An Idyll of the Honey-Bee

By John Burroughs

约翰·巴勒斯（John Burroughs, 1837—1921）出生于美国纽约州罗克斯伯里镇附近的一个家庭农场，在和大自然的亲密接触中度过了童年和青少年时代。成年后，巴勒斯开始了城市生活，先后当过教师、记者，并在华盛顿的财政部任过职。然而，对他来说，最富吸引力的生活莫过于乡间的生活。为此，1874年，他在纽约哈得孙河谷附近买下了一片土地，一边经营农场，一边著书立说。巴勒斯是继梭罗之后美国最优秀的自然散文家。他的作品体现了他对自然的热爱、对自然景观和生态万物的细致入微的观察，其代表作有《醒来的森林》（Wake Robin, 1871）、《鸟与诗人》（Birds and Poets, 1877）、《蝗虫与野蜂蜜》（Wild Honey, 1879）、《自然之道》（Ways of Nature, 1905）等。

…But if you would know the delights of bee-hunting,and how many sweets such a trip yields beside honey,come with me some bright, warm, late September or early October day. It is the golden season of the year, and any errand or pursuit that takes us abroad upon the hills or by the painted woods and along the amber-colored streams at such a time is enough. So, with haversacks filled with grapes and peaches and apples and a bottle of milk—for we shall not be home to dinner—and armed with a compass, a hatchet, a pail, and box with a piece of comb honey neatly fitted into it—any box the size of your hand with a lid will do nearly as well as the elaborate and ingenious contrivance of the regular bee-hunter—we sally forth. Our course at first lies along the highway under great chestnut-trees whose nuts are just dropping, then through an orchard and across a little creek, thence gently rising through a long series of cultivated fields toward some high uplying land behind which rises a rugged wooded ridge or mountain, the most sightly point in all this section. Behind this ridge for several miles the country is wild, wooded, and rocky, and is no doubt the home of many wild swarms of bees. What a gleeful uproar the robins, cedar-birds, high-holes, and cow blackbirds make amid the black cherry trees as we pass along! The raccoons, too,have been here after black cherries, and we see their marks at various points. Several crows are walking about a newly sowed wheat field we pass through, and we pause to note their graceful movements and glossy coats.

如果你想了解捕蜂的乐趣，想知道这样的旅行除了蜂蜜还能带来多少甜蜜，九月底或者十月初挑一个晴朗和煦的日子，和我一起上路吧。这正是一年之中的黄金季节，只要能爬爬山，或者能路过风景如画的树林和琥珀色的小溪，忙点什么都可以。所以我们出发了，背包里装着葡萄、桃子、苹果和一瓶牛奶——我们没空回家吃晚饭——带着罗盘、手斧、提桶，还有正好嵌得进一只蜂巢的盒子（盒子有手掌大小，带盖子，好用的程度几乎可以媲美专业捕蜂人复杂精巧的装备）。我们先是沿着公路前行，路两边是高大的栗子树，栗子纷纷落下。接着我们穿过果园，越过小溪，随着逐渐升高的地势经过一片又一片开垦过的田地，最终到达高高的坡地。坡地后方，耸立着树木葱茏的险峻山岭。这是整个旅程最为壮观的景致。山岭的后方，野趣盎然的乡村绵延到数英里之外，到处是树木与岩石，毫无疑问，这里是许许多多野蜂群的家园。我们在黑樱桃树之间穿行，知更鸟、雪松太平鸟、啄木鸟以及燕八哥叫得多么欢畅！浣熊也来这里寻找黑樱桃，我们随处都能看到它们的脚印。我们路过刚收割后的麦田，几只乌鸦在那里踱步。我们停下脚步，欣赏着它们优雅的姿态以及光滑的羽毛。

…

We go out of our way to touch at a spring run in the edge of the woods, and are lucky to find a single scarlet lobelia lingering there. It seems almost to light up the gloom with its intense bit of color. Beside a ditch in a field beyond, we find the great blue lobelia, and near it, amid the weeds and wild grasses and purple asters, the most beautiful of our fall flowers, the fringed gentian. What a rare and delicate, almost aristocratic look the gentian has amid its coarse, unkempt surroundings! It does not lure the bee, but it lures and holds every passing human eye. If we strike through the corner of yonder woods, where the ground is moistened by hidden springs, and where there is a little opening amid the trees, we shall find the closed gentian, a rareflower in this locality. I had walked this way many times before I chanced upon its retreat,and then I was following a line of bees. I lost the bees, but I got the gentians. How curious this flower looks with its deep blue petals folded together so tightly—a bud and yet a blossom! It is the nun among our wild flowers—a form closely veiled and cloaked.

