Under the Moonlight

　　　Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctly--making every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility--is a medium the most suitable for a romance-writer to get acquainted with his illusive guests. There is the little domestic scenery of the well-known apartment; the chairs, with each its separate individuality; the centre-table, sustaining a work-basket, a volume or two, and an extinguished lamp; the sofa; the book-case; the picture on the wall--all these details, so completely seen, are so spiritualised by the unusual light, that they seem to lose their actual substance, and become things of intellect. Nothing is too small or too trifling to undergo this change, and acquire dignity thereby. A child's shoe; the doll, seated in her little wicker carriage; the hobby-horse--whatever, in a word, has been used or played with during the day is now invested with a quality of strangeness and remoteness, though still almo st as vividly present as by daylight. Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other. Ghosts might enter here without affrighting us. It would be too much in keeping with the scene to excite surprise, were we to look about us and discover a form, beloved, but gone hence, now sitting quietly in a streak of this magic moonshine, with an aspect that would make us doubt whether it had returned from afar, or had never once stirred from our fireside.

　　　From "The Custom House", introduction of "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

　　月光下的房间

　　这间早已熟悉的房间，让皎月洒下一片银光，地毯上的图案，连细节都清晰可见，然而却不像白昼或正午的那样昭然若揭。月光最能让小说家和他虚幻的客人结友，而这里正是一派居家气氛：几张座椅随随便便地放着，居中的那张桌上是个针线筐儿，一两本书和一台熄灭的灯；还有沙发，书柜，和挂在墙上的画--这一切的一切，在月光下显得如此超凡脱俗，仿佛已没有了实体，而成为一种抽象。再渺小的事物，经此月光点染，也拥有了几分庄严：一只小孩鞋子，柳条小车里的洋娃娃，还有那木马--总之任何我们日间使用或玩耍过的东西，都披上了一层陌生、疏远的外衣，但同时又不失鲜活生动。于是我们的房间成了人间与仙境的通衢，在这里幻想与现实不仅相接，而且紧密交织在一起。也许鬼魂来了我们也不害怕的。当环顾四周，突然发现我们所爱且已故去的那个人，他的身影正静静地坐在一道魔幻般的月光当中，我们并不会惊讶，只会禁不住猜想，他究竟是从远方而来，还是从未离开我们的壁炉半步。