《魔法師的外甥》第38期:燈柱前的戰鬥(4)
In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it. The horse seemed to like it too; he gave the sort of whinney a horse would give if, after years of being a cab-horse, it found itself back in the old field where it had played as a foal, and saw someone whom it remembered and loved coming across the field to bring it a lump of sugar.
"Gawd!" said the Cabby. "Ain't it lovely?"
Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.
"Glory be!" said the Cabby. "I'd ha' been a better man all my life if I'd known there were things like this."
The Voice on the earth was now louder and more triumphant; but the voices in the sky, after singing loudly with it for a time, began to get fainter. And now something else was happening.
Far away, and down near the horizon, the sky began to turn grey. A light wind, very fresh, began to stir. The sky, in that one place, grew slowly and steadily paler. You could see shapes of hills standing up dark against it. All the time the Voice went on singing.
There was soon light enough for them to see one another's faces. The Cabby and the two children had open mouths and shining eyes; they were drinking in the sound, and they looked as if it reminded them of something. Uncle Andrew's mouth was open too, but not open with joy. He looked more as if his chin had simply dropped away from the rest of his face. His shoulders were stopped and his knees shook. He was not liking the Voice. If he could have got away from it by creeping into a rat's hole, he would have done so. But the Witch looked as if, in a way, she understood the music better than any of them. Her mouth was shut, her lips were pressed together, and her fists were clenched. Ever since the song began she had felt that this whole world was filled with a Magic different from hers and stronger. She hated it. She would have smashed that whole world, or all worlds, to pieces, if it would only stop the singing. The horse stood with its ears well forward, and twitching. Every now and then it snorted and stamped the ground. It no longer looked like a tired old cab-horse; you could now well believe that its father had been in battles.
The eastern sky changed from white to pink and from pink to gold. The Voice rose and rose, till all the air was shaking with it. And just as it swelled to the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun arose.
黑暗中終幹有了動靜。遠方，一個聲音開始歌唱。迪格雷分辨不清在哪個方向。有時，聲音似乎從四面八方同時傳過來，有時又好像就在他們的腳下。這聲音低沉得猶如大地發出的聲音。沒有歌詞，也沒有旋律，卻是迪格雷聽到過的最美妙的聲音。那聲音如此動人，使他難以忍受。那匹馬似乎也喜歡；它低低地嘶叫着，彷彿拉了多年的車以後．又回到了童年時代嬉戲的故鄉，看見所記得和所愛的人拿着糖塊，穿過田野向它走來。
“夭哪，”馬車伕說，“真好聽啊！”
此刻，兩個奇蹟同時發生了。一個是，突然間，數不清的冷峻、戰慄、銀鈴般的聲音摻合到那個聲音之中，與之和諧地組合在一起，但音量卻高得多。第二個是，頭上的黑暗中突然羣早閃爍。不是夏夜中一顆接一顆悄悄出現的星星，而是在一團漆黑之中，霎時問跳躍出的成千上萬顆恆星、星叢和行星，比我們世界裏看到的要大得多、亮得多。沒有一朵雲。新的星星和新的聲音同時出現。如果你像迪格雷一樣親眼看見和親耳聽見的話，你會相當肯定地覺得是腥星自己在唱歌，而喚出它們並使它們歌唱的是那低沉的第一個聲音。
“多奇妙啊！”馬車伕說，“如果我早知道世上還有這麼美好的事，我這輩子就會做一個更好的人。”
地上的聲音更響亮、更喜悅了，但天上的那件聲音在與地上的聲音合唱了一陣後，開始漸漸沉寂下去。這時，另一件事悄發生了。
在遙遠的地平線附近，天空開始漸漸變成灰色。一陣清風吹拂過來。天上有片地方緩緩地、逐漸地越變越淡，映襯出羣山黑色的輪廓。那聲音一直在歌唱。
很快，天色已經亮得使他們能互相看見對方的臉了。馬車伕和兩個孩子張着嘴，目光閃爍，陶醉在美妙的聲音之中；那聲音彷彿使他們想起了什麼。安德魯舅舅也張着嘴，但不是出於高興；他看上去更像是失去了下巴。他身子弓着，膝蓋在發抖。他不喜歡那種聲音。如果可以鑽進老鼠洞來逃避的話，他會那麼做的。女巫看上去似乎比任何人都更能理解那種音樂。她嘴脣緊閉，捏着拳頭。歌唱剛開始的時候，她就感到，這個世界籠罩着一種與她的魔力不相同但強大得多的魔力。她恨它。她會把這個世界以至所有的世界都撕成碎片，只要能夠阻止那種聲音。馬站在那裏，耳朵前傾並不斷地抽動，還時不時用蹄子敲打地面或者打幾聲響鼻。它看上去不再是一匹勞累不堪的拉車老馬，你現在完全可以相信它的父親當過戰馬。
東方的天際由白色變成粉紅色，又由粉紅色變成金色。聲音不斷地升高，直到整個空氣都在隨之震顫。當聲音最嚓亮最動聽的時刻，太陽升起來了。