…

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我们离开主路，在树林边上的一处泉眼休息，幸运地发现了流连此地的一丛红花半边莲，它的色彩如此浓烈，林中的幽暗似乎都被它点燃。前方田地的水沟旁，我们发现了漂亮的蓝花半边莲。紧挨着半边莲，藏在杂草、野草和紫苑丛中的是龙胆。在秋花中，数它最美。独立于粗糙、蓬乱的杂草中，龙胆显得珍贵、精致、富有贵族气息。它无法引来蜜蜂，却能吸引住每一位过路人的目光。假如我们从深处的树林一角经过，在被隐泉浸润了的树丛间的一小片空地上，会找到合拢着花瓣的龙胆花。它是本地的珍稀物种。我沿着这条路走过好几次，一次偶然的机会才发现了它的藏身之地。那时我正在追踪蜂群的飞行路线。我把蜜蜂跟丢了，却发现了龙胆花。龙胆花的造型是多么奇妙，深蓝色的花瓣紧紧地合拢着——它既是稚嫩的花蕾，也是怒放的花朵！它是野花中的修女——紧紧地裹着面纱，罩着斗篷。

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After a refreshing walk of a couple of miles we reach a point where we will make our first trial—a high stone wall that runs parallel with the wooded ridge referred to, and separated from it by a broad field. There are bees at work there on that goldenrod, and it requires but little maneuvering to sweep one into our box. Almost any other creature rudely and suddenly arrested in its career, and clapped into a cage in this way, would show great confusion and alarm. The bee is alarmed for a moment, but the bee has a passion stronger than its love of life or fear of death, namely, desire for honey, not simply to eat, but to carry home as booty. “Such rage of honey in their bosom beats,” says Virgil. It is quick to catch the scent of honey in the box, and as quick to fall to filling itself. We now set the box down upon the wall and gently remove the cover.The bee is head and shoulders in one of the half- filled cells,and is oblivious to everything else about it. Come rack, come ruin, it will die at work. We step back a few paces, and sit down upon the ground so as to bring the box against the blue sky as a background. In two or three minutes the bee is seen rising slowly and heavily from the box. It seems loath to leave so much honey behind, and it marks the place well. It mounts aloft in a rapidly increasing spiral, surveying the near and minute objects first, then the larger and more distant, till, having circled above the spot five or six times and taken all its bearings, it darts away for home. It is a good eye that holds fast to the bee till it is fairly off. Sometimes one’s head will swim following it,and often one’s eyes are put out by the sun. This bee gradually drifts down the hill, then strikes away toward a farmhouse half a mile away where I know bees are kept. Then we try another and another, and the third bee, much to our satisfaction, goes straight toward the woods. We could see the brown speck against the darker background for many yards.

Our bees are all soon back, and more with them, for we have touched the box here and there with the cork of a bottle of anise oil, and this fragrant and pungent oil will attract bees half a mile or more. When no flowers can be found, this is the quickest way to obtain a bee.

经过几英里神清气爽的旅行，我们到达了第一个实验场—— 一堵高高的石壁。石壁和前面提到的林木葱郁的山岭平行，中间隔着宽阔的田地。蜜蜂在秋麒麟草上辛勤地忙碌着，不需要什么技巧就能把其中的一只扫入蜂箱。要是其他生物在忙碌时突然被蛮横地俘虏，以这样的方式“啪”地锁进箱子里，肯定会惊慌失措，如临大敌。蜜蜂也会紧张一阵子，可是相比于对生命的热爱，对死亡的恐惧，蜜蜂有更热切的渴望，那就是对蜂蜜的渴望。蜂蜜对它来说不仅是食物，更是应该带回家的战利品。“在它们的胸膛里涌动着对蜂蜜的澎湃激情，”维吉尔如是说。它很快就捕捉到箱子里有蜂蜜的味道，即刻行动，开始采蜜。我们则把箱子放在石壁上，轻轻地掀起盖子。蜜蜂全身心扑在半满的蜂房里，什么也顾不上想。来吧，绞架，来吧，毁灭，它要在工作中咽下最后一口气。我们向后退开几步，坐在地上，好让盒子能够以蓝天作为映衬。两三分钟后，我们看到蜜蜂从盒子里缓慢地飞了出来，满载着收获。它似乎在遗憾不得不留下这么多的蜂蜜，为此对这个地点进行认真的辨识。它越飞越高，越飞越快，不断盘旋着，首先巡视近处的细节，然后扩大范围，向远处飞去。它会绕着这个地点飞行五六遍，直到彻底记住了方位，才向家的方向疾行。要想盯紧蜜蜂的行踪直到它飞远，需要非凡的眼力。有时候，追着看会让人头晕目眩。双眼被太阳光刺得什么也看不见，这也是常事。蜜蜂沿着山坡逐渐向下飞，然后拐向半里外的农场，我知道那里有个养蜂场。于是我们把实验品换成了另外一只蜜蜂，随后又换了一只。令我们满意的是，第三只蜜蜂直接飞向了树林。我们能够看到数码之外，幽暗的背景下那个棕色的斑点。

我们的蜜蜂很快悉数返航，而且还带回来了更多的蜜蜂。盒子上到处都是我们用茴香油瓶盖沾上去的香气。它那芬芳浓烈的气味能够将半英里内外的蜜蜂都吸引过来。找不到花的时候，用这种办法捕蜂最为便捷。