《最後一戰》第63期:黑夜籠罩納尼亞(1)
Chapter 14 Night Falls on Narnia
They all stood beside Aslan, on his right side, and looked through the open doorway.
The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could not have told that you were looking into a wood if you had not seen where the dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants. They all knew Narnia well enough to work out where he must be standing. He must be on the high moorlands that stretch away to the North beyond the River Shribble. Then Jill and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended.
"Yes," said Aslan, though they had not spoken. "While he lay dreaming his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one."
Then the great giant raised a horn to his mouth. They could see this by the change of the black shape he made against the stars. After that - quite a bit later, because sound travels so slowly - they heard the sound of the horn: high and terrible, yet of a strange, deadly beauty.
Immediately the sky became full of shooting stars. Even one shooting star is a fine thing to see; but these were dozens, and then scores, and then hundreds, till it was like silver rain: and it went on and on. And when it had gone on for some while, one or two of them began to think that there was another dark shape against the sky as well as the giant's. It was in a different place, right overhead, up in the very roof of the sky as you might call it. "Perhaps it is a cloud," thought Edmund. At any rate, there were no stars there: just blackness. But all around, the downpour of stars went on. And then the starless patch began to grow, spreading further and further out from the centre of the sky. And presently a quarter of the whole sky was black, and then a half, and at last the rain of shooting stars was going on only low down near the horizon.
With a thrill of wonder (and there was some terror in it too) they all suddenly realized what was happening. The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.
The last few seconds before the rain of stars had quite ended were very exciting. Stars began falling all round them. But stars in that world are not the great flaming globes they are in ours. They are people (Edmund and Lucy had once met one). So now they found showers of glittering people, all with long hair like burning silver and spears like white-hot metal, rushing down to them out of the black air, swifter than falling stones. They made a hissing noise as they landed and burnt the grass. And all these stars glided past them and stood somewhere behind, a little to the right.
This was a great advantage, because otherwise, now that there were no stars in the sky, everything would have been completely dark and you could have seen nothing. As it was, the crowd of stars behind them cast a fierce, white light over their shoulders. They could see mile upon mile of Narnian woods spread out before them, looking as if they were floodlit. Every bush and almost every blade of grass had its black shadow behind it. The edge of every leaf stood out so sharp that you'd think you could cut your finger on it.
On the grass before them lay their own shadows. But the great thing was Aslan's shadow. It streamed away to their left, enormous and very terrible. And all this was under a sky that would now be starless forever.
第14章 黑夜籠罩納尼亞
他們都站在阿斯蘭的身邊，站在他的右邊，從那門口望出去。
篝火已經熄滅了。大地上一片漆黑：事實上你沒法兒說你正在向一個樹林望進去，如果你不曾看見樹林、黑影艟朦的盡頭和繁星開始閃爍的地方。但，阿斯蘭再次高呼時，他們看見左邊兒又出現一個黑影。那就是說，他們在沒有繁星的地方，看到了另一塊黑色；這黑塊愈升愈高，變成了一個人的形狀，巨人中最最巨大的巨人。他們大家對納尼亞的地形地貌都很熟悉，能目測巨人必定站在什麼地方。巨人必定是站在高沼地上，沼地在斯力布河外往北綿亙開去。於是吉爾和尤斯塔斯記起了好久好久以前，每次在那些高沼地的深洞裏，他們看見過一個偉大的巨人在睡大覺，人家告訴他們，這巨人叫時間老人，到了世界末日那一天，他就醒了。
“是的，”儘管他們並沒說話，阿斯蘭卻答道，“他躺着睡覺時他的名字叫‘時間’。如今他醒來了，他就要有一個新的名字。”
這時這了不得的巨人把一個號角舉到嘴邊。他們看得見這個動作，是憑着他那映襯着星光的黑影兒的變化。這之後——好一會兒之後，因爲聲音傳得十分緩慢——他們聽到了號角的聲音：高亢激越，駭人聽聞，然而又有一種新奇的陰森森的美。
天空突然之間遍佈了流星。即使一顆流星也是很好看的景緻：但現在是十幾顆、二十幾顆乃至成百顆流星，終於像是銀白色的雨，一陣又一陣地下着。星雨下了一些時候，他們之中有一兩個人開始認爲又有一個黑影兒像巨人的黑影一樣映襯在天空裏。它位於一個截然不同的地方，正在人們的頭頂之上，正在你可能稱之爲“天空屋頂”的地方。“它也許是一片雲。”愛德蒙心中想道。無論如何，那兒沒有繁星，就是漆黑一團。但它的周圍，流星之雨還在向下傾瀉。於是那無星的黑塊便開始變大，從天空的中央向外鋪陳開去。不久，四分之一的天空全然變黑了，然後是一半兒天空變黑了，最後，流星之雨只是在低得靠近地平線的地方傾瀉而下了。
滿懷神奇之感（也有些兒毛骨悚然之感），他們突然認識到正在發生什麼事情了。鋪陳開來的黑暗壓根兒不是雲霾：它簡直就是空虛。天空中的黑暗部分就是一顆星也沒剩下的部分。所有的繁星都在落下來：阿斯蘭已經呼喚它們回家去。
流星之雨落盡之前的最後幾分鐘是十分激動人心的。流星開始在他們的四周紛紛落下。那個世界裏的流星，並不像我們的世界裏的流星那樣是巨大的燃燒着的星球。它們是人（愛德蒙和露茜曾經碰到過一個）。所以，他們現在發覺閃爍生光的人像陣雨似的傾瀉而下，人人都生着長長的頭髮像燃燒的銀絲，拿着長矛像燙得白熱化的金屬，從黑暗的空中朝着他們奔騰而下；速度之快，超過了天上落下來的石子。他們發出嘶嘶的聲音，落到地上，把青草也燃着了。這些流星人全都在他們身邊掠過，站在後邊兒的某些地方，稍稍靠近右邊一點兒。
這對他們大爲有利，因爲，不然的話，如果今天空中暗無星辰，一切東西都會全然漆黑，你就什麼東西都看不見了。事實上，他們背後的一羣繁星把強烈的白色光芒越過他們的肩膀向前照射。他們能看見納尼亞樹林一英里又一英里地在他們的前邊兒綿延開去，看上去樹林裏都氾濫着強光。每一叢灌木，幾乎每一片草葉，背後幾乎都有它的黑色陰影。每一片葉子的邊緣都輪廓分明地挺立着，使你感到你會在葉子邊緣上劃破手指的。
他們前面的草地上躺着他們自己的影子。但，了不得的是阿斯蘭的影子。這影子往他們的左邊瀉開去，巨大而又十分可怕。而這一切，都出現在一個如今永遠沒有繁星的天空之下。
