We had a remarkable sunset one day last November. I was walking in a meadow, the source of a small brook, when the sun at last, just before setting, after a cold gray day, reached a clear stratum in the horizon, and the softest, brightest morning sunlight fell on the dry grass and on the stems of the trees in the opposite horizon, and on the leaves of the shrub-oaks on the hill-side, while our shadows stretched long over the meadow eastward, as if we were the only motes in its beams. It was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air also was so warm and serene that nothing wanted to make a paradise of that meadow.

The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all the glory and splendor that it lavishes on cities, and, perchance, as it has never set before, --where there is but a solitary marsh-hawk to have his wings gilded by it, or only a masques lookout from his cabin, and there is some little black-veined brook in the midst of the marsh, just beginning to meander, winding slowly round a decaying stump. We walked in so pure and bright a light, gilding the withered grass and leaves, so softly and serenely bright, I thought I had never bathed in such a golden flood, without a ripple or a murmur to it.

最近十一月的一天，我們目睹了一個(gè)極其美麗的日落。方當(dāng)我仍然漫步于一道小溪發(fā)源處的草地之上，那天際的的太陽，終于在一個(gè)凄苦的寒天之后，暮夕之前，涌出云層，驟放澄明。這時(shí)但見遠(yuǎn)方天幕下的衰草殘莖;山邊的木葉橡叢，登時(shí)沉浸在一片最柔美也最耀眼的曙光般的綺照之中，而我們自己的身影也長長伸向東邊草地，仿佛是那縷斜輝中僅有的點(diǎn)點(diǎn)微塵。周圍的風(fēng)物是那么妍美，一晌之前還是難以想象，空氣也是那么和暖純凈，一時(shí)這普通草原實(shí)在無異天上景象。

此刻那落日的余輝正以它全般的燦爛與輝煌，并不分城市還是鄉(xiāng)村，甚至以往日也少見的艷麗，盡情斜映在一帶境遠(yuǎn)地僻的草地之上;這里沒有一間房舍——茫茫之中只瞥見一頭孤零零的沼鷹，背羽上染盡了金黃，一只麝香鼠正探頭穴外，另外在沼澤之間望見了一股水色黝黑的小溪，蜿蜒而前，繞行于一堆殘株敗根之旁。我們漫步于其中的光照，是這樣的純美與熠耀，滿目衰草木葉，一片金黃，晃晃之中又是這般柔和恬靜，沒有一絲漣漪，一息咽嗚。我想我從來不曾沐浴于這么幽美的金色光汛之中。