是主角。看完罗宾汉树，有不少人接下来会去到一家名叫“二次酿造”的酒吧(the Twice Brewed pub)，那里的啤酒叫做“槭树峡”，酒瓶上就画着罗宾汉树。人群散去，独留下它，孤零零面对漫天星光和静静吃草的羊群。
Dramas happened to the sycamore, too. When “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves” was filmed there in 1991 a henchman of the local lord, in chain-mail and metal helmet, almost took an axe to it. It was saved by Kevin Costner shouting “This is my land, and my tree!” before pinning the henchman to the ground with his sword. A narrow shave. Mr Costner roughly proved his “ownership” by breaking off leaves as he passed, but the sycamore had the last word, effortlessly upstaging the star as he trudged up the hill away from it, an ant beside its glorious silhouette.
这棵树也有过戏剧性的经历。1991年《侠盗罗宾汉》在这里拍摄时，一位身穿锁子甲、头戴金属头盔的当地贵族亲信差点挥起斧头砍掉它。凯文·科斯特纳大喊道：“这片土地和这棵树都是我的！”然后用剑将那贵族亲信刺死在地，救了这棵树一命。科斯特纳经过这棵树时取下了几片树叶，以这种粗暴的方式证明了他的“所有权”。不过，等到他步履艰难地上山离去，罗宾汉树毫不费力地压过了这位明星的风头。在这棵树辉煌轮廓的映衬下，科斯特纳微小得如同一只蚂蚁。
There were other excitements. In 2003 a helicopter filming a nature documentary crashed 100 feet away, threatening to explode; the tree was unperturbed. At another point, during filming for a television crime drama, it was surrounded by police cars. So locals imagined there might be another episode in the making when, on the morning of September 28th, they saw police round the sycamore again. But the tree was down. It lay awkwardly across the Wall, its severed stump shockingly white where it had been sliced with a 28-inch chainsaw.
当然，这棵树还经历过其他一些激动人心的时刻。2003年，一架拍摄自然纪录片的直升飞机在离它100英尺（约30米）远的地方坠毁，还差点爆炸，但这棵树却毫发未损。还有一次，在拍摄一部犯罪题材电视剧时，它被警车团团围住。因此，9月28日早上，当地居民看到警察再次包围这棵树时，还以为又在拍电视剧。但是这棵树倒下了，一把28英寸（约70厘米）的链锯砍断了它。它卧倒在哈德良长城上，断根处颜色煞白，令人震惊。
注释：
the Wall：指的是哈德良长城（Hadrians Wall），位于英国的不列颠岛上，是罗马帝国在占领不列颠时修建的，从建成后到弃守，它一直是罗马帝国的西北边界。
Technically, it still lived. The stump, remarkably healthy, was in the ground, the roots taking in water. But the water had nothing to flow to. As word spread, people gathered again, this time in a state of grief and disbelief. Some laid flowers, before the crime tape kept them out. One young man came with a sycamore sapling bought in a garden centre, planting it as close as he could to the right place. The National Trust removed it. Foresters said the stump could be coppiced, with new shoots sprouting, but after many, many years it would still be no more than a bush. The tree, as everyone knew it, could not be saved.
严格来说，它仍然活着。它的树桩相当健康，扎在土里，根部吸收着水分，但水分却无处可去。消息传开后，人们再次聚集在这里，这一次大家既痛苦万分，又难以相信眼前的事实。一些人献上了花，然后便被警戒线隔离开来。一个年轻人带来一棵从园艺中心购买的槭树幼苗，把它种在尽可能靠近原来那棵树的地方，却被国民信托的人挖掉了。林务人员说，这根树桩可以成为矮化自根砧，重新长出嫩芽；但即使经过多年，它也最多是一棵小灌木。大家都心知肚明，树不在了。
The sycamore had not officially been a sacred or magic tree. It was a locus of calm and deep summer shade; stargazers liked to gather there, and it bore, said the Bishop of Newcastle, “a pastoral load” of the worries and pain of local folk. It was the guardian of a place where people scattered ashes and painted pebbles inscribed with “Love you 4 ever Mum xx”. But it was not tied with ribbons or haunted by druids; it was just “our tree”. Nonetheless, on social media its felling seemed like sacrilege. First, it had hurt Northumberland and Northumbrians, tearing a hole in their hearts, killing some elemental spirit of the county, as badly as if someone had destroyed the Tyne Bridge. It had taken their symbol and their pride away. The gap left was immeasurable.
官方并未将这棵树认定为圣树或者有魔力的树。它是平静深邃的夏荫之所，亦是观星者聚集之地；纽卡斯尔主教说，它“像牧师一样”承载着当地人心灵上的烦恼与痛苦。它是这片土地的守护者，人们在这里抛洒骨灰，留下涂着颜色的鹅卵石，上面刻着“xx永远爱你，妈妈”。但它身上没有丝带，也没有被凯尔特祭司搅扰；它只是“我们的树”。尽管如此，在社交媒体上，砍倒这棵树就好像亵渎了圣人。首先，诺森伯兰这片土地和它的子民都受到了伤害，他们心如刀绞，内心中属于这个地方的某种基本精神惨遭扼杀，性质就像泰恩大桥被毁一样严重。砍倒这棵树夺走了当地的象征和骄傲，留下的缺口无法估量。
注释：
泰恩大桥（The Tyne Bridge）：1928年竣工，连通英格兰东北部泰恩（Tyne）和盖茨海德（Gateshead）两座城市，是纽卡斯尔地区文化和历史的重要象征。
The felling had also outraged some numinous power of nature. Several social posts mentioned the story of Erysichthon, King of Thessaly, who felled the sacred grove of the harvest-goddess Demeter to build himself a feast hall. Her favourite poplar felt the blows of the double axes first. Erysichthon did not escape, however; Demeter afflicted him with such insatiable hunger that he ended by devouring himself. In Irish tradition, too, anyone who cut an ash would have his house consumed by fire. Similar thoughts of awful retribution were voiced against whoever had ventured out, on a night of raging storm and a full moon, armed with white paint to mark the place for the blade, to fell the sycamore. “Beware the wrath of nature,” one tweet ran.
这次砍伐也触怒了某种超自然力量。一些社交帖子提到了色萨利国王厄律西克同的故事，他砍掉了丰收女神得墨忒尔神圣的树林，来为自己造宴会厅。得墨忒尔最心爱的杨树首先感受到了双斧的重击。然而，厄律西克同并没有逃跑；得墨忒尔让他饱受饥饿的折磨，他最后把自己吃掉了。无独有偶，爱尔兰也有这样的传说：凡是砍伐梣树的人，他的家都会被大火吞噬。人们也用类似的可怕报应去警告那个砍树的人：正是这个人，在狂风暴雨肆虐的满月之夜，拿着白漆标记位置，去砍掉这棵槭树。“当心大自然的愤怒”，一则推文这样写道。
More people, though, dwelt on absence. What they felt was perhaps best expressed in Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Binsey Popltars”, addressed to favourite trees felled in Oxford in 1879:
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew—
Hack and rack the growing green!...
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
不过，更多的人只能无可奈何花落去。杰拉德·曼利·霍普金斯的《宾西杨树》可能可以最好地表达他们的感受，这首诗是霍普金斯1879年写给他最喜欢的、在牛津被砍掉的树的：
噢，如果我们知晓自己在干什么
当我们掘挖或砍伐——
劈掉及损毁生发着的绿意！
……
后来者再无法揣度昔存的美丽。
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