《树之歌》英文版部分摘录笔记

英文原版：

P11

As if descending back into Plato’s cave, I’m changed in my return to the familiar world. Above there are biological layers of incompa- rable beauty and complexity. I’m in flatland now, but echoes and shadows of the superior layers play in my memory and on the forest floor over which I walk.

从树梢回到地面，仿佛经历了一次柏拉图洞穴之旅。回到洞穴，树梢世界的美丽依然萦绕心头。

P42

The fir tree’s roots, the grouse’s feet, and my boots were all sounding our deep biological history, ringing at an unmarked geologic memorial of Earth’s first life.

冷杉树根生长的声音、松鸡的脚步声和我靴子的声音都回响着生命之历史。

（只有对自然有着极其深沉的爱的科学家才能写出这样的文字啊！）

P63

In one afternoon, along a two-meter stretch of beachfront, the North American continent lost a bucketful of land to the action of beetle feet, grass blades, and the fickle grip of sand grains. Summed across all dune faces on the coast, a bevy of dump trucks was at work, tipping sand into the sea.

一个下午，沙滩上因为一些细小的扰动而被海浪卷走很多沙土，放大到更大的尺度上，海滩上就像有一群翻斗车在工作。

P69

In a large palm, trunk water can keep the tree alive for months, even if the whole plant is uprooted. In a forest fire the palm’s crown explodes and burns away, but water keeps the trunk alive. People who have seen these fires tell me that a burning palm grove is a polyrhythm of detonations. But within days, even if all other tree species are dead, the blackened palm crowns grow new fronds, res- urrected by living tissues buried in the trunks.

棕榈树的储水力惊人，要在海岸上学会储存淡水，是多么强大的能力！由于储水丰富，它们甚至可以在火灾后重生。（种子萌发时先向地下生长1米，再转而向上，在地下蓄积能量的过程平均长达60年）。

P90

Even now these microscopic creatures live in encyclopedic mute darkness; their conversations have fewer hu- man eavesdroppers than the chatter that falls from the stars.

微观世界的生物仍然生活在无声的黑暗中，倾听它们的人比倾听星星之间的对话的人，还要少。